An ongoing journey

The worst may be over but still must keep tabs

Saturday, October 25, 2014

After two months, I must say I most look forward to this ... the Hansgrohe rainshower! Made in Germany. I first had a feel of a rainshower at the Fairmont hotel. After that, I know that I MUST have it in my next home.

Raindance S240

Comes with a thermostatic bath mixer.

Pura Vida basin mixer. Nice! Made in Germany.

Grohe accessories. German brand but I think it's made in China now.

What other German brands do we have? I drive a VW ... although I cannot speak for the quality of the 7-speed DSG ...

Our baby bottles are NUK, a German brand too.

Moving Along Nicely

Monday, September 29, 2014

Renovation is tough work - Part 7

Many hours were spent comparing prices, deciding on the dimensions ... even for accessories like a towel bar, towel hook or a shower basket.

After some browsing, I decided to go for these from Amazon and its resellers.

Grohe 40 364 robe hook - US$21.45 from Amazon

Grohe 40 462 Essentials 24" Multi-Towel Rack - US$85.56 from www.faucetdirect.com.

Grohe 40 507 Essentials Cube Tissue Holder - US$63.67 from www.faucetdirect.com.

Grohe 40511000 Essentials Cube Robe hook - US$44.28 from Amazon

Grohe 40 689 Concetto Single-Post Tissue Holder - US$29.7 from www.faucetdirect.com

Friday, September 26, 2014

Renovation is tough work - Part 5

We bought lights from OSK Lighting at Eunos. I would expect that we are paying higher because our id bought us there. My wallet was lighter about $3,100.

They also have a bathroom section. However, their bathroom accessories prices were a bit too high for me to stomach.

So the search continue and it brought me to Jalan Besar. I dropped by Poh Seng, Royal Franco and GR Link Marketing. All these three shops have a limited display space but the owners were all quite friendly and forthcoming with their advice and opinions. In the end, I selected GR Link and went down the next day with CP. After all, CP has to like the stuff as well.

I think in all, I probably visited these shops 10 times, some with repeated visits. I'm glad because I saved about $900 compared to some shops at Balestier ... However, if you are a high-pay earner, I guess you have to equate if the time spent on these visits are worth the $900 savings, afterall, considering the rate per working hour, time is money ....

This shows that my pay is low, yah? :(

Items bought:

1. WC Baron 888 with basin at $390.
This is one of the most popular now because it comes with Gerberit flushing system and a 10-yr warranty. I actually used a Baron 9 yrs ago and didn't know that it would rise up to be a leading brand in SG.

2. Joven Storage heater 25L at $230. Seems quite alright, a UK brand. I had some relatives using this.

3. Ariston FK62 CXS oven at $899. Ariston had removed the pizza function from their entry models, e.g. FH52... forcing those who need the pizza function to get the higher-end models. They also did away with the rotisserie function, which probably wasn't that useful after all.

Specs:

End of Cooking Timer
Catalytic Cleaning
Integrated Ventilation System
End Of Cooking Timer
120min Auto Cut-off Timer
Glass Inner Door
Double Glazed Door
Internal Light
Anti-Fingerprint Stainless Steel
Embossed guides
2 Grids, 1 Tray
6 standard programmes:

.Multilevel
.Barbecue
.Gratin (Fan Grill)
.Pizza
.Pastries
.Traditional

4. Fujioh hood FX900. This is one of the most popular because it's suction power is good and it doesn't use charcoal filter, so no regular replacement needed.

5. Fujioh FG 773 SGVL hob. Cost us $750 together with the hood. We found a seller online retailing this for $720 but decided to go with a single shop. We chose the white glass top for this. I quite like glass. I had a hard time cleaning the water stains off the stainless steel hob I had used before.

Other misc stuff like mirror, washer taps, bidets eventually brought up the costs to about $3,200. Renovation is certainly not cheap.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Renovation is tough work - Part 4

After further research on Amazon, prices from other websites, I decided to buy locally. I guess the benefits would be fast delivery, local servicing and proven compatibility. Faucets bought from US would need a thread adapter to connect to our local pipes.

or me, Grohe or Hansgrohe for the bathroom would be good either way. Hansgrohe had most of their products still made in Germany. Grohe outsourced quite a number of their products to Thailand. That's for the BauLoop and BauEdge range of products.

The deal clincher was that this shop, Home and Bathroom in Balestier. It's along the row of shops where Hafary is located. It carried a extensive Hansgrohe range and the rainshower was going at a good discount, at $1,057!

Also bought another shower set (include mixer, shower pipe, basin mixer) for $373 and kitchen sink mixer for $243 from Hansgrohe.

Related Posts:
Renovation is tough work - Part 3