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!

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...

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.

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...

Painting Blue(s) - Happily Ever After

Painting was scheduled to start last Friday and I had to work, so I rushed down to our place after work on Thursday night to leave instructions for the painters so they knew where to paint what. Nasty business it was, considering the sheer amount of dust in the place and no electricity. 

I was going to write notes on the masking tape that the workers tended to leave strewn around the house and then paste it wherever I wanted work done... Plus I also had to write in Chinese, mind you (the bf's mum said so) and boy, was I glad that I had my phone with me to figure out some the words that I didn't know how to write - 拆除，磨平，补洞. Yes, I know how to write them now. :P 

Unfortunately, it was just not my day that night...

1) I had a hard time finding anything in the dark. Found the one and only roll of masking tape after a good 15 mins of serious searching and there wasn't much left as it is. 

2) 2/3 into the writing, I ran out of masking tape (oh well, it was just a matter of time). I then started salvaging bits of used tape by tearing short bits from longer ones that were already on doors and walls etc. Funny when I think about it now, but it certainly wasn't at that point in time. Hungry, sweaty and dusty girl that I was. 

3) I had to decide how to divide and paint the walls of my bedroom that very moment. I kid you not when I tell you that I stood in my pitch dark bedroom (with a miserable torch light from my phone) staring at the walls and thinking. After finally settling on a solution, I drew it out on a piece of paper instead, since it would need way too much masking tape then I could scrimp to explain everything, haha. 

This was what I ended up with (note the miserable strips of masking tape I stole from elsewhere lol). I stuck it on the bedroom door.

4) The door connecting the bedroom to the bathroom was dismantled before wet works started and left leaning on one of the bedroom walls where there were nails and stuff on the wall that I wanted removed. I tried to move it but it didn't seemed to want to budge so I figured I would slowly lower it and leave it lying on the ground instead. UNFORTUNATELY! I underestimated its weight and it came crashing down midways and landed on my right toe, scraping my left knee in the process.

Hello, you gloriously black toe nail, you!

I was in so much pain, I couldn't speak nor move for a good 20 mins, simply taking deep calming breaths. For all I know, I may very well have inhaled an entire lifetime's worth of dust that very night, haha. The pain kept me up that night - I could barely sleep. And put me out of commission for the next few days after that. Thankfully, no fracture.

With my toe injured, I was excused from work and free to oversee my painting on Friday so I hobbled my way there the next morning after seeing the doctor (who was useless and just directed me to A&E). I went through all my written notes with Ah Leong and asked him to let me know should there not be enough paint. I wasn't expecting him to but when I dropped by the next day to check on the painting and pay (he and his worker couldn't finish on Friday so his worker came back on Saturday to continue), his worker told me I needed to get another 10L of white. I limped-hobbled to take a bus to what I thought was the nearest paint shop 2 stops away.

Nam Tai Choon Trading @ Blk 966 Jurong West St 93 #01-215

They didn't have Odour~less Easywash, only Odour~less Premium All-in-One and Easywash. I learnt from the nice Auntie that Odour~less Easywash is only available in Home-Fix, Selffix or shops where they have colour machines to mix the colours. Premium All-in-One and Easywash are ready colours that you can buy off the shelves. Less colour choices obviously, but if you're looking for simple colours like plain white etc, then Easywash would be the cheapest out of the premium range.

Price: Nippon Easywash @ $70 / 5L, Nippon Odour~less Premium All-in-One @ $77 / 5L

I opted for Easywash since I'm trying to keep the costs down. It's not odourless but since we're not moving in right away, the smell wouldn't really matter to us anyway. Afterwards, I made my way back to our place somehow, with pauses every 20-30 steps cuz my fingers were in pain from carrying 5L in each hand and my toe too. (I found out much later that there were probably quite a few stores/companies selling Odour~less Easywash at Pioneer Centre, just diagonally across from our new place, doh! My only explanation - you lose more braincells than you realise when you're in pain lol.) The journey sure wasn't easy but it was all worth it, after seeing my visualised colours realised. :)

Living Room (external walls of kitchen) - Clamshell 3161

Bedroom - Solitude 5035

Really happy with my choice of colours and how they turned out. They are very close to what was printed on the paint catalogue and no detectable smell from Easywash a week after painting. Big thumbs up for Nippon Paint!

Painting Blue(s)

Yes, blue. The colour of our bedroom walls in my parents' place. It's such a cool, soothing colour to sleep and completely chill out in that I actually wanted to repeat it in our own place.

And cuz I was trying to make it for the Qoo10 Q points cashback promotion (last day 2 Sundays ago), I spent a large part of the Saturday before last checking out Pinterest and Houzz for colour inspirations and then the Nippon paint catalogue (2014). 

However, the designer in me is well aware that screen colors are largely inaccurate, often dependent on monitor calibration, colour profiles, gamma and what-nots, so Sunday morning saw me hitting some of the physical stores to check out the colours in a printed catalogue. I tried the following:

1) Kim Wah General Contractor @ Blk 84 Bedok North St 4 #01-05

Listed on the Nippon website as a Nippon Paint Shop, I was rather disappointed when all they had was Odour~less Premium All-In-One paints and a shopkeeper with a lousy attitude. I asked for a copy of the catalogue to take a look at the colours and he threw it at me across the counter like I owed him something. Ignoring that, I asked him some questions...

Q: Uncle, what's the difference between Odour~less Premium All-In-One and Odour~less Easywash?
A: Aiyah, all about the same one lah. Not much difference one.

Q: Does Matex for ceiling turn powdery?
A: Aiyah, nowadays all are emulsion paint, won't turn powdery like last time one lah. (Which was not what I've heard from many other people out there)

Obviously, he didn't seem too interested in entertaining me and walked off after that as I was going through the catalogue, dismissing me. Well, definitely a no-go for me. I won't be back again, Uncle. :P

Price: Nippon Odour~less Premium All-in-One @ $78 / 5L

2) Home-Fix @ Bedok Mall #B2-17/18

The sales person here was a whole lot more forthcoming with information, patiently answering all my questions, even with a running nose. The prices were of course, slightly more expensive than what's online but I would have gone with them if they had offered free delivery. I wanted to give him my business! But unfortunately, they don't and I live on the other side of the island so it didn't make sense for me to buy more expensive paint AND still pay for cab fare home.

I learnt that there are actually 4 bases for the whole range of Nippon Odour~less Easywash paints and prices for each colour vary according to the base number. The darker the colour, the more expensive it is. They mix the colour on the spot with the colour machine when you place your order. Apparently, colours will not vary even if you run out of paint and have to go back for more (just quote your colour code).

I spent a good 20-30 minutes staring at all the paint swatches, picking this and comparing that, until the sales person took pity on poor ole me and gave me a copy of the 2015 Nippon Paint Catalogue so I can bring it home and take my time deciding. That could be him just trying to rid the store of me but in any case, he's an absolute life-saver. Thank you, kind sir from Home-Fix Bedok Mall! :D I left the store with these swatches...

Price: Nippon Odour~less Easywash @ $74.60 (base 1) and up / 5L (dependent on base)

After I got home, I started work immediately, pouring through the Nippon Paint Catalogue all the while staring at our new sofa, curtains, wood laminates etc. and finally concluding that the cool colours I wanted initially are not going to work with my ideal theme. I ended up choosing more neutral colours to complement what we have going on in our deco.

Clamshell 3161 (a slightly warm medium grey) for our external kitchen walls and Solitude 5035 (an almost cool grey) for our bedroom (haha, is that what will happen to Bailey and I for the rest of our lives!?). Everything else will be white.

Ordered 10L of white, 5L each of Clamshell and Solitude from Estore on Qoo10 that Sunday night and after a small cart coupon discount, my order was slightly over $300 and barely in time for Q points rebate (which would amount to $30). I knew I needed more white paint but since the next tier for cashback was $500 and there was no way I would be able to hit that amount, I decided to hold off ordering more in case there were other upcoming sale promotions in the new week. However, Estore was really efficient and contacted me on Tuesday morning to fix a delivery date (I left a special note in my order to give me a call to confirm delivery time/date). That was when I had to let them know that I need to add on to my order and so later that night, ordered the additional 10L of white and 5L of sealer that I needed. With some Qoo10 member coupons, I actually managed to still get my paints at the same price and delivered together with my first order. Qoo10 rocks when it comes to rewarding loyal customers! :)

Price: Nippon Odour~less Easywash @ $72.40 / 5L (inclusive of delivery)

All my paints were delivered on Thursday afternoon and their deliveryman was kind enough to call me after that was done (since I wasn't present to sign for the delivery), complete with a MMS to show for it.

Such a hassle-free transaction it was that I would love to buy more paint from them if I ever needed it again. Highly recommended!

Setting the wheels of carpentry in motion!

Met up with the ID just now to pass him the final drafts for carpentry. At 11:20pm. (Yes, both my ID and I work long and hard hours. But him more than me, I think. Since I was out late today cuz of gym.) These are rough snapshots of what they look like until I can get these drawings to a scanner.

Bathroom Cabinet

Bedroom Platform

Kitchen Cabinets

ID suggested to frame up the shelving for the bathroom cabinet, rather than open shelves against the wall per my drawing for better weight support, which I agreed with. He also mentioned that the bedroom platform may not have as much storage as what I visualised (likely only 4 columns, rather than 5) but he will get the carpenters to redo this one for me. Plus I forgot to draw in the checkered backsplash for the open shelves section in kitchen wall #2. :P

According to him, my drawings will make more sense to the carpenters - his 3D folks need exact details and angles to generate the drawings so he needs to redraw them all. Not sure what kind of 3D people they hire but they sound very low level to me if they can't even work from what I feel are already very detailed drawings (lol). Or is that just the design snob in me talking? Anyways! 3D will take another week or two. :)

Initially, I was gonna ask if I can get a discount should I opt out of 3D drawings. But after the teething hiccups at the beginning of my renovation (the kitchen tiles fiasco being one of it), I've learnt (to my bank account's misfortune) that what I'm visualising may not necessarily be what my ID is seeing or even thinking from my attempts at description. And that's completely understandable since it's my design and not his. So this time round, I'm going to err on the side of caution since carpentry makes up the bulk of my renovation costs. Having clear visual representations of my cabinets would definitely help, to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Using matt white doors for all the cabinets, except for the bathroom which has mirrored doors and a small glossy white one for the compartment where I intend to keep the toilet paper (and which will apparently cost me more cuz it's an extra door, doh). The frames for all the cabinets will be using light-coloured matt wood laminates on the outside (which has always been my personal preference) and coloured PVC on the inside (if my budget still allows it).

Kitchen - EWP 4063M (light brazilian walnut)
Bedroom Platform - DWV 4539AE (mercury elm)
Bathroom - DWL 4532LX (segato naturale)
Foyer - EWS 9228T (beige cinnamon wood)

Matt White - ECG 0011VC (cool white-v)
Glossy White - ECG 0001CC (cool white-g)

Nail-biting time starts right about now...