The journey to a white home... Mostly at least..

[KITTYKTY 3]

The beginning.... 

It's been almost 10 mths since we collected our keys to our first home.. We were so excited that when the time came, n after all the drama hdb made us go thru, the excitement of moving in eventually waned.. I guess i am also reluctant to move out of my comfort zone which is not far from my office.. Oh well... Finally we get our butt moving, n we are moving in  to our new abode next mth!!! 

After months of careful planning (more like indecisiveness actually), S the hubs n me, we finally agreed on the direction that we are heading towards, which is a mostly white home... We decided to go with mostly white furnishings... Dunno whether can maintain anot with lil S creating havoc everyday...  

First up which we did months ago, n which we had longggg agreed was to hack off the windows n bifold door to the service balcony.. While we were at it we went ahead with overlaying the ugly kitchen floor tiles n went with wood inspired ceramic tiles from white horse... 

As u guys can see, the once dark n gloomy kitchen is much brighter after the door and windows r gone...

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

Continued....

So besides the carpentry, the hacking and tiling works and the doors... Most of the other things were done DIY by my very own handyman Mr S... 

We wanted something different... I always told S that i want our home to have a timeless feel as much as possible so that our home is not "stuck" in an era, think cornices and rockstone wall...

So i was adamant on having no brickwalls or craftstone wall.. No false ceiling(ceiling **** low already), cove lights etc etc... 

Furnishings are not too bad... Can just change them to move along with times rite.. 

So i spend countless hours going thru pinterest, instagram for a look that i want... And then months of shopping amd online shopping for the rite furniture to complete our simple home... And that was the start of the house being neglected for a while while we source out for ideas.... 

But one argument i was glad that i actually won and a good decision was actually made hastily at the hdb office was the choice to take up the floor tiles... Can u believe the insane prices for laying floor tiles now???!! 

Glad we did take up that offer and thankfully we got "shiny" homogenous tiles, unlike the matt ones hdb uses at one time which absorbed watever spills like a sponge and get stained so easily like nobody's business..  

We actually were quite set to overlay them with vinyl tiles ( i know, waste money rite)... We decided against it because of lil S and the amount of spills that may happen... Even though vinyl is "waterproof", it will eventually warp... 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[Pes 1]

pinterest really is the bomb when it comes to inspirations, agree with you kitty, wish you good luck! please continue to update us on your reno journey!

[KITTYKTY 3]

One of the first thing we got done when we got our keys was to put up the window grilles and also window for the service yard... Coz no need to think too much for this rite... 

We thought we got a pretty good deal for a 4 room unit... Window grilles for whole unit including service yard plus sliding window for service yard and also a bi fold door for the common toilet at $1300... 

Anyway with these 2 things out of the way, we were kinda jammed... N we couldnt agree on an outcome that we want..

One of the first shopping that we did was for simple lights for the bathrooms, bomb shelter and service yard... So like any well informed singaporean, haha, we went to jb, Tampoi Lightings, to shop..

So many choices there but most are like what we already saw in other ppl's homes... That added on to the stress of wanting a "different" home... Haizzzzz.... 

We ended up making hasty decisions here because i was so overwhelmed and a little tired.. After going back and forth, we left the shop with 2 Elmark 52 inch ceiling fans with lights, one in black and one in white,for the 2 common rooms and a the few simple led lights for the above mentioned locations... 

I have a huge phobia of ceiling fans and refused to give in to having one in the master... I dunno how my dad and S managed to talk me into the other 2 rooms' ceiling fan at that huge *** size when i told them it was too big for the rooms ...well later on in our journey, which was recently, we took those fans down... One (the white one) ended up in the living room and we fixed the black one at my Mil's older and bigger flat..

 

 

 

[KITTYKTY 3]

Carpentry Story

And after that shopping trip, our nest was left untouched since... S did fix the fans but that's it... We were also busy with work and thus had to time to actually sit down n work on wat we want.. 

However, we still do our background homework by ourselves and hope that the other will accept our proposal... Hahaha..  

It became a daily pre bedtime routine for me to scour the net for design ideas, good deals for furnishings as well as wat kinda furnishings are available in the market for me to make my ideas turn to reality...

Finally, we decided to get on with the carpentry works first... At least i know wat i want for the kitchen and as this is my fort, S lets me decide wat i want here... And also one common room which my dad will be occupying will have built in wardrobe and he also knows how he wants it....

So off we went to meet a few carpenters with our designs... Initially i wanted the "european" style cabinets with the grooves/panels on the sides ala pinterest..  (I know, roll eyes rite) but since i do a lotttt of cooking i settled on a more functional design that is easy to wipe down... If u notice, i have a half height wall still separating the kitchen from the service balcony, coz i've always wanted an L shaped kitchen... And my dream kitchen is timeless white... Haha... Quite impractical for someone cooks a lot but im pretty anal about cleanliness so i will be more than happy to wipe it down to keep the cabinets clean...

For the common room, my dad already has a design, L shaped with lotsa hanging space and an area reinforced for his safe... 

N so after getting a few quotations, we decided to engage cynthia's company... She is no stranger to us as she has done up our aunt's place recently and a few of our frens, so we know her quality... But she is pretty packed on her schedule... In order to ensure that she doesnt rush thru our works, we told her we are not in a hurry to move in so that gives her ample time to work on our project... 

After choosing the laminates, white for the kitchen and woody earth tones for the common room (i figured wood tones should appeal to my old man so its kinda manly and warm, haha) and showing us the final design layout, cynthia starts her work on our home...

Sneak peek of the kitchen midway through...

We chose frosty teak and pica walnut for the common room wardrobe

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

Continued..  

So having started work on the kitchen means we have to get the appliances ready... Another headache... As you can see, i kept my cabinets short... So the hob and sink cannot be too big... And i wanted a built in oven... 

I wanted a single bowl deep sink and S got one from his contact's shop along geylang road... It was deep juz the way i wanted, but i thought he could have chosen a slightly wider sink... My fault also coz i didnt give exact measurements... Juz told him it should fit my kwali... Haizzzz..   

He also got an Ariston package of hob, hood and oven... Im not too picky on brands.. Juz told him i dun want too many burners, 2 is good and 3 will be an bonus... And ariston is a pretty reputable italian brand, so S figured that will suffice.. Got this 3 items at about $929... Wanted to get another brand, Turbo, when we went to their warehouse sale, but they dun have wat we had in mind... All their hobs are pretty wide..

At this point of our journey, i noticed S started to agree with my ideas more and more... Yippee! Finally we were both on the same page... This would get easier i prayed...

After these 2 purchase, we were stuck yet again... I cant seem to find a tap that we like... S doenst want the shiny chrome ones and for practical reasons, we also didnt want the retractable kinda kitchen taps..n so the hunt for the kitchen tap continues... 

Did u notice the track lights in the kitchen, S got that and fixed it before he told me... I tawt it looked ok and he got it in white... To match the cabinets he said... Awwww... 

N i think at this point, we both juz clicked and knew that we should work on this white palette for the rest of the house, excluding the 2 common rooms... (My dad's room would have earthy neutral tones and lil S room would be colorful... To match her colorful personality)

It was such a eureka moment for us and all the ideas started to flood in... I always like white furnishings but i knew S was hesitant... But now he is a convert.. Ehehe... He juz recently told me, white is so calming, clean n pure..  Hahahaha..   Extra lah he.. 

But we agreed that we should work on white furnishings on a cool neutral palette...

And that brings me to our next purchase that i came across on carousell if i remember correctly..  It was a gold pendant lamp that i saw before on taobao but the seller was letting it go brand new at $50... I know u must be thinking... But gold leh..  I tawt u said white.... Coz it was a deal too good to resist.   I whatsapp S a pic and asked him to imagine it it white... He said deal and the lamp was ours within the next hour as he was in the vicinity of the seller... So **** happy man... One man's rubbish is another man's gold... Haha... 

 

 

Actually thr lamp quite obiang..  Gold with a lampshade... We shed the lampshade and spray painted the skeleton white... Lucky the smaller lamp shades has white trims by default... So we got led light bulbs (from our second jb spree which i will talk about later) and it looks like that after S fixed it...

Notice the goldish looking structure below the lamp..  Dats the lampshade and how the original color is...

Edited November 18, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

On 17/11/2016 at 3:45 PM, Pes said:

pinterest really is the bomb when it comes to inspirations, agree with you kitty, wish you good luck! please continue to update us on your reno journey!

Yes, the pics are so inspiring.... I like the instagram homes too... Soooo pretty...

[KITTYKTY 3]

JB Spree 2 

So as i mentioned, there was a second jb spree... It was kinda impromptu coz i happened to clear a day off in lieu and S and my dad were free too...

So off we went..i didnt really know what i wanted to get this time round but S knew he wanted to get paint.. So our first stop was this lighting shop to look for a few more simple led lights for the doorway and walkways... We got a door bell too from this shop... As we were paying, i noticed they sold panasonic water heaters too and after an enquiry on the prices, we bought 2 of them... 

I was actually pretty undecided on water heaters... It was either instant heater or gas heater... But daddy was telling me to take instant ones and the panasonic we are currently using at daddy's place works really well even after almost 8 years.. Hopefully the ones we got can last as long if not longer...

As carpentry works was almost completed, S wanted to start painting soon after so we got paint.. We used it before for daddy's place and it turned out well so we decided to get them again.. Its Dulux Inspire and its the matte kind which is also washable and it is low odour.. We got some water based sealer as well..

So back in sg, S was excited to start his mini project on lil S's room.. N i must say he was very determined... 

Dats the outcome, 2 striped walls on opp sides and pink walls on the other 2.. 

Can u see the colorful fan... That was S's first project for this room... Until we decide that a ceiling fan was out and decided to move this fan to the living room and spray painting the blades white again..  Haizz... Waste time... 

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

Aircon 

After painting lil S's room, he started on daddy's room and completed it within a few hours... Talk about efficiency... Hahaha..

At this juncture, we started looking for aircon... It seems kinda late but i didnt want "hidden" aircon trunking for practical reasons... Furthermore, lil S's room had no build in wardrobe so it was not an issue and daddy's room was the last room so dat room will not be very affected by the trunking... 

We almost wanted to get the panasonic system 4 but one weekend, we went to an expo electronic sale on the last day just to look see and we came across this booth selling an LG system 4 for $3299! It came with 3 x 9000 btu and 1x 24000 btu with a 28000 btu compressor... Not bad... And it came with 3 ticks for the compressor... 

We were so excited but decided to walk around first just to think and not make hasty decisions... Daddy's place is also using LG and its still going strong after more than 6 years with minimal maintenance... We rationalised and decided to take up the offer... Paid a deposit and waited for carpentry works to finish before we arranged for the installation... 

The aircon guys did a good job despite some negative reviews that i read a tad too late about the company... Very happy with the workmanship and of course very happy with the price! 

 

Lil S room..

Location in living room..

Master room... We are changing the wall color coz a tad dark... But i will share my master room journey a bit later..

After the aircon were up, S started on some electrical works... Installed the water heaters as well as some track lights that we had decided to put in the living room... He also added some extra points and did a bit of relocation for some points... 

 

 

 

S secret project was also to paint the boards and nesting concealing the pipes.. Looks not too bad coz the colors matches the existing tiles...

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

Kitchen & Ezbuy-Taobao Haul 1

As u can see, we really dun plan to do anything major to change the look of our house... We want a simple look that will be easy to change with times.. A cosy and warm home... 

Before i move along too far, did u notice that in the service yard, on both sides, there are those huge water pipes... After the carpentery was up, one side managed to be hidden from view.. S hates it so much so he called in the palsterceil experts to conceal those pipes...

Work in progress... 

 

Pipes concealed and my kitchen is also completed! We got a tap like finally.... And its from Taobao... Our first test purchase and it turned out to be of pretty decent quality... 

 

Originally, we wanted solid surface top but cynthia managed to secure a decent price for us so she suggested that we take up the iQuartz offer...  As we were communicating via whatsapp, n she sent us some colors to choose, S picked this brown... On hindsight, when we actually saw the catalogue, S felt that he shld have chosen the dark grey color, if it was me, i would have chosen the non "sparkly" ones... Overall we still like how it turned out..   

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

Continued.... 

So with the kitchen tap, we also got a curved shower curtain rod from taobao... We chose to have no shower screen to keep cleaning easy... Turns out the stainless steel rod is sturdy... So i was very impressed and happy with my successful first purchase...

 

This gives us the confidence to make more purchase from taobao via ezbuy to ease the hassle..  

And some of the packages are going to be delivered later today! So excited! But crossing my fingers and really hoping that they will turn out ok..  Stay tuned for more updates!

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

Ezbuy-Taobao Haul 2

N i'm back to update with regards to our Taobao delivery... Surprisingly.... I am so delighted that everything came like how i saw it in the pictures... I somehow felt that i would not be very happy with everthing and even imagined that the items dun look one bit like how i saw it on the web... Hahaha... Paranoid...

But can u believe it, after all the excitement, i forgot to take pictures of my haul to share... Only this pic of the dining chairs.... 

It actually feels sturdy and the workmanship for the seat and seatback is neat and nice... Like something from those trendy online furniture shop... (I suspect some things they get off taobao also coz looks so eerily familiar)

The dining table was also good just the way i like it to be in the color that i wanted.. White legs with a light colored wood top...

As for the coffee table, it is those industrial loft kind.. Black legs and wooden top... S and me, we are contemplating how we can "project" on it to make us like it a little more... Hahahah...

Other stuff from the haul are lil S led ceiling light and stainless steel rack for toiletries in the common bathroom.. 

2 more items are in sg but too late to arrange for delivery today... Maybe this weekend when more things arrivel so can deliver together..

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

One thing that i have at the back of my mind is whether we shld engage those people to spray the bathroom tiles to a nicer color... We actually wanted to overlay but tawt might as well save the money and do a toilet reno once the current ones wear out... Overlay may seem ok now but we dun wanna run into problems in the future esp with the not so up to par work of those hdb sub contractors... And the bathroom is one highly used placed day in day out so we dun wanna take any chances here.. 

Have anyone done the spraying of the floor tiles? What do you think? 

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

Sofa Drama Saga 

Since im on AL tmr, so can spend some time to share a little more... 

As all the major works are almost completing, October was a month where i bust my mobile data surfing the internet for the perfect furniture or decor to accessorize the home with... Physical shopping is good to look at the real thing, but i am such an online shopping addict that i will take a chance.. Coz there soooo many pretty things that u can find online...

As mentioned, i got some furniture already on taobao but the perfect sofa juz deludes me..  Cant seem to find one that i actually like... 

We went to Star Living one day, and S really liked this blue L shaped sofa.... We were kinda desperate.... But i still didnt quite like it coz of the peg legs.. Looks unsturdy leh... Paranoia sets in again for me.. 

I actually really like the fabric chesterfield kind ala those french homes but coz of lil S, we wanted to make it as homy and cosy as possible for her as well... The fabric chesterfield i liked was of coz in a beige, off white kind of color so really not practical with kids around...

One day, i happened to browse carousell again and came across a simple grey sofa that i quite like..  Whatsapped S and he liked it as well as its the correct length that we were looking for... So i pmed the seller asking the availability... While waiting for his reply, i came across another sofa that i instantly fell in love with.... Quickly showed S and he loves it too... Its a tuxedo style... Tufted or buttoned like the chesterfield but no back cushion, so kinda like a more streamlined modern version..  

The seller actually has a warehouse in Sungei Kadut and its only available at the showroom so i quickly got the address and opening hours and instructed S to be there first thing they open at noon... 

I didnt sleep well that nite coz i juz felt that something will go wrong... At about 2pm the next day, S texted me a pic of a fuschia sofa followed by a blue sofa..  He told me he liked the blue one...  ????

Its nice but i like the other beige one better i said so quit being fickle...  And ever so gently, S tried to break the news that the beige was juz sold to another couple about an hour ago... Wat?????? I felt a lump in my throat and wished that S was juz pulling a fast one... After S told me that the first grey sofa was actually blue and he liked it so we shld get it as i liked it first... (Quite true... ) Then he said the beige one is not nice coz the tuxedo has got high armrest so it wouldnt be comfortable..  I tawt, i get it, u told me its sold out coz u dun like it! 

I made S feel so bad that he took a pic of the beige sofa close up with the note SOLD and the delivery date...

Like seriously, the ad was up on carousell for 3 months and other sofas from the same post were sold except for this one...  N i did check if it was available before making S go there and its SOLD?? 

The sales rep told S that even if he came at noon he was too late as the couple who purchased the beige sofa was waiting outside even before the showroom was opened...  So means i cannot blame S for being late....

Grudgingly, i told S to juz get watever he wants if he likes it.... I was too disappointed and too worn out from the relentless search...

So S got the blue sofa that i originally tawt was grey and i actually liked first... Hahaha... 

After the delivery, i tawt it actually looked nice and added a pop of color to an otherwise very muted space.... I like white but too much white can make a place seem too clinical... Not a look that i want... I want it to be homy..  (got such word anot?) 

So against the backdrop of our muted bluish wall... The sofa looks great.. N S really liked it... Watever makes him happy, im happy too.. . Awwww.... Ehehe...

One more touch that S managed to convince me was to paint the timber wood skirting white.... I tawt, y not for the living room only.... So heres the sofa and a sneak preview of the living room with 1 coat of paint.. 

Looks ok rite... Haizzz... But i haf to agree with S that if we had gotten the beige sofa, it may not go very well with wall color...

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY

[KITTYKTY 3]

Continued... 

So with the blue sofa, i need a new direction for inspiration... So back to pinterest... For ideas to style a room with blue sofa..  Something i totally dun expect.. 

My coffee is a similar design to the above but smaller

Really like how the above looks... So comfortable and inviting...

Ohhhh... This one i really like that bright yellow armchair! I tried to convince S to get a yellow armchair but he is not keen... When it comes to bright colors, S is definitely not adventurous... Hmmmmph.... The blue also quite bright wat... And i have a weak spot for cheery yellow but he detest yellow....  Hahaha... Talk about opposites...

He told me to stick to other safe colors for the rest of the decor... 

So with the recent 11.11 sale on taobao, i got an armchair and a tv console... But guess wat, when i went thru taobao yesterday, i saw an armchair that i like better.... And they have it in bright cheery yellow with studs to match the sofa... How like that? Ehehe..  So tempted to make that purchase.. 

Edited November 20, 2016 by KITTYKTY