Dwinsplace

Hey eastlovin! Love your nick. Easties FTW! I have a feeling HDB plans are STILL not very accurate. tsk. Someone should them all. Its a lot of wasted man hours having to reconfigure everything. Yeah I would agree with you about the gate. There are promotions to doing both but it will cost you ard $1000 ish. Unlike door alone where you can just get it online and self install with a simple drill. ($200ish) Gate work would require metal brackets, remote controls... oh well. Its the price of convenience and a one time payment for years of ease. I have a number of photos in my phone but I havent gotten around to updating the blog. haha. Hacking pics, tile pics, first taobao shipment (quality is good!) Soon soon!

I believe I posted that i wanted a digital lock before and I was researching on the Kwikset lock, Goji Lock, as well as the August Smart lock. All 3 of those use bluetooth technology to access your smartphone and automatically unlocks when you approach. Similar to your smart keys on the cars these day. Friggin awesome i thought! But sadly the first is not so pretty, and the next two are still in production phase and based in US. I suspect alot of the initial problems will also have solutions that might not apply to global users. The big deal breaker though, was that the wife didn't really buy into the idea that they were safe. Too easy to steal your phone or misplace your phone and those sort of things. For the longest time, electronic locks were off the table for us and I was sad... But its super important to feel safe in your own home so I agreed to go with traditional key locks. BUT! The wife has recently changed her mind! Not sure why, but she does seem sure that she would be ok with electronic gate so YAY! Thanks dear! Now I'm contacting all the local providers for digital locks because the installation onto metal gates is a lot more complex than on a door. Has anyone done it before? Know what I should look out for? I'm currently asking interlock and An digital lock for advice.

Bianzi: I was at the shop at the same time. We probably saw each other! Tommy: Haha heng ah! And thanks to you, I won't have to pay more either!

I went to those exact two shops today! And it was great! Much better than the ones I went to at balestier the other day. Service was better, products were better. Prices were WAY better. Got my shower systems from wasser, and my carysil sink from heritage. $180 for the big bowl before GST! WHoo! thanks so much tommy78 for pointing out that my original idea wasn't a good price!! Saved me $70! Toilet bowl can only confirm after ID speaks with tiler and gets a more exact measurement of the distance to the waste hole. Hope we can use the S trap system then we will have more options. But at this point, Im pretty sure that I will be returning to heritage. The service is good, informative and clear cut. No hard sell. No rubbish. Itemized quotation with no fuss about changes or removals.

Went to select sanitary items today with the ID! We spent two hours and only managed to see 2 shops haha. So many toilet bowls to sit on!! But I'm sure you will all agree that it's impt to get a toilet bowl that you are comfortable with. *nods* There was a shop that had an online portal who gave me a quote that was super competitive! Carysil big bowl granite sink for only $250! But when I went to the actual shop today, the retail price for the sink was $460! I didn't realise that they marked it up SO much. It's ridiculous. They had nice toilet bowls too but sadly the taps and stuff were really ugly. And service wasn't really good either. He refused to give me an itemised quote at first, but then I finally convinced him that I at least needed to know a rough costing so that I can add/delete stuff with some knowledge of how much I'm adding/ removing. After that he refused to give me a hard copy quote. Now I understand that they need to protect their interests but how am I supposed to remember what items I looked at without a hard copy?? I have a feeling a won't be going with this shop.... Can only hope that the other shop has a good quote if not it will be back to the drawing board. Or back to taobao! Lol. Speaking of taobao, I find it hilarious how my ID's eyes always pop out when I tell her how much lights are on taobao. She says that you can't really find any lights for less than $50 each in Singapore. So I'm feeling really good about how much I'm saving on that front. And the wife has found a marvellous gem to save even more money! There is apparently a hari raya sale from the distributors of the relite fans. $188 for the petite relite 48" ceiling fan with delivery and installation. So thanks to all the Muslims in Singapore! And for all those looking to get those fans, ORDER NOW! We have also just configured all our cabinets. Shoe, kitchen, wardrobe. All done. A very productive day I would say. Many thanks to our ID who slaved till 11pm the night before just to churn out technical drawings so that the mrs and I could discuss it before our meeting today. Made everything a lot more productive. I would suggest this approach for everyone actually. Get a draft plan from the ID and then spend some time talking to your spouse about what your concerns and ideas are regarding the plan. That way you meet the ID with a united front and don't waste time fighting (read discussing) amongst yourselves in front of the ID. Heh So excited now! Really see the house shaping up and when I visit the house I can envision what it will look like and to me, it's bloody beautiful. I hope all of you fellow renovatees are experiencing this same exhilaration. Will post pics of the stuff soon!

Oh I get what you mean about wishing you were more diligent in your updates now. Lol... Where are those 3D renderings you promised!? If you are having issues w uploading photos, use photo bucket.. Makes it really easy. I disagreed with lauer's concept of space planning. Yes things should be proportional. But having a massive toilet is extremely luxurious and satisfying too. The storeroom door can easily be switched to open from the other side and that would solve access issues. As for feet facing door, I personally like walking into a bedroom and seeing the bed laid out like a tableau. But that's superstition and is a completely valid concern if you subscribe to that, Off the cuff though, I did have an issue with your study's privacy. Anyone comes in will see you straightaway at work. And if I'm working I need to be distracted as little as possible. Oh! For the WIW, would you consider a pocketed door? That way you can have it out of sight most of the time, but still have the option if you need it.

You're with 3D too?? Awesome. Maybe we have seen you in the office but didn't know. haha. I'll be ghosting your blog from now. As for updates, Im lazier now. A lot of times i wish that things were faster so that I would actually have things to update on! haha! And I totally forgot to take pics of the tiles that we chose. Oh well.

Hey Samuel, I guess you know better because you're right! HDB did not approve that. But IDs found it odd and so did my relative who is also an ID. Waterproofing can be (and is usually) redone since the toilets are all hacked anyway. If the HDB doesn't trust private company waterproofing then how can they allow the hacking of the toilets? Our ID also said that they have done a very similar layout where this exact extension was approved. HDB just said that it was denied, but didn't give a reason. in the end, we thought that the extension would have made the service yard too small to work in anyway so all good!

Well for us, we thought purpose of a wall was to keep water from splashing primarily. So needed to be at least shoulder height if not higher. That cuts light and makes the visual space much smaller. Also, the floor trap for our bathroom was just after the toilet and so it would be awkward to fit the wall there. Either too close to WC and you won't be able to sit comfortably. Or if we built the wall after the floortrap and ducted the water out, it would still be too close to the other wall and make showering diffcult. The width of the bricks just took up too much space in our limited toilet. Hope that you can do it though! its kinda old school and looks really interesting

Hey can i ask which lights are the ones spoiling? is it the track lights? do you have a link?

Hey seowleng, thanks for dropping by! Its great that you have that layout. It was the reason I fell in love with the place to begin with. Quite a lot can be done with it but as with all HDBs, columns and beams are a pain in the @55. I'll definitely post a pic of the end product of that wall. At this point the ID still has a few kinks to work out and I'm currently not sure if it's gng to be metal looking laminates for the wall plates with a real mild steel border or what. Mild steel can rust if the paint and protective layer peels off I believe. Will have to ask my ID also.

I also wanted that treatment for the shower area. Do away with the glass. More open, more unique and less glass to clean. But in the end the footprint of creating a brick wall was too big. Also we would have to build the wall till at least shoulder level to prevent too much water splashing out of the stall and that meant cutting a lot of light off. So in the end? Glass. sigh.

Oh and i saw the sledgehammer on the ground and asked if I could whack a wall down. Already holding back my more immature desire to take up his power tool and asking to use that. The worker just smiled and said nothing. I asked again. He just smiled. But I'm pretty sure that was a polite "No". Lol.

Second day of hacking is done! I popped by on the very first day and it was super exciting to see the walls come down. You get this rush of "it's finally happening!" and just a sense that you're gng to change the place drastically. This is a before picture of the house. This is what the kitchen looks like now. And the study wall has also come down. (future steel clad wall) Unfortunately, we have had our first hiccup in the project. We confirmed with the hacking that the actual columns in kitchen and living are actually considerably larger than on plan, and this affects the shoe cabinet and placement of couch/ tv/ feature wall. How can HDB issue these TECHNICAL plans, that are WRONG?! I mean, if it really screws up the planning and design, shouldn't we be able to get some kind of compensation from them?? They BUILT the place! How can they not know the plans?! Anyway, the designer seems totally unfazed by all this and she just said that she will rework the affected areas and propose a new design for us. So... hope for the best! But still cheesed at HDB.

Haha game of thrones? Awesome! My wife and I both love the series. We have always joked about me wanting to live in a batcave or a dungeon so it looks like it's going to happen! It is currently my most loved feature in the house and I really hope it works out in execution. Crossing my fingers that there won't be any technical issues.

And for the piece de resistance! This is my study room! LOOOOOVE the use of steel for the walls and door! The area around the beam needs to be cleaned up a bit for the lines to flow properly but I'll be taking that up with her shortly. I would never have come up with this idea and I really LOVE it. Tomorrow will be a meeting with the electrician to see how crazy i can get with my power points. And how much it will hurt my pocket. Then hacking starts the day after! it's beginning!

Been ages since I've posted. Things have been on standby as mentioned before and so the mrs and I were taking a break from the whole process too and went on a few nice dates while the ID was away on her own holiday. Now she's back and we've received the first round of 3D images! I was really quite impressed with the direction she has taken but the finishes still need a lot of tweaking. Through the first round, I also got to know a little bit more about the wife's aesthetics. And for those who are doing reno, i think you will agree that this is the toughest part - to finding out what your partner wants and how to combine the two looks into something you both love. To be honest, we're still feeling our way around but I'm confident that we will get there. And after an extensive meeting, our ID sounds like she's pretty sure where to take the look too! So we can't wait till our second round of 3Ds! In the meantime, I would like to share with you a bit of what she's shown us. We're asking for a greyish tone brick wall for comparison. wife is really against the laminates for the shoe cabinet area so that will be changed shortly! Oh and the hollow block wall behind the couch is supposed to be painted in grey. Kitchen. Love the black w wood and stainless steel!

LHWH, as far as i know, only http://www.relitespecialty.com/product.php?cPath=32_35_37 has the fan. I've asked them over the phone and they said they were the sole distributor. But not sure if they have other authorised resellers.

As for ceiling fans, we are most likely going for fanco FFM4000 for the rooms and FFM6000 for the hall. Sleek and simple. Fanco seems to have ok reviews also. And who knew it would be so tough to find black coloured fans??! Our other consideration is the relite petite fans that a lot of ppl have. Similar to the KDK in terms of looks. Made in india even though the brand is originally from UK. Price about $50 more per fan though and warranty on motor only for 1 year. Fanco is carried in a lot of shops but relite only has that one speciality store. And yet it's still so popular. There must be something to it right? Wish i could test the models but the showrooms for these 2 brands are very far away so I guess I'll have to go on faith. And more likely than not, cost.

if those 3 chairs dont match then maybe http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.0.0.kwi9nB&id=39170923432&ns=1#detail but also will have to stain wood darker. Oh oh! and I REALLLY LOVE Clothes rack from TB... wonder if i have the space though... Still on the hunt for a tv console. Man i really can't wait for the 3D so we can start making some purchases! Itchy... heh

currently ID is on holiday so things are at a standstill. Renovation Limbo. Thats why I haven't been posting also. But I have been TBing. Sadly still clueless as to how to actually purchase the products but I'm window shopping a lot. lol. Waiting for ID to come back, show us the 3D and then we can know the look and start purchasing! Chairs we like. http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.0.0.k7RiT9&id=38602998184&ns=1#detail http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.0.0.5Q0H7R&id=19703567653&ns=1#detail (Will take the black metal version and might have to stain the wood darker) Revolt chair from Lush. Reminds me a bit of school.

whoo! all coming together. I see the scandi-ness already. Esp with the tree installation at the shoe cabinet. Much nicer after varnish.

Ahh. I get it now. And yes I'm sure everyone wants my money. I'm just afraid that I won't be able to read the Chinese enough to know where to click "pay" lol. Thanks for the info! Will go set up my accounts first. Heh

oh! do you also have a way to sort items by seller ratings? Its very tedious to look at every item only to see 2 or 3 hearts. I want to go straight for crown sellers if possible.

Sorry Ocean, Still a bit blur. So what you are saying is that we can purchase it ourselves but we still need a freight forwarding company like Amcon/ Peeka to receive our goods and send on to us right? So we save on their service to buy for us? And how to do NETs online? Just key in my nets card number?? I've never done it before. Only used credit card. Thanks!