3Dyms

Progress of Reno at Week 5 This week, we will be doing more painting, more carpentry works, wall trimmings, service balcony windows, window grills, main gate and the lightings. Yippee! Finally... I can see the end of this long journey approaching. More hiccups this week. The wash basin for our bathrooms are too big. Had to make a trip down to Adamas for an exchange. Then... we realized. The paint color was not what we had expected. It turned out more beige then white. Haiz... who ask us. Silly... we had decided to choose 'white' paint with a tinge of beige thinking that a total white house will be too sterile. But after 3-coats, it all end up looking beige. This set off another flurry of activity as we now had to change our carving accents and fabric upholstery for our furniture from Manhattan Collections to gold instead of silver. Thankfully, this change can be done, albeit at a slight cost (of course). Plus, it results in a delay of our stuffs till mid August. SO... lets take a look at more pics of our progress so far... Initially we had roller shutters that came with the house. But a major design dilemma came up. 1 of the aircon compressor will be situated here. If we lower the roller shutters during a downpour, it will be very hot in this area as the hot air from the compressor cannot escape. Not good. Especially when I will remove the service balcony doors, extend my kitchen out and have a open concept. The hot air is bound to get into the kitchen and living area. So how? We looked around what other neighbours did. Some of them had top hung windows. Then only the window where the compressor is will be kept open. Spoke to Aircon designs and they approved of this method. In addition, they will help create a vent to attach to the fan part of the compressor to help direct the hot air out the window. Shoe rack on the left side of Main Entrance. This is the architrave (Wall trimmings) for the Kitchen Entryway.

Thanks. Hope to have more pics to share end of this week when level 1 carpentry & all lightings will be up. Stay tune.

Hi Davon,Have send you a PM. Good luck.

The Grohe rain shower set is about $700+ from Adamas. I've heard of people getting Grohe from TB and it works out great for them. But I did not buy showers & mixers online cos I am also afraid that the connection parts will be different. However, I bought some Grohe bath accessories from Amazon as the price was much more affordable.

You've got PM. Hope my carpenter is able to help you out. Good luck!

ALARM SYSTEM As my renovation journey is coming to an end, I am starting to worry about home safety. So, I'm thinking of installing a home security system. Not sure whether to get those ADT alarm system that is linked to a central monitoring system (to police) OR just a normal siren alarm in the event of unauthorized access. Anyone here have home alarm systems? Can recommend what is good & reliable?

Thanks. I hope once everything is in, it will still look chic and not OTT. *cross fingers*

So far so good. No issues with uneven paint or chipping paint. Most ID will not recommend spray painting cos most carpenters nowadays do mainly laminate. Few carpenters are actually skill enough in spray painting. In fact, my carpenter will also be spray painting my doors and staircase banister.

Thanks Makan. I love this type of carpentry too, but I don't love the price tag attached to it.

Since we started reno on 11/June, we have already accomplished heaps in 3 weeks. But, still have lots more to be done. Painting, sanding & varnishing of parquet, kitchen and study cabinets, kitchen appliances, toilet accessories, lightings, curtains, etc. My contractor is aiming for end July completion. Cross fingers, pray hard no more hiccups and we can shift in by 1st week August (before Lunar 7 month).

Simply love your peranakan tiles. Looks so bright & cheery. Its very bold and adventurous to use such tiles in the kitchen, but it turns out great! Looking forward to see how your unique 'sewing machine' bathroom vanity looks like. Sure to be **** chio also.

3) Bathroom vanity & mirror cabinets. Now just waiting for my wash basin and quartz top to come in. But a slight boo-boo here. Supposed to have tulip cut-outs for the cabinet. Carpenter needs to take back the doors and cut-out my tulips. P/S: Please ignore the slanted WC in the 2nd pic. The plumber left it there and not yet placed it in the correct position.

Updates as at 04July 2013 I'm so happy. Lots more done today. Plumber has come by to fix up the Water Closets, water heater and pipes. Electrician also came by to complete most of the electrical works especially for the kitchen. And finally, carpentry for the 2nd level is 95% done. Still some minor "shou-kou" to make sure everything fits in nicely and the door handles. No laminates are used for these cabinets. Its all spray painted with hand painted gold trimmings. Let's see some pics of the carpentry works: 1) L-shaped wardrobe for master room and 6-door wardrobe for my 3 gals. 2) Bookshelves in my gals study room

Love love your kitchen. Looks abit like those good ole amercian diners with the check floors and tablecloth. Yet at the same time, the ingenious use of the wood tiles on the walls lends an air of country style living. Berry good idea! The overall effect is terrific! So cosy. Now I look at your windows, I wished I had chosen these type of square panel designs. Mine is too plain and normal.

Summer, WoooHoo! Congrats on being your upcoming feature in Home & Deco. I will definitely be grabbing a copy. So happy for you! Your house is looking really chio in that professional photo. Nice Nice. hahah.... recently I've adopted a male guinea pig from SPCA and then bought a female one a couple of weeks later. My gals named them - Milo & Horlicks. Lol.

Hi Summer, Guess that will be last resort if I cannot do box up or build a cabinet to 'house' it. Will give it a nice coat of white paint and leave it be. Maybe... decorate it with some plastic vines. lol. Really cannot tahan all the pipes.

Despite the hiccups this past few days, a few surprises awaited me today. 1) my louvre PD bathroom doors are up! Would have preferred the real wood louvre doors, but due to budget, these aluminium ones will have to do for now. 2) whilst taking an exterior shot of my new windows, I realized something... "Look Mom! Bamboo pole holders! Outside my service balcony windows!" These were installed by HDB as every unit has these bamboo holders. I was totally surprised as I read many EM owners lamenting lack of such holders.

4) Hiccup #3: My oversight.... ugly pipings (again). This time, they are big *** fat ones in the service balcony. Wondering whether to do a box up for the horizontal pipe, or just leave it be? The vertical tall pipes will be covered to a certain height by my full height kitchen cabinets (about 8ft tall). The rest of the tall pipes will be too high and not so noticeable. But... this horizontal pipe is a major eyesore! How? How? Tomorrow going to discuss with contractor & carpenter on best way around this.

3) Hiccup #2. My oversight.... did not notice these ugly trunkings on the ceiling. Now I want my contractor to do conceal wirings for these. aarrgghh... dunno why these old flats got wire trunkings everywhere. So costly if I'm going to conceal it all. So, only selected ones are concealed. Like these ugly ones on the ceiling. Will be an absolute 'pain' when ever I look up to switch on the fan and see these.

2) Hiccup # 1. Unsightly and weird placement of pipings by HDB. Haiz.... because of these pipes, I have had to change several things. The first and saddest thing, I cannot do my ceiling cornice anymore. Because I will be having L box and false ceiling, this pushes the ceiling height down. But yet, the false ceiling will not be low enough to hide these **** pipes. A separate box-up has to be done. Then... because of this additional box up, I cannot do cornice or the whole ceiling will look too strange. See pics below for clearer illustration:

Updates as at 03July 2013 So... after my last update last Thursday, a lot more stuffs has been done and a few hiccups occurring too. Some oversights on my end, whilst others are due to last minute changes. So lets start.... 1) Tiling works are 90% done. Now left some stuffs like tiling the box ups in the bathrooms, and the service balcony. Yippee! Lets take a look at some of the completed works:

Hoping the louvre bathroom doors will fit in with my modern French theme. For the quartz, I'd have preferred full white. But due to my tight budget, my ID could get only get those white quartz with tiny grey specks at a special price. Hope it turns out nice. *cross fingers* Please do come by my t-blog. I hope to upload more pics next week when more things are done. Right now, my place is still in the organized chaos stage.

Congrats on the completion of your Reno. Love reading all your posts. Not only are they informative, but also hilarious and entertaining. So sad to read about the loss of items and the crashing chandelier. Thankfully all things can be settled without much fuss. End of day, your new home looks fantastic and your parents + sis must be beaming with pride on the mighty fine job you did. *clap clap* Hah.... Bro Eric did the fan installations for my old place and I'll definately contact him again my upcoming new house too. Friendly chap with great customer service. Enjoy your new home.

Thanks for the info Annastans. Will take note of the address and remember to bargain with them. Hopefully am able to find some suitable stuffs. *thumbs up* Just realized we have quite similar taste. I will hv the same type of louvre PD doors for all my bathrooms. And, I'm also going for white quartz for my kitchen and bath vanity tops. Can't wait to see more picture updates from you.

Thanks for the helpful feedback. My condo unit came with these 'designer' WC's, so was quite aware of most points highlighted - especially the replacement for a broken seat cover. That was a expensive lesson. . Fortunately, potty training was not difficult as my gals learnt to do it without the child covers. Rather useful, as public toilets don't come with child seat covers too. Nevertheless, thanks lots for sharing. These are truly valid points and many people may not be aware and buy expensive designer bowls without taking maintenance into consideration. *thumbs up*