flowersinherhair

@Han Xiang Yea I love the tiles. I find it a bit pricey though, considering that it's made in China.

@hoWL May I know what is the grouting size for your craftstone brick wall?

I'm also using the same tile as you!

@infatuation1527 Thanks for the reply.. Yea I wanted a 3 zone so in the end have to settle for Brandt.

Day 18 Feature wall Went down to take a look, flooring is completed. Is it just me? I find that the feature wall grouting is a bit too big (8mm), and the colour of the plaster (?) used doesn't match with my bricks? Should I ask the workers to redo? Please kindly advise! 8mm grouting.. See the colour of the plaster (?), colour looks a bit off? Should I ask the contractor to change it to a lighter colour? Is this acceptable? Or am I being too OCD/picky? Living room floor tiles Overall quite happy with the tiles I have chosen, even though it's made in China. Common bedroom floor tiles Master bedroom floor tiles Kitchen cabinet base Service yard base Will be boxing up the pipes. Washing machine will be placed on this side. Will be installing a sink on the other side of the service yard, contractor runs a pipe from the other end, the water piping will be hidden inside the boxed up thing that you see on the left hand side.

Day 16 More updates, photos were taken during daytime. Flooring is more or less done, only left the skirting. Tilers will proceed to do my feature wall tiles next.

@Clarence Lye Ohh, I'm not sure about this, will check with my contractor..

How do I rotate photos?

@Pooroldman I have not decide the switches, any advice whether it is better to use switch installed by installer or connect to switch that HDB installed? As for your second question, do you mean the cement screeding? @Clarence Lye Thanks for your clarification! Is this cement screeding? @Songz Yea I like woody tiles.. How come it looks like vinyl haha? Actual photos taken at the shop, this is the colour of the tiles under natural sunlight.

Day 14 Wet works proceeded after air con installation. Met up with my contractor over the weekend for a discussion. Tiling works begin today. We got our living room and bedroom floor tiles from Lian Seng Hin http://www.liansenghin.com.sg/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=88 Each tile is offset by 200mm, arranged in a staircase fashion. As for the feature walls, I got them from Hup Kiong. http://www.fioranese.it/en/floor-and-wall-tiles/urban_avenue/ Off white version, will be arranging them horizontally in a random manner, with a 8mm grouting throughout. Half the living room has been completed, if everything goes well, tiling works will be completed by this weekend. Will be back for more updates then, stay tune!

Day 1 Renovation works officially kicked off after 7th month has ended. Air-con guys came in to install the air-con. Installed Mitsubishi Electric 3 system in my living room, and 2 bedrooms. Living room Common bedroom How do I rotate image??! Master bedroom See that trunking? Will be boxing that up.

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies and suggestions. Been away for this thread for some time due to work. Yea I agree it's a bit of balancing between advice and what I like, I'm feeling rather down lately due to work, and because of the ongoing renovation discussions, I was in a pretty bad mood, there were also some arguments along the way, sigh. Anw, my renovations have started, will be updating this space more often. Stay tune!

@infatuation054 Very lovely house! May I know which Bosch model of induction hob are you asking? I wanted to get a 3 zone hob but was told that Bosch is not suitable due to the power limitation.

3D drawings: Version 3 Hi everyone, it's been sometime since my last update. Been feeling frustrated lately as I have some conflicts with my family members and relatives about the designs etc. Not going to dwell into details but because of this, I'm feeling quite down lately. Here are the third revisions.. Hexagon designs for the cabinet, yay or nay? I find that some storage space is wasted due to the hexagon design? Swopped out my craftstone wall with this plain looking tiles.. Cos family members and relatives said craftstone walls are too hard to maintain.. Changed my TV to a 55 inches one, is it too big？ Have to change out my kompac plus tabletop to the quartz, cos family members and relatives said kompac plus is not good. Same goes for this side of the kitchen, swopped out my kompacplus. Added a fan in case of warm weather. Split my wardrobes and display cabinet into a 50:50 proportion. Supposed to change the tabletop to white but somehow information was communicated wrongly to the ID This looks so much better now with the full length table, chair by the side

@fingerscross Thanks for the advice, will keep that in consideration.

@AndreaLee Thanks! Hope the finishing will look good, the house is too small to have much design, guess a lot will depend on the styling.

@izong Yea I suppose 3D will look different from the actual, hope the actual will look better irl.

@superk888 Will try to squeeze in a chair.. really not used to sitting on the bed with no back support..

@superk888 Thanks for the suggestions! Yup, will be removing the DB box panels and replacing them with a full length mirror. ID said can only do shelvings on the bottom section as top section contains the DB box. Btw, I don't get the other comment about removing the partition wall at side? Which is the partition wall you are referring to? My ID said both my MBR and common bedroom space is very tight, both bedrooms can only allow user to sit on bed, the gap is too small to put in a chair., even if we can squeeze in a chair. it will be very hard to adjust ourselves on the chair. For the common bedroom, the length of the room is about 3m, the depth of the sliding wardrobe is about 60cm, length of the super single bed is 120cm, we intend to keep the table depth to about 40cm (slightly larger than a piece of A4), I'm only left about 80cm gap. This 80cm gap has to be distributed for 1) gap between chair and bed 2) gap between bed and wardrobe. Approx 40cm for each gap? For the MBR, the length of the room is about 3m, the length of the super single bed is about 2m, depth of table is about 50cm (there is an indentation at the corner window wall, so this small section depth has to be deeper to cater to my display cabinet, so I'm only left about 40-45cm gap for the chair to slot in. 3 room BTO is so small...

@izong I feel that the 3Ds still lacking something, doesn't have the wow factor.. anw the current quotation has crossed the $40K mark already..

3D drawings: Version 2 Hi everyone! It's been 2 weeks' since the first draft of my 3D drawings. I have gotten the amended drawings. Frankly speaking, I'm quite disappointed, sighhh.. more revisions to go.. LIVING ROOM This drawing shows the original tiles used in Version 1, more yellowish tone against a white brick wall. Due to fengshui reasons, my living and dining room has to be painted with 70% beige tone, and the colour I have chosen is Lily white (closest to pure white). In this 3D drawing, it is painted lily white. I think lily white set against a white brick wall seems ok, if I were to paint the brick wall to lily white as well, does it look weird?? I also got the ID to change the tiles to a more orangey tiles which I have shortlisted initially, set against a beige/brownish craftstone brick wall (commonly seen in many BTO flats in the following photo) Built-in cabinet is too small, only 1.2m. I'm need at least 1.8m.. So I will be doing away with the standing lamp, and get a smaller furniture (approx 1.6m). I also find the design of the cabinet too mainstream.. sighh.. DB box will be changed to a full length mirror? ID also suggested some honeycomb tiles at the entrance, it looks a bit off to me. My door has to be painted grey due to fengshui reasons.. ID suggested barnyard doors for the 2 bedrooms, l like the doors but I think I will change the colours of the walls to white. KITCHEN Decided to change the backsplash to kompacplus as well using New York teak. I will be getting a LG fridge in champagne gold.. I found a couple of wall-hanging racks for the ID, this is what she proposed. I think someone else drew this but the third rack is too high up I feel?? Service yard. ID said I can't do a cabinet here due to the pulley system. I wanted a kerb for washing feet but it doesn't seem to be reflected in this 3D drawing. sigh. COMMON BEDROOM The previous drawings was of a different orientation, due to fengshui reasons. I had to forgo fengshui for this room as the gap between the headboard and wardrobe is too tight, it is almost impossible to retrieve clothes from the wardrobe, so I got my ID to change to this. However study table should be full length with 3 tiers drawer.. ID got it wrong sigh... MASTER BEDROOM The pink wall looks better now, I choose the lightest pink. Yes, it's due to fengshui reasons again and according to FSM, this room theme is pink. Pardon the disney fingurines.. Got my ID to redo the cabinets. 1/3 will be the wardrobe (60cm in depth), 2/3 will be my display, the right hand side will be hiding my TV. COMMON ROOM TOILET Not much change, except I requested a laminate with more obvious grains MASTER BEDROOM TOILET Requested a full mirror cabinet, instead of a 1/3 rack, 2/3 mirror cabinet. Not sure about the rack above the toilet bowl, perhaps I should do away with it?

@spooky I see, my ID's firm has 2 different packages, some customers only engage the design service, while some sign on the full service (design package plus renovation). Yup, I the 3D drawings really help in visualising, hopefully the reno outcome will look even better irl. @izong Yup, I paid for the design package, only 3D drawings given. If I need the measurements for carpentry to pass it on to my contractors, I will have to pay for the measurements.

@izong Hmm is it not a norm for the ID to give 3D for everything? For this company which I'm engaging, I paid for the design package which include all 3Ds of the entire house, and unlimited revisions.

Hi @spooky, I think I was am quite lucky, there were not too many major defects. Some major ones include hollowness of floor, uneven floor tiles, misalignment of service yard door etc. I would say, about 70% of the defects are cosmetic in nature. eg poor paint job, scratches on tiles, switches, rust, missing screws etc. If you are not very particular about it, I suppose it is fine with not engaging a inspection company. In fact, most of the defects will be covered up by cabinets eventually. However, there are certain things which a layman like me or even an ID can't detect, eg hollow flooring, missing cover in the fuse box (I thought it was supposed to be a hole lol), so I would say, engage an inspection team if you want a piece of mind. During the next inspection, the inspection team will go through the lists of defects again with the HDB contractors, I think if there are new defects, the team will highlight to the contractors. There will be a final round of check, after the third round, there will be a charge when you need to engage the inspection team to come down again.

Defects inspection I did not want to engage the company to inspection defects initially cos I thought it is unnecessary and it is not cheap ($350 for a 3 room BTO). Moreover, my unit does not come with any of the OCS. However, I'm not sure how to check defects and I'm too lazy to do it myself too lol. My ID did picked out a few defects for me but I believed that are more. Also, the inspectors can help to detect potential risk and get the BSC to rectify them before the warranty expires. I would rather do the necessary rectifications now and save myself from repairing detectable defects in the future (imagine the time and money wasted and the frustration!). After reading the reviews, I decided to engage Absolute Inspection for the defects checking. First inspection The initial appointment was supposed to be in the morning, but the boss texted me the night before informing me that his staff was ill and he will be coming down personally to do the inspection in the afternoon. I was fine with that. You can go to the company website to check out the boss's credentials, he has a pretty solid CV and I trust that he knows what he is doing since he is quite an expert in this field. He is a nice and funny chap. He went around my house to check on every nook and cranny, including the air con ledge and outside of my unit! My house was plastered with so many tapes and he found a total of 86 defects! I felt oddly satisfied to see so many tapes pasted all over the place lol. The BSC defects lists was filled in for me, all I need to do is to submit the form to the BSC office. The whole inspection process took almost 4 hours! The next appointment will be a joint inspection between the inspection company and the HDB contractors.