Hacking done, Plastering done

Renovation officially started about 2 weeks ago, it doesn't feel good to know our renovation will take 2 months to complete although we actually kind of knew that. Didn't want to push them to be faster though in case they compromise quality.

Hacking of tiles and walls checked, erection of wall at the dining area checked, flooring and wall tiling checked, plastering of walls and ceilings checked. Going on to piping, then false ceiling, cabinets etc.

We used 1 day of weekend and managed to source for most of our furniture and electrical appliances. Bought the most expensive item which was our mattress from Red Apple (King Koil at $2,099). Beanbag, "ok" chair, TV console, dining table all from Red Apple. We actually went to Trade Hub 21 and scour every shop there to find what we wanted. Most of the items were bought from Red Apple at Trade Hub and IMM. Yet to deliver so we are not very sure of the quality, at least we were able to find the designs that we wanted. Spend a total of $6K+ on furnishing alone and another $2.6K on electrical appliances excluding Aircon. In total, Furnishing, lights, wiring, electrical appliances, kitchen and toilet accessories cost us $25K+. Pocket burnt ;(

Everything's going ok, no big hiccups till now. Except that we are both very dui2 cause we chose the wrong colour for floor tiles. Or rather, we didn't expect the colour to look like that on installation. ;(  Even the old HDB wall paint looks whiter. However, they don't carry big sized tiles in white so we can only get off white even though on our floor, it looks like beige. Hopefully this is the one and only error, nothing more pls~~

Renovation~ Interior Design firm

After meeting 5 ID firms and getting numerous quotations, we finally decided on this guy Jimmy from Add Space Design. He kind of can clique with us very well, is creative in space usage and practical in design and fixtures. One of our plans was to hack off the store room so that we'll have space for dining table and to make the place look bigger. None of us can think of rebuilding a store room some where else, he impressed us by proposing it before we told him our concerns. He also proposed some ideas like plastering up our kitchen wall tiles instead of hacking in order to save cost. Or even placements in our master bedroom which solved the problem of strange orientation.

We've met him up today to see the 3D for the new flat, not bad, about 80% are according to what we wanted, we just changed the orientation of the shoe cabinet / settee at the doorway and colour scheme. The major changes will be Dar's full height built in bookshelves. He even managed to Bingo the theme of the cozy corner that I had wanted. ;)) Designs for toilets are not ready though, this we understand as rendering will take quite a long time for each piece of 3D.

The only problem will be, I'm not sure what's the colour I want for kitchen cabinet, the proposed colour now is baby blue bottom cabinet and white top cabinet with dark back splash in between. Asked for darker floor tiles which will then make the kitchen look sharper. I thought baby blue was a strange colour for kitchen cabinets but did not want to settle for the conventional black and white or white and red that almost everyone is using. Neither can I think of a better colour combi that is pleasing to the eye. The pic on the left, looks nice, but white flooring in the kitchen may be a disaster for all you know. Probably I should think it through before he makes further changes and waste the time rendering the pic.

Meeting Interior Designers

It's really important to meet at least a few IDs before you sign up for any interior renovation contracts. There are all sorts of IDs around, over just one week, we met people who are over confident, not so confident, friendly and frivolous. We met up with 5 firms, only comfortable with 2. The quotation from these 2 will be higher, although to us, as long as quality of work is acceptable it's great. No point getting a low cost quote but is unhappy during the whole renovation process.

One of the IDs proposed getting them to do design consultation first then get a quotation based on that, it's a non-conventional way of working. This is a good and possibly faster way to get things done and confirm that the final result is what we wanted. However, there is a risk that we may not be able to get what we wanted within our budget (This, we will only know when the design is done). Further, if we change our mind and decided not to use this ID, there's a design cost of SGD2k. Not a lot but also not little for us non-million earner. However, this ID is creative and practical plus most importantly, we can clique.

yay~ We are finally done with our move to the temporary housing which is my mother's house. Currently looking for trustworthy interior designers for our new house. ;)

Going to meet up with 2 of them the coming week. Hope the discussions go fine. Frankly, quality of work is the most important for us as well as whether the coordinator is responsible. The design for our house will most likely be simple and minimal. As long as tiling and carpentry work is good, we are happy ;P

Temporary Home

We are almost done packing, sold off some furniture, preparing for our move to our temporary home in a week's time. We won't be getting the keys to our new flat until end of September. It's going to be a long wait no doubt, but it will be a good deed done to the best that we can. ;)

First Appointment done~~!

Just went through first appointment the purchase of our new flat~ yoo hoo~! Finally I can get away from the irritating family upstairs yay~!~!~!

Now we are pending for the completion date of the sale of our flat and completion date for the purchase. In mean time, we'll discuss about the renovation, get design and quotes. *beaming* Phil said he'll help us with the design. I believe there won't be any problem there. The real problem lies with getting a responsible renovation contractor that gives quality workmanship that doesn't burn our pockets too much. ;P

Home Furnishings and Decor

Usually I won't give much thought about the furnishing and decor that my mum buys. Since well, though it was my home, it's obviously not my house. Whatever that my mum wants to buy or use, she makes the decision and we would just use whatever she decides on.

Now that we have our own house and home, we realized that deciding what to buy is really complicated and difficult. You have to consider the price, the style, the quality and the user friendliness. Especially while comparing the price, its often tiring running from place to place just to compare the prices and colour for comforters or lamps.

However, this must be done as the decision involves spending money and some items just stay with you for a few months or even years. Just like renovating houses, the owner must like the decor and features. Otherwise it just defeats the purpose of spending so much money to have your own house.

Bedroom Furnishing~

Having a new house is happy~ re-decorating an old house is exciting! I remember when I first got my house, we were having a hard time deciding just how we are going to furnish and decorate it. The color, the theme and how to get the furnitures we wanted. The most difficult part is deciding on the theme. Especially there are 2 (or more!) people who wants to decide.

The room that gave us the most headache will be the bedroom, which is the most important room. Especially when having a good night sleep in the room will count for our mood for the whole of next day, it's important to decorate and choose the Bedroom Furniture that we find ourselves most comfortable in. Bedroom furnishing is not just a bed frame, mattress, wardrobe and curtain. There are a lot of themes and styles to choose from. Especially nowadays, people look towards getting what they are most comfortable in like Modern Bedroom, Contemporary Bedroom or the ever so luxurious Italian Bedroom.

I do so love this style, so squeaky clean and bright. I will feel at ease and not a bit afraid of the dark lolx. A Japanese theme bedroom which I will want to use for our next house.

Ceiling Fans

When we moved to the house that we are living in now, I wanted to have a ceiling fan in our living room. Simple reason was that we live on the third floor and the place is so urber warm especially in Summer. This is poise a problem when we have guests around and they can only seat around sweating in the living room.

However, our living room is not really suitable for a ceiling fan as the ceiling is so low that my husband can touch it by tipping his toes. Having a ceiling fan is really a health hazard! Hence we chose tower fans instead. Recently Dar's cousin, who came to look at our house, said that once we have a baby, we cannot use tower fans as there's a danger that our baby (actually any babies) will put their tiny fingers into the slits of the fan.

She suggested having a wall mount fan like this Fitzgerald that I found on Fanimation this fan looks so nice and cute unlike the conventional round wall mount fan we usually see. If we get this fan, we will want to put in the living room and the bedrooms in order to save on air conditioning too.

Keeping the house free of clutter

I've moved into my house for 1 year and 3 months and observed the things in my house slowly increasing. Books, CDs, stationery or bed sheets for the guests began to accumulate. All these are items that will not be used everyday. That's very usual as we became lazier in keep things and cleaning the house up or when more people gets into our lives. Our house is beginning to look more and more untidy. Although our friends still said compared to their house, ours is considered clean but I would like to keep our house as clutter free as possible. Keeping the place free of un-used things makes it easier to clean and more difficult for dust and pest to grow. However, the garage or storage room will need to be well organized and tidy too to enable us to find things easily. Not to mention having good storage boxes is important as cardboard boxes actually allows pests like roaches to nest and grow. It will be nice to have some good garage storage solutions and tips to help on this area.