Opening A New Chapter Of Our Lives ... 2nd Home In 7 Years

[yoongf 11]

As for our kitchen, which we will be using long wood-like ceramic, we pretty much have nailed a pattern that we want.

DH reckons the tiler could just cut irregular lengths of the tiles and so lay them randomly.

Those wood-like tiles have chamfered edges all round.. if cut.. will look very odd.

[Chunky Monkey 2]

Those wood-like tiles have chamfered edges all round.. if cut.. will look very odd.

Thanks for the heads up! I will have to take note of that when I pop over later! Thanks so much!!

[Chunky Monkey 2]

I managed to take some pictures today, whilst DH was busy with a sub con describing what we want for wrought iron railings.

This is a picture of the living room floor that has been levelled, and my main con says he will get his workers to start tiling on Friday. It seems that the electrician still has some overhead works in the living room. I am not perturbed by the delay. I have seen how fast the tilers work, so I know by the Friday afternoon, the living room tiles would be up.

The picture below shows the wood-like tiles that I will be using for my kitchen, attic as well as patio area.

I asked my main con about cutting the tiles and he told me there won't be a problem with cutting the tiles smaller. In fact, he will be cutting the tiles thinner in halves to make the skirting.

Edited November 7, 2007 by Chunky Monkey

[Chunky Monkey 2]

On the children's floor, we have combined 2 smaller rooms to form one big room, to be the Playroom. The dividing wall was hacked off, and the contractor used bricks to seal up one of the doorways.

With the dividing wall removed, it exposed a thick strip where the old wall used to be. So my main con will be filling this area with additional parquet strips.

[yoongf 11]

Have u considered redoing the parquet for the room? The cost is not that high, and it won't have that new strip in the middle look. I am surprised that if u planned to reuse, the contractor did not protect the old flooring.

[Chunky Monkey 2]

Have u considered redoing the parquet for the room? The cost is not that high, and it won't have that new strip in the middle look. I am surprised that if u planned to reuse, the contractor did not protect the old flooring.

We need to save costs where we can. The reno budget has burst!

DH did ask why the old flooring was not protected. Main con said they will be grinding the parquet and then repolish it, so it does not make a difference. And if any piece of parquet should be damaged, he will replace and repair.

[phoenix 0]

The picture below shows the wood-like tiles that I will be using for my kitchen, attic as well as patio area.

these are tiles? as in like ceramic/homogeneous tiles? sure looks like laminated flooring material. how much per sq ft?

We need to save costs where we can. The reno budget has burst! !!

DH did ask why the old flooring was not protected. Main con said they will be grinding the parquet and then repolish it, so it does not make a difference. And if any piece of parquet should be damaged, he will replace and repair.

err.. sounds like a lazy excuse to me. !!

Edited November 7, 2007 by phoenix

[Chunky Monkey 2]

these are tiles? as in like ceramic/homogeneous tiles? sure looks like laminated flooring material. how much per sq ft?

They are ceramic tiles and not laminates. It's about $5 psf. Not for the faint hearted.

[phoenix 0]

They are ceramic tiles and not laminates. It's about $5 psf. Not for the faint hearted.

haha.. but nice nice... i like.

[Chunky Monkey 2]

9 November 2007

Today was a nerve-wrecking, nail-biting kind of day ... only because we started out being very unclear if we really needed ethernet LAN connection throughout the house. (some of you might have noticed my question in the ethernet thread)

We were originally advised to use HomePlug from Aztec, which required the electrician to run powerpoints using the same phase of electrical supply. Then over dinner one night, an old school friend, who's the boss of an office networking and IT solutions company, prompted us to think about running LAN cables throughout the house. This came as a HUGE surprise to me, a sudden requirement that I was unsure if it was still in time to be executed, without destroying some new partitions and false ceilings, or worse re-hacking some walls again. I was scared and very clearly, I was a very reluctant participant in this ....

Our dear friend made time to visit our place and explained to my DH and I what is needed to be done, and drew diagrams for us how the networking cables would be connected. We were told if we wanted a few points on one level, we would need to install a switch (like a splitter) but we couldn't see where we could possibly hide or store the switch, so we just asked the electrician to run single wires to the hub in the basement.

We were very surprised that the electrician already had a whole rim of Cat 5e wires in the house. He said his boss delivered the wires together with all the wires. Perhaps he had an idea that we might need it. Clever man. But wait, why didn't he suggest LAN connections to us before?! How strange!

Anyway, once we understood how the LAN cabling would be done, we were relieved that it wouldn't cost much damage to the finished works in the attic. It's not an ideal situation but it's something that can be done, and at least once we get it done now, we shouldn't have to worry about it in years to come.

I tell myself this is all meant to be .... I could well have dinner with my old school friend after the reno's done but we happened to meet before all the false ceilings are installed. So it definitely was something that's meant to be .....

[applefreak 1]

a good choice indeed to have LAN running through your home

[Chunky Monkey 2]

As promised by our main contractor, the tilers started tiling our living room.

Before today, I'd not noticed that living room floor tiles are to be tiled starting from the main door. Our main con said that that's the best starting point, so when we open our main door, the view is of nice, big, regular sized tiles.

I also noticed that the tilers slip in between the tiles little strips of paper (reminds me of litmus test paper). I am actually puzzled what the paper is for, but am willing to hazard a guess that the strips of paper is to keep the tiles apart, to make the grout lines.

Here's a pic showing the little strips of paper slipped in between the tiles

This picture was taken at noon. I believe the whole living room is now fully tiled. Yipee!

a good choice indeed to have LAN running through your home

Credit goes to my DH. I was the reluctant (read: chicken) one.

[Chunky Monkey 2]

Surprisingly, another 2 tilers have started tiling the master bathroom, and I was happy to see that they have not forgotten about the change in height required for my mosaic strip.

[Chunky Monkey 2]

Edited November 9, 2007 by Chunky Monkey

[Chunky Monkey 2]

10 Nov 2007

DH and I went to our place to check on the progress. The living room's almost completed, short of a few tiles by the side of the patio door. The tilers had to abide by the 1 pm end time on Saturdays, so they'd no choice but to wait till Monday to finish the job.

To the right of the living room is the balcony; overlooking the swimming pool.

Beyond the living room is one side of the patio.

Edited November 10, 2007 by Chunky Monkey