ricepapergirl

We have a Crock-Pot (that exact brand) from when we spent a year in London, though we didn't get the model you were looking at. We tried using it to do chinese soups but somehow soups cooked with pork ribs (the way you would for 2-3 hours on the stove) taste different when cooked with a crock-pot. Not bad, but not the same taste. We do use it for things like simmered soy sauce pork ribs etc, and there are good recipes online for various crock-pot stuff, but we wouldn't use it for soup.

Oh gosh! Love the armchair!! The ottoman looks lovely as well! Yeah I think sofas are the kind of thing that you really need to go and do a butt-test for. Some people like it softer, some firmer etc. We liked the Naomi quite possibly because both my husband and I have very short torsos so it was more than enough height! Agree with your comments on the Tana and the Coria, they looked nice online but both didn't really work for our butts in different ways when we went down to try, not to say they aren't nice sofas but probably fulfills someone else's requirements!

Hi sapphire89! We are aiming for a sofa from Castlery as well! Ours is the Naomi though, we also went down to do a butt-test. Not sure whether it helps with your sofa purchase, but originally we were aiming for L-shaped sofas, and already had one picked out (Commune), when my mother-in-law mentioned that it's best to get L-shaped where the ottoman is movable, because you never know when you would prefer to have the ottoman on the other side of the sofa. Since we are not building in anything (including TV wall) that is a real possibility we might rearrange our living room, so we thought that was good advice. Instead of L-shaped, we went for something similar to your sofa, but with a separate ottoman which we would use as the "L" part of an L shape. Not sure whether it would work haha.

Hi twinklecloud, You're right, it's good that at least I knew about it earlier and can factor it into my kitchen plans earlier. Brainstormed the whole day yesterday and came up with a better idea than my previous kitchen layout, now just hope contractor/carpenter can do and it's not too expensive! Sometimes these things are blessings in disguise I guess. Hopefully can start reno t-blog soon, but yeah, 1st hdb appt still a month away and probably only getting keys in March, so slowly lor. Maybe after we've met a few more IDs/contractors I will start mine. About the ceramic hob, my friend is using it for more than a few years and seems to like it. But for me I like to be able to use woks and tilt my frying pan for things like omelettes so I think I will still stick to gas. I would say that ceramic hobs are pretty good already given that you can use pretty much any type of cooking pan/pot on it.

Hi twinklecloud, A few posts back you mentioned about getting a ceramic hob, any reason why you gave it up? My friend also recommended her ceramic hob (looks like the same brand as the one in your link but with two areas instead of one) and has been using it for years. I'm now trying to ask her whether it's been working well and how well does it work for things like woks where you need the all-around heat instead of just from the bottom.

Hi twinklecloud, Yup, have been sending out requests for quotation to a few recommended ID/contractors, though we've only met up physically with one ID (quite a fruitful meeting but she hasn't replied with the quotation yet). Intending to meet up with the same ID again this weekend and meet another ID for the first time too this weekend. Also waiting for my colleague's super-recommended ID to come back from holiday. Nothing concrete yet, I can't even start my own T-blog! Yeah, I'm sighing more because I've already planned out the entire kitchen with where everything is going to be stored. So have to go back to drawing board and figure out where to now put the stuff I initially intended to put under the hob (one deep drawer of pots and pans, two shallow drawers of cooking utensils) given the exact same space etc. Also, my fall-back plan was to go for an Ikea kitchen since it was cheaper than most contractor quotes, but with the worry of Ikea kitchen cabinets not being able to withstand the weight of the cylinders we will have to up our budget for the kitchen and use custom cabinetry...

Hi twinklecloud, thanks so much for the tip on calling up SP services! Unfortunately I got the same answer as you! (Although the guy handling my call seemed a bit unsure so I've sent them an email instead just to confirm). So now I'm also rethinking the kitchen to fit in LPG gas cylinders instead of piped gas. Sigh.

I am also a bit worried because our EM unit is also 30 years old and the current owners are using the gas cylinder type. They did mention we can probably get Citygas to pipe in but we probably need to double-check that they already have gas supply to the block at first. Not sure what we would do if there's no piped gas??

Oh gosh really love your mismatched everything look! We're also intending to do something like mismatched dining chairs and some mismatched sofa+ottoman+armchairs but not as bold as this!

Hi kaisermisaki! Thanks for the quick review! We are also aiming for it because it's made in Japan (but it has 3 ticks so we're hoping some of the electricity savings can offset it over time). Also love the multi-door because it's more functional for us! Can't wait till we can get it!

Ooh! We are aiming for the same Hitachi fridge! Any reviews on how is it so far?

Oh no!! I hope it gets rectified soon and without any headache!!

Wow!! The dining table and chairs look really nice! Where are they from? Taobao?

Just to jump in, since these are kitchen handles which will see a lot of use, perhaps go with the better quality spray paint. Alternatively, if you like the colour of the cheaper quality one, maybe get some sort of fixer spray to just make sure the spray paint stays on longer?

My 2 cents, not sure whether it will help? For laundry, if you're not intending to use the balcony for laundry, then I think actually it makes sense to get a dryer like OceanEleven mentioned. If I'm not wrong, your EM still has the old-style open short-pipe way to hold the bamboo poles, which I think is quite dangerous if you want to dry large things like bedsheets (wet bedsheets = heavy = one end of the bamboo pole very heavy = dangerous if you're leaning out of the window to hook it into the pipe openings). When my family moved into a unit with the same setup, we gave up and bought a dryer, which is a life-saver for things like bed sheets. Just have to do a bit more ironing. Frankly, although the electricity/gas for running the dryer is more than the $0 for the bamboo poles, it's not that much in return for some peace of mind and safety. Bamboo pole drying is safer if you have an upgraded bamboo rack (those with the T outside the window, so the outside end of the bamboo pole is supported) or if you do it at the balcony. Is there a reason why you want to do open kitchen? Most of the people I've seen with an open kitchen self-profess to not cook that much or they don't do a lot of oily cooking (steaming and baking only) etc. Also, some people have also mentioned how they needed to "fence" off their open kitchen to prevent their kids from running in. The other way is to get a really strong hood (like the Fujiohs) that can help mitigate the amount of oil on the floor after cooking. Personally because I intend to cook a lot next time I will be wanting a non-open kitchen + a strong hood.

Ooh thanks for the tip on being able to go to the showroom and try out the hans grohe for ourselves, I might drag my husband there one weekend. We're quite undecided still on bathroom fittings.

Hi twinklecloud! Sorry for not replying for so long! Actually like I said, we are not even at the stage of looking for ID yet (actually starting now!) because we probably will only get our keys in March (previous owners want 2 month extension and our first hdb appt is on 11 Dec). For the pergola/trellis idea, we actually saw some other unit near ours which had something similar. I drew it out on Google sketchup, but we haven't checked around to see whether it's possible yet. I've actually dropped a note to ask someone about it on a preliminary level, and they quoted us around $3600 for it plus installation (they just do carpentry) and we haven't asked anyone else about it so don't know whether it's a good price or not. Hope that helps?

Hi evo, Really love the look and feel of the place, very unique!! The workmanship looks really good too! Would you recommend your ID/contractor? Also, what convinced you to get a free-standing hob + oven combination? I've been looking at those too!

Hi! I actually went to register just to post a comment on this, but I've been lurking for a few months now. We actually also just put in our HDB resale application for what looks like the exact same floor plan resale EM! Almost the same dimensions even (except off hand it looks like your corridor on the second floor is wider than ours). I just wanted to share that we have also been thinking about the layout and the usage of the rooms in the EM ourselves, not sure whether it would be helpful for you. Obviously we are at an earlier stage of planning than you, so we are not sure how much of it is forbidden by HDB (I have been spending many hours reading the entire HDB website though). For us, we decided quite early on we would not seal up the balcony. This is because I used to live in an EM and the balcony is super useful for drying clothes. We have also heard from other EM owners that they regretted sealing up the balcony because of the clothes-drying capabilities (once you seal up you cannot get the balcony space back!). If your household is the kind to use a dryer instead, perhaps this is not a concern for you. For our purposes, we intend to get a wooden pergola/trellis at the balcony, where there would be a row of wooden beams to form a sort of open "roof", where we will mount bamboo pole hooks on top, so that we can hang clothes from the wooden beams without having the usual standing bamboo pole stands (which might be dangerous for kids running around - they might knock into it). Since the wooden beams don't form a complete roof there will still be sunlight coming in to dry the clothes. We are also intending to install a retractable awning on top of the pergola to shield the clothes when it is rainy. Our balcony already comes with grilles up to window level so we will keep those for child safety. This way the view from the MRB on the second floor doesn't get blocked at all by grilles or roller shutters. We will keep the original ceiling-mounted bamboo pole hooks in the kitchen so that when we want to use the balcony for parties (BBQs! Shut out the oil!) we can still hang our clothes indoors. Also, the balcony is quite long so we will use half of it for drying clothes and half of it for other purposes: husband wants some outdoor bar stools and table for now and maybe next time when the kids come around we can have it as a play-space. Originally I had a grand idea of situating the washing machine on the balcony itself, but after the recent spate of haze I figured I'll prefer to have my washing machine indoors so I don't need to venture out into the haze just to wash clothes. Currently the plan is to put it in the kitchen next to the fridge, with a counter-top over it so that we can still use that area for food prep etc. For the utility room, the previous owner actually removed it but we intend to build it back. We are currently just my husband and me, but we intend to have kids and hoping to stay in the EM for the next 10-15 years, so we think we might have to use all three second floor bedrooms as bedrooms. This means if we have to cater for (a) a maid, (b)need for extra storage or © a room for my parents-in-laws if ever they want to move in with us in the future, we should make sure the rebuilt utility room can serve those purposes. Mainly, we wanted to make sure that my husband's parents can live comfortably with us if ever it needs to happen. So our considerations are that there needs to be a room on the first floor so they don't need to climb the stairs, and the first floor toilet needs to be functional (we intend to change the door facing to open up to the living room instead). Unfortunately, the width of the utility room is very narrow and currently very small. We are hoping to actually steal some of the kitchen space to make the utility room longer (all the more important laundry needs to move into the balcony) and hoping to make the room big enough for at least a double bed and a closet. Those are our thoughts right now, hope it helps!