hongwen37

Tiling & Windows Completed Aircon Relocated, Finally Powerpoints for the Bedside Tables The distance might have to be wider apart (2.3m) because of the size of our bed frame... Box Up Small Window This is the tiny top hung window in the Master Bedroom of those old flats. Wonder what is the purpose of it in the first place? Construction of Walk-in Wardrobe Partition Board Construction of U Box for Master Toilet Vanity Area U Box is something like L Box but smaller in size. As we are shifting the vanity out into the Walk-in Wardrobe area, we will be doing up a fixed frosted glass panels plus a swinging frosted glass door under this U Box to demarcate the vanity area from the WIW area.

Of Switches & Power Points New DB Box & Switches for the Living Room Switches for the Kitchen & Common Toilet This is where the fridge will be located too. Power Point for the Washing Machine Thought there should be a cover for this power point since washing area is a wet area.. We dont want water to get into the point right? Switch for the Master Bedroom Things that we learnt. The normal power point outlet is 13Amp. The Aircon requires a power point outlet of 15Amp. Most induction hob requires power point outlet of at least 15Amp. Some 4 burners kind requires up to 20 over Amp. So, check the required Amp of the induction hob you are getting to see whether your power point can support. You dont want to have a blackout everytime you cook right?

Tiling & Windows Completed Living Room White Homogeneous Tiles This is as white as it can get... Living Room White Casement Windows One thing the house attracted me, the windows!! There is a whole stretch of 6 panels of windows in the Living Room and the windows are those bigger size kind all the way to the ceiling with no top hung panels (You know how some houses have those top hung panels, then below is the normal sliding or casement windows?). But of course, bigger size windows mean extra cost to change... We didnt install any grilles for aesthetic reasons. I like houses with lots of windows because it will make the house looks more spacious and have better ventilation. Ceiling Work L-Box in the making... Sadly, Our house cannot do whole piece of false ceiling because our ceiling is shorter from the standard height by few inches, there is regulation by HDB that there must be a minimum height from floor to ceiling (Got to know this from our ID)... Weird, people always say that top floor ceiling must be higher.. Apparently not in our case... So, we are relegated to doing L-Box now which doesnt seem too bad either.. OpenNet Fibre Optics Termination Box If you heard the news probably last year, OpenNet won the bid to install fibre optics for the residential homes in Singapore... These fibre optics will supposedly allow much much faster broadband access (1Gbps as stated in its website). So, we were lucky that they are installing for our house around this period when we are renovating too because we can hide the fibre optics cables in the L-Box together with other electrical wirings.

Tiling & Windows Completed More Common Toilet Photos Lourve windows changed for both toilets. It's white and nice... Shower (Front View) Ferroli 30L Storage Heater Storage heater for both toilets. Haa.. Since we want rain shower, we have to get a storage heater and since we have a storage heater, we might as well have hot water from the storage heater for both toilets instead of having instant heater for the Common Toilet and storage heater for the other. And, with a storage heater, we have to get mixers for the shower head but luckily the rain shower comes with its own mixer... Check out the ugly sewage pipes. By the way, we are on the top floor so no s h i t should come down from there. Those only act as ventilation pipes. Hope it will look nicer after painting...

Tiling & Windows Completed Common Toilet The only problem with the Common Toilet is there is no space to put a basin. Sigh... That's why we havent buy any basin yet. Still waiting for ID to discuss with us where to put the basin and the size of the basin to purchase... Common Toilet Tiles As mentioned in the previous post, the Common Toilet tiles will be glossy instead of the the matt ones... This side of the wall are the white tiles. This side belongs to the black tiles... Crizto Toilet Bowl Normal Shower Head We only install a simple shower head because we believe we wont take shower here that often. It is more for guests, i guess, so dont have to be very nice...

Tiling & Windows Completed I want to clarify that this happened like 2 -3 weeks ago.. but just manage to have time to upload the photos.. Basically, tiling and windows are done then. Of course, right now, more things are done and i will slowly update... Master Toilet Master Toilet Tiling For the Master Toilet tiles, we initially decided on the glossy tiles. But, wife decided that the matt ones look nicer so we swapped with the Common Toilet tiles.. So, yah.. It's matt tiles for Master Toilet in the end.. Crizto Toilet Bowl I think this is a good buy @ only $200 from GR Link Marketing. They are having offer for this design of single piece bowl... All other single piece toilet bowls cost at least $300+. So, we bought 2, one for Master Toilet, the other for Common Toilet. Rain Shower (Front View) This is a good buy too @ $360 from Hoe Kee, also having promotion then for this model. It comes with the rain shower, handheld shower and a mixer... Rain Shower (Side View)

Nice!! So, the kitchen cabinets is left with only the glass backing? When is house warming? hahaha...

Haa.. you should go Clubsnap and find out the answer there.. Mine is the non-VC (Vibration Compensation) version which cost me $620 at Alan Photo... The Vibration Compensation ones cost around $900+...

Start of Reno Master Toilet Common Toilet The spots of "holes" on the walls of the toilets are so that the tiles will sticked to the walls. The Water Outlet for the Aircon This water outlet in one of the toilets, small as it seems, is in fact very important! My friend, during his reno, thought "how come there is a hole in the tiles". So, he questioned his contractors. The contractors also blur blur and sealed up the "hole".. In the end, his whole Walk-in Wardrobe (WIW) flooded because water from the aircon cannot escape and leak from the trunking into his WIW. He has to take off the entire WIW, redo the aircon trunking, redo the laminate flooring and build back the WIW. Worse, he already moved into the house. Haulage Finally, a view from the lift lobby of my house in the day...

Yah.. I using my D90 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens... I wish i had a ultra wide angle lens to take interior photos...

Oh.. I asked for a few quotes from different Aircon guys, including the Aircon contact that Plush has... In the end i engaged my mum's friend who charges the cheapest at $200 to relocate one aircon (It is a bit ex because they have to redo the trunking everything)...

Start of Reno The Big Master Bedroom Storeroom hacked to combined 2 rooms into a BIG Master Bedroom with a Walk-in Wardrobe and extended vanity area. Aircon to be Relocated This aircon was at the storeroom wall. Since we hacked away the storeroom walls, it will be relocated to the top of the Master Bedroom door. Extended Vanity Area We wanted to accomodate a shower screen and a suspended vanity cabinet, and our Master Toilet is too small. The SOLUTION: To extend the vanity area out into the Master Bedroom... This area will be tiled too and frosted glass panels surrounding it to make the Master Toilet bigger... Hacked Aircon Trunking I dont't really like how they manhandled my aircon which is to be relocated...

Start of Reno Aircon Wrapped Anatomy of HDB Wall First time looking at the internal of a HDB flat wall... I was surprised that they actually fill up the walls with styrofoam-like material.. to save money maybe? Testing on Walls for Hacking Approval Apparently, the ID and HDB officer has to drill few holes in the wall to determine if the wall is hackable... I was wondering, what if it is not hackable after drilling? Then, ID has to plaster back the hole? Widening of Kitchen Entrance Hmm.. Not wide enough... That's better!!!

Start of Reno Renovation Permit Plush Notice Sand In Tiles In Protective Cardboard In

I am also really irritated with those thick aircon trunking... One even goes vertically across my wall.. sian (No choice cos the water from the aircon has to flow with a gradient to some outlet in the toilets) .. Have to think of creative ideas to make it less ugly or use it as part of the designs...

Haa.. Ok.. Let me update a bit on what i have bought... Photos of house maybe tonight i will upload... Last last Sunday, Darren (ID) brought us to buy the toilet stuff and the lights... I knew that he will be earning commission from the sales but i dontmind if it is a little expensive. But the price was like 30 - 40% higher.. So, in the end, after selecting everything (for 2 hour plus), we decided not to get any toilet stuff from the shop he brought us... As for the lights, we only bought one Master Bedroom light from them... Darren agreed that 30% more is too high... So, in the end, we went to get all the rest of our lightings from Lightings.com.sg... The difference in pricing in price is about $447 for about the same kind of lights.. I agreed that prices differ alot for different types and designs of lights.. But, i am just comparing mostly the downlights and those same kind of ceiling lights, and the difference is so huge... As for the Toilet stuff, we got most of out things from GR Link Marketing... In fact, only the Rain shower we got it from Hoe Kee where they have offer for this not bad looking rain shower @ $360... Moreover, there is no nice rain shower that we like from GR Link... In the end, for everything that we got from Hoe Kee + GR Link, we managed to save $720 for everything that we want... We also bought our bed frame and mattress from Zenith at Sungei Kadut... Sort of... We saw a platform bed frame that we like and the guy said he can give us the bed frame + mattress at $2680... But we dont like any of the mattress over there and the guy said he can bring in the mattress that we like.. So, we are still looking around for mattress... Probably King Koil or Dunlopillo.... So, we are happy that we got most our things already.. We are left with sofa, coffee table, dining table and chairs, hob, one basin (which we need to know from the ID what size to get), study table, bookshelf and the small little things... Am intending to get the Induction Hob from Bellari...

My house is currently being done up by Plush Living. ID is Darren and project manager is Richard... So far so good!

Ya.. My house has no grilles now.. Look much much better than with grilles.. at least doesnt seem to be staying in "prison" now..

Proposed 2D Layout This was the initial layout proposed by ID... Things we wanted to change: - The Kitchen cabinet to be a "C" shape, so that there will be more storage since we are not doing top cabinets and we hacked off our storeroom - The fridge and washer to be relocated to the same side as the Kitchen cabinet - The Master Toilet vanity to be shifted out into the Walk-in Wardrobe - More wardrobes in the Walk-in Wardrobe - The bed and the study area in the Master Bedroom to switch places This is the modified layout done by me, using the original layout given by the ID...... There will still be changes made to this layout though, as days go by...

Haa.. dont think going cos we just went lightings.com.sg the day before and decided on which lights we want... But havent buy... Furniture also not so early buying.. Haa... your reno progress seems to have overtaken mine.. My ID (Darren) had something on for the past week, supposed to bring us to buy the toilet and lighting stuff.. So, now tiling and windows done but cannot proceed cos havent meet up to discuss the next stage, like the electrical, carpentry, design, etc... luckily we not in a rush... By the way Niko, just to let you know, we happened to receive a letter from OpenNet to install fibre optics for the next generation high speed cable.. so we intending to do it the same time as the electrical, so that the wiring can be concealed in the L Box... if you are doing L Box or what, better contact them to ask about this (can arrange for them to come down and run the cable, takes only half a day).... they are slowly installing for the whole of singapore..

Some ideas: 1) like Chronograph said, do up a partition wall or glass panel (can make it frosted) 2) Build a Walk in Wardrobe outside the toilet... The cons is that it will be expensive 3) Build a stretch of wardrobe outside the toilet.. The idea is like a Walk in wardrobe but without the door and probably a smaller area too.. It is also convenient in this way where you can get your clothes immediately after showering since the wardrobe is just outside... but some people worry that the moisture will cause the clothes to be mouldy and damp...

Yo! Yesterday we went jalan jalan around Jalan besar too, to look at lights and toilet accessories.. Went to GR Marketing too.. Poh Joo was closed... Are the prices at these shops cheap? Do put down the prices of the stuff that you bought for our references... Thanks!!!

It's ok, it will be even nicer after the reno.. so i hope...

Pre-Reno Photos (The Loo) Master Toilet The toilets are too small, a problem with the old toilet designs. They are too small to even fit a proper shower screen and yet still have the basin and toilet bowl together in the toilet. So, we have to shift the basin vanity out of the Master Toilet since we will be doing up a shower screen. The Master Toilet will, therefore be sort of extended and enlarged. We will be building (not we literally, but the contractors) a glass panel and swinging glass door at the extended Master Toilet area. Of course, we are rather shy people, so we will be having the glass panels frosted so people cannot see anyone of us showering or doing our business. (Haa.. I personally feel that it is rather weird to see anyone (including spouses) ****ting or peeing, with those "open concept" toilets... We will be installing storage water heater because we want to have nice shower head. haa. Common Toilet Nothing much will be done for the Common Toilet, following the disappointment of not being able to create the entrance from the Guest Room to this toilet... We feel that we will not be using this toilet to shower, therefore no shower screen is needed.

Pre-Reno Photos (Guest Room) View from Guest Room The Guest Room or Recreation Room or Miscellaneous Room will be untouched. Initially, we wanted to create a new entrance to the Common Toilet which is just beside it (See Floor Plan), so that there will be easy access to the toilet from this room which is a plus point (sort of like a attached toilet) However, HDB did not approve the proposal because there is a ventilation pipe blocking the proposed entrance area and HDB does not allowed us to "chop" away or erect a kreb to cover the pipe. So no choice, see it as saving some money...