steelze

singaporeans: ask maids to hand wash with pail! save a lot water and zero elecricity!

have you pasted this sticker on your wall? i keen to seen the outcome! if it is good, i may wanna do it too. I ams also planning a short trip to bangkok for deco shopping in march. =)

heyy bro, finally my reno is completed. wanna say a big THANK YOU to your advise over the past 3 months. You invited me to this RenoTalk and I have definitely learnt a great deal from all the buddies here. I'll stay tune ard to contribute my experience like you did. kekekeke.. next challenge is to top up the new house with small furnitures and household decoratives. HAPPY!

hahaha.. yea right! do you know this tile got 2 model? the one i am using for my kitchen is pure white. I chose the other model (milky) for my common bathroom. the colour combi is great too. since kitchen and common bathroom is linked mah, we thought of choosing the same series of tiles but slight colour difference so that got synergy. hahahaa..

heyy donal! congrats! waaaa, getting key is one of the most exciting milestone as well. u can officially walk in anytime you want to see see here, walk walk there... remember to buy 4D for your unit number. Huat ah! Post Renovation Our first night was great. As we laid on our cosy bed, watching our mounted TV in front of us and look around the whole room, we flash back thinking of all the pains and sweats that we have been through to achieve this ultimate reward. this is super rewarding feeling man! now we can finally go back to our normal life after work. play with baby, eat dinner properly and go shopping for household items and small add on furnitures. hehehe.. MOST importantly, my baby boy can sleep peacefully in his room whole night. he loves the new envirnoment a lot as he can't stop smiling since yesterday. kkekeke.

Yeap. Nice when done up. We like the clean white look from far, and fine vertical lines when see closer. Good choice!

Yeaa. White glossy with very fine vertical grey lines. From halfary under the $2.80 psf section.

HANDOVER! we be officially moved in tmr morning. Spent whole of yesterday to clean n move things. Even to the very last day today, last carpentry work, curtain and electrical work were rushed to completion. Place is still a mess with boxes. But it definitely looks great! Overall, we are very satisfied with the renovation result. We have got near to 95% of what we wanted in mind. Schedule is fantastic as we still have a week to settle down n buy some CNY goodies to invite friends n families over to 跨年. Most importantly, we finally have our own house. I can't wait to see my baby boy grows up in his bedroom. Gotta wait a while before my Internet connection is set up. Currently updating with my iPhone, therefore no photos to share with u guys. Sorry! As for my ID, he did eventually resolved 95% of those areas tt I highlight to him. To be fair, we are happy with his rectification effort. Next week plumber will still come down to correct some piping stuff, and carpentry will be installing the bathroom sink cabinet. Till everything is completed, I won't write review on him first. But progressively, I will review on my electrican and other smaller contractors like curtain, windows and glass. It has been a very tiring 8 weeks of Reno for us, especially me because my wife couldn't accompany me as she needs to take care of baby. I am glad that she trusted me to run the whole show myself, and I'm Happy tha I didn't disappoint her! I love my family! Good night guys!

my painting work from SDS is not very satisfactory to my expectation. No doubt their painting quote (mine is $1200 for 5i unit) is cheaper than usual, but their paint work need improvement. currently painter doing touch up. hope by sat (handover date), the paint work will be better. I didn't know paint work can be self source. will definitely consider this option. But i wanna add that my id has been accomodating to my complains. reno is ending soon and i am glad with my reno work in general. will talk more on this when offical handover is completed.

hi there. can show us pic of it? My refuse chute is also exposed as i didnt installa cabinet to cover it. looks like ur problem may happen to me too.

hi there! your activities in 2010 almost same as me. hahaha... House search: April to May 2010 (resale market after fruitless ballot from yr 2007-10) ID search: Sep to Nov 2010 Other major milestones: Switch job in Sep 2010; Arrival of 1st child in Nov 2010 Reno company: Summit Design Studio Reno start date: 29 Nov 2010 my reno is coming to an end soon. sat will be handover, but not 100% complete status. i also have several lessons to share. kekeke. anyway, Baroque D'zign was my first ID hunting stop. Andy served me then. Being to first time seeing reno quote, i gotta say he did very badly in educating us the reno procedures. we shared with him what we want, but he is relatively rigid in his own way. my colleague proceeded with him eventually, and true enough, his rigidness turns out to be his weakest link. hope ur house will be 100% complete on ur handover date. share ur photos here too. eager to see!

Is this your DIY head board? What happened to the $900 head board?

Week 8 - Thursday Lunch time on-site visit Saw the plumber team (2 Malaysians) and 1 painter working onsite today. Plumbing work Today I realized my id's company (SDS) actually engaged LuckyKoon Plumber for plumbing service. I wanna give credits to this 2 plumbers and my id for accommodating to my last minutes changes and few “lost” items during the plumbing work. My Grohe shower set (from Natural Cool warehouse sales) and wall mount sink (from Universal Union) for MRB didn’t come with wall brackets. ID threw these items in FOC for me. One of my sink spring-waste (big and nice one $25) was missing. I remember seeing 2 of it, as I personally placed one in each bathroom. In the end, plumber has a spare one but smaller in size. Again, ID said he will absorb the cost for this item. Glad that I came down today as I was able to instruct the plumber exactly where i want the accessories be mounted on the bathroom and kitchen walls. Plumber installed the MRB "spray backside" underneath the sink, not knowing that I am doing a cabinet below the mounted sink. We have to shift the already installed “spray-backside” to the other side, and he did it without any complain. Very steady Penang guy. Too bad today plumber work still not the final one. They will have to come back next week to replace the PVC piping linking the sink to the drainage hole to stainless steel as I have paid for it. Also to install my IKEA mirror in common bathroom. Painting work Well, I have to say that the entire reno project, painting work and masonry work are the worst areas. The initial paint work was half hearted. Paint was not even. Some areas too thick, some too thin. Bathroom pipes with previous owner’s stickers were not removed before they painted over it. We can clearly see the sticker marks underneath those paint coats. As I told painter (Malay Malaysian) to touch here and there, he kept saying he already did the last time. WTH, if u did such a good job the last time, why am I asking you to come down again!? As I stood one corner looking at him and the 2 other plumbers, the work rate is really a big contrast. Worse, he is doing the touch-up alone. I think he will have to work until midnight. But I doubt he will stay. I asked him to paint another coat for my bathroom PVC pipe, he said he never bring the paint down. Hard to imagine A painter who is doing painting touch-up doesn’t have the right paint with him. I couldn’t bare to look at him anymore and left my place. We will visit again tonight to see the touch-up progress. I cross my fingers that the painter will at least touch-up 90% of the faults. Tolong tolong.

Realised today supposed to be my handover date. But along the way, i am already expecting this delay. ID said Friday handover. But next Thursday will come back to install the sink cabinet for master bathroom. Tmr will be re-do laminate flooring for bedroom #2, painting touch-up, clearing debris and final plumbing work. Friday will be general washing. Sat morning will be carpentry for bedroom #2 and study room, and final electical work. Hmmm.. but he said Friday can still proceed to move in and stay. i also L L, gotta move in le. Already booked movers for sat, where all my electrical applicances will be delivered too.

Week 8 - Completion of glass work and granite top surface rushed down during lunch to supervise the glass work and granite top installation. Thumbs up for the glass work installation. Professional and respectful to customer's requests. And of course cheap too. Sun Sun Glass Pte Ltd Shower Screen (1 fixed panel; 1 swing door; 10mm; tempered; PM hinges X 2) - $400 Customised mirror (120cm by 55cm) @ master bathroom - $48 Kitchen Swing glass door (PM hinges X 3; 10mm; tempered) - $428 [Granite top] Fixed up before i came down. Work is so-so. nothing impressive and nothing to complain. didn't have the "wow chio" feeling when i look at it with my kitchen cabinet laminates. probably black top doesn't go well with woody grain laminate. **200111 - Photos uploaded

thanks. it's just a humble 5ft casement wardrobe @ $190/ft

Ah? Can buy downlight (plc) w/o balast one meh? Thought normally ppl sell n buy whole package one (Philip light bulb, balast & the lighting cover /glass). I went down to both lighting.com and a-lighting. I looked for 2 x 18w (cool white) philip bulb, balast and clear glass cover. Lighting.com quoted me $27 each. A-lighting gave me $22. The decision was an easy one. =)

Week 8 - Final Hand-over will be sat. This week will be final painting, touch up, final plumbing and washing. Movers will come in on sat. all fridge, tv and etc will be delivered on sat... EXCITING new beginning ahead!!

my quote includes granite top c/w backsplash. when i asked my id abt it, he told me that the backsplash refers to the small protuding granite backing of my granite top. Not those entire wall backing as you guys mentioned. How come so confusing?

PMed u

Hihi Jan. Yeap, I read abt ur headboard story in ur blog. So u accepted tt headboard? Think $900 for it too exp. My I'd quoted me ard $450+, but I still find it exp. Ur photos sure come handy to me as reference. Thanks!

Week 7 - Carpentry More progress update on carpentry... Kitchen cabinet - 80% (left stove & solid top) Masterbed room Alumix Sliding wardrobe - 100% done son's bedroom casement wardrobe - 100% gotta said that i am really impressed with my id's carpentry work. hope he will continue the good work for the remaining wardrobes (common room #3 and study room). counting down to HO and move-in date soon!!! wife and maid already packed our stuff in our rented place. exciting!!

Headboard DIY Reno is completing soon. Meaning, my DIY session is starting soon. In my masterbed room, the area where my bed is placed has an 8 inches beam protruding out on the ceiling. According to some Fengshui threads that I have read, a protruding beam which lies above your head can result the couples to be proned to injuries and health problems. Our solution is to create a half height partition board from floor which will also be used as my bed head board. Now the challenge is how are we going to design this boring partition board into a nice headboard. Some ideas found online: Will be heading down to PS Spotlight this weekend as there is a sale going on. Hopefully we can get some cushion and fabric from there to start our small DIY project. Anyone has any ideas or experiences to share, please feel free to advise! Many thanks!

Hi all, my reno is completing soon. But, my DIY session is about to start. In my masterbed room, the area where my bed is placed has an 8 inches beam protruding out. According to some Fengshui threads that I have read, a protruding beam which lies above your head can result the couples to be prone to injuries and health problems. Our solution is to create a half height partition board from floor which will also be used as my bed head board. Some ideas found online: Will be heading down to PS Spotlight this weekend as there is a sale going on. Hopefully we can get some cushion and fabric from there to start our small DIY project. Anyone has any ideas or experiences to share, please feel free to advise! Many thanks!

good to hear that! i briefly understand jaskel is the one serving you right? he is quite onz ah. always see him posting clients' reno progress online for them to view de. my id bo chup internet one i guess. haha..