Bumblebee17

@Ando Tadao oops just realized I made a typo error... meant to say the shelter exhaust does look awful Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll do some research on the company... after CNY. It’s quite stressful getting everything for the festive period. Go for gen 2! I think it’s a good investment. Really frees up some time and you won’t have to worry about dirty floors anymore

Hi! The layout of your house is almost similar to mine! Difference is the facing of the bomb shelter. Looks like you are doing pretty extensive reno works. Hope to see more updates soon

@Ando Tadao thanks for the compliment! As for the shelter exhaust it does look awful doesn’t it? We left it as it it because the other opening was already sealed up. Will be hanging a clock there to soften the ugliness

Handover + 3 weeks We finally moved back around 2-3 weeks ago. It was a period of juggling work, kids, unpacking and scheduling workers to come and finish up loose ends and rectifying defects. It was tiring, bruising (really, I’m nursing a number of blue blacks) and definitely not fun. Although most things are unpacked, there are still a lot to do before the house finally become what we envisaged at the beginning of this journey. For now, I’m just happy the boxes are gone and we can walk around the house without tripping over stuff on the floor. Some pictures I managed to take after cleaning up Common bathroom Kitchen Master bathroom Living area Dining area (no dining table yet. The search for the idea set is still on-going. ) Foyer (Pardon the untidiness. Hubs realized the false ceiling won’t be strong enough for the bicycle pole so only hang 1 bike to minimize the messiness. Think about a solution after CNY)

@papermotif thank you! To be honest, we, or rather I’m pretty stressed now. The outstanding list is 1.5 pages long! I still don’t have a definite schedule of when things will be completed so I can’t plan my move back. I’m so like

Common bathroom Cabinet is missing. It seems the delay is caused by delay in delivery of laminate. Don’t know when will it be ready for installation. Shower screen in the common toilet was incorrect. Because of the position of the pipes and window, we actually had a lengthy discussion on where the shower head should be and which type of screen is the best solution. Seems like a waste of effort because ID forgot that we wanted sliding door and we also forgot to put that in the WhatsApp chat group. Conclusion: We asked to re-do the screen. That means further delay. Master bathroom Missing cabinet and a drawer front. Other than that, all seems good. Kitchen and service yard Still waiting for the mirrors, glass partition and other glass works...

Handover day + coming to 2 weeks The house is still not ready to be handed back to us. First round of cleaning and varnishing of parquet are done. ID promised to clear all the other nitty-gritty stuff by today so I took half day leave to “supervise” his workers. I ended up running through the defects and to-do list with ID's staff instead. I seriously wonder when we would be able to move back. Study area and kids wardrobe The downlights look good. Light holders from Diyovation with Philips Hue GU10 bulbs. Lightstrips not installed because they were out of stock. Lucky for me, what I ordered from Lazada were delivered today and I managed to purchase the remaining from Apple Store. Phew! ID's staff were fixing them when we went over for a "visit". Kids sleeping area Also no lightstrips yet. Love the feel of this area. Downlights and wall colour makes it look cozy. Pantry (dry kitchen) and toy display TV console + toy storage Foyer/mud room

Handover day + 2 days 2nd last day of 2017. Instead of moving back, we spent most of this rainy day at our place, sorting out electrical works, aircon and some minor stuff. Aircon ID got his contact to install the aircon back. It took longer than expected because Ronnie Aircon run the wire wrongly, meaning the wiring for living room went to bedroom 2 and master room wiring went to bedroom 3. The guy said lucky it’s the wiring, if the pipes went wrong, then jia lat liao. They changed the wiring, top the gas and made sure we were happy with the work before they left. I really should have just ask them to do the re-piping in the first place. My stupidity cost me extra $550. Need to eat bread for a few months to recover. Electrical works Electrician said ours is old design where it is against regulation to conceal electrical trunking (meaning hide under false ceiling, can. Dig hole and hide in ceiling, cannot). So we told them to use back old trunking as much as possible. New ones to make them as inconspicuous as possible. Communicated via WhatsApp and personally on the requirement and we still end up with ugly new trunkings and incorrect positions . Fortunately, the electricians are really nice and agreed to the changes we requested. And so ID, hubs and I spent the day to discuss and finalize the points and lighting positions with electrician and also tested the cove lights. The only change that required more work is the point at the pantry. A hole was drilled on the side board for a double switch. Problem is this double switch is pointless as it is only a few steps to the other switch. ID was like and decided to remove the laminate, seal up the hole and re-laminate. He cannot charge me as well because it was his assistant’s so-called error. Minor changes We went round the house to look see look see and found some minor “mistakes”. 1. Bomb shelter stopper. It’s entirely useless as the shelter will hit the cabinet before the stopper. Don’t know what no one had the initiative to remove or ask to remove when the kitchen cabinets were installed. 2. Curtain hooks. Also useless now that we’ve changed to blinds. Again no one asked if they need to be removed. 3. Painters kena scolded for painting inside of the wardrobes when it is not required. A happy mistake, this one. 4. ID forgot to instruct bathroom window grills to be removed before tiling. Now need to find a way to patch back nicely.

And so, we won’t be able to move back this weekend as expected. A little disappointed but hubs and I kinda expected this to happen. We are ok with a few days delay as long as the reno is done properly. My mum is another story though. Nagging at me already. Update It’s going to be able 1 week plus delay in getting back the house. There’ll be inconveniences but we also don’t want to move in and still have people coming in to work on incomplete areas. Can only pray hard hard that somehow things finish fast fast (without compromising on quality of course) and we can move back earlier. I miss my house! More update When I wanted to change my aircon a few years ago, I engaged the services of this company called Breezy Aircon (they have since changed their name to Ronnie Aircon). They had pretty good reviews and were prompt in response. I also engaged them to do regular aircon servicing. For this reno, I engaged them again to re-run the aircon piping. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, they were very late and almost screwed up the job. After re-running is done, they had to wait for my ID to do the box up before they can install the aircon back. On Christmas Day, they called me up and asked for final payment. But I told them the installation is not done yet. They said but “we are supposed to re-run the piping only and that is done. Installing the aircon is goodwil gesture.” And so I made the payment out of goodwill and trust after I was informed that someone will install the aircon back on Thursday (which is today). In the end, no one turned up and they also did not answer or return my calls. so everyone beware of this company and these 2 guys called Ronnie and Jin.

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The little bot looks nice! How does it clean the corners since it’s round and how long does it take to finish vacuuming and mopping? I’m waiting for Neato to come up with a model that can vacuum and mop too.

Thanks thanks, ID is working hard to make sure my reno fee is well spent. Haha! I bought my Neato during the 12.12 sale on Lazada for about $700+. Foe the automated laundry system, I got the basic model from Steigen.

While all the above have been going on, I was hard at work too! From receiving deliveries of our purchases to running around to buy stuff that we didn’t manage to buy online (track lights and more Philips Hue light strips). Also managed to confirm purchase and installation of automated laundry system and blinds. Insect netting site measurement will be done this Thurs. Have to see if it can done earlier.

6. Common toilet 7. Master room toilet

Carpentry Installation of carpentry and windows started last Thurs. We went over to our place to take a quick look today after lunch. Happened to meet ID there. He said he is going to all his sites to check on progress. Since he is there, we took the opportunity to clarify some queries and also decide on colour for painting. We left the house assured that everything should turn out right. 1. Foyer/mud room - I intend to install motion sensor here so that we don't have to fumble for the switch when entering or leaving the house. (This is the official reason. The real reason is because I watched too much Kdrama and liked how their apartments have motion sensor lighting at the entrance.) 2. Front of TV console/cabinet - TV will be mounted in the middle. 2 side cabinets will house the kids’ toys. 3. Back of TV console/cabinet - 2 middle cabinets for barang barang that we don’t use or use often. Will be quite untouchable because there will be a bicycle pole right in front of the cabinets. 2 side panels will be full length glass. 4. Pantry/toy display - This is where the fridge, coffee maker, dry food, snacks will be. Top cabinets will have glass doors so that our LEGO and Transformers can be displayed there. 5. Kitchen/service yard - Top and bottom cabinets at the kitchen area. Customized so that short people like me and my mum can reach for items in the top cabinet easily. Service yard area starts from the tall units to the kitchen window. Laundry sink will be at the glass block. The tall units will house laundry baskets, detergents, ironing board, Dyson handheld vacuum cleaner, steam mop etc. A section of the glass block will be covered up because the walls were uneven. This was only known during installation. Sad. There are other options but need to wait for the cabinet doors to be installed then can decide.

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Appliances purchases During this “lull” period, we also finalized the carpentry works. Installation will start this Thurs. Can’t wait! After much discussion and research, we started ticking off items on the shopping list with the following purchases from Lazada (during 12.12 sale) and Goh Ah Bee (our all-time favourite. Call - Ask price - Like - Buy. Chop chop curry pork ) 1. Samsung fridge (Hubs wanted a nice fridge to show off and I wanted a door-in-door like Kdrama) 2. Brandt 2 zone induction (on my mother’s order) 3. Sony 65” 4K tv (we are Sony fans) 4. Eques digital door viewer (No more squinting through the small peephole. More importantly, my mum and the kids can see who is at the door easily and I don't have to worry they anyhow open door to anyone) 5. Neato robot vacuum (can’t live without one) 6. Philips Hue light strips, dimmer switch, bridge and tap switch (we’re going for smart lighting) 7. 707 instant water heaters (Princeton) 8. KDK ceiling fans for the living and dining areas We will also be getting the following 1. Stegien automated laundry system - Site assessment done. Just waiting for me to “say yes” 2. Roller blinds (1 motorized and the rest manual) from Jackson Global. They offered $600 for Somfy motor which is $50 cheaper than the one I was recommended to enquire (i-one). Site measurement is done. Waiting for final quote. 3. Insect netting from Magicseal (on hold until all windows are up) 4. Tracklights from Diyovation. Found this seller while browsing through 1 of the blogs here. Items pending purchase 1. More Philips Hue light strips (only managed to get 5m from the 12.12 sale). ID says I need 25m for the entire house 2. Sound bar. Hubs is keen to splurge on a Sony one which costs about $1k. Will update if we eventually end up with one

Last 2 weeks of reno period Here we are, last 2 weeks of reno and.... the house still look rather messy, empty and nothing much to show. Since the last update to now, only re-routing of aircon piping, false ceiling and dismantling of some windows are done. Re-routing of aircon pipes I was given the option to choose either my own aircon contact or ID's contact to do the re-routing. I went with option 1 since my contact was able to give a cheaper quote. My ID and I end up vomiting blood and almost cancelled their job. The job was completed in 3 days even though they promised to finish in 1. Reason? Out of the 3 days, they were ridiculously late for 2. The re-routing was done wrongly on the 1st day despite instructions given so they had to re-do everything. 2nd day, they only came to do marking. 3rd day then they finish the job. Lesson learnt: Cheap doesn't always mean good. If you've already engaged an ID, let him/her arrange and schedule the works. At least, everything will be on schedule and you don't have to feel pai seh if ID screw the guys for not doing the job properly. Now ID had to reschedule everything to accommodate the delay the aircon guys had caused. False ceiling Ceiling works for living room and bedrooms all done. Workers came today to remove the kitchen false ceiling because ID realised the doors of the top kitchen cabinets cannot open fully with the false ceiling there. Aircon trunking was also boxed up. Dismantling of windows My mum eventually decided she wanted to have all the windows changed. No more ugly top-hung windows. Haha! As of today, only kitchen and bathroom windows were removed. So there are now 1 big and 2 small lobangs in the house . This also caused some delay in the progress.

@papermotif progress seems to be really slow although ID said carpentry installation will start this Thurs. I’ll post an update soon while counting down to Thurs.

Hi! I’m also in the midst of renovating my place and it will also have a mudroom. Did you eventually get ezyturf? My ID mentioned the foyer/mudroom will look “very nice” if I do. Still thinking...

Another shopping list The whole house was tidied up and covered with new corrugated paper to prepare for electrical works. Meanwhile, we are working to finalize carpentry, which will be up next. And also more shopping (somehow the buying doesn’t seem to end ) Things to buy: 1. 2 zone induction hob (either Ariston or Bosch) - Brandt 2. Automated laundry system - Steigen 3. Fridge (because the husband says current fridge not nice enough to be displayed outside. Haha) - Samsung 4. Ceiling fans for living and dining areas - KDK 5. Dining table - On hold 6. Super single bed with pull-out - Star Living 7. Study chairs for kiddos - Bought 8. 2 instant water heaters (not considering storage heater. Nope, never. I’m impatient, need hot water immediately. Haha) - 707 9. Grohe shower heads. Thinking of getting the set instead. Don’t really like those that come with the heater - Scrapped 10. Philips Hue lighting system. Waiting for ID to tell me how many bulbs and strips to buy - Settled 11. Blinds for the whole house (was using curtains before and now want a change) - 5 manual and 1 motorised (Somfy motor) 12. Window netting for the whole house - Magicseal

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Haha, thanks! I was reading your blog today and I must say that is a nice little English house you have and... I’m a Arsenal fan too

Thanks for the encouragement!

Sanitary purchases Smart lighting system has always been on my wishlist that's why I was keen use a lighting system that my friend is selling. Things came to a short standstill while I talked to my friend about the system and the required arrangements. In the end.... decided not to go ahead. That’s because I came to know about Philips Hue lighting and realized it is possible to set up a that system can do pretty much the same as what my friend is selling but at a lower cost. I figured since we've already spent a ton on this reno, we should try to save if we can. Informed ID of our final decision and electrical works are set to start this Fri. Yay! Now that decision has been made, it's time to get things going (aka shopping time! ) First up, sanitary items at Hoe Kee. Why HK? Because it’s the nearest to ID’s office. We were supposed to go sanitary shopping followed by meeting at his office. Hubs say prices are not going to vary much so just buy from HK. Save hassle and brain juice. 1. Toilet bowls. We bought this because ID says water swirls instead of shooting straight. Supposedly cleans the bowl better and also because the kids didn’t fall into the bowl while testing. Haha! 2. Kitchen sink. My in-laws have a dish rack that is fixed as part of the top kitchen cabinet. Every time I place a cleaned, dripping crockery/utensil there for drying, water trickles down my arm and I absolutely hated it. On the other hand, my mum is old-school and didn't like the movable dish rack that we used to have (prior to this reno). Difficult to clean, she said. So she insist on buying the old-fashioned type of sink with wavy lines next to the bowl. That way, she can just leave everything there for the water to drain off and then just wipe the area dry. I refused. While the 2 of us were having a face-off (staring contest la ), I saw this Blanco granite sink. It seems to be an acceptable compromise so we bought it! ID says “fulfill auntie’s dream”. 3. Service yard sink. This is for us to do some light washing. Chose the biggest Blanco stainless steel undercount sink available. 4. Kitchen taps. Also Blanco. 5. Bathroom sinks. Hoe Kee doesn’t carry the Johnson Sussie semi-recessed basins ID wanted so he offered to help us buy from Malaysia. 6. Bathroom accessories. Got 2 sets which comprise of a hook, towel bar and toilet roll holder at $139/set. 7. Bidet spray. Stainless steel. And that’s the end of sanitary shopping.