Hi Edward,

Welcome to RT. Very nice flat.

Hi Edward, exciting to see another fellow 3-roomer. We have a similar flat layout and I am also at the same stage of reno as you. Just curious, are both your bedroom doors still facing each other after the hacking? Thanks for sharing...

Ya they are still facing each other. Do you have a store room in between the 2 bedrooms? If you notice, the previous owner hacked away the store room and turn it into the wardrobe for the master room. So I am keeping that concept. But then we will have storage problems

try reading here

Thanks Nuebie.

These few days really busy no time to see the progress of my house. But my contractor told me the tiles for the toilet and living should be up. He also highlighted that the size of the kitchen wall and floor tiles are out. So the gap between the tiles will be big. Now in a dillemma if I should change the tiles or take his recommendation, that is to lay the tiles from the centre of the kitchen out to the sides, then the gap dont look so huge...... hmmmmm..... anyone able to advise me?

These few days really busy no time to see the progress of my house. But my contractor told me the tiles for the toilet and living should be up. He also highlighted that the size of the kitchen wall and floor tiles are out. So the gap between the tiles will be big. Now in a dillemma if I should change the tiles or take his recommendation, that is to lay the tiles from the centre of the kitchen out to the sides, then the gap dont look so huge...... hmmmmm..... anyone able to advise me?

got pics to show? not sure what you mean by the gap will be big.... I tink no matter what u must make it a point to inspect every phase of the work done, so that errors/mistakes will be controlled and rectified...

edward, I see your flat is loaded with so much cement and sand! is it overkill? compared to mine, my cement and sand not stacked until so high leh....

Edited September 21, 201016 yr by neubie

Welcome to Reno Blog. 28K budget actually able to reno whole house. Mine did with 28k not including aircon system. Yr floor plan layout is the same as mine. How much you paid for the cov? Mine is simple reno, maybe you can check out my reno blog for some budget idea.

i can't help feel that in recent years, reno costs have went up quite a lot.... past few years back given 28k can do up very nice liao....

got pics to show? not sure what you mean by the gap will be big.... I tink no matter what u must make it a point to inspect every phase of the work done, so that errors/mistakes will be controlled and rectified...

edward, I see your flat is loaded with so much cement and sand! is it overkill? compared to mine, my cement and sand not stacked until so high leh....

Ya lo, the other day i was looking through the t-blogs, like i dont see so much sand leh..... hmm... u never say i also never thought of askin my contractor. U brought up a good point, think i better ask him tomorrow. Dont know if it is for the fridge base and things like that. No picture to show, haven met my contractor, will be meeting him tomr night. I think he was telling me that the length of the wall and floor tiles different. So when he paste it on, visually will look ugly cause, wall tiles longer then fall tiles.

Edited September 21, 201016 yr by edward

i can't help feel that in recent years, reno costs have went up quite a lot.... past few years back given 28k can do up very nice liao....

Hahaha... this one i got no experience, this is the first time i buy house. But I think in general everything is going up in terms of price. And it is especially painful when we see so much of our hard earn money fly away for doing a reno.

Ya lo, the other day i was looking through the t-blogs, like i dont see so much sand leh..... hmm... u never say i also never thought of askin my contractor. U brought up a good point, think i better ask him tomorrow. Dont know if it is for the fridge base and things like that. No picture to show, haven met my contractor, will be meeting him tomr night. I think he was telling me that the length of the wall and floor tiles different. So when he paste it on, visually will look ugly cause, wall tiles longer then fall tiles.

depending on your design requirements, may need more materials. but oso depend on the estimation of the materials by the contractor...some maybe kiasu, give a bit more (maybe their tiler a bit wasteful and dunno how to plan properly), some more conservative, slightly a lil bit more than required. my main con told me, the cost of unused/wasted/leftover tiles are borne by him (unopened bundled tiles are returned to supplier), and I need not worry about paying extra, which i think is reasonable lor.... in other words, what is pasted on the wall/floor, i pay. my wetworks have been completed, i noticed no unopened bags of cement/sand; all left a bit for standby just in case...

Edited September 21, 201016 yr by neubie

Ya they are still facing each other. Do you have a store room in between the 2 bedrooms? If you notice, the previous owner hacked away the store room and turn it into the wardrobe for the master room. So I am keeping that concept. But then we will have storage problems

I agree, the MBR is pretty small if we were to cater for the wardrobe space. I do have a storeroom in between as well, but I have converted the space as part of my MBR. Drawback is more cabinet in my Living room for storage. Best of luck in your reno and remember visit more often unless you really trust your contractor alot.

Ya they are still facing each other. Do you have a store room in between the 2 bedrooms? If you notice, the previous owner hacked away the store room and turn it into the wardrobe for the master room. So I am keeping that concept. But then we will have storage problems

I feel that storage room is a best after i decided not to hack away the store room and luckily i never regret of keeping the store room. Hopefully you will not face any storage problem in later stage.

I feel that storage room is a best after i decided not to hack away the store room and luckily i never regret of keeping the store room. Hopefully you will not face any storage problem in later stage.

I agree with you. We are quite worried that we may face storage problems in further. All of us no matter what will definitely have junks to keep somehow. Maybe we may get the contractor to erect a storage cabinet in the kitchen for us in future, now no $$$$ hahahahaha..... This is the problem of a small house, not enough space.

Haha... Went to the house yesterday. Finally saw the tiles for the wall and floor of the kitchen and the toilet. At least for now, I feel that they look really **** good. All thanks to my project manager Yen for giving me solid advice on the color combi. Nevertheless, there is one particular tile (for my toilet walls) which Yen advised me not to use because it has many small lobangs (which make it look like marble tile, see the TOILET COMMON TILES), but I like it soooo much, so bobian, I still use it. Hopefully next time wont have a lot of trouble trying to get rid of the algae....

Sorry, was trying to insert the picture onto the page itself, but cant seem to do it. Anyway, below are the pictures to my kitchen wall and floor tiles.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53912514@N06/5025934205/ ==== KITCHEN WALLS / FLOOR

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53912514@N06/5026554788/ ==== KITCHEN FEATURE WALL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53912514@N06/5026560676/ ==== KITCHEN COMMON WALL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53912514@N06/5026563818/ ==== KITCHEN FLOOR

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53912514@N06/5026544054/ ==== TOILET WALLS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53912514@N06/5025930747/ ==== TOILET FEATURE WALL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53912514@N06/5026557808/ ==== TOILET COMMON WALL

By the time i left yesterday, I saw the tilers working on the living room floor. Think they should be up by tomorrow. I am so looking forward to see the result of the selected floor tiles for the bed and living room

testing = toilet wall..... hahahahaha.... finally got it onto the page..... why cant reno talk make this process less tedious? 1st must upload it onto a web page, then extract the html code, then paste onto here. for those who are less IT savvy, think it will be very challenging.

Edited September 26, 201016 yr by edward

Today, went to Isetan at Shaw. Saw this nice sleek looking BOSE Companion 5 speakers. With only 2 speakers and 1 woofer, it can actually give surround sound, quite amazing. Considering there are only 3 components, I believe the number of wires running around will reduce significantly as well. Anyone used these speakers before? Able to advice if BOSE produces good speakers?