blueeeeie

Yeah.. we selected our flat in 2009 and have been designing and redesigning it over the years.. the only thing that never changed in our designs was that giant window and the sliding door.. and it made a huge difference in expanding our space visually.. especially in the daytime when the light comes in.. feels less cramped I think my photos of the mosaic doesn't do enough justice to it.. hahha.. can't entice your wife.. will have to break out the dslr soon to capture some better shots Did you try showing her inspiration photos on mosaic?

Yes.. looks almost new.. I'm gonna use brasso to polish up the knobs to make it extra shiny! hahaha

Haha.. I had a few lights installed in my house with 20W bulbs.. blindingly bright!! Had to downgrade to 11W lights too..

Thanks cookie!! Enjoy your reno too..

Toilets continued I've never been happier to see the electrician the other day because he has finally installed my remaining lights! The toilet lights are finally up!! Initially when we first started planning the renovation of the place, I honestly thought that the common toilet's look would be my favourite since it had a more unique and fun theme to it.. but it turns out the master toilet ended up being bumped to first place.. Here's what the master toilet vanity looks like completed.. I wanted to photograph it lighted up but it had the flooding effect so I had to snap the shot with the lights off.. Not bad for Ikea stuff!! And here we have the common toilet vanity.. lights on! Its so hollywoody! We also installed dog bum hooks behind the door.. way cute! Dining And last but not least.. our dining light has been swapped too! From a cheapo imitation tolomeo pendant lamp that didn't look safe when you moved the lamp around.. to a genuine Artemide Tolomeo Pendent Lamp of pure awesomeness!! I have to thank patsy_sg for contacting me about it and helping me finally own a genuine Artemide.. it will be loved and well cared for here with us.. Kitchen Oh yes.. and our backsplash tiles for the kitchen has finally arrived.. once the solid top goes up later this week our tilers will finally begin works that will complete the kitchen! We're now in our final lap!!

My parents got fabric sofas in really bright colors or with patterns.. good thing about that is that its not obvious when the cats scratch on it.. But recently we bought more scratching posts for them and scattered it around the house.. they seem to have lost interest in the sofas now and are happier with the scratching posts.. Pet store people recommend applying catnip to the scratching posts to make it more enticing.. If you're using fabric sofa too, try mixing lemon juice and water and spritz some on your sofa.. it keeps ur furniture lemony fresh and may discourage your cat from going near there too! But if your furniture is leather better not.. I'm not sure how leather would react with lemon..

If your cat has a favourite spot on your furniture that she likes to scratch on, you could try discouraging her from going near there by rubbing lemon on it.. most cats hate the strong citrusy smell as it seems to irritate their senses.. I say most because my cat is a weirdo and she seems super attracted to that smell...

Replied!

Hmmm.. I didn't do any waterproofing before overlaying since there was already brand new waterproofing done under the original HDB tiles.. if your contractor is not charging you for the waterproofing then there's no harm letting him do it since its free! But if he is, I suggest you get a second opinion from other contractors and see what they say... you might be "smoked"

Hi greg, I don't really know if this is considered high low or average since I haven't really done any renovations before this.. but of the 3 contractors I approached, Dennis was considered the lowest. On top of that, he was also the most accommodating of all the contractors and very patient with our constant changes during the reno process.. sometimes, its not about the money alone, you have to consider whether you'll be able to work well with this person especially if you're the very picky sorts, which we are.. Hope this helps..

Hi Michael, Thanks for the compliments! Our reno cost is honestly tailored to our requirements (and we had ALOT of requirements), so don't feel good sharing it out as it may not be fair to our contractor.. What I can share is that our contractor quoted in lump sum figures.. meaning things like doing up the kitchen was a lump sum, doing the toilets was another lump sum.. so this meant that when we bought additional items or fittings to be installed or we wanted changes to our carpentry configurations, it was all covered in the lump sum and he didn't charge us additional for them.. As for toilets, we didn't do waterproofing because this is a BTO flat and we're not allowed to hack up the toilets or kitchen or we would void our warranty. If yours is an old flat (older than a certain number of years), then its definitely recommended to redo waterproofing for fear of damage to the waterproofing after so many years. It would be better for you to contact my contractor to get him to quote you the toilet cost based on your toilet size and the works you need to get done.. dun worry he's a super nice guy who is very quick to respond and quote.. Dennis 90507397 Hope this helps!

Hi drunkenchivas, My kitchen was costed as a lump sum in the quote and the blum systems were already included as part of the cost.. so it was actually quite worth it For our door hinges.. our contractor installed the clip top range.. Our dish rack uses the blum servo drive And our drawers uses the tandem runner system Think u can see from the kitchen pictures the total number of doors and drawers we have.. If you're interested, you can contact my contractor for a quote based on your kitchen size.. Dennis 90507397

I'm waiting too.. hahah.. still waiting for the electrician to come down and test the light before installation..

Yeah I tried.. If you put in those thick rolls, it will stick out too much and would jab anyone who sat down on the bowl! So in the end.. had no choice.. installed it on the opposite wall

Kitchen continued Kitchen has been completed (almost).. The blum hinges has been fixed thank goodness.. now I can happily slam my kitchen doors with no worry there'll be a banging sound.. Apparently our kitchen doors are bigger than most HDB kitchens (we used IKEA kitchen specs) so because of that, we couldn't just install the soft closing mechanism on the top hinges, we had to add on to the bottom hinges too.. Once that was done, no more banging sounds We also installed the under cabinet lightings too.. Bought the LED lights from IKEA as well.. Was a little worried that the lights wouldn't be bright enough but looks like I worried for nothing! Here's a picture of the other side.. the dishrack had a T5 installed too and we had put up some railings and a stainless steel laminate shelf.. If it wasn't because stainless steel was so hard to maintain.. I would have definitely opted for a stainless steel top for the kitchen surfaces.. Study The study lights has also been installed Cove lights above the shelf and our nice rectangle light.. MAN IS IT HEAVY! After we put it up.. we realized that the glass on the light is going to be another surface we have to clean! Should have told the lightcraft people not to install the glass.. the wonders of hindsight.. Toilets The toilet's fixtures are also installed.. namely the mirror, toilet roll holder, towel ring.. Here's the master toilet.. The lights for the toilet hasn't been installed yet, but we needed to put the light there to check if there is enough space left for the light at all.. And here's our common toilet.. more than enough space for my light (the same light we're using for the master) And our nice chrome basin is there to complete the look Some gripes I have about our toilet is the absolute lack of space to install my toilet roll holder! With the toilet bowl between the vanity and the shower screen.. I can't put up my toilet roll holder on the same side.. no space! In the end I had to install it opposite of the toilet bowl.. which is a little bit far.. you'd have to stretch out your hand to reach it.. sigh.. good thing my hubby and I have long arms.. although my poor son will have trouble reaching the toilet paper when he comes of age..

Yup yup.. Its so swooshy!

Go ahead and steal bah! After all sharing is caring.. hahah I've PMed you details of the reno..

It's very easy to achieve.. just choose white lighting that can create cone effect or dark/light effect (basically get that "sparkle" effect).. dark wood for your vanity top or built in storage.. and a white white wall and floor!

Kitchen My carpentry works has been completed this week and the nice workers have cleared out all the debris and their tools.. now everyone's just waiting for the solid top people to come in which is happening next week.. Some pics of the completed kitchen sans the solid top.. Left side of the kitchen.. Right side of the kitchen.. The dish rack which my hubby is very happy with.. He's just amused by the swooshing sound of the door.. Kitchen sink.. Sad thing is that we bought a very nice black tap and was hoping to place it in the middle of the sink.. but unfortunately there isn't enough space to mount it.. so have to place it at the corner of the sink.. Had we known in advance we would have bought the sink that had the tap hole instead of this one.. so for all those other people who are choosing their kitchen sink.. u may wanna take note.. Oh and the reason why there are 2 holes is because at first we thought it was nicer to place it on the left.. then we changed our minds.. hahaha

My hubby used to work as an ID too.. we spent 3 years planning our house and now its finally in its last leg for renovations.. A downside of having the owner once work as an ID is that you end up being the one project managing the renovations!! Its tiring.. but you definitely know you won't get chopped by your contractor since its gonna be difficult to "smoke" you.. hahaha All the best for your wedding too!

Yup and yup.. the thickness is not really noticeable.. it was still quite spacious.. but our floor had been raised slightly because our contractor had proposed making the shower area lower than the rest of the bathroom floor so we didn't have to do a kerb.. made it more "condo" like.. (if you look carefully at the shower area in the toilet pictures you will notice it) Overall, I didn't feel that any space was sacrificed for the toilet.. of course it also helps that I didn't do false ceiling..

Thanks.. will have to ask the contractor to check it again.. was so excited to see the soft closing mechanism installed on the hinges only to find that it doesn't work.. super anti climax..

Contractor just installed the Blum soft closing mechanism on my kitchen cabinet hinges today.. But when I tried opening and closing the doors.. Some still had a banging sound! But they look like they were installed correctly.. Did anyone else encounter this problem with their Blum hinges?

Hi fellow fernvaler!! Have fun with your renovation..

Yeah they are.. I couldn't resist them.. There are some very humourous ones that i wanted to get for my living.. but I don't think I have the space.. so I decided not to.. heh heh Just got cute ones for my son..