Pirvan

During our last reno, we wanted to try getting some furnishing from TAOBAO but got so intimidated by the plethora of options available and Mandarin not being our strongest suit, we ditched the idea. One of the items on our wishlist this time round was to try and at least give TAOBAO a try and see if indeed, the price and items from TAOBAO are worth the effort. THANKFULLLYYYY, James has a partner called Charmaine, and she is the TAOBAO queen. All we had to do was to give her the items we wanted, she will talk to the vendor, work out the dimensions/colors etc, and arrange to be shipped right to our doorstep. We are waiting for our shipment right as we speak. We ended up buying a TV console, 2 network cabinets (more on that later), a toilet vanity, some lights and also a custom study room table+shelf (my most worried item). Fingers crossed it all turns out well.

Along the way, items that will be installed eventually makes it way into the house. We choose AOSbath with its digital heater as our main source of hot water. As well has Turbo for its hob and oven and INNOVAR for the vinyl flooring. Cant wait for the end when all these items are installed.

Having an ID that cares about how the house will ultimately turn out is extremely important. James took pride in each house that he is designing and goes to great length to ensure the end result is not just 'satisfactory', but he wants it exceed the expectations of his client. One good example was how he would arrange with us to meet him at night to go on site to test out various lighting for the important areas. He knows I am a big fan of using lighting to create the right , hence we spent 2 nights at my new place testing out various lights and positions before the electrical work started.

One of the small things i wanted for this house was to use more unique glass(es) for the balcony doors and also to be embedded in some of the carpentry. A while back during one of our travels, we chanced upon wired glass being used to good effect and that left a fairly strong memory for me. Hence this time, we explored using them in our house as we didnt want the usual suspect of frosted/clear/tinted. Frosted wire glass was common enough and most glass makers in Singapore would be able to do it easily. Clear wired glass however was another story. It cost a bomb but I was so smitten by it that we decided to allocated some budget to it for the balcony door. It doubles up as a visual cue to people that likes to walk into glass doors

Part of our research process led us to the blum showroom. We were there during one of the weekdays afternoon hence the showroom was relatively empty. One of the sales staff saw us walking around aimlessly and decided to give us a full run down of how blum works and the difference between the different models. Good man! We came out of the showroom rich in knowledge but poor in the wallet We both loved the way BLUM functions and was very sure that it would maximise our storage, and also be very functional in the way we use our drawer spaces. Hence we told james to help us include BLUM bits in all of our carpentry.

Mr Roy from Deco art has been in and out of my place for a few days. He and his assistant has just completed the works i commissioned him to do and we have been highly impressed as well. They've made multiple trips partly due to their diligence in seperating the stages in which the craft wall goes up, at the same time, accommodating the other sub cons when it comes to sharing spaces. The wall is up and now its just a matter of waiting for everything else to be completed before he comes in to touch up any defects of 'harm' that was done to the walls because of the other reno works in the house. Attached are some pictures of his work. I can't seem to organize the pictures in the sequence in which they are done thou. I'll just leave that to your imagination

Works for the house is now chugging along nicely. For the first 1-2 weeks, it was a little more hectic and alot of decisions had to be made quickly. Eg, positioning of sockets, light points, partition wall thickness, blah blah blah. Very often, a daily visit to the site will turn into a mind numbing whirl of snap decisions that had to be made on the spot. Now that most of the major decision have been settled, its more or less time to let James flex his muscle and make all the subcontractors play nice. For the past few days, the 3 main group of guys i see are the electicians, painter/plasterer and tiler. Special mention to the guy that does all the partition work for us. Ah Guang works alone but is super efficient. I watched him work the other day and came out impressed. Tell him how you want a wall or ceiling to be done and he will measure 3-4 times, cut once and it will come out looking exactly like how you want it. Highly impressed.

For a house of this age and with this particular layout, the dustbin chute is usually at the balcony. This posed a problem as i did not want to have a rubbish chute sticking out in the middle of nowhere in an area we are trying to make into an activity area. Hence the search begins for a fire hose cabinet! Initially we thought this should be easy and started scouring for this via TAOBAO, Q and even carousell. Turns out that we cant seem to find one that is for decorative purpose and only the real deal (real functioning cabinet) is sold. But they are usually super expensive hence the hunt begins for a less pricier option

Thanks! Regarding the repositioning of the staircase, its actually a very smart idea from my ID. Instead of paying and getting a PE to endorse it, we are fabricating a staircase landing extension to form the L angle. As there is no modification and its not permanent, an endorsement is not required!

Im actually not too sure how much it will cost for that exact size. Maybe you can give Roy (the boss) from Decoart a quick call. He is super nice. A sneak peak for one of the walls he did for us

Hi! Oh, actually, the pictures of the house is actually my current place.

Now, normally, during a renovation. the process more or less goes like this 1. Hacker/hulk comes in, smashes your home up. 2. Tilers come in to do all the wet work and making good of areas that was smashed by hulk, probably a week or so? and then continues tiling wherever required. 3. Plumber and electrician comes in to lay the pipes and wires before concealing 4. False ceiling guy comes and boxes things up 5, Plaster comes 5. Painter comes etc etc BUT because I had such a tight timeline, my ID had to work everyone into the project simultaneously. for the first week alone, after the hacking, this is how things were working Kitchen, Tiler one, screeding and laying floor tiles, Tiler 2 making good all walls and laying mortar base for the cabinets Living Room, Plasterer at work Bed rooms upstairs, air con guy laying trucking Staircase, Artisan (Roy who happens to be the boss himself!!!) laying base layer for his artwork. Upstairs toilet, Chief tiler laying wall tiles. Any other rooms not occupied, electricians (once we signed the contract) were laying the wires. And that set the tone for the rest of the reno, I am eternally grateful for James (my ID) and all the subcons who were willing to work under these conditions just to help me complete the project so we can move in sooner. I didnt think too much about this until i spent 2 days in the house together with them (making sure everything queries can be answered straight away) that i found out the tough working conditions. And as if thats not bad enough, imagine the amount of raw materials that was spewed all over the place. You had tiles, cement, water proofing, wires, pipes, plaster material, DECORART materials, scarfoldings, ladders galore. And on a good day, i count 5 electical works, 3 tilers, plaster, painter, 2 decoart guys, Ah Guang (my false wall / ceiling guy - top notch fella!!) all working simultaneously. They'd have to plan in the morning when they get in, who gets which room, and who has to do what before another can come in to complete the other portions. This is where the strength of my ID and his assistant comes into play, James would visit the site daily in the morning to co-ordinate the work, and his assistant Weili would stay and ensure everyone knows what they are doing. I cannot wrap my head around the detail or coordination required to do this. On days i cannot make it down to visit the site, Weili would be constantly updating the wassap group chat (Godsend!) on whats going on and the progress. And I'ii do my part by dropping by as much as i can, bearing gifts of curry puffs and herbal tea for the workers. Thank you gentlemen and thank you weili!

Electrician This is where things got a little tricky. One of the requirements we had for the house was minimum false ceiling. One is because we wanted to keep the height of the ceiling. And also with exposed trunking, adding and removing points would be a lot easier. Tying in with our theme of industrial look, we decided that running pvc pipes as a conduit would look better then the conventional rectangular PVC trunks. An option on top of that would be to use GI pipes (steel i think?) instead of black PVC. but OMGAAWDD, one electrician quoted us 4K JUST for the trunking (bending and installation of the pipes) alone! We were also going to run led strips on each step of the staircase. Hiding the wiring was a challenge itself. On top of that, alot of electrician wanted to charge 2 arms and half my toe to handle the project. The cost of electrician was escalating very quickly. We were hunting around to get multiple quotes from different sources and recommendations and most came back like a defibrillator, massive jolt to my heart. Ultimately, it was through reading one of the Tblogs that we noticed Mr Quek and Christina was getting a fair bit of reviews when it comes to electricians. After messaging both of them, i realized that they are both from the same company, Ooops, embarrassment much? Mr Q is like the modern asian version of DANNY CRANE from the show Boston Legal. He enters the room with a florish and when he speaks, everyone listens. Wheres Christina is the lady boss who brings him back to earth. But dont be deceived! Mr Q is a licensed LEW who apparently does a fair bit of job for Singapore Power. Our encounter can be summarized like this, Christina and Mr Q wal">