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Week 6 Updates Part 1 It's the end of week 6 and things are building and moving much faster with most of the installation expected to complete by week 7 thanks to amazing job by our ID... Kitchen Kitchen cabinets have gone up after the massive "work out" they did yesterday. The panels have started going up as well with the sliding panels going in by Monday. We got some bad news today that our chosen kitchen top which was a grey granite top does not have enough materials for our kitchen so we have to swap. This was the choice given to us and ended up we don't have too much to complain for as this granite top looks so much like a marble finish. We didn't go with marble because of its porous finishing and to get this marble effect with granite is more than we could ask for. I guess there is a good in every bad . Dining Coloured Wall We went with a geometric paint job for our dining wall with the open slot between the cabinet is where our F&P fridge will sit. A subtle touch of color to the white wall. Kids Playroom We built up a wall to wall cabinet in the original MBR upstairs to act as storage for kids toys and also as a storage for the house.

Congrats..Always feel good and great to see things moving for sure.

Thank you and it was a concern and a big challenge since day 1 and we are glad to have engage the right ID for the job.Feared the possibility of completion yesterday but was quash today when we drop by the unit and see 4 teams working in the tight space. We saw the tiler cement screeding an area missed out earlier so a door can go in today. The aluminium guys who are up to install all our partition frames in kitchen, study area and MBR shower. Carpenters who moved the full load in and working on it and also the painters who are squeezing in all the tight spaces around pockets of space to paint. This has left me impressed with the wrmfforys made by our ID when she made us the promise that she would try her best for us. We understand coordinating so many teams will lead to frustration as all their work gets hampered by lack of space and often have to wait for others to finish before they can do their part so time wasted. But all were still smiles and great banter going on between the different groups as they also know each other well as the ID team. ID also made the effort to fabricate all our carpentry over 3 teams instead of 1 carpentry team so all items can be fabricated for installation ASAP. End result? Detailing discussion on 9th sept and installation today in a week. So glad we are working with someone so attentive to our needs and understands our requirements.

TB Time It's time for some TB and after shopping the hot areas for lightings like Balestier and some others in Paya Lebar Ubi areas we came to a conclusion. Most of the shops are getting their supplies from TB but we pay the premiums buying here for the QC done by the shops locally compared to us taking the risk and purchasing ourselves on TB. Decided to take a plunge by going 50-50 which meant 50% of our lights sources locally with 50% purchased from TB. Can't resist the savings and more so the variety of choice to choose from really. So here are some of our loot which are on their way over freight now. (Fingers cross all will arrive safely and nothing missing) Paint work is ongoing now and hope that finishes well.

Yes anticipating the next phase to come too. Let's see what gets done next week. Glad to see that my ID is able to coordinate multiple team of workers in site working at the same time to expedite the whole Reno process.

A Panoramic View Took a trip down to our unit today and took a panoramic shot of our MBR/MBR Shower/Study/Wet Area & Kitchen/Dining area. MBR Panoramic Kitchen & Dining View Painting now in line for next week while awaiting carpentry fabrication and installations...

Recent Purchase We have decided to make the painful decision to let go our old Fisher & Paykel and get in a new one. After all we have had the former unit for 7 years with no issues but thought we didn't want to move an electronic item and then have to deal with it break down and have to replace it. We settled for the following model Got it @ Harvey Normal since they are having some promotion going on for their remaining units left in their stockpile. Been a user of F&P and really have no complaints with it so far.

Just sharing what I've learnt from other T bloggers experiences

ALL ABOUT ROOFING UPDATE Today was roofing day for our new home office cum wet play area for the original service balcony. This is a new and radical approach we took and we are now prepared for the older generations to visit by our new abode and go "why you reno like that"..."Why so funny"...But hey who cares it's our place and reno is suppose to achieve our living habit needs right? Modified Green House Roofing Our original idea for a clear roof over the balcony with Acrylic was shot down due to permit issues with HDB so we played around with other alternatives and tried to go with transparent tiles but yet again the whole roof can't be transparent tiles as they are too light to withstand strong winds under the whole roof format. So we settle for a "Open Window" effect over the roof to still allow natural lighting to come into this area. This is very much a compromise as using glass to do up this roof would have been too costly or rather irresponsible budget wise (Their last case was $9K with over 6 months worth of PE submissions) Well we are also not roofing the whole area leaving a small open space where our "wet play area" uncovered. This will also then serve as our wet area for drying of our laundry and perhaps now we may just hang up a swing for the kids since we have the roofing beams to work with after this roofing is all done up. Will be boxing up the ridiculous design of a circle shape hole and weird gap by the side on our balcony pillar. Hope the complete effect will not look weird....Fingers crossed.

The gap I meant is highlighted in my "ugly drawing" as shown . Its mainly being able to flush the ends to the walls and not leaving a gap to be seen. But if HDB walls are slanted on the sides then when you place a factory manufactured cabinet with straight lines against a slanted wall you will see a gap due to the uneven surface. Hope this helps

Week 5 Updates Part 3 Drawings for our panels are done up by our ID to avoid any discrepancies later on. Kitchen Panels This drawing spots a mistake where each sliding door panel should have a line down the middle separating into 6 parts instead of the 3 parts per panel now in diagram. Staircase Very daring concept proposed by our ID and we liked it and went along with it... Wet Area Separation Panels This panel will separate the original service balcony into 2 parts with 1 part now serving as my home office/study & the other part remains as an outdoor area or wet area where our kids will be able to go thrash and play around. This is also where the access to the rubbish chute area will be. Hence the separation build up here. Now for more work to come tomorrow....carpenter will begin fabrication now as well after our discussion completed with our ID on the detailing.

Week 5 Updates Part 2 In part 2 we will cover the works today after our carpentry detailing session with our ID. Installation of vinyl flooring was done today and completed the majority of areas around the house within a day. This time we are going for installation without any side skirting which is traditionally used when doing up flooring for the home. Vinyl Flooring Color Staircase Flooring The smoothing of the edges will be done up later on. The square markings as drawn on the left tile flooring will be where our new staircase beams will be. So we will be mounting it onto the 1st level flooring instead of the traditional way of by the corner of steps along the staircase. MBR Flooring MBR flooring done up and completed. After today only the new home office is not completed to be coordinated with the roofing guys who will commence work tomorrow and the dining area which has to be coordinated with another team as our kitchen sliding panels tracking will have to go in before the vinyl flooring will continue from there. This makes the tracking of the panels flushed into the flooring. Next post will be the panels which we will be building for the wet area in balcony, kitchen & staircase...

Week 5 Updates Part 1 This is a week for false ceiling/partitioning, flooring & roofing to go in. So it is quite a massive coordination work by our ID to managed 3 teams at a go. We are also to have our carpentry detailing discussion this week with her to firm up the laminate colors and internal configurations of the carpentry items. So here goes: Partition of New MBR Entrance Partition for Extension of Walk in Wardrobe We have extended it outwards into the service balcony area to make up for the lack of space in this converted area. MBR Bathroom Vanity Partition wall build up and extended outwards as well to make up space for the build up of our vanity top which will be in the middle of the concrete wall and partition wall location.

Remember coming across another Tblog who mentioned using Ikea kitchen and the issues lies in the uneven walls of HDB and the fact that Ikea cabinets are all build perfectly. So the main issue is the alignment on installation. Carpentry is better cos the installation is when the carpenters will adjust and make up for these uneven walls but ikea ones can't be helped.

Nice...my turn for carpentry detailing discussion now . Can't wait for the next phase to kick in after wiring and AC piping went in last week.

Congrats and let the adventure begin...

Thanks bro Thanks bro for your recommendation to head to Hansgrohe Well sure hope so it would be looking great.

Week 4 Updates This week's been quite as most of the work has been electrical, false ceiling and then AC piping being run. So we took this time to finish up purchasing some of the items we have yet to decide on. Kitchen Sink Mixer We went to many bathroom accessories shop and so far our impression has been the big brands come with a big price tag but nice designs and functional and the small brands come with a smaller price tag but designs are not worth their price tags. (Or at least this was how we felt). Thanks to heads up by bro NextStep (corrected my earlier error) we took a trip down to test out this beauty The moment we set our eyes on it we loved it. Hansgrohe was having a promotion of this brand so thought price was on the high side but we have truly yet to find a nice kitchen mixer we both liked and are willing the spend the money on. So we took the bite and settled for this one today! Next up came the MBR Bathroom: We have decided to deck it out in black to contrast the white hexagonal wall tiles we have laid in the shower cubical area. Black Rain Shower: We settled for this because I like the cut of how sleek it was but BRAVAT Singapore was selling a similar design for $1.7K even after discount so I've found this same design with a swivel bottom mixer as well for a lot less than half the price. So why not let's go with it. This will be coupled with a black sink mixer: Black Toilet Role Holder: We've got Black Stainless Steel Shower basket as well. WC shopping is tough as the Known Brands are costly! REALLY Costly. TOTO just raised their prices in August and even after a great discount it would still set us back almost $780 a piece and we needed 2 . Bulked at it and decided to settle for Kohler which we saw was going for about $560 or so @ Bathroom Warehouse but walking down Balestier today we walked into WasserBath and settled for IXISS for even more savings! German brand made in Turkey. 10 Year W'ty on Flushing system well decided to take the risk and went with it. Read some other Tblog stating this brand was ok for the flushing system so decided to cut down on this expenditure so we can allocated these savings elsewhere. Most importantly their WC designs are really nice too! One Piece WC unit for ease of cleaning and no curves on the side means flush finish and no hard to clean corners on the bowl itself. Well, we've got our Roofing permit approved by HDB today so roofing works on my new Study + Wet area can begin next week! Woohoo!

Congrats...good to know its reaching the end soon.

Can I check if you wish to ask a seller on TB questions before you make an order with them how do you go abouts doing so? Thank you in advance,

Oh sorry to hear of your bad experience. Got my hood and hob from them but only good part will be its not their in house brands. Hope their blanco sinks won't be too bad as well since it's suppose to be from Germany as well. Guess most companies when they become too big fall for such issues with customer service and product QC. Sighz.

Glad to see real work beginning and its the true start of the adventure ahead. Have fun in the process..

Well most Hdb buillding have these friendly pest issues as well and toilet windows are usually and always left open anyway so even if window or left open these pest issues are gonna be there so a non issue.

Can share the wind effect of this fan model? Thanks

Last of Week 3 Updates This will be the last update for this week since its the weekend and work should stop for the weekend although I hope they won't . Today the tiler is on the go to finish up his role in our unit before the electricians come in to re-lay the wires next week followed by the vinyl flooring team to lay flooring for the unit then followed up with the false ceiling team to come in to cover up areas that require false ceiling though we don't have much. Looking forward to more viewable progress in Week 4 for sure excited for it to come. Today the tiler completed the kitchen backsplash, cement screed and smoothing our all the walls including the erected wall that separates kitchen from our MBR bathroom now and the shower curb for the common bath shower cubicle. Kitchen Backsplash In The Works Completed Kitchen Backsplash Look Hope the effect turns out well with the kitchen cabinet laminates. Sealed Up MBR Bathroom View Thanks again to fantastic team at HDB I've to deal with much wasted space in our wardrobe to account for the piping as you see on the left of the picture which will be where our L shape wardrobe will be built! Sighz. Make do with what we have. Common Bathroom Shower Kerb After this the flooring is layed so our bathroom tiling and kitchen backsplash tiling is officially complete for this week. Next group to come in next week for new works to continue. Final decision on our lightings has to be made and decided upon next so more headache for us to be dealing with from here on. Meeting ID for carpentry detailing discussion after Week 4 so hope things move fast and furious from here and smoothly too. Glad out ID furnishes us with daily update pics of our unit and raises any concerns or issues she sees from the progress of the work and new unforseen potential issues to discuss and resolve immediately. Detailed is the word we can use to describe her and we like that in our ID for sure.