A Second Reno

[nextstep 3]

For network cabling, this is what I feel should be done:

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/62505-top-kew-drive/?p=835953

Basically, you should lay network cables from your fibre point to all rooms. Trust me, you won't regret.

Thanks for sharing, really helpful.

[ZzzMonster 7]

Bro, another point about open window is that wind will come in when you shower. In the rainy months, it can be cold.

[doubleEM 4]

Bro, another point about open window is that wind will come in when you shower. In the rainy months, it can be cold.

We are good with that and birds will be a non issue since the windows are inside of the void space in the service balcony in unit versus windows which are at the front

So risk of birds thru the windows will be much higher

[doubleEM 4]

Last of Week 3 Updates

This will be the last update for this week since its the weekend and work should stop for the weekend although I hope they won't .

Today the tiler is on the go to finish up his role in our unit before the electricians come in to re-lay the wires next week followed by the vinyl flooring team to lay flooring for the unit then followed up with the false ceiling team to come in to cover up areas that require false ceiling though we don't have much.

Looking forward to more viewable progress in Week 4 for sure excited for it to come.

Today the tiler completed the kitchen backsplash, cement screed and smoothing our all the walls including the erected wall that separates kitchen from our MBR bathroom now and the shower curb for the common bath shower cubicle.

Kitchen Backsplash In The Works

Completed Kitchen Backsplash Look

Hope the effect turns out well with the kitchen cabinet laminates.

Sealed Up MBR Bathroom View

Thanks again to fantastic team at HDB I've to deal with much wasted space in our wardrobe to account for the piping as you see on the left of the picture which will be where our L shape wardrobe will be built! Sighz. Make do with what we have.

Common Bathroom Shower Kerb

After this the flooring is layed so our bathroom tiling and kitchen backsplash tiling is officially complete for this week. Next group to come in next week for new works to continue.

Final decision on our lightings has to be made and decided upon next so more headache for us to be dealing with from here on. Meeting ID for carpentry detailing discussion after Week 4 so hope things move fast and furious from here and smoothly too.

Glad out ID furnishes us with daily update pics of our unit and raises any concerns or issues she sees from the progress of the work and new unforseen potential issues to discuss and resolve immediately. Detailed is the word we can use to describe her and we like that in our ID for sure.

Edited August 28, 2015 by doubleEM

[Troublemaker 31]

We are good with that and birds will be a non issue since the windows are inside of the void space in the service balcony in unit versus windows which are at the front

So risk of birds thru the windows will be much higher

Actually, not only birds... there might be lizards, cockroaches etc... You can consider placing those mosquito mesh to prevent those crawlies while having fresh air circulation.

[doubleEM 4]

Actually, not only birds... there might be lizards, cockroaches etc... You can consider placing those mosquito mesh to prevent those crawlies while having fresh air circulation.

Well most Hdb buillding have these friendly pest issues as well and toilet windows are usually and always left open anyway so even if window or left open these pest issues are gonna be there so a non issue.

[doubleEM 4]

Week 4 Updates

This week's been quite as most of the work has been electrical, false ceiling and then AC piping being run.

So we took this time to finish up purchasing some of the items we have yet to decide on.

Kitchen Sink Mixer

We went to many bathroom accessories shop and so far our impression has been the big brands come with a big price tag but nice designs and functional and the small brands come with a smaller price tag but designs are not worth their price tags. (Or at least this was how we felt).

Thanks to heads up by bro NextStep (corrected my earlier error) we took a trip down to test out this beauty

The moment we set our eyes on it we loved it. Hansgrohe was having a promotion of this brand so thought price was on the high side but we have truly yet to find a nice kitchen mixer we both liked and are willing the spend the money on. So we took the bite and settled for this one today!

Next up came the MBR Bathroom:

We have decided to deck it out in black to contrast the white hexagonal wall tiles we have laid in the shower cubical area.

Black Rain Shower: We settled for this because I like the cut of how sleek it was but BRAVAT Singapore was selling a similar design for $1.7K even after discount so I've found this same design with a swivel bottom mixer as well for a lot less than half the price. So why not let's go with it.

This will be coupled with a black sink mixer:

Black Toilet Role Holder:

We've got Black Stainless Steel Shower basket as well.

WC shopping is tough as the Known Brands are costly! REALLY Costly. TOTO just raised their prices in August and even after a great discount it would still set us back almost $780 a piece and we needed 2 .

Bulked at it and decided to settle for Kohler which we saw was going for about $560 or so @ Bathroom Warehouse but walking down Balestier today we walked into WasserBath and settled for IXISS for even more savings! German brand made in Turkey. 10 Year W'ty on Flushing system well decided to take the risk and went with it.

Read some other Tblog stating this brand was ok for the flushing system so decided to cut down on this expenditure so we can allocated these savings elsewhere. Most importantly their WC designs are really nice too!

One Piece WC unit for ease of cleaning and no curves on the side means flush finish and no hard to clean corners on the bowl itself.

Well, we've got our Roofing permit approved by HDB today so roofing works on my new Study + Wet area can begin next week! Woohoo!

Edited September 2, 2015 by doubleEM

[ZzzMonster 7]

Very nice kitchen mixer!

[nextstep 3]

Love the black rain shower, it really going to make your bathroom look super nice.

[doubleEM 4]

Very nice kitchen mixer!

Thanks bro

Love the black rain shower, it really going to make your bathroom look super nice.

Thanks bro for your recommendation to head to Hansgrohe

Well sure hope so it would be looking great.

[doubleEM 4]

Week 5 Updates Part 1

This is a week for false ceiling/partitioning, flooring & roofing to go in. So it is quite a massive coordination work by our ID to managed 3 teams at a go. We are also to have our carpentry detailing discussion this week with her to firm up the laminate colors and internal configurations of the carpentry items.

So here goes:

Partition of New MBR Entrance

Partition for Extension of Walk in Wardrobe

We have extended it outwards into the service balcony area to make up for the lack of space in this converted area.

MBR Bathroom Vanity

Partition wall build up and extended outwards as well to make up space for the build up of our vanity top which will be in the middle of the concrete wall and partition wall location.

[doubleEM 4]

Week 5 Updates Part 2

In part 2 we will cover the works today after our carpentry detailing session with our ID.

Installation of vinyl flooring was done today and completed the majority of areas around the house within a day. This time we are going for installation without any side skirting which is traditionally used when doing up flooring for the home.

Vinyl Flooring Color

Staircase Flooring

The smoothing of the edges will be done up later on. The square markings as drawn on the left tile flooring will be where our new staircase beams will be. So we will be mounting it onto the 1st level flooring instead of the traditional way of by the corner of steps along the staircase.

MBR Flooring

MBR flooring done up and completed.

After today only the new home office is not completed to be coordinated with the roofing guys who will commence work tomorrow and the dining area which has to be coordinated with another team as our kitchen sliding panels tracking will have to go in before the vinyl flooring will continue from there. This makes the tracking of the panels flushed into the flooring.

Next post will be the panels which we will be building for the wet area in balcony, kitchen & staircase...

[doubleEM 4]

Week 5 Updates Part 3

Drawings for our panels are done up by our ID to avoid any discrepancies later on.

Kitchen Panels

This drawing spots a mistake where each sliding door panel should have a line down the middle separating into 6 parts instead of the 3 parts per panel now in diagram.

Staircase

Very daring concept proposed by our ID and we liked it and went along with it...

Wet Area Separation Panels

This panel will separate the original service balcony into 2 parts with 1 part now serving as my home office/study & the other part remains as an outdoor area or wet area where our kids will be able to go thrash and play around. This is also where the access to the rubbish chute area will be. Hence the separation build up here.

Now for more work to come tomorrow....carpenter will begin fabrication now as well after our discussion completed with our ID on the detailing.

[doubleEM 4]

ALL ABOUT ROOFING UPDATE

Today was roofing day for our new home office cum wet play area for the original service balcony. This is a new and radical approach we took and we are now prepared for the older generations to visit by our new abode and go "why you reno like that"..."Why so funny"...But hey who cares it's our place and reno is suppose to achieve our living habit needs right?

Modified Green House Roofing

Our original idea for a clear roof over the balcony with Acrylic was shot down due to permit issues with HDB so we played around with other alternatives and tried to go with transparent tiles but yet again the whole roof can't be transparent tiles as they are too light to withstand strong winds under the whole roof format.

So we settle for a "Open Window" effect over the roof to still allow natural lighting to come into this area. This is very much a compromise as using glass to do up this roof would have been too costly or rather irresponsible budget wise (Their last case was $9K with over 6 months worth of PE submissions)

Well we are also not roofing the whole area leaving a small open space where our "wet play area" uncovered.

This will also then serve as our wet area for drying of our laundry and perhaps now we may just hang up a swing for the kids since we have the roofing beams to work with after this roofing is all done up.

Will be boxing up the ridiculous design of a circle shape hole and weird gap by the side on our balcony pillar.

Hope the complete effect will not look weird....Fingers crossed.

Edited September 10, 2015 by doubleEM

[doubleEM 4]

Recent Purchase

We have decided to make the painful decision to let go our old Fisher & Paykel and get in a new one. After all we have had the former unit for 7 years with no issues but thought we didn't want to move an electronic item and then have to deal with it break down and have to replace it.

We settled for the following model

Got it @ Harvey Normal since they are having some promotion going on for their remaining units left in their stockpile. Been a user of F&P and really have no complaints with it so far.