Emma - Our Em In The West

[ricepapergirl 21]

15 hours ago, twinklecloud said:

looking good!!! seems like everything is going to complete soon!!

haha.. our aircon position the same place in the room. lol! hehe.

 

Haha nah its only halfway through I should think... But nice to see things moving!

Think actually that's the best position for aircon for our EM layout I think. Hoping it's good in the long run as well!

[ricepapergirl 21]

Day 31: My cute tiny sink!

We popped by because we both got off work early yesterday, and we're pleasantly surprised to see that they put up most of the stuff in our kitchen toilet!

The instant heater and our hansgrohe shower and bath mixer!

Our Johnson Suisse WC. Missing the toilet bowl seat but we tried out the flush and it was quite nice and strong!

Now my favourite bit of the toilet!! Haha we had to get a small sink because I wanted a proper glass swing door instead of a bifold, and had to keep the depth of the sink to a minimum. I was a bit worried about it but look how cute it looks! My cute little sink hahaha. The hansgrohe basin tap actually looks a bit too big for it but I love it already lol.

The toilets upstairs also had some work done on them, mostly just the water pipes and the shower and instant heaters done up.



In the 2nd floor common bathroom.

And in the mbr toilet!

Walking around and checking on the quality of the plastered walls, we found that the plaster near the kitchen big pipes were bubbly and peeling! Scary! We thought there might be some sort of leak and took some pictures. Whatsapped them to Andrew and immediately got a response that he's already seen it and already scolded his plastering people! 



Kudos to Andrew! Now to hope it gets solved!

[ricepapergirl 21]

Day 40: Parquet floors and partition walls!

Things have been moving a bit slower than previously, or maybe it's just because electrical wiring doesn't really show up as "progress" much. Though! I think all of our electrical wiring is mostly there!

On Saturday we camped out for Chan Huat to deliver the lights and fans, as well as Song Cho to deliver the bathroom accessories, and walked through the house a bit with Andrew to confirm the electrical wiring and plumbing for the kitchen!

Parquet floorings also started about a week back and some pictures of it starting was sent to us by Andrew!

We got to see the full effect when we were there on Saturday! Also got to speak to the master layer who was there who shared with us some tips about how he purposely picked the lighter colours and darker colours for the herringbone pattern, and how each room needed to be separated from the hallway via dividing straight lines (the herringbone pattern cannot extend outside of the room to the hallway) because otherwise the effect is not as nice.

Firstly, the hallway on the second floor! Too little space to do the light and dark herringbone pattern but it's still very nice!

Our future nursery!

Study!

And the MBR!

We really enjoyed talking to the master, really felt he was very proud of his work and he is indeed a master craftsman! Nowadays more and more people are opting for overlay, so not sure whether these parquet craftsmen get to show off their skills as often. Now the parquet floors need to sit for another 10 days before polishing and varnishing (too soon and there would be problems in the long run apparently!).

Our partition walls for the beam-created spaces at the staircase are also done!

Last wednesday we also went down to Ikea to confirm our kitchen after the site measurement. I must say the Ikea kitchen planning department are really helpful and give really good customer service! The contractors that are in charge of installation though... hmm. Slightly less friendly and having some email to-and-fro with them right now because their quotation seems odd in some ways. Crossing fingers that it would work out in the end. A preview of the planned Ikea kitchen layout! We switched to a grey cabinet front look in the end!

Next week things will be moving along a lot faster, hopefully. Monday will be the changes to the kitchen pipes and wiring, plus that pesky bad plastering job at the kitchen pipes, because tuesday will be painting! Then the retractable awning will be installed on Thursday, glass doors will also be in by the end of the week. Hopefully the rest of the WCs and sinks and the fans and lights will be up by the weekend too!

[gumbokins 5]

everytime i read 'parquet', i say 'par-kuet' 

[lalashir 5]

The parquet flooring looks really good! The tiler must had put in a lot of effort for this. Can't wait to see how it looks like after varnishing! 

[Changbp 5]

10 hours ago, ricepapergirl said:

 

Do note that the bottom cabinet at the corner may not be able to be opened

[koxxic 2]

love how your master did up the parquet, created a uniform but yet contrasting looking to your rooms...

[ricepapergirl 21]

1 hour ago, Changbp said:

12 hours ago, ricepapergirl said:

 

Do note that the bottom cabinet at the corner may not be able to be opened

Hi Changbp!

Haha no worries actually the piece in black and open shelving is a movable trolley. The cabinets at the corner at the bottom are meant to hold only the LPG tanks so when I need to access that corner I will move the trolley away (you can't really see it from the picture but it's actually two 40cm swing door cabinets in the corner hidden by the trolley). Anyway we haven't bought the trolley yet so let's see how it goes (I wanted it for extra counter space but may not need it?). I find corner cabinets too fiddly and not very useful, especially for heavy objects like LPG tanks, so I designed it this way instead.  Good catch though!

[ricepapergirl 21]

Been a bit quiet recently, things are moving for the reno but starting to gear up to move in soon! Andrew says we can move stuff in from 1 June onwards so we've scheduled Helping Hands to help move our stuff (from my maiden home and from our current home to our new home!) on 2 June and scheduled some deliveries of furniture to come in on 1 June evening. Signed up for Starhub over the weekend as well for them to come install on 1 June.

Starting to keep a list of stuff Andrew still has to do (it's got to the point when we can list them down now!) and a list of what we have to do (defect checklist + buy Ikea stuff etc) and it looks like the next two weeks are going to be slightly crazy! But really looking forward to our own place come June!

Meanwhile most of the painting is done, lights and fans have been 80% installed, glass doors are in, all the bathroom accessories are installed. A major piece that's hanging is really the Ikea kitchen installation, I'm having some issues with the installation people but hoping to resolve it soon (even filed a complaint with Ikea already), hopefully get some sort of resolution today or at least this week! >_<

[twinklecloud 2]

wow! the toilet bowl and sink look familiar!! haha.. lol.

the toilets are looking good!! u also close up the opening along the staircase!

your ikea kitchen looks good and so much storage space!!!! looking forward to seeing the process!

seriously? so many things till u can list them down for A to do?? oh dear.. he will get it resolve. =)

wow! moving in next month!!! hehe.. it's a super tedious process.. i am still trying to unpack.

[ricepapergirl 21]

2 hours ago, twinklecloud said:

wow! the toilet bowl and sink look familiar!! haha.. lol.

the toilets are looking good!! u also close up the opening along the staircase!

your ikea kitchen looks good and so much storage space!!!! looking forward to seeing the process!

seriously? so many things till u can list them down for A to do?? oh dear.. he will get it resolve. =)

wow! moving in next month!!! hehe.. it's a super tedious process.. i am still trying to unpack.

Welcome back!!

Haha yeah there are actually more updates on the toilets but need to go back and take some proper pictures. Maybe wait until the pipes are painted or something :P. Actually should go back and take pictures of all the new stuff but have been very distracted because of this Ikea kitchen installation thing, still chasing them for an installation date!

Oh! When I said I can list down things for Andrew to do I meant that the full list of things he needs to do is now so short that I can list it down. Literally it's just like "Polish and varnish parquet floor, install dining room light, install balcony door" etc etc etc. We tick them off when we visit and see that it's done, since by now the old timeline is kind of outdated.  

I find the moving in the most busy period. Because Andrew isn't doing our carpentry I'm doing a lot of coordination to figure out when to buy the Ikea cupboards etc and when is a good time to get them to come down and install (has to be after Andrew is done with most of the flooring but hopefully before I get to move in) so these few days I've been doing loads of calling and arranging of deliveries etc.

[lalashir 5]

On 16 May 2016 at 10:38 AM, ricepapergirl said:

Been a bit quiet recently, things are moving for the reno but starting to gear up to move in soon! Andrew says we can move stuff in from 1 June onwards so we've scheduled Helping Hands to help move our stuff (from my maiden home and from our current home to our new home!) on 2 June and scheduled some deliveries of furniture to come in on 1 June evening. Signed up for Starhub over the weekend as well for them to come install on 1 June.

Starting to keep a list of stuff Andrew still has to do (it's got to the point when we can list them down now!) and a list of what we have to do (defect checklist + buy Ikea stuff etc) and it looks like the next two weeks are going to be slightly crazy! But really looking forward to our own place come June!

Meanwhile most of the painting is done, lights and fans have been 80% installed, glass doors are in, all the bathroom accessories are installed. A major piece that's hanging is really the Ikea kitchen installation, I'm having some issues with the installation people but hoping to resolve it soon (even filed a complaint with Ikea already), hopefully get some sort of resolution today or at least this week! >_<

Hello @ricepapergirl! Can share the quotation from helping hands if possible? I'm looking to move to my new house next month too! 

[ricepapergirl 21]

2 hours ago, lalashir said:

Hello @ricepapergirl! Can share the quotation from helping hands if possible? I'm looking to move to my new house next month too! 

PM-ed you! Hope it helps!

[twinklecloud 2]

thanks ricepapergirl! yeah.. moving and packing n the cleaning up as well!! killer!!!

Btw the coordination work is kind of tedious especially you hire a third party to come by and do other things... but Andrew is very nice one.. he will help u whenever he can. =) sometimes he will go the extra mile. =) hope your ikea kitchen get resolve soon!!

haha..i din even have a list of things to tell him..lol. I just checked randomly and whenever i see some issues, i let him know and he automatically know what to do.. haha.. maybe because my project has too many details to look into. it is not over yet..

[ricepapergirl 21]

Day 51 - End is in sight??

Finally some pictures!  We knew most if not all of our lights are up and running, and we needed to pop by to pick up one of our LED lights that was faulty and get Chan Huat to fix it, so husband and I went over after work yesterday to check out our new place at night (and check whether the lights we got were bright enough!)

Excited excited, even when we opened the door the first floor was quite bright, just from the light along our corridor coming in through the frosted glass corridor windows! But the kicker was switching on our "entrance" wall light:

Wah! Very bright! Good good. Love the up+downlight effect. The yellow wall in the background leads to the utility room, glass sliding door not yet fixed, the light in that room is also nice and bright!

The trash on the floor is crazy! Lol  ! But yay for our dining room light, the only "artsy" light we have. Also super bright, lit up the entire dining room!

The living room (still missing a yellow coloured wall) with one set of track lights on, and with both sets of track lights on. Still missing my balcony doors lol. Also, loving our simple black Fanco fan. That's the utility room's sliding door chilling out at the side wall.

I really adore the colour of my balcony, it's probably not super accurate in these photos but it's sort of a bold teal-green-blue thing. This is us trying out the newly installed retractable awning (we got dark blue for the fabric so that if it ever fades it sort of becomes lighter blue which, hey, is the sky) and also checking out the newly installed metal brackets (if you squint you can see both of them) for our bamboo poles for drying clothes next time. It was not easy trying to find the kind that mounts on the side instead of from the ceiling!

Detour into the kitchen and into the kitchen toilet! Frosted swing door installed and light installed! Mirror, shelf, towel rack and toilet roll rack also installed! Really am quite pleased at how expanding it into an L-shaped toilet has made it much more usable and less cramped!

No pictures of the kitchen right now sadly, but nothing much to see. Ikea kitchen installers (finally settled it with them, let me see the installation through before I give my review) coming next week! Cross fingers that everything will go well!

Wall light at the staircase landing! This light and the one at the 2nd floor hallway (both are linked and are two-way switchable) provide so much light that we actually don't even need the additional light which is spoiled which we are bringing back to Chan Huat. Brighter still better so we're happy!

The bedrooms have all been painted and their window grilles reinstalled and lights are up! Pale minty green for the nursery and pale yellow for the study! Parquet polishing to be done next week as well!

Common toilet on the second floor with most of the fixtures put up!

Same with the MBR toilet, with frosted glass swing door.

Another favourite wall colour, really love this pale blue for our MBR! Track lights and black Fanco fan as well, almost the same as the living room layout!

There's still quite some stuff that needs to be done, but it really feels like the house is coming together, especially with the painting mostly done. It's amazing how electrical wiring casings kind of fade away when they are painted lol. We're popping by Ikea on Friday to get the rest of the non-kitchen furniture and hopefully can get them to install things like the bookshelves and wardrobes next week on the same days as the kitchen installation, if not, closer to when we get to move in, so although we don't have "carpentry" in the traditional sense we are also moving into the carpentry stage of our reno! Can't wait till all the stuff is done up (parquet skirting, parquet polishing, doors for the bedrooms, painting of the big pipes, big furniture, cleaning etc) and move in soon!