ilkl

Hello @CZL, you've asked a very good question! Because just yesterday we spoke to the electrician big boss who came to collect money and we learned something from him. Fibre Termination Point Hoo-Ha A bit of backstory first: our ID suggested having the fibre termination point to be in our TV console because that's where we planned to have our Starhub TV and router there. He said they will provide a connecting wire which runs in the existing false ceiling. The logic of doing that is to hide the fibre wires otherwise the fiber installation people will run casing all the way which is so ugly! When the electricians came, they insisted that the intended place is too far and it cannot be done. We weren't really involved in the discussion but somehow our ID managed to sort it out with the electrician: they will run a dummy wire in the false ceiling from outside the house to our TV console, and the exposed part at the feature wall (because we didnt do a plywood panel) will be in black PVC pipe. When Net Link Trust (formerly Open Net) people came, that dummy wire acts as a threader basically - they tied one end to the fibre optic wire, and pulled it in all the way (through the false ceiling and the black pipe) into the TV console. Now I'm not an electrician and I didn't study electrical engineering, but I think distance and length of the fibre optic wire should not affect the connection (because then in Singapore you will have difference in speeds according to area?) so placing the fibre further in the house is not contraindicated. The fuss that the electricians kicked up was the fact that the further the distance the fibre wire has to travel, there is a higher chance of the wire breaking and getting lost in the false ceiling, so they said it cannot be done to save them the hassle. Luckily all went smoothly and our Internet connection is totally fine. So why I brought up the electrician big boss? Well, he was the very first person who came to site visit and ran through the whole plan for wiring with us and our ID and he was not aware that we were building a full height shoe cabinet which we could hide the DB box in (the existing DB box was on the opposite wall and very high up). He thought we were building a half height shoe cabinet and we are not shifting the DB box (this was a miscommunication - the full height shoe cabinet was in the plan all along). However, when renovation started, our ID and ourselves decided to move the DB box into the shoe cabinet (cost $400), and the boss said if he knew about that, he would have suggested we have the fibre termination point done next to the DB box, very much like what all BTOs are doing now. All he needed to do was to install a double amp socket there for the modem, and he will add a data point to the TV console which is way easier to connect to the fibre point/modem at the shoe cabinet, rather than going through all that trouble we went through (which cost an extra $220). So who do we blame? Partly the ID cause why they never suggested this in the first place (probably cause they also don't know), partly the electrician team (big boss excluded) because they were the ones shifting the DB box and complained about the fibre being too far inside the house, how come never suggested this simple solution? And also partly the electrician big boss (eh hello, you probably blur and remembered wrongly, cause the full height shoe cabinet was planned since day 1 ok?). And also a little bit blame ourselves cause we really didn't know (but we home owners le, not professionals, of course we dunno right?). SO, LONG STORY SHORT, TLDR VERSION: If not planning to build full cabinet to hide DB box (which is usually situated near main entrance), then you can run the fibre into the house via conventional method of having Net Link Trust installing wire casings all over the house, or through this special method of using dummy wire/threading method described above. If you are building a full cabinet and you are relocating your DB box inside, best to install your fibre termination point next to it (and don't forget to have at least 2 sockets for your modem - happened to our friend, they couldn't have internet until electrician came to fix it) If you already have fibre point in your house when you bought it, good for you! Otherwise must pay Net Link Trust $235.40 to install. if you have a BTO, then good for you too! Gahmen already thought out the best way for you! It's other mortals like us who got resale who may have this headache to deal with. --------------------------------------------------------------------- P/S: Sorry haven't updated this thread for a while, we just shifted into our house yesterday so it's quite a havoc now! Hopefully I can add some updates soon!

Hello @lkccchris, Yes, they just apply the cement directly over the existing tiles. Regarding the cement - for our kitchen and service yard, there's only one wall left with real cement screed whereas the rest have been painted over (because of a painting boo-boo). The parts that were painted over are rough because they had not finished screeding properly, but we did our own special effect painting to blend in with the roughness, and some parts where also smoothened with putty before painting over again. The wall where there is cement screed need to be protected well because when the pipes and electricians are working on it, they like to draw stuff on it and sometimes it gets quite dirty and harder to clean. Our common bathroom with the cement screed was done up well, much smoother (cause we insisted to our ID - otherwise they would have left it rough) but we have not painted over a layer of protection to reduce water absorption. Some people paint over the cement screed with polyurethane varnish but we are going to try a special cement sealer, because we want to keep the matte finish of the screed yet have water repellent properties. Will probably do up a separate post about it! Hi there! After we got our ID to patch those areas and sand down, no unevenness detected for those areas. But recently after we cleaned and started moving in, I noticed the floor at my dry kitchen is a little uneven - previously the dry kitchen floor was hacked and cement screed done to level with the living room. I have informed my ID so we see how he gets it fixed. Thankfully our vinyl floor is those clicked-on type so removing and reinstalling them is quite easy.

Thank @mamit! Actually not that big la. Just that the living room is very long. Thanks @megannn Yalor!! My mother and his mother all say the hole is weird but the husband very very adamant that he wants to keep it. He was sooo grumpy when I told tiler to fill up the hole. Sigh. Anyway he says if everyone says it's ugly, next time he will hire someone to come and add on the brick tiles (I doubt any tiler will bother with such a small job though). And we modified it slightly so hopefully it looks better!

Great idea for the waardrobe! Hey I was wondering about those niches you have beneath your windows. Any reason why you didn't build in cabinets to flush and to utilize as storage space? Your living room one especially...

Hi @Raylowwl, Sorry didn't reply sooner. Had to look up the numbers: Full height bookcase with internal laminates $400/ft With internal PVC $340/ft Internal PVC with glass sliding doors $410/ft Just for comparison, our full height wardrobe is $380/ft. Hope this helps!

Great job to Mrs Hwaa! Oh that pic is just a smiley face! Haha I haven't uploaded photos of my wardrobe yet because still waiting for some rectifications first.

Hey there! Really like your Wardrobe sliding door design! I can see there are indentations to allow better grip, but made to be part of the design, very clever. Your laminate looks like Lamitak's Dario Ramblas? Haha I ask because looks very much like our laminate too

Photos look great! Super jelly!

Master Bedroom Challenge: Want to use IKEA pants hanger and IKEA LED lights with sensor in Wardrobe I own a lot of pants and for my previous renovation of my sister’s place, I got the previous ID to make sure my pants hanger from IKEA could fit into the wardrobe, and they did it. I assumed this time around it shouldn’t be a problem, and if they could standardise the wardrobe size to IKEA’s standard wide, logic dictates that IKEA lights should not be a problem. Even wrote down the measurements for the ID! Alas, this is where my ID failed us. Even though we purchased the pants hanger and lights early and left it in the house when the carpenter came to do the measurements, they forgot to include them. After the wardrobe went in, some parts have enough width but not enough depth, and other parts vice versa. I was so bummed as I thought I wasted our money, but luckily IKEA has a 100-day return period and we got those items refunded. They tried to fabricate their own for us, but I laughed out loud when I first saw them! This one is the smaller one. With only 3 bars, it’s really just going to be a waste of space, might as well use normal hangers lor. Dunno why they used the fat bars, not like pants are very heavy! (Like I said, they seemed to lack some thinking process). I asked them to use the same thin black bars they used for the tall pantry unit, and had to specify the number of bars and the distance between them. Finally they got it right! This one is the husband's side. Funnily, he owns less pants than me. Guess we know who wears the pants hor?? The IKEA LED lights are a good idea especially for sliding door wardrobes because it will only turn on when the doors are opened past their sensors: The two black dots you see are the sensors which will turn on the lights. Very intuitive! However, the width of some parts of the wardrobe was too small to fit the lights, and the carpenters also built in a ledge which would work with normal LED strips but not with the IKEA lights. So we just went with normal LED strip lights and the electrician did up separate switches for both parts of the wardrobe. Slightly less convenient than the original intention but will get used to it soon enough! Our master bedroom has a window which leads to the aircon ledge so the space is kinda tricky to utilise as you cannot extend your wardrobe there. So we got the carpenter to install a top hung cabinet with a laminate backing, and I requested for a black bar to hang some clothes – essentially turning it into an open wardrobe space there. Due to the ID’s miscommunication with the carpenter, he just hung up a very ugly-looking bar. Yuggs. This is one horrible-looking bar. #FAIL The carpenter did up a L-shaped bar and installed in on the beam (said it was quite challenging to do, especially since I requested the bar to be as seamless as possible, didn’t want a base at the part where it sticks to the wall). Turned out great so we are really happy with it! Laminate selection: Daario Ramblas for sliding doors, Valda Tivoli Elm for wardrobe borders and handle recess, Vita Tivoli Elm for dressing table, ledge and mirror cabinet. Result: Pass (despite some setbacks!) Bathrooms Vanity Ledge & Mirror Cabinet For the bathrooms, we didn’t want to do a vanity cabinet because I’m paranoid about the wood getting damp from splatter and turning mouldy inside (no mushrooms for me, thankyouverymuch). But doing a normal laminate vanity ledge is a bad idea because when water seems into the joints, it will cause warpage of the laminate. A Kompacplus countertop would be perfect, but our ID at first said it will just be one piece of Kompacplus and there will be a black thin border at the edge, which frankly doesn’t look that nice. Thanks to Renotalk we found out that Kompacplus can be wrapped and asked our ID again. He said he will check with the Kompacplus guys and sure enough they could! Two ways of doing a Kompacplus wrap: (Left) seamless type, (Right) with black edge seen Of course we chose the seamless type. Work in progress - the vanity ledge has been installed, it's just a black-laminated solid plywood piece. Kompacplus installed. We chose American Walnut 10.40 for the Master Bathroom. Final result! Love the look of our master bathroom! Super condo-feel! 3D render for comparison!

Service Yard Carpentry for the service yard is actually very simple, just bottom cabinets to accommodate a gas hob and a small sink. Alas, because I got greedy and bought a 90cm wide gas hob, the space left is a little weird, about 20+ cm on each side of the gas hob. I saw this from Blum and thought it was a really great idea to store sauces, oil and other seasonings used during cooking. They have something similar from Excel, but I personally prefer Blum’s. Challenge: Build me a pull-out narrow cabinet like Blum’s (with soft closing, of course) Result: Pass! Well done! *clap clap* We asked them to install handles because pulling these narrow cabinets open without handles will be quite challenging and the wood panel will wobble. Work in progress photo... Dry Kitchen Challenge: 1) Want a tall cabinet pantry Excel's tandem pantry Due to the space limitations we have, having a conventional pantry using Excel’s hardware was not possible, so I drew from Pinterest this idea of a narrow tall pantry which we will have it right next to the built-in ovens. At the same time, I wanted a horizontal bar over each shelf to prevent food items especially jars and cans from toppling out: Alas, my ID didn’t really specify how the horizontal bars should be placed and the carpenter just cincai do up with random measurements. Besides looking terrible, some bars were so high up that they would have made putting in food items rather challenging! (The carpenters we got are really quite brainless – they just do and never even think from practical perspective. We had quite a lot of rectifications for the kitchen and master bedroom… that’s why this post is quite delayed as I was waiting for the things to be fixed first before I posted). If you are sharp, you will also notice the laminates are not flushed – slipshot work!! Wrong, random measurements for the horizontal bar. I had to niao my ID and he went to niao the carpenters and they rectified it. Stocking up on our food supply! Looks better but if you look closely, there are many extra drill holes they had to hide with the PVC stickers!! Challenge: 2) Want a built-in dishwasher Personally, I dislike doing the dishes. When I went to visit my best friend in New Zealand years ago, she had a Fisher & Paykel drawer dishwasher which was super convenient and so I’ve always wanted one. Compared to other brands, F&P’s is the only type which you pull open and place in the plates directly because it’s designed like a drawer. All other brands involve opening the dishwasher door and pulling out the racks before you can load/unload. Went to Harvey Norman Millenia Walk and saw they had a few models for sale. I was going to buy the basic one but the salesperson told me that they have a special model which is not on display – long story short, I got that one! It’s called an Integrated Drawer Dishwasher because it’s meant to blend in with the carpentry, so the measurements must be done right and need to integrate water inlet, drainage pipe and electric point into the carpentry also. The hole on top is for the installer to access the inlet & outlet, and acts as a vent too. Due to the specialised skill needed to install it, I got Harvey Norman to pass me the contact of their authorised F&P installer and had to pay $120 for the installation (carpenter must of course provide the panel first). But look at the results! Seamless! (There is an optional F&P handle which is quite chio but must order from F&P, and it costs $65!) Ta-da! Hidden dishwasher, me likey a lot! Other Problems: One major problem with carpentry popped up at our dry kitchen and I only detected if after they started installing the carcasses. I realized that the island counter was only 60cm deep, and because there is a very thick, fat, unhackable beam with a thickness of 40cm, it resulted in the area next to the island to be extremely narrow! Only 20+cm depth. And also the knee space at the island counter was a measly 20cm which is quite uncomfortable to sit at. See see see... even the carpentry drawings they did for us also stated 800mm for island depth! I pointed this out to my ID, it was an oversight on their team (carpenter also blindly do). They had to redo one of the carcasses, but kept the island counter part and shifted it, together with some modifications. Finally we have a 80cm deep island counter with a knee space of 30cm, and the counter next to the fat unhackable beam is 40cm, so we’re satisfied! Laminate: Tadao Concrete (top cabinets) and Hamilton York Teak (bottom cabinets) Result: Pass only after a few headaches and many rectifications later. We got white iQuartz countertop and asked for a cap - which means the sides are made to look thicker and more premium.

Carpentry: Design & Planning, with Results Shoe Rack at Foyer Challenge: Limited space behind the main door. I remember some of the IDs/contractors we met told us upfront that we cannot put a shoe rack there. Luckily for us, the previous owner had an existing full height shoe rack there so that just shows some of these IDs/contractor don’t know what they are talking about (and they obviously did not look at my brief which I had sent to them hard enough to notice this). Since the space is less than 30cm, the internal depth of the shoe rack will probably be around 20-23cm so that is insufficient for the shoes to lie flat. My ID at first suggested putting the shoes sideways but that’s kind of weird, right? Fortunately I came across this slanted shelves (bottom pic), which I showed to my ID. He said it can be done. I also wanted AA tracks to adjust the shelves' height and he said can be done. I was very impressed! Drawing by ID. We also shifted our DB box into the shoe cabinet. Laminate selection: Ava Milnerton for panels, Lava Slate for borders. Goes well with Denim Drift wall colour. But the end result is, even though using AA tracks, the slanted shelves need a fixed support pin to stop them from sliding towards the door and getting in the way of the door closing, so the AA tracks are rather redundant because I cannot anyhow change the height of the shelves without drilling more holes for the pins. Result: Problem fixed but it’s a little funny, but we’re ok with it! Pass! Study Room Bookcase Challenge: Want super big bookcase and want to display books but don’t want dust. Also want to reduce costs. My husband and myself are nerds and like to collect books. In order to entice us to read, we need to see them (out of sight, out of mind!) but we hate dusty books. The boss was on the fence about getting glass panels because he thinks they don’t look nice. He was ok with this kind of half height glass panels at first: (Left) Idea from an app which-cannot-be-named, (Right) The initial 3D render for study room. But then we came across this (bottom pic) and he was very excited and wanted to have sliding full height glass doors. ID said ok, but need to top up. Boss willing to pay (so no objections on my part, as usual): Full height sliding glass doors. ID had suggested using internal PVC instead of laminate to reduce the costs. Brilliant idea because honestly the internal PVC he chose for us looks pretty awesome, and matched the laminate we chose! Internal PVC. Apparently feedback from carpenter is, this one most durable versus other selections. Plus looks nice! Study table not completed yet - missing the drawer panels. Laminate selection: Boston York Teak. Result: Pass with flying colours!! We really like our study room, A LOT! TV Console & Feature Wall Challenge: Want magazine display shelves. Saw this on Pinterest and wanted it for the TV area since I do buy quite some magazines and would like to display them nicely to induce myself to read more. ID said no problem, and drew them out to my satisfaction. Unfortunately, carpenter made an error at first: Magazines will just slide off since the ledge at the end is not at 90 degrees. Carpenter promptly sent the shelves back to the factory and modified them. Result: Pass At first our quote included a solid plywood feature wall which can hide the TV wires and will be the surface where they will stick on the bricks. Later on, I decided I wanted to add in a suspended display cabinet and was worried the solid plywood will not be durable enough to support the mounted TV, all the brick tiles, and now the display cabinet. My ID reassured us that it’s not a problem, they will cut out the feature wall and mount the display cabinet directly on the wall. That got me thinking that the solid plywood is actually rather unnecessary because brick tiles can also stick on the wall directly, so it’s only real purpose is to hide the wires from the mounted TV. And because our feature wall is massive (15 ft!) and costs $2000, we decided the exposed wires are something we can live with (industrial theme leh, expose la!). (Sometimes I really feel IDs purposely don’t tell you some things are unnecessary but they just do it anyway to earn more money from us) Alternative was to do a smaller feature wall which supports only the TV but we prefer a continuous brick wall so that was not considered. I thought at first the brick tiles will be stuck on the walls first and then the carpentry will be installed over the bricks, but interestingly that was not the case. Our ID says the brick tiles will not be able to support the suspended carpentry (makes sense) so they installed the cabinets and shelves first. Tiler then knocked holes into the wall: And applied a layer of special tiling cement: And stuck on the brick tiles around the carpentry! Almost finished result (just lacking a black glass door for the middle cabinet and some touch-ups): Laminate selection: Black Oregon Teak (black parts) and Sheldon Oak Lasalle (the only laminate chosen by our ID hahaha) Husband wanted the bricks to be messy. I find the hole in the bricks on the upper right hand side very funny but husband insist on keeping it like that, says it looks nice. What do you guys think??

Carpentry: Laminate Selection Finally a post on Carpentry! I must be forthcoming and admit that I’m very eager about this part, hence I requested for the sample book super duper early into the renovation, which I kept for more than 2 months haha. I also nicked those small card-sized samples when I see them in shops etc. But obviously that is not enough, so I convinced my husband to drive me all the way to Sungei Kadut to look at larger samples. At that time I didn’t know of other brands (I was fixated on Lamitak), but now I know that almost all the known laminate brands have their warehouse/showroom situated there, so here’s a list: TAK (Lamitak): 41 Sungei Kadut Ave Admira: 45 Sungei Kadut Avenue EDL: 43 Sungei Kadut Street 1 Jennings: 23 Sungei Kadut Street 1 Greenlam: 11 Sungei Kadut Crescent Lam Chuan: 12 Sungei Kadut Way Arova: 6 Sungei Kadut Way Best to call before going, especially to check on opening hours. I was super thick-faced and asked for the A4 samples. By right my ID could get them for us, but at that time they were holidaying for CNY so I didn’t want to disturb them. Anyway if your ID/contractor is too unenthusiastic or too slow in getting the larger samples, I think it is worth making a trip down to Sungei Kadut to have a better look and to get your own samples. Since carpentry will be the main expense and if the laminate turned out unexpected, you will have to live with it so please don’t choose based on a tiny piece of sample. Same same but different!! By the time we were ready to do our carpentry discussions, we had shortlisted our laminates. On hindsight, perhaps an ID was not necessary lol. I’ve also become quite familiar with Lamitak’s catalogue that I can spot and point out laminate names when walking around in shopping malls HAHAHA. “Oh! That’s Dario Ramblas! Oh and that’s Picasso!” Our selections for the laminates, together with the vinyl floor and kompacplus countertop.

Welcome! Have fun and all the best for your DIY. It's quite fun and satisfying when you see the results!

Hello! Your reno very nice also! Can see some similarities with mine in terms of the bathrooms (box up with wall shelves and step down) and the cement screed wall in the kitchen (that's what I wanted before they boo-boo ). Did your contractor put any kind of sealer over the cement screed? Please post the final photos of your place, ok? Want to feast my eyes

Thanks @mamit! Unfortunately this sealer is just paint sealer so it's whitish and can see the brush marks so doesn't look good up close at all!! I bought a Polyurethane Varnish and was planning to paint it over the bare cement screed to make it more water repellent but then read somewhere that it will yellow over time. Now trying to research on cement screed sealer that won't impart a shiny surface and yet can resist water... Anyone got any lobang?

Piping Box-up and Concealed Shower Even before we got our keys, we wanted a concealed shower set for the master bathroom for a condo-like feel. Since there is no way we can embed the concealed parts into the wall for a HDB unit, our ID suggested a box up. At the same time, boxing up can create those little niches in the wall to put shampoo etc – they are called wall shelves. Buying a concealed shower set is super expensive though! We’ve got our eyes set on Grohe and visited Interior Affairs at Jalan Besar to have a look and the salesperson there told us to be prepared to pay 3x more for a concealed set, especially since Grohe was having promotion for their non-concealed rainshower sets. Luckily I read about insani24.de from RT (super big THANK YOU) and the website even sells all the necessary components together as a bundle – no need to be confused about which parts to buy! I think the most important component is the Rapido E Universal which you will never ever see in showrooms (because it’s the concealed part, duh) and this baby alone retails locally for $350! Throw in the lever plate ($150 onwards) and you are already $500 poorer and still haven’t gotten the hand shower and rain shower components! But on insani, you can buy a full concealed shower set for around $650! But truth be told, I did a calculation and turns out it may be cheaper to buy each components separately! So why am I talking about this Rapido thingy? Because installing it requires co-ordinating the box-up people, the plumber and the tiler! It’s times like these that I’m grateful we have an ID to manage this! Box-up with steel frames and calcium silicate (waterproof) boards. Plumber then will dismantle the boards to install the concealed components before reassembling the boards. Tiler will then come in to stick on the tiles. The blue plastic thingy protrudes out now but will be cut off to flush with the tiles, then the lever plate will be stuck over it. Remember the ginormous pipes in the common bathroom? At first we had no plans to box up, but the pipes necessitated that decision, but at least we got some wall shelves too! Common bathroom box-up. Cement screed looks very dark because it was freshly laid on.

Plumbing & Citygas Remember Uncle X? My FIL’s friend who is a subcontractor? He did the plumbing for the in-laws’ house (where I'm still squatting at) and comes highly recommended by FIL. After the painting boo-boo, I approach this arrangement with some trepidation. The head plumber Mr N seems quite confident with his work but we think he is probably not too familiar with HDB regulations. There were some instances when he said stuff which didn’t make any sense at all! Prime example after Citygas came and installed the gas pipes. Because of the low beams we have, the gas pipe has to be bent in a U-shape to enter the service yard where the water heater and gas hob is at. Citygas people installing the gas pipe, with a U-bend because they cannot drill through the stupid fat beam. Mr N who came after Citygas people has left said “Cannot have U-shape la!! Later got water condensation and they never put any drainage, will leak ok?” He claims the gas pipe carries both gas and liquid nitrogen. This is my first time hearing such a thing - isn’t the thin gas pipe just that, something which carries gas? He says the liquid nitrogen will cause condensation water to pool at the bottom of the U, so by right need to have a drainage tray there. My ID was also confused and said he will call Citygas to check. Guess what? Citygas said the U-shape is no problem at all! Don’t know if anyone got hear such a thing before?? Any opinions? Mr N also wanted to help us by installing separate valves for water inlets to separate parts of the house so that in case any water leakage, we can turn off the affected area and still have water elsewhere, rather than turning of the main valve situated outside of the unit. Sounds like a good idea right? But this is what it looked like in our common bathroom: My husband was stunned speechless when he saw this. I just laughed out loud. After painting the taps black, will look super industrial! Can even buy these kind of hooks for the bathroom to match: But the boss really didn’t like having too many pipes like that. And the more I look at it, the more confused I got… I’ve looked at so many photos on Q**** and RT, never seen pipes like this before! When I expressed my concerns to Mr N, he just brushed it off and refused to do anything about it. My FIL also say it’s too much and he promptly called Uncle X. Hierarchy of authority: FIL > Uncle X > Mr N. Mr N and his team came the next day with super black faces and reduced the number of pipes: Looks better now right?

Thanks for sharing your experience though! Certainly helped us! I think you can paint over grout lines with normal paint, just need a small artist's brush and must wipe off any paint that runs onto the tile. You know those laminate planks which simulate wooden planks? The black line in between them are all hand-painted anyway. So grout would be the same concept. You can read about that here:

DIY 3: More Painting!! @matchalatte, I do think that painting yourself is very doable but need to dedicate quite some time to do it. And you have to time it such that you’re not in the way of the workers (I prefer to do it when there aren’t any workers around, feel very pai seh) and that it won’t affect the progress of the renovation. In my case, I decided to paint some parts of my walls because I want to see the effect and have the option to change my mind if the colour doesn’t turn out well. Also, I had a situation where I wanted to change one part of the wall colour just 2 days before the gas pipes were to be installed on the very same wall, as elaborated below… Service Yard Beam: We had gotten it painted to a light grey colour but I felt that it needed a different colour as a contrast. So I flexed my Photoshop muscles and tweaked the 3D render (no point asking the ID because it takes AGES for the 3D artist to make changes, and even then will have errors). I overlaid 3 different colour options and asked the husband/boss: Boss chose blue, obviously, because that’s his favourite colour. But since it was kind of last minute and the painter definitely won’t come down on a Sunday, so I decided to paint it myself using some left over Denim Drift paint, because Citygas was coming the very next day! I felt very accomplished seeing the result. Great feeling! Citygas people at work Kitchen Backsplash: So the previous sponging effect wasn’t that great and even though I managed to create another effect with the damp roller technique, we decided to paint the walls between the top and bottom cabinets a very dark blue-grey colour (because the boss is cheapo and don’t want to top-up for glass backsplash). We bought a small can of Darkened Puddle and painted last Sunday. Handsome husband at work again. Mainly cause he don't want to pay for glass backsplash hahaha As you can see, our carpentry is currently being installed. Will talk more about the carpentry soon... will be a long post!

I bought Grohe purifier and concealed shower set from insani. I chose PayPal option for convenience sake so can't comment on bank transfer. Delivery was very fast. Arrived in one week. I was expecting to have to pay GST but didn't need to even though items all exceeded S$400. Oops just saw you got another thread being answered. Duplicate?

Painting Boo-Boo and DIY DIY 1: Painting Our Own Cement Screed Effect A little bit of rehash – we were leaving the wall tiles in the kitchen, service yard and common bathroom untouched and had them screeded over with cement to go for a more industrial look and to save on hacking costs. For painting, my FIL offered the services of his close friend (let’s call him Uncle X) who is in the construction business and said all we needed was to buy our own paint and pay them a token sum. I was a little reluctant as I would rather let the ID handle the painting, but my husband wanted to save a little bit more and said he will co-ordinate the painting. Just as our ID took a break for CNY, Uncle X asked if they can start the painting works. At that point in time, the wet-works just started, and our ID said it’s too soon. We also said it’s too soon. But Uncle X said that they will paint a base coat/sealer for the ceiling because the existing colour is very dark (we’re gonna have white ceilings) and it needs a few coats anyway. My husband reasons that Uncle X’s workers were free and he wanted to better utilise his manpower. So we bought 2 cans of 5L sealer for them to paint the ceiling in the living room. This will turn into my biggest regret for the renovation… We only discovered the mistake 1 week later when we brought the in-laws over to have a look at the house during CNY. To my horror, I realised the painters had painted the sealer all over the cement screed in the kitchen, service yard and bathroom!! And the best part is, because they ran out of sealer, they didn’t manage to completely paint over the dark parts of the ceiling in the living room (WHICH WAS THE WHOLE POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE). Even talking about it now still brings pain… Uncle X's workers sure kena scolded by my husband and my FIL. We had to ask the ID to re-screed the common bathroom (at additional cost, ouch!!), but we decided to paint the walls in the kitchen and service yard. And since the walls are kind of rough, we thought perhaps we should try to do some special effects paint, like Momento. This is our own version of a special effects wall… Firstly, we had the painter paint the kitchen and service yard walls with a light grey colour: I was very anal and pasted “DO NOT PAINT” Post-it’s on our common bathroom cement screed walls, because God forbid the painters eff up another time and I will be inclined to commit murder! The next step required some sea sponges which one can easily buy from Art Friend: Using the same light grey colour which the walls have been painted to, I also mixed in some white and also a darker grey-blue colour (which we got as leftover paint from a friend who just recently renovated), and randomly sponged on the different shades of color: My handsome husband savouring his chance to express his minimal artistic skills hahaha...! As fun as it was sponging, the effect was not very impressive… I decided to just paint over the embarrassment and forget it ever happened. But funnily, I had attempted to use a damp roller with some light grey paint and as I rolled over the sponge effect, it created an accidental dreamy effect which the husband really liked! Wowza! So the last step, which was an accidental finding, was to use a stiffer-than-normal roller with some water and to lightly roll over the sponge effect, essentially blurring over the previous effect. Not really the cement screed effect I was hoping for (and I think it’s mainly due to the paint I used having a bluish tone rather than cement grey) but looks alright I guess! DIY 2: Spray Painting Switch Boxes Having a HDB unit means the sockets and switches cannot be flush mounted into the wall, so they will have to be surface mounted onto plastic switch boxes that only come in a standard white colour. Since we decided to go for a darker colour for the switches, white switchboxes would be an eyesore. LeGrand Mallia colour choices. What a variety!! I remember reading @bie18's blog about spray painting the switch boxes after it was mounted, which sounds like a lot of work, so I told my ID upfront about passing me the switch boxes first to spray paint: I used Krylon Fusion White as a primer mainly because a lot of the DIY stuff I read online emphasized on the use of primer, so I thought no harm having it, especially since my ID warned me that scratches will remove the spray paint and it will look ugly, so I want to minimize the risk. I got Nippon’s Pylox 47 Matt Black since I recall someone recommending Nippon spray paint on RT. Seems to spray on quite nicely and has a matte, powdery finish! Important things to note about spray painting: Don’t be impatient and don’t get too close when spraying! 20-30cm away is good. Keep moving the spray can up/down or left/right - don't stay at one spot. A nice, firm pressure on the nozzle to prevent splatter of paint drops - otherwise will form bumps on the surface Multiple thin coats is definitely better than one thick coat!! Do in a well-ventilated area! The smell is quite awful

Thanks @fifteenmay! Hope to see the end result of your renovations soon Best of luck!

Hi there @Belle26, Following your t-blog to see the outcome of your house. Very interesting selection of tiles you've got! Just thought I'd give an idea regarding the pipes beneath the vanity sink. Like you, we're not getting any vanity cabinets so I had to purchase my own brass basin bottle trap and a chrome L-pipe for the plumber. We want the pipes to look like this: We got ours from Wasserbath which was where we got our WC and sinks from. They threw in both the bottle trap and L pipe for $50 each set (so $100 for both bathrooms). Hope this helps! Otherwise you can consider painting the white PVC pipes with a nicer color?

Painting We really like Dulux’s Colour of the Year – Denim Drift, so that made us choose Dulux for our paint! And they sell this really cute testers on Lazada, so I got quite a few different colours and painted them on some A4 art paper to have a better idea how the colors would be like, rather than rely on the catalogue or brochure as that may be quite inaccurate. Each box of 3-6 comes with a $15 voucher to use when you buy a 5L can of Dulux paint. 3 testers sell for $9.90 while 6 testers are $15.90 on Lazada. So we shortlisted these 6 colours for our place: The testers also were helpful in marking out the walls: We bought our own paint from Everglow Paints 287 Changi Road S(419766) because we're getting our own painters (more on that later) and Everglow was the cheapest and seemed trustworthy (we liked the fact that their invoice got Bible verses on it, so cute!) They recommended us to get the Pentalite series (Nippon Vinilex equivalent) as it has a matte finish and is easy to touch up. As much as we would like to get the better series such as those washable type, those need the walls to have very smooth finish so probably best for those who are doing plastering. And they also informed us that if any part of the wall need some touch up, the whole wall has to be painted in one go. Their 5L matte paint (Dulux or Nippon) is about $45-50 each, depending on colour. 1L cans are about $15 each. 20L can is $110. 1L can is good for one feature wall, while 5L is sufficient for the whole room. Based on the brochures, each litre of paint has an average coverage of 10-11sqm. They recommended Mouldguard instead of the standard Matex paint for ceiling. Mouldguard is $45 for each 5L can, while Matex is $45 for 18L can. They accepted our $15 vouchers, but informed us that they need a while to get those vouchers to AkzoNobel/ICI, hence they will refund us the money once it's processed... so we had to pay the full amount first. No issues with us since their shop is quite near to our place. In total we spent about $500 on our paint. Final results: Nova White has a very slight bluish tinge which we really liked. Surreal Blue turned out way lighter than we thought, and we couldn't tell the difference between Fine Silver and Surreal Blue. So even though we used the colour testers, there were still some unexpected results! Case in point: Gentle Green turned out more aqua than mint! #fail Luckily we got a lot of Nova White leftover (since we bought a 20L can), will get the painter to paint it over the green... Moral of the story is... always expect the unexpected!

Hi everyone, sorry have not been updating for a while... Currently in a busy period for the renovations and am waiting for more things to be completed before I do up more posts. Hopefully will have stuff up by end of this coming week!! Hi @Ks Toh Glad to hear your vertical garden is doing well. I look forward to mine! Yup, going with Toshiba. Will see how it goes for us... we actually don't think they look that nice (especially since LG has outdone itself with the ArtCool series) but as long as they work well, we're happy.