christmas tree

our very first dust pine christmas tree!

from the verge, formerly known as tekka mall. vanda win at level 6.
this 5ft dust pine cost $75 :)

close-up of the dust pine!

it's divided into these smaller pieces.

the final look!

the colourful balls decor was from thailand. we bought them 6 years ago...

living & dining area

here's some pix of my living & dining area for all to enjoy. our cottage is only 80% completed. the remaining 20% is the brickwall & the tidying up part. study room is not ready for pic coz the open book shelves are quite messy. still in progress ok?

• dining area

• living room
our temporaily air sofa... still saving up to get a good one.

• living room-view from sofa

• shoe drawer
haven't got time to decorate the space above the drawer.

we get justice finally - yes, we won!

finally after 4 months of anger, stress, mix feeling of law, anger, stress and lotsa anger, i'm proud to say, WE WON THE CASE! it is a fundamental breach of contract. only law can make people like tony tan c.w.(from titan) admit his mistake & accept the verdict from the judge . his act has been totally irresponsible & unjustifiable! never, never go to titan (at 582 balestier rd) for house reno.

there is justice in singapore & im so glad we got it. we're glad all is over... it has been a long fight but onion agree it's all worth it... onionboy did all the presentations & wasted much of his time thinking of the case. both of us went through loads of stress, all becos of this irresponsible contractor.

if we've accepted the breach of contract, we'll be giving in to offenders! justice prevailed... :)

10 men in the house

the day before we move in, we broke a record of having 10 workers rectifying their works at the same time. 2 painters, 1 carpenter & his assistant, 2 curtain guys, 2 varnisher (erm, they vanish the parquets), 1 electrician & his trouble-maker! thankfully, they all finish up the works by afternoon.

• white timber door

• left is the study room, right is the living room
• kitchen is really small...
• uncle (on the left) is a very nice guy.
he taught us how to take care of the parquet flooring.
listen up: use only water to wipe, if u wanna use chemical, use only dettol.
wipe your parquets at least twice a week, keep it moist.

• plumber did a fantastic job, pipings are very neat & well-covered.

curtains

sorry these pix came late... jimmy textile was here on the 14th to do up the curtains & roller blinds. they took around an hour half to fix everything. they're quite careful & fast. however when they pass us the invoice, it was $80 more. originally we pick the england fabric for our living room but there's no stock for the design. the 2nd time when we went back to choose the design, my in-laws pick a pattern from the same series. as we didn't wanna incur extra cost, we pick the normal fabric & off-set the cost. the price should still be the same right? onion called lucas to check, his attitude wasn't good. anyway he ended saying that since we didn't hear there'll be additional cost then we pay the amount we think it's right. ok, fine, $1680 it is! no more, no less.

water pipe burst

it all happened on last saturday... my contractor hit the water pipes when drilling hole for the dish-rack! imagine water flowing out from the kitchen wall, like water fountain! luckily it went straight into my sink, which is right beside it. we remember clearly that there were no sticker on that portion of the kitchen wall (stating there's water pipes). onionboy checked the photos he took when we 1st step into our cottage. confirm: no stickers! we got hold of hdb & lian beng people and ask them to look into this. it is clear that someone made on a mistake. there were no arguement... hdb supervisor got his plumber in and LB worker started cutting the tiles. the dust is killing me!! finally we saw the damaged water pipe & the plumber patch the hole with epoxy. strictly no water supply for the next 4 hours. it was a torture!

at about 7pm, onionboy on the riser. no leakage from the hole, water flow out from all the taps, except that the pressure is smaller. BUT as we turn the tap off one by one, the riser burst out with water! it was so dramatic! we had to collect water in different pails and turn off the riser. by then it's already 9pm... the workers will only come tomorrow morning.

sunday 9.30am: LB workers & hdb plumber came to rectify the problem. Yes, all is well again! (all these while, i was sleeping... been so tired after the hectic sat) i have to give all the credits to onionboy. he was there all these while...

what an experience! i'm glad hdb & lian beng rectified the problem efficiently. well, you can still find nice people in construction line, unlike titan creative! urgh... i have to end this post with a comment "go to titan creative at your own risk!".

the kiasu us

we bought all these way before we got our keys, some are as early as 2007. but they're all on sale items... hehe... save money mah! shop early for your house, you'll save from there. :)

• a very good buy from journey east, dempsey (nearly forgot where it's from!)
1 for $36 only

• MUJI legless chair, at a 10% discount

• IKEA cabinet - using this as shoe cabinet
bought from a ikea sale too!

• table from IKEA As-Is $70

• As-Is table is hand-carry by onionboy

the hole in our cottage

the hole in the cottage is finally done! black laminated frame is up within a week. cool!!! the orange boutique is coming alive. so exciting!

• black laminated wood

• the hole, waiting for wood frame

• i love the orange background in the study room. :)
living room using magnolia (ICI)... smoothing...

timber strip to hide HS

• carpentary head fitting the feature door.

• a mini carpenter's worktop in our living room

• wood strip is up finally! after white

• feature door from main entrance

jimmy textiles

we need curtains for our cottage! after getting some tips from sengkang.com, we decided to pay jimmy textiles a visit. we went to the tanjong katong complex branch on saturday and it was very crowded! we were served by lucas, he's not those attentive and friendly sales. basically he'll give u a quote for all the rooms and walk away. when we ask for a better price, he takes out his calculator and walks away, again. haha, 1st time we were so tired of bargaining. after choosing for 2 hours, we finally confirmed 3 sets of night curtain and 4 panel of roller blinds! total cost: $1680 (yes, it's expensive!)

•dots dots for our room, blue blinds to match

•swedish blinds for the study room

• living room curtain (our 1st choice is out of stock!)
erm, it's not a very unique piece but at least it's different from the usual 1-colour curtain.

• fabric close-up

•our 1st choice for living room.
too bad england don't produce this anymore :(
the colours are so retro & beautiful!

•pil's curtains-we're surprised they like bright colours

day kitchen look

im so sorry i update only now. we've been so busy... pix for now ok? promise i'll upload more.

•more of our kitchen (day time)
my neighbour is a nice aunty, she's cleaning her service yard.

•clearer view of the carcass

•a drop-down open shelving to place cutlery which are commonly used.

the XL ikea catalogue

• just for laughs-we didn't print this ourselves ok?
courtesy of ikea to their members. we're friends of ikea. best friends.

kitchen wonders

the kitchen carcass is up finally! we're really excited about it, it looks nice... hehe... pls visual it with white glossy cabinet. :) we saw the carpentry uncle around 7pm, he commented that he's very tired! i guess it must be a lot of hard work since morning.

• distorted view from living room

• the big space is home to our fisher & paykel

• testing out the look of my favourite teka sink!

• something i drew in the kitchen before the solid top runs over

home and decor rocksSssSsss!!!

go and grab a copy of the thick thick home and decor september issue! aaahahhh... we're in the magazines!! cool~~ thanks to ms chiquit! we'll put in more effort to make our blog a better read. :)

heaven shower

onion went hoe kee (at plaza singapura) and bought the krisroz rain shower set! it was featured in the sunday times and it looks really pretty. although it's made in china, $368 for a rain shower set, compare to hansgrohe, it's so much more affordable! hehe... we're so excited about the only item we can change for our mrb toilet!

• krisroz rain shower set
photo courtesy of the sunday times

simple bed frame

sungei kadut! somewhere i'll never imagine getting our bed frame from. onion was flipping the sunday times as usual and spotted some furniture sale at sungei kadut. that's like the other side of singapore! well, we're definitely not a fan of those advertisements but we always end up visiting those warehouses. hehe... we'll travel all the way there, scan through the warehouse in 5 mins and leave if nothing interest us. ok, we found this white bed frame from country style furnishing pte ltd, at the IFC (international furniture centre). love at first sight!

• classic bed frame ($999 after bargaining, including delivery)

• all the soft toys can sit neatly on the frame!

citygas is home...

16 august (sat)
11am: teka delivers our hob, hood, oven, sink and kitchen mixer. everything was ok except the kitchen mixer needs to be replace, there're some scatches and stains.
12pm: citygas uncle was here to do the gas piping for the kitchen and the new gas heater. he was nice and he answers to our queries. we wanted to place it in the washroom but uncle said it can only be place outdoor where there's ventilation. so the only place is the service yard and no where else... anyway, he showed us the positioning of our gas heater before he continues to drill to the wall. everything went smoothly and we're satisfied with the overall look. btw, this is all foc! :)

•citygas uncle cutting the gas pipe

•gas piping leading to the hob

•our 8L gas heater Rinnai REU-8-CG, from citygas
(made in nagoya!)