kirinshibori

Wow, really? Do you use any special hinges for your door or are there felt strips pasted on the frame? Do share the secret to silent bedroom doors!

We're getting our bedroom doors replaced... anyone knows if there are cons to getting solid timber veneer doors versus semi-hollow veneer doors for the bedrooms other than cost? The guy getting our doors suggested sticking with semi-hollow as there will be less expansion/warping problems in the future as well as less likelihood for the door to sag at the hinges. Personally, I prefer the feel of a solid door as I'm quite sick of the vibration and noise when you close a semi-hollow one, but the other me says that I'm not as experienced as the door guy and should take his advice... help, anybody?

Let me try to sum up my thoughts about the two flooring. Laminate Pros: 1. Cheap! At $3.50/sqf before GST for Made-in-Germany AC4 laminate boards with upgraded "solidstep" underlay and skirting... I can't really ask for more... 2. We love the look! Yes, it's a piece of photograph under a piece of plastic... but it achieved the look we want, and guess what, Japanese floors are predominantly laminate boards nowadays as it is low cost and low maintenance. 3. Can't see the scratches, but that's because of the colour and tones. Cons: 1. The "floaty" feeling... which was minimized with the "solidstep" underlay upgrade but highly dependent on the levelness of your cement screed floor. All I can say is, you get what you pay for. My cement screeding was done FOC by HDB and it was a disaster. It was so bad that the flooring people stopped work as the floor was so uneven that the boards cannot be installed. I had to get my tiler in to do an emergency rescue and rectify the uneven portion so that the flooring installation could continue. 2. No matter what they say or do, laminate floors do not like water, especially at the edges where they meet the wall. That is where whatever wax coating or waterproofing becomes nullified as the board is cut to fit the walls, exposing the vulnerable inner HDF. Vinyl (aka High-end Resilient Flooring) Frankly, I'll just call it vinyl, whatever else is just marketing speak. Btw, it's known as Allure Trafficmaster in the US. Pros: 1. Waterproof. Kitchen-friendly, but not recommended for bathrooms as it is a floating system that is installed by click and lock, so water can still be trapped between the vinyl and your sub-floor after prolong exposure to puddles of water, and in a high humidity area such as the bathroom, it could lead to unpleasant odours as yucky stuff start festering there... 2. The feel is solid. I love walking on it, and the texture feels like I'm walking on wood grains. No creaking, no floaty feel but again, do yourself a favour and get proper cement screeding, cos the vinyl tiles are pliable and will follow whatever curvature your floor throws at it. 3. The embossing is pretty impressive in terms of look and feel, but some of these embossing were so eye-catching that we caught sight of the repeat patterns, lol! 4. AC5, but note that it is not scratch proof, cos my carpenter managed to scratch it with his nailgun air compressor... Cons: 1. Relatively expensive, at $5.95/sqf before GST but without skirting, it isn't cheap. 2. The look... but that could be due to the colour and pattern we chose. I think we prefer 2 or 3-strip planks to match our desired look. 3. Less forgiving than laminates if our young ones fall on it as it is only 5mm thick and nothing separates it from the concrete floor. I really regretted not choosing a lighter tone for the vinyl, so that the dining area will flow into the kitchen area better. Given a more generous budget, I'd have chosen vinyl for the whole house; the other option is to use the faux wood ceramic tiles we have in the bathrooms for the kitchen. Anyway, those are all wants and not needs, at least that's how I try to convince myself!

It's slowly shaping up. There are also 2 Ikea hacks seen here. The dining table is using legs from the dining table in the Skogall dining set, while the table top is a 10-ply plywood with white laminate top, PVC bottom and actual wood trimming at the side. This is the offer that is still on at Ikea. The foldable table attached to the island uses the frame from the Norbo drop-leaf table. I bought the table for $40 from Ikea's as-is; however, the table top was damaged during the renovation, so I got my carpenter to fabricate a table top and re-use the frame. It's not evident here as the house is still rather dusty, but the solid surface is very glossy and I could have chosen hi-gloss black laminate for the table to match the sheen. But I guess matte black is good too in that scratches are less obvious.

Thanks! I like how the wood turned out too. We had actually planned to use plain plywood for the drawer and cabinet doors (what were we thinking of?!), and we were horrified by what we saw when the kitchen cabinets came... even with shellac and lacquer, the result wasn't what we intended as the wood grains and colours just didn't work. After discussing with the carpenters and topping up for the extra material, we chose oak veneer for the drawer doors and cabinets and solid white ash strips for the grille doors. The internal plywood carcass was waterproofed with some sort of marine polyester resin and both the internal and external cabinets would be finished with shellac and lacquer. I think this sort of carpentry is pretty uncommon, rather old-school and very time consuming! I have my issues with the carpenter; though overall, I'm grateful for the time and effort they put in for my project. But yes, my carpentry is kinda bottlenecking everything else! Anyway, I'll skip the kitchen for now and post the wip toilet pics... The Ikea Godmorgan sink cabinet only cost $100 (the sink cost $199 though, no discount ) as it was discontinued as-is, but I got my carpenter to laminate the sides as it came originally as black-brown. The drawer fronts are white and the best thing is they come with Blum tandembox full extension drawer rails with blumotion... so I pretty much got the wood for free, considering the 2 sets of rails would cost almost $80.

I'm humbled by your compliment... please bear with me as I subject you guys to more of my doodles... The MBR WIW concept (refer to space planning diagram above) was scrapped due to a lack of space, but this was what we had originally intended to do. My spouse termed the access door on the right as the "ninja door", lol, as it is supposed to resemble the cupboard door on the left when closed. As for the common toilet, I was exploring the idea of a wall-hung WC, but the cost for achieving it was prohibitive, so we scrapped the idea too...

There's still some way to go till the end of the renovation, but this is the same perspective view as the "3D" I posted earlier...

Pardon my half past six drawing... anyway, this was what I gave my carpenter when we started the reno more than a month ago... The final product is pretty similar, except I have no money for the removable cupboard at the foyer, some appliances have changed make and position, and we're using oak and ash instead of plywood for the exterior...

It's been a long time since I updated... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can move in to the new place in 2 weeks' time. Anyway, decided that I will post my initial space planning design up since my father-in-law actually translated it into Autocad dwg for me to DIY a 3DMax perspective... alas, he was too busy and only managed to pass me the file now. With the renovation nearing an end, I don't even know if I can be bothered with coming up with a 3D, lol... Regardless, cannot let my FIL's efforts go to waste, so I'll just post here as a start. The actual plan has the living and dining areas swapped, and the MBR WIW done away... cos the actual room is simply too small to accommodate a WIW!

This is like the nicest switch ever, but the price is not very nice, haha! It's from the Merten M-Plan Glass series, with real glass and thermoplastic rocker switches... So, true to my shoestring budget... I stuck to the plain jane MK Slimline R6 that HDB gave as rectification replacements and bought some Legrand Mallia for those new additions... MK Slimline Plus Legrand Mallia While getting the switches and sockets, I also bought an ELCB for the isolated mains that I'll be using for my antique hifi... but that'll be another entry by itself.

We got ourselves these instead... Not as flash as the Grohe/Hansgrohe stuff... but it should fit our needs.

Anyway, back to happier stuff... Due to the non-delivery from Insani for the following items...

I have finally decided to escalate my claim for a refund to Paypal against Insani. Long story... I placed an order with Insani on 13/02/12 for a Grohe thermostatic shower mixer, Grohe handshower and Hansgrohe kitchen mixer, which Insani said was dispatched on 23/02/12. I checked with Insani on 06/03/12 on the status of my shipment after waiting for more than 2 weeks (Insani's standard international delivery timeframe). Insani said that they will check with DHL, but they did not give me further information other than they are waiting for DHL's reply. I checked concurrently with DHL on the shipment's status on 15/03/12. DHL said on 19/03/12 that the status of my package from Insani indicated "Electronic shipment data are available", which meant that Insani had provided the shipment data electronically but the shipment itself has not been taken over by DHL yet. DHL asked me to contact Insani for further information. I forwarded DHL's reply to me to Insani on 19/03/12 and corresponded with them since without reaching any agreement. Insani said on 04/01/12 that they will refund the money as soon as they have any information from DHL that the package got lost and that the transport insurance covers the loss. Unfortunately, I am not satisfied with the arrangement because there is no indication when I will get my refund, and if I will get it at all. My point remains that I am an Insani customer, therefore the status of my refund should be independent from the reply of a third party (DHL). Whatever goes on between Insani and the third party should not concern me and in fact, should be transparent to me. I have not received my goods after it was allegedly sent out more than 6 weeks ago. This has caused me considerable distress and inconvenience as my home renovation has been put on hold and I have to seek alternate accommodation and also buy my goods from another source. Therefore, there should be no conditions attached to my refund since Insani has failed to deliver its end of the contract. I informed Insani on 4 Apr that if they are not able to provide a better solution, I will escalate the refund request to eBay and let eBay decide. And so, I escalated my claim today... Sigh, unnecessary stress...

I hate dust too, and especially the cleaning bit!

Tiling is complete. HDB has replaced my switches and sockets. Ceiling is getting painted today and the rest of the house from Monday onward. So far so good. Some more pictures to add to the ideabook... The color scheme of my MBR bathroom is pretty close to this. Nice, simple Dining/Kitchen. But what impressed me most is this... This looks tighter than my place, but it still looks surprisingly well organized and not too cramped.

Ah, storage platforms are expensive... I don't have the budget for that. In fact, I decided that I don't have the budget for false ceilings, cove lights, downlights, carpentry for bedrooms other than the MBR and feature walls. So everything's gonna be as simple as practically possible.

That's way cheaper than what I paid! Hmm, hope mine won't rust too soon!

Cheer up! Small and cosy, ain't that what we're aiming for? Hmm, I can't disclose my scope of work and exact pricing as Shaun is giving me friendship rates. That said, his normal rates aren't high and it's really what you pay is what you get, so if you can moderate your expectations, some stuff can be quite cheap. Anyhowz, I'll try to be a little bit more specific... Wet works (includes hacking, tiling, painting, grilles, etc.), plumbing, electrical and flooring cost $20k with some spare change. Carpentry (includes kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and living room) and stuff from Ikea cost $10k with some spare change too. Aircon, appliances, lighting and toilet and kitchen fittings add up to less than $10k. So there you have it, all up <$40k.

Idea book continued... this time, the inspiration is from Remodelista. Another example of a nice genkan. Wood, white and grey... Plants... books and a matching wooden fan!

Hmm... usually mandrel bends are done on copper pipes as they are more malleable. Due to its stiffness, stainless steel pipes are connected with joints when bends are required. They shouldn't have bent the stainless steel pipe over 90 degrees, a joint should be there instead. I think most people choose stainless steel for aesthetic reasons, but to be more "leak-proof", copper would be a better choice due to the lesser number of joints. Do correct me if I'm wrong though...

The price you got should be ok. My Caprios were bought from Genova at $350 each incl GST as well, and included bidet sprays as part of the package.

Try Inzwerkz @Vertex in Ubi or even SGAppliances for quote. The latter doesn't charge GST, so you may get some savings there. I got my Rubine Punto mixers from Inzwerk, albeit through a friend, so the pricing was pretty good.

Sure, will do. I'm also wondering how it'll turn out, haha...

Thanks for the cool tip! I'll make sure my carpenter takes note.

I didn't buy the lamp from the group buy, but I paid around 60% of the group buy price. I shall refrain from mentioning where I buy it until I get it delivered, 'cos I don't want to be recommending lemons to anybody. But the design is not exactly like the original Arc lamp as the metal arm is tubular. But what the heck, it's dirt cheap, and it's just for accent lighting! My tile selection was mentioned previously here. I'm using Parador AC4 3-plank oak laminates for living/dining and all bedrooms and Allure AC5 oak vinyl tiles for the kitchen. You will notice that I have some faux-timber tiles. Those are for the kitchen cabinet base skirting and bathroom dry areas.