Benvenuti To My 5Rm Em

[Gazingstarz 0]

Hi all

It's been 4 weeks since my renovation started.

Wasn't totally 100% smooth journey so I seek solace in this forum

We are re renovating our EM (2nd generation) using a renovator.

We are at the stage of floor polishing (retained marbled and parquet flooring), painting and carpentry.

You can read the updates on my blog :

http://benvenutihome.wordpress.com/

Once the Reno with carpentry is up, I shall post the before and after pix.

Meanwhile just to share some of my thumbs up and thumbs down experience

1. Curtains : Doris from d Zander is really nice. Reasonable quotes and good recommendations. I won't say it's cheap but mid range considering the quality of the material I selected.

Can't comment on workmanship as installations on 10aug. Went azoura to check their stuff and price is def mind blowing....

2. Sanitary ware: I went to royal fanco @ jln besar and enjoyed my time there. Yes, one might be disappointed with their tiny weeny showroom but the couple, henry and his wife give good recommendations and discounts. After taking my orders, I spent another 2 hrs there chatting with them abt property mkt, maintenance , Reno issues etc.

3. Lights : we went to Chuan huat at balestier. If you go to the oldest outlet, you are served by auntie. They are nice but they can't give much recommendations, merely tag around. Then we went to the bigger outlet where there is the DIY shop where you are served by younger sales staff. But then they push for the more pricey stuff. I didn't get what I want Exocet ya long suspended study light. But we bought our piano switches from the DIY shop Nader Chuan huat. Love the colored switches but it's meant for built in usage. So if you are like me, just changing the sockets, you still have to take say a silver switch top with a white base (yucky!!!)

Rest of our lights we got from lightings.com.sg

Keeping my fingers crossed abt defects. But hoestly, it's cheaper

4. Electrical appliances : I luv the auntie at aik leong. Maybe I tend to share with salesperson my needs and concerns. So auntie gave me a lesson abt fridge and glass hobs. And I settled for a 2 door hitachi fridge (instead of the side by side Samsung fridge ) , Electrolux hob,hub and oven. A gd discount saving almost $300.

5. I like the resort, nature style living. So after much hunting, I'm still back to natural living to buy rattan furniture.

Went uni cane weeks ago. Located at secluded part of sungei kadut and showroom was huge but terribly stuffy.

I'm not sure if it's sales tactic but sale gal keep pushing. For display set. Any new orders will come in next shipment ie NOVEMBER (faint!!)

I like teak and mahogany and plan to get their outdoor living set.

6. Hiccups in Reno

Cracked tiles due to installing new pipes. I literally hear the piping guy threaten to leave his job. Was a tense quarrel btw him and my renovator. But it's btw them as long as the cracked area is rectified.

Aircon cables - used aircon supplier recommended by renovator but it was poorly coordinated. Imagine the trucking laid right on the kitchen wall tile at the middle of my sink.. Mind boggling right...

My renovator, an uncle ( shall not divulge name or company name yet) is a " ohh can can person.." and that worries me.

My latest shock is .. They will install the lightings then do painting.... Highly baffled!

Is that how it is to be?

[brandonlky 0]

Hi all

It's been 4 weeks since my renovation started.

Wasn't totally 100% smooth journey so I seek solace in this forum

We are re renovating our EM (2nd generation) using a renovator.

We are at the stage of floor polishing (retained marbled and parquet flooring), painting and carpentry.

You can read the updates on my blog :

http://benvenutihome.wordpress.com/

Once the Reno with carpentry is up, I shall post the before and after pix.

Meanwhile just to share some of my thumbs up and thumbs down experience

1. Curtains : Doris from d Zander is really nice. Reasonable quotes and good recommendations. I won't say it's cheap but mid range considering the quality of the material I selected.

Can't comment on workmanship as installations on 10aug. Went azoura to check their stuff and price is def mind blowing....

2. Sanitary ware: I went to royal fanco @ jln besar and enjoyed my time there. Yes, one might be disappointed with their tiny weeny showroom but the couple, henry and his wife give good recommendations and discounts. After taking my orders, I spent another 2 hrs there chatting with them abt property mkt, maintenance , Reno issues etc.

3. Lights : we went to Chuan huat at balestier. If you go to the oldest outlet, you are served by auntie. They are nice but they can't give much recommendations, merely tag around. Then we went to the bigger outlet where there is the DIY shop where you are served by younger sales staff. But then they push for the more pricey stuff. I didn't get what I want Exocet ya long suspended study light. But we bought our piano switches from the DIY shop Nader Chuan huat. Love the colored switches but it's meant for built in usage. So if you are like me, just changing the sockets, you still have to take say a silver switch top with a white base (yucky!!!)

Rest of our lights we got from lightings.com.sg

Keeping my fingers crossed abt defects. But hoestly, it's cheaper

4. Electrical appliances : I luv the auntie at aik leong. Maybe I tend to share with salesperson my needs and concerns. So auntie gave me a lesson abt fridge and glass hobs. And I settled for a 2 door hitachi fridge (instead of the side by side Samsung fridge ) , Electrolux hob,hub and oven. A gd discount saving almost $300.

5. I like the resort, nature style living. So after much hunting, I'm still back to natural living to buy rattan furniture.

Went uni cane weeks ago. Located at secluded part of sungei kadut and showroom was huge but terribly stuffy.

I'm not sure if it's sales tactic but sale gal keep pushing. For display set. Any new orders will come in next shipment ie NOVEMBER (faint!!)

I like teak and mahogany and plan to get their outdoor living set.

6. Hiccups in Reno

Cracked tiles due to installing new pipes. I literally hear the piping guy threaten to leave his job. Was a tense quarrel btw him and my renovator. But it's btw them as long as the cracked area is rectified.

Aircon cables - used aircon supplier recommended by renovator but it was poorly coordinated. Imagine the trucking laid right on the kitchen wall tile at the middle of my sink.. Mind boggling right...

My renovator, an uncle ( shall not divulge name or company name yet) is a " ohh can can person.." and that worries me.

My latest shock is .. They will install the lightings then do painting.... Highly baffled!

Is that how it is to be?

Hi Gazingstarz. Welcome to RT.

Congrats on your new home.

For mi, painting was done before lightings was installed.

[Gazingstarz 0]

Some pics updates

New master toilet - its so tiny.

IMG]http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm157/dandelion_sg/a39044f6.jpg[/img

A closer look

Pending for shower panels, rainnshowermsystem and other sanitary ware installation.

We found a ventilator in a toilet useful. Using it at our current place. Remove odor and moist

New common toilet - used to be the roomy master toilet.

New master bedroom.

Existing parquet flooring will be vanished in dark walnut

Top view of balcony 

Whats new : wall tiles; whats old: limestone tiles

Relocating the washing machine to the kitchen to make the balcony a full fledged garden. 

Retain the tap for easy watering of my plants 

[Gazingstarz 0]

New walkway to toilet and common bed room 

View from stairway

Study room: recycling previous,kitchen bifold door. Gonna paint it white 

[Gazingstarz 0]

View from balcony of kitchen and dining 

What's old: wall tiles; 

The opiang curtain stays at e moment as my new windows are full transparent ; so need to keep out prying eyes 

Existing kitchen wall tiles. Still looking good after 13 years 

View from living room of foyer area 

That's all folks on the raw stage of my house. Hopefully once the colors can shape up the place soon.

[Gazingstarz 0]

Recycled stuff

Wardrobe ..after 13 yrs , still in good shape but not big enough anymore .

Doors

It must be almost 20years as it came with the previous owner

Gonna paint it white

Marbled floor and nyaotoh bi fold door

Gonna polish the floor to give it a new shine

Bet my dog will love to sleep on the cold floor

Vanish the doors to dark walnut colour

Love this set of sturdy doors at the balcony

Edited July 31, 2012 by Gazingstarz

[casa 0]

Welcome to RT

Nice big spacious house

Post more of your reno pics to share

[potatoes 0]

Notice u are keeping quite a few things left by the previous owner. That translates to quite substantial savings.

Just becareful of the wardrobe u r keeping.... coz there may be hidden defects.

Your layout on 2nd floor seems to have undergone changes or modification.... what does the new layout look like?

[Gazingstarz 0]

Notice u are keeping quite a few things left by the previous owner. That translates to quite substantial savings.

Just becareful of the wardrobe u r keeping.... coz there may be hidden defects.

Your layout on 2nd floor seems to have undergone changes or modification.... what does the new layout look like?

Hi

The wardrobe is ours as we stayed here for 13 years and this is our second Reno.

While there might be substantial savings, there are heartaches when contractors dont take care of it. We had several cracked wall tiles as we change to ss water pipe.

Anyway I leave to renovator to resolve these issues.

We played merry go round with our doors.

Compared to a full Reno which was quoted for a range of $70-100k, this project using renovator (not id) does reduce cost substantially.

As we don't have children, we are only keeping one common bedroom for guests. So lotsa space for books and plants and running space for my dog.

We relocate our master bedroom to bedroom 3 as the main bedroom gets pretty warm in the afternoon (north west facing)

And of course relocating to get more wardrobe space but a shrunk of toilet space.

Here's my revised floor plan

Din really want to create a walkway for the new common toilet at level but it's kinda strange for guests and relatives to go bedroom to access the toilet.

Toilet at level is primarily washing area so we have to keep an accessible common toilet.

Cheers

[Gazingstarz 0]

I'm getting Reno fatigues....this week is a quiet week of painting and floor polishing

I had a tug of war with renovator and my curtain installer. Given the curtain installer has taken e measurement and already made the curtain blind, the other party , ie e carprentry therefore has to accommodate by altering the width of the tall cupboard beside the window, right. But he doesn't wanna budge.....

Sigh ..I m going dwn to measure again..hopefully both parties can proceed.

Some minor , uneventful updates:

2. Colour my world

A. Just to be sure they paint correctly, I went to label the walls. Haha..guess what, the painter hastily removed them to sand down and smothen the walls.

B. And the 7 colors

C. Outcome at dining room; din snap e full wall cos of the unsightly mess on the floor.

The inspiration :

The tangerine turned out well to create the vibrant atmosphere.

D. Outcome of living room : I simply love dark grey - galaxy , giving a relax, chill out look with the grey tone - solitude

The white ceiling fan and the rattan sofa now become supporting roles.

Hopefully the other colors are up later when I go bk .. Painter taking one whole week to paint. I'm dreading it

[Gazingstarz 0]

Has anyone bought stuff from Howard storage world?

Gonna check out the store at harbourfront centre

http://hsw.com.sg/index.html

Browsing their lovely catelogue and drooling over some items that are useful

1. Laundry sorting bin

2. Ironing storage

3. Wall unit and bike hook

I'm just toggling with the idea of putting wall brackets for the storage space below the stairs areas.

And the bike hook at my balcony

4. Yes, clutter free hair styling stuff

[Gazingstarz 0]

Snail process contd

Balcony tiles.

New master bedroom

I love white doors

Goes well with the blend of purple

Half painted purple wall.

Study room

I still love this dark grey and my half bifold door

[Gazingstarz 0]

More lightings

New common toilet walkway

This is used in outdoor gardens but I like the shape and the way it luminated

Kitchen island

Wanted to buy the piece from Ikea but they discontinued the series

Found this at Chuan huat at $55.

It comes with a glass cover but we temporary removed it

Study room

Wall light

Suspected reading light

It's 2.8m long hanging over our long suspended study table

Lights at staircase and master bedroom under wraps ...soon to be revealed.

[Gazingstarz 0]

And the gek-sim-ism

Air cons finally up

The thumbs up: compressor outside the unit; not in balcony.

Placed in at level 2, outside the new common bedroom.

Now my plants can survive e nights

The thumbs down : blower unit **** room blocking the down light

Sigh... I guess the installer simply dun care lo. Very fed up with them over installations & piping etc.

Called renovator to rectify

the frowns

We did not notice the patchy wall under the window panels

But I suspect they won't rectify since the grills will cover it.

Well we complained and saw see how

[fishponder 0]

Hi hi, how did u manage to get HDB approval for condenser to be installed outside? I was told its not allowed. Thanks!