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zihui

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Everything posted by zihui

  1. So we went down to the house bright and early on Saturday as we had loads to accomplish that day. We arrived around 10.30 am (well... it IS a weekend so 10.30 AM is considered bright and early....) to be greeted by the sight of the marble polishing going on. I think this is the busiest day of the reno process thus far - we had different teams working on different things in every single room so I'm going to try and document everything the way I remembered it. To start things off, we took a photo of the marble polisher (is that his job title?) hard at work - don't think he was too happy about our photo taking because I remember him glaring at me - This was the 1st round of marble polishing and his colleague came down on Sunday morning to carry on with the 2nd and final round of marble polishing. His colleague arrived at 9 AM on Sunday and by 3 PM, we finally have decent looking, polished marble floors!! (No photo of the colleague on Sunday as he looks even fiercer and more anti-social than the one pictured above ) Upstairs, there was a beehive of activity going on. In the MBR, the shower screen guys were hard at work, installing the glass door for the MBR toilet as well as the shower screen for the MBR toilet. Time for photos! The shower screen team hard at work - It was quite a lengthy process and the entire MBR toilet took them around 3 hours of solid, hard work. But by the time they were finished, we were thrilled with the final product! Here's how the MBR toilet door currently looks - And..... I absolutely love the MBR toilet's shower screen and how the overall look has come together! Please excuse the bare vanity top - it'll be complete by tomorrow. Meanwhile, the door guy (not a team as all the doors were being installed by just one man) was hard at work prepping all the doors for installation, including the shaving the door into size (particularly for the storeroom door), the drilling and installing of the doors. He's not finished yet so he'll come back today to finish working on them - Here's another photo of him carrying the door to the storeroom in order to try and fit it nicely into the existing cavity -
  2. LOL So my t-blog reminds you of Tom Cruise and my ID reminds you of Justin Timberlake LOL
  3. Where to begin? Loads of things have been going on throughout the entire weekend and we're now edging ever closer to the end of this particular reno journey (and t-blog). Let's start with the centerpiece of the house - the staircase! The glass & stainless steel railings were finally up in place by last Friday and here's how the staircase currently looks (photo taken on Friday evening) - A lot of my friends have been asking me why go with the stainless steel railings in tandem with the glass side-panels instead of using wood, which is the more popular option. Personally, I like how sleek and modern the stainless steel railings look so that's what we went with in the end. The only problem with the railings is that they're going to be a real b*tch to clean LOL Carpentry was delivered on Friday and the frames were put up (both the WIW and the kitchen). Here's how they looked on Friday evening: The cabinets and kitchen top on the left side of my kitchen were the hood, hob and kitchen sink will all go. There's also a small little 'prep area' reserved for me Here's photo of the kitchen cabinets on the right hand side of the kitchen (including the box-up for the ugly kitchen pipes) - Now moving on to the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE HOUSE (in my humble opinion anway) - the walk in wardrobe! As the glass side panels for the staircase were already up, the carpentry team had to be EXTRA careful moving the wardrobes upstairs. If they had broken the glass panels.... I shudder to think about that possibility. Thankfully nothing was broken during the moving process - After several hours, the WIW is beginning to take shape! I CANNOT WAIT TO FILL THE WARDROBE UP WITH LOADS OF CLOTHES! in fact, i'm in such a good mood that I'll even increase the HTB's share of the wardrobe from 10% to 15%
  4. To be very honest, I've been very blessed and lucky this time around. We managed to make use of JT and my MIL's contacts to obtain huge discounts on practically everything, from the construction materials down to the different teams coming in to carry out the renovation works. Seriously indebted to the both of them....
  5. hahaha Please, if i leave it to him, I'll live in a warzone / pigsty forever. Hi sarah, I'm WAY over the budget already. *emo* I don't even dare to open the spreadsheet anymore lest it ruins my weekend.
  6. That's what we call haphazard renovating hahahahaha but in all seriousness, we still have another week or so to go.... provided there isn't a huge hiccup along the way
  7. And the exciting part about today is the fact that.... Phase 1 of the carpentry has been delivered and will be installed accordingly! The carpentry delivery and installation will take place both today and tomorrow so I'm really looking forward to seeing how they're going to change the look of the apartment. Here's a shot of the carpentry blocking my entire lift landing - wonder if any of my neighbours is going to complain -
  8. That's what happens when you're at work. I'm trying to compile the memories as they happen so that I can look back at my t-blog after everything is completed and recall the order in which everything occurs.
  9. JT's Daily Update (25th Oct '13) So carrying on from yesterday, the glassworks team is still working on the glass sides for the staircase - Another shot of the glass installation going on for the staircase - I'm a total newbie at this so I'm looking forward to go down to the apartment after work to clarify all the questions that I'm having
  10. Hi Jnohclee, probably another week or so to go.... Now it's time to start worrying about the colors and the furniture.... I keep second guessing myself these days. Have a sneaking suspicion that it's going to end up looking messy and confused.
  11. we used warm lights so we were actually going for a softer, cozy feel. however, when all the lights are turned off, the cove light is bright enough to illuminate the entire staircase so that we can make our way upstairs without plunging to our deaths
  12. I also don't know why the photos appeared on my newsfeed. I was just surfing FB as usual when there it was in my newsfeed - your IDs profiling your house. I recognized it immediately and I have to say that the photos were breathtaking, buddy! When are you planning to move in?
  13. I really admire the way you've kept true to your intended theme and the final result really is breathtaking. I actually saw the photos on FB already and I recognized the floor 'mats' (not to mention the blue tiled table) instantly so this is the 2nd time I'm checking out these photos. WONDERFUL JOB!
  14. Hi oldskool! Havn't seen you in some time - how's living in your awesome house? By the way, I just saw your house being profiled by your IDs on FB! Looks fantastic!
  15. I agree! There's so much going on everyday that I can't wait to see what's been done and how much the house has changed in the span of a day. My biggest worry now is that the colors, themes and furniture may not all fit into each other seamlessly *fingers crossed* Honeymoon? NO MONEY ALREADY! hahahhahahahha
  16. hahahahhhaaha i found this remark really funny!
  17. The painters have completed their job and the 2nd storey bedrooms now have been painted... Photo sent by JT: That's all fine and good, but I'm still waiting for the most exciting update - the staircase..... *holds breath in anticipation*
  18. hahahaha yeah we have a spreadsheet as well which we refer to religiously funny how come the figures keep increasing with each passing day.
  19. Received with thanks! I've emailed them with my requirements so hopefully they can get back to us with a quotation soon!
  20. It's very tough lah ... these days, we travel around with a calculator. Not a pocket calculator, not the calculator app in the iPhone. An actual office-sized calculator. We need to calculate the cost of Every.Single.Thing just to see if we can afford it. Another week or so to go, then we can finally see if the whole thing ties together nicely.... *fingers crossed*
  21. JT's Daily Update (24th Oct '13) So as previously mentioned, the glassworks have been delivered and installation is taking place as I type. JT just whatsapp-ed the progress updates over to me and I'm getting excited (yes, I'm easily excitable ;p) Photo time! 1) The glass for the staircase has arrived! Together with some sort of suspension cable to align the glass to the staircase. All very Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible-like, tying in with my t-blog: 2) Close up photo of the delivered glass: 3) The commencement of the installation (and suspension): 4) Slowly taking shape.... Progress is still ongoing (with the painters doing their job on the 2nd storey) so I've asked JT to constantly keep us updated today. It's super irritating to know that so much is going on, we're excited to see the progress but due to other pressing matters, we don't have time to go down to the house today. *EDIT JT just sent another photo to us. This time, it's of the painting in progress on the 2nd floor. It may not be a very clear photo, but at least you can see the colours emerging, especially when you compare the difference in color between the 2nd storey and the 1st storey. Alternatively, if you look at the staircase cove light, you can see the difference between the painted parts and the color of the plaster underneath: We're trying very hard to balance creams with whites and greys because we don't want our city living home to become too cold and harsh... really quite worried that the overall effect will end up looking confused or messy instead of being nice *sweat*
  22. Hi desatans, do you mind PM-ing me the contact of the shelves-maker as well as the damage? Do they do customized shelves? I'm converting my current storeroom into a fully fledged shoe cabinet, so I need tilted shelves. I already have a quotation from a contact of my mother's so I'm thinking of obtaining another quotation for comparison before I make my decision, TIA!
  23. In addition to working on the teakwood parquet surfaces, 2 other teams were hard at work yesterday as well - the electrical team and the rubbish disposal team. The electrical team has completed the installation of all the light fixtures, including the calibration of all the light switches - oh well, almost all at least. First, the dining area now has our Tom Dixon beat lights, awaiting the arrival of the dining table & chairs (to be delivered this Friday): Thank you TB! Super pleased with the Tom Dixon lights. TB is like the largest God-send for all of us undergoing the renovation process. JT felt that the Tom Dixon Beat Lights were kinda dim, but that's the effect that we were going for. Anyway, we have LED downlights installed at the dining area as well, so if we require bright lights, we'll just turn on our LED downlights. If we're going for the warmer, softer effect, we'll go with the Tom Dixon lights. Although to be honest.... most of our meals will be consumed not at the dining table but in front of the TV instead hahahaha Makes me wonder why we bothered buying a dining table and chairs in the first place - solely to accommodate guests? More importantly... my staircase cove lights are up! Here's how they look! The view from the ground floor - And here's how the cove light looks when I'm standing on the 2nd storey, looking straight on at it - Loving it! Can't believe how different the entire apartment looks once the lights go up. So now we have lights almost everywhere, including the kitchen, the walkway, the dining area and all the toilets. Unfortunately.... another hiccup has arisen. Two actually - 1) Our FSM asked us to place 9 led lights at our foyer area at the main door entrance. We thought that we were being smart by buying a LED strip with 9 led bulbs - but the electrical team took one look at them and vehemently objected - for aesthetics purposes. They did a mock up for us to see and we're forced to agree - not only do they look puny and insignificant, they actually look kinda.... stupid. So we now have to urgently rush out to buy 9 led lights which will be placed outside the apartment at the main door entrance. 2) We bought 2 lights for the balcony from TB. Unfortunately, once again we neglected to bear in mind the fact that being outdoors, we should have gotten ourselves waterproof lights that have been approved for outdoor usage, instead of solely selecting our lights based on design and price. The electrical team installed the lights at the balcony before shaking their heads once again. Apparently if and when it rains heavily (and as we know, these "once in 50 years" incidents are happening with alarming regularity these days...), the rainwater hitting on our selected lights will cause our electricity to trip, resulting in a power outage. All because of 2 lights that are exposed to the rain. So last night, we made the decision to take them down. So we'll now have to urgently rush out to buy 2 suitable replacements that are waterproof and have been approved for outdoor usage. Due to our mistakes, the electrical team will now come down once again on Saturday to install the fengshui led lights, the balcony lights and the kitchen track lights (which they couldn't install yesterday as the carpentry team will only deliver and install the kitchen cabinets tomorrow). Time to urgently rush out to buy more lights before the electrical team comes down for the final time this Saturday. As the painting team is going to come in and start with the painting for the apartment these 2 days (painting for the 2nd storey will start today while they'll finish up the painting of the first storey by tomorrow), it was important to clear out the rubbish so that the painters can start without further delays. Remember how I described my place as a 'warzone' when I went down on Tuesday? The rubbish disposal team had to work hard in order to clear out the mess caused by renovation works thus far. So we've gone from this photo taken on Tuesday evening - and this (also on Tuesday evening): TO THIS! (taken last night) Well, I said earlier in this post that the installation of the lights makes the house look totally different. I retract that statement - it should be the lack of rubbish makes the house ENTIRELY different!! Another seriously busy day is ahead of us again - the painting team is coming in to paint the 2nd storey, followed by the teakwood team for their final round of grinding and varnishing. But the most exciting progress for today is the fact that the glassworks team is coming in and all the glass is going up! So I expect the glass for the MBR shower screen and the staircase's glass railings to go up by today! Pity I can't make it down this evening to check out the progress for myself, got plenty of other errands to run. So I'll just have to rely on JT's photo updates before I go down to see for myself tomorrow evening. GO JT GO!
  24. It was another busy day yesterday - actually, everyday is going to be busy from now until the apartment handover date. I'm going to heave a HUGE sigh of relief when everything is over, although somebody correctly pointed out to me yesterday that the renovation of a house is never really over, is it? Lots of things going on at the same time so it gets a bit overwhelming at times, particularly when you consider the fact that apart from the renovations, we have other things to plan for and to do. So let's get on with the photo updates first - Yesterday, the teakwood guys came down to carry out the grinding and sanding of the Burmese teakwood parquet surfaces. Here they are in action - Sawdust was flying everywhere, so by the time I got to the apartment in the evening after work, JT's hair was a sandy brown color *chuckle* After the grinding and sanding of all the surfaces were completed, the teakwood guys started varnishing the surfaces with lacquer - Looks like back breaking work to me. On a slightly related note, when I was younger and in primary school, I used to think that the smell of drying lacquer was intoxicatingly pleasant. However entering the apartment last night nearly knocked me out cold - the smell of lacquer was overwhelmingly choking! *cough cough* Wonder if I inadvertently got high last night from the lacquer fumes... Anyway, here's how the surfaces look like after the varnishing - The Walk-in wardrobe flooring: The MBR flooring post varnishing: The staircase was not spared the grinding and varnishing treatment as well since the steps are covered in the material too. Here's how they looked like last night when I went down to check on the renovation progress - can't really see much right? hahahaha there is a reason why I'm not a photographer after all. My trusty handphone camera is not going to put any professionals out of work anytime soon! The teakwood guys will be coming down again this afternoon to carry out the 2nd and final round of sanding, grinding and varnishing once again after the painters have completed painting the bedrooms on the 2nd storey in the morning.
  25. Hi Pokz1981, Thanks for the kind words and for reading my blog!
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