ahdon

I used Hanstone quartz when I renovated my place in 2010. Price ranged from 150 - 220 / sq ft depending on the width of the quartz (60mm or 90mm). Including 40mm front facing and 50mm backsplash. My total cost was about 5k, including labour for cutting out holes of hob & sink

Hi, I have two pieces of quartz cut outs to sell. These cut outs were from my hob & sink on my counter top. The sizes are about as follows: - 43cm x 72cm ($50) - 44 x 93cm. ($75) They have smoothened out round edges, however the smaller piece have a chip at one of the edges. The pieces are off-white and have a polished surface. The pieces would be suitable for a small countertop/table top. For photos of the cut outs, please feel free to email me at tyjong82@gmail.com. Prices open for nego if taking both pieces. Thanks!

why use plaster over silicon?

Thanks to the replies on who should silicon the electrical trunking. The main contractor has offered to do it for us. Think all should be good. Also, had been knocking on all the floor and wall tiles to make sure that there are no hollow tiles. Really a back breaking task but something that needs to be done. After the acid wash of the house, I noticed water marks along the grout lines of the kitchen floor. I think water is seeping out. Cos after 2 days from the washing, the grout lines are still wet, not the dripping wet kind, but wet enough to be visible. Anyone knows what is wrong here or is it a normal thing after the acid wash?

We also considered the pros and cons of storage vs instant heater. Then we got an rain shower, so instant heater would not be good. Ended up with gas heater. Supposed to be save $$ compared to instant heater but can deliver the water flow to sustain a rain shower. =)

Thanks for clarifying and that's right, I meant the gaps between trunking and wall. The walls are not straight.

Yes! the gaps between the trunking and the wall.

Something to ask you guys. The situation is that we have got a third party other than our contractor to paint our house. The electrical trunkings are all done and it's time for painting. So who is responsible for applying silicon to the electrical trunking? a) the electrician who is under our main contractor (basically the contractor), or b) the painter whom we sub-contracted to paint the flat (these guys are not under the main contractor) Please share your experience, particular if you have seperate contractors for painting and/or eletrical works. Thanks!!!

Hi guys, something that's bothering me and would like to get some advice on this. The situation is that we have got a third party other than our contractor to paint our house. The electrical trunkings are all done and it's time for painting, but the silicon to the electrical trunkings are not done yet. So who is responsible for applying silicon to the electrical trunking? a) the electrician who is under our main contractor (basically the contractor), or b) the painter whom we sub-contracted to paint the flat (these guys are not under the main contractor) Please share your experience, particular if you have seperate contractors for painting and/or eletrical works. Thanks!!!

Something to ask you guys. The situation is that we have got a third party other than our contractor to paint our house. The electrical trunkings are all done and it's time for painting. So who is responsible for applying silicon to the electrical trunking? a) the electrician who is under our main contractor (basically the contractor), or b) the painter whom we sub-contracted to paint the flat (these guys are not under the main contractor) Please share your experience, particular if you have seperate contractors for painting and/or eletrical works. Thanks!!!

Day 33 of Renovation - 30 October 2010 Is it me, or do some of you guys feel that as the days goes by, the renovation gets slower?? We've been told that the renovation will be done end of November. Maybe I'm just too eager, can't wait to see final product that's why I think the time passes slower. Anyways, here are some updated pics! Not much done, but we have had the walls re-plastered. The walls are soooo smooth now! We had deliberated over it for about 1 month, whether we want to plaster the house..cos there's ALOT of walls, and ceiling. It's usually a case of 'aiyah..do so nice already, might as well do all the way' vs 'huh...exceed budget liao wor..'. Decisions, decisions. Oh yar, the City Gas people came and installed the gas heater! And it's battery operated too! Which also means that we've gotta make sure there are spare batteries around the house. Imagine, shower halfway no hot water. Anyone bought the City Gas gas heater?? How is it so far? the only problem we may be having with it is the crazy amount of pipes running around. They are doing the piping this week..so should be interesting! My lime-green MBR Toilet. Wanted the whole toilet green..but think over kill =P Super smooth plastered wall. Really really smooth!! More walls to be plastered. The poor poor plasterer. Gas pipe in kitchen The carpentry guy taking measurements.

Day 26 of renovation Current status of the kitchen View from living room: View from kitchen: View from kitchen: service balcony

oh yes, another issue that the hubby brought up was that he thought that we should maintain a 1.2m distance between each countertops so that there was enough space for two people to walk. We were at Ikea looking at their display sets, and kept measuring the space on the floor. haha. I think people were looking at us weird cos we weren't measuring the furniture but measuring floorspace! A few things we really considered when designing the kitchen was: 1) walking space - 1.2m walking space between countertops. 2) location of the fridge - we didn't want to fix a space for the fridge, and then make allowances for future change of fridges, so we placed it at one end of the kitchen 3) countertop space - I love cooking and baking, so I wanted alot of countertop space. Kitchen top cabinets only on one side of the wall, the rest of it was open countertop space. =D 4) natural light - natural light = free light! thanks to an ID who gave us the idea of breaking a hole in the wall and putting a glass panel in. that way, the whole kitchen brightened up. also allows you to see out into the living room to see what's going on. 5) open concept kitchen - more light, more wind passing through cos of additional windows. no walls to prevent everyone from hearing each other, and can talk. 6) storage space - our flat doesn't have any store room, so storage space was important. More cupboards without overcrowding. 7) tall unit vs none - i know a tall unit is very popular at present, to put in a built in oven and microwave. as mentioned, I really preferred countertop space, and had a built in oven beneath the stove, rather than in a tall unit. the microwave will be placed in a corner of the countertop, away from other appliances. speaking of appliances, I think we've got WAY too much appliances, but they've got their uses! haha. My kitchen is my territory and I gotta make sure that how it's being designed works for me. There were countless "discussions" with the hubby before we finally settled on this concept, and before he was convinced that an open concept kitchen was fine, and the hood should do the job. =P Btw, we bought the following from Bellari: Hob - Gourmet Gas Hob (love the cast iron rings!) Hood - Fabio (the glass makes ease of cleaning) And...here's the final concept. Kitchen will have black floor tiles, white wall tiles and vermillion laminates for bottom cabinets. Hob and Hood will be placed against a wall, instead of on the "island", fridge will be placed at one end of the kitchen, WM & Laundry sink will be placed at other end, near the window. So improve on the smoke & oil problem, apart from having the hood, we will have a 3-panel sliding door between the living room & dining room. Kitchen & Dining Overview Kitchen View Laundry, WM, Countertop "Island" View

Burning weekends even though we had 6 months of time to slowly take our time to look for things, we basically burnt our weekends going to expos, and especially Ikea to get ideas. And I think it was a good thing we don't own a car, so we couldn't just buy things on impulse! It actually made us go home and think really hard if we really wanted something. and finally, today we have finished buying all of our appliances over a period of time! we bought the following: 1) Fridge - Panasonic NRBY601X55G (513L) 2) Washing Machine - Hitachi SF95KJS (9.5kg) 3) Microwave / Grill - Panasonic NN-GF569M 4) Built in Oven - Brandt FE811XS1 5) TV - Panasonic Viera Plasma TH-P42X20S Not only burn weekend now, also burn a very big hole in pocket. haha. =P Okay, I've been jumping all over the place with my posts. To get back on track, let's go back to the design of our place. Firstly the kitchen. This was the initial concept we had for our kitchen. The drawings are all done using Google Sketchup. My skills still very amateurish, so do excuse me. haha =) From inside kitchen view From outside kitchen view I had wanted to use the 'island' as my cooking area, where my friends can sit around and I can cook and talk to them. Hubby was more worried about how the oil and smoke was gonna drift out as I wanted a open concept kitchen aka no doors for kitchen and dining. The glass on the countertop was a really desperate attempt at trying to keep the smoke and oil out. And hubby wasn't too keen either cos food and oil will get trapped in the oil grooves. Funny eh? And I thought women are meant to be fussier about cleaniness Spoke to one of the IDs, and he suggested getting a air cushion. -_-"" For those who don't know, an air cushion is the kind where you go NTUC or some shopping centre and when you step past the door and there's a blast of wind blowing from above. That's an air cushion. Abit kua zhang to install air cushion in HDB flat right....? We actually were quite bothered about the whole cooking on the 'island' bit for a few months before we finally changed the design. Have to compromise lah. The cost of an island hood was an issue also (1.5k!!). We had heard that Bellari, a shop in Jalan Besar, could solve a problem of allowing the customer to buy a wall-mounted hood, and then fix an aluminium panel behind to cover the wiring, and viola, you get a cheap island hood! We went down to have a chat, and found out that they had stopped doing it as it was not profitable for them. It was a great idea, and I wished they could do it, but also understand where they were coming from too. Oh wells. Thanks to another ID, we ended up changing the location of the stove and oven, and well, actually changing a fair bit of the design.

1st day of demolition: living room view. so much rubbish!! kitchen & dining BDRM 2