paloma

Over the weekend, we faced some heartaches after realising bad scratches on our parquet flooring in the rooms, and also on our vanity counter in the MBR. There were also some chipping on our doors. Sigh. May I advise homeowners to insist on better protection on the existing stuff in the house before the renovation work begins? Painful lesson learnt on our part.

K thought we wanted it painted black but we didn't! So we had no choice but to paint it white.

The kitchen Mirror in the MBR toilet The shower doors

I'm so happy to see the progress at our house today! The mess has been cleared up, and now the house looks bright and clean! I'm thinking of doing some cleaning up before the carpentry works are fixed so that it won't be so much work once the reno is completed. Any advice on this? Day 16 No more a warzone! The glass wall in the study room, does it look like a fish tank?

I got the Prima MA-10FE. It was recommended by my contractor, who knows someone working in citygas.

Woke up this morning to several whatapp pictures from our contractor. The workers have started painting our house and our contractor said we may be getting the carpentry works sometime next week. Things are really moving along very quickly! Day 15 The walls will all be white except for the study room The door frames will also be white Intially, we wanted to paint the MBR brickwall white but we decided to keep it in its original state

I second this! We have been very impressed with our contractor's responsiveness. He's very on the ball and calls us almost everyday to update us on things, or ask us to choose this and that. Perhaps that's why our renovation works has been moving along very quickly. It's been only two weeks but we are already preparing for the paint work and chemical wash! And it's true, he does come down to the house very regularly to supervise the subcontractors. I think if you can click with him, the partnership will work out very well.

Drilling holes in the toilet for the aircon pipes The ultra-fat tubings for the aircon All the work that goes into fixing up an aircon The finished product

Day 13 Patching up the walls Sealing up one of the bomb shelter vent holes Fixing the lightbox

Renovation took centrestage of my life this week. Not only was the new house being renovated, my current (parents') home also underwent a mini makeover. The walls were given a fresh coat of paint, in view of my upcoming wedding! This was my mother's idea, and I just rolled along with it. I like how it turned out, although the aftermath cleaning was quite dreadful. I'm also not looking forward to the cleanup after my own house renovation! The last two weeks of renovation has been an eye-opener for me and my fiance. This being our first home, it has been a steep learning curve for us. But as the work progresses, we hope we are finding our footing, and flip-flopping less on our decisions! One thing is for sure, we definitely have new found respect for renovation workers, having seen how demanding, tough and dirty their job can be. We try our best to be kind and friendly to them, and to show respect for their professional skills. Today, two workers from Gain City came to our place to install the Hitachi aircon units we bought. Our contractor also brought in some workers to fix up our lightbox and do some miscellaneous wiring. Looks like our house is slowly taking shape. Does the lamp fit our kitchen? Any reviews on the Hitachi aircon? Very fat tubings for the aircon pipe

Oh I see, do let me know how it develops, in case I face the same problem later on.

Hi, I pm-ed you my contractor's contact, did you receive it? By the way, I've checked with my contractor about the craftstone shop. It's actually a factory place, and he sort of said they don't entertain walk-in customers. In other words, you have to be brought there by your contractor. I'm not sure how true this is though. If you are looking for shops, I suggest you can go to Balestier. I've seens some shops there that sell craftstones similar to mine. Otherwise, you can consider engaging my contractor to do your wall. He's very on the ball. Thanks for liking our houses. Actually it's too early to say how it'll turn out, but we are hoping for the best. I'm sure your reno will turn out well too.

Hi OnTheRoad, our contractor brought us to an industrial area in Eunos to buy the craftstones. Unfortunately, I don't have the exact address but if you are keen, I can ask my contractor. We were charged $1,500 for the 8ft wall, inclusive of labour work and the stones.

Hi Casa, I didn't know this can happen (water pipe crossing with gas pipe). The gas pipe runs from my kitchen to the service yard and we are planning to use trunking to cover it since our wall is white and won't be too obvious. We have not installed the water pipes to the toilet yet so not sure if we'll run into a similar problem as yours. Actually, we are okay with the lourve window, we prefer more light in! Why don't you like yours?

Oh actually we didn't hack our floor, that'll be too costly! The black mosaic is just to join the kitchen and living room tiles as there were bare patches after the kitchen wall was hacked.

We monitor our progress very closely too. It's quite amazing to see how the house changes everyday! Oh haha, are you referring to Ah Meng and Ah Hua? Yes, they are very good at what they do, and they even come on weekends and public holidays to finish the job. I think they are still at our place. You can come to visit them if you wish The ideas for the house is mostly from my fiance. He's definitely the creative one and has a better sense of design! We are also preparing for our wedding next month so it helps that he looks after the home reno and me the wedding. Oh actually he's a newspaper photographer. I'm the one who's working from home, but I'm not a photographer!

The washing machine ledge in the service yard Citygas heater Shower kerb

Black mosaic tiles to join our kitchen and living room tiles White tiles and black grout The kitchen sink

Our half-glass study room A peek into the living room from the study room

Day 10 Both our brick walls look done, and work continues for our kitchen counter. It looks like we'll be moving very soon into the next phase of our renovation works - installing the glass wall, lighting and toilet works. Still a warzone The gritty red brickwall The master bedroom brickwall has a smoother finish than the living room's

Hi EoneKhaled, I believe it's a white bifold door.

Hi Breeze neighbours, thanks for visiting our tblog and hope all's well with your renovation too.

Hi pinkwhale, many thanks for the contact! We'll be happy to have you at our place, but it's too messy now! Hope all's well with your move! Do you mean my fiance's profession? Heh, wondering what Mr K told you...

Hi ayazumi, yes we did! She was very kind to share the contact with us. Her kitchen really caught our attention because we wanted to do tiles for our counters. So far, we are very pleased with the workmanship. Thanks for liking our wall, we really like it too.

Day 9 No major changes today but refinements were made to our wall and kitchen cabinets. Filling in the grouting for our master bedroom brickwall Inner tiles laid and sink installed