Making space

31 Oct 2012 (Wed) - I have always wondered why is it that the Low Residence, being a 4-room flat, seems to have space for everything while our EA seems so cramp. With C in the house and growing bigger, we need more space and I think our single seater sofa has to go.

Original:



Version 1:



We decided not to follow Version 1 as it still doesn't achieve the look that I wanted.

When Mdm Yik came to pass me my lunch today, we tried shifting the furniture again and this time, although not the best of the best, but it somehow achieves my aim of having more space in the living room.





C was so funny. The moment she saw us finish shifting the furniture, the joker went to the service balcony, returned with the magic cleaner, and started cleaning the floor!



She discovered a new hiding place too, with the new layout.





Now I shall slowly see what I can do to maximise the space at the balcony. Probably put a small table and chair there for C to do her drawing!

Mini-reno - Part 2

17 May 2011 (Tues) - Vesak Day. Ah Tao came to clean up our house for 4 hours and the Low Clan came over. The EL repaired our vacuum cleaner!!!!!!!! He removed the plug and attached a new one and reconnected the wires. It worked!!! Super happy!!!

Went to Marina to shop but there was nothing much so we went back to good old Jurong Point. Went to Selfix and bought a tin of Nippon Premium Odourless Orchid White paint. Went home and Kitty started preparing the area for painting!

Covering the floor:

Sandpaper-ing the rough edges and cleaning with a damp cloth.

Progress by the end of the day:

18 May 2011 (Wed) - Kitty continued to paint the balcony. Finally finished the first coat. He said we will probably need 3 coats of paint.

19 May 2011 (Thurs) - 2nd coat of paint done except for the pipe.

20 May 2011 (Sat) - Applied the 3rd coat of paint.

And finally its completed!!!

Our living room looks so bright and spacious now!

I think Kitty can go work as a freelance painter next time, wahahahhaha!

Mini-reno - Part 1

16 May 2011 (Mon) - Mini-reno for the house. Kitty took leave to oversee the progress and I brought Claris to the Low Clan's to escape the noise and dust.

Haiz there goes our balcony glass doors and walls, kitchen swing door (replaced with sliding glass door) and common toilet swing door (replaced with bi-fold door) and in comes the dreaded window grilles. We also had casement windows done for the main balcony and replaced the sliding windows in the service balcony with casement ones. The men came at 10am and completed the job at 5pm. Whole house was super dirty. I left C with Mdm Yik and came back to help Kitty with the cleaning. And guess what? Our vacuum cleaner died on us!!!!!!!!! It chose to die on us at all times, just when we needed it most!!!!!!!!!! ARRRRGH!!!! Thankfully, Mdm Yik lives just across the street and I asked Kitty to go borrow her set, which is the same model, lol.

Living room and main balcony:

MBR and Claris's room:

Study and service balcony:

Sliding door for the kitchen and Bifold for the common toilet:

I vacuumed and he mopped the floor (been years since I did chores, nearly killed my old bones). He also did a brief clean-up of the common toilet which was super dirty and scrubbed the main balcony floor (have to, since now its gonna be part of the living room). I cleaned the walls of the main balcony. Decided to paint it Orchid White so that it will blend in with the rest of the living room.

Super tired when we finally cleaned up the mess at 8.20pm. Quickly went to JP to eat Ayam Penyet. Must go eat there since for once we don't have to worry about where to put a stroller, haha. Went to Courts and Harvey to check out vacuum cleaners (why are the good ones so expensive??). Sian. Don't know whether to send the current one for repair ($290, if don't repair a bit wasted?) or should we just buy a new one. Went back to the Low Clan's to shower and fetch C then its home sweet home.

New side tray for the living room

4 Dec 2010 (Sat) - We sold our white triangle coffee table a few months ago for $100 cos it was not child-safe. Personally, I enjoy the space in the living room without the coffee table, though its a pain to see our sofa cluttered with remote controls (no where to put them without the coffee table).

Been searching for a side table instead, so that it wouldn't take up too much space in the living room. I wanted something foldable. We finally found something suitable at iwannagohome! :D

We got this TJ Whisky Tray Table for $129. It was on discount. Usual price $249! Kitty wasn't too thrilled cos he said $129 is expensive.

I like it cos it looks good, tray is removable, and the metal stand is foldable. Cool~!

New dining chairs from OM

8 Aug 2010 (Sun) - Finally have time to blog about our new dining chairs!

Our first set started peeling very badly recently, dirtying the floor everyday. Got so fed-up that we decided to shop for new ones. Went to IMM last Friday (30 July) and thankfully, after 10mins walking around the 3rd level where the furniture shops are located, we saw something that looked pretty durable and can match our dining tables. We thus got 4 new dining chairs (Tena series) from OM. Bargained till $430 for 4 chairs.

Old chairs:

New chairs:

Repainting our bedroom doors

26 June 2010 (Sat) - After complaining for 2.5 years how ugly our bedroom doors look, we finally got a painter to repaint them. The original painter used non-glossy paint, so over time, it looks as if there are patches of white on the MBR door. As for the guest room door, I played smart-alec and coated a layer of varnish over it. So ugly!

Original:

Work in progress:

Junior/Guest room door repainted with pearl grey and a strip of soft fern to match the interior.

MBR door repainted with pearl grey and a strip of lavender to match the interior.

Frosting our balcony wall cum door

19 Jun 2010 (Sat) - With many thanks to Evelyn who introduced her ID to us, I finally got one side of my balcony wall and door frosted!

When we were renovating our house, we installed bamboo chicks at the balcony so that our opposite neighbour will not be able to look into our house. Reason being we had hacked away the balcony wall facing the bedrooms and replaced it with clear tempered glass.

The bamboo chicks work well, except that I thought the house will look brighter if we roll it up sometimes. Moreover, it will be better to have a brighter house when we have kids next time (soon).

So over the past year, I have been thinking of ways to solve the problem of not letting our neighbour look in whenever we roll up the bamboo chicks. One option is to install string curtains. The other is to remove the glass wall and build a concrete wall. I don't really fancy the first option as installing string curtains will be expensive and it will get dusty over time. I also think the second option is a little silly, considering we had originally removed the concrete wall just to build a glass one. The glass wall was expensive lor.

A few days ago, I suddenly thought of frosting the wall and door instead! Told Evelyn about it and she gave me her ID no. The guy was quite efficient, and the contractor (one-man show) who was supposed to do the frosting came this morning. We chose the type of frosting that we wanted and he set to work immediately. The job was completed within 1.5hrs. The workmanship is good and we are happy! Haha, problem solved cheaply. Only $190!

Before:

Work in progress:

After:

Nice?? :)