nirvana

wah.. I so long never come renotalk.. henry thread becomes so happening! Supersimon, *wave* good to see you still around. Hi everyone my reno was done by Henry in year 2009. you can see my renoblog for the work he has done. It has been about a year plus since and so far so good. My house is still in one place. everything still worked well. So for post reno wise, I am satisfied with his work. If you read my blog, I have my fair share of complaint and grievances, e.g. my reno took longer than expected, was not happy about some of the carpentry don't have ABS (is it correct? means the furniture's edges are raw kind.. not covered) but it was all about expectations and after i moved in, seriously, it did not bother me one bit. I did quite a fair bit of customized carpentry and kitchen cabinets are ikea system so we need to work very closely with Henry and Ah Fai (his carpenter then) and all turned out well. On hindsight, I have to say the working relationship with Henry and his sub-contractors are pleasant. so I would call myself a satisfied customer. To be fair, no one is perfect. I don't think there would be any ID or contractors who will be able to do 100% perfect job all the time. There will be certain % who would, unfortunately, suffer the brunt of the not so efficient side of Henry and his team. So for newbies who want to engage ID or contractors, we need to be aware of the risk. You can source around for the ID or contractors with the highest % of satisfied customers but need to be aware that when it comes to reno (which is itself is a nitty gritty cumbersome project) everything can happen. Plus the mis-alignment of expectations would cause you more grief. Anyway, I am back in the renotalk forum because I am looking to engage Henry for reno my mum's kitchen. was hoping to see some of his recent work and see if he becomes liked another "ah soon" and disappeared from the reno industry. I see quite a number of recent customers and Simon still around so for that and my past experience with him, i am definitely still going back to him to see if he can squeeze in my new project. I am not related to Henry at all. And Simon helped me alot in my last reno. i think he is a kind and generous person who has been helping us newbies with loads of tips. So i don't understand why ppl would be upset with him who is just volunteering his help and advice. If I get henry to do my new project, will do up a separate reno blog to keep you guys posted.

I think paint pretty standard? Until the walls look okay? But hor.. you might want to ask on the price if you are looking to re-plaster your wall. I did not and my wall is rather uneven and using stronger colors on the wall will emphasis the unevenness.

Forgot to reply you on your question. Yes there is a drop for the shower area. It used to be a bathtub in its place so I am not sure if the drop was done previously or created by Henry's guys. The summarized quotation: 1. Hack and demolish 2 bathrooms 2. Tiles for 2 bathrooms 3. Water proofing for 2 bathrooms 4. Supply & install conceal copper piping for 2 bathrooms 5. Labour to install 2 sets of toilet bowl, wash basin, heater tank and accessories 6. Design and fabricated 2 sets of suspended vanity cabinet 7. Supply and install solid top with big mirror for both vanity 8. Supply and install 2 sets of 10mm tempered glass shower screen with kerb 9. Demolish existing kitchen cabinet 10. Overlay tiles for wall - expose portion 11. Hack and lay heavy duty flooring tiles for kitchen and yard area 12. Design and fabricate laminated kitchen cabinet - 36ft 13. Customized solid surface kitchen worktop (use better grade LG worktop so got top up from original) 14. Customized color glass backing between k/cabinet - L Shape 15. To disconnect and re-connect in/outlet of sink tap 16. Demolish Existing wardrobe in master bedroom 17. Design and fabricate laminated TV feature wall 18. 360. Deg. design for TV hinges 19. Customized laminated full height storage cabinet 20. Customized full height shoe cabinet with curve design beside storage cabinet 21. Haulage and dumping debris fee 22. Floor Protection, general cleaning and acid wash 23. Painting for entire house - nippon 5000 vinilex up to 6 colours 24. Alum. casement window at balcony 25. To construct false ceiling at master bedroom, room2, dining area and passage 26. To construct L - box ceiling **** 27. To construct concrete wall at m/bathroom 28. Suspended full height cabinet to box up meter box 29. To grind and repolish existing parquet flooring 30. Extra cost (upgrade) for wall and floor tiles 31. Cove light design **** hall ceiling 32. Installation of ikea accessories for k/cabinet 33. To paint m/room new partition wall (done up for my Alumix closet) 34. Extra drawer set for master toilet vanity 35. To change 8 sets roller for existing big sliding balcony door 36. To box up 2 sets of door frame for kitchen and m/bathroom 37. Customized wooden sliding door with lockset at m/bathroom Total cost: Approx $28,500 Not including Alumix closet, Ikea fittings, dressing table (not done yet)

Thanks Muesli. Very touched leh.. must come in more often to chit chat... Gam siah.. my htb will be over the moon when I tell him your comment. He put in ALOT of thoughts on how to conceal wires... Thanks thanks! I like the color too! And everytime I step into the house.. I will think.. "thank god choose the right shade" heee... Ya loh.. white kitchen very chio hor.. but hor.. we became cleaning fanatic.. see any stain will start to rub rub rub.. hopefully we will wean off this bad habit.. I want to enjoy the house.. not slave for it!! Thank you!! All thanks to your great recommendation on Henry! Thank you thank you! I was abit worried that the wood color looks abit 80s.. but will live with it la.. hehe.. thanks for the heartening comments!

Put there for storage la... when cooking will bring down to counter top.

Cos we got the white storage cabinet on the left of the dining so had to align the downlights along it.

Masterbedroom toilet - Old Masterbedroom toilet - Now

Common toilet - Old Common toilet - Now

Masterbedroom - Old Masterbedroom - Now (aiyoo.. pls pardon our messy clothes stand)

Kitchen - Old Kitchen - Now

Living room - Old Living room - Now

House still in a mess due to parties after parties.. Photos of completed reno Finally! Still need to do rectification with Henry. But all quite minor one.. funny leh.. he never come and chase us.. Dining room - Old Dining room - Now

Hi hcbing! Hmm.. let me sort out my unpacking cos I think the quotes are quite all over the place now.. moreover we have not settle the final bill with Henry so there are some items that are still with no price tag yet! Give me a while.. Thks!

Merry Xmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you!! Sorry about the MIA. Shifted in officially last Wed so had been really busy cleaning and unpacking. And Starhub has been just fixed so I have internet in the house finally! I am sorting out some before after photos. Anyone can suggest some easy to use software to "stitch" the photos together? I am using iMac. Thanks!

Dropping by to say hi! Your place is SPACIOUS! Loads of space.. *envious* Hope all the reno progress will be smooth smooth.. Good luck!! Can't wait to more progress..

Remember my masterbedroom bathroom cabinet? The two gigantic deep drawers? Upon my mum advice to make one of the deep drawers into two shallow drawers, htb met up with the carpenters and they redesign the drawers according to htb requirement. Here are the new drawers: Swee boh?

More TV console updates: They, correction, the single worker only mounted the TV backboard and install the glass panel today. Thought can see the TV up by today.. oh well.. Swiveling TV pole

Oh ya.. about the 48" ceiling fans in my living and dining room.. Can feel the window only when directly underneath them.. cos the area is too spacious around.. so I guess there is not enough "obstacles" to bounce the wind around.. cos my 36" fans in my tiny bedrooms are more "effective"...

Henry and lighting guys got pestered by me to position the lightings properly to make way for the ceiling fans. I told him my ceiling fan size and they measured to make sure the ceiling fan holes are right in the centre of the room and even borders around the downlights. Did not advise me on the shadow part cos not their pasah.. but I keep asking them "can hor?? wun have shadow right???" till they grudgingly agreed with me.. hehe.. See the pix for more illustration: Distance of ceiling fan to downlights and cove lights: Fan and cove lights on together and no shadow effect: Fan and downlights on and no shadow effect: Oh.. need to do correction, I dunno where I get the idea the blum drawer costs $60/each cos htb says he did not find out on the price and never told me that.. sorry sorry.. wrong info.. BUT.. he did called up a company called Excel hardware (contact from square room magazine) to check on their soft closing hinges.. Remember there was a discussion earlier on the soft closing device from ikea that costs about $9 per pair to slot along your existing hinge?? This Excel hardware company sells the whole hinge that comes with soft closing device installed within at *drumroll* $3/each!! Wah.. if only we knew this earlier.. For those haven installed their hinges one.. can consider this la..

Okok.. will check with her on that. But I think I will end up not fixing it cos scared will turn out worse.. Yesterday I was really tired plus we were going through all the small defects and htb says the atmosphere abit "dark" compared to our usual jovial chats with Henry.. Having said that, Henry has been patient and one thing I really like about him is that when the problem is there he does not do the "it is okay what.. why complain" stunt. Prob the one thing I really don't like but it is applicable to all contractors is their time management, not just on reno project but also on their time keeping for appointments!. Guess bo bian cos things get delay sometime and it is not really within control. But we got so used to them being late, we always factor buffer time e.g. meet at 3, we will give buffer till 3.30pm. Hee.. but Henry was very on time yesterday. Think he knows I not happy with not able to get the house up for xmas party. Gam siah! Wah.. htb will be so flattered to hear that.. hehe.. he really spent alot of time designing it...

Spent about 850 on Ikea fittings. No leh.. did not shop around for alternative cos we know Blum system is really expensive. Htb went down to Blum showroom before and while he is super impressed by the technology (as compared to ikea) one drawer can be as expesive as $60 (if I don't remember wrongly)... how to buy? As for the ceiling fans, we super kiasu and choose the smaller 48" ceiling fan for our living room. Most living can take up to 56" but we measure and measure to make sure we give allowance to the downlights along the side as well as the cove lighting. Pester Henry and lighting guys to assure us that wun have shadow effect.. hehe.. I dun remember having shadow effect so far but let me do a actual test tonight and I will take some photos for you to the distance of the fan to cove light for you.

TV console; waiting to mount TV and soundbar on the swivel pole tomorrow. We are very nervous about the stability cos the backboard where the TV and soundbar will be mounted are very heavy. The soundbar backboard you see is only attached to the pole using 3 nails.. even my technical savvy htb is not sure about it. We will see how it goes tomorrow. Lightings are installed in the kitchen today. Some of the lightings are in wrong color so only managed to take one side of the L shape kitchen: Yard did not have any windows previously. They are nicely installed but the only problem is that I can't reach the lock cos I am too short for it!!

More pix. Reno mostly done up except the solid table top, kitchen glass backing, shower screen and mirrors. Common toilet: Masterbedroom toilet:

Thanks for the encouragements. I brought my parents to the house to have a look today and they were pleased with the reno so far.. my all-walls-should-be-white dad actually complimented the blue wall color.. hehe.. was ready for him to criticize it actually.. *relieved* Their enthusiasm rubbed off me and on hindsight, most of the reno did gone well and the hiccups are really just hiccups. I should really enjoy the process and be happy with the results thus far. Thanks for the advice and reminder. I do feel much better now. Spoke to henry today on the shifting in part and we tentatively put it next friday. But the kitchen and final rectification will be finished only after we shift in. We are looking to do our dressing table so that will prob be done up by Jan/Feb period. So there will be more carpentry update coming up.

Ya.. i suggested liquid paper to Henry too.. but that was as a joke.. He said that the liquid paper will turn yellow and it will look worse after a while.