rachleng

Finally made new curtains & blinds after a very long wait. Replaced all new tracks & trains too. Also decided to replace full height day & night curtains instead of roman blinds for the 2 bedrooms. I like the day curtains, both come with vertical stripes (unfortunately not visible in the pictures below). At last, i see some sunlights into my rooms in comparison to my old roman blinds. Quite happy with the visual effect. More 'drama' now MBR : New full height day & night curtains. Old ones were white roman blinds Study Room : New Roman Blind Kitchen : Replaced the original roman blind with roller blind. At least i get to see the full windows when i choose to draw the blinds up. Yard : New bamboo chick for yard area. My yard has no windows, only wrought iron grille

ha.... we absolutely adore our tv... it's a B&O MX4000 (http://www.beoworld.org/prod_details.asp?pid=635)... a product way before the plasma and lcd tv era... it is still going sharp and good now

Hi potato, if you really like it, then it will be of value to you... hope you have bought it by now

Hi potato, so sorry to learn that you've made a wasted trip to the lighting shop. I was still thinking of getting another chandelier for my mbr from them these 2 months... looks like i have to source somewhere else too

Thanks Potato I like my chandelier too... especially the effects casted when the lights are on dht & potato, i cannot remember exactly the shop name or unit no. But, it's one of the lighting shops (nearest to the corner pet shop on left hand side facing the road) located along a row of hdb 2-storey shop houses opposite chinese garden mrt. my husband saw the shops while driving along the road and brought me back to take a look and we bought this chandelier in 10 mins. We thought their lights/chandeliers were priced quite reasonably.

Thanks dht

Thanks thanks phoenix It's gonna be a nice process to build up your home. No prob, i'll pm the contact to you

Thanks thanks Angelwrath. Your place is very nice too 1. Nope, we are not located at CCK. 2. I hung my plates with a "wired plate hanger" (see url link for a picture of how it looks like "http://www.hooksandhangers.com/images/plate_%20hangers/med_lg_platter_hanger.jpg") There are few types catering for different plate sizes. They can be purchased from most fine bone china stores that sell decorative plates for wall hung purpose. They usually do not display it, you have to ask them. 3. My 2+1 condo = 2 bedrooms + 1 study room

Thanks thanks We were lucky. Most of the things were really like new (e.g. the common bathroom was literally unused, the built-in oven was never used before as its accessories were still in sealed plastic bag). We decided on this place the first day of our house hunting... this was the 3rd unit of the 4 properties we saw on that day. Super fast house hunting and super fast reno as there weren't much to be done. Seem so fated loh I got my large mirror (abt 200 cm X 140 cm i think) from "The Mirror House" at Jln Kilang 2 weeks ago. If i didn't recall wrongly, it's $788 + $50 (for delivery & installation). Their mirrors c/w a 5 yr guarantee.

Thanks thanks babyQ i like your wardrobe leh... i think your design & colours will fit nicely into my bedrooms My current ones provided by the developer are a little mismatching. Thanks also for telling me about the Self-fix toilet seat cover... i may want to check it out. But, we had quite hard time sourcing for a suitable seat cover as the size was quite different from most toilet bowls in the market. I checked many retail stores such as SSC, Hoe Kee etc... all didn't carry the brand "villeroy & boch" which make it difficult to replace the covers. If this "self-fix" size doesn't fit, then changing to new toilet bowls may be a longer term solution as the only size which fits now breakes easily It's actually quite a fun process as there's always something new to look forward to every month

You are lucky to have a well ventilated bathroom. I so envious. It is really annoying to 'bathe' with moulds everyday Yah... buy slowly one by one, at least you won't regret for making hasty decisions and it's financially less burdened too. I can empathise as we had to be very careful with our own financial planning as this is our second property which hubby is financing solely while i am financing the other 5-room flat which i co-own with my dad (my parents are staying there, i could co-own the condo with HDB's consent as i was marrying out).

Thanks thanks bluberi My wish list hasn't completed. The next thing i am targetting would be to change from Roman blinds to day & night curtains. I prefer more sunlight into the apartment by leaving the day curtain on. Roman blinds kinda block the lights into the home. Now pondering what kind of colours to choose for the curtains loh A bit loss now. Any ideas? I recently broke the toilet cover again by accidentally slamming it (hubby says i am extremely clumsy). This is the second new toilet seat cover i broke and each one cost almost $50. Was telling hubby might as well change the whole toilet bowl c/w new cover rather than use the aftermarket types which always break. If he gives me the green light, i'll soon change my 2 toilet bowls, and perhaps the common bathroom basin?

It's all about patience. We really did the house up bit by bit over the last 1 yr+ and still not done. We did not rush into buying anything we like whilst shopping (or rather i hardly go shopping in the last 1 yr ) due to laziness. It took us about 3 months to get a MBR TV & the half height shoe rack (which i use it to sit the TV and to store all my linens/bedsheets and hide the unsightly fax machine, internet routers etc), about 6 months to get the dining hall chandelier (after it has been broken since day 1 we shifted in ), 8 months to subscribe to SCV, 9 months to get a small wine chiller, about 12 months to engage our B&O system for repair & overhaul and more than 15 months to get our mirrors. Only 3 weeks ago, we installed the very much needed ventilation fan in the MBR bathroom (can you believe the whole ceiling was full of moulds due to bad ventilation ?) and i DIYed the paint sealant and ceiling-repainting myself (without hubby's assistance as he hates DIYing) So far so good, at least no mould in sight now, crossing my fingers that this ventilation fan will help us.

Hee.... all my knick knacks are cheap cheap items from ikea, carefour and denso $2 shop. E.g. : ~ all wall picture frames are from ikea and carrefour between $10 to $15 each ~ wall-hung plates are $20+ each from Christopher Vines (bought at Robinsons sale) and a shop at IMM ~ 2 white rose frames from ikea during their mega sales at abt $35 each ~ $2 vinery picture frames from Denso ~ cushion covers are the 3 for $10 types from HDB estate ~ "round ball" table water feature at $50 from a closing down shop ~ Japanese serving tray (at dining table) at $12 each from the same closing down shop ~ candles and candles holders from ikea ~ dining hall chandelier @ $280 (incl. delivery & installation) from a HDB lighting shop ~ MBR chair is a field chair bought from golden mile market at $30+ (very sturdy chair as i always stand on it - lazy to use ladder ) ~ 2 bedside table lamps from a lighting shop at IMM @ $30+ each ~ Hung a $5 perfume pouch to an old recycled table lamp at MBR (beside TV) The only more costly items are the living/dining hall furniture from Zen Tradition & Manhattan Collection and the wall mirrors. Even my bedroom furniture are quite budget items from Nova and Red Apple. I think we used about $12K+ (incl. minor reno + furniture for living/dining hall, 2 bedrooms + one washer and one dryer) for this home. I hope the overall feel doesn't look as 'cheap' as we paid for .

Thanks Thanks Applefreak I saw your blog, you have a beautiful home too. Yah, we really feel that we have a steal, especially for the B&O system. They seller did not mark up his selling price by throwing in all these items. And the home feels almost like new. More pics here ... Dining Hall View 2 Dining Hall View 3 (dining table can be extended 6-seater when necessary) Hallway from MBR (and our small wine chiller at a corner) MBR View 1 MBR View 2 No pics for the other bedroom as i only put in a writing desk and bookshelf for myself there.

It is a 2+1 Study resale condo. We bought it 1.5 yr ago at a then market rate (cheap cheap). It was a 5-6 yrs old development when we bought it. We found a one-man company contractor who did the bare essentials for us at a mere 2K+. We were lucky that reno price was much much lower then ~ polishing of marble floor ~ re-varnishing and mending of 'holes' for parquet floors in all rooms ~ whole house wall & ceiling painting ~ re-painted all wooden doors & frames of our apartment (total : 11 doors) ~ chemical wash whole house floor and tiles ~ simple plumbing works to fix new bathtub mixer, shower & new accessories etc He coordinated all the timings very well with various sub-cons and managed to handover the home to us in exactly one week. The other fixtures (e.g. aircon system, feature wall, wardrobe, study-room built in cabinets/desk, kitchen cabinet, wall mount iron board, shoe/laundry cabinet at yard, hob & hood, built-in oven) were left in almost new condition by our ex-owner. We even took over his window blinds, refrigerator, micro-wave oven and still using. We changed the dining hall chandelier as we accidentally broke the old one . Besides the 2K+ we spent above, the other main expenditures we had were on the furniture (mainly from Zen Tradition & Manhattan Collection) and tv for mbr. We very slowly increase our decorative items (e.g. paintings, frames, lamps etc) over time. The latest addition was the large wall mirror at the living hall which was installed 1 week + ago. We also took over the Bang & Olufsen system from our ex-owner. Spent abt $1.4K for agent's repair before it is functioning well again. We feel so fortunate and blessed that we were not required to get any renovation financing for this home . Main Door View Living Room View 1 Living Room View 2 Living Room Feature Wall (it's the study room on the left of the feature wall) Dining Hall View 1