Reno Diary - Carpentry

Carpentry works usually take up the bulk of renovation costs, as they consist of cabinets and measured by per foot run. So, the more carpentry you have, the more you have to pay. We had a hard time choosing for materials due to the theme, but still, glad that everything worked out :) thanks for the wonderful inputs by the designers - and I had a dabble in conceptualizing and designing all the items, so pretty proud of my  handiwork :)

Installation of cupboards

Measurements are provided to the carpenters beforehand, so they could start work first. They transported the finished products (part by part) to the house to assemble.

 

We had 2 teams of carpenters working on our house. They were pretty efficient and took only 1 day to assemble all the pieces together. We left after awhile, for them to continue their work.

 

We came back at night to check out the progress. 

Shoes cabinet! One of my fave part of the house, for it immediately reflects the theme :)

   

Kitchen cabinets. Holes were cut for placing kitchen hob and sink.

 

Small island that was constructed. 

 

The bomb shelter that is cleverly concealed behind the door. 

TV console & WIW (uncompleted)   

Fixture of solid surface & kitchen accessories

Kitchen & bathroom accessories arrived on the same day.

 

Kitchen sink & hob being fixed before they installed solid surface. We chose a solid surface that's light in colour, to match the kitchen tiles.

Leecher filling in his details for the warranty for our hob & hood. The small island sure came in useful!

Cornices on cabinets

We added cornices on top of the cabinets, to keep to our theme :) They really made a difference to the whole look! 

Completed Look

 The doors are ready to be installed onto the cupboards & we selected different knobs for different cabinets.

  Once the carpentry is completed, the whole renovation journey is almost 80% completed :) And start packing the bags for moving over!

Reno Diary - Wetworks & Painting

This month has been extremely busy! My to-do list is filling up fast and needed to get the new website sorted out soon before the next launch. Packing my bags for a short trip to KL with the boss, but boss will be coming back earlier than me :( why why why? Changed the banner of the blog over the weekend, heehee! Anyway, before I jet off, here's a continuation of Reno Diary - this time round, focusing on wet works - where tiles will be laid and shower kerb to be constructed.

Sand in the house

 The sight that greeted us when we opened the door.

Tiles are from Hafary - one of the leading tile suppliers in Singapore. We went to Hafary's shop on our own, selected the tiles and requested for the sample piece. Then, we passed the sample piece to our designers and asked them to negotiate for a better price :)

I was reminded of my childhood days, where we used to build sandcastles with our shoves, spades and pails. It's a pity that nowadays we seldom see playgrounds with sand pits anymore :( Think the last remaining few can be found in Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh. 

The workers have also touched up on the areas that were hacked away. Leecher was pleased at their efficiency and Papa-in-Law helping us to monitor their progress on days when we were not around. 

  Progress after 1 week

 

For new home owners (esp BTO projects), you can only overlay on the existing kitchen/bathroom tiles. For flats that are over X years (can't rem the exact figure, but it should be 5 years and above), you can choose to hack the existing tiles and replace it with new ones. So, to save costs (every single step in home renovation needs money!), we decided to stick to the tiles that was provided by HDB. Tiles have to be purchased from HDB if bases for kitchen cabinets, washing machine and fridge are constructed.  

Base for washing machine in the service yard. 

Shower kerb raised for shower screen, in the master bedroom. I kinda like the grey colour scheme, as it was easier to maintain. You can't really tell if its dirty or not :p

Splash of Colours :)

Our designers gave us up to a selection of 5 colours to be used for the whole house. As I already know what type of colour combination is ideal for the house, we bargained for better paint quality in exchange for less colours used :) Colours will determine the mood for the house, so all along, I was pretty much in favour for pastel colours.

  

Blue chosen for the living room, which represents peace and tranquility :) 

 

 Purple for all 3 bedrooms :) I'm so glad Leecher let me paint our bedroom purple for he was worried it would be weird for him to stay in a purple room, heehee! The shade turned out pretty well.

Living room pastel blue against bedroom pastel purple :)

Reno Diary - Lights, Shine Lights P2

During the renovations, we spent most of the time during weekends combing up and down different parts of Singapore looking for stuff for the house. We went lights shopping in Geylang - and found most of our lights in this little shop hidden at a corner. I reckoned it was a family-run business and the owner happened to graduate from NTU as well!

Arrival of the loots

Lovely day from the service yard :) We arrived early at the place and saw Edwin & assistant hard at work already.

Cement and all other wetworks stuff all piled up in the kitchen. More on wetworks process later!

The lights that we bought arrived! The delivery uncle unpacking the lights and letting us check through before heading for another delivery.

This is our electrician, Edwin hard @ work - measuring the lights dimensions for the false ceiling.

We left them to do their work while we headed off for more house-shopping :)

Lights, Shine Lights

Fluorescent lights in the living room, to create a cosy ambience :)

Down lights scattered all over the false ceiling.

Bedroom light!