My First Renovation Experience

[myzticalz 14]

Okay, I really really like your dogs! Singapore breed FTW! Now I'm considering removing my service yards doors so I can put the little gate to keep my dog in there as well. Good idea.

[AnnieOoi 0]

Your house is beautiful

[RenoJoy 6]

:good:

Lovely place.

If this is a consolation to you, I have YET to complete my reno. Started late oct / early nov 2013.

[RenoJoy 6]

Love the bathtub. Maybe I should have insisted on 1 huh? Nevermind, next house then! hahaha

Some paintings from I wanna go home.

[RenoJoy 6]

ptqbe, thanks. There is carpentry but minimal, only in living room and kitchen.

The renovation process was slow. We started hacking 12 November and handover was 17 January. I didn't do many things, there was much down time throughout the whole process, workers came in at noon rather than early in the morning.

Year end is especially bad time to do renovation. If I had a choice, I would avoid this period.

Hey! I experienced the same!! For a period of time (2 weeks), there wasn't any work!

Yup, one lesson I learned from my 1st reno -> avoid year end at all cost! That'll reduce your risks (and UNHAPPINESS) by at least half!

Oh my, I want my house!

[elin1029 23]

Okay, I really really like your dogs! Singapore breed FTW! Now I'm considering removing my service yards doors so I can put the little gate to keep my dog in there as well. Good idea.

Thanks! The Singapore breed is very smart and very easy to take care. Last night, he went into the dogs area on his own to sleep. The small one is a miniature pinscher, even though they look alike.

[elin1029 23]

Your house is beautiful

Thanks Annie.

[elin1029 23]

Hey! I experienced the same!! For a period of time (2 weeks), there wasn't any work!

Yup, one lesson I learned from my 1st reno -> avoid year end at all cost! That'll reduce your risks (and UNHAPPINESS) by at least half!

Oh my, I want my house!

Oh dear, so sorry to hear that. Is it going to complete soon? Is it also by the same contractor?

[RenoJoy 6]

Oh dear, so sorry to hear that. Is it going to complete soon? Is it also by the same contractor?

Nope, it's not the same contractor.

CNY period, stopped work for 2 weeks. Let's see what happens next week.

[guojiawen 101]

Love the idea of a bathtub, but sadly hubby don't see the need..

Managed to convince him for rain shower though!

Looking forward to more sharing of ideas through your reno blog

[inthechouse 8]

My reno is paused for CNY too. Agree that one should avoid year-end reno at all costs, if one can help it.

[elin1029 23]

Love the idea of a bathtub, but sadly hubby don't see the need..

Managed to convince him for rain shower though!

Looking forward to more sharing of ideas through your reno blog

Here's a picture of the rain shower. Take note of the rain shower height. I told my contractor one of us using it is more than 1.8m tall, so she should install it high enough in order for us to use it comfortably. Otherwise the rain shower is too close to the head.

I was disappointed when I saw that it was installed too low (only about 10cm above the tallest person using it). She explained that the mixer height is standard (1m), and that's the highest the shower head can go because the length of the rail is fixed. I thought they could have shifted the mixer higher (e.g. to 1.2m). The standard height is not a fixed rule.

Was thinking to hack the wall again to shift the mixer higher, or change to a different model of rain shower. Finally was lucky to find an extension tube for the rain shower from Amazon. Got to wait for plumber to be back from CNY break to fix it.

[guojiawen 101]

Here's a picture of the rain shower. Take note of the rain shower height. I told my contractor one of us using it is more than 1.8m tall, so she should install it high enough in order for us to use it comfortably. Otherwise the rain shower is too close to the head.

I was disappointed when I saw that it was installed too low (only about 10cm above the tallest person using it). She explained that the mixer height is standard (1m), and that's the highest the shower head can go because the length of the rail is fixed. I thought they could have shifted the mixer higher (e.g. to 1.2m). The standard height is not a fixed rule.

Was thinking to hack the wall again to shift the mixer higher, or change to a different model of rain shower. Finally was lucky to find an extension tube for the rain shower from Amazon. Got to wait for plumber to be back from CNY break to fix it.

Thank you

Will take note during the installation of bathroom accessories.

[elin1029 23]

Especially to Mr K customers out there, when he quoted:

Provide labour tools and material to supply and install kitchen cabinets, quartz countertop, 5 Blum drawers, casement hinge Blum and soft closing.

How am I to interpret this? Am I supposed to get actual Blum drawers or it's only just referring to Blum runner tracks for drawers?

[elin1029 23]

There is no response to my above query, but I'm going to try asking again, perhaps in a different manner.

I was quoted Blum drawers in my renovation contract, but when renovation completed, I realized they were not Blum drawers. Upon questioning the contractors, they said the drawer runner tracks were Blum. They said building the wooden drawers plus using Blum runner tracks is actually more expensive than using the Blum drawers themselves.

Is this true? Or should I insist they change all my drawers to Blum ones? I saw from most of Mr K's customers' blogs that they have the actual Blum drawers, not normal drawers run by Blum runner tracks.

On a similar note, the quote also mentioned Blum casement hinges, but upon inspection yesterday, I found out they were not Blum too. They said it was a mistake and they would change all the hinges to Blum.