Serangoon North Renovation By Defong Interior Design

[ayazumi 0]

Valerie: We will use the dish rack that comes with the kitchen cabinet package. Unless you have a special dish rack design in mind, then maybe need to custom-made the rack. Yes, we may need to top up the difference for the extension of top cabinet, if it exceeds the feet that was quoted to us. Initial quotation did not include the L-end top cabinet. Contractor will recalculate and let us know if there is additional difference that we need to top up.

Albert: Thank you for your advice. We have not search for dining table yet. When the cabinet is up, we will then decide the size of the dining table.

Edited March 23, 2012 by ayazumi

[ayazumi 0]

END OF DAY NINE

We went to the house around 6:30PM, and saw two workers were still busy doing the wall tiles in kitchen and common toilet. We felt pretty paiseh, so we rushed to the nearby coffee shop to buy dinner and drinks for them. After we left, shortly after that our contractor went to the house to check on the progress.

One tiler doing the kitchen, the other tiler doing the common toilet

End result. I'm loving it

Common toilet wall tiling is almost 100% completed

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[Elise23 0]

Hi Ayazumi, thank you for posting such an informative post. I'm considering to engage DeFong too for my newly bought resale unit in Yishun. William fm DeFong attended to me. May I know why do we need to switch off electricity fm DB while renovation is in progress? Contractors do not need to use electricity whilst carrying out reno works? My housing agent advised me to do the transfer for utilities with PUB exactly on the completion date. I.e, I'll hv the water & electricity on the day I get my keys. Is this rite? Sorry, cos tis is my 1st time buying house (under Singles Scheme) and alot of question marks in my head. Selecting & confirming a ID is another big headache.

[ayazumi 0]

Hi Elise. Thank you visiting our blog. I assume you refer the completion date is the second appointment with HDB to get your keys, not the completion date of your renovation. It takes about three days to transfer the SP account under your name, on the day you apply transfer of account to your name via SP website, or you can choose your preferred date to turn on the utilities. If you are unclear, you can get more information via SP website.

We turned off the DB box was because we are doing electrical rewiring, so all wires were dismantled during the renovation. Our electrician fixed a temporary circuit breaker and an electrical point for the workers to use during the renovation. I am not sure if not doing rewiring, DB box needs to turn off or not. Let the ID/contractor to decide, but most importantly the SP account must under your name, and electricity/water should be available during your renovation.

[May_dream1 14]

Hi Ayazumi, thank you for posting such an informative post. I'm considering to engage DeFong too for my newly bought resale unit in Yishun. William fm DeFong attended to me. May I know why do we need to switch off electricity fm DB while renovation is in progress? Contractors do not need to use electricity whilst carrying out reno works? My housing agent advised me to do the transfer for utilities with PUB exactly on the completion date. I.e, I'll hv the water & electricity on the day I get my keys. Is this rite? Sorry, cos tis is my 1st time buying house (under Singles Scheme) and alot of question marks in my head. Selecting & confirming a ID is another big headache.

Hi Elise, congrats in buying yr own flat. I bought mine under single scheme too. Yes, u would need to change the PUB to your name on the completion day ie 2nd appt. after sign everything, just go to Singapore power office inside hdb bld at tpy. Everything will be done then no stopping of power or water. You would need these for reno.

Your ID or contractor will know whether need to switch off fb box. No need to worry abt such some details. Most importantly, change the name to yours when u are at hdb office. Take less than 15 mins to settle.

[NeoBY 1]

My property agent helped me with the transfer. I didn't need to do anything.

[ayazumi 0]

NeoBy: Your agent very good. Help you to do domestic things. We did the transfer ourselves by submitting our application via SP website.

[ayazumi 0]

DAY ELEVEN

We missed DAY TEN as we thought that the workers worked only five day week and off on weekends, so we didn't visit the house yesterday. However, we wasted the whole Saturday afternoon for our LED TV delivery from Courts.

Today, we had an appointment with the aircon man to discuss the trunking layout before installation. During our discussion, we tried to minimize the exposure of the trunking, but still there will be some obvious trunking that is unavoidable. Our aircon was outsourced to my father's friend. We bought Mitsubishi inverter system 3 and will be installed in the 3 bedrooms. We have not confirmed the installation date yet, as he needs to follow our renovation schedule.

While hubby, aircon man, and my father were discussing about the trunking layout, I took the opportunity to go round the house to take some pictures of the renovation progress.

Elise: If you are still following our blog, this is what my electrician has done. As we are doing rewiring for the whole house, all the electrical wires have to be dismantled after false ceiling and cornices are taken off, and DB box is switched off, leaving only a temporary point for the workers to use.

The wall plaster has arrived. We are doing plastering for the whole house

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[ayazumi 0]

All the bedrooms' door wood frames are installed, except the storeroom

This is the storeroom door frame that is not installed yet.

I didn't know that a door wood frame needs to have so many nails at the sides in order to properly install the frames to the entrance wall. Installing door frames look difficult to me. I don't think I can do this

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[ayazumi 0]

I think the workers were working yesterday (Saturday). Otherwise they would not have completed 90% of the tiling work on both side of the kitchen walls. Well done

They have leveled the sand and cement for the kitchen floor.

I like the curve they did for the tile connection/joint. Not easy to do

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[ayazumi 0]

The new rubbish chute is here. I heard this kind of rubbish chute will prevent cockroaches from crawling out? Not sure how true it is, but definitely this new rubbish chute looks nicer than the old HDB rubbish chute.

Water proofing is done for the common toilet. We tried touching the floor. The water proofing has dried. The pipe on the floor is for the sink water waste. We relocated the old sink position which was supposed to be beside the toilet door, now changed to new position - that is to place the sink beside the window; in front of the toilet bowl

Common toilet wall tiles have completed. Once grout lines are covered, it will definitely look prettier than now

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[ayazumi 0]

Everyday is SUNDAY Shopping

To recap, we intend to do L-shape kitchen cabinet, with the L-end facing the window, and a L-end top cabinet to drop down the dish rack. Therefore, the 2 kitchen ceiling lights that we bought may not fit our kitchen ceiling anymore. First, no point to place two ceiling lights close to each other. Second, the L-end top cabinet may block the second lighting, and if we shift the second lighting nearer to the window side, the laundry pole may hit the second lighting. No choice, we decided to go back to the lighting shop in Jln Besar to exchange the kitchen lights for something else. We exchanged the current ceiling lights to 2x2metre track lights with 6 LED light bulbs. Hopefully it is bright enough for the kitchen.

We chose the third track light (they have 2 colors: black or white). We opt for the white track lights to match the kitchen wall tile color

We have to top up the difference of $1xx because the track light cost more than the ceiling lights. No discount given. And it does not come with FOC LED light bulbs because LED light bulbs are more expensive than energy saving light bulbs. REALLY?! Previously we bought the lights from another sales lady, who gave us free light bulbs and remote controllers. This guy who we met today is quite stingy. I didn't want to argue with him to give us FOC light bulbs. Just want to exchange the lights and get away ASAP. We need to rush off to Hoe Kee to change the kitchen sink.

2-3 weeks ago, I called to look for the sales lady if we could change the lights, but she was not in this branch that day. The guy answered my call and said no exchange because the order was processed already. Yesterday I called again to try my luck. I told the guy that the sales lady said I could come back to exchange the lights anytime, then he reluctantly agreed to allow me to change the lights (forgotten that I have called before).

We didn't take photos of the living and bedroom lightings because they do not have our chosen design and colors on display. We managed to take only the bathroom lightings

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[ayazumi 0]

Everyday is SUNDAY Shopping

Initially we wanted to get a small ceiling/wall light for the short corridor, to place the light in between the 3 bedrooms, but since the guy (he could be the boss of the shop) is so stingy, we decided not to purchase more lights from the shop. We do not want to travel all the way to IMM branch to just buy 1 or 2 lights from the sales lady (who is the boss's sister) right?

After the exchange, we went to SIM LIM Tower to purchase LED light tube from one of the shop at Level 3. We intend to place the light tube under the top kitchen cabinet and use it, should the track lights are not bright enough for the kitchen. The LED light tube is 1metre, and it costs $28. Without the tube, the LED strip costs $18 per metre. As the LED light is 12W, you need an adapter to step down the volt. Additionally, we bought an adapter which costs $28. Total cost is $56. I feel that the adapter is expensive, you may get cheaper adapter outside. For convenient, we bought the light and adapter from the shop, and they helped us to solder the wires together.

After SIM LIM Tower, we went to Genting Lane Hoe Kee (again! This is my 3rd time going to Hoe Kee to change items again!). I swear I will not go back there again, please! Everytime we go back there, we need to spend more money to exchange for better items. Initially we wanted to get a slightly bigger stainless steel sink because the current sink we bought is only 580mm width. However, we end up buying Blanco sink... The reason why we chose Blanco is because the current stainless steel sink we bought was in lousy quality. The stainless steel material is 0.8mm only, which may turn yellow sooner or later if we put hot pans or pour hot water into the sink. If we want to exchange for a better quality stainless steel sink, for 1.0mm stainless steel material, it already costs more than $300. Thinking of that type of price, might as well get something nicer and can last longer, so we chose Blanco sink. Before you purchase any sink, always check the sink quality and if the sink can undermount

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[Pirvan 3]

Everyday is SUNDAY Shopping

Initially we wanted to get a small ceiling/wall light for the short corridor, to place the light in between the 3 bedrooms, but since the guy (he could be the boss of the shop) is so stingy, we decided not to purchase more lights from the shop. We do not want to travel all the way to IMM branch to just buy 1 or 2 lights from the sales lady (who is the boss's sister) right?

After the exchange, we went to SIM LIM Tower to purchase LED light tube from one of the shop at Level 3. We intend to place the light tube under the top kitchen cabinet and use it, should the track lights are not bright enough for the kitchen. The LED light tube is 1metre, and it costs $28. Without the tube, the LED strip costs $18 per metre. As the LED light is 12W, you need an adapter to step down the volt. Additionally, we bought an adapter which costs $28. Total cost is $56. I feel that the adapter is expensive, you may get cheaper adapter outside. For convenient, we bought the light and adapter from the shop, and they helped us to solder the wires together.

After SIM LIM Tower, we went to Genting Lane Hoe Kee (again! This is my 3rd time going to Hoe Kee to change items again!). I swear I will not go back there again, please! Everytime we go back there, we need to spend more money to exchange for better items. Initially we wanted to get a slightly bigger stainless steel sink because the current sink we bought is only 580mm width. However, we end up buying Blanco sink... The reason why we chose Blanco is because the current stainless steel sink we bought was in lousy quality. The stainless steel material is 0.8mm only, which may turn yellow sooner or later if we put hot pans or pour hot water into the sink. If we want to exchange for a better quality stainless steel sink, for 1.0mm stainless steel material, it already costs more than $300. Thinking of that type of price, might as well get something nicer and can last longer, so we chose Blanco sink. Before you purchase any sink, always check the sink quality and if the sink can undermount

Hi Aya, good choice on the blanco sink and mixer combo. Same one we are using for our place as well. And you are soooooo right that every sunday is shopping day! We've been either running around buying things or researching or just plan talking house, i'm sure you're beginnin to feel it now. Most importantly, enjoy the process and try to take some time off from the house to have some private time with each other. It'll help keep both of you sane and will probably let you guys last longer through the reno process.

Otherwise, your reno is coming along very nicely! cant wait to see your kitchen design!

[ayazumi 0]

Hi Pirvan. I remembered you bought the blanco combo too. Initially, I was quite hesitant to buy due to the price, but after walking a few rounds in the showroom, hearing some sales talk, and comparing the quality of stainless steel sinks and prices, we decided to buy this blanco combo and hopefully the sink can lsst us for very very long. Are you intending to undermount the sink? The sales lady said that if we want to do undermount for this sink, the undermount part can only cover a bit of the sides of the sink. I'm not sure if the sink can support the weight of heavy pots and pans put in the sink, since the only a small part of the side of the sink is covered by silicon or surface top. Do keep me update of your sink.