House By The Reservoir

[SaltedCaramel 0]

Had been busy unpacking the past few days. House is now super messy! . Had also been busy shopping on Amazon. Am thinking whether to buy a rug for the living. Let's continue with the journey shall we...

Electrical wiring, piping and aircond trunking

This stage was rather boring for me as all I see were wires, pipes and trunkings.

Before the start of the electrical work, you will have to think of all the power points you need - besides the bed for bedside lamp, besides the sofa for table or floor lamp, various appliances at the TV console, kitchen countertop, study table, at the dining area for steamboat, CCTV, doorbell etc. You may also want 2-way switches for some lights. We didn’t specify any 2-way switches and was pleasantly surprised that my contractor’s electrician thought about that and installed 2-way switches for the common bathroom (as the common bathroom is accessible from the common room and the passage way) and track lights along the dining area (so that we can have lights while walking to our bedroom).

It was only after a few weeks the renovation started that we browsed Renotalk more often and found that our contractor is a rather popular contractor on Renotalk. The reviews are mixed. The mixed reviews did raise some concerns but we decided to keep calm about it as he had been progressing the renovation well. *keeping fingers crossed.

[SaltedCaramel 0]

Tiling and wet works

As our tiling did not involve many different tiles and intricate design we didn’t prepare a tiling plan. And ooops… there were a few hiccups during the tiling process.

Master bathroom

Mosaics in master bathroom were laid at the wrong area. It was supposed to be laid at the shower area instead of the bathtub area. Our contractor rectified this promptly.

We like the idea of a ledge at the shower area for shower gel and shampoo. Looking forward to soaking in the bathtub.

Common bathroom

Our contractor called to ask about the colour of the grout for various areas but missed out on the grout for the common bathroom wall tiles. The colour of the wall tile is beige and we had wanted the grout to be in beige. Instead, white grout was used. We asked our contractor if this could be rectified and our contractor said beige grout could be applied over the white grout. However, this wasn’t done after a few days. We decided to let it slide as we thought there was not much difference between white grout and beige grout. Hope this wouldn't bug us later.

For the shower area, we prefer a drop rather than a kerb.

Kitchen

We had wanted glass backsplash at the kitchen and this was provided for in the quote. However, our contractor did a subway tile backsplash for us. We didn’t ask for rectification as the subway tiles backsplash looked good.

We also asked our contractor to construct a cement sink support.

Living

Our white brick feature wall. As we want to mount our TV on the brick wall, our contractor drilled holes on the wall for the cables to pass through.

To avoid any hiccup, it will be good to prepare a tiling plan to specify which tiles are to be laid at each area, how the tiles are to be laid and the colour of the grout.

We are satisfied with the workmanship. The tiles are aligned and neatly laid, the grout lines are even and we didn’t find any hollowness when knocking on the tiles. Only complaint was that some of the edges and corners are not so well done. Maybe the edges or the walls are not that straight?

[SaltedCaramel 0]

Box-up of aircond trunking, plastering and painting

Box-up of aircond trunking was nicely done.

Our whole house were painted white. We chose Snowflakes (Code 1164) from Nippon Odourless series. Before painting, our house looked dim as the paint had turned yellow. After a new coat of paint, our house looked so much brighter!

The painting was ok though there were some areas especially at the door or window frames where it was not done nicely. The painter should have masked these areas properly. If you are using many paint colours, it will be good to prepare a painting plan to specify the colour of the paint at each area.

[ZzzMonster 7]

Wow... Your reno progress is quite fast

[SaltedCaramel 0]

Wow... Your reno progress is quite fast

My renovation had been completed and I have just moved in. All these are back-dated entries .

[ZzzMonster 7]

My renovation had been completed and I have just moved in. All these are back-dated entries .

😂

Edited August 19, 2015 by ZzzMonster

[doubleEM 4]

Congrats...

[thehappykowple 2]

Looking good! More pictures pls!!

[Dandan Zheng 0]

Hi SaltedCaramel,

Congrats first, and i saw u choose this "SnowFlakes" painting from Nippon,Can i know how is it really looks like ? is that have a little bit pinky ? im confused for the painting, constructer suggest "Creamy white" for me, i really don't like it, tooooo yellow for me, i prefer one color only a little bit warm or grey, but nearest white . so i saw this Snowflakes.

[Dandan Zheng 0]

If its possible can u send me some photos under natural light? Thank u~~~

[St0rmTr00per 0]

More pictures pleassssss.

Any review of your contractor, Alan Tan from Aian Furniture and Renovation Contractor? Would love to find out more. Thanks!!

[SaltedCaramel 0]

If its possible can u send me some photos under natural light? Thank u~~~

Thanks Dandan. Sorry for the late reply. Hope my reply is not too late. I would say the colour is white with a tinge of yellow. I had taken the photo below under natural light.

[SaltedCaramel 0]

More pictures pleassssss.

Any review of your contractor, Alan Tan from Aian Furniture and Renovation Contractor? Would love to find out more. Thanks!!

Will be posting more pictures soon!

Our experience with Alan had been good and we enjoyed working with him. We are pleased with the workmanship and progress. Other than a few hiccups, our renovation journey had been smooth. Workmanship can be rather subjective and from our limited experience (this is our first renovation), the workmanship is good.

[SaltedCaramel 0]

It has been awfully long since I last updated! *sweep cobwebs away*. Had been busy with unpacking and furnishing the house.

Let me update with pictures taken before the handover.

Living and dining

View of the living and dining from the main door

The laminate was laid vertically from the main door to the balcony. We read that this can create an illusion of a longer/bigger space if the direction of the flooring is towards a light source (e.g. balcony or windows). Loving the rustic look of the laminate.

Living room before installation of curtain

We asked the carpenter to fix some ledges for us to display some decorations - pottery, photo frames, sculpture etc.

Living room after installation of curtain

We installed curtains at the living room and Venetian blinds in the 3 rooms. As the Venetian blinds are quite heavy and not easy to roll up, we installed curtains at the living area so that we can access the balcony easily.

Close-up shot of the TV console and brick wall

We love how our TV looks mounted on the white brick wall.

The shoe cabinet and bookshelves

We love to read and decided to build a bookshelves to display our collection of books. Don’t like it enclosed so I guess I will have to deal with the dust.

We had requested for ventilation holes for the shoe cabinet and did the same for our vanity cabinets.

Dining

Please ignore the pendant lights as we have yet to adjust the height of the lights .We like the colour temperature of the LED track lights - very warm and the brightness is just nice.

[hc28 0]

You have a very warm and cosy home!