tikiman
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Everything posted by tikiman
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The plumber that came to fix the water pipes was a funny fellow (Mr Chew). He is a very cheerful old man who chain-smoke. Despite protest by my contractor, he comes in shorts and slippers. Regardless, his works at his own pace, accurately measures and calculate the position to drill and overall did a good job. I have drawn out a piping plan previously, but before I can show him, he tell me how he is going to lay the pipes exactly what I wanted. He also took the effort to drill only on the grout lines for the pipe clips. My contractor had bought stainless steel pipes that were made in Singapore. Mr Chew commented they were of good quality. Sad to hear that he can only work for another 1.5 years, as he would not be able to afford the future down payment for COE of his van.
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As mentioned earlier, our contractor A is no ID. Tikimum had asked him to come up with a dry kitchen design. He provided us with a drawing few days back, one look and we was brought back to the past when home owners fill the whole wall with cabinets. So it was back to the drawing board, I traced out the framework and redesign the kitchen (very rough work), and put in colors of the cabinets.
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yes, this team of tillers are very accommodating. If there was a problem, they will discuss with us first before proceeding. TikiFamily also very nice, we pack lunch and tea for them. Ah weng and ah meng are good tilers. Very careful with their work, unlike those blanga or china workers that does the BTO flooring, 偷工减料. We specifically told our contractor that we want experienced tilers from Malaysia, and will check for hollow sound after the work is done.
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While goggling for variation of subway tiles, both tikimum and I saw this. I immediately felt that this pattern will work if we make some minor changes to the original plan. Pillars and area that are boxed up will be tiled with large white porcelain to give it a white seamless glossy finish. While the 2 wall area would be tiled with subway tiles using herringbone pattern. Ah weng was happy with our suggestion, and finish the herringbone pattern before lunch. One side of the wall with herringbone tiles Wet work are almost complete. All that remains are the main door area, skirting and other minor touchup.
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Today, ah meng has finished the MBR flooring. Ah Weng (the tao chew) was about to start the backsplash late noon, and that was when another issue came up. Our kitchen has a pillar and sewage pipe to be boxed up. We were intending to do subway tiles horizontally, but problem appear when we want to joint the tiles at the protruding corner. tiles that are cut will have two different tone, and not chamfered. Hence it will look ugly. After a short discussion, we decided to tile the backsplash vertically. I felt uncomfortable with the decision, as no matter how I visualized, the design just look terrible. Tikimum was also at a loss. Back home, I googled "vertical subway tiles", and immediately we knew our decision was terribly wrong. Visually it looks like white candles or bamboo ( a big no no). We immediately brainstormed and came out with some changes and an ideal design solution to the problem. Tomorrow we will discuss with Ah weng in the morning. It all goes well. we will reveal our idea
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At the start of the reno journey, Tikimum and I discussed over the use of chrome vs Stainless Steel. Advantage of Chrome 1. More designs to choose from. 2. More well established brands. 3. Bling factor - looks nice and shiny. Advantage of SS 1. it does not tarnish like chrome 2. understated, more industrial look 3. matches with the ss water piping. We finally decided on SS to have a consistent look to flow with the stainless steel pipes. We started our search a few weeks ago, beginning with SSC and saw some SS fittings under the brand VRH from Thailand, but the sales-person was more interested in introducing me European products in chrome. We then went over to other stores along Geylang, and finally landed at Heritage. There we attended by a chilli padi by the name of Yuki. We ended up buying most of the toilet fittings as their pricing was most competitive, and service was good as Yuki takes the extra mile to help us check and order items that were on supplier catalogue. Basin mixer. Like the kitchen sink mixer, this basin mixer was ordered through the KoLM catalogue. Bib tap - to be fixed with a flexible hose. Bidet & Valve - save the earth, and cut usage of paper
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We have gone to many places to look for bathroom fittings; Hoe Kee, Sim Siang Choon and those at Geylang. Our first stop was HK because my parents showed us an ad on newspaper the day before we planned our Hunt-for-WC adventure. We went to their warehouse at Genting lane, and it was a bloody waste of time. the staff were not interested to serve customers and most of the basins were poor quality even by MIC products. So we drove to SSC @ Changi next as it has probably the largest selection of bathroom fittings on display. We walked around on our own as the staff were also pre-occupied with themselves. Tikimum and I came across this old school white porcelain kitchen sink and immediately fell in love with Sandra by RAK. It is 1 meter in length and will definitely take up a good section of our kitchen countertop. Tikimum approached one of the salesperson to find out the country of origin of this RAK sink and we were told it is an U.A.E product. http://www.rakbathware.com/kitchen%20sink-products.html# We have also got a simple stainless steel kitchen sink mixer to go along with the porcelain sink. Will tell more about it in the next post.
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no problem, today went to HoHo Engrg and they have a similar door in their catalogue. thanks
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I notice your doors are very different. where did you get them as we have been looking for such doors. thanks
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This morning, the tiler, Ah Meng started to lay the floor tiles. We like him. he is very meticulous in his work. In our quest to have wood-like porcelain tiles, we did lot of research on the different length, quality and installation processes. We have been adviced by sales person at SBH that we have to keep a 2mm gap between tiles. This is due of possible warping. We also heard of such occurrence with long tiles that comes from china. The large spacing will be an issue in the later years when the grouting starts to look dirty and trap dirt. The betulla tiles we choose did not warp, and I told Ah meng to lay them as close as possible (within 1mm). We also told him that in an event where the tile beside looks about the same, either twist it 180degree or place it somewhere else. Update: After completing tiling the hall, ah meng told me there were few piece of the betulla tiles that were slightly warped.
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On Saturday, we designed our 'random' floor tile arrangement to show the tiler how it should be laid. Each tile is 16 x 100cm. We divided the length into 5cm intervals to arrange the design as random as possible for 20 tiles. Why 20? 20 tiles will produce 3.2m width, when visitors come into the house, they will not notice the repetition. A photoshopped birdeye view:
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