ayazumi

Tiles are cheap, it is the labor cost that is expensive. Since the tiler is already laying tiles for the kitchen wall, even if they don't lay tiles for top and bottom areas where kitchen cabinet position is, it will not save much costs too. Not sure why some IDs/contractors lay tiles inbetween the top and bottom cabinets, but not on the top or bottom wall.

Hi potatoes. I noticed that too. I saw some blogs that their kitchens do not have top or bottom kitchen wall tiles because the top and bottom cabinets will cover the concrete wall. We brought this up to our contractor before, we thought that maybe can save some costs, however, his advise was not to do that. I can't remember what is the reason behind it, but if I am not wrong, I think it got to do with unevenness. Actually I feel that it is better to do full wall tiles than leaving top and bottom wall empty because after applying the cement to the wall tiles, the thickness is quite thick. When the kitchen cabinet flush to the concrete wall, the middle part of the tiles will protrude out a little bit. See this. The thickness of the cement and tiles is very thick. At least 2-3cm thickness difference from the actual wall. This will affect the bottom cabinet width, reduce by 2-3cm. The workmanship must be very good to make sure that the wall tiles sit on the cabinet work surface well, if not they will leave a gap in between And yes, we are doing top and bottom kitchen cabinets

DAY ELEVEN Despite today is Sunday (rest day for everyone), our contractor made an effort to drive to our house to pass us the laminate samples which we have requested to see bigger piece samples, so that the designs of the laminates are more obvious and easier for us to choose. So many laminates to choose from... I am starting to get confused We shall take our time to choose after dinner. Stay tune!

Hi Pirvan. I remembered you bought the blanco combo too. Initially, I was quite hesitant to buy due to the price, but after walking a few rounds in the showroom, hearing some sales talk, and comparing the quality of stainless steel sinks and prices, we decided to buy this blanco combo and hopefully the sink can lsst us for very very long. Are you intending to undermount the sink? The sales lady said that if we want to do undermount for this sink, the undermount part can only cover a bit of the sides of the sink. I'm not sure if the sink can support the weight of heavy pots and pans put in the sink, since the only a small part of the side of the sink is covered by silicon or surface top. Do keep me update of your sink.

Everyday is SUNDAY Shopping Initially we wanted to get a small ceiling/wall light for the short corridor, to place the light in between the 3 bedrooms, but since the guy (he could be the boss of the shop) is so stingy, we decided not to purchase more lights from the shop. We do not want to travel all the way to IMM branch to just buy 1 or 2 lights from the sales lady (who is the boss's sister) right? After the exchange, we went to SIM LIM Tower to purchase LED light tube from one of the shop at Level 3. We intend to place the light tube under the top kitchen cabinet and use it, should the track lights are not bright enough for the kitchen. The LED light tube is 1metre, and it costs $28. Without the tube, the LED strip costs $18 per metre. As the LED light is 12W, you need an adapter to step down the volt. Additionally, we bought an adapter which costs $28. Total cost is $56. I feel that the adapter is expensive, you may get cheaper adapter outside. For convenient, we bought the light and adapter from the shop, and they helped us to solder the wires together. After SIM LIM Tower, we went to Genting Lane Hoe Kee (again! This is my 3rd time going to Hoe Kee to change items again!). I swear I will not go back there again, please! Everytime we go back there, we need to spend more money to exchange for better items. Initially we wanted to get a slightly bigger stainless steel sink because the current sink we bought is only 580mm width. However, we end up buying Blanco sink... The reason why we chose Blanco is because the current stainless steel sink we bought was in lousy quality. The stainless steel material is 0.8mm only, which may turn yellow sooner or later if we put hot pans or pour hot water into the sink. If we want to exchange for a better quality stainless steel sink, for 1.0mm stainless steel material, it already costs more than $300. Thinking of that type of price, might as well get something nicer and can last longer, so we chose Blanco sink. Before you purchase any sink, always check the sink quality and if the sink can undermount

Everyday is SUNDAY Shopping To recap, we intend to do L-shape kitchen cabinet, with the L-end facing the window, and a L-end top cabinet to drop down the dish rack. Therefore, the 2 kitchen ceiling lights that we bought may not fit our kitchen ceiling anymore. First, no point to place two ceiling lights close to each other. Second, the L-end top cabinet may block the second lighting, and if we shift the second lighting nearer to the window side, the laundry pole may hit the second lighting. No choice, we decided to go back to the lighting shop in Jln Besar to exchange the kitchen lights for something else. We exchanged the current ceiling lights to 2x2metre track lights with 6 LED light bulbs. Hopefully it is bright enough for the kitchen. We chose the third track light (they have 2 colors: black or white). We opt for the white track lights to match the kitchen wall tile color We have to top up the difference of $1xx because the track light cost more than the ceiling lights. No discount given. And it does not come with FOC LED light bulbs because LED light bulbs are more expensive than energy saving light bulbs. REALLY?! Previously we bought the lights from another sales lady, who gave us free light bulbs and remote controllers. This guy who we met today is quite stingy. I didn't want to argue with him to give us FOC light bulbs. Just want to exchange the lights and get away ASAP. We need to rush off to Hoe Kee to change the kitchen sink. 2-3 weeks ago, I called to look for the sales lady if we could change the lights, but she was not in this branch that day. The guy answered my call and said no exchange because the order was processed already. Yesterday I called again to try my luck. I told the guy that the sales lady said I could come back to exchange the lights anytime, then he reluctantly agreed to allow me to change the lights (forgotten that I have called before). We didn't take photos of the living and bedroom lightings because they do not have our chosen design and colors on display. We managed to take only the bathroom lightings

The new rubbish chute is here. I heard this kind of rubbish chute will prevent cockroaches from crawling out? Not sure how true it is, but definitely this new rubbish chute looks nicer than the old HDB rubbish chute. Water proofing is done for the common toilet. We tried touching the floor. The water proofing has dried. The pipe on the floor is for the sink water waste. We relocated the old sink position which was supposed to be beside the toilet door, now changed to new position - that is to place the sink beside the window; in front of the toilet bowl Common toilet wall tiles have completed. Once grout lines are covered, it will definitely look prettier than now

I think the workers were working yesterday (Saturday). Otherwise they would not have completed 90% of the tiling work on both side of the kitchen walls. Well done They have leveled the sand and cement for the kitchen floor. I like the curve they did for the tile connection/joint. Not easy to do

All the bedrooms' door wood frames are installed, except the storeroom This is the storeroom door frame that is not installed yet. I didn't know that a door wood frame needs to have so many nails at the sides in order to properly install the frames to the entrance wall. Installing door frames look difficult to me. I don't think I can do this

DAY ELEVEN We missed DAY TEN as we thought that the workers worked only five day week and off on weekends, so we didn't visit the house yesterday. However, we wasted the whole Saturday afternoon for our LED TV delivery from Courts. Today, we had an appointment with the aircon man to discuss the trunking layout before installation. During our discussion, we tried to minimize the exposure of the trunking, but still there will be some obvious trunking that is unavoidable. Our aircon was outsourced to my father's friend. We bought Mitsubishi inverter system 3 and will be installed in the 3 bedrooms. We have not confirmed the installation date yet, as he needs to follow our renovation schedule. While hubby, aircon man, and my father were discussing about the trunking layout, I took the opportunity to go round the house to take some pictures of the renovation progress. Elise: If you are still following our blog, this is what my electrician has done. As we are doing rewiring for the whole house, all the electrical wires have to be dismantled after false ceiling and cornices are taken off, and DB box is switched off, leaving only a temporary point for the workers to use. The wall plaster has arrived. We are doing plastering for the whole house

NeoBy: Your agent very good. Help you to do domestic things. We did the transfer ourselves by submitting our application via SP website.

Hi Elise. Thank you visiting our blog. I assume you refer the completion date is the second appointment with HDB to get your keys, not the completion date of your renovation. It takes about three days to transfer the SP account under your name, on the day you apply transfer of account to your name via SP website, or you can choose your preferred date to turn on the utilities. If you are unclear, you can get more information via SP website. We turned off the DB box was because we are doing electrical rewiring, so all wires were dismantled during the renovation. Our electrician fixed a temporary circuit breaker and an electrical point for the workers to use during the renovation. I am not sure if not doing rewiring, DB box needs to turn off or not. Let the ID/contractor to decide, but most importantly the SP account must under your name, and electricity/water should be available during your renovation.

I personally don't like Brandt because there is second inner layer plastic cover which I feel irritated when opening. I may scratch my hand if I put my hand in to reach for clothes. With the inner plastic, the opening becomes smaller. I would also suggest save water than saving electricity. For our PUB bill, the highest consumption is always the water first, the latter is electricity. Maybe don't buy this Sharp model. Choose other brands to compare with Brandt.

I have used front and top load before. Personally, design wise, I prefer front load because it looks nicer, but for practical use, top load is better. Our top load machine's lifespan is longer than than front load. One advantage for top load is you can throw in more clothes even when the washer starts.

END OF DAY NINE We went to the house around 6:30PM, and saw two workers were still busy doing the wall tiles in kitchen and common toilet. We felt pretty paiseh, so we rushed to the nearby coffee shop to buy dinner and drinks for them. After we left, shortly after that our contractor went to the house to check on the progress. One tiler doing the kitchen, the other tiler doing the common toilet End result. I'm loving it Common toilet wall tiling is almost 100% completed

Valerie: We will use the dish rack that comes with the kitchen cabinet package. Unless you have a special dish rack design in mind, then maybe need to custom-made the rack. Yes, we may need to top up the difference for the extension of top cabinet, if it exceeds the feet that was quoted to us. Initial quotation did not include the L-end top cabinet. Contractor will recalculate and let us know if there is additional difference that we need to top up. Albert: Thank you for your advice. We have not search for dining table yet. When the cabinet is up, we will then decide the size of the dining table.

Wow... your kitchen is so spacious! You can hold a cooking class in your house

May: Point noted.

Hi battle. Thank you for your advice. I get what you mean. We will check the fridge model that we want to buy again.

Yes May. We are considered the lucky ones. We can visit the house after work, then go for dinner. And this also save us some cost for not using mover too. We can carry items bit by bit to the house until the day we move in. How convenient! Me and my parents are the same kind. Previously we stayed 1 block away, shift from 3-room to 4-room, we also carry the items by hand and move to the current house. Only bulky items we will use lorry, and that is like one carpark away? Haha...

You have to be careful with such person, piknik. Even if you know him well as friends, doesn't mean he won't take your money and run away. How you can break off a friendship? Answer: Borrow/take money from the person, and MIA. When comes to arguing about money, no more friendship

How about half wall?

It's okay. I heard my colleague's friends also BTO 3years, and till today, still didn't get any BTO flat.

I was wondering how come the Happycall pan is $25, I even asked my hubby to ask you where you get your pan from. Now we know, fake happycall!