groovygenie

Electrician guys at work...nice guys..very accommodating and patient with my nonsense Wa-lah! Mama mia! Goodness! We have lights up! After 3 months, our quiet suffering in darkness is over.. Night shots Our purchased lights in its rightful place...instead of the bomb shelter floor.. Sorry for the flurry of posts, folks, this was a long time coming. There WAS a reservoir of pent-up frustration and anger, so this is a release somewhat. We are happy to share our reno experience with you, just PM us okay! More posts soon in the near future!

Thanks, Starscream, more to come! It's nice to see some work get done... False ceiling: completed, first round of painting: completed and parquet: laid.. Living Room (We still think HDB forgot to give a dining room, so small!) BR3 MBR It's even nicer to see even MORE work done... And all this happened in one day, June 20. For starters, we had our feud with ID, over kitchen cabinet and zero-work days/weeks issues, erupted, boiled over and resolved...once we paid more money hahaha...how typical.. So June 20, almost everyone decided to work on that day. Electricians, wall tilers, aircon people, paint touch up dude in the corner, a very less than tardy plumber...it was a flurry of activities..what a rush..being the boss...being the project manager..problem rectifier...tea-time snacks and drinks procurement specialist..skipping work to be in charge of house reno....eh..wait! Didn't we pay someone to do this? Anyway, here goes some shots with our new Powershot..courtesy of PC Show last weekend. Mess. More mess.

In the mean time... We went window shopping... Vanity for MBR..decided not to have a built-in one. Off-the-shelf ones will save you lots of money! Fabrication and customisation is a good money making business Saw these one was at Hoe Kee.. But we've gotten a combo of these at Ikea.. Sinks..small kitchen so had to make sacrifices.. Really like this one at Poh Joo but a tad too large, even the smallest one..so sad... Eventually we got this.. Lights..we did the usual thing..walked along Balestier, then Jalan Besar, then Balestier again, then Geylang, then Jalan Besar...didn't buy anything. Pretty turned off at some of these places. And then we went to Lightcraft at Jalan Sultan on a Renotalk recommendation. Good stuff! Transparent pricing, reasonable prices and nice designs. Some lights we saw at some places that we like.. Hoping somebody will get this for us for our wedding gift Hahaha..not shy one..this one is at Friven but I think can get cheaper eleswhere. You'll get to see our purchased lights in the next posts

Its time to take the plunge and have our own reno-blog! Let's see how well we keep this up To start off, here are some photos taken about 3 months ago (ps: our reno is still incomplete, sigh...) Anyway, welcome! Pardon the quality (hp), more better photos in the next few days. Hope you like our share-share corner. We have lift off! First to start was the aircon people, by the way, good service by Natcool, impressed with their punctuality and customer service, always keep you informed of the schedule. Holes for aircon trunking in bathrooms...pretty happy with the planning as we did it ourselves, only visible trunking is in MBR 2, which was unavoidable... The false ceiling folks conveniently stored their inventory in our kitchen for one month, good thinking guys! But they did a great job eventually, we thought. Toa Payoh Sands Cement and Sand for living room and bedrooms...homo tiles in living room and parquet in bedrooms.. Living Room Bedroom 3 Bedroom 2 MBR..small isn't it? Land ahoy! Finally we had a flat floor that we can walk on, our homo tiles are the 800X800 kind...recommended by ID...although we have our own theory...bigger tile size means less tiles to use...less tiles to use means...less money spent! The diff in price between the 600 and 800 tiles is not that great anyway. Sneaky sneaky.. Our 'Italian' tiles made in China... More soon! cheers!

Not cheap but you are guaranteed with a beautiful, well-made kitchen that will last a long time, i think that is important!

We like Sealy, thought Serta is too much marketing. The Sealy San Marino model at Robinson is really nice, the so called Four Seasons bed. But went with Maxcoil eventually as we wanted to take the plunge with a full latex mattress, it something different i tell you By the way, if you are at Robinsons, do try the Dorma range by King Coil, it is even better than our Maxcoil, but brand had no history and nothing turned up on Google, so a bit apprehensive, but it was GOOOOD! Even better than the San Marino just next to it

Just a piece of advice...if you need customisation to fit into cabinet, better make sure your contractor agrees to it. We almost ended up with a $500 drawer system that we can't use. Still installing now, but will look ugly because contractor turned around and say won't customise cabinet. Heart pain.

Ya, my no. is even bigger at 349, i think, **** anxious wait...but 3rd floor is good enough mi lor, going to consider changing the box's grills to acrylic pieces? One of the neighbours did it, quite nice..can keep away pests from outside especially if you have aircon trunking.

Was looking at Sealy too...the San Marino at Robinsons is shiok...there's a Dorma there too...quite shiok too...but no history (subsidiary of King Coil) But... Took the plunge, went for Maxcoil, full synthethic latex, no spring...because it felt awesome...and at a good price for full latex mattress.

I think a number of the blk 79 TPY forummers have posted before, can't find now though...anyway, will try and get some photos for you. FYI, Blk 79's pipes are all along the ceiling on one side, so its quite neat and tidy

SOrry to butt in, but actually for Blk 79 TPY, all the sewage pipes are already boxed up by HDB, pretty cool but must take care not to be home for the 4-legged friends. The only pipe that is visible is the drainage pipe in the kitchen, which will likely be covered up by the kitchen cabinet

For old tiles, then I think must search around a bit. It pretty much depends on your contractor if they want to foot the bill or replace the tiles for you. Otherwise, need to find somebody else to do it for you. For our kitchen wall tiles, it cost $1 per piece directly from the supplier. We removed the HDB clothes hanger and had a couple of damaged tiles, so total 7 pieces needed.

Do HDB really give homeowners spare tiles? Usually, we need to get it from their building materials' supplier, cos that is how we are getting ours. If you have new flat, can ask the Building Services Centre for the contact.

Those kitchen lights blew me away, really! Nice! Although I've got to ask, bright enough for your kitchen with all those patterns on it?

I just came back from our unit, was pretty shock to see water leaking through the kitchen windows. Don't know where the water came from, possibly from the window seal but there was water at the top part of the windows. Any 79ers experiencing this too? The living room windows also had droplets at the top, but the kitchen windows were wet!!

I saw lots of bathtubs at Sim Siang Choon, the Tanah Merah head office branch. Like lots! and of all sizes

Yes, you can cos we did They are not on display so you need to order with the staff at the kitchen section. Stuff like 153degrees hinges and the soft closing hinges. For the tracks, they usually come with the drawer system. The soft-closing bit (about 10cm in length) is $10 per pair. By the way, the Ikea drawer systems, tracks and hinges are BLUM OEM. Designed by Blum for Ikea, it says so on the side of the drawers And cheaper to boot

True enough, by the way, are you using System 3 or 4? Cos I only see one compressor and you have aircon in living room (trying to do mental workings of your aircon system!) If 3 then you sacrificed one room, right? We are thinking of having glass too but top and side hung, means it covers the whole area and will hide the washing machine and the stacked dryer. Haven't found out quotation yet or can be done or not due to safety, but don't see an issue there. Also, since I have the contact to plastic maker from Liana, will custom make acrylic to cover the back of the L-shape cabinet and have silicone around it too. Hope can keep the water and moisture away. (there goes our secret, in case ID reads this, haha! We refused to tell him what we'll do) Certainly much cheaper than building a wall there.

Aww shucks! I thought the 2nd curve is the best creative idea I've seen so far in Blk 79 renovation, very spaceship actually Anyway, I can understand, our living room layout is the same, and I have the aircon where i think yours will be at too. We have the same kitchen layout too, nice! By the way, the glass backsplash near your sink is included in your quotation? Our ID insisted for us to build a wall behind the sink cabinet for $450, to keep away water and moisture, he said. We didn't agree with him though. Are you having a low-wall built as well? We haven't seen anyone with it and I have other alternatives actually, which will NOT cost me $450 Love your MBR, man, cosy! Good stuff!

Alamak, I always park my red scooter there when i go by to check on the flat (just go up the staircase. less than 5 minutes usually then I'm off), more convenient and burn less fuel going up the MSCP But have to think twice now, the fines quite ex ah. I still think it is not right to 'saman' all the contractors' lorries. Inconvenience, yes, but they have nowhere else to stop, unload and wait, usually they don't take long. Inside that area in between the CRCs still okay, i think, cannot tahan are those who park along the driveway leading out of the carpark. Can cause blindspots when turning left coming out from carpark. There was one Saturday morning, massive jam there cos of one inconsiderate lorry, choked the road by parking on the narrow lane at the carpark exit. What was he thinking!

ya, just now i saw one Uncle on scooter, put love letters and took photos of all the contractors' lorries near Blk B. At least a good 4-5 lorries there, never give face even though there were some workers milling about, waiting for their drivers/co-workers. So evil one?

wow, quite spectacular really, first time seeing a rounded feature welll at Blk 79, or anywhere that matter nice! Can't wait to see the real thing.

Oh, 'MN' is Poh Joo's in-house brand i think, short for 'Morning'. Oh, i remembered correctly, the display price was $300something, but straight away gave us $260. Their pricing reasonable i guess, that is what i like. (If you are buying lights, try Lightcraft, also transparent pricing) Well, for Brandt and Elba (refering to washing machine at least), they come from the same factory in Turkey. It is strange but true, that you can find washing machines from Brandt and Elba with the same designs! Everything, except for the colour and brand logo, hehe. Just like most LCD tvs have their panels manufactured by Samsung The person at Poh Joo will ask which side you want the big bowl, so that is a good point since we have very limited space in new flat. Oh, haven't used actually, still renovation, but from research, Poh Joo's products have good reviews on this forum. And between Sim Siang Choon and Poh Joo, still prefer Poh Joo, more 'serious' and specialised manufacturer in our minds

Brand wise may not be the same, Poh Joo's is MN, but design and looks wise it is certainly 99% the same OEM from same factory probably, just like Elba and Brandt. Did you go the Hoe Kee at IMM or Plaza Sing? Maybe its the location, hence the mark up. Poh Joo is at a shop house in Jalan Besar. Bought our storage heater, a tap, bidets and bathroom mirror with storage from there too, its quality stuff with reasonable pricing. I like Poh Joo's service actually. Sometimes, they may be understaffed, but don't be discouraged. Just wait for the opportunity, so far we've been served by 3 SEs at the Jalan Besar outlet near Lavender foodcourt, all are good! Their product knowledge is excellent! I guess Poh Joo is unpretentious with quality goods, we like! oh! And can choose want to have big bowl on the left or on the right.

That sink can be found at Poh Joo, i'm pretty sure of it, cos i bought the same one for $260 there