sweetpoison

Hi inthechouse! Read your t-blog and realised you have Alan as your contractor! We nearly sign him up for the job! Hope your reno will continue to run smooth! Anyway, for the "gaps between boxup & tiles", it started as we decided not to have any carpentry to cover the chute as we need more floor space for that area. So I was thinking, what if a roach manages to wriggle its way into our house? We would not be able to take it if it can crawl into any gap and lay eggs there!! Arghhh!! The thought of it really yikes me! And some of them don't even need a mate to reproduce.. To think about that, exactly every corner stands a chance, just that that area has the highest risk! Will share more when we start our carpentry in the kitchen. Most likely after CNY. Thank you for dropping by my t-blog!

Pm-ed! Hope you will find the right person for your reno!

9th Jan - (*disclaimer* any uneven lines or funny looking ceiling/ walls are due to shaky hands of mine when taking panorama shoot using iPhone) Bedroom 3 Living room from many angles

9th Jan - (*disclaimer* any uneven lines or funny looking ceiling/ walls are due to shaky hands of mine when taking panorama shoot using iPhone) View from Living to Kitchen & Access balcony View from kitchen View along access balcony MBR Bedroom 2

On the 7th, met the electrician & ID. Discussed on where the points are and what switch to put. On the 8th, all are done! Followed by false ceilings, all done up today. All these while, tilers were busy tiling the access balcony and completing kitchen, common toilet & MBR areas. Windows for access balcony was up on the 8th. So were the toilets windows. We are really pleased with the speed of our reno is going till we feel that we may have delay it as we only confirm our toilet doors colours and wall paints today! Thumbs up for our ID who did all the coordinations and ensure things go well! So now, photos time! Kitchen Area - hollow blocks sealed up previous kitchen entrance and storeroom door (4th Jan) View of kitchen from access balcony 8th Jan - Tiling of access balcony; windows up! Kitchen tiling MBR toilet windows up! Plans sticked on hall wall to remind electricians & false ceiling guys...

Side track here.. This morning we saw a patch of water mark under the trunks. My ID said he found a bottle of water spill over and he had cleared it. But he checked again after I asked if he's really sure. Found water droplets right underneath the trunks! Dunno if it's the air con bracket drilling not sealed properly or the bottle of spilled water.. Decided to get Gain City guys to come back on Monday to check.

Now, another first world country issue... Can anyone share some ideas what can we do about these eyesore trunks? My dad suggested a mini box up but I doubt we will have the space to do so. I was thinking if we will need long curtains to hide these but I don't really like having long curtains.

As for the air cons.. MBR Bedroom 2 Bedroom 3 Actually, we did not know the exact specs of our new air con system. Only after we got it, I realised it wasn't Starmex as I came across some posts from fellow t-bloggers here.. Not that I have any specific wants, just thought that it will be really useful for peeps (like me) who do not know there are actually '2' mitsubishi to read ~~http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/62505-top-kew-drive/?p=833728 ~~http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/53461-our-cosy-hideout/?p=755068 These two links are really useful for those who are still considering which air con to get!

Latest update: 5th Jan - Air Con installation by Gain City. We bought Mitsubishi Daiya System 3 ~ Inverter (SCM60ZJS~3XSRK25ZJS). Had to get the bracket as well as the ex owners used an antique air con unit. In order to minimise the numbers of trunk running all over the rooms, my man decided with the GC guys to have them all at a corner. In the end, MBR has the most trunks And as for the old air con has to be removed, the GC guys patched up the hole in the wall for us. Antique AirCon After removal Patched work done The GC guys finished their job at this stage.. my goodness! Luckily after asking our ID for help, he got his guy to plaster up for us! Finished job! It is not perfectly even surface, but for sure, we prefer this than that woody art piece! Hope the patch work is well done and we will not have any water leaking through.

??? do you mean my area?

Hi Newadventure, Mine is ID, not contractor. So do you still want the name?

So far, our ID has been good & efficient.. *cross fingers He has been replying our whatsapp and checking/confirming with us before he orders stuffs/ starting with tilings etc.. Till date, only small misunderstanding once or twice but was settled very fast. I can't wait to see it all done as well!

Hahaha! My man told me to quickly upload the photos after reading your previous reply regarding the permit. He said I'm confusing people. heehee Yup, I have always love to have a bright & airy home! So big windows is one of the musts to have when we were househunting.

Hi Tessina, Actually we asked the previous owner if it's possible to hack that kitchen wall down. She mentioned that some units did. So we did our little research by going around the neighbourhood. Looking up from the void decks, I saw two units did the same. So we tried our luck for the permit, hoping that's legal to do so.

Thank you for reading my t-blog! I was still wondering if anyone will read it..

As of yesterday, the storeroom & kitchen original entrances were sealed. Will be having the air con installation (GainCity) today. And meeting up with our ID next week for a revised workflow plan! Finally I have catch up my t-blog with my current reno works. Should have started off since day one. Hopefully I have not confuse or bored any of you. Happy Weekends!

Kudo to this man in the photo! My man said he was the one running the 'one man show', hacking and clearing all the debris!! Love my place TOTALLY!!

On the last day of 2013, our ID told us that HDB has approved the kitchen/access wall!! WOOHOO!! It was already in the late afternoon when we received the news. Called the HDB officer and was surprised that he was still in his office! Was asked to called him as my ID said he only received a call regarding the approval but in the system, permit was still under pending status. Told the HDB officer about it, he was really nice by explaining the situation to me. Apparently, he personally took our approved permit to his supervisor and left only after he saw his supervisor updated the system. Anyway, everything was arranged promptly by my ID after the call. On the 2nd Jan, he personally went down to the HDB office, got the printed out permit and our wall is finally DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!

Hacking Permits This is the part that we have the biggest headache. For hacking of the storeroom/masterbed room wall & changing of the common toilet entrance, the permits were approved fast. For the kitchen/access wall..... boo! Another first world country problem. Called the HDB officer handling our case on the 2nd week of reno. He said that I have to give him at least 2 weeks for the approval because the records for the bought over access area was way before 2006 & there is no record in their system. He has to send in the request form to get the records (that will take about 1 week) then once he got the records, he will send to HQ for approval (that will take around another 1 week). Nearly fainted upon hearing that... 2 weeks are really important to me. I cannot imagine how many works will be delay till to it. Quickly informed our ID & told him to plan the workflow accordingly. Oh! Suddenly remember about how we narrow down our search for ID/contractors. Many that we have met, kept telling us that it's not possible to get that wall down! Due to fire hazard issues.. Flat too old... Unit too low... blah blah.. Even my contractor relative said the same thing! Imagine at that time, we were sharing with them our dream house idea~~... end up being splashed with cold water, still have to "bargain" for our budget and worse, receiving a quotation that has nothing (nothing!) about hacking off that wall.... Anyway, just to share. For hacking permits, please please get your contractor/ID to submit it as soon as possible and follow up closely with the HDB officer handling your permit. And be nice! Moving on, I called my HDB officer on Boxing day. He said received the records two days ago and have sent in the documents to HQ for approval. Told me that we will have to wait till 1st or 2nd Jan 2014 for the result... Swallowed the news and told our ID to do whatever he can first.

We spent a few hours at our place brainstorming about the kitchen that night. Trying hard to think of a plan B if the wall cannot be hacked. Where to place the fridge? What size can our fridge be? Can we have EzLiving for our laundry area? Will we be able to have a mini bar/island? At the same time, going through every corner of the house thinking of new ideas and what we may have left out for the reno. At the end of the night, my man came out with this idea to whatsapp our ID about some of our decisions.

Hacking of the common toilet new entrance was done at the same time with the hacking of the storeroom wall. All these were done 2 days after Xmas, despite the permit for the kitchen/access area wall was still in pending. Hacking of storeroom wall View from Masterbed room. Now we have a passage way straight to the kitchen! As you can see, the kitchen wall wasn't down yet.

Changing the common toilet entrance They are putting up hollow blocks even before the wall for the new entrance is down. Hacked after permit approved .

These are the tiles I have chose for the common toilet. Was thinking that since our main colour for kitchen is white, might as well have a matching toilet! LOL! After getting these, this is when the 'first world country problem comes'.. how do we want to place the wall tiles?? Did some research on my own, thought maybe I don't want the toilet to be too dark as it is already such a small space. Just place the black tiles behind the bathroom vanity area. My man didn't seems to buy my idea, so ID suggested to place the black tiles behind WC & shower area. Saying that it will make our rainshower & WC "pop out". I was not convinced till I saw this online.

Now for the common toilet. We decided to change the entrance of it during the 2nd week of reno. Actually months ago, we played with the idea when Mr A suggested to me after hearing me complaining there's no space for washing machine. But I brushed the idea aside, thinking "less hacking = less $$ spend". But I really can't think of any other corner to put a washing machine! So, mainly for the sake of a laundry area, we changed the entrance. Common toilet If you guys can see, there's a water pipe on the right wall sticking out. That's the pipe the ex owners used for their washing machine and the machine was placed right outside the entrance. Meaning, people have to circle around the machine each time they use the toilet. Hacked Wall Tiles up Just before Xmas

Good Good! So by end Feb, you & your family can enjoy the beautiful scenery by the balcony!