Killer windows

Windows cleaning is no joke. I kid you not.

Spent the entire Sunday before last, washing and cleaning the many windows in our house. Between my good friend and I, we covered 4 that day (ie. 2 each). There were 3 more to get done... Foyer windows, which I've cleaned thoroughly once (after wet works) so I may just give those a wipe-down before we move in. Living room windows, which the bf did once (but he only cleaned the glass, not the frames - doh!). Yesterday was spent doing the one set of windows that's the hardest of all to clean - the bay window in the bedroom. But boy, what a sense of accomplishment it gave me seeing the end product once it's done.

Nice clear view from the platform bed. Not much to see but it's windy at least. :P And no more blotches of dust and dirt on the glass~ 3 pails of water it took me before the water turned a murky grey. (Needless to say - the first 2 were almost black.) I had to stick the fully-extended window sponge/squeegee cleaner out thru the tiny casement on top (while standing) to be able to reach the bottom of the bay window glass panel on the outside. 4 hours of hard work to get it sparkling clean!

The intention is to turn this area into a cosy reading nook - lay a fluffy carpet on the ledge, throw in a couple of different-sized cushions and we'll be all set!

Painting has been completed. Mr Leong was not a happy bunny and complained that I took too long to get back to them for touch-ups, so I had to top up an additional $100 for them to come back. Pfft.

Also had our 'new' TV wall-mounted this weekend. The bf's friend recommended the full-motion Sanus VMF220-B1 so that was what we went with. Love how it swivels left and right. I can watch TV while doing the dishes in the kitchen now! :D

The ID is arranging for the final round of cleaning this week. Have some slight defects on the platform that I need him to fix but he said the carpenters are already complaining at the number of trips they've made back to our place. Hope they can fix it - I don't think I can live with cracked laminate and broken silicon edges.

This Friday is polling day. My colleague and her husband will be coming over after voting to help me with the installation of our IKEA curtain rods. Wardrobe and fridge will be delivered on Saturday and I aim to get some diy wallpaper in the foyer. If time is on my side, I also hope to get enough packed on Sunday to start moving some of the smaller stuff over from my parents' to ours, with a driver friend's help.

In other news, Bailey's condition is deteriorating... :( She seemed to be improving slowly 2 weekends ago, so I actually called to cancel the appointment with Cat Clinic the following Monday and just retain her existing review appointment with Joyous Vet. But since she got back from her review last Thursday, she looks to be having difficulty lifting her hind legs in the litter box to poo even! Not good. Dr Heng is only at the clinic this Saturday and her appointment slots are full. So I may have to bring her in for the cartrophen jab as a walk-in patient.

Bailey's health issue is the only glitch in my happy moving plans right now. I might have to leave her with my parents if she doesn't get well anytime soon, cuz a move (ie. a change of environment) may prove too stressful for her. (Not sure if my prolonged absence will be any better tho.)

Seesawing between depression and anticipation...

Off to IKEA I went again

Spent the entire Saturday last weekend at IKEA Tampines shopping by myself (the bf got his knickers in a twist at lunch and stomped off -that's a story for another day- but pffft, who needs men!?). This trip was mostly to get wall fixtures initially - towel rack, kitchen hangers, curtain rods etc and I thought I could bring it home by myself in a cab but I actually got told off by the cabbie when I tried to board cuz my rods were too long (2.1m in length) and they couldn't fit.

Uncle: It's too long! Cannot fit across the back seat!

Me: Ohh. How about we put it between the front seats so it goes across from the front to the back?  

Uncle: No no no! What if it goes thru the glass behind my back seat!?

Me: ...

Uncle: Or later the rod whack me in the face how!? Who's going to be responsible!?

Me: ..........

Uncle: Cannot cannot cannot! I cannot take you! You go find those 9-seater cab!

All these complete with agitated hand gestures. Not sure what I owed him previously. :P Oh well, after that episode, I decided to go back upstairs to arrange for delivery rather than to waste time trying and risk getting blistered by yet another angry you-owe-me-money-in-your-past-life cabbie.

Some of the things I bought in the 1st round:

1) UTRUSTA Pull-out waste sorting tray

2) ENUDDEN Wall shelf with 4 knobs, white

3) GRUNDTAL Rail, stainless steel

4) RÄCKA / HUGAD Double curtain rod combination, white

5) RINGBLOMMA Roman blind, white

6) FIXA Screwdriver, li-ion

After queueing a good 30-45 minutes to arrange for my stuff to be delivered and then finding out that (besides having to pay a good $55 to send those few miserable items) I had to hand carry the smaller pieces home cuz the delivery guys were afraid they might lose them, I figured I might as well check if I can add more items to my delivery order should I buy more. It actually costs $5 per add-on item after you've made arrangements, but I appealed to the kind lady handling my order by telling her how the cab driver didn't want to take me and I really only had a few items, so she took pity on me and told me they will let me do it as long as it was by that night. YES! Back into IKEA I went...

More things I ended up with in the 2nd round:

1) MOLGER Bench, birch

2) ALGOT Storage bag with stand, white

3) FILUR Bin with lid, white

Also wanted this mirror but it was out of stock when I got to the aisle. Added to my shopping list for the next IKEA trip!

Sunday saw me joining the ranks of the 月光族 handing over the final cheque to the ID... 

Monday had me rushing Bailey to the vet cuz she's not well again... She was hiding under our bed the entire Sunday and looking giddy on Monday morning. Her historical imbalance problem seems to be back. :( Dr Heng prescribed daily painkillers and nerve support supps. Not sure if that's going to help much... Will be getting a second opinion from Dr Geetha next Monday at Cat Clinic.

Wednesday was me looking for that industrial sealant at Selfix Jurong Point for my shoji door tracks in vain - they only had the rubbery finish type. Also found out that I can't vote in the area where our new place is at (gotta register with your latest address by Feb 2015) so I guess I'll just continue to vote at my parents' area, boo~

Today scored me a good deal off someone from Carousell. Bought and picked up a used (1 month+ old) 49" LG UHD TV. The size seems a bit much for my tiny living room and it was $200 past my original budget for a TV, but it was too sweet an offer at $1K with almost 5 years warranty so I ran with it. Looking forward to my couch potato days! :D

Tomorrow is family dinner.

Saturday is windows-cleaning + mattress delivery.

Sunday is painting touch-ups (postponed from tomorrow) + IKEA delivery...

Busy busy week!

The bits and pieces...

Are finally coming together... Nearing the end now (almost!)...

Still pending some minor rectifications (tall cabinet in kitchen missing an additional shelf I asked for, storage cabinet also missing one more wall shelf) but most of it has been completed. The ID has also helped to have our Japanese shoji doors put in last Saturday and they look absolutely brilliant (to me). I know I'm biased tho. Haha! :P So much love. :)

He was really worried about the installation (quote “弄坏了 我赔不了给你啊”) and cuz I was busy that entire day, he was onsite personally to supervise. Called me up several times during the process to check and confirm on what to do (plus take a photo of that nick on the door panel sustained from shipping lol). Luckily, I've learnt to mark everything up with masking paper notes so it was easy even without me being around.

True enough, the height was short by 1-2cm (just like what I measured the other night) but he got his people to fill the gap between the top track and the pillar ceiling with excess pieces of wood from the tracks. They don't look the greatest but I think I can bear that minor imperfection. His suggestion was to use some kinda industrial glue to seal it up - I'm still trying to find out what that is exactly! Another diy project to add to my growing list.

Also, there are gaps between both doors and their respective sides of the walls due to the parquet skirting (which I was mentally prepared for). It's more pronounced on the left side tho - that particular wall is not completely straight so the gap actually widens towards the top... Oh well. I guess I'm gonna have to live with it. At least until I think of a way to fix it!

I was actually hoping to get the painters in this week for touch-ups but they're not available until next Friday, unfortunately. Mr Leong (the boss) actually complained that he didn't earn from my job and sounded none too happy when I called him up on Monday afternoon about it. He said his worker had told him that the painting was done (that was not the case - he actually didn't finish in time and told me to call them back again for touch-ups when the carpentry is in). Partly my fault for not confirming that with Mr Leong back then when his worker said that to me and checking on the caveat (if any). Anyways, he mentioned that he would let me know after arranging a time but when he didn't respond to my sms last night or call me back by this evening, I decided to give him a call again. He then told me it'll have to be next Friday but not before he voiced his displeasure (again) and I parroted what his worker told me previously (again too).

Obviously, I mentioned this to the bf, the bf then told his mum (since Mr Leong is a personal friend of hers and came highly recommended by her) so she gave Mr Leong a call to speak to him and understand the situation. Which was when he explained to her that it was cuz I've held up the touch-up process too long (usually, they allow up to a month max but I took a few months to get back to them). 'Luckily' for me, this was a recommendation so it got sorted out semi-peacefully in the end. I got told off by the bf's mum for holding him up and had to call him back up again to apologise and offer some monetary compensation if the retouching proves to be too much work. :( The bf had to get a word in at me too, which I'm not very happy about since he should have forewarned me about this! (This is, after all, my first-ever renovation and he's already been thru 2!) So the bf will be footing the extra bill for painting cuz the gf will be almost bankrupt after handing over the final 5% cheque (2k thereabouts) to the ID early next week. :P

What's left for now...

1) Painting touch-ups
2) Minor rectifications (ID)
3) Citygas switch on (ID)
4) Final general cleaning (ID)
5) And nothing in the bank (Bailey's Mummy) ($_$)

和風万歳 desu!

My first-ever order from Taobao is finally here! WOOT! :D :D :D

I opted for the 6:30 to 10:30 pm delivery slot, but I actually got a notification sms from 65daigou in the early parts of the evening with a more accurate estimate that my order would arrive between 8:49 - 10:09. (Don't ask me why the odd minutes - I have absolutely no clue why either lol.) They were pretty spot-on with their estimate too. I got to our place at 8:40 and there was actually a delivery guy with a giant package waiting for the lift. When I asked him if he was delivering to the 10th floor (where we're on) and he said yes, I told him the delivery was probably for me haha. What great timing. :P

Despite the multiple layers of carton packaging used by the seller which took me a good 20 minutes to unwrap, 1 out of the 3 pieces still sustained slight damage (a minor chip at the top corner). Oh well~ Gonna figure out a way to fix it eventually but I guess I can live with it for now... I mean, what else can I do right!?

Lined them up against the wall for a 'test run' and they'll look something like this once up!

Very pleased with how it looks and can't wait for it to go up! :) Going to need the ID's help (or rather, the ID's subcons') to saw the top and bottom tracks to the correct size. Did a quick measure and it seems like the height could be shorter than what I need by 1-2cm. Not sure if it's my fault or the seller's - I'll have to track back the dimensions I gave them when I placed the order... Hopefully it's just my measurement earlier that's inaccurate cuz they were leaning against the wall and not completely vertical. Crossing my fingers and toes!

Conclusion: Both 65daigou and Taobao have served me relatively well this first time. It has been a slightly bumpy ride but no regrets as yet! So yes, I may very well make another purchase if I ever spot something on Taobao that I can't find anywhere else.

Long (diy) weekend...

Over-estimated myself and under-estimated the amount of work involved for the diy project I took up this holiday weekend lol. Had a flash of inspiration while surfing on Pinterest the other day and decided to order myself some wall stickers from Qoo10 which I used to makeover the bedroom door. $30+ for a new look, which is only 10-15% the cost of a new door. Will make do with it until the bank account recover from the renovation, haha. :P

 

Here's the before and after of our bedroom veneer door. Quite happy with how it turned out. Even the mom thinks it's nice - she actually asked if we can do it for her place (3 bedroom doors! Just kill me!).

Diy is actually highly therapeutic but boy, it's a whole new ball game when it takes such long hours lol. It's so much work trying to remove the backing paper, paste the sticker onto the surface and making sure there are no air bubbles beneath it! And all done by me, myself and I too! Unfortunately, I couldn't completely eradicate the air bubbles no matter how much I tried, but it's not too obvious (thankfully) cuz of the random wood print and texture of the wall sticker. Matt surfaces hide flaws a lot better than glossy surfaces do. :)

Managed to clean up the insides of the platform bed and the kitchen cabinets with my Mom's help today. Still pending windows cleaning which I'm totally not looking forward to... They're simply CAKED with dust and grime. It's gonna take a lot of hard scrubbing.

Electricians were over at our place this week, installing the doorbell and fixing the ugly trunking for one of the bedside lamps. (Perhaps I've picked on their work once too often, the electricians actually knew to send me photos before leaving to make sure I approve of what they'd done lol.) Partition guys have also finished up the pelmet above the sliding glass doors, outside the kitchen. Gonna check with the ID tomorrow on whether it's ok for me to arrange for the painters to come back this coming week for retouching.

Changed the date with 65daigou to deliver my sliding doors on Wednesday night instead, just in case the carpenters decide to come back this coming week (so they can help with the door installation, fingers crossed).

Also got a call from Grafunkt this afternoon - my beautiful TV console has arrived! Need to find time to head to the Millenia Tower showroom to see if there's anything else I want and whether I can hit the $2.1k mark for free delivery. Otherwise, delivery is $85 which I think is an absolute rip-off. Haha.

So many things to keep in mind and settle!

I is for IKEA & Inspirations

Hopped over to IKEA Alexandra yesterday for some furnishing recce and was really inspired by some of the smart decorating ideas they had in-store. Wasn't very fond of the crowd tho - it was just absolute long-weekend madness.

Finally found the E27 3.5W warm light bulbs that I needed for the 2 bedside lamps. The original ones that came with the lights were in 2 different colours! (Just goes to show you again that you can't trust China products/sellers too much - they have no quality control whatsoever - they just throw in whatever and hope you don't complain) The bulbs at IKEA weren't cheap, but after already wasting money on 2 cheap ones that aren't of the right dimensions from Qoo10, I decided to just go with what I can see in IKEA rather than buying blind and risk getting it wrong again. Even if the price is double what it is. :(

Also scored this awesome Ryssby 2014 lamp shade (in birch) that was originally priced at $119 for just $20. :D I was already eyeing it 6 months ago when I first spotted it at IKEA, but $100+ for a lamp shade seemed like a bit of a splurge back then, so I couldn't convince myself to part with my money. But $20 now??? How to resist!? I willingly handed it over this time lol. Probably priced to sell cuz it has been discontinued and they just want to clear their remaining stocks pronto. But doesn't matter to me, pretty is pretty even when discontinued hahaha.

Gonna be the replacement for the Japanese shoji paper one (also from IKEA) I have up in our foyer right now. It may not be immediate cuz that one still works, even if its pretty old and tattered as you can probably tell from the pictures...

 

Other plans this weekend - vet today with Bailey and more diy goodness (with some cleaning thrown in, if I have time) tomorrow at our new place! :)

Update: Just got a notification email from 65daigou this evening that my Japanese sliding doors are in town! :D Earliest available delivery date is actually next Tuesday but with work being as busy as it has been lately, I'd much rather not take the risk of not being able to make it home in time, so I've arranged for delivery on Friday night instead. Can't wait to see those doors!

2 birds with 1 stone!

After 2 long days of work this weekend (and a multitude of body aches and pain lol), I'm happy to announce that we are almost completely insect-proof and cat-safe now (minus the kitchen and bathroom). :D

Spent both days diy-ing insect screens I got off Qoo10 for the living room, foyer and bedroom (5 sets of windows in all) with the help of a very kind friend. They look great, if I may say so myself. :3 Such a great sense of achievement right there, heh heh. Hello wide open windows (with new/oiled hinges), goodbye insects! 

Living Room

Foyer

Bedroom

Terrible backlight in the photos cuz it was early evening by the time we were done, but true to what you see, they're almost close to invisible so I think it's pretty darn cool. Can't stop admiring them!  ♥

Update [04/08/15] : ID was over at our place last night checking out the glass work from last week and planning the final bits for partitioning work. He actually thought I paid someone to install my insect screens! Wahaha. Needless to say, he's well impressed with my mad diy skillz. :P

The fixed glass panels for the kitchen half-walls have also been installed this week, so that should be the end for glass works I believe. They also changed out the rubber tubing on my bathroom glass door to swing both ways just as I requested, yay!

Partition folks coming in next week according to the ID and then it's probably time to arrange for the painters to come back for touch-ups. Also pending the return of our bathroom cabinet mirror doors, which were taken out to fix the visible glue defects at the edges. Hope they can do something about that!

Final stretch of the home run...

Improving by leaps (literally) and bounds

Mid of this week, 2-3 days into her initial jab of cartrophen, you could already tell Bailey was feeling much better. She's hanging out with the family in the living room, spending most of the nights in bed with me and running around the house like she used to. Also jumping up to bed with no apparent difficulty. And waking me up at godforsaken hours in the morning to let her out of the bedroom - my morning call today was at 5:36 am lol.

Here she is right now, just chilling out in her designated sofa seat. Brought her in for her 2nd jab last night and met a friendly guinea pig owner who lived about 2 streets away from my parents' place. A very nice lady who struck up a conversation with me while waiting for her pet to be injected. He has pneumonia and needs a daily jab. Pretty tough for the both of them. We ended up chitchatting for a fair bit and sharing a cab home together. But she insisted on paying for the cab so it was more of her giving Bailey and I a free lift! Positive thoughts for a warm, kind soul - hope her pet gets well real soon.

Have also been playing with the little comm kitten who just appeared on the scene (our block) a few weeks ago. She's super manja and likes to follow me home and sit in front of our door lol. She's very curious about Bailey, but knowing Bailey (who's not so friendly with other cats) I try not to let them come into too much contact. Thinking of sterilizing and then rehoming her but not sure if I want to stress Bailey out by introducing a strange cat into her territory (cuz the kitten would need a place to recuperate from her sterilization which could take anything from 1-2 weeks for female cats)... Gonna sit on it for a bit.

Just look at how adorable she is. Pure white with a pink nose, pink paws and a perfectly straight tail too! :)

Old windows are bloodsuckers

ID called me up this afternoon with a status update after the aluminium guys came by.

Keyword: CMI.

Really cannot make it... The windows and door (also my poor heart at hearing the cost lol) are goners. All the hinges on the front metal gate (2 sets) and 4 of our top casement windows (3 in the bedroom, 1 in the foyer) have gone to hell and need replacements. In fact, according to his subcon, most of the window hinges are close to their ends and he recommends a complete change! But my ID knows I've gone way beyond my budget for this renovation and have asked them to only replace the ones that are truly spoilt, while servicing (oiling out) the rest for now.

Damage: $80 per window hinge & $70 per set of door hinge (upper and lower)

That's half a grand (almost) strolling out the door... Also half of our fridge. It's starting to look like Bailey and I may have to live without a fridge for the first month of moving in. And beg for food while we are at it, hahaha.

Useful tip from ID: To maintain the lifespan of your hinges, spray it regularly with WD40 to prevent rust.

Ole parquet, dear parquet, how I love you so!

Dropped by our place this afternoon (Saturday) to check out the parquet work and also secretly keep an eye on the glass installers to make sure they don't scratch up our revarnished floor when putting up the sliding glass doors for the kitchen.

Opted for a matte (low-gloss) varnish. Absolutely adore our brand new (looking) floor! ♥ Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike gloss in furnishings? Haha. If I have (sorry) I felt the urge to reiterate. :P 2 tiles replaced, some skirting added to the external left wall (partition) of the storage cabinet (left image below) and a bit of it removed from the external right wall of the kitchen (right image below). Pictures taken before the work was done.

 

The 2 large sliding panels and tracks are also up, but the smaller fixed panels have to be brought back to the workshop cuz they were too big apparently. I didn't realise the glass doors were so heavy until they asked me to try it lol. No wonder I paid a pretty penny for it - 10mm glass is pretty solid stuff. Didn't bother with pictures since it's not completed yet.

The partition guys were supposed to be in on Monday but are now on hold until the glass guys get their work done. And the painters can't come in for retouching until the partition guys finish their part... Domino (delay) effect lol. Good thing our move is planned for late September. :P

Aluminium guys due in this coming week to service the windows (and door) hinges!

New senior citizen in the house

It's official. Bailey has just attained senior citizenship. :(

We went to the vet this afternoon (had to wait 2 hours even WITH an appointment, doh!) and she has been diagnosed with arthritic changes in both her left hip and knee.

I was told to fast her 12 hours before her appointment so that she can be sedated for her x-ray. But Bailey (being the scaredy cat she is) was paralyzed with fear and got through the entire x-ray without it! 

Paralyzed old lady little girl in her carrier while waiting for the doctor

Unfortunately, there is no cure for arthritis. All we can do is give her health supplements to slow down and help her manage these joint changes... For now, she's on bone/joint (glucosamine) and nerve (neuroforte) supplements, painkiller (meloxicam) as well as a weekly jab (cartrophen) for the next month which (according to Dr. Heng) binds to cartilage and will hopefully improve her condition. 

The good doctor has also advised to start her back on fish oil... I stopped giving it to her for the time being cuz the one we have is huge. We have to cut it open and squeeze it into her food each time, which she doesn't like - turns her nose up at her food, this diva. So I may have to look around for smaller ones that I can just feed to her directly (ie. throw into her mouth), rather than these giant human-sized soft capsules at the moment.

We are due back for a review at the end of August, when we ascertain whether to continue those cartrophen jabs and the interval between them, should we do so.

Hope we see some significant improvements by then!

Switched on and lighted up!

After a short but hectic 10-12 hours per day work week, my long weekend proved to be just as busy, if not more so. Not that I'm complaining - I made full use of my time running around town.

Friday
Shopped TVs at Courts Jurong Point.
Watched Ant-Man. (It was surprisingly good)

Saturday
Dropped by Choo Chiang for an item exchange.

Put up the lamp shades for the pendant lights in our kitchen.
Attended a friend's father wake in Marsiling.
Shopped TVs at Gain City Sungei Kadut (abrupt halt due to sudden movie plans lol).
Shopped TVs (and nearly bought one) at Courts Lot 1.

Watched Magic Mike XXL. (Channing Tatum is still as hot as EVER)

Sunday
Minor area cleaning over at our place.
Major QC inspection to mark out 'defects' and other random things to fix.
(48 points identified - the bf says I must be every ID's nightmare hahaha)

All the switches have now been swapped out. Pretty switches = happy Mummy. :)

Was told by the electrician on Thursday that I'm missing a crucial part for the pendant lights in our kitchen so he couldn't fix up the shades for me. When I went over on Friday night to pick up the extra Legrand stuff leftover from the installation, the pendant lights in our kitchen was just the bulbs hanging off the cable like this.

I love warm lights but you have to admit they do look kinda sad and bare hanging there. I was determined to get those missing parts pronto. The plan was to get them from Choo Chiang on Saturday morning (if they had it) but I was late getting there and barely managed to barge run in (they've already put out the 'Closed' sign but I chose to ignore it). I didn't dare to push my luck (or try the salesguy's patience) since he had already told me 他要回家了... I had to say pretty please to even get my stuff exchanged lol.

Which turned out to be a small blessing in disguise. When I got to our place after Choo Chiang, I decided to rummage through the boxes that the pendant lights came in and actually found what I needed to get the lights up! Ta-da! Just call me Ms Handywoman. :P

The upper and lower cabinet mood lighting (with warm T5 LED tubes) in our bathroom is also up and running. The effect is as pretty as can be. My personal spa kinda feeling! :D

Unfortunately, it can't always be a bed of roses when it comes to renovations and furnishing. True enough, I got a call from Mega Discount Store this evening to say that the Toshiba fridge I bought from Rakuten previously is permanently out of stock (now that Toshiba has pulled out of the local market, the agent will no longer be bringing it in). I was asked to either choose another colour (I only wanted white/light colours which they no longer have) or change to another fridge altogether. That kinda put a damper on my weekend high since I was promised back in May that stock will be in mid June. Sigh. Gotta shop for a new refrigerator...

Oh well. On a happier note - parquet revarnishing to start this coming week! :)

Switcheroo!

When I first told the ID I was thinking of changing out all the electrical switches at our place, he said I should expect to spend about $200-300 for them all (and not to waste money haha).

But as usual, the OCD in me I couldn't stand the different shades of white going on in all the different brands of switches his electricians used around the house. To put it simply, it drove me nuts lol. I need consistency, darn it! (I do realise it's a waste of money, kinda.)

Just look at the 3 shades of white in a single spot!

Luckily for me, my Legrand Mallia switches from Choo Chiang ended up costing less than $200. And they had a retail outlet just diagonally across the street from our house too! What convenience. In case I need more. :P

I first found out about Choo Chiang from the kind folks on the Renotalk forum. Obviously, I also did a fair bit of research before I was convinced that they had the most competitive prices. I asked the kind folks (Nicole) over at Home First (whom I bought my lights from), another seller from Carousell (who is apparently one of the local distributors for Schneider) and also called up Choo Chiang to compare basic prices.

1G1W @ $  3.80 (Home First) / $2.60 (Carousell) / $1.60 (Choo Chiang)
2G1W @ $  6.80 (Home First) / $4.50 (Carousell) / $3.00 (Choo Chiang)
3G1W @ $10.00 (Home First) / $7.10 (Carousell) / $4.40 (Choo Chiang)

I was convinced. Choo Chiang it is. :P

Pricelists for future reference

Legrand Mallia (matt white)

1) Choo Chiang Marketing (prices before GST)

- 1G1W @ $1.60
- 2G1W @ $3.00
- 2G2W @ $4.00
- 3G1W @ $4.40
- 3G2W @ $6.30
- 4G1W @ $7.20
- 4G2W @ $10.00
- 13A S/S/O @ $2.80
- 2x13A S/S/O @ $5.10
- SCV @ $3.15
- TEL @ $ 3.00
- CAT6 @ $8.80
- 20A @ $6.80
- Doorbell (switch) @ $3.15

Choo Chiang accepts cash, NETS and CC, with a 1-week exchange policy.

2) Carousell Seller

- 1G1W @ $2.60
- 2G1W @ $4.50
- 3G1W @ $7.10
- 4G1W @ $14.80
- 13A S/S/O @ $4.50
- 2x13A S/S/O @ $7.40

3) Home First

- 1G1W @ $3.80
- 2G1W @ $6.80
- 2G2W @ $9.20
- 3G1W @ $10.00
- 4G1W @ $16.00
- 13A S/S/O @ $6.40
- 2x13A S/S/O @ $15.00

Schneider Electric

1) Carousell Seller

- 1G1W @ $1.80
- 2G1W @ $2.50
- 3G1W @ $4.00
- 4G1W @ $16.00
- 13A S/S/O @ $2.50
- 2x13A S/S/O @ $4.40
- 20A @ $7.90

According to the Carousell seller, Schneider is having a 40% discount for trading in your old switches (any brand) at the moment. 

Oh yeah, and the electricians are due back at our place this coming Thursday. Can't wait to see all our pretty switches in place. :) 

Another step towards our Japanese-themed home... :)

Our Japanese shoji doors have finally arrived at the 65daigou warehouse in Guangzhou yesterday! YAY! :D This is for the doorway between the foyer and the living room, so I can carve out a proper, enclosed cat corner for when I foster cats, like I've done in the past.

What a nightmare it has been, coordinating the logistics of this thing. I opted to place the order myself initially cuz there were way too many options to choose from to custom-make these doors. I had to choose the number of tracks, the number of panels, the pattern of the wooden frame, the pattern on the shoji paper etc. It just seemed like too much information to convey so I spoke to the seller myself to get the details of the order ironed out, made payment via credit card and figured that that would be it (just sit back to wait for the items to arrive at the warehouse in a bit). Boy, I was SO off the mark...

I got a shipping notification via the Taobao app on June 27th and when I checked, it has already arrived in Guangzhou for 3 days, with a daily 提货通知：短信 通知失败 since June 24th! I was baffled - this was my 1st Taobao order after all - so I assumed it would all sort out by itself since I have already put in the 'Ship For Me' order the very next day after I got the notification.

After 3 days and no updates, I decided to drop 65daigou an enquiry on July 1st. 2 days later, they replied that they have no idea why it hasn't been delivered yet and advised that I should get the seller to have the item delivered to their warehouse. So back on Taobao I go, to chat to the seller and to ask her to get the local delivery company to deliver to the warehouse. The next day, 65daigou dropped me another note that the local delivery company that the seller used practises self-collection which they don't do. Which is all well and good since I've already asked the seller to get them to deliver. Ok great, no more problems, the total amount I've paid should include delivery right? ...WRONG!

On July 8th, when I checked the delivery status in the morning and it said 派送中 - I was over the moon. YAY, it's almost there! ...I thought. But in the afternoon when I checked again - the latest update said 派送失败（原因：付款问题（客户））BLOODY HELL. That was when I came to the realisation that I've just made the biggest, dumbest mistake of all, which was to assume that the price is inclusive of door-to-door shipping. I blame it on all the Chinese on the product page - it boggled my mind good. I even asked a friend to pore through the item page for me after that - there was absolutely no mention of the shipping / delivery methods on it. I should have asked the seller, instead of assuming! DOH! (Cue smack forehead lol) So back to 65daigou I go... They checked with the delivery company and were told that the seller opted for collection of delivery charges upon delivery. 65daigou's usual practice was to refuse anything that requires payment (which was what happened with my 1st delivery) but they agreed to pay the shipping charges first, if I could just let them know the exact amount.

Morning of July 9th had me speaking to the seller to get her to check the total amount to pay for delivery (inclusive of the 1st failed delivery, grr). She replied to me that night to say it was 198 RMB but I didn't see it till 10:30 the next morning. She also left a message earlier that morning with her mobile number to say that delivery mode cannot be changed after 11:30am! That set me in panic mode, so I quickly made a call to her (international call charges, gah!) to find out the details. That was when she told me to just pay her the delivery fees and she'd pay the delivery company on my behalf.

That set off another round of confusion cuz I wasn't sure how to pay her. She then told me to just order any item on her listing and she would change the price for me, just like the previous order for my doors. After 20 minutes of figuring out how to pay via the Taobao mobile app, I finally got the case settled. It was going to be delivered that very day. And all this while I was on the way to work! What madness, lol. Needless to say, I was checking delivery status on the app every other hour the whole of Friday. It finally got updated late that night with a 正常签收.

HIP HIP HOORAY! :D

Damage (till date): 1749 (doors/tracks) + 198 (2 x delivery) RMB ($450 ish)
Shipping @ volumetric weight of 42kg (sea) + 7% GST (for items above $400): $155 ish

If I'd gone with the 'Buy For Me' option - the agent fee would have only been 140 RMB (8% of item cost) and a lot less hassle. I wonder if I should try that for my next purchase haha.

In any case, what I've paid is still a lot cheaper than what I was quoted locally (2-3k range) for similar-looking wooden doors and this being the real deal. Provided the dimensions of the delivered product are accurate, of course.

A $600 gamble... (I have terrible luck tho.) Hope all that trouble will be worth it. :P

Slow return for Bailey

A little slow for my liking but very surely, my manja little girl is coming back to me! Bit by bit! :)

She has already spent most of the last 3 nights in bed with me. Now for her to stop being afraid and jumping at the slightest movement. (Might need Feliway's help for that... if I can just remember where I kept it, doh!) She complains a fair bit when I make her take her painkillers but it's a necessary evil, unfortunately.

In any case, she's due back at the vet in 2 weeks' time and I'll probably still have her x-rayed just to know for certain her body's condition.

Her Royal Highness from about 2 weeks ago, when she was feeling better of late. (Please ignore the many carton boxes in the background - those are the stuff I bought for our place that I'm keeping at my parents' for now haha.) You can tell she's in a better mood when she chooses to bestow you with her royal presence lol. Else, she's usually under the bed.

And that's a (carpentry + plumbing) wrap!

Our remaining cabinets have finally been completed! And most importantly, done correctly this time. WOOT! :D Even got my ID to get his subcons to fix up the IKEA metal wall shelves within the storage cabinet, which the previous owners had up in the foyer before.

Foyer Cabinet

Storage Cabinet

The plumbers have also come and gone last week - the bathroom basin, our cheap US$35 double-bowl kitchen sink (a backdated story I hope to get to eventually lol) and the rest of the sanitary ware (taps and accessories) have all been installed. Love my big bathroom basin~ ♥

Off to Admiralty tomorrow morning/afternoon to collect a carpet I bought on Qoo10 a couple of weeks back for the living room. I actually ordered 2 pieces but in separate orders and requested that shipping be combined for both - unfortunately, the seller missed the special instructions I left and refused to do anything about it, so I have to travel down to their office to collect instead. BLEH~ to crappy service but I guess that's what you get when you buy cheap things - no customer service, so to speak.

Update [13/07/15] : They ran out of stock and asked if I wanted to take another colour instead (no thanks) so I have to wait another 2 weeks for them to ship the colour I ordered to me. Wasted a few hours of my precious weekend for nothing!

Also figured I'll make that trip down to Choo Chiang Marketing in the morning to grab those Legrand Mallia switches I've been eyeing for the longest time. Gotta get them for the electricians asap or work progress will be stuck, cuz parquet revarnishing can't happen till electrical is done (ID said it'll be too dirty otherwise).

So many errands, so little time!

More damage to the bank...

With Bailey's uncertain health situation this week, I've not been in much of a mood to keep tabs on the possible changes going on over at our new place. I did stop over in the early afternoon yesterday to drop off the kitchen wire basket I bought off Carousell cuz the carpenters needed it for installation.

Afterwards, I hopped over to Selfix DIY @ Jurong Point to collect these small stackable storage boxes I bought on Qoo10. Loved the pretty pastels so I ordered 1 of each, except for blue which was out of stock. Made in China so the quality is a little questionable. One of the white covers I got was a tad bit faulty (the plastic hinges seems to be slightly off-kilter and creaks really loudly each time you flip it up/down) so I brought it in again on the same day (before going downtown) to request for an exchange.

Damage: $12.90 each

They're going into either the kitchen, in the tall cabinet next to the washer or the bathroom, between the wall and the WC. Will see how it works out after we move in... Love organised storage. :)

Then I chanced upon Japan Home having a 50% GSS clearance sale. Grabbed 3 of these solid wood stools. I wanted 4 but I couldn't find a 4th one that was stable enough, from the remaining stock in the shop. IKEA has similar plywood ones going for $11.90 each, but the make of this is so much better for the same price. 3 baskets + 3 solid wood stools = too heavy for the feeder bus home, so I had to hail a cab for it. $5 added to the cost but still a steal in my opinion. :P

Damage: $11.45 each (after discount)

After bringing the stash back to my parents', I headed over to Plaza Singapura in the evening to meet the bf for dinner and buy that Monza sliding door wardrobe I was eyeing over at V.Hive. Was told I had to pay in full for the item and not a deposit like I was expecting, so there goes my furnishing budget for the month. :( Good thing was, they've agreed to keep the item for me till end August (our move is scheduled for the 3rd week of September, after the Lunar 7th month). I'm expecting handover to be some time close to end July, so I'll have at least a month and a half to slowly clean up and decorate to my heart's content.

The Tropez ottoman stool I bought off Rakuten a few weeks back to pair with my single-seater sofa also arrived mid-week. I haven't unwrapped it but it looks like this.

Damage: $61.60 (after 30% discount)

Also added this slim dish drainer rack into the same order, to sit next to my double-bowl kitchen sink since I don't have a dish rack above it. Should be enough for me, myself & Bailey. :)

Damage: $14 (after 30% discount)

Anyways, after such a long worrisome week, all I wanted to do was take a breather and spend a quiet day at home today. According to the ID, the foyer and bathroom cabinets should have been remedied yesterday and he wanted me to go check it out today, but I didn't want to cut short my R&R time so I'm gonna head over tomorrow night after work instead.

Hopefully, everything will be spot-on!

Off to the vet for Miss Bailey

After a long week of not seeing/touching my 宝贝, I put myself out of my misery by rushing Bailey to The Joyous Vet after work tonight (or last night, technically speaking). She was lethargic and barely struggled when I put her into her carrier. Definitely not in good shape even after a week of 'rest'. :(

We didn't have a prior appointment as her regular vet is super popular - she's not on duty daily and you need to book her at least a month or two in advance. We got there at 7.30pm and was advised to expect a 2-3 hours wait. True enough, we only got to see her at 10pm, 2.5 hours later. (The clinic's official hours is till 9pm btw.)

After 30 minutes of talking/probing/pulling/stretching/testing, Dr. Heng says it's likely her lower right back/hip area giving her problems. Bailey had a more marked reaction when pressed on her right. Also, that her right leg is slightly stiff (ie. can't stretch as well as her left, which she's obviously more confident with). The good doctor prescribed Bailey a daily dose of painkiller for the 1st week, followed by a dose every other day for the 2nd and 3rd week. Plus a nerve supplement every other day for a month. 

We're due back for a follow-up in 3-4 weeks' time but just as expected, she had no free slots until 5 weeks later. Boo. Dr. Heng also said to be prepared that Bailey will need to be sedated for an X-ray, if there's no improvement by then. I hope there won't be a real need to! :( 

Get well soon, darling! 
Mummy needs you to be healthy and happy when we move into our new home!  

Gimme my Bailey back!

The 大小姐 is not well. :(

She has been hiding from the entire family since last Friday. Her appetite has gone down and she doesn't want any of us to touch her, even me. (Cue heartbreak, sob!) This is a complete 360° behaviourial change. She's permanently parked under my bed and only comes out for water/food/pee/poo. Obviously, she has also stopped sleeping next to me in bed at night. I'm so worried... I miss my Bailey-wailey and I dunno what I can do for her to make her feel better.

I've been freaking myself out, reading up on all sorts of possible, morbid feline health issues and hearing other fur mummies talk about how sick their cats are/were.

Going to give her a week to recover. If she doesn't, I'm bringing her to the doctor this weekend, even if I have to drag her out from under the bed!

The only way is up...

For my carpentry, that is.

After the many downs in the carpentry stage of our renovation, I'm so glad that things are finally looking up.

Was over at our place just now after a pretty eventful weekend (BBQ in the evening yesterday + the Minions movie in the afternoon today). My self-designed Blum larder is done! :)

So excited to see it. Can't wait to stock it up!

The original intention for the larder was for sauces, condiments and other random dry goods which I'll need for my baking but I do worry that I'll slip into the junk food cesspool and stuff it full with potato chips lol.

Besides the larder, my KompacPlus Boston Cherry counter is in too. Adore how well it complements the tiled backsplash. Not so in love with the Light Brazilian Walnut laminate (way too noisy for me) but oh well, maybe I'll stick a plain coloured cabinet wall sticker on it after I move in. Or maybe it'll grow on me. We'll see...

Our storage platform has also been fixed! Perfectly-aligned this time round. Check out the before (left) and after (right) below. SOOOOO DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY! :D It finally looks close to perfect...

Except for a minor crack in the laminate which I spotted above the first white door on the right. :P I wouldn't have seen it if I was just glancing at it, but when one is looking for defects, one finds them haha. They tried to cover it up with glue but hey, I'm not a designer for nothing. (We are known for our OCD.) This is unacceptable.

Will have to find an appropriate time to let the ID down softly lol. It's not a major defect and there are still things that need fixing, so the carpenters will be around for a bit more yet.

Wish me luck. :)

Post ID WWII

Surprise surprise~

The ID gave me a call this afternoon to apologise for his attitude last week. (Apparently, he had a lot going on that day so he lost his cool) No problem - that's all well and good for me - I'm not too concerned about it as long as the storage platform gets corrected really. Which was the gist of what I said to him too, haha. :P

So yes, the carpenters have owned up to their mistake. The problem was that they didn't cater a space from the wall to the start (left) of the steps for the front row, like they did for the 2 rows behind - which was what caused the misalignment. I kinda knew that already when I spotted the issue previously, but it's nice to be told I'm right lol. Which of course, means that they've agreed to fix it for me and it'll be done in the later part of this week.

Made my day, it did. Such good news for an otherwise blue Monday. :)

ID WWII + a little bit more

Dropped by our place on Tuesday night after work and the storage platform in our bedroom is almost completed! At first glance, I was ecstatic - I absolutely loved the look of that laminate (so much better than what I chose for the kitchen, haha) and it was exactly as what I'd visualised when I was designing it...

...until I spotted this on closer inspection. This would be what I consider a major defect in my eyes. >:( The vertical line for the front row near the steps is seriously misaligned! Can't believe the carpenters are still giving me such shoddy work after all the fuss I threw up with the bathroom and foyer cabinets.

So I sent the ID a WhatsApp message on Wednesday morning with the above photos and asked him what his thoughts were. He called me back almost immediately (the one good thing with him is that he's very very prompt with his responses) to ask me what the problem was. When I told him the issue, he didn't seemed to get it. Once again, the old and much-abused excuse that they've done everything based on the dimensions or drawings that I've given. He started ranting that they just can't please me - the exact quote would be:

"We don't follow your dimensions, you say wrong.
Now we follow your dimensions, you still say wrong."

MY POINT WAS... I'm not fussing about the dimensions now! I'm talking about the alignment and I'm 100% certain that NOBODY told me that it would not be. My drawings definitely have straight lines. So I sat thru his rant and then ended the call by telling him that I will send him an illustration of what I meant via email, which looked like this (forgive the low res version of the original platform drawing - I did this in a hurry in the office with limited resources at hand): 

Did I also mention that he asked me to get the bf give him a call? When the bf called him up at lunch, he complained to told the bf that this was the first time he has had a client like me (read: I was the most difficult and/or fussy client he has ever had to date). And then repeated the same set of excuses he gave me in the morning about everything being done per agreed dimensions etc. The bf told him straight-up to show us the black and white, and not what he/she/they said. So the ID had no choice but to agree to check on this and get back to us. I didn't get off completely scot-free tho - was told off by the bf for not having black and white communications with the ID. X[

After sharing my frustrations with a couple of my friends, we all agreed that it was the carpenters performing below par in this case, cuz misalignment should be something the professionals should be watching out for. If there was going to be any possible pitfalls, these purported experts should be the ones to highlight to the homeowner so that we can all align on how to resolve the issue.

Of course, this is just our opinion but it is still up in the air as to whether it will be fixed. It's all going to boil down to the integrity of the carpenters - whether they'll admit their mistake (or not). Or the relationship of the ID with his subcons - if he can cajole them into fixing it. It looks like a lot of work if they were to do it tho, so I do not have high hopes. In the meantime, I'm going to try to figure out how to cover up this defect if they don't...

In happier news, Rany from Doctor Doors followed through with his promise to resolve my bathroom door issue! His guys came over to switch out the entire vertical strip of aluminium and printing defect no more, YAY! :D Kudos to the folks at Doctor Doors! Glad I decided to give them another chance by getting my other bathroom door replaced by them too. It's not the cheapest bifold door out there but good customer service is worth a whole lot more. :)

Furniture Front Runners - Wardrobe

I figured it was about time to start looking for a wardrobe when I realised that the pole system I have over at my parents' right now won't work in our new place, cuz 1 - my ceiling fan will get in the way of the vertical pole (doh!) and 2 - it's not tall enough for our new place which has a 2.8m ceiling (my parents' ceiling is only 2.65m and the pole is already maxed out) so I'm not going to be able to reuse it. Bye-bye to my open-concept IKEA Stolmen dreams... (no thanks to my ceiling fan lol)

Anyways, a couple of wardrobes that I've looked at in recent days and quite fancy. :)

Selena 2 Door Wardrobe (x2)

L79.5 x D50 x H199.6 cm

$399 (x2 = $798) @ Courts

ASKVOLL Wardrobe (x2)

L80 x D52 x H189 cm

$199 (x2 = $398) @ IKEA

Lisa 4 Door Wardrobe

L160 x D53 x H183 cm

$499 @ V.Hive ($449 after additional 10% discount till 28th June)

Monza Mirror Sliding Wardrobe (Hettich fittings)

L202 x D66 x H207 cm

$1199 @ V.Hive ($1079 after additional 10% discount till 28th June)

Turin Sliding Wardrobe (Hettich fittings)

L202 x D66 x H207 cm

$999 @ V.Hive ($899 after additional 10% discount till 28th June)

Almost certain I'm gonna go for the V.Hive Monza/Turin. The oak colour is a close match to what I have on my platform bed and the Hettich hardware definitely gives them an edge - the sliding door was smooth and quiet. I also loved the internal laminate, which was a pleasant surprise when you open up your wardrobe. Simply love the cool, understated stripes. :3

Unfortunately, V.Hive only keeps items up to a month max so I'll have to order it at the end of this month (to take advantage of the additional GSS discount) and hope that my renovation completes before it gets delivered!

Fingers crossed...