For The Barn – Yet Another Wedding Blog

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

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! 😀

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

Our simple fridge from Samsung. 🙂

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. 🙂

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! 🙂

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.

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.

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.

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. 😀

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. 😀

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. 🙂

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. 🙂

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! 😀

Renovation Journey : Cold Air Blows + Mirror on the Wall

Somehow starting to think my title doesn’t make much sense anymore. Hahaha! Feel like am getting so random in trying to come up with a more interesting title for the blog entry. :X

Anyway it has once again been some time since the last update. As much as we want to relax, it’s still kind of tough to relax but at least the pace is finally slowing down some for renovation as our house is reaching its completion soon. 🙂

So here’s some photos from 09 July when we finally have air-conditioner in the house! Photos were already uploaded with the previous blog entry but as usual, I was too lazy to post here since I did my photo blog in my flickr already. Haha! 😀

Initially Feng and I were thinking to just get a System-3 for the house. But after much thought and discussion and not forgetting some influence from our buddies, we decided to go with a System-4 instead and we never look back. 😀

A System-4 is so good ‘cos most of the time when we go over to our house during the weekends, we are hanging out a lot in the living room so air-conditioner in the living room is definitely a plus point. Not forgetting if we have guests coming over, it will be good to cool them down! 🙂

Here’s a photo of our model number for our blower unit in the living room and condenser unit. You can probably head over to the following website for more details on the air-conditioner units we got. Take note we didn’t get our units from Cool Serve. That website only serve as a guide to the unit details of the air-conditioner we got. 🙂

We got our air-conditioner from Kaisoon, which I probably mentioned long time back probably. Their service is really not bad until now and our air-conditioner units have been in good working condition until now. So probably will monitor more before we can give our verdict but up until now all seems fine and we are quite happy with them and their service. 🙂

Finally time to enjoy nice cool air instead of the warm warm air coming in from outside! Yippee! 😀

So after all the air-conditoner units installation was done, it’s time to take some photos of the mirrors that are already installed in the house! Yay! Finally I can make sure I look presentable before leaving the house for ermmm… Feng’s house. :X

Here’s the mirror on the household shelter feature wall. Sexy Feng is ermmm… Probably doing some cleaning? Not sure what he’s doing. Haha! :X

And here’s the mirror on our shoe cabinet. I think I look short and fat here. Oops. :X

And here’s our bathrooms’ mirrors! Nice and big and probably ermmm… Tough to clean off the water stains. Oops. 😀

And surprise surprise! There’s actually a full-length mirror in the wardrobe! We didn’t even know that. Haha! The other photo shows my dressing table mirror. ♥

Extras for anyone who is interested, the compartments of our various storage cabinets. The first one showing our very limited storage space in the wardrobe. Due to space constraint, we can only have such a size for our wardrobe. Someone has got to… Sacrifice… :X

Some more storage space in the study room. 🙂

And our one and only one place with more storage space which is situated in the living/dining area. 🙂

The next blog entry will come up real soon since it’s gonna be a short one! Stay tuned! 🙂

Renovation Journey : Woody Wood

Apologies for the lack of updates in the main page for at least one month! We have been really busy with the whole renovation process and I have been staying over at Feng’s house and since editing of photos is only limited to my house hence no updates until now!

Photos were uploaded last week to my flickr so if any one of you need any update, there will be a place to go to! Else you can probably head over to the link: Our Barn located at the bar above for latest update on our progress from Feng. 🙂

So it was about one week after the lightings were installed, on 7 July, our carpentry works were up~! So here’s a look at our more completed look! 🙂

On the right is the view from the front door’s point of view while the left shows the carpentry work done at the front door area which includes the shoe cabinet to the left and the household shelter feature wall on the right. The door hiding the household shelter was not up during the time of photo-taking. 🙂

An overall view of Our Barn from the living/dining room! 🙂

Our kitchen with the glass divider is finally up and we are so loving it as it allows light to enter from all directions giving the illusion of space for our small house. 🙂

The table will be our “breakfast” table which will most likely end up putting lots of junk and also the convenience of throwing anything we have on hand on it upon entering the house. 😀

Here’s our full-height cabinet/storage space! The only storage space with the most storage area in the Barn! The mirrors on the cabinet was not up at the time of photo-taking. 🙂

Our TV console and feature wall together with our Ikea pendant light. 🙂

Our entertainment room! Sort of. Hahaha! We will be having a 32″ TV mounted on the wall and of ‘cos having both our lovely PCs on the study table. This will probably be where we will hang out most of the time considering we used our PCs like 24/7. Oops. :X

Cabinet to the bottom-right is used to house our routers and what-nots inside so as to hide them from view. But both of us think this room will be the messiest no matter how we cable-manage everything. :X

Our Master Bedroom (MBR) wardrobe which both of us and everyone else thinks will never be enough for both of us considering I will be taking up most of the space in the wardrobe. Haha! Guess Feng might force me to do more spring cleaning for my clothes in future to make way for more new clothes. :X

My little corner in the MBR! My dressing table! Feng gave me the freedom to decide the configuration for the dressing table since I will be the one using it most of the time. Mirror was once again not up at the time of photo-taking. 🙂

Carpentry works in the bathroom! This is a view of our MBR bathroom and the long cabinet will be used to put TWO basins! Influenced by the various resorts we visited, we MUST have two basins. Haha! 😀

Remember the laminate trimming that I mentioned previously that both Feng and I hated? Our ID has went ahead to rectify the issue after we raised it to him. He didn’t inform us on the change and didn’t gave us the choice to choose BUT luckily the new trimming fits lovingly so we didn’t blame him. He loves to give us surprises but we both think he is an ID bad for control freaks out there. Haha! 🙂

Lastly, a view from the walkway. 🙂

Will post up another series of photos for the next phase soon but I am just too tired to do anything much nowadays. Been having some small hiccups here and there and it was tiring for both of us. Renovation has kind of come to a halt for us already except for some rectifications here and there which can only be done on weekends since we have already locked up the house with our own lock. We both hope that all will go well for the remaining work to be done. We need a good rest before moving on to more plannings for our wedding. Phew.

For more miscellaneous photos from this series, please head over to my flickr. Thanks! Will try to update as and when I can. 🙂

Renovation Journey : Let There Be LIGHT!

Went down to our house again to supervise the lighting installation. Our friendly electrical worker was there unpacking and looking through the downlights when we reached. 🙂

What greeted us first was the service yard windows that was done up during the week! Now it feels slightly safer to be standing at the service yard. Haha! 😀

Then upon entering, we noticed all the rubbish and debris removed from our living room and kitchen! All ready for carpentry to come soon! Hehez. And it’s so good to see such a clean view. Looks so bright and spacious compared to when we first got our house. 🙂

Then we spotted the nice bedroom doors! Yum. Fit our theme so well. Love the funky variation of brown hues! But there’s this laminate trimming at the entrance to the room below the door which we don’t like ‘cos of the color. Doesn’t match well with our laminate flooring. Already made noise to our ID and he said will get the tiler to show us some sample choices for the trimming.

Then there’s a lot of these punctuated holes on our skirting which we didn’t see last time. Apparently they are nails to secure the skirting. Feng already asked our ID to patch the holes up which our ID said the tiler will do it this week. Better be! *RAWR*

And not forgetting some stains on the laminates which hopefully will be removed after the wash.

So back to installation of the lightings. It wasn’t as fast as expected. The electrical worker asked us where we prefer to have the downlight installed and at which position. Luckily it all came out okie after installing. Haha! 🙂

After the downlight installation, he continued with the installation of the kitchen and bedroom lights. He asked us do we want a vertical or horizontal placement ‘cos our lights are rectangular in shape. Hahaha! Didn’t know will have such headache. So do take note of this! We just kind of randomly whack our thoughts. :X

When we left, the installation for the bathroom lights just started so didn’t get to capture it. And also missing photos of the service yard and household shelter lights. But here’s a photo of our living room pendant light we got from Ikea! Can’t wait to see it hanging in our living room already. Wonder will it be dusty by then. :X

Renovation Journey : Paint, Eubiq and Doors!

It’s carpentry measurement day! It’s also a random surprise day! 😀

Thinking that we were the first to be in the house, we went into the bomb shelter to put our stuffs, only to realise there was someone else in the house. It was actually the painter! Didn’t know what he was doing in the other room but he sure was really quiet when we entered the house. Hur.

We realised the paint cans lying on the floor were ICI and Nippon Paint. Since we chose our paint from Nippon Paint, we asked our ID why was there ICI lying there and he said it will be used for the base coat. Phew. At least we are not being short-changed.

Anyway we checked out the air-conditioner trunking and false ceiling that were done from yesterday. Well… Air-conditioner trunking was as complete as possible and they helped to plaster back the visible hole they had drilled. False ceiling was partly plastered up so the guy was back to continue plastering our ceiling at the later part of the day. 🙂

Then Kenneth from ASL Power came back with our Eubiq track and power plugs! They were really fast in custom-making our 2 metre long track. In less than a week and it was done! Brownie points for them! So now we have the physical track to show the carpenter so he can do the measurement to cut out a hole to hold the track on our study table. 🙂

Carpentry measurement and discussion was longer than expected. I didn’t know there was so much to confirm until that day! Every single detail has to be confirmed and double-confirmed with the ID and us regarding the width of the item and how far apart they are. Not forgetting number of doors for the cabinet, whether we want drawer or casement doors, where to put the drawers or casement door, so on and so forth. So many configurations for the kitchen alone! o.O

Luckily when the kitchen discussion was done, other carpentry around the house was easier to decide until we hit the study room which is rather important to us since we will probably spend a lot of time in it. 🙂 So the measurement of the cabinet was changed again and again. But both our ID and the carpenter were rather patient with us. Brownies points again~!

Also during the carpentry discussion, our bathroom PD doors were also being installed! Our ID said the company is getting popular so they will be getting busier to schedule slots for installation. And since our doors are in stock, he decided to arrange an early date to install our doors. Say byebye to exposed bathroom! Now I can use it in peace! 😉

Renovation Journey : Happy Trunking Day!

It’s Happy Trunking Day! That means we are having our air-conditioner trunking and that means lots of noise, mess and dust!

Our ID also came down that day so that the air-conditioner workers can ask our ID any questions pertaining to the positioning of the trunking. We had one troublesome issue for the study room as the electrical wiring intersected with the air-conditioner trunking and unit position. So our ID advised the worker to remove the electrical wiring trunking and allow them to proceed first. Our ID will advise our electrician on the issue. Hope to see some magic done this coming week. *prays*

Also during all the drilling and hammering, the remnants were like hitting our precious unprotected laminates due to lack of cardboard to protect the floor laminates! o.O

Lesson learnt: Probably can consult your ID or contractor and get the air-conditioner trunking done before the laminates are up in the room. May or may not affect houses that use tiles for their room since it’s less damaging as compared to laminates. Also might solve the conflict the electrical wiring might have with the air-conditioner trunking and unit position ‘cos usually the trunking position is quite fixed and electrical wirings can probably run otherwise. 🙂

We got our air-conditioner from Kaisoon since Mushroom’s family had their renovation some time back and his brother researched Kaisoon to be quite a good and reputable company. So we decided to go ahead and use their service as well. So far so good. We will be having 2 days of air-conditioner installation where the trunking will be done before the installation of the air-conditioner units after the carpentry is up. 🙂

Also on parallel track, the false ceiling was being put up on that day too. It was to prepare for the carpentry measurement the next day so that the carpenter can have an accurate measurement of how high the carpentry works will have to be. 🙂

Lunch at Popeyes at Punggol Promenade Riverside before heading back to do a quick visit on the workers and gave them some drinks to reward their hard work. Then it was back to Feng’s house before heading out for some GDL/Dowry/An Chuan items shopping! 🙂

Renovation Journey : Woody and Wiry

After selecting our laminates after coming back from our short getaway, the laminates were already up in all the bedrooms when we visited the house during the following weekend! *happy*

After checking out the house, our electrician arrived at our house to discuss with us the electrical point and power plugs position around the house. Unknown to us, they were actually starting their electrical wiring that day. So yet another surprise but glad that everything seemed to be progressing really well without us nagging the ID. More Brownie points! 🙂

Besides meeting the eletrician, we also met up with Kenneth from ASL Power to discuss about our Eubiq track configuration that we will be using for our study room mainly due to the uncertainty of how many plugs we might need for the room and Eubiq is a good system to solve our problem! Kenneth is a really nice guy and he gave really nice advices so we can make better use of the Eubiq system. 🙂

During this same time, Tony came down to our house to help us install the bomb shelter racks. So yippee! We finally have racks to put our delivered items! 😀

After confirming our Eubiq configuration, we waited for our lightings to be delivered from Lightings.Com.Sg. Honestly, Punggol ALWAYS RAIN whenever we were there. While waiting for the delivery guy to arrive, it started raining and then it was POURING. Poor delivery guy came drenched and his delivery invoice was so damped that he said we don’t have to sign it already since it’s already totally wet. Luckily the lightings are nicely packed away in the boxes. 🙂

After the delivery was done, we went ahead to make a visit to our neighbour before heading back to the house to check on progress again on the electrical worker. Seems like he was done after we left. Haha! Fast. So then is back on the road to rush for more appointments and shopping! 😀

Refer to my flickr for more photos! 🙂