Catt

6 Aug Update: Still nothing exciting...currently they are doing up the 'foundation' of the house so that they can put on the make-up soon. Went in today to receive the lights from Chan Huat and I forgot to check on the small pullout spiceholder/ pantry I ordered from Excelhardware Got bored waiting and started sanding the walls myself and digging up plaster that had splattered on the floor tiles. At this point I'm past bothering if they cover the floor as long as they clean it up and hand it to me in pristine condition. The trunkings no longer look that bad after they plastered the gaps... so that's over and done with for now. Monday should be installation of lights so I'm prepared to spend a few hours there and take some work calls at the same time (I'm on a week's leave but it's superficial since I'm working from home...have 31 days to clear). Till next time!!

Here ya go: WC: Baron W-888 Shower & mixer: Grohe Tempesta (tap and mixer can mix and match as part of the package)

Hi georgieporgie you are very patient to get through my rantings I stumbled onto one or two forum postings on this contractor (H**** - google and you can find the contractor's contact and FB.The company's been around since 1981 apparently). And decided to go with a straight-forward straight-cut contractor since his quote fitted in majority of what the IDs couldn't. Of course you need to have an idea of what you want (and I really don't recommend the electricians he used) ...don't bumble through it like me! Caeserstone for this particular model was the so-called premium range so it cost about $220psf. I believe they have other ranges that are under $150-$250. I didn't chose it purposely for being 'premium'- I chose it for the quartz design (Vanilla Noire) which I really like. The only reason I believe I had my shipping upgraded and waived was because I'd bought this on 4th July and 10 days later my order still had no delivery ETA. I believe they made a booboo because after I emailed Amazon, they immediately offered to waive and upgrade saying that the sink was OOS. I called the CS the same day and a different person told me that the sink had 11 in stock and her colleague made a mistake. Anyway it all sounded rather nonsensical because I was told despite expedited shipping it would arrive on 1st Sept. It got here on 1st Aug....wth...

1 Aug'16 Update: I took half-day leave yesterday since the contractor told me that the electricians and pipe-work/ plumbing guys would be there in the afternoon and I also had to receive the Kraus sink from DHL. Little did I know that I would be faced with an army of people and it was utterly chaotic. I couldn't really take pictures because that would mean squeezing under someone's armpit, stepping on someone's foot. Most of the time the only safe place to stand was in the bedroom, and I lost my base when the plumbing (?) people came and snatched away the WC, sink and heater to install. I ended up hiding in the utility room while my father joined in the demon horde. Everything seemed to be moving very fast to me since the renovation had been moving at a leisurely pace for the past month. Piping was done up in a hour or two, and the electricians came to change the trunkings that were torn. Citigas turned up way too early when the contractor was not around and they fixed the gas pipe too low. Now he has to ask them to come back again. Wah lao eh..sibei waste time and money. The sub-con for the sandblasted toilet door and shower screen also turned up to do measurements, and he and the contractor kept warning me that the sandblasted door would show fingerprints and oils, and for it to look 'even' I would be required to wipe the entire piece. Normal sized toilet bowl in a tiny toilet. This was placed there but not fixed yet, so it's not in its final placement. Also that is not a piece of poo on the ground...think it is some of the un-plastered doorway that fell. My father asked me why I bought such a big WC.... Heater partially installed. They punched a few holes through my beautiful toilet wall so that they could run the water pipes from the back of the kitchen counter through to the washroom for the sink and shower. My mixer is useless one... I bought it as part of the Grohe package, but my hotwater comes from the heater, so the hot/cold function won't work on the mixer. Some ugly piping/ trunking pictures for your viewing horror. I keep telling myself that this is what happens when you don't have a L-box or false ceiling or upper cabinets to hide them. The water pipe doesn't look that bad. Initially I chucked a princess tantie but I felt sorry for my dad who was supervising the plumbing guys on the best way to run it, so I shut up and went to the bedroom to console myself by stroking the Kraus sink. Trunking should look better after it is painted over...and the water pipe is an industrial element RIGHT?!! Darkling Half added oil to fire by gasping in horror when I sent her the pictures, so I told her to shuddap. Lastly, room full of 'presents'. Everything is in this room except the lighting. I will arrange for delivery sometime next week I guess. I think UU shipped their resident warehouse cockroach along with the toilet bowl. My dad squashed it with the box that the toilet lid came in but the little devil was still alive. Yuck. Sorry for the boring pics, guess there will not be anything exciting till the carpentry goes up.

Best of luck @ashes02. This will truly be all yours! Cheers to a new chapter!

No...changed it. Some were in a bad state and I just heck it all and changed it to save me the OCD worry.

@trcd I'm quite kiasu. I have 2 ventilator fans as the bathroom is quite humid

@kingandbin yah... I don't really know if it makes a difference whether we start before or during Hungry Ghost. I've just been nagged nonstop about it. What's interesting is that I'm nagged by younger friends, whereas my parents just rolled their eyes when I mentioned it . I like the tiles for the toilet too! Love at first sight... Yeah I thought the chute was white, till I took a closer look and realised it was a protective layer. Chey! But stainless steel is ok too.

Thanks Bykaraanne...I've been warned with all kinds of horror stories, but good to know it isn't all true!

Thanks JohnJohn for sharing...glad I'm not alone on this Hungry Ghost thing. My friends have been nagging me to death about this and I just find it interesting how people are able to pick and choose what they believe in... Looks like your own reno journey is coming to an end. Time to finally enjoy your home!

@trcd I totally agree on the HD vision eyes. I'm quite a 'focused' person so I don't notice things that aren't on my mind to be noticed that particular day. It's been extremely helpful having another pair of eyes to tell me that something's not quite right. Colours! OMG I empathize with you deeply. I could't figure out the colour of the kitchen tiles and at one point thought they had sent the wrong colour... now I'm reluctant to send in my paint colours as I think they will turn out to be not what I think they are. Laminates too! I hope you manage to solve your door issue!

30 Jul'16: Been busy with end of quarter workstuff, and also grateful that my boss is pretty flexibile when it comes to working hours as I've been requested to run over to the house now and then for hours to supervise the workers or to provide inputs into what what I want to do. Plenty of grief, plenty of happiness! Today I spent my Saturday working with the carpenter and also going back another time just to check on the toilet accessories which I was finally ask to have delivered. The Taobao/ t-mall medicine cabinet for the washroom had also arrived 10 mins before the Universal Union toilet/ kitchen items. The UU guy kindly waited for us to arrive so that we could check the items' condition. So many grievous issues (mostly my fault as I had an idealistic view of things and how I thought things should look) but thank goodness my dad was there to hold my hand and calm me down, offer me alternative ideas and also to reason with me. Darkling Half was also super happy as I ceded and managed to get the gate she wanted....photos to come when the house is ready. Here are some pics of the progress: Flooring done. Skirting almost done. Progress is slow ( I am quite lax to be honest) but the tiling is really pretty. Nothing cuts my feet and the gaps are really neat and small. Nothing to fault at all: This caused me some grief and I was sweating so badly because I could feel myself getting really pek chek. The **** pipe! The carpenter had advised me to box up the pipe which I did not want as the box-up would be an awful hatchet shape that would mar my beautiful subway-tiled wall. Of course my father reasoned with me, and after a car drive with him, I came to a solution, where I would end my kitchen cabinet before the pipe and not encase the rubbish chute door in a cabinet. I mean the door of the chute is flat against the wall, and doesn't look awful at all...I could live with it I guess. This made me so happy and for a few minutes I forgot about sewage pipes and ugly trunkings. I'd initially agreed to have the shampoo shelves done with two toilet tiles pressed together. However, the contractors' didi had suggested I ask for it to be done in granite or marble. So here they are, in Black Galaxy granite. It might cost me a bottle of mid-standard wine..but I could live with that: My friends who had their air-conditioning drainage pipe buried and joined to their drain pipe would sniff at this, but I was really happy with what I saw. There are no annoying long pipes that would breed mold! The pipe is covered with cement dust at the moment and looks a bit dirty...but whatever right! Nah, more toilet pics. I think the washroom is my new favorite place until they add the pipes and trunking for electricals . Here's the full view of the shower area. The step-down can't really be seen since the tiles are the same. I hope I don't trip and fall one drunken stormy night. The view from the shower into the WC area. WC just arrived today and will be installed on Monday with the sink etc etc. I found it really funny that they changed the pipe to move it closer to the sewage pipe but they didn't cut the entranceway bigger. Anyhoos, still pleased and happy with the tiling work. Lastly, the AC trunking. Looks nutty and ugly but this was suggested by my dad. We ran everything around the edge of the wall so that the original placement (running parallel next to the window) wouldn't obstruct the installation of blinds/ curtains. Looks freaking horrible and my bed's headboard would never lie flat against the wall...but hey, if I wanted it all perfect shouldn't I work harder and get out of a HDB? However, overall I am still quite pleased with the trunking work of these boys and I have no complaints. Good job! Walls are yet to be painted and I'm procrastinating on providing the paint type numbers to my contractor. Next...skeptical me will renovate well into Hungry Ghost Festival. Woo woo!! BTW my door number almost hit the first prize lottery. If it's near..means it's gonna strike soon!

@trcd I've not had the chance to take more pics since the last visit where half the house was a swamp and they were tiling the living room (I couldn't get near to the kitchen). I'm going down tomorrow to speak to the electrician and supervise the airconditioning folks, so hopefully can get more pics and finally figure out why the kitchen floor tiles look more grey than brownish grey . By the way am so happy for you that your toilet is done up and fan(s) installed!

@GoldieG haven't had the opportunity to touch it yet (the last time I visited they were tiling the kitchen floor). Yeh I think it would be better on a flat wall than wrapped over beams and corners. But they are very pretty... I love my kitchen walls!

Hey @GoldieG! We did explore that as well, but it only works if the tiles are flat. Unfortunately the subway tiles are 3D and of uneven width throughout. Thank you for the suggestion though! I think I can live with it, it doesn't look that noticeable to be honest.

Update for 30 July 2016 Wow...just wow, looks like everyone's trying to cause me to have a meltdown. I guess I've been too nice and smiley? Probably they want to see me freak out? Before anyone asks why the progress is so slow... I've given them a nice long time period to complete renovation. Everything is pretty on track at the moment (tiling and hacking took a month, I know right...but I'm not rushing) except this trunking issue. Electricals are done by a sub-con,,, my main contractor seems pretty pissy about them as well. He's supposed to arrange for a meeting with the subcons this coming Friday/ Saturday, so I shall do some meditation before that so that I will not erupt in an explosion of vile temper. But this workmanship is NOT acceptable. I've lived in some pretty **** crappy rental homes and I've never seen such inexcusable bad work. The tilers were trying to placate me when I first spotted it (yes I DIDN'T notice this till 2 weeks later..so my fault?) by telling me that they usually plaster up the gaps. Oh for crying out loud, if you zoom into the picture, you can see that a triangle gap was badly patched with a square piece of trunking so there are more gaps....don't tell me you can plaster that up because if I need to open the trunking in future to add another light or fix something, who is going to come and patch it back up for me again? How am I going to trust them with the installation of the lights? Do I have to stand behind those two subcons the entire day and watch them like a hawk? If so, luckily I have a month's leave to clear. Unacceptable!! *FUMES* Discovered some chips in the first 2 rows of floor tiles before they grouted it, so they promptly rectified it which was fine. I'm just not sure if I am required to go down on all fours to run my fingers on all the tiles in the house to check for chips on my next visit. Amazon has NO shipping date available for the sink yet (I'm faithfully calling them up every 2 days so they don't forget me, but seriously what the **** Amazon...). On a more positive note, it seems that Harvey Norman may be having a National Day sale, so I'm going to bank on that to get the fridge and washer. The contractor also called me up to confirm on the creation of some shampoo ledges in granite (the initial proposal was two pieces of tiles pressed together- ugly!) yesterday, probably to placate me about the ugly-arsed trunking. Edit: Amazon finally sent me the Kraus sink ship-out information and eta today (27 Jul 2016). Maybe my pestering did work?

Yep! Guess time will tell...I'll visit again on Saturday and scrutinize it!

Nice idea Changbp, it does make it look neater. The tiler did suggest it, but my dad doesn't like it unfortunately... he has some weird aesthetic reasoning of his own. I know it's my house, but since I've shot down every one of his ideas, I'm just giving in to one of his. So I'm going with the "rough-and-ready" look since it's subway tiles and throw my OCD-ness out of the window. Times like this, my fingers itch to do the work myself....

Trcd: Guess you know what I'll be doing this weekend with the patch above the blower. Will try the soap and water and hope it comes off! I did take down the dimensions of the sink so if the contractor needed to he could get the carpenter to start work. However I really hope that it arrives sooner as my colleague went through the same thing (with an undermount Taobao sink) and the online dimensions were slightly off in comparison to the real thing. I'm just very paranoid because these sinks are not common here and I don't want the carpenter to forget that this baby weighs a hefty 30kg (empty). I believe the folks in US build a different type of support for farmhouse sinks. I realised you bought pendant lights instead of tracks...I did the opposite (first idea was to pendant light the whole house). Hopefully it's bright enough, if not I still have 6 emergency Ikea floor lamps to 'aid' me. Gotta thank @ricepapergirl for the Chan Huat recommendation though, bought all the lights in one afternoon.

Yah JohnJohn...still it's end Aug/beginning Sep delivery ETA. So much for 'expedited' shipping which is supposed to take a week. Feels like they are still blowing smoke up my arse...or smoking something really powerful...I haven't broken the news to my contractor yet. He might have conniptions since in 2-3 weeks his carpenter is coming and he needs to measure and have the caeserstone cut.

20 Jul'16- Another Helluva Day Went down today at the request of my contractor to discuss 'stuff'. Mainly to deal with the subway tiles in the kitchen and other miscellaneous items like door catalogues, paint colours, measurements and confirmation of this'n'that. I'm quite naggy and he's quite forgetful...together we form the 'old couple' team. Maybe I should be more professional when talking to him, rather than saying things like "I'll beat you if you make me wait for 90 mins again". Anyway, I was really happy when I got there, cos I saw this, and I got that feeling you get when you nagged at your parents that you want a puppy and one day there's a pet carrier sitting in the house when you get home from school..... or when you are checking your Toto numbers and when you get past the first 3 sets and your numbers match: Half-finished product: The frames and tinted glass still stacked in a corner: A not very good picture of the subway tiles being put up at the kitchen. I love my subway tiles as they are so small and cute! Then the tiler pointed this out to me (that's my darling father's thumb in the pic- I visited with him yesterday). WHY?! Argh! It didn't occur to me that I couldn't do a 45 degree cut as the tiles are different in thickness due to the 3D effect. So there's this ugly-looking gap at all corners/ beams. My father suggested grouting the gaps in white instead of black or grey so that the uneven BIG gap would be less noticeable. Luckily he was there otherwise I would have another meltdown... I spent the evening staring at the tofu tiles in the toilet of my rental house while showering, thinking how ****tily done up they were but yet still neat around the corners.... My father thinks that they have done a really good tiling job, and I have to admit that the gaps are really even between each tile. I don't see them using tiny strips of cards to create an even gap and yet they got it so uniform. I left the unit in high spirits then checked my email while waiting for a cab back to work....and my spirits fell into the bottom of my heels. Amazon CS wrote back to say that they were sorry for not updating my shipping status for the Kraus Farmhouse sink and tap for 9 days since I first ordered. The sink was out of stock and they didn't know when it would be available. I nearly threw myself in front of an oncoming lorry, but my heel was stuck firmly in a gap on the road and I couldn't jump. When I got back to the office, I frantically called Amazon US and the CS told me that that piece of information was wrong as there were 13 pieces available now. They gave me free (and upgraded) Global Expedited Shipping for the mistake (ok I saved SGD$350 there), but the ETA is still going to be end of August or 1st September. Wah lao eh. Scared me!

I tried. Haha. Anyway it doesn't matter, I was just concerned as I hope the same thing won't occur at my new place

I was thinking soot but...cant think of why it would happen. Or burn marks like those you can see round fluoroscent tubing.

- deleted whole rant about contractors who made me wait 1.5 hrs for nothing and nasty neighbours with smelly shoes. Here's a question to everyone out there: Have you seen this black patch above your airconditioning unit before? Do you know what causes it and how it can be cleaned/ prevented? Picture below shows the A/C unit in my rental unit home which was installed by the landlord about 2 years ago, so I'm the first 'user'. Recently I noticed there was a sooty looking black patch on the ceiling right above it. This A/C is serviced regularly every 3 months and I wash the filters myself every 2 weeks.

trcd, in the end the white textured one I selected was over the budget...now I have to look for alternatives. I like "Ground" too...decisions decisions!