Rachel

Hi Sundown! How often do you use your dishwasher?

I've been wanting to update on our kitchen - the room with the most EXTENSIVE renovation in our house. but alas there's been delays and mistakes and glitches so its still not complete yet SO to distract myself. here's a post on my kitchen appliances... well, whatever that didn't come built in by the developer anyway.. Fridge: Its been my dream to have a side-by-side fridge, so I can fit a whole cake or mixing bowl into the freezer without worrying about space constraints! Lucky my kitchen can accommodate the width! Some of my neighbours can't… Whew. Samsung glass front vs LG stainless steel D and I always wanted the Samsung, cause it looks nice, and has a flat profile… Upon visiting HN, the sales people where pushing the LG quite hard- its newer, the door is easier to open, the door compartments are height adjustable.. But we went for looks in the end, since it sorta matches our kitchen cabinet laminates Washer+ Dryer: Haven't been able to live without a dryer ever since staying in Hall during uni days… Our preference went from combined washer dryer to separate machines to combined washer dryer… Me: I'm not going to carry the wet laundry from the washing machine (below) to the dryer (stacked on top).. It is too heavy, you'll have to do it D: HUH . (why you like that ) Lets get the combined one then Me: Huh. If cannot dry 100% how, like what all the sales people claim D: Then hang lorh. Me: We are not installing a clothes hanger. Its so ugly. D: *speechless* Anyway- we got the combined in the end, bought extended warranty too . Just in case We were choosing between a gray machine (forgot was it Samsung or LG) or white (Electrolux) ... I guess the "European" brand and white (which matched our fridge) was the deciding factor! It has a 10kg washing, 7Kg drying capacity…. Investing a bit more $$ to get a larger drying capacity… better to wash bulky stuff like bedding I'm happy to report that out of the 3 times the machine has been used - the clothes dried 100% without needing any hanging… the last time was a load of dish/hand towels - hmm maybe I didn't choose the right setting? My last major appliance purchase is *drumroll* a dishwasher ! there's really no alternative expression for it ! Well, technically my mom's expression is my grandma's expression is .. "you mean this machine can wash dishes?!" In fact the dishwasher was a 'make or break' factor when we were selecting our ID ... I think 90% of the dishwasher are the large built it/freestanding one... However, it was impossible to fit them in unless I choose to dismantle and rebuild my cabinets #wishfulthinking , so its down to the counter-top size Bosch or Electrolux one, which can fit into my existing cabinet next to the sink.... Dishwasher delivered, but couldn't be placed in the cabinet cause carpenter installed the shelves at the wrong height, and failed to correct it after several reminders After the shelf was adjusted, the machine is able to fit perfectly, with maybe a 2cm allowance , really held our breaths from buying it - to its delivery and eventual hook-up by the plumber ! Verdict: success ! And #noregrets Loading it for a test wash This is probably my most frivolous buy for the house... but in loving it! Wonder if anyone else also bought a dishwasher ?

Sorry for the lack of updates- it was a busy 2 weeks with deliveries and touch-ups and more reno-woes.. we had several staycations at our new house. hehe. Living room cabinets: The 3D diagram- we made several changes but the 3D was updated To confirm what configuration we wanted, we actually traced the whole structure on the wall before we confirmed the carpentry specifications. Maybe overkill, but we able to see how it fits visually on to the wall and if its balanced. The TV may look too near the balcony- but its almost centered to the sofa. Part of the cabinets being delivered: In Progress- I must say it wasn't a very easy job trying to get each component aligned. As expected each piece didn't fit tightly with the next Some spacer pieces were required and it affectd the appearance Structure fully up, but without most of the doors - actually it took them 3 trips to properly fix all the doors, since they had insufficient hinges, forgot to bring the tic-tac mechanism I really wanted to add extend the track lights so that it'll be same length as the feature cabinets, but both D and the ID say NO ! ..aw man... does it look OK like that? The gap in the middle door of the TV console was too small - so they took it back to widen the hole... New feature wall together with our DIY feature wall... The coffee table is actually 2 "cubbys" from the bottom of the structure - fully removable and can be used as seating too ! What do you think of our living room/ feature wall ?

More pictures of the carpentry of our bedrooms Its tough to fit the whole structure into a photo.. sorry! time to bring a proper camera soon.. The steps are a little steep, but okay you a 'youngish' person.. the stairs also double up as storage.. View from the top of the loft- not too bad! .. *disclaimer* this is the view from the 'foot' of the bed, rather than the 'head'... due to the orientation of the room door Study area: Supposed to be a swing down door for the study table, and a swing up door for the bottom section. However, easily seen from the picture that the bottom door was #fail... The door's so huge and heavy that it cant stand at 90 degree =( And the measurement's wrong the two doors are supposed to align! See the little panel do wood doing nothing but scarring the outward appearance of the loft? Our ID said top door can be X height... ( i.e. the size of the bottom door) but in reality, X was too long, but the material has been cut... so use a small panel to patch the hole since only a shorter door can be used. OMG. as an ID, your job is supposed to plan the stuff properly right?!?! Also, he didn't offer to fix it, until i ask if the gap can be filled in /minimized. minus 1,000,000 points As for the bottom door... I was also the one who came up with the solution to fix (forgot to take picture..oops) ID didn't help us solve it WHY?! Using the stairs as the study chair... idea only. probably wouldn't work unless the user is super skinny! To give a perspective on the height - our ceiling is 2.8m - so with a a mattress, should still be able to sit up right

Hi Sugarkitty, Think the wood is treated by the timber company - its not used wood like pallet so should be okay. We haven't varnished/ lacquered after putting it up as we don't want a darker appearance - still hunting for a TRULY CLEAR finishing No, plywood also need to glue+nail... so the wall will also be ruined, but at least its removal of a large piece or wood rather than individual planks = easier Hi Doris - don't need much skills, just effort and lots of research online!

Timber is ordered from this place, think it cost us $900+ for the wall and extras, This Stikwood sounds awesome - a bit expensive, but worth it for the convenience. Only thing the final product wouldn't have "depth". Tempted to do like a headboard or overlay my foyer area walls..! Also, when we remove our planks, the wall will be gutted. I guess Stikwood wouldn't have the same issue

Following because my parents also intend to reno their kitchen (on a small budget) Good luck with the reno!

Couldn't include more pictures in the previous post, so here it is: Reaching the bottom. finally! - miss-comm with the ID as to how much allowance to leave for the socket... had to re-do that particular plank.... this was almost the most tricky part, cause the hole is across 2 rows... Product at the end of day one- no more energy to measure/saw/past the last row! We are so proud of ourselves! The DIY gene is totally strong within me and my dad.. slowly we are influencing D to be more hands on even the ID said its nice! (WL. of course man. all our effort) ID suggested that we cover the area around the aircon... a job for another day... lots of measuring/trimming for that area...

Week 6; Deepavali PH Remember the wood feature wall from the 3D drawings, we decided to tackle it on Deepavali since D, my dad and I were off work.. First the wood supply- gotten from a wood supplier in Sungei Kadut - actually the wood supplier for DnT classes in a secondary school where D teaches... We chose solid pinewood which came in 2 widths (1.2cm and 2cm) and they helped to cut the wood down to our required size, 2ft, 3ft and 4ft, the stuff was delivered the stuff to our place within a few days of D placing the order Prepping the wall - initially we wanted to overlay a piece of ply-wood on the wall and stick the individual planks onto the ply.. but our ID quoted us $700 for the plywood - which we knew costs <$100 including delivery if we ordered it direct ! So we did a little more research, and found out that a base plywood layer is not necessary after all... So being very OCD and particular about stuff I insisted that we had to 'dry-lay' the planks on the floor so I can plan the pattern/layout of the planks to achieve a 'random-but-good-looking' final product D said: " you arrange la, so you cannot blame me if you don't like it -.- The tools/materials that we used include: Brown paint Pine wood (10% extra for wastage/ allowance/ ugly-damaged ones) Composite glue, think we used about 5 tubes Saw (Zig-zag saw and hand saw) Sander & Sandpaper Spacers : we used thick ice-cream stick-the doctor's kind *Air-Gun, conveniently borrowed from carpenter FOC , otherwise i've read that regular hammer + nails also works Spirit level - very important Masking tape + pencil Wood-coloured putty (optional) First, painting the wall, so white wouldn't show up in the gaps between planks - painted by D, incase anyone thinks our painter did a shoddy job... lucky he doesn't read my post.. haha Of course me being me, I wanted to do something a little extra to document our progress .. but not my original idea, saw it on a blog.. So the planks can be installed from : top-down : more difficult to level, but visually more pleasant since odd sized planks will be out-of-sight bottom-up: easier to level, but odd-size planks will be at the ceiling Of course I insisted we had to start at the top D and my dad hard at work - promise they are not carpenters. haha. Can you spot the makeshift spacers a.k.a ice cream sticks ? Also the air-gun belong to the carpenters? we did ask for permission to use, and they provided us with the nails ! Shall let the pictures do the talking! we worked all day+ skipped lunch.. so effort.

Thanks! Our dining area is just 1.35m by 1.35m.... so we can only fit a small-ish table there but we like the option of extending the table to accommodate more guest !

Week 6: Arrival of carpentry + Week 7 Assembly of cupboards We had too many items.. the carpenters couldn't bring all our items in one trip.. Carpenter uncle said ： 搬了很累，没有力装 ！(No energy to assemble after carry all the woodwork) New soon to be BIGGER Master wardrobe The L-Shape taking shape... bye large airy room Top section installed, full height wardrobe for real, the original had a false ceiling section so wasn't really full height =D Common Bedroom: Much awaited installation of the multi-purpose-its-everything loft, the frame was installed pretty quickly, but the 'study area' doors and stairs was delivered the following week Manage to get about 2/3 of the window exposed, and the window can be opened both below and on the loft!

Hey, our painter came in after the tiler + electrician while the carpentry was ongoing... they'll come back to touch up again after the reno works!

Loving your display cabinets, mines a mish-mash of cubby holes, also with no glass.... i think the dust issue is tolerable!

Need some furniture advice/lobangs from experts on RT! This fold-able dining table from Danish company Skovby looks amazing and will fit into my puny dining space.. the clean lines especially when its folded is what I'm really after.... The table, is going for 2.5k sgd at Danish Design Co... really heart pain to spend so much on a table! So far what I've found: 1. TB really cant compare- their profile is very untidy when folded and the hinge/wheels makes the tables look super cheapo (although in reality its really cheap)... 2. Ikea's version also look very amateur... 3. Asked 2 carpentry workshops: they are not confident they can produce something of that quality 3. Asked an arty/boutique wood working workshop, he asked 3.3K for it!? Appreciate it if anyone has any idea where I else I can look? Otherwise, it's bye $2500

Utterly jealous of your 'appropriate height' oven, mine came with the house -along the bottom cabinet... can imagine the 'potential backaches' I'll get from using the oven in future!

Your place looks great, totally loving the divider and the wooden frame for the passageway- very unique!

Hi Panda189, I think it will depend on what floor your unit is on? Mine's on the 12th floor, so cant really see the pool unless I'm standing right next to the window. the loft has been installed... upload pics soon, we feel that we still get 'enough' of the window Just installed the carpentry, waiting on the railing- we are happy with it... as to the cost... approx 4k? pictures to follow!

Week 4 & 5: D and me went to BKK for a quick getaway also to 顺便 buy some stuff for the house, managed to get some lights and Umbra stuff and random decor stuff from JJ market and Talad Rot Fai ✈️ False ceiling contractor came in to fix up the kitchen/dining area ceiling , and painters started late into week 5 and took 2 days to finish our 114sqm place, which I think it's pretty fast.. I opted for Nippon Odourless paint for all walls and ceiling.. more expensive, but totally not regretting it! No smelly paint smell during and after painting! The auntie painter (found via RT, thanks @kstoh for mentioning her on your T-blog ) was super accommodating and re-painted 2 walls for us as we found the initial choice to pale ! She also helped us plaster some areas of the wall that she said was uneven and wouldn't look nice... Her paint cost+painters fee was about $500 less than our ID's painter

My parents' place is almost identical to your layout.. following to get some ideas as they intend to renovate soon! Loving your toilet floor tiles and the brick wall

Weeks 2 + 3: Beautifying toilets + choosing paint color: Original toilet feature wall which to me is ugly=x think our plumber removed the fittings that came with the house The tiler prepped the wall with a smooth layer of cement: Laying our desired tiles, we chose Spanish tiles or Azulejos that comes in gray/white/brown colours that goes well with tiles in our two bathrooms, common- white master- gray .... didn't manage to convince D to also do up the studio bathroom .. this reasoning was... you are not going to look at it, so ugly also nvm -.- Finished product, I think the master toilet with the gray tiles looks marginally nicer... but I love the new feature wall so much more than the original... ! #moneywellspent (haha, even if D doesn't agree) This week we also bought a couple of cans of paint in different colour to figure out what which we really want for our dining room and master bedroom wall... ID said the mint was too out of place in our house, and we felt the grays were too dark...! so we just went with the lightest gray in the Nippon catalogue without testing it out ...

Hi, I just got my place painted... I outsourced the painting and it was $500 cheaper than my ID, used 2 colours for my place (5-bedroom equivalent) cost me about $1.7K ... think dont rely on the ID's recommended painter

Week 2: Undoing the damages + Electrical works Now, this picture is important... the bricks that will be used to construct the new kitchen wall... we wanted the thinnest possible wall - so we asked our ID if this is the thinnest, he said YES.... when the actual builder/worker came to fix it, D asked him if this is the thinnest... he said NO - 还有更薄 的 .. WHEW.. lucky we asked the expert and managed to get the right bricks delivered immediately New wall was built and tiles within the kitchen were touched up- pretty good job by Mr Builder there, the base for new cabinets was constructed too, totally love how the kitchen looks more spacious then it used to be and my counter top space will be DOUBLED! Electrical works : why is it so EXPENSIVE?!?! I've never moved house before in my 20 odd years or had any renovation done in current home... so honestly. i was shocked by the amount we have to spend... (hem.plus.commission.to.ID.hem) But D was there watching the electricians do their work... he said it is a really tough job.. and its not as easy as we think... so maybe we aren't getting ripped off after all Decided to feature this picture... we are duplicating TV & power outlets to the opposite wall.. as we really can't decide where will the TV be placed.. haha.. or maybe we can keep moving the TV every few months?! Moving power/TV from ground level to loft level in the common bedroom Totally overkill on switches in the corridor to the extent that it can be aligned with the citygas panel =( think i might prefer 2 row of 2 swtiches... but done already.. #bobian again?

Ha, i blame it on the ignorance of youth... we bought the place back in 2011... but only starting thinking of the design of our place 1 month before getting keys..... =x

Oops, I'm super behind on updating the progress, so some pictures to summarize the work done so far : Week 1: Laying cardboard, hacking kitchen wall, remove master BR wardrobe, remove master toilet mirror Last picture of the original wall separating the kitchen and dining area New spacious kitchen =D Master bedroom wardrobe gone .... trying not to think about the $$ we are sort of throwing away.. haha... Mirror also gone from the toilet, goodbye my wide mirror .. Apparently they have to smash it into pieces to remove it... and D got some splinters from the minute pieces of glass still in our toilet....

my master bedroom wardrobe+ bed layout is similar to yours, how are you finding it ?