Our Second Reno Journey

[sarah833 3]

I have the exact same sentiments each time I see a wall with bricks scatter all over on this forum, saw it at an eatery at Millenia Walk on Wednesday and find it looks quite out of place. I wondered what do the home owners do with it when they get bored with the look? put up more bricks to occupy the entire wall or take them down?

hi Macuser, love your postings of conversation with K and your place is turning out great! He seemed like quite a character and consistent in producing quality work.

Edited June 15, 2013 by sarah833

[macuser77 1]

hi macuser77,

would like to be frank..the brick feature wall is not well done. going by your furniture choices, i believe you are looking for something more rustic than this..now it look like lego clouds on the wall. This is not "subjective" as your contractor termed it . its a matter of skill.

To be honest, it looks rather fake right now. Im hoping by telling you early, you can get your contractor to touch up on it. afterall, this guy is not cheap, if he want to charge higher, you should expect more right? regards.

Hi Texas,

Thanks for the input !

Nope we're not looking at anything rustic/"dark", and a full brick wall would definitely make that particular area look cramped and heavy. The pic in the link isn't what we're looking for. If we're looking at a rustic feel we wouldn't have chosen our current floor tiles.

Will look at it again its painted white.

Just to clarify that our contractor is not an interior designer, so he's not obliged to help us in any design. He's doing it out of goodwill. He's slightly more exp because of his workmanship, and not design.

ThanKs for the frank feedback ! Will post pic of the finished product...hopefully it doesn't look rojak. If it fails, most likely round 2 on this portion.

P.s my wife's friend said the wall looked "diseased" haha

Edited June 15, 2013 by macuser77

[sarah833 3]

i like the look of the first option but its not functional if you plan to put more than a TV on the console.

I vote for third option cause of the height and splash of color, option two will cause me neck pain because I often sit on the floor while watching TV

[macuser77 1]

I have the exact same sentiments each time I see a wall with bricks scatter all over on this forum, saw it at an eatery at Millenia Walk on Wednesday and find it looks quite out of place. I wondered what do the home owners do with it when they get bored with the look? put up more bricks to occupy the entire wall or take them down?

hi Macuser, love your postings of conversation with K and your place is turning out great! He seemed like quite a character and consistent in producing quality work.

Hi Sarah

Many thanks for your feedback too

Will def take note of your comments and keep this in mind when we put in the furniture

Reason why we wanted a brick wall was cos the place looked kind of plain without one. With a brick wall it definitely spices up the area.. In our opinion. A full brick wall was also out of the question as this area is way too small.

Will try to post more of my conversations with him but doubt we will see him until carpentry is up. Hopefully our choice of the diseased wall won't spoil the whole look of the house

[macuser77 1]

Your wall is ok lah. Flat on at 90 degrees. any brick wall looks the same.

The houzz photo that the guy gave as example also look blegh only mah.

Hey!

Thanks! We sometimes make weird decisions so it is good someone highlighted it to us.

[macuser77 1]

i like the first option too.

do you know how much is the second John Erdos tv console?

hi Volkswagon7983,

Sorry we didnt manage to go John Erdos today as we were mentally and physically exhausted from shopping for toilet bowls, shower fittings, sofa blah blah.

However I've noticed the price is displayed on their website, and the console u were asking is going for S$2.5k.

Hope this helps

Edited June 15, 2013 by macuser77

[macuser77 1]

And we bought our sofa and tv console from Commune:

My wife and I would like to thank Vannesa for suggesting Commune at Defu Lane. Didn't know they've got hidden gems. We were actually not so keen on Commune as the items on display at Millenia is pretty limited.

Despite RetchLow's not so pleasant experience with Commune, we have decided to take the risk and purchased our sofa and tv console from them (and yes the sofa has buttons ! ). Reason is that we have realised it wasn't easy for us to find a simple, comfortable and yet good looking sofa. We have actually short-listed a few, and there was still something wrong somewhere.

1) Sofa:

These were the ones we have initially shortlisted :

Secret sofa & Humphrey :

Yes its quite pretty. But definitely not comfy. I wanted something where i can throw my butt on after a hard day at work (my butt isn't big to begin with). However it was way too hard for our liking, though my wife's best friend told her that sofas are not meant to be comfy. And there was something wrong with the design. Maybe it doesn't look "timeless" ? Or its not "clean" enough for our liking?

Franc franc Couleur Sofa:

Sofa is actually comfy and has 'clean lines'. We would have settled on this if we hadn't stepped into Commune.

So we went to Commune and ended up with :

We were the first customer at Commune, and the moment my wife stepped in, she pointed that out to me. As you all may know, I've got weird taste (bad) occasionally and it took me a while to warm up to the sofa. The first thing i did was to plunge onto it, and yes it's bouncy

When making payment, we actually reminded the sales person to take note of the buttons and ensure they're properly sewed. Could tell he was trying very hard not to roll his eyes.

Edited June 15, 2013 by macuser77

[macuser77 1]

2) TV console:

As you all may know, we have been struggling with the choice of TV console. Before the reno started, we actually had our mind set on the Miniforms TV console that Grafunkt is selling. As time goes, we thought it's not worth spending that much, and eventually chose a CB2 tv console ($299 !) :

Like what RetchLow said, it can actually look good if we can perform magic on it. Unfortunately I don't have the magic wand.

Had quite a difficult time choosing tv console at Commune, as they've got quite a few beautiful pieces., Those that we liked had the "industry"/"raw"

feel, hence not suitable.

Luckily my wife spotted this:

Like what sarah833 said, the John Erdos lacked functionality due to the limited no. of shelves. And being tired from looking at tv consoles, we finally bought this.

Edited June 16, 2013 by macuser77

[macuser77 1]

My Toto dream is gone:

For those who're keen on getting Toto toilet fittings, they're currently having 35% storewide sale at W. Atelier. Forgot to ask when will this GSS offer last, as we were quite frustrated with the "everything also don't have replies".

We were so excited when they informed us on this 35% thing. Managed to choose everything within an hour, and then were told stocks will only arrive in end July-mid August.

As we were already very late in buying our sanitary fittings, and I think Mr K will scold us if we drag any further, so we had to say good bye to Toto.

We went to Hafary to get our sanitary fittings instead. On a side note, the sales rep was shocked to see us, as we had chosen our tiles in mid march, and it was only now that we had started buying sanitary fittings This shows how good we are in procrastinating.

Edited June 16, 2013 by macuser77

[tobehappy 0]

Franc franc Couleur Sofa:

Sofa is actually comfy and has 'clean lines'. We would have settled on this if we hadn't stepped into Commune.

I saw this too yesterday. Was thinking that it's compact size is perfect for my little home. In fact, after using those bigger ones, I thought that the franc franc sofa looks quite cute!

[macuser77 1]

I saw this too yesterday. Was thinking that it's compact size is perfect for my little home. In fact, after using those bigger ones, I thought that the franc franc sofa looks quite cute!

Hi !

I think it's a good buy, especially now when they're having 15% off for Master Card.

[tobehappy 0]

Heee... I don't think they would keep 6 months for me!

[macuser77 1]

Heee... I don't think they would keep 6 months for me!

I remembered them telling me can keep till dec.

[macuser77 1]

very nice! i am also engaging Mr K for my coming place.

Want to check if you had received ur lights from taobao and what's the quality like?

Hi dim.

Just to let u know that we have received the lights from Taobao, and they're in excellent condition. However, my wife felt that we made the wrong purchases. I guess we can't buy from Taobao, as we need to physically see and feel the item before buying.

Edited June 15, 2013 by macuser77

[macuser77 1]

The big cotton ball

Seemed like we made the wrong purchase from Taobao ! We think the light is too big for our tv area, especially when the Commune sofa isn't small to begin with.

As for the quality, it was excellent. Wrong sizing was due to our misjudgement. I guess this will be our first and last purchase from Taobao,