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?

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!

Open the curtains, Close the holes

Forgot to take the before shot before applying the silicon. During the renovation, there were many skirting that were removed due to wall hackings or installation of carpentries. Afterwards, they are placed back but due to the unevenness of the walls or floor, there may be gaps here and there. Did you know: the floors and walls are not as straight as you think. I have always thought they should be. Anyway, decided to take matters into my own hands by getting the silicon and applying myself. This was the last one I did, which was also the most perfect one after all the practices. Look good right?

Used this instead of the silicon gun because there weren't many gaps, but I still have to close them up because I couldn't stand the dusts that are accumulating inside them. However after applying, my ID told me that this is the cheaper one because it does not have some anti-algae capabilities. Ain't they all the same? Let's hope everything remains good. Else we can always pluck them out and change a new set.

We did our thorough clean up today, and hanged up all the curtains too. The track they provided were quite stiff for us to pull the curtains, but let's hope it loosen up after some uses. As of writing, it seemed to be better, but it could just be my mind.

The living room curtains are up too. There is no problem with this track because it is using the Dooya automated track! Have been enjoying opening the curtain automatically when we stepped into our house, and closing them automatically before leaving. Very satisfied with this investment. Can't wait for it to automatically close when our projector are switched on for our movie nights!

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!

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.

Carpentries V - Shoe cabinet and Study table

An updated view of the shoe cabinet. Awaiting the glass door before the other doors are installed. Meanwhile, here is a glimpse of my carpenter fixing my study table in the MBR. Hard at work despite it being past 7pm. Good job!

Carpentries IV - Massive Work Today

Please rise for the arrival of all my carpentry! It was a rainy weather, and I really hope that none of them were damaged by the rain. Too much horror stories of mold and mushrooms growing in wood pieces had gotten me paranoid over such matters. Hopefully they dries up nicely and last us for the longest time.

But wait... there's more! The amount of carpentry we got for our house is massive. It kinda cost us a hand and a leg but that's the price we are willing to pay to ensure that our first house is exactly how we wanted it to be. We did not want to get things off the shelves because it may not give the sense of together-ness with the other furniture. Hence, everything was designed, customized, and built into our house. If we move house next time, it will be so easy because we could not bring any of them along haha!

Headed up while the carpenter carried every piece up himself. Really have to give it to him, single-handedly doing the entire house carpentry. His works are remarkable and very detailed. From my ID, he is one of the best carpenter, but tend to be slower than the others. Well, I have the luxury of time, and quality over speed, so I am really happy to have him fixing up all my carpentry.

The kitchen quartz top has been installed. Love the starry black quartz although it is not really visible in this picture. However, the higher quartz was not done properly. It was slanted and it looked weird with the middle piece. Some rectification will be taking place here.

We did not really put much effort and thoughts into the planning of the kitchen, but we were really glad it turned out this great. With a kitchen this beautiful, we would definitely spend more time here whipping up a feast or baking some delicious cakes.

Stove is up! I believe it is Fujioh's. We bought these based on the recommendation of our ID and the shopkeeper. Let's hope it lasts! We always feel uncomfortable buying things without reading the reviews, but there are almost no reviews on things like stoves and ovens.

Our black sexy sink! We had opt for the undermount because we felt it is easier to swipe the things on the quartz into the sink this way. There were many comments online recommending overmount instead, including my ID, but we insisted in this. One of the major potential problem is that the water may seep into the wood between the sink and the quartz, and prolong seeping may cost it to rot, destroying the entire kitchen cabinet. However, we weigh the pros and cons and decided it is a risk we are willing to take for the convenience. A better alternative would be to have a cement base for the sink area. That way, you are able to have an undermount sink without fear because there is no contact between the wood and the sink. But it comes at a price.

And eventually everything's moved up from the void deck. And get this! Every carpentry you see in this room, are meant for this room. Without proper arrangement, one probably wonders where do we even put the bed at. So crazy, but so crazily excited how it will turn out.

Oh wait... there's more! Here are all the doors and drawers for the bedroom, in all different height and sizes.

A glimpse on our shoe cabinet and our walk in wardrobe. Stay tune!

Splashes of Boldness

Painters are working hard today. Had quite a scare in the beginning when we saw hot pink color in the paint bucket. We quickly whipped out our phones and show them the desired color we want and repeatedly ask them to assure us that we will eventually get that tone of color. All we could do was wait and see....

All is well~ We were trying to achieve maroon tone for the house, which is one of the tougher colors to produce as it was a fine line between red and purple. This turns out perfect. The fiancee love it because it is her favourite color, and the fiance love it for the boldness and color splash! Yay!

Our bedroom was to be painted green because of fengshui matters. Initially we wanted the maroon for the room for the seductive romantic feel of the Scarlet Hotel but had to do away with it because the color was not appropriate according to the FSM. It was fortunate that we could do the maroonish in the living room so we were still happy about it. There is a thing about splashing one solid color on the wall. We like colors that stood out which gives the effect of BAMM, if you know how that feel haha.

Just an overview of the two bold colors together in one photo. We had our door frame painted black too and that had drastically improve the whole look of the house. Definitely recommended to paint your door frame black if it suits your theme.

Kitchen works

Had an off day so went to settle the renovation loan matters, and dropped by our house to take a look at the progress. Chanced upon the tilers who were just wrapping up the works for the day. Really have to praise their good workmanship. Just looking at how they carefully take out the blue mosaic from the middle of my kitchen wall speaks quality and skills. We had to take out the mosaic because blue is a no-no in our house fengshui. So please dont get me anything blue related!

The rough edges of the demolished wall was done up properly. So far so good with the quality they are giving. This would be our open kitchen concept. Hopefully we are able to watch the tv/projector while preparing our favourite dishes in the kitchen. Wouldnt want to miss an exciting part while preparing snacks to munch on uh?

The cement base is up. Previously the pipe was located on the right at the blue upright line area. We were so upset with it because that would force us to put our fridge at a weird location. Luckily we consulted our ID with our concerns and he proposed this to us! Turns out we have been upset at nothing all along. Now the fridge will be located at the entrance while the sink is located beside it. More working space now!

Seriously look at how beautifully the mosaic were removed. None of my adjacent tiles were damaged in the process. Hats off to the tilers. And that two tiles above was because of the electrical point required some readjustment thats why the removal.

Closing up our original kitchen entrance due to the clash of fengshui. It was located near the main door, and due to the positioning of everything, the good 'qi' from the entrance would have flow straight through the kitchen door and out from the service yard if we had kept the original entrance. Hence, to prevent that, we close the original entrance and open another one at the side. We love and prefer the way it look like now anyway!

Nicely done tiles work. Still short of the last step of applying the grout between the tiles.

Making good the parts which the walls came down. And done the shower kerb for our MBR. Things are slowly falling into place.

That's it for now. We can expect our final draft of design and the aircon to be up soon!