wheat

Hi potatoes, we decided that we have a woody look to the place, hence switch to wood grain laminates instead. We also decided to go bold on the colours to break the monotone. yep, the yard is still there, behind the glass wall, not a very sightly place with the rubbish chute there..hahha

Hi HL85, to me, the carpentry and painting workmanship are pretty good except for the occasional minor hiccups (eg. drawer doors unable to close fully) which I think is more or less expected given the scale of the carpentry work. However, I do disclaim that I'm not a technical person when it comes to this. So what's good for me may not be good enough for you. If you do have certain requirement, the best thing to do is to communicate upfront no matter which id or contractor you are using. I would recommend J if you have an rough idea of what design you want. Based on my interactions with her, she's not too bold with her designs and colour choices and is more on the conservative side. However, she is definitely top notch when it comes to project management, responsiveness and value for money in my opinion.

Kinda neglected the blog as was too preoccupied with work and the renovation. Nearing completion now and just rectification work outstanding and of course the furniture and accessories that makes it a true home..

Dr Work in progress Cr Prepayment Kitchen wall Windows Sealing of the common bathroom entrance Toilet wall tiles up (somehow the colour looks weird)

I was quoted $2900 for plastering the whole house & ceiling.

In terms of space planning, we are definitely not the most ideal. Initially we were fixated on not hacking any of the rooms, cos we heard that it will be harder to sell next time and we wanted to have enough rooms for the little ones in the future etc, and that.....resulted in us having a rather small MBR which cannot accommodate the big wardrobe that she wanted despite her always saying she has nothing to wear (sounds familiar huh) and an oversized study which was actually a bedroom by itself...and the layout just turns out to be pretty standard... And suddenly one day, we got enlightened...all those things we gt worried about aint happening anytime soon! We worked hard and paid for the mortgage and reno and ought to enjoy the space and do up our place the way we wanted.. And.....bham! We hack the wall between the 2 common bedrooms, sealed up the walkway to the common bathroom and recreated an entrance to make the bathroom en-suite.. So..we ended up w only 2 rooms in our em which might be a problem, but only in 10 years time.....

Yes, i do agree that it's very important to choose a reliable contractor who has good management skills and someone who communicates at the same wavelength as you. Same as you, most likely our renov will complete in mid-march due to CNY hiatus of 3 weeks. All the best to both of us! Am also looking forward to seeing your renov pic!

Yea! Just when we got so discouraged from all the BTO results, we manage to get this EM. Seriously, renovation for EM is very pricey. sighx. Thanks dube!

So we started with hacking away the kitchen tiles, wall tiles and toilet tiles on last monday. Since then, renovation work has stalled We're awaiting for HDB approval for demolition of wall. Despite the J chasing after HDB and the extent of her posing as the house owners to ask HDB officer to hasten the approval, we're haven gotten the green light We're also awaiting our quotation from Mr electrician for rewiring and electrician works. Meanwhile, we have decided on the air con company, twin city. Although twin city didn't quote us the best price, we're quite convinced with their workmanship and quality (since J has also given us her reassurance). See, we're such easy trusting pple Was quoted $3150 for mitsubishi inverter system 3 (2 9000 BTU and 1 12000 BTU), stainless stain bracket, double insulation, Tai sin copper wire of 23G and 3/8 inch. We also went shopping for some furniture and household appliances: - hansgrohe 11th anniversary sale: rainshower set x 1, shower mixer, taps x 5 One of our fav buys - the basin mixer 260 metris highriser from hansgrohe. Bought 2 of it specially for the vanity counter in the MBR. - king size kingkoil bamboo comfort mattress - Fujioh Hood and Hob from Hoe Kee FS890 The MK800 was supposedly to be more efficient in oil absorption and noise reduction which is absolutely true. But.... it isnt very aesthetically beautiful. We thought that it looks kinda heavy and bulky. Anyway since wifey doesnt cook often, we dont really need the MK800. Initially, we wanted to settle for the FX900 which looks sleeker in designm the promoter in hoe kee recommended us the FS890 instead. Although the FS890 has weaker oil absorption as compared to FX900, the promoter explained that FX900 is made in china which wouldnt be as lasting as the FS890 which is made in Japan. So we settled for FS890. For the hob, we gotten the FG773SVGL Also gotten the blanco sink from hoe kee! Alrights, that's for all now.

Don't think there's a prob...seen a few units doing it... As for waterproofing, dun think it required cos it's just the vanity..the wetness wun be as bad as the shower area..anw this is done at the 2nd level, if there's any issue with waterproofing, I'm still the one suffering in the end

Yep! We do have a folding door at the balcony...unfortunately we do not have the 3d pic for our living rm Can't imagine not having one cos we did not cover up our balcony area..

To help you visualise better, here's some of the 3D pics. Afterall, a picture speaks a thousand word isn't it. Kitchen: Living Room platform area: This is the platform area with low storage c/w special hinges as work table which is directly behind the sofa that i previously mentioned. The wifey insisted of having the platform. She calls it her "yoga corner" or a small playarea for our baby in future. However, currently, we're in a dilemma if we should do away from the special hinges work table as it cost about 1K. Also, it does look abit weird, like out of place. J was saying that we can replace it with a small little glass top table. Helps to save $$$ too! WIW: Vanity counter will be outside the toilet. Looks interesting. Due to our tight pockets, there will not be any carpentry works in the old MBR except for floor lamination, plastering of wall, painting works & doing up the toilet. I hope the end product would not deviate too far from the 3D pics. However, there will be some changes to the colour scheme and some layouts. We have yet to receive the new 3D. Last week, we went to select the laminates for the caparentry work. Goodness, both wifey and I have very poor concepts of colours! We can't seem to visualise how the caparentry will turn out to be. We felt so exhausted after selecting the colours

Yes, the new MBR will be bigger. I like the idea of divding the sleeping area with the WIW & study area. So in any case that the wifey or I have to stay up for work, we wont be interrupting each other's sleep. Moreover since wifey is doing shift work - sometimes she has to wake up at 5am for morning shift, i wont be disturbed by her when she dresses up for work The bigger space will also better accommodate a baby cot in future! Sure, i will try to upload more photos. Both the wifey and I are not the photo type of pple :/

Some weeks back, before we even closed the deal with J, we went shopping for tiles with J at Hafary. We have chosen earth colour tones to fit into our theme. Here are some pics! P.S: Images might be a little blur Kitchen floor: Ground floor toilet: Top: Wall tiles; Bottom: Floor tiles Common toilet (2nd Floor): Left Top: Feature wall; Left Bottom: rest of the wall Right: Floor MBR Toilet: Yes. They share the same wall tiles as the common toilet in the 2nd floor. We chose blackish floor tiles for the MBR toilet instead becox it prefers black. However, J did highlighted to us that the residual of soap/shampoo may left some white spots if we do not wash away those residuals properly. Otherwise, no issues.

Finally, i have some spare time to pen down in detail the renov journey thus far (retrospective entry). All in all, we only shortlisted 3 IDs and 1 contractor based on recommendations from friends and forums. Secretly, i admire forumers who have the patience, strength and enthusiasm to share with >10 IDs/contractors their ideas. The wifey and i felt so brain draining after each session with an ID/contractor . I guess we're both lazy bums Having some ideads in mind and wanting scandinavian as the theme, we spoke to 4 shortlisted IDs/Contractor: 1. Inside Living, J - Our first impression of her was a down to earth lady and someone who we can entrusted this entire project to. We felt comfortable sharing with her our ideas. She gave us some input as well. Most importantly, we can sense the sincereity in her. 2. Urban Design, S - Design was normal. No input from her and we felt that if we engage her services, we might as well find a contractor. 3. Dhome, L - Impressive design from this ID. Naturally, the wow factor came with a price! Apart from the price, another main factor that stopped us from engaging his services is due to his hmmm.. how do i put it... sloppy attitude? He sent his assistant to meet us on out first appointment as he was sick. Okay, acceptable reason. But on the third appointment with him, he stood us up. Called him several times but didnt pick up his phone. The moment he stood us up, we decided nono , this ID is not reliable. We might just MIA during this renov journey. 4. Famous K - Saw several of his project in the t-blog But he's too pricey for us. Though he justifies that he uses good material and good workmanship, i guess being high in demand has raised his market value as well. So after several meetings, we decided to engage Inside Living, J. We had a site meeting with all the sub-con, plumber, electrician, aircon man, window etc on last saturday, 05/01/13. So far, she hasn't disappoint us. During the site meeting, she portrayed her management skills and seems to be a good coordinator. After some bargaining, we offically closed the deal with on last tuesday, 8/01/13! We have more or less finalized the 2D floor plan: Due to budge constraint, we decided to retain the marble flooring on the first floor and do laminate flooring for the second floor. For laminate flooring, we have engaged the services from inovar floor. Basically, these are the list of major things that we intended to do: - a 7ft half height shoe cabinet beside the door entrance - Hack away the existing kitchen wall and extend it to about 4 inches longer. - A collapsable folding door entrance to the kitchen. Initially, we wanted a glass slide/swing door as wifey was against the idea of open concept kitchen for the fear of greasiness to the house when she cooks. Then, we decided on collapsable folding door entrance so that we can have the privilegde of having an open/close kitchen. Best of both world - A 4ft island counter with rollers in the kitchen. - Glass block divder to create divder for washing and kitchen area. At the same time, the glass block serves to bring in some light into the kitchen - Storage area underneath the staircase - Brick wall feature at the TV console area (a must have for scandinavian theme!) - 4" Platform at the back of the living room & a low storage c/w special hinges as work table which is directly behind the sofa. - Convert bedroom 2 & 3 to the new MBR becox we find the existing MBR ted small - Integrated WIW & study area