New Furniture Knocks

I can't quite make out how it happen. I was getting up close to the new cupboard and somehow I lost balance and went up against the corner of the cabinet? 

Whatever it was, I ended up with a sharp piercing pain. I immediately knew it wasn't the usual knock and am most probably bleeding. True enough the knock left a wound on my head.

Looking on the bright side, at least it happened to me and not Meimei or the kids.

Renovation Complete!

Well the renovation is kinda completed.  There are minor touchups but generally we are done. Overall this has been one of the best decisions as it really makes the whole house tidier and brighter.

Malicious Compliance Or Utter Incompetence?

Painter was here today to put a coat of fresh paint on the wall of the entrance to the kitchen. For reasons I can never figure out or comprehend, he decided that it is too much to complete the painting on the wall facing the front door. He painted one third of it and left the other two thirds ... which is extremely obvious. Dave says it will not be obvious when the paint dry but one look at the area above the curb and you can tell no matter what the difference will be clear as night and day.

Anyways I wasn't having any of it and insist Dave fix this. He was perplexed and shared that he will do it himself. Well so long as it's fixed I'm not bothered. He'll probably have a word with the painter on the side. This is really just absurd. All it would have taken was another 5-10 minutes to paint the rest of the wall.

Hacking It All

Every tile except the floor ones goes. The old tiles were still available at Hafary but our ID didn't want us to use the same again. Although he mentions that the tile popping are not due to the tiles but rather the cement mix that was used back in the day. But out of an abundance of caution ... and mostly pan-tang on his part, he advised us against it. So we made several trips to Hafary to pick out the kitchen and toilet tiles. Hopefully the tiler does a better job this time.

The tiler made quick work of the tiles and managed to hack and clean up in just 2 days. We start tiling next week and then probably start carpentry measurements the week after. So exciting!

Sealing The Rest Of The Apartment

We had the fridge, washer and dryer moved to the living room so they can start working on the kitchen. To prevent the rest of the house being covered in construction dust, Meimei had a plastic sheet stuck on the beam to protect the dining area and rest of the rooms on the other end.

This is our reality for the next month while the kitchen and common toilet receives an overhaul. Hopefully the renovation can be completed quickly. We purposely chose this period as it's the school holidays for 萱萱. 

Meimei's Renovation Planning

Meimei has been busy planning on the design and usage of new cupboard we are building in the living room and dining area. It has been stressful for her but I'm glad she is up to it. I would never had plan to such detail. It helps that she has her iPad to doodle and mark all the designs on. Sharing them to show off all the hard work Meimei is putting into our renovation.

Shopping For Renovation

The kitchen has been needing fixes for almost a year. The tiles have cracked in some place, some are in danger of falling off the beam and held up with duct tape and other places are starting to show wear and tear. I've been holding out on doing anything drastic and opting to just stick with it.

But it is time. A good bonus this year helps on the decision to invest in a tidy sum for the renovation. Meimei chipped in too to fund the renovation. So instead of making small upgrades, we went for a total overhaul of the kitchen and common toilet. Plus we threw in carpentry for the living room too since we are at it.

We were at Songcho yesterday to look at the kitchen racks and then we went to see sample slaps of Caesarstone at Suntec today. Meimei has always dislike the dark tabletop so we are going with a light one this time. It's fun to run around to shop for stuff.

Popping Tiles In The Toilet

No idea how it happened but it looks dangerous. For the moment I don't think the tiles will fall but we have to be careful.

Hoping it's just minor repairs works. I worry that the hollowness extends to the cabinets. That'll bring an even bigger headache especially if we need to redo the walls around the bathroom. Haiz.

HIP Drilling Starts

HIP has started on one column of units, the one opposite ours. We are thankful we didn't have to do ours ... its extremely noisy and dusty. Many of our neighbours have moved out into temporary lodging. We can't move so the children, especially YY, have to bear with the constant drilling.

A couple of weeks later, Papa, Mama and Annie are going to move over to our place too when their flat starts the HIP. I think it'll be a lot of fun for the kids with grandparents staying together.

Phew, Passed The HIP Test

Phew we passed. I cannot imagine having to hack up the common toilet, even if Norman is willing to bear all cost. The hassle, the inconvenience and mostly the dirt would be unbearable for everyone, especially so for the kids.

It seems the earlier diagnosis that it could have been the old potty pipe that was leaking turned out to be accurate. Now that the flat below us has changed the piping, it no longer leaks.

Plugging A Leak

The HDB Home Improvement Program team came recently to test our bathroom for leaks. The master toilet passed but somehow our common toilet failed. On the day it failed I immediately contacted Norman to see how we can get rectification works done. 

I was 'referred' to the after-sales service team and was told the warranty was only 18 months and we have just passed it by a month. What bull ... I insisted he check with Norman on this since we made it crystal clear to Norman that we were going to go through HIP and the wet works definitely needs to pass the tests.

The guy called me back the next day after clarifying with Norman and apologise for making a mistake. It seems we are covered for longer period on the wet works. Phew.

The after-sales guys came and discovered the problem. There is a big hole behind the main pipe and thats how the water was getting drained to the toilet a floor below. Sign ...

They patched it up with cement and an injection of chemical sealant. Let's hope this does the trick.

Replacing The Study Wardrobe

We had originally planned to build up the wardrobes in the two bedrooms in a year or two. But the broken one in the study is posing a safety risk, both to OO and Meimei.

So we bite the bullet and arranged with Norman to install a build-in wardrobe in the study. It also helps to maximise the place since it can be installed against the aircon pipe.

At $2,500 it is a hefty price to pay for a wardrobe but I rather sink in the money  now for a good quality wardrobe, especially one which is built-in.

We chose sliding doors this time to save on the walkway. The plan is to fit a super single bed by the wardrobe so every bit of space helps.

Double Thickness Quality

Pleasantly surprised to find that the Living Room console has double layer frame. 

Immediate Defects

I don't believe any contractor can ever achieve zero defects on renovation. Some defects you just do see or don't surface until you start using the place. I'm somewhat calm when there is something that is not right. So long as the ID acknowledges it and promises and eventually fixes it I don't give the ID too much heat that thing were not perfect from the moment we move in.  It will set me off though if he tries to give a crap excuse. 

In Norman's case, I cannot say it was totally easy with him but only on a few rare occasions did he give me a bad explanation. He was mostly upfront about the defects and always offer to fix them promptly. And such was the case with our plumbing. Just a day in and there were leaks.

The common bathroom sink was leaking badly. There is a pool of water after a day's use. How the plumber miss this is beyond me ... surely you would have tested?

There is also another leak in the master bathroom. The bidet was dripping water and that was with the water control half turned as recommended by the toiletries vendor. This wasn't the plumber's fault but more related to a product defect.

Nonetheless Norman promised to send the plumber first thing Monday morning to have a look and rectify the leakages. These are the only major defects that surfaced right after the move. I'm sure we would find more over the course of the next couple of weeks as we use the place more.

Touchups Round 1

We met Norman last Saturday to go through a round of defects before moving in. There were a couple of key things such as the un-lockable bedroom door, leaking in the common bathroom etc. Others are minor cosmetic touch ups we would like done before moving in. I'm sure we'll have to run through this again after we move.

His tiler was also here on Monday to tile up the remaining portion of the master bedroom bathroom beam. Our neighbours had finally mended their bathroom last week, just in time for us to complete the bathroom before moving in :-)

We'll gonna have a few more rounds of touch-up after we move in. Those would mostly be for the wall paint and corners due to the move. Hopefully nothing major pops up after this. It's no fun having major works once we have moved in.

Dressing The Windows

To complete the look of the new home, we installed full length floor to ceiling curtains in every room. They make the space look classier and more luxurious. 

It was a little darker than we had expected but Norman insisted that it matches our overall design and carpentry. I suppose it takes some getting used to - we had light beige curtains at 303 so this darker brown seems to eat up some of the room space.

And then we have an unique installation between the living and dining room. Our living, dining and balcony area adds up close to 62 square meters. Whichever way we position the aircon, another spot is going to be stuffy and warm. So we decided to sacrifice the living room and position the aircon unit at the dining. To keep the cool air in the space, we are using a full length curtain which extends between the dining storage and opposing wall. It looks rather odd but works pretty well in keeping the dining area chilled.

The 2 common rooms had lighter wheat shade of curtains which brightens up the space. These made us regret a little that we didn't choose a lighter tone for the living, dining and balcony curtains.

The master bedroom curtains are the only ones which are matte. It wouldn't be cozy if it was glossy like the rest of the rooms. I think out of the 3 designs I like this one the most.

I didn't have time to go scout for different vendors so we went with our ID's preferred curtain supplier. I like how the curtains turned out though at $3,650 it was rather steep. But I've come to expect that any vendors they recommend will come at premium prices. Just hope it is truly quality we are getting and not just us absorbing the commissions that feeds through their ID/vendor relationship.

Digital Locks & Laundry System

The laundry system and digital locks are being installed today. Oddly enough I seemed to have forgotten to take any photos of the laundry installation!

I got the digital locks from the folks at MyDigitalLock, together with the laundry system, door viewer and door closer. The installation on the main door was smooth, you can tell the installer was very experienced. However when it came to the gate installation, we found out on the spot that they did not have stock of  the Yale 323G model I ordered. How can that be ... I placed the deposit a month ago!

So I took a call from the salesman that sold me the locks. He was apologetic and offered that if we would like to install today, he can offer a 'free' upgrade to the 424G model. What a load of bullshit. The 424G is retailing at the same price so what nonsense is he sprouting. Plus how can you come down for installation without checking if you have the lock on-hand.

Simply put, they were trying their luck and asserting pressure for us to take the other lock. If we don't we would have to wait for the stock of 323G to arrive and reschedule another installation appointment. I felt being driven to a corner. And sadly since we were going to move in soon, we acceded to the proposal. Phffff.

Overall the installation was good. If not for the no-stock crap I would have highly recommend them to friends. But that's too bad, it's things like that that turns a good review sour. And in truth it's justified because you are engaging a full suite of service. So however good you are in some areas, you are still going to be judge on the parts you have failed. No one is going to take only the good parts and ignore the glaring negatives.

Almost There

A few days short of 3 months and we are almost done. There isn't any works scheduled for the next couple of days. What's to do is to check for defects when I get back and meet up for rectification discussions. In the meanwhile, I'm just savouring the beautiful pictures Papa sent.

Final Marble Polish

The marble worker is here today for the last polish and to mend a couple of skirting joints which were not filled properly. We had waited till most of the renovation works are done before we complete the last polish.

I'll need to check on the quality of the works when I get back to Singapore. I'm still holding back a thousand from Alex and another thousand from Edward. If all is well I'm gonna have to pay them and keep my fingers crossed that the tiles don't continue to turn yellow in the future.

Glass Works and Plumbing

Plumber and the Glass works vendor is here to install the shower screens, mirrors and assorted kitchen and bathroom accessories. Again I'll have to let the pictures do the talking since I wasn't there to view the progress myself.

 

A couple more days and I'll be back to see the flat in an almost complete state.