I bought this set of Stainless steel cookware during the OG sales, at $129 only. This cookware is recommended by my babysitter, who has been using it. I've previously bought other brand of stainless steel cookware, but after using for sometime you'll find some rusty material at the edge of the cookware especially if you store water inside. I've confronted salesman for this as it was stainless steel cookware that I'm buying but how come it become rusty? The salesman replied saying Singapore water got steel inside, so is the water that rusty not the cookware (ha, funny). Anyway for this WMF cookware there's no such issue, I can feel the material is more solid than the previous stainless steel cookware I bought. Btw I'm not those particular about getting good cookware last time, I've used less than $20 pot for cooking previously. But now I find is necessary to get a set of cookware with good quality, at least a set you don't get to see rust around the pot :)

Description of the material of the cookware set:
Cromargan® 18/10 stainless steel - robust, unsusceptible to scratches and impacts and indestructible even if used intensively.

Bought this Blu-ray Player on the Harvey Norman Expo sales in August. I guess the price is about the same as other retail shops, which is $279 (Sony price at $299)with free HDMI cable, but the only additional stuff I got is the voucher which enable us to purchase 3 copies of selected bluray movie at $30. I can't remember all the titles in the list, only remember includes the Terminator 4, as I'm not a movie fans. This blu-ray player was purchased for my husband, who is a real fan for good quality movie (he's the one that'll not watch pirated CD) and who likes to keep a copy as his collection and watch and watch again. According to him, the voucher is very worth it, as each blu-ray cost about $49.90, so to him it was very cheap to get 3 at only $30.
After tested out the player, he's totally satisfied and amazed with the sharpness and quality of the blu-ray player, even our 32 inch LCD TV turn out to be very sharp after viewing using the HDMI cable. He made a remark like no need to purchase LED TV if have this blu-ray player, so see, it's a worth purchase and it pass his quality check :)
Picture:


For details info, pls visit sony website:
http://www.sony.com.sg/product/bdp-s370

My first washing machine is LG 6kg top load washing machine bought in 2004, after 6 years, it is still working fine now. But I find this 6kg a bit small, for 2 person's clothing, if we wash twice a week it'll be very full. Also, I do find top load washing machine can't really clean the clothes well, many times i found the clothes were spin left and right in the drum only, no wonder my husband keep complaining his clothes not clean even though I did soak it before start the machine......
So this time round, I was looking for front load washing machine, for which I visited some shops and checked out the forum and found the following:
1) for front load WM, do not buy those Korean made, the Europe made is better quality
2) As such, it left only Bosh, Electrolux, Bandt in the checklist
3) Many complain Bandt very noisy, some said can even hear the thundering sound meters away, as my LG sometimes do give me noisy sound, I experienced it and knew the feeling of being disturbed by a WM, so Bandt is out of my list
4) Bosh and Electrolux seem to be both good brands, but Bosh has more supporters on forum and the price only slightly higher thand Electrolux, so I narrow down to Bosh.
5) Saw some complain about the time Bosh WM takes to complete a full load (estimated about 2.5 hours), it is indeed very long, but what the salesman said is true, how many will wash for full load?
6) Other points why I would choose Bosh were the good customer service forumer posted, I think is important to have good customer service, and the cleanliness of the clothes after wash, which is what I'm looking for.

So after narrow down to Bosh, I need to choose the model I want. Heard some good comments on WAE24360SG, wanted to get this one but after visiting the Harvey Norman Expo Sales, I purchased WAS24444ME as WAS24444ME is made in German, 8kg, with max 1200rpm spin speed (do not buy any front load WM with less than 1200rpm spin speed), and have more functions. While WAS24360SG is Thailand made, 7kg with max 1200rpm spin speed and the price is only about $200 lesser.

So what's the damage? I paid $1,399 for it, but the salesman said I'll get $150 cash rebate back from Bosh, and Capital land $20 voucher and Polar $5 voucher as I'm paying by UOB lady card.

See below for the picture:


For details you may refer:
http://www.boschappliances.co.za/ap/WAS24441ME.htm

Review:
I love this washing machine! Some people might find that there're too many programs and confusing in operating it, but I find it easy to use and very user friendly. Although the washing time is longer than my previous top load washing machine, but it really clean the clothes properly! At least now my husband's clothes (including those sports ones) are no longer smelly after wash (I don't even need to soak it before wash)!
Bosh also provide very good customer service, they deliver the machine on time (given me few calls to confirm the delivery schedule) and they sent someone to demo to me.
Overall, I'll give 4 out of 5 stars for this product!

Side note:
My close friend bought Electrolux, according to her, the programs was not that friendly. Bosh has 15min super fast, where I use it for washing few pieces of my kids clothes, but her Electrolux doesn't has this function. You might want to check it out if you're considering Electrolux or Bosh.

After checking my machine and my invoice, I realised mine is WAS24444ME and not WAS28444ME, the only difference between these 2 machines is that WAS24444ME max spin is 1200 while WAS28444ME is 1400. Thanks to the anonimous reader who left me the comment!

Please read this post on the high cost of repair.

We passed by a roadshow by The Montella on their wallpaper in early August, we were attracted by their wallpapers. The promotion price then was $450 for 2 rolls and $495 for 1 roll, each roll is 3mx5m, and min purchase is 1 roll. Pls note the price is before GST. I can't really say whether the price is cheap, coz I've seen a forumer got one of his wall pasted with wallpaper and quoted by his ID SGD800, on the other hand also have people posted on the forum complaining Montella's pricing is more expensive than others. I guess there're many types of wallpaper around, for us we find the price reasonable, as it include labour cost to paste it on the wall, and it was those textured type of wallpaper made in Korea, so we placed a deposit of S$300.
The showrooms for The Montella were at IFC in Sungei Kadut and Kaki Bukit actually, we visited the IFC the next week to check out their design. The salesman Adrian attended to us was ok, attitude good, but heard some complain about him on forum. As we're still not certained about the no of roll we want, we didn't confirm the design and make full payment (delivery about 3 weeks after full payment made), but tentatively it'll be the following one:


My husband was attracted by the design of their sofa when we were in their IFC showroom, but as I've seen bad comments about their furniture (e.g. delay delivery), I did not agree on buying it. Also the sofas were mainly made by fabric (Adrian said is special fabric that water will no go in if you spill water on it), the price could be $2.8k above, to me, a fabric sofa is still fabric, it can't be more expensive than cowhide leather right?

We did not choose the above design in the end, for our review and the final design, please click here.

For my sofa and dining table, I bought them from Malaysia, you may click here if you're interested.

As we're going in JB to check out the furniture, we stopped by a lighting shop along Jalan Skudai. We were surprised to see the price there, most lights were about 50% cheaper than Singapore.
Not sure is it because of the location of the shop (this shop is not in the heart of the town area, about 20 min ride from custom), we couldn't find the design we wanted, but we still found some nice designs which we think can be used in our house.
We saw the following wall lights at RM168, after discount was only RM110, which was about SGD47 only. We wanted to buy it for our master room, but too bad the shop has run out of stock, they said will get it from other outlets and call me tomorrow morning to confirm, but as we're heading back to Singapore, i didn't wait for his call. I'll probably call him to check the availability of stock the next time i go in again.


We bought this decorative lights for our dining area, although it was not the initial design we wanted, but is still nice and elegant for the dining area, moreover the after discount price was only RM418, which was about SGD181only. We saw many similar lights in SG is selling this type of lights at least SGD480.


When we checked the lights at the shop, some of the crystal dropped out from the lights, the assistance said is normal and told us to check clearly make sure all are in, so we spent about half an hour there checking the crystal and the glass and test out the light. Hopefully it function well when we install on our ceiling :)

For those interested to get the lights there, you may refer to following:
Name: Tampoi Lighting Centre Sdn. Bhd
No.2,4&6 Jalan Titiwangsa 3/1, Taman Tampoi Indah (Batu 6 1/2, Jalan Skudai), 81200 JB (pls note it is along Jalan Skudai very near to Kitmark and opposite Taman Johor only)
Tel: (067) 2418999, 2369157, & 2418990
Email: tampoi@tm.net.my

Besides lights, we found the ceiling fan also very cheap there, price about the same as SG before conversion. My friend told me her ceiling fans (both KDK and panasonic) bought in JB were around RM300, I wish i can go in again to purchase my fan :)

Actually along our way to the furniture shops we did see many lighting shops, but we didn't stop by to check them out, when we were in Gucca, their designer lights were also around RM500, but as we did not purchase furniture there we didn't buy the lights.

You may click here to see the lights fit on my dining area.

Update:
Saw a forumer posted about a lighting shop in JB, price very cheap and design very nice! I should have seen her post earlier! The designs were very new, and price very very cheap, saw the decorative lights we want at only RM650 before discount, too bad we've already bought our dining area lights.

You may check out the shop if you've not bought your lights yet :)
BLE ( Best Light Electrical Sdn. Bhd) 美光电器灯饰有限公司
Look for Cindy Chong Tel: +6019-7550681
No.15-17， Jalan Ros Merah 2/10, Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Like many others, we wanted to save our cost in furniture and wanted to buy something really value for money, we thus went in to Johor Bahru (JB) Malaysia on one of the weekends to check out the price (we actually bought our furniture there on our first trip).
Before we went in JB, we did check out a few furniture shops in Singapore to have a price guide, and also the forum on the shops that had been blacklisted.

Our review on the Singapore shops are:
1) IMM Furniture Mall - there're many furniture shops in the mall, we glanced through a few and like the design of Red Apple. However, the review of this shop is not favourable in the forum, saw many bad comments on the after sale service, we thus give it a miss. Do note another shop with unfavourable comments in IMM is Mr. Deco, but I'll not give the details here as those are not my personal experience and I did not verify them.
2) IFC at Sungei Kadut - we visited the building and found some companies with good design there. But the price is generally high, the most value for money (not the cheapest but I'm talking about most value for $ here) to me is Cellini. They have pacakges where by about $2800 to $3800 you can get a set of sofa with TV console, bedframe with mattress and dining table. But we were not really attracted by the design, some how nothing catch our eyes. We found Lorenzo selling a full leather sofa at around $3k, but because the furniture were from Malaysia, we decided to KIV after our price checking in JB first.
3) Nova - I totally don't like the furnitures in this shop, don't like the design and the quality, totally not in my consideration.
4) Mode - This is the shop we went back to check the price, the design is very nice, but pricing is very high.
5) Defu - Pricing is ok for its quality (middle range), but nothing catch our eyes.
6) S&K type of neighbourhood shop - the order is by catalog, for those who emphasize on quality I'll not advise on getting furniture from this kind of shop.

So, I think many would be interested to know is JB pricing cheaper than SG? The answer can be yes or no. We spent about RM10k (SGD 5k) for just one sofa and dining table set, it could be expensive to you, but i shall explain why did we buy the things there.......

We went a few shops in JB, our review here:
1) Lorenzo (on the Jalan Tebrau before carrefour, you'll see it when you're on Jalan Tebrau)
Address: No 1 Jalan Waja 5, Kawasan Perindustrian Pandan, 81100 Johor Bahru.
Contact: (607)3525515
Website: www.lorenzo-international.com
Review: we find the prices there are very high, a full cowhide leather sofa can cost from RM7k to RM10k, that's about the same price as SG. We then ask the sales girl, she told us the pricing is about the same as SG after GST, unless we're buying full furniture there then she might be able to give some discount. She even told us to check out the model we want from SG first, then give her a call she'll give us the quotation, for those interested you may call Jennifer Goh. We wonder whether is it because they've present in SG, thus they set the JB price very high as well, if not all the Singaporean will come JB to buy right? Just our guess, haha.

2) VanHoden (Ros Merah)
Address: No 30-32, Jalan Ros Merah 2/9, Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru.
Contact: (607) 3552862
Website: vanhodenfurniture@gmail.com
Review: My friend recommended this shop to me, she said the design is about the same as Rozel (another designer shop) but cheaper price. But i find the price very expensive, design wise not my cup of tea. The salesman quoted a full cowhide leather to me at RM7k++ before transport and GST, and this is just a 3 seater adjustable sofa only. The dining table is around RM2k, don't really like the design and those adjustable table are already shaking, the salesman said probably loose already, I wonder if i buy the table how long will it last....
The salesman then wanted to show me his softcopy catalog, but i told him i need to go can he email me, I can see he's very reluctant but just get my email address to entertain me only, but as I'm just using this as excuse to get out of the place, I'm not so bothered whether he wrote down my email correctly or not, and till date, he did not email me the catalog.

3) Rustica (Ros Merah)
Address: 33 Jalan Rosmerah 2/8, Taman Johor Jaya
Contact: (607) 3516689
Website: jj@rustica.com.sg
Review: There's also one Rustica just behind Lorenzo, but as we're heading to Johor Jaya direction we visited this one instead.
The full cowhide leather sofa can cost around RM6k to RM12k, but i find the design here nicer and match its price list. We bought a L-shape sofa about 9ft long with full leather for RM5,980 at promotion price. Transport cost is RM100 (for purchase below RM6k is RM200, but the sales girl charge us RM100 as our price is close to RM6k) and GST 7% (to be paid to SG custom). Total in SGD is about RM6,499/2.3 = S$2.8k. I would think this is value for money as the size of the sofa is very big (just nice for our living room) and the material is good. For this kind of material and quality, we're quoted more than S$3k in SG and the design was not as nice. So we quickly confirm this purchase.
We then shop for dining table there, for tempered glass dining table with 6 chairs, chrome legs, it costs about RM1400 to RM2000, I find the price very cheap and design is nice, for the same kind of quality and design, SG is selling about SGD998 without the chairs. But my husband wanted the RM3990 black tempered glass dining table with 6 chairs, full stainless steel legs. We hesitated for a long time there coz this will convert to SGD1800 which is very expensive to me. After much consideration, I gave in on this purchase as my husband really like it, anyway in terms of SGD we're just paying a few more hundreds to get the better quality. The next day we went back Mode in SG to check out stainless steel dining table and found that just the table itself already costs S$1600, and each chair is $169, we glad that we made the purchase in Rustica.
I do see some bad review on Rustica products, say like not durable, but I'm not sure whether the forumer purchased the PU sofa or genuine cowhide sofa, as he did not state so. Anyway i'll try my luck and when I received my goods, i'll update again.
For picture of my purchase, pls see very end of the article.

4) Gucca Italy(Pelangi Indah)
Didn't get the contact details but you may refer to this website for information: http://www.guccaitaly.com/storelocation.aspx?page=storelocation
Review: I find the pricing is very high, same as Lorenzo. The dining table cost above RM4k, sofa about RM8k to more than RM10k. So I didn't check out further.

5) Soon Lee Ann (few shops away from Gucca Italy)
Saw many forumer bought from this shop, the sales girl told me they charge 18% on top of the price if deliver to SG, I find the cost expensive coz Rustica only charge a flat rate of RM100 + 7% GST on the product. However the price of their product is very cheap, a marble dining table set is only RM1900, sofa half leather also about RM1.5k onwards. However they're more like family business thus design is not as high class and limited.

In conclusion, for those who're interested in going JB to buy your furniture:
1) Do not expect their pricing are bottom rocking price, u must compare apple with apple. If you're getting furniture like our neighbourhood shop there, the price is definitely very cheap, but if you're getting designer product, the price is just slightly cheaper only after the transport and GST. However, a same price paid there, you'll get more items, and better quality, e.g. their price for dining table normally include 6 chairs, and size slightly bigger than our showroom here, most of them do full cowhide leather for sofa.
2) Generally you'll need to pay 7% GST on your purchase, plus RM100 to RM200 of transport fee (inclusive of levy and everything)
3) You'll need to pay 30 to 40% desposit upfront, and balance to be paid 1 week before delivery.
4) Most established shop display their price in nett, no more discount, but can ask for free gift, like for my case i got free leather care cleanser, 2 sofa pillows and a hamper. But to play save, just ask whether they can lower down their price, no harm trying :)

Here's picture of my purchase:

(The L-shape full leather sofa we bought from Rustica, but in black colour)


(The sofa from another view)


(Promotion price b4 GST)


(The stainless steel dining table set that costs me RM3990 with 6 stainless steel chairs)
(update: no, it is not stainless steel, we got cheated)


(The chairs are also made of stainless steel with PU leather wrapping)


(Although we kept saying the price is high, the salesgirl insisted it was cheap as it is under promotional price)


(The hamper we got as one of the gifts, inside has plates, cups, teapot, and pots, very heavy; other than hamper, we were given 2 sofa pillows, leather care cleaning kit and a few lucky draw tickets)

We purchased our first HDB back in 2004, with no much requirements, we bought our 3 room flat and move in without any renovation. After the new addition to the number of family members, we realised a 3 room flat is not enough for our family planning, and we thus purchased our second property, a private condominium, and this time round with more requirements and expectation of it, which comes our headache......
Like many, we surf the Internet for information on renovation, furniture and fittings, electronic products and etc, the good thing of Internet is that we get the reviews of those who purchased the similar products as us, but the bad things are too much information to digest and too many fake forumers around (e.g. the boss of certain shop posting good comments about themselves)
Thus, the purpose of this blog is to document down the information we've digested, and our own experiences in going thru the process, so that our fellow forumers can save their time in getting the information they want.

Recommended website if you would prefer to source for your own information:
1) Renotalk - http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php
2) Singapore brides - http://www.singaporebrides.com/cgi-bin/forumboard/discus.cgi

Wish everyone good luck in building your own sweet home :)