princessandhergeek

=D hehe ya we didn't know that either - thought it would be weird cox the wooden door provided by HDB has grains.. so we though painting the door white would make the grains stand out.. but this one has a smooth finish.. o.o this is actually proposed by Roy to make the whole outlook nicer >.< we also duno how much it is or what the paint is as he say he'll give it as a gift hhaha.. unfortunately, cant do this for the HHS door cox the paint needed for the HHS door is apparently different =( but all the other doors in the house are like this now - looks like laminates but r not laminates =X one thing i do know is that they used a type of spray paint to paint the doors white - i can see the spray marks on the adjacent walls hahahaa.. hehehehe.. sorry cant help much =(

hi itsy, i really like ur house design a lot.. it's the house that i would wan to have, but do not dare to have (i'm kind of a worry pot - worry about white laminate/ open kitchen/ bricks being difficult to clean + my hubby likes modern contemp, which means no scandi themes.. ) but ur house is really really beautiful *thumbs up* i was tracking ur t-blog up till the stage where u posted ur kitchen images (love it!) and the next post sent me into shock.. just reading the ordeal u are going through makes me feel upset for u =( just wan to encourage u here.. although there are imperfections in the house carpentry, but the ideas and effort that was put into the designing and creation of this house is really admirable - and ur house is gorgeous (wish this was mine hahaha)! i believe all of us here at renotalk are cheering u on >.< have u settled everything with the carpenter yet? and as for ur MIL - it is really sad that she doesn't support the two of u when ur carpenter relative is obviously in the wrong.. perhaps she is also stressed by her own relatives to side them instead of u guys? dun be too stress le.. stress is not good for health and beauty.. jiayou!! hope u will start to feel better.. anyway, just a side comment.. maybe u could ask K to give a 'friendship' price since u have done other works with him and rectify the problems (whatever he can rectify) in carpentry that you have? although it means u have to part with $$, but at least u wun b upset everytime u open the drawer..? or maybe u could set a budget and get K to see what he can do..? curiously, u mean ur MIL will get upset even if u get K to come in to touch up ar? o.o rooting for u, sarah

Hi Suyun, welcome to renotalk! Love the title header you have there =D Trust in the Lord's provision! =D Anyway, for your house items, you might want to check out jerome's thread in renotalk - he does have some cheap items - but the drawback is only cash is accepted.. so if you have the cash, you could be able to save some if you buy from him o.o but then again - if you use credit card to buy a discounted item - you could get some discount + points - so its up to you to decide! his thread is: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43792&hl=%20jerome%20%20zero&st=840 hope it helps! =D sarah

thanks! =D we love it too.. but it means less complicated carpentry furniture otherwise it'll be too much >.< hahaha.. well.. hope our adventurousness pays off haha..

Kitchen Updates: Common Toilet with black glass door: MBR Toilet with tea frosted glass door:

painting is up and the floor laminates are up too~ pictures attached =D (these are done some weeks ago - but like we mentioned, we requested to slow down reno when we are overseas =P so hence the lag in updating >.< ) MBR floor laminates: Room 2 floor laminates: Main Gate Painted White with Steel Design~~~~ (thumbs up to Roy!) Living Room Updates:

Laminate we chose for both the bedroom floor~ we were choosing between this and another darker simpler design laminate.. but we decided to just take a risk =P

Anyway, attaching image here regarding the colour grout - took this at LSH =X

=D so far our ID has been good =D sincere humble man with a good working attitude and ability to get things done well without compromising quality.. this is from our experience thus far.. workmanship of the basics are good, but we have yet to see the workmanship of the remaining items (carpentry and so on - will feedback when we see our carpentry going up).. biggest plus point: he's patient and willing to rectify mistakes along the way~! haha.. but i think u really need to speak with him urself and get him to bring u to visit clients site - as they say - seeing is believing, so the best thing is to verify his person and his work with your own eyes so that you can have a good comparison and idea of what to expect =D and i've pmed u his contact =D hope to see ur reno soon~!

hmm grouting between the tiles are generally white, unless u have special request - e.g. there's a fellow renotalker who used black grouting with white tiles (so sorry cant remember where i read it from o.o) and there are people who use the color grout to make the grout less obvious.. e.g. we have dark grey tiles in the kitchen, so we use dark grey grout (colour mixed to best match the colour of our kitchen tiles) to hold the tiles so that grouting is less visible.. and for our living room - same thing - the grout colour is mixed (grey and white i think) to get the right colour to match our tiles.. for our toilet tiles, there's a brown grout that matches pretty well with the tiles, so no additional mixing is required =D do rmb though - grouting tends to get a little darker after setting for a few days - so expect a darker grout from ur chosen colour~! for your cream coloured tiles, i think u can get a light cream grout if u wan less visible grout lines.. that way u wun be seeing 'bluish white' grout (normal grout that is used) against a creamy tile.. the grout would match better with your tiles and appear less obvious.. hope this helps!! =D

=D ya, i think its a common concern when we talk about bigger tiles (800 by 800).. to ease our concern, our renovator actually brought us up to another customer's place who installed the 800 by 800, and we didn't see any warp or feel any warp.. it just looks.. good~ hahahaha.. so we went ahead after reassurance that it'll be ok.. there are two safety nets that our renovator mentioned, firstly, the batch of tiles coming in need to be inspected.. if the tiles themselves are wavy, he'll reject the goods n arrange for new ones to come in for installation.. secondly, the people installing the tiles must have the skills to do it well.. and i'm really happy to say that Roy's workers are good hahaha.. they are all from Malaysia (we spoke to them when we went up for visits and they happened to be around) and they do give feedback when needed to brainstorm for better ways to do things.. n of cox, Roy has a good way of handling them, so we feel quite safe that they wun do a sloppy job otherwise they will be scolded hhahahaha.. in the end, when the tiles were laid, me n my hubby were so pleased =) our tiles are darker than usual as I'm concerned about the grout getting darker (darker tiles means can camouflage better? plus my tiles come with grey lines, so... better camou? wun know till a few years later hahaha - my mum was the one who kept encouraging us to not take white/fair tiles as the grout will be obviously darker easily).. and to answer ur question - yup, bigger tiles cost more.. the 800 by 800 tiles we are using cost 4.30PSF super gloss anti stain tiles from LSH.. 600 by 600 tiles typically cost around 3-3.8PSF.. but of cox if depends greatly on the type of tiles u chose and the material the tiles r made of =D I've seen some that cost 9.60PSF - totally out of our budget although they look really good and r from spain o.o

Hi Rover! Dropping in to say hi and good luck for ur reno =D anyway, ur ideas sound good! tailors to your needs (cosy smoking corner, smaller kitchen n living room) - excited to see how this bachelor pad will turn out! are you planning to go all white or do smthing like liebling's tiong bahru SIT? =D sarah

=D read through your blog - am excited to see what you'll be having! =D =D

Ooo! excited for u =D did u view any units on Roy's hand? =D will u be starting a t-blog? congrats on starting ur reno soon!!

Anyway, we're finally back and have rested enough! (People always say you need a holiday to recover from a holiday - can't tell you how true this is) Excited to get started on the reno again hahaha.. while we were away on the holiday, we requested for Roy to stop work as we din want the carpentry to go up when we were not in Sg.. so only some minor touch ups were done.. plus the floor laminates went up!! pictures to follow up soon! (courtesy of my darling geek haha) so far we've had a discussion.. to talk about the kitchen and the living room as well as to decide on the colours.. again, images to follow soon~~ now we are still waiting for the next meetup to talk about the remaining items (still a lot to discuss~) and the process is taking a longer time as Roy is really quite busy.. plus i guess we have ourselves to blame too (cant decide on a lot of things - e.g. laminate colour and so on..) seems like the more pictures we see of houses, the more ideas we have, the worst it is.. in the end me n my hubby are like "ooh this is nice, and ooh that is nice" on almost every picture that we see.. i think i torture him too much by making him sit through all the pictures to gain inspiration lol.. sorry hubby! so now we're waiting.. and in the meantime looking around.. as mentioned, we think everything is nice so it takes a longer time for us to come to a decisions.. and thumbs up to Roy for being patient with us (we kept changing our choice >.<).. anyway.. now our main headache is the lighting color.. to a lot of people this is very straightforward.. choose the one you like.. but for us.. hmm.. i like warm in the whole house.. if i had my way, it'd be warm all the way.. but for practical reasons pointed out by Roy and our colleagues, we gotta have white in the kitchen n study.. but my eyes (being too sensitive) hurt in daylight, so Roy suggested a mixture of cool white and warm white in the house (with cool white being the main colour for living and kitchen).. sounds like a perfect solution? but there comes the problem.. its a personal preference.. but a) as mentioned, i prefer warm white b) i prefer the living area (and kitchen since it's half glass), to be of one colour when i turn on all the lights.. so i say this is a headache.. still trying to think of a solution.. went to do research on lights and colours of the lights.. it is suggested that warm lights be used of areas of relaxation (e.g. living area), and white lights be used for areas of work (e.g. study and kitchen) - which means - how to achieve same colour for kitchen n living??? and plus, we want to buy tracklights for the kitchen.. and the one we want to buy only comes in warm or white.. rawrr.. oh well.. this just means more brainstorming needs to be done hahahaha.... just to share some of our findings during the search for lights: tracklights with LED: brightness depends on presence of reflector and the number of watts of LED. higher the watts, the brighter it is. However, LED tends to have a spotlight effect. how 'spotlighty' a tracklight can be depends on the degree - at 26 degree, it functions like a spotlight, whereas at 35 degrees, the light is more spread and can serve better as a room lighting. We're going to take a risk and use a 8W 35degree tracklight (4-5 tracklights on the track) to light the whole kitchen.. hopefully it's enough.. (this kitchen has to be functional as we'll be using it fairly often o.o) any advice on what we can do/ buy?

Hi Ria! PM'ed u! hope all goes well for your reno =D

Hi Rover, not too sure as the cost is not yet transferred to us.. but I've read that a PE endorsement would cost around SGD450? Sorry couldn't be of more help! Wonder if they will give you a cert for the PE anot.. anyone noes?? hahahaha

oops paiseh for the late reply! first there was the error with the website (they didn't allow me to log in saying that it was a webby with malware or smthing lidat) and then my hubby n I went overseas haha.. am still overseas actually.. just came in to check if renotalk is still alive lol.. nope i'm staying at 612 =) facing the lrt hehee.. have u been staying there for a long time? Hi steadfast! paiseh for the late reply! as I was saying, there was the stupid error with the malware on the webby and den my hubby n i went overseas =D am still overseas so my reply will be a bit tardy >.< n yup! Roy submitted the permits - for hacking - definitely need PE endorsement - the layman explanation would be that you need someone to shoulder the blame if anything goes wrong after the hacking of the walls (touch wood).. but this is pretty standard procedure, so most contractors/ IDs can and probably will handle it properly =) we are lucky too actually, Roy just told us straight not to worry our heads about this - he took over the cement screeding (since our floor was bare) after we initiated the paperwork with HDB and the PE endorsements (we didn't do anything for this, he did everything on his own), so I can't really advise you who to look for or what to do next... but it's impt to have it! better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it... =D cheers! princessandhergeek on vacation

Other food for thought (also for kitchen) Plan your kitchen (and decide where you want to put all your items) in advance so as to suit your need and to create a good workflow in the kitchen The kitchen can be generally split into 5 zones (according to Blum and Hettich), and here is the breakdown: Taken from the website of Blum: Consumables - Food Non-consumables - Plates, bowls, glasses, drink mixers, napkins, place mats, plastic containers and their lids, odds and ends, etc. Cleaning - Dishwasher detergent, trash bags, scrubbers, sponges, cleaning agents, towels, trash can, recycling containers, etc. Preparation - Spatula, electric mixer and attachments, mixing bowls, strainer, food processor and attachments, cutting boards, knives, etc. Cooking - Baking/cooking utensils, cake decorating items, cookie sheets, cooling racks, baking dishes, baking tins, etc. Taken from the website of Hettich: Food Storage Food Preparation Pots and Pans Cleaning Agents and Waste China and Cutlery Generally I think they can be 'forced' into the same category.. consumables = food storage non-consumables = china and cutlery cleaning = cleaning agents and waste preparation = food preparation cooking = pots and pans as for me, I think it's easier to use Blum's guidelines - it's more inclusive.. although truth be told, I'm using the Hettich diagram and the above guideline of "Blum=Hettich" to help to plan my kitchen.. no hard and fast rule.. so I won't be killing myself to fit all the items perfectly =D wish me luck!

Some tips to share: I'm obsessed with having a functional kitchen, so height of the worktop is a very important factor as well.. here are some images with tips to help you select your perfect height for a worktop! (a height that suits you the best =D) in the end, although I'm obsessed with having a functional kitchen, I decided not to do the raised sink, lowered hob and suitable worktop as the kitchen is small and will cause the look of the whole kitchen to be realllly weird (advised by Roy, agreed by both me n my hubby) (3 heights in a small kitchen??) the ideal situation is to have my worktop at 90cm, hob at 85cm, and sink at 95cm.. but i think i'm gonna go with 90cm for everything =P (not decided yet, will think about it more) have fun in selecting your perfect height! =D

Hihi, Welcome to RT and Punggol~! Anyway - like brandon mentioned, it'd be good for you to know if what the package offers is enough for you - otherwise the costs will vary greatly from what the initial quote is.. Since you have the luxury of time (at least 6 months =D), y not take the time to think of what cabinets you need at which location, and what items you want to have (e.g. as mike mentioned - do you really want the kerb for fridge and WM?).. this will help you to understand more the actual costs involved when you are talking to the ID/ contractor (a closer estimate).. but i do think you still need to give a buffer (costs will normally be more than the initial quote) for things such as additional powerpoints/ lighting points, upgrade of items in the quote (depending on whether you want it of cox) and so on.. my two cents worth hahaha have fun in your reno journey! =D

ooo! thanks so much may for the advice! the heels are actually a very good suggestion - beats having to crawl around the floor and use the coins to knock on the floor.. that'd be scary.. i din noe that there is a difference between warping and uneven-ness >.< thanks for clarifyin! the floors are up, but it is covered so i cant do much checking as well... =(

hihi liawzen! ooo which part of damai? did you go for the welcome party the past saturday? =D

oh wow okok it's quite scary that tiles can pop.. but i guess it's expected due to expansion and contraction of tiles over long periods of time.... hmm and as for laminates.. i've heard that laminates dont do well with water - so a spill should be cleared quickly... but for the floor to spoil because the a/c leaked overnight... how to prevent that kind of accident o.o curiously, does the aircon leak while it is switched on, or does it leak even when it is switched off?

New pictures! Tiled living room Tiled living room(ceiling above the island counter can be seen as well =D Ceiling of island counter and living area Ceiling/Layout of MBR Kitchen getting ready for kerbs to be built in! so... the tiled flooring is now up =) bedroom cement screed is not done yet, so we have not chosen the room laminates.. one question to all readers - any idea how to tell if the floor tiles are laid properly without warping? i've heard that the bigger the tiles, the higher the possibility of warping.. so am worried about our 800mm tiles >.< help~!! and any idea if we should really start to knock on the tiles with coins to check for hollow tiles? comments and advice are greatly appreciated! TIA~~!!