elin1029

Yard toilet before and after. Removed wash basin and WC for a more bigger space to bathe the dogs. Another set of wash basin and WC also means more money to buy and install them, and subsequently more time and effort to clean them. The only minor inconvenience is, during renovation and subsequent delivery and installation by various groups of people, they always requested to use the bathroom and they had to use the common bathroom. Kitchen looking out at yard before and after. Installed a door between kitchen and yard, to keep out outside/downstairs noise and haze. There are no windows at the yard, it's good to ventilate the dogs area, but because i'm on a low floor, the noise from downstairs is really loud. The door is mostly left open, unless we need some quiet in the house such as when the child is doing his homework or when the haze is really bad and we switch on the aircon.

Going to do a series of before and after photo posts, and share some thoughts on the design concept. Bomb shelter before and after. Over the years, I've learnt that things kept in storeroom are things I don't need, they will be kept in there forever until it's time to move. Saw on that many home owners dedicate a room to their pets, so I decided to do the same and converted the bomb shelter into the dogs room. Also, there is already a small storeroom to keep luggages and brooms. Yard before and after. Was thinking to remove the bomb shelter door, but that's probably against the rule. I liked the black and white checkered floor, was thinking to use this in the bathroom but it would go against the general theme of the house. In the end, I used it in the dogs area as it is quite an independent area from the rest of the house. I really like the look of this flooring, but the black part of the tiles are harder to maintain as it shows water marks and dust.

Hey no doubt about that! I'm glad you introduced such a product to us as I do feel eye strain watching in complete darkness. I think the product is really cool. Now I just need to find a seller that would ship direct to sg. Thanks!

Thanks for the info. I used the Amazon link to the product you provided on your blog, which described that "you can just add it on to your amazon orders to enjoy free shipping" and I naturally assumed you had bought the same item with free shipping to SG. Indeed the item is not sold and shipped by Amazon, I'll try to browse Amazon for a similar product sold and shipped by Amazon Thanks! I've shopped Amazon since 1999 and have used vpost countless times. These days, too lazy to go through the extra steps to ship via vpost. Free shipping with minimum 125usd purchase is the most convenient This is a good alternative, but I'll look for the easy way out first! Thanks!

Added to my Amazon cart together with some 3d blu-ray disc, but they don't ship to sg!

The fan is a crestar icol. From chan huat at balestier. Cost about 300+ with remote control. And yes those shelves are from ikea.

Thanks. Those are tiles with wood pattern. Not that adventurous to use laminate in the bathrooms!

ahhh... the Ikea Nittorp tv bench! I love it! See how neat my TV area is? Can't see any wire right? I placed the soundbar in the upper shelf, the blu-ray disc player and multi-point power extension cord in the lower shelf, everything is hidden from sight! You getting the turquoise right? In my case, against the teal color wall, I should have gotten the dark grey one for the contrast, but I really liked the turquoise one, and in the end the heart won over the mind. But the TV bench isn't as stable as I'd like. When you touch it, it would wobble a bit. I was afraid the TV might topple over and the consequence would be disastrous! Also, even the Ikea salesman said over time it would sag in the middle under the weight of the TV.

Indeed dust settles quite quickly and is clearly visible. But with the rest of the house mostly in white or light colour, I thought I'd like the entertainment room dark themed - black shelves, black fan, dark blue blinds, teal wall.

*double post*

I wanted a 70"! Went to the shop with the intention of getting one but finally couldn't bring myself to pay so much for a TV. Settled for a 60" and when the TV arrived I was glad I bought the smaller one. It looked big in the room. My sofa against the opposite wall is like 4m away so I could actually use a bigger one. Maybe next time when this TV spoils...

For the photo frame? No I didn't use oil or water sealer. It was just an impromptu work in the midst of the chaos of transferring paint. For the colours, credit must really go to my contractor assistant. When she passed me the Dulux booklet to choose colours, she suggested the colours for my master bathroom, common bathroom, living room, kitchen and yard. I went back and had a hard time choosing colours for master bedroom and the other two rooms. For the rest I decided to use her suggestions. It was not easy to visualize the colours just looking at a small patch in the booklet. Finally the result for both bathrooms turned out really great. Exactly what I had wanted in the first place. The code name for the bathroom is Maldivian Cloud. The colour from the website is quite different from the final colour on the wall. As for teal colour, code named Private Lagoon, it was used in the third bedroom which I previously didn't post any pictures of because it was used as the "storeroom". It was very messy with boxes of unpacked stuff like this: It has since been cleaned up (as much as I could) and now houses a TV. Still messy with the big TV and soundbar boxes which I'm supposed to keep for 7 days in case of problem with the appliances.

I'm sorry to read about your unhappy experience with your contractor. Renovation should be an enjoyable process with the end result a dream home we can come back to after a tiring day at work. But unfortunately these irresponsible people turned it into such a stressful and unpleasant one. If Mr S is a contractor that is popular in the forum, you might want to be more explicit to warn his potential customers. I may have complained and whined a bit about the speed of renovation, quality of work is not as fantastic as what I've read in other blogs, and I feel I've been short-changed on the Blum hinges and drawers in the kitchen, but overall renovation was quite smooth and the attitude of the contractor and his assistant were good. I think it's good Mr K cared about his reputation.

For the rooms, I kept the aircon units from previous owner, so nothing was done there. For the living room, the trunking travelled from aircon ledge through the false ceiling in the kitchen to the top of the hallway. Mostly concealed. Different houses have different layout, will have to rely on contractor to plan the best route. You got your aircon man already? I thought mine was quite good. If you want can pass you his contact.

Interestingly, came across this photo in FB:

I got mine from ikea for around $59 i think, can swing both ways too. But yours looks nice in black.

haha.. But where do you intend to confine him to? Is the safety gate from ikea? When you install it, be careful not to screw too tight. I did and managed to cause the silicone between the doorway at the bottom to crack!

eewww! my dog was very curious about the iRobot yesterday as it started to move around and kept following it as it moved around to pick up HIS hair. Well the dogs are confined to the yard when no one is home, so this won't happen

Possible to request he take back your project? Even if he were to assign an assistant, he should have made it known up front before you confirmed him as the contractor. In my case, he let me know before renovation started and I could still back out if I didn't like the arrangement. Of course, I was kinda in a rush and had no choice lah. Initially felt a bit lousy, but then my assistant was good and I was actually glad she took it up instead of K himself. I hope in your case, your assistant would be as good as mine.

I scheduled the iRobot to run at 6am this morning, but when I woke around 630am, it was stuck on the floor mat Must take note to clear the floor of clutter and floor mats for a smoother run of the iRobot! Before I left the house, I scheduled it to run at 330pm this afternoon. Will see how it goes this evening. One thing about the scheduler is, it can only be set for once a day. I had wanted to set it to run once in the morning before we wake, and once in the afternoon before we come home. But I guess the manufacturers never imagined a typical house to be so dirty like mine! The dogs spend the longest time outside in the living room in the evening, and a shorter time in the morning before we leave the house, so I guess I can stick to cleaning just once in the morning. I feel that one can feel the money well spent when one sees the amount of dirt/hair/rubbish in the iRobot bin, like in my case. I have to clean the floor every day, and it's so much time wasted when I still have so many other things to do. For homes without any shedding pets, you probably won't see the value of getting the iRobot. You can just sweep or vacuum the floor once a week! So far it's used mainly on the laminate floor in the living room. No scratches as far as I can see. But my laminate floor is scratch-resistant. Tried also on the parquet in the rooms, didn't really pay attention to the floor after iRobot use. But do read Amazon reviews on this model, there were some negative reviews about iRobot knocking into furniture and damaging furniture legs. But I'm willing to take the risk for a cleaner floor! My friend told me about the deal on Qoo10. She bought it too. Here's the link. https://my.qoo10.sg/g/414470380. Got it 700+. Apparently they shipped from Korea. I was quite impressed with the speed of shipping. I got it within a week. The instruction manual was in Korean, but I managed to download a copy in English (just google). The iRobot spoke Korean too, so I changed it to an English-speaking one. Not that it talks a lot, but I have to understand it when it complains. When the 780 dies, which many on Amazon says is possible after 1 year plus of usage, I'll consider the 880! Don't know much about the scooba, but I think I can live with mopping the floor once a week. It's the amount of dog hair I need to get rid of on a daily basis. Let us know your reviews if you get the 880 and the scooba!

These two colours I have too much, so if you are interested, please feel free! For the yellow, I can give away one jar. For the teal, I can give away two jars. When I was transferring the paint, there were still some leftover in the tin, but no more space in the jar, so I found an old ikea photo frame (the Ribba white frame) and dabbed on the colours using a napkin (no proper brush) just for fun. I think it would look much nicer if I had used a proper brush and done it more properly. I will be trying out on photo frames and rattan baskets when I have more time. Anyway the ikea photo frames are quite affordable A friend shared this link for more ideas! http://www.marthastewart.com/274478/leftover-paint-projects/@center/276988/painting-ideas-and-projects?xsc=soc_fb_2014_3_2_Craft_cra__C

High five! You have the same design too? Any pictures of your place to share? Sorry to hear about the missing tiles. But the cleaning service is so efficient that anything placed outside the house is gone immediately? Hmm, then why did I carry all my rubbish downstairs, I should just put them outside the house and they'd be cleared! Did they leave behind spare tiles for you like they always do?

Indeed! So much easier to tell what's inside and if the paint has gone bad. Easier to open the container too. With the big tin, I had a hard time prying open the lid, damaging it in the process and hard to cover back after that.

Bought ikea glass containers to transfer out the paint so I could throw away the unsightly and huge tins that took up too much space! Now they look so much better, even pretty in the glass jars that I could probably display them instead of hiding them in storeroom! The amount of leftover paint is inconsistent. For the colors, they were only used for one wall in each room. Some colors had an almost full tin left. Some had almost nothing left. So I suppose they reuse paint for other projects, which I don't mind because otherwise it's such a waste. I intended to keep a container of each color, but I couldn't bring myself to throw away the good paint. So I ended up buying more containers to keep them. I have too much of private lagoon (teal) and cornfield (yellow), so if anyone wants them for DIY projects like painting your photo frames, you can have some!

I feel your helplessness. How about keep the WC area permanently dry? It should be possible because I keep the WC area in my bathroom dry too. When I wash the WC, I'll be careful not to splash out. I'm not sure you have a shower door to keep water from coming out. If not, possible to install one?