ashleyspace

The renovation is making great progress this week, almost everyday can see something is up. Within this this week, wall plastering done, L-box done, Washroom WC installed, painting in progress.... Master washroom basin and WC installed. The space is quite limited, so there is no more shower glass panel which is initially planned. We asked the ID to take it out and instead replace with some other things. Common washroom. Bi-fold door is up, and heater installed.

By the way, anyone can spot any defect from this kitchen wall tiles? My husband is quite particular about it, but I'm okay. I think it's not obvious and still acceptable. Here is the kitchen wall tiles picture:-

Last week, there is a major hiccups on the renovation. When we asked the aircon service guy to come for installation over the weekends, the aircon guy found out that it cannot be installed because the aircon hole wood structure is rotten! The condition is quite bad, I would never had imagine this because this wood structure is covered up normally and only can be seen from outside. They help to remove the wood structure and here it is:- The debris above is actually from here:- Worse still the aircon guy found that the master bedroom window is actually has water leaking problem, because it has been covered with some masking tape along the bottom of the window from the outside. This cannot be seen when viewing the house, and even remain undiscovered until now. I think I need to take back my comment that the house is well kept :-P Haih, but I think most urgent now is need to get a way to work this out so that it doesn't slow down the schedule any further. After discussing with our ID, here are things need to be done in sequence:- air-cond hole structure replacement -> air-cond installation -> laminate flooring + painting -> master bedroom wardrobe carpentry So there is some dependancy. If the air-cond hole is not covered up property, water can sip in and damage the laminate flooring so no point doing the laminate flooring first. So the most urgent thing to do now is to fix this.

Glad you like it! We are so lucky the ceiling drop dividing kitchen and living room is just normal wall. I think can be hack or not depend on whether it is beam. You can email to HDB to confirm this rather than depend on contractor comment. HDB guidelines change now and then so the most straight forward way is directly email them. I done it before, asking them on fire-rated door etc, reply is prompt! Within 1-2 working days will have a reply. http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10324p.nsf/w/HomeRenoGuidelines?OpenDocument (click the email) Don't worry even it's a beam, just try to work out a design that will work well with the drop! Maybe have a glass sliding door between kitchen/living? Still visually widen the living, but works well with the drop.

Oh it has make quite a big progress this week, plastering done. Toilet WC installed. But it still left <2 weeks now from the dateline only, I'm quite doubtful whether can complete on time :-(

Check out my thread on the tiles selection. I think you can visit the tile shop first to get a gut feel of it. We selected tiles from Soon Bee Huat, and the range of selection is quite good, just depend on the budget. http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=54770&st=0&p=763597entry763597 Actually if you just want standard modern looking tiles, $3psf should not be a problem. But if want more unique one, e.g. natural stone stone (slate, sandstone) or more nice textured surface, I think need to have budget like $4 above. The more expensive homogeneous tiles will not look so fake, color is better. For our case, we wanted a real pure white homogeneous tiles initially, also can't find one <=$3. Cheapest we can find is $3.5 and after GST $3.7. Out of budget, so we settle with one that not pure white (with hint of beige). So just some idea for you.

How much the rain shower costs? The 37k++ includes the toilet WC and accessories or not? Just curious, the rain shower does work with instant heater or not? or must be built-in type?

Yups, good suggestion. That's the advantage of using track anyway right? Haha, can add or change lights anytime. So flexible!

Your progress is so fast. And 7pm plus still there?! Are you squeezing them real hard on the dateline or they are so good willing to stay late to complete faster? Can i know which ID you engaged? Every time I visit the site around 6-7pm, sure no people working on the site. I think your ID done a much pretty good job on the progress compared to ours. Sometimes we are quite frustrated at the progress because we had seen 1-2 weeks with no progress at all. 1 month has passed, and just plaster half-way, and toilet WC just installed one, the other still lying there untouched. Maybe we are too relax on them :-(

Your house looks amazing...! Love your white kitchen. We are all-white lovers also.. I've just chosen white laminate for the kitchen cabinet, and also white kitchen top, white glass backsplash, and started to get some kind advice from mum to the color selection already. She told me better to choose off-white, colors that lean towards beige, since it will be less obvious to dirt and stain. I believe it's true, but will still keep with the decision coz don't want to regret later didn't do the dream kitchen. Seeing your kitchen turn out so nice convince us also... How do you find the white kitchen maintenance? Is the white solid surface top easily stain?

Oh wow, white-grey kitchen... love the simple design and color combinations! Sometimes when doing renovation we tend to put in lots of colors to break the monotonous, but another way to do is to totally focus on 2-3 colors only and build everything on that few main colors. After all, we can easily spice up the interior by adding furnishing with a splash of colors! :-)

Haha, we are both Ikea Hemnes mirror fans! The mirror I'm thinking to have is the Hemnes full height mirror($169) to be placed in the master bedroom between wardrobe and bed. I think the white frame should match very much with the wooden laminate floor. Problem is the mirror width is 74cm, it's quite big considering the size of a HDB room. If I get this, might need to forfeit one bedside table (just left with one). Here is the inspiration :- Another item I would love to have in my bedroom is this sheep skin, omg i think it should be very matching with wooden floor color also. LUDDE Sheepskin - The real stuff, cost $69. Feel good to touch though... http://www.ikea.com/sg/en/catalog/products/90166468/ If wanted to go on budget, but still want something that looks as good, here it is: Dang dang, the TEJN Faux sheepskin - Only cost $19.90... If it gets dirty, just get a new one without feeling the pain? :-P http://www.ikea.com/sg/en/catalog/products/10229078/ Here is the blog that inspires us on the Hemnes mirror.... http://www.chicgeekblog.com/2010/09/mission-organization-ikea-to-rescue.html

Post some pictures on the finished product? :-)

Some progress on the wet works... Tiles on master bathroom is up! Close-up on master bathroom tiles, quite satisfied with the workmanship, tiler did a neat work. Dark rough black tile is chosen as the 'feature wall' for the washroom: Common bathroom chicken pox tiles also up...! Overall the bathroom not dark although we use black tiles on one of the walls, we are glad it turns out this brighter than we have thought. We place the black tiles on the side that will mount the water closet and basins so that it will make it less "dark" :-) Man behind the scene - muscular man working on the tiling... Just kidding, anyway the simple kitchen tiles that chosen last minute by ID looks clean and neat also. It is one-man-show though so the progress a bit slow. But anyway it is budgeted into the schedule, because December is a peak season for renovation and the progress will be slower than usual. Our ID budget 2-month schedules, just for a 3-room renovation. We accepted reluctantly but it must be handover on time and with good quality. See the workmanship here, not bad I think. Even distance between each tiles and quite evenly layed:

Thanks for the tips and your 3 golden rules... :-) I try to be more proactive and follow-up closely with the progress. A bit upset on way because we realize the progress is a bit slow. For ~1.5 weeks after tiling, the toilet bowl is not installed yet and wall not yet plastered. I've call him up to follow-up on the schedule. Things should go at faster pace the next few weeks. Anyhow the unit need to be hand-over by then else we will be homeless because the room rental will be due. By the way, the topic on "material that u regret using/installing" is so good. I've been thinking of using some Ikea stainless steel washroom accessories, but after seeing the complain I think better buy from others to avoid them going rusty. Actually I like Ikea design a lot, although items like wardrobe tend to have better quality with built-in ones, honestly I like the Ikea design more - especially for those glass sliding door wardrobe. I think I will still buy few items from Ikea, like the Hemnes mirror, or some small items.

I thought I'm the only thinking so - "we update more than the ID updates us".... Maybe house owner always more "gan chiong" than the ID, coz eventually we are the one going to live in it anyway. Hmm, certainly hope for a pro-active ID, but I bet most are like that? Going to give up complaining and just try to manage him if don't manage properly :-P

Nice washroom accessories you've picked. This is from Hoe Kee is not mistaken?? I like those towel bar which looks a bit squarish also, so modern looking. Actually it's not boring at all, sometimes choosing washroom accessories can be fun looking at the nice nice design... Is there any difference for choosing washroom in chrome plated vs stainless steel? Any benefits over each others e.g. not so easily rust??

By the way, for those more experienced in renovations, is the 3D is rendered before the selection of tiles? Is it usual that 3D is provided for washroom as well? Ours went straight to select tiles and then now only comes the 3D. So the 3D is quite useless consider the fact that choice has been made? Probably what's left is just for the carpentry now. I'm not sure how it goes about for others reno folks, please share to me if you had such experience...

I see, okies not bad... For common washroom, we wanted a modern style, so I think this should fit. Actually our expectation on the common washroom is not so high, so selection of tiles is relatively easy! So our guests will be surrounded by "chicken pox" when they want to do business :-P Haha...

Nope, using the grey color tiles. So how's your renovation going on? Close to completion?? Actually the grey color homogeneous tiles initially planned to be used as master washroom wall tiles. When the ID discouraged us from using the wooden floor tiles for kitchen, we conveniently switch the kitchen floor tiles to the same due to short of time. For master bedroom washroom, prefer something not so white and must be matte. I like the feel like the hotel washroom, usually in beige and textured matte surface tiles which is like those seen in the spa. Those imported tiles from Europe are usually more rich in texture and color variations and if budget allows should invest in those. Actually our ID advise against using homogeneous tiles as washroom tiles as it tend to break easily when mounting the accessories. However, I searched high and low, not able to find ceramic tiles that can give such feel. Usually ceramic tiles are high gloss and the matte one has so limited choice. So insisted on this and finally he gave in. *evil* :-P Haha Any of you who had used homogeneous tiles as washroom wall tiles can share your experience? I think there must be some techniques to prevent homogeneous tiles from breaking when drilling holes into them... It's the technical side which I'm not familiar but for sure there are ways to overcome this..

Actually it has started, now hacking complete and tiles partial... Will update more when I have more time. Renovation is really sucking up a lot of time, even for shopping small things like sanitary... :-)

Initially chosen this wood look-alike tiles for the kitchen, to make it more Scandi feel. Once I told this to the ID, he said need to top-up ~300 for laying this type of tiles coz it's harder to lay (lay Zig Zag like real woods) and workmanship more expensive. I'm quite shock, didn't know this will incur additional costs. Cheapo me, haha, to save cost I had revert back to the tiles second shown below. My thinking is the kitchen area quite small and might not worth it to top up this amount just for the small area. Finally goes with my 2nd choice, greyish tiles with very slight variation in color which I also like. Hope didn't regret with the decision... Sigh... Always battle between $$$ and design i like. Initial (for kitchen floor):- Final choice (for kitchen floor):- Common bathroom - black and white chicken pox tiles :-P Tell me I am making the right choice... huh, anyway choice had been made and cannot revert back. If there is, it means the next house... :-)

More photos from the showroom... Bubble tiles, quite interesting... Maybe can put a common washroom. Hubby call it the "chicken pox" tiles! Quite nice also, in consideration...

We gotten the keys few weeks earlier than we had expected due to owner wanted to settle it fast since he had another new property. So renovation suddenly become an urgent thing since we are getting the keys earlier. From 1st appointment to 2nd appointment just took a mere 4 weeks and everything went smoothly. Before even getting the 3D, our ID straight away brought us to select tiles. To ease selection, he just brought us to a larger tile shop in Jurong East - Soon Bee Huat. There is really good selection tiles from the shop, imported from different places, China, Malaysia, Europe, middle east. Actually the shop looks more like a warehouse, and it's huge. This is our first time visiting tiles shop and AGAIN we are spoilt by the choices, having hard time to decide which is better. We spent around 3 hours there and still going back and forth on the which tiles to choose! I'm so fickle-minded and cannot really visualize how's the tiles will come together. Soon Bee Huat does has a very nice showroom which we didn't have time to visit the first time (ID with us and also has appointment after tiles selection). Then we decide to make a second visit to see the showroom before we finalize the tiles selection. Here is some photos from the showroom, it's really worth a visit:- Warmer shades for kitchen, quite cosy: Kitchen with black floor tiles. Easy to maintain and nice, but risk of making the area look darker. Grey and white washroom - love it! There is some variation in the grey color and a bit cement screed like?? Definite easier to maintain than cement screed I think. Warmer shades for washroom, very nice:- Website for Soon Bee Huat, I think they have another showroom in Changi too:- http://www.sbh.com.sg/default.aspx

Aww, thanks for the comment. Really good to hear that, will think along that... Hopefully make the right choice! :-)