littleones 0 Report post Posted June 19, 2009 Shang Nao Jing Ahhh... Went to take a look at the reno progress today and encountered our first headaches Dunno who so extra went to stick back the previous owner's unit number plate on our door. They had taken it down earlier and we told our contractor to discard it since we wanted to install a wrought iron plate More headaches after we entered the house. The toilet bowls, wash basins and taps have been installed in both bathrooms but the taps were installed wrongly!!! We wanted square tap to square basin and round tap to round basin and they did it the other way round While the common bathroom one is not obvious, the MBR bathroom one is a reflection of the poor installation. How can the black rubber be sticking out underneath the tap so unsightly? I think the worker must be simply bochap On a happier note, we finally bought our lights today at lightings.com at 515 Balestier, after visiting many shops in Balestier, Geylang, and Jln besar. This has got to be the cheapest we've came across and service was ok Total costs for 6 lights = $420. Their lights are also fixed price, which I prefer since I'm not into bargaining. Don't have to bargain also since the fixed prices are already so cheap! They said they are able to offer such low prices because they are the distributor of lights and they cut out delivery and middleman costs. However, we really dunno how to carry the chandelier back to our car parked pretty far away (parking is a killer there!) hence we opt to pay a nominal $18 for delivery. The 6-spoke chandelier we bought @ $159...their bestseller. Yes, for this price we weren't expecting Swarovski or Asfour crystals. The salesperson Rock was honest enough to tell us that the crystals are from China and he revealed that actually most shops sell their chandeliers as Egyptian-crystal pieces and Egyptian-crystal prices but swap the crystals for China crystals later on since one can't tell the diff. True enough, we can't tell the diff even when it was placed next to an Asfour one. The shine is the same. We also bought 6 lampshades at $8 each, bringing the total price of the chandelier to $207, still less than half of what an Asfour one would cost The same chandelier looking differently from another angle... Our dining lights @ $85. Think it should go well with our earth-toned kitchen and brown kitchen cabinets. Rectangle lights for kitchen @ $52 and simple hamburger lights for bathrooms @ $12 only (I absolutely refuse to pay $30 for a milo tin ). We bought 2 of each. Next up, curtains...DIY, half-DIY or customised?!? Our budget is bursting already Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ivy 0 Report post Posted June 19, 2009 wahhh ur lights are really good buy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Thanks, ivy It's because of renotalk and other forummers that we are able to find out about this great lighting shop! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 (edited) Furniture Shopping We still have not gotten our curtains yet but Spotlight seems promising. They have a promotion of $5 per drop/width for making pinch pleat curtains till this 28 Jun. It sounds kinda cheap but technical to me. According to the friendly sales guy David, a normal window requires about 3 panels, so the workmanship for the curtains would be $15 + the fabrics we selected Sounds reasonable, I estimated simple curtains, tracks and curtain accessories for the whole house may cost probably $500+ but we need to take measurements first for a quotation and make our decision by this Sun Meanwhile, our weekends were spent on furniture shopping. People usually go from the most expensive to the least but we just happened to take the reverse route. We first sought out Sungei Kadut (IFC and a few other showrooms there), sorry to say, but the selections were very limited. Next, we went to The Furniture Mall @ Beach Road. Slightly better but still not what we were looking for. Then, we went to Park Mall. The furniture looks even better but so are the prices. I only managed to see one white classic leather 3-seater which costs $10k Our theme for the house is what you might term Modern Classic, Shabby Chic, Cottage, Chateau, etc Hence, we want to get some French Classic pieces to achieve the feel. However, it is pretty hard to find such furniture in Singapore, especially with a digestible price tag These are the few places that carry them them (listed from cheapest to the most expensive in general). 1) WholesaleClassicFurniture.com (online & showroom) Cheapest of the lot but quality look so so only. Doesn't really carry a lot of French Classic furniture in their showrooms as compared to what is advertised online. There were a lot more brown, woody, Zen, Balinese range. No interest to answer our simple email queries 2) Online furniture retailer Love their extensive collection. Reasonable prices. Prompt replies to our email queries. Only gripe that it is web-based, and there is no showroom so it is a risk 3) The Cottage Craft There is a shopfront but mostly accessories and a few pieces on show only. Can only see the rest of the collection from their catalog so can't tell much of the quality either. The French classic furniture look nice but prices are also higher. 4) Eco Links Very much expensive and their range is more of English Classic, not what we are looking for. I am quite tired of shopping around, so have decided to take the risk and order online in faith. Have ordered a TV console, armchair, coffee table and bedside table from them. Looking forward to receiving them in end-Jul. If the quality is ok, we may consider getting more pieces from them. Edited November 11, 2009 by littleones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymars 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 hi littleones...nice blog so far...notice we have a layout that mirrors urs...also 92sqm...n interestingly we also consider similar layout as ur mbr n had the same issue with no window with the other rm...so we decided not...but gd idea to have the sliding door for ventilation. really looking forward to seeing how is it done keep up the energy level ya n enjoy the process Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 hi skymars, thank you for the encouragement. is your renovation done? any blog to take a look? the window was really an issue and there were many suggestions as to how we could deal with it. in fact, our contractor wanted to do away with the door as he sees no purpose if there is somebody in the room and we are going to close the door anyway. he suggested to do a lourve above when the door is supposed to be but we really prefer a door there. i thought of a more radical idea which was to knock out a window on the wall between the room and the living room and decorate the window (from the hall) with an awning and a street cafe mural. of course execution was a bigger problem Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymars 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 (edited) hi skymars, thank you for the encouragement. is your renovation done? any blog to take a look? the window was really an issue and there were many suggestions as to how we could deal with it. in fact, our contractor wanted to do away with the door as he sees no purpose if there is somebody in the room and we are going to close the door anyway. he suggested to do a lourve above when the door is supposed to be but we really prefer a door there. i thought of a more radical idea which was to knock out a window on the wall between the room and the living room and decorate the window (from the hall) with an awning and a street cafe mural. of course execution was a bigger problem icic...yea played with a number of layout involving a smaller room with no window...but in the end, i think i will still stick with a more traditional layout n a longer and narrower bedroom 2 looks like my budget is lesser than urs too...so still looking ard for the "right" ID..hope to start ard end july/early aug i hope Edited June 23, 2009 by skymars Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted July 8, 2009 ALMOST DONE! After more than 2 months, our renovation is finally drawing to a close. Some minor jobs to be done - changing of main door's lockset, installing the tap for the kitchen sink, the door bell, and turning on the gas. I'm more concerned about the washing up and the final touch ups before the handover, for example, the paint that kena the windows and toilet wall tiles, and the chipped paint on the wall. I wonder if they will clean it off or leave it to us hmmm...anyway, some pics to update... Our wrought iron gate. We chose the design partly because the code is 777 Cannot stand the ugly red water pipe right outside our house but there's simply nothing we can do... Our huge (for us lah) 5ft full-height shoe rack and 9.5ft settee. Chandelier and window grills also up. The paper bag there contain our classic double-sided clock from Cottage Craft, waiting to be fixed up Kitchen cabinets up. A pity the original granite sink we wanted was out of stock. This colour is not as matching to the solid top. A simple design which I came up with. As I do not want to face the problem of difficulty accessing the cabinet corner, I asked our contractor to do it this way so that we can fully utilize and access the corner from the dining area. I though it would be good, for example, when we are reading newspapers by the dining table, we can put it away conveniently when meals are ready If not, the area can also be used to store recipe books or other accessories. Our dining lights are up but we are rather unhappy with the height. It is too high and the angle is not nice. We are asking our contractor to move them lower and reduce the graduation but not sure if it can be done as the wire has been cut It is just the beginning as we still have a lot to do. Next up, curtains, electronics, furnishings and accessorising Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pinkpetter 0 Report post Posted July 9, 2009 But it seems to be taking place nicely! mm great idea on the cabinets! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pinklady 0 Report post Posted July 9, 2009 Your cystal Chandelier, is the exact same one as mine!!!! my got different LED lights, yours leh? where do you intend to put it? btw, your Country style looking furniture is very pretty indeed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted July 9, 2009 (edited) Thanks, pinkpetter and Pinklady Pinklady: i checked out your t-blog le. your chandelier has more crystals and mine has no LED lights we didn't see any chandelier with LED lights through our search. i love LED lights, think it enhance the sparkle of the crystals. the chandelier is up in the living room Edited July 9, 2009 by littleones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
charemme 0 Report post Posted July 9, 2009 Just happen to bump onto u blog.. read the 1st post Its really a dream come true.. 1st the house, near ur parents and additional 13k Congrats Like the lightings u bought, so far any issue. Please share your reviews with us Great sofa.. look good! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted July 9, 2009 Thanks, charemme So far we have not moved in yet, hence hard to review on the lightings. The chandelier is ok, except that they gave us the round bulbs instead of those that look like candle flame. Good thing we bought the lamp shades so can hide it. The $12 toilet lights are abit too dim so they are really just worth $12 but I guess we don't hang around for very long in the toilet so it is ok Oh, and btw, we didn't buy the sofa in the pic. Just the coffee table Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2009 This probably came abit late but I think it shows the layout and design more clearly. Thanks to the forummers here, this Floorplanner program is really quite fun and easy to use Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted July 27, 2009 ELECTRONICS Haven't blog for some time le cos site always timeout We are in the midst of cleaning up the place and spotting for problems for contractor to fix. It may be a challenge for the 2 of us as we were very blessed by our mums and have not much experience in housework One problem I've realised with our layout is the shoe rack. By constructing the shoe rack at the door, we've overlooked that major pieces of furniture might have trouble getting in Oh well...we'll just have to be mindful when buying our furniture. 8 Aug is going to be a busy day for us as our furniture and electronics arrive We have bought our washing machine, fridge and LCD TV yesterday, all under Samsung. Not that we are big Samsung fans, it just happened that they look good, price is good, and size is good Of course it wasn't a rash decision, we have previously gone to Best Denki and Harvey Norman, Mega Discount Store, etc to browse and shortlist the models we wanted then we called up Goh Ah Bee and Hong Liang for quotes. Apparently, the quotes were relatively similar for the WM and fridge but as what we've found out, and which Hong Liang admitted too, prices for LCV TVs are much more volatile. Delivery is foc but our only gripe is that they only accept cash & cheque, understandably to cut out the credit card & NETS charges to offer a lower price. Eventually, we got the WM and fridge from Hong Liang and the LCD TV from Best so we could use the vouchers which my ex-colleagues gave me and pay the balance in installment. Paying everything upfront in cash is really too taxing considering there are other major purchases like curtains not bought yet I shall not revealed the prices here since the dealers are kinda particular about it. We wanted to get the Samsung 37" model of the same series actually due to the length of our living room but "upgraded" to the 40" as it is actually cheaper than the 37" lor This is a popular model and is out-of-stock in whole Sg (according to HL) at the moment. It's a Full HD TV and equipped with iDTV (integrated DVB-T tuner), meaning we don't need a separate set top box to receive those HD programs from Mediacorp. I like the WM because it has the Diamond Drum (reduce damage to the clothes) and Silver Nano (generates silver ions that remove bacteria and fungus) features. As for the fridge, actually I prefer those Made In Japan models with at least 3 doors, but they cost way too much, so we'd have to settle for this. Again, I like their Silver Nano feature which "removes unpleasant odours perfectly, retaining the original flavour of the food". Our classic console, coffee table and side table are also scheduled to arrive in Sg next week. So excited, can't wait to see them soon...but first, spring cleaning...arrrrgghhh... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
