Advertising wins our vote for the Aircon

After weeks of research and browsing, we finally bought our aircon, a Mitsubishi Inverter System 3 from Gain City. Hope our decision wasnt caused by subliminal marketing messages residing in our heads planted by Mr Jack N** :)

Lots of issues to tangle with in the purchase of the aircon unit.
1. How many blower units?
2. Inverter vs non-inverter?
3. Brand?
4. Retailer to buy from?

Our final shortlist included Panasonic and Toshiba. Prices were all roughly in the same range. Mitsubishi was strongly recommended by family and friends (must be those subliminal messages again!!). Strong branding, readily available parts and easy servicing were its plus points ("easy to clean you know ..... just clean here and clean there...!")

We liked Panasonic for its 'cool' blower design and sleek silver colour. Its technology was also the newest (e-ions and stuff....) with the new units just launched recently. But since when did updated technology matter in aircons.... They were just suppose to give out cool air without leaking and breaking down all the time!

Toshiba was also a strong contender due to its "Genuinely made in Japan" selling point and good reputation for aircons. But i checked with the salesperson and asked if they could give free extended warranty since the units were made in Japan and could not possibly break down, and that the warranty wouldnt matter anyway then.....

So there you go, the elimination process resulted in Mit the winner. Here's hoping the installation goes well.

The Last Piece of the Lighting Puzzle

Went to JB again to search for the dining area lights. Wanted a 'glassy classy' look, cause we are putting up some mirrors on the walls and it would supposedly give a better effect.

Had a big fight in the lighting shop with the missus. She wanted something black (AGAIN!)and i wanted something with crystals and glass. As usual, she won the battle (AGAIN!). Even me pulling a black face did not deter her.

Anyways, was just happy that we finally finish another round of buying. Can stop thinking about the lights.

(PS. Told the missus she would regret the dining room lights and that she would definitely want to change it after we put it up. Watch out for it in the comment page!)

Customised Wardrobe

*Drums rolling*

Presenting to you the draft of my wardrobe by Closetrobe !!!

Why Blackout?

Oh ya, I have forgotten to write why this blog is named as "Blackout"!

Hubby mentioned that I kept choosing everything in black. We will have black cabinets for our kitchen, black lights in our MBR, black and red theme for our MBR, even our wardrobe in the MBR has black sliding doors. Think hubby couldn't take it and told me "The whole house like blackout! If I want to find a bright area to sleep, I must go to the living room and sleep on the sofa!" (Think he is used to sleeping in a bright-toned room with the tv on!)

Guess that he has no choice since he has made me the CHIEF DESIGNER for the house! So I will make all the choices for colours!! : P

I am tellingl him right here > According to an interior design website, black in accessories, light fixtures, trims, paint, or in one bold piece of furniture will help to catch the eye and sharpen any decorating scheme. It will serve as an outline that sets off specific areas or objects. Black by itself is striking!

Dedicating these pics i found online for hubby (Aren't they nice? They all look good with black! ... oh ya .. and with red too for the MBR) :

Reno Update - May 09

MBR‘s bathroom frosted glass door is fixed.



Kitchen’s glass door is fixed.



MBR’s bathroom showerscreen



Service yard’s window



Heater is fixed at the guest’s toilet.

JB vs SG Lighting

I did a search on the renotalk forum and realised that buying lights from JB is half the price of that in SG. So I forced hubby to go to a shop in Geylang and look at the prices on Fri. When we went into JB on Sat, our aim was to get whatever beautiful lights we could find but at half the price of what we could be buying in SG.

Thanks to my good friend and her Hubby, we managed to get 10 lights – Living Room, Guest Room, MBR, wardrobe, toilets, kitchen, service yard, bomb shelter and passageway at only SG$5XX!!! You will never get this type of price in SG!! But felt really bad towards my gdfriend and her Hubby, made them shop at least 6 hrs non-stop (Yah! I didn't realise we were so fussy buyers!). Even shopped for almost 5 hrs in one of the shops (Tamboi Lighting Centre) and the sales person who attended to us couldn’t take it and asked us for a break and made his colleague take over from him !! haha ..it was quite an amusing sight when he excused himself and said he would take a break. Overall, I felt very satisfied with our findings except for a strenuous afternoon of hunting for the right lights – our necks were so painful from looking upwards for too long! And it wasn’t easy for Hubby and I to agree with the right designs!!

Our only buy from (Top Lamp (Skudai)

Living Room – Free remote control – with LED lights, Yellow Lights and White Light (Bought from Top Lamp (Skudai) at RM$4XX

Our remaining buys are all from Tamboi Lighting Centre

Sorry, no photo available as I have forgotten to take pictures at the shop. Couldn't find any similar photos online either : (

MBR – It was supposed to be all black but we changed some of the crystals to red …aren’t we creative? Bought at RM3XX

Wardrobe – something dim and classy, like those you see in hotels. Bought at RM3X

Guest Room – Wanted a plain circular one but this crystal light is too beautiful and too cheap not to buy … So we just have to buy it and make our guest room having the same concept as our MBR!! Bought at RM1XX

Passageway /Toilets/Kitchen/ Service Yard/ Bomb Shelter – All with black and white glass theme. Bought all at RM3XX

We are now left with the purchase of the dinning room's lights. Will continue our hunt in JB in the next weekend.

Stylish Toilet Paper

Isn't this cool? My colleague surprised me with it. Told me that her home has many nice designs of toilet paper. I know this isn't popular in our Asian culture so I googled it and guess what I found worldwide? More toilet paper of many interesting designs!! Talk about innovation .....



Maybe our NS boys should start using this ?



How about this?

I love this! Any politician figure whom you think deserves to be served as your toilet paper?



For your hubby to buy for you! So Sweet !! *Hint* *Hint*



Merry Xmas !!



I love this idea! We can read toilet paper instead of newspaper while we "do our business" !! Hahaha



Can we use this toiletpaper to pay??? hoho

Battle of the Triple Cs - Closet Design Vs Closetrobe Vs Contractor

whewww … we have finally made up our mind. Closetrobe won! Our contractor and Closetdesign lost the deal! For a few hundred dollars more than our contractor, we could be getting a better quality wardrobe with sliding doors and more customised accessories. By chosing Closetrobe, I do not need to waste time and energy in finding curtains, railings to cover a open-concept Walk-in wardrobe.

Why wife deserves a walk-in wardrobe?
1) Women are natural shopaholics. We need a BIG wardrobe to store all our buys!
2) Gives hubby the excuse not to help in ironing of clothes in the morning! Wife has all the time to iron at night and put them neatly in the walk in wardrobe.
3) Allows hubby to keep track of wife's purchases and not overspent their credit cards!
4) Allows hubby to keep track of their wife's sizes!
5) Gives hubby more excuses to buy their gadgets since wife has spend so much on a wardrobe
6) The wife will bother to dress up and look pretty next to hubby!

Harvey Norman Expo Sales!

Yippy, we have finally bought our dryer and fridge! I am so GLAD that this was done by this weekend (3rd May). That means that Hubby will stop bringing me around all the different stores and shop around! Seriously, I hate OVER browsing around, but Hubby seems to do this happily. I understand why as we have been spending a lot and we are very price sensitive. Anway, Harvey Norman will be helping us keep the appliances till 30th June 09. That means that we will need to hurry and finish our renovation by then (Yah, it better be that case as the contractor promised us that it would be within 1 mth!!).

At the Expo Sales, I managed to hunt down for another great bargain! I bought a dryer !! Yah, I know it is not common in Singapore to have a dryer, but please please, get rid of the traditional thinking! I have valid reasons to support my stand.

Tips to share if your hubby refuses to let you buy a dryer:

1) Our service yard is totally blocked by neighbouring blocks, there isn't enough sunshine!

2) Given my busy work schedule, I am not going to waste time hanging clothes or waiting for clothes to dry

3) I am not going to let any peverted neighbours look at my "nei zai mei"

4) I am OLD and I get backache very often from hanging clothes.

5) Are you going to do it instead? (This should be the best Tip!!)

Anyway, check out our Great bargains again:

LG Fridge - Usual Price: $899. We managed to get it at $6XX (Trust us! We did our homework! Can't find better pricing elsewhere!)

Electrolux Dryer - Usual Price: $700+ (Saw the price at Harvey Norman Retail Shops and Gain City). We got it at $4XX!!!

Need to specially say a BIG THANK YOU to Sis & Bro-in-law here, who have always been so generous and sponsored us the above gifts !!