Home Sweet Home @ Punggol Topaz

[snowy89 12]

My first DIY project

And it goes to... our dining light This is actually the second dining light that was bought from taobao. Buying from taobao has its perks and its disadvantage. The product may turn out to be crappy but it was a risk I was willing to undertake.

Unfortunately for me, the first dining light turn out to be a piece of junk. It couldn't even be bent to the desired ball shape, and the man and I gave up after struggling for over 1 hour plus. We have not install our ceiling fan then and were sweating buckets before we got frustrated and decided to throw the junk away.

So there I went, for a second round of shopping for my new dining light. After searching many links, we finally found one that we can agree upon.

This. The white one. We got the big one at 35cm.

Taobao link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=43143316811

Alas, the wood that it came along is more of the Scandinavian feel, which falls short of our more brownish hue.

Original holder. It looks like a funnel but I like to think of it as our mushroom dining light. Haa..

No matter how hard we try to persuade ourselves that this will fit into the colours, we could not.

I have a hard time convincing the man that I can paint stain this into a right shade of brown and to trust his artistic wife.

He finally gave in and went to nippon to get the wood varnish paint. We chose the colour under timberlac series, NTG03 Mahagony. I only gave it a light coat and brush off the excess. Any more it would have been too dark for our liking.

It has a glossy sheen to it after it has been stained. We are fine with it as long as the colour suited the theme. Only need to leave it out to dry for a day and it will be good to go.

Final look:

Matches the small kitchen fan seen in the distant. Remember to replace the china provided light bulbs with philips one so that they will last longer and less heat emitted. Especially since the dining light is a hanging one. If it becomes warm after a while, tendency to switch it on will be lesser.

So.. this is my new and finalized dining light After numerous challenges face and effort put in, if you guys don't find it nice also don't tell me ok? I think I will go and bang wall. Hahaha.

[razzberrie 3]

Hi MelanieTan,

Sorry to hear about your bad encounter. I have read ample topics which asked us not to give any deposit to the ID firms/contractor before we decided to sign with them. I guess they enticed you to put a downpayment so that they can churn out the 3D you wanted. I wouldn't say R&R is good yet, because my renovation has not yet started. Will give a fairer assessment once everything is done.

But given that I paid a premium for their service, and considering that it is on the higher end company, I expect more from them. End of the day, I just want a fuss free reno because the man and I aren't the very free type who can keep going down to do spot checks.

You can paint over the bombshelter door so that it sort of camouflage into the house. It doesn't protrude, not to worry. As for the ugly, round ventilation cap, I have seen someone showing pics of what their ID had done in the topaz group and I am impressed!!

So you can show this to your ID and see what he/she can do:

Left: ugly metal piece

Right: problem solved!

Wow, I never thought the metal piece can be removed! What an elegant solution.

[snowy89 12]

Wow, I never thought the metal piece can be removed! What an elegant solution.

Yup, my ID company made their own piece as well. So mine looks abit different from that picture. However, I much prefer mine, don't know is it user bias. I have posted it up before, but here it is, in case you have missed it:

I agree on how it makes the bomb shelter abit more presentable too. It is a must have.

[intonewlife 2]

Wow.. nice way to deal with metal piece of the bomb shelter. I will suggest to my id see if he can do sthg similar to it.

[tarzanboy 6]

Hi, snowy89 your white kitchen hanging light looking good i like is the light bulb holder is the twist type (can the bulb change to daylight) and may i know the link of the track light holder and the link you gave is not working thank

[snowy89 12]

Hi, snowy89 your white kitchen hanging light looking good i like is the light bulb holder is the twist type (can the bulb change to daylight) and may i know the link of the track light holder and the link you gave is not working thank

My kitchen light is LED type, so if it is spoilt, I have to replace the whole light, cannot just replace the bulb. The track light link is not working because the seller had relisted the item with new features. I am unable to review on the newer version so I can't provide you with the new link. You can browse around using the keywords on taobao though.

Thousands of sellers are selling similar things. Just that I can't vouch for the product. You will have to read through the comments and decide if it's good to buy or not. Need to do some homework for yourself. Afterall, it is your own house. Hope you will find what you are looking for.

[Yannz 0]

Hi, would like to ask if you still have the link for the rose basin in your MBR? Is so nice n the price is really reasonable. Thanks.

[snowy89 12]

Hi, would like to ask if you still have the link for the rose basin in your MBR? Is so nice n the price is really reasonable. Thanks.

Here you go: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=40479626960

I recommend peeka for the shipping of bulky and fragile items from taobao. I just rummaged through my batch 2. Nothing broken again.

[snowy89 12]

Beautifying my service yard my way

Guys reading my thread, I think you all can skip this post.

So not long ago, we decided to keep some place green for our house since we abolish the idea of a green kitchen. There were two places that we painted green, namely the bomb shelter interior which nobody will see, and the service yard. In order to fit into the "forest" theme, we decided to paint our pipe brown which look like sh!t tree trunks.

We decided to expedite the washing machine and dryer delivery to an earlier date since our carpentry are all up, and my ID decided to only install the kitchen swing door after everything has been shifted in.

So after the delivery men had went off, I decided to beautify my service yard my way.

Tangle all the roses on the pipes. No scotch tape was used. I merely just keep loop it over the other vines until taut.

I still have some excess rose vines which I intend to fill up the remaining gaps. I got these a long time ago from ebay so I already misplace the links. Just search rose vines on ebay and you will find it.

The man says that one colour rose is nicer but I disagree. I think like this is nicer. Anyone is with me?

This will not be the final look yet, because I am going to paste some more wall decals on the sides of the wall to make it truly "forest" theme.

Edited January 25, 2015 by snowy89

[tarzanboy 6]

You are very creative and good ideas I like.

[Whalegaga 2]

The tree/ plant idea to conceal the piping is pretty

[Yannz 0]

Thanks a lot!!..I haven't brought before from Tao bao till I see this lovely basin. Seems complicated.

Yr service yard is nice,very creative especially the two colors of flowers.very sweet.

[snowy89 12]

You are very creative and good ideas I like.

The tree/ plant idea to conceal the piping is pretty

Thank you tarzanboy and whalegaga, it is a never ending thing to keep beautifying the house. Persistent maintainence is required. I hope I will be disciplined to keep it up and running in years to come.

Thanks a lot!!..I haven't brought before from Tao bao till I see this lovely basin. Seems complicated.

Yr service yard is nice,very creative especially the two colors of flowers.very sweet.

Yannz, you are welcome. You can slowly explore the other forwarders as well. Taobao is not complicated once you are used to it, I remember Oceaneleven wrote a very detailed post on taobao purchases. Maybe you can refer to that for help.

[snowy89 12]

Wallpaper

It is tough deciding what you want for the house. Paint or wallpaper is one of the decisions to make and based on the inspirational picture, the man and I have decided we wanted to wallpaper part of our living room. Wallpaper and paint last for about the same amount of years. In fact, wallpapering can last for 10 years, with exceptions to damages from pets and children.

On the other hand, painting is relatively simple, just decide amongst the 100+ types of different colours for the rooms. I kept the rooms colours to a minimum if you guys have noticed. Mostly snowflake white with a splash of colour on the ceiling etc. However, wallpapering is a whole different story. There are 12423487 different designs of wallpaper, the type and quality also matter. As usual, I bought everything off taobao. I am grateful with the existance of taobao, I am able to get my ideal house at a fraction of the price.

Since my living room are going to be be predominantly brown, we decided to go for something of that tone. After searching for some time, we finally came upon something that we both like. After my ID had finally cleared the haulage in the living room, the wallpaper guys are able to install the wallpaper for us.

The wallpaper installers are good. They did this up in less than an hour, leaving me extremely amazed at their speed.

My ID recommended us to paste the walls along the window panels as well for a complete look.

Meanwhile, after deciding to paste the walls, I also decided that the seattee area is to be wallpapered as well. Gives a more lux feel overall.

It was a rather good decision to make for us, because the plaster keep chipping off. The wallpaper will sort of 'protect' the plaster in this way.

I bought better quality wallpaper from a taobao seller. The living rooms I bought 10 rolls, left 6 rolls. 10 rolls costs $200+ not including shipping. The wallpaper came better than expectations, even got parts that are abit 3D to touch. Quality is good for the price that I paid for. Anyone is keen to buy them over, PM me.

Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=17992201259

Another major portion that we did wallpapering is definitely our MBR, because it is french theme and only wallpaper can pull off the look. I bought the wallpaper from the same seller and had to wait for this stock for my MBR but I gladly wait for it. Even the wallpaper installer praised the quality, saying that it is very thick. I paid $500+ for 10 rolls as well, without including shipping. So here is the final outlook for my MBR walls.

For this room, my installers used up all 10 rolls. They matched up the patterns really well, it is hard to tell where it starts and where it ends. Happy with the workmanship and also the choice of wallpaper.

It is exactly what I have in mind.

Almost there.

Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35657840343

[snowy89 12]

Updates on my living room

All my curtains have arrived. I engaged the popular renotalk Vincent to do up my curtains. The quality of his curtains are top notch. For my WIW, I opted for blinds. My second batch of taobao items have also arrived and we are in the midst of arranging everything. This time I bought over 5cbm of stuffs so shipping is expensive at about $500+.

I have already assembled the living room furniture, namely the coffee table and dining table. So here the pictures!

Spot my happy tree friends in the picture.

My coffee table slots can be pulled out one. So much storage space to put my remote controls etc. The empty portion can be used to put magazines as well. This came in one piece so there is nothing much to be assembled. Only the legs are to be assembled.

The whole piece is very heavy, so I will believe that it is made of solid wood. Quality is decent, the sliding mechanism cannot be compared to blum, but it is still pretty alright.

Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35093015994

Also, bought a matchy table for my dining area...

This table can be extended from 1.3m --> 1.6m. In this picture, it is at its maximum length which is the 1.6m already. Mechanism is smooth. I bought the one with four chairs. The chair cushion matches my seattee off white colour leather.

Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=39163377256

I haven't put the chairs cos we still asking for rectifications to be done for the grout lines. But what has been assembled cannot be placed anywhere else already, so bo bian. My living room is looking like a home already. My sofa is going to arrive this Saturday. I can't wait for it Today I tried watching the TV on a make shift chair and it is already so comfy. I think I am going to be a couch potato next time along with the man.