macbart

You're right. About a month ago when I was at one of the Ikea branches (can't remember which one), I opened one of the units on display and noticed that one of the anti-slam devices was missing (perhaps someone removed it?) and the name on the hinge was "Blum".

Day 15 By November 26, the old windows in the kitchen and bathroom were gone and we had nice, new ones, which let in much more light. We love the view from the kitchen! Er... minus that mop. The plumbers had been in to put in new water pipes (stainless steel) and to change the sewage pipe cos the old one apparently had been leaking. And, as you can see, they'd installed the toilet bowl. The electrician had been in too, making holes in walls. I'm kidding, of course. He was there to install the new power points and light points that we wanted. Apparently, they thought we'd keep most of the existing points and just add a few. But when he arrived and realised we wanted just about every single light and power point moved, with lots of news ones as well, he had to take an extra day to complete the work. The air-conditioning folk were over on November 26. And by late afternoon, they'd completed their work, collected their cheque and left.

Day 11 This is how the kitchen looked on Sunday, November 22. Tiling was pretty much done, except for the bit near the window (which they completed after the window was changed on Wednesday, November 25). The window was originally scheduled to be changed the previous week, but they couldn't cos the permit wasn't approved in time.

Hi Mickey, thanx. I've been reading yours too... though I haven't said anything there. I hope everything goes well and you have it looking good and ready soon.

Hi Reiki, thanx. Yeah, you're right. It is looking a little messy, especially as we've started packing some of our stuff. We have several boxes piled up along a wall in one room and now a couple more in our bedroom.

The Kitchen Right from the beginning (and probably even before that), my wife has wanted an island. I like the idea of having an island too (provided there’s enough space and it’s feasible). We also decided early on that we did not want any wall cabinets and that we wanted to use an induction hob (more about this later). The key obstacle to overcome in planning the layout of our kitchen was to figure out how we could configure it so that it would provide a reasonable stretch of countertop workspace as well as a refrigerator, a tall larder unit and a taller unit to house an oven at “eye-level” (and not under the counter). And there should be space for the washing machine. Our initial plan was to have the larder unit, oven unit, refrigerator and sink in the space against the wall, with the an island parallel to this for the hob and providing workspace. However, after measuring the space, we realised it was only 2500mm and not the 2800mm as indicated on the floor plan. Taking 600mm each for the larder and oven units and the refrigerator, that leaves just 700mm for the sink, which would have meant having to use a small sink in a cramped space next to the tall units. In addition to this, once we leave sufficient space near the kitchen entrance, the island would only be about 1.5m in length. It didn’t make sense to have a tiny sink and little countertop workspace, especially when we’d have to pay more for an island hood. We scratched our heads and tried all sorts of different layout combinations, including one that called for a reduction in the size of the bathroom, with the kitchen taking over that space, and the bathroom vanity cabinet and basin being placed in the kitchen, near the window. In the end, one of the designers we spoke with came up with a solution that we adapted. Her design was to seal up the existing doors to the bathroom and toilet, combine the two into one space, opening up one new entrance to the combined bathroom from the bedroom next to it (half of which would be converted to a walk-in-wardrobe, with the half turning into a storeroom) and another a new entrance from the living room. By doing this, we’d end up with a 3.9m wall in the kitchen, along which we could place kitchen base cabinets, with the tall units along the opposite wall. We have to give her credit for her creativity, but we didn’t really want part of one bedroom turned into a storeroom. Nor did we like the rest of her plan, which included knocking pretty much all the walls down and reconfiguring the layout of the remaining rooms. But the biggest factor against choosing that ID firm was the timeline. It would have till at least the middle of January (assuming everything went smoothly). So now that we have the old doors to the bathroom and toilet sealed up, with a new entrance from the living room, we’ll have a 12-foot run of base cabinets (800mm each for sink and hob, giving 2m of countertop workspace) along this wall and the oven unit, larder unit and refrigerator along the opposite wall. We initially thought we’d have the sink nearer the windows, but after a visit to the Blum showroom and speaking with Caroline, we’ve swapped the locations of the hob and sink. Caroline advised that since my wife and I are both right-handed, it would be easier for us to move in clockwise direction from food storage to sink to the preparation zone, to the hob. The carpenter came over to measure everything last Saturday and I guess they’re fabricating the cabinets (and the one that goes in the bathroom) now. They’re scheduled to install it next week. I hope to have some pix up the weekend that follows.

First Major Purchases My wife and I cheered ourselves up from the disappointment on the day of the first appointment with HDB by making the first major purchase for our new home (we actually bought the first few items for the new place a week earlier, while on our honeymoon in Bali) - a Tempur mattress and bed, which came with two free pillows, a free accessory (my wife chose the lumbar support) and a free mat. Our next major purchase came during Ikea’s sale in July. We decided we should check out the stores to see if there were any furniture bargains (TV console, table, chairs, Billy book cases etc) that we should pick up for our new flat, but ended up buying something we hadn’t even thought of - flooring! Ikea had slashed the price of its Kvist veneered bamboo flooring from $99 to $29 per box (1.39sqm) and the accompanying skirting from $29 to $9 per piece (2m). We did the math before deciding to commit to the purchase. Including the cost of installation by Ikea’s recommended installer (@ $13 per sqm), and adding the required Niva underlay, the total per square-foot price came to about $4. Unlike Tempur, Ikea couldn’t hold on to our purchase till we need it delivered to the new place, so we had little choice but to have it delivered to our present home (where it’s under the bed).

In the Beginning… When we signed the option to purchase and exercised the option back in May, we were hoping that we’d have the keys by the end of July and begin and complete renovations in August (or by mid-September) and move in by the end of September. That plan, as you probably know if you’ve read some of my earlier posts, did not work out. On the day of the first appointment with HDB, the sellers asked for a two-month extension. Instead of their initially-stated plan of moving into a relative’s home, they had decided to purchase another flat. And they would need to receive the keys to that place and have it renovated, ready for them to move in. While we had set our hearts on getting our new place and moving in as soon as feasible, we agreed to the extension cos we wanted to make sure there was nothing that would delay (or worse, derail) the completion of the transaction.

Wow, I hope everything is done asap and that everything goes really smoothly with your move-in.

Hi Yuene, thanx. I believe that too.

Hi ossify, thanx for the welcome. Absolutely! We're thanking Him through the whole process of getting it and setting it up.

I suppose you will eventually? And yes, I think it's nice having friendly neighbours. So I hope yours turn out to be friendly too.

Hi doremon, most of the items listed are the same as what I'm paying, except for the 13A power point. The quote that I have is $40 for a single power point and $55 for a double.

I had the same problem, so I typed it out with an underscore... like this - Classic_Ideas.

Well, it's relatively new compared to the 39-year-old flat my wife and I bought. Yes, it is different from the "norm", all rectangular flat. Could be interesting. Do you plan to alter the layout? Eg. knocking walls down? Look forward to seeing the pix as and when you post them. I hope everything goes smoothly with your reno plans.

Thanx, yes, we like the place and are starting to discover that we have quite a few friendly neighbours. It seems to be a place where people know each other and talk to each other.

Thanx. Yes, finally, more than two weeks after I should have started! I hope I can catch up with the updates and stay current from now on.

Hi, you're right. it was upgraded in 1994. Unfortunately, unlike block 102, blocks 101, 103 & 104 don't have the additional 6sqm (extended kitchen). I guess only the residents in block 102 voted for it.

Hi, yeah it was indeed a good price. We got it at just the right time. It was after the first quarter's price movement was announced (that prices overall dipped). Overall, the mood seemed to be that prices would continue to drop in the second quarter. Once we're signed the option to purchase and exercised the option, it took another month and a half before the first appointment with HDB. It was only about another month later that the news was out that prices had turned back up and, in fact, hit a new high in the second quarter! I guess we were really blessed to buy at the right time.

hi, thanx. We're hoping it looks ok when it's all done.

Hi Leon, we're doing a total revamp of the kitchen and bathroom as part of our reno. The total for stainless steel water pipes for kitchen and bathroom is $550. There's also an item listed for installation of the sink ($90). I guess that covers the cost of repositioning the drainage pipe as well. But of course that's only possible cos we retiled the kitchen, so they had to hack up the old floor first.

Hey Moku, welcome! From the floor plan, I'd hazard a guess that it's relatively new?

Day 8 After two days of hacking and clearing of the debris (including at least part of the day three), tiling began on day 5 (the day before was a Sunday). This is what I saw when I dropped by on Thursday, November 18. The bathroom looked a whole lot better than it had a few days earlier. As did the kitchen. But because our application for a permit to change all the windows had not been approved (yet), the replacing of the kitchen and bathroom windows was on hold, which meant the tiling couldn't be completed either. By this day, HDB had listed the changing of these windows as approved. But everything else we wanted to change was listed as "pending", and therefore, the status of the permit as a whole was still "pending". While that was a bit of a downer, I saw that City Gas had come over and capped the gas pipe shorter than it had been earlier. If you notice from one of the pictures in an earlier post, there was a bit of pipe that ran forward, then up, then left, then forward and then a bit more to the right.

Hi diana, yes, it certainly was a good deal. We're pleased.

Hi purplesky, thanx. I hope it goes smoothly too. So far, it's been ok. Except for the windows. More about that soon.