八月初一 9.55am – Entering the new house ceremony!

Today is auspicious day for moving… 大吉 according to the 通书 =) the time is supposed to be from 9 to 11am…

fg daddy lighted a mini stove outside the house… using charcoal n fire starter.. quite a bit of smoke.. haha.. for a while i m worried neighbours will run out tinking got fire!

when the fire is hot n furious… we opened the door and start to roll the pineapples into the house! fg requested for 8 pineapples! haha. so we like bowling like dat.. rolled the pineapples one by one into the house!

after that… we brought the stove into the house and placed it in the middle of the living room…and turned on all the lights in the house.. then fg mummy start to cook water using our gas stove.. according to her.. we muz drink the boiled water to signify that we r the owners of the house…

we then placed the pineapples around the whole house… initially i thot we can make pineapple juice to drink! haha.. but later i found out the pineapples cannot eat! well.. ‘李大师’ said it’s bcoz the pineapples ‘absorb’ all the bad 气 in the house… so we muz throw it away… hmm… kind of make sense…

that marks the end of the ceremony… interesting… =) fg mum then starts to cook a simple meal… our first real meal in our new house… now… we r officially ‘moved in’…

BKK update!

MIA for a loooong while… finally got time to sit down for a post… =p

went bkk over the last weekend for my birthday!!! landed in bkk on the 14th august and after checking in the hotel.. we went straight to Chatuchak (CTC)! as expected.. it’s hot hot n hot.. went to CTC several times before but this is the first time it rained.. so hot + rain = v sticky!

despite the weather conditions.. we r determined to find wat we r there for.. without looking at clothes (my fave).. n accessories.. n shoes (my fave too).. a slight distraction with my fg buying a hat.. we headed straight to the ‘home’ section…

we have a few things we wanted to check out

1. dining table stuff eg.. salt n pepper.. condiments containers…

2. Tatami

3. clothes hanger

4. Toilet sign

We got our item 2 first… v qkly we decided to go for the ‘jumbo’ size tatami.. it cost only SG$33.33! cheap but HEAVY! think it’s like 7.5kg! luckily the shop allows us to put the tatami there while we continue to shop! forgot to take a pic while we r there.. n now it’s all wrapped up nicely.. will post a pic when we unwrap it!

shortly after we get our tatami.. we turned a corner and saw a shop similar to a 五金店.. sells all sorts of things.. including clothes hanger.. we saw a white colour hanger (which we r looking for).. quite good quality and it’s cheap! coz our walk-in wardrobe wall is pink colour.. our pole system wardrobe is white.. so our hangers also need to be white and we need to ‘standardise’ all our hangers in order to look nice n neat =p n so.. we bot 2 boxes of hangers! in all.. we have 288 hangers to b split between the 2 of us! think aredi also happie! =)))

after the heavy burden of the tatami n the hangers.. i start to worry we cant bring back any additional stuff.. so in a way… i’m reluctant to buy any more things.. but we still carried out walking for a while.. determined to get the ‘condiments container’.. but really cldnt find anything to our liking.. so.. in the end .. we decided to go back singapore daiso to look for it..

and my toilet sign.. i wanted one so that i can hang it on the door of the common toilet.. so that my guest will know to go straight instead of turning into my wardrobe.. but cant find a matching colour one with the ‘colour of the year’ aquamarine.. so… give up…

that’s end of CTC..

next day.. we visited the loft at the discovery centre.. loft is actually quite expensive… but the things there really v pretty… esp the pink colour plates.. cups.. bowls.. etc etc.. anyway… i tink enough of pink.. i’m so into pink that someone got to stop me or the whole house will turn into a barbie house..

after walking ard for a while n tinking that we wont be getting anything (coz expensive).. we found a SALE corner!!! wahahaha. at least the prices there look decent!!! n there after discussion.. we decided we wanted to make our kitchen green! well.. we had always wanted green in the first place.. ever since that day we walked into an EMOI shop.. we wanted an EMOI kitchen.. but it turned out if we buy all our stuff from EMOI… it’s gg to really burn a big hole in our pockets… so.. we dropped that idea.. n now at Loft.. we decided to recreate that ‘green’ feel again! Here’re the things we bot eventually (All Green Colour!):

1. Kitchen Dustbin
2. Wall clock
3. Vegetables washing basket
4. Salad bowl
5. Chopping board
6. 2 cups

happies happies.. now that kitchen is green.. it’s easier to shop for things too… no need to worry abt choosing wat colour.. juz take the green!

sorry this post has no pictures.. duno why.. not in a picture taking mode for a while… i’ll take more pictures n post in the next post!!!

Before & After pics

missing in action for a while… no excuses… been bz with work and of coz laziness sets in… =p

here’s the before & after shots of the house as promised! the ‘after’ photos r 3D drawings.. haha.. house not ready yet la..

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Partitions up! False ceiling done!

A random visit to our happiehome to check out the status of our renovation! Happie to see that the ‘designer’ partition of the bedroom is up! It consists of little ‘windows’ and an opening of the door (on the right hand side)..

View from inside the bedroom

View from the common toilet

Close up of one of the ‘windows’

Also, across the bedroom, our display cabinet skeleton is up… though maybe without the ‘glass’ part.. u might not be able to visualise…

Lastly… false ceiling is up! with the ac pelmet…

3d drawings coming soon!!! still waiting for my designer to send me the corridor view!!!

Relocation of aircon unit

To be honest.. Sometimes i feel like a carrothead. When our id brought the ac contractor to our hse for inspection.. He said the cost for relocating the ac unit will be from $300 – $500.. N make a guess what the final quote turn out to be? Clever u.. $500 of coz!

It’s damn annoying that u aredi know u r gg to b dok  but there’s nothing much u can do. Of coz we have the option of getting an alternative quote.. But it’s time and effort and the end result might b the same. I’m sure my id gets a good cut out of our electrical as well as this ac job.. I juz hope he will be happie n do his job well..

Come to think of it.. Juz before we started works..  our id suddenly one day called and said due to our demolition works done to our 2 bedrooms..  our condo management needs us to submit a drawing endorsed by a PE..  I can’t remember what a PE stand for..  Basically needs the endorsement of a professional engineer to give his ‘stamp’ n say the two walls can tear down.. N to get that bloody stamp he say need ard $800 – $1000! But luckily a qk check with our agent who is on the management committee..  We found out that there’s no need for this! Our id juz need to prepare a letter for us to sign to say we agree to tear down the walls can liao!

Maybe this cost our id some commission haha but luckily we checked..  Guess we gain some we lose some..  We all learn from experiences..  Next time we will know..  🙂

Later today we will go check out how renovation is getting along! Will update with photos again!

Renovation officially starts! – Day 1

Today is the first day of reno of our happie home! =)

On the schedule.. it says ‘Dismantling’… what does this mean? means removal of our 2 bedrooms wall + wardrobe!

since we have to meet the SP services guy for the ‘turn-on’ of our electrical & water supply.. we went upstairs to take a qk look… here’s the result of today’s dismantling…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As u can see.. our 2 bedrooms now has become 1 ‘big’ room.. hee… finally now can visualise better with the walls gone.. =p

A quick update on the cost of the renovation… our renovation cost does not include electrical + moving of a/c location + plumbing works… haiz… $$$ … we had a meeting with the a/c guy and electrical guy last sat… turns out.. electrical will add on another $2.7k and a/c cost.. still waiting for the quotation… =(((

feel so broke… but happie… really excited to see that works started liao… =)

Tangs-Tefal Sale

never thought we will be buying our pots and pans so early.. recommended by fg’s bro.. he says there’s a tefal ‘starter’ kit consisting of a fry pan, a wok pan and a stew pot selling at $199.. just happened that we watching ‘Green Lantern’ at vivicity on Sat night.. so decided to drop by Tangs to take a look..

i know nothing much abt pots n pans.. but Tefal supposedly sells good n quality cookware (branded i guess?).. i used to know Tefal only by the red colour mark in the middle of the pan.. when the pan is hot enough.. the mark is supposed to change (or something like dat).. haha..

since fg is the chef (he does all the cooking).. so he very expertly scan thru the different series (there’s pro series la.. performace.. elegance etc etc).. n we decided to go for the pro series.. supposed to b non stick.. good induction.. ez cleaning etc etc.. =) i trust my fg to make the best choice!!!

Harvey Norman – We declare a price war!

Posted this abit late… i’m actually recollecting what happened on Sunday 12 June…

fg is falling sick… but he juz realised he wanna get a bigger pc monitor.. n after some research… the Dell monitor with the “IPS”.. has v good reviews (my fg is v much into reviews).. n pc show selling at a good discount! so decided.. PC show it shall be… FIGHTING!

well after buying the monitor.. of coz we decided to return to gain city to get our 2nd TV for our master bedroom… the $500 philips voucher.. we will be keeping it for all other misc appliances that we will need in the house..

so swipe swipe swipe away.. made another purchase… philips 40″ LED 100 HZ TV for $899 with FREE DVD player and FREE digital camera! hahaha

another purpose why we came to pc show is to look at projectors… how to put it.. we wanted to get a projector in our living room… so we really can a home theatre ‘feel’.. but there are pros n cons really.. in short… we finally decided.. to drop the idea…

Lastly before we leave the pc show… we remembered.. we ‘bio-ed’ a Creative computer speaker when we came on Thursday.. n since both of us like it so much… off we trotted along to the 6th flr to make our final swipe for the day (or at least we thot at that point of time).. when we reach there.. ALAS.. to our surprise.. almost 80% of the speakers on display r gone!!! when we ask the promoters.. they say all sold out.. =((( n here i m still harbouring a little hope that maybe final day got more discount! .. anyways.. they said Marina Square branch still have a few more sets.. n guess wat.. tugging along fg’s monitor.. we trotted over to Marina sq to buy! wahhahaha… wat a sense of achievement!!! kudos to my fg! on the way back to suntec carpark.. he has to carry his 10kg monitor on one hand n another 10 kg creative speakers cum subwoofer on the other hand!

if u read until this pt of time.. u muz be wondering.. what’s harvey norman abt? b patient… here comes.. we r aredi done with our shopping for the day.. n walking back to the carpark.. we passed by Harvey Norman.. recently it’s almost SOP that we will go into every Courts/Harvey Norman/Best Denki etc to make one round.. juz to check check if they got new promotion la.. new discounts la

n so we walked into Harvey Norman.. they are running this promotion now.. We Declare Price War (obviously targeted at Courts).. n so we for sure made good use of that knowledge..

1. First.. we went to check out our Jamo speakers with Onkyo amp.. we r SUPER surprised at the price the guy (Aaron) gave us.. that we immediately decide to BUY IT!.. until today.. i’m still kind of suspecting did the poor guy give us the wrong price…

– Courts quoted $14XX
– Harvey Norman quoted $14XX (by a guy that knows we cfm buying one)
– the speakers itself is selling $999

n this Aaron quoted us $1140!!! .. i really cant believe my ears! immed i tell fg.. BUY!

2. After super faith in this Aaron.. we decided to ask him to help check the price of our fridge.. n of coz not forgetting to bring up Courts pricing.. which is $970… Sharp black colour chio chio fridge.. HN dun have ready stock.. but he went all out to get the Sharp guy n the sharp guy called his boss.. n got us $899 for the fridge!!! haha.. he said no where else (esp courts) will we get this price.. i m convinced.. happies

3. We thot muz as well juz settle everything together since got one delivery charge already (Aaron got it down to $10 for us.. *wicked grin*).. Washing machine.. we set our hearts at the cheapest 6.5kg Samsung one for the longest time.. $250 Aaron matched the price of those neighbourhood shop that we asked for pricing before.. THEN.. the sharp guy came along.. n gave us his sales pitch why we shld buy the sharp one.. 7kg better technology.. blah blah blah.. we r not good at washing machines at all.. but aesthetically.. sharp one looks better… =p retail is $359… we asked for best price.. he went abt making some calls.. then came back says $319 best price.. then we told him.. if can get below $300 then we buy.. or else we stick to samsung… n guess what.. he came back say ok.. $299! we got a 17% discount just like dat!

n it’s not over!! HN running a promotion that every for the amt we spent.. we r entitled to 4 scratch cards… min each card is $10.. max is $1000… haha.. if u r thinking we so lucky.. errr no la.. we scratched… 3 r $10 and 1 is $20.. so total $50 cash vouchers!!! can come back n shop some more!!! no min purchase one =)))

still got still got.. HN running another promotion with Citibank.. if pay by Citibank.. can get free coffee maker!!! wahahhaa.. we r entitled 2 actually but it’s the last one aredi!!! we literally have to ‘protect’ our coffee maker coz other shop assistant also want to take for their customer!!!

that’s the end of another eventful shopping day.. at this juncture.. we almost bot all we need for our house.. the misc will be using our philips voucher liao… =)

PC show 2011 @ Suntec

this is gg to b a long post.. =)

we have been kind of waiting for this pc show to buy our TVs.. haha.. ppl always say go this kind of show wont be cheaper by alot.. but u will get more freebies for sure.. n that’s wat we r looking for! of coz muz b ‘useful’ freebies la… cheapo cheapo.. as responsible adults n on a v tight budget… we feel that we need to do our due diligence for major appliances… =p

this year’s PC show is at Suntec city.. we of coz being non rats.. went on a thursday afternoon… n to our surprise (not v v surprise la actually).. carparks r full.. from suntec to marina sq and even millenia walk! i guess Singaporeans really v free.. thursday also take leave come pc show whack! haha.. anyway back to carpark.. we finally got into the basement carpark of suntec.. behind this long chain of cars.. going thru the motion of moving.. n stopping whenever one car in front in front gets a lot n wants to park… AND.. suddenly we look to our right… there’s a car getting out!!! n it’s our lot! HUAT AH!

off to a lucky start.. aredi start to feel good abt the show! fg ask me which flr to go to? i m totally clueless.. i m simply following fg wherever he turn.. i keep telling myself.. b focus b focus… our main objective today is TV n TV n TV (hmmm actually.. maybe printer also).. anyway.. started from the 6th flr first..

some observations abt this year’s pc show (compared to the last one i went prob 2 years ago).. now they have ‘yellow boxes’.. the people distributing the flyers r not allowed to ‘step’ outside the yellow boxes.. haha.. not sure how strict they reinforce this rule though..

6th flr is selling most of the major brands.. mostly selling laptops n computers.. but we r v focus.. haha.. we first pass by TOSHIBA.. SAMSUNG… nothing interesting.. we r looking ard for LG actually n we stump upon philips.. it’s actually gain city but tink gain city got a huge tie up with philips.. they are just starting their ‘lelong’ ‘3 sets only’ special price items! HAHHAHA… this is exactly wat we r looking for!

first item… 42″ LED LCD 100 hz TV! woooo that’s what we want! haha.. Retail price $2299… show price $1699… n now for 3 sets only…. what’s the price whats the price? they keep talking n talking.. purposely keeping us in suspense.. first they tell us the features of the tv… then.. they list down the freebies..

1. Free delivery (this goes without saying right)
2. Free HDMI cable (at this pt.. we r still like ‘tell us the price la or we will walk to LG’)
3. Free $500 Philips voucher!!!! (BUY BUY BUY!)

suddenly my heart starts beating faster.. the next step we need to do is once they reveal the price.. we have to ‘snatch’ one of the number tags on the salesperson’s hands.. there’s only 3 numbers (of coz this muz b a gimmick too!).. so at the count of 3… 1, 2,… 3! The price is…. $1499!

Snatch! Snatch! Snatch! hahaha..evil me ask fg to change places with me so that he can be closer to the salesman.. n with my fg’s agility.. we of coz successfully get 1 number.. haha.. (triumph look)

so… it’s settled… Philips 42″ LED TV… we bought our single most expensive appliance in our house… =))) effective price onli $999! happies!!! n it looks pretty too!

lucky lucky.. this really muz b fated… go one big round… in the end we still got philips… next will be to use the $500 philips voucher to buy our second TV in the master bedroom… that will be the philips 40″ LED also 100 Hz.. selling at $888!… our effective price for the 2 LED tvs will be $1887! =))) now we will have to make a trip down to Philips at Toa payoh to buy our second TV.. we have so many appliances from Philips (i will update our shopping at the Philips warehouse sale in another post).. maybe can ask them to feature our home for their advertisement! hahha

after our successful ‘snatch’ of the TV deal.. we juz walk ard aimlessly.. we looked at sounds systems (there’s one from creative not bad… at $199).. starhub/singtel broadband plans.. laptop bags etc… then we remembered we need to look at printers.. we already know what we want.. Brother’s 5-in-1 mono laser printer.. the price at the show is $278 with $20 Takashimaya voucher

this brother printer we shortlisted since like 2 months ago when we decided to get a laser printer… BUT… suddenly 杀出一个程咬金! seriously alot of things really fated.. we r walking aimlessly ard n passed by LEXMARK.. normally i wont anyhow take the flyers but for some reason.. i juz decided to take a look at their flyer n even ask to see their laser printer.. the reason being… when i did my printer research 2 months back.. there’s always quite good reviews on lexmark.. but unfortunately.. they r also pricer.. so.. since we pass by their booth… mentality is why not juz take a look… 不看白不看.. that’s when Ms Tan appear..

as u can see fr the tag… $129!!!

it’s almost the same specs as the brother.. it’s $149 cheaper.. the toner can print more as compared to brother.. drum also can print more.. BUT (i believe u can sense this coming)… it’s ugly.. (as put it by fg).. beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.. i dun tink it’s ugly ugly.. but brother definitely nicer la.. this lexmark one is bulky & heavy.. needs to put on the flr definitely..

so so.. it’s Brother VS Lexmark.. $278 vs $129… no brainer really.. aesthetics got to go… we will learn to live with an ugly printer… maybe chuck in below our desk n only see it once in a while! =ppp

well… the picture doesnt look too bad.. have to learn to psycho ourselves

Modern Home 2011

We went to this exhibition at expo on a weekday and there’s really almost NO ONE in the exhibition hall! haha… someone might say… ‘good wat! no one to squeeze with u’.. BUT on the other hand.. u will get the UNDIVIDED attention of almost all the salespeople there!!!

Every booth we went past… there will be someone chanting… ‘sir/mdm.. mattress for u?’.. haha.. there’s so many bed/mattress booths! oh ya! talking abt mattress.. maybe i shld add a qk note here… we got our mattress ‘Max Coil’.. a USA brand.. at the last expo furniture show also! haha.. sounds like we r suckers for this kind of shows!

hee..sorry to side track.. back to Modern Home.. our purposes today are:-

1. Find OPSH booth to see what is their promotion package and see if dear Freddy Kruger can match. haha.. freddy (kruger) is this salesman from OPSH that we met at their showroom. We r sooooo typical singaporeans.. scared exhibition price will be better than the price he gave us last time and wanna go expo see for ourselves to make sure we dun get cheated (well doing our due dilligence… not too kiasu rite?)

2. Walk around to see if there’s any new dining tables.. coffee tables that can catch our attention

3. Actually there’s only 2 purposes listed abv.. this 3rd one is i just add in one… shop for wallpapers…

i totally have no idea that we can find wallpapers at exhibitions like dat (call me suaku or whatever names).. i thot wallpapers will have to go to wallpaper shops to buy.. i shortlisted Goodrich and Europa and thot since we r in Changi.. we can drop by Goodrich to take a look…

it goes like this.. we r walking walking.. in our heads… we r thinking of OPSH/Furniture.. OPSH/Furniture.. then as i mentioned earlier.. every salesperson at every booth will chant something.. ‘mattress for u sir..?’… ‘bedframes, sofa?..’ after a few booths… we pass by this shop… expected..the person chants..’chairs? sofas? carpet? (ok.. i made all this up.. i totally cant remember what he is chanting) & WALLPAPERS?’

DING DING!!! wallpaper! i immediately turn ard… look at him.. n say.. yes.. i want to see your wallpaper! hahaha

n so.. after some qk checks around.. including calling thomas.. our so far every reliable ID.. we decided to go for the $399 package for this korean white bricks lookalike wallpaper..decided… no nid to go Goodrich/Europa anymore.. this must b one of the fastest decision we made regarding a quite big decision.. all thks to fg.. coz he got this design streak in him that i’m probably lacking.. hmm come to think of it.. if he has it.. then i no nid wat.. depend on him lor! =ppp

the wallpaper is gg to be on the whole wall behind the sofa.. which will be the most prominent wall when u step into the hse… =) I tried my best (really my best) to do some photoshopping… incorporate that wallpaper and put our sofa in front of it (with the colours as close as i can rem)..as well as our potential dining table n here goes.. (fg i know it’s ugly.. pls dun kill me)