15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen

[Clarence Lye 10]

Apologies for the lack of update, was busy past few weeks and i was away to Taiwan.

Here are some updates on the reno, it's almost coming to the end. Just pending touch up work.
We are officially moving in this weekend, as le wife's parent house is going to start reno. So they are also temporary moving to our guest room to stay for 1.5-2mths while the reno works is going on there.

our ID has been delaying alot of the touch up works such as:
1) touch up of paint (patch at master bedroom ceiling fan area)
2) touch up of laminates gap (they are suppose to paint the gaps), nail at the bedhead area
3) generalwashing/cleaning
4) some minor electrical works left
5) waterponding at common bathroom behind toilet bowl, due to the shower kerb the water is all stagnant there and unable to flow away.
6) some marks/scratches on my kitchen basin! 
7) master toilet missing casement door, we wanted casement door but end up it came with only 1sided fixed panel.   then the extra rack we install for the shampoo/soap had to be removed and now the wall tiles got HOLE. 

Pictures:

Journey hasnt been that smooth as there are alot of screw ups, especially with the evorich flooring.
Remember some time back we had to pay additional cost to "hack" the extra border from both the bathroom. Due to the evorich flooring has to be removed, replace, re-order and etc.. this incurred an additional cost of about $400+

 

 

Here are some pictures post-eubiq installation:

Living: (will take a better pic when i go down this weekend)

 

Kitchen:


With Top and Bottom LED switched on:

 

Master Bedroom:

- TV Ledge area:

- Bedhead


Accessories:


and also the Eubiq Socket terminal:


(notice that the alignment is off? electrican need to come down and "adjust" the schneider switch on the right downwards)

 

 

This is the guest room (that le wife's parents will be staying while their house is being reno). It's all setup and done. Simple concept, nothing fancy.

 

 

Our handover has been delayed from End Oct to Mid Nov, now towards end Nov.. 
Here are some pictures of the current house:

(Living fan is up!)

Edited November 20, 2017 by Clarence Lye

[Clarence Lye 10]

16 hours ago, KFC1189 said:

Clarence,

For your king sized mattress, I'd suggest to purchase two single mattresses instead. It is much easier to access the storage spaces under the platform with a single mattress as compared to a king mattress.

I guess there is no space for side tables. But it is still important to provide a place where you can put your alarm clock, phone, glass of water, etc. Are you going to use the headboard for this purpose? 

Yeap. headboard will serve the function of side table such as putting my phone and charging. that's is why we added headboard and also include eubiq recess track in it. Should be fine i hope?
Single mattress is defnitelynono.. there's a gap inbetween and both le wife and myself won't like it.

My policy is NO eating and drinking in the room. We have the habit of drinking from bottles instead of cups, so not really an issue to put at the headboard if we need to bring water into the room. But eating is definitely PROHIBITED. 
We don't use alarm clock as we only use our handphone or fitbit's built in alarm.

Decided that the storage under the platform will be use to is to store some of our lego sets and boxes. Likely will be just redundant. Oh well. More storage better than less storage.

[KFC1189 11]

Clarence,

For your king sized mattress, I'd suggest to purchase two single mattresses instead. It is much easier to access the storage spaces under the platform with a single mattress as compared to a king mattress.

I guess there is no space for side tables. But it is still important to provide a place where you can put your alarm clock, phone, glass of water, etc. Are you going to use the headboard for this purpose? 

[Clarence Lye 10]

30 minutes ago, matchalatte said:

love your carpentry! the color is really pretty, and i adore the colored PVC! it looks like wood with the grains, unlike mine whichi find it a tad too dark. your black oven is to die for omg. how much did you pay? both my ovens are from bosch's cheapest range haha. 

youdidnt overlay yr common bath's toilet? im also trying to dress mine up with black bathroom accessories. fingers crossed they'll look decent. 

i totally second what you say about needing to chase and errors that dont get mentioned, dont get rectified. its the same for me actually. but at least several of your things get done together, like what you said about 10 people working on your house at the same time. no such luck for me. my contractor prefers to just do 1 thing at one time, and after 1 job is done he will then arrange for the next. sigh. 

Thanks!
I can't remember how much i paid for the oven/microwave at Gain City, i think it's the same price as the model that i wanted previously (it phase out).

I didnt overlay my Common Toilet, because no money. 
That common toilet is dressed with black accessories, i will share some photos of the toilet brush, toilet roll holder, towel rack, towel ring sometime later.

I was lucky that i can get everyone to come on the same day, because i want to me sure that my leave is worth taking. Can't afford to take leave for just one contractor/installer to come. No choice, but at least it went well. 

[matchalatte 16]

love your carpentry! the color is really pretty, and i adore the colored PVC! it looks like wood with the grains, unlike mine which i find it a tad too dark. your black oven is to die for omg. how much did you pay? both my ovens are from bosch's cheapest range haha. 

you didnt overlay yr common bath's toilet? im also trying to dress mine up with black bathroom accessories. fingers crossed they'll look decent. 

i totally second what you say about needing to chase and errors that dont get mentioned, dont get rectified. its the same for me actually. but at least several of your things get done together, like what you said about 10 people working on your house at the same time. no such luck for me. my contractor prefers to just do 1 thing at one time, and after 1 job is done he will then arrange for the next. sigh. 

[Clarence Lye 10]

It's pictures time today.

 

This is the box-up done to conceal the gas pipings, not really that fantastic looking.. but at least i don't have to see the pipes. Oh well.

 

Sneak preview of the current house. 
Lightings, carpentry are all up. 

 

Living:

Comments: i feel there's TOO much storage at the display area. Geez. Overall it's not bad. but some of the pop-in / pop-out effect is not as per what we expected. Trying to see if the carpenter can swap some of the doors to make the pattern look nicer.
Waiting for the Eubiq, TV and Haiku fan to be installed and the whole living will be completed. Can't wait.. 

 

Kitchen


Comments: Was suprised that we was given 3 x Blum Aventos system, usually only 1 is given for the dish rack. Quality of carpentry quite good, hinges etc all very smooth.
Waiting for my Kompacplus countertop, eubiq and glass backing to be installed.

 

Dining:


Comments: We love how the brandt built in oven and microwave blend into the tall larder beside it (black colour looking laminate) nicely. So lovely 
Glad we didn't stick to the Chrome + black looking colour and upgraded to this all black model as our previous model were phase out. It's a sign. 
We will be placing our Island table here, it's also waiting for countertop (Ceasarstone) to arrive. Dont know why, it looks low. Have to wait for it to be fully functional. The island is meant to be 5cm higher than my kitchen countertop height. so when it's not in use, i can push it to the wall so the whole area will like a L shape kitchen countertop.

MBR:

Comments: WIW was much wider than on paper (800mm vs 850mm), therefore it was very spacious. And like the way it's like a room/concealed up.
No complainon this except for some minor laminate that needs to be touch up. LED & Fans were all up and running. Cove light & Master Ceiling Fan also installed.
I have plenty of storage at the platform bed. i really wonder if i will even use it as it's so difficult to access once the bed is on it. Bedhead cutout is for eubiq track installation.

 

MBR Toilet:

Comments: love the tiles + led effect in the MBR. Very cosy and romantic.
My vanity kompacplus top and basin are not up yet. Once it's up it will complete the whole look.

 

Common Toilet: (looking so boring and plain)

Comments: plain o' standard looking toilet. Trying to make everything black and white (except for the taps/showers). All my other accessories in this toilet is black.

 

Summary for now:

Pretty much what we are doing every weekend now. Checking on the works, quality, defects as we go.
We thought by engaging a more reputable ID company, it will help us resolve our load and burden.

Ended up, we have to take leave/time off just to see to all the minor stuffs such as installation, delivery.
And there's always minor issues/screw up. It's the kind that if i wasn't there, things would have gotten worst.

Example for Electrical sockets and switches, we have to go down to CCM directly and get it there.
As their electrical price/quote are sky rocket high, if we ask them to get it for us it means that its additional 2-10 bucks per switch/socket. (depends on types)

Laminates, Countertop and Tiles, we went down Hafary and Kompacplus and look at actual samples and chose our own tiles ourselves.
Although we engaged ID, it felt like we've engaged a contractor as we need to be on the ball to chase up and follow up on everything. Sounds pretty much like we are the ID, and they are like the contractors. 

It's the kind, if we don't ask, nothing gets moving. And if there's problem such as alignment, you don't notice, they don't say.
We have to chase for carpentry, plumber, electrical, wet works schedule date as we need to move in the house latest by 3rd week of Nov.

But overall, R&R have good contractors (electrical, carpenters) that's why they can offer lifetime warranty.
Perhaps if my ID is more merticulous and attention to detail.. it would be perfect.
At least its 100x better than our original ID (JJ) which give us general design/plan and boring colours.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2017 by Clarence Lye

[Clarence Lye 10]

On 10/27/2017 at 4:37 PM, purplegirafffe said:

I see, thanks for the info! Mine's gonna be around 750mm, it was 800 at first too but squeezed out a bit more space for the bed on the other side, hopefully it'll be enough

i did the measurement.
it's 850mm. no wonder it's so spacious. 

But the platform height was 380mm instead of 350mm.
Getting ID to fix another step there so it's not so high when coming down.

 

 

 

Took leave yesterday and it's quite worthwhile as alot things were going on:
- installation of La Casa Wardrobe System
- plumber (installation of storage heater, shower stuffs, toilet bowls, etc)
- electician (install all lightings, LED, cove lights)
- eubiq came for site measurement
- installed bedroom ceiling fan

At one point of time, the house is filled with >10 people working on different things. 

Felt very accomplished, will post pictures when i go down to the house this weekend.
Now the house feels like a house with all the lights up.

ID screwed up some stuffs again, our extra tall larder at kitchen is without door -.-
Everything we wanted in the house has to be concealed or cover or something, now giving me us an open shelve tall larder i don't know for what.
Made some noise, and she say will give us the door.

Also, had to keep chasing her to arrange for Evorich and our doors to come.
End up i arranged all myself as it's much quicker. 

[Clarence Lye 10]

8 minutes ago, purplegirafffe said:

Wow looking good, progress is so fast!

Could I find out what's the width of the gap between the wardrobes on both sides of the wiw? Think my layout is pretty similar, yours looks like the gap is comfortably wide while at the same time maximising space 

As per the detail drawing below it's 800mm.
Definitely looks bigger in real life than on paper (when you pull out the measuring tape to 800mm and visualise it)

I will do a on-site measurement & check on the actual size this Sat. 

On 9/6/2017 at 10:23 PM, Clarence Lye said:

Master bedroom walkin wardrobe, platform bed and toilet:

 

 

[Clarence Lye 10]

Went down last evening to check out the progress and it's moving quite quickly.

Kitchen carpentry installation is almost all up.

 

Living still WIP

WIW is nice as well, it's more spacious than expected.

I quite like how the WIW's leaf door is being concealed inside the wardrobe area, I will take a proper picture this Saturday.
 

[Clarence Lye 10]

Progress on Carpentry (finally):

 

remember the part on the kitchen/service yard floor trap? the carpentry manage to cover about 95-98% of it.. so still ok i feel.

[Clarence Lye 10]

2 hours ago, binchotan said:

Can i have the contact to the contractor doing the hacking seprately. thanks 

pm-ed u. not sure if they are willing to do if your job is too small. Most dont, but i can suggest you other contacts if yours is small job.

 

2 hours ago, matchalatte said:

i totally understand what you mean about these little hiccups. its extremely stressful, most of the part its due to miscommunication so its largely unforseen. at the end of the day its more important they're willing to rectify. 

also i think tilers are old school in general, done by uncles and what not. they will do the plastic capping border by default, actually i have them on my kitchen door entrance also, which means you can still spot them in new HDB. do you have them at your kitchen doorway? those plastic cappings are a big NO NO to me also. but the least they could do is to find a matching border. your shower kerb one looks like they just mindlessly put a white capping on your grey (?) tiles. black one would at least look better. 

I have them at kitchen doorway, but i screed the tiles off. so it looks like a normal beam. the border is definitely a no-no for me too. 
For my toilet tiles - first thing that caught my eye is the ugly border. 

No border will be nicer, for my shower ledge - there will be the shower glass there at the end of the day. So it will look nicer also.

1 hour ago, binchotan said:

what is the diff between Fino 1 and 2? Price diff close to double

 

Fino 1: cannot rotate (lesser colours)
Fino 2: can rotate (more colours)

 

36 minutes ago, binchotan said:

you overlay the MBR tiles

yes..

[Clarence Lye 10]

...

Edited October 23, 2017 by Clarence Lye
cannot delete post

[binchotan 0]

On 10/10/2017 at 4:36 PM, Clarence Lye said:

hansgrohe directly. wanted to get from xtwostore but then i am not sure how the custom clearing thingy works. so give up the hassle, although the saving is like $200-400.. 

 

By the way, update on the MBR tiling works. And i also amended the title fo my tblog to 15shades of grey instead. LOL. 

Looking so pweety 
can't wait for everything to be done together with all the hansgrohe stuffs 

you overlay the MBR tiles

[binchotan 0]

On 9/18/2017 at 2:19 PM, Clarence Lye said:

The shop doesn't recommend anyone to buy fino because of the high cost.

Fino 1 @ 498
Fino 2 @ 930

 

they recommend me to get other model/brands such the ones below, but we both not interested. 
- Elmark P80
- Deka M3
- Deka M16

I called up a few stores in malaysia and Yako is one of the cheapest for Fino fans.

what is the diff between Fino 1 and 2? Price diff close to double

[matchalatte 16]

i totally understand what you mean about these little hiccups. its extremely stressful, most of the part its due to miscommunication so its largely unforseen. at the end of the day its more important they're willing to rectify. 

also i think tilers are old school in general, done by uncles and what not. they will do the plastic capping border by default, actually i have them on my kitchen door entrance also, which means you can still spot them in new HDB. do you have them at your kitchen doorway? those plastic cappings are a big NO NO to me also. but the least they could do is to find a matching border. your shower kerb one looks like they just mindlessly put a white capping on your grey (?) tiles. black one would at least look better.