Painting the house is something that I’ve always procrastinated. Every year comes nearing CNY I always thought of refreshing the house but when I think of the hassle of painting the house while living inside makes me hesitant. 一年过一年 I would always tell hubby “before next year” 🤭 拖了拖，没办法也应该翻新了。Supposed to do it after the renovation, but I wanted a break coz 老娘 cannot take it. 一讲到 break, I took 6 months to catch my breath back 🤣. 2024 - 我们也住了九年、真的不能拖了。
Dec
Got quotation from a company who quoted me $3850 which is ridiculously expensive. I know market rate should be $2K or slightly more. At the same time I asked for a quotation on exhaust fan installation which costs $480, $350 for a new chute. The final amount came up to $4505. Crazy! We don’t print money. Service from them was rather slow too, I had to keep chasing them for quotation, as if they didn’t need my business. This is a middleman company, the one that says "I have workers in all areas" but in reality they sub-contract work out which means I’ll have to pay extra $$. I really didn’t give them the business.
11th Dec
Approached Raffles and one other company. Raffles gave a general quotation. The most expensive package was also less than $2K + the wash and etc.. it'll probably be only $2400+. The other didn't reply and even until now - in Jan I never heard from that company.
13th Dec
KL, a sales rep, came down and final summary was given few hours later. How I love technology (WhatsApp) for making everything so quick now.
$1600 - paint whole house using R One (whatever that is)
$150 - fungus wash on living ceiling, toilets and balcony area
$150 - scrap and patch up
$100 - balcony paint upgrade to exterior paint. I didn't need to do this as the condo painters did the job for us.
In total $1900. See the huge difference from the middleman company? That's a saving of $1950!
14th Dec
Confirmed job
16th Dec
Cheque was issued and sent out. KL ran out of colour chart when he came by the day before so he had to send it out to me.
21st Dec
It’s strange that I didn’t receive the paint chart in the mailbox, but it was nice of them to check with me. They haven’t received my cheque too! 😲
They sent a man at night to deliver the chart to me.
22nd Dec
Finally received the chart in the mailbox. It’s really strange that our efficient postal services is so slow in their delivery time. It’s still much better than the erratic postal services in UK (where a friend received our letter 7 months later!!)
23rd Dec
Che-che made her room colour selection and I furnished the details to KL.
I just realised that lil’ one’s room has a feature wall colour, I believe it was the same for che-che’s room. Previously it was hubby who made the selection, I have no idea what were the colour codes, not sure what brand paint coz we were not given any extra paint/s at all.
Asked where they will paint first so I can remove items. 3 bedrooms on first day and the rest on second day. This works well so I can move over the loose items from the rest of the house into the non occupied che-che's room.
Colours selected :
Living/ Dining - Beige Grey (RP46-2)
Che-che's room - Quarry Pebble (RP52-2)
Lil' one's room - Sugar Pink (RP6-5)
Master room - Mountain Haze (RP44-2)
Che-che started removing the buttocks and neh-neh paintings and her cutie photo collages from the wall, cleared the books on the shelf after we got back from Taiwan. We don't have many loose items in our master room and they're all easy to remove as they're all organized into boxes. I can't comment much about that lil' one's 'always-so-messy study table'. Honestly don't know what's wrong with her for the last 4 years, she's been more messy than before and never seem to keep her room clean and neat.
16th Jan
SOS dad to ask him where he screwed che-che's ikea shelf. There's just so many holes in the two sticks by the side.
17th Jan
Haiyoh! All I needed to do was to just lift up and out. Feel so dumb to make that call to dad. Che-che has to help me pull the left side while I did on the right side. I left it propped on the wall with the study table supporting it. Left it there until the day before the painting then I'll move it out.
20th Jan (Sat)
Che-che removed the white boards in both rooms
I totally forgot about the height chart behind lil’ one’s door.
DAY 01 - 22nd Jan
Really excited. Finally after coming to 9 years we're getting a fresh coat of paint in time for CNY. And this will last us for the next 9-10years or hopefully longer. I don't think lao-niang have the energy to do all these heavy job.
Vacumned the house in the morning, struggled to open the door from our walk-in to the balcony aka yard area. (Really stupid floorplan, that's our master bedroom's balcony but not like we have anything nice to look out to. Even if Grandmaster Tan didn't suggest to us to keep the door closed, I would have done so too as I can convert the whole area behind as yard area.)
Something hilarious - I'm just not used to the door in our walk-in being opened that when I needed to gain access to the vacumn cleaner to clean the bathroom floor, I walked one big round to the kitchen and then to the yard area. Likewise when I needed to go back to my room to move things out, I made one huge walk to the room via the kitchen. 🤣🤣
I've moved and removed whatever I can, trying hard not to use too much strength on my left hand.
If only lil' one's room can be as neat as this always.
Our mess outside. Che-che's shelf is now supported by the organ. Our study table is along the corridor. The few boxes from our room and walk-in. And not forgetting the curtains! Hubby helped in removing the curtains.
Painters came around 10.25am. It's HBL day for lil' one so if they had to study or work they had to do it in the living area. I spent my time confined to the sofa just like the mini reno last June. The only difference is that the whole place is much neater compared to before, I didn't need my airfryer to heat my food.
Covered the areas that need to be painted. They changed their plan and decided to only paint master room, 2 toilets and kitchen. So lil' one went back to her room for HBL. Hubby couldn't work so he sat there watching TV while I dozed off many times on the sofa. I wanted to do my iMovie but was so distracted so didn't do much except editing 5 clips. Ha!
They are quite discipline, only took 35 mins for lunch. Hubby bought them lunch.
Our room colour, a lighter shade of purple which doesn’t show well in photo. Lil’ one likes this shade of purple better. This goes to show I have good taste 😜.
At around 4 plus, the two of them were wrapping up their work for the day. Reminded them on the dining area patchwork. They did the plastering at this area. Finally this whole part of the wall will look neat. It was left in the horrible state as the solid surface that came before was a huge piece of jutting out L-shaped slab. My god! Sack the designer who came up with the stupid solid surface design for the hundreds of units here.
They left at 6.30pm after telling me what are the items that need to be removed for next day’s work. 他不讲我也知道咯！The moment they left, I quickly hung up the master room’s curtains (which I had thrown into the WM in the morning) spreading it out on two poles each for the two pieces to dry faster and turn the heater on. I threw the girls' curtains into the ‘never-took-a-break’ washing machine
We left home not long after too to have our dinner. After we got back home, it was zhor-gang time.
Removed our bedsheet and threw into the dirty laundry bag. I will wash our bedsheet with lil’ one’s bedsheet once she removes them the next day. The laundry bag - is full! Really full! In it are 2 days of dirty clothes, towels (Sunday work) which I can’t wash now as I need the space for the two girls rooms curtains.
The heater is really good, by the time we got back the curtains were almost dry. So I continued to turn the heater on for another hour while spreading out the master room’s curtains on a drying rack below the mechanical rack. Don't waste the hot air.
Was multi-tasking with laundry and removing the loose items in the display unit (above pic) and cleaning them (the items and the shelving).
When I was satisfied with the master room curtains, I brought it to the room and hubby helped to hang up the curtain in master room and removed the living room curtain. Threw to wash the living room curtain while girls' room curtains are already drying on rack.
Photo taken at 12.05am which is technically on 23rd Jan 😜. Grilles and sliding doors all cleaned. All places that needs to be cleaned are cleaned today so I don’t have to do them tomorrow, I mean later in the evening today. Fans cleaned too! I’m just so proud of myself but I’m extremely tired.
I finally took my shower at 12.30am, tired and didn't want to move my tired body and legs. My arms are tired too but no screen time is more unbearable than the soreness. Before I slept, I went to the walk-in to get 3 pairs of disposable bedroom slippers and left it on my bedside. I just thought of something 🤔💭.
DAY 02 - 23rd Jan
Took a shower in the morning before they came by.
I thought they will paint the last portion of the walk-in first. Brought in plastic bags, gloves, cloth, antibacterial cleaner, Chlorox wipe into the room hoping that I can take the time while they’re painting outside to tidy up my walk-in. Turns out it will be the last. Oh well! Means I’ll have more privacy in the room.
Cleaned curtain was haphazardly thrown on the bed after removing from the clothes rack. My room looked like a burglar just ransacked it 😂.
I brought in my lunch (dried mee siam noodles), some bread, some snacks, my thermos bottle. With my laptop, I’m ready to edit my blog entries from 10.30am onwards.
9.10am : first guy came and started covering up lil’ one’s room
9.30am : finalised Grab order for the guy. I'm glad I checked with him if it's only him and his other colleague, was told there'll be 3 of them today. Make sense since there's going to be a lot of work done. Ordered for delivery 11 to 11.30am
Now sitting in my throne in living room, reminds me of the mini reno days. This time don't need my airfryer. House is messy but not as messy as before. No need to siam cabinets here and there in the house. Not much dust.
Not much loose items to remove after the guys came and tell me certain things they can just cover. Phew!
Rule #1 - never have too much clutter around the house which is always in progress in my house. Rule
#2 - throw away the kids because that's where most clutter come from.
9.50am : two other guys and start moving che-che’s room. I forgot to remind them about the patchwork in the living room area.
10.30am : thank goodness I have a clutter-free balcony, they moved my footstool, coffee table n telescope out there. I dunno where to go. 😂 Now banished into my room as most coverings are done. Since I have a clean room now, it’s time to bring out the disposable slipper!
Put on the disposable slipper while walking around the house. It's slippery, I almost fell a few times. The plastic has drips of paints on it so it keeps my feet clean. Step until here, remove one foot by one and step into the cleaned parquet room flooring
Not wanting any paint to drip on the slipper as they are painting the ceiling and all, I flipped the slipper to the clean side and put it in my room. When I'm stepping out, I'll just put it on the plastic covering and step out. Smart right?
Told hubby that he has to message me if he comes back with lil' one before paintwork is completed. I can bring out the slippers to them. Tho I totally forgot to bring lil' one's clean clothes into the room for her to change to after shower. Haha! Worst come to worst she'll use my baggy shirt and pass her a disposable panty for the time being. We will all hideout in the room. But still too soon to speak, I'm not sure how long more they will need.
10.45am : Grab came by with food. Left it in the kitchen for them. Their chicken briyani, Sarsi and water
They started painting. One guy worked on the yard area, while the other two worked on the two rooms on their own.
1.30pm - 2.10pm: They left for their lunch. This is late compared to the day before.
Took pics of my house while they were out. Lil’ one’s first 2 coats of light pink. Can see the subtle difference. Che-che’s room is untouched except for ceiling.
Put the hook back on all curtains and all folded neatly on the bed. All ready to be put back at the end of the day.
3pm : I’m so sleepy. I want to take a 😴. Took an interrupted nap but yah I think I did go into short deep sleeps.
I’m just so glad that hubby and lil’ one is not at home. They completed everything at around 5pm. Wow!
THE DAY AFTER - 24th Jan (Wed)
Love the subtle pink colour in lil’ one’s room
And che-che’s grey room looking so much better. Honestly speaking, I don’t like dark colours. Grey colour gives me the impression of some kind of elusiveness; doesn’t want to stand out. Maybe this colour really speaks of che-che’s personality. But ..ultimately it’s her room so we gave in to her choice of colour which is not in the permitted fengshui colour chart.
In the night, after looking at the translucent curtains and the thick blackout curtains still halfway cleaned, I decided not to put them back after wash. I like this, it makes my room look bigger. Not thinking too much about not having much privacy coz our windows are tinted (anyway).
Came across this. Looks interesting. Might be a better solution if one opts for no-curtains. Not sure how difficult/easy cleaning the teeny weeny louvres will be. We may not be able to fix something like this on the girls’ and living room sliding windows/doors.
This is interesting when I came across this chart while writing this blog entry.
How paint can change the room?
Taken from Trulia.com
I love cream, white colour but sadly cream is not on the list of our fengshui permitted colour
Goash! I can’t imagine the next repainting work many years later. By then I’ll be in my 50s or 60s, I will not have the energy to do this anymore. Maybe by then, I’ll be more crazy to declutter and start throwing every thing in the home - no more travels memorabilia.
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