leonjennawong

Sigh.. I guess I really have been quite the defensive donkey with regards to the last few posts... Here I was, wishing that others will stop jumping to conclusions when I myself have been doing exactly the same.... I even went to view those peeps' profiles to stalk them for a while... Aiya. I am a terrible human being. I guess I have much to learn and improve on that aspect of my character.... Sorry my dear readers for the mess, and appreciate if the topic could be moved elsewhere... But here's wishing our fellow homeowner Yip all the best for the rest of his reno journey... Now let me move on with what this blog is intended to be; a learning/ sharing platform for new renotalkers & for myself to record my humble reno journey... So... I will close my eyes to all further comments relating to the debacle, and what else..? Blog on!! Hehe. 2ND DAY OF LEONJENNAWONG CARPENTRY! Second day of carpentry installation!! #CalvinTan & #Edgar were both coordinating on-site again (cause they were the ones who Whatsapp the photos to me.. Hehe.. CFO & I quite busy with work so couldn't take leave for it).. For easy reference, I will summarise the works done once again, as follows: - Shoe Cabinet @ living area (continued from 1st Day) - Kitchen Bottom Cabinet (continued from 1st Day) - 3-Metre Sideboard @ living area (continued from 1st Day) - Full Top & Bottom Kitchen Cabinet @ other side of kitchen - Vertical Beam installation @ dining area - Vanity Cabinet & Mirror Cabinet @ master bathroom - L-shape Wardrobe @ master bedroom 3-METRE LONG SIDEBOARD INSTALLATION (Cont'd from 1st Day) - The swing doors & drawers have been fixed up!! I think I mentioned before that this built-in carpentry piece is actually affixed to the wall... The 2x oak legs (WHICH I LOVE!) you see at the bottom left & right ends of the carpentry don't actually support much weight & they are just there for aesthetic purposes to lend some 'ooompf!' to the scandinavian theme!! Also seen in this picture is a sneak peek of the vertical beam with shelves! Hmm, just realised that from this camera angle, it looks like my ceiling fan blade is going to slice off the vertical beam... hahaha... CLOSE UP OF LONG SIDEBOARD OAK LEG - Picture taken of the same oak legs contrasting against my vinyl floor, before installation! I really really REALLY REALLYYYYY love the grain & the smooth wood finish... Superrrr nice. The edges, corners & surfaces of the oak legs are not at all sharp & the finish is extremely well done!! CLOSE-UP OF VERTICAL BEAM WITH SHELVES - Same pretty veneer wrap used for this vertical beam... Not sure if you guys can see the horizontal 'slit' line cut into the beam at the top & at the bottom.. I asked #CalvinTan why and he mentioned that it was because the veneer wrap comes in pre-determined sizes and doesn't come any bigger than that, so he included the 2 slits for me to hide the joining line!! With that, the ugly join-line (imagine the wooden grain not linking well together) became an instant design feature! This self-initiative really pleased both CFO & I and came as a pleasant surprise to us... though it's a bit scary because he didn't tell us about it before he actually did it.. hahaha... But all's good all's good... :) The next headache will be how to adorn and decorate the shelf while keeping to the minimalist-idea... Headache... KITCHEN BOTTOM CABINET INSTALLATION (Cont'd from 1st Day) - Also fixed up the respective gloriously green drawers for this carpentry piece! Woohoo.. My house is slowly but surely feeling more and more like a home! FYI, the long wire running down from the false ceiling is for the cooking hood... Don't know what to do with the white PVC pipe on the ceiling at the top-left-hand-corner of the photo lei... Paint maybe? Anyone got any good ideas? KITCHEN TOP & BOTTOM CABINET INSTALLATION (OTHER SIDE OF KITCHEN) - Close to completion with my ladder-unit & my built-in oven from Rinnai!! I don't think I have to explain just how EXCITED my dearest CFO got!! HEHEHEHE.. Die liao die liao... Have to make a mental note that I cannot let her read this blog in detail from now on.. lalalala. Actually my sis was joking with me the other day... You know the gardenia bread tag that is used to seal the plastic? Hahaha.. She told me that if CFO & I drop it on the kitchen floor, then really HO SEY LIAO. Wahahahaha because the kitchen floor is so colourful that we probably cannot see the tag at all. Wahahaha.... To Be Continued...

OMG I love you breakster. Thank you so much... BTW our kitchen wall tiles are the same! HEHEHE.

Puggy thanks a million for the kind remarks on my blog & for sharing the link!! I am going to zoom off to whatsapp my wife now! Dunno how we look and look and look couldn't find lei... BTW, love your design too! keep more pictures coming!

Bianzi is your Joven water heater tank the energy efficient model? How to tell ah? I want to get the same model too!!

ahhboi if you read my earlier posts, you would remember that I have an elder sister who also engaged #PoshHome after CFO & I did. This is her blog, enjoy.. And in case you were wondering how I came to know you posted here, it easily seen from your profile view... That on top of the fact that she is my sister and we live under the same roof..

Totally agree with you Bianzi & Songz... I am very sorry to hear about bad renovation experiences especially when you think about the fact that renovation is definitely not a small expense.. I'm also at a loss because I really cannot comprehend why, given that I have such good rapport with both #CalvinTan and #Edgar!! CFO & I still maintain our relationship on a professional basis (with the exceptions of some ridiculous jokes between us hahaha) in case we have some major conflict that nessecitates this kind of approach.. I still firmly believe, (as I have posted about before too) that the chemistry between the home owner & ID is the most important factor before you engage him.. and this theory has been proved right on more than one occasion during my maiden renovation experience so far with both #CalvinTan, and the failed ID contract that CFO & I rescinded (and lost SGD1000 to the life-school-of-hard-knocks in the process).. There are times when some works is done, and you either have to trust your ID, or you don't. Making reference to another chapter in my personal tuition fee in the life-school-of-hard-knocks again; I take my own personal experience at engaging a SGD5,000 bridal videographer/photographer package that has all the gadgety stuff I LATER FOUND OUT I DON'T NEED. We later found out unfortunately, that for the basic services that CFO & I wanted (no gatecrash video editing for showing to guests etc etc), the market rate was only about SGD3,000.. It should be no surprise when I tell you that this was because we signed up with the very first bridal studio that we sat down with. To date, the carpentry is so close to completion & from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely have no problems with carpentry workmanship at all.. In fact, I have a couple of friends doing renovation right now also (same age ma..) and their respective ID/ contractor's carpentry skill is definitely worse. E.g. Think peeling laminates, deeply scratches drawers & carcass etc. Which brings me back to communication.. Or the lack of it.. As with all working relationships, communication is key. I have advised my sister & cousin recently, that it's important to have clear understanding right at the beginning on certain things.. Like what exactly will the ID do for you, and what will he not do for you.. That way you will not come to a stand-point later during your Reno journey when you are unhappy with your ID because you had the thinking "all-along" that that was his job and not yours.. Lastly, back to the earlier point made that there is no 'perfect ID' in the world, there WILL most certainly be misunderstandings.. For me what's important is the follow up of the ID, and the effort to settle the issue amicably.. Also note that when I say 'follow up of the ID', we are all assuming that it is always the failure on the ID's part... That being said, I really sincerely hope for Yip Gamtz & his wife that the renovation quickly gets fully completed soon without any further hitches... I hope my long post helps people to look at things in perspective, & to realise that my posts are really my own experiences with #CalvinTan, whom I can click with pretty well... We are all different people with different personalities, and the working dynamics from ID to ID (for us home owners) & client to client (for them) are vastly different. Thanks.. P.S. It might be my interpretation of the sentence posted by others, for which I am truly sorry about the words below... but it's not the first time & probably won't be the last time, that people have accused me & this blog of being a scam blog. It is not in my nature to intentionally offend others but I thought that it has to be said, seeing as I know who I am and what I'm doing, that it's quite clear that you do not have enough facts to be making such remarks.. I yearn to post more of my personal experiences to share and record more of my renovation/taobao-purchasing etc experiences (albeit a bit tardy.. Sorry.. ) here and to help fellow Renotalkers along the way instead of posting such depressing rantings... If I misinterpreted the sentences & this is a case of me being too sensitive, I'm really really sorry in advance..

*mini celebration on reaching Page 9 of my LeonJennaWong Renotalk T-Blog* In a strange but unsurprising way, I have been feeling particularly nostalgic recently & suddenly realised that, in the blink of an eye, CFO & I have come quite a long way from the 2 newbies who got scolded by their ID (see Post#222)... To a couple that is actually staring at the 70% completion progress mark of their love nest... Time flies and I dread the day where I have no further value to add to this little e-space here... AHEM. OK now that I've met my 'emo' quota for the day; Let's start things good & proper! I'm much too excited to give a proper write-up for this post... (not the first time this has happened in this blog. HEHE.) So I'm going to just plunge the rest of this post head-first into the MAIN CONTENT of today, where... COMMENCEMENT OF LEONJENNAWONG CARPENTRY! 1ST DAY OF LEONJENNAWONG CARPENTRY! For the first day of carpentry installation, #CalvinTan & #Edgar coordinated for the carpentry carcass following to be installed: - Shoe Cabinet @ living area - Kitchen Bottom Cabinet - 3-Metre Sideboard @ living area *BTW, to newcomers to Renotalk, a carpentry 'carcass' is the wooden outer shell of the furniture piece, not including any doors, shelves, drawers that might be part of the furniture piece. (I feel compelled to help to explain this because I only just realised that CFO had absolutely no idea what I have been referring to for the past few months whenever I used that C-word.. Which is. Carcass. Of. Course. ) Quote from CFO: "Carcass is not the dead body of an animal meh?" WAHAHAHA. OK. I AM SO DEAD. Like a carcass. WAHAHAHA. CARPENTRY BEING DELIVERED UP & DULY CAUSING INCONVENIENCE TO YOUNG & OLD. OOPSIE. You see that glorious green coloured piece of carpentry there?! It's for our kitchen carpentry! I ALMOST COULDN'T RECOGNISE THAT BEAUTIFUL COLOUR! OMIGOSH. It looks even better than what I posted in Post#248... When I first saw this picture (#CalvinTan whatsapped me), that colour absolutely melted me away... LOVE IT!! So niceeeeeee omg can't stand it. Hahaha... 3-METRE LONG SIDEBOARD BEING INSTALLED - For this, #CalvinTan had the #PoshHome carpenters to fabricate 2 different pieces (so that they can bring it up the lift) and then fit them together on-site to form the entire furniture piece.. CLOSE-UP OF BEAUTIFUL GRAIN OF MY VENEER WRAP (SIDEBOARD) - So pretty lor the veneer wrap! Even my sister thought it was real wood! HEHEHE. (n_n)v - Take note of the rectangular-shaped hole at the top of the carcass is meant for a flushed-finish Eubiq track! SHOE CABINET BEING INSTALLED - The wood-grain-patterned veneer wrap is the same as the one used for the living area sideboard, and subsequently for my vertical beam too; For consistency of colours/ theme... KITCHEN BOTTOM CABINET CARCASS IS UP! - Complete with 'brand-less' anti-slam drawer tracks... #Kompacplus top is not installed yet.. AND COLOUR IS STILL LOOKING SO NICE!! Hahaha.. Woohoo so excited about this new phase of our renovation - CARPENTRY!! Still got so many other things to look forward to in this phase; like the vanity cabinet, the vertical beam, my ceiling beams etc etc.. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT PROGRESS! Will continue to update as soon as I can! CHEERS PEEPS!

Yo welcome to renotalk! same theme as myself! BTW how much did you get that flip clock for? my wife and I were trying to look for it on taobao as well... cheapest we found was about 200SGD... sobs.

Sherby thanks so muchie! Hehehe.. yes I did up my entire 5 room house (including bedrooms); excluding my 2 bathrooms, the household shelter, the kitchen & my service yard!

Hello Peter73! Speaking to you again so soon! I think you have really done your homework! So I suppose my role here is just to CONFIRM the following with you based on whatever little experience I have so far... I did have to get 2x U-hooks for the 56" Elmark Aeronamics ceiling fan & for the 60" KDK ceiling fan (for parents)Yep, Tampoi Lighting Centre did offer a shorter-DIY-rod for the Elmark Aeronamics that I took up (5" rod-length compared the default 7" length) at the expense of a measly few more ringgit (sorry can't remember right now)From my own first-hand experience, my Elmark Aeronamics (with the longer 7" rod) DOES NOT WOBBLE AT ALL, even when set at the highest speed. One of the more senior-looking sales staff at Tampoi Lighting Centre advised us to:remind our ID/ contractor to fix the fan blades 1-by-1 onto the motor stem ONLY AFTER the motor stem has been mounted onto the ceiling.He said this will enable the blades to sit properly & the motor stem is allowed to balance itself out.From his experience, many Singaporean home owners pop by across the causeway thinking that the fan balancing is awry because their contractors piece the entire ceiling fan together on the floor, before bringing the entire assembled ceiling fan up for installation onto the ceilingLastly, you are right, our pathetic HDB ceiling height is so low that I have to be mindful of the ceiling fan... Which is why the 2" shorter rod is even more so significant... Thanks for your kind compliments on our new vinyl flooring! We love it too! :wub: Well, the biggest and most significant factor in choosing #Alsafloor from #Bilrich is definitely the VALUE FOR MONEY... And I don't say cost itself, and don't quote the price psf itself because, like you were already alluding to; I do not see any significantly outstanding aspects in either #Bilrich's #Alsafloor or #Evorich's HERF in terms of product quality and characteristic... To me they were essentially the same product, albeit with some relatively insignificant differences (e.g. panel thickness is 5" for #Alsafloor & 7" for HERF if I'm not mistaken)... Generally the aspects that I considered were: Warranty durationSound insulation propertiesWater/ Fire/ Pressure/ Strain/ Wear resistanceToxic emissions gradingColour varietyCost PSF (for newcomers, it means "per square foot")Again, in my comparison they were essentially the same product... One particular aspect stood out more than the others, and that was the cost PSF... Hehe.. (I am not able to recall the HERF rate.. But it was about $6.50 to $7 psf at one time, right?) Also, in case you missed them, I have included hyperlinks to my previous rantings regarding my vinyl flooring purchase... Post#42, Post#43, Post#282 & of course, the recent Post#314... Really hope I helped! CHEERS!

FUN FACT OF THE DAY: DID YOU KNOW THAT LEONJENNAWONG’S VINYL #ALSAFLOORING HAS BEEN COMPLETED?? YESSSSSSS!! YEAHHHHH!! *hops on bed & jump jump jump.. OUCH. Hit my head on ceiling* Rub rub rub. HAIYO! I TELL YOU HOR. THIS #EDGAR HOR. Forget to take photos and send me lei!(and that previous sentence my friends, was probably my most Singlish-laden sentence in this blog so far) I was so anxious after #MayTing from #Bilrich emailed me to tell me that the vinyl #Alsafloor was completed!! So excited that I couldn’t get anything done in the office that day!! Laa laa laaaaa.... Too. Super. Happy. To. Do. Any. Thing. Else. Right. Now!! WOOHOO. Ok don’t talk so much, here’s a sneak preview first! Here you go! BOOMZ. (credit: Miss Ris Low) LIVING/ DINING AREA #ALSAFLOOR OVERLAY - In case you were wondering, the Elmark Aeronamics ceiling fan was removed for a while because it needed a bit of re-balancing.. Hehe… CLOSE-UP OF #ALSAFLOOR V03 EDEN OAK The #Bilrich workers' workmanship is so FANTASTICALLY AWESOME & SO UNBELIEVABLY GOOD!! :D When I stepped into my house I just kept going “OMG. OMG. OMG.”… And I jumped for joy just a little bit more for good measure too. Wahahaha.. Please, pardon my immense excitement. HEE. To show you just how good the workmanship is, I resort once again to the old saying of “a picture tells a thousand words”… Enjoy! JOINING-LINE BETWEEN #ALSAFLOOR & WALL-SKIRTING (this excellent finish was not just for this section, but for the ENTIRE house) SEAMLESS FINISH OF #ALSAFLOOR (FROM CORRIDOR PASSAGEWAY TO BEDROOM) & EXCELLENT JOINING-LINE FINISH AT DOOR-FRAME - THE MOST IMPRESSIVE PART OF THE WORKMANSHIP: Just look at the 'nooks & crevices' at the base of the door frame that the #Bilrich worker navigated so successfully... Also very nice flat & seamless finish from the corridor passageway flooring, leading into the bedrooms #ALSAFLOOR TERMINATING JOINT AT MASTER BATHROOM (called T-mould; made of aluminium & used to link the elevated vinyl floor surface to the other tiled floor surfaces) - And also, TAKE THAT to contractors out there who say overlaying the ramp at the bathroom door can't be done.. lalala.. Extremely clean & tidy finish for the ENTIRE house. SEAMLESS, BEAUTIFUL FINISH, AT LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE CORNER & SIDE. What can I say... What you see above in the photos is what you get. I scrutinized all the joining-line relentlessly for the entire house, and every-where-is-superbly-finished. Very very satisfied with #Bilrich’s work. Really right up there and I think there is no other standard higher than their level of quality. The quality of the overlay was great with no uneven-nessNo 'hollow' sensation when I walked on itClose scrutiny of the vinyl floor surfaces also do not show any scratches or defectsThe entire process was also finished in double-quick time, within the 2-3 days estimate provided by #MayTingThe bottom of the HDB doors were cut very cleanly to accommodate the raised flooringCFO & I are very happy & satisfied customers!! Special mention must also go to our favourite superhero side-kick #Edgar from #PoshHome who was there to supervise the entire overlaying process for CFO & I… Don't know what we would do without his help too... #MayTing from #Bilrich even found it in her to commend him, and tell me that #Edgar was very responsible in handling the work… I am genuinely happy for this young man… A bright future awaits him! #MAYTING FROM #BILRICH I think it's only fitting that I write a small section, dedicated to #MayTing from #Bilrich who consistently went out of her way to provide GEMS (Go Extra Mile Service) service to CFO & I! She was most patient through out the entire process & is such an efficient lady. When we finally decided on V03 Eden Oak, she even gave us some advice to make sure we knew that V03 Eden Oak, being the lightest colour in this #Alsafloor range, will offer a nice & bright feel that will contrast well with any darker colours, but will also show dirt more clearly.. On top of all that, our impression is that her service is genuine with no hidden agenda/ costs involved. Doubt that we will have much more interactions with her now that the flooring is done… Which is a pity.. If any of you guys drop down to #Bilrich, do help us to say hi to her! Lastly, just a recap that #Bilrich is no longer offering the $4.50psf price anymore.. Though there have been some promotions on their facebook page recently if I recall correctly... LOVIN' OUR VINYL FLOORING RIGHT NOW!! HEHE.