Small House Holding Our Big Dreams

[Catt 8]

@yakult I had about 4 of them, no problems with slanting. Did you put heavy items into it? I don't fasten mine on the walls, but I was thinking it could be the weight of the items. I put heavier books at the bottom 2 shelves and the rest are a mix of box and vinyl toys. It could be the floor as well...never as level as we think it is.

@ricepapergirl did you ever see the hacks for the Billy bookshelves? They put 4 or 5 together, sealed up the top with a pelmet like trim and then bought these Ikea lights to fix on top like those English libraries. So pretty! I was very inspired till I realized the amount of DIY that went into it.  

[ricepapergirl 21]

2 minutes ago, Catt said:

@yakult I had about 4 of them, no problems with slanting. Did you put heavy items into it? I don't fasten mine on the walls, but I was thinking it could be the weight of the items. I put heavier books at the bottom 2 shelves and the rest are a mix of box and vinyl toys. It could be the floor as well...never as level as we think it is.

@ricepapergirl did you ever see the hacks for the Billy bookshelves? They put 4 or 5 together, sealed up the top with a pelmet like trim and then bought these Ikea lights to fix on top like those English libraries. So pretty! I was very inspired till I realized the amount of DIY that went into it.  

@Catt Don't get me started on IKEA hacks... ;_; If only I wasn't so pregnant when we were moving! So many things I would have loved to do but... ;_; Anyway we also had the 2x40cm and 3x40cm slanting slightly differently from each other but was "fixed" with some folded paper at the bottom  Old-style fix. We didn't want all 5 40cm connected together in case next time we want to separate the pieces or even move them (would be a pain to move a really long piece)...

[Catt 8]

@ricepapergirl This was my dream!!! 

i'm sure everyone has used that old-style fix at one time or another. I still have paper slotted under my chest of drawers due to an uneven floor. haha!

[ricepapergirl 21]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

@ricepapergirl This was my dream!!! 

i'm sure everyone has used that old-style fix at one time or another. I still have paper slotted under my chest of drawers due to an uneven floor. haha!

OMG. *drools* no way my bookcase will ever look like that. 1. Cos we have too many books and 2. we desperately need doors to our bookcase cos of the dust.

My floor is still uneven. Even though we ripped up the old tiles, filled in with new concrete, and did parquet flooring. Oh well. Hahaa.

[kstoh 3]

29 minutes ago, Catt said:

@yakult I had about 4 of them, no problems with slanting. Did you put heavy items into it? I don't fasten mine on the walls, but I was thinking it could be the weight of the items. I put heavier books at the bottom 2 shelves and the rest are a mix of box and vinyl toys. It could be the floor as well...never as level as we think it is.

@ricepapergirl did you ever see the hacks for the Billy bookshelves? They put 4 or 5 together, sealed up the top with a pelmet like trim and then bought these Ikea lights to fix on top like those English libraries. So pretty! I was very inspired till I realized the amount of DIY that went into it.  

Billy bookcases (maybe all Ikea bookcases) come with some kind of "L" shape metal piece which you should fix (requires drilling one hole to wall) at the top of the bookcase to prevent the bookcase from toppling over, and might also help to prevent the bookcase from slanting. Without fixing this, the bookcase can topple over easily, when young curious kids climb, and especially when the floor is not so even, and even more so when you add doors which add to the weight towards the front. My advice: safety first. 

Edited September 5, 2016 by kstoh

[Catt 8]

10 minutes ago, kstoh said:

Billy bookcases (maybe all Ikea bookcases) come with some kind of "L" shape metal piece which you should fix (requires drilling one hole to wall) at the top of the bookcase to prevent the bookcase from toppling over, and might also help to prevent the bookcase from slanting. Without fixing this, the bookcase can topple over easily, when young curious kids climb, and especially when the floor is not so even, and even more so when you add doors which add to the weight towards the front. My advice: safety first. 

I agree kstoh! I never did drill in the bookcases because the only 'kid' I had in my house back then was a dog. But I think it is safer to fix it to the wall as during the after-tremor of the earthquake in Indo one year (2009?), my sofa shifted and the bookcases was threatening to topple over.

[ricepapergirl 21]

22 minutes ago, kstoh said:

Billy bookcases (maybe all Ikea bookcases) come with some kind of "L" shape metal piece which you should fix (requires drilling one hole to wall) at the top of the bookcase to prevent the bookcase from toppling over, and might also help to prevent the bookcase from slanting. Without fixing this, the bookcase can topple over easily, when young curious kids climb, and especially when the floor is not so even, and even more so when you add doors which add to the weight towards the front. My advice: safety first. 

Hi @kstoh!

Yeah we know about the dangers, so we purposely put all the heavier books at the bottom, and intend to keep the entire study room off-limits to our kids till they get older (probably with a stairgate!!). Eventually we will probably split up the bookcases to different rooms (the study is eventually meant to convert to a bedroom for the kids, together with the nursery) so we don't intend to drill it to the wall yet.

[Catt 8]

Yesterday I mentioned that Arthur Z didn't have pieces of suar wood in stock that we could use, right? Today the designer wrote back to say that her boss was fine with cutting up pieces of long suar wood into the size that we wanted! So I am excited and I think this means it may arrive earlier than anticipated! We were given a choice of 2 pieces of wood that had the swirly bits we wanted. We ended up choosing the piece below ( it was the piece that Darkling Half first saw and liked at the showroom too- she said it has 'long-lasting beauty', not too 'flowery' haha whatever that means).

The masking tape is to show the length of 1.6m. It should seat 6 people (4 at the length and 2 at each width).

And we unanimously chose #1 for the bench because it has thick white edges to contrast with the simpler table top. 

Aiyoo so excited about this table!

[Catt 8]

6 Sep'16 Update:

Busy week ahead:

- Today- Going to the house later to wait for the clothes rack installation from Ez Living.

- Wednesday- staking out the house the entire afternoon to wait for delivery of the sofa and TV console. 

- Friday- Staking out the house to wait for Citigas to come connect the gas.

Will post up some pics of the clothes rack after it is installed.

Yesterday was Monday Blues Drinks day (I promise I don't really drink that much despite having Happy Hour on Fridays, Hump Day Drinks, Monday Blues Drinks..Sunday afternoon pre-Monday Blues drinks... I just turn up to 'blow water' ). So I went out to Tiong Bahru to visit my long -time friend who just moved there.

See what I found at her house!! When I asked her about it and where she got them, I was really surprised that she's finally looking to sell them off as she just moved into a smaller apartment and needs to downsize her stash. So I decided to share them here as I thought it these typewriters are really nice pieces that the crowd here would love. I don't get comms out of these! It's not my job!  And of course I am helping my friend to make more space in her home so that I can have a nook I CAN ACTUALLY SIT IN. Right now I am fighting with her cats for a surface to recline on whenever I go hang out at her place.

These are Royal (Blue) and Adler (Pink) typewriters. Both are serviced and in working condition with ribbons installed (in case you wish to go all Alfred Hitchcock and start clicketty-clacketting away). Darkling Half loves the blue one but I'm not sure I'm letting her get it off my friend after the amount she spent on the fridge and washer.

The Traveller Deluxe is a pretty famous typewriter I'm told, but this one is not serviced. Most people just place it in their homes as a beautiful ornament to give a mid-century/ industrial vibe. 

If anyone is interested in any of these typewriters, do PM me. These babies do not go cheap outside if they are done-up prettily in some store.

She also has other interesting vintage items if you're looking for stuff like that (I saw this finger-dialling phone with numerals printed in each hole and also Chinese characters for the numbers... wth...)..

[pankponk 2]

Really nice looking suar wood  my dream is to have suar wood as dining table but need to let it go as is far from our budget so maybe save more money for later LOL

Can't wait for the move in picture..

[Catt 8]

Laundry hanging rack installed!

[yakult 3]

On 9/5/2016 at 2:21 PM, ricepapergirl said:

Ehh!! When we got our Billy bookcases, they actually helped us drill the bookcases to each other, which helps to prevent the bookcases from slanting away from each other (we insisted we didn't want them drilled to the wall anyway). Would that help? (We ended up drilling 3 of the 40cm cases together, and then another 2 of the 40cm ones together, so we ended up with 2 "bookcases" but the effect was okay).

We didn't drill the bookcases together. ><" Didn't thought of that also haha.

[yakult 3]

@Catt   The book cases were empty when the IKEA guys fixed up...and it's already slanted. When we put the books in, it slant even more obviously hahaha 

@kstoh yes it does come with the bracket. But we didn't want to drill it onto the wall as we want the flexibility to shift them if we need to. If not for the flexibility needed, we will have just do build-in cabinets le...which will be sooo much nicer. Maybe next time... upgrade haha.

[Catt 8]

12 minutes ago, yakult said:

@Catt   The book cases were empty when the IKEA guys fixed up...and it's already slanted. When we put the books in, it slant even more obviously hahaha 

@kstoh yes it does come with the bracket. But we didn't want to drill it onto the wall as we want the flexibility to shift them if we need to. If not for the flexibility needed, we will have just do build-in cabinets le...which will be sooo much nicer. Maybe next time... upgrade haha.

Gosh that's really bad luck! I don't know if you would try to take it back to them to change since Ikea has a pretty good return policy..or you know what..screw it, you will buy better ones in future!

[Catt 8]

7 Sep'16 Update:

Squeeeee the sofa and console are here! I was all ready to wait it out till 6pm with my laptop, but everything was delivered before 3.30pm. 

Let me indulge you (mostly myself ) with some pictures!

I waited for you for sooo looonnngg (2 years? 3 years??) It's smaller than I thought or maybe the wall turned out to be quite big in the end.

Inside view for those who are curious what it holds...

Darkling Half's couch (please note she may be the one that loves it, but that entire spot with the cushions is MY SPOT). Oh yes, I ordered those cushions from Taobao via Ezibuy. Way cheaper than getting them from Spotlight and I really like the designs. The packaging was good too, covers came rolled up in brown card/paper, ala Muji.

All together now. I feel the 90X90 coffee table is going to look tiny... and so is our 42" TV.

Edited September 7, 2016 by Catt