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We finished our rather major renovations few months back but just found time to share some pictures. We engaged an ID but in the end, he was doing mainly the wet works (hacking, cementing, marble, tiles, electrical, plumbing etc) and playing more the role of a project co-ordinator. We engaged specialist contractors directly for many parts of the works (cabinets, kitchen, wardrobe, glass works, painting, landscape, pond etc) with my better half doing a lot of the "interior designing" herself! The result is not too bad. Learnt quite a number of things which we can share. This will also serve as a record of our renovation journey. Please excuse me if my posts are not in chronological order, "terbalik" or all over the place. TABLE OF CONTENTS Living Room, Vertical Garden, Indoor Koi Pond Ceiling Fans and Dining Area White Dry Kitchen Black Wet Kitchen Storeroom & Bomb Shelter Racks Yard Toilets Part 1 including Japanese washlet (bidet) Decking - Glass, Chengai & Accoya Roof Terrace Part 1 Useful Renovation Tips Auntie Painters Part 1 Web Cameras Part 1 Vertical Garden Wardrobes & Cabinets Burmese Green Vases Part 1 Wood Tiles for Kitchen & Yard Toilets Part 2 White Marble Selection & Laying Marble Polishing Not My Job Pole System Wardrobe Web Cameras Part 2 Roof Terrace Part 2 Water Outlets Pest Control Part 1 Koi Pond Part 1 Burmese Green Vases Part 2 DIY Tips DIY Sanding & Staining Wooden Bench DIY Lock Change LED Down Lights Cove Lights & LED Strip Lights LED Wall LIghts LED Track Lights LED Flood Lights LED Table Lamps DIY - Basic Tools for Every Home DIY - Drilling & Fixing Things on Walls DIY - Drilling into Tiles (Marble, Ceramic etc) Wall Art Wall Prints Brianform Sofa Philips Smart TV YouTube Karaoke Philips Sound Bar Naos Action Table Elan Dining Table Bubbles Mirror Arco Lamp Eileen Gray Side Table E1027 Barcelona Chair Ikea's Egg Chair Bubble Chair Horse Lamp Toto WC Auntie Painters Part 2 Air Conditioners Outdoor Furniture Laundry Area Nurseries @Jln Lekar (Lim Chu Kang) Frangipani Tree Network Cabling Part 1 Chinese New Year 2014 Side by Side Refrigerator Part 1 LED Lights Driver Ladders My Toys Steam Cleaners Buying Fans from JB Shower Area Kerb / Drop Removing Stains from Marble Side by Side Refrigerator Part 2 Broadband Speed Test Koi Pond Part 2 Bringing Frangipani Tree up to Roof Terrace Potted Plants Nurseries @Bedok South Road Water Pump Change Instant Water Heater v Storage Heater Types of Water Heaters Another Pump Bites the Dust Articulated TV Wall Mount Alkaline Water Potted Plants - Lechuza Sub-Irrigation System Posting to Blog with Pictures via Mobile Leaking Roofs Inter-Floor Water Seepage Spalling Concrete LPG Gas from Union Gas Sudden Storm Optical Glass Cracked Power Trips Water Leak in Hollow Polycarbonate Roof LPG Gas from Tan Brothers Little Giant LadderMulti Purpose & Telescopic Ladder Digital TV CATV Signal Amplifier Wall Mounted TV and Soundbar - Concealing the Wires Tiny House on Wheels Slow Juicers - Hurom, Kuvings, Hyundai Manual Slow Juicers Nurseries @Bah Soon Pah Rd (off Sembawang Rd) Recycling Chinese New Year 2015 Long Reach Prunner (Fruit Picker) Fire Extinguishers DIY Sub-Irrigation System (Self Watering/Draining) Tap Timer Hose Bib Fertilising System Smoke Detectors National Day (and Durian Party) 2015 Gas Detector Power Trip Mooncake Festival 2015 Cooker Hoods in Ventilation (Evacuation) Mode Cooker Hoods in Recycling Mode D-Link IP Cameras Electrical Overloading Ants, Ants, Ants Exercise Equipment Virtual Private Network (VPN) Network Cabling Part 2 Crimping RJ45 Connector Intruder Caught on Camera! Herb Garden Civet Cat Came Visiting Again Gas v Electric Water Heaters in Singapore Parrot came Visiting (subsequently established to be a Macaw) Changing Broken Window Handle or Lock Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner Accoya Wood Flooring Problem iRobot Braava 380t Floor Mopping Robot Xiaomi Mi Robot Voice Packs (Including English) UPDATES FROM MARCH 2018 Vertical Garden Systems DIY Vertical Garden (Green Wall) with Automatic Irrrigation Xiaomi Roborock Robot Vacuum & Mop (Generation 2) 4 Versons of Xiaomi Mi Robot UPDATES FROM JUNE 2021 DIY Vertical Garden DIY Insect Screen for Mosquitoes and Other Insects

Did you know that NASA Space Agency grows indoor plants in the International Space Station to purify the air of toxins and improve the oxygen content? The US National Library of Medicine published a finding that interaction with indoor plants help to lower stress and blood pressure as well (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4419447/) However, keeping plants in the home requires daily care, and even so, might still perish to our frustration. Now, the Japanese (maker of Suntory Whisky) have invented a Soil-Free method to keep plants indoors with minimal care and expensive floor-space. The Soil-Replacement, called 'Pafcal' helps to, 1) Provide a much better condition than soil for the plant roots, which are their main life-line. 2) Reduce maintenance care drastically, resulting in 3.7 times of water savings. 3) Keeping your home clean, dirt-free, and worm-free. Don't worry, you won't need to hack your walls, or install any water-piping, as our Vertical Gardens are completely independent and Plug-&-Play. For a friendly discussion on installing a Vertical Garden in your cosy home, drop us an email at hello@midoriegarden.com or call/text/whatsapp me (Nicholas) at 9643 5202. Do visit us at https://midoriegarden.com/pages/wall-garden-roof-garden. Thank you. -Nicholas Midorie Garden Team

Hello everyone! I decided to start this t-blog not so much to document our renovation process (will try to as much as I can), but mainly to share things, especially tips and other little nuggets of info, which I have learnt during this period and during another renovation I was involved in 4 years back. Renovation is a time-consuming and multi-faceted process, and when I started out, I was so overwhelmed by the amount of things I didn’t know. Doing research helped (thank you, Renotalkers!), but even now there are still so many things I am still learning for my second renovation. Hopefully this thread will benefit others Contents for easier reference: Introduction & The Unit ID-Contractor Conundrum Theme - Moodboard & 3D Renders Hacking & Wet Works Tiling Special Request Going Green - Vertical Garden & Growing Herbs Air-conditioning - Toshiba System 5 Vinyl Flooring - Eco Pluz Painting - Dulux Colour of the Year & Colour Play Testers Painting Boo-Boo & DIY Paint Effect & DIY Spray Paint Switch Boxes DIY More Painting Plumbing & Citygas Piping Box-up & Concealed Shower - Insani24.de Carpentry - Laminate Selection Carpentry - Design & Planning with Results: Shoe Rack, Study Room Bookcase, TV Console & Feature Wall Dry & Wet Kitchen Master Bedroom Wardrobe & Bathroom Fibre Termination Point Installation at TV Console Hood Installation Hassle Fan Installation Doors, Main Gate, Digital Locks, and Blinds Vertical Garden Part 2 - Installation & Planting Final Photos Renovation Costs Choosing Our ID and Feedback of Our ID (deleted) Fantastic Furniture and Where to Find Them - M&M, Crate & Barrel, Etch & Bolts, HipVan, Naiise, Comfort Furniture Introduction: Husband and I got married in 2015 and we spent quite some time waiting to buy a resale flat because “the boss” has very high expectations and yet not-so-high budget, so took a while before “the one” came along…… … and even after marrying her, he asked for patience because he really really wanted to get a unit near his parents’ place. So bo pian, yours truly patiently waited but no good units came up and finally had to put my foot down and force the boss to look for alternative areas. Long story short, we did manage to find a good unit not-so-near his parents (I did a little hurray, I admit), price was a little high but boss willing to pay, and we also had to patiently wait for the previous owners to move out before we could get our renovation started. The unit: Our new house has a very interesting layout which appealed to us, mainly the long combined living and dining room. The master room is also situated away from the common rooms, which means more privacy, but also posed some challenges because the space is limited and we can’t knock down some walls to combine the bedrooms. No walk-in wardrobe, for sure... Here are photos we took right after getting our keys... If you noticed, the previous owners had combined the two common bedrooms into one, so this is actually the current layout: