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The Calvary Carpentry is in! First up is the shoe cabinet at the foyer. Most of our carpentry uses the same two laminates, so you will see them in various design permutations around the house. For this cabinet, we wanted broad strips of whites, framed by the rich brown wood. Instead of doing wood over wood, the carpenter cut vertical grooves and painted them brown to achieve the effect. The settee houses a pull-out drawer where we can keep our socks. The next piece that was being installed was the book shelves. The inspiration for the shelves came from paloma's blog. Now we have ample space to put up our books and deco pieces. Ok, more to come ...

Hi kelhy. That is just the 3D artist's impression. In reality my TV will sit on the console with wires coming from the back. For hiding the wires for a hung TV I suggest you refer to these two blogs : 1) kim76 is using a feature wall My link 2) ongcs is using a box below the TV My link

Yes. Coincidently my carpentry also came in yesterday.

Wow, you managed to track down E27 track light holders in Changi! I got mine from TB but they are not so good looking. Care to share the company and price you paid for the lights?

No, mine is work-in-progress. Not in Sengkang. Started in end Feb and scheduled to be completed in a week or two.

Hi. I think we have the same ID Have fun with the reno while it last!

Sad to hear about the possible delay, but I think both sides must be agreeable to the date and not for one side to dictate. Usually the HDB officer would also want to push for the earliest completion date. Since the sellers did not stick to the original verbal agreement, get them to compensate for the additional 2 weeks of rental. Or at least the Seller Agt should cover for it. I have seen cases where the agt had to cover for their clients' actions. Get your agent to negotiate this point if you have one. As for the renovation, 8-weeks is possible with careful planning. Identify the bottlenecks such as hacking permits and carpentry and work on those. Hacking permit approval can take up to a month if there is a need for PE endorsement and appeals. So submit the application way before the completion data. You might need some help from the sellers here. For carpentry, make sure your carpenter's schedule is clear to meet your reno deadline. Noted a number of delays in carpentry brought up by T-bloggers and especially if everybody is rushing to move in before the 7th month. Also find out if any carpentry have to wait for the wall to be hacked for final measurements, as thare might be a delay if the hacking approvals are held up. Hope all will be alright.

Yes, we have the same concern, ie. to level all flooring so that our two little ones do not trip over. We do have a drop at the foyer area, but that too is using the same colored capping.

Nicely done. Your house really does project the resort feel. The swing in the balcony is especially inviting. Make you feel like heading there straight when you come home after work... Btw, just curious, why do you put the TV behind the mirror?

Hi HappyAng, looks like everything is slowly falling into place. We have almost the same kitchen layout. These EM kitchens are really small, got to squeeze all the cabinetry, electricals and washing into one small area. Even my current 4-Room unit has a bigger kitchen.

Hi. I saw the kerb on your blog. We got that too at our living room-kitchen border. Mine is a darker brown and is in a different shade from the Durban Oak colored flooring. A metal piece might look better. Maybe the company should also start providing kerbs/skirting of the same print/color as the vinyl flooring.

Yes, I am glad we chose these for the toilet walls. I think the tiles are +/- $3 per sqft. Sorry, no windows will be going up here. This is it for now until we figure a way to make it look less bare. We will probably wait till the balcony window blinds go up to see if we need to do anything further. Yes, white bricks are nice and goes well with white walls. I like the red too but it would not fit in with our overall theme.

It is unlikely that HDB will approve any construction of load bearing elevated floor space, but these has not stop some home owners of doing 'unapproved' home projects.

These are the other items that were installed in Reno Week 6 The vinyls are in! Ok, not so fast, it was just for the upper floor. We used the Durban Oak colored Allure HERF flooring. The installers completed the rooms in one morning. If the tilers were around, they would probably envy the easy time the flooring installers were having. Instead of laying those minuscule, hypnotic white and black toilet tiles, they could have been laying those long strips of vinyls... The white skirting were also installed on the same day. The window frames for the living room-balcony divider also came. It does look a little bare/incomplete at the moment. Maybe we should have added more lines at the top. And here are the louvre windows above the kitchen toilet. These are photos of random stuff that look good close up...

High-Lights! Got our centerpiece up today. Love how it looked lighted up. here are the other lights that went up this week ... Tom Dix Beat Lights for the kitchen island Vintage hanging lamps for the balcony Foyer lights... with TB, there are always hits and misses. Unfortunately one of the sphere lights broke as the electrician attempted to pull out the bulb holder. Seems that the clips were too tight. So I decided to change all three lights and get a similar design from Trading 168. Anyway here are 2 remaining lights while waiting for replacements.

Thanks! Forgotten whether my ID got the subway tiles from Hup Kiong or Hafary. Price wise was below $3 per sqft. Will check with her.

Hi bleucheeze, is this what you were talking about? Yes, some lines to not align nicely with the next tile. However the ramdomness and color of the tiles will distract you from this minor flaw. We are only doing it for the service balcony, so maybe not so big a concern for us.

talking about whampoa hdb terrace, Martin Soong's unit is featured in the latest home & decor. doesn't feel like a HDB flat after he did it up.

Hi, interesting collection of retro items. Can you let me know where you bought the kopitiam chair and flip clock, and the price you paid for them? Thanks!

Wow a corner hob. Look forward to see how your kitchen turns out.

Some progress in the past week. Kitchen, Service Balcony and Foyer are all tiled up. The main areas will be laid with HERF starting this week. Hope to update this blog in a more regular basis too as reno enters its final few weeks.

therat, you are right about instances when the buyer may not pay for the seller's valuation. on the rule regarding agent not being able to represent both seller and buyer, they get around it now by asking their sidekicks/colleagues to represent the other party. They then get a cut of the commission. There was a recent case in the papers where an agent was fined and suspended for doing such a thing and was reported by the seller.

Hi nyssa, If you wish to engage an agent, please go with someone you fully trust and who is honest. During our house hunting and selling process, we met many agents who will wheel and deal to earn a commision from walk-ins (those without agents) , at the expense of their own seller or buyers. Usually a seller agent will try to get you to sign an exclusive contract, meaning he/she will be the sole agent for your unit for a specified time. In that contract, they will commit to advertise your unit using different mediums. You will also need to put in a sell price in that contract, which you will commit to sell if the agent gets a matching offer. You can choose not to sign as exclusive, and get more agents to market your unit, but that means those agents can stop marketting your unit anytime too. You can also choose to do the sale on your own like us. That will mean more work in reading up HDB policies and advertising on your own, but at least you are not at the mercy of any one agent. Like therat said, agents will help you pass the valuation cost to the buyer. Get it done so you can set your expectation before you talk to an agent. All the best in your sale!

HERF is actually perfect for overlaying as they are only 5mm thick. Laminates are usually thicker. For my place, we plan to overlay the HERF over existing tiles.

Hi ment0s, did you use the skirting and capping from Evorich as well? We could not find a close matching skirting color at Evorich and the capping (for stairs and drops) were a little sharp.