Renmapiao

Thanks renoseeker for the well-wish. Btw - great words of wisdom you have there.

Hi Dreaming - it's just a normal rail. I have not gotten round in getting it - but probably will try to look for a suitable one - maybe from Song Cho or some other shops at Jalan Besar.

I am on a very tight budget as well - so I am not having downlights and the L-box. The fan comes with a light kit - it will be bright enough. To supplement and add ambiance, I will have wall / reading lamps and possibly a floor lamp.

More on Lighting Our dining area will have 9 downlights and no dedicated lighting for the dining table. We don't want the dining table to be confined by the position of the lamp and vice versa. What we have is a freedom to place the dining table anywhere within the area. The kitchen area will have two led downlights, two pendant lamps for the breakfast counter and one ceiling lamp which will be the main source of illumination.

On Lighting In lighting, finding the right balance between practicality and style is very important and this point is often overlooked. The lighting scheme for our house is simple and straightforward. We emphasise more on the practicality aspect. We don't quite like fanciful, baroque-style kind of lighting so most of our light fixtures are simple. For the living, dining and the connecting area between the two - will be illuminated by downlights - 17 of them in fact because we find it neater and aesthetically pleasing. We opted for plc downlights because they are cheaper - of course if we have money to blow, we would rather have the led ones. We chose a square-shape ones with clear glass at the sides. This will sort of "leak" more light casting a halo-like glow.

And speaking of glass splashback, the one disadvantage is you must decide what you need to be put "on" the glass first like sockets or rail so the craftsman can create cut-outs for the things mentioned. The lesser you put things against the glass the better so it will minimise the risk of oil and water seepage. Although the edges will be sealed with silicon, I guess over time - who knows. Having a rail is important, at least to me. I was thorn between not having the rail at all or have it fixed on the glass. Then I discovered an ingenious way of placing the rail ... ... under the top hung cabinet.

Hi Matrox, As long as the glass is not succumbed to direct flame, it's OK. It should be able to withstand the heat from the hob. My contractor will order the glass for me - I think most contractors will have their own contact.

Hi Matrox, As long as the glass is not succumbed to direct flame, it's OK. It should be able to withstand the heat from the hob. My contractor will order the glass for me - I think most contractors will have their own contact.

I think it looks lovely

I think it looks lovely

I don't quite like standing fan because it takes up space and wall fan because the wiring can be seen. Hopefully the ceiling fan will last. Progress is good - but it's quite a challenge at times. Because I did not engage an ID - I have to do all the coordination myself - and I hate it when the schedule goes haywire like yesterday. The CityGas people supposed to come between 3-5 pm but they were already there at 1.15 pm so I had to drive like crazy from work. And yesterday all three groups were there at the same time, the tilers, the electricians and the gas men. Can you imagine how chaotic the place was?

Guys from the electric company concentrating on their tasks

All the lighting came today and CityGas had re-installed the piping for the gas

Now most of the wet works are nearing its end - time to concentrate on the electrical works

Yay! By today the 1st level flooring is all done-up. Will post some pics for you guys

Thanks Potatoes - so far slow good. The next two weeks will be jam packed - the electrician, the plaster guys, carpenter and finally the painters and aircon guys - all working and at a point or two overlap each other. Deadline is 21 October (keeping fingers crossed)

Thanks Kobelala for dropping by. We made the study smaller so that we can have a bigger kitchen area for breakfast counter.

Day 13 - Not much can be said except progress has been really slow.

Hi Terence, I bought my bowls and basins from this place: http://grlink.blogspot.com/ The boss is Benny. The bath essential shops at Jalan Besar usually cater for contractors so their prices are reasonable and very competitive. There are a few bath essential shops there for you to compare the prices - but for me, it's more of the service. Have fun with your new house.

In a nutshell

Some of our purchases came in today.

More work done - but progress seems at a snail’s pace.

The aircon guys came today to fix the trunking. Ugly trunkings jutted out but these are necessary evils - I think. We were disappointed because we can’t place the compressor outside our bedroom, which would have made the air circulation for the compressor much better.

Thanks for informing about the H&D fair - I am so going there tomorrow

They say "if you don't take care of your customer, someone else will." Today me and my better half went to Jalan Besar to look for toilet bowls and basins. Our contractor mentioned a few shops. We went to a few but didn't see anything we fancy. Landed in one shop was attended by a lady. We liked the basins so indicated to her to record the model so our contractor can buy on our behalf. We then asked her about the toilet bowls. As we were really naive about toilet bowls, we asked some questions which perhaps to her were mundane but important to us. We weren't really sure what size to choose, what colours were available ... From the way she replied, we can tell she wasn't really up to serving us. What we got were mono-syllabic answers accentuated with the "can we get this over and done with" expression. We decided not to order the toilet bowls from the shop. We then stepped into the shop next door. By now we were convinced most of the shops there just want to sell stuff but not entertain credulous customers like us but a pleasant surprise greeted us. The salesperson was friendly and what really mattered was his sincerity in explaining the products. Through his detailed explanation, we were able to decide what's best for our toilets. We end up not only buying three toilet bowls but two basins and a host of other bathroom essentials (everything amounted close to $1.4K). We will tell our contractor not to buy from the shop with the poor attitude in service. We would like to thank Mr Benny - for a pleasant buying experience. Photos excerpted from http://grlink.blogspot.com/