The Experience: Our First Home

[kooky 2]

Thanks for the pointers, summersann! That's what we have discussed and intended to do.

I have a toddler who is 19 months old and my mum who has grout, high blood pressure will occasional come over to stay with us and watch over the maid. That's why we decided to change the staircase.

We used same colour schemes (just different in shades/tones) for all the 3 bathrooms and 2 of them, we chose the same types of wall tiles to save some cash. Trying to cut down on the unnecessary costs incurred.

Took a few pics of the bathroom tiles thats been up but not quite satisfactory and told my contractor to go down to the flat to take a look. I need lots of luck........lol

[summersann 6]

Thanks for the pointers, summersann! That's what we have discussed and intended to do.

I have a toddler who is 19 months old and my mum who has grout, high blood pressure will occasional come over to stay with us and watch over the maid. That's why we decided to change the staircase.

We used same colour schemes (just different in shades/tones) for all the 3 bathrooms and 2 of them, we chose the same types of wall tiles to save some cash. Trying to cut down on the unnecessary costs incurred.

Took a few pics of the bathroom tiles thats been up but not quite satisfactory and told my contractor to go down to the flat to take a look. I need lots of luck........lol

Does using the same color for the bathrooms cut down costs? Didn't know!

Good luck with your renovation!

[summersann 6]

Met the IDs in their studio to pick out the material for variation order.

First hiccup: Our Accoya wood decking apparently got held up at customs in Thailand, with no idea when the shipment will be let through to Singapore. No more Accoya for us then. ID picked out another material for our balcony - Evorich outdoor decking.

Picked out a new main gate for the house.

The laminate for our study table. To contrast with our IKEA legs.

Confirmed the colors for our bedroom/study.

Confirmed the color for one wall in the living room - Gentle Tide.

Carpentry goes up tomorrow! ID says that the carpenter should take about a week to complete the installation, so hopefully more things to take pictures of next week!

Edited January 20, 2013 by summersann

[summersann 6]

After scouring multiple shops and looking at countless armchairs, we finally found an armchair to our liking!

Living room armchair, found. 1 more armchair (for mom's bedroom) to go!

The boy found his chair for the study/work table. He's into industrial stuff (while I'm into wood), so this metal chair makes him happy. We got it in white to match my chair for the study/work table.

My chair for the study/work table! Fell in love with it when I first saw it in the catalogue.

[kooky 2]

Kind of! Initially, we intended to have different theme for each bathroom and the contractor calculated the cost. After discussing with my husband, we changed the tiles to same colour theme(by taking the lower cost of from the 3 themes) . The saving isn't much but we try to do saving throughout the reno, so should helps a little.

Besides, we only select those matt-finished homo tiles and nothing really fanciful.

Does using the same color for the bathrooms cut down costs? Didn't know!

Good luck with your renovation!

Edited January 20, 2013 by kooky

[razzberrie 3]

Which colours did you pick for the study table laminate and decking?

[summersann 6]

Kind of! Initially, we intended to have different theme for each bathroom and the contractor calculated the cost. After discussing with my husband, we changed the tiles to same colour theme(by taking the lower cost of from the 3 themes) . The saving isn't much but we try to do saving throughout the reno, so should helps a little.

Besides, we only select those matt-finished homo tiles and nothing really fanciful.

Any saving helps! If you cut a little here and there, it all adds up, even if it's not a huge difference. Good luck for your reno! Have you started your own t-blog?

Which colours did you pick for the study table laminate and decking?

The colors closest to the natural wood tone, of course!

[kooky 2]

Summersan, no I have not started my own T-blog yet.

My reno is at stall because the contractor needs to resubmit some drawings to HDB for approval. And because it is CNY soon, the workers are starting to taking leave. Hence, there is no pictures for me to upload. I hope to start mine after CNY :-)

[summersann 6]

Summersan, no I have not started my own T-blog yet.

My reno is at stall because the contractor needs to resubmit some drawings to HDB for approval. And because it is CNY soon, the workers are starting to taking leave. Hence, there is no pictures for me to upload. I hope to start mine after CNY :-)

All the best with your HDB approvals! Ours gave us a headache.

Good luck with your renovation when it starts! And looking forward to reading your t-blog!

[summersann 6]

Seems like we're entering the last stages of our renovation. Left with carpentry installation, window works and decking of our balcony, then it'll be washing and moving stuff in.

It's a headache trying to race against time because of the upcoming CNY holiday. A few places have stopped taking in orders.

1. Our main gate.

We are changing our main gate, but will have to wait till 20 Feb for the new gate to arrive because of CNY.

2. Curtains.

Went down to T____ W_____ Curtains on Sunday after reading a t-blog that mentioned that the place was quite "scandinavian". The outlook of the shop was interesting as the walls were tiled with craftbricks. The auntie was extremely busy, and when we called to let her know we wanted to pop by, she even said she was thinking of asking us not to come because she's busy rushing out orders and isn't taking any new orders until after CNY We told her we could wait till after CNY and went down anyway. Picked out some cloth, left our windows' measurements with her and asked her if we could get a rough quotation before we bring our IDs down to confirm the cloth. She said to call her back the next day, but when we did, she said she hadn't had time to calculate. Called her back again today and she still hasn't had time to calculate. Asked her how long later should we call back to get our quote, and she replied, "I can't tell, very busy." Asked her for an idea of how long we'd have to wait, and she said, "Maybe 1 or 2 days later."

I get that she's busy, and at least she spoke to us politely and not curtly, but how difficult is it to calculate the rough cost of making curtains for us

Would have loved to work with her, but we don't really appreciate feeling like our business doesn't matter to her. Guess we may end up going with our ID's contact after all (our ID asked their curtain maker and they apparently can deliver the curtains before CNY).

Our cafe curtains for the study's window are giving us a headache as well. No traditional curtain maker seems willing to make them.

Still have to purchase our TVs, washing machine, laundry solutions and bed frames.

Racing against time!

Edited January 22, 2013 by summersann

[El LoCo 3]

Cafe curtain? Wat is tat?

[summersann 6]

Cafe curtain? Wat is tat?

This!

[myrick88 0]

Wow...something special.

Looks like a table cloth?

[summersann 6]

Wow...something special.

Looks like a table cloth?

Haha! Cafe curtains usually just refer to half curtains that only cover half or less of the window I think. Any type of cloth is possible

[razzberrie 3]

I like the idea of cafe curtains! Didn't know that's what they're called. It's definitely a good idea for the study as most of the time you would want the study to be brightly lit.