15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

On 12/3/2017 at 10:50 AM, infinity2015 said:

So lovely, hope my renovation can be as beautiful as yours. Can you post a few photos of the dining area (I am still thinking open concept kitchen or not) , bomb shelter and service yard please? Many thanks 

hi @infinity2015, i can take some pics for you later when i get back.

my dining table (island) is not ready yet, i'm waiting for the countertop to arrive, it will be installed tomorrow.
my bomb shelter is concealed with carpentry, not sure if it helps you.

And yes, i love the open kitchen look.

 

I am still wondering if HDB can still come fix the ceiling, i very "gaowei"


my ID blame HDB saying their wall not smooth..

[A Baker's 3 room BTO @ Skyline II]

very nice living pic, ihaven really sort out all my things. too many stuffs.

my ash grey bomb shelter looks very "original" hdb door colour, it's isnt anywhere near ash or grey. butnevermind, it's hidden inside.
I haven get my curtain/blinds fixed, can share your contacts too?

[Japanese minimalist design - review after 2 years]

6 hours ago, Peterborough said:

oh man, thanks for sharing. we prefer fire for cooking butyes maintenance is an issue. wondering if frequent maintenance will make it better. if only they sell 1 gas burner and 1 or 2 induction burner. 

now not sure if should go for rennai gas hob then. 

i'm using 1 gas + 1 induction. It's not 1 piece thou.

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

3 hours ago, spikeling said:

Nice Living room feature wall. May I know where you install your eubiq at the Tv? Is it wall mount or u hide it inside the drawer? Thks.

hi @spikeling it's hidden inside the bottom black tinted glass cabinet.. 

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

Just fixed up the coffee table from Courts yesterday, view from entrance.

[A Baker's 3 room BTO @ Skyline II]

13 hours ago, matchalatte said:

actually looks great! matches the door really well. im jealous!! maybei should have painted the frames like yours  did you say you also painted the bomb shelter door the same glossy black as well? 

my bomb shelter is hidden behind my carpentry, i painted it ashgrey.
dont get misled by the name ASH and GREY.. it's totally not ASH or GREY. 

it looks very off white-cream colour.
Oh well, it's hidden inside, so still not so bad.

 

The gold lines on your marble tiles is pweety.. 

and your knives.. omg. so nice all in black.
your black and white very nicely matched. My common toilet never achieve that strong black and white theme. Hahaha..

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

Sofa and toilet glassdoor came in on Friday / Saturday:

 

This is the box up of the MBR sliding glass door, looking much much better now:

Here's the corridoor/walk way to bedroom:

From afar, the frames look ok. But close up, there's alot of "bubble" and white patches. If painter can't touch up well, i will do it myself.. 

 

Haha, put alot of "bottles" at my kitchen (on top of the hood)

There's alot more in the fridge: 

 

Also opened my dyson to do cleaning, i find the "box up" pipe cabinet (beside my basin) to be very useful, because i store all my dyson accessories inside. 

 

 

Also, funny thing is the electrican lay the additional LAN wires that is pulled from MBR and Living to the bottom of the DB box.

What can i connect at the bottom when there's no powerpoint or holes to go through??
Was frustrated on Friday as i told ID and she didn't know what i want. So end up i DIY.


I remove all the shelving inside the DB box and then pry open the trunking casing and re-pull all the wires and left it dangling there for them to cutout. 

Told ID to get their electrician/carpenter to trim the trunking for the wire to come out nicely. I dont have the pruning shears scissors, if not i would have done it too.
they added this hole for me so i can pull the cables down to the next shelving below

 

 

more stains found. it's cement stain, can't rub/scrub it off. sighs.. any idea how?

 

While washing the toilet yesterday (because it's official move in day), i found this.. sighs.

 

 

There are still quite a few rectification works to be done and we need to move in already, as in law house started reno today.
Delay delay delay.. 

Now we have moved in, it will be harder to arrange for them to come and fix because it's inconvenient as there are people staying now.. 

 

Eubiq wall socket with schneider wall switch side by side.
Unfortuntely, this eubiq socket not working, have to call electrician come back and repair/fix as they adjusted my eubiq switch the other day. -.-

Living to bedroom path:

 

[A Baker's 3 room BTO @ Skyline II]

@matchalatte -  my door frames

 

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

11 hours ago, KFC1189 said:

How much did you pay for the Eubiq power tracks? Do you have it in every room?

I find it overpriced and quite expensive. Is it really necessary to install Eubiq power track? How do you intend to use it?

i bought it few years back like late 2014 - early 2015 (can't rmb exact date) where they sell in package of length.
Mine package was 6m track, 6m blank, and comes with alot free accessories and plugs. But limited to 6 cuts. (this package they only sell for customise order now)

the current package now is all standard size, means they sell in the pre-cut length only in 600/800/1000/1200 mm if i not wrong.
Personally, I find eubiq very useful and gives the clean look. and it's long lasting. I do not need to worry about anything other than the plug spoil (which rarely spoil, because le wife office also all using eubiq and the plugs are still working. haha.)

Places i used eubiq:
- living room
- kitchen
- kitchen (tall larder area)
- master bedroom (tv area)
- master bedroom bedhead


Most people useseubiq for tv feature wall/console, because you can plug all your stuffs there. You can even plug in multimedia stuffs such as HDMI, Lan Cable, Tel cable to the Eubiq track.
In essence, it's just neater.

If you want to try eubiq without the heavy commitment, you can try out their director track. whichi personally feel it's a good starter kit.
Useful in places such as the computer room:

They are trying to clear this model, so you might see some promo.

They launched the new model which is flatter and comes with USB port. (twocolour available -  silver and black)

 

i got both. (brown box and white box) hehehe 

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

complaining time again.

Went up to the house yesterday after their touch up, here is what i found.
although the touch up painting was done, the door frame still has "white" unpaint area. *sighs* I think end of the day it would be better off me painting it myself as i won't miss any white part! (never took any photo as it was late in the night)

My main door (rear) has chipped off, it's a brand new door that we fought so hard to get it replaced..! 
Anyway, give and take. Just told ID to touch up and fix it. 

 

Next up is the eubiq/bed head, previously there was a nail seen. What the carpenter did is just "add on" another layer of laminate on top of the existing one, trying to smoke me and hopefully idont notice or realise it.

 

thetouchup wasn't done properly also, that's why i manage to see it. If not actually it's quite ok except for the top picture.

 

 

Does anyone know the connection for this?
D, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 is for which area/room?

[A Baker's 3 room BTO @ Skyline II]

fortytwo stuffs not bad. i bought 6 x eames  replica chair from there. lol
I will take photo of my door frame tonight, let me try digging my phone and see if i have a picture. 

[A Baker's 3 room BTO @ Skyline II]

15 hours ago, inchvbeam said:

wow Clarence, thank you for your detailed post on the lights. Im trying to find lights in the form of screwable E27 for easy maintainability. How many watts did you purchase for your COB and what is ur recommendation? Thank you.

Me? lol, can't recall what i've posted. 

Personally E27 Screw Bulbsare quite lasting and affordable.
Example, Philips Tornado Bulbs are good, cheap, lasting, bright, energy saving.
 

That's provided the bulb design can suit your need and design. 
Depending on how much light you want at your house/area, a good 7-15watt per bulb x 2-4 is usally more than enough for one area.

[A Baker's 3 room BTO @ Skyline II]

2 hours ago, matchalatte said:

@Clarence Lye was wondering where you went, you seemed to have MIA-ed for a few weeks then i saw your progress pics again. yay! anywayi painted my household shelter the same paint as the one for wall. honestly not such a good idea, already see some chips and scratches like during opening of door your fingernails will kena but then glossy is worse. not really intune with my theme. didyou feedback to yr ID? will they rectify? paying so much and then having to sand down yourself, you sure?

@stray thank you for following! <3 haha my old home was just very basic, mostly ikea stuff and very white. i guess partly its because dark colors are in trend now, also because i really like the cosy look, in fact i wanted my home to look like a hotel cigar room with heavy woods and chesterfield sofa buti guess a more modern approach would be better lol, didnt want to regret my choice next time. 

@inchvbeam yes its LED, here you go :

https://m.intl.taobao.com/detail/detail.html?spm=a1z5f.7632060.0.0&id=552879234590

honestly not such a practical light since its very high up on the ceiling so you definitely need a ladder. not for the fainthearted! secondly the box is fastened with 4 screws on a plate that is screwed to the ceiling. you'll also need two components, the bulb itself and the led driver and i've bought spares from the seller. havent really opened up to take a look yet buti may try and figure out myself first. basically all lights have 2 wires, the blue & brown one. so will see if i can change it myself in future if not either will need to call the electrician or if its too troublesome and expensive to maintain in the long run then i may consider using spotlights but maybe in screwable E27 form. 

not much lighting in the living room. entrancewayi have a double COB, dining room the rose gold 4 light pendant, also a double COB in the living room area above the coffee table. the rest i will be using floor lamps and table lamps. not a fan of overhead lights much. 

@pandacel ugh really need to find a place to stay? im thinking at most need to use the coffee shop toilet  anyway idont think my room parquet can tahan anymore reno. already had a hole + multiple scratches on my MBR parquet during reno, may have to get the floor replaced together if i hack the toilet one day lol. 

i think the problem with uneven walls and floor DO exist with hdb flats! might be because the ceiling is uneven or something thats why yr aircon still looks not aligned. recentlyi bought curtains and bookshelves from ikea. when assembled i feel that my curtain doesnt look even on the floor and my billy bookcase has gaps in between each one. 

maybei should have gone with blackboard paint. vinilexisnt very good at all coz its latex. suppose if you have a chip of the paint you can actually peel off the whole layer of it. guess the plus point is latex paint dont smell as awful as the old type our parents used. i suppose vinilex + matex is ok for white walls & ceiling where chips and scratches arent obvious at all. sincei have mostly dark grey and black, i should have used another paint instead sigh. 

haha no idea when i will have completed pics of my home. my sofa, dining chairs & rugs are still in china waiting to be shipped. buti do have some pics around the house where i will upload when my internet is up. currently using 4G :-/

ok girl! awaiting your blog

@Raylowwl here you go :

https://m.intl.taobao.com/detail/detail.html?spm=a1z5f.7632060.0.0&id=523943417554

its has to be drilled since its L shaped. the plumber did it for me. i have no idea if it can be glued, maybe check with the seller? buthonestly iwouldnt really recommend. even with drilling, i feel that the middle part isnt really stable, you need to pull the curtain veryyyy gently.

my ID is at my house today, doing all the rectification on the problems i've reported.
Will head down to do a spot check tomorrow.

I initially wanted to paint all my door frames matt black, but my ID strongly against in. Say after few weeksi sure make noise and will call for touch up or change colour because it can't last.
Then no choice have to live with the glossy door frames.. 

Btw, can share your link to the coffee poster? i want something like that to put in the kitchen area too. wanna make my kitchen look cafe-ish.
Initially wanted to do chalkboard wall, then design it those coffee menu like this:


butdont know how to draw and also if paste sticker it doesn't look good. so gave up the idea. 
 

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

35 minutes ago, KFC1189 said:

Like the LED lights in your kitchen. Is the gap at the bottom kitchen cabinets big enough to put a iRobot?

Do you plan to use the Philips Hue Lights which can provide brilliant display of colours? 

hi@KFC1189,

the gap for the bottom cabinets should be "high enough" for a robot cleaner to sweep underneath. (i hope)
The height is the standard kitchen cabinet base, just that length was shorten to allow the cabinet to be "slightly hanging" outside so that the LED strips can be slotted underneath to shine on the flow.

I have try to confirm. I planning to just buy a xiaomi robot. iRobot seems super expensive? is it really that good and worth?

I dont intend to use Philips Hue lights, are they are overprice lights.
My living hanging light i am currently using the Smart Light Bulb from LifeSmart, able to provide multicolour and controls via the App too.

[Beware!! ID Allan Chee from 3D Innovations]

2 hours ago, Rooster said:

Hi Clarence, good that you avoided a disaster for your renovation. 

Originally we , despite all the setbacks, we tolerated Allan Chee's nonsense. Late for appointments, non responsive, mistakes despite our reminders, bochap attitude and no instructions to sub contractors. As such the sub-contractors made many mistakes - plumber did not run the pipings accordingly, tiler tiled wrong places and demolition team mistakenly, removed both bedroom door frames  and all the sub contractors had to rectify the situation. Causing much delays and frustrations.  

We had no choice but to speak to the team leader - Denn  Lim - guess, then realised the seriousness of the situation, decided to take over the project personally. By this time, we had already cancelled the Carpentry and Electrical orders. 

In all fairness, I will not brand 3D Innovations negatively as there are also good IDs. For sure Allan Chee is the worse I have seen and disastrous to deal with. 

yeah i can totally understand that frustration.
Even with my ID there are alot of miscomm, wrong instructions to their sub-con too.

Bottomline, it's all about the ID not about the company. Glad that Denn is doing a good job in handling your project now.

[Beware!! ID Allan Chee from 3D Innovations]

I never trust 3D innovations, my first impression of them was a bad one.
the ID from TPY branch set an appointment with us on a Sat morning @ 9am, when we arrived there - he totally forgot about our appointment and ask us what we want. Then he did the quotation on the spot, we entertained him awhile and tell him NO.
Total waste of time.

Gave them another chance and try another person from different outlet, same thing.

All kind of fairy tale story telling you this can that can, end up after the first meetup they  just MIA and no follow up.
I feel that lack of ownership and has no sense of responsibility, therefore at the start i've already blacklist them.

Anyway, since you got his team lead - Denn to take over now. I believe should be better?
you need to keep chasing them for updates, some ID companies take things for granted and like to delay things.

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

Apologies for the lack of update, was busy past few weeks and i was away to Taiwan.

Here are some updates on the reno, it's almost coming to the end. Just pending touch up work.
We are officially moving in this weekend, as le wife's parent house is going to start reno. So they are also temporary moving to our guest room to stay for 1.5-2mths while the reno works is going on there.

our ID has been delaying alot of the touch up works such as:
1) touch up of paint (patch at master bedroom ceiling fan area)
2) touch up of laminates gap (they are suppose to paint the gaps), nail at the bedhead area
3) generalwashing/cleaning
4) some minor electrical works left
5) waterponding at common bathroom behind toilet bowl, due to the shower kerb the water is all stagnant there and unable to flow away.
6) some marks/scratches on my kitchen basin! 
7) master toilet missing casement door, we wanted casement door but end up it came with only 1sided fixed panel.   then the extra rack we install for the shampoo/soap had to be removed and now the wall tiles got HOLE. 

Pictures:

Journey hasnt been that smooth as there are alot of screw ups, especially with the evorich flooring.
Remember some time back we had to pay additional cost to "hack" the extra border from both the bathroom. Due to the evorich flooring has to be removed, replace, re-order and etc.. this incurred an additional cost of about $400+

 

 

Here are some pictures post-eubiq installation:

Living: (will take a better pic when i go down this weekend)

 

Kitchen:


With Top and Bottom LED switched on:

 

Master Bedroom:

- TV Ledge area:

- Bedhead


Accessories:


and also the Eubiq Socket terminal:


(notice that the alignment is off? electrican need to come down and "adjust" the schneider switch on the right downwards)

 

 

This is the guest room (that le wife's parents will be staying while their house is being reno). It's all setup and done. Simple concept, nothing fancy.

 

 

Our handover has been delayed from End Oct to Mid Nov, now towards end Nov.. 
Here are some pictures of the current house:

(Living fan is up!)

[A Baker's 3 room BTO @ Skyline II]

@matchalatte ur door frame/door they painted it in the glossy finish or it's the same as your wall finish?
mine door frame they painted the glossy black finish and it's so "glossy".. furthermore it's not smooth finishing and there's like "droplets" of paint.. see already very sian, thinki will sand it down manually and ask them give me the paint and i will touch up.

your house looks ready. 

[My Minimalist HDB Design]

waaachioleh. black and white and super clean look. 

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

16 hours ago, KFC1189 said:

Clarence,

For your king sized mattress, I'd suggest to purchase two single mattresses instead. It is much easier to access the storage spaces under the platform with a single mattress as compared to a king mattress.

I guess there is no space for side tables. But it is still important to provide a place where you can put your alarm clock, phone, glass of water, etc. Are you going to use the headboard for this purpose? 

Yeap. headboard will serve the function of side table such as putting my phone and charging. that's is why we added headboard and also include eubiq recess track in it. Should be fine i hope?
Single mattress is defnitelynono.. there's a gap inbetween and both le wife and myself won't like it.

My policy is NO eating and drinking in the room. We have the habit of drinking from bottles instead of cups, so not really an issue to put at the headboard if we need to bring water into the room. But eating is definitely PROHIBITED. 
We don't use alarm clock as we only use our handphone or fitbit's built in alarm.

Decided that the storage under the platform will be use to is to store some of our lego sets and boxes. Likely will be just redundant. Oh well. More storage better than less storage.

[Buying from Taobao]

I just use ezbuy.. but overall for furnitures, i feel their quality isnt there. If u dont mind then ok.

[Yet another Scandinavian-inspired home.........]

Welcome welcome.

wow. Kompacplus for backsplash. Great choice. I wish i had catered money for this.
What's your expected budget you set aside for this project?

Perhaps you can start a mood board so you can roughly visualize and achieve the overall feel.

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

30 minutes ago, matchalatte said:

love your carpentry! the color is really pretty, and i adore the colored PVC! it looks like wood with the grains, unlike mine whichi find it a tad too dark. your black oven is to die for omg. how much did you pay? both my ovens are from bosch's cheapest range haha. 

youdidnt overlay yr common bath's toilet? im also trying to dress mine up with black bathroom accessories. fingers crossed they'll look decent. 

i totally second what you say about needing to chase and errors that dont get mentioned, dont get rectified. its the same for me actually. but at least several of your things get done together, like what you said about 10 people working on your house at the same time. no such luck for me. my contractor prefers to just do 1 thing at one time, and after 1 job is done he will then arrange for the next. sigh. 

Thanks!
I can't remember how much i paid for the oven/microwave at Gain City, i think it's the same price as the model that i wanted previously (it phase out).

I didnt overlay my Common Toilet, because no money. 
That common toilet is dressed with black accessories, i will share some photos of the toilet brush, toilet roll holder, towel rack, towel ring sometime later.

I was lucky that i can get everyone to come on the same day, because i want to me sure that my leave is worth taking. Can't afford to take leave for just one contractor/installer to come. No choice, but at least it went well. 

[A Baker's 3 room BTO @ Skyline II]

2 minutes ago, matchalatte said:

@Clarence Lye good good, i see that your aircon installation looks pretty well done. did they test the unit whetherits working after installing? 

@binchotan mind sharing what went wrong with your mom's installation? i've always heard of them subbing out the work to some unskilled indian workers and sometimes during installation they will bend the pipes wrongly resulting in leaks. ididnt want to take the risk. 

@pandacel good luck dear! please come back and feedback on the installation tmrw! let us know how it is?

@plady thanks for the kind words! i will do a final review of my contractor after my reno is over, so iwont be revealing for the time being. idont have the carpenter's direct contact nor any of his subcons btw. 

i left them in good hands and left.. cos need to return back to work. my ID put aeroplane and end up i have to be there to open the door and get them install.
I havent even tested or try to switch it on yet.

but the person gave me his contact, any thing just call him direct.

[15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen]

It's pictures time today.

 

This is the box-up done to conceal the gas pipings, not really that fantastic looking.. but at least i don't have to see the pipes. Oh well.

 

Sneak preview of the current house. 
Lightings, carpentry are all up. 

 

Living:

Comments: i feel there's TOO much storage at the display area. Geez. Overall it's not bad. but some of the pop-in / pop-out effect is not as per what we expected. Trying to see if the carpenter can swap some of the doors to make the pattern look nicer.
Waiting for the Eubiq, TV and Haiku fan to be installed and the whole living will be completed. Can't wait.. 

 

Kitchen


Comments: Was suprised that we was given 3 x Blum Aventos system, usually only 1 is given for the dish rack. Quality of carpentry quite good, hinges etc all very smooth.
Waiting for my Kompacplus countertop, eubiq and glass backing to be installed.

 

Dining:


Comments: We love how the brandt built in oven and microwave blend into the tall larder beside it (black colour looking laminate) nicely. So lovely 
Glad we didn't stick to the Chrome + black looking colour and upgraded to this all black model as our previous model were phase out. It's a sign. 
We will be placing our Island table here, it's also waiting for countertop (Ceasarstone) to arrive. Dont know why, it looks low. Have to wait for it to be fully functional. The island is meant to be 5cm higher than my kitchen countertop height. so when it's not in use, i can push it to the wall so the whole area will like a L shape kitchen countertop.

MBR:

Comments: WIW was much wider than on paper (800mm vs 850mm), therefore it was very spacious. And like the way it's like a room/concealed up.
No complainon this except for some minor laminate that needs to be touch up. LED & Fans were all up and running. Cove light & Master Ceiling Fan also installed.
I have plenty of storage at the platform bed. i really wonder if i will even use it as it's so difficult to access once the bed is on it. Bedhead cutout is for eubiq track installation.

 

MBR Toilet:

Comments: love the tiles + led effect in the MBR. Very cosy and romantic.
My vanity kompacplus top and basin are not up yet. Once it's up it will complete the whole look.

 

Common Toilet: (looking so boring and plain)

Comments: plain o' standard looking toilet. Trying to make everything black and white (except for the taps/showers). All my other accessories in this toilet is black.

 

Summary for now:

Pretty much what we are doing every weekend now. Checking on the works, quality, defects as we go.
We thought by engaging a more reputable ID company, it will help us resolve our load and burden.

Ended up, we have to take leave/time off just to see to all the minor stuffs such as installation, delivery.
And there's always minor issues/screw up. It's the kind that if i wasn't there, things would have gotten worst.

Example for Electrical sockets and switches, we have to go down to CCM directly and get it there.
As their electrical price/quote are sky rocket high, if we ask them to get it for us it means that its additional 2-10 bucks per switch/socket. (depends on types)

Laminates, Countertop and Tiles, we went down Hafary and Kompacplus and look at actual samples and chose our own tiles ourselves.
Although we engaged ID, it felt like we've engaged a contractor as we need to be on the ball to chase up and follow up on everything. Sounds pretty much like we are the ID, and they are like the contractors. 

It's the kind, if we don't ask, nothing gets moving. And if there's problem such as alignment, you don't notice, they don't say.
We have to chase for carpentry, plumber, electrical, wet works schedule date as we need to move in the house latest by 3rd week of Nov.

But overall, R&R have good contractors (electrical, carpenters) that's why they can offer lifetime warranty.
Perhaps if my ID is more merticulous and attention to detail.. it would be perfect.
At least its 100x better than our original ID (JJ) which give us general design/plan and boring colours.