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yuene

Haus Of Yuene

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Ooof! That's a long way to the start of your reno! By that time, I think if you hang around RT until then, you'll have so much knowledge on renovations, you'll be the RT expert! :D But anyway, don't worry too much ya? I'm sure there will be good IDs and contractors who will be available to do your reno! Try to choose an ID that is proven to know his/her limits on the number of projects s/he can handle; I think that would be a good sign that your ID is pretty responsible.

And yes, I designed my own house layout, and I'm getting my contractor to do it as to my specifications, partially because we're on a rather tight budget--we're not doing a lot of things that I would really love to do (like hiding wire casings in carpentry). I'm sure it won't look as fabulous as the ID planned and designed homes, but as long as it looks decent and I'm comfortable with it, I think that will be fine.

Haha, his company is in Bedok... found him from reading RT threads... I think it's pretty obvious who he is (just follow where I've been posting!), but I shan't say much until the whole thing is over.

reizzz: Me too! Hopefully will be able to get a good painter...

tell him you want ah kim. lol

 

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Join 46,923 satisfied homeowners who used renotalk quotation service to find interior designers. Get an estimated quotation

then ah kim real busy liao lor....he no car one, take public transport. so there is jus so many places he can go....

 

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then ah kim real busy liao lor....he no car one, take public transport. so there is jus so many places he can go....

woots. take public transport? then not so convenient for him to run so many places le.

 

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Day 3/4: the sands encroach

Progress seems to be moving fast. Last night on the way home after work, I asked my parents if I could pop by my place to check on the progress. I'd received an mms earlier from my contractor showing me the debris clearing. So while my parents picked up the bicycle from the repair shop, I walked over to my house.

I wasn't expecting to see his workers still at work, especially since It was past 7.30pm, but there they were, shovelling wall bits and what have you into wheelbarrows and carting them out one load at a time. The first thing that came to mind, I have to admit, was "ummm, shouldn't they be stopping the loud works already? What if the neighbours complain?" Then, I felt really guilty for making them have to stay so late just to clear the stuff.

I felt a bit like an intruder in my own home, but when the worker shot me a quizzical look, I replied "I'm the owner" and he left me alone to look around. The wall with my hammer and tu long dao and yi tian jian were gone *boohoo*, and the toilet and kitchen tiles had been hacked. I couldn't get a nice picture, but the house was filled with piles of sand. I suppose this means my place will start on wetworks soon.

No updates for today.

 

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Day 3/4: the sands encroach

Progress seems to be moving fast. Last night on the way home after work, I asked my parents if I could pop by my place to check on the progress. I'd received an mms earlier from my contractor showing me the debris clearing. So while my parents picked up the bicycle from the repair shop, I walked over to my house.

I wasn't expecting to see his workers still at work, especially since It was past 7.30pm, but there they were, shovelling wall bits and what have you into wheelbarrows and carting them out one load at a time. The first thing that came to mind, I have to admit, was "ummm, shouldn't they be stopping the loud works already? What if the neighbours complain?" Then, I felt really guilty for making them have to stay so late just to clear the stuff.

I felt a bit like an intruder in my own home, but when the worker shot me a quizzical look, I replied "I'm the owner" and he left me alone to look around. The wall with my hammer and tu long dao and yi tian jian were gone *boohoo*, and the toilet and kitchen tiles had been hacked. I couldn't get a nice picture, but the house was filled with piles of sand. I suppose this means my place will start on wetworks soon.

No updates for today.

lol, with regards to complaints, i remember he told me something like this - "whether there will be complaints or not depends on the area you live. 有钱人的地方一定会有人complain"

after hearing that from him, my wife and i were both :rofl: :rofl:

 

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supposed you're all well and recovered eh!

otherwise, i doubt i get to see the too long and rainy sword saga. haha

i usually whip out the same liner when it comes to hacking

"from heaps of destruction, thou flat shall reborn"

time to get busy busy busy!

 

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Hey, congrats on survivng the packing! :) Heh heh. Now at hacking stage already, so yeah, wet works will be next :)

Thought your hammer/sword artwork was hilarious! So sayang to hack away. Haha. Looking forward to more pix and updates.

 

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lol, with regards to complaints, i remember he told me something like this - "whether there will be complaints or not depends on the area you live. 有钱人的地方一定会有人complain"

after hearing that from him, my wife and i were both :rofl: :rofl:

Hahahahahaha! But it's quite true, too. It's usually those who have a bit of wealth though.

supposed you're all well and recovered eh!

otherwise, i doubt i get to see the too long and rainy sword saga. haha

i usually whip out the same liner when it comes to hacking

"from heaps of destruction, thou flat shall reborn"

time to get busy busy busy!

Yup, my flat is rising from the ashes! Rather slowly though, I might add. I popped by today and the toilet's been screed... the pipes have been changed and I think waterproofing has been done (there were these strange bright blue patches on my floor near my drain traps), but not much otherwise...

Hey, congrats on survivng the packing! :) Heh heh. Now at hacking stage already, so yeah, wet works will be next :)

Thought your hammer/sword artwork was hilarious! So sayang to hack away. Haha. Looking forward to more pix and updates.

Yeah! Though I might add, just barely--plus moving three cats was no fun; we didn't have enough space in the carrier, so we had to put poor Elaine in the cat harness and carry her the whole way! Poor thing was traumatised and refused to budge from the designated cat room in my mum's place until the last two days, when I carried her upstairs to sleep in my room. Cece was raring to get out by the second day, and figured out how to open the lourved windows by the fourth day....

 

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Yup, my flat is rising from the ashes! Rather slowly though, I might add. I popped by today and the toilet's been screed... the pipes have been changed and I think waterproofing has been done (there were these strange bright blue patches on my floor near my drain traps), but not much otherwise...

don't worry.. from here on, works will take place so fast you hardly have time to react.

or at least, that's what it is happening to my unit now!

but at least, i coined it positively as "happy problems" cause the unit is slowly but surely manifesting into a dream house.

am sure yrs would be too!

 

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Ne0: I hope so... I had to redo some stuff because I realised I made a mistake, so things will be delayed by a few days, I think... Nice to see your reno moving forward at such a fast clip!

Day 5-14: Things start shaping up... AND a very expensive mistake (on my part)

Sorry for the lack of updates, people; it has been a very busy two weeks, trying to settle the 3 fur-kids in my mum's place, living out of a couple of suitcases and trying to adjust to the new timing for work. I have to say this: I really hate living at my mum's place, because it takes me 1+ hours to get to my workplace as compared to my old timing of 15 minutes! Gone are the days when I could sleep until 8 and still reach my workplace on time (well, more or less). And it's so far away from anything, the moment I step home, I feel too tired to go right back out! Very uncomfortable for a night owl who likes to go out dancing late. URGH.

Anyway, I popped by last Saturday to check out the progress, and also to discuss the cabinets with my contractor. While I was there, I realised that they were doing up the dividing wall in my MBR. Even then, something about it bugged me--it made the other bedroom look very small. But I shrugged it off and let the work carry on...

While I was there, the workers came to change the piping in both bathrooms:

photo4.jpg

Looks pretty good, I must say. No more rusty pipes! It was kind of weird seeing the brown stains on the pipes in the past; it made me wonder if that was from...eeeee okay never mind.

A few days later, I dropped by in the evening to check out the progress. The wall was up... but now the other room was FAR too small! It wouldn't be able to serve as both the study room and the future children's room; there simply wouldn't be enough space. On the flip side, the area designated as my walk-in wardrobe was now huge, and I mean HUGE: the thing was almost 4m deep! Immediately I knew I wouldn't be able to live with something like that. At the same time, I knew knocking it down and shifting it would cost money, and my poor hb would probably flip on hearing that I'd allocated the room space wrongly. So I tried to imagine ways to live with it--putting the baby crib in the walk-in wardrobe, putting the bed there instead and the wardrobe outside, putting the study inside there with the clothes... It all didn't work, largely because the space is long AND narrow. So...I picked up the phone and dialled.

Contractor ©: Hallo?

Me (Y): Eh... Sorry ah... if I said I wanted to change something now, would you kill me?

C: ?? Change what?

Y: Errr.... could I shift the bedroom dividing wall...back ....

C: HAAAAAAH?!

To cut the long story short, he said it was doable, but he'd have to get a quote. He called me back shortly and it was $800 (OUCH) to shift the wall back; plus, it would hold up the reno a couple of days while they moved it back. After a short discussion with my poor dear hb, I finally called back and told him to shift the wall back.

In order to ensure that the same thing wouldn't happen again, my contractor made me go down on Hari Raya to my house to confirm the new position of the wall. In the end, we agreed to shift the wall back in by 3ft, so that the space can be used either for the writing desk, or for putting the baby's cot. All throughout the site visit, I was apologising profusely to the subcon, but he was really nice about it.

While I was there, I looked around and a couple of things had been done in the meantime:

photo.jpg

My kitchen wall's been screeded! Well, at the time, only the left wall had been screeded, but they'd commenced the process on the right wall as well. Very smooth! I told my hb that I was tempted to just leave the whole kitchen like that, and screw the cabinets! My hb was pretty much -___-|||

Also...

photo3.jpg

photo2.jpg

My MBR bathroom wall tiles are coming up! I knocked on each tile, and they are all solid. :) The tile lines are also very straight, with very small gaps between the tiles, unlike the ones done previously, where the alignment was totally off on quite a few of them. But then again, the entire bathroom has yet to be done, so I shall wait and see. But still! I'm pleased with the tiling so far. Plus, you can also see that the pipes have been changed (no more super messy pipes!), and I'm quite pleased that my tile selection turned out nice so far. Hopefully we will see more progress by the middle of the week, when I next do my visit.

 

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Contractor ©: Hallo?

Me (Y): Eh... Sorry ah... if I said I wanted to change something now, would you kill me?

C: ?? Change what?

Y: Errr.... could I shift the bedroom dividing wall...back ....

C: HAAAAAAH?!

i can so imagine him saying the haah part :rofl:

but at least you're able to move the wall back and your tiles are looking good :)

 

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Ne0: I hope so... I had to redo some stuff because I realised I made a mistake, so things will be delayed by a few days, I think... Nice to see your reno moving forward at such a fast clip!

hey, took time to read up yr costly mistake. is unfortunate that sometimes we learnt it the hard way ya. but fortunately, is still able to rectify.

but prevention is better than cure eh. suggest that you do a real simulation exercise with your id to show you where the rest of partitions are, the cabinets, the tv console etc. this way, is much more visual and the feel of space is much better

cause me went through such mistakes. however, fortunately too, at a very early stage when nothing was done up yet.

you see, i was holding on to these ideal images in my head that all would be picture perfect; good walking space etc.. till the day when the kitchen was boxed up, then it dawned upon me and my wife that it could be much more smaller!

so no choice, fearing that my id had placed order for materials, we recalled him back from malaysia on a sunday afternoon (really poor chap!) to discuss at my place. there and then, we simulated everything in the kitchen and freed up whatever space we can. really kudos to our id too travelling back to sg depsite being a sunday and he was in hometown for a family gathering. he even treated us to fruits from his garden after the discussion!

 

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i can so imagine him saying the haah part :rofl:

but at least you're able to move the wall back and your tiles are looking good :)

Ya, you should have heard it! Really, can almost see his face coming through the receiver end of the phone and going HAAAAH! But yes, thank goodness still can shift it back. Else... I will spend the rest of my life grumbling I think!

hey, took time to read up yr costly mistake. is unfortunate that sometimes we learnt it the hard way ya. but fortunately, is still able to rectify.

but prevention is better than cure eh. suggest that you do a real simulation exercise with your id to show you where the rest of partitions are, the cabinets, the tv console etc. this way, is much more visual and the feel of space is much better

cause me went through such mistakes. however, fortunately too, at a very early stage when nothing was done up yet.

you see, i was holding on to these ideal images in my head that all would be picture perfect; good walking space etc.. till the day when the kitchen was boxed up, then it dawned upon me and my wife that it could be much more smaller!

so no choice, fearing that my id had placed order for materials, we recalled him back from malaysia on a sunday afternoon (really poor chap!) to discuss at my place. there and then, we simulated everything in the kitchen and freed up whatever space we can. really kudos to our id too travelling back to sg depsite being a sunday and he was in hometown for a family gathering. he even treated us to fruits from his garden after the discussion!

Hmmm. That's a good idea! Will go try that out...

 

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Day 15-16: Of sharp eyes, ceramics and glass panes

I was originally scheduled to meet my contractor on Saturday afternoon to pass him the cheque for the renovations and discuss some items, but I realised (somewhat belatedly) that 1) I'm supposed to be at my friend's wedding--as part of the bridal party!--from 7am-5pm, and 2) I have training from 8-11pm. In other words, it would be far too tiring. So I arranged for the meeting to be today, at 1pm so that I could just pop by during my lunch hour.

On my way to work this morning, I decided to take a quick peek out of the bus window as it passed by my house; to my delight, the windows had been changed! Feeling excited, I went to work. Later on, during lunch hour, I took the bus back to my place. The main gate had already been removed, and the steps up had been tiled with the kitchen tiles. They also covered the steps in cardboard, so that the tiles wouldn't be damaged during the works.

windows.jpg

True enough, the windows facing the main road had been changed. The ones at the kitchen, bathrooms and the MBR had yet to be changed, although they'd been taken off already. I told my contractor that I kind of liked the idea of just not putting windows at all at the kitchen area.

Y: Actually hor, no windows like that also quite nice right?

C: Open concept right?

Y: Ya.

C: Ya, then when the rain come in also very nice lor.

-___-|| thanks HOR.

Wall.jpg

The wall has been shifted back, and they've done the screeding for the new wall. It was moved in about 1m, and it does make the room feel bigger already. I haven't quite finished debating what to put here; either the baby cot and drawers, or my husband's study table. I'm tempted to go with the latter.

AhSanatwork.jpg

Kitchentiles.jpg

When I came in, they were busy mixing the cement for the kitchen tiles. The tiling works so far have been very good! My bathroom toilet is almost done completely, with just a bit left to tile (around the ceiling height) The picture doesn't do the tile justice, but it's a dark wood grain tile. Since my laminates are light, I thought I'd do a floor with a contrast. Plus, if I spill things on the floor (which I am wont to do), it won't leave such obvious stains.

And...

Rubbishchute.jpg

Rubbish chute's been installed. Green sticker! Doesn't go with my decor. Hahahaha.

He told me to get my items ordered and delivered next Saturday (25 Sept), so sometime this week we'll have updates on the actual things that will go into my house! Plastering also starts next week.

 

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