Mission Impossible

[zihui 7]

So we engaged the services of the highly recommended Master Chang to carry out the house audit for us. He came to our place and spent 3 hours plus there with us, walking us through the recommended placement of certain items like the stove and the bed, certain colors for the flat etc. We initially started out wanting an overall black and white color scheme for our 'city living' themed house. After 3 hours plus with Master Chang, our contractor (whom we invited to listen in on the house audit so that he's aware of the exact requirements and changes needed), the HTB and I were left speechless and stunned at how much our initial design for the house has got to be changed. I'm not exaggerating when I say that my head is still spinning today when the house audit took place on Saturday morning.

He said a lot of things about the flat but the general prognosis is that the house's fengshui clashes quite badly with my HTB's bazi, particularly our flat's entrance, the staircase, the living room in general and one particular bedroom on the 2nd floor which the HTB originally intended to utilize as a recreation room.

Some quick photos:

Master Chang at work (I don't think it's nice for me to post a photo of him without his permission so I'm just posting one of his backview. This was taken when he was at our front door, doing the reading) -

Lots of changes will have to be made and certain things will need to be carried out, amongst them the tilting of our front door to an angle which is more advantageous to our family -

The masking tape indicates just how much the front door has to be tilted by. My contractor was left reeling at the end of the 3 hour plus consultation - I don't know who was more stunned at the end of it all, the HTB or the contractor. Thankfully, the contractor has rallied nicely and by Sunday, has reverted with several new design ideas for us to consider, all incorporating Master Chang's firm recommendations. To cut a long story short, our renovation commencement date has been postponed to the 20th of Sept where the HTB will carry out the 动土ceremony at 7.18 am. The workers will then come in to carry out the hacking.

Oh - we also confirmed our living room ceiling fan (thanks to bro Eric, who came down to our place with the brochure to do the site visit and measurements). After discussions with him, we made our decision and placed our deposit for the Fanco 56 inch 5 blade Space-1 MS in silver / grey to go with our new living room color

[vanessa 12]

congrats Zihui!

the portable side table/bar looks cool! very handy during big gatherings

congrats on key collection!! Exciting time!!

Tat side table is awesome...great buy...can you share where you found that? I saw this ages ago (getting old...cant remember where i saw it) and i have been trying to find it again

update: I remember already! obviously the gingko vitamins are working today. LOL

Edited September 16, 2013 by vanessa

[zihui 7]

congrats on key collection!! Exciting time!!

Tat side table is awesome...great buy...can you share where you found that? I saw this ages ago (getting old...cant remember where i saw it) and i have been trying to find it again

update: I remember already! obviously the gingko vitamins are working today. LOL

Hi Vanessa,

The nightmare is just beginning... ...

Are you referring to the side table / cool bar? The first time we saw it was on 42.sg but unfortunately it was out of stock. So when we saw a seller selling it for $100 on gumtree, we pounced. According to the pricetag that's on the box, the seller got it from the HomeFix store.

Cheers!

[ProjectH 0]

Thatz the issue with engaging a fsm is that u hv to follow. No pt waste money n dun follow his advice..

[zihui 7]

Thatz the issue with engaging a fsm is that u hv to follow. No pt waste money n dun follow his advice..

Precisely.

With the advice comes a total revamp of our design.

[ProjectH 0]

Luckily u see earlier and not when few yrs down the road and u hv to revamp everything! Enjoy ur wedding n reno journey! So exciting!

[zihui 7]

So after many visits to Sungei Kadut (Tag Allianz & White Horse Ceramics) and to Defu Lane (KWH) and donating a lot of blood to the killer mosquitoes there, we finally confirmed all of the required tiles for the entire house. Thanks to my contractor's excellent lobangs and my future MIL's contacts (she's also in the construction industry), we have managed to obtain HUGE discounts for all of the tiles that we require. Feeling incredibly blessed and grateful for all of their help. Photos of the selected tiles to follow shortly. Hacking and debris removal will commence this Friday and the tiling will start as of next Monday.

Also called up OpenNet yesterday regarding the installation - apparently the previous owner missed out on the free installation so thanks to them, we now have to pay for them to install. Since we're carrying our renovations now, we might as well do the installation now as well. Their advice is to go down to one of the 'traffic light' telcos to see if they are able to throw in the OpenNet installation for free. For those of you who are going to sign up for a broadband plan, maybe you can consider the following promotion:

[ProjectH 0]

Lucky u got good lobang on tiles! Once reno starts, it will juz wheez by~

[zihui 7]

Lucky u got good lobang on tiles! Once reno starts, it will juz wheez by~

yup, you're right... am really indebted to my contractor and my future MIL. combined, their contacts have been instrumental in saving us a lot of money, not just for the tiles but also for the construction crew, timber etc

thanks to my contractor, we managed to get tiles and mosaic for practically nothing from his buddy

hopefully.... our schedules are packed at the moment.

can't wait for everything to finally be over so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor and relax in the place.

the HTB, to be fair, is more worn out than me. he's flying to phnom penh next week and his workload is insane so he's been dying for a rest.

[ProjectH 0]

yup, you're right... am really indebted to my contractor and my future MIL. combined, their contacts have been instrumental in saving us a lot of money, not just for the tiles but also for the construction crew, timber etc

thanks to my contractor, we managed to get tiles and mosaic for practically nothing from his buddy

hopefully.... our schedules are packed at the moment.

can't wait for everything to finally be over so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor and relax in the place.

the HTB, to be fair, is more worn out than me. he's flying to phnom penh next week and his workload is insane so he's been dying for a rest.

Hopefully ur mission impossible will be mission possible!

[sherting 5]

Ever seen neighbour's house with FS consideration, so the living room, bed rooms have different wall colours like orange, yellow, green and blue

[zihui 7]

Ever seen neighbour's house with FS consideration, so the living room, bed rooms have different wall colours like orange, yellow, green and blue

Hi sherting,

Thankfully we don't have that issue. Luckily, the colors that he suggested for the house were already the colors that we wanted (cream, white, grey) so no issues there

The only 'garish' color which he says is a must is a YELLOW foyer area (there's a foyer area in front of my main door, outside the house). Thankfully it's outside the house, so we don't mind following his advice.

[janyen 0]

Hi - Nice progress to your place! I'm also looking to buy stuff from Tao Bao, what did you guys get and any pics or tips on how to do it via Peeka! (?) How much did your shipping cost?

[zihui 7]

Hi - Nice progress to your place! I'm also looking to buy stuff from Tao Bao, what did you guys get and any pics or tips on how to do it via Peeka! (?) How much did your shipping cost?

Hi janyen,

We got our lightings and rainshower set from Taobao. Unable to update you regarding the shipping cost as we havn't gotten the estimate from Peeka as yet, due to the Mid Autumn festival holidays in China.

Actually Peeka is really easy to use - just create an account with them. After that, go hunt for the stuff that you want to buy from taobao. When you find something that you want, just copy and paste the item's url into Peeka and fill up the desired quantity. When the entire order sheet is complete, just make the deposit payment via internet banking / ATM and then wait. Once the items get shipped over to Peeka's warehouse, they will update you accordingly and provide you with the estimate for the shipping to Singapore. However, please note that the domestic shipping takes about 1 week and international shipping to Singapore will take about 2-3 weeks so my advice is not to purchase things that you'll need urgently.

This discussion in RT might be useful for you (started by vanessa) - http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/58354-taobao-help-needed/

[zihui 7]

The actual commencement of our reno is finally here! To celebrate the start of the reno process, the Big Guy whipped up a simple dinner of Steamed Mussels in White Wine & Garlic Sauce last night. Coupled with bread for the sauce and a couple of glasses of blanc, we retired early - coz we couldn't wait for the morning to finally arrive.

Simple, delicious and hearty!

Woke up early this morning to head down to the flat. We were pleasantly surprised that the contractor was already there, conducting his prayer session at the void deck of the flat. According to him, this is his usual practice in order to ask for a smooth and incident free renovation. He was there since 6+ in the morning even though his workers will only be arriving around 9.30 to start with the hacking. He just said, "I'll accompany you guys for the 动土ceremony, then I'll go downstairs for my breakfast when you all go off to the office. I'll wait until the workers arrive and supervise them so that we can finish all the hacking within today." Thumbs up for his dedication! I'm feeling so much better after seeing how 'on the ball' he is.

Proceeded upstairs to the unit and were greeted with confirmation that D-day is indeed here:

At the appointed time, the Big Guy quickly took up position and started whacking away at the 动土spot as per Master Chang's advice:

Once that was done with, we left the contractor to his leisurely breakfast and headed to our respective offices.

The contractor just sent me a Whatsapp message an hour ago - "The workers are here. Are you ready? Haha"

Guess I don't have a choice, do I? Will head back to the unit to check out the carnage after work today. Update more later!!