Few more Minor Touch Ups

Ever since we officially moved into the house, we have brought many electronics into our home. Due to their high values, we insisted in replacing the number lock to our house with a legit padlock. This way, it is more secure than a number lock, which could be broken into in less than a minute, and it also restrict the contractors from entering without the supervision of my interior designer. However, such security resulted in a standstill in our renovation. It has been almost a month of no updates, and it is slowly draining our patience out. The only thing that is making us hold on is that we constantly find new things to get our contractors to touch up or install, so it all works well somehow.

Just a rough list of what there are to do....

Wild hairline cracks appeared at our entrance. It is not obvious but upon a closer inspection, it becomes hard to ignore. A repaint job would have to be done.

Previously had plastered the ceiling, but because it was so similar to the ceiling paint, we missed it out and only found out several days later. Touch up paint would be required.

Several grout lines has some holes on closer inspection. Although this was probably there since the beginning of time, our designer said it could be fixed up and he can take it up so we are looking forward to it

We had requested for this netting thing to be changed to an acrylic board so as to prevent cobwebs and dusts from collecting, and also it look nicer with the toilet ambiance lights. Still waiting for the acrylic boards to be delivered and put up.

Had installed LED lights at our bedhead, and the drivers are placed in the display cabinet at the side. Had requested for a cover to be made to hide the drivers, and is still waiting for it. There were also some problem with our lights, where it kept losing power after a while, and had requested for our electrician to take a look at it.

After trying our designer tap for a while, we really dislike it and intend to change it. The water power is too low, and the water stream is too close to the edge. Kind of an installation issue when they drilled the holes on the quartz top, but a change in the tap should fix the issue.

Where the walls meet the floors will often have gaps like this. It is unavoidable, but that is the reason why trimming are always used around the house. Here shows an area of the wall where the trimming was forgotten and the hole was visible. Now we need it to be covered up.

Another area where there the trimming is missing, but because this area is quite small, we would be covering it with the brown sealant to cover the gap.

And lastly, because we had chose for such a bold solid color, the painters need to apply many layers of coat to achieve the desired result. However, this also mean that the paint is prone to being chipped off whenever we accidentally knock something against it. Here is yet another hole that require to be painted over again due to our carelessness. Being extremely careful is the price to pay for having our walls painted with such bold colors.

Would there be more discoveries after another round of inspection?

Mini DIY for Curtain Motor

Previously I had introduced the DOOYA curtains track. It has been working great so far, having our curtain opened automatically and inviting the light in the moment we stepped into the house. However, the motor was clearly visible with the current set-up so we decided to do something about it.

Just a simple solution really. We bought some metal hook like thing to stick it on the end of the motor, and had our curtain hooked onto that instead of the stock hook that was pre-installed at the front of the motor.

The end result! The motor is well hidden. Now we can just watch people watch in puzzlement how we automatically control our curtains if they had not read this blog hehe!

Insect Netting - Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Please pardon us for the lack of updates lately. Audits at work are sucking us dry!

Many years ago hubby had a traumatic experience with a hugeass flying ugly cockcoach while he was bathing. With nothing to defend himself except a showerhead, he was trapped inside as it landed on the shower screen door and he needs to push it open to run out, likely causing that ugly thing to spread its wings and attack the prey. One could only imagine the terror of how a buck naked prey knows its death fate with that giant ugly thing guarding the only door to freedom. Ever since then, he always bathed with the shower door half opened, so that he could attempt slipping out without touching the door should the situation arise again.

That definitely was not the best solution, but it provides a contingency plan for hubby. However after seeing the solution at a friend's house, we knew we had to get the same thing too! We bought an insect netting from Qoo10 and used it to cover the bathroom window! Although yes the ugly things could appear from elsewhere, but it blocked out a good amount of area that it could appear by. One could only roughly guess how much mental damage the ugly thing did when they see the great height that hubby goes to prevent a similar occurrence.

It really did not require much effort. Just 10 minutes and some stick on tapes that were provided and the net could be nicely installed to keep the bugs out. Thus far it has been effective, and we really hope it could be for the long run, though the thin net does make us question its durability. Only time can tell.

A glimpse from the inside. The great thing about new BTOs are that the windows are accessible from the aircon ledge. This is because the netting could not be installed on the inside as the panels would protrude out from it. However, there is no problem from the outside. Also it is aesthetically pleasing because you cannot really see it from the inside. Definitely recommended if ugly giant things annoy you too.

When one is too lazy to go to the gym...

You bring the gym back home! Finally gotten our workout bench after seeing a good deal online. Hubby went down to inspect and realised the quality is pretty good. The whole thing is very stable, which we guess is the most important aspect. Other things like the ease of adjusting the height was part of the factors too. We had seen several complicated bench that we felt were too much trouble to get them.

It was not perfect though, where there were some paint chipped and scratches, but overall it was great, especially for that affordable price. Am really glad to finally have a proper bench to work out on. Previously we had done it on the bed and floor which were definitely not as effective nor comfortable as this. We like how it could be folded up too, which allow us to keep it away easily should the need arise.

Workout could not be completed without the weights. Am so glad i had my handy trolley to help me move the weights from the car to the house. Side story, this trolley was a free gift, which made me spent extra $80 dollars on another appliances so that i could get this for free haha! But since i needed the appliances too, it was worth it.

The dumbbells were not of a quality that is worth raving about, but it does get the job done. Time to head to the bench to work out!

Workout Bench
Recommendation Rating: 4 stars
Positives: light, sturdy, affordable, comfortable
Negatives: scratches and paint chipped

Dumbbells
Recommendation Rating: 2 stars
Positives: aesthetically nice, get the job done, above average quality
Negatives: slightly more expensive, rather dusty and oily when first opened

Find them: Qoo10 GenConnect
Special tips: Go store collect. Aside from savings from delivery fees, the owner would give extra discount too! Remember to ask for it!

Settling down, Cooking and Cleaning

This above was not meant to showcase the things we bought, but they were just placed there because we were cleaning and mopping the tiled floor.Now that most of the renovation works are out of the way, and we are just a couple of steps away from taking over the house completely from our interior designer, we would probably start to talk more about living there and also share more on reviews and feedback on the things we have bought, as well as how we felt with our renovation and carpentry after really using it. Too often, there are many scenarios where we had been blinded with looking good aesthetically, that we forgo the practicality and functionality. Such issues would likely only rise itself after really using them for a while. *cough* dyson fan.

Although our renovation is reaching the end, the things we can learn from is just the beginning.

Just flaunting our purchases. We bought this vacuum cleaner at only $29. It was one of those super sale items in Gain City Expo Sales. Seriously, one of the best places to buy anything, be it food or electronics or beddings or sportswear is to go Expo. The sales are usually competitively cheaper than any sales elsewhere, and one could always get a free gift or additional discount along the way, which is absent in their neighborhood branches. Ignore the BHG member's only sale or Tefal clearance sales. Expo beats them all. Of course, one must do their homework to see what sales are happening there and when, but it is definitely worth the trip down.

Anyway, the vacuum cleaner isn't fantastic. The cord is only 4m long which means we have to plug in and out in every room, and it is quite a hassle. But this is just a temporary thing before we invest in a robot cleaner. Definitely need one to clean automatically, because otherwise we are always spending the whole weekend cleaning the house. By letting some errands run automatically, we could get twice the work done in half the time.

The blue chair? Nothing to flaunt about just that it looked nice with our door mural haha! Got it from IKEA during their yearly sales, and it is just for us to have a seat while wearing our shoes.

Renovation wise, we finally gotten our nice looking ledge for the soap bottles. We did not want the common steel racks which looked ugly in hubby's opinion, and we could not do a long ledge below the shower because of the pipes nor could we do it at the back due to our swinging glass door, so this is the best it could get. We thought this look great though, much better than those off-the-rack steel racks. Let's hope this holds well. Loved it!

 Another super deal at Gain City Expo Fair. Got this rice cooker at just $19! We were searching around for rice cooker, and were shock to see it priced at about $60 for a phillips brand to exorbitant price of $200 for some renowned brands. We have not heard of this brand before, but it seem decent, and we have gotten cooked rice nicely so far. so thumbs up!

Bought our plates and bowls from IKEA. We had always eyed their dining sets since long ago because they seemed to be very photo-worthy. They were priced competitively too so went for it straight away. Couple of other IKEA things there too.

And finally, this is cooking our dinner in progress. We are still very inexperienced in this area, and to make matter worse, they are all new pots and pans and stove that we had not used before. It is gonna take us a while before we could whipped up some great dishes, but for now, we are going to keep it simple and light. Till next time!

Moving Into our new home

1st August 2016. The day we officially moved into our new nest. No longer coming over here just to oversee the renovation or to fixed up our furniture. The time has come for us to finally live here. We got our FSM down to our house again to help us with the moving in ceremony, and they did some prayers and rituals through the ceremony. Her mother came too, and we were really thankful for her helping us do the preparation and some cooking while we were busy doing the rituals.

Our starting ceremony revolved around the phrase, 风生水起. We switched on the fans for the wind, plant the coins on the floor as seeds, and boiled the water to bring around the house to water the seeds and create growth. We then brought our rice bucket and filled it three-quarter full so that it symbolized that we would always have food to eat, yet space for more fortune to come to us. We unwrapped our door number sign on the gate as a symbol of officially opening the house. We cooked some tang yuan as a symbol of reunion. We brought soy sauce, vinegar, salt, sugar, tea leaves, oil as a symbol of having the necessities. We walked over burning charcoal at the door as a symbol of burning the bad past and having a new start at our house.

That pretty much summed it all up.

We cooked and had our first meal of the house that night. Simple, but delicious.

And to complete the moving in ceremony, we spent our first night there at our new home. No longer do we both need to squeeze into a single sized bed. We now have a larger queen sized one which was just comfortable for both of us since we ain't that big ourselves. Beside, hubby commented that this means more coziness because we have to be closer together when sleeping haha!

WE ARE OFFICIALLY WOODLANDERS!