keyswz

Hi, I would to like ask for your recommendation for a ceiling fan for a HDB living room, roughly 20" x 16". Going for white based, simple design, and no need lights.

hey nice to see you posting here... keep the updates and photos coming... =)

congrats on your confirmation... hope your reno will be a smooth sailing process... shall be looking at your pictures =)

There are two portions to our furnitures: the ready made ones and the diy ones. I shall talk about the former first. Prior to the arrival of the furnitures, I was still comtemplating whether it is a wise choice choice getting all (well, almost all) the furniture to reach our place on the same day. This thought was further strengthened when the various companies called me on the previous day to confirm that their timings will be from 2 to 4 pm. But after seeing the end result, I guess the choice made was indeed wonderful though it was really by a stroke of luck, rather many strokes of luck, that they do not come all at the same time as they need the space and time to install the furnitures. The tv console came first at 10+ am, and this was followed by Ikea at 11+ am. We quickly took a lunch break and repaired the lock of our letterbox as it previously could not lock properly. While waiting for the other furniture to come, we started with the assembly of the chairs. I took the more complex portion of chairs, which I took quite a while to understand and orchestrated. My fiancee assembled the simpler but higher quantity portion of chairs. The coffee table came at 3 pm, and the dining table came in a short while after. This was to be followed closely by the sofa, the wardrobe and finally the bed frame with its side table. Though a better flow would be the bedroom items followed by the living room items, we really could not ask for more. It was smooth enough for us. After one day of hard work (by the workers and us) and bigger openings of our pockets, let's savour the view of our new house.

Sorry for the late reply. So in the end, your mirror is lower? Or you did not care about the windows?

Probably this shall be one of the last update on our renovation for it can be said to be finally done. During the first visit, the carpentry workers completed the lamination of the extra worktop. They could have finished the installation but they realised the support for the worktop was insufficient, thus they came back on another day. Anyway, they had to replace one of the cabinet doors for the lamination was budging for that door. I was rather unsatisfied with one portion of the worktop but I guess I eventually gave in for any delays in the completion was tiring for us. During the second visit, the extra worktop was installed and the legendary backsplash was up as well. It turned out to be very nice as I was not expecting it to be one piece. Some how in my mind, I was thinking that it will be 3 pieces combined together. Extra worktop: Backsplash: Next update will be how the house will look like with the furnitures =)

The plumber came again for the last time to fix up the sink and the shower taps. He also came down to fix up the bathroom accessories. This time round, my fiancee was the main person supervising and directing the plumber as I was busy with work. And as what she said, it turned out very nice. The kitchen tap: Common toilet: MBR toilet:

ya quite a large porportion of the total cost on kitchen... I also hope I dun regret the kitchen design cos lesser floor space now... like what my fiancee said, I can wash the dishes while watching tv... I've got a feeling that it is a guy's thing that the sink need to face some view... cos saw similar trends in t-blogs by guys... lol...

hmm... to be honest I have mixed feelings... Her good points: 1. she is understanding and flexible, basically a warm person who wants to build a good home; 2. she takes pride in her workmanship, especially the toilets (she has her personal team of workers for tiling i think); 3. she is fairly easily contactable and she will try to settle any problems regarding the reno asap (after reading about the horrors of contractors from the forum, she's very good already); 4. she gives good advice on how to take care or clean the house; 5. her costing is very transparent so no hidden costs Her not so good points: 1. she can be quite forgetful and need quite a number of reminders (this can be frustrating); 2. last minute changes (like 1-2 days before) may not be conveyed effectively; 3. her expected date of completion may be extended (cos ours was delayed by 2-3 weeks but 80-90% of the work was already done by the deadline, just the remaining small little lingering part that is irritating); 4. when there are changes/delays to the original plan/progress schedule, she sometimes may not inform you (either that or her workers did not turn up as mentioned/promised) Maybe our expectations were high cos i went to inspect the place almost everyday (very tiring also) and we were like anticipating progress everyday... perhaps that's why we were slightly disappointed on some days... but the end result is good as we both love it... so i guess ultimately the decision lies on whether you can click with the contractor or if you are comfortable with him/her?

you are one fast replyer... i almost did not realise u replied... what did you buy from him? I only bought stove, hob, hood and water heater... ya my 6 seater dining table like fighting for space with my sofa... if your layout is similar to mine, then the bedroom should be quite small? mine onli a queen size... hope ur bed issue can be resolved... think more or less done... hacking started b4 cny... the rest after... but the posts shall not be so fast... =P otherwise so fast end of story no kick... lol...

Day 2: Quite like the end finishing...

Actually the installation of the kitchen cabinet started in the middle of the installation of the lights, but I guess it makes more sense to talk about them in their respective categories. Much of the work was done at the factories out of our sight, where the cabinets and cabinets door were fabricated. This took quite a number of days and added to our frustrations as the progress was not visible and we were irritated by the poor coordination by our contractor. However, once the fabrication was completed, the installation of the cabinets were rather quick. In fact, the carpentry workers only came twice and they needed to come a third time because there was a mistake with the colour of one of the laminate for the worktop. The workers were also very friendly and chatty. My fiancee was amazed by their skill of cutting the wood without precise measurements and yet that piece of wood was able to fit nicely into its designated place. Anyway, let the pictures show you the transformation. Day 1:

After the painting of the house was done, the next stage was with regards to the installation of the electrical components. This was the electrician's fourth visit to the house: the first was to remove the original casings for the plastering of the walls; while the second and third was to install the electrical casings, sockets and lights. Well, as there were some disputes with regards to his choice of placement of the sockets, his fourth visit would be one when one of the owners was around. This time, he installed all the lights in all rooms and completed the sockets in the kitchen. He also made the changes which I requested to some of the electrical sockets, though quite unwillingly. The gap which I did not want: The switches of our house: Maybe because of the disputes during his third visit, he seemed very aloof and did not want to talk to me when I first saw him during his fourth visit. Perhaps the other workers were too chatty such that in comparison, he seemed so distant. Hmm, maybe that's his personality. Anyway, the lights:

Yes mdm! Coming right up...

Ya it had been a long while... work commitments and mainly procrastination... oops... thanks for still remembering our place and your support... lol... yup i rem you but i forgot if i dropped by ur blog, forgive me if i din... the past month had been quite hectic for me... so in the end, u bought a lot of stuffs from jerome? Wah... 3m sofa is really big... i tot mine at 2.4m was huge already and is acting like a make-shift bed liao... so how u manage to fit in your 3m? my experience was overall quite good, though being a 1st timer means that there are a lot of things to learn especially with regards to delays...

On hindsight, this incident can be quite humourous, though it came as a shock at the start. Well, it began with us naively thinking the shower set had everything inside and thus when it came to the installation of shower set and the plumber asked us for the tap to connect to it, we were stunned that we overlooked the purchase of the shower tap. As such, we went back to the same store and we chanced upon this tap which we both like, thus we requested for two of it. The ominous sign first came when the salesperson gave us one of the correct brand and another of another brand. Next came the bad news that there was only one tap left and he asked us to wait till next week. We thought nothing of that until the next visit saw me making a futile trip and the salesperson mentioned that it will only arrive two weeks later. Sadly to say, time did nothing to change the unavailability of the tap and in the end, I opted for the display set at a reduced price. The next tap that we missed out was the washing machine tap, to which the plumber used his own. I was alright with it though my fiancee prefer a nicer looking one.

After settling the locks of the rooms, the next task was to engage a locksmith to remove the existing main door lock and door viewer as I could not remove them as I feared damaging the door. Only when I saw how effortlessly the locksmith removed the main door handle that I realised that all I need was just a screwdriver and some guts to knock out the handle. However, the $60 was indeed worth it because the door viewer was a hard nut to crack and eventually it was removed though with some damages to the door. But the door viewer was not installed until the painting was done. Well, I must say the locksmith's service was quite good and professional. He was also quite friendly too. His name is Peter Teo and he said that he does renovation too. The next lock to be installed was the gate lock and even though the original handle was brought to the shop, there was some misalignment and I had to DIY by drilling the aluminium gate. I guess the electric drill from Ikea and the round file from Yiap Heng Cheong were good investments and soon the job was completed.

As our contractor had no liaison with any locksmith, we had to look for one ourselves. And so we (at least me) were back to searching the forum for a contact. Luckily for me, the forumers were very helpful and I soon got one contact, which I eventually used, but that shall be said later. Prior to meeting the locksmith, we decided to buy the locks ourselves. Once again, we were visiting the forums to see which hardware store offer us the best deal. I detached the handle from the gate so that it was easier to buy a replacement. Only when I reached the first hardware store did I learn from the store employee that they need a picture of the side of the lock in order to recommend a suitable lock. Anyway, we did the locks of the rooms' doors first. The main reason why we need to do that was because one of the locks had a problem with its keys and thus it needed to be changed. And because if one lock was changed, the others need to be changed as well for the uniformity in the look. Anyway, it was an interesting but frustrating DIY experience. For the first door I did, I damaged the top of one of the screws for the second time, just simply because I was stingy enough to reuse the screw when it was already slightly damaged. Lesson learnt: never reuse damaged screws or they will screw you back. Of course, the other lesson learnt was that I need to drill a hole as long as or longer than the screw itself, or else I will end up with a damaged screw. So what did I do with the damaged screw? As the screw was only halfway in, I had to drill through the screw in order to remove it, which happened to be a slow and excruciating process. Luckily hard work pays off and the offending article was subsequently removed and taken care of. The end result? A nice door knob which my fiancee likes =)

The grey-white door: We also chose the following laminate for our kitchen cabinet and extra worktop. Cabinet: Worktop:

Had not been updating much as the progress was rather slow after this and I was rather busy with my work. After the plastering was the painting works. I was really surprised at how fast the painting was done in one day. I was doubly surprised at how fast the window films were taken off, when both me and my fiancee actually took so many hours just to remove one or two. Guess there is a reason why they are the professionals. I was triply surprised when the main door was painted the next day as I did not had time to remove the door latch beforehand. Guess we have to wait till the end of the renovation before the door can be painted nicely. View of living room: View of kitchen: View of MBR: View of Bedroom 2: View of service balcony:

Hi reno, hope your contractor confirmation had been smooth so far. For option 1, think there are some webbies that recommend at least 1.2m of walking space, otherwise it may be quite cramped. You can try stacking some books or big items to that height and width so as to have a feel of the walking space.

Day 23 of renovation: Nothing was done on this day as my contractor told me that the day was meant for the plaster on the walls to fully dry before the painting starts. Though it would have been better if she had told me earlier about this arrangement.

Day 16-22 of renovation [continued]: The toilets also had its WC, basins and water heater installed. It was then that I realised that arrangements of the toilet stuffs cannot be done over the phone as one cannot see how it will turn out. Thus, for the MBR, the basin was slightly to the left, which at first was quite an eyesore. But as the entrance to the MBR toilet is not directly in the centre of the depression in the wall, the misalignment of the basin with the centre was actually not visible. Are you able to spot it in the picture below? It was also only then that I realised that I did not buy the mixer tap for the shower set. Think I was too naive to assume that the tap comes together with the shower set. Guess I have to go down to the shops to shop again. Anyway, the water heaters were installed nicely on the walls. The completed common toilet (save for the shower tap): The doors to the kitchen were also installed. Guess that they looked quite alright to me.

Day 16-22 of renovation [continued]: The living room: The service balcony: