ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 7, 2016 4 minutes ago, bykaraanne said: Babe! You can go refund the decor strips... Should be an easy process since their returns policy is really great. awesome detailed write up! And I agree, eventually it was the installation cost that put me off. Btw, any reason u left a gap at the corner instead of doing a L-shaped unit? I know IKEA has those amazing corner pull outs. Hi bykaraanne! haha I would go refund the décor strips.... if I had a lorry or a van (or even, a car!) because the décor strips are like 2m ++ long and I have no idea how I'm going to get them down to Ikea. So for now, they are just in our utility room till we figure it out. I agree about the returns policy though, we brought back on Kallax door insert (husband didn't like it after all) and some kitchen Utrusta lights (my kitchen is bright enough without the counter lighting in the end) and all we had to do (on a crowded sunday afternoon no less) was press "change of mind" on the machine, get a number, and within 10 minutes they just refunded us, no questions asked! Very smooth! Got back like $200++ on my husband's credit card (and promptly spent it all inside Ikea again hahaha). Yeah. My main gripe to Ikea is not that installation charges are high (which they may or may not be) but that unlike everything else in Ikea, I didn't know beforehand what the installation charges would be like. One of my favourite things about Ikea is how transparent everything is: they tell you the dimensions of the product, they give you measuring tape, they tell you how much it would be to purchase that piece of product, what is the delivery charge, how much is assembly etc. Only for the kitchen installation, suddenly it's like they lock you in after buying the kitchen stuff and then throw you a (seemingly-arbitrary) amount for installation which does not always fit with the amount that they were "supposed" to charge based on the price list. If I had known beforehand that décor-strip installation would be this much, or that they will charge extra for extra drawers or that cover panel installation would have been this much, I would have factored that price in when I planned my kitchen (and not ordered some stuff)! Hahaha. Anyway, at least that ordeal is over. Plus, actually, the people installing were very efficient, relatively friendly, and quite good at what they do, and the actual installation was great. Just the quotation people in AZ Creative that I have problems with. Oh! My weird corner gap! haha. Actually quite a few different reasons. 1. I don't have confidence I can use a corner efficiently, even with the corner pull-out stuff I'm always going to be thinking that the corner corner will be wasted space, and 2. I wanted to put my LPG tanks in the corner because the corner is where you would use the least anyway (and LPG tanks are just that), and the dimensions of the corner unit from Ikea + the door opening doesn't really work for 2 LPG tanks. Thus, my gap. I may still fill in the gap with some sort of rolling cart later on, but for now, it's a nice gap! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 7, 2016 Appliance review: Dyson V6 Mattress Vacuum Hoping to do some quick ones for people who are interested. I'll usually try and give a review after a few months of use, otherwise it'll not be terribly accurate. We did buy this mattress vacuum at the beginning of the year to use in our old place, in preparation for our new home (not knowing we would move into our new home only 6 months later) but as a result, we've used this over the last few months and we are quite happy with it! We purchased this Dyson V6 mattress vacuum off Lazada and it came in the mail in less than a week. The purpose of it was to be able to suck up dust, dirt and other unmentionables from our queen size mattress, 4 pillows and 2 bolsters. Neither of us have asthma so we cannot tell whether this vacuum helps with asthmatic sufferers, but we consistently pick up about this much dirt and dust when we vacuum once every month: That's solely from our mattress, pillows and bolsters with the bedsheets taken off. We wash our bedsheets once a month too, so we basically have a routine of swiffering the floor and dusting flat surfaces, then stripping off the bedsheets and putting them in the wash, then using this vacuum on the mattress and pillows and bolsters, then refitting them with laundered bedsheets (we have 3 sets). After that we usually mop the floor as well. Now that we have moved into our new house, we also intend to vacuum our sofa, armchairs and seats of our roller chairs and the easy chair in our MBR. Basically, we don't know whether this really helps with asthmatic or with allergies, but heck, if I am getting that much dust and dirt out of my mattress every month, I'm happy. In terms of ease of usage, it's not super light but also not super heavy, and it's handheld (kind of feels like a sci-fi phaser gun when you use it, complete with handle and "trigger") so you just vacuum the stuff on a flat surface. After vacuuming, you can easily empty the dust and dirt out by pressing another trigger to open the bottom of the container into a dustbin and then use the included brush to brush any remaining dust. The one slight issue is that the battery doesn't last very long and you cannot use it plugged into the mains, but I treat it as a short break for my arm when it starts to run out of battery and leave it to charge (so far we've done one queen mattress, 4 pillows, 2 bolsters, plus a little bit more and then the battery is out. If you have multiple mattresses etc be prepared to them in phases and charge in between). Charging does take a while, maybe an hour-ish (I haven't timed it) but yeah we usually do other kinds of cleaning during that time. Besides emptying the dust compartment, the instructions say to clean the two filters every month. Those are quite easy to take out, and you just wash them in water (I haven't actually had to scrub them or anything) and then leave them in the sun for a day, and put it back again! Verdict: If you want to have some peace of mind cleaning out your mattress, this is a pretty good machine that lets you see how much dust and dirt gets pulled out. At around $500 it's 1/6 the price of Rainbow or Delphin machines, and is much more portable. Still holding up well after 6 months of use! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 8, 2016 On 30/5/2016 at 8:56 AM, gumbokins said: Re: metal brackets for laundry ive been losing some sleep over my laundry area also haha! I won't be closing up my balcony, and I see neighbours just using poles without brackets. The awning won't block ur laundry? also thanks for sharing where u got the fittings from Hi @gumbokins ! A bit late but managed to remember to take a photo of how our laundry works with the awning today. (I took a photo of when the awning isn't up but somehow my phone didn't keep it??) That's 5 poles of laundry and the awning covering them. There's enough clearance for the awning to clear the laundry, no issues. The only thing is we can't open that side of our balcony doors when we have hung up the laundry (if they were closed in the beginning, likewise we could have opened them first but then after that we can't close till we take the laundry down). So far the brackets are holding up fine! We don't dare to try with blankets or bedsheets etc but clothes are okay! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gumbokins 5 Report post Posted June 8, 2016 Can't close coz will 'kiap' the clothing? hee.. So your doors are aluminium frame? I was going to get wooden folding doors, but my dad was saying they would get wet and rot...haiz. maybe for the heavier items, can use the standing laundry poles type? Nothing like sun-dried laundry.. I see you're enjoying doing housework in your new place..vacuuming and washing hurrhurr Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 8, 2016 34 minutes ago, gumbokins said: Can't close coz will 'kiap' the clothing? hee.. So your doors are aluminium frame? I was going to get wooden folding doors, but my dad was saying they would get wet and rot...haiz. maybe for the heavier items, can use the standing laundry poles type? Nothing like sun-dried laundry.. I see you're enjoying doing housework in your new place..vacuuming and washing hurrhurr Hi gumbokins! Actually we never tried, maybe will kiap, mostly just worried that if our doors were dirty it would dirty the clothing (cos we're still in the middle of cleaning) or that the wet clothing would wet the doors. Anyway recently the wind has been good enough that we only open one side of our balcony doors anyway. Aluminum door frames yup, powder coated white (with black protective stickers still on until they finish painting the living room wall). I agree though, my aluminum doors are already so heavy, cannot imagine if I had wooden door frames, confirm too heavy to push liao. If you get the expensive chengal wood type then you won't have the rotting problem maybe? But for me, it was more the weight than anything lol... For the heavier items we have a dryer! We quite like our dryer but didn't want to expend the electricity for normal laundry. Hahaha housework is a must-do mah. Not say enjoy or don't enjoy. But it's good when things are easier, we just tried out our new Roomba yesterday and it was quite fun to see it go! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnJohn 13 Report post Posted June 8, 2016 haha, don't know whether you watch this comedy called Parks and Recreation, but one guy in the show strapped a music player to his roomba and called it DJ roomba. Maybe you can try. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gumbokins 5 Report post Posted June 8, 2016 Did you get 2 roombas for upstairs and downstairs? I love my roomba, just upgraded the older one to a 900 model. Fantastic...they need to invent one that can do stairs and walls! saw someone who factored in a "parking lot" for their roomba in their cabinets Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 8, 2016 47 minutes ago, JohnJohn said: haha, don't know whether you watch this comedy called Parks and Recreation, but one guy in the show strapped a music player to his roomba and called it DJ roomba. Maybe you can try. Hahaha we would except our Roomba (called Roy) is very good at going underneath our bedframe and our Kallax bookshelves so the radio will fall off! Anyway he's quite loud lol. We will probably set him to go when we're not in the house (once we have had a try with him on both floors) or when we are predominantly on the other floor (mop level 1, put roy to work on level 2, vice versa). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Changbp 5 Report post Posted June 8, 2016 hang heavier stuff nearer the wall if there's any concern. Can't see clearly from the picture but generally steel brackets if they are welded properly can take all 5 rods of blankets without issue. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yellowteacups 1 Report post Posted June 10, 2016 hihi, just wondering, did you plaster your walls in the house? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Butterkups 0 Report post Posted June 10, 2016 Hello there, Just dropping by to say "Hi" since i have been stalking this space for a while. I must say your have a really gorgeous space. I recently got an EM too and will be starting my renovation soon. So if you don't mind me asking, may i know how much did you spend in total for renovation? (So that i can mentally prepare myself, hahaha!) Thank you so much! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 10, 2016 On 8/6/2016 at 6:19 PM, gumbokins said: Did you get 2 roombas for upstairs and downstairs? I love my roomba, just upgraded the older one to a 900 model. Fantastic...they need to invent one that can do stairs and walls! saw someone who factored in a "parking lot" for their roomba in their cabinets We were indeed thinking of getting two roombas! But thought to buy one first and see how it works before we get another one. I must say they are very charming! Roy is a 680 model I think, though I'm sure the higher end ones are even cooler! I actually wanted to put Roy's dock along the corridor but my husband says it's a "Roomba" so the dock should be in a room lolweep. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 10, 2016 On 8/6/2016 at 11:19 PM, Changbp said: hang heavier stuff nearer the wall if there's any concern. Can't see clearly from the picture but generally steel brackets if they are welded properly can take all 5 rods of blankets without issue. Thanks Changbp! Yeah actually I have a lot more confidence in the brackets than my husband and my MIL lol but oh well. One of the brackets is not super securely screwed in so we're getting the people coming in today to finish up the house to see whether they can do anything about it, if they can they we shall try with some heavier stuff hahaha. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 10, 2016 40 minutes ago, yellowteacups said: hihi, just wondering, did you plaster your walls in the house? Hi yellowteacups! Yes we did plaster the walls in the house, and the ceilings as well. I didn't mind even if it wasn't plastered but the original had cornices and rockstone textured ceilings so we thought we just plaster the whole place. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted June 10, 2016 25 minutes ago, Butterkups said: Hello there, Just dropping by to say "Hi" since i have been stalking this space for a while. I must say your have a really gorgeous space. I recently got an EM too and will be starting my renovation soon. So if you don't mind me asking, may i know how much did you spend in total for renovation? (So that i can mentally prepare myself, hahaha!) Thank you so much! Hi Butterkups! Congrats on your EM and looking forward to your T-blog! PM-ed you! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
