Sunday, August 18, 2013

Super Sunday

Dragged all her clothes there today. Had to take a detour under the scorching Sun, so that he could wheel it all the way. Heavy stuff, no kidding. All sweaty and tired when he reached the unit.

Going on an overseas trip? Almost.


Washed the Friven bedsheets, and the Friven mattress protector (by Tilam King). Hung them up to dry, not before cleaning the super dirty poles. The wind stopped blowing once he hung them up. Hurrrrrrr.

Put her clothes into the wardrobe.

Powered on the refrigerator for the first time.

Aired the bean bag.

Cleaned the mirror cabinets, the glass shelves, and the towel racks. Put a fresh toilet roll into the roll holder. Brought shampoo and facial foam over to meet their friends, body foam and hand soap.

Moved, unpacked and laid the mattress. With the help of T, of course.

Tilam King Luxury series on top of Casa divan

Scrubbed the floor, then mopped it up. Still some stains left, gotta remember to buy lemons the next time.

Cleared out the storeroom and mopped it up.

Tried to clean the 30-year old pots given by Mom. Only to find a huge-ass fat silverfish with its family inside the set of 4 pots. Soaped them down, but when overturned to drain, some brownish-black liquid came out from the side of the pots. Dumped them immediately. Eew.

Then it was for the mega family reunion dinner (4 tables), rushed there, but he was late. Then the awkward thing happened. The contractor came by with his family and sat at the table next to Granny. He went over to say hello, and as it was just beside Granny, she and one of the aunts asked about his renovation problems, and he had to tell them that the renovation contractor was just beside them. Embarrassing. Hot on the heels of this conversation, another uncle came by and asked loudly about the resolution of his bad experiences. He also had to tell him that the contractor was just beside them. Awkward max.
 Over this weekend, more of his orders came.

 First to arrive was his doob bean bag. Got a large Plopsta ($269) for its waterproof properties.

Personalized touch.

However, he regrets that he should have just stuck with his original choice of doobsta, finished with a softer material. You know that stretchy and soft feeling when you sink into a bean bag?

Big enough to seat 2 on its length.

Took a photo in an attempt for the doob rebate.

Guitar on its throne.

Then came the bed frame from S&C Furniture. Unfortunately, they came with the wrong plastic legs, and thankfully, they could not be attached to the underside. Immediately called the boss, Melvin, and confirmed that the legs should have been wooden ones. Rescheduled the installation.

Couldn't settle for any other colors, somehow. $580.

S&C also delivered the shoe rack. Finished in glossy paint. The edges had some black lines, he'll feedback to Melvin and see what he can do. Otherwise, it's something he can live with, it's a shoe rack anyway.

Shoe rack for $320.

The mattress that came really last. Bought the Luxury series from a local company called Tilam King. 10cm latex top, with individual pocketed springs. It was really comfortable at the showroom, and he immediately placed an order for it. Silly him, should have bargained first, no thanks to excitement. Was also looking at the Lady Americana Chanity series, but ended up opting for this, as the latex top felt softer.

Mattress left in the living room.

Strummed his out-of-tune guitar, and hurt his delicate fingers. Hmm. How long hasn't he fondled her.

Sinking in and enjoying the air-con.

Workers came by with the corrected wooden legs, but something feels wrong about the installation of the legs. Took a picture to consult Melvin.

4 legs on one segment, 6 on another? Feels wrong.

Fixed, but he did not put the mattress on yet. Not until he gets clarification from Melvin.

All fixed up, or is it?

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Bedframe and shoe-rack done

Dropped by S&C Furniture Dynamic, and purchased his divan and shoe rack.

Was mulling between cream, mocha or white for the divan. Cream out as the walls were also cream, mocha was perceived to be stain-resistant, white was nice, but might yellow in the long run.

Guess which he chose in the end?

White.

They didn't have wood finishes for the shoe rack, it was only gloss white or black. Ended up getting white again.

Spent a total of $900 today.

Was recommended this extendable dining table. Looks quite good, and was quoted $1,500. Need to think a little more about it though.

Prefers a lighter color. But this looks good anyway.

Oh, and he just purchased a doob Plopsta bean bag online. http://www.getdoob.com/plopsta.html

Spent about $3,000 just this weekend. Gotta "eat grass" already.

Discovery while cleaning

10 August

Went to City Square Mall to visit Picket and Rail, but the colors on the dining tables were a tad too dark. Went next door to V.Hive and saw a nice TV console, and mix of white gloss and wood-grain. That was only available in 120cm length though. Had a quick meal at Long John Silver before heading to the flat.

Cleaned out the wardrobe, and found out that several panels were not level. While dusting the place, the duster got hooked on top of one of the doors. Touching the surface felt rough, so he decided to climb up and check.

Disappointment. Just what did he pay for? Called up David of Bonzon 2000 Design and Contract, but David was rude and loud. He claimed that this was expected, and nobody had ever complained except for him. Checked the top of the other room door, and it was well finished, unlike this one. Explained to David that he only got to check because the duster got caught, but David challenged him and asked if he wanted reimbursement for the duster. Such irresponsibility. It's clearly a problem with the door, not the duster.

Seriously thinking of consolidating the defects and emailing RADAC. Totally no integrity. First of all, the wrong doors were installed, and yet David kept quiet (he said he would let it slip by if not discovered). He did offer a discount on the doors if he would keep them, and that offer was taken up. Never expected it to be such shoddy work.


Unfinished surface

More unfinished surface

Much as he was agitated, but work still has to be done. Touched up the paint on the chips on the walls, the cracks at the skirting. Cleaned out the refrigerator and washed some of the panels. Some were smeared with too much glue.

Also fixed up some door buffers to curb doors with tendencies to smash into the walls. Bought this from Nippon Home at Buangkok.

Stick-ons instead of screw-ons

This was affixed onto the wall adjacent to the kitchen cabinet door. Fixed another one on one of the cabinets to prevent them from slamming into each other. And the last one on the wall of the main door, with the location marked clearly by Dad, having grounded a depression into the wall the other time.

Stuck on the wall, hope it lasts

And beautiful skies to ease unpleasant emotions away.

XPERIA SP colors turn out weird



Saturday, August 10, 2013

Snowballed updates

3 and 4 Aug was drilling day. Dad brought his hammer drill to help with the installation of bathroom accessories. It was really a tough job, and he should have just gotten the contractor to do it. Nevertheless, it was a good father and son bonding session. Fixed up the bathroom accessories and the air-con remote control holders.

Sketching on paper the outline and position of the drill hole. This would ensure greater accuracy for drilling. Many thanks to Google.

Sketches

Done up the master bath. Weird layout, many thanks to HDB. He considered himself lucky, some neighbours had the basic right underneath the window, how would you place your mirror then?

Master bathroom

Slightly better layout at the common bathroom.

Common bathroom

And the weak Li-on screwdriver bit from IKEA. Instead of screwing, it got screwed.

Screwdriver that got screwed

Also, bought the adaptor to fix up the inlet for the washer. Had to screw the 4 screws onto the metal part just above the black rubber washer.

Adapted hose from the value store

The tap without screw threads, hence can't be used with the conventional hose/pipe.

New concept pipe, introducing incompatibility

 8 Aug was Hari Raya Puasa, and 9 Aug was National Day.

On 8 Aug, met up with a colleague to visit Tilam King, and got their Luxury series. Was looking for mattress with latex top, and was very tempted by Serta and Dunlopillo. The price points were a little on the high side though, hence he decided to look around a bit more. Then he saw Tilam King on one of the Facebook ads. Click in, read up a little, and decided to try the real thing for himself.

The latex is apparently manufactured using the Dunlop process, but it somehow felt more plush than the Dunlopillo Acquario he was eyeing. The pocketed springs were also from Leggett and Platt, if it matters to you.

Paid $1799 for a king-size mattress, and another $50 for 2x pocketed spring latex pillows. A mattress protected was also thrown in. No extra charges for moving the mattress up the stairs.

His colleague got the last piece of Friven co-branded mattress and a bed-frame.

On 9 Aug, he had to purchase a new set of spectacles. The leg of his current one snapped the previous night, and he's blind as a rat without them. And they were bought just Dec'12.

Handicapped spectacles

Called the optical shop was informed that he had to wait for several days before it could be ready. He then decided to go to the town centre, and was pleasantly surprised when they could provide the spectacles in just 30-minutes. Got some TEK-ZIORA spectacles, the one in yellow. Paid $180 for that. Also, glad that his power did not increase. While waiting, he went window-shopping at Defu Furniture and Summer Homes (very little display), with bed-frames and dining tables in mind.

After regaining his eyesight, he met up with a friend at Tan Boon Liat Building, a place where furniture shops congregate. Some were not open on this public holiday.

Christine from Mountain Teak was very friendly and patient. They're located on #7 if he remembers correctly.
Nice teak table from Mountain Teak. Should be nicer if some cushion/fabric were slapped onto the seats and their backing? Hmm.

And a nice view across.


Broccoli

Got to feel the difference between rubberwood and teak, and also the build quality from different shops. Need to re-do the budget.


Saturday, August 3, 2013

Updates

IKEA makes you want to spend. And there's also GIANT just opposite.

Today, he bought the tool set and the screwdriver set, for the mallet and ease of driving the screw into the walls.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Samsung RT32 refrigerator and Samsung WF1804 washer were delivered. He had bought from Ever Joint as he found Richard a responsible merchant. Previously, the oil tray was found missing from his Fujioh FX900. Called the distributor but they wanted him to pick it up himself and pay $15 for the plastic oil tray. Fed back to Richard and he promised to help delivery the oil tray free of charge. And he did. Another problem cropped up though, the washer's inlet tube did not fit and he would need to separately get a special tube.


The 5-step aluminum ladder also arrived, $60. The delivery man also offered to take measurements of his store and suggested getting a 54" rack for $120. Told him that he would consider.

On the way home, he stopped by AMK Hub to purchase a $39.90 SONA bagless handheld vaccuum cleaner.

Zip back to the previous week. Bought a broom set from Japan Home for $5.90, but was so disappointed that it couldn't sweep things up properly. Headed to IKEA next and got a set of 3 scissors for just $1.90. Littlest Bro wanted to visit GIANT and so there they went. Walked until both the Mom and Littlest Bro were tired. Bought the spinning mop for $19.99, a bundle of 24pcs clothes hangers for $4.99 for the laundry yard. The mop spins in the water to rinse, and then spins in the drainer to reduce excess water. Cool stuff. It wasn't too nice to mop with though, the "hair" didn't feel thick enough.


Also saw this dining table set which he quite liked. Appeared solidly built, but he's still thinking of getting a solid wood dining table. Maybe this from Picket and Rail. Or maybe a Scanteak. But the the extendable BJURSTA also looks like a more flexible option. Hmm.


Oh, and did he say the lights were up?