dietgalvon

@greenbunny Thanks for your kind words Sometimes I wonder if I'm talking to myself in this thread lol glad that it's of some help! You're right - we went to KompacPlus to view the real thing. Unlike laminates, the samples for KompacPlus are true to what you will get in the end. Boston Cherry is actually one of their top sellers, but we chose Kansas Maple because we prefer lighter wood. @Blade07 Yup I did. I wanted to drop by today to take a picture but they keys are with my fiance! You're referring to the kitchen sink and tap right? I'll need to get back to you on this too as I didn't really play around with the tap yet!

And so the bittersweet journey of renovation is over. We are currently still missing some items (fan, study room items, etc) and some needs items to be drilled. Hoping that E will help us with all these. In the meantime, we are busy meeting vendors to complete the home, buying stuff to spruce up the home, assembling items and cleaning up the warzone. I've to say that apart from the renovation and the large household essentials, the list of smaller items that completes a home adds up to quite a bit too! I am so into shopping for household products and it doesn't help that the fiance is always encouraging me to go ahead and buy anything that I was undecided on. As such, I carted out a xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner when we already have a philips one (and a tonne of other random stuff). Lol. -__- CURTAINS/BLINDS I love the cozy feel that curtains give, but for obvious reasons wood blinds fits our living room more. For easy maintenance, we would be getting roller blinds for the common rooms. I wanted to get roller blinds for the MBR too, but the fiance says that wood blinds are nicer. With that in mind, I got 2 vendors to take on-site measurements and give a quote. Got to know of the first vendor through word-of-mouth, and the second from this forum. First vendor wasn't happy about us meeting a second vendor, though. However, the price difference quoted is a whooping 60%, and since both have good reviews, I went with the first vendor. I will do a review when the blinds are up. GLASS FOR BAR TOP Our bar-top is made using carpentry material as we didn't want to splurge on quartz which will likely double or triple the cost of it. I had originally ordered a made-to-measure plastic sheet for the bartop but it had failed the fiance's inspection. He said it looks too cheapo. Lol. And so, I found a glass vendor to do a glass top for our bartop. All things L-shaped = waste money. Our bartop is L-shaped and the vendor texted me to ask me to consider myself if I want the glass top in a single piece or don't mind having 2 pieces because a single piece would cost almost double the price. The fiance chose the first option. Installation will be on 8 Aug! TAOBAO PURCHASES (again!) Door viewer, that has yet to be fixed up. Quality seems pretty good. Read that the battery can last about a month or so (means need to charge every month), and asked the fiance if he wants to go ahead with this, or to get a normal door bell (I think can last longer?). He wanted this. Ottoman to our lounger. I'm impressed by the quality; the covers are removable too! Bar stools and study table (x2). Absolutely love the bar stools! we got 75cm stools for our 106cm bar top and it fits just right. We went to Comfort Design to test out the heights of different bar stools before getting these. Study tables were a little flimsy but I guess it can serve its purpose. That's all for now!

@Clarence Lye Sorry for the late response I hope I am in time! Entrance I remembered asking the HDB sub con and he told me he would need to hack the slope in order to level the cement so that vinyl can be laid. He quoted me $200. My flooring liaison did confirm that vinyl can be laid at that area (but I think capping would be needed as there's bound to be gaps between the two pieces of vinyl on a slope). My mum later advised me to do tiles instead because it's water resistant. My contractor also had to hack the slope to level it with the vinyl level, but he told me it would be cheaper to let him do it. And so I did. Here's a picture of the entrance: I've seen some others who have metal trimming separating the vinyl and tiles, but my flooring liaison said it's not necessary and may have to cut the door if we wanted that. I think metal trimming is easier than having to clean the grout so I am planning to get it done if I don't have to shave my door. Joint between living/kitchen It looks like this (but this is at the living/common toilet): I think Evorich only uses this PVC material capping (that's what my floor liaison told me) and I was feeling sore about it because other vinyl companies had matching trimmings or just a thin strip of metal trimming, which is so much nicer. I told my flooring liaison and he said he will get it changed for me, due to install on 8 Aug, so I'll update again then! Joint between MBR and MBR toilet I realise I don't have a picture of this! But as I overlaid my MBR toilet, I had a proper bathroom kerb so technically, between the kerb and floor, it was sealed with matching coloured silicon. If the toilet is not overlaid (i.e. no kerb) it will look like the above photo. Hope that helps! @izong Haha still pending a few missing items and the home now requires massive cleaning up. Will post pictures when ready!

@scheep I contacted them about 2 months before. About just right as they take some time to come back with quotation. It might be too premature to contact them now though. PM sent. @daryl78 PM sent. I only did windows. The workmanship is okay. Windows are good, finishing also good.

@nasus19 here it is: https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000002834300.html

HANDOVER...? It was supposedly the day of handover, but I'm not sure if last Saturday was the actual one. Rectification has not completed and E said they will finish up within these few days. But we have already finalized the VO. Final cost of renovation (carpentry, flooring and windows) works out to be a little less than $31k. It's still pretty decent, I guess! We saved a little on our kitchen carpentry as it turns out to be 3 feet lesser than what's reflected in the floor plan heh. Mounting of TV on partition wall I wonder why now flats come with partition walls. -_- Both our living room and MBR TV walls are partition walls. J advised that it is not safe to mount a 50" TV on a partition wall. We decided to only mount the TV in the MBR, so E arranged someone to add some wood and plaster back the wall. TV would be mounted on the wood instead. Touch up works I hope this will help those who engaged J & E! 1. Two carpentry guys came over to rectify the defects, but I wasn't impressed by their attitude. There were some defects they gave us some excuses and normally one would budge. But as I am pretty anal, I asked 1 million questions on why it cannot be done. In the end one of the guys fixed it lor. But they managed to rectify all defects in the end. Make sure things are done to your satisfaction! 2. Painter came and repaint the areas which were previously not done thoroughly. No complaints about him as he quietly does his job... pretty well. 3. Drilling works was done by another guy, and boy, he was SO METICULOUS. Wished he was the one who drilled our bathroom accessories. (Their electrician is also VERY meticulous although the pricing is on the high side lol.) 4. Next, E came up and explained to us the VO. He went through with us every item in the quotation and variation order against the actual measurements in our home. (I feel that this is good practice!) Pointed out to him on certain items that we didn't requested and he was quite cool about it. He bought the issue back to J and he rounded down the figure slightly. It was good enough to the fiance so we left it at that. DELIVERIES We arranged for our deliveries as it was handover day. The place is starting to look like a home. Living Room TV! Electrical points conveniently shifted to the middle of the TV console. MBR TV! We have a powerpoint behind the TV so the wire will not be visible. Our Philips TV comes with a 2 pin plug which cannot fit between the wall and the TV. We will get it changed to a 3 pin plug. Fridge! Washer & Dryer! We stacked them up; the height is okay, would not affect the laundry pulley system. The water hose given by Bosch does not fit the BTO tap. Need to get a compatible water hose. Troublesomeeee. TAOBAO PURCHASES We had some time so was fixing up taobao buys. Review time! Stools Very pretty stools which are also very easy to fix. These cost about the same as the similar stools from IKEA. Side Table Previously posted the un-assembled state of this table. The quality is awesome and this is really so pretty! You may find this familiar because it looks the same as a particular series of furniture that Comfort Design carries... It has the same 'logo' that the same series of furniture that Comfort Design carries!! No wonder I saw items from this seller in Comfort Design lol. Cutlery Strainer Sorry, too cute not to share.

@Blade07 Here's the link: https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000000185760.html. Also PMed you on the windows contact.

@p31j1n Well, yes. But from what E said, I guess he thought he had informed us. Also like extra wire basket in the kitchen that we didn't request for. I think they are ok lah. Likely too many projects so he might forget to tell us/did not check with us on certain things. We mostly did not mind as most of the items we would top up anyway, but there are some items which I wouldn't. Perhaps if you see something extra, you can tell him immediately so at least during VO, you can tell him you told him before already.

@matchalatte Actually most of my carpentry comes with the ABS trimmings. There are some which are out of the standard dimensions, only these will not have ABS trimmings. As long as your carpentry dimensions are standard, then no issue! @S750WP PM sent!

Thanks @spooky once carpentry are in things move really fast! Enjoy the rest of your reno journey! Yup, for my white laminates, they did tried to use permanent marker pen to draw on it. It does look nicer now. But my woody laminate, can't be helped. For the acrylic panels, honestly no. Perhaps he has too many projects, he added in some items that we didn't request and billed us. But the fiance say since it's done, so be it. He didn't want me to bring these up lol. -_-

@ccw562904 I didn't look that close, but service yard windows are regulated by HDB, the windows are standard. So I don't think there is any option anyway! PM sent. PM sent.

DEFECTS CHECKING BEFORE HANDOVER We went to check on defects of the renovation works; there indeed are quite a few. E says he will arrange someone to do touch up works today and our handover is actually, today! Hope all goes well later. There is one area that E told me cannot be helped and it is also something I am honestly a little bothered lah. That is, there are some visible joint lines on our carpentry. Not sure if I can simply refer it to, no laminate trimmings. Majority of the carpentry comes with trimming, i.e. you don't actually see the 'black' line there. I have asked E (and a few others) and confirmed that it is due to the thickness/length being out of the standard few that they have. Hence no trimmings for these. E did mention that the very expensive laminates do have such trimmings but it's very expensive lor. Other than this, the defects for carpentry are rather minor. The paint on some of the door frames are also chipped off, I hope they do paint the whole door frames for us haha. VARIATION ORDER Well, we (or rather, I), got a shock as the VO came up to $3.5k! I am so sad this burst my initial budget though the fiance thought for the amount of items we added, it's not exorbitant. I kind of regretted not asking specially the prices of every item that we wanted to ask so that we can have an indication of what the final figure would be. While we have no regrets choosing E for their works, there are some items that they too outsourced so we felt a little ripped off. For example the acrylic panels, I knew exactly where to get them and it's at 25% of what E charged us! But it was a little too late when they fixed the lights they already changed it to acrylic panels, oh well. Alright, I think I will do a proper review on our contractor after we finalize the VO and after our flat is returned to us. We still have to source for blinds, storage racks for bomb shelter, digital locks and what not before moving in. We will be moving in officially on National Day! But will not be staying there officially till after marriage lol. Till then

@Diluted Get a good quality sink, I guess? Compared to the $1k plus countertop getting a slightly more expensive sink is quite worth it haha @S750WP I have not tried out the pressure but surprisingly contrary to what people say about having to wait 10 minutes, the hot water is ready within a minute or two only!

@izong I cannot say I disagree with this! But so far I don't think I heard of 'spoilt sinks'; perhaps leaking, yes. But leaking can happen with top mount sinks too haha. I guess buying a good sink + go for what you like is best.

@Jenny Tan I got HDB contractor to do it for me. It is now on an appeal basis. They only do till 40mm though. @Diluted yup undermount because it looks sleeker. And yes that is the risk that comes with undermount sinks. But as long as you get a decent quality sink, all should be well. My current home's sink is still going strong after 20 over years.

@Jenny Tan I review my taobao purchases from time to time. You may want to back track the posts with reviews. @Clarence Lye PMed you on the windows contact. I would think that length of track lights is based on own preference. For lights, I used 7W lights, I think most people uses 7W!

@hekimitsuru No prob, we're all here to share and learn - For the rainshower, no issues at all. The height is actually adjustable so it was fixed to ceiling height. - My common toilet vanity set is purchased from taobao, while the MBR vanity cabinet is carpentry, mirror is from IKEA. PM-ed you on the windows contractor!

@hekimitsuru No prob, we're all here to share and learn - For the rainshower, no issues at all. The height is actually adjustable so it was fixed to ceiling height. - My common toilet vanity set is purchased from taobao, while the MBR vanity cabinet is carpentry, mirror is from IKEA. PM-ed you on the windows contractor!

Today while we were cleaning the house E brought someone up to view our flat! I think it's one of the readers here because E told us that they showed him a picture of our home. Anyway, our home progress will be stagnant for a while till handover next weekend. Meanwhile, some backdates of the home - mainly plumbing works! RENOVATION UPDATE - 9 JULY 2017 MBR Toilet PD Door The reason why we took a PD door is due to the cramped space left between door and the vanity when the door is open. As much as I prefer a glass door, the fiance thinks that the mechanism of a PD door is needed. We went for the simplest design and glad we did so. It turned out pretty nice especially when the T5 lights are on; I was afraid it would look cheapo initially lol. After all, it's a plastic door mah. This is how our MBR toilet looks like! I prioritize counterspace, so we bought a smaller basin. I think the tap looks a little oversized here. But the way the water flows from the tap is really like a sheet of paper. Pretty! Fiance say it is not possible to achieve this if the tap is any smaller. Can only blame of the size of our toilet, that I can't get a bigger basin. Oh well. I also have a hand towel bar at the side of our IKEA molger mirror! Really love this mirror. Side view; how pretty is this tap! Rainshower, glass shelf and bidet - all from taobao! We will be installing 2 glass shelves instead. Our toilet paper holder is a stick-on one, so we will stick it on when renovation is over. Towel rack at the opposite side of the shower area. It's at a height perfect for me but a little dangerous for the fiance (it's directly at his eye level)! But the last I asked him he said it is fine as it is impractical if I struggle to reach it. A clothes hook behind the door! Common Toilet A clearer shot of the Taobao vanity! Single towel bar, bidet spray and toilet roll holder - all from taobao again. Towel bar is not exactly centralized; think it's due to the water pipes at the left side. Toilet roll holder has a cover because we ain't installing shower screen here and the bonus is the handphone rest! Fiance likes this lol. Shower set provided by HDB, and a simple corner shelf. We have one issue though. Initially we wanted to put shower curtains here, but realised that the windows there is in the way and we can't install the shower curtain rod! I don't know what can be done but surely I cannot allow water to splash every day because I don't want me vanity to rot. Shall see how since we won't be using this toilet for quite some time, I hope. Our silm storage heater! Last but not least, our kitchen tap is also up! I love this tap a lot!! It looks sleek even though it comes with a pull-out sprayer. And the quality is AWESOME! It's a little big for my sink (55cm) but it sure will look great with a 65cm and above sink. Again I got a smaller sink to maximize counter space. But I underestimated the length of my kitchen. I have twice the amount of counterspace compared to my own home now. Lol.

LIGHTS Previously wrote about receiving my lights from taobao here and I'm back here to do a review of the lights, when in use! I used agar-ration when deciding on the wattage of the lights. One thing I heard is that if getting lights from taobao, one should up the wattage. I would say this is generally true. Main gate 5W; neutral light. Just nice! My mum said that the area outside our flat is too dark, and suggested that we add a lighting point here. Hence I got a wall lamp - it's really cuteee! Electrician shifted this lamp a little higher (because our lamp points downwards haha) to ensure that when we open the main gate fully, it will not hit the bulb. Our electrician is very meticulous! Living Room 1.5m track; 3x 7W track lights in neutral light. Track lights at the entryway. We were only given one lighting point in front of the main door and we are not sure where else to place lights for the shoe cabinet area without making the area look bulky and awkward. Hence we decided to use track lights like at the TV area. Better still, we used track lights throughout the living room and this track here is in a straight line as the one at the TV area. Electrician shifted the track a little outwards so that the shoe cabinet doors can be opened without hitting the track lights. 1.5m / 3m track; 7W track light in 3 tones I chose to use long tracks because I feel that it should at least be longer than the TV. The wall opposite the TV wall is twice as long so I put 3m track lol. Rather than having enough light, it's my OCD at work. Electrician shifted the tracks here to be in line with the one he changed at the shoe cabinet area without us telling him. Meticulous like that, I like! I'd say that track lights are sufficient to light up the house! Dining 3x 7W; neutral light It was a struggle deciding on the dining lights. We initially wanted woody pendant lights but non felt right. The one instant I saw this, I knew this was it! I bought the long disc (at the ceiling) separately because I wanted 3 lights without the individual round looking disc. Passage way 0.5m track; 7W track lights in neutral light It's weird to have only 1 track light here, but 7W is really very bright for this area! I might buy 3W lights to place here. Note that my passage way is shorter than most flats due to the unique layout. Household shelter 15W; white light A good brightness. This black framed light is supposed to fit our monochrome common toilet but since we changed the theme after the vanity failed to arrive, this is kept in here instead. Lol. Kitchen 36W; white light The light is hugeeee and to be honest, I find it a little too bright. Especially when we do not have top cabinets. Heard from a friend that his ID recommended 30 to 36W for kitchen. I guess with top cabinets, 36W is okay. Else, I think I would prefer 30 to 32W for kitchen. Service Yard 7W; white light It turned our nicer than I expected! Love it. MBR MBR entry way. 9W; neutral light. Boxing up of the air con trunking made the area rather awkward with a dent in the middle. Hence contractor decided to fabricate a false ceiling and advised us to get downlight instead. I love this downlight which I got from taobao, it's superrrrrr silm. It costs like $5 plus and I was initially doubtful if it would work. Well, it did! For this small area, I think a 6/7W should suffice haha. 1m track; 7W track lights in neutral We have 2 lights in the MBR (other than entry way) because we partitioned off the bed area. Absolutely no clue on what light to get for the wardrobe area. With my dresser there, I decided to use track lights as I can angle my track lights to where I want it to be. 24W; neutral light Argh it is not flushed to the ceiling. Other than that, I love this light. Surprisingly, it is not easy to find a simple woody light. MBR & common toilets Ceiling light: 15W in white light T5 lights in warm white The T5 lights were bought locally. Should have confirmed the length earlier and bought from taobao instead haha. Other than that, loving the effect of white and warm light (separately) and the acrylic panels too! BR2 & BR3 30W White light for BR2 (study room) Neutral light for BR3 Brightness is good! My personal opinion is that white light is more conducive for studying. If in doubt, can purchase the 3 tone light version instead, think it's only a little more expensive. Summary Hope the above is useful! One point to note though is that I personally prefer rooms to be bright so I prefer white light. Neutral light is to create a cozy bedroom feel. Haha. Warm T5 lights is great, though. Spent in total about $500 inclusive of the extra track and track lights I got. SELLING I have some items which I did not use or have to give up in the process. PM me if anyone is interested! 1) 1x 1m white track (thickened version) - electrician approves of it! $5 2) 1x 6W square (super silm) down light (initially bought this for the passage way but we used track lights instead) $4 3) Solid wood Passageway/Balcony/Foyer Light (unable to use due to boxing up of aircon trunking) $20 - Comes with 5W warm light E27 bulb - Supports up to 40W bulbs

ELECTRICAL PLAN Fiance and I ain't very sure of where to add electrical points, and along the way we took some advice from people around us. Electrical works can add up to quite a bit (especially if doing false ceiling?) but I know for myself how cumbersome it is if there isn't enough power points around the house. My mum also told me she regretted saving on this aspect. Living Room This is our TV wall and we shifted all the existing TV point and power points to the middle of the wall, and they will be hidden within our taobao TV console. The original points/sockets were right beside the windows and if we do not shift, wires for the TV will be seen running from the side of the wall. There's also an existing single socket at the other side of the wall, where we can use for our telephone. Dining Area Here's our dining ledge and kitchen at the back - we hacked half of the kitchen wall. Lower left - existing power point. We added the double power point nearer to the top of the ledge. Contractor advised that we would need a socket if we want to eat steamboat haha. Actually we had wanted to shift the double power point from the inside of the kitchen wall (that had been hacked) but somehow a new one is added. The original double power point remains at the other side of the kitchen wall. Kitchen The double power point beside the stove is shifted here from the existing one right in front of the stove area. We added 2 double power points at the side of the kitchen wall for the different appliances we may have over time. My current home is in a disastrous state due to the lack of electrical sockets, so I insisted on this! The one single powerpoint at the side is existing and it's for our fridge. It fits nicely so we do not need to shift it at all. We left the other side of the kitchen completely empty but now there's a double power point that's existing and only shifted further down because we hacked half the kitchen wall. On hindsight, that's not bad too because we can buy a low shelf and put some appliances there as well! Service Yard Changed the single power point to a double power point because we would be having a dryer as well. MBR This is the TV wall. We shifted the TV point to the middle of the wall, and also added a single power point there. Wires will then be blocked by the TV! At the side nearer to the wardrobe, we have a 2 way switch for the light and a double power point hidden below our bedside ledge. We heeded the advice of many to have one charging point on each side of the bed so that both can charge phones at the same time lol. The other point can be used for charging laptop! 2 way switch was suggested by our contractor. My mum also told me that she regretted not putting a 2-way switch at our current home haha. There wasn't any power point here initially because I don't use hair dryer. But after the electrical works were done, I scraped the idea of a lighting point at my dresser (to avoid the bulky look), hence this has been changed into a power point. The power point here is supposed to be the water heater switch. But as we are using storage heater, we only need the heater switch at the common toilet. Hence contractor suggested that this can be changed into a power point. As it turns out, I think our MBR has no lack of power points lol. Bedroom 2 This will be our study room for the time being so we added a double power point just above where the study table would be. Can use it to charge laptops! The existing power points at the lower end of the wall shall cater to the needs of our desktop. Bedroom 3 No addition/shift of power points as we ain't sure what to do with this room yet.

@Sehn82 I paid $370 for windows only. This contractor that I used charges $850 for windows and grilles for a 4room bto.

PM-ed.

@spooky In general I think it's right to up the wattage if getting from Taobao! Did you check with your ID on the wattage? I just agar-ed the wattage myself hahaha. The IKEA mirror is really a steal at $49! You can check the stock availability from their website. Oh for the T5 lights, for example 195cm doesn't mean that the lights have to add up to almost 195cm, the length of T5 lights needed is actually much shorter for my case. Omg now that I'm typing this out I think I was quite dumb.

@Jenny Tan It's close to $300 including domestic shipping and GST. Ezbuy has removed this item from Prime so I have lost the link. Sorry!