countrylover

Can I check with you guys how the wiring for your hood is run? Is it concealed? Mine is exposed, so quite awful with the wiring dangling around.

Hey Banzai Love your canopy too, simple and nice! But I think the white part for yours is made of plaster right? Cos can tell that the texture is very different from wood. I think just having the photo frame is good enough. Putting in too many elements make it look cluttered, hence taking people's attention away from the beautiful canopy. Think our intention is to bring people to admire the canopy, rather than the decor items used to accent it. Just my 1 cents worth.

My carpentry is 90% done. The carpenter came to fix the timber partition and rectify some problems for my kitchen cabinet and MBR wardrobe last Saturday. Really glad that the partition is finally installed, makes my living room look warmer and cosier now. They managed to rectify the problem with my canopy hood. It's not perfect but at least it looks more decent now. Now left to us to work magic with decorative tiles to beautify it. The faulty door for my MBR wardrobe has also been replaced. But atlas, after they left, I realised that the door handles for the left door were installed on the wrong side! Really wonder why they could do silly blunders like this. They've also boxed up the area above my main door to hide those ugly gas pipes, and installed cornices for the household shelter feature wall, shoe cabinet and partition. Still left a small portion for the shoe cabinet as they didn't bring enough cornices last Saturday and touching up of the painting for the cornices which they promised will be done by Wednesday. The contractor for the solid top will be coming to install it today. Can't wait to see how the completed cabinet looks like! We are arranging to do plumbing works over the next 2 days and Citigas to turn on gas supply on Thursday. Hopefully by this weekend, everything will be functional!

Wow, I'm impressed! Very clever of your ID to suggest the concealed storage space! Really can't tell at all if you don't even mention it. Unfortunately it's too late for me to do anything now, cos it means having to dismantle everything and doing everything from scratch. Gotta make do with what I have I guess. Perhaps when I have more budget end of the year, I will ask someone else to just design a canopy for me. IMO, having more storage space is always better than limited storage. As this is our new home, it seems that we do not have much junk. Wait till 10 years later, then we probably have headache thinking abt where to store our barang barang! Those signages are not difficult to find. Can go to Cottage Crafts, Forest Wood or other shops selling country-style stuff. They have rectified the problem for me already, not the best solution around but at least it looks better than before. I will take photos and maybe post them up next week. My last bet now is to decorate it with tiles and some signages. Besides the places that BunBun has suggested above, you can also try Spotlight...I've seen stencils being sold there. If you are game for some creativity, buy stencil plastic and design your own. Time consuming but at least, you get what u really want. I have lots of stencil designs at home which I use for my quilting. Think can probably use for the wall too. I can take pics of what I have and PM u if u r interested.

Sure, would like to see how it looks like. A really practical way for you to get around the problem of storage space. Good choice! Was this suggested by your ID? We didn't even think of that, cos our impression is that the canopy is just for decor purpose only.

Your canopy really looks great with those tiles! Very sad cos my kitchen cabinet really falls short of my expectations. Sob... What u can add as decor above the tiles are some country signages eg Home sweet home, country kitchen etc. I've seen samples of very nice ones at http://www.forestwood.com.sg/. Go to the "kitchen" section under portfolio. Hi warsurfer Hmm...Just wondering how the canopy could serve as a storage space? U mean it's not boxed up at all? Mine's a permanent feature, really a wastage of storage space. No choice I guess, gotta forgo storage space for asthetic reasons.

Hey, $4k+ for a country kitchen is really cheap! Do u have photos of the entire cabinet to show me? Just wanna see what the 4k consists of. Funny though, cos Cottage quoted me almost $10k for a kitchen cabinet alone and my cabinet area is really small. Maybe it's cos I didn't ask them to quote for other reno works, hence they needed to mark up a lot for the kitchen. I've seen decorative tiles like what I've posted above at SBH. Gonna go down to take a look soon. Think they cost abt $5 - $10 per piece, so I think still quite affordable, since I don't really need many pieces. I've not bought anything from that ebay store yet, maybe next mth, cos this mth really overspent liao. PM me if u wanna buy anything from the store, can share the shipping cost. Thanks for the suggestion, will think deeper abt how I wanna accent the canopy. But mosaic tiles are quite expensive and quite tedious to fix. For lazy people like me, just buy big big piece of tiles to stick over lor.

Hmm...but I think using mossaic is more of a retro style? I hope to be able to accent the canopy with tiles like the photo below and put in 1 or 2 country signs at the empty space above the decorative tiles. Hopefully dun turn out looking like rojak! hehe

Hehe...sorry for my wrong interpretation. Cos I went down to Forest Wood, the ID told me the white portion is plaster. Usually they will paint over the plaster to protect it. Is your cabinet solid wood or ply? Think u told me the other time is solid ply right? How much did Cottage Crafts quote u for the cabinet alone? My HB said the oven spoilt the whole look, makes the kitchen look too modern! He suggested that I sew a country-quilt to cover it. Actually I got a lot of shelves and cabinets for my decor items, but all empty! Like you, also gonna buy items slowly to dress them up.

Since we didn't spend much on reno, so used the remaining budget to buy nicer furniture lor. No choice man, cos our theme is country, most furnishing shops here sell modern/contemporary kind of furniture, which don't blend in with my theme.

Hehe...yup! Shd arrange to meet up soon. But everytime I walk into a country-style shop, end up spending lots of money.

I believe that piggiedearz's canopy ie the white portion is made of plaster, which is moulded onto an internal frame. The lower portion consists of a timber skirting. Before I started the carpentry, already showed them similar photos, but they said can't be done. Asked for trimmings and skirting, they can't do also. I believe can be done, just that they too lazy to go the extra mile. Have argued with them so many times over the canopy already. Very upset cos the canopy (to me) is one of the most important accent that makes up a country kitchen. This the difference when u pay $5k for a cabinet, over someone else who quotes u $10k. Sigh... The system doors u see come with the carvings from the supplier. What the carpenter did was to mould the postfoam laminates onto them.

Shoe cabinet After installing the shoe cabinet, we realised that it's too high and huge! Looks really majestic when we enter the main door. Shouldn't have requested for a full height one, shd have done a 3/4 height one instead, and probably ask for shelves or glass cabinet for the remaining 1/4. Feature wall for household shelter So glad that the HSS feature wall is finally up to cover the ugly door. Makes the entire living room look more classy and warmer too. MBR wardrobe The door on the left is still missing, as the size is wrong. The carpenter is redoing a new one and will install by this weekend. Due to space constraints and layout of my MBR, the wardrobe is really small, don't think can accommodate all our clothes. Will probably need to buy another one to put in the study. Your kitchen cabinet looks great! Do you have photos of how it all looks like? Love your canopy! Unlike mine, really looks like sh*t. The shape of mine, like what I've posted above is a straight-cut one. I actually asked for something like yours (with the curved in outlines), but my carpenter said they are unable to do it. Cool...will really love to visit all your homes. Believe it will be much nicer than mine, as mine is a low budget production. My friends been wanting to visit my home but cos everything is still in bits and pieces, I'm very shy to invite them over. Hehe...think will probably need another few mths before I can do my house-warming. Got gathering must jio me hor!

More photos of my kitchen cabinet : See how awful the canopy hood looks still? The carpenter has amended the shape but somehow left the hood dangling outside!! Arggghhh...they just don't seem to get it right! Anyway, they said will extend the plywood to cover it. Have decided to buy decorative tiles to beautify it. Really, really pray that they do a decent job this time. Sigh...

Our carpentry is 80% completed. The carpenter has installed the kitchen cabinet, MBR wardrobe, shoe cabinet and household shelter feature wall. What's left undone is the timber partition for dining/living and some touchups here and there. Kitchen cabinet

Totally agree. What's important to me is to have a warm and cosy flat to return to after a hard day's of work...a place to chill with my loved ones. I don't see any point to spend our entire savings or get bank loan to finance a $60k reno. Doing a simple reno that costs $10k doesn't mean it is distastefully done or "low class" anyhow. A home, afterall, is a place we feel comfortable staying in, not some place to use as a showcase to friends and relatives. We spent abt $15k on the reno, with most of the things which we DIY ourselves. But must admit we've spent quite a fair bit of money furnishing and decorating the house. As the theme of my home is nowhere near the usual contemporary style, a lot of effort and time was spent to transform it to my unique individual taste.

hehe...yah. i've got boxes stacked everywhere! hopefully the carpentry can be fixed this weekend, so we can get our barang barang sorted out.

Yes, I was very irritated by the group of yelling people last Sat nite too! Think it came from around the 20th storey. I believe they were watching a soccer match. Good thing I wasn't asleep, if not sure wake up and

Upon closer inspection and thought, we realised there were lots of imperfections. Especially the canopy hood, it's not up to our expectations at all. It's too straight and edgy, looks like a rectangular box instead! We feedback to the carpenter today and they dismantled it, promised to work on it to match our expectations. My hubby just drew a sketch with the dimensions, hopefully they get it right this time. Today, they had the shoe cabinet fixed and the frames of our MBR wardrobe installed. Am too tired to take photos, will do so tomorrow when I have time. Can't wait for the carpentry to be completed soon, so we can move all our barang barang in.

I bought a Toshiba non-inverter system-3 aircon at $1880. if u r interested, I can PM u the contact.

Yes, it's causing some inconveniences to us but still manageable. We basically work on 1 room at a time, then shift stuff in when done. We had no choice due to some tenancy issues with our old flat and some unseen delays with the reno. Given a choice, we would rather wait till everything is completed. We had the basic stuff like beds, living room furniture and an induction cooker, so it really wasn't that bad after all. Trust me, we even manage to eat steamboat at home! As the saying goes "船到桥头自然直“. Anyway, really happy to see that our carpentry is finally here. Most likely will have everything fixed by next week. Thanks! I simply love white furniture! But cos we cook very often, think maintenance and cleaning will be a problem, so gotta scrap the idea. The only place where I manage to keep my white theme is the MBR. They will be delivering the bedroom set next week. Will take photos and share once it's ready.

Welcome here! I also just moved in a few wks ago to Blk 91. Like you, I've also been very busy running around and getting settled in. Hope that everything will get settled pretty soon.

We finally had the kitchen cabinet installed today. These are some photos of the internal frame. They will come back to install the doors on Monday. A closeup of our dish-drainers and canopy hood. Storage compartments above the washer for laundry and display items. We asked the carpenter to use carpentry to hide the water heater, as it looked really awful. After installation, we realised that our tiffany lamp is too huge and close to the cabinets. Need to ask our electrician to relocate the lighting point, else we can't open and close the top cabinets. Also, noticed some scratches and defects on the laminates and a part of the cabinet wasn't as agreed in the final design. Will feedback tomorrow and hopefully they can rectify it for us.

My mum heard from our neighbour that the unit that was broken into is on the 37th floor. She said the owner does foot reflexology and his unit was broken into when he was attending to a customer in the room! I'm not sure how true is this, but it's so unbelievable. How can someone be in the flat and not know when a burglar breaks in to steal his home appliances!!!

Do you have contact of the company in JB? They have a company registered here too? Yes pls, appreciate if you could take some pics of your curtains to show me. Thanks.