Emma - Our Em In The West

[ricepapergirl 21]

It has been a busy weekend for us!

The sellers have confirmed that they will shift out on 27 March, so we will be taking the keys from them on that day. We've also already arranged for SP Power (water and electricity only, we have no piped gas in the area) to switch stuff on during 28 March, and currently our agreed first day of hacking is 29 March, so the timing all flows correctly. I must say the SP Power application process is very very simple and nice.

As a result, over the weekend we did a first round of various purchases! Fast hand fast leg!

First up, our custom-made TV console from Second Charm! Mock-up picture below, though ours will be stained to walnut colour. I specifically asked for 4 drawers of a certain size to best keep our sizeable collection of DVDs and CDs, and the front slatted door will be useful for remote controls. It will take around 2 to 2.5 months for fabrication so we confirmed it early and paid our deposit so that it should arrive on time when the renovation is done!

I must say though, we went down to Castlery on Saturday and saw this unit for sale for almost half the price of our Second Charm console! And the design was very similar to what we wanted:

But in the end our custom-made console would have given us a lot more storage than this unit, so we decided to still go with Second Charm.

Speaking of Castlery, we popped down on Saturday to also confirm the pieces we wanted. Happily for us there was a sale for the sofa we wanted! We also found out that the covers for the sofas and the chairs in Castlery, despite having zips down the back, are not removable, so we chose "safer" darker colours instead of our original ideas. The great thing about coming down twice is that we could try out our choice of sofas after many months from the last time we did the butt-test and still go, yeah, this is the one. This is comfy and what we want.

Naomi sofa in charcoal (really more like a dark grey-teal which is nice!) and the adorable white button back.

2 Rosalyn chairs in dark grey - they are to be our armchairs in the living room, I know they are technically dining chairs but they are super comfy and the slight wing on the top fits the arms really well! Plus they take up much less space than a typical armchair.

Instead of an ottoman, we found these Nova poufs to be very firm and very good for propping up legs/additional seating! Got two of these in Navy.

Finally, 2 Zeb chairs, for our dining area. We're going for a mismatched chairs look so we're getting two of each design to make up the 6 chairs we need.

Also managed to pop down to Commune to buy our dining table! Still the nicest one we've seen out there, love the deep walnut colour, the solid walnut surface (not veneer, which will have problems with water and the veneer "popping" up), and the rounded corners. Took a picture of it in-store because the online picture is a bit strange.

We also went down to Audio House at Liang Court, which is having a relocation sale, and bought our Hitachi fridge. I've been doing price comparisons for the fridge for a while now and AH has been giving the best price so far. Also, because of the relocation sale we got over $500 worth of vouchers (for every $100 spent you can use a $20 voucher) so we are also considering getting our washing machine and 707 compact heaters there. All in all, a good haul.

 

[ricepapergirl 21]

We're getting our keys this Sunday. FINALLY!  Quite excited! Sunday we're getting the keys from the owners, Monday we're both on leave to pass the keys to our ID (plus the electricity and water will be turned on) and Tuesday hacking begins! It's probably not as long as some of BTO owners have waited but it seems like it's been a really long time since we signed the OTP back on Oct 2015.

More tiny updates on us buying stuff!

Our Hansgrohe order from XTwostore.com arrived intact, safe, and well packaged! Opened up most of the packages to check the quality, the stuff is really heavy and well made! Total damage was S$1300+ and a $80+ GST+admin charge, so way below the S$1900 we would have spent in Singapore (these are promotional rates too!). I will totally recommend using Xtwostore.com. They even have a Singaporean working there and he called me from Germany to confirm that the order has been received and everything was okay. Shipping was faster than expected, took half a month instead of a month. Good customer service!

We also bought our Mitsubishi Starmex System 3 aircons from Gain City Sungei Kadut (had to get the older non-5-tick model because the 5-tick model has far too low BTU) two weekends ago.

Over the weekend we went around to Audio House again, this time to use up all of our vouchers ($560 worth, can use $20 everytime you spend $100 worth) on the following:

Panasonic Made-in-Japan washing machine + dryer with Activefoam. We originally wanted to just buy a washing machine but with the haze period looming near, the husband said we should consider buying a dryer. We previously didn't consider combi-washer-dryers because they have a higher risk of breaking down earlier than separate machines, but after thinking about it we think that we probably wouldn't use the dryer element that often anyway, plus all the other individual dryers did not have very good reviews? This model was going for around the same price as a washing machine and dryer combined together, plus we had vouchers, plus it was made in Japan, so we went for it.

A Hitachi air purifier (EPA5000)! This was almost purely out of a whim, but yeah we wanted to lock down the price of an air purifier before the haze season started properly. This one is also made in Japan, covers 33sqm, has a humidifier function, and we intend to use it for the first floor where there will be no air-conditioning. They didn't have the usual Phillips air purifier we bought for my parents and his parents, which we intended to get for the bedroom, so we will buy that elsewhere.

Finally, 3 of the 707 Alpine water heaters. They were going for $199 each at Audio House + we had vouchers so we knocked the price of 3 together down to around $517. Hand-carried home. Good stuff.

ID also came back with some 3D of the tiling at the bathrooms. We don't have carpentry with him so we didn't ask for 3D images from him, except for areas where he needed to show us how the tiling would work out. If you remember, we asked for grey floor tiles and hexagonal white wall tiles with some black and light blue tiles thrown in. He gave us three designs, and these two really caught our eye! Can't wait to see them in reality!

This layout is for the MBR bathroom. We will ask for this tiling design to be for the downstairs kitchen toilet since that one is the smallest and the lighter walls will help lighten it up.

Layout is based on the second floor common bathroom. Initially we thought we would use the first design just for the first floor toilet and this design for both of the second floor toilets, but now that I'm looking at them again, I actually really like the first design. Maybe I should do the first design for all of the toilets??

ID also met up with us and we all went down to IKEA Alexandra's kitchen planners one of the weekends and the kitchen planner people talked directly to him. I would suggest this enormously because it's like two IDs talking to each other, some of the things my ID asked I would have never thought of, and this way I didn't have to translate whatever the IKEA people said back to my ID. Some sketches my ID did on the spot. Lol.

 

Super excited to start work!

[ricepapergirl 21]

Work has started! Finally!  

We got our keys on Sunday, and then met up with Andrew on Monday to go through the place and discuss the proposed works. First, some photos of the vacated EM:

Existing main gate and main door. We will probably keep this intact. Condition is still great.

View of the hallway into the living room, the staircase, the sliding doors to the balcony. Will be hacking away the under-staircase storage area and leaving it empty for the time being.

Kitchen

View from the kitchen of the small utility room which the ex-owners have hacked away the walls for. We will be rebuilding the walls, changing the doorway of the kitchen, and using this room as a storeroom/maid room.

Dining room area and the quaint (but sadly have to demolish) half-moon window into the kitchen.

Living room and balcony doors. We will be hacking away the side walls of the balcony doors and replacing with a 6-panel folding door.

Staircase. Keeping the parquet, plastering over the tile sides and leaving it painted.

Master bedroom. We found out walking around with Andrew that our original idea of overlaying the second floor with vinyl to save costs might not work because there were quite a few areas where the flooring under the tiles were quite hollow sounding and there was a very large possibility the tiles will pop up over time. So we bit the bullet and asked Andrew to hack the second floor tiles as well, and to cover with parquet since the price differential isn't as big. But yay, we get our parquet flooring after all!

Andrew will also cover up the window below the aircon.

MBR toilet. The ceiling (like the rest of the house) is a bit dinged up, though Andrew looked at this particular one and agreed that it wasn't a leakage issue, Anyway we realized that the ceilings were all rock-stone texture and in quite bad condition, so we agreed to plaster the ceilings and the walls as well, another $3k though! Ouch.

Common toilet on second floor.

Bedroom 1 (aka Nursery)

Bedroom 2 (aka Study)

Besides finding out about the extra costs for the 2nd floor hacking + parquet and the plastering cost, we also realized that the pipes in the kitchen were scarier than expected.

It's not an issue if we were getting our kitchen from the ID but we were intending on getting IKEA kitchen components instead. So now we have to check how much height clearance these pipes give us and plan my tall unit accordingly. Hoping it all goes well! =_=

[ricepapergirl 21]

Day 2

Hacking commences! Photos courtesy of Andrew via Whatsapp.

Living room flooring hacked. Walls next to balcony doors + balcony doors hacked. Lovely view into the balcony!

Under-staircase storage area hacked!

Discovered a big piece of plywood that was behind the wall mirrors in the living room. Gone!

Kitchen flooring and cabinets hacked! Wall tiles gone as well! Parts of the original walls also hacked! Stylish photo of a worker!

Pipes in the kitchen exposed. Andrew informed us it was leaky. We had already agreed beforehand that Andrew should change all of the huge pipes in the unit so not to worry, we will be changing it.

Hacking upstairs! Doors off the frames (we are keeping the doorframes) and loving the strange toilet bowl out of nowhere.

Flooring in nursery hacked!

Flooring for study hacked!

Master bedroom hacked!

Common toilet on second floor stripped and gutted.

MBR toilet also hacked!

Eagerly awaiting more updates! Husband and I are usually quite busy at work so we might only pop in during the weekend to check on the progress.

[ricepapergirl 21]

Day 8 - Tiling and Walls!

We actually popped in to visit over the weekend but didn't take any pictures! Even though it was Sunday there was still a lone uncle working on mixing pre-packed cement and pouring it onto my MBR floor! All the hacking debris was cleared and all the tiles and cement was already delivered. It was also the first time my father-in-law got to see our unit!

More photos came in via Whatsapp from Andrew today! They've built the walls around the kitchen toilet (to turn it into an L shape) and around the kitchen as well!

The actual wall of the kitchen from the outside. We made the kitchen slightly smaller than before to make the utility room slightly bigger. You can see the levelled up flooring for the utility room at the bottom.

Wall as seen from the inside of the kitchen. There used to be a beam on the wall next to it, can't quite figure out from the picture whether Andrew took the initiative to fill in the wall instead. Shall ask him. (Hilariously my husband who is obviously a newbie at this asked me why both sides of the wall was already tiled with subway tiles. It took me about a minute before I realised what he was saying and had to tell him that it was the bricks of the brick wall he was seeing, not tiles. Lol.)

The door opening for the L-shaped kitchen toilet and the new wall making the left part of the "L".

View from the kitchen toilet doorway into the new L shaped toilet. We will be placing the sink on the wall directly opposite the doorway which is what you see here, the far wall at the end will have the shower area and to the left of this view would be the WC.

View of the new toilet wall from the kitchen area. We will be using the alcove bit of the "L" shape to be our laundry yard, next to the kitchen window.

Finally, some shots of the tiling in the upstairs toilets that have started!

Common toilet tiling. The amount of spacers! I feel really bad for making the tilers deal with such small tiles for the toilets... oh well.

MBR toilet tiling in process. Really love the look! I've asked for the toilets to have cement grout, partially to maintain the look of the hexagonal tiles, and also because I really don't want to be cursing and swearing at having to deal with yellowy/mouldy white grout in the toilet.

We are heading out to buy toilet bowls and sinks and lights and fans this weekend! Can't wait! We already have the shower taps and basin mixers and instant water heaters bought and sitting around at home. 

[saikofreakAP 2]

Can wait to see the end "product"

[twinklecloud 2]

loving the look of your MBR toilet!

SO clever of you to think of the cement grout! y din i think of that..

Enjoy your shopping this weekend!!!

staying tune to see the end products too! hehe

[ricepapergirl 21]

2 hours ago, twinklecloud said:

loving the look of your MBR toilet!

SO clever of you to think of the cement grout! y din i think of that..

Enjoy your shopping this weekend!!!

staying tune to see the end products too! hehe

Awww thank you!! Grout occupies my mind quite a bit sadly enough, comes from years of having to spend weeks before CNY to scrub lines and lines of mouldy grout in my family's toilets until they turn white again. My mom was quite picky and I enjoyed seeing the toilets transformed with white grout but the back-breaking work was not fun. Andrew sounded surprised that I didn't want white grout in the toilet but I was thinking with the white grout the white hexagonal tiles wouldn't show as hexagons anymore then what's the point right lol. So it's cement grout throughout the toilet (cos my floor tiles are grey) and in the living room as well (cos the tiles are cement-like) and black grout for the subway tiles in the kitchen because that grout would REALLY get dirty very quickly.

Although you always say I very fast hand fast leg but even now as the reno starts properly we find we don't have many weekends to do proper shopping! So this weekend not only do we have to find and buy toilet bowls x 3 and sinks x 3 but we also wanted to settle all of the lights and the fans as well. And haven't even get to buying the toilet accessories yet! Hahaha hopefully everything will turn out well.

 

[ricepapergirl 21]

On ‎5‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 11:29 PM, saikofreakAP said:

Can wait to see the end "product"

Thank you!!!  I also can't wait to see the end product lol!

[JohnJohn 13]

From what my ID is telling me, toilet accessories can wait a bit. Get the toilet bowls first, then get the accessories later. Use this method if you don't have time to get all at one shot.

[ricepapergirl 21]

1 hour ago, JohnJohn said:

From what my ID is telling me, toilet accessories can wait a bit. Get the toilet bowls first, then get the accessories later. Use this method if you don't have time to get all at one shot.

Hi JohnJohn,

That's true since they only install the accessories (like toilet paper holder and towel rail and mirror) much later. So we intend to get those hopefully later. My only worry is that we initially were hoping to get all of those from Song Cho (Wel-Mi line - rust-proof!) but they seem to have run out of toilet paper holders? So I might pop by the PS branch one of these days to "book" mine hahaha.

[alprakas 1]

Hi ricepapergirl, just wanted to check with you about the Aqualife shop vs. the Xtwostore prices for the hansgrohe products... Were the prices significantly different? Can you maybe give me an example for one of those items.. I need to buy for my house as well, except I probably do not have enough time now to order online.. How long did it actually take to get to you guys anyway? Thanks!

[twinklecloud 2]

hey ricepapergirl,

wah.. with experience comes more responsibilities.. haha.. no wonder u know about the grout! now i regret.. all my grout is white..

lightings? hmm.. what are your looking for? downlight or cove light or?check out my blog.. i will be posting some lightings i put up. =)

fans? ceiling fan or standing fans?

toilet accessories can get later.. have u tried the branch at kallang leisure?they might have the toilet roll holders u want.. hehe

13 hours ago, ricepapergirl said:

Awww thank you!! Grout occupies my mind quite a bit sadly enough, comes from years of having to spend weeks before CNY to scrub lines and lines of mouldy grout in my family's toilets until they turn white again. My mom was quite picky and I enjoyed seeing the toilets transformed with white grout but the back-breaking work was not fun. Andrew sounded surprised that I didn't want white grout in the toilet but I was thinking with the white grout the white hexagonal tiles wouldn't show as hexagons anymore then what's the point right lol. So it's cement grout throughout the toilet (cos my floor tiles are grey) and in the living room as well (cos the tiles are cement-like) and black grout for the subway tiles in the kitchen because that grout would REALLY get dirty very quickly.

Although you always say I very fast hand fast leg but even now as the reno starts properly we find we don't have many weekends to do proper shopping! So this weekend not only do we have to find and buy toilet bowls x 3 and sinks x 3 but we also wanted to settle all of the lights and the fans as well. And haven't even get to buying the toilet accessories yet! Hahaha hopefully everything will turn out well.

 

 

[ricepapergirl 21]

19 hours ago, alprakas said:

Hi ricepapergirl, just wanted to check with you about the Aqualife shop vs. the Xtwostore prices for the hansgrohe products... Were the prices significantly different? Can you maybe give me an example for one of those items.. I need to buy for my house as well, except I probably do not have enough time now to order online.. How long did it actually take to get to you guys anyway? Thanks!

Hi @alprakas ! Okay, just checked, we put in our order on 20 Feb and the order arrived around 10 Mar (I think it might have been one or two days before 10 March but 10 March was when I opened it up to take pictures). So around 2.5 weeks? Do take note I did order from the website mostly stuff that was in stock, I think only one item said it needed a 1 week leadtime.

In terms of price differentials, the stuff I bought from Xtwostore.com + shipping is around 850 euros. After conversion with my credit card it ended up as S$1398.20. I paid another S$80 for import tax when it arrived in Singapore.

The price available at Aqualife was the same as the one on the Hansgrohe website promotion right now (still ongoing!) http://www.hansgrohe.com.sg/27072.htm

For example, for the basin mixer I paid around 48 euros each (I bought 3). Even dividing the shipping and additional fees evenly amongst all my items it's around 80 euros each. At the conversion rate (at that time) of 1 euro to S$1.64 that's  around S$131 (around S$140 if you split the import tax by item again). If you stare at the website promotion the same single lever basin mixer 100 costs S$189 in Aqualife.

Similarly, the bath mixer cost around S$150 via Xtwo and S$195 at Aqualife. Etc.

I must forewarn that it really depends on how heavy your purchases are though. The shipping and handling was 299euros for me but when I had a slightly different product mix last time it jumped up to the next tier to I think 399 or 499 euros or something which might load quite a bit. Your mileage might differ from mine. But all in all I calculate I saved around S$400 to S$500 at least?

Hope this helps!

[ricepapergirl 21]

9 hours ago, twinklecloud said:

hey ricepapergirl,

wah.. with experience comes more responsibilities.. haha.. no wonder u know about the grout! now i regret.. all my grout is white..

lightings? hmm.. what are your looking for? downlight or cove light or?check out my blog.. i will be posting some lightings i put up. =)

fans? ceiling fan or standing fans?

toilet accessories can get later.. have u tried the branch at kallang leisure?they might have the toilet roll holders u want.. hehe

 

Hi @twinklecloud!

Actually we already picked out all our lights and our fans (my fast hand fast leg reputation) previously so we're probably heading down to Chan Huat at one shot and order everything. Really hoping the dining room light I wanted is still in stock!! Still waiting to see your blog though!!

Yeah we probably have to go down to one of the Song Cho and just check what stock they have and whether we can pre-order anything they don't have currently in stock. Fortunately still have time...