Carpentry halfway done

30th July 2007 - Went up to our place at night and here are some updates...

Our WIW. Mirror will only be installed this Friday.

Bedside tables are up~

Dresser up too. Not the mirror though.

Top cabinets are up, but where is my dish rack??

As can be seen, the solid surface, hob and hood plus tap are not up, lol

Shoe cabinet~

- Phebe

Carpentry is finally coming in...

28th July 2007 - Went up to the flat in the morning and we were both rather surprised seeing so many wooden stuff in the house....



Ah Hua (carpenter) and his worker. What lies on the floor appears to be our HSS feature wall, lol



Part of our WIW



Laying the foundation of our WIW. The black box on the floor looks like our bedside table...?



Carpentry stuff all over the living room



See, this is not all... more in their lorry downstairs, lol




View from the WIW into the MBR.

The curtain guy came up to take measurements for our bamboo chicks again, and Mondi delivered our dining table in the morning. Yes, the house is still in a big mess, but we need it to come in so that Tom can adjust the height of the hanging light, lol.

More updates to come. Stay tuned~


- Phebe

Shopping King & Queen

With our reno due to be completed soon, Hb and I have been diligently shopping for cleaning tools and detergents. Never thought the day would come where I would actually be shopping for mops and pails, lol. Feel so auntie. Yucks.

Had a better time yesterday when we went to IKEA since there is a so-called annual sale going on. Kinda fun, shopping for those kitchen stuff like plates, bowls, accessories...., though I was wondering the whole time what was the sale about since everything we bought was at original prices!!!

- Phebe

No Pain No Gain

26 July 2007 - When we began our renovation, I had the impression that we would be only meeting the ID occasionally, and visiting the site whenever it pleased us. The rest of the time would be devoted to our usual hedonistic pursuits of the good things in life.

Yesterday, Life decided to reach into the murky depths of my mind and yank that impression out by the roots.

We were informed that the basin that we had bought for the common toilet was too large. So we looked around for a suitable replacement, only to be told that delivery would not be provided for goods exchange. In other words, I had to lug the original basin from Jurong West to Jalan Besar, and the replacement back from Jalan Besar to Jurong West.

Not too difficult a task right? Well, not when the original basin weighed a ton. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating but it certainly felt that way. In fact, I took almost 20min to traverse a distance that I would normally cover in 5min. At the end of it, my shirt was totally soaked in sweat, and my arms gave up on attempting any form of movement.

I took the entire cab ride from Jurong West to Jalan Besar to recover and almost hugged the burly shopowner when he told me that the new basin will be much lighter.

On hindsight, it's little things like this that really gets us involved in the setting up of our corner. Not that we weren't hands-off to begin with, but this was an "opportunity" to get our hands dirty and sweat it out for our flat. No pain no gain?


- Melvin

Updates for The Corner~!

15th July 2007 - Some updates....



*Sliding windows for the service balcony*



*Casement window for the kitchen (outside is the service balcony) *



*Study light. Realised it is different from the living room light after all, haha*



*The living room light. See the diff?*



*Passageway light. Same one for the entrance foyer*



*Finally a clear pic of the MBR light*



*Clearer pic of the guest room light. Also black*



*Big dog bowl vs Small dog bowl for the kitchen and service balcony*



*Hamburger light for the store room*

The laminate flooring for the study, bedrooms and store room is done! Yay! Oh and we also realised that not only did HDB change white toilet bowls for us, they also supplied those with double button flush! Great!

- Phebe

Bye bye Chairs

14 July 2007 - Hb and I went to IMM and headed straight for BHG. I have finally made up my mind to change our dining chairs. Haiz been thinking about this for the past week and finally a decision has been made... haiz. Yes, I do like our original dining chair, but come to think of it, it is so freaking heavy that I have difficulty lifting it up! What's the point of getting a chair that is so heavy that you don't feel like using, right? To top it off, I am in-charged of vacuuming the floor... how am I going to lift up those chairs??? As far as I am concern, can't lift, don't clean, haha, but Hb will surely nag non-stop, so well, to make my life easier, I have decided to get a lighter weight chair!

Went to BHG and I chose another chair that I liked a lot but ended up not buying the previous time. Biang, that stupid chair is now selling for $199 when back in early June, it was only $129! Silly staff told us there was an internal error at their office and the price was quoted wrongly the time we bought it! So that means, for 4 chairs, we had to top up $320 if we want to change to the other model! Siao! Reasoned it out with them and in the end they said top up $100 will do. At that point, I decided to keep my golden mouth shut and let Hb settle the rest. Cos from past experience, if I had said anything else and the results ended up not to our advantage, he will sure nag at me... so play smart this time, let him do the talking, at least he can blame no one but himself! So the 2 men continued to talk, and talk and talk. No raising of voices or whatsoever (Hb is not that kind to create a scene in public), just shooting with sacarsm, lol, and in the end, we got our change without having to pay anything extra! Yay! So happy! Haha, at least I won't have such a hard time lifting up the stupid chair in future!

*Our original super heavt dining chair...bye bye....we are not meant to be together afterall, hehe*

Went to my HK aunt's condo after that to get some of her furniture before she flies off next week. Haha, got a vacuum cleaner from her as well! So happy, after using to clean up our place can throw it away! Very heartpain if we were to use the new one (Philips high performance) to clean all the dirty stuff! Oh, and she supplied us with her broom and mop too, same thing... use finish can throw then don't need to use our new ones! Hahahaha! Got her Epson printer too, haha, so will use it to print black and white and use our new Canon printer for colour printing. Philips DVD player to put in the living room while we scout around for our home theather system. Study chair in super good condition so we don't have to waste money to buy! Hmmm, and a wooden side table and chest of drawers which we intend to dump in the guest room. Looks good. Just need a coat of varnish for the side table and change of the laminate on top of the drawer cos The EL damanged it when he was pushing it along the way!!!!! Lol, saved on transportation and despatch cost cos The EL drove his co's lorry to help load the stuff. Poor thing. He drove all the way to Bedok where his company was to get the lorry and then drove the lorry all the way to Tiong Bahru where my aunt's condo was. Then drove our stuff to our new place which is all the way at Jurong West, then off he drove again to Bedok to return the lorry and drove his car all the way back to Jurong. By the time he and mum returned it was already 11pm! Wahahahahahaha~!

*The stuff*

- Phebe

THE LIGHTS

Since installation for the lights on Monday, we had no chance to take pics of them until last night, when Arsie and I went up and I brought along my digicam, haha. Let the pics speak for themselves!

*The living room. White light. Bright with 2 bulbs!*



*Surprisingly, the one middle bulb (warm light) was brighter than we expected~! Creates a different atmosphere to the living room. Love it!*

*The dining light... the most expensive of all... $285 after discount! Liew...*



*Our wire-mesh balcony light which we got Betty to modify, haha~! Love the metal holder at the top, it makes the area look modern and cool~!*




*Blurry pic of our MBR light. Added an IC as well so that there would be white light too~!*

*Our Walk-in-wardrobe light. Notice that it is the mounted version of the MBR light?*



*Dresser area light which is part of the Walk-in-wardrobe. Love the effect caused by the strings surrounding the cylinder. Notice that the MBR, WIW and dresser lights are all of the same series to show that it is all part of our now very big MBR (the size of 2 bedrooms)~*

*MBR toilet light. Nice black dog bowl, as I call it, haha. Finally the horribly ugly pipe is boxed up~*

*Our guest room. Most of our lights have black covers to show a similar "lighting theme", lol~*

*Big silver dog bowl for the kitchen. Removed the second lighting point and due to the extremely small kitchen size, this one light is very bright!*

*Smaller silver dog bowl for the service balcony to show it's part of the kitchen. Only this and the kitchen's light have silver covers as we feel it makes the kitchen look very "clean-cut". Oh, and simple too~!*



*Nice black dog bowl for the common toilet as well*

*Dog bowl beaming in the dark*

That's all for the lights! Didn't bother taking the pics of the study and store room lights cos (1) Study light is similar to the living room light only that the latter has some design on its black cover. The study light has the IC thingy as well to allow us to switch between warm and white lights. (2) Storeroom light is just the normal hanburger light, so don't see the need of displaying, haha~! Oh, and there are no pics of our entrance foyer and bedroom passageway lights cos....I forgot!!!!! :p Will upload them later on~!

Ok, here are some other updates:

*They finally boxed up the stupid pipe in the service balcony....*

*After 2 months of waiting, HDB finally changed our toilet bowls to plain white! Liew, never thought the day would come when we would get so enthu over toilet bowls?! Wahahahahaha~!*

*Yay, finally after so long, they are gonna start on the laminate flooring for the bedrooms, study and store room!*

That's all for the moment, will be back with more updates! Tata~!


- Phebe

And There Was Light

9 July 2007 - For a long time now, Her Royal Majesty and I have fumbled in the darkness during our nightly inspections of The Corner. We were grateful for every smidgen of illumination that filled the house, be it from the moon, the factories across the road, the common corridor or Her Royal Majesty's handphone.

Although we had always somehow managed to get by, we were never able to fully appreciate every detail that was done to the flat until the weekends, when we could spare time to visit during the day. As such, it was with great wonder and relief that we greeted the installation of our lights.

The first light to be switched on was the living room light. Followed by our dining lights, kitchen lights, and the various lights in the rooms in quick succession. We probably experienced the same outpouring of emotions as cavemen when fire was first discovered and ran around switching the lights on and off multiple times.

The lights helped to add a different dimension to the house altogether, and it now looks much more habitable. What's more, the renovation looks set to benefit too as the workers are now able to put in more OT!!


- Melvin

Here comes the lightings!

7th July 2007 - While 070707 is probably a special day for many couples out there, it is one hectic day for Hb and I. To begin, let me say that I have always thought (I still do) that being late is one common trait among suppliers. As such, Hb and I weren't too worried about being 30 mins late for our 2pm deliveries. Manz, to our surprise, 2 were actually early! Hb and I rushed back to my place to get the invoices then headed over to our new place. Chelsea was ONE HOUR EARLY!!!! MAnz. Great, and they delivered the wrong light for our WIW. It was supposed to be black, but they delivered the brown one. Anyway, the delivery guy was nice enough and told us he would be back with the right one soon. Zhihao came by at that moment and I passed him his salary. Poor chap had to come up all the way cos I was too busy to meet him elsewhere, lol. Then, there was this fat uncle who asked me, "where you want to hang the curtain?" Liew, it was then I realised that he was not the colleague of the Chelsea delivery guy... it was Henry from Homelovers Wallpaper! I spent the next 20 mins telling him which parts of the house to take measurements while Hb began labelling all the lights. Finally, Henry was done and went off. Just when we thought we could take a breather, another guy came into our flat and introduced himself as "from Light Zone". So he was on time.... to deliver our living and dining lights, lol. Checked the stuff and did labelling again.

Below shows our balcony light...

It was only 2.45pm and we sat on the floor waiting for Tom (the electrician) to come. Liew, this is really like some kind of cat and mouse game, with all the waiting here and there, bueh tahan, bored to death! Should have brought along my magazine or something! Had a craving for "jiu cen gao" (9 rainbow kueh) and Hb went over to the opposite block's kopitiam to buy for me...at least got something to keep me (my mouth actually) busy while waiting. Tom finally came at 4pm and we went through the lighting stuff with him. Haha, very flexible guy who didn't charge us extra for some additional stuff that we wanted. Decided to let him help us buy the switches afterall as we were afraid we would buy the wrong thing. Ok, to confess, I am too lazy to go around hunting, lol. Tom promised to help us install the lights on Monday, yay! Hope he keeps to his word! Tom went off an hour later and then the Chelsea uncle came again to deliver the correct WIW light. Yay, finally all the lights are in correct order, so happy. Hope they will be installed as promised, then we won't ever need to explore the flat at night with a hp torchlight anymore! Spent the next half hour waiting for Eesy's guys to come to clear the "rubbish" (more like debris, haha) and they finally came. The guy told us that we had too many "rubbish" to clear and the lorry is not big enough to contain so many junk. Liew, so in the end, they packed the "rubbish" in bags and placed them at the balcony area. They will be cleared on Monday morning.

Sianz, so many things to do.... which reminds me I need to arrange for the stupid hob and hood to be delivered. Oh, and chase Eesy to hurry up with our reno cos gonna deliver some furniture in next week. Haiz, heng I postponed some of the other deliveries, cos I know he sure delay for another 1 or 2 weeks! Sianz, that goon doo better expediate, else he'll sure receive a lot of phone calls from me , errhumm, Hb.

- Phebe

Rubilicious Red

4 July 2007 - The Corner is getting closer and closer to full completion. Tonight, Her Royal Majesty and I saw, for the first time, the whole flat come to life with a fresh coat of paint.

In particular, we had chosen a particular shade named Ruby Red for part of the living and dining room. On first sight, the colour simply leaps off the walls and demands your full attention. The slightly darker tinge of crimson was chosen because it blends well with the colours in the feature wall (red and white), as well as the rest of the living room (white with a faint tinge of purple) and balcony (black and grey). We're hoping that the colour will attract the attention of visitors the moment they step into the entrance foyer, and draw them towards the rest of the flat.

The 2 bedrooms were given a totally different look, with Kiwi Gold (a chirpy shade of green) for the guest room, and Lavender Mist (dark purple) for the master bedroom. With these colours, the rooms now take on characters of their own. The guest room is the bright, talkative nephew who can't stop asking embarrasing questions about parts of the human anatomy, while the master bedroom is the classic brooding detective, oozing a raw sensuality with unshaven cheeks and a half finshed fag hanging off his lips. Either that, or I might have just inhaled too much paint fumes.

Anyway, I'm now waiting for the time when we finally get rid of the layer of dust that permates the entire house. Hopefully, we will then get to see all the furnishings and fittings in their true glory.


- Melvin

Our Starmex is Up!

3rd July 2007 - Hb and I went to our place in the afternoon and the painter was hard at work. Poor chap, painting the whole house alone. As we were early and waiting for the guys from All Best to arrive, we decided to go to the other renovating units to have a look, haha! Here's the view of our place from the 13th floor, haha:

The guys from All Best came at 6.30pm. Ah Huat brought along 2 other colleagues this time. Hiaz, already told them there isn't any lights and yet they still come at such an odd time. Anyway, they started installing the fan coils first and by 7.30pm, it was dark and they had problem seeing, lol. Luckily there is this super good function in my Sony Ericsson hp - TORCHLIGHT! Wahahahha! That's how Hb and I always go around inspecting our flat during the night! Anyway, there I stood, holding my hp-torchlight up high so that they could see, while Hb rushed back to my place to get a light bulb. Actually it was ok lah, not the guys' fault, cos they were not informed by their office personnel. And they were so impressed with my hp, wahahahahaha! Hb came back very soon and phew, there was light and the guys could continue working properly! Ah Huat told us they would take another 1.5 hours and we went back to my place for dinner. So freaking tired. At about 9.30pm, Ah Huat called and informed us that installation is completed! Only Hb went back to test the fan coils though, cos I was too lazy to walk back and forth again, lol.

*Our Starmex in the living room. Known as "Wide and long", lol.

*Close up view of our Mitsubishi Starmex aircon in the living room~


- Phebe

2.5 Hours to Choose Pots & Pans!

30th June 2007 - Hb and I went to Jalan Sultan to hunt for bamboo chicks and curtain stuffs. As usual, the weather was warm and I was so glad I had my portable fan with me! Decided to get our bamboo chicks (for the balcony) at Jurong West in the end, so off we went to CK Tang~!

Believe it or not, we actually spent a good 2.5 hours there deciding which frying pan and saucepan to buy! The Tefal promoter asked what is our main purpose for buying a pot and we happily chirped,"Cook maggie mee lor!" Wahahahahhaa and guess what? The auntie started on a mini cooking lesson for us.... telling us how and what to cook blah blah blah! Then she asked us our purpose for getting a pan, and again, we said, "To fry egg lah!" Wahahahaha and that earned us another mini cooking lesson! Wanted to get the set initially but in the end decided not to as the pan was too big for my liking. In the end, we only bought a 26cm frying pan from Tefal. Yes, without the saucepan, cos I didn't like the cover (Very hard to clean the edges). Just as we were making our way to the bedding section, we saw a Meyer saucepan going on sale about $39 after discount and its the perfect size for cooking our maggie mee, so we bought it! Yay! Settled our frying pan and saucepan. Will shop for the wok next time after I do more "research"! Bought a Jean Perry king size mattress protector as well, haha!

Total Damage: $100.13


- Phebe