Looking For This Sofa

Saw this sofa in a showflat at Grange road and we both like it very much. It's a three seater sofa spanning 2 metres. The heavy linen fabric provides a luxurious and yet heavy duty look. The cream fabric also compliments nicely with the dark wood flooring and white walls of the living room. The contrasting trimming with the upholstery accentuates the clean line design of the sofa. I especially like the single cushion spread which is so very "designer".

We're looking high and low for it at a furniture store in Singapore. We're also exploring the idea of getting it custom made. Anyone can help?

Challenge Accepted!

Renovation of the crib is due to commence anytime soon. We're in talks with an interior designer/ contractor, who was referred to us by a fellow investor, and if he comes onboard, we'll soon be fixing a date to start work.

The apartment is now 721 sqf of vacant space in original condition and very dirty. The paintwork is patchy and the pipes are rusty but the apartment is still in pretty good shape. A makeover is long overdue after going for 30 over years.

Now, is it possible that we do a makeover for the apartment and turn it into mint showflat condition using the lowest possible budget? As Barney Stinson would say, "Challenge Accepted!"

Living/ dining room with greenery view =P

Kitchen is excessively big and could use a little trimming. The cabinets have got to go.

The Master Bedroom. The biggest challenge is to come up with a design for the MBR toilet that has proper functional amenities of shower, bidet and basin in tight space.

15 July 开门大吉

Ong Lai, Huat Ah!....

We engaged the services of Chen, a Feng Shui master, for an analysis of our new home. So despite getting the keys on Monday last week, we held off visiting our new apartment until Friday, which according to Master Chen, was an auspicious date to enter our new home for the very first time.

We deliberated about getting a Feng Shui analysis for a while. One of the major concerns was that some geomancers can suggest big time layout changes and ridiculous structural changes to a house. For example, we heard rumours about a geomancer recommending his client to shift his toilet from his masterbedroom to the living room to improve his feng shui! It's probably impossible structurally and even if it were possible, the cost and effort to do it is too great. The prospect of having to undertake major and illegal structural renovation was enough to discourage us from Feng Shui. Not to mention also the high asking fees of some geomancers. Nevertheless, we remained interested but wary about Feng Shui.

Somewhere along, Master Chen, who hailed from Taiwan, came highly recommended by several sources. Our sources told us that 1) he doesn't recommend ridiculous renovation or rework; 2) he doesn't sell expensive Feng Shui boosting products; 3) his service fee is reasonable. We thought about it and gave him a call about his advice on our apartment's Feng Shui.

We met Master Chen for the first time at our new apartment last Friday. On his advice, we rolled a pineapple through the main door into the apartment. The pineapple in the Chinese Hokkien dialect is "Ong Lai". "Ong" by itself means "prosperity" and "Lai" means "to come". So getting a pineapple in symbollizes the prosperity that is to come for the new apartment and its occupants.

As Master Chen proceed with his analysis of our new place, we felt that the decision and timing to engage his services was right. He reported that the apartment has good feng shui. Small wonder we felt so good about the house and bought it very quickily upon first viewing. He then made various proposals in terms of layout and color changes to enhance our career, wealth and relationship. None were radical nor impedes the logical flow in the apartment layout and design. The only major change was in the kitchen and since we haven't begin our renovation, it was something that we can work on when we get our contractor onboard.

At the end of the session, we were instructed to "cleanse" the house with a mixture of rice, tea leaves and salt. We don't know the origin of this tradition but we read about other new home owners doing the same on RenoTalk forum. And we "believe" that salt is a powerful ward against evil from watching the American TV series, Supernatural. Anyway, it was fun throwing the rice-tea leaves-salt mixture all over the apartment.

Completion Date

Today, 11-7-2011 (July 11, 2011) marks the completion date for us. That means the property transfer to us in name is completed, making us the de facto owner of the property. Quite simply, we got the keys to our new home!

Woot! Our first property!

A thing about dates. The completion date, 11-07-2011, was a random occurence not of our choosing. After realizing it, we felt that it had a particular nice ring to it.

The day when we decided to make an offer for the apartment, 12-04-2011, was also coincidentally our block number, 124. Is this uncanny or what?!

We feel that we are off to a good start...!

But first we have to sort out a big bunch of keys passed to us by the seller.

Welcome To Our Crib

This blog documents our experience in the buying and renovation of our home.

Our future new home, a two bedroom apartment, is located in the north central part of Singapore.