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keyswz

Journey Towards Our New Home

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Hmm was wondering whether this sort of piping is acceptable?

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Hi,

I saw this in my hse today when the plumber finished his work...

I thought the bending was not easy, especially when he has to make two 45deg bends...really teating the skills...

 

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Day 16-22 of renovation [continued]:

The toilets also had its WC, basins and water heater installed. It was then that I realised that arrangements of the toilet stuffs cannot be done over the phone as one cannot see how it will turn out. Thus, for the MBR, the basin was slightly to the left, which at first was quite an eyesore. But as the entrance to the MBR toilet is not directly in the centre of the depression in the wall, the misalignment of the basin with the centre was actually not visible. Are you able to spot it in the picture below?

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It was also only then that I realised that I did not buy the mixer tap for the shower set. Think I was too naive to assume that the tap comes together with the shower set. Guess I have to go down to the shops to shop again. Anyway, the water heaters were installed nicely on the walls.

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The completed common toilet (save for the shower tap):

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The doors to the kitchen were also installed. Guess that they looked quite alright to me.

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Day 23 of renovation:

Nothing was done on this day as my contractor told me that the day was meant for the plaster on the walls to fully dry before the painting starts. Though it would have been better if she had told me earlier about this arrangement.

 

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Had not been updating much as the progress was rather slow after this and I was rather busy with my work.

After the plastering was the painting works. I was really surprised at how fast the painting was done in one day.

I was doubly surprised at how fast the window films were taken off, when both me and my fiancee actually took so many hours just to remove one or two. Guess there is a reason why they are the professionals.

I was triply surprised when the main door was painted the next day as I did not had time to remove the door latch beforehand. Guess we have to wait till the end of the renovation before the door can be painted nicely.

View of living room:

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View of kitchen:

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View of MBR:

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View of Bedroom 2:

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View of service balcony:

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As our contractor had no liaison with any locksmith, we had to look for one ourselves. And so we (at least me) were back to searching the forum for a contact. Luckily for me, the forumers were very helpful and I soon got one contact, which I eventually used, but that shall be said later.

Prior to meeting the locksmith, we decided to buy the locks ourselves. Once again, we were visiting the forums to see which hardware store offer us the best deal. I detached the handle from the gate so that it was easier to buy a replacement. Only when I reached the first hardware store did I learn from the store employee that they need a picture of the side of the lock in order to recommend a suitable lock.

Anyway, we did the locks of the rooms' doors first. The main reason why we need to do that was because one of the locks had a problem with its keys and thus it needed to be changed. And because if one lock was changed, the others need to be changed as well for the uniformity in the look. Anyway, it was an interesting but frustrating DIY experience. For the first door I did, I damaged the top of one of the screws for the second time, just simply because I was stingy enough to reuse the screw when it was already slightly damaged. Lesson learnt: never reuse damaged screws or they will screw you back. Of course, the other lesson learnt was that I need to drill a hole as long as or longer than the screw itself, or else I will end up with a damaged screw.

So what did I do with the damaged screw? As the screw was only halfway in, I had to drill through the screw in order to remove it, which happened to be a slow and excruciating process. Luckily hard work pays off and the offending article was subsequently removed and taken care of. The end result? A nice door knob which my fiancee likes =)

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After settling the locks of the rooms, the next task was to engage a locksmith to remove the existing main door lock and door viewer as I could not remove them as I feared damaging the door. Only when I saw how effortlessly the locksmith removed the main door handle that I realised that all I need was just a screwdriver and some guts to knock out the handle. However, the $60 was indeed worth it because the door viewer was a hard nut to crack and eventually it was removed though with some damages to the door. But the door viewer was not installed until the painting was done.

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Well, I must say the locksmith's service was quite good and professional. He was also quite friendly too. His name is Peter Teo and he said that he does renovation too.

The next lock to be installed was the gate lock and even though the original handle was brought to the shop, there was some misalignment and I had to DIY by drilling the aluminium gate. I guess the electric drill from Ikea and the round file from Yiap Heng Cheong were good investments and soon the job was completed.

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On hindsight, this incident can be quite humourous, though it came as a shock at the start. Well, it began with us naively thinking the shower set had everything inside and thus when it came to the installation of shower set and the plumber asked us for the tap to connect to it, we were stunned that we overlooked the purchase of the shower tap.

As such, we went back to the same store and we chanced upon this tap which we both like, thus we requested for two of it. The ominous sign first came when the salesperson gave us one of the correct brand and another of another brand. Next came the bad news that there was only one tap left and he asked us to wait till next week. We thought nothing of that until the next visit saw me making a futile trip and the salesperson mentioned that it will only arrive two weeks later. Sadly to say, time did nothing to change the unavailability of the tap and in the end, I opted for the display set at a reduced price.

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The next tap that we missed out was the washing machine tap, to which the plumber used his own. I was alright with it though my fiancee prefer a nicer looking one.

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I thought how come I have never read your blog before, until I saw the blue toilet wall tiles, then I remember about this blog. You have not been updating for very long, I almost forgot. Good to see your renovation is progressing smoothly, except some hiccup purchases, but neverthelessness, keep it up!

 

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It's been long long time.. The last I commented we hv exact same layout, and through your recommendation we get to know Jerome.. Really was anxious to know how urs turn out..now I also hv a blog .. Whampoa..if u didn't notice..Heh

I found the living really small.. Can't even fit a 3m sofa.. how's ur experience w ur place?

 

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I thought how come I have never read your blog before, until I saw the blue toilet wall tiles, then I remember about this blog. You have not been updating for very long, I almost forgot. Good to see your renovation is progressing smoothly, except some hiccup purchases, but neverthelessness, keep it up!

Ya it had been a long while... work commitments and mainly procrastination... oops... thanks for still remembering our place and your support...

It's been long long time.. The last I commented we hv exact same layout, and through your recommendation we get to know Jerome.. Really was anxious to know how urs turn out..now I also hv a blog .. Whampoa..if u didn't notice..Heh

I found the living really small.. Can't even fit a 3m sofa.. how's ur experience w ur place?

lol... yup i rem you but i forgot if i dropped by ur blog, forgive me if i din... the past month had been quite hectic for me... so in the end, u bought a lot of stuffs from jerome?

Wah... 3m sofa is really big... i tot mine at 2.4m was huge already and is acting like a make-shift bed liao... so how u manage to fit in your 3m? my experience was overall quite good, though being a 1st timer means that there are a lot of things to learn especially with regards to delays...

 

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Yes bought as many as I could from him.. Cheapest in town.. Heh

I first ordered a 3m sofa then change to 2.4 .. And similarly dining table reduced fr 6 chair to 4 chair... Really cannot fit..

Now I'm having prob w my king size bed frame again.. Overestimated my MBR size..

 

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