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Wood backing for the tempered black glass You can see that we asked ID to seal on side of the bomb shelter ventilation. MBR wardrobe This was already done up before I had any chance to take the work in progress. I'm quite pleased with the colours though. Classic & simple. So I can buy any colour of bed sheets including prints/patterns to match the wardrobe. Yayy! Toilet cabinets The MBR toilet cabinets appeared dark so I asked hubby to take another picture close-up. See below. Do I like it - No, not really? Can change? Unfortunately cannot be changed. ID says that the cabinet laminates are already being 'stuck' on the wood before cutting up the individual pieces for assembly. So no choice, cannot change. After looking at it many times, I guess I was just being really particular. Although they ain't what I imagined them to be, but actually not that bad as well. Frankly, i think unless it is a real 'obiang', the people who are visiting will hardly notice what tone of the grey it is hehhehehehhe my 2cents worth for those of you doing the reno: If you really cannot make up your mind on the laminates colour, don't be in a rush coz this one cannot undo unless you willing to pay for all the material costs to re-do the cabinets. Ask around to visit some neighbours' place or if you can afford the time, wait until their reno is done. People who have been staying in their new place long enough will be more than happy to tell you what are their reno mistakes, what to look out for, what to take note of, what they loved and/or regretted doing, how tough/easy to maintain. Also take the chance to see how people match their colours/themes and textures, you'll be surprised at the findings Coz what you see on paper is quite different when the furniture is in. Also ask if you can take pictures, then at least you can tell your ID what you like and what you don't like, which type of ideas you want to copy. As we are novice in the renovation line, ID may not understand what we are referring to so picture definitely helps.

Sorry sorry for the delay in updating, was busy packing for the shift in on Friday. Ok here goes the continued updates: Time for Carpentry!! Lessons learned from my parent's home reno is that if you're very sure you don't mind having that furniture in the same place and having the same look for 10yrs and more, then carpentry works is the way to go. If you want to change the positioning of the furniture or see yourself changing your family nucleus and stuff, the perhaps better to buy them instead of having them build. With this, we decided to do carpentry works only for following: - Kitchen cabinets - Built in shoe cabinet behind main door - MBR wardrobe - Cabinets for the 2 toilets Pictures of work in progress: Kitchen cabinets Built in shoe cabinet

After flooring was done, time for the air-conditioner piping. From hubby's checks of various shops, EverJoint provided the cheapest quotes for system 4 Starmex Mitsubishi Electric. We also got our cooker hob (Rinnai RB-3SS) and oven (Bosch HBN331E2J) from EJ. The contractor from EJ came, along with the help of our ID, the position of the various sets was re-discussed. Hubby was on off that day and was told by ID to monitor the piping progress to make sure that contractor doesn't try to save on material which will affect the coolness of the air conditioning. The contractor claimed he has another job and will come back later. He will update before the piping is done. Hubby waited - No calls no nothing. We received a call at approximately 8pm that night telling us that the piping was all done up and trunking sealed. Frankly, we were rather upset from this episode coz we wanted to check that they had infact used the appropriate insulation and stuff but now that everything is already concealed under the trunking, we can only pray that the contractor did a good job. There wasn't anything much we could do. And the call at 8pm was to 'demand' for the cheque of the remaining amount. I was definitely quite pissed. ID got the painters for 'colouring': Light Grey for MBR Only 1 wall is light grey, the rest of the walls are white. Some mocha related for guest/future kids room This room is really lucky coz one wall is the mocha colour and the rest of the walls are a colour called light mist or something like that. Green for Study Rm Originally chose green as wanted something cheery and good for the eyes. Similarly, the rest of the walls are white. After seeing the living room and the rest of the bed rooms, I found that this green was too much of a standout. So I requested it to be changed to a colour close to the MBR and guest room palette. Luckily, this decision was reversible Blue for Living Rm This was the dream colour I wanted to have, the rest of the walls are white too. It feels super good!! ID did warn that as there are only 2 coats currently, the eventual coat will deepen the tone slightly.

Meanwhile flooring for living room & bedrooms is in progress too:

Now the action starts Kitchen service balcony hacking in progress: Mortar bases done up for fridge & cabinets: Divider for cooking and utility area built:

Reine - is your kitchen works in progress? Or still planning stage and can still change the colour of laminates? Having it with grey solid top should make the kitchen stand out more than mine. But one thing hafta warn you, with all the white laminates or flooring around, any dirt can easily see. Then when you see also quite stressful... wahahhahhaha

Hi Piknik, will try my best to post more each day. Glad to hear you're excited too, are you gonna do reno anytime soon?

We didn't overlay the toilet tiles. Only intending to do up cabinets, put in shower screen coz I dont like whole toilet gets wet everytime we bathe. Hubby would like a rain shower, ID agreed to help to install after we buy one ourselves - Yay! Common Toilet: MBR Toilet:

For the rooms, we only managed to snap pics after the sand and cement mix came in. Living Rm & Bedrms: Living Rm Study/Lounge Rm Guest/Children Rm Masterbed Rm - this pic is taken frm inside the MBR toilet.

After choosing floor tiles, ID's action was like super fast. She applied for PE's approval to hack the kitchen service balcony doors and then got her people in to chop chop start work. Thankfully, hubby works shift and gets one week day and one weekend off. He does most of the supervision and will update me of status. I only manage to pop by on weekends to see how is everything going. Sorry sorry... We forgot to take pictures of the original state and are only able to capture some of the 'before' look. Some pics before any reno was done: Kitchen This was the green stripes I was talking about that runs across the kitchen walls. Pic of how service balcony used to be like, supposed to have two windows with the door in the middle. Sorry i know this is quite a lousy pic 'Common' Corridor: You will be able to see the bomb shelter handle. The ID originally quoted a 'feature' panel to hide the wall coz we told her doesn't look good. After we heard the quote, we told her that we can accept seeing the handle as it is coz we rather spend the money elsewhere.

Rain, if you really like the tiffany blue walls, go for it. when it's up, you will feel really happy. Are you going to do it for your study room only? what about the colours of other rooms... In my later posts, you will see a decision gone wrong on the wall colours. Luckily for me, it was a reversible decision.

Me & hubby went back, discussed about what we wanted for our new place, $$, housekeeping and cleaning. Eventually decided with the following: - drop laminates and go with homogeneous tiles for the whole flat - since HDB given toilet tiles are grey, we should go with grey tones for toilet cabinets - we liked the idea of a seperate cooking and utility area so L shape kitchen for us - no need cooker hood, therefore change and swop areas with sink and have some top cabinets - if we take white for kitchen cabinets, the green lines should look fine so no need for tempered glass backings - frosted glass doors for both the toilets instead of PD or bi-fold - clear glass door for kitchen too so that the smoke and stuff doesn't get out Oh yah in case you are wondering why there isn't pics of other rooms, that's because there isn't any carpentry works done. Just painting that's all, we haven't decided what to do. One will likely be a lounge cum study room and the other a guest room first and a future kids room when they come along. Went back & conveyed our thoughts to ID. She got the drawings revised and showed us the 2nd 'release': Kitchen No change to cabinet colour, only tempered glass backing removed. Position of sink and hob exchanged, added in top cabinets and dish rack. MBR Toilet A whole piece of glass across the toilet and cabinets changed to dark grey. Common Toilet Cabinet changed to light grey since this toilet is smaller and a brighter colour would make it appear more spacious.

Rain - Great minds think alike! Yupz, it looks really like the colour of tiffany jewellery's gift box! Thanks for your suggestions about the drawers, however my place is almost 90% done. I'm so so so late in updating the blogs. Its my first try at such stuff and I thought since hubby got some really useful help and advice from this forum, I should just try to complete the blog and share with other peeps too.

We told her we would like to have big mirrors in toilets and some simple cabinets at the bottom. Yes, would be nice to get hotel feel but then we are not after the 'luxurious' types of look. Cabinet for the masterbed room too, nothing fanciful, simple yet classic is good for me. Masterbed Room We didn't want too dark a wall so told her probably we ought to choose a wall colour less dark. Her thoughts were that we wanted dark laminates for the floor so our wall colours were really limited in options. She is not a fan of laminates and shared that homogeneous tiles are easier to maintain. She told us she can do either that we ask however we ought to consider more about how we are going to go about maintaining the place. Hmmm... lots of thinking to do... Masterbed Room Toilet I told her I didnt fancy having the mirror cut up, I would prefer an entire piece of mirror. The 'patterns' on the cabinet is a definite no-no for me - too 'flowery'. Hehehhehehhehe... Common Toilet I was quite happy with this drawing. However ID shared that black while stylish, may make the common toilet look smaller than it already is. She suggested changing the cabinets to a lighter colour.

We also talked about the kitchen and I told her my mom didn't believe in having in having cooker hood, I kinda grew up this way too. So I would like a kitchen without any top cabinet so that cleaning would be easier and cabinets wouldn't be damaged from the cooking heat. I also wanted the service balcony doors hacked for a more spacious kitchen (after seeing a neighbour's place). Not forgetting that HDB given kitchen tiles has the green lines (I really didn't quite like them and wanted them hidden for good), she said she will try to do something however tempered glass is gonna burst my budget if that was what I really wanted. She came up with some good options for our selections. Kitchen With service balcony completely hacked and cabinets all the way. I thought the colours were quite good however the kitchen looked rather weird without any top cabinet. L shaped kitchen to 'segment' the balcony area and the cooking area. We quite liked this concept and asked her if we could switch the sink with the hob so that there wouldn't be anything above the hob and we could worry less about the heat and cabinet being spoilt. Then we can also have some top cabinet to complete the look. Having it white (without the black themes) gave it a really simple yet clean look too. We told her to revise to include top cabinets, but this got our nods