Ylrenovation

[erwin123 0]

I'm in the midst of renovation and have gotten a lot of useful information for RT, so finding a way to contribute my own experiences and information gained that others may find useful.

I actually started a blog at Renovation Blog Link because I can use labels to organise the information per room so that people interested in reading about a particular room can simply click on the room label. Not many posts yet, but it's a start.

Renovation Beginnings

We started planning the renovation about 6-9 months before the renovation started so we had time to do research with me specialising in searching RT (I found using google to search RT far better than using RT's own search function) We also discussed our plans with a relative who is an architect to make our ideas got her seal of approval as well. For renovation we used a contractor recommended by our relative and since we did not have any special or unusual needs, we designed and planned the renovation ourselves by drawing sketches of what we wanted.

The contractor then sent the sketches to a designer to translate this into scale drawings, we gave our feedback, and renovation started.

Our renovation isn't perfect, but I think it is definitely an above-average and a good experience and hope it finishes well. So far the quality of work is pretty good to us, though we are not experts (maybe have to wait a few years to find out...)

Finally, apologies if I don't seem to be responding promptly as I may not be reading RT every day now that most of my research is complete.

Edited August 12, 2010 by erwin123

[erwin123 0]

Invisible grilles for the dining room Bannister are up. I like the see-through effect. Price - well, we found the alternatives ugly and/or obstructed too much light that we just have to bear the cost.

[bearlyn2406 0]

Invisible grilles for the dining room Bannister are up. I like the see-through effect. Price - well, we found the alternatives ugly and/or obstructed too much light that we just have to bear the cost.

wow, invisible grilles! My wife like it a lot but too costly for our tight budget..

[erwin123 0]

Bathroom 1:

Black and white theme

• Our initial choice of shower holder was too tall for the bathroom, fortunately, shop allowed exchange since not installed yet.
• Bathtub: we shower rather than take baths, but since there was already a bathtub there, it would be a nice treat for young children to be able to take an occasional bubbly bath. However, wanted a bath that would be easy to shower in - straight sides, not too high. Couldn't find anything in Balestier but our relative helped us find one that fit exactly and only 460mm tall.

Bathroom 2:

Blue and white theme

• Blue mosaic wall not visible in photo
• I think the brown is a cover protecting the mirror? hmm got to find out.
• E-saver water heater timer switch for all bathrooms
• bathroom1 and 2: 2 light switches, one for PLC downlight, the other for 2xMR16 LEDs above sink
• As you can see, very small bathrooms, but multiple small bathrooms better than fewer but large for family with children.

Edited August 16, 2010 by erwin123

[erwin123 0]

Bought 2 'IP44 water resistant' balcony lights from LEDWorks for the living room balcony (chose the dark grey colour - this kind of design, can always spray paint to different colour ) Bulb I bought from my usual sources.

I had actually looked around some Balestier Road shops for cheaper alternatives that I liked but couldn't find anything, so went with something that I liked (I like the 360 degree diffusion of light).

Edited August 16, 2010 by erwin123

[leechaorui 2]

Welcome to RT. Nice black and white design.

[erwin123 0]

thanks for reading and all your comments.

update. we purchased dining tables from VHive but they delivered the wrong length. They'll redeliver this week and I hope to be able to post a picture of the dining table and chairs. The dining table lights are 2x orange/white pendants from Philips. Hope the effect is nice. I haven't actually decided what bulb to use, for the time being using some old 14w philips globe-shaped CFL for testing until can decide what sort of light level required.

[erwin123 0]

needed a simple spotlight to illuminate the wardrobes in bedroom 3. there is a huge beam and huge ceiling drop (ceiling height only 2.1m) so could not mount a recessed MR16 fixture, have to go with external spotlight with the lowest profile possible.

in the end, chose the bare bones IKEA Tross for $29 where the bulbs are exposed, sort of an 'industrial' look I guess. was thinking of IKEA Beryl but that it was a bit tall because of the built-in transformer. Also not sure of IKEA transformer compatibility with LED.

And where else but good old Chan Huat for some 'cool daylight' LEDs bulbs to fit into the Tross.

[erwin123 0]

Finally unwrapped my Living Room chairs from Comfort. Heres a pic of 2 of them. First impression, they seem pretty ok, lets hope they last...

Edited August 22, 2010 by erwin123

[erwin123 0]

Renovation completed, just a last picture of the living room balcony. Thank you to renotalk for all the useful info.

[erwin123 0]

Thought I would complete this thread with a few more photos: A little photo of the family computer room. I'm very happy with the concealed wiring channel that runs along the rear as it really reduces (umm hides) the cable clutter.

living room. I actually have 2 sets of lights. 10 x 4ft T5 cool white in cove, and warm white downlights, plus floor lamp etc, so that I can light the room with either cool or warm white.

My only regret now that I chose a mixture of PLC downlights and LED downlights as it was too expensive to go 100% LED. Now if I had the choice, I would go 100% LED downlights as the flexibility of a focused and adjustable beam is very useful.

Edited June 18, 2011 by erwin123