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! :)

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!

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. :)

ID WWI

I've hit my first major spot of trouble with my ID.

Our carpentry finally started on Thursday, so I dropped by that very night after work to check on the work progress. (Yes, I simply couldn't stop worrying that something would go wrong.) True enough, things did go wrong with the foyer cabinet (wrong laminate) and bathroom cabinet (wrong laminate and dimension). Is this Murphy's Law or what!?

I called the ID immediately to tell him about it and admittedly, I was a tad harsh with my words when his first response was to deny all wrongdoings. He insisted that all the carpentry was done based on the latest set of 3D drawings, but I distinctly remember him asking me if changes were really necessary when I asked to revise the first round of them (quote: "大概对就可以了，不会100%准的"). So when the second round of drawings came in and there were still mistakes, I decided to close one eye and not ask for more changes. Unfortunately, it doesn't pay to be kind. When shit hits the fan, nobody wants to bear the responsibility.

Foyer Cabinet 3D v1

Requested changes for Foyer Cabinet 3D v1

Foyer Cabinet 3D v2

Foyer Cabinet now (white body)

As you can see, the laminate for the foyer cabinet was STILL wrong in 3D v2! (I'd asked for the body to be in Beige Cinnamon Wood and the doors to remain white) If ​carpentry was really based on the latest set of 3Ds per what my ID claimed, then it should have been in complete Beige Cinnamon Wood rather than complete white now - that's the end to your bloody skewed excuse!

Bathroom Cabinet 3D v1

Requested changes for Bathroom Cabinet 3D v1

Bathroom Cabinet 3D v2

Bathroom Cabinet now (glossy white! body)

The bathroom cabinet was in light brown wood laminate from the very beginning and no changes were ever made to it throughout, so I don't understand how it turned into glossy white (have I mentioned that I absolutely detest gloss laminates!?). Plus the fact that I specifically stated an internal depth of 6 inches in those 2D drawings that I drew for them and now they're only a miserable 4, which means I can't even put a single roll of toilet paper! Also, the verbal agreement was for 3 shelves but they ended up doing 4.

So... We only have 5 sets of cabinets in our place and 2 out of 5 (gee, an amazing 40%!) is wrong. Can you blame me for getting upset!? Especially with the ID insisting that they've done no wrong and everything is based on the latest 3Ds. When I blurted out that I don't want to pay $700 for a useless bathroom cabinet, he got all riled up, turning on me and accusing me of having a bad attitude instead! And then he started on how he didn't say he wouldn't correct the mistakes for me. Roti prata man! When the first thing you did was to deny everything! He also kept going on about how he called me one weekend to check the colour of the laminate for the foyer cabinet (WRONG! He called to check for the storage cabinet!) and tried to blame it all on my own forgetfulness. GRR!

Anyways, with all the 'evidence' I gathered above, I sent him an email that very night, plugging up all the loopholes in his lame excuses and he has now agreed to fix the wrongs. 真的是(母)老虎不发威, 当我是病猫!

But boy, that fight sure left me with a bad taste in my mouth... I hope I never have to go through that again. :(

Victim of Beauty

Yes. That would be me. :P

I have fallen. Hard.

For this absolutely gorgeous TV console in oak that I saw at Grafunkt yesterday. I couldn't get it out of my head last night and it was the first thing on my mind today. (Don't tell the bf lol)

It was like our sofa all over again...

I had to have it. Or risk losing sleep over it. (And lack of sleep makes a grumpy Mummy.)

It's all kinda strange... Things you say may come back to haunt you. It was only a few days ago when I said I wouldn't be buying a TV console that soon. The shopping intended yesterday was for a 1-seater armchair. There were only 2 stops on my original route - the Grafunkt showroom was never on it. But my friend's bf (the designated driver) suggested it since we were in the area, so I figured why not. And boy, was that an expensive why-not indeed, haha.

It was love at first sight. I could just see it in our living room. The right corner where the back board ends is right where the electricity plugs are on my wall. The asymmetrical shelves would be the perfect playground for Bailey (pretty sure she would love the little nooks close to the floor below the shelves too). I gushed over it for a whole 30 minutes. But the price was a huge deterrent even with the 5th anniversary 15% discount. We had to hussle since we had other places to go and a movie to watch. But unfortunately for my bank account, I left my heart there.

This afternoon, after checking with my ID on the possibility of having it done with carpentry (yes, it would be cheaper but still a no-go cuz there are too many edges and laminate won't look good like solid wood does) and then told to can wallpaper plans till carpentry is done, I made a beeline for the Grafunkt showroom instead. The anniversary discount is for May, so technically today was the last day.

My friend and I sat and stared at admired the console for another 30? 40? minutes again (sitting exactly where the photo was taken) before I finally managed to convince myself to put good money down on it. $1637.10 to be exact. Original price was $1926! And it was already on pre-order (eta August/September), mind you. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect to spend such an amount on a TV console. But I'm a sucker for aesthetics and this was simply a thing of beauty.

I'm sorry, Mr Wallet. Please trust me when I say... I feel your pain. But still, I can't wait for it to be delivered. Love is a wonderful thing! :)

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...

我怕了你...

That's what the ID told me just now.

Seems like our home renovation is bringing out the worst in me... I'm turning into your regular home owner from hell. Just call me Renozilla lol.

The charges against me:

1) I forget to tell him the things I want.

2) I don't remember the stuff he tells me. (FALSE!!!)

I DO keep the things he tells me in mind but in a constant bid to have things just right (blame the perfectionist in me), I overthink the parts I have issues with and try to fix them somehow, overwriting our previous discussions.

Which in turn, gives him heart attacks cuz I'll call him and ask about these issues that he thought were already agreed on, haha. (Ok, I can understand how it sounds like to him...) But but, I need my house to be perfect!

Does that make me a difficult customer?

Anyways, the issue today that led to this comment: 

This is the kitchen base for the right wall of our kitchen. My intention for this side is to have (from right) the sink, the washer and then a full height cabinet to hide the fat ugly pipe. The original plan was to not have a base under the washer so I can slide it directly below the kitchen counter with no worry on the space below not being enough for the height of the washer. 

 

But unfortunately, the water outlet for the washer was jutting up from the floor in the middle of nowhere (see pipe outlet wrapped in blue) so they had to shift the outlet to the left and cover it with concrete base to have even flooring for the washer to go in.

Herein lies the problem(s). The base needs to be extended out depth-wise, so it juts out from the rest of it. FUGLY. Another minor issue I had - the full height cabinet to box up the ugly pipe on the left will have neither tiling nor cabinet wood on the base. Is that normal!? (Apparently, it is - according to my ID) I personally feel that that would be a bit raw and unfinished since it'll be in plain sight when I open the cabinet, so I sent him a message on WhatsApp to check if it can look like this.

He insisted that the base below the cabinet is usually left as concrete but will ask the tilers if it's possible to do as I asked. As for the extension of the base, he's gonna try to keep it small (he suggests 650mm or 630mm minimum). He would rather we have it a little bigger than too small... The OCD in me screams no, but I think practicality will have to win this round. Hopefully, it won't be too unsightly!

This was what saved the day for me - our kitchen backsplash tiles are completely up and the effect was just as I visualized! YAY. Pretty tiles = A happy Bailey's Mummy :)

ID says I can arrange for delivery of lights, sanitary ware and electrical appliances mid April. Exciting times ahead!