Hello Readers & Fellow Homeowners!

Updated on 8th-March-2017

Before you continue… I would like to confess that you are going to embark on a super lengthy grandmother story blogpost. Inside have milestones that are important to me and my husband but probably not to you but I decided to include them in so years later when I look back at my blog, I can still feel the exact same way as I do now. My blog actually function like my diary / journal, during my renovation period, I wrote daily progress down hence it’s super detail.

So have fun reading! May the odds ever be in your favour!

Finally have the time to sit down and recap my First BTO Home Renovation Journey in 2016. Although it’s 2017 already but no worries it’s still not too late.. Why??? Because my wedding day blog in 2014 have not even been written or conceptualised yet! HAHA! So tell me “what is late”?

I am very glad for this renovation journey we have a very trusted Interior Designer which is now our new Best Friend Paul Lawrence Tan from Senz of White to be with us and gave us lots and lots of advices.

We totally recommend his service that’s why I am writing this blog. As you can see, if no good I usually don’t write and don’t publish at all!!!

Just to declare first….. THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED POST. I am promoting Paul’s service because he is so damn good lah. But I won’t deny if he decided to give me some discount because I am his new friend or because I told him I am gonna write a blog if he did a GREAT JOB. In fact after seeing all the pictures you will know he did a pretty awesome job. I think he did gave us some discounts because I am a Queen of Haggling and I admit I kinda jokingly said.. Aiya, charge me cheaper la.. I intro my friends and readers to get your services! HAHAHA! Sorry friends and readers!! LOLS.. Renovation CO$T is a BIG amount you know.. If can I believe anyone will want to save every single cents!

Anyway be it you are blogger a not, just haggle! HAHAHAHA.. I am sure when you haggle Paul might give you some perks / goodies / freebies / or who knows…. DISCOUNT! Probably more than me!!! And I don’t mind if my introduction today helps you. I mean I am writing this blog to help you fellow home owners right? Why keep good things to myself? GOOD THINGS MUST SHARE MAH!!!!!

So let me share the blog in a timeline version so you can see better on what I have done to my house, and what Paul have helped along the way. Lengthy but useful. At least that is what I hope!

Some basic information : We applied for our BTO in Feb-2013, Selected our Flat in April-2013 and we chose a 3-Room Flat in the WESTERN side of Singapore, we opted in for HDB’s (government) flooring, doors and toilets (commonly known as Premium Flat).

So let me explain some of our choices we made above.

Why 3room flat and not 4room flat (bigger) or 5room flat(biggest)?

3 room consist of 1 Master room, 1 common room, and 1 living room and 1 kitchen about 68sqm (including service yard).

Tiny? Nope. Sufficient for us and something we could afford pretty well.

Because to us, we are opting for 1-child or no-child policy hence 3room is enough for us.

And since the day we BTO, I wanted something Casper could afford it alone in case I couldn’t find any job as at the point of time of application I am still a student in Ngee Ann Polytechnic or I prefer to stay-at-home in the future if I have a kid. So 3room is a good option for us.

Why in the WEST?

Previously we thought it will be nearer to where Casper will be working at, and in the end … In 2015, his office announced they will be moving. #FML This news really sucked but we can’t say no.. So yeah.. We will just suck thumb.

Why opt for HDB Flooring, Doors & Toilets?

Yes, opting in would means you would “PAY MORE” because Government ones I think is more expensive than the ones in market. However do note that when you Opt in, you pay via CPF. Which is too complicated to be explained just know this… CPF is your money but put in a piggy bank which you can only use it to buy government-owned property only and it could be return to you when you retire at ?? <— the minimum age keep changing so I don’t know when. It will be return to you eventually (at the final phase of your life) but you can’t take it out now.. It’s savings!! For the rainy day. But if it rains now, sorry you can’t take them out either. It’s for rainy day when you are old when you are not working (retired). But if you wanna use them when you are young? Buy a government property!

Ok.. Enough of this CPF thingy. Main reason we chose HDB flooring, Doors and Toilets because we don’t wanna spend extra cash on these in the future and in case we are poor and we need to move in immediately, the house will be in a “Ready to move in” condition. We just need to buy a mattress and a fan! But if you don’t, you need to have extra cash like at least 5k to 10k to do the flooring.

It depends on you. Some people dislike the flooring the government gave so they chose not to opt in. For me.. Simple. We just opt in “Just In Case” if we cant afford to fork out the cash to do flooring 3years later in 2016. And basically that one of the way to spend our monies from our ‘piggy bank’ (CPF).

When we entered the house, the flooring is so good and we are glad we took them. I love this flooring!!!!

Without further ado… Let’s embark this long journey with me!

26th-Jul-2016: First Meet up with Paul

Before that we have met a few ID along Rangoon Road & in IMM however they are unable to meet my budget of $20k and being able to do all the carpentry that I wanted.

Stuff that I wanted for my new home:

1 Settee for storage & act as dining chair.

1 Shoe Cabinet as I have lots of shoes.

2 Wardrobe, one for Casper & one Mirror wardrobe for me so I can dance.

1 Bathtub as that is what Casper promised as I like to soak in it everyday.

1 basic kitchen (if lack of budget, we are ok with just doing bottom cabinet or kitchen-less*)

*kitchen-less temporary but do it after we saved another sum for it.*

Any Concept as long as the renovation budget is below $20k.

31st-Jul-2016 Mattress, Bed frame, dining table & sofa from Sungei Kadut Novena, Nick Yeo.

We decided to purchase our furniture even before we got our keys or letter to collect our keys!

Our budget for bedding is $1000 so we went to Sungei Kadut Novena Furniture to recce and source for one. Previously we have shortlist a few from BigBox and also Johor Bahru however we can’t find a suitable design. I am mainly looking for Princessy Design with crystals bed frame. They call it “Designer bed frame” and in many places they are more of like selling Mattresses and give you FREE Bed Frame. But the free bed frame design is not very nice in my opinion. If you would like to take those I mentioned with crystals usually you need to top-up some money around $500 onwards.

Luckily we went to Novena and I was actually looking around still… until I saw this bed…

OMG DREAM BED!!!

The colour is sooooo… Juicy Couture? P/S I am a huge fan of Juicy so yeah…

Then at that point of time, we have not even confirm Paul’s services or even signed contract but we decided to ask for his opinion.

Epic right? If she like can buy la…

OBVIOUSLY.. It’s in my home now so we don’t need to say much of the outcome..

Immediately I asked my BFFsss for opinion.

This is before I decided to buy them.. I saw it and snap a photo and just show them that this is my dream bed.

Kenneth is so funny!!! Sekali (What if) Headboard not included!! HAHAHA!! Headboard is the crystal part.

It’s true I buy because of the crystal.

Sent it to my BFF Margaret and her reaction!! HAHAHA

So yeah..

This bed is a Display set hence it’s $499 but there is no storage option but if we were to get a new set, the price will go up to a $999!! (Without the mattress)

Remember the budget is $1000 only for both Frame + Mattress.

So ok.. We decided to take this bed and we are left with $501 for Mattress and Pillow.

For the Mattress, our Sales person Nick told us to go and try and not look at the prices first because Mattress are very important for our health / sleep and spine. He doesn’t want us to compromise for the quality.

Finally I pick a BIA Springfield Mattress which is Mid-range mattress but the price is $800+ (Cant remember the exact figure)

So in this case, we have to cut budget elsewhere to compensate for this area.

But thanks Nick for the free pillow and free delivery because do note that delivery is done by external transport company hence we have to pay for it.

Next is SOFA, budget is $500 and we would want a white 2-seater sofa.

The first thing we do is sent the measurement to Paul and seek for approval for colour scheme and size.

Within 10mins it’s approved by Paul and tadah! Hello NEW SOFA!

$499 because it’s display set but in very good condition.

Last item of the day, Dining Table, not inclusive of Dining chairs as we already burst our budget.

Dining Table original price is $699 but because it’s a brand new item and it’s not Display set so.. We get $100 off so it goes down to $599.

We also have not seen an ideal dining chair so just put it on hold.

Many thanks to Nick for helping us to get lots of discount and savings!

5th-Aug-2016 – KEY COLLECTION!

Finally collected the keys in the morning.

Things we have to do…

1. Paying for Fire Insurance

2. Collecting Keys

3. Pay to activate SP Services for Power & Water Supply.

4. The same place if you are want to apply for City Gas (Government Gas Services)

5. Eat the mandatory Muah Chee at the Kopitiam below!

Defects checking with Paul

If you wanna know my tips and things to bring for defects checking, go straight to the bottom of this blogpost.

Anyway, remember to prepare trash bag to empty all these flyers. We came to our new house doorstep frequently before key collection to empty them. And even till now just before we officially moved in, there are still lots of flyers.

Flyers are ok.. Some vendors actually pasted stickers on my door and it was so hard to be removed. Recently there are vendors whom actually used cable ties to hang their advertisements flyers.

Dear Vendors, you do know that by doing this is just not gonna let us engage you as our preferred vendors right?

At 12pm, we met Paul and he is helping us with defects checking!

Do note: At this point of time we have not signed any form of contract or made any payment to him at all! But we are very certain we will be using Paul because we are very comfortable with him.

So I prepare masking tape and a Black & Red Marker for Casper to highlight the defects. Black for minor defects and red for SERIOUS defects.

Meanwhile Paul showed me the Ideal Mosaic for my bathtub! Which I am very pleased with the SEASHELL!!! OMG! It’s so pretty!!

He gave me the sample to keep as souvenir!

Anyway back to defects checking…

When you reach your new home, first thing to do is get your Electrical and Wiring Layout plans and pass it to your ID. So they will know where the wires are hidden.

Next is to Unseal one toilet bowl in the common bathroom only.

Why don’t you unseal 2? Reason is that during construction work, the workers can only use one toilet bowl so you only need to clean one toilet bowl at the end of the day! HAHAHAHA!

Paul also help us to test all the taps to make sure that there is water flow.

Tips for Top floor owner. You do know that our ceiling is much higher than normal floors and we do not have this electrical box up for piping unlike the others.

I am not sure if it’s good or no good. For me, I think it’s good. In a sense, I have one less stuff to clean.

As you can see, Paul is super efficient. Once we finish checking defect, he start designing our house by drawing a layout sketch of the living room.

For my room, I require super high internet speed hence he suggest to install a Data Point for faster internet connection.

We also started to discuss about the Kitchen layout too. At this point, nothing is final because we have not even made any payment or deposit. We don’t even know if we are going to have a kitchen or not or even top cabinet or not.

I forgot what I have said but Paul looks so attentive so I guess I must be saying something really important.. But if it’s that important… How could I forget what did I just said? Erm.. Nvm.. HAHAHA!

Did I just talk to myself again? Nooo…

At the same time, Paul is taking measurement of my cabinet / wardrobe height and length so he can give a better quotation.

For those who are staying in the top floor, please note that because you have a higher ceiling, do notify your contractor and ID before hand because it will make a difference in the carpentry work and price, because you will use more material and of cause it will cost slightly more. Unless you are willing to do suspended cabinets or so or you are willing to leave / waste the gap in the ceiling, otherwise be prepared to fork out a little more.

6th-Aug-2016 Buying of lightings in Selangor (Puchong) “War-zone”

So on the 6th-Aug-2016 that weekend, we went to KL for the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Race for the Half Marathon. Kind of to prepare and practice for the Disneyland Paris Half Marathon in coming September.

Then after we collected the race pack, we google-ed on where we can actually get cheap lightings near us. Initially we thought of going to Tampoi at Johor but our Malaysian friend who also just got her house told me, even Malaysian don’t go to Tampoi.

I am like.. WHAT?!

And google tell us to go to this Puchong area for lights in Selangor.

Just nice all the other shops are closed that day. Only left the cheapest store so we did not even need to do research and we entered this place I call it the “WARZONE”!!!

Trust me, dun wear slippers here, the customers here are very rowdy even I am very rowdy when it comes to seeing cheap and good stuff! I can run towards a light and squeezing through the crowd.

Tell me how is this not call the WARZONE!!!

Very very scary but you gotta be brave for the good deals isn’t it?

I am someone who hates crowd. Like truly hates crowd, but sometimes you got no choice.

So you let the husband brave through the crowd and you hide behind him.

Customer service are very good and the lights here are really cheap, but it is not cheap with no reason…

You gotta assemble it yourself like lego pieces.

So unless you got like a cool Electrician Ah Qiang like me, otherwise you will be like our Colleague, Venicia and her husband whom spend one full day assembling one Chandelier.

This is how my light originally looked like. The price is RM$595 approx. $200SGD. We saw the exact same one in a lighting shop in Yishun, Chong Pang and it cost…… $2000 SGD yes… $2k , 2 thousand, I did not type an additional ZERO.

Ah Qiang said, he did not understand the diagram and call us to send him a picture of the Final Product (Picture) of the Chandelier and 8hrs later… It’s up on the ceiling.

He did not charge us any additional fees at all for assembling the chandelier!

And during our shopping time, Paul was with us all the time on Whatsapp.

We kept asking him “White or Black?” “Left or right?” “A or B”?

And he replied almost instantly. So technically he chose everything for us.

Then I told a “ex-friend” my lights in Puchong was really very value for money and cheap and she doesn’t believe me at all.

Even after I sent her this, my dining room lights were just RM89, about $30SGD, she is skeptical still. I am not sure why I really have to convince her even she doubts me like “I dunno what” …

But why do I wanna lie to you? I have photos as proof..

She even said things like I wanna “Siam” or escape from Tax payment..

I mean, the Custom Officers can really check, every product, I took a photo. Or do you want me to drive you back to KL to take a look yourself?

I am glad our custom officer are smart and brilliant and did not doubt us.

You know what? I really treat you as my friend and I am telling and sharing good deals with you but if you want to doubt me… Then please don’t seek my opinion.

I dun like to waste your time or my time.

If you don’t trust me, why are you still reading my instagram and whatsapp me asking…

“Is this really that cheap? Is this really that good?”

I have a reputation to uphold as a blogger, I only recommend things that I have tried personally and are good.

If you don’t trust me, then really please stop reading or even text me.

But if you want more assurance or information, definitely feel free to ask me more. I am more than willing to help.

But if your intention is just to make fun of me or to judge the items I have bought, I am sorry I don’t see the need that I have to satisfy your curiosity.

I mean, I dun earn a single cent by getting you to purchase the lights, aircons or the vacuum cleaner or eat that food, or get that camera.

Like for my BFF Elvina, recently she wanted to get a camera, so I lend her mine to play around with and eventually she bought hers and also agree to let me play with hers.

Simple as that… If your motive is come and laugh and judge Casper or myself for buying a certain product, please dun text me and tell me “Why you buy this ah? Why don’t you buy that ah?”

Anyway let’s go back to the lights…

So many lights? How to see, how to choose?

Yes, we have hard time choosing, so we took pictures and leave the choosing to Paul.

It’s quite difficult to see because there is so many people and you can’t even view properly and you have to be fast… If not, next moment the light is sold…

Trust me, I am a victim…

While I am still considering.. Next moment a Malay Lady got the 2 chandeliers of what I wanted and I am left with the Display set…

What is with me and Display set?

Display set in Puchong Light House is sometime consider not very good…

Reason 1: Display has no discount, same price as the new one…

Reason 2: Display has no One-Year Warranty….

Reason 3: Display obviously has dust, touched by thousands of customers and lastly it will be taken down by the staff from the ceiling and it means there might be potential risk of damage or scratches.

But one good thing….

Ah Qiang don’t have to assemble it! (Casper will totally agreed to this)

But yeah, you have to carry it home like that with no protection, just a carton box…

Houses Lightings Sdn Bhd
Address: 29-31-33-35, Jalan Bpu 6, Bandar Puchong Utama, 47100 Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia

Next up is queue-ing for making payment. Average wait time is 30mins including checking of the quality of products purchased.

I am quite lucky, my first purchase only has 3 chandeliers which I needed to set the theme colour of my house. So I get to go to the Express counter immediately.

My 2nd time here, we actually waited 30 minutes to collect and check our lights.

Next up, the counter staff will check your lightbulbs and light and all the items you bought ONE-BY-ONE and pack it nicely for you…

LASTLY… They carry it up to your car for you…

I did not take pictures the first time but the 2nd time I took pictures of their excellent service.

I definitely recommend this place…

So if you have a car, willing to travel about 3-4hrs to Selangor and then deviate 20-30mins to Puchong, this place is definitely the right place to go!

Note: Houses Lightings Sdn Bhd at Puchong close on Monday and operates after 12pm on Sunday, other days is 10:30am and they close at 5pm on Sunday there was once, I came at 4:45pm and because I am a regular already, they let me in!! HAHAHA!

10th-Aug-2016 Buying of Air-Con from IMM Best Tech

Did some research on my BTO group and also heard some recommendation and in the end we chose Best Tech out of the other competitors.

My sales person is Fanny and she is really good!

She introduced us to York. York is an American brand and one thing about York is that they are used to do those industrial air-conditioning and centralise aircon system hence they are pretty “powerful”.

As they are pretty new in the Singapore Market doing the Household Aircons, their price is relatively cheaper than other competitor brands.

Actually we are deciding between Mitsubishi Electric (M.E.) or Midea.

And eventually York won the battle.

Midea is cheap but it is made in China and also relatively new in this market.

York has better reputation in Malaysia.

Mitsubishi Electric is good with saving on electricity consumption (4-stars rating).

Hence it’s down to York VS M.E.

Why York instead of M.E?

Component 1: Price of System 2 (Means 2 aircon units)

York: $2000 SGD within my budget , M.E: $2300 SGD exceed my budget

York WINS

Component 2: Outlook, Appearance.

York: Pure White in colour, comes with LED Lights to indicate temperature.

M.E: Abit yellowish white, a brand new set looks a little like old set.

York WINS

Component 3: Maintenance

York: Has auto cleaning system every time you shut it off.

M.E: The model which I was comparing to does not have it.

York WINS

Component 4: Smart Features

York: Able to control Aircon using handphone APP in case remote is spoilt.

ME: Not that I have heard of.

York WINS

The battle winner is very clear!

So next, we schedule our Aircon installation as the first thing to do in our house as it has piping and drilling to do as instructed by Paul.

Fanny told us that they have some promotions so we have some servicing vouchers and also lighting and furniture voucher.

She also upgrade to a better quality aircon piping for us.

And our aircon power (BTU) is upgrade from 9k to 12k instead.

Don’t get what I am saying? Go look for Fanny then! HAHAHA!

11th-Aug-2016 Met Electrician Ah Qiang and discuss about Layout of Wiring works

This is our first time meeting Ah Qiang, the most wonderful electrician one can ever have! He is basically nothing but the best. We started off by telling him that we are going to have 4 Chandeliers! So he measured and told us, it’s totally do-able because of our high ceiling. Next on, we proceed to have a built in LED light Mirror for my dressing table.

We discussed on the kitchen wiring for the oven, and LED lights for the suspended cabinets.

Lastly, to discuss on the internet ports, telephone ports and LED lights for the suspended Shoe Cabinet. Then with all the stuff we wanted to do, Ah Qiang will go back and work out a quotation for us before he start his work.

Ah Qiang is recommend to us by Paul. His price I wont say is cheap, I will say reasonable but his workmanship is fantastic and he is really trustable and reliable.

After meeting Ah Qiang, we travelled in Paul car to choose Bathroom Tiles as we are going to overlay the wall & floor tiles in the Master Bathroom. We are also going to choose bathtub mosaic and also buying of Bathroom Accessories, Kitchen Hood & Hob.

We went to 2 tiles selling shop and eventually we chose this….

Tiles from Hafary. Reason being is that it’s the “whitest” and also the base below is of the same colour so in case if it chip off, it will not show the “brown” base.

I dunno why is Casper so happily smiling.

Next up, we went to confirm the Mosaic for the bathtub. Although Paul have shown me the sample and I somewhat confirmed it, but since we are just next door… We shall go see it again!

I made my final decision the Pink Seashell Mosaic from Hup Kiong.

Reason 1: Pink

Reason 2: Seashell

A photo outside Hup Kiong.

Next we proceed to Paul’s friend’s shop to get ACCESSORIES… Chapalang…

First we picked our Storage Heater.

There are a few types of heaters.

#1 Instant Heater

#2 Gas Heater

#3 Storage Heater

Instant Heater is out of the choice, because it will not be hot enough to fill up the whole bathtub of water.

Gas Heater is out, because asthetically it will take up a space in balcony (service yard) to install and it will create some hindrance for us to pull down the clothes hanger at the service yard. The wiring work itself will also be quite ugly as it’s very obvious.

But it will save a little amount before the price of “gas” increases.

Storage heater, will be able to supply enough heat for the whole bathtub of water but of course it will use a lot of electricity to heat up all the gallon of water.

If you forget to turn it off, your electricity bill will go up sky high.

If you only use 5litres of water for a normal shower and the rest of 45litres will be heated for nothing.

Eventually we still opt for this.

50 Litres Storage Heater.

As for my bathtub, i picked Beauford 1500/1700 which can hold 130Litres of water, but technically you wont fill it to the brim… So a 50Litre storage heater will be suffice and you don’t bathe in bathtub everyday.

Next we picked a Bidet spray from Italy. I am so surprise when it’s made in Italy when nowadays everything is MADE IN CHINA!! LOLS!

One thing I like about this bidet it is the function of continuous spraying when you pull up the “handle” backwards. So when I am washing my floor or bathtub, I will not have to keep pressing the bidet non-stop for water.

I got this flipable towel rack. Why I need a flipable one?

Because I am installing it at my bathtub entrance. If I can’t flip it up, when Casper enter the bathtub, it will hit his head. Then you will be thinking, install it higher then..

But I am too short to reach it!!!

So a flipable one will it be!

With 4 columns, I can hang lots of clothes and towels to dry it too.

When I flip it up, the clothes can still be hanged nicely.

Mirror Cabinet. I particularly like this one. It’s storage space is awesome.

Big enough to put all my skincare products and my scrub and treatment cream for my hair which is seldom use but whenever I need it, I can reach for it easily.

And it’s long enough so I can still see the mirror and Casper won’t find the mirror too short! HAHAHA!

Sorry for the height difference.

Kitchen basin. Yes, the government flat does not provide this.

We chose the cheapest one and we decided to have those with 2 sink (1 big sink and 1 smaller sink) so I would be able to dry the dishes before keeping them in the cabinet.

For the tap, we chose this, I prefer this kind of tap compare to those “flip” up and down tap.

Because I think those flip kind of tap you will tend to be more “rough” with it and it can spoilt easily?

I dunno just a personal preference.

For my stove (hob) I chose this Ellane brand.

No particular reason because it’s recommended by the shop owner.

We chose stainless steel because Paul and Casper prefer stainless steel.

Although I prefer the glass hob one because it’s much pretty, however recently there is incidents of it being crack or explode.

“SPRING Singapore said it received reports of glass shattering and small explosions when the affected glass gas cooker hobs were in use.”

Read news here: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/authorities-warn-against-exploding-gas-cooker-hobs

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/electrolux-issues-recall-for-gas-cooker-hobs-after-explosion/3417756.html

For Hood, we chose Ellane too because if one day we need maintenance or repair, it’s from the same company. Why we need a hood, reason being, my mother and mother-in-law where they both are heavy cooker, uses a hood.

I believe they will be cooking at my house even though I think I won’t cook that much…

So I will be installing this for them!!!! HAHAHAHA!

Because it’s Paul’s friend’s shop, we manage to have huge savings here. So happy Casper again!

Eventually we also got our Ellane brand Oven from here a week later.

Their service is pretty well, we have issues and we called them and they quickly help us to liaise with Ellane.

13th-Aug-2016 Casperlyn Castle’s First Birthday Celebration – Casper’s 36th and Defects checking for hollow tiles, choosing of wallpaper from WallAffairs.

So in the morning, I lied to him by asking him to buy a “Tapping Rod” to check for hollow tiles in the new home before meeting Paul to choose our wallpaper.

Obviously he did….

Thanks my mum for collecting the cake for me and celebrating Casper’s birthday!

Reason we got this Nick Wilde cake is because he is gonna cosplay as Nick Wilde for the Disneyland Paris Half Marathon in September.

Happy birthday to my co-owner of this wonderful flat~

After his birthday celebration, we went to WallAffairs to select wallpaper.

As usual, Paul will shortlist first and then I will select between the choices he gave me.

I chose this for Living Room.

This for our Master Bedroom for one side of the wall.

Thanks Paul and Guorong for helping us with our choices of wallpaper!

Don’t know where Casper is looking.. LOLOLS! He look so happy somemore…

14th-Aug-2016 Gain City purchase of Washing Machine & Fridge

Then on this day we decided to purchase the Fridge and also the Washing Machine. This 2 items is very important as the size (measurement) will meant alot to Paul when doing the kitchen layout.

I.e How much space he need to leave for this 2 items….

As for the washing machine, I always wanted a Washing Machine & Dryer separately in a top + down unit.

However I was convinced that we don’t frequently use the dryer function and dryer uses up lots of electricity and also dryer stand alone will take up lots of space and then you are unable to put the clothes hanger down. So I chose a 2-in-1.

I particularly like this unit after using it for 6mths till now. They have this bubble soak function which is very useful for us because we frequently hike, climb mountain and hills and have lots of mud stain to get rid off.

They also have Baby Care so they will be extra gentle and give extra rinse to baby clothings. Good for me in future when i have a baby.

They also have Synthetic / Cotton wash, which you can use to wash specifically your sports attire.

Then sometimes if you feel that “Aiya, why this clothes got this smell….?” You can pop into the airwash function and tadah it will get rid of the smell without using water and your clothes won’t get wet and you can wear them immediately and having them smell so nice!!!

As for the fridge, we wanted a fridge that is not that big, but big enough for our preferences. Meaning, we did not want a huge fridge which can block our kitchen entrance. So the fridge depth is preferably below 60cm but all the fridge we find are more than 60cm. Not only that, the back of the fridge will give out some hot air for ventilation so you have to leave some space behind for the hot air to escape.

And finally, we found this Mitsubishi Fridge. It’s depth is 63cm but the technology wise is that it can be lean totally back to back of the wall, and the best part, it’s a 3 door fridge, 180cm tall which is enough to put lots of stuff too!

Guess what, it’s below my budget of $1000 dollars and it’s black!!! So hooray!

Thanks Shon from AMK Gain City for helping us with these 2 big purchases!!!

17th-Aug-2016 Decide Kitchen table top & kitchen cabinet layout in Hougang ID office.

So most of the furnitures and big items are settled and now it’s time to go into the detail.

We picked purple and white for the built-in wardrobe for Casper in the Master Bedroom.

Reason: It matched the wallpaper and the pink chandelier light.

As for my wardrobe, I will be choosing a Mirror casement wardrobe so I can make my room appear bigger and good for dancing session with my younger sister!

For the side of the wardrobe, I will be using “White Bling Bling”. HAHAHA! As you can see on the left.

As for the Shoe Cabinet and Settee drawer, I will be using this Flora Revolution White design.

Because normal plain ones are too normal.. The Floral design give it a more sophisticated feel….

So yeah!

Lastly it’s my favourite Kitchen… My Pink Princessy Barbie doll kitchen!

Initally we don’t even want to have a kitchen till Paul show us the price difference is not alot.

We also cut here and there. Which I will explain later with the 3D drawings.

This will be my kitchen combi, Left is the Cabinet colour, Middle is my Pink Quartz Tabletop, on the Right is my Back splash.

So what it’s back splash? It’s like to protect the wall while you cook. So if there is sauce splashes, you can wipe away easily.

For the back splash, there is 2 kind of glass to be used.

Left: White Glass , Right : CRYSTAL WHITE Glass

White glass obvious it’s not white, it’s green tinted but if you opt for a coloured backing, like black / pink / red / etc etc then you won’t see the “Green Tinted” Glass.

However, I am using White as Background, white as my backing…

So, the green tinted is totally unacceptable.

So I really wanted to get the Crystal White Glass which we might need to top up $300 more.

My friend (J) using other ID, top up $600 and another friend (S) of mine using “Contractor” did not paid a single cent.

So it really depends on ID. See if they wanna “CARROT” you.

Carrot means “hack” you, means like to earn more money outta you.

Do note: Contractor is not like ID (Interior Designer). Contractor are just here to carry out your ideas, meaning if you know how to design and have lots of ideas, use a contractor to help you build your ideas.

As for Interior Designer, they do space planning, they help you design your house based on theme, colours, budget and match your house.

It’s like Wedding Coordinator VS Wedding Planner.

Wedding Coordinator takes and follow your calls and schedule.

Wedding Planner, PLANS and design your wedding. From wedding cards, to wedding favours to actual day details and even help you pick wedding gown.

But Wedding Coordinator only appear on actual day to execute your wedding day plans.

Interior Designer can cost $20k and above for a 3room flat.

Contractor can cost $15k and above for a 3room flat.

Just like Wedding Coordination service by me is $999 and Wedding Planning service by me is $2999.

One uses more brain cell and sells you an idea and concept. Another one “Just do it”.

I also have a friend (CK) you know what she do? She went to an ID to get the ID’s concept and design and she paid for the 3D drawing done by the ID. Which means the ID sells the idea to my friend (CK).

Then Friend (CK) went to get a contractor to execute the 3D drawing.

Did she regret it?

YES she absolutely regretted it. Why?

Not say the contractor is no good, but the contractor did not get the geese out of the “design” hence it went haywire.

In the end, my friend (CK) lived with it.

She did spent lesser than compare if she used the ID. Because the ID she chose is a Top-Notch in this industry. But well, that’s her choice she kinda regret it but she did not have the extra money to rectify it.

So till then, she just have to … Hmm.. Move on?

ONE thing about Paul, he provides ID services but charges us at contractor prices.

I swear no one can give me the prices like Paul did. I will say the services he provides is also the extra-mile ones.

He is talented… Basically he already showed me what I wanted even before the 3D will be done. Just a night’s discussion and this is what he produced. Impressive right?

My Kitchen, Pink Quartz Table Top, White Cabinet with Pink ABS Trimming.

The Settee & Shoe Cabinet’s Floral Design. He is AMAZING!

I think it’s pretty cool and I bet you find it pretty cool too!

Thanks Paul!!!! You are soooo AWESOME! LOLS!

Then meanwhile, they say I have some talent in Interior Designing too. In another words actually should be implying I am very hard to pleased! But you see, I had my Elective Module Distinction!

Those were the days!!! HAHAHA!

But this is just one of the reason that I happen to know more about space planning.

Hence we also respected Paul’s design more and listen to his ideas because we engaged him and we should like totally trust him.

As a blogger, I feel the same way when advertiser engage me too.

I don’t mind that you look at my draft before I publish or even edit a little but if you wanna write it your way or change my content, “WHY FIND ME?”

I can share a very ridiculous request I received.

Advertiser A wanted to publish their written blog post on my blog.

I reply: No, you give me the product, I will try and if it’s good I will share but I wont take a single cent.

Advertiser A say, they will pay me instead of giving me their product and want to publish their article on my blog. Their “well-written” article.

I mean, I have my writing style and it’s obvious their article is not by me, not written by me.

21st-Aug-2016 Buying more lights from Puchong

So we are going back again to get more lights, such as the service yard light, kitchen light, toilet lights, corridor lights. Those small stuff which are not significant but important.

I also happen to find a Purple Chandelier for my Princess Room.

Moving on to the side lights in the toilet. I got this flowery one for the Master Bedroom Toilet.

This “lines” ones for the Common Bathroom.

Then we got this 3 colours changable LED light for the Foyer and Passageway toward the rooms.

We got this spotlight for my Bridal Gown display.

Lastly this is just Casper messaging Paul to ask for opinions.

Then as I mentioned before, this is a warzone, so I just found a place / floor to sit because my back hurts by standing for hours selecting the lights and looking up and down at the lights.

After we gotten Paul’s approval…. Let’s make payment!!!

Next is to have our lights “tested” before we leave the shop.

Their service is really very good, they helped us to stuff all our loots into our car.

So we arrived at my new place to put those lightings we bought over the weekend so Ah Qiang and Paul will fix them up accordingly.

22nd-Aug-2016 Buying drinks for workers and ID laid the corrugated paper to protect the HDB floorings and doors.

So we decided to prepare some drinks in the store room for the contractor and renovation workers to help themselves to. Although eventually Paul told us to get bottled Mineral water instead in case they accidentally spill it. But we thought of giving them sugar so it can perk them up during work!

The oolong tea above is bought specially for Paul because that is his favourite drink! LOLS!

Meanwhile the house flooring was well protected by Corrugated Paper.

Even the door was protected too!

23rd-Aug-2016 Aircon Installation, canned drink explosion incident and choosing of curtain.

Chose Curtain from Curtain guy (A) <– will not disclose company name as we are not very pleased with his services. The design we chose are all out of stock. Till I came back from Paris in Late September then the curtains is finally up and the drilling holes are not nicely done.

I will still share some pictures.

So the curtain guy (A) actually carried a luggage of sample to our house to let us select he seems to be rather professional for the first impression to me.

Then Paul helped us to chose a few design and mix and match Day & Night Curtain.

But do note, whatever Night Curtain we chose here… HAS NO STOCK!! TILL LATE SEPTEMBER!!!

*Apparently… Everything inside the SAMPLE BOOK is OUT OF STOCK!*

Actually I feel unfair for us because he should have check if there is stock before taking FULL PAYMENT from us.

In the end, I very much wanted to withdrew his services but Casper said…. “We already made full payment.”

I mean, we engaged you because we like this particular curtain, if you taken deposit or full payment already and this curtain design has no stock, shouldn’t you do a FULL REFUND to me?

Ok, so he is Paul’s recommendation.. I decided to gave him ONE more chance by choosing the next design (2nd choice) and apparently….

2nd choice is OUT OF STOCK TOO!

So 3rd Choice…. OUT OF STOCK TOO!

Our friend (Desmond) actually introduce us to another curtain contacts but we chose to take Paul’s recommendation, my BFF Margaret sells curtain too but I still listen to Paul’s recommendation.

This is what you deserve when you don’t do enough research. And this curtain guy (A) which Paul recommended has not been personally tried by any of my friends and had bad reviews too on certain facebook groups this is only found out by me after I came back from my trip. Haizzz…

And Curtain Guy (A) curtain is not cheap, 3room curtain we paid more than 4 digit!

全都怪我……不该沉默时沉默…… <—- 可惜没如果，只剩下结果、后果、后悔。

Everytime i see this curtain, I will sing this song… You know those feeling? I hope you don’t know…

However these 3 day curtains I chose are good and not too bad… It’s the night curtain…..

全都怪我，不该沉默时沉默，该勇敢时软弱……如果不是我……

Translate: All blame me, shouldn’t be quiet when I am suppose to speak up, should be brave but coward…

Ok enough of JJ 可惜没如果……

MAI GONG LIAO… GONG LIAO CHENG SIM! (Dont say anymore, say more upset more…)

Meanwhile, lets go back to the aircon installation.

So Best Tech is supposingly to come at 10am, they just say 10am but not say a timing like between 10am to 11am this kind. So they said 10am!!! But they came at 11:30am. Luckily we are still around and thankful Paul does not have any other appointments because it’s the Lunar 7th Month (Hungry Ghost Festival) according to some of my friends, they mentioned that we are not suppose to do renovation / move in / or even OPEN THE DOOR to the new flat during this period. Like seriously? I can’t wait to move in and get renovation done ASAP!!!

Secondly, do you guys realise because of this superstition / culture / superstitious mindset, RENOVATION related products and FURNITURES are super cheap during this period! Lots and lots of wonderful offers. Because in Singapore, the sales industry suffered from the “7th Month Cannot Do Anything” syndrome hence they can’t hit their sales quota and apparently…. Christians, Malays and Indians friends benefited from this.

The good thing is that we get FULL ATTENTION from Paul during this period, because only us and another family are doing renovation. During other months, he will have more business to handle. We are also quite lucky to grab hold of him because usually people in his industry will go overseas during the 7th Month.

Another family is actually still superstitious, they actually started renovation “BEFORE” the 7th Month so to them, during the 7th Month, nothing will happen if you started before hand and continue during it…

Weird logic… To me, if you believe in it having such great powers to destroy you… “It” won’t just destroy you in 7th month only.. “It” can destroy you ANY MONTH, ANY DAY, ANYTIME!

No offence but I know that my God has greater POWERS to protect me and my family! #SorryNotSorry

Because I have never install aircon before, Paul taught us how to clean the filter ourselves so we can further improve our aircon life span.

MY NEW & ‘CLEAN’ YORK INVERTER!

Keyword: Clean York

Not sure if I’d mentioned before about the piping. So Best Tech actually upgraded us to a better WHITE Piping instead of the usual Black Piping.

White it’s better because it’s thicker and harder to break.

And then we went for lunch and came back at 2pm.. Guess what I saw!!!

LIKE WHAT?!

Is this still my “NEW & CLEAN YORK INVERTER”

Or this is my “New Coke Flavoured Inverter.”

I think I accidentally ordered “COKE” instead of “YORK” issit?!

OMG!

Check out my Coke Inverter’s Fan. Sprayed with 90% Coca Cola to ensure you to have a refreshing air blowing with Coke fragrance.

My niece (YX & YY) will definitely love this Inverter so very much! They both are Coke fans. As for me, I would prefer Sprite instead.

So what happen was that the Best Tech Technician actually bought a can of Coca Cola and left it outside and because the weather was so very hot, the CAN of Cola EXPLODED!

They only cleaned up the inverter for us… But Casper have to clean the common area aka our shared corridor himself.

Meanwhile.. I am busy documenting this down. HAHAHA!

The EXPLOSION was WOW.. “JIPABOMB”!

Splashed onto the ceiling too.. We cleaned our neighbour’s walkway too because I am scare the Coke will attract ants.

Testing the aircon and WOW it really is pretty! Erm, aircon functionality is secondary! LOLS!

So one thing to take note is to ask them to seal the aircon because you wont want any dust during the renovation to get into it.

Ah Qiang Wiring Kitchen

Ah Qiang and his man started by doing the wiring for kitchen first.

When they left…. It’s so NEAT & TIDY!!!!

Totally my style…

24th-Aug-2016 Checking out 3D drawings

Finally the day has come… Although I super trust Paul’s designing skill… But having 3D would be better… A sneak preview I call it!!! Sent the sneak preview to all my besties and we got 100% good feedback.

Mainly people say it is very cozy (Bianca), looks like palace (Margaret), very pretty (my TOD friends).

Even my very picky Mum actually said it’s good.

Of course these comments are by people who matters, so their comment matters. I seek their opinion and advices. But of course to those we are just here to trash… Erm.. Continue trashing…

I bet you are gonna say stuff like… “All White?” Waste of paint because usually they will help you paint 5 different colours. I know some people really utilised 5-6 colours of paint but erm… If you like it, go ahead.

One fact for sure… If one day you need to repaint, you need to buy 5-6 tins of different paint!

I just need to buy 1 tin of white paint and I can repaint my whole house.

Do take note: If you paint your house dark colours like “grey or black” good luck…. Next time if you wanna repaint white colour or light colours, you need to layer 3-4 times to hide the dark colours beneath it.

I am a victim, i used to paint my room black.. Don’t judge me… But that was when I was 14years old!!!!

Ever since, I never paint my room dark colours anymore because it just made the area seems so small and you just feel so oppressed and so depress. You wont be comfortable with it.

Light & bright colours makes the world go round. You are happier when you see a White & Blue Sky right? But you are not so happy when you see Dark & Gloomy clouds right?

SAME LOGIC!

Just sharing mistakes I made and since I made this mistake, I am sharing it with you so you wont make the same mistake as me.. LOLS!

Come on, let’s admire my LIVING ROOM~!

Ignore the big TV, I thought the big TV is the only thing that I disliked in the drawing.

I prefer to have a reasonable size TV but I have moved in for months, I have not even watch the TV for more than 5times!

Do you know something? If you get a big TV, it will just show that you have a tiny living room and it just make the space smaller, looks more cramp and squeezy.

One thing for sure, if you have kids, never get a big TV.

Because we are all kids once.. We know… NO MATTER HOW BIG THE TV SIZE WAS…

We will go right in front and sit in front of the TV to watch it!!!

So get a smaller size.. Coz it’s better for the eyes… LOLS! You gotta agree that this is a good excuse to cut some cost on the TV!

As for the shoe cabinet the design have been changed slightly because Paul asked if we wanted the shoe cabinet to have the same knob as the Settee.

I prefer the knob instead because it looks classier.

My Princess Barbie Doll kitchen! Everything here is the same except for the fridge which is black in colour.

Then we also requested for a “DEEP” pull out drawer under the oven. This is suggested by Desmond our friend.

He said this is good if we have big bottles of oil & sauces, I can just pull out and select from above instead of digging into the cabinet.

Right now we also store our rice in this big drawer! Which is pretty space saving!

Next is my PRINCESS ROOM! What is a princess room? Basically a Princess works in there. Writing her blog, playing her toys and filming videos and a place for me to take photos for sponsored products.

I chose Mirror Wardrobe so my sister can come over and dance.

And people who will say Mirror is hard to maintain etc. etc. I just want to let you know. Very true… Mirror is hard to maintain but I still like it in my room!

Just to let you know again, Mirror is not only hard to maintain because of the fingerprints and marks, most importantly, it’s heavy. So don’t swing it too hard, handle it with TLC (Tender, Loving, Care).

A display gown at the side because it’s handmade by my grandmother in Australia. So I am keeping it for keepsake.

As usual there are people judging me being so crazy always thinking I am still a bride, think I open Bridal Studio etc. etc.

Erm… All I wanna say…. You know I got a gown display at home… BUT… YOU DON’T KNOW MY STORY!

You know my name but you dunno my story and I am telling you and i guess you don’t wanna listen / read.

My favourite is my Master Bedroom, I frequently call it Casper’s room because this wardrobe belongs to him.. Used to belong to him but right now belongs to me because I have too many clothes. My Mirror Wardrobe in Princess room is FULL ALREADY!

Lastly, Master Bedroom Bathroom / Toilet 3D.

Actually I can do without this, but someone told me that, you can get Interior Designer to give you as much 3D as you could, for her studio apartment, she got 8 3D drawings.

So I thought since mine is a 3room, asking for 6 3D drawings won’t be too much right?

I am only asking for those that I got Paul to design. I did not ask for the common Toilet and Service Yard because this 2 are left untouched. So it’s not unreasonable bah?

Do note: I did tell Paul to take his time to give me the bathroom one, so as promised, I let him take his time and he gave me in 2nd December 2016 because his illustrator went overseas.

I asked for it to show you in the blog to prove Paul is a man of his words. He promise and he will do it.

Just a matter of time..

Actually, i can just ignore this because I am using the actual product already! Because I moved in during September 2016!!!!

25th-Aug-2016 Installation of Bathtub & master toilet wall overlaid.

So in the morning, our bathtub was installed.

By the time we return at night, the cement fully covered the bathtub already.

Our bathroom/kitchen hardwares and accessories from Yuan Soon also arrived together with the bathtub.

So our plumber, which is Paul’s most trustworthy plumber uncle helped to install all the accessories like Mirror, Towel Rack and all.

Then Paul also got his carpenter to measure the Built-in Wardrobe for the rooms.

Lastly Paul helped us to cover this Bomb Shelter “Ventilation” hole for free. Usually if you opted for false ceiling then your ID will help you cover it, otherwise you would have to pay for it. But Paul did it free for us! HAHAHA!

I was really uncomfortable with this ventilation hole. Is like my living room is so pretty and dining area so pretty but suddenly there is a hole?? A METAL HOLE some more?!

Paul also installed the UNI-ARM for us free. This is a very good technology. You no longer need door stopper.

Now my door will stop at any position without the door stopper anymore!!! And it will close slowly and not have the “bom” sound when you slam the door!

Lastly, our service yard window was installed. Initially we did not wanted to install windows for service yard.

But because it was part of the package so we thought why not? And luckily we did, as it’s really a must to block out the rainwater when it rains. If not it will flood your service yard and all our clothes and machine will be wet.

28th-Aug-2016 Johor Bahru Korea Wallpaper

Korea Wallpaper has been mentioned to me by my friend (J) before. So I kinda know they are quite famous in Malaysia. They have like shop in Penang and Selangor too. So I know they are quite well known here.

So technically, they might say they are the Largest wallpaper gallery, but in my opinion, they are may be larger in the size of their shop / gallery but the collection definitely is quite limited in my opinion.

After spending 10mins in the store, I only found one preferred wallpaper. Which I really like it alot. As we know, we are still lacking of ONE last wallpaper for my Princess room and I am looking for Princessy wallpaper however WallAffairs does not have them. I wanted Disney ones but there is copyright issues so yeah, we just see if Korea Wallpaper has any suitable ones.

Indeed I was very lucky to find one Princess ones. As we saw several non-Princess ones and they told me it’s out of stock or discontinued.

Reason why I did not get from WallAffairs is because they do not have any “Princessy” design for my Princess Room. And we went JB and found the Princessy design I wanted.

That point of time they have discount too so it’s RM150 (equiv. $50SGD) per roll original RM375 (equiv. $125SGD). But please factor in the installation fees by Kent (Singapore Wallpaper Installer) which is $120SGD for 1 roll or, $80SGD/roll min. 2 rolls.

Whereas WallAffairs (UBI, Singapore) is $300/roll including installation.

Korea Wallpaper (Johor Bahru, Malaysia) is $50+ /roll (original $125 /roll) + $120 installation

$170+ (discounted price) or $245 (original price).

If you ask who win or who I prefer I will say Singapore. Why? Simple fact… Remember that you have to TRAVEL TO JOHOR to choose the wallpapers which means you need to pay for Road Charge and Petrol and Time Spent on traffic jam at the causeway.

Then back to Johor the 2nd time to collect the roll. If you engage Kent services, he might be able to help you collect.

So please factor the “MAFAN-ness” in before you make a wise choice.

Because if WallAffairs have the design I wanted, I won’t go to Johor in the first place.

Do note: The reason why Korea Wallpaper has discount I suspect it is probably because it’s in 7th month. No one do renovation in 7th month. But of course there could be promotion / discount in other months too.

Then we also bought our first Disney Princess Bed Sheet at only RM150 (equiv. $50SGD). It was on sale, authentic Disney Princess and left the only one. So I am pretty lucky. It comes with comforter too!

Then finally found my legendary dressing table! The exact same thing cost $599 SGD in a shop in Singapore. But my budget for dressing table is $500 SGD so it’s OUT!

But when we saw this, it is RM799 (equiv. $266 SGD) so we are getting this!

But … Guess what…

If we signed up for member at RM20 for a year, we will get to enjoy 50% discount for one item during Birthday Month!! And it’s August which means it’s Casper’s birthday month!!! WOOHOO!!

So we paid RM20 for this member and gotten 50% off for the dressing table bringing the price down from RM799 to RM399.50 which is equivalent to about $133 SGD!!!

Using 1-fifth (1/5) 20% of the price to get the exact same dressing table!!! OMG!!!

I just love being a SSF Member… Guess what, September is my birthday so it means in September we get to purchase another item at 50% off!!! WOOHOO~

One thing I really liked about SSF is that, their home decors items are so interesting.. Check out my CHANDELIER HANGER! LOLS!

I know i am pretty obsessed over Chandelier but hmm.. I did not know expect my laundry area will have a chandelier too! LOLS!

29th-Aug-2016 Bathtub mosaic ready, water heater installed & wooden skirting painted white.

The Mosaic is up-ed and it’s so pretty. Sorry my iPhone camera does not do it justice.

The 50-Litre Storage heater is ready too.

Meanwhile Paul’s Painter also started painting the brown wooden skirting.

We paid a little extra to get it painted because I really dislike the wooden dark brown colour and would prefer it white. It’s dark brown by HDB default so to turn it white, we need to use Oil Paint to go over it at least 3 to 5 times. Hence poor Painter Uncle have to bend down and paint this skirting for about 5 times.

I am sorry but Thank you Uncle!

31st-Aug-2016 Best Tech to fix the Aircon trunking holes at Aircon ledge

They were supposed to come from 2pm to 4pm, in the end, at 5pm still have not arrive!!!!

They eventually came at 5.40pm after my husband called their HQ numerous time!!! I think the Best Tech service people who came over to fix the hole did a very good job. But the initial installation job was averagely done only during the coke explosion.

Not sure if you can see the “hole” in the trunking. To me the hole was a bit of a sore-eye, so I asked Friend (CL) opinion and she told me to get the Best Tech to fix it. After showing this to Casper, and Paul, they both agree to get the aircon guy to come fix it.

Why we were kinda reluctant to do it because we just installed the service yard window frame and panel hence having them to step on it to go to the Aircon ledge might possibly damage the window frame.

But I am glad the guys who came are very careful and did not even touch the frame at all especially after I told them my concern.

Zoomed in on the hole. Not sure what the hole will lead to in future… But better to get it fix now.

So Best Tech guy came eventually at 5:40pm.

But they did a pretty good job.

This is some of the things they did previously which I did not notice but it was noticed by Paul.

They actually left a gap between the ceiling and the trunking. I am not sure why they did that because it can collect dust and it’s totally unreachable to clean it.

So I am thankful Paul have the initiative to cover it up. Which I did not even notice until when I feedback about Best Tech workmanship and he told me about this.

Hmm Best Tech I think .. Hmm.. Well.. You gotta reflect…

Lastly I would also like to thank Keslyn for accompanying me this afternoon. She is so kind to keep me accompany while sleeping on the dusty floor of my new flat.

1st-Sep-2016 Lights installation: Ah Qiang did a wonderful job with the ‘lego’ style chandelier.

Like I mentioned previously, Ah Qiang said he dun understand the diagram but next moment he fixed it after I sent a picture of the Chandelier to him! LOLS!

Kitchen lights are up. Now we finally can have lights when we visit my home late at night.

My Purple Chandelier~!

7th-Sep-2016 Met Paul to discuss the positioning of carpentry.

So we met and discuss on the placing of knobs. Like for example, where I would like the cabinet knobs to be on the left side or right side or middle etc. etc.

Positioning of clock. Because he will help me drill it up too.

8th-Sep-2016 Installation of Carpentry

My wardrobe. The White Bling Bling ABS trimming is ready!

Kitchen stove, oven, Hood and TOP cabinets are up!

Shoe cabinet are also suspended off the ground.

Casper’s wardrobe is COMPLETED!!!

The settee is also in position already!

9th-Sep-2016 Installation of Wallpaper.

Paul is around to tell the wallpaper guy to avoid breaking the pattern so it will look nicest.

Before pasting, the wallpaper people will still check with me and Paul if it’s ok a not.

Quite happy with the wallpaper as it really gave the house a very cozy feel.

And yes! Shoe Cabinet Shelves is up and eventually everything is ready!

It’s so funny that when my in-law came and they did not know this is a shoe cabinet, they thought is the wall. They even assume this is provided by HDB. “Mama, you think this is DB box?”

One feedback for this shoe cabinet is that it’s too steep, so my hi-top converse, UGG, timberland will have to lay flat to fit inside.

11th-Sep-2016 Went to Tampoi to source for replacement chandelier.

The same morning Ah Qiang have certified the Purple Chandelier dead. As it fused more than 7 tiny bulbs however when the bulbs are being placed on the Pink Chandelier, it worked perfectly.

You will be asking, why did we not ask Puchong to repair the purple one.

Reason 1: Purple one has no warranty as it’s a Display Set.

Reason 2: Too troublesome to fix the driver. If I ask Ah Qiang to remove it, I need to bring to Puchong and wait for 2 weeks for repair, and go to Puchong another day to bring it back to Singapore and let Ah Qiang fix it up. <— Not Cost Efficient and Time efficient because I wanna move in to our new house on 18th-Sep-2016. I can’t live 2 weeks without any lighting in my room.

We went Tampoi, Johor to source for a light, and no photos from Tampoi, as photos are not allowed. Hence we are unable to buy without Paul’s opinion, because we respect his opinion a lot, and not having him to give comments it will be very uneasy as his professional comments will help us a lot.

Secondly, the price of the lighting / chandelier from Tampoi is around the same as Singapore. After I have been to Puchong and only paying RM500 for a beautiful chandelier, I cannot justify why must I be paying RM2000 for a similar one at Tampoi. I’d rather make a 4 hour drive up north to Puchong and 4 hour drive back than to pay an additional RM1500 (equiv. $500sgd) more for a chandelier.

Anyway, Tampoi at Johor is really not cheap and they are really targeting Singaporeans.. I overheard a conversation and it was the staff telling the customer “This fan, HDB confirm can fit in one. Even 3room flat can use this…”

I wont say much but we do know with the 1 : 3 exchange rate, Tampoi will definitely mark up the prices. My local malaysian friend (S) told me her cousin who is working there mention to her that their commission is very high! Not sure how true maybe it’s just hearsay la… But I don’t see why she have to lie to me. LOLS! She is the local friend who did not buy her lights from Tampoi.

Eventually we found this RM298 chandelier which is approved by all of us.

Just nice at the same time I was deciding between a ‘New’ set and a ‘Display’ set, a Malay lady spot the same light as me and she immediately bought 2 New sets and I was left with the Display set. You will be thinking, ‘ai-ya’, display set means no warranty again.

But note one thing, the display set was already assembled properly and therefore Ah Qiang do not have to spent time assembling it. So we just paid Ah Qiang a small fee to replace the spoilt purple chandelier with this new white chandelier.

12th-September-2016 Bought my study table from Johor Bahru (JB).

We went to Johor Bahru Danga City Mall and found a Study Table for myself. But the delivery and tax charges is a killer.

The study table cost RM1864.40 equivalent to about $600SGD+ in total after conversion. But I got no choice as I can’t find another nice pink study table in Singapore. My budget for study table is $500 but since we saved some money on dressing table, we will use it to compensate for this.

Here are the photos:

Casper and I were just doing window shopping for furniture and this POPPED my eye… LOVE @ FIRST SIGHT!

White and Pink… Match my Princess wallpaper, Big enough for my iMac screen in future. Display shelves to display my flowers and all things Disney!!!

Drawers to keep my Hard Disk Drives and cameras. The chair is Moon & Star shape.

Perfect!

13th-September-2016 Chandelier Replacement & Full clean up, “Acid Wash”.

Goodbye to my old love, my dearest purple chandelier. You will be missed. RIP!

As I mentioned this will be a dancing room hence we decided to shorten the chandelier height so we will not hit it while dancing. But if one day we are not dancing, we can definitely lengthen it back.

Perks of Chandelier. But you must have high ceiling first!! LOLS! #ShowOffMyHighCeiling

After acid wash and thorough clean up.. The house is absolutely clean and up to my standard!

14th-Sep-2016 HANDOVER by Paul!

26-Jul-16 to 14-Sep-16
Just nice 50 days and…….
The day we have all been waiting for, I am pleased to inform you that #CasperlynCastle has completed their Renovation!!!
End of Reno liao! Woohoo!
Now it’s time for flashback!
Meetup 1: We were introduced by Casper’s colleague to Paul (Senz Of White) and we arrange for a meetup with him at his office in Hougang. Thru this session he knew us better and roughly knows what kind of theme we are going for.. “Budget Theme” Then he also noticed that I like pink and melody so he shares with me that he has a pink kitchen table top and he is also keen in doing a pink bathroom theme!
Creativity +1
Meetup 2: After sharing with him previously on the stuff we wanted to do for our home, he meet us at a shopping mall to share his quotation and a rough idea on his designs. After some discussion and changes he is able to meet our budget of 20k and yet still able to fulfill our requirements.
Budget +1
Meetup 3: We collected our keys on 5/Aug/16 at that point of time we have not made any payment to him yet but he came down to help us with the defects checking.
Nice +1
Meetup 4: On this particular day he drove us around to buy toilet accessories (bathtub, mirror), kitchen sink, stove, hob and tiles for toilet. After the trip he sent us back to Yishun.
Nice +1
Meetup 5: Meet up to select wallpaper for living room and master bedroom. He has great taste and have a good choice! He helps me shortlist what is nice and then I pick my 1st and 2nd choice! And the designs he pick is so accurate to our likings.
Taste +1
Meetup 6: Meet up to pick colour scheme for the house so he would be able to proceed with 3D drawings.

Meetup 7: Helping us to pick curtain designs and oversee Aircon installation.
Taste +1
Meetup 8: Viewing of 3D designs and we are very pleased with it. Made almost no changes to it. He even emailed us the 3D designs’ soft copies immediately that midnight.

Meetup 9: Installation of accessories day! He was around to give us advises like where to place the rack etc. and cabinet door to open from left or right so it will not hit the wall. Which is things I definitely won’t foresee until the day I moved in and start using them.
Thoughtfulness +1
Meetup 10: Positioning of carpentry stuff. He told me where to install the handles so it will be easier to open the cabinet or have less stress on the weight of the cabinet door.
Thoughtfulness +1
Meetup 11: I have issues with my room lights itself and he came over to give me advices. Also to install wallpapers & he help to inform wallpaper guy to avoid creasing the flower designs.
Thoughtfulness +1
Meetup 12: Handover 1 day earlier than estimated!
Efficiency +1

And the best thing about Senz Of White & Paul is that they provide 2 years warranty and after sales service is pretty good till now Jan 2017. <— For this I will update again “if” his after sales service is bad! HAHAHA!

15th-Sep-2016 Delivery of furniture & electronics

An Digital Lock installation.

So we decided to get a digital lock for my room before we get one for my main door. I think that my digital lock is quite basic. No bluetooth feature, no one-time pin nor any ‘smart’ features but it cost $289 probably because it’s “YALE” brand. Hence the cost. We wanted to get a particular brand initially, we make an appointment with that particular brand, refer us to go An Digital Lock, famously endorsed by Henry Thia (辉哥). Then An Digital said this particular brand is not suitable although it is cheaper and has lots of functions, hence we took this Yale Digital Lock. Personally I feel this lock is not smart enough to be honest, but it’s feature is just sufficient for my princess room. Now my room is like a big SAFE deposit box with lots of toys, a digital piano and a macbook! LOLS!

But for my main door, we really require something smarter which has one-time password or able to unlock with multiple pins. So if my mother-in-law or my mother come to our house, they can enter the house with their own set of passwords and I will know who enter our house at what time.

Arrival of Bedding, Dining Table & Sofa from Novena Furniture.

One of the tiny regret I have. My dining table….. It’s too heavy for my own good!!!!

As you can see, it made out of Marble, and it’s split into the stand and the table top, 2 different parts. It require 2 adult man to carry with lots of force…..

Why i regret? We don’t have the strength to move it if I have party at home or like I want to shift it or something, I CAN’T!

It is literally my FIXED ASSET!

My Princess Bed Frame~!

After i placed the Bed Sheet!!

My Sofa. It’s a display set hence it has lots of dust. Luckily we bought a rainbow vacuum cleaner recently to clean it thoroughly! Now it’s so clean!

Arrival of Fridge, Washing machine, electronics & household appliances from Gain City.

Gain City has very good sales services… But… The delivery team really needs to improve… They used the trolley and knocked into corners of my wall. Luckily there is no visible cracks or dent just a little dirty.

Fridge cannot power on immediately, need to wait for about 20 mins for the fridge to stabilize and settle down.

Now with the fridge installed here, you understand what I meant by the depth and the door will “POP OUT”?

As you can see, it does still pop out a little, imagine if I get a deeper fridge……

Next up, washing machine…. He did not even set up for us, or help us adjust or check if the machine is balanced. Did not inform us that we need to get an adapter!

As you can see, the machine pipe to the water outlet is not compatible at all… So whose fault is this? HDB fault for making a water outlet which does not fit our pipe? Or the Samsung Company that does not make a pipe that fits the HDB water outlet? Even if that’s the case, they should provide an adapter for us or inform us to buy it before hand. When the washing machine was in place, we were shocked! We thought there is a missing pipe which is suppose to be compatible.

Adding an adapter to the incompatible HDB tap for washing machine.

So we went to a hardware shop and got this adapter for $5 and spent some time to fix it. Glad i was agile with my fingers to fix it without using a screw driver!

Then we also got something call the white tape to tape the pipe to prevent leakage… LIKE WHAT?!

Leakage? Water is expensive, how can you built something which can leak water? Might as well you build compatible pipes or compatible taps? HDB!! What are you 弄啥嘞?!

Service by Gain City Delivery Team.

Haizzzzz… They made everything in a rush without allowing us to have some time to even check the items….

And they anyhow throw the rubbish in the common level rubbish chute area.. Seriously? Can’t you just bring it to the rubbish dump downstairs? By placing it here,what if we got complain from neighbour from blocking the rubbish chute area? Who do you expect to clear it for you?

The town council cleaner? Or the owner… Luckily I told Casper to check and he told me…

“OMG How you know they will anyhow throw?” And what’s worst, they throw all over the place! Casper need to pick it up for them.

Luckily I am the first few units to move in so I can rectify this in time and my neighbours are not keyboard warriors. If not I would be famous in our BTO Facebook Group!

Blk XXX Level XX Please remove your rubbish can? I know which unit you are from! Please be considerate towards other neighbours!

Trust me, this could possibly happen. Of course I don’t do that and my neighbours have not done that before…

Dear neighbours, i got your Facebook account ah.. If you anyhow throw, I will “TAG” you on facebook! HAHAHAHA! Just kidding.. I will tell you personally if your workers anyhow throw.

I think I am not a keyboard warrior BUT… A keyboard warrior will never admit she is a keyboard warrior…

Ok fine.. I complain a lot! I am a keyboard warrior.. But I rant on this Ger’z World website!

Meanwhile Mr Kat dragging the RUBBISH BACK HOME! I ask him, bring downstairs and throw la…

He reply: “Accumulate more rubbish first then one-shot throw together….” Erm ok… You win…

But side track…

Looks like lucky draw items hor? These are the additional rubbish to be thrown away…

I mean the boxes lah! HAHAHHA!

Yes, be a good neighbour! Bring your rubbish to the RUBBISH Dump site! Be considerate… Good neighbour starts from YOU!!!

Ok give you ONE LIKE!

Installing of Korea Wallpaper from Johor Bahru with the help of Kent (+65 85712489).

You should be able to get discount if you mention my name (in case he forget who, you can mention the girl who have a gown on a mannequin in her room.) Mr. Kent wallpaper installation services is a recommendation from my friend Janise.

Then because I have lots of spare wallpaper left, he helped me paste another side of the wall without additional charges! My friend Janise also did the same. She get him to paste the extra in another room for a small charges because she paste a bigger wall whereas mine surface is smaller. LOLS!

He started with the bigger side of the wall as spoken. His workmanship is very good.

In very short period of time, he is done with the wall.

Then because there is too much leftovers, we asked if he can help to paste the small portion of the wall for the mannequin display corner. We said to pay him a small fee. But he refuse to accept the amount and do it FREE for us.

He then proceed to paste this small part and we are very thankful for his help. Otherwise we don’t know what to do with so much leftovers.

He is done pretty soon and did a super super good job!

Eventually…. We still have lots of leftovers!!! ROAR!! What can I do with them? I don’t have the glue or the expertise and I don’t know where to paste them either….. So if anyone is keen, just drop me an email. I am glad to give them to you.

His after sales service is pretty good, one day there is a air bubble in the wallpaper and he came back to remove it. It’s due to the heat expansion of the wall and not that his workmanship is no good.

Here is before & after!

16th-Sep-2016 City Gas Installation.

So after your renovation is done, with all the stoves installed, Paul made appointment with City Gas to activate the gas for us. We made 2 city gas appointments in total, first appointment is to install the piping, for that, Paul did the appointment and he help us overseeing the installation on behalf.

This is the second appointment made but because City gas is fully booked before the handover and Paul handed over earlier than expected, hence I oversee the activation myself.

For City Gas one thing I feel very safe is that you can switch off the main gas supply using this valve. So if you are not at home you would not fear of gas leakage. If you took cylinder type gas, if not handle properly, some people may fear of leakage in Pipe and even EXPLOSION! JI-PA-BOMB! But with this, as long you turn off the valve, there won’t be any supply of gas to your Stove.

As you can see from the picture, the back splash / kitchen backing has not arrived yet because we are still making it at the factory. It’s common to install much later because they need the most accurate measurement after your table top is up.

18th-Sep-2016 SHIFTING

Special thanks to Amanda, Brandon and my family members and Uncle John & Family for helping us to move. Thanks Uncle John for using his Big Lorry to help us move so we saved some money engaging a mover.

19th-Sep-2016 Arrival of Study Table.

Installation of my study table from Johor Bahru. So the delivery guy arrived, installed pieces by pieces and Ta-Da! It’s done. The next day we left for our Paris vacation.

29th-Sep-2016 Back Splash ready.

After we came back from our vacation, Paul arranged for the kitchen’s Back Splash to be installed.

After installation, it’s best not to clean it or wipe it for the next few hours.

As you can see, my back splash are CRYSTAL White as compare to my Blum cabinet which is “Glass Colour” and looks a little tinted green. Looking at the extreme right side of the photo, it is the original wall colour.

Some tips for back splash, don’t open your fire too big if you have another stove outlet near to your back splash. It might potentially burn or melt your back splash.

Clean it like how you clean glass with newspaper and glass cleaner solution.

30th-Sep-2016 Curtains for all the rooms ready.

The curtains which I ordered in AUGUST, after all the “OUT OF STOCK” incident, has FINALLY arrived!

But the workmanship of the drilling… Haizzzz…

Eventually we got the curtain guy (A) to get his installer to rectify.

I am not sure if you think this is acceptable. But to me, I can’t accept this. So we asked them to use plaster to cover the hole as much as possible.

I mean if they can drill this nicely in the master bedroom, why not the other holes?

10th-Oct-2016 First home-cooked meal in our kitchen #GerzWannaCook

Thanks Mum for whipping this delicious meal!

But it also marks that I should start whipping meals too. Nowadays I am quite okay with the kitchen and fire, and gaining more confidence.

Right now I am also super into Feng He Garden Sauces. Promised Casper to make even more yummy food for him in future! I believe I did not attend all those F&N (Food & Nutrition) classes for nothing now.

F&N tortured me and glad I survived through N & O levels!

Let me choose again… Hmm.. I will still choose F&N!

‘Accounting’ no way, ‘Arts’ no way, ‘Design & Tech’ no way… Only choice ‘Food & Nutrition’!

A1 Student ok? Top student for F&N! Like seriously! HAHAHA!

12th-Oct-2016 Drilling of Medal Racks / Photo frames / Shelves by Paul’s contractor.

So technically after handover for a month, Paul still got his contractor to help us drill our shelves, Medal racks and Photo wall. And trust me, it’s a lot of them…

This is a sketch of the Photo Wall drawn by Casper.

It’s placed according to his ideas. Told you he is an artistic person. LOLS!

My Disney medals alone. We are still sourcing for another set of medal hangers to hang the rest of the medals I got from all my races.

My Bed Frame Wedding photo (床头照). Our contractor is very careful, he actually ask me to get him dampen cloth to catch those drilling sediments.

So this is also a tip for you, use a damp cloth to catch the sediments so later you would not have to keep sweeping the floor.

Thanks Paul & his contractor for the help!

He even asked me, do you want me to help you drill more holes first to prepare for future photo frames and medal racks? LOLS!

13th-Oct-2016 Storeroom Racking up.

Ok, technically this is a bomb shelter but let’s once again assume SINGAPORE is very safe! And also I need a place to store stuff that I seldom use.

Guess what.. Right now the bomb shelter, aka storeroom it’s already FULL!!!

Thanks Desmond for the good introduction and also helping me to do the measurement for the Racking to Uncle William.

I highly recommend this racking Uncle William because he uses Plywood from Indonesia which is more solid and Malaysia’s Metal Rack. Each rack level can withstand 200 kg and you can adjust the height yourself! Desmond also did research that Uncle William’s Boltless racking quote is one of the cheapest in market.

15th-Oct-2016 Home Broadband & WiFi up.

Initially my first choice was My Republic. We even gave them our credit card details, filled up the form but they called us say they cannot process it.

REASON is so ridiculous: Because Casper’s Address is still at Yishun (not yet updated to the current residential address) hence we are unable to have it install at our new home!!! SERIOUSLY?

Only if Casper had his Identity Card address changed to our current home then we can “re-apply” with a new form.

LIKE WHAT?! As a blogger working from home, I badly need WiFi at home to do all my work.

So after some research, I chose ViewQwest. It’s speed is good, set up instruction was pretty no-brainer.

22nd-Oct-2016 Housewarming —-> Read more here

27th-Oct-2016 First Bath in Bathtub.

The bathtub is pretty big to fit the both of us inside!!! Or rather we both are so small sized!!! LOLS!

7th-Nov-2016 Installation of Igloo digital lock for main door.

We always wanted a Digital Lock for my Main Door hence we got lucky when we won in a Qoo10.sg (Singapore’s Ebay) auction bidding and got this Digital Lock @ $200 instead of $289 (original retail price).

So after we won the bidding, we need to sent a photo of our door and also the measurement to Igloo Team. After 2weeks, they came my house for installation!

Finally I have got a very smart Digital Lock from Igloo. It has Bluetooth access, I can set up more than a 100 different passwords for every people. I can also set up one time password (OTP) in case sponsors came to drop stuff when I am not at home provided the item is small enough so they can slot it through the gate. Or we engage part time cleaner but I am not at home, I can give them OTP and they can unlock my door.

30th-Nov-2016 Space-saving Photo Christmas Tree Idea.

Our DIY christmas tree using our photos. So you know we did not have space for a huge Christmas tree hence I set up a Photo Tree. This is our bomb shelter aka store room, the door is actually made up of a huge metal, so I bought some magnetic tape to paste behind the photos and then I can arrange it any way I like it… For Valentine’s Day, it will be a LOVE SHAPE. Like this.

1st-Dec-2016 Our first Christmas Tree from JB below RM100.

So apparently, I got lucky! I went shopping with my mother at City Square, Johor Bahru and saw this cute and small sized white Christmas tree at the Atrium for less than RM70 and then the lightings for RM30! Less than $33 SGD in total!

Setting up our First Christmas tree. I always wanted a White Christmas Tree because I have not seen snow before and would like to experience a White Christmas… “I am dreaming of a White Christmas….”

White Christmas Tree is more expensive than Green ones and it’s hard to find in Singapore. So I am truly blessed.

Our First Christmas Tree LIGHT UP Ceremony!!!! Hooray!

3rd-Dec-2016 Baking for the first time in my house.

So honored to have my sister, the Pastry Chef to do a cake for my house!
She is sooooo pro!!! Awesome Rose-Shaped Peach cake!

My BFF Felicia even engaged Keslyn to do a cake for her son’s First Birthday!

24th-Dec-2016 Shopping for Chinese New Year Decors.
This Melody decor’s are super expensive like $12 for this!

So to distract Casper from looking at the price tag, I am like… “Look HERE, SMILE…” Then he will forget to look at the price and go to the cashier! Hahaha!

Total we spent $30 on Chinese New Year Decors.

We bought 2 New Year Blessing Scrolls, $2 each. Melody on the Left and Little Twin Star on the Right.

A Welcome Floor Mat ($13.90) to place at the entrance.

Then this is the expensive Melody Chinese New Year Hanging Ornament ($12.90).

28th-Jan-2017 Chinese New Year; New Bed Sheet

3rd-Feb-2017 Buying a Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner

How do we come about buying a rainbow vacuum cleaner? As you know, Mr Casper and I hated vacuum cleaner as it’s so noisy and we really dislike vacuum because of it’s noise hence we have not used any vacuum previously.

So one fine day, we are approach by Door-To-Door sales by a rainbow Representative, Susan and her assistant.

They introduced rainbow and it’s function to us and Ta-Dah… We bought it with topping up additional $100 for 12pcs Cookwares.

This 12 pcs cookware is amazing. It allows healthy cooking or rather waterless cooking hence to preserve the natural nutrients of the ingredient itself.

It has a temperature alert knob which you can keep track the temperature of the food. Basically I feel it’s a very solid cookware and most importantly…

Lifetime Warranty! Usually they must be that good to provide you with Lifetime Guarantee!

Susan also gave me a set of Floor Cleaning Solution, Clean Air Solution and a set of Eucalyptus Essence Oil. The floor cleaning solution is so good to clean the dirt in between the floor gaps. The Clean Air Solution in Green cleans the air for us and Eucalyptus are good for my sensitive airways.

This is the rain jet which is used to clean toilet tiles and remove all the dirts between the tiles!

Power Nozzle with UV lights to kill bacteria and suck out dust mite.

The other accessories that comes with the Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner which can helps to clean AirCon too.

If you are interested in what a Rainbow can do for your home, looking for my friend Susan (+65 8484 2599) she can do a free demo for you and if you are my friend, she can help you clean your mattress by sucking out all the dust mites!!!

Rainbow is not only a good vacuum cleaner but it is also a good Air Purifier.

It also save me so much time when cleaning my house and allows me to spent more time doing important stuff like writing blog! LOLS!

A little pricey but I have a friend (Jo) she have it for more than 10yrs and it’s working fine!

Recently she bought another brand (D) then I am like… “Can you rent me your Rainbow or lend me for a month?”

She said she is still using it… Then I am like, erm…. You already have a New Brand (D) but why are you still using Rainbow?! Hmm.. Weird right?

If Brand (D) is that good, Rainbow should be not in use and lending me for a small fee would definitely be alright. Well…

But my friend (Goh) also using Rainbow for more than 10yrs and she said it’s great too! She bought a new rainbow recently. But her old one is also working well. Hmm…

Rainbow works well for me so I am introducing it to you and I am not earning anything out of it.

You see, I only intro good stuff… Bad stuff I never introduce….

RECOMMENDATIONS & How to reach them:

Click this above Facebook Post if you wanna be linked directly to my list of Recommended vendor’s FACEBOOK PAGE!

1) Interior Designer / Contractor: Senz Of White – Paul Lawrence Tan

Address: 203 Hougang Street 21, Singapore 530203

Phone: 6284 8905

“Quote Gerlyn “might” have better rates!”

Trust me, I think my choice of engaging Paul is really right…. I really PAID $20k…. $20,000 for the entire renovation…. But people don’t believe!!

This is a group chat and the Blue Censor and Black Censor are 2 different people.

You must be thinking… If you are so unhappy, leave the chat then… Erm.. Yeah, i left already…

Gerlyn has left the chat…

They used to be my close friends as you can see they call me “Ger”. I don’t usually get non-close friends to call me “Ger”.

My house is $20k but they think is $40k!!! Or even $30k ++ which my BFF Margaret say it is good lah!!! Means I gotten a good deal! Until people also don’t believe.

But sorry guys… I lied… I really did not paid $20k …. BECAUSE…

BECAUSE I PAID $19.5k!!! HAHAHHAHA! Below $20k! Damn it… I lied… Sorry ah!

Ok maybe after some additional cost it’s lesser than $20k for sure. I post this to show my readers and friends you can get a good comfy home at a price much lesser if you ENGAGE the RIGHT People.

I post your messages to prove to people that… How could you distrust me…

Updated on 8th-March-2017: Most of the time the feedback that I get is that people feel that $20k for what I have done is consider very worthwhile. This is the first comment I received that speaks otherwise.

I just told Casper about this and he replied: “Ya lor, you see our friend Tex’s 5room flat renovation is only $10k plus!”

Me reply: “Because he do very little mah!”

Exactly… The same point as Michelle has pointed out! Thanks Michelle!

2) Furniture: Novena, Sungei Kadut – Nick Yeo

Address: 47 Sungei Kadut Ave, Singapore 729670

Phone: +65 6793 0110

“Quote Boon Hee “might” have better rates!”

3) Lighting Store: Houses Lightings, Puchong

Address: 29-31-33-35, Jalan Bpu 6, Bandar Puchong Utama, 47100 Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia

Phone: +60 3-5882 3790

4) Air-Condition: Aircon Gallery by Best Tech, IMM – Fanny

Address: IMM Building 2 Jurong East Street 21 #03-15 Singapore 609601

Phone: +65 6562 6220

5) Electrician: Ah Qiang (Darren Ow)

Phone: Please Email or PM me for Contact

6) Tiles: Hafary

Address: 560 Balestier Rd, Singapore 329876

Phone: +65 6250 1369

7) Mosaic: Hup Kiong

Address: 564 Balestier Road, 329880

Phone: +65 6899 2626

8) Heater, Bathtub, Hardware: Yuan Soon Hardware Trading

Address: 463 Balestier Rd, Singapore 329839

Phone: +65 6748 5656

9) Wallpaper: WallAffairs

Address: 65 Ubi Cres, Singapore 408559

Phone: +65 6846 4171

10) Electronics: Gain City Ang Mo Kio – Shon

Address: 8 Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 2, Singapore 569500

Phone: +65 6544 1212

11) Wallpaper: Korea Wallpaper, Johor Bahru

Address: 53, Jalan Ros Merah 2/10, Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Phone:+60 7-357 2000

12) Home Decors: SSF Home, Batu Pahat

Address: Lot F1 & F5, Square One Shopping Mall, 1-1, Jalan Flora Utama 4, Taman Flora Utama, 83000 Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia

Phone: +60 7-433 1123

13) Home Security: An Digital Lock

Address: #01-10 AZ Building, 140 Paya Lebar Road, Singapore 409015

Phone: +65 6966 6788

14) Wallpaper Installer: Kent

Phone: +65 8571 2489

“Quote Gerlyn / Boon Hee for better rates.”

15) Storeroom Racks: Fong Sheng Woodwork – Mr William Koh

Phone: +65 9852 4730

16) Internet Service Provider: ViewQwest, Suntec City

Address: 3 Temasek Boulevard #02-414/415 Singapore 038983

17) Home Security: igloohome Pte Ltd (Digital Lock)

info@igloohome.co
Phone: +65 3159 1352

18) Home Cleaning: Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner – Susan

Phone: +65 8484 2599

“Quote Gerlyn for better perks and free cleaning!”

Disclaimer: Once again to clarify, we do not earn anything from the above recommended vendors we are just purely sharing what is good with you guys! And whether end of the day if the vendor does or does not give you better perks or discount it’s up to the vendor themselves. But of course you can try quoting and see.

DEFECTS CHECKLIST

List of stuff to bring for Defects check.

Areas to check

Ceiling / Wall

☐ Surface to be smooth, even and free of brush marks
☐ No dampness and patchiness
☐ Colour to be uniform and consistent
☐ No cracks, peel-offs, chip-offs, blisters and pinholes
☐ For ceiling, ceiling to wall edge lines/joints are to be straight and consistent.
☐ For wall, wall edges lines or corners are to be straight and consistent
☐ Do check for leaks, water stain marks, ensure no cracks

Floor / tiled wall

☐Flooring/tiled wall to be of consistent colour tone throughout
☐No unevenness of more that 0.5mm and with no sharp edges for tiles.
☐No visible cracks, chip-offs or scratch marks
☐The joints between tiles should be visibly straight and consistent. The cement grout between tiles should be of consistent colour.
☐No visible gaps between skirting and wall as well as the skirting and the floor
☐No hollowness of the tiles

Windows

☐Joints of window frame and wall should be neat, no gap and consistent
☐When closed, window and frame should have no gap and should be aligned
☐No dents, scratches, cracks and other visible damages on window and frame
☐Lock, knob/handle, latch, hinges and screws should be well-fitted and have no rust, scratches and other visible damages
☐No damage or loose gasket
☐Open every window in the house to their maximum capacity and then close again. There should be no squeaking sound and window panel should slide along the track smoothly when opening and closing
☐Ensure handle is easily turned and locked
☐Ensure no sign of rain water leakage, do check your house after a heavy rain to ensure no sign of rain water leakage

Doors

☐No visible gaps between door frame and wall, and the joint should be consistent and neat
☐Door and frame should be aligned when closed. No bent or warped door leaf or frame
☐ No cracks, dents, scratch marks or other visible damages on door and frame. Paint finish must be uniform and consistent. The door joints and nail holes should be filled up
☐Lock, knob/handle, latch, door stopper, door closer, hinges and screws should be well-fitted and have no rust, scratches and other visible damages
☐Door should open and close smoothly and easily without squeaking sound
☐Check the door handle and lock to ensure that it operates smoothly, easily, and is functioning

Toilet

☐Check the wash basin and toilet bowl for cracks or other visible damages
☐Joints for wash basin and toilet bowl to wall or floor should be neat and consistent, with no visible gap
☐Ensure floor trap are firm and flush to the floor
☐ Turn on all the taps, faucets and showers, and let the water run to ensure that they function with no leak
☐When the water is running, check the basin pipes and pipes joints for leakage, and the basin for choke
☐It is normal to see brown water when the tap is first turned on. Let the water run till it is clear and has no particles.
☐Flood the toilet floor check whether it drains out quickly.
☐ When all the taps, faucets and showers are closed, ensure no water is dripping out
☐ Check the toilet flush and ensure that the water tank fills up and stop once filled

Pole hanger for drying clothes

☐ Play around with it to ensure everything is bolted properly and its mechanisms function smoothly

Others

☐Check for visible damages on switches and sockets. Ensure that the switches and sockets are level and the joints are neat and consistent with no gap
☐ Using a charger, check that every power socket has power
☐ Open up all the drainage holes in the kitchen and toilets to see if they are clogged
☐ Check all the pipes for cracks and sign of water leakage
☐ Make sure each key, even the one for your letter box, opens the doors properly

Budgeting

Set a budget for renovation, furniture buying and always stick to it and never overspent.

Housekeeping

Please make sure and check if your contractor or delivery man bring cartons or rubbish down to the rubbish area at Level 1 and not throw them at the common level rubbish chute or even lift lobby. <— Our gain city delivery man really anyhow throw luckily we check and clean up and bring it downstairs.

Mop your floor with Magic Clean wipes OR Mop with Hot water to prevent water stains.

Get rid of Ants using the Ant Gel from Giant $11.90.

Will keep updating when I have new Housekeeping tips to share!

Thanks for reading my lengthy post and sharing my joy of being a first time homeowner at the age of 24!!!

Actually my dream is to own my first home by 26 years old but I ticked off my bucket list 2 years earlier!

Of course, all thanks to my doting husband who paid for this house and me who paid a lot lesser than him. But still this is our house, our first home, our #CasperlynCastle!!!!

Thanks my husband for making me a Princess of the house. Thanks for your effort in building our home together!

To new homeowners, good luck! Feel free to Facebook message me or email me if you need any help!

Hello Readers & Fellow Homeowners!

26th-Jul-2016: First Meet up with Paul

31st-Jul-2016 Mattress, Bed frame, dining table & sofa from Sungei Kadut Novena, Nick Yeo.

5th-Aug-2016 – KEY COLLECTION!

Defects checking with Paul

6th-Aug-2016 Buying of lightings in Selangor (Puchong) “War-zone”

10th-Aug-2016 Buying of Air-Con from IMM Best Tech

11th-Aug-2016 Met Electrician Ah Qiang and discuss about Layout of Wiring works

13th-Aug-2016 Casperlyn Castle’s First Birthday Celebration – Casper’s 36th and Defects checking for hollow tiles, choosing of wallpaper from WallAffairs.

14th-Aug-2016 Gain City purchase of Washing Machine & Fridge

17th-Aug-2016 Decide Kitchen table top & kitchen cabinet layout in Hougang ID office.

21st-Aug-2016 Buying more lights from Puchong

22nd-Aug-2016 Buying drinks for workers and ID laid the corrugated paper to protect the HDB floorings and doors.

23rd-Aug-2016 Aircon Installation, canned drink explosion incident and choosing of curtain.

Ah Qiang Wiring Kitchen

24th-Aug-2016 Checking out 3D drawings

25th-Aug-2016 Installation of Bathtub & master toilet wall overlaid.

28th-Aug-2016 Johor Bahru Korea Wallpaper

29th-Aug-2016 Bathtub mosaic ready, water heater installed & wooden skirting painted white.

31st-Aug-2016 Best Tech to fix the Aircon trunking holes at Aircon ledge

1st-Sep-2016 Lights installation: Ah Qiang did a wonderful job with the ‘lego’ style chandelier.

7th-Sep-2016 Met Paul to discuss the positioning of carpentry.

8th-Sep-2016 Installation of Carpentry

9th-Sep-2016 Installation of Wallpaper.

11th-Sep-2016 Went to Tampoi to source for replacement chandelier.

12th-September-2016 Bought my study table from Johor Bahru (JB).

13th-September-2016 Chandelier Replacement & Full clean up, “Acid Wash”.

14th-Sep-2016 HANDOVER by Paul!

15th-Sep-2016 Delivery of furniture & electronics

16th-Sep-2016 City Gas Installation.

18th-Sep-2016 SHIFTING

19th-Sep-2016 Arrival of Study Table.

29th-Sep-2016 Back Splash ready.

30th-Sep-2016 Curtains for all the rooms ready.

10th-Oct-2016 First home-cooked meal in our kitchen #GerzWannaCook

12th-Oct-2016 Drilling of Medal Racks / Photo frames / Shelves by Paul’s contractor.

13th-Oct-2016 Storeroom Racking up.

15th-Oct-2016 Home Broadband & WiFi up.

22nd-Oct-2016 Housewarming —-> Read more here

27th-Oct-2016 First Bath in Bathtub.

7th-Nov-2016 Installation of Igloo digital lock for main door.

30th-Nov-2016 Space-saving Photo Christmas Tree Idea.

1st-Dec-2016 Our first Christmas Tree from JB below RM100.

3rd-Dec-2016 Baking for the first time in my house.

24th-Dec-2016 Shopping for Chinese New Year Decors. This Melody decor’s are super expensive like $12 for this!

28th-Jan-2017 Chinese New Year; New Bed Sheet

3rd-Feb-2017 Buying a Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner

RECOMMENDATIONS & How to reach them:

1) Interior Designer / Contractor: Senz Of White – Paul Lawrence Tan

2) Furniture: Novena, Sungei Kadut – Nick Yeo

3) Lighting Store: Houses Lightings, Puchong

4) Air-Condition: Aircon Gallery by Best Tech, IMM – Fanny

5) Electrician: Ah Qiang (Darren Ow)

6) Tiles: Hafary

7) Mosaic: Hup Kiong

8) Heater, Bathtub, Hardware: Yuan Soon Hardware Trading

9) Wallpaper: WallAffairs

10) Electronics: Gain City Ang Mo Kio – Shon

11) Wallpaper: Korea Wallpaper, Johor Bahru

12) Home Decors: SSF Home, Batu Pahat

13) Home Security: An Digital Lock

14) Wallpaper Installer: Kent

15) Storeroom Racks: Fong Sheng Woodwork – Mr William Koh

16) Internet Service Provider: ViewQwest, Suntec City

17) Home Security: igloohome Pte Ltd (Digital Lock)

18) Home Cleaning: Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner – Susan

DEFECTS CHECKLIST

List of stuff to bring for Defects check.

Areas to check

Ceiling / Wall

Floor / tiled wall

Windows

Doors

Toilet

Pole hanger for drying clothes

Others

Budgeting

Housekeeping

I have uploaded an 360 Photo Album of our Casperlyn Castle Reno Journey do check it out here!

Here are some of videos related to Casperlyn Castle Journey…

24th-Dec-2016 Shopping for Chinese New Year Decors.
This Melody decor’s are super expensive like $12 for this!