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?

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!

Fine tuning the house

We really hate holes, largely because they are magnets for dust sand dirt. We sourced around for stickers that closely resemble our laminate colors and my wifey found it! Then we spend the night sticking over all the screw holes. It became so less obvious immediately. There are a variety of colors and patterns so it will be easy to find one that matches the laminate.

A glimpse of how my DB box is right now. Neatly wired up to my modem there. The yellow wire is actually very fragile so take extra caution not to bend it. Just bending it 90degree would result in a snap in the wire. The rest of the lan cable had been connected to the ports which are linked to all the CAT 6 wires that are hidden in the cement of the house. Really job well done by the BTO Home Networking team.

Our solar film contractor came down to demonstrate their films. Statistically wise, it has great results, and is looking forward to having all our windows covered with it. The reason why we wanted to get them is so that we can keep the heat out during the day. There were too many terrible days where we came home to a scorching oven because all the heat had been trapped in the house. The film would also keep out the harmful UV rays, keeping us safe, and also our furniture from discoloring.


Our horse painting is hung! This is really a remarkable workmanship of an expert and we hope we are able to chance upon him again next time. And the story on how we decided on this painting would always be etched in our minds. There were two beautiful horse paintings that we could not make a decision on which one we should get, so we flipped a coin and this was the result. Actually in the end, we requested for a combination, where we got the horse from one painting and grass from another painting to form this art for us.

Our projector is finally installed! The cause of the problem is that the contractor that installed it had used some cheap butterfly plugs which was broken during the installation, resulting in it behind unstable. Our ID decided to take it himself and used his better quality butterfly plugs. Now everything is good, and we could just flopped onto our sofa and enjoy a good movie night.

On this, just a shoutout here is that we really love how our ID is all about using only the best quality items be it wood, quartz or even the screws. He always ask us to throw away the screws that came with the item because they are likely to be bad quality one, and he just used his to install them. And this is why despite his higher quotation as compared to his competitors, we chose him because of the quality he deliver.

How colors make a world of a difference

Our LED light strips are up and running! Initially, we were skeptical about the whole cove light things, and had decided on not having it until our ID convinced us otherwise. Now with the lights installed, we had a great time playing with them. And it is true, the interchangeable lights does affect the whole mood of the house. Romantic, cool, bright, party, you want it, we make it happened. However we need to be considerate for our neighbors. The hubby have plans to change all the downlights to interchangeable lights and make them flash according to the music bass, but that would be too badass and neighbor-unfriendly. Perhaps when we have a private estate next time.

Movie nights are for sure at our house so we definitely should not blind each other whenever we need to grab or prepare something from the kitchen. So we got LED light strips all over to provide just sufficient light to get our snacks ready because we get back to our couch and unpause the movies.

Our sleeping crib is not spared too. Loved the atmosphere here, almost as if inviting us to quickly lay down on the soon-to-be-delivered bed for a good night sleep. This is it!

Shall we have shelves

Got two shelves above our washing machine. This would be where we could put our soap powder or detergents, or anything that we do not want to be of children's reach. Although our washing machine is a front opener, it is not advisable to put anything on top due to its vibration when at work. Of course this could be a different case if we bought a LG washing machine. Check out the interesting video below to understand why.

Pretty impressive, both the person and the washing machine.

Quartz looking much better now

Presenting to you how the quartz look like now. This really feel much better now. Am glad that our ID was able to change this willingly. Then again he was the one that felt the other one looked bad, and recommended me this change haha! They also levelled it straight this time so case is declared closed.

Just to show you again how the previous one look like so you don't have to scroll down wondering how it was previously.

A few more looks at our half-wall top. No idea what this should be called, but that's not important. This will be where we put the cooked-ready food to be served to our dining table. I could imagine that aroma that accompany the food already.

Odd-looking Kitchen Quartz Top

This is how our current kitchen quartz top looked like. Our ID feedback that it looked odd because of the white wall at the right side and there was not a proper transition to it. Hearing that, we took a look ourselves and agreed that it was odd. On top of that, the quartz top for the half wall was actually not levelled, and had coordinated for the contractor to have it changed.

To ensure ourselves that it would not look odd doing the changes, we did some photo editing to see how it would look like. We felt that this would probably look better than the above one. Now lets hope that the right message is conveyed to the contractor and that the end results is like this photo. Now be honest, you thought the photo was a real one and not edited on the first look right?

Carpentries VI - Shoe Cabinet and Walk In Wardrobe

The end product of our shoe cabinet. Some feedback here is that we felt it was a little too deep for our shoes, perhaps because our shoe sizes are not very big to start with. Shall bring some shoe boxes here next time to see if they fit perfectly, else we would take note of the ideal length instead. Love the huge brown mirror there. It is the cover for our storeroom door, but also for us to check ourselves once more before we step out of the house.

Our walk in wardrobe in the making. Honestly, now that all the pieces are placed together, it does not feel as big and spacious as we imagined it to be. The amount of clothes space also does not really justify the price we had paid too. There will really be a lot of learning pointers on this space, and it had been quite a disappointment, but we shall talk about it after the whole thing is completed.

Much had happened between us and the ID, and we are really just wanting this whole renovation to end quickly. Haven't been the most pleasant experience I must comment, but we shall wait till the renovation is complete, and then we will share more details.

Carpentries II - Settee and Console

The settee is up. Hopefully this provides more space for guests to have a seat on when the parties is going on.

Connected to the settee is our mini tv console which we would have our soundbar and perhaps a small tv on days where a projector will not be feasible.

Electrical, Cove, Aircon Pipes

The electrical wiring are mostly done.


The aircon piping are completed too. We would have to wait for the paint to be up before we could install the aircons. Our false ceiling is up too. Noticed the access panel in the middle of the room? Our ID was so thoughtful to think about having an access panel there so that we can easily access the power point which our projector is connected to. This allow us to troubleshoot any problems if any, or remove the cables and projector should it become faulty or it's time for an upgrade haha!

Got tempted by our ID to do a cove lighting. Originally we were firm with the decision of not having a cove lighting because of fear of breeding those icky insects in those spaces, and not to mention the huge amount of dust that will be collected at the top. However, after much considerations (of how often we shall clean the area) and many beautiful mood boards online, we decided to give it a go, and hopefully not regret it! We just have to be more diligent in placing mothballs and cleaning it up, right?

A glance at how the top of the cove look like. Honestly, this is not what we expected, and we may had reconsider against doing this should we have known that this is the outcome. The way this is done actually left too many gaps into the whole false ceiling, which is a potential breeding place which we are trying to avoid. Ideally, the section of the false ceiling should have been sealed off, so that the only area which may have the icky problem is just the external cove area, which could be easily cleaned away. How on earth are we going to clear the eggs if it is laid INSIDE the false ceiling. Let's just hope the effects is really worth it, and we do not have any icky eggy problems to deal with within the false ceiling. Otherwise, we will definitely advise against doing it.

Signed on the Dotted Line

After much comparisons and considerations, we have decided on engaging Johnson from Posh Design to be part of our first renovation journey. It was a close competition among the top 3 ID that we have shortlisted, but ultimately, it was Johnson outspoken and firm character that won us over.

He had vast experiences in ID and could give us many suggestions and ideas to consider when we were unsure of the designs for a particular segment, or that we had to do something else to save cost due to our tight budget. He was also brutally honest when we shared some of our ideas with him, where he would turn it down because it was not practical or just a bad idea. He would still let us make the final decisions, although most of the time his feedback were so reasonable that we throw our idea out ourselves. There were really great chemistry between him and us, and we are looking forward to working together with him on our future home.

Moving on to the next phase: The Planning

Lesson Learnt after Visiting IDs

It has been 20 days since we gotten the keys to our new house. We are still in the midst of deciding which ID to sign with, and have already shortlisted 3. The final battle is on, and we hope to be able to secure our ID by the end of this month.

As i was looking through all the quotations given by the IDs, it soon became frustration as I was unable to compare them in too many areas because each proposed design with each ID is different from the other. This was largely due to the IDs giving their suggestions on some matters, and we took them wholesale and added it into the quotations. Not that it is bad because it is not because that is what an ID is supposed to do, but it does make comparing a difficult task.

Hence lesson learnt and i hope to share with everyone is this: Decide on ONE design plan for the house, and stick with it no matter how inappropriate it is, or how great the idea from the several IDs may sound. JUST STICK WITH ONE PLAN. For the ideas from all the IDs, consolidate them and only share it with the final ID you have decided to sign up with. This way, every ID will quote based on the same design plan, making your job a lot easier if you are a calculative person like me. As you can roughly see from the picture above, it can be challenging comparing them if all the quotations are based on a different plan. Cheerios~

Meeting of ID Part 3

Preview of our house layout. Most of the BTO would look more or less similar but nevertheless, we are still quite happy with the layout.

Today we received our quotation from our last ID, hence we have officially closed the audition for the search of the ideal ID to turn our house into our home. After looking through all the quotations and evaluating how we felt with each of the ID, we have decided to shortlist the final 3.

1. John from P Design
2. WY from 9 Design
3. Jay from I Design

John has always been our top choice but he comes with a hefty price. WY and Jay are more affordable in terms of the quotations but doesn't give us the same confidence as John. For now, let's see if we can reduce our quotation with John first!

Meeting of ID Part 2

We have finally met up with every ID we had plan to meet up with! It has been a tiring journey, but this only marks the beginning of designing our new houses. We have shortlisted some, and are still awaiting for 2 more quotations to come back to us before we can make our final decision to pick the chosen one ID. Of course, my chosen one has and always will be my Mrs Bee. :D Anyway, just some updates to the IDs we met thus far:

1. JS from P Design: Met up with him again at his office/showroom this time where he introduced us the materials and designs and features they got. Impressive it is, according to Mrs Bee. After the introduction was the quotation. JS was the only ID who did not ask us about our budget. Not sure if he missed it out or he genuinely skipped it so that he will not compromise on the standards initially but oh well. Quotation came up to 50k which was high, way high, way way high above our limit. However, we really click well with his character, and admire his expertise, and noted that we are able to remove several items in the quotations that we did not really want to, and so, we are still KIV-ing JS despite the price. His service and design ideas are really top notch too, which is what we expected of an ID. Most of the other IDs are merely taking in our proposed plan wholesale and not giving any suggestions or ideas, which often make us wonder why are we hiring a more expensive ID instead of a contractor. Just need to discuss a little on the quotation again. :/

2. K from S Creation: Summary from previous post, negative experience, and definitely a no-no.

3. T from Piu Design: Hmm, was one of our top choices, but taking a backseat now. Met T for the revised quotation after our FSM changed the entire floorplan but is still slightly on the expensive side at about 45k, but he was not able to impress and stand out from the other IDs we have met. He did wow-ed us last time, but after meeting a couple more IDs, he seem more of an average ID now. Furthermore, he is only an designer, and if we were to sign with them, there will be another project manager that will be dealing as the middleman between us and the contractor. This felt weird from the beginning because we may not like the project manager at all and may have problems working with him, but will never know, until its too late. Adding to that, the lump sum quotation and the lack of suggestions did bring T to the back.

4. N from I-forgot-where: The first ID we met actually. Was not impressed at all when he turned up late 30min with no texts or call for our first meeting. Seriously, first impression is a key aspect! After the discussion, he sent us a proposed floor plan based on what we discussed and it was totally different from what we had talked about. Seriously? Nevertheless, we drew a proposed floor plan for him (who's the ID now?) and awaits for his quotation, which has been a week with no news. Hmm. Definitely a no-no.

5. WY from 9 Design: First meet up at our house yesterday. First impression however was not impressive, as he was just taking down notes on what we would like to do, and not suggesting anything yet. However, we are keeping an open mind for now, as the suggestion part may come later when he designed the floor plan for us. He is also confident in meeting our budget, hence we are KIV-ing him for now.

6. JL from I Design: First meet up with him this morning, and had a good experience. He is easy to talk to, and provided us with some suggestions along the way when we were describing the things we want. He understand that we are trying to meet our budget, and had offered many ideas to our plan but at a cheaper price. Depending on his quotation, he may be our top pick too. Looking forward to hearing from him again.

That's all we got so far. Hopefully the quotation comes fast, and we will be able to announce our chosen ID soon!

Meeting of ID Part 1

 
ID or Contractor? That's the question.

Well actually, we have a clear idea of how we would like the house to be. Hence, we often questioned ourselves if we really do need an ID, as technically, we have already decided on all the details. However in the end, we still choose to go with an ID as they would be able to give us the 3d image, which is easier for us to visualise, and also be like our middleman to the contractor, who we may have problem communicating the our idea to them. We had left the shapes and patterns of our carpentry to them so that they can advise us better. We had met up with 3 IDs today, while we will be meeting another 3 more shortly.

1. J from P Design: Chanced upon him when he was working on our neighbour house. Bad first impression when he was trying to introduce and sales talk us while our neighbour (his clients) were with him and he was 'ignoring' his clients while trying to attract us. However, first impression aside, he was very knowledgeable, and gave recommendations on several design features so our house is not boring or when some ideas were not feasible. Pleasant to talk to, and could feel a strong chemistry with him. Definitely one of our top choices.

2. K from S Creation: Chanced upon their open house on FB so headed down to take a look. He was very inexperienced and lack basic knowledge in BTO matters. (Suggesting to hack the toilet tiles without knowing about the 3 years rules is an instant fail.) Being unsure about their own choice of products was another turn-off. (Assuring me kompacplus is scratch proof and unsure about the blum system. Ohman this can't do.) Definitely no-no.

3. T from Piu: Introduced from Qanvast when we sent our quotation request. Very experienced, and wow-ed us when he did a detailed sketch of our MBR instantly to confirm with us if that was the design we are looking for. Felt like he could be in charge, although sometime we feel he may overpower us in decision making. Met him for the 3rd time, and all times were great. Had a rough quotation for our obsolete floor plan and it was kinda around our budget, although he lumped it together, making it hard for us to eliminate to cut cost, and also felt dodgy about the lump sum method. Nevertheless, one of our top choices.

We still have another 3 IDs to seek quotations for. Shall meet them soon and compare all the quotations before making a decision!