My Butterfly Cave

[renonoobmax 0]

Hi!

Mind sharing contact for contractors? thanks!

 

[renonoobmax 0]

Hi!

Mind sharing contact for contractors? thanks!

 

[steffie 1]

4 hours ago, renonoobmax said:

Hi!

Mind sharing contact for contractors? thanks!

 

Hi there, I've PM'ed you

[steffie 1]

After months of preparation and 1.5 months of renovation, I have finally moved in the day before 7th month began. However, there were some delays in my Taobao shipment so they were shipped in 2 batches. 1 before I moved in and the last batch about 2 weeks later. Not ideal but no choice.

 

I was asked a number of times what was the theme of my house. To be honest, I don't have one. I only know what I wanted to do, scoured Taobao for stuff that caught my fancy, measured my house to make sure the item would fit, and then bought them. It was that simple. And if there really is a need to have a theme, well, then my theme is Yellow. 

 

I'll start with all my Taobao buys and will post photos of my house probably this weekend or early next week. Get your sunglasses ready because it's going to be one bright ride.

 

I think Taobao is a lifesaver. Looking at how much items I bought, I would need to walk enough to hatch 5 10-km Pokémon eggs to get them.

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

I feel that the beauty of ordering directly from Taobao is customisation. Some sellers will allow you to customize your items, if you bother to ask.

The process is of course more cumbersome and to be honest, with my limited Mandarin, rather painful too. But after months of liaising with them, my Mandarin have improved by leaps and bounds. My Mandarin teacher would have been so proud.  

These are the stuff that I had specifically customized to match my yellow themed home. Of all the items that I had customized, I love the Calla lilies painting best. I love sitting on my rattan swing chair and just admiring it.

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

I have been buying stuff online so I know that with online shopping, you win some, you lose some.

I was prepared for some of the items to either not meet my expectations or arrive damaged.

Surprisingly the clay, porcelain and glass items arrived unscathed. My 2 big boxes of plates, bowls and cutlery had so many pieces of foam in it, it felt like Christmas. The seller of the tall glass vases had stuffed so much foam inside them that I spent a good 20 minutes trying to remove them.

The wooden items however had quite a number of scratches on the edges although they came wrapped in bubblewrap and cardboard. My recommendation is, if you are a perfectionist, then skip the wooden furniture.

Interestingly, some of the items came with their own tools such as screw driver, Allen key, spanner and even gloves.

Most came with instructions, some without. Thankfully, I got a handyman to assemble them… Hahaha…

Below are some of the misses.

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

Another reason that many people are afraid to buy furniture from Taobao is because they are worried about assembling it. And I think it's a fair concern because I was concerned too. That was until I found out that I could engage professional handymen to do it for a marginal fee.

After my 2-hour episode assembling the study room TV console, I decided to engage Mr Tan to assemble the rest of my wooden furniture, regardless of how easy it looked. I had gotten his contact from Renotalk, as usual. And like all the wonderful recommendations that I had gotten off Renotalk, this was a good one as well too.

Mr Tan hung my Calla lilies dining room painting, drilled the clothes hanger stub behind the doors of all 3 bedrooms and assembled 2 bedside tables in the MBR, the dining table, my son’s single bed as well as the TV console in the living room.

He came with 3 others so the job was completed in no time, except for the dining table. He was very nice and very experienced too.

There were problems with the dining table. There was a long crack on the leg and the seller forgot to include the screws to hold the legs to the table top (roll eyes). Mr Tan sealed up the crack (such that now you can barely see it), drove out to get the screws and then came back after his dinner to assemble it. Such professionalism.

Edited August 31, 2016 by steffie

[sweetberry 0]

Hi steffie, do you mind sharing the contacts for your painter (Frank), contractor for plastering walls and professional handyman (Mr Tan)?

Thanks in advance!

[steffie 1]

Hi there,

I've pm'ed you the numbers.

The plastering guy was Ronald's subcon. To be honest, I think the plaster guy was probably better at plastering regular walls than new walls.

He did a really god job plastering the walls around my new bedroom door frames, holes from my old aircon trunking, etc.

However, I built back a new wall between MBR and the next room and the plaster on the new walls started to flake when the painter started painting it. I learnt from the painter later that new walls should be plastered differently from regular walls.

But the good thing was Ronald was quick (as usual) to get the guy to rectify it. So between the 3 of them, they resolved the problem and now the new wall looks fine.

[rxgn 2]

hi

could you provide mr tan number as i plan to but platform bed from tb and ask him to assemble.

 

also could you provide exact tb link for your sofa.

Edited September 1, 2016 by rxgn

[linlinan2001 0]

Hi Steffie,

Could you pm me Mr Tan contact? Thanks a lot.

 

[steffie 1]

2 hours ago, rxgn said:

hi

could you provide mr tan number as i plan to but platform bed from tb and ask him to assemble.

 

also could you provide exact tb link for your sofa.

Hi there, I have pm'ed you the details.

Edited September 1, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

1 hour ago, linlinan2001 said:

Hi Steffie,

Could you pm me Mr Tan contact? Thanks a lot.

 

Hi there, I've pm'ed you.

[steffie 1]

Finally found the time to put together my before and after photos.

The placement of my furniture in the living/dining room remained largely the same, except for the removal of the platform for my dining area.

Surprisingly, the new yellow furniture made the my original dark wood furniture brighter than the cream ones I used to have.

Without the platform, I now have greater flexibility when arranging the furniture and the dining area is now seem more spacious.

The newly installed ceiling fan is a true lifesaver.

I also love the hanging dining table lamps. It added warmth to the dining area.

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

Maybe not the best space utilization but I love having a walkway. It does make my living/dining area smaller but I simply love opening my main door to a clear space.

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie