Something Old, Something New

[benauhc 3]

Renovation commenced on 26 Feb'13 and what a week it has been. With only hacking permits for the floor and toilets, we forged ahead.

Here are some before pics

Here are pics after hacking of floor tiles, carpentry and fittings.

The roof for the balcony is also under construction

[benauhc 3]

Of Stiffeners and Lintols ...

I learnt this week that these two words are among many others that you do not want to hear from the HDB technical officer. The other is QP or PE.

Our wall hacking approval has been delayed pending a slight change in our hacking plan and PE endorsement. We had a talk with the branch technical officer on Tuesday, and there was another meeting on Firday to point out the exact locations of these annoying structural elements.

Our initial plan was to hack away the t-wall at the utility room/old entrance to create a long utility room. But now it turns out that part of the wall (encircled) cannot be hacked, so we will have to leave about a feet of protruding wall there. The other part of the t-wall can be hacked but will require PE supervision. That will mean delay of about a week or two for the hacking of the walls and will make us poorer in the process ($600 for PE endorsement and standing supervision). Pray that the approval will be quick after this.

Edited March 1, 2013 by benauhc

[Makanology 29]

I like your selection of tiles and themes. Will camp here for your progress

[Ms Polar 1]

Hi! I've managed to hack off the entire t wall with HDB approval, including the encircled part as well. I remembered paying $550 for the PE endorsement and all.

[benauhc 3]

I like your selection of tiles and themes. Will camp here for your progress

Thanks. I enjoy your t-blog too. Hope you find a good ID/contractor soon who can fuse all your wonderful ideas together.

[spikedoll 2]

I hate these 2 words - QP and PE!!! The hdb technical officer has been Li Li Lo Lo with us for past 2 weeks.

Shall see the outcome Monday... I even dreamt of that in my dreams... Kee siao liao

[benauhc 3]

Hi! I've managed to hack off the entire t wall with HDB approval, including the encircled part as well. I remembered paying $550 for the PE endorsement and all.

Not sure if I should challenge their assessment and insist on hacking it all off. That might mean more delays ...

[Ms Polar 1]

I believed you can appeal, my contractor didn't get all through in one attempt as well.

[benauhc 3]

Was away for a week. Reno progress has been slow as lots of masonry and tiling work could not proceed without the approval of the wall hacking permit. But finally, yes finally , we were given the green light yesterday. We can't hack right away yet as we have to apply for the days of hacking. Seems like HDB like to take their own sweet time for each step of the approval process. One of their common response is "No, not this week. Have to wait one to two weeks. It has to go to HQ and do you know how many cases goes up for approval every week? See lah, in the first place why you want to hack.....blah blah ..."

Ok, hope there are no more speed bumps ahead. Will post some reno pics tonight.

[benauhc 3]

Here are the pics after the 3rd week of reno.

[summersann 6]

Here are the pics after the 3rd week of reno.

Your balcony divider looks interesting! Pardon my ignorance, but what is it for? You're going to have an elevated entrance to the balcony?

[benauhc 3]

Hi Summer, the balcony divider is there just to separate the living hall from the balcony area. It will look something like the 3D below, but with a lower wall. The balcony can be accessed from the air-well area.

[benauhc 3]

Lots of progress this week.

The air-con installers came down on Monday. We spent a wee bit of time discussing the routing of the pipes and trunking. The installation itself took the whole day and by the time we tested the blowers, it was well past 8pm. There were also a fair bit of deliveries that day, for lights, sanitary and kitchen ware and electricals (hob/hood/oven).

Then on Tuesday, the walls of Jericho finally came down. With that final part of resistance hacked away, we could finally proceed with the rest of the masonry on the lower floor.

For the rest of the week, work continued on the toilet tiles, false ceiling went up, and hollow brick walls were erected around the new utility room.

Bought a bunch of GE cool white (4000k) E27 bulbs for my downlights and tracklights. They were comparatively more expensive ($9 for 20W, $8.5 for 14W) than the normal E27 bulbs. Anybody knows where I can find cheaper cool white bulbs?

[benauhc 3]

Lighting

For lighting, we chose to mix it up with downlights, tracklights, pendants, ceiling and wall lights. Here is the proposed lighting plan.

After spending a bomb on the renovations, we had limited budget for everything else. So for the main feature lights we turned to TB for signature copies; we even got tracks and E27 track lights from there. For the downlights, we got simple ones from Choo Chiang. For pendant/ceiling lights, we are buying from IKEA; and for wall lights, we got vintage looking ones from i-light.

[benauhc 3]

Here are a few 3Ds to share ...

1) Dining area

2) Kitchen Island

3) Living hall

4) Foyer

Edited March 23, 2013 by benauhc