renotm

Hi, thanks for the advice! I am also leaning towards Z, just that I felt bad as I verbally agreed to engage A previously. Now thinking of how to tell A. Haiz.

Today went over after work at ~630pm to meet my contractor to go over the laying of tiles. As sky was totally covered with dark clouds, the place was very dark, unlike a few days ago, the sunlight shines across the entire hall to the main door. The workers made smooth some of the raw edges from the hacking and some cement screed already on the toilets' wall. But it was too dark to take any picture, even with my HP's flashlight on. Anyway 2 things came up today that may require me to make some changes to my original choice. First is air-con. As I am intending to keep the current air-con units, and just changing the piping and relocation of 1 of the fan-coil, my contractor suggested to have the air-con guy come in to remove all old pipings and take down all fan coils. Then after the plastering, then install back the fan coils. So I called up my original intended air-con guy A. He was nice (as always), but stated that if need to come down to remove the pipings, there will be extra charges (+GST). He suggested my contractor to take down the piping since they should know how to remove. Then my contractor recommend me her usual air-con contact and ask me to give Z a call. So I did. His price is about 30% lesser than A and he is okay to come down 2x without extra charges!! Now I am in dilemma, as I have previously verbally told A I will engage his service (but we did not make any deposit or fix any date) and he could not make it sooner as their work is quite packed. On the other hand, Z is able to make it these 2 days and has a good working relationship with my contractor (her own place's air-con is done by Z). So should I just go with Z since I did not make any deposit with A? 2nd thing is my kitchen top. Today I called up Ocean Granite to double confirm the quotation, specifically for my island. To cut the long story short, the lady boss politely explained to me that for the size of my island top, it will be VERY heavy for her workers to move it into the lift and furthermore, my place is not yet lift-level. Therefore she may not be able to take my order for the one-piece island top. Then I asked if cut into 2 pieces, ok? She said possible but not very nice (looking). She then ask me to email her the exact dimension of my island top, and she will try to see if this can be make possible. So this means I need to start looking at alternate source for my kitchen top. :bangwall: I started calling some companies that I found on google, and 1 turns out to be quite promising. The sales guy told me he will send me some catalogue and pass me a sample tmr to check it out. I will see if this alternate source is workable.

:jawdrop: I am so calling John.... now! Hahaha. just kidding, but definitely will call him! Thanks!

Actually ocean granite's quality is better than bms. And they allow you to keep the small pieces that are cut out for hob/sink, bms dun. Price wise is competitive. Even my contractor is all praises for OG, but not bms. However, due to my big island, OG said will not do coz it's too heavy for her workers to carry up 1 floor (mine not lift level yet), unless I join the island from 2pieces. So now I am sourcing for alternative. Bummer.

Is this iquartz that's the first on the list on Google search? Coincidentally I just called them for some quotation as my original granite top source may not work out. They dun deal direct with homeowners, only contractors/IDs.

Yeah, wall fans not very nice, but kitchen one I think still OK, 'hidden' at one corner near fridge. Heehee. As for the rooms, other than I dun like fans above bed, I also feel is less cooling than stand fans. I loved my current 6yr old 12" kdk standing fan. Small and powerful. Maybe add one more ceiling fan to the study room. The other 2 main bedrooms either standing or keep as wall fans. @thinking@

Oh well, my dad refused to come over, even for short stay. So I might as well do what I like to it. Worst case, I let him have the master room.

Got, all rooms have wall fans (see closely, hee), coz I dun like ceiling fan above my bed when sleeping. As for the track lights, I can ask my electrician if got enough clearance if change the direction of the tracks. Any other suggestions? All are very welcome. TIA!

Very different meh? I like this coz I can still watch TV from kitchen and the dining area is closer to kitchen, easier to mingle if got guests over. And the TV area is 'block' from direct sunlights if watching in the afternoon.

Not enough space loh, actually there is a top beam above the sofa. With the min 2ft requirement from ceiling fan, this is what I can think of. One thing good about track light is you can turn the bulb to face whichever direction you want.

I like your lightings! Can you share where and how much did you get the dining pendant lamp? For the toilet pendant lights from IKEA, are they the $5 ones? The little inverted cones (hat?) above the bulb, did you add them in or they come with it? Thanks!

Hi, may I ask how much did you spend on the blinds and curtains? Thx.

LOL! So you were the couple whom I met there! Sorry for cutting queue... , but need to go to another place. So did you get most of your lightings from them?

This is the current idea of the layout, those black horizontal lines are track lights. No furniture have been purchased so final placement of the living/dining area may still change.

Hi, can PM me Mr Chew's contact? TIA!

May I ask how long are these track lights of yours? Thanks.

The DIY bedside lamp looks nice! Where did you get it? Thx.

Oh, forgot to mention that my contractor called me during lunch today that when she was ordering the tiles for my kitchen wall from SBH, the changi branch manager told her that the tiles have some bad "review" and they were said to be uneven. She asked me to change to another tile for kitchen wall... as I was already burned out from tile selections from the last few weekend, I asked her to choose one for me, that can match my kitchen floor tiles.

Day 2: Went up slightly earlier than usual, stopped by Sheng Shiong and bought a carton of mineral waters for the workers. It was only a 5 min walk to my place, but the carton of mineral water is not light... by the time I walked to my block, I need to take a few mins break to ease my arms and wipe my sweat. Anyway, when I went up, the gate is opened but the main door is closed. Rem what I saw ydae, I knocked a few times b4 opening the door, dun want to see anything that I am NOT supposed to see... heehee. True enough, an indian peeked his head out of the common toilet area, obviously is showering, but luckily he got a towel wrapped around his waist. *phew*. Think he was the main guy for the hacking. A very nice chap, while explaining what have been done to the place, he at times will make sure his towel stays in place, and I just kept my eyes focus on his face Only 2 men were doing all the dismantlement and hacking these 2 days. Pretty impressive. The other guy is a VERY small sized indian man too. They even kept those items I indicated to keep nicely at a few corners. He told me the debris will be cleared tomorrow with another 5 more men. Since I won't make it tmr in the morning/early afternoon, I passed them some money to buy more drinks/snacks for tmr. Now the updates and photos of the progress: At first I indicated to hack an end of a wall to shorten the length, but it turns out that corner is a pillar, cannot hack. Told my contractor and she said they will patch back the space between the wall and pillar. But now the wall of the 3rd bedroom is down, along with the false ceilings, the whole place open up! So bright! but also very hot. View of the open kitchen From bedroom's door View of main door from kitchen The ugly air-con piping (and orange ceiling by 1st owner) across the original living room (hidden by false ceiling). How do I re-route it nicely if I want to keep current position of the fan coil? Do not intend to have L-box or false ceiling. Advice?

:jawdrop: eeeeeewwwwwwwww! I would have jump and scream!

Continue: Wardrobe's "bodies" I saw some t-shirts and pants hanging/lying around the whole place, which I can understand.. my place is quite hot in the afternoon... but this? :jawdrop: :jawdrop: I wasn't angry or upset but finds it funny.

Day 1: Swing by after work to see the progress. When I reached the place ~6:20pm, the main gate already locked, looks like they were never here. Then when I opened the door... I saw a warzone! This greets me: They are quite fast in hacking and dismantlement. The kitchen and common toilet almost 85% hacked, and 80% of the build-in wardrobes and fixtures are out too... only left master room's toilet not hacked and the wall between kitchen and 3rd bedroom (which will be relocated). Kitchen Common Toilet Build-in wardrobes

Yesterday did the 动土ritual. Very simple one, just pay respect to the 4 corners and center of the apt with oranges. No joss sticks or incense papers, just a sincere attitude. Here comes the hammer (borrowed from contractor) The floor tiles are super hard! I hit very very very hard can only dent it a bit. I also saw sparks from the fictions and the burning smell :jawdrop: Only after a good few minutes of entire-body-strength, then I managed to get to this: Next door auntie rushed over and asked if I were starting to hack (coz I told her hacking will only be thurs/Fri/Mon), if yes, she needs to keep in all her clothes. Told her only hacking a small corner for the fengshui ritual... in the end, spent a good 30min chatting with her.

Well, on the surface, looks very good conditions, but if take a closer look, some part even my current 12yr old cabinets' conditions are better than these 5yr old ones. Yah, the other day my contractor also mentioned no one do broken marble flooring these days, the skills are slowly 失传-ing. Forgot to reply ur previous msg, work not very busy now but will be for the next few weeks: my colleague is on 2-weeks home leave, a transfer project between US and SG taking place... All during my 1st 2weeks renovation. :| Plus all the last few weekends spent on travelling to places to confirm/buy stuffs. Once I travelled from toa payoh to upper Thompson to Sim Drive to IMM/ SBH then back to balestier, all in one day, on public bus/mrt. Super exhausted.

Thanks. It's quite well maintained, I like the big windows, make the place brighter. So when's your turn to post some photos?