theitsybits

i'm really getting very sick and upset with everything. it's been 5 weeks since we first got carpenter to come for measurement..5 full weeks since K finished all other works..after chasing and chasing, they finally came 3 weeks ago for measurements and expected completion date is 2-3 weeks later, which is end of July. Now that July is ending, there's no news till we chased, chased and chased. We are told that it will take ANOTHER 2-3 weeks from now. It's so frustrating. I've been postponing all my deliveries again and again and having sales people calling, telling me that my deliveries have been postponed for too long. I can't even give them a date when they can deliver because there's no definite date for carpentry completion. Everything is put on hold and I'm getting very weary of renovation and want everything to end soon. I have no mood for anything. What I'm most afraid of is that 3 weeks later, they will tell me that it'll take another 3 weeks. I'm fuming because we have informed them that we wanted to complete renovation before the 7th month 3 months ago. We gave them so much lead time, so much leeway and buffer! I'm even more afraid that when the carpentry finally arrives, workmanship is bad or if there are any issues, it will take another many more weeks to resolve. I really can't take this. And we wanted the house to be ready, so that we could do up the place and do our pre-wedding shots in there. At this rate, everything is going to very rushed the last few months of the year and it's really driving me crazy. So much for giving MIL face and agreed to use relative. Look what happens now? It gave us nothing but so much frustration and made the whole renovation so unpleasant.

i guess it really depends on what you want done, whether yours is a new BTO with flooring or resale..if you place comes with flooring, you can save quite abit since flooring and carpentry is usually the killers.. it's also possible to save some money when choosing materials.. e.g. laminates over tiles or china solid top over granite top..but of course you may sacrifice some durability too.. the huge chunks of our renovation is from the flooring for whole house, hacking 6 walls, overlaying 2 toilet walls, 2 brick walls..we also changed 3 toilet doors and chose solid wood doors over PD or Bi-fold doors.

thank you thank you.. i really really hope it's soon..super frustrating to keep chasing and still not knowing when it will be delivered..cannot plan the other deliveries and our schedule too. hello, thanks! i really love it to,but i guess it's catching up in sg too..saw many shops and other homes having similar brick walls.. are you preparing for reno too? pm-ed you his contacts. =)

u're back in action! congrats on housewarming!

Day 52 cont. MBR air-con partially concealed in false ceiling. Added 2 ledges in MBR toilet for shampoos etc. It was still half-done and will have a cement finish. And one more ledge for common toilet. Many thanks to Kevin for helping us add these ledges!! Carpentry work was supposed to be delivered end-July, but isn't ready yet. Haven't gotten any confirmation when they could actually deliver by national day despite chasing chasing chasing and more chasing. It's really driving me nuts.

Day 52 Finally, some updates. Finally got a fan and a few stools for the home. That was my little nook for the afternoon while waiting for air-con to be installed. View from the air-con ledge. It was a very sunny and hot day! Living room air-con up and brick wall touched-up. Guest room/baby room air-con. Study room air-con.

very nice layout and huge! realized all of ur beds are queen..are u staying with pil too?

hello! pm-ed. =)

Hello! Great to have someone sharing the same taste..I've dropped u a pm.. =)

We are really coming to the end of our renovation as chemical cleaning was done, with toilet doors and windows installed too. There's nothing much K could do till carpentry comes in, so that he can install lights and plumbing works. About my contractor, Mr K: Many people are asking me, how's K and his workmanship? I shall attempt to share my experience with him and try to include the questions I get from others. Honestly, I have no complaints. Working with him was a breeze for us and he didn't need any chasing. In fact, we worked faster than we could get our things ready and he's the one who keep calling us up. Pre-renovation We met up with him mid-May, after meeting with countless IDs and a few contractors. He was early for our appointment (I like that). He came with a measuring tape and a small notebook but never did open it nor wrote anything down. We went around the house and went through all the works we wanted to be done. It took about an hour and it was apparent that he was very experienced. He was quick and gave us some suggestions, told us what could and could not be done. He left and promised to give a rough quotation soon with a detailed quotation later, in about a week. We got a rough quotation within a few days. It wasn't that cheap, slightly above budget but reasonable. IDs quoted about 45-60k, some excluding electrical and hacking while his all-in quote was alot cheaper. We met up with him again about 2 weeks later and made some amendments to the works required in an attempt to cut cost but end up adding a few things too. Initial quote included carpentry which we later took out and let a relative do it instead. He was really understanding about it and we met up to finalize the contract again last week of May. He met us at our place and went through all the works again before signing the contract. Renovation Process We signed the contract on a Saturday, and got the permit by Wednesday. Renovations started officially on the following Monday. Meanwhile we have confirmed tiles (same wooden-grain tiles for the whole house). Hacking was done on Monday, with all sand and materials arriving in my house. I've been updating the progress almost daily initially, so it's apparent that things were pretty quick and smooth. All major works were completed by Week 4, painting in week 5, doors and windows up in week 6. Working style He's chinese/malay speaking. He's a contractor, not ID. He does give suggestions after you let him know what you want done, but don't expect him to do space planning and services which IDs provide. We had no 3D drawings (you can probably pay for it), and there was no written schedule. All I knew was that my renovation will take 6-8 weeks, starting with hacking and electrical. He updates progress with pictures through wadsapp whenever something is done. He also visits our site almost daily and is very responsive with wadsapp. We do ask him what will be done next often, and he lets us know what works follows. Workmanship I would say that the workmanship is generally pretty good. He works with a good network of sub-contractors and seemed close with them. My tiling were all done neatly, and some who visited our place commented that we have very neat flooring with small grouts (as requested). The only complaint is the edges and corners, which wasn't done as well. My husband checked the ceiling and floor corner of the mosaic and last piece weren't as straight. I was alright with that since it's an half-inch mosaic and I don't really go see the corners. Plastering, false-ceiling and other works were done nicely too. HDB License K's company is not HDB approved, and there are a few who were concerned about this. I did a quick check before signing the contract, but still went ahead with him despite knowing that he does not have a HDB license. My renovation permit is under the hacking contractor permit, whom he works with closely. I did ask him about it, but he felt that it was not necessary and troublesome. He said that he has done hundreds of homes and there were no problems. And if people don't trust them with their homes, it doesn't matter that he has a permit or not. Most of his jobs are all through word of mouth, no advertising and I guess he has enough projects to make a living. I'm not very sure what additional benefits does HDB Licensed contractors have, only heard about the waterproofing. I suppose that new flats do not even have to worry about this. Anyway, on hindsight, it obviously wasn't a problem since everything was done smoothly. And even HDB licensed contractors can have bad workmanship or drag your renovation, yet nothing much can be done. I hate it when I have to pay people to do things, yet have to keep chasing them. So, communication and being able to trust the contractor to do a good job to achieve our dream home took precedence over this. We felt that he's trustable, on-the-ball, and able to achieve the look we want. But for people who are worried, perhaps it's better to go to licensed firms. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the whole renovation process, which was really smooth. It makes me really thankful when I hear/read horror stories about how contractors/IDs delay jobs or do a horrible job. I don't think K is that cheap, but the price is really reasonable given that he delivers everything nicely on time without having to chase him at all.. I can't say the same for my carpentry though. still, no confirmation about when carpentry can be up. it's been a month since we informed them to come take measurement for carpentry.

Haha manhattan apartment? I thought its abit country..oh well we love them.. Yes our carpentry is after everything else except lights and plumbing..mainly cuz carpenter is different guy and we're having alot of issues and delays..lights and fans will be up after carpentry since i've lots of pendant lights and a haiku fan..contractor worriesd that carpentry workers hit them.. But I suppose flooring has to be done before carpentry?

i don't think my husband will be too happy abt making him hang clothes in the study..haha.. Yar lo..I never hang my tees before..else one full room WIW also not enough.. =p

Hey! I realized I missed your msg.. My wooden sliding door and the wooden 2-leave door are very solid..they were painted white (waterproof paint), so it should last..even if the sliding mechanism breaks down, it should be easy to fix.. The other toilet door has to be bi-fold, and I suppose that they are less durable, especially the lock mechanism..guess just got to change them when it wears out..Louvre doors are more expensive but looks alot better than normal aluminium/pvc bi-folds.. =p

you must be a male! unless there's ample space in a WIW, how to hang everything!

wow do u really spend time watching tv in the toilet? cuz the MBR toilet is quite small.. now i'm curious how did u do up ur common toilet! ay, is the other room very small after wiw? did u build back the wall or used gypsum board partition?

Carpentry We are still eagerly waiting for our carpentry to be ready, and everything has come to a standstill. Air-con would be installed next week, and we're hoping that carpentry would come within the next 2 weeks. We've quite abit of carpentry works, and most of it were communicated through drawings I did on graph paper and drawn to scale. I suppose that most of our carpentry works are quite standard - how different can wardrobes and kitchens look? Our kitchen is pure white. The only slightly different thing we're doing is the wood-planks effect feature wall and shoe cabinet in the living room. My baby is the design of the makeup area cum accessories storage at the side of our wardrobe. A lot more thought was put into that design. I've a pathetic 6ft wardrobe which I have to share with the husband..*cries. I don't quite understand why he demands an equal space when I obviously have more clothes than him. He likes to hang his clothes, everything including tee-shirts. I like to have shelves where I can stack my clothes, because I've a lot of clothes and folding them maximizes the space. The special design of our wardrobe is this side compartment, casement on the side. For a long time, I was sad that I couldn't have space to add a make-up table in the MBR after fitting in the king size bed and side tables. I also can't think of where to put the mirror as mirror facing the bed is very bad fengshui, something which I'm not comfortable with. Till he suggested having this casement at the side, with the mirror inside! I went into full steam, designing this area for make-up and accessories storage. I went to measure things like mascara and eye-liner height and other make-up items to do up the dimensions. Our bookshelf is relatively simple. I wasn't that keen about having open shelvings, though I've to admit that they look beautiful. I end up having open shelvings just at the middle. We'll be having an L-shaped bookshelf behind the MBR wardrobe. The shoe-cabinet with wooden-planks door. We added drawers for socks and a compartment for umbrellas. And this is the feature wall at the recessed wall in the middle of the living room. Kitchen and vanity designs are simple, just that we left a space under the solid-top for laundry basket in the huge common bathroom. I'm really really looking forward to the carpentry works to complete the whole look and renovation. Even then, it will take weeks and months to slowing decorate the place and fill it with things that define us. I've issues with all the things I've bought for the new place. My room is like a storeroom now, full of boxes and huge shopping bags filled with things like quilt, bedsheets, pots and pans, kitchen utensils etc. I need the house to be ready so that I can move these things over!!!!

PM-ed

It's at one of the shop at furniture mall at Toh Guan. I can't remember the name of the shop, it's the one at the corner that sells wood furniture.

Hahaha ur pictures are so funny!! I'm sure ur place will turn out to be what you like too =)

hello neighbor! great view! *envies.. have you started reno already?

hmm..i think possible..because ur kids have very imaginative parents! but honestly, after stuffing my wardrobe full with clothes, it isn't easy to try going past clothes to knock on the backing..

Haha but if children will knock on wardrobe will knock on door mah!

Oh no! Mine has popups once I send or refresh the site..it's impossible to post anything except on my iPhone..

Does anyone has issues with malware on this site? I can't post on my laptop! Alisa: I'm having a bookshelf behind the wardrobe sharing same backing..some ppl use it as a laminated feature wall or use gypsum board to cover it and looks like other walls..your idea should be good and noise should not be an issue since clothes should be a good insulator? It's your own house leh, who will knock on the insides of the wardrobe! Just like knocking on the door mah.. Cutebaby: I'm only using one tile, one color for the whole house including kitchen yard, kitchen and rooms..the toilet came with grey tiles which we did not change..

hello neighbor! thank you for the kind words.. everything was from our contractor..we just showed him pictures of it and he helped us get it..i think most contractors/IDs should have it? just need to show them pictures? They will take measurements and customize the size..we requested for the joints to be 'female and male' to ensure that there's no gap between the doors..i think they are nyatoh wood, painted, and cost us something around 600-800? can't really remember, but it's quite abit more expensive than bi-fold doors which would cost about 300-400..