DancingInTheRain

Of White and white and WhITES Went to my home today to discuss with the carpenter about the carpentry and saw workers installing the huge glass door for my kitchen entrance and white louvre doors for the toilets. They were also there to re-install the windows which I rejected as they have a blue hue. Mr. K explained to me that it is because the windows are made of aluminum so, without any special spray painting, the "white" will naturally carry a blue hue. I saw the same blue hue on the white windows in my brother's flat so i believe this is true. I accepted that as my lack of knowledge and willingly requested for him to change the windows to aluminum color at my cost. He also asked if I would like to continue with white for the kitchen door and the white louvre doors for the toilets, which I confirmed to continue with white. At that time, Mr. K immediately informed the folks for the kitchen and louvre doors to spray paint these items white as I want them to be white-white, not carrying any blue hue. Thumbs up to Mr. K for pre-emping the problem. Unfortunately, the louvre doors still came with a blue hue as shown in the pic below. The kitchen door, on the other hand, did not have the blue hue. So, I watsapped Mr. K about it and he would look into the matter tomorrow. Arh... Sometimes, I wonder if it is due to my previous profession which trained me to have a keen eye for colors (we had a whole row of colors tabs with different shades of a color, say blue, and had to arrange them from the lightest to darkest... Always loved doing that and checking my score thereafter... ). I am rather particular about colors matching. With many more white items in different materials coming up, I wonder if I will go crazy later... hahahaa.... Another lesson learnt.

Ya lor! Read about it in my next posting! Sigh...

Yup, I'm on Casa Clementi...

Our First Disagreement When I read about Mr. K from others' tblogs, everything was positive. Like how he would help to DIY socket covers, paint lightings, give advices on designs and etc. I went into the whole renovation process thinking everything will be TOTALLY smooth-going. It was so naive. Our first disagreement was over the use of concrete boards, instead of hollow blocks, for the false wall inside my MBR toilet (Yes, it has to be the TOILET again... I bet I'm going to laugh at myself later for killing so many brain cells for the toilets!). This was what The Hubby saw one Saturday when he went over with our first boy to see the progress of our renovation. He was very surprised to see the 2 pieces of thick wood in the wall and the wall is hollow. I texted Mr. K about it. He said this is to satisfy the requirement of HDB. But, our Casa neighbor had the same wall and their contractor used hollow block! So I went back to Mr. K again and asked him to change to hollow block, which he did almost immediately (but also billed us for it separately). Come to think about it, our second disagreement was also about the toilet! I thought the shower screen was supposed to be sliding but he did those with a door. Worse, the door was swinging inwards and it hits the mixer. The Hubby settled this with him by asking him to make the door swing only outwards. I guess guys just communicate better with their own kind. One lesson learnt from these incidents, always have everything written clearly and in details in the contract. For the false wall, this was just lumped together with the false ceiling and for the shower screen, it was just written as 10mm Tempered Glass Shower Screen. I understand that as Mr. K has so many units under renovation simultaneously, he may not remember the details of each of them, so he refers back to the respective contracts for the details. When details are not available, he would look at the price quoted to make a decision. Pls don't get me wrong. Overall, The Hubby and I still think Mr. K is a great contractor to work with as he's truthful, sincere and rectifies things fast. The quality of the work of his reno team is also good. We just think that if the contract was more detailed, there wouldn't be such issues. We should have done our own homework and specify the materials for the reno.

Have you got a t-blog too?

PM'ed. Have fun with your reno! ÜÜÜ

Hi Lady081980, For me, I just put a window there for ventilation and also on the other side of the wall will be the laundry baskets. So I just just open up the window and throw the dirty clothes in... No need to walk 1 round and keep the clutters outta sight. Are u from Casa too?

Hi Rain, But I worry leh... coz my current home also all white and worse, they discolor at different rates. But then they are furnitures that I bought directly from retailers and ikea. I always thought these are made with laminates... No?

Choosing laminates for the carpentry now... Ahhh... Love white shelves but they discolor quickly. If you were me, with timber wood flooring, would u (1) Go head with white laminate for exterior and wood laminate for the visible interiors, (2) wood laminate exteriors and white for visible interiors, (3) wood laminates for exteriors and visible interiors, white laminate only for the gaps between the doors and the border?

Whole house parquet warpped? That's quite serious.... My new home also parquet... Pls keep us updated on why it happens!

The Toilets Arh... Always thought we could have a bath tub in our MBR coz of the dimensions indicated on the floorplan. However, when we saw the actual size, we knew a comfortable bath tub is not possible. Can't help but feel cheated by HDB! Initially, we had only wanted to cover the wall with the ugly tiles (provided by HDB) but when tiling started, we realize the white on the tile that we choose to overlay is different from the white on the original tiles. So, The Hubby and I decided to overlay the whole toilet... Another couple of thousand in... Heartache... And then the infamous Casa toilets that look like coffee shop toilets with double PD doors in the common toilet. It even had a walk through from the bedroom corridor to the service yard! Hahaaa... I decided to seal up the door to the service yard and build a window. Then, the window became another problem. I really loved to have pull-up window for this but calls to different window companies came to nothing. Only 1 company has this product and the lead-time is at least 2 months and it cost a whopping 1600 bucks for ONE window! NO SUCH BUDGET!! Another option was to order from this China company but Mr.K has reservations about the quality. So, haiz, in the end, made do with sliding window... Then came the vanity... Initially wanted to do the normal vanity with solid surface but The Hubby went to a relative's home and was warned about the wood being "koyak" in no time, we changed to the "zao tao" vanity (ching ching... another couple of thousands in...) I had wanted to use all subway tiles on the zao tao, then decided that was too boring. So changed to mosaic on the top... Then came another problem... The edges! With little boys running around, it's super dangerous to have sharp edges! The answer came to me when I looked at my current flat. Just use rounded mosaic lah! Duhz... (Sometimes, the simplest thing becomes so complicated when one is tired.) So so, our toilet became like this... MBR Toilet Common Toilet Hmm... I'm changing the window to only sliding and in aluminum color coz the current window (per picture) actually takes a blue hue which I think totally spoils the look of the toilet. The other day, my brother came over to take a look and mentioned that some of the tiles are slightly protruding... not sure if we should be meow and want Mr. K to change... The black framed mirrors and toilet accessories will come in later... Post up pics when they are all done... Seriously, I never thought I will be so particular about the toilets but once reno start, I just can't help but want to perfect everything, though at times, perfection is not achievable... Well, take it as a learning process lor... Just like playing mahjong... pay to learn...

The Flooring This was the greatest headache that The Hubby and I had. I told him that I would like to have homogenous flooring from the living room to all the rooms coz I don't like to have so many different types of floorings around the home. We were totally sold on having parquet coz both of us like the feel of wood on our feet. But, each time we decided, our little boy will show us how wrong our decision will be. So we looked around for alternatives. Since the theme of our home tends more towards Scandinavian Vintage, we decided (okie... I decided ) that the flooring has to look like wood. Our alternatives were wood tiles or wood laminates. We went to some tile companies to check out the wood tiles. The cheapest was at SBH while the most expensive was Rice (their prices differed by almost 4 folds!). I also went to our friendly neighbor's home to check out the warping that is so common in wood tiles. Arh... Then we decided that tiles is out coz it feels cold on the feet. We drove all the way to the East to check out laminate and vinyl flooring. Again, The Hubby felt the feel on the feet is not right. And so, we rejected this option again... Then one fine night, while everything is quiet and the lil boy was asleep, my hubby and I decided that timber wood flooring is really the way to go. At most, we'll sand and polish the floors 10 years later when the boys are all grown up. Heheee... I was really happy coz in my mind, timber flooring is the only option that I like ( and thinking about it now, I believe it's the same for The Hubby!) And so, I texted Mr. K that our final decision is Timber wood flooring! Double Confirmed! :good: We took 1 MONTH to make this decision. So I went on to think of the layout of the wood strips. I liked the below designs. But after discussing with Mr. K, we decided to scrap the idea coz of the wastage and that coz of the way the wood strips are laid, it's possible that the wood will warp. We finally decided on doing the standard GONG layout. (Ah... As you can see, I writing things that happened some time back and trying to catch up with the current reno process... Haaa...) Anyway, the wood strips arrived one fine day and all of them were laid. Only took them 3 days! POWER lah!!!

Itsybits, Mr. K seldom sends me pics of my home... Maybe coz he thinks we'll keep going to our new home since we stay so near bah... :o

Arh... Haven't posted for a long time coz my quiet sleepy baby changed! He realized the comfort of being carried after a few hours of visit to the hospital... And since then, he wants to be carried to sleep so I've no hands to type. Hahaaa... Anyway, some updates abt my home reno.... Shopping @Universal Union The Hubby bugged me for the longest time to settle all purchases before giving birth, so about a week before that, we went to Universal Union to buy everything. Knowing The Hubby, he would never have the patience to go around several shops just to get the bestest prices, my strategy for this was to get everything from the same shop. So, I looked around for one that sells the things that I wanted, which are Hansgrohe shower faucets I was deciding between this brand and Grohe and goggled on the two. I liked Grohe because that's the brand I saw everywhere when we were in Europe for our honeymoon. As for Hansgrohe, I did not know when or how that popped into my head. The Hubby and I went to the Grohe shop at IMM to check out the products but was a little put off by the non-chalant staff and the water efficiency ratings. We also went to a couple of shops along the way and somehow, I was sold on the Hansgrohe line coz I really think the children will like the froggy shower head... (Okie... At least I do! ) Ariston Kitchen Products I knew I must get a built-in oven coz that was my dream since young. Somehow, it just feels different from those that I can put on the counter-top. Ariston coz I always liked this brand. Long long basin for the master bedroom toilet Super love this from Kohler. We went to the Kohler showroom and think the products are really chio (but the prices also just as chio... Hahaa... This basin costs 1400+SGD. shipping from the States will cost half that price. :dribble: But still, it's way outta our budget so I had to look for alternatives! Haiku Fan in Bamboo Caramel Another love-at-first-sight item but till now, still not available... Shall continue waiting for good news.... Anyway, these are the items that we finally bought at Universal Union. We were served by Emily and she's the most helpful salesperson ever. Sent me specifications of products and tended to my many questions. Super appreciate and satisfied her work! For the Common Toilet MUST have that froggy... For the MBR Toilet MUST have that long long sink For the Kitchen MUST have the Ariston Built-In Oven (can proof bread too!) For our daily use Can't post pic of the Rheem storage heater (says I posted more pictures than I'm allowed? ) This is the one that I can't quite decide... We bought the one that's 25 liters and wonder if it's enough for a family of 4 to shower one after another. Anyone has any idea? Yup... Managed to make one new post! Hope to post up pictures of my other stuff, if the baby cooperates!

Thanks for your replies, Yoongf and Tiler Seng!

Hmm... Checked again, he said the walls are using cement sheets. Only the 2 supports for compartments in the wall are solid wood (abt an inch think). The wall is then tiled. When I knock on it, it's produces a hollow sound, which I don't like. Those 2 pieces of wood also cause me concern. He says it's better than hollow block as if any problems with the pipes, just tear out part of the wall. But I'm thinking, if need to tear out, might as well tear out the whole thing else difficult to align the tiles anyway... And how often do we get problems with water pipes??? Is my rationale correct or Shd I just follow what he says?

Sigh... I asked my contractor and he said that ply wood then cement over, confirm no problem. Then I went to knock... Hollow de! The compartments for the shampoo and studf is done usig a thick block of wood... ;p Hollow blocks also give hollow sound? Sorry for the noob question. Hahhaaa....

Hi! I've a false wall built in my toilet shower area with compartments to put the soap, shampoo and stuff. I notice that my contractor used pky wood and cement to build this. He mentioned that after the cement are put up and then tiled, the wall is good for use. Is this the way to build this false wall? Anyone can pls advise? Thank you!

Our First Home He proposed in 2007 in a fishing boat in the middle of a storm. There were just the 2 of us and I recall thinking, "If I reject him, maybe he will push me off the edge!" and then laughed at my own silly thoughts. To cut the story short, I accepted the proposal and the whole wedding preparation went into full gear. One of our greatest concerns was The Flat. We thought of staying with his parents, but my FIL rejected it. So, we tried balloting. Luck was not on our side and after some time, we surrendered and decided we shall get a resale flat. We thought, with the super incredibly unreasonable housing price (even higher now!), our best bet would be to buy a unit in town. I grew up in Redhill and naturally that became our (okie... more like my) first choice. We viewed several units there... He disliked most of them as either the estate was really old or that the price was too high by his standard. Finally, we saw a SERS unit that both of us liked in Silat but the COV was... extremely high! We told the housing agent to give us time to consider and by that same night, when we finally called to say that we would pay, the flat was ALREADY SOLD! Bl**dy lot of RICH people in Singapore huh... (DISCLAIMER: We were prepared to eat grass and drink air for the next few years to get that flat. ) After that disappointment, the search continued. We saw another 3+2 room SERS flat unit at Henderson that we also liked but that owner wanted $520k. That means, on paper, we would have lost almost $200k if we bought that unit. We couldnt take that too... Just when we decide to take a break from the flat searching (while the search for the perfect bridal gowns, hotel, honeymoon vacation bla bla bla were still on-going), our agent sent me some pictures of this SERS unit in Clementi. The owner is a lawyer and she rented the flat out to some NUS students. Hence, in order to protect the privacy of the tenants, she requested for no viewing of the unit unless the buyers are going to buy the unit (at that time, I was thinking, "You mad ah? I dont see, how to decide? Still say you are a lawyer. No logic leh..."). These are the photos forwarded to us... The Living Room The Kitchen The Master Bedroom The Other Bedrooms The unit looked promising and The Hubby feels that he could stay in this unit for the short term. So, we asked for the price and viewing. Rejected by the owner. We looked at the photos again and again and decided to give an offer. Rejected by the owner. "Too low.", she said. Freaking yaya papaya this owner! We moved on and went on a holiday to Bali. The agent called me when we came back from Bali and asked if we are still keen on the unit. HAHAHAHA! The ball is back in my court now!! "We want to view the flat first.", I said and he arranged for it. We signed the Option to Purchase immediately after the viewing at the coffee shop opposite. We gave the unit a new coat of paint, did some minor works and bought our first furnitures and finally moved in after our wedding in 2008 and the place has undergone many transformations. This home holds a lot of memories for me...

Any time, itsybits! Disclaimer: Must be after first week of September coz that's when I GET MY FREEDOM BACK!! Thank you for sharing your home renovations with me along the way too! =)

Casa, you are super efficient ah... We have been staying in Clementi Ave 1 since 2008! From not really liking the estate, I have slowly got to know the elder folks and also the (infamous) coffee shop aunties and uncles... hmm... I can only say, never judge a book by its cover. The people here are really nice! Not very inviting and openly friendly but as I got to know them, they are so nice.... When I was expecting, everytime I walk from the bus stop home, there would be some aunties who ask if I need help.

Finally, after reading many blogs, I've decided to start one to write down my renovation experience. Now, the description of my blog says "3 boys and a mummy's journey", so, "where is the Daddy?", you may ask. The Daddy is actually one of the boys because sometimes I feel he's still very much like a little boy at heart. He loves to play with remote control cars and it also doesn't help (or should it be "it helps"... Hahahhaa...) that he looks like he's 18. My first boy will be 3 years old this coming Christmas while my 2nd boy was born just a day after renovation starts. As The Daddy has no aesthetic genes in him (I always say choosing me as his wife is his only show of recognising beauty!), the choice of ID/ contractors and renovation works layed fully on me to decide. The Daddy does make his contribution now and then but I always have the last say (in actual fact, hmmm.... I wish this is true!) I am now into the 3rd week of my confinement month. For those who have yet to experience this in your life, my everyday schedule goes something like this:- 07 30: Wakes up, say good bye to my first boy and hubby. 08 00: Goes back to sleep and wait for the lil baby to wake up for first feed. 08 45: Lil baby goes sun-tanning with confinement lady (while I wash up). 09 00: Have breakfast. 09 30 to 19 00: Nurse the baby as required, else, just eat, sleep and rot! 19 00 to 21 30: The Daddy and first boy comes back. Play and rest. 21 30: Sleep. 2200 to next day: Nurse the baby as and when required. So you see, my life is pretty much FREE! So I decide I shall start a blog to entertain myself!

Looking good now... I just started my reno with K... ÜÜÜ

$250!!!! hahhaaaa... Go engage our fellow neighbor, JY, lah.... Only 50 bucks + meals for the whole day! Hahhaaaa.... If it were me, i will discuss with hubby and give a cut off date and tell my mil about it... Write down the points so that when things get emotional, you'll remember what you wanna say... Tell her your concerns and I'm sure for the good of her son and you, she'll come to understand de... *smile, gal! *

I agree... If no deposit given, just drop the carpenters. It's been soooo long since I went to your place to kaypo and saw them taking measurements!!! ;p