fingerscross

A stress free reno this will be....yah right! Its like asking for a quarrel free marriage Arranged a slot with a mover that was recommended by wife's colleague n realised he is also a well known mover frm reno talk. Takes forever to reply watsapp but v polite on the phone. The other choice...a mover which i engaged donkey yrs back. Fast to reply but quite....hmmmm not so pleasant on the phone. Rate quoted was the same. But felt tat b4 even getting the business if they cannot even bother to pretend to be nice, what more later or shld thgs go wrong, how then? On monday ID mentioned carpentry delivery set for friday. Mon, tues n wed it rained. Thurs was sunny, friday rained early morning n was gloomy till early aftn. Stressful much! Thk goodness it didnt rain when they delivered. But fri was only a partial delivery cos too much carpentry....now hav to pray next delivery date wont rain too. Arranged with harvey on mon for delivery of brandt hood, hob, oven for friday delivery. After ting dong to n fro, was told they dont hav stock for the oven, b4 i cld ask them.....now how? Solution given was a free upgrade to a newer model with same outlook but more features.....sounds like a gd deal just got better! Kitchen cabinet (bottom half) was aldy up on fri evening when we did a site visit. Tall unit had some minor error regardung laminate colour. More of a miscomm actually. Looks easy to rectify n will meet id on mon to discuss. We walked arnd to see the bits n pieces of carpentry laid all over the hse. I cannot comment that workmanship is good bcos most r not installed yet n kitchen cabninet doors r not up yet i really dont wanna jinx thgs here. So can only say nothing to complain about where quality is concerned.

Hi Songz, i bot this frm tamp giants but i guess u shld be able to get frm autobacs. Dont mind me saying, your tiles look really weird, wats the original colour? Frm the photos, looks like your tiles having some mold prob. If its mold, think the only way is bleach, but it will prolly come back. Hav u tried taking a look at your neighbours tiles? Mayb they also having same prob...if so mayb can chk with your mgmt office if warranty covers this as tiles not suppose to breed mold clusters, unless the tile quality got issue

Normally i use this to get rid of tough stains frm tiles, unconventional but so far works for me. Get the one formulated for white or light coloured cars

Love your lights! Not a fan of dark ceiling, but looks like you have thgs matched perfectly. Btw, forgot to thk u regarding tat post on puritan black. I wld prolly hav selected it as a feature wall if not for your post bcos i really like how it looks on paper

Cool comeback! Well, if u look on the bright side, at least u will be walking down the aisle with a guy who will stand beside u and not in front of u saying "i told u so" when thgs go wrong.

Hi ml, i did read about your exp with puritan black and i can totally understand your frustration now. I actually took extra care to avoid that colour when we did our selection. However what i didnt realise is that nippon had other paints that were prone to surprise n didnt actually bother abt what colours went into the paint. Paint selection used to be a simple and straight forward process....what u see on paper u will get 95% to 98% on your wall. I actually got close to 0% on my wall with Special Touch. It had 0 hint of grey when seen with the naked eye. I mean if i wanted my room light bluish purple, i wld hav selected one that looked like that in the catalogue. Why wld i wanna select grey. Nippon shld change their tagline to "we suprise you" or " expect the unexpected" Anyways...jus glad that the other rooms turned out alright. Imagine if the brown colour selected turned out green....repainting wld have been even more painful

Wanted to wait till carpentry is up before posting an update, but the paint works which had been bugging my wife for the past week finally got to me. If you are selecting various shades of grey....avoid nippon OW1049P Special Touch. The **** thg turns out purple or blue at certain angles but not grey. I tried to capture a photo....well, it turned out grey in 3 diff angles tat i took so no point posting the photo. No wonder it appears grey in the catalogue n website. Initially i tot its bcos the masterbedroom is bright so tats why the colour is bluish purple. But my living room's selection of Ash Grey looks grey. Finally admitted defeat to wifey .....(well as usual she turns out right)...and got id to repaint the masterbedroom. Need to topup $ ??? I call him bro, he calls me bro but we dont share the same surname you know...so of course need to topup lah, nothing is free in this world. You will know this when your wife gives birth to your first son (althou u did most of the wrk prior).....yup, not free buddy

Hi spidey, too little info given eg resale hdb, new bto or resale condo. So i'll jus assume on certain things. I guess kitchen cabinet u r not doing top....so bottom only 10ftr comes up to $3k. Which is $300 pfr. To me this is v exp. Most IDs charge close to $300pfr for wardrobe( height abt 7ft)and less than 150 for kitchen cabinet. For hdb with package it can be as cheap as 90pfr for kitchen cabinet. Cant comment much on the wet works bcos area not known. Install of accessories $50 ea? Seems rather......no comments But 15% payment upon signing seems on the high side. Most collect 10% payment upon signing. What has the id firm to loose? B4 work even commence $ aldy in their pocket. My advise is to meet up with a few more IDs to get a few more quotes. If ID is calculative now with minor thgs like toilet accessories, gd luck to u when reno starts.

Yard toilet, stainless steel floor trap at yard bot frm ezbuy, i tink $11

Yard and utility

We spent 3.5 hrs measuring and finalising carpentry on Wed. By the time we were done it was aldy dark n too late to take photos. Did a site visit this morning, wet works officially completed. Very pleased with the way all the floor tiles are done. Tiler made an effort to choose matching grains for kitchen tiles. Exceptionally happy with the slope i requested for mastertoilet. Some rooms aldy have a first coat of paint up. With all reno projects, the bottleneck is always at the carpentry. Hopefully they are able to get the kitchen cabinet up soon so that the quartz top guys can come and take measurements. Mastertoilet slope

Thks for sharing this. Have u tried to buy the handle from dr. door? But the fact that the handle will fall off indicates its of inferior quality....prolly plastic. Mayb those hardware shop might hav a handle that wld be able to fit. For me, i find the dyson bladeless fan is a crap product. Looks good yes...lvl of blow job, 3/10....totally no power. It comes with option of speed of 1 to 10...anythg below 9 is useless. On top of that, the motor is v noisy at lvl 9 or 10. Conventional fan is much better n cheaper.

PM sent

So i took a photo watsapp my wife, " eh free gift from id ah?" She replied, "ewwww why is that thg there?" I replied back, " dunno, mayb upstairs one fly down so workers hang there in case neighbour come to claim." Wife replied, "throw away lah, wait your id tink u kinky bring girl here at night" I replied, "cannot, maybe wayne put there to keep the workers motivated leh". So i left it there for 2 days but no one came to claim and tiling has aldy started by then. While attending my 2nd son's graduation ceremony. Mood was serious and couples all around us looking proudly at their kids gng up on stage. Wife suddenly whispered to me, "eh that thg at the bin u throw away aldy onot?" I told her with a straight face, "havn't bcos place v dusty n tilers use it as a mask when they cut the tile." She gave me a dirty look and the 2 of us just bust out laughing. For the record, its been discarded. I m kinky but not that kinky

Thought i just post a funny incident since i like to keep my reno journey a light hearted one. Just realised this blog is linked in Inspire's facebook...so in case my ID reads this, just joking ah bro So the day after hacking was electrical work day 1. I dropped by for a site visit kpo kpo. Saw this hanging at the dustbin

Yup, i really appreciate the effort of ID and his workers involved in this project.

Hi, will try to keep my advise short since i am unable to pm u. If i were in ur situation, i would not fix the toilet tiles and whatever damaged items b4 coming to an agreement with contractor on the amt of discount to be deducted frm final payment. I wld advise on taking a softer approach when dealing with your contractor mainly bcos those thgs are not part of the contract. Have u wondered why those thgs r damaged and not thgs supplied by contractor like cabinet etc....just some food for thought here.

Sorry its aldy been dismantled and disposed.

Tried to pm u but failed

So far my fav part of the house....the curve false ceiling. Requested ID to do this because my main door faces the window directly. So instead of doing a partition to block the energy flow, i decided to design this curve false ceiling to channel the energy back into the dining which is the centre of the house. The false ceiling guys followed to a tee what i drew on the floor plan. Really impressed with the workmanship.

Toilet Tiles Laid Wrongly Now i thought over a day and wondered if i shld post this. But i figured everyone makes mistakes, its how we go abt to rectify it that matters. When the tiler was halfway thru overlaying the feature wall at mastertoilet, i recd a watsapp update frm id. Without realising its diff i promptly replied..."wow looks good" In the evening while running with wife in the park she mentioned that it looks diff frm 3D. She pointed out that the honeycomb tiles were supposed to be 2 in a row, and the smooth tiles 1/2 on each side. So thats why the wall looks like it has very little honeycomb tiles. Contacted ID when i got back and told him abt this, together with my solution. Which is to overlay a row of honeycomb tiles in between mirror cabinet and constructed vanity. ID ok ok no prob.....then he must hav chk 3D drawing, called back and said he will redo the whole wall bcos its his fault, on top of that will also overlay the in between cabinet tiles as per my request FOC. When we told him we will go down and see how the tiles look in actual, he said its ok he aldy informed tiler to hack away and redo the next day. We decided to grab our torch lights and take that 5 mins drive to the site anyway When we went into the toilet n flicked on the lights....what greeted us was a completed wall and a constructed shampoo rack(We did this to hide whatever disfigured tiles that resulted frm the hacking of the kerb). Both wifey n me agreed the workmanship was good n it wld be a waste to hack n redo. Standing in front of the wall, i could sense the effort the tiler took to knock every tile into place n ensure it is level to the tile next to it. It looked different from 3D, yes , but it sill looked quite good. ID was quite adamant on redoing because he cld sense that my wife was just accepting it and not wowed by it. As for me, i was quite glad the mistake was made so it brought abt the solution of overlaying more of those dreaded white tiles. Finally convinced ID that my solution will work and we will discuss on site the next day morning(thur) On thur morning i found myself like an ID trying to convince a demanding client not to hack away and redo. It seems our roles have changed. He was just extremely apologetic about the whole thing and wanted to right the wrong. I suggested doing a LED strip to highlight the in between cabinet tiles and make that wall the focal point. ID finally relented on not redoing the feature wall. Overall i am quite glad the tiles were laid the way it is, seems like a blessing in disguise. Now when we shower we can just on the LED strip, mood will be alot diff frm switching on the white fluorescent ceiling downlight.

My ID The Perfectionist The first time we met Wayne, he aldy gave off a perfectionist vibe. Everythg drawn on the floor plan must be neat. When i am unable to explain somethg and i drew roughly on the floor plan. He would erase till there was 0 trace then draw again neatly. Before we get to the drama that happened on wed night n thurs morning. I shall first talk about the bare cement behind the kitchen cabinets. When the hackers removed the kitchen cabinets and i saw the wall, the first thing that came to my mind was Gollum frm Lord of the Rings. I looked over at my ID and i cld see that this was also bugging him. So decided not to mention anythg abt plastering cos i didnt want to be shocked by an obsene VO. Well my guess was right, he got the wet work guys to plaster smooth the wall. Wife and me were really pleased about this when we did a site visit.

Hi there, i dont know much about HDB rules. But just try asking yourself this. Would you like it if your neighbour from upstairs moved their kitchen above your room? I know i wouldn't be happy with such an arrangement. Imagine while i am slpg they decide to cook super and create a din. If your upstairs neighbour practice feng shui, i dont think he will be very happy to be sleeping under a stove. So my guess is that it will be quite hard to get approval. However if you managed to get an approval, pls kindly load up your floor plan as i m really curious to what extend HDB allows relocation of kitchen. Thks.

Well, taobao purchases can be a disappointment sometimes, but its still kind of fun n addictive for us bcos its like opening up a present. So far its more hits than misses. Quite glad with our taobao loots, esp our toilet n kitchen mixers. Some of the marble products were genuine marble. Think the key word here is "natural marble". I agree it looks pretty. And its safer too since dropping these on the floor definitely wont cause a chipped or cracked tile. But still dissapointed. To say it in a language ladies would understand.... Its like expecting a chanel/gucci bag as a birthday present but u open it and you see charles n keith.....still pretty but....

Piece of Advice: We bought a set of "Marble" bathroom set from Taobao (refer to link below). Product turned out to be melamine instead (refer to photo). Upon checking the link again, we failed to realised that the weight of the product would have given it away. Guess we were too excited to buy something so beautiful ... ... if only we had been more diligent https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000003547386.html