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!

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!

Dyson, Just Too Cool To Resist (pun intended)

We went down to Expo again for the Courts Expo Fair, hoping to chance upon a good price for any home appliances that we may require. Well, in particular the Dyson fan. It was only after we gotten our house that we realised that there are so many fairs in Expo, and one could always get a better price there during such fairs, as compared with the sales in the big stores at the shopping malls. There may be times where we could get a better price online too, but some products just require us to have a hands-on on the physical item because we invest in the buy, and the fairs are definitely the best place to be. It does not have to be just home appliances too. Even stationeries, pet foods, soaps etc could be found at a steal price there, if you could wait for it that is. It would defeat the purpose if you ran out of soap and choose to wait 2 months for the Body Shop Expo Fair wouldnt it?

Back to the fan. Had wanted to get it ever since we saw the advertisement in the cinemas, and we fell in love with the sleek and sci-fi design of the fan. However, we had then not invested in this because well, the price is too premium-ish. So it had always been in our to-have-list but never in the to-buy-list.

It was only when our house was in the making then we realised we needed a tower fan in the living room because a ceiling fan would not be effective because of the positioning of our sofa, and the hubby thinks that the wall fan is just fugly. So we had to get a standing fan, and although it was often debated to be a bad idea because it takes up estate space, and could be troublesome during house cleaning because it would be in the way, we had to get one because it was the only option. But most standing fans ain't exactly aesthetically pleasing, except our dream fan. And so, it was purchased.

She has arrived.

The Alfred to Batman. The JARVIS to Tony Stark. Meet Alexa, the key to our home automation.

Finally laid our hands on this device after reading countless reviews about it. There were always two sides to all reviews, and generally, we pay more attention to the negative side to see if we could live with it. Afterall, we roughly knew the great side about it, that's why we are reading the reviews in the first place. As this product came from the U.S, many people including ourselves, wonder if this voice recognition software would be able to capture and understand the Singapore slang. It took several Singaporean reviews and being part of the SG Home Automation Facebook Group before we decided to take the leap of faith and purchased it.

Originally I wanted to get the new Echo Dot. Although Amazon had cunningly designed that you can only order an Echo Dot by voice through the original Amazon Echo, there is a way to trick the system and purchase a Dot without the original. The Dot does look better and could be linked to our home audio system, but I chose the original in the end because I do not want to leave our home audio system on 24/7. Perhaps next time for our bedroom if all goes well.

Had been playing with it for the past 24 hours, and it is pretty neat. I have taught it to switch on and off my lights and fans in the room but it is really a tiring process to set everything up before you can enjoy the wonders of home automation. Just a quick introduction to how things are going to be like at our house next time.

I will speak to Alexa > Alexa will trigger an IFTTT recipe to send a link > the link will trigger my phone tasker > the tasker will send a command to my Broadlink RM Pro > the RM Pro will send the radiowave to my Livolo switches > the Livolo will switch on my lights/fan > my lights/fan are turned on. :D

Why will I do this instead of just pressing the switch? Because I can.

Links for reference:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/3arbeh/how_to_hookup_tasker_to_ifttt_using_autoremote/
http://wiki.winkathome.net/Supercharge_your_Echo_with_Tasker_and_IFTTT

The Start of Home Automation

Introducing the first purchases of the Home Automation. Have always been a fan of automating the house, or rather the convenience of being able to control the home electronics regardless where we are. Imagine being able to turn on the aircon in the living room while on the way home so that you will not be greeted by a stuffy house when you get back, or that you could be in the comfort of your bed and switches off all the living room lights, kitchen lights, toilet lights, televisions, etc without having to get out from underneath your blanket. No more urgh feeling of getting out of bed because we forgot to switch off the kitchen light! Woohoo!

Broadlink RM Pro is the heart of my entire home automation system. My system is actually quite laidback, where I am not exploring the Z wave or Zigbee, but rather staying with the common infrared or radio frequency. This way i would not be limited to only the latest few models of aircons and door locks that are equipped with Z waves technology. This Broadlink RM Pro is basically a universal remote control that well, remotely control every technology around it that is controllable with a remote.

The coolest factor is that it has a learning capability where you just have to point the original remote at it and press the button, and it will learn and copy the command for future uses! This way, with a one time set-up, all my remotes can then be kept away keeping the living room clutter free. Tried it with my current fan and lights and worked wonderfully, so shall bring it for the final test in my new home living room next time!

Livolo switches are like the arms of my home automation system. Almost everyone's light are controlled by the manual switch, but that would not do for my home automation system. Instead, the livolo switches are touchpads which could be toggled on and off with a remote. Pair this up with the Broadlink RM Pro and you know that the magic is starting to brew. I could not test this yet as i was not willing to dismantle my current plug to fit this in, but i have high hopes for it at the new home.

Of course, just reading about how great all this are would not be sufficient. Get to experience it first hand at my house next time when the renovation is complete and i will gladly introduce the world of Home Automation and the Internet of Things to you! Hoooya~

Awaiting our 3D Design

It has been a quiet week, mainly because it was the lunar new year period and work was at a standstill. It is progressing now, where we have just confirmed our choice of materials and colors, and is awaiting for our ID to show us the 3D images of our future home. Finally we will have our first glimpse at how our home will look like.

Meanwhile we have made more purchases, and is starting to have trouble finding places to store them before the carpentry works begin. Bought our Samsung fridge and washing machine from Courts at a low price thanks to the sponsorship of vouchers from my Mom. Signed another contract with a flooring company to overlay our house at a discounted price thanks to a recommendation from my friend. Ordered several items from Taobao today with free shipping thanks to some promotions taking place for 3 days only starting today. It's really beneficial to plan and start early so that you are able to get better prices when there are good offers for it.

We should be expecting the 3D images to be out by this week! Look forward!

The Painting is Complete

We collected our fengshui painting today and it's really a magnificent piece of art. Many kudos to the master whom hand drew this using some heat apparatus on a wood like board. Our unique way of flipping a coin to choose the design had worked well and we are awaiting to opening it and hanging it up at our home. Look forward!!

First Purchases of JB

When we first saw this sofa, we fell in love with it immediately. We love how we are able to have a deep sofa for us to lie in while watching our movies. We then tried to find a similar one in Singapore to compare the prices but to no avail. Recently we found a similar one in leather but it cost over whooping $3000. Hence we went back to take a look again, and placed our order. Cant wait for it to arrive in April!

We bought our storage heater too! This marks the start of us slowly buying appliances and furnitures from JB and bringing them over one or two items at a time. This allow us to save a little, by not needing to pay the 7% GST.

To know how it works: Each person when visiting JB for less than 24hr is entitled to bring back $150 of goods without needing to pay any taxes. If there are 2 of us in the car, we are able to bring back $300 worth of goods without having to pay the 7% tax. So what we are doing, is making multiple trips and keeping our purchases below $300 so that we can avoid the taxes. It is actually more expensive doing multiple trips if the sole purpose is just to avoid tax because every round trip cost about $15 in toll. However since we are already regularly going in for our massage and loklok fix, it will be more cost-saving for us to split our purchases into multiple trips.

Looking forward to more purchases soon!

Feng Shui Painting

Ordered our horse painting! According to our FSM, we should have horses pointing into the house at our main entrance so as to symbolise the wealth charging into our home. Hence we headed down to Raffles City to take a look at the CNY Road Show and found a master that was very skillful at carvings such drawings. It's hand drawn using a burning device on a wood paper, which all aligns with our FS since fire and wood is our elements haha! He had two paintings of horses which both of us loved equally much that we ended up flipping coins to decide as we couldn't finalise on either. Placed the order, and is looking forward to our painting!