Final Touches....

I am very very very pleased with the kitchen. Take a look here! Our contractor charged us a reasonable rate , yet provided good quality and workmanship!! Glad to find such a good lobang....

Our MBR's vanity cabinet was also done by the same carpenter. But, before that, take a look at our nice tap and basin:

Our walk-in wardrobe - Mrs 黑's DREAM!!

I have finally gotten a dream come true!! A walk in wardrobe !! Been dreaming of it since young !! I think I will love ironing my clothes at my new home and sorting out the clothes in the wardrobe. Mr 黑, you can forget about putting anything in !! HAHAHA !! It's mine !! All mine !!

I am very happy with my wardrobe for now (not withstanding the bad customer service from the Salesperson from Closetrobe , will share more about it in a later post after oustanding problems are remedied)! Sharing the effects of the dark-tinted doors we chose:

Before & After

To check out the full effect, take a look at this video:

The dark opaque doors transform into a translucent window revealing the full glory of the wardrobe after the lights are turned on!

More pics of the wardrobe

My favourite part of the wardrobe, but I still don't know what I should put here (haha!) :

Many many thanks to future mother-in-law for her generous help in our budget for the renovations!!!

Lights

I have many many many updates today! I am so excited and happy to see so many new things added to the house! Since a picture can say a thousand words, I am not going to elaborate too much...

Let's start with the bedrooms......

This is the Korean-themed light which I requested for addtional red crystals to complement the black ones . How does it look in this red room? We only spent SG$1XX on this light. Saw it at a big-name shop in SG going at the price of SG$9xx!!!

This light cost less than SG$7X only!!! Nice right??? Black light stands out in bright green room! See the nice ceiling effect of the light too!!

The Lights in the Living Room/ Aisle/ Bomb Shelter/ Service Yard/ Toilets/ Wardrobe & the ceiling effects

Living Room Light - SG$1XX (our most expensive light that comes with a remote control and 4 different types of light effects) :

Please see video to visualise full capability of light:

Wardrobe external light - SG$1X :

Aisle light - SG$3X :

Beautiful ceiling effect!!

Toilet Lights (MBR & Guest) - SG$3X each:

Bomb Shelter & Service Yard Lights - SG$1X each:

Lightings for Dining Area & Kitchen Plus Kitchen Cabinets

Mr 黑 doesn't really like the dining lights (cost SG$7X) as they look too similar to the Guestroom's light. He kept insisting we get something "glassy" for the dining area thinking that glassy equals to "classy". "Crazy Man!" However, Mrs 黑 still likes the lights. To appease Mr 黑, she is planning to use her creativity again and do some variation to the lights. Let's take a look at the dinning lights for now and the effect it brings:

New Idea from Mrs 黑 - to remove the black part from the bottom and just leave it as it is. However, Mr 黑 suggested something even betterl. Add more crystals to the current ones, that will definitely make the lights look nicer and more proportionate !! What do you think? Any ideas to help Mr & Mrs 黑? Feel free to leave us a comment!! A sample of the new idea below (With & without the black bottom).

One of our favourite parts of the house -- The Kitchen !! Don't you think the black-white light (costs SG$3X) matches our theme for the kitchen? We didnt plan on it. Just a coincidence that it blended in very well!

Anyway, these are pictures of our super-small kitchen, but it isn't completed yet! More updates to follow! The carpenter is only halfway done. Love the chimney-hood and mirror oven. Matches perfectly with the black cabinets!

Lovely Surprise from a Creative Friend

We have gotten a new and lovely header, beautifully done by a creative friend of ours. Firstly, this friend surprised us with a renovation blog specially set up for us. When she realised that we had already started one, she immediately customised a header for us to add on and beautify this blog!!

Ms B, thanks alot! We really appreciate your effort and definitely look forward to more creativity from you for our wedding !!

Almost There ...

Yippy! Our house is almost ready. The lights will be up by next week as well as the walk-in closet and kitchen cabinets!

Presenting to you the colors I have chosen for the house (not all areas have been painted yet):

Decided that there are other colours in this world besides black. Haha...

Layout of House with painting colors draft

Living Room : Dulux ICI - Granite - AL20904 (Dulux All)

Guest Room : Dulux ICI - Lime Fizz: WW23567L (Wash & Wear)

MBR : Dulux ICI - Cherry - WW24703L (Wash & Wear)

I think my traditional-thinking contractor couldn't believe his eyes after he saw the works of the painter. Made a funny remark to me "Wah! Your house's colors very dark hor? Saw your room - dark red. Got a shock! Big red, big fortune issit?" Haha, but I really love the effect of the bold colours.

Anyway, my painter did a really good and thorough job. If anyone wants the contact details of my painter, you can drop me an email for it.

Oh by the way, Dulux ICI has a very good website for you to visualise whether the colors you have chosen will fit your house before you paint the walls. The website has three areas for you to choose - living room , dining room and bedroom. You can choose a photo which looks most like your room and then choose a color to fit it. Likewise for Nippon Paint. Brilliant idea for those who do not know how to photoshop their own photos! My two cents...

Enormous Gratitude ... no other way of saying thanks ...

I have been so busy with work lately that I threw the responsibility of updating this blog solely to Mr 黑 . Originally wanted to go to the PC Show today with Mr 黑 just to browse around for bargains for TVs. Two good friends, Ms T and Ms G from Secondary School grabbed the chance to buy a present for our new nest. Don't think I can express well enough to them how grateful I felt, so can only make use of this opportunity ... Thanks for the TV. I really really love it!

Presenting to you our LG 42" LCD TV - LF20FR sponsored by Ms Tng & Ms Goh - bought at $1xxx (Pretty good deal from original price. But think I drained off alot of $$ from them ...)

Presenting to you also our bedroom LG 32" LCD TV - LH20R sponsored by Ms PMY - bought at $5xx (using the $ in the Fevo card she gave us)

& We still got $100 NTUC vouchers from all this .............. I am really really really lucky to have friends who are so generous towards me .................. Thanks again gals, Ms T & Ms G !!! Yah, I will start saving up now for your weddings! Ms T hopes to have an Osim massage chair, while Ms G wants a TV as well ! I know what to do :P I have gotten both ya hints!

AC Installation

The air-conditioning was up yesterday. Had a tough time deciding the best places to fix up the blowers. Some key factors that you can take note of:

1. Choose places to minimise the amount of thick and unsightly trunking needed

2. Try not to place them above electronics in case of leaking (My current aircon drips like nobody's business)
3. Try to place them directly where you would prefer the aircon most frequently (eg. opp the sofa and bed)

Found 2 minus points. The unit in the guestroom had trunking on 2 sides of the wall, might affect our decision for the wardrobe. Another negative point was that we realise that hdb doesnt do a very good job with levelling the ceiling. I found the blower in the MBR to be slanted, but after consulting the installer, we both realise that it was the ceiling that was slanted, not the blower. But we could not do anything about it since the blower had to be exactly upright from ground level to maintain equilibrium in the water level of the blower.

The Guestroom's aircon looks the best as we have the trunking covered.

Aircon in MBR.

Aircon in the Living Room

Hole in Pipe

Another gripe with hdb. Our contractor found that one of the pipes in the service yard would start leaking whenever our neighbour above us uses their washing machine. They came a couple of weeks ago, applied some cheap gum onto it, and prayed for a miracle. Of course their prayers went answered cos the gum came off just after a few days.

Had to pester them to come down again, this time a different group of workers came and told me they wanted to apply some gum again. I told them that someone else already tried and it was not going to work. But guess what they told me, their gum was better.... "It was the bestest gum in the world..... even hercules couldnt tear it out........." Of cos I refused to listen to their b***s*** and told them to get a new part to replace.

They came again and cut out the leaking pipe. Found a piece of concrete the size of a mobile stuck in the pipe!! It probably caused the washing machine upstairs to choke and our dear neighour probably used a sharp stick to start poking thru the pipes and made a hole in our pipe.

The workers then proceeded to spend nearly 2 hours trying to fit the square peg into a round hole. Succeeding in the end only by brute force. I was very unconvinced by both the method and workmanship. Better call hdb to ensure that they have a warranty for that, cause once the contractor's warranty for building defects is over, we will probably have to fork out from our own pocket and have a nasty battle with the upstairs neighour to do any repairs.

Pocket-sized dynamo of a gift

Received another fantastic big present today. It was compact, definitely original but yet very practical and huge indeed....... it was a Fevocard. Go check it out if you haven't heard about it.

A big thank you again to pmy and hubby :)

Mrs 黑: PMY, I must say a BIG THANK YOU to you .... all these yrs ... for ur generous help !!

Electrolux Family Sales

We went down to the Electrolux Family Sales last Saturday. Was quite disappointed with it overall. There were not many items and most of the items were not as cheap as we expected. Was thinking that if the washing machines were discounted heavily, we could buy a new one instead of using my mum's old machine. Guess we have to stick to the original plan. Anyways, we still managed to grab something from the sale. Bought a really nifty looking black electric kettle to match the 'Blackout' theme in the kitchen.