Why do it when we can get a robot for it?

Meet Ms Xiaomi, our new helper around the house. It was released last month on Sep 16, and I had it placed on order the moment it goes on sale in Taobao. The specifications were amazing, beating most of the high end robot cleaners out there right now, yet at only a fraction of its price. Now that it is in our hands and we are using it daily, we can confidently say that it lives up to its claims. The smart technology inbuilt and the powerful vacuum power had left us in nothing but awe. Definitely recommended to buy. I will do a proper review on this again at a later date. Had been bombarded with work and school lately. Stay tuned!

Maximising our Kitchen

It had been a real tough previous week with couple of school assignments and military events earlier and we did not have the time to update this area. But now that they are submitted and over, we are back! Given that most BTO's kitchen are rather small, we would have to find ways to maximise our space within. One was having the portable kitchen cabinet which provides us more counter space, and the other way was to use the vertical space.

The black racks from IKEA caught our eyes and we purchased a few of them to have them installed on our kitchen walls. Many thanks to my cousin's husband for helping us get them up nicely. We initially ran into a small problem where the back of the tiles were hollow and there were no cement for the nail to be secured onto. It was also untraceable as we did try to knock on every tiles when we first gotten the house but this did not show any signs of defects. The only work around was to get a longer screw to drill to all the way to the back. Let's hope the tiles is strong enough and does not crack over time.

Hanging the boards, and having a basket for our condiments allow us to have more counter space to prepare the food. Plus the blackness of the rack blend in with our kitchen theme so it look really complete and pretty.

In the end, we also changed the rack that were previously at our sink. Funny how that did not even last a week. However, we will install that in another place, probably the service yard but we shall see.

Our complete kitchen look. Loving it!

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!

No more ding-a-ling in our pockets

Another loot from Comex16 is our brand new electronic door locks. Decided to invest in this ultimately because the insufficient keys for the padlock was making things really inconvenient for both of us. Should our ID do a faster job at getting everything done, we may have not placed our money in this yet. Nevertheless, this is our latest addition of technology to the house. New holes have to be drilled on the existing door for the lock to be installed. Am satisfied that our dreamcatcher mural was not damaged in the process.

The end product. Life's easier now since we no longer need keys to enter the house. Just a swipe of our finger or key in the passcode and we would be able to enter our home. However, i still carry the keys around for the time being because it just feel so weird without them.It is also quite worrying that people may come and damage the lock so the next shopping list item would be a recordable door viewer and also other security devices for the house. SITEX16 is in November!

Sword Display Version 2

Introducing the version 2 of our sword display! Previously the whole case was black and the sword was not standing out as it blended with the black. Headed to Spotlight to get some bright red fabric and found this beautiful piece. Now the sword look great inside!

After Remote Control, Here comes Universal Phone Control

The new addition to the chain of home automation. Pardon the unclear poor quality of this photo. The tablet is not exactly HD quality, but it's real cheap, and we got it at half its original price from COMEX. Headed back home to link it up with our switches and we got ourselves a universal control to control all the switches. This is just the beginning, because soon, we will be adding our curtains control, fan control, aircon control, projector control, and tv control, all into this tablet of ours, and we will be able to control the whole house with just this tablet!

Technical Note: This setting up could also be done on our own mobile phones too. However there is a small restriction. To be able to control all the devices, one must be connected to the same wifi as the broadlink rm pro. This means you would not be able to control the electronics from outside of home unless..... you have a bridge in between, which in my case, we are using this tablet. How this would work at my house now is that my phone which is connected to 4G, would send the signal to my tablet which is connected to my home wifi, so that my switches are toggled. This would remove the restriction of having to be connected to our house wifi.

COMEX 2016

Retrieved from: http://www.comexshow.com.sg/

See you there! I will be heading down to keep myself updated on all the new technology that is happening around us, and also to pick up some goodies if their price is a steal! Our house is still lacking a couple of items such as an electronic safe, robot vacuum cleaner, electronic door lock, smart doorbell, tablet for home automation and electronic scooters so I will be there to look for cheap deals!

Side note, the Xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner look really promising, and is due to be in stores (in China) on 9th Sep 16. At an affordable price of one-third from the reputable Roomba, this robot vacuum cleaner is definitely something to look out for.

Just sharing!

deL the builder, can he fixed it? Yes he can!

So, as mentioned in the previous post, we were having some issues with our tap being too close to the edge and its current is too low for comfort usage. The problem largely lies with the tap hole being drilled too far away from the sink, but given its short stout, we figure it would not make much difference either.

Nevertheless, we bought another one, at just a fraction of the designer tap cost. Again, practicality over aestheticality. Just a random purchase from Taobao, and have to say, we are rather amazed at the quality it packed. Definitely feel durable and lasting.

Just a side by side comparison on how much further away from the edge would the new tap be as compared to the old one.

We decided to take matters into our own hands to change it, and hubby actually did a great job at it! Although we faced some problems initially due to the lack of tools and properly-sized spanners, the tap was still fixed up nicely at the end of the day.

deL the builder... can he fixed it? deL the builder, yes he can!

Proud Display of my Sword

Finally got to display my sword proudly in the tv console. It took a long while sourcing for the mount because the previous one were the wall mount kind, and most of the mounts we could find were too high to display it nicely. Even this one is not perfect because we had to modify it slightly to support the sword, and it is not stable now so please do not attempt to remove it. Hands off! Eyes only! Would be adding some velvet to it too next time to make it look better!

Owning this sword has been one of my greatest moment. It was that moment that got me to where I am today, where I can talk about it on this blog from our own house. Am really glad for that, and very grateful to all the loves and supports that were with me all those whiles.

Remote Control, the Key to Achieving Laziness

Throwback from a previous post when i introduced the Livolo switches. Just a recap, the switches i have gotten are not just touch panels, but are remote controllable. There are two types of remotes, with one being more advanced and can toggle up to 10 buttons and scenes but it's more expensive and I have no need for that because I will be integrating all into my phone soon and so i got the other remote, that is shown above. However, one is not enough for all the switches in the house so.....

I got a small army of it. The reason why i got so many of it is so that my phone would be able to control all the switches uniquely. You may just jump to the next picture if this technical stuffs bores you but I will just briefly share it.

Firstly, to control every switches from my phone requires my Broadlink RM Pro to learn the radio frequency (RF) code. There are programs out there that can decrypt and create RF code, but I felt that it is too complicated for now, and so, it it easier to just learn the RF code. When pairing the remote with the switch, an unique RF code is created. By learning this particular RF code, the Broadlink RM Pro is able to broadcast the code as if the remote is sending it. This also mean that i am unable to unpair the remote-switch, because that would render the learnt code useless. By not being able to unpair, I am not able to use one remote to create multiple codes, hence the need for me to get multiple remotes to create multiple codes for all the switches in the house. Positively, each button of the remote is able to pair with multiple switches, allowing me to switch on the living room lights and the kitchen lights together. However, i would not be able to control them separately unless there is another remote that is paired separately. Hope this provides some understanding.

I also tagged each remote so that i know which switches are controlled by them. Ideally, they will all be kept away next time because our phones would be able to control everything. However, i have left some of them lying around at designated spots to provide the ease of switching on some switches that are not found within reach. I am still looking out for a tablet at cheap prices so that it can act as the bridge for my home automation so that we could even control our house switches when we are not at home. Till then!

Side note, black is a color that allows dust to be clearly visible. This means more cleaning effort because it looked dirty very fast. Perhaps that is why pure Scandinavian theme is low maintenance but not our modified-white-become-black Scandinavian theme. However, the worst ought to be Industrial theme.

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!