Rasp

Hi Newnyew, I am surprised to see that you edited/deleted your post today. Frankly, I don't think you need to do it. The forum need our honest sharing about our reno experience as well as feedbacks on the contractors. Like you mentioned earlier at my blog, if you have not deleted your post, I might have gotten a better lobang for my instant heater. Likewise, your experience is very valuable to the rest of us who will be or currently doing our reno. I really appreciate all those selfless sharing on the areas to lookout for as well as tips on reno from this forum. Without these honest feedbacks/ tips, I believe many of us would be walking into the shops clueless on what to expect and ask during the id search and reno. Please don't feel bad about sharing your experience. There are always good and bad experiences, I don't think its fair if we only share the good ones and kept the bad ones away. If so, then others are going to walk in blindly and I believe you don't want to see that happen. Do stay positive and keep us updated. Cheers!

Hihi Wakzool, Great to know that Henry is fast with your rectification. Very efficient and responsible fellow. We are currently doing our reno with Henry as well. Hope everything will run smoothly. How's your twins? Enjoying your fatherhood?

Updates: We went to look see look see and found that the flooring of the kitchen, and 2 bathrooms are almost all done up. But they still need to fill the grouting for them. Guess after the tiling is over, its our turn to be busy checking on the tiles workshipman. We also met the plastering guy yesterday. He managed to remove most of the wire casing in the rooms and plastered one of the new wall. Hee.. guess the next stage will be plastering. Early this week, Henry had also informed hb to arrange the aircon installation to be on 24th. But we didnt managed to get 24th from Gain City, as its fully booked so we settled on 25th. Hee.. til date, we are quite happy that things are moving quite smoothly. Ok, pic's time~ I missed out this pic in the previous post. This is overall look after the last 2 walls are removed. The area really look more spacious, right? We found that even the wiw area also looked brighter. Oh, the door on the left is our main door. It was dismantled on Friday after hb sms Henry on Thurs night. Very efficient... Reason for removing it was, our concerns for scratches at the entrance due to the constant opening and closing of the main door. And the cardboard at that area have been removed as the main door gap is being unable to take the cardboard thickness. So hb sms Henry that he can remove the door if it's causing issue on the marble protection. Now that the door is gone, we also saw that the marble flooring at entrance is all covered up. Really appreciate their efforts. Hope that this can help to minimise the scratches. This pic is taken by hb. Hee.. look kinda gross. This is the drainage pipe at the balcony. Henry feedbacked to us that his workers found that our bathrms water and waste drainage are 75% choked. So he recommended that we engaged a professional plumber to clear the choke so that we won't run into such issue later. We can either source ourselves or go for his contacts. We decided to use his. Hb was around when the plumber came. According to hb, the plumber poured in those very strong concentration acid to those pipes and then use his hands to dig into the pipes. He took out a big chunk of black things as well as some old harden cement. He cleared quite a number of areas; mbr bathrm, common bathrm, kitchen and the balcony as well. According to hb, the whole area was very very very smelly, which explained why he only took 1 pic. These are my mbr bathroom wall tiles without the grouting. Just simple wall tiles for the whole wall area, nothing fanciful.

Wow, nice progress. Started your rewiring already. Are you keeping the kitchen wall tiles? Plastering over?

Hi kthc, Read that your bi-fold door is without bottom tracks. We also getting the same tophung bi-fold door, but when we went to the site today, we noticed that the kerb was done up in a way 'stepped'. I thought its weird to do it like that if there is no bottom tracks. May I know how do you do the kerb? And for the door panels, are they on the kerb or near to the floor at the side of the toilet? I will appreciate it greatly if you can share a picture of your bi-fold door. Thanks alot.

Updates: Hee.. we finally completed our last part of hacking this week. hee.. all due to our last min change of mind, Henry got to re-apply for the hacking permit last week. The 3 official hacking dates from HDB was Wed-Fri. But heard from hb that the 2 walls, door frames and floor are all hacked and cleared off by Thurs afternoon. We are so glad that we made this last min decision to remove the wall when we went to the site. It really brighten the whole place up. Here's the pics: The wall is finally gone. Before the removal of the wall, the area infront of this wall is actually quite dark. Now, the area look so bright and cheerful, even the room look much more spacious without the wall blocking. The short wall of the previous door frame was also removed. According to Hb, Ah hui helped to cut out the floor area for hacking before they start to hack off those marble tiles. Can see that he took alot of care when cutting as the lines are very straight. The new marble tiles are layed beside the hacked area before the tiling starts. We guess the tiler is trying to match their look and check the placement before tiling them as each marble tiles are unique with their lines. Hee.. can see that they really put their heart in when doing their work.

Thanks P3nguins. We love the kitchen wall tiles too. Entrance? Do you mean the common bathrm entrance? We didnt make it smaller. We shifted the entrance from right at the end to open in the middle of it. Below is the pic of the entrance before reno.

wow.. $215 is really a very good deal. Hee.. how's the instant heater? Good to use? We bought the silver one. The owner opened up the black one for us to see. Very cool looking with the gloss reflective look. Didnt went for it as we are having white walls.

Thanks beany0811. We really hope ours will turn out ok since we're not going to have those nice classy vanity tops with cabinet, hanging lights, false/cove ceiling, concealed pipes, rainshower, etc.... just simple simple only. hee.. our motto is easy maintenance and ease of future repairs.

Hi hime, We also bought the toshiba inverter, but system 2 only. Previously, we also consider buying the brandth induction cooker as our flat does not have government gas supply. End up, we didn't go for it as we bought a resale old flat. So Hb is worried about future electrical trips due overloading from aircon, induction cooker and the other applicances. You might want to check out the electricity loading of your flat to avoid these.

Wow, your carpentry progress is fast. How is it now? All done up? Hee.. look forward to your completion pics.

Hi P3nguins, Nice progress on your reno. When we saw your reno pic on the concrete blocks, we had a sense of familiarity as our walls also just built. hee... do keep the pic coming..

Hihi beany0811, Erm.. I guess it will still look alike, except that it will look smaller with those new walls.

Hi yhanie_17, Your bathrooms are very big, esp. the master bathroom, there is a bathtub with shower area. The 3Ds are very nicee. Look forward to seeing the real thing.

Hee.. The team have also done up some tiling on the kitchen walls. Here's the pictures: The newly installed rubbish chute! Hee.. mine is with blue sticker, not very unique like those pink/purple ones. Anyway, hb said its just a protective sheet which will be tear off after reno. Hee.. The kitchen cabinet area: The fridge area where the wall behind is already cemented. Hb said that wall already tiled when he went today, but he didn't bring the camera with him. The shifted entrance of the common bathrm. Hee.. really glad to have make the shift. The bathrm felt less longish and bigger area for bathing.

Thanks forkie. I'll post more tomorrow. Getting late, feel like already.. so cant wait for the pic to load slowly. How's your reno? HO already?

Thanks booy. Both your bathrms look . Mine will be very simple without rain shower, vanity top and cabinet. Hee.. hopefully they turn out ok.

We specifically told Henry that we want the new wall to flush with the top beam on the living area side to hide it. Same for the new door frame for the shift out. I saw his workers using a string / line to do the cementing. And the new wall really flush with the beam. So glad that his workers kept his instructions to heart. Infact, if i didnt remember wrong, the wall also flush with the new door frame on both sides. Still got plastering to go later, hopefully the plastering is good also. The new bedrm wall which flushes with the beam: The new door frame: Hee.. the drawings on wall was drawn by Henry to illustrate how that area will look like during our discussion. He's quite good at drawing on the spot.

Updates: Hee.. think the wet work team are quite efficient. Most of the newly built walls have been 'cemented'. The external wall of the new bedroom: Our wiw area: Our tiny store: Oh, we also saw this and took a picture of them 'soaking' the tiles that day.

Thanks ling3bzr. I am uploading some pictures. Will post soon.

Hi Newnyew, Good to see you back. Welcome back!! I also like your barcelona chairs. Red cushion with white legs. Me and hb also shifted out and staying outside now for our reno. And like you, we hope everything can be done in time, so I think I understand your frustration about the delays. Have you shifted back to your house? Those hanging wire look quite dangerous. Must be careful when handling them. Maybe can consider turning off the mains when you two go for work. Carpentry can slowly do up, but the electrical work must ask that guy to finish up as its dangerous. Hope everything will go smoothly for you.

hee... the windows in the bathroom from wellmax. Quite neat. Took the pictures from my mbr windows. The kitchen window is also up but the pic was too dark to see it. Mbr ones: Common bathroom ones:

No problem, just sharing those stuff that I learnt from the shopping trips. I understand that some w.c. are built to fit a number of sizes. Maybe, the example you put up, the pipe within the w.c. might be able to shift to fit either a 6" or 10" distance. There are some w.c. that I came across which can fit the sizes from 4" to 10", meaning should your distance fall within 4" to 10", this w.c. can be use. You can check with the shop owner before the purchase as they deals with it all the time. The most important measurement is your w.c. measurement, once you have it, you can tell the shop owner where they will recommend those w.c. that can be use for your size.

Each w.c. have 1 measurement only. I mean you can either measure the distance from the wall to the w.c. hole or (2nd option if you cant see the w.c. hole) to measure the distance from the wall to the pipe at the ceiling which is just above your w.c. Hope its clear for you. Otherwise, ask your ID to measure for you.

Good Morning Merryman, Yes, WC have difference sizes and there's another thing called collar which also have size. Collar is the thing which you fit inbetween the w.c. and the pipes, help to adjust the location for a better fit also. We measured ours on our own as our old w.c. pipes below is exposed. The measurement is taken from the wall to the w.c. hole/pipe (hb said estimate to the center of the pipe). Another way that we learnt from the shop was to measure the wall distance to the pipes above the w.c. as the pipes on the ceiling are actually the w.c. pipes for the neighbour above(provided your unit is not on the highest floor). We bought the w.c. based on our measurements and when the contractors came over to cross out those items to be hacked, he did the measurement for us again and its the same. Some contractors will advise you not to buy first as they cant see the hole clearly. So after hacking, then they do the measurement. You might want to check with your ID about it.