As if...

Last weekend, hubby and I took the boys to Tampines mall for lunch and a little shopping. At the Guardian Pharmacy, Jonah spotted something colourful at the check-out counter.

*Pls click on pix for larger image.

The boys ended up laughing so hard about the manufacturer's "silliness". Hubby and I had to try our very best to put on a straight face while the 2 of them spoke out loud. Surprisingly, the cashier didnt have any emotion on her face. I guess, it wasnt the first time kids do that in the store. What kind of things have your kids say out loud in public that they didnt realised it was awkward?

Bathrooms

So how do you make these two bathrooms look pleasant without spending too much money hacking the tiles and putting in new ones?

It would cost us $8000 to replace the tilings on the wall and floor. We were lucky to chance upon a company that used a special paint to coat the tiles and apparently will last for 8-10years. And the price? Only $2500 for two bathrooms' walls and floor. To save more cost, we decided to spray the wall tiles white and retain the original floor tiles. Spraying 2 bathroom wall tiles was only $1700. That meant we saved $6300 already!

The toilet bowls and sinks were still in very good condition and we contemplated on keeping them but the colour was not to our liking. The water heater was old too so we decided to pick something new. We went window shopping and finally found a shop at Geylang Road that was having a sale promotion. We spent about $2484 for the two bathrooms' accessories.

Labour cost for replacing and installing the toilet bowls and sinks was $300. After looking at videos online on how to install toilet bowl, Hubby felt confident that he could do it too. And he did! We had trouble with the first bowl due to our inexperience but the subsequent one was easily done :)

Hubby was amazing! He covered the unsightly drain pipings with the wooden doors from the build-in wardrobe that we dismantled. Changed all the water pipings and installed the toilet bowls, sinks, taps and the water heater pack. And then, he bought teak wood (water resistant) from the timber yard at Changi Road for $195 and made wooden decks for both bathrooms' floors to have a separation from the shower areas.

Previously, the shower area in the common bathroom was right next to the door. We just couldn't accept that and changed the position. Now it's nearer to the toilet bowl and we put in a toilet paper holder with a flap cover to prevent the paper getting wet when the boys take their shower.

We also removed the old window glass panels and spray-painted the silver grilles to white. With the measurements, we went to get customised sand blasted glass panels from the glass makers in Eunos Industrial Estate for about $40. Finally our bathrooms are ready for use :)

Inclusive of the mirrors we bought from Ikea for $28.90, Ikea towel rail and towel hangers for $28.90, we spent about $4500 on renovations and furnishing for the two bathrooms. The other stuffs like basket for toilet rolls storage, shower rod, shower curtains, glass shelves for miscellanous and dustbins were from our old place. My brother in-law told me he spent more than 10K renovating his 2 bathrooms! How much did you spent renovating yours?