Home Sweet Home @ Punggol Topaz

[snowy89 12]

Fellow Topazian!I

I am from 259A!

Glad to see your reno progress here!

Can i check what is the length of your sink?

May I know which sink you are talking about? The one in my common bathroom or the one in the MBR bathroom?

Edited January 19, 2015 by snowy89

[snowy89 12]

Common Bathroom part II

So... the other day when I went to Tampoi to buy my ceiling fans, I stumbled onto their storage heater. It was cheaper by $40 so we decided to just get it as well. We have weighted the pros and cons of a storage heater. I shall list these down from some googling online.

Storage heater is insulated tanks holding in my case, 25L of water with electric heating elements. The storage heater stratifies with hot water at the top and cold incoming water at the bottom, so that I can draw hot water and get consistently hot water until the hot water is nearly depleted. A key advantage of storage heater is that the heating element is small. A properly sized storage type water heater can provide a household without requiring a very large flow of electricity to heat the water.

The only disadvantage is that it looks bulky and it is troublesome to switch on the heater for at least 16 minutes prior to usage, which means you cannot straight away jump into your house and bathe expecting hot water. Also, some people may tend to forget to switch off the heater switch after 16 minutes.. But my awesome electrician solved this for me.

I figured 25L should last me for quite abit, because only will have two users (me and the man) as of current.

Hello there my JH25. Please don't fail me. Affixed at my common bathroom.

My chio silver switches which I requested the electrician to replace. On the far left is my storage heater switch. It functions like the traditional toaster switch. Just turn the knob and let it run, when the timer hits zero, electricity will be cut off and my hot water will be ready for usage. So I will save electricity and not worry that I may be wasting away my electricity because of my forgetfulness.

Isn't it ingenious? I am so impressed with technology. This was a disadvantage of storage heater which turned into an advantage for me. My pet peeve for bathroom is that I suddenly get extremely hot water that burn me or onset of cold water. It will totally cause me to be moody for at least a while. So far I have tested the water heater and it seemed good to go. I get warm water instantaneously after and water temperature is constant.

Just hoping that I won't regret on my decision on not to buy a bigger volume storage heater in the future.

[joejoeteng 0]

Hi Snowy89,

Your silver switches very chio, may i know how much you get it and where do you get it? And also the timer? Really genious idea!!

[iamxiaohan 0]

May I know which sink you are talking about? The one in my common bathroom or the one in the MBR bathroom?

I am referring to the kitchen sink.

[Guest Irene Toh]

Hi Snowy89,

Your home is looking really good! Machiam showflat lor. Im sure you and your hubby is looking forward to move in.

I saw you have hecked kitchen wall and changed entrance for kitchen. Can you show me pictures of the done up kitchen and dining area please? Will like to know how it looks like.

We are also thinkin of this concept but was thinkin there might be a need to extend the out kitchen wall so that there is enough space to enter the kitchen, bring in the fridge etc.

We are staying at topaz too. 260A. Just got our keys last tues only. Thanks!

[snowy89 12]

Hi Snowy89,

Your silver switches very chio, may i know how much you get it and where do you get it? And also the timer? Really genious idea!!

It is provided by my electrician. He said he did this for his own house too. The only thing is it is a bit noisy, you can really hear the time ticking away after you turn it. Like a time bomb. LOL.. Just kidding.

You can PM me if you want his contacts.

I am referring to the kitchen sink.

My kitchen sink is from taobao.

Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=18699924608

I bought the smaller size, 780 X 430. It really look abit small after my ID did undermount for it. But I think it is still enough for me, just that cannot put those kind of zi char wok la. Hahaha.

This is how my sink looks like now. I love this tap because it can be pulled out to spray at the sides of the sink that cannot be reached.. Also from the same taobao shop. If you want a bigger sink, maybe you can consider their bigger range, still the same price though, so it is like more worth it. However, be sure to inform your ID so that they can cater to the bigger sink.

Edited January 22, 2015 by snowy89

[snowy89 12]

Hi Snowy89,

Your home is looking really good! Machiam showflat lor. Im sure you and your hubby is looking forward to move in.

I saw you have hecked kitchen wall and changed entrance for kitchen. Can you show me pictures of the done up kitchen and dining area please? Will like to know how it looks like.

We are also thinkin of this concept but was thinkin there might be a need to extend the out kitchen wall so that there is enough space to enter the kitchen, bring in the fridge etc.

We are staying at topaz too. 260A. Just got our keys last tues only. Thanks!

Hi Irene Toh,

I'm glad my ID is putting in effort to make my home looks good. She also thinks it is of showflat quality. My house is *almost* ready, just lacking the furnishing and some more plumbering works. We are looking forward to move in but at the same time, not much facilities now. So abit sian to move in.

I have extended my kitchen walkway out until you walk in from the main door, turn and look it is my kitchen liao. This is to cater for my dining seattee so that I won't block the kitchen entrance in any way. Choosing this route is not easy because you have to hack away some of the floor tiles, hack away the floor, and most importantly, hack away the tiles and sides of the kitchen tiles, cos it will look very weird lah.

The highlighted part is the part that needs to be hacked away too but I did not realize it until the very end, caused us quite a bit of grieve. Then my ID says if need hack away need to do up permit again. So she offered me another alternative, which is to put partition board and plaster the entire wall up.

So crisis is solved. Just don't make the same mistake as me.

Every mistake costs money. Although I think mine got very little of these hiccups already. So I am thankful for it.

My kitchen door has not been installed yet because my ID has been waiting for all my deliveries to reach and install in the kitchen first before putting up the glass door, which is a pretty smart thing because otherwise my glass door is in danger of getting bang and then broken. I only have a not-so-updated photo of my kitchen entrance but I believe it will help you see how I recreated the kitchen entrance.

My new kitchen entrance, and the reinforced glass partitions.

Hope that this helps you in your reno, may you have a smooth one.

[shawnie84 2]

Yay to my 3rd page, never thought that I will be posting so religiously. But everything is just too exciting for a new flat owner.

Now I can understand how people have over 10 over pages and I love reading up all of the long long entries during my pre-renovated state.

Made a trip to my house again yesterday and realized that my acrylic panels in the bathrooms are up. I topped up for these acrylic panels as well because they will make the ambience complete. HDB usually provide a netted finish and box to cover up the unsightly toilet pipes (with exception: top level).

Just to give an illustration:

Photo taken off the net. I forgot the source unfortunately because I forgot to snap a photo of my pre-renovated state. But this is how it usually look.

For the common bathroom, I stuck to the more yellowish LED strip because I find yellow compliments with blue. Yes, remember my sea theme for the common bathroom? It is actually coming to realization soon.

This is the effect when I switch on the LED strip only. Very soothing and romantic.

As for my MBR bathroom, I decided to go for warm white T5 instead. This is so because T5 is generally brighter, and as my MBR bathroom is pre-domineering black, I want it to look not so gloomy but feel comfortable when I used it. Here is a sneak peak of my humongous storage mirror, opted for red ABS trimmings so you can have a peek of red on the top and bottom. Will go through more of what I have done for these bathrooms in detail soon.

I find that with these acrylic panels, it instantly give a face lift to the standard HDB toilets. Can't deny that I am even more obsessed with my bathrooms now.

wow i love the way the panels brings the look of the bathroom. May I know how much you paid for those acrylic panels??

[snowy89 12]

wow i love the way the panels brings the look of the bathroom. May I know how much you paid for those acrylic panels??

Hi Shawnie,

It was in my original invoice dated some time back. So the pricing may no longer be accurate. It costed me roughly $150-200 each. If you are able to outsource it, the price may be even cheaper.

[snowy89 12]

Third part of my common bathroom transformation

Due to me buying a stand alone sink from taobao. I needed to erect a half wall to make the HDB pipe fit the hole of my stand alone sink. No choice because I either have to live with a gap, mosquitoes breeding in between the gap due to the entrapment of water which I cannot remove. Sigh. Another one of the hiccups I experienced in this reno.

But my ID very kind lah, adhere to my request of having mosaic tiles as the ledge. At least it is like I paid some more to beautify my toilet. I know these mosaic tiles ain't cheap.

It is constructed painstakingly by only one tiler, using hollow blocks. The tiler shifu did it in 4-5 hours and I am pleased with his workmanship. No need to buy ledge to put anything there also good. Save abit of money on bathroom accessories. The last part will be the installation of the mirror and stand alone sink Finally ah..

[snowy89 12]

My dining seattee

Who enjoys sitting on the cushion side off the seattee in a restuarant? My man and I used to fight over it whenever we had the chance to. Sometimes, we even sat side by side so that we can not only be closer to each other and also cos we like sitting on this type of seattee.

So we decided for our first home, we are gonna have it. Not only it saves space. It also help to fulfill some of our dream house bah.

Now that my dining seattee is also almost ready, I shall share it with you my favourite part of the house thus far. Favourite cos it is my resting place whenever the workers are working and I am down to supervise them. It is basically my sleeping spot because we had no furnitures yet.

Okay, so first we have this. I asked for the outside edge to be rounded so that it is child proof. Also the bottom are slanted so that there is more leg room for us. I specially asked for one piece on top because I hated the lines in between if it were to be separated into two (it also can be used for storage, talk about awesome). So let us check the insides to see what is supporting this big piece of wood ok?

Wow three blum systems!! I'm pleased with my ID's generosity.

The man says we can use it to store our snacks and not let anyone know. Cos we love snacks so much. I couldn't agree more.

Finally, the front part was empty because we decided to put cushion over it.. and the day it arrived, my seattee is now complete.

You can also spot my new dining light and bronze tinted mirror over here. Now a bit rushing for time, so will update on the dining light in a later post.

[crystaltiong 2]

hi , can i check how much the the cabinet on top of the toilet bowl and the glass panel in the bathroom ?

did u retain the exisiting basin ?

Thanks

[JohnB 15]

My dining seattee

Who enjoys sitting on the cushion side off the seattee in a restuarant?

...

Me!

Your ID seems to be really generous.

[snowy89 12]

hi , can i check how much the the cabinet on top of the toilet bowl and the glass panel in the bathroom ?

did u retain the exisiting basin ?

Thanks

Hi crystaltiong,

The cabinet is inclusive in my overall carpentry so it is difficult to break it down for you. I can PM you my ID and you can get a quote from her. You can find the cost for the glass panel in post #99.

Lastly, I threw both the HDB basins away. I know it is very wasteful but the basins are very small and not to my liking so I did not want to retain them.

[snowy89 12]

Me!

Your ID seems to be really generous.

Thank you for sharing my views. I will convey to my ID that got people think she is really generous. She sure happy until.....