Helix

Hi BunBun, thanks for your reply. Well, i was worried earlier cos it said to do so in the manual (i'm the odd sort that gets a kick out of reading instruction manuals) but i was prepared to accept if it's not always done so in practice, hence i though to ask around before confirming with the ID. But now it will be fixed in place so that's one qn answered! =) I'm feeling real bad cos all my stuff have been delivered to my place but the folks still need to do some final works on both the walls and floor. and all my stuff are in everyone's way! haiya.. i prob should have delayed another week. Oni cos i was worried the 27th Dec weekend would be difficult the stores would probably be very shorthanded for deliveries. Now the poor pple have to 'obstacle course' around the furniture, and shift things out of their way. >.< Anyway, guess tomorrow's cleanup day for us! I'm hoping to go there and clean up the interior of the cabinets etc. Another week of eager anticipation!

Hi pinkpetter, yepyep my furniture's expected to be in tomorrow!!! gosh.. they haven't even acid wash the floor yet. ID said they'd do it on sat morn. i hope nothing clashes man!! cos we arranged for TONS of things to be delivered tomorrow.. Unfortunately guess it's unrealistic to expect 100% satisfaction right from the start. Even though i do feel we've been real understanding and easygoing throughout, there're a few things we're not too satisfied about, we've highlighted to the ID, so i'll keep my fingers crossed that everything'd be rectified by the end of this whole journey! Hi Honeygal, think price wise, my reno's really not a gd comparison as: 1) i do feel we've been charged on the high side after looking through the forums. But we've signed and we're comfortable with our ID, and so i'm just hoping he'd be a bit understanding when we finalise our total bill and hopefully he could bring our price down some.. 2) mine's a really old flat, and i pulled out everything and had to overhaul tons of stuff like electrical, plumbing, tiles, etcetc and add on the hacking costs and replastering....... ........you get the picture.. so yeah i'd be glad to pay MY ID $19k!!!! haha Guess my advice to you would be to look through each item, and if you feel each item is necessary, and the price for each item i reasonable, guess you have to accept the final amount, hopefully with a bit of discount. Ultimately they're also making a living, and that means they need to make some money somewhere too. if they charge you at cost for everything, 'today you come, tomorrow i close down' as russell peters said. oops forgot to say, my light was purchased at Singapore Lighting (think that's the name, will go check my invoice when i'm home) it's still wrapped up so will show u the final pic after sat's stuff are in. but i'm using it as a dining light, not my living room. it's bright enough, but HB n i prefer white lights so if it's for our reading, that's definitely a FAIL. however it's sufficient for that part of my house, and no, my only spotlight is for the altar. we didn't install extra lights there. it's bright enough. (NOTE: my house is reallllll small!!) =) (p.s. anyone has built in oven? mind taking a look at post #26 and letting me know what you think pls? thanks!!)

Hi everyone, well we did tell him we're in no rush to move, and we are perfectly fine with letting them do at their own pace. only thing we hope for is that workmanship is good enough we'd be pleased, and that there aren't any kok ups. of course unfortunately in real life, things aren't as such la. anyway this was taken last week. apologise that i haven't managed to get more pics but cos my place is REALLY small, there isn't much that i left out will show you a pic of the bedroom and toilets when i get to find some angle that i can shoot from. goodness, haha it's too small for me to fit my camera and take a decent pic to show the layout! i'll try! My furniture would mostly be in this saturday, i'm just praying hard that my glass sliding doors and all the messier things would be completed by then. cos most of my furniture are in white. don't want them dirtied before i even start using them! =) will update soon!

Here's how it looks now: Living Room Ceiling (we only did up this part of the house cos our ceiling is low, and HB is worried that it'd feel even more cramped) Dining area & Living door (unpainted yet) Study Table & Dry Kitchen area View from Kitchen out to Dining Area Wet Kitchen & Sink Area Wet Kitchen (View 2)

You know, i'm starting to wonder if the pace of our reno is taking a tad too long than is usual. HB and i did not want to hurry the ID, however from the start of this t-blog till now, i realise it's been over 2 months. OMG. I've been wanting to hold back till the totally completed pics are done, but i guess i ought to not keep everyone waiting too long. Here's some parts of how my place looked like before reno: This is viewing from the previous Bedroom 1 doorway. The wall originallly between the bedrooms (LEFT WALL) will become my wall for the tv console n we knocked down the wall joining this room to the living area. sorry i didnt take pics of the original living area, here is the view from the doorway into the left side of kitchen here's the right side entrance to the shower area

Hi everyone, sorry i got a burning question to ask. To those who have built in ovens, are they screwed onto your cabinets, or just put in place without the 4 screws (2 on each side of your oven)? Reason why i am asking is that because my beloved oven is installed, with wiring all done up, and yet it is not screwed down in place. we noticed it as it was not sitting straight and thus asked hubby to inform ID. when he came, apparently told hubby that they can screw it down if we want to, but can just leave it like that. together, they lifted and shifted the oven slightly to let it be 'in place'. hubby came back to tell me "it's quite heavy, won't move easily la. all you need to do is adjust the position if it is out". is that so? is it safe? i mean i don't exactly like the idea that my oven may be pulled out or pushed out of place by accident(i.e. tilted when i'm baking?!). but i don't understand the logic of not bolting it in place. am i overly paranoid? if it's not too much trouble, can i trouble some of you to check for me your own please? i think you just need to open the front door, should be able to see if there are 2 screws on each side of the oven. Thanks everyone!

HiHi again everyone, it's been quite a busy fortnight at work but here i'm back!! Not exactly screaming to be so cheapskate but here's what we bought after a long-awaited HN anniversary sale last weekend: Fisher & Paykel E440T fridgeElectrolux EWF1084We're SEVERELY out of budget for reno, and were hoping for store sales (mkt's bad, right?) and the 0% installments (provided neither of us loses our jobs *fingers crossed*) to prevent further extensive damage.. Haha!! Now what's left of our major shopping are the tv, sofa and dining table. Updates to our reno: the electrical wirings are up, and so are the aircon trunkings. Think there's a few things to be completed but the carpenters are getting ready to begin their work i think. Got no pics for now i apologise, will give you a pic once my ceiling is ready and lights are up! We bought our lights and toilet accessories with our ID all in one go at our first trip to the stores, i'm thankful we've found someone we trust to rely on his advice, and so far he's been really understanding in all aspects. *hopefully there'd be things in the existing contract he realise is "over our budget" and revise to charge us less?!?!* sighhhhh i suppose i'm just dreaming... let us strike lottery!! pinkpetter: yeap, it's really closer to streaks than specks, nvm after the cardboard is removed from the floor and it's all clean and washed, i'll be sure to take another pic to show everyone!! =) skywolf: thanks for the link, i did go and read it. bought a single bowl undermount sink in the end. Hope i don't regret! No idea why it cost so much also.. don't even know the brand!! arrghh haha.. baldeagle: sorry don't really have accurate 3D drawings of my home to show yet, but better than that, i'll update you with actual pics as and when they're done! things have been pretty much unchanged up till now, will update as the carpentry comes up in a week or two!

Well pinkpetter, the floor has got white streaks as i took in the up-close shot. but it's nowhere as prominent as the final pic.. think those are caused by erm.. dirty water? heh.. anyway we've been making adjustments to our initial design, and our ID hasn't told us the revised pricing yet. We've totally gone beyond our budget, so i hope he doesn't 'chop' us cos we may need to eliminate certain stuff if so... >.<

Hi all, i'm back! Sorry for the long wait.. we begun reno from the 13th Oct, all that has happened since then till now was the tiling of the bathrooms, waterproofing etc. Today flooring has begun!!! Went over to take some pics and here they are!! Apologise, past two weeks we been going there without our cam, and were prob too excited to remem taking pics haha.. We picked black floor tiles.. here goes!! Details of the floor tile Our small humble pigsty.. *sigh* even with the walls off, can see how 'cosy' it'd be.. Well, i'm not complaining~! intend to be more diligent in cataloging the process from now.. Think there should be changes almost every day.. Can't wait!! By the way, like to ask about sinks..what's the difference between undermount and those that are not? Any difference in terms of pros/cons? or simply a choice matter. (like water leaks, hiding place for cockroaches, breeding ground for mosquitoes, or any such stuff?) thanks in advance!! ^_^

Haha pinkpetter, well the "dun want windows" idea is something i did not think of! But well, as we are doing away with the bedroom along the common corridor, we'd be left with one room, so erm when junior comes along... hmm... 7yrs time he'd probably be bawling about a room of some sort. At least we'd be able to offer him/her an alternative then. Although i'm afraid it'd be too hot, maybe put a window aircon unit or something in future. I mean, at least leave a possibility! Heh.. RawR: well yes we are able to buy and they'd hang on to it till we need them delivered. As we're hoping reno to be completed by end of the year, i suppose we can collect our goods before Nov. We did approach 4 IDs, out of which: Hubby and I agreed we're very comfortable with this IDHubby found the ID's ideas interesting, but i wasn't too 'in tune' with his visionsID managed to propose ideas i'm happy with, but hubby isn't too pleased with his level of serviceBoth me and hubby agreed we'd pass on this IDAnd after that weekend, we felt that our choice was clear. We've just signed up with him, and rest assured will post the finalised design and perspective views once we are able to get them! (cos there're minor stuff we're still amending position etc) Stay tuned~! p.s. YangGuo i do recall your actively participated t-blog and you've got a really nicely done up place! i do hope i'm happy with mine at the end of this journey too!

Hi pinkpetter, yeah, the utility room is actually giving me a headache. Cos we feel it's quite a pity to relegate the pretty decent sized space as a clothes drying/store room (although i DO have a lot of barang-barangs!!) but yet it's too remote from any where else to be used for anything useful. Oh did i mention the room also has a full view of the scorching hot sun? Even if we hang opaque curtains/solar film the bricks would heat up very much too, so that effectively rules out any reasonable use of the room to study/cosy corner etc. It's probably gonna end up keeping all my unsightly stuff heh Hi Sunset, Teka is a german made brand (fellow forumers correct me if i'm wrong!) Going to visit my almost-confirmed ID for the third time today. Stay tuned!! (p.s. although we wanted to go ID shopping, but we ended up with our very first. simply cos we are really comfortable with him and *fingers crossed* we will be able to maintain our reno cost at the budget we are aiming at..)

Just spent an entire week's worth of lunchtimes visiting all the various kitchen appliances brand showrooms. Initially we were so tempted to buy Bosch, but after repeated considerations finally went with hubby to place our orders for Teka's Induction domino hob and built in oven. Teka Domino Induction Hob: VITC 30 2I Teka Oven : HC 670 Our first official damage to the wallets!!! I'm already excitedly trying to list out the next few things to shop for in advance.. washing machines and refrigerators! I was thinking maybe we need to start shopping around for sinks and toilet fittings etc. etc. but our ID offered to bring us shopping, and we're comfortable with him.. should we know the market pricing first and go, or just trust him that it'd be gd prices? hmm...

Hi everyone, sorry, we're still going through our process of shopping for stuff, so really at a loss in terms of costing. I do like baking and an ID we visited recommended granite worktop. Just like to find out in terms of solid surface vs granite tops, how much difference is it - cost wise? i do agree i'd like granite top, but i don't want to end up splurging too excessively. Appreciate any info if any! Thanks =)

thank you everyone for the warm welcome!! yep i'm praying for a smooth and pleasant reno journey too. Been looking at everyone else's reno blog and they're all soooo nice in design and well documented: i aim to do the same for mine!! Here is the original floor plan of the flat.. Took pics of the existing condition but as we haven't decided for certain and what's going and what's not, will keep you all updated with regards to the layout once it's more firmed up! We're really wishing that the W.C and toilet can be joined, but all the pipings seem quite impossible to be rearranged such that it allows a clear space in between! *sigh* we'll see how it goes after the ID views the place i guess. Unfortunately as we are worried there'd be a lot of time required to monitor and coordinate contractors, we're hoping the cost for the ID is manageable and we'll use it more as a one stop. Of course, hoping it'd look nicer too lah! =)

We've finally begun planning for our home renovation. Hours spent poring over magazines, forums, trying to piece together what is going to be our very own little space that we'd call home for the years to come. Budget is definitely a major concern, with home loan, car maintenance, and this reno loan... not to mention our hopes to have junior hopefully not-too-distant in the future! So off we went yesterday, in search of that one ID that we'd be able to share our dreams with, to begin the makings of THE PIGSTY. Thanks to renotalk, we've managed to look through the forum and found a few which we shortlisted and paid a visit to. Do stay tuned, we'll update our final decision in probably a fortnight or so! (i'm not too sure if that's enough time for them to get back to us, and us to decide!)