Home at Bishan

New Things for our home

2009-04-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

The sofa we bought from Beng Tuan didnt last... one year odd later, the PU leather started to tear & black dots start to appear. Horrors of horrors for us! Finally we could not stand looking at the terrible sofa so we decided to get a new one. The search for sofa began in april... we went to Courts, one furniture shop in AMK & Lorenzo. Finally we settled for a 3+2 fr Lorenzo. There was a sale so the set was 40% off...$2,6xx not a bad deal, considering that Lorenzo sofas are fairly comfortable & most importantly sturdy. The set at MIL's house could somehow withstand the children's daily jumping. We chose a beige set to coordinate that with the colour theme of our living room. This is the first time we have a full leather sofa... hopefully it will serve us at least for another 5 years. Delivery was also prompt. We bought the set on Sunday night and they delivered on Monday. My, it was quite comfy!

The kitchen glass decoration also had to be changed. The children had been pulling the dolphin stickers off. So, we needed something that could not be pulled off easily. I came across a seller on SMH selling decor stickers fr Korea....finally I settled for a set of red flowers with little butterflies. Cost <$20.

Since I loved the stickers so much, I bought another Pooh set fr her and sticked that in the kids' playroom:

Home Sweet Home

2007-10-12T01:56:00.000-07:00

After two and a half months staying in 127, we finally have a place to call our own.... 11 Oct 2007 .... 257 here we come....

(Self assembled string curtains- curtains were bought for less than $100 from Toa Payoh; velcro bought from Spotlight... it took us one evening to sew the velcro onto the curtain and to assemble the curtain)

(Finally, we decided to change the dining chairs as the old ones we have fr our old home r giving way. Dining chairs bought fr V-hives)

(Carpeted Pink Staircase...sourced for $650)
Bedsheet fr BHG

Alumix Wardrobe is up!

2007-10-08T22:22:00.000-07:00

Finally, the Alumix wardrobe for our MBR is up! The staff fr Alumix were very professional. They came on time and had to carry 3 panels of doors up 6 stories bec the panels were too big for the lift! Kudos to them. They took half an hr just to install the wardrobe.
The wardrobe completes the "look" for the MBR. I love the shell wardrobe simply bec it's so BIG (3.5M in width n 70 cm away from the wall) and we can put literally any barang barang into it and makes the room look neat and tidy. We moved our ugly 5 door drawer into the wardrobe.

Earth is the colour tone we chose for our room. Now, our MBR looks like a nice lazy corner to sleep. The colours are earthly and simply makes u sleepy the moment u step in.

Final Stage of Renovation

2007-10-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

Our home is almost up. This weekend, we have Alumix here to install the MBR cabinet.
Today, they installed the plasterboard frame. The cabinet will be 3.5m wide and ceiling height. It's gonna be a shell. In other words, we r just building the frame and inside, it shall be free style. We'll put a movable hanging rack, one aluminium shelve which we couldnt fit into the store after the renovation. It will function as a cabinet cum store room cos we are short of storage space for big bulky items. On Thurs, they will come to coat the frame with paint. Next Sat, the cabinet should be up.

Also on the same day, we got Newcoat to come to recoat our MBR toilet bathtub. Turned from blue to white to blend in with the sink and toilet bowl. They will come again another day to remove the newspapers.

Later in the afternoon, PowerGas guy came to fix the gas pipe to the cooker... yeah! Finally we can cook! It has been months since I last cooked a decent meal for the family.

Final touch up scheduled for next week -
- Curtain installation on Thurs
- Alumix door to be up on Sat
- Last of the last : carpet installation ... havent decided when to do that yet

After many months of waiting, it will not be too long before we can shift in. We have a few dates in mind... prob sometime next week :)

(Bathtub being repainted by Newcoat for $270... not a bad reno idea ...saves us the cost of hacking and now, it looks as good as new)

(MBR toilet after putting in all the barang barang)

The other toilet w/o the bathtub

Rainshower fr Hoe Kee giving us the resort feel

The Sofa, Dining table and TV are here!

2007-09-26T05:00:00.001-07:00

The furnishings for our new home have arrived.

(red sofa from Beng Tuan)

(dining table from Novena)

(37 inch Sharp LCD TV installed on the TV console board, bought fr Best Denki costing $2299)

Now, we r waiting eagerly for the MBR cabinet and curtains to be installed. Hopefully, we will be able to move to our new home soon :)

The Lights R Here!!

2007-09-12T06:50:00.001-07:00

We have been viewing the house without lights ... so glad to have the lights finally installed.
Lights were sourced out fr Chuan Huat and Dream Lights along Balestier Road. Coincidentally, I found out that the guy we met at Dream Lights who recommended us the lights was my colleague's BIL and they also stay in Bishan... small world.

MBR Lights (above)

Kitchen lights

Living room lights (left); spot lights outside kitchen entrance

dining room lights

Staircase spot lights and corridor lights outside children's room

MBR Toilet light

Plaster Board

2007-09-02T04:47:00.000-07:00

The layout of the current flat really sucks. And bec of the balcony integrated into the living room, we have to deal with a problem of a huge pipe in the middle of the living room. We decided to box that up with a plasterboard and create some indents to place some ornaments.

White solid top is up!

2007-09-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

The white solid top is finally up, tog with the sink, cooker stove and hood.

Love the white solid top but hopefully, it wont be too difficult to maintain.

The contractors have also installed the sink, cooker and hob, with compliments from them. We chose a small sink cos our kitchen length is v short. This will maximise the amount of workspace we can have as well as enough place to put our kettles, flasks, sterilisers etc.

The cabinets R Up!

2007-08-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Finally for the much awaited moment... our kitchen cabinets and tv console set are up!

Kitchen

The red kitchen.... mixed with a bit of silver.

It's a pity we did not go for all red.

We kind of like the red but not the silver. Somehow, find that the silver is not as nice as we had expected.

Now, the kitchen cabinet is short of it's white solid top... hopefully with that installed, it would turn out to be nicer.

(Red kitchen with frosted glass dish tray cover)

The empty area in the middle of the tall cabinet is for putting our microwave. It comes with a sliding tray for ease of sliding out for cleaning.

(Our kitchen as seen from the dining area through the glass panel entrance)

(the area in the middle for our microwave)

TV Console
Our rubbish chute is in the balcony area. This area had been hacked by the previous owner to be integrated with the living area. As such, we have to construct a cover to mask the presence of the chute.

(the cabinet cover the chute.. 8 inches from the wall so that it doesnt block off much of the light from the window)

(tv console - the boxed up area and tv console side by side)

Paintworks

2007-08-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

Painting for the house has started.

Painters started with level one.
First to complete was the guest room - sun glow and urban grey.
Level One is predominently in Rose White. It's a light beige.
Feature wall in Cheer but the plaster board is still incomplete. (Zing colour used for the dining area wall)

That's our MBR wall - in light Mocha and Divine. Due to poor lighting, the actual tone of the walls do not look like what's taken in this pic. Will try to retake once the lighting is up.

My favourite colour - "Love" - the colour is Fushia pink. We used that for Fiona's room as well as the walk way and those indents on the walls of our staircase.
Unfortunately, the painters have forgotten to paint on the indents.... they will do that the next time they come down to paint Aaron's room.

(Fushia pink wall on the walkway...as the lighting is not up, it's not poosible to see its actual tone)

Bathrooms!

2007-08-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

13th August - 3 and a half weeks into the renovation. The homogeneous flooring is done up. Cardboard sheets are still layed on the floor so it still doesnt look nice. Stainless steel piping is complete and the toilet bowls and sinks have been installed. Somehow i noted that the shower stand in the MBR is not placed in the position i wanted. Hiaz... my fault for not communicating to the contractor earlier. One more unfortunate thing happened... not sure if it has to do with 13th. The contractors installed in storage heater and we were told that it is leaking! Gosh! Gotta get a new one :(

14th August - We bought lights from Chuan Huat and Dream Lights over the weekend. Total damages of around $1k. Delivery is today. Cant wait to have them installed soon :)
KH went to Hoe Kee at IMM again to get the storage heater. Another damage of $220+.

15th August - The electician are coming down to do rewiring. We went to inspect on the work around 9 plus and the electricians are still there testing the switches.

The flower common bath room without the accessories

(Toilet with accessories up and rainshower)

MBR toilet - the sink and toilet bowl is up

(MBR toilet with accessories all up)

Classic doors r up. The unpainted version

Kitchen tilings half done.

Reno Part 1

2007-08-09T22:38:00.001-07:00

Hack Hack Hack!

There goes the flooring for level one as well as the old furniture. Kitchen wall has to go too. But HDB approval needs to be obtained.

Now, our home is just full of sand and dust.

Level 2 toilet tiles r up now. Somehow i love the retro feeling of these black and white flower tiles. Hope it contrasts well with the white toilet bowl and sink. We will add in superwhite lighting to contrast too.

Bought a rain shower from Hoe Kee for this toilet too. Total damages $288.

Before the shift

2007-08-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

I used to have a blog... but somehow the forgetful mind has lost the password and userid. Perhaps forgetfulness comes with age.

Anyway, the link to my previous blog:
http://bishanhome.blogspot.com/

Continuing fr there... we moved the stuff from Senja on 14 July... cant believe we have so many boxes!! 1.5 rooms were filled with our stuff! And the huge cupboards and fridge couldnt be moved upstairs so they have to be relocated to one of the rooms in level 1.

Senja was home to us for the past 7 years. We have stayed there for 7 years and 7 days to be exact.... our 2 kids were born during the past 7 years. Really quite sad to move.

Last look at our Senja home:

My favourite yellow sofa will go to grandma.

Finally all the boxes have been cleared out

The children's room... what a mess

Our MBR

Finally, the rooms r empty

Bishan Before reno:

Kitchen at level 1:

Living room before reno:

Staircase and area below staircase:

What K and I dont really like about this present flat is that it is v dark and not airy. Furniture are made of darkwood which is definitely not our taste.
We wish to transform it to something airy, bright and spacious, filled with cheerful and happy colours.