DAY 42 - And Then There Was Light...

Our contractor told me he had fixed and connected the kids' bedroom lights and asked us to go have a look at it. So after work last night, MJ and I went down. Our IDs had the two rooms installed with cool white (6500K) and warm white (4000K) bulbs so that we could see the difference between the two in the actual environment. We were already leaning toward cool white because that's the best type of light for reading, and we wanted this especially in the kids room where they need bright and white light to read and study. Seeing it for ourselves sealed our decision (sorry Siu!). But we felt that the four lights in each room wasn't enough. It isn't bright enough. So we are going to up the wattage to the maximum that the lights can accommodate. If that still isn't enough or if the current wattage is already at its maximum, then we will change the lights. These are brand new LED bulbs but the brightness just isn't enough for the kids. So this period is when the lights are being installed. I dropped off the Philips Hue lights for the bedroom and living room yesterday morning and they were all installed by day's end yesterday. MJ and I also found some time to purchase the ZENcelo flat switches that I've always wanted from Chan Huat. The switches were of course much more expensive than the regular ones but I really wanted to have these ones. Chan Huat gave me a 20% discount since I bought over $200 worth. I believe the switches will be installed today. 

ZENcelo switches by Schneider Electric. The buttons are flat and flushed with the switch plate. I'll post some pix after it's up.

The kitchen counter plinth has somewhat become the 'drop off' point for all our smaller fittings. 

The warm white is still too tungsten for us, even if it does exude a 'mood' atmosphere.

For practical purposes, we've decided to go with the cool white, similar to fluorescent light which we are so used to. The room, however, looks a tad too dim for our liking.  

This was how the contractor indicated to us the switch to turn on the bedroom lights - with a brownish tape. Of course we didn't realise it at first and pulled all the switches before realising that that was his 'marking'.

HDB does not allow the electrical boxes to be concealed so we have no choice but to have the box protruding from the wall... it's so ugly! 😔

These switch boxes have been installed at armpit level, not the regular eye level that we're accustomed to. But we like it. Who says we have to follow the status quo? It actually makes better sense for the kids!

This is the light fixture in the kids' bedrooms. If the wattage cannot be increased, we will have to change all eight of them. Notice that the electrician did not fix the light as marked. This is probably because the reinforcements holding the false ceiling run above the markings so they've got to shift the light location a little. I asked them the other day what happens when they hit the false ceiling brackets and this is what they told me. 

The Philips Hue Aphelion White Ambiance round light. It can swing from 2200K to 6500K so we've got the best of both worlds. White light when we need to read, warm white when we want some mood lighting. My only regret is that we didn't get these for the entire house. That would've been ideal but they're expensive so we thought we'd put them only in the living and our bedroom of course! 😊 We wanted to get more but as mentioned before, we had to wait 1.5 mths for the stock to arrive. It's sold out everywhere. So now it's too late to get them for the kids' rooms and the kitchen.

We've got 11 Hue lights in the living room, and four in the master bedroom. I hope they're bright enough!

The oak veneer has been glued onto all the door frames.