Ravenski

Hi, can i ask whether the glossy paint differs alot from the paint colour for the wall? i notice that even though the painting man chose a similar colour in gloss but it turns out to be rather dark and dont look that nice... somemore the hdb ppl never do a good job in smoothening out the uneven surface on my hhs door... the gloss makes the unevenness even more obvious...

Hi, The uncle IS CURRENTLY doing my gate... hehe... 9 bolts managed to bargain for $110. ~Rav

ya man... Rav took 4 days mc this week... the fever just wont go down... yesterday was feeling better but this morning got running nose! linggie, so u confirm with the curtain van? heard from my bf's mum tt last nite got the chinese tv show introducing cheapest stuffs in singapore? they said the cheapest is in katong...

Just curious, did u and ur parents continue to stay at the house while renovation is on? cuz hacking of tiles and stuffs can be quite noisy eh? my mum is also thinking of hacking the kitchen tiles cuz the tiles are popping out themselves after 23 years! -melting_starz-

hahaha happy, maybe what skywolf commented really make sense... i think for most kitchen cabinets tt i see, their base is definitely inner compared to the cabinets... which means if u want more space for your toes to wriggle, u need to have suspended cabinets... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- anyway, i came over to visit my house today... the internet is up! so happy that we can access internet already... this morning, we tried walking to tiong bahru market to eat breakfast! wah, so far away... but the food is really nice... maybe neighbours who are more familiar with the nice stalls can recommend... *mouth-watering food* now the house is in a stayable condition... but the tv console and shoe cabinet and curtains are not settled yet... will wait for the contractor to come and touch up the remaining stuffs first... still thinking whether to get curtains from ikea... humph~ we were quoted around 800 to 900 for the curtains if custom-make... but i dun really fancy the designs they have... haiz.... wat a headache!

btw, wat is the paint colour u used for the other room, which is purple in colour? i painted my masterbedroom false ceiling purple but its a darker shade... yours is nice!

kitchen pics... LEFT: kitchen cabinet, now complete with turbo hood-n-hob, crizto sink, gattoni tap, n solid top! RIGHT: blum system for the 3 big 90cm width drawer... LEFT: small door opened RIGHT: big door under sink opened there were a lot of headache n discussions with the contractor which resulted in this kitchen cabinet layout... 1. we wanted to have a 70cm width hob. then hood normally only comes in either 60 or 90cm. naturally we chose 90cm for hood cuz 60cm hood with 70cm hob will look weird! 2. if hood is already 90cm, the bottom cabinet of where the hood n hob are will only look nice if it's of 90cm width too. 3. the hood n hob position must not be too near to sink n fridge, so should be in the middle. too near to fridge later fridge kena burnt, too near to sink, water n fire shouldn't be too close n cannot have two ppl standing at hob and sink at the same time! that's also to prevent being too straight with the kitchen window (fengshui no good?) 4. if hood n hob in the middle, and the drawer at the left hand side, then the drawer will be very narrow... i think less than 50 or 40cm of width, which is not nice... 5. end up decide on doing 3 drawers below the hob, which turn up to be very huge! 90cm width... then normal track don't think can support such big drawers, so end up getting blum tracks... 6. but then bottom cabinets should align together with the top cabinets then it will look nice, resulting the top n bottom cabinet doors on the left and right of hood n hob becoming one big one small... 7. because the bottom cabinet at the right of the hob becomes so small, then accessing the corner space from that small door becomes impossible... 8. was thinking doing some 3/4 round rack for the corner space, but contractor says not durable, especially the two-fold door. somemore if do the two-fold door, then the sink cabinet door will not look nice, i.e. not aligned... 9. end up the corner space must be accessed from the sink cabinet, which according to contractor is easier to access, i.e. right hand reach in... but dun really like to have such a big space under sink PS: sorry if it sounds too complicated, it'll be more like a note for me to remember

Hi NiVleK, Would suggest you pop by Ikea Tampines because it is bigger and more stock I guess, but not so accessible unless got car... somemore Ikea Alexandra is having major renovation (even the restaurant!) - Raven

Hi bee joy, Yaya my contractor also didn't plasters my wall before doing the painting... very sad... the only way is to buy some pictures / paintings to cover it already... or have some winkplay thingie to try to camouflage the walls, hehe... ~Raven

Hi Happy, Thanks for ur compliment... My wardrobe is nothing special lah... guess if u go ikea walk walk will surely spot the same / similar one initially wanted to custom make it but after much thought, we just settled it with ikea... much cheaper, inside nicely laminated, and happen to be able to fit into the space... but it's not solid wood or plywood though, hopefully it will last n hopefully the 10-yr guarantee by ikea really means it... also, use recycled material save the earth! My bro's room wall cabinet is also from ikea, the product name is EFFEKTIV, there are 2 pieces, as shown in the pic, each is $160 ($90 frame + $70 glass door)... u can choose not to have the glass door too... if u want ikea ppl to assemble for u, it will cost 5% of the price, and 1 cabinet needs drilling of 2 holes ($4 per hole, or FOC if u can DIY ) this thing is also 10 years guarantee, dunno how true it is, and again hopefully it will last You are the 2nd person saying my living room ceiling looks very high, i tot all units standard one? ~Raven

ok pics time... !! living room... now with ikea karlstad sofa and footstool... but still no coffee table, tv console n curtains for all rooms yet! living/dining from another view... activity room with ikea day bed (got it during promo at $99! usual $199), and 2 bookshelves... younger bros room with cabinet, table n wardrobe, also from ikea... mbr with ikea 2-metre wardrobe, bed frame, n slide-out bed head... total damage on ikea stuffs so far: ard 5.3k and that's after the 10% off (in the form of vouchers; den we used it to pay for other items) for 2 wardrobes (150x201cm and 200x236cm) in their promo period...

IKEA shopping trip we got our things pretty much in IKEA... which attracts many comments like "ikea's stuffs are nice but dont last" "actually ikea is not tt cheap and quality not good" "i bought ikea things but spoilt very easily"... but we still prefer the stuffs there after shopping around in the furniture malls... list of stuffs as below, 1. wardrobe for master bedroom 2. wardrobe for common bedroom 3. two suspended book cabinets 4. one simple plain bookcase 5. headboard and queen bedframe 6. two bookcases with glassdoor for one 7. daybed frame 8. 3 seater sofa 9. footstool delivery time was supposed to be 2 to 6. however, they came only at 530 and they realised that they had to assemble all for us cuz we paid for assembly! the whole delivery and assembly only ended at 10! who asked them to come so late even though we had so much stuffs? especially the queen bedframe which was last assembled... they were in such a rush and they really did a quick job. i hope nothing bad will happen... the headboard was chipped at one side... but we decided to leave it alone cuz it will be covered... if not, have to go through the whole ordeal of changing it... but, they delivered wrong colour for our table so will have to change it... and our dear bookcase dun seemed too stable as well... so when they make another trip down to our house, gotta ask them to put brackets on top! *its becoming more and more like a home now~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* (melting_starz)

Yes! your eyes are so sharp! but the grout lines are not very nicely done... its not even through out... dunno wat to do ler... hopefully the contractor is nice enuff to do the touch up... --melting_starz--

Hi Happy, Paints are all from ICI. Highlighted wall in living room is Champagne... the light colour one is Natural Cane... brown colour one is Mocca Delight, and the purple false ceiling is called Mysterious... ~ Raven

pics time... master bedroom: ceiling, lighting, painting, laminate flooring and window grill done... floorings: 3 rooms laminate and living room homo... dining set from barang barang...

pics pics pics !! living room painting done, tiling done, false ceiling done... after wash. hmm... still thinking what to do with this side of the wall... foyer... sans small pebbles... planning to have a suspended dark wood shoe rack... but get from where?? master bedroom with our v.meaningful purple-n-choco colours... and downlights! no cove light cuz afraid of dust n insects... kitchen cabinet done (minus a cabinet door), waiting for solid top... shown in the pic turbo hood n our fav best-buy crizto kitchen sink!

--from melting_starz-- last saturday when i visited my new house, the painting was already done... i think the colours we chosen are not so bad... but the painting quality is not so good... can see many defects... like dripping paint dried up in a corner, uneven painting etc... already complained and hopefully as promised, they will touch up nicely after other things are done... will post the pics once uploaded... lighting people are very busy... they promised to do it by last saturday but it was dragged till sunday till monday and finally installed today... some of the downlights are installed slightly slanted... feel like to ask them to straighten it for us... the foyer dun look very nice with one downlight installed... haiz, thinking of changing to another light... maybe the icecube that i bought for the bedroom area just outside toilet... they also installed the ceiling fan for us... but i realised its the wrong colour! i wonder if the lighting shop can change for us... we insisted on gunmetal colour and i dunno how it become silver colour? somemore at point of installation, we were both at work... its already hanging at our ceiling how? but its not the one we wanted... kitchen cabinets are up... minus the solid surface top... the workmanship was not very ideal... the side trimmings are terrible, with lotsa jagged sides... the drawers dun look very sturdy... haiz... the quality is not there i feel... though i tot the overall kitchen looks rather nice in the picture tt i took using hp... i hope this kitchen can last me long long... its a boring entry with lotsa words... awaiting the picture upload from ravenski...

hi everyone, i've got a question here... how do you find the flushing for toilet bowls? it seems rather weak... and today i discovered a horrible thing... i wanted to use the toilet in master room but when i open up the toilet seat cover, it was full of **** and the bowl was very full... i think its choked... dunno issit the workers did business in my toilet and flushed only to realise it was choked and kept quiet about it!!! i dare not flush the toilet at all... scared later the water level rise further and flow out of the toilet bowl... the tot of it makes me feel like vomitting! haiz... is this considered defect? i mean the choking... we already called our contractor to ask if he can do anything to help... *melting_starz*

Hi Happy, Thanks a lot for the advice! Hmm... this schedule was suggested by my contractor though... maybe later I'll make sure he promise to pay me back if his guys crack my lights, hehe... Somemore i dun have that many carpentry though (in fact only kitchen cabinet).. mostly buying from outside... and most of my lights are downlights, except 2 common bedrooms flat lights and dining table light, so shld be quite safe...? Happy, u'r surely very busy... never see u update ur t-blog anymore? how's ur reno going so far? ~Rav

Some quick update with pics... false ceiling and false wall done... skirting in progress... coming up next, very very soon: painting and installation of lightings!

Hi Angel, Hey we've got the same fridge!! hehe, nice design, just-right size, energy saving n not so ex Where u got it from? I got it from a neighbourhood shop for $750... ~Rav

****The following post is written by melting_starz**** Some random pics... the laminate ppl brought 4 samples of the laminate as requested by us... cuz at first they showed us the square sample which is so small to visualise... still cant decide which one to get... all laminates look so nice... but we will be using exquisite laminate... anyone heard of this brand? i only know supreme and kronotex... but the laminate ppl said their stock for kronotex not much, lotsa of laminates are not available... somemore after looking through so many laminates, it seems tt the pattern for exquisite is nicer than kronotex? they claimed that its the same price and also good quality laminate... dunno how true this is? our contractor gave us the window grilles pictures to choose... still deciding between the pure horizontal lines and the one with 4 horizontal (each pair are close tog), 3 vertical lines... it seems tt getting the former wld be much simpler... but i kind of like the latter design... given that our living room has those long vertical lines, wondering wld it be better to do pure horizontal? this was before the tiling... one huge pile of sand and our tiles have arrived! too bad i was not there to see how they lay tiles... should be quite interesting! the kitchen short wall before it was completed... after much delibration, decided to do a L shape which seems more functional... my short wall is 1m tall... actually wanted to do same height as the kitchen window... but our contractor said they only do 1m tall... wat's the rational behind this? i ever saw a neighbour's kitchen with the short wall same height as the window though... the false ceiling in the living room... now only with colourful wires dangling from the top... heehee i really hope it will turn out nice... at first we din want to do false ceiling... somehow changed our mind again... its hard to stick to one idea throught the reno i guess... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- today was another saturday which was super exciting, busy & exhausting for us... since the keys were collected, we were busy every weekend... except for sun morning which i had to attend classes... morning, we went to jalan besar in search of our remaining lightings... but there are so many shops selling sinks & taps that caught our attention... spent quite some time looking at the sinks & taps... i fell in love with the crizto sink which my bf thinks it's too small... hiaks... he likes the teka sink which is more ex... the mum likes the tap which is very ex... all lost in their own world... actually found some lightings in tai yong lighting which i like very much... those zen type of lighting with wood and yellow lights... wondering wld it be suitable for dining area... then, start to wondering wat happened to our aircon man who is supposed to call us when they are ready to go install the piping... geez, when they called us, we were having lunch at mac and they already arrived at our doorstep... no choice, rushed down in taxi... saw 3 poor men standing outside our door with their tools and pipings... after some discussion on how to run the trunking, they get started and we rushed down to balestier to see some more lightings... i think i mentioned it before that we got our lights from P*l*ce L*ght*ng... after looking around some other shops, we feel that the prices for some lights are too ex... den went back to make some changes... we told the person in charge how we felt abt the price... guess wat he said? people use poorer materials, mine is different, i use very good materials from germany blah blah blah! speaks like our contractor~ so we decided to take out the items which are too ex... the best part was when the storage heater man suddenly called to tell us that he is already at our doorstep... ?!?!?! he was supposed to go our house at 5 plus or 6 but he reached there at 3? we cant possibly go back in time... in the end, we just asked him to go in and install since the aircon men were also around... i felt a bit worried but no choice... he disappeared after installing and we din get to pay him... anyway, already place a deposit to his boss, so only need to go down and pay the remaining sum... after a short shopping at balestier, we went back to our house to check out the trunking... i would say i am very happy with their trunking, excellent workmanship! (this only includes visual inspection) better not to say so early, must wait till aircon is installed and tested... the false ceiling ppl also appeared to move their barang barang inside our house... to be installed on monday... ***stay tuned for more pics!!*** to my long entry for today...

Hi neighbours, Regarding the plastic covers, I did report and they seemed to replaced it for me already. But it was still difficult to open and close. I knew they replaced it because they just threw the broken ones aside on the floor (2 or 3 of them). But could it be because when they came to check and rectify, they forced it too hard that it spoilt that's why they changed to new ones but still new ones are difficult to open and close? Regarding the water-thru-the-wall problem, has any of 25b neighbours experienced it? The last time I check my unit it was alright...

Dear BLK 25B kakis, i went down with Ravenski and his mum to have a second look+touch of our unit... and shun bian took the lift to 11th floor's unit... there's two units under TH and surprise surprise, one of the units is not locked! we went in to have a look... the toilets are still the same as units in other blks... peachy for common and grey for bathroom... i am also worried abt the darkness in kitchen... but it was 1pm just now... i would not say it is dark but maybe cuz the sunlight is not directly shining in, the clothes will not dry as fast ba... the design of the units so funny hoh... can see ur neighbour at the kitchen if both happening to be cooking or washing... haha can even spy from the corridor who's coming... (updated by melting_starz)

hi h4happy, may i know which number to call? do u normally call to the same person who's in charge of ur application or a general number to anyone?