housethingsgoing
A frog and a duck living in a 4rm resale flat
Did not buying these appliances turn out to be a #renoregret?
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We were originally scheduled to make a post about some of our best household/reno investments, but Duck had a sudden epiphany one day when she was scrubbing the dirt off our toilet tile grouting (#lifeofahomeowner) - what about the things we DIDN'T buy? So here's a post on why we consciously chose not to get some of these popular household items and how we've been living without them so far... 
1. A robot vacuum cleaner The funny thing about this robot vacuum is that we always thought we would have one - Duck even allocated a dedicated socket here beside our sofa. We had dreams of getting one with the famous Taobao side table that conceals the vacuum inside so we could put our drinks here beside the sofa as well... But we kept holding off on the purchase for some reason.... and it's been almost a year and a half but we've still NOT gotten a robot vacuum cleaner. 
Instead, we've been using this Airbot vacuum cleaner to clean our floors (with the help of our dedicated cleaner, Frog, aka the designated slave to the mortgage and the house). It looks suspciously like a Dyson from many angles, and while it's definitely not as powerful, it's been getting the job done at a fraction of the price so we're not complaining. (Also, Frog clocks steps by walking around the house with this vacuum so it's good for health as well :P ) And don't ask why there are three cans of paint beside the vacuum - we've not been the most hardworking at clearing our post reno stuff OOPS. 
2. A soundbar/sound system/speaker We realised that a lot of our friends have really nice sleek looking soundbars and speakers in their living room, which really levels up the whole place and increases the aesthetic value by so much... and we would be lying if we said we've never been tempted to get one of these before. But when the budget was running thin, we ended up prioritising other must-haves and decided that this wasn't really something we needed. We like our Netflix and all, but we're not audiophiles and can't really appreciate the beauty of sound and music :( So far this hasn't really been a pain point for us, we're still watching Netflix every day and well, none of us have ever made a complaint about the sound quality so I guess a sound system will continue to be on the list of "buy when we strike TOTO" items 
3. A water dispenser This has been quite a controversial decision - majority of our friends have water dispensers and we cannot deny that it brings so much convenience to life :') But the reason why we consciously decided not to get one is because there's nowhere to place it (with the water point) without doing a ton of drilling through toilet walls and Duck's precious sintered stone countertop. We are also commitment-phobic people who didn't want to commit to a singular fixed position for our water dispenser for the next 5 and more years :p We've been using the trusty old traditional way of manually boiling water and pouring it out into a jug to cool - it takes time for sure, but Duck's been doing this her whole life (never had a water dispenser!) so it's not much of an inconvenience for her. That said, we wouldn't be opposed to having a countertop dispenser in the future if we do more hosting, or if we get tired of our kettle - we'll see when the time comes! 
4. A digital lock Yes, we still carry our house keys around :') This is a good ol' HDB lock that has absolutely no special features. Not changing to a digital lock was something we thought we could put off for a while because well... normal locks keep our house secure as well right? Plus we had a ton of keys from the previous owner so we didn't have to duplicate any keys. BUT life with no digital lock really sucks HAHA the inconvenience of having to fumble for keys and the even greater inconvenience of forgetting to bring your keys out is really getting to us after 1.5 years so we're on a hunt for a digital lock right now! (Actually Duck is on the hunt, Frog just looks at the proposed prices and wonders why locks are so expensive) 
And... last but not least, this isn't technically something we DIDN'T GET, but it's also a funny story. Duck actually had this 'dream' fridge which she wanted, that also costs 4x as much as our current fridge, so of course we couldn't get it :( But she continues to have hope that one day we will make it in life, and she'll be able to buy that dream fridge, so the fridge section in our carpentry is actually customized to the height of THAT FRIDGE. (Imagine Frog shaking his head at his wife when he realised this HAHA) But also on a practical basis everyone is recommended to keep some space on top of their fridge before having any carpentry to allow for better ventilation (especially as the fridge is turned on 24/7). And we do love our current fridge! It's affordable and has been working great :) No complaints! This is where we end our post but if you're still reading this please help to cross your fingers and pray that one day we will be able to afford THAT FRIDGE ok! :)
24 May
