Lighting for our home!

Before service yesterday, we went to Jalan Besar to hunt for lights since our IDs asked of us to have them ready for renovation. We narrowed down to a few that we fancied and since we had to make a dash for service, we KIV-ed those we short-listed. 

Today, I woke up with yet another cough. Probably the virus from what I had earlier this week. I had to give a birthday party a miss as kids were present. I had some rest and headed down to Jalan Besar to do more search. The ones recommended yesterday were kinda boring to me. I didn't like them completely. 

They were boring like these.

So I went hunting. After an entire afternoon of work in the hot sweltering sun, I have all our lights settled.

In my first shop, I chose this beautiful light for my corridor! One of the daintier pieces! (: The uncle gave me a really good price for this and the kitchen light I chose! 

I didn't fancy the boring round lights for the kitchen we chose yesterday and fell in love with this instead. The crystals are so pretty and I can play around with the lights. One flick of the switch gives me all white light, another flick gives me pretty crystal warm light and another flick gives me a combination of the two!

In the other shop I made my purchases, I got these.

This black and gold lamp for the middle of our bedroom.

This black framed energy-saving light bulb ceiling lamp for the study.

A simple small and flat light for our service yard where my washing machine and fridge are.

We also got down lights but as they were costlier, we managed to get cheaper ones through our IDs.

This black frame lamp is similar to the one in the study and we're gonna use it for our toilet.

And the hubby's pick for our dining hall! (: I also got us some T5 lighting tubes for our cove lights and for my kitchen to be placed above my back splash. 

It sure was tiring shopping for lights. And this is just the beginning! There's still the toilet bowl and furniture... 

Anyway, I was done about 6pm so I decided to head down to Bras Basah to grab some books from the book sale. It was Buy-One-Get-One-Free! 

I got 28 books as rewards for my kids, 2 Dan Brown novels for the hubby and 2 cookbooks for myself. 

I really love books and reading. Hopefully I'll be able to encourage my kids to learn to appreciate reading!

I printed mini reward cards to be stuck into their books. (: Can't wait to distribute them! 

And speaking of books.. I just got 65 books from Noq using the Groupon promotion! Information books for my kids next term, some cookbooks, a novel and some books from The Magic School Bus series! I just can't wait for them to arrive!

So as the week comes to an end.. I'm looking forward to Friday. It'll be the last day of school this term! I'll be having a full day PTC on Thursday, something I'm thankful for as opposed to after school or 'meet parents at your own time' PTCs. Next week we'll have having a staff retreat followed by First Aid Course which I'm really excited about! It's an essential skill I feel that everyone should be equipped with. And of course.. Hong Kong next Friday night. 

I just can't wait! (: 

Of many rectifications...

After loads of thoughts, I think we have my final colour scheme for the kitchen decided. This isn't the final draft though.. the fridge will be in the service yard rather than in that corner of the kitchen. Images are misleading. My kitchen is much shorter and cramper than this. Still awaiting the next draft of 3D drawings to finalise everything before we start work.

Here's a small video tour of our new place!

Post by Cynthia Lim.

Anyway, I was in a huge dilemma choosing the colours for our kitchen. 

Glad that we have finally decided on one. Picking the right colour combo was really tough.

Anyway, we collected the keys to our place on the 6th, hopeful that we could start renovation before we leave for HK... however, the list of defects was really long.. and they took a rather long time rectifying it.

The 2 guys working on our unit are amazing. They really put in their best in the rectification work. However, HDB s*cks. Our floor tiles were the part of the house that troubled us a lot. 

THEY WERE UNEVEN. 

Across our living hall, dining hall, kitchen, master bed room and guest room. The tiles were UNEVEN. We did even consider closing one eye and let the matter pass. But come to think of it, we paid 5k for it. Why should we accept sub-standard flooring? 

The worse part was probably the possibility that it may one day pop or explode like the stories that I have head, destroying the carpentry work that we are going to spend so much on. That really isn't a fear I want to live with. 

The 2 workers made a lot of rectification. They painted our walls. Scrubbed our floors. Re-grouted the flooring, mended holes in the wall, re-grouted our skirting and the list goes on. Let me share some photos of our defects with you, bearing in mind that we're merely a 3 room unit. The amount of defects was kinda alarming.

Loads of uneven painting.

And it was really a lot.

We wanted to write down the defects but after sticking so many pieces of masking tape, I gave up. We merely stuck them all over where there were defects. 

We even had a window frame that wasn't levelled like the rest. "It's safe one la!" said the site supervisor. "It's pre-fab so there's nothing we can do" he added. Seriously HDB? 

Uneven tiles in the MBR. More that we realised at a later stage. ALL IN OUR ONLY WALKING PATH. It was getting pretty annoying that most of the unevenness in tiles were in our planned walking space. 

We even had areas in our 2nd bedroom where water would collect. One part was raised and the other was concave. 

Dining Hall wall.

Pretty glad that we have a good view in our hall though.

Living up to the name Tampines Greenleaf (:

We have been then burning our Saturdays at our unit, waiting for rectifications to be done in the room we locked up on weekdays. In about 2 weeks, most of the rectification work was done. The 2 guys even painted our bomb shelter to make it look so much better! 

Here's how our kitchen tiles looked like when they did their regrouting. It dawned on me that if you apply grout between 2 tiles and scrape with a flat scraper, you'd be able to remove most of the grout no? That's how uneven our tiles were ): And it was for almost the entire unit.

The site sup and the HDB rep came to assess our flooring and were only agreeable to change 6 extremely uneven tiles in our kitchen. The tiles weren't even side by side. In addition, we had to 'accept' whatever colour difference there may be. 

We did agree to it but forgot to sign the document at the Building Service Centre (BSC) last Saturday. Upon pondering, it didn't make much sense to me that I have to accept the possible colour difference when they were the ones to screw up.

Well, since they didn't want to change all the tiles in the unit despite many instances of unevenness which in my opinion could make someone fall (especially kids), we wrote an email on Sunday night. We sent it to MP Baey to address the issue for us. He had been invited into our BTO's facebook group to assist us. We cc-ed several other people as well. 

Monday, no news.

Tuesday, BSC called me to make and appointment for the HDB personnel and several other higher management to visit our unit for an assessment. 

Verdict? They will replace the 6 tiles along with 6 other tiles in the area for a more uniformed look. Now, my kitchen tiles will have 3 shades of colour. How wonderful. 

Some days, I wish we had been wiser to not opt in for the tiles and doors. The quality of floor tiles and workmanship they have provided leaves me to wonder if it was really worth all my time, effort and money. In any case, we're now waiting for the tiles to be properly replaced... and for them to hand our padlock keys back to us. And since we're heading to HK soon, we will start renovation only when we return. It's all getting pretty exciting from here! 

Mango Passionfruit Tofu Cheesecake

Amidst the busy exam markings for SA1, it was time to celebrate dearest Xiao Ping's birthday! As busy and worn out as I was, how could I give up baking something for this dear friend of mine? 

I had intended to bake a cheesecake since last week but was lacking in motivation.. Decided to do the passionfruit cheesecake for her... but she mentioned something bout "I don't mind mango or chocolate!"

So I decided to fuse the 2 fruits together. I am pretty glad that the birthday girl loved the cake.. and so did my colleagues! (: And this time round, I'm returning to my roots. I'm back with a step-by-step photograph tutorial. How do you like it? (:

Here's some of the ingredients I used...

This cake will take about 1.5 hours in all to 'bake' and I'll rate it a 3 of out 5 for difficulty. 

Things to bring for checking a new BTO flat

Today, we made a trip up to our place.

We SCRUBBED the place hard.

Our IDs are coming down tomorrow to help us do a check of the defects before we submit the defects list. There's truly plenty though some we can pretty much close one eye and be not so anal about. But some of them really needs rectification. Anyway, yesterday, my dad asked us to clean the floors first so that we can see the defects on the floor. However, we did not have our mops etc so we didn't have it clean. Another friend persuaded us to do so later in the evening so we made a trip down today to clean the unit. 

I have never poured a whole bucket of water onto the floor until today. It was so much hard work and I ended up with blisters on my palms. But it felt really good seeing how our floor is rather clean. 

And since we're at it... here's a list of what we brought and when checking for defects in the house. This is good for those who are about to check their newly purchased BTO flat. My guide includes the check for floor tiles if you opted for it.

1) A fan or two. You'd really appreciate this, trust me.

2) Stools to rest.

3) A small table to rest your belongings

4) Iced drinks (Okay, maybe it's really my fancy)

5) Measuring Tape

6) Markers

7) Masking tape for identifying defects

8) A broom for dry cleaning

9) A broom with plastic bristles for scrubbing the floor when wet

10) Floor cleaner

11) A mop to clean the floor to better check the defects on the floor

12) A pail for containing water

13) Marbles/coins for checking the hollowness of tiles

14) Torchlight for checking the darker corners of the house

15) Paper for checking the skirting (if any)

 [If your paper can go between the ground and the skirting, it's not well grouted]

16) Sponge for scrubbing stains

17) A cleaner like CIF for scrubbing stains

18) Toilet paper/tissue paper for wiping stains

19) Photocopies of your floor plan for taking measurements

20) A padlock/number lock to lock your unit. 

(NEVER give anyone access to your gates and doors. Use only a padlock or number lock)

21) Camera to record defects

22) Scraper to scrape off dry paint

23) Garbage bags for trash

24) Any form of charger/plugs that can show you that a power point is working. We used one of those multi-purpose plugs with light.

So here's the list of stuff we brought to check for the unit..

Next up, I'll do an update on the things to look out for when checking! (: 

So blue.

Today, we collected the keys to our place. 

Merry were we! There were so many documents to sign and so many things to do before they keys were officially ours. 

I then rushed back to school as I could only take time-off to collect my keys... I taught my 5 periods of lessons and rushed over to our new place to check out our unit.

Here are some pics my MIL managed to take cos' I was too lazy to do so.

IT WAS SMALL. 

Okay, I know it was gonna be small. I really do. 

But the extent to which the kitchen was small kinda crushed me. 

I doubt I'll be able to do what I want and need in the kitchen. ):

Anyway, we did our tour of the place and checked the place for defects. We were blessed to have the company of our parents to check out our place with us, We had quite a number of defects... but we've yet to report it to the BSC Centre as we'll only do so after our IDs check it for us on Thursday. 

Now, my nose is so uncomfy. I knew it'd be dusty and so we brought masks.. even our N95 (my nose can really act up)... but I didn't feel uncomfortable then so I didn't put it on. Now, my nose is giving me a really bad time ): It doesn't help it when I'm kinda upset over my class. Some days, I know I've really done my best. I really have. But when the kids do not have the family support nor the right motivation, there is only so much I can do. ): 

SUPER EXCITED! We're collecting our keys tomorrow!

Tonight, I probably won't be able to fall asleep. 

After 3 years of wait, we're finally collecting the keys to our unit tomorrow morning.

It's truly all God's blessings. 

From very slow and humble beginnings...

To the tall block of beautiful green flats...

This is gonna be the place we call home. I can't wait to collect the keys tomorrow and check out our unit! There's this fear of plentiful defects cos' the first block who collected their keys had between 50 - 100 defects per unit! Sometime deep within me is scared of the same plight. But yet, something within me also tells me that God is in control and that our unit will be good. 

It just will be.

So I'm so excited! And I shall spend my night doing more taobao shopping for the home! (: 

Draft 2 drawings... and we're collecting our keys soon!

It's been 1+ week since we've gotten our 2nd draft for 3D.. I've been really busy with preparing my kids for examinations. All 25 of them. So much so that I haven't really even taken a closer look at our 3D drawings that Lionel and Richie sent to us. 

Now that we've got a better idea of what we want, we're on lesser of a wild goose chase. Let me share the images with you! 

I thought our kitchen was too bright with all the orange.. we decided to tone it down a little with a little more black.. However, looking at it, it looks really really dark. It doesn't help that we have the service yard to 'block' the sunlight from the back... I'm still playing around with the colours for the kitchen I suppose.. But I'm really happy with the maximised space Lionel and Richie have managed to play around with... 

The hubby was really inspired by the white/black/wood frame look. What Lionel and Richie came up with actually looks really good to me. I wonder what the hubby thinks though... 

And I always believe that things hidden in cupboards are more often than not messy. I decided to have more open shelves both on the left and on the right.. and I'm pretty sure I will have enough toys and books to place on display! 

For the toilet, we wanted it to match the rest of the house so the guys did something simple in white and black for us.. 

The entire process now is kinda slow as we're waiting to collect the keys to our unit... 

And it is super surreal cos' in a couple of day's time, we're FINALLY collecting the keys to our unit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just last Sunday, I made the hubby sneak into the block with me. As I stood outside our unit, I was flooded with emotions. Maybe I'm just really blessed. Maybe I'm just truly grateful that our unit is almost ours... and it's a place we can call our own. 

6 May quick come, I can't wait to collect the keys to our unit! (: 

Strawberry Jelly Hearts

Strawberry Jelly Hearts. This has been so highly requested since I've been playing with cheesecakes a lot of late. I've decided to give the recipe from Story of Bing a try but I've made quite a number of modifications to suit what I feel works best based on the cheesecakes I've made so far..

The recipe is about 3 out of 5 in terms of difficulty and it takes about 2 hours in all to complete. Please do follow the steps exactly as any changes may result in an unsuccessful attempt of the recipe.