Lights Lights Baby!

Woot~! The lights are finally up and we can come visit at night!

We had the PUB testing in the afternoon. I was barred from visiting 405 for fear that the tester will be more meticulous when the home owners are around.

Once the PUB testing was completed and we had a pass, Norman has the team on standby to immediately install all the lights.

Lighting truly brings out the beauty in a home. I was initially afraid the low ceiling would affect the lighting but it seems my fears were unfounded.

Everything looks stunningly beautiful with the bright lights. I think Meimei was right to call for Cool white lights. The place definitely looks much better and pleasant on the eyes when compared to the warm lights at 303.

Now we have to wait for the carpentry to go up before they can fix on the LEDs and T5s. I can't wait for that to come!

Tails For Lights

The Licensed Electrical Worker (LEW) is here today to prepare for tomorrow's PUB testing. Essentially he is just going around and conducting a mock test on all the lighting points to ensure none will cause tripping.

They have also cut out the holes for the lights. It feels like there are wiggly  worms hanging from the ceiling. Eeeeewwww. Other than this nothing much else is happening.

The only exciting thing today is the delivery of the packaging materials. We had asked several movers to come to 303 to assess our items and provide a quote. All of them had unanimously quoted for 90 large cartons for our move.

Did we accumulate so much items in a span of 6 years? Anyways I'm glad the materials arrive. At least I can do some packing before I go away for reservist this weekend.

18 Months - A Sudden Leap

Another key milestone. After 18 months, infants are now considered toddlers. And Emily is marking this event with ernest displays of her climbing skills. She tries to get up everything and has even learned to carry a stool to boost her up to the dining chairs.

妈咪～抱抱please~

Surveying the on-goings at home

Looking more girl with a hair clip

Visiting cousin Gerard

BearBear is mine and you're not getting it!

Admiring the pretty pictures

妈妈你这是什么意思吗。。。

10 or 21?

Meimei's having confusing time remembering which level to press hahah She's going to need some time to adjust to moving to 405.

Framing It White

Nothing much is happening over the next couple of days till the next Wednesday 14th when the PUB testing will be conducted. Credit to Norman though for trying to schedule some work, however small, on each day so it doesn't look like there is no progression at all.

I arrived this afternoon to find the painter working on the bedroom door frames. It seems that's the only thing he is here for.

We are going with Norman's recommendation to paint the frames a similar white tone to the walls. I've always been struggling with the idea since he proposed it months ago as I'm pretty used to our 303's frames which are in the same wood varnish as the doors.

The wooden varnish is not an option. The previous owners had already paint over the door frames so we can never get back the wooden surface unless we tore it down and installed new frames. So it was either a colour close to the walls or one that is close to the wooden doors. Eventually we took Norman's advice. I hope it will turn out fine after the bedroom doors are installed. Else we might have to repaint it again.

General Cleanup

The renovation has slowed down somewhat over the past week or so. I suppose we couldn't do anymore till the PUB testing is completed. Only then can the carpentry be installed.

Nonetheless the carpenter has delivered a portion of the cupboards. It seems they do this to clear space at the factory so they can continue to work on other cabinets.

Because it's a slow period right now, Norman has gotten cleaners to come in to do some general cleaning.

The place looks stunningly different once it's rid of all the clutter, dust and mud. For the first time I was able to take my shoes off and walk through the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms to feel the tiles and timber flooring. It is such a joy to finally feel the floor :-)

Sealing The Marble

The marble workers were here yesterday to paint a layer of sealant. This wasn't in the original scope of works we've agreed. I suspect Alex is trying to mitigate the damage the yellow grouting is causing. Nonetheless I appreciate the extra efforts to make it up.

Well ... I suppose Alex owes it to us to try to fix it. I might regret my word of appreciation in a year or two if the stains start to surface. But till then I think the marble is coming together real nice.

One big concern I found today when surveying the site was that the marble workers have packed up all their gear. The polishing machine and its attachments are no longer in the kitchen. It worries me that this may signal that they are not coming back again to polish the area. I think I better have a word with Alex on this soon.

Choking

I'm on leave today for Emily's PD appointment so was able to arrive early in the morning to have a look. What greeted me was a mysterious flood in the master bathroom.

This is just so weird. It wasn't there before yesterday. I tried searching for a water source but there wasn't any marks on the wall except for the existing dripping of the ceiling. But that couldn't have filled the entire bathroom ... Having ran out of ideas where the source of the leak was, I left Norman and Zax a message to get someone to come check.

There was also no one around even though I had expected the marble guys to continue their works. So I left the place to tabao breakfast and target to get home by 10am for an appointment with a mover.

When I was done buying breakfast, I decided to pop up to the unit again for another quick look. As I exit the lobby, I find a middle aged lady taking a photo of our renovation permit. "Another 'Friendly' Neighbour!" was my immediate thought.

After introducing myself as the home owner, I found out that she is our downstairs neighbour and her toilet is leaking. I told her that's not possible since we had redone our bathrooms and taken extra precautions with the water-proofing since we were going to have HIP in a year or two.

So I invited her into the unit to have a look. And we found the source of the flooding. 

Our common bathroom had choked. And the water has flowed into the master bathroom since it was on a lower level. And it is also causing a minor leak at the piping of the neighbour. 

She insist that I ask my ID to send someone to help her fix her ceiling.

Neighbour: "You have to send someone to help repair the ceiling leak."

Pokpok: "No worries, I'll ask my ID to come take a look. But it is very unlikely that the leak is from us ... we had done proper waterproofing."

Neighbour: "When the ex-owner renovated, there was also leaking and they sent someone to help fix our ceiling." (She said it with a very confident and smuck face)

Pokpok: "That's ok I'll get my ID to take a look. But anyways no worries, he is very experienced. He went to take a photo of your bathroom ceiling before the renovation start. So if it's damaged by our renovation he will surely repair it for you."

The moment she heard it her facial expression changed from smuckness to a concerned frown.

Neighbour: "When did you take a picture?"

Pokpok: "Before our renovation started, your tenant let us in to take pictures. My ID is very experienced and careful. Met a lot of people who complained renovation caused ceiling damage so he takes picture first to protect his company."

The body language on the lady now practically says she wants to leave immediately. Her attempt at getting a free repair on her ceiling has literally vanished and she couldn't wait to get out of our unit.

Before I bid her off, I asked that she make a complaint with HDB town council that her ceiling is leaking so they can send someone to come flood my bathrooms to check for leaks. I wanted a freebie check on the quality of the waterproofing done by Norman muhahhahahah. But I seriously doubt she'll submit the complain ... you can tell her primary goal was to elicit a free repair ... and the leaking was simply a convenient excuse.

This is the photo of the ceiling Norman took before the renovation started. Hahaha I guess she wanted someone to repair her spalling concrete for free. Anyways Norman's tiler came over at noon and clear the choke in our unit. He also went down to our neighbours unit to check on it.

Sigh ... I'm now beginning to suspect the reason for units being constantly put up for sale in this block is due to the 'friendly' neighbours. We need to thread very carefully with all these busybodies, cheapo, unreasonable people watching for every opportunity to screw you over. Anyways at this point it is still Pokpok 2 - "Friendly" neighbours 0.

Polishing Yet Again

Having changed the marble grouting to off-white, they had to redo the polishing all over again. This is the litmus test which will tell if the yellowish colour from the original grout will continue to stain the marble.

I arrived at noon to find the work still in progress. They are first grinding the marble again to smoothen the marble and grout lines. There goes another half millimetre of the marble >.<

On the bright side, the off-white definitely matches better with our marble. I cannot understand why they would use yellow grout on a primarily white based marble .... Sigh ....

When I returned in the evening, they were still at it. But this time they were in the midst of the buffering and polishing. Hmmm they seem to have polished the entire area, contrary to instructions from Norman to only polish the parts where carpentry is going to be installed.

It seems the workers are not intending to come back again to polish the floor. Sigh ... that's another headache to deal with. I'll have to get Alex to commit to come again after Norman has the carpentry installed. That or look for another polisher with the little balance I've yet to pay Alex. But that's an unwelcome last resort. Best if Alex can be true to his words and complete the job.

Remembering 303 - The Spacious Living Room

Meimei and I used to spend most of our free time lazing around and watching TV in the Living Room. I suppose it's like any other living room. It's interesting though that this configuration wasn't possible in the original layout. We had to change the first room's entrance to extend the wall for the TV console.

I like how we made the space workable though I had always had my regrets on the TV feature. It doesn't do anything at all. There are no storage, no shelves for photos, doesn't stand out to catch the eye of guest, etc. And the suspended TV console was a very wrong design idea. It started to fall a few years ago and I had to ask dad to custom a couple of steel stands to hold the console up.

As much as I gripe about the TV feature and console, Meimei and I have spent countless hours bingeing on TV and potato chips here before OO arrived in our lives. I still love it though we rarely use this space now.

Also I really have to point out how big our living was. We could put in a 3 metre wide playpen and still have very good walkway to every room. This is something we are going to miss at 405.

So if there is anything we can improve at 405's living room, that's to build a more utilitarian TV console and also to fill up the wall behind the sofa. I've been talking about it for so long to spice up the area with artwork or wallpaper and never got around to it after so many years. I wonder how many more it would take for me to do up the one at 405? Haha we'll see.

Changing The Marble Grout

It's been slow and tedious work on the marble. Besides installing the skirting, the workers are also repairing the uneven areas above the skirting.

Again this repair is an area of contention. To Norman, whoever does the flooring will be responsible for the skirting area wall. To Alex's workers, they find that they weren't the ones who drilled so high on the walls and shouldn't have to repair them.

I don't know who is the right party to repair it or the typical industry practice for this. The only thing I'm sure about is that I am on the losing end if both parties refuse to take up the work. With Norman everything is about the money ... he can get anything done but at a price. His quote to level the skirting area properly was $321. Actually ... wait ... sometimes even money isn't enough if he finds that he may have to deal with potential after-sales service or warranty. He is that atas.

So I approach Alex instead, who has been easy to talk with till now. Even though he sounded reluctant initially, he was pretty cool about it and agreed to repair the area without hesitation. And the best part is that he isn't charging any extra for it. Given his easy going ways on the scope of works and never broaching the topic of money, I might just throw in an extra hundred or two when we are done with the renovation simply as goodwill.

The other major work is the refilling of the marble grout lines. They have dug up most of the original grout yesterday and filling up with new off-white ones this morning.

When we returned later in the afternoon, all the grout has been filled and the place looks much better than before.

Again if you compare the original yellow grout and the new off-white ones, you can clearly see that the off-white grout blends in better. Even though the marble we laid is called Vanilla Cream, it is primarily white based coupled with strong greyish tones and touch of beige cream.

Thankfully this is being rectified now. However we don't know for sure till we polish the marble and grout. That's when the true colour of the grout will appear. And this time there is no turning back ... *cross fingers let's hope it is worth all this rework efforts.

Putting A Shine In The Bedrooms

Besides the marble skirting and grouting work, today we have the timber flooring polishing. I arrived at lunch to loud droning sound of the timber sanding machine. I hope we don't get any complains ... its deafening in the unit and I had to shout to hear myself.

This helps to level the parquet and ensures a smooth finish for the lacquering. 

I returned later in the evening with Meimei to a strong pungent smell of glue. The first layers of the timber lacquer were already painted.

The lacquer was still wet so we couldn't venture into the unit. There will be another layer of polishing once the carpentry are installed but this gives us a good preview of the tone and warmth of the teak flooring. As always we are looking forward to the finished product. I'm pretty sure I'll fall in love with the timber floors :-)

Marble Installation - Near Misses & Potential Disasters

Our marble flooring has been an adventure of highs and lows with close shaves and laborious supervision. This has been accentuated due to us contracting Alex by ourselves. I've always wanted work through Norman but he wasn't keen from the very start on marble. So it's fallen to me to watch the marble installation closely.

Yellowish Grout On White Marble

Today I met up with Alex because our grout lines were very visible, especially after the polishing. It's becoming a deep yellow against our primary white marble. And the worst part is that the yellow is starting to colour the marble veins and areas beside the grout lines.

Although I'm not one to fuss a lot about aesthetics, Meimei made a good point that the common comment about marble grouting is that you don't really see it. So to find ours becoming more prominent after polishing rang bells in our heads. Something is seriously not right here ....

I showed Alex the grout yellow grout lines and the many areas that were starting to stain. He was very open about it, never once giving me an excuse why it is so. He simply took in what I offered him and he asked his workers to begin polishing other areas to see the effect of the grouting.

He replied later the same day that he has asked his workers to clean out the grout in the entire place. It's a good thing we caught it at this juncture before further work is done. I cannot imagine the horror on Meimei's face when the edges of all the grouting start to turn yellow after a year. It's good that we are trying to fix a potential disaster right now. 

Of course how much of it is fixable is debatable. The grout lines run about 1-1.5cm deep and even with a grout removal tool shown in the above picture, it may not go deep enough to clear out all of the yellow grout. But as it is, there is nothing else we could do further to rectify it. I'm crossing my fingers that once the off-white grout goes in it'll dilute the yellowness of the original grout.

Running Out Of Skirting

I really have to thank my lucky stars for this save. I had originally planned not to go down in the evening today. But somehow as I was driving home ... I diverted at the last minute to the left junction and went up to PIE towards Bedok. And I cannot even begin to describe how important that was.

I arrived at 405 to find that the skirting were all up. But from the corner of my eye I caught two spots where the wall was still blank. A small section beside the master bedroom and the area right by the balcony drain were empty. I rushed into the kitchen to check on the skirting stock to find that none are left. I confirmed my fears with the Chinese marble uncle ... we had ran out of skirting. 

I had kinda anticipated this may happen since we didn't update Edward on the extra laying of the marble in our storeroom. That room plus the shoe cabinet area alone would take about 15 pieces of 45cm skirting. So as it turns out, we are lacking 3 pieces for the dining and balcony. Just 3.

Now I wasn't going to call Edward to order 3 pieces of skirting. It's economically impractical since it's going to involve delivery charges. So I quickly turn to brainstorm for alternatives. I had originally instruct the Indian worker to lay the tiles in the storeroom last incase we ran out of skirting. Alas I failed to relay the same message to the Chinese uncle. Then a thought suddenly popped into my head. Can we pull any of the skirting in the storeroom to complete this area? And I recall there were many broken odd pieces in the kitchen, those can go into the storeroom ... who cares if its ugly in there?

I immediately called the Chinese uncle and went about trying to pull the skirting from the storeroom. He tried with a spade but the cement had dried. However thankfully the skirting at the section where we were going to fit a built in shoe cabinet was just installed an hour ago. So we managed to pull out the half-dried cement (the raining weather helped delayed it) and used these fuller pieces for the dining and balcony. In it's place, we are forming the skirting here with the smaller pieces you can see in on the left of the picture above.

I really dodge a bullet this time. If I only came tomorrow, we wouldn't have been able to pull any of the skirting. I cannot imagine the hassle and cost to obtain a few more pieces of the skirting. The biggest hurdle was that I hadn't paid for the current batch of skirting yet. I had planned to only pay after installation are done and if I had to go back now, I would be at Edward's mercy.

Phew! This episode has taught me to watch the marble installation like a hawk. Anything that can possibly go wrong can go wrong. I'm leaving nothing to the professionalism of the installers (if they had any to begin with) and chance. 

Window Flower

窗花 or 'Window Flower' in literal translation for Window grilles are installed today. The place is an old flat so it's windows are wall to wall. Elaborate patterns for the grilles are going to make the place messy so we chose the simplest of designs.

'Invisible' grilles would have made for a better view but after reading about maintenance and durability of these online, it was a wiser choice to go for the traditional grilles which require next to no maintenance. These are expected to last pretty much for as long as we stay in the unit.

There's nothing much to talk about the normal grilles. We do however have a customised panel in the kitchen at the top hung windows. Heheheh. Special order by Norman and the grilles vendor so we can mount that little something on it. Woot!