hellofromanotherside
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Everything posted by hellofromanotherside
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You're getting HDB to do it? I heard it'll take about 6 - 8 weeks, but if you're not in a rush I'm sure HDB screeding is the best way to go, considering how much these things cost nowadays. All the best with your reno journey! Start your own reno blog leh =D Also, now that we've properly measured it, I think we got an extra 30cm in height la, not 50cm heh.
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Thanks guys! Can't wait to start on reno ASAP. I feel like we've been waiting forever!
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Hi all! I'm back! Really apologise for being away for a month. We've been eagerly waiting for our keys, and....*drumroll* have finally received them! It was quite an experience. We were lucky enough to get a slot on THE VERY FIRST DAY. Unfortunately, my husband was away on reservist so we had to reschedule to another week. The process was really quite smooth - I'm so glad for all the tips on this forum because we were well prepared for the whole process. Anyway, here's a sneak peek of our new home. We're lucky to have gotten a unit on the top floor - the ceiling is significantly higher, by about 50cm! Which means more pendant lights coming your way =D And my id has already emailed possible contractors for quotes. Am hoping things go smoothly from here on. With that, I've resurrected our reno blog LOL.
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Hi all! Just a quick update from me. This blog will be on hiatus for a while because frustratingly HDB has postponed our Probable Completion Date to end of Feb instead of Jan. Not really sure what’s going on, cos our block is definitely ready to go. I do worry about the delay, because that means we’ll have to contact a few of the stores who are holding on to our furniture. I guess this is one of the downside to buying things before getting the keys! But ah well, just have to make the best of the situation now. Currently, we’re scouting for contractors as our ID is working on the first draft of quotes. We’ve gone to Hafary a few times and picked out most of the material, and I’ll write about that in another post. If you have any good contractors to recommend, kindly PM me or leave a comment here! It also looks like everyone else’s contractors/renovation work are also on hiatus as we approach CNY. Let’s hope things go smoothly after work commences again these next few weeks. Happy new year to everyone!
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Thank you all! I'm really in love with her drawings. And yeah! The details are what made the whole look come to life. Very lived-in, which was our vision from the start =D
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Whaat, serious? Hmm looks like we may have to do more research on the aircon then. Having an open kitchen doesn't help either. Gah!
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Drawing Real Talent Hi all! Been quiet for a while just patiently waiting for HDB to send us a letter to collect our keys...and still no news from them. Thankfully, most of our items can be stored by our respective brands, and we did tell them to hold on to the pieces till March. Our neighbours have contacted HDB, and they did say we'll get be notified by early Feb. Fingers crossed! My husband and I have been meeting our ID, M, for initial sketches, and I gotta say, I was sooo blown away by her presentation. When we met her for the very first round of design, I was expecting maybe a rough sketch on how each living space would look like. And you know, with most IDs, they tend to have more of a sales background than an actual design one. But this M! I should've known, being a veteran with 20 years under her belt, that she'll pull off something really impressive. To us. It was probably just another day at work for her. The living room and dining area. Notice how the furniture pieces are the ones we've already bought. So brilliant! We'll change the curtains to blinds entirely, to make this look like one big space. I love that she took initiative and had a few suggestions of her own. We've taken them into consideration, so we'll see how that goes. What you see from the living room. The entryway will have a console/bench, with some baskets below for shoes we often use. To the left is the shoe cabinet. Our open kitchen is on the right, with some open shelving in the dry breakfast area. Imagine the area is a dark, royal blue, with our marble countertop. Swoons! The kitchen. I love that she's smartly shifted the hob area to a corner, to allow more prep space both left and right. HDB has allocated a space next to the sink, which would've been quite tight. Next up: Hello, Mr Contractor
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Yeah, we wanted the DWK too, but figured it's better to get the unit we want, and then just create our own DWK with the reno. I actually sneaked into one of the units over the wkend with my husband to see how the 5-room feels haha. Nubbad, living room is spacious! But the master bedroom........sigh.
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Hey guys, we got ours from nest.co.uk. The Tom Dixon copper light was going for around 300 euros (unfortunately, I think the sale has ended!) Compare that to the one at Xtra, which was over $1.4k for one light I have no idea why it'd be so expensive in sg! I know Taobao has similar ones, but I can't vouch for their authenticity. Nest.co.uk only brings in originals, so you can be sure you're not getting the knock offs. Have fun!
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Yes yes yes!! I totally agree that even with a "look" we've commonly seen, you can always personalise it with your own choice of fabrics, mixed metals, etc. Your mood board is so on point, very Parisian chic! Looking forward to the outcome! xx Warm, Earthy, and a Little Bohemian xx
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Do share with us which dryer you end up with! We'd love to look at other brands, but because can only choose from the Samsung range, we got that particular one. Thank you for reading!
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I'm soo impressed with the home and decor stuff at HN's! Think I know which one you're referring to =D Go buyyy!
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Hello, thank you so much for reading! Apartment Therapy is actually a website that showcases real homes with smart, beautiful interior design. I'd say most of their homes have so much personality, life and creativity. I love how lived-in their photos look - so different from the showroom type of HDB homes we see here! So I thought I'd emulate that. All the best with your reno journey! It's starting soon, so exciting!
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Making Light of the Issue I know, it's crazy, we're buying these things before renovation even commences. I'm pretty sure we'll be super bored once it all starts, and we've no more furniture to buy. Haha! But since my husband and I are on a roll, we figured no harm looking at lights, right? So, so wrong. Firstly, it turns out we have pretty different ideas on what it means to be beautiful lighting. He likes them pretty industrial, I love anything rose gold, metallic, shiny, everything also I like la! So it became a little frustrating going through pages and pages of pendant lights for the dining area, and either I'll say ugh, too expensive, or he'll say no, that's too elaborate. Then we saw It. The Tom Dixon Copper Shade. And I realised how silly it was to take this lighting business so seriously. Shopping should be enjoyable! And make you weep with joy when you've found The One. If a single lighting source could make me emotional, this would be it. *joyful sobs* EXTRA at Park Mall has the whole range of Tom Dixon's creations. We got ours slightly cheaper online, hoorah! TIP: I highly recommend Harvey Norman's new flagship store at Millenia Walk. Get to their furniture floor. You'll find a hugee collection of rose gold/copper items for your home, if you're as big a fan as I am! Our ID has also done up some sketches of the home (sharing in my next post!), and has left some ceiling space for another pendant light in the kitchen. I let my husband take this one, so he got a more industrial-looking light, to balance the rather country/rustic kitchen cabinets. Samuel Wilkinson Vessel Pendant in Smoke Grey. Got the one in the extreme right. Just 18cm wide, perfect for our little breakfast bar. Next up: Draw Real Talent
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Make Friends at Samsung While shopping around for kitchen appliances, we considered buying a dryer because we were very much pampered by one while in Japan recently. Towels come out so warm and fluffy, not scratchy like whenever I hang them out in the sun! And according to a map I saw recently, our flat location doesn't get direct sunlight OR wind, which means drying clothes isn't gonna be a...breeze (haha sorry). So ok, we're getting a dryer, but which one? Thankfully, we'd earlier met a salesperson at Harvey Norman who enlightened us on the different types. I could be wrong here, so kindly correct me if I am! A vented one (which tends to be cheaper, around the hundreds) requires the dryer to be placed near a window, as it removes damp air through a vent. A condenser dryer (which is more costly, a good one would cost above a thousand bucks, the guy says) separates the moisture in a container, which can be removed through plumbing. We figured, ok, let's take a look at the condensers, since the technology is better. But I wasn't going to pay 1k plus on a dryer alone. That's where my friend's kind husband comes in. He works at Samsung, and let me tell you, because he gets such AMAZING deals as a staff member, their whole house consists of Samsung appliances. We could get anything we want at almost half the price! I took on their offer, but didn't want to exploit this friendship of goodwill, so will only be getting a washer, dryer, and a powerbot vacuum from them. We'll be buying these items after CNY, because my current house really cannot store more items from our shopping. Here they are! Samsung Washer, WW-8OH5400EW Samsung dryer, DV80H4200CW/SP Samsung Powerbot VR20H9050UW Next up: Making Light of the Issue
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Thank you! It's funny you asked that. When we were at parisilk we saw this really gorgeous standalone hob + oven. But it had like 7 burners?? Super bulky! I knew it'd be an impractical buy haha. Anyway we did think about it, saw a few retro-looking ones online, but the thing is if one part is spoilt, you gotta replace the whole thing. That's gonna be costly. We also initially wanted the oven to be placed at a higher level and not below the hob for safety reasons (but in the end couldn't find any other place cos the kitchen is so small T_T)
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Hello and thank you for reading! All the best with your reno journey =D
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Thank you for reading! Can only further cozy it up with accessories, which is the fun part =D All the best with your reno journey too!
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Funny you mentioned that it looks masculine! Our ID noticed the same thing about our entire look haha. I can't help it that we have a rather butchy/masculine preference LOL. Go get the oven! We got ours as a package. Apparently it's a pretty decent model.
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Thanks! We got the carpet from Serapi Carpets at 86 Arab Street for $800. If you like the pattern of afghan rugs, IKEA Tampines surprisingly has a collection too. But they were more expensive, and texture was quite rough! The downside at IKEA is that you don't get someone laying out the rugs for you one by one, you kinda have to sieve through yourself. I highly recommend the arab st shop. Just be sure you have a size and budget in mind, and they'll show you as many as they have till you fall in love with one. We spent about an hour plus there, service was very good. I also love the distressed rugs at Living DNA. The patterns are very beautiful. All the best!
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Thanks guys! Very excited to share our journey with you =D
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Hi neighbour!! I'm surprised you recognise this layout, cos it's such a super common bto floorplan haha. Lemme guess, you took the DWK right? With regards to the sofa, I totally recommend leather. It's a lot more durable compared to fabric. I'm really scared of stains and having to wash the upholstery. With leather just clean it once a week, and it'll season quite nicely. Only issue is that it can get quite warm, and colour might fade if it's under direct sunlight (although this will happen to fabric too). Just make sure you have blinds and aircon as an option.
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A Trip to Paris(ilk) We spent quite a while window shopping at various electronic stores like Harvey Norman etc, just looking at what's out there in the market. We're the sort of people who are very sure what we want, the moment we see it. But while my husband is more confident of his taste, I prefer doing some research to read reviews about all of the appliances we'll be buying. It's always good to chat with some of the salespeople, because they tend to be more experienced and can recommend some brands you originally wouldn't consider. We spent almost an hour at Harvey Norman once, just browsing through with a sales rep who was kind enough to take us through everything, from vacuum cleaners to washers! It's true - they have the best service. But prices....not really. In the end, we discovered Parisilk has really competitive prices, largely due to the fact that they prefer making profits based on quantity and bulk, not by increasing the profit margin per product. And because they had all the items we wanted, we decided to purchase the hood, hob, oven and fridge there. It was between Electrolux, Bosch and some other European brand I can't remember lol. Then my husband fell in love with the hood from Bosch (he runs the kitchen!) so we went with Bosch in the end. I really love how industrial everything looks, which is a nice balance to our rather warm, bohemian kitchen. Bosch PBD7331SG Bosch DWW09W851B The chimney hood he couldn't say no to Convection Oven / Bosch HBN331E1K Fisher & Paykel E402BRXFD4 Both of our offices have F&P fridges, and I've always loved how industrial they are. Look at that flat steel door! Swooons. Next up: Make Friends at Samsung
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It Came From The 80's.....
hellofromanotherside replied to arturobinewski's topic in Reno t-Blog Chat
Now there's a concept! Love how everything turned out...congrats on following through with the look throughout the whole house! I'm thinking of adopting a cat too for our new home (we had one for 18 years before he passed away a year ago T_T) but scared my leather couch will be turned into a cat playground D= xx Warm, Earthy, and a Little Bohemian xx -
Haha, happy to provide a public service! I'm sure your home will turn out beautifully too. Thank you for reading!
