cleaning out my (kate spade) closet!

a month ago i put up my splodge dot seraphine and villa mae for sale, and i'm please to add, they sold in a heartbeat! they have now gone to more deserving owners who will put them to better and more frequent use than i have. =)

anyway, i did MORE cleaning out, and i am putting THREE more bags for sale. there are a couple more i am still thinking about selling...but my heart isn't letting me do that yet, so until then, these are the three babies i am willing to part with...for now!

i wanted to put them on eBay but it's such a tedious process - apparently i can't list more than $260 for now, and after the Villa Mae sold on eBay, i have a small limit left. so i'm listing them on my blog until i can go on eBay again.

here they are!

these are bags i realised i haven't been using at all...so i'd rather part with them for a small amount than keep them in storage forever.

1) Cozumel Eglantine in gold - SOLD!

this baby was used only twice at the very most, and has been kept in its dustbag since. it is still in excellent condition, and there are no visible scratches on the hardware.

it is a lacquered woven straw clutch, with a bauble lock closure, and has one card compartment on the inside. features 14-karat gold-plated hardware, and lined with navy bal harbour print faille on the inside. measures 4.7"H x 8"W x 2.1"L.

i am asking for USD$200 or SGD$250 (retails USD$325), and will come with the dustbag and green kate spade gift box. 

2) Chatham Rosyln in navy

this is one of my beloved darlings - a natural wicker handbag in navy, with embossed cowhide leather accents in navy as well. it has a flap closure with a magnetic snap and goldtone hardware. the interior is lined with kate spade's baton rouge rose print on faille lining.

it has one zippered compartment, and two pockets, in the interior. measurements are: 13"L x 6"W x 9"H, with a 9" handle drop.

the hardware and leather on this baby is still in excellent condition. however, there is a very, VERY tiny damage to the bottom corner of the bag (at the back) as you will see here:

 

it is VERY small and is hardly noticeable when you tote it. these two photos illustrate how hardly noticeable it is:

this bag retailed for USD395. i am asking for USD$180 or SGD$220. it will come with the tag, card and dust bag. 


3) Tortola Kei - SOLD!

 

 

this is yet another hardly used piece. the caning straw and gold leather trim is still in excellent condition. 

i loved this bag because it is very roomy and can fit more than just your everyday basics. it also has an interior zip pocket and two slip pockets. on one side, there is the kate spade license plate, and on the bottom, 14-karat light gold plated hardware.

it is open top, and has the navy and ivory bal harbour print lining. measures 9.4"h x 9.4"w x 3.9"d. retailed for USD495, but i am asking for only USD$100 or SGD$120.

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there you have it!

if you are keen on any of these babies, drop me an email at katespadeaddict@gmail.com

thank you for viewing!

edited on 20/04/2013: Chatham Roslyn is still available! 

first DIM (Did.It.Myself) project!

i've been very excited to share this DIM project of mine, but have put it off sharing cos i never got round to getting the glass tabletop to complete it. but i have, so now i can finally share it! and oh, yeah i've coined the term DIM (did.it.myself) instead of DIY (do.it.yourself), heh!

here it is!

it was intended to be a display table for the entryway or living room...a place to put some old skool books on display, a typewriter even...but now it looks like there's no space for it thanks to our huge sofa...so i may just convert this into a writing table in our room!

i salvaged this little baby from a vintage item reseller. both my maternal and paternal grandmas had a SINGER sewing machine like this, even my late mom...and i remember loving playing with the pedal and watching the wheel spin and spin. i we still had them so i can transform them into this!

my grandma had a lot of furniture, like the old tv in the cabinet thingy..a rocking chair...man, these things are the big bucks now! very popular with mid-century modern home owners.

anyway, i'm very proud of myself for accomplishing this! i slaved for five straight hours on this baby...till my back was about to break!

will share more DIM projetcs as we move along!

the kitchen is finally ready!

so today was a really, REALLY exciting day. we can finally put a close to the major works happening in the kitchen, and our kitchen is now fully functioning! it's such an awesome feeling!  

the first awesome thing to happen was the installation of our monster of a kitchen faucet. i love, love the faucet! 

this baby is 26" tall, and comes with a rinser and 360-degree swivel spray spout. the side-mounted lever controls the temperature (we get hot/cold water from this faucet thanks to our central water heating system!) and water pressure within the tap.

at the end of the spout, there's another lever that controls the flow of water. the best thing about this faucet is the pull-out spray! it reaches every inch of the sink!

and believe you me, that's a kate spade bag right there, lol! the kitchen sink is a triple-bowl stainless steel sink. 

right above the sink and faucet is the dish drainer cupboard. now, here's the funny bit about the dish drainer. because of the size of the faucet, the dish drainer cupboard has to be mounted a little higher, such that i have to be on my tippytoes in order to be able to load stuff onto the drying rack, lol! i mean, no one else has this problem, just tiny ol' me! 

but well, i think it worked out perfect, because mounting the dish drainer higher meant that it sits flushed against the beam in the kitchen. and that's the floating shelf to the left of the dish drainer. we're gonna add some fittings under the dish drainer and behind the faucet - we bough the FINTORP kitchen rail, hooks and cutlery stand from IKEA. it'll come in handy to hang any pots and pans to dry after washing, too.

one thing i love about the dish drainer is that it opens sideways, unlike most conventional ones that open upwards. i think in our case it makes more sense, too, 'else it'll be a real chore to shut it at that height - especially for me!

i'm thinking of putting something up on the door of the dish drainer cupboard. i would have preferred it grey like the rest of the cupboards - i can't for the life of me remember why we went with white. maybe it was to match the floating shelf. well, that's one more opportunity to "decorate" the kitchen! maybe another poster!

oh yes, talking about decorating, i'm planning to put up chalkboard (ermm..) paper (?) on the cupboard wall that's on the side of the oven, facing what would be the dining area. it will be from ceiling to floor, and i'm gonna scribble some meaningful quote on it with chalk (duhh. lol!).

i found a supplier for the chalkboard paper and it's surprisingly cheap! i'm also gonna stick some on the side of the fridge, and that can be a corner for us to scribble our "shopping list".

it's all so very exciting, these DIY plans i have for the kitchen! i just hope the chalkboard paper won't be too difficult to put on! 

anyways, while one contractor was busy working on the faucet, floating shelf and dish drainer, another was hard at work putting our chimney hood up. here it is!

it's so exciting thinking what the first meal we cook up shall be! but above all, we're so thrilled that we finally have a kitchen that can function proper. it's be so tough trying to get by without being able to fix a simple meal when you're hungry in the middle of the night.

now what's left is stocking the kitchen with the smaller appliances such as the rice cooker, microwave, toaster and the like. and i also have to plan how to display items on the countertop and floating shelf. i am one that likes to keep everything hidden, but having looked through photos of kitchen after kitchen during our renovation planning process has given me the inspiration and courage to display and arrange things in an aesthetically pleasing yet practical manner. 

right now, i'm working on some DIY projects on the bath and WC, and my bathroom sink area is still a work-in-progress. until all that is done, there will be a photo embargo, and i will share more pictures only when these are ready.

i also can't wait to embark on Stage 2 of our home-building process, which is the painting of the living room walls, creation of the feature wall and also doing up the dining area. Stage 3 is when we start work on the WIW and doing up both the master bedroom and Drayden's. 

i read that it takes seven years to build a home, and with how overwhelmed i feel at times, boy am i starting to think the person who said that ain't kidding at all!

kitchen's nearly there!

the kitchen works are finally gonna be over soon, and i'm so, so excited! but first! no...wait. i should save the best for last! heh!

okay back to the kitchen works.

everything will be up and running tomorrow, but i wanna share photos of the development so far! the cabinets are finally up! it's still a work-in-progress, but here's how everything is looking so far!

this is the right side of the kitchen. what's left to do is fit in the hood above the kitchen hob.  and oh, fit a microwave in that space above the oven. we're still thinking if we should add a black glass backsplash on the wall, because we're kinda lovin' the white walls!

as you will see, we chose kitchen appliances in stainless steel - the oven, the fridge, the kitchen sink and also the hood. the only thing not stainless steel is the hob. but it kinda matches the pipes i have painted black. heh. i hope we can find a matching microwave and rice cooker to the rest of the appliances!

we chose ash grey cupboards with white marble top.

this is the left side of the kitchen. tomorrow, the sink tap, dish drainer and floating shelf will be installed!

the floating shelf will be above this section.

can't wait for our monster kitchen sink tap to be up and running!

and this is possibly my favourite area of the kitchen. i'm planning to place some plants here - maybe even have my own herb garden cos this window gets a lot of sunlight! - and hang a huge poster in a black frame above. kinda like this:

that night, we were so excited with the kitchen that we couldn't wait any longer and decided to put our sofa together! it has been sitting in one of the rooms until we paint the living room walls, but the excitement just got the better of us! 

we'll figure out what to do when the time to paint comes!

and now....we come to the best that i have save for last! my shoe cupboard was also installed! here it is...my London phone booth inspired shoe storage!

oh, you have no idea how chuffed i was! the contractors really blew me away! the workmanship is just superb. and i was so impressed how they delivered! i merely gave them a photo of a London phone booth and told them i wanted my shoe cupboard to look just like that, and it turned out amazing!

only thing is, i realise i have too many shoes! lol!

each shelf can hold six pairs of shoes, and with all that's in there now, i still have more shoes that needs storage space! sigh...

well, that's it for now! tomorrow when everything is up, i'll share photos again!

that's how the cookie wall crumbles

that wall between my living room and kitchen that has been bugging me since we started renotalk is now gone! and i couldn't be happier and more relieved. i love how spacious the house looks now. of course, once furniture starts coming in, that wouldn't be the case anymore, heh, but at least it wouldn't be as bad as with that wall.

here's the wall i'm talking about. it's on the right side of the house, and it creates such a small entryway into the kitchen. i wanted an open concept, and be able to see the entire kitchen from where i am at the living room, and vice versa - not missing out on what's happening on TV even when i'm in the kitchen.



 so bye bye wall!

on top of having the wall demolished, the contractors have also done a great job patching up the gap the wall has left after it was removed. 

day after the demolishing, my contractors returned to continue hacking the floor tiles towards the left wall.

however, we couldn't patch it up with similar tiles as the kitchen or living room, so my designer suggested we go with  something close, but i decided to go totally dramatic and chose black tiles instead.

here's how it looks after the black tiles were placed in.

right now we're waiting for the kitchen cabinets to arrive and be installed. but since the demolishing till then, a lot more work has taken place. 

i got busy that night itself and painted the gas and water pipes black. because i won't be installing top cabinets, these will be exposed (and i like the fact that they will be!) so i decided to make it more aesthetically pleasing by painting them in a color that will compliment my kitchen cabinets. it was a two-hour job, and i was a chuffed house owner after!

it was to be a busy week! the next day, we got someone to plaster our living room walls before we paint it. we've decided to paint it ourselves (that's what makes building your home a fulfilling journey, isn't it?) but agreed we'd better get the professionals in to make the walls super smooth first before we embark on that task.

and now i can't wait to paint these super smooth walls! but we're gonna wait till this stage of renovations is over before we do.

the same day the workers were here to plaster the walls, the kitchen appliances were delivered. my oven, kitchen sink, kitchen tap, hob and hood! so exciting! and oh, along with that also came my rain shower head, bidet hose, bathroom sink and water heater! so many boxes that will make any home owner dizzy with bliss and excitement!

major plumbing works were necessary to install the bathroom stuff, which took half a day. the bathroom is still a work-in-progress, so i'll save the pictures of that for later! but let me show you the bathroom sink transformation!

i especially hated my bathroom sink. for one, it is situated outside the bath, and it is a pretty ugly (i love oxymorons, lol!) thing that juts out way too much into the way of the bathroom entrance. it makes me so annoyed! so naturally it has to go, and in its place, a sink that has less depth. and of course, rectangular. i love rectangular sinks!

of course, i painted the waste fittings and pipes black, too! i'm not planning to put a wash stand underneath because i actually love the exposed look. it's still a work-in-progress, too. i still need to get a mirror to place on the wall, a vanity shelf, and also a hand towel holder. will post a picture once the area is complete!

tomorrow, my kitchen cabinets are gonna be installed, and i am so excited i can't sleep! it's gonna a be a few-days-job, though, so the kitchen will only be up and running next week. 

i just can't wait for it all to be finished!

we threw out the kitchen island idea at the start of renotalk, but i'm thinking of bringing the idea back now. with the wall gone now, it seems like there is gonna be more than enough space for one. before, there was no space for an island, but now that everything is so open and spacious, i'm thinking we could possibly fit a reasonable-sized island. we'll decide when the kitchen is complete!

and oh! you know what else will be installed? my shoe cabinet! i can't wait to see how it'll turn out, and if it will be just as i have envisioned! my fingers have been and are still crossed earnestly for that one! i hope my contractors will make my vision an accurate reality!

well, that's what's been keeping me busy over the week! tomorrow is another exciting day, and i will share pictures soon!

home bargains part one

as i am typing this, renovations for my humble home are ongoing, and i can't wait to be able to show pictures to anyone who'd be willing to listen (or in this case, read). of course, i am doing everything in stages so photos will be shared gradually. 

right now, what the contractors are doing is demolishing the wall that separates my kitchen and living room area. i've had many a restless nights thinking about it, until finally i couldn't take it anymore and insisted to have it removed. we had initially planned to just demolish half of it vertically, so that the ceiling-to-floor bit on one part of my kitchen cabinet - where my oven and microwave will be - will still be hidden by the wall. but eventually, we decided to demolish it entirely. 

so until that is done, let me first share with you some of the bargains i managed to score in the past month! i have not stopped feeling excited about them!

the first appliance i purchased is this amazing Fisher & Paykel fridge i purchased off a guy who needed to have it removed urgently. you will not believe how much i got it for!

but first, the story.

since we moved in, i have been constantly trawling Craigslist and Gumtree for awesome deals, and as this post will soon reveal, i struck gold! i have been very, very lucky, and i feel very blessed.

so this guy listed his huge-ass (463 litres, yo!) amazing Fisher & Paykel stainless steel fridge for $500 on Craigslist. story is, he had recently renovated his kitchen and couldn't fit the huge fridge anymore, so he had gotten a smaller one. i was lucky to find his ad hours after he had just posted it, so i emailed him immediately. 

now, this fridge retails for $2399 brand new (i know!), and $500 was a damn good deal as it is. but this guy replies the next morning, and told me he was having a dinner party the next night, and that if i could pick up the fridge by that afternoon, he would be willing to let me have it for $250. 

$250, y'all!!!!! 

well, sure...he was honest about the two minor dents on the front, but who cares about them! i went to have a look at it, and the insides are as good as new (he has only had it for about two years) and it still works fantastic.

and the rest....is history.

the next thing i purchased was a 42" flat screen TV for a mere $300. this couple was relocating to the US, and i had contacted him within minutes after he had posted his ad up! i was lucky! i happened to be on Craigslist, and texted him instantly! i was at their place picking up the TV barely 30mins later, lol!

the TV is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. it is so clear!!!

and speaking about TVs, we've recently purchased another 42" TV from another couple who are relocating to Canada (for our bedroom) for $350, but we are only able to pick it up in early March because that's when they are leaving, so pictures of that one in another post! we've been to view it, and it's better than this LG one we've got! maybe we'll put this LG one in our room and use the other one for the living room, hmmm..

we're also looking for another TV for the game room, so the hunt continues, heh!

anyway....of course, i needed to find the next important appliance urgently, and that is the washing machine! my search didn't take long, and i found the exact one that we have been eyeing in stores! brand new, it would have cost $699, but i scored it for only $250!

the first time i sat in front of my washing machine watching it make its first wash in our humble home, i felt so peaceful and there was a warm fuzzy feeling in my excited little heart. heh! and i kid you not, i look forward to doing laundry these days!

okay, we've come to the final score for this post. this was a lucky find, because i had been looking for something else (i can't remember what now!) and saw a listing for this LG 5.1 home theatre system that was going for only $170, and get this, with another LG DVD player thrown in! couple was moving back to Australia...so, lucky me!

the other half has been especially excited about this, because it makes his PS3 game sessions all the more thrilling! 

oh oh oh! talking about the PS3, the other half had scored this limited edition silver PS3 (with four games thrown in) for only $329 off a dude who wanted to get rid of his game sets because he wanted to quit gaming. hahah! it was such a cute reason, but what-the-hell...his loss is our gain!

it was in pristine condition!

well...like i've said, i have been very, very lucky to stumble upon these awesome finds. since then, i've also purchased a sofa, a bookcase, and Drayden's bed...but those will be shared in another post!

this home thing, although highly damaging to the wallet, is very exciting and fulfilling!