Renovation Journey : Delivery Day Part ONE

22 July, 2011
It was finally time to fill up the house with the lovely items that we have bought for the house!

The first delivery consists of part of most of the electrical appliances that we have bought and some furnitures.

First it was our Samsung digital lock (SHS-2320), which we got from the official distributor, Hanman! The guy as shown was here to help us install the digital lock. He was so professional he even brought his own wire extension! o.O
Piggeek Barn : Delivery Day!

Then everything else just seemed to come at the same time, including our furnitures from Scanteak! So here’s sharing some photos of what we got! 🙂

Our lovely dining table and chairs! Super ♥ the color at Scanteak though do take note that since it’s raw wood, usually what you see at the showroom might not be what you get. We were quite satisfied with what we got! Then there’s the special coffee table! It was like love at first sight when I saw this interesting table that I knew I have to have it as our coffee table! 😀
Piggeek Barn : Delivery Day!

Our washer and dryer! Really put them into good use, especially the dryer on rainy days? It’s a damn good investment. Haha! 🙂
Piggeek Barn : Delivery Day!

Our simple fridge from Samsung. 🙂
Piggeek Barn : Delivery Day!
Piggeek Barn : Delivery Day!

Our inner-flame Fujioh hob! Wanted to get the highly-raved Rinnai‘s inner-flame hob but it sure is so much more expensive! Like twice the amount that we paid for this Fujioh hob. -.-
I asked the uncle at Goh Ah Bee what exactly is the difference between these two hobs and he told me actually it all depends on my preference. Some people just prefer to have something Made in Japan that’s all. So oh well. We decided to go with Fujioh instead since it’s still one of the recommended brands in forums. No hood for us though but if you’re interested and from what I read, Fujioh’s hood is one of the most affordable and better ones. 🙂
Piggeek Barn : Delivery Day!

All other electrical appliances were delivered but yet to be installed so no photos of them as yet! Hehez.
So here’s sharing one of the view of the dining and living room with furnitures, including our sofa from Natural Living, another great find to match our house! 🙂
Piggeek Barn : Delivery Day!

For more random photos of the house, you can first my flickr page! 🙂

Network Failure

For days. Weeks. And months.

The issue has been there for quite some time and we kept thinking it was the problem of Starhub’s network at our estate that was giving us some network issues.

Windows Live Messenger was the biggest issue when we were chatting with friends and then it seemed that there was no reply from them. I personally was still thinking that probably the other party was too busy to reply. Oh boy, I was so wrong. Messages were kind of dropped and they didn’t even reached the other party when D actually told me that he didn’t received any messages from me at all when I had typed LOADS. So then Feng and I decided to carry out an experiment on our side and realised we can’t received each other’s messages after some time also. This sure was crappy. -.-

Then there was another issue of Feng’s connection timing out. Sure was another weird issue considering my connection was okie but his was taking forever to load. Of ‘cos that caused days of Feng being pissed off and I wasn’t too happy also. 🙁

Then D suggested some days back to try changing our DNS. And I did. At first it was fine but then messages got lost again. Nothing was improved on Feng’s side either. It started to dawn on us that it probably wasn’t Starhub’s network though we still have no idea what was the issue. Feng decided to experiment on his side to probably off his torrent during Windows start-up. Everything then seemed fine again but the issue of lost messages on WLM was still not solved.

Then 2 days back D suggested probably we should try using the router-modem given to us with another router instead to see if it is the hardware issue. Initially was still thinking to probably do an exchange with Starhub for their normal modem but decided to google more to find out how to use a router-modem with another router since am no network expert. 😉

So yes, as all network expert will know, you can use the router-modem as a bridge to a router. And of ‘cos when I googled the name of the modem-router given to us, I came upon a lot of negative feedbacks on Hardware Zone which goes way back to 2010. And someone mentioned using the router-modem as a bridge kind of solves the issue so I decided to give it a go yesterday after more researching. Went to get a router with Feng yesterday and came home to setup the network.

And TADAH! Our WLM was actually still sending and receiving messages from each other!!! Means no more missing messages!? 😀

That surely brought some joy to us after some days, weeks and months of lousy connection. Monitoring the network for a few more days to decide if we should still do an exchange for the modem-router.

So everyone signing up with Starhub for Broadband, please note to AVOID taking their D-LINK DCM-604 MODEM-ROUTER. Just do it the good old way of connecting up a modem and router so at least if there’s a need to test if the problem lies with Starhub’s network or the hardware, it’s easier to do so. JUST AVOID THE STUPID MODEM-ROUTER. DO NOT TAKE AT ALL COST.

Renovation Journey : Wet Accessories

It’s finally time to rewind back and continue posting on our renovation journey! 😀

Here’s posting photos from the time when the plumber, Lucky Khoon, as introduced by our ID on 17 July.

Piggeek Barn : Wet Accessories

Piggeek Barn : Wet Accessories

Piggeek Barn : Wet Accessories

Piggeek Barn : Wet Accessories

Every renovation has its own issues. Ours included though not as serious as some might faced. This was the most ridiculous problem of the whole renovation journey. Yes, it’s an invisible toilet bowl as seen in this photo. We had our toilet bowl delivered way early and was sitting in our living room. On this day when we had our plumber down to install the accessories, we realised the supplier of the toilet bowl actually gave us the wrong size (needed a 6″ but was given a 10″) only when the plumber was trying to install this new toilet bowl in our master bathroom. Zzz. And after millions of calls to the supplier and all, we got our toilet bowl. But it was only after millions of calls and emails. Such a lousy experience. Not forgetting we had to wait for an invisible man to come on the day they promised to deliver the toilet bowl. Wasted our leave and time. URGH. Do take note the brand: VELIN.
Piggeek Barn : Wet Accessories

And of ‘cos, Lucky Khoon had their issues also. Late for appointments, not once but twice before our ID made it clear to them to be on time did they came on time on our last appointment. We find this most disappointing especially when we had to rush off somewhere after that and they thought we got all the time for them by being DAMN LATE. Zzz. So everyone do take note of Lucky Khoon. We are not the first to complain ’bout them anyway. You can Google their name and actually quite some negative reviews of them are around.

Piggeek Girl’s Manicure!

Finally! I finally got the bridal nail design that I have been eye-ing since May when I was shortlisting nail design for the pre-wedding photoshoot. 😀

This was one of the two designs I shortlisted during then and now I finally get to have it on my nails! Yippee!

Cynthia (from Cynful Nails) is my favourite manicurist ever and all thanks to her I have the nail design replicated exactly onto my own nails. Thanks Cynthia!

Piggeek Girl : Bridal Nails

Photo taken by Cynthia.
Design taken from a special edition of NAIL UP!.

Counting down… THREE MORE DAYS!

One thing why I don’t really like to post anymore updates now prior to our wedding is ‘cos of the ticker at the side of this blog!!! It kept reminding me how many days we have left to our wedding. Nervous. Excited. Everything sort of comes together. I don’t really feel the anxiousness but I know it’s creeping up to me soon. Haha!

So to distract myself, I decided to take some photos of the ang bao boxes we rented from Ted Collection, our gowns and suits designer/tailor. Pink for the bride (ME!) and Blue for the groom (Feng!). Now guests will know which ang bao box belongs to who and know which one to drop the ang baos into! Though honestly… As long as the ang bao goes into the box, I don’t really care which one is it. Hahaha! 🙂

Wedding Ang Bao Box

Wedding Ang Bao Box

Wedding Ang Bao Box

Wedding Ang Bao Box

Piggeeks 过大礼!

Been neglecting this blog quite a bit as we are busy planning for our wedding (which is coming really soon!) and our honeymoon!

Putting aside blog entries relating to renovation (which I have not been very diligent in editing the photos for blog entries. Oops! :X), here’s some photos from our 过大礼 this morning!
Anyone interested can head over to my flickr to read my flickr blog for more details! 🙂

Piggeeks 过大礼

Piggeeks 过大礼

Piggeeks 过大礼

Piggeeks 过大礼

Piggeeks 过大礼

Piggeeks 过大礼

Been too Busy and Lazy!

To anyone out there keeping track of our blog, we have already move in since last Sunday! Have been neglecting this blog a bit as we settled in during this past week and also been really busy and a tad bit lazy with trying to update this blog. I really hope I will find some time to update with the backlog 0f our renovation updates before we write our final review for our ID and of ‘cos finally revealing who that ID might be!

Just yesterday we had our last deliveries: our bed frame and mattress! So our house is finally complete! Hehez. 🙂

For now, am feeling the stress from the wedding preparations as seen from the count-down on the right side of this blog. Currently we are in the midst of confirming our invited guests and invite design. Need to get this done soon so I will feel slightly less worried. *stressed stressed*

Hope to update more again! Tadah! 🙂

No photo of us in the house but here’s my dear Eva who just moved in with us on Friday. 😀

Eva Pendegast : My New Home

Renovation Journey : Let’s Get Tough!

As you are reading the previous blog entry, I am already typing the next blog entry! Got to clear my backlogs so that I can start showing lovely photos of my almost completed house with furnitures! 😀

So on 12 July, we had our solid top installation. It was actually a pretty fast process where the solid-top guys came down with these pre-cut solid tops and went to the various places in the house to start putting them into place. In just a few minutes, the solid tops were nicely positioned and glued at the side with silicone. The workers then help us to polish our solid tops. But as usual, there will always be some flaws as Feng spotted them and asked our ID to rectify them. 🙂

Say goodbye to scratch surfaces and hello to smoothies! Presenting our white kitchen! Sort-of. 😀

Piggeek Barn : Let's Get Tough!

Piggeek Barn : Let's Get Tough!

Happy to have the solid top for the breakfast counter so now I can use it with the MacBook Air without making my skin feel scratchy from the woody surface. 😀

Piggeek Barn : Let's Get Tough!

Solid tops for the bathroom counter-tops! The holes are drilled to the position of our basins and taps by the workers after confirming the position with us. 🙂

Piggeek Barn : Let's Get Tough!

Here’s showing the acrylic board and T5 light used in our bathrooms! We replaced the plastic mesh so as to have a cleaner look in the bathrooms. And as mentioned by our ID, to prevent any creepy crawlies from going in. :X

The T5 lights are actually brighter than our lighting point! Now we used it more often than the light installed. Haha! Luckily we didn’t spend a lot on the light. 🙂

Piggeek Barn : Let's Get Tough!

Piggeek Barn : Let's Get Tough!

I guess that’s all for today! Will try to come up with the next set of photos soon! We are reaching the end soooooon! Stay tuned! 😀