Doing it ourselves as a learning opportunity

Retrieved from http://statusmind.com/

Through this renovation, there were many opportunities where we decided to use our own hands to get things right instead of relying entirely on our ID. Changing of bathroom tap, fixing up our oven because it was crooked, and siliconing our skirting are just some examples of which we had done it ourselves. Of course if our ID had made them perfect in the first place, we would not have to get down to that, but we like to see it as learning opportunities for us. Beside, now is the best time to try it ourselves because if things get damaged, at least there is an ID who has contractors to fix them up. Could you imagine the cost and trouble of finding a tiler next time to come and fix ONE tile because the drilling cracked it?

And this is the hubby installing the rack to hang our stuffs. It may not seem like anything but we were quite worried that the tiles may crack from the drilling. Apparently it seems that the tiles were stronger than it seem. Hubby's dad came over to demonstrate how to drill the tiles and we fixed up the rack. There is still one more rack to be installed on the other side of the kitchen but have not bought it yet. Finger crossed for that because it will be done entirely by the hubby next time!

The finished product. Space is always a constrain in BTO because of the small area, so we must make use of all the spaces that are available, including vertical space. This way, it enables us to have more space for preparing the foods.

Bought a mini fan for our living room too. Now we are able to save money from not relying on our aircon, and also the hassle of bringing our Dyson fan around so that we have wind wherever we are.

So far it's working well. Even our tissue paper box is licking its tongue in delight!

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!

Carpentry VII - Platform Bed

Our platform bed is up! Love the choice of laminates here. When we first saw it, it looked like unfinished wood for our bedhead. We were almost wondering why did they put the barn frame up without finishing the laminate first. Then we realized that the effect is just like that, and gosh is it unfinishingly beautiful.

Probably the biggest reason for a platform bed is the additional storage space found within in. All around the bed could be opened up to store things which are not commonly used. Our ID had kindly included the hydraulics for us so that the pieces could stay open without us having to hold onto it. However, that caused it to feel like 100x heavier to lift up, and we may resort to disengaging the hydraulics to make it easier to open. Shall see how it goes next time.

Love the green so much! This platform was the largest contributor to us wanting to get the grilles. It was quite dangerous without the grilles as more than half of our body would be above the window. Well, things are much safer now.

And we have finally settled on the trimming for the platform in the living room. We did not want to risk another mismatch so we have went with the safe matte black, which look fitting with the black tv console and black frame of the shoe cabinet. This problem is solved! Much happier with this end result now.

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse

We had the platform in the living room and everything was great except the trimming around it. Perhaps it was due to our unique choice of color for the vinyl flooring which is not as simple as light wood or brown wood. However, that is not an excuse we accepted because apparently this was introduced to us as one of the most popular choices among the homeowners. Perhaps all the homeowners were happy with the grey trimming, but definitely not us. To recap, when we first saw it, it looked like a metal construction piece which we mistook as a tool to hold the vinyl flooring in position, like to let the glue stick, but not as a final piece of product.

We told our ID about it, and he got the contractor to deliver some samples down so that we can repick another trimming. On this note, we are really happy how our ID is so accommodating on our changes. Afterall, we want the best look for the house, and if we are dissatisfied with something, it ought to go. The samples came and we picked the bottom middle one because the wood grain were close to our platform and it seemed to match pretty well. So it was decided, and we thought all was well. Nope.

The outcome of our choice was horrible. It was not close to how the sample looked like at all. We almost just called our ID to tell him to just bring back the grey metal construction looking trimming because this was so much worse.

A closer look at the current trimming. We called our ID to express our displeasure with how the actual product was so different from the sample, but he continuously assured us that the trimming was exactly the one we picked. Regardless, we were upset with it, and demanded to change it again. This time round we headed down to their factory to take a look at the big pieces so that hopefully we could pick one that we like and matches. However, there were no ready stock for us to pick from, and we were unwilling to take another chance where we picked the sample and the profile of the trimming came drastically different again. In the end, we decided on a matte black trimming, which would not have any profile issues, and hopefully it matches our tv console and shoe cabinet. Let's cross our finger and hope it goes well this time.

Grilles, Glass, Platform up

The grilles are up! Initially we did not want to have any grilles because we much preferred an unobstructed view out of the window. However we understand the danger that it potentially may cause, especially next time when they are kids in the house. Hence we came up with a creative way of putting the grilles up.

We had the frame for 3 grilles but we only had 2 grilles installed. This way, when there are no kids in the house, we could push the grilles all away and have back our lovely unobstructed view. We had customized a latch to hold the two grilles in position too so that it does not move around despite the lack of one grilles. However for our 4 window grilles, we just had the full set because we would ultimately have two blocked windows regardless we have 3 or 4 grilles. Happy with our end product!

Our MBR toilet glass work is up too. And yes, there is a door to the toilet if you look closely. It is a clear glass door but we will be getting the frosted laminates to paste over the door for privacy. It is just that my ID recommended such method as a frosted glass door would have higher maintenance issues, otherwise there will be much stains and discolored marks. This way, if the laminates are giving us the problems, we could just change the laminates at a cheaper cost than changing the entire door. And also revealing our rain shower. The pressure and functions and designs are all highly commendable. Cant wait to bathe there!

Our platform is up too. Love the choice of vinyl flooring but was quite disappointed with the grey trimming which did not match well with the vinyl flooring. Hopefully our ID can find something that is of a closer match, otherwise we would request for it to be black instead. The platform does not feel entirely solid either and there were some areas which we could hear a thud when walking over it. Are most platforms like this?