Colours, colours, colours...

The first coat of paint is up and the smell of paint actually made me high when I was there. There are many different kind of paints but most ID use ICI Dulux (I think). Within ICI Dulux there are Pentalite, All-in-one, 3-in-1, Wash and Wear, Weathershield.

I start with the simple one, Weathershield. More durable against harsh weather (rain, sun then rain again) so should be used in the service yard.

ID usually favour Pentalite. The advantage of this is that it is matte in colour and do not show much of the wave effect if your wall is not straight (meaning lousy workmanship for the wall causing uneven surface). If a small area of the wall is dirty (like the area under a light switch which tends to be darker due to constant usage), you can just paint over that small area and it will blend in with the rest of the wall (meaning no need to repaint the whole wall).

But the disadvantage is that it difficult to wipe it.

Wash and Wear on the other hand enable you to just wipe off dirt and stains. However it has a shiny finish so any uneven walls will be very obvious.

Dulux 3-in-1 and All-in-One are better range of paints as they can do things like cover hairline cracks, have anti-bacteria formular and are washable.

But I believe in choosing the colour then choosing the kind of paints. What is the point of chossing a better range of paints when they do not have the colour you want?

Anyway I better show you guys some pictures; someone said my blog is too wordy...

This would be the wall where the sofa will be. The air-con will be in the middle of the wall. We are using Pentalite Misty on the wall. Its abit of a off-white earth tone colour.






This is the enlarged entrance of the kitchen. There will be a fixed glass panel on the left and a swing glass door on the right, swinging towards to wall.







We will be placing a day curtain to save as the divider between the two rooms in the enlarged master bedroom. We had initially wanted to use the "oh-so-sexy" string curtain as the divider but they are not as effective in blocking the air-con. We are using Dulux All-in-One Lavender Mist for the master bedroom.




This is the partition we build up for the wardrobe. The dark corner on the left will be where my workstation be.







This is the future kid's room. We wanted something bright and unisex and It turn out pretty well.

Lights out!

We finally finish buying the lights for our home. Only have pictures of a few of them as we forgot to take the ones we bought the first visit and only manage to snap them on our second shopping. Total bought from two shops, Eurostar and Light Zone.

Eurostar was introduced to us by our ID. We didn't really see much that we fancy so we ended up buying only the basic lights from them, namely tracklite for the living room, down lights for living and dining, florescent lights for rooms for cove light effect, and two "Milo Tins" for toilets.

What the @#$%*& are Milo Tins? Well they are those lights inside a tin or big pipe. Here is a picture of it.

The second shop Light Zone actually said that we should not use Milk Tins for toilet as the bulb is exposed and in toilet where steam and water vapors are always present, it tends to shorten the lifespan of the bulb. Why didn't anyone tell me earlier? Haiz... too bad, those with cover are like twice as expensive so guess we just use it for now.

We actually got a small chandelier for the dining area but did not take a picture of it. Neither did we get a picture of the kitchen light. Its a big ceiling light with three florescent tubes. We not not sure if those with only two tubes would be bright enough so we got on with three tubes. If three is too bright we just take out one tube then...

We also got this cracked glass light for the passage way. Since it is a small enclosed area, the effect cast on the wall should be quite nice.

We are also using a "clinic" like light for the service yard.

More on lights when they are mounted.

Kartell Fever

I think both my wife and I got the Kartell Fever. This has got nothing to do with the Haze from our friendly Indonesia, or the El Nino the world is expecting next year, or the seasonal flu and cold bug everyone is spreading to each other during the "winter" period of Singapore.

Both if us are just crazy over those clear plastic offerings from Kartell. We were initially looking for a dining chair that looks very similar to the Kartell Ero_s. But we found the price to be on the high side.

As we were planning to place a crystal chandelier for our dining light, I thought the Kartell Louis Ghost Chair would go very well with it. My wife never like that idea as she feels that chair is too expensive.

But we manage to find this place (call Space) that is giving 30% of the retail price for a limited period of time. After testing the comfort of these plastic chair, and hearing that the price was not as expensive as we thought, we settled for two of these babies.

Down came the walls!!

Renovation has finally started and going well. First day was the hacking of the walls. Warning to others who are going down during hacking, it bloody noisy and dusty and BORING!!! The repeated noise drove me nuts! Now I know why they have to pay these workers more money...

This is the picture of the hacked kitchen entrance. I will have a glass wall on the right and a swing glass door on the left. In front of the kitchen is the dining area.

We gave up the idea of getting a sofa from Massimmo and settle for a more budget Lush "Zen" 3 seater sofa. No picture to show as Lush also do not have it on their website. Dunno if this means its very new or very old... haha...

Have got most of my lights too, from both Eurostar and Light Zone. Still short of two lights though, the kitchen and the foyer. This weekend need to complete the shopping for these. On the shopping list is also heaters (which we will probably get instant ones), bathroom accessories, and curtains...

Reservist is not a vacation!

I just finish my reservist last week. It was not an easy 10 days, in fact quite stress as we were being assessed on how well we do our stuff through test.

It was a stay-in reservist and I only got to book out on the weekends. The camp is bloody far (the very edge of Tuas) and I live in the East. No aircon, no heater, no wives, still lousy food! But the funny thing is when I went back office, everyone was like "So how, reservist relac right? Sit in bunk, play cards, drink cheap beer only right?"

Play cards my foot, I had to go forest bashing, feed mosquitoes, and I got all wet to my chest level one hour into the mission. Needless to say I was in my new life low. The public perception of reservist as a official government paid vocation mentality is not helping make life easier.

Having sat on my office chair for most of my waking hours did not help as I finish my reservist with aches all over, three big blue blacks and heat rashes all over my body. Boy am I "looking forward" to next years reservist.

Thanks for listening to my bitching....