Gave ourselves the excuse that we’re moving in less than a month, of course we will be needing ‘things’ for the new place. Doesn’t really matter that we have two truckloads of ‘things’ to move with us to the new place or that we never really got around to discussing what exactly those ‘things’ actually were, but off to Ikea we went.

To be honest, I went there because I was in the vicinity for work, literally 5 minutes away and seeing how it was the first day of the sale, I was tempted. So tempted that I went there at 2.30 and managed to kill 4 long hours aimlessly wandering around (with the occasional half hour of eating cake and reading an ebook) waiting for the husband to meet me there after work. Which only happened at 6.30.

As tiring as it was for me, I discovered a million new things I could use as potential planters for our porch, found some nifty retractable clotheslines (interestingly called Dumpa) which will come in handy at the new place and cost just 2.90$ and fell in love with a shoe cabinet.

We have a shoe rack at the moment. It takes a lot of shoes! Got it in Takashimaya years ago and it’s still in great condition. The only hitch, its a rack. In our current place there really isn’t a problem as we keep in in our storage room which has a slatted door (nice and ventilated) and since the storage room is located just near the entrance it fitted our home perfectly. The new place has a storage room just off the kitchen. And we couldn’t possibly use that for our shoes anymore. But to keep te rack outside our home would mean exposed messy shoes for everyone to see. Not happening. So we toyed with the idea of a shoe cabinet of some sort but not really actively looked for any until we saw this.

The husband is a great lover of wood. (In fact, so am I) But real solid durable wood. Not that rubbish ply compressed stuff that you get in Ikea. And while we love Ikea for it’s ideas and its brightly coloured kitchen stuff, we detest the wood there. Just too tacky and flimsy for our liking. But this darn shoe cabinet – yes it’s made of exactly the same type of wood I’ve been running down, but its just so beautiful! And besides, it’s not like we’re going to sit on it, sleep on it or eat on it. So it should be fine right? So we went ahead and bought it. Now it will stay in it’s pretty flat pack until April when we can finally install it in its place.

And oh, packed my first box today! yay! Felt a wee bit dejected when I realised that it didn’t even form a dent in my wardrobe. I really do have way too many clothes. *sigh*

Image courtesy – Ikea.com

The guys at the Nichols building have decided to get all unit holders to make huge saving of upto 50% on current stock. As this is an antique and crafts centre, it not that this is end of line or old stuff brought out every year like major high street retailers, this is genuine saving, products for a lot cheaper than usual, just to get people in during Jan.
Take my advise and get yourself down there, especially before you spend money on Ikeas sales.

Next to complement a country kitchen will be country lighting of course… glad we’re not fussy with lighting points, so there will only be 1 hanging lamp for the kitchen, which we’ve already bought, it was our first purchase along Balestier after going in and out many shops… and yet we did not even complete half the stretch of Balestier!  We bought the kitchen lamp without second thoughts from Silic Lighting Centre Pte Ltd run solely by a very nice lady name Jenny, we were also considering another stained-glassed lamp for our dining table in Silic comparing it with another design which we saw at Jalan Besar ages ago, and had to make a 3rd trip just to check out Jalan Besar again before we confirm our dining lamp with Silic as well.  So, 2 sets of lighting out the way!  Silic has many different designs of stained-glass style lamps and I’m definitely gonna head back to get more table lamps when budget allows.  They also have a tiny room full of Victorian lamps and decorations for the Victorian era fans too!  Of course we also found several other interesting lighting options for other parts of the house, but we’re keeping our options open for now to allow ourselves to check out more places and interesting looking lamps before a long term commitment.

We needed 3 sets of ceiling fans with lighting, and that’s also done and out the way from Strass Lighting N Furnishings along Balestier.  Brand is Titan, never really heard of, but according to the salesman, who didn’t seem quite friendly or helpful initially, a fan is just a fan, the brand really doesn’t matter as long as they serve their purpose, so in considerations of budget constraints, we have to stretch our dollars and honestly, we don’t really care which brand the ceiling fans are, as long as they keep the place cool, and doesn’t fall off in the middle of the night!  Unfortunately, no pictures available for the ceiling fan, but visualize wooden color 52″ blades with floral type 3 point lighting.

Given the ongoing IKEA sale, and the crossover of old Friends membership card to new Friends membership, it will make our upcoming shopping this Sunday at IKEA fairly tricky, if we don’t wanna lose out on points exchangeable for cash vouchers, so we’ll have to be buying more than just a kitchen sink this weekend!

Next week will be the official beginning of renovations, apparently, we had encounter 2 weeks of delay in submission of HDB wall hacking approval documents, and technically, we were given the green light to hack the wall on 11 & 12 Jul, unfortunately Luxur ID didn’t had much prior experience in renovations with new HDB flats, thus did not follow up closely on the approval status that can be checked online on HDB website, and we’ve missed the hacking dates.  Therefore, application has to be made again, and thus cement screed by the HDB contractor has to be delayed again, which surprisingly I had been getting umpteen calls from the HDB cement screed contractor Hassan many times chasing me when can he cement screed my floor!  He’s one hardworking guy that one… Well, Alan apologized for the delays and promised the house will be completed and hand over by 30 Aug 2011 with workmanship intact.  So, next Monday, 25 Jul will be wall hacking day, followed by cement screeding on 28 Jul by Hassan’s team.  Well, let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope we can move in September 2011 to really start our lives anew!

Hari terakhir di Singapura…

Bangun pagi. Mandi lalu berkemas. Sarapan sekenyangnya (gratis), check out dan ambil deposit, 50 SGD. Titipkan barang bawaan pada penjaga hostel. Dan kami pun siap ke tujuan selanjutnya. IKEA!

Apa itu IKEA?

Ikea adalah toko furniture yang super lengkap. Segala macam peralatan dan perlengkapan rumah tangga ada disini. Konsep penjualannya cukup unik dan menarik sehingga mengundang banyak pengunjung, entah hanya sekedar melihat-lihat atau membeli. Yang pasti jika bosan dengan konsep toko furniture yang biasa, Ikea sayang untuk dilewatkan.

Untuk menuju Ikea sebenarnya ada banyak cara. Lengkapnya bisa dilihat di web Ikea Singapore. Kami memilih untuk naik MRT dari Farrer Park ke Queenstown. Kemudian dilanjutkan dengan naik bus nomor 195 dan turun di depan Ikea Alexandra.

Di dekat pintu masuk tersedia kertas isian dan pulpen. Gunanya untuk membantu pengunjung untuk mengetahui barang apa saja yang ingin dibeli dan berapa total yang harus dibayar. Jadi sebelum membayar, pengunjung dapat mengetahui berapa uang yang harus dikeluarkan jika jadi membeli. Hal ini memudahkan pengunjung untuk mengatur pengeluaran saat berbelanja di Ikea. Jika dirasa info barang kurang jelas, staf Ikea selalu siap membantu.

Kebetulan saat kami berkunjung ke Ikea Alexandra, sedang ada sale. Lumayan, dengan sisa deposit hostel 50 SGD ditambah beberapa SGD lagi kami bisa membeli berbagai macam peralatan rumah tangga mulai dari tempat lilin hingga timbangan badan. Sebenarnya kami naksir dengan sofa dan bedroom set Ikea. Tapi apa daya selain budget terbatas, tentunya akan menyulitkan jika membawa bagasi berupa furniture. Mumpung sedang sale, akhirnya kami membeli beberapa peralatan dan pernak-pernik dari Ikea. Dan inilah dia…

Sebenarnya kami masih kurang puas menjelajahi isi Ikea. Sayang, malam ini kami harus kembali ke Jakarta. Dari Ikea Alexandra, kami pun kembali ke hostel untuk mengambil barang yang kami titipkan pada saat check out.

Setelah berkemas merapikan barang bawaan, kami pun menuju Changi Airport, menunggu penerbangan Air Asia yang akan membawa kami kembali ke Jakarta.

*****

Next: 3rd Journey, Hong Kong-Macau part two!

Location:Richmond

Click on image to get redirected to IKEA Richmond.

Ikea NORDEN extendable dining table. Offer until July 4.

Ikea SANDNES shoe cabinet . Offer valid until Sunday 4th July. Beech only.

Ikea BENNO TV bench. Offer valid until July 4.

Ikea SOLAR and Nexus kitchen doors are now 30% off. Offer valid June 24 – July 4

Location:Homebush Bay Drive

Click on the image to get redirected to Ikea Homebush Bay Drive

Ikea APPLARO folding chair, acacia.

Location: Logan

Click on image to get redirected into Ikea Logan.

Ikea LEKSVIK BOOKCASE. Offer valid until July 4.

Ikea HELLUM rug. Offer valid until July 4.

Ikea sales starts from tomorrow,  26 February 2009.

And, since the name of these dishes is 365+1 it’s only fitting that they end up on my blog