The M Family's New Home In Seng Kang (the Rivervale)

[Guest melancholic]

Hmmm ... heard that painting had begun today. Am taking leave tomorrow to take pictures of my place.. as well as be there to pay Wellmax as they are installing the grilles tomorrow as well.

I realised over the weekend that there are 2 completely unopened boxes of my kitchen floor tiles. that equals 16 pieces of 60x30cm tiles, which is a lot of wastage for such a small area. I estimate the retail cost of that to be at least $90. What a waste! I know I need to keep some as spare, but the rest?? If only I can get a refund from the shop.. but.. that's not the way things work I guess... sighz

[Guest melancholic]

ahh.. finally get to add in some updates. been down with fever and having to shuttle between work and reno.. just not in the mood these few days to log on.

When I went to take a look a few days ago, when the first coat of paint was up, it looked ok at first. This the pict of the 'feature' wall where the dining table would be. The darker colour matched well with the pure white of the false ceiling.

But when I saw the other walls in the common living area, the lily white stuck out like a sore thumb. It just gave the house a jaundiced look, and didn't go well with the dark tone.

you can't really tell from this pict here

Thankfully, due to one emergency case caused by his colleague, Kelvin had to pull the painters from my house to do an urgent job elsewhere nearby. As such, the second coat hadn't gone up when I visited that evening. So instead of getting pissed, cos I needed my house to be completed fast, it made my next request to Kelvin easier for him to arrange. I asked him if I could do away with the lily white and paint those walls all pure white. (Pure white was what he suggested by the way, but my wife felt it would be too stark.) Kelvin called his main painter and agreed to the change, WITHOUT charging us for the extra can of white paint and the reworking of the first coat.

What more can I ask for. hmmmm

[Guest melancholic]

Grilles are up!

thankfully we couldn't get the original colour. And the management allowed us to get the closest colour for the grilles, which happened to match our wall colour better.. heh

This is the pict of the simple grille I had to install in the toilet windows... no choice cos of my 2 little boys who climb very very well

[Guest melancholic]

Here u see they cement screed over the existing tiles and painted it.

Is it normal that they don't bother to cement screed the portion where the cabinets will cover? Thought it would offer a better base for the cabinets to rest on. or am I being a little short changed here?

[Guest melancholic]

I went down on Thursday morning and saw the carpenters hard at work installing my kitchen cabinets.

Finally get to see things taking shape. Especially when I'm not doing much.. just the kitchen and my MBR + the usual painting, etc.

[Guest melancholic]

Kiasu.. took a picture of the wood they are using for my kitchen cabinets. No idea what grade of plywood this is..

More picts of the wood.

Edited June 20, 2009 by melancholic

[Guest melancholic]

I didn't stay long to see the progress as I wasn't feeling well on Thursday.. so went back on friday to take a look.

the kitchen's looking better.. with the laminates on the doors. The colours were my wife's choice. Kelvin had many of his colour options over-ruled by my wife.. but some to our detriment (like the wall), but for this, it looks good. And it does match our wall colour at the dining area and the ceiling (not the false ceiling).

The darker laminate on the kitchen cabinets is actually greyish but at certain angles, it reflects a pinkish hue. The camera can't capture the colours well. The laminates we used were all glossy. Yes, we were worried about scratches but we felt fine scratches we could live with, especially if we are careful, but matt laminates tend to be harder to wipe off whereas glossy laminates are easier to clean. We've seen a few of our friend's kitchen cabinets which were totally white and 3 years down the road, they still look quite good.

[Guest melancholic]

Yesterday morning, the carpenters were also continuing the master bedroom wardrobe, which I didn't see them put up on thursday as I had gone back by then.

This is the laminate that we're using. It's actually black.. but doesn't look so here cos of the flash.

That's all for now.. I'll be going over to my place later to take more pictures. I heard from my ID, that the MBR is 95% done.

[stormcontrol 0]

You were asking about the wood used in your carpentry? Is it three layers only (i think that's what i see in the pic)? Refer to Aubrey's t-blog, around page 17 onwards about the wood issue she had with her carpentry. Here it is.

[Guest melancholic]

You were asking about the wood used in your carpentry? Is it three layers only (i think that's what i see in the pic)? Refer to Aubrey's t-blog, around page 17 onwards about the wood issue she had with her carpentry. Here it is.

Ok. thanks.

Oh dear... looks like I'm getting what I'm paying for. I checked with my friend who was in this line before. It's plywood, but average grade.

And this top view of my kitchen cabinet.. the piece of wood in between is prob a softer type of wood and is acting as a beam to provide support.

http://img200.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photo0189i.jpg

[Guest melancholic]

Was at my new place over the weekend to see the progress of the carpentry, since they told me it was 90% done.

At first glance, the MBR wardrobe looked good.

I couldn't get a full view of the wardrobe and settee as I was using my handphone camera and my room was not big enough to do so.

Edited June 24, 2009 by melancholic

[ivy 0]

1 picture only? post more!

[Guest melancholic]

Was at my new place over the weekend to see the progress of the carpentry, since they told me it was 90% done.

At first glance, the MBR wardrobe looked good.

I couldn't get a full view of the wardrobe and settee as I was using my handphone camera and my room was not big enough to do so.

However, after taking a closer look, I realised that the wardrobe was badly misaligned. The doors on the left were not flushed with the side of the wardrobe. There was a sizeable gap. Casement doors at the top right hand of the wardrobe was too sunken in, and not flushed with the wardrobe structure. The structure of the wardrobe on the right side, where the wooden planks were, was also not even. The boxed up portion of the wardrobe, to extend the wardrobe to look full-height, was also jutting out and not flushed with the rest of the wardrobe.

My heart sank and I was all upset inside, as this was supposed to be the main masterpiece.

I called Kelvin to ask him to look into it. He was there on Monday to get his carpenters to rectify as best as possible. I haven't been back to the house since, so won't know how well it's been rectified. The only thing I was not happy with Kelvin's response was that the boxed up portion was how they normally do their wardrobes. I told him that I did not buy that excuse and to me, it was clear that his carpenters screwed up the measurements.

Problem for me is that I have to die die move in by this weekend, so getting them to rectify that portion will have to be done after we move in.

Other problems occurred on monday, in the sense that the electrician told me that I hadn't bought enough of the switches so there would be some where he would have to put back the old switches first. So I gotta quickly buy them this weekend and get him to come back and install the balance, and collect his payment at the same time. Strange.. but I had bought the switches based on his electrical plan. hmmm

I'll put up more pictures soon.

[Guest melancholic]

as you can see from this picture, the structure is not straight. Kelvin told me the carpenters have corrected it, and that the reason was that my wall was not straight, so when they installed the planks, it pushed into the structure.

I guess I can buy this argument cos the house is really not that well developed.

Will have to take a look today if I can to see if it is really rectified.

Edited June 24, 2009 by melancholic

[Guest melancholic]

I'll put some family photos here in the niche. That's the whole purpose.. so the wardrobe looks more like a feature all...

This is the other end of the settee, with the strange-looking side table. It wasn't supposed to have a drawer unit.. but my wife wanted one.. hence.. this final effect.

Front view of the settee.

Edited June 24, 2009 by melancholic