renovation part 5: cabinets

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finally we are at the fixing cabinets stage!!! normally this is the final step of your renovation.... initially i didnt intend to get any custom made cabinets but after being psycho by mama for so many times, i decided to just go ahead..... honestly, build in cabinets are more useful & economical in the long run since you get to make full use of the space.... but if you are on a tight budget, getting those ready made cabinets from the stores will be just as good.... for our unit in trivelis, the kitchen, toilet & bedrooms cabinets were all done for you... but of cause, those are not sufficient = you will need to create more storage space.... i engaged a carpenter recommended by mama whom was referred to by her neighbour....

Wood productions
8 Kaki bukit Ave 4
#08-44
Premier @ Kaki Bukit
S(415875)
Tel: 6341 6198
contact person: carpenter =  9661 0135(hp)

the guy didnt give us his name but just ask us to call him carpenter cause he said we wont remember anyway..... I agreed with mama that this carpenter is one of the few honest renovation guy.... he will think what's best for you & give you useful suggestions... his price might be slightly more expensive than other agents but it is worth it to pay a little bit more for his services.... another good point about this carpenter is that he & his staff are really punctual!!! another bonus point. ....let me share his work....

cabinets parts

"barrier" cabinet at entrance

study

bedside cabinet

master bedroom cabinet

small shelf in guest room

i wont say his works are excellent but at least of above average standard..... after the carpenter came down to take measurements & you confirmed what cabinets you want to make... it will take about 2 weeks for him to prepare the material & depending on how many cabinets you are doing, he may take more than 1 day to fix them up.... mine took about 1.5 days to finish everything.... he charged a total of $4100 for all the carpentry work.... i would say that's a reasonable price..... one interesting thing is that his policy is that he doesnt take deposit, he only collect payment when everything is done.... i was quite surprised when i heard that since all the companies required a deposit before they start work.... hence, i STRONGLY recommend this carpenter!!! do engage him if you are interested in getting some carpentry work done =)

renovation part 4 : window grills

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after installing the lights, next up is to put up window grills.... i know some people dont see the need for window grills but for me, is definitely a MUST especially when we stay so high up.... there are actually quite a number of companies which do window grills but most of them reside in the north... since there are already so many BTO in the north, not many of them will want to come over to the west side for just one business...... so i just gotten the contact from my mother-in-law who just did her window grill recently.....

Heng Door & Renovation
No. 21, Tuas West Avenue
Singare 638435
Tel: 6452 5212
Contact person: Andy Ting (9339 8889/ 9002 5476)

Asked Andy to come down for a quotation last week and he quoted $1600 for the window grills (3 bedroom & service yard) as well as bi-fold door for kitchen..... wanted to do glass door for my kitchen but due to space restriction, we have to go for bi-fold door or else we wont have space to put dinning table..... I would say the price he quoted wasnt cheap, slightly on the pricey side but since we dont know other contacts, we have to make do with it.....

window grill panels

frame for window grills

bi-fold door

set up frame

the staff brought over all the raw material & will set up before putting up onto the windows.... they were quite efficient, finished setting up in about 1hr+

support for window grill

i thought they will just drill in the window grills but apparently they have this extra piece of metal which act as support for the grills....

window grill

i chose the aluminum grill & sprayed paint to the original window frame colour... according to Andy, this was the improved quality whereby the grills looked slimmer but actually made of thicker material... I seriously cant tell the difference after they put up the grills but lets just hope it's really of better quality....

kitchen door

haha... now the kitchen door really look like a toilet door..... i mean after all, that's the common material used for toilets..... some of our neighbours didnt put kitchen door but i think it's necessary especially when you on the air-con or cooking alot of stuff.....

on the whole, i think this company is still ok.... the only thing i dont like is that Andy like to sweet talk & he LIED!!!! when mama asked him whether he will get the professional to install the windows, Andy said all his staff were pro since he only hired chinese.... i was like ok..... i dont care about his workers' races as long as they can do a good job... BUT on the actual day, all the staff who came were foreign workers!!! think they were from Myanmar or something.... dont get me wrong, i am not being racist here.... but dont LIE TO ME!!!! at least they did quite a decent job or else i will scold that bloody Andy like mad!!!!  hence, i wont strongly recommend this shop unless you cant find any other choices =)

part 3 of renovation : electrical work

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today is one of the more crucial part of the renovation = electrical work!!!! i felt this is important because after that there will be lights in the house = i can stay till night time = more time to prepare/do things in the house.....

actually i have been searching for electrician contacts for quite awhile & apparently is much harder than i thought.... if you engaged a contractor then of cause you dont have to worry about electrical work but i have to source for my own contacts.... getting contacts is already a major hurdle, choosing a suitable electrician is an even bigger problem!!!  I seriously have no idea why so many electricians dont keep track of their appointments!?!??!?! i kena stood up by at least 3 electricians or at least the contact person!!! all of them didnt show up at the promised timing & when i message them where are they, their replies were i forgot.... like WTF!!!! dont u write down what appointments you have for that day!!?!?!? there is no way i will engage those people, what if they stood me up again on the actual day!!!! thankfully i managed to find a more reliable guy, my friend introduced me since that guy did the electrical work for her house & she seem quite happy with it.....

Fu Chuan Electrical & Plumbing Services
Blk 440 Yishun Ave 11 #07-470 Singapore 760440
Tel: 6729 7470               
Fax: 6852 1329
Email: fuchuanservices@gmail.com    

Website: www.facebook.com/fuchuanservices

my contact person was Steven (9452 6055), middle aged man but he was very punctual!!! this is very very VERY important!!!! he first came down to give me a quotation, if you ok with the price then can arrange a date for his workers to come down.... actually i dont need to do major electrical work, mainly is to install lights & shifting some of the lighting/power points.... since mine was simple work, it can be done in a day's time with 2 electricians..... lets move onto pictures...

living room lights

corridor lights

corridor light

for most of the lights were just fix on = didnt shift lighting point so was really simple tasks for them... the difficult/messy part was to shift points cause they need to drill through the concrete wall.... at first i thought they will need to hack down like a big chunk of the ceiling just to shift the wires but apparently is much simpler than i imagined....

drilled ceiling to shift light points

they only need to drill something like a 2cm wide track to pull wires over..... no wonder they can complete the drilling + installing lights on the same day since it only required small patch up....

shifted light point + patch up

the electricians will patch up the track with some cement & let it dry before putting up the lights

light at the shifted point

the cement will take about a day to completely dry... when i took the photo was afew hours later so you can still see the patch work..... after the cement has dried up, just touch up with white paint & will be as good as new =)


they will do the same thing for wall mount fan.... but if the fan is mounted on a partition wall then they wont need to drill the whole track but just 2 holes to pull the wires...

hole on partition wall

new power point for the fan

i think wall mount fans are quite useful especially for small rooms cause you dont have to crack your brain about where to put the bloody fan..... it is also good if you have small kids/babies since their little fingers wont be able to reach the fans....

door bell installation

we also asked the electrician to install door bell for us.... shua ku us thought the box is the door bell but apparently, it was just to cover up the hole for the door bell -_-||||| ok.... after showing the pictures, let me share the breakdown for the individal work....

install lights = $15/ light (cost more if you have some super fancy lights)
supply & install door bell = $50
shifting of lighting point = $50 (if shift less than 1m)
supply & shift power point for wall fan = $80
install ceiling fan = $50
install wall fan (without shifting power point) = $30
shifting of power point = $80 (if i am not wrong)

my total electrical work cost $585 which i think was a reasonable price....most of the electricians charge $10/light installation but they charge ALOT for shifting light points!!! like $100+/shift..... extra powerpoint also cost $120..... so OMG expensive....

i would recommend Steven if you just need to do electrical work as he is punctual & give reasonable prices.... his workers were very efficient too..... they came abit later than the arranged time & managed to finish all the work in about 4hours.... they also clean up the place after they are done which i think is a good habit..... for payment wise, you dont need to pay deposit... he accept bank transfer so just transfer him the $ after the work is done =)

part 2 of renovation - painting

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so after doing the plaster wall, the next part of renovation is to do painting.... we initially hired a guy to paint for us & that bloody piece of shit last minute say his schedule too packed so he wont be to come down.... like WTH!!! how can you last minute pang seh us!?!?!??! he did say that he could recommend us his friend to paint for us... but like come on, do you think i will still believe you!?!??! no way man..... we did consider getting nippon paint people to paint for us but they charge $2000+ for our place which we felt it's abit steep... so..... we decided to paint the whole house ourselves.....

in order to paint, naturally you will need paint & paint brushes.... since it has been quite afew years since i last did painting, i kind of lost track in where to buy paints.... so we went to selfix at jurong point to buy paint since that outlet is pretty big... so we were looking at the paints displayed on the shelves.... we were wondering how come they all come in either white/base colour!?!?!??! so how in the world do i get different colours paints?!?!?! so we went to ask the selfix staff what coloured paints he has in store.... he said you can choose any colour & will be ready in afew minutes.... me & hubby thought he will take the paint from warehouse but NO!!! he will prepare the paint immediately!!! all thanks to this wonderful machine!!!

nippon paint machine

tada!!! this is where the staff mix in the dye for your desired colour!!!! hubby told me before that last time when his friend painted the house, he had to spend quite alot of $ on paint since he wanted some unique colour.... we were quite concerned since we had a tight budget so we asked if there will be additional charges for the colours... & NO!!! is the same price!!! YEAH!!! i guess it is a good investment since the staff can prepare any colour paints on the spot & the store doesnt have to keep a wide variety of colours so in the long run, i think it is more worthwhile.... so after you have chosen the colour that you want, the staff will put a tin of paint (base colour) into the machine on the left... after which a blob of dye will dropped into the paint & the staff will shift the tub of paint into the machine on the right to shake = mix the colour..... amazing right!!! or maybe we are just shuaku.....

our paints

paint description

so the staff will label the colour on top of each tub of paint so you wont be confused if you buy multiple colours.... according to the staff, for an empty room = no cabinets/wardrobe, it will need 5L of paint (2 coats)... so if you have built in wardrobes, then can minus off 5L from the total amount of paint you need..... since our place is pretty small so we gotten 3 tins of paints of 2 different colours....

another essential thing is the paint brushes..... of cause you will also need rollers to paint big area.... based on what i read online, you need an angled brush to paint the corners....

angled brush

i think this angled brush is really useful just like what's recommended online.... the long handle is also a helpful feature when you painting area close to the ceiling....

harris paint brush

the selfix staff also recommended us this harris paint brush.... the good thing is that there wont be any bristle loss.... if you did painting before, you will notice that as you paint, sometimes the bristle will drop off & stuck onto the wall.... that's so irritating!!! but there is really no bristle loss with this harris brush!!! i strongly recommend this brand!!!! I also felt that it is easier to paint with this brush, probably due to the softer bristle too =)

stirrer

this plastic stirrer is also an useful tool... it is much better to use this stirrer than manually swirling the tub to mix the paint... & it only cost $1, just get it....

after talking so much, let me share our achievement.....

before

so before painting, we have plain white wall.....

after

 yeah!!! cream/light yellow wall!!!! i think the colour turned out slightly darker than what we imagined but still very nice =)

but painting is really tiring especially for the ceiling... you will paint till your neck want to crack.... so to reward our hard work.... we had a mont black from starbucks....

mont blanc

i believed it's a new addition to starbucks menu since i never seen it before..... the looks is actually not bad but the taste is really so so.... i couldnt taste any chestnut at all.... slightly disappointing.... but hey, is a free cake for birthday month cardholder, so why complain =)

dinner buffet at Marriott cafe

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normally we have this tradition with one group of friends that we will have an annual kushinbo dinner... but because Kushinbo prices had jet up so high ($70 for weekend dinner buffet), we decided to look for cheaper alternatives.... while we were searching online, I came across this UOB card 1 for 1 dining deal for Marriott cafe... the usual price for weekend dinner buffet is $80++, after 1 for 1 will be $48/pax which is still cheaper than kushinbo so we decided to give it a go =) since they had limited slots allocated for 1 for 1 customers, we had to make reservation almost 1 month ahead.... so do make reservation early...... without further ado, lets start with photos!!!

Marriott cafe

inside the restaurant

dining ware

variety of ham

seafood

some cooked food

dessert!!!

ice cream

more dessert & fruits

cooked meat

paella & offal

bread selection

salad corner

sushi/sashimi

the ambiance of the place is not too bad, there is enough space in between the tables so you wont feel very cramp & wont be disturbed when talking..... the high ceiling also give the place a grander look which also makes it feel more spacious...... as for the food wise, i think on the first glance, the food selection seem quite good.... first thing that caught my eye was the seafood section... i took a look at the online menu beforehand & i knew that they serve lobster & crab legs!!! so those 2 things were my main target =) i was also surprised that they served cooked food in le creuset cooking ware..... really  fancy..... next, let me share some of the food i ate...

seafood

cheese & some sides

more seafood

dessert

of cause those were not all the food that I have eaten but pretty much sum up what I like to eat.... SEAFOOD!!! the lobster claws were GREAT!!! juicy, quite sweet & best thing was that they were de-shelled!!! so you can pretty much just bite off the chunky meat!!!! think i ate like 10 pieces of lobster claws..... crab wise was a little disappointing, i prefer kushinbo for that.... for those who love oyster, marriott cafe is the place for you.... I am not an oyster fan so i just gotten one piece to try & woooo, it tasted really fresh wor.....

for the cooked meat section, i only gotten pork knuckle since i dont really like roast beef & i dont take mutton.... perhaps i am more of a chinese roast pork fan, i didnt like the pork knuckle there, it was too salty.... i tried abit of other food section & they were ok, not really fantastic to me.... BUT BUT BUT their dessert selection really worth mentioning.... quite a wide variety i would say, there was a selection just for chocolate desserts.... like chocolate tart, chocolate cake, chocolate moouse, etc but i forgotten to take picture of that.....

in conclusion, i think marriott cafe had quite a nice spread of food which i believed will be suitable for majority of the population.... price wise is definitely abit steep but with the 1 for 1 promotion then i think is quite worthwhile to try especially when you want to chill out with friends =)

first day of renovation - plaster wall

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since we dont intend to do anything major, we didnt engage a contractor/interior designer so we basically took over the contractor job..... initially i thought everything is going to be simple but it turned out much more troublesome than i imagined ..... moral of the story is, unless you really doing just painting or fixing up the lights (without shifting any light points or additional power point), those really simple things, it is still easier to engage a contractor/designer.... cause you will spend so much time just to liase with the different groups of people & have to try to fit into their schedule... but anyhow, today we FINALLY start the first day of renovation!!!!

since our place already came with flooring & aircon so that's 2 big things off the load.... for today we started by layering the floor with cardboard, of cause we engaged people to do that.... it is very IMPORTANT to cover your flooring cause DONT expect those workers to be careful.... they will just throw their equipment around & if you need to do drilling & painting, the debris/paint will dirty your floor... so always REMEMBER to COVER THE FLOOR!!!! the next thing we did was the plaster wall inside master bedroom.... the irritating about flats nowadays is that, they dont come with nice flat walls... there are always some concave area, you wont get 4 pieces of nice flat wall....

concave wall

  this is what i meant... those bloody concave area actually create alot of trouble especially when you have superstitious parents.... in fengshui term, it is best to have smooth, flat walls so any concave/convex area, you need to flatten them out.... this is especially so if there is an empty area behind your bed...... cause the wall is like your 靠山 , so you dont want to have "missing support".... so to solve this problem, mama suggest to fill up the gap with plaster board since it is the cheapest option other than building cabinets in that area....

plaster wall + "shelves"

tada!!! the final product..... for those pro, they will be able to finish one small area in a day... what they did is actually cover up the area with plaster board, at the same time put in some horizontal board to act as shelves.... rather than just filling up the whole area & you lose all the space, by incorporating the shelves, it will give you extra space to keep your things =)

painted plaster wall

sorry for the awkward angle.... but the idea is that after painting over the area & you wont be able to tell the difference... you will thought that is the original design for the wall =)

we also seal up the 2 holes for bomb shelter...... i know technically you not supposed to seal up the place but it will look neater without the protrusion..... you will need to keep the metal plates so that you can put it back when you need to sell the house in future...

patch work for bomb shelter

 once you seal up the hole then you will have a nice smooth wall.... i know some people will just cover that hole with a clock but that will restrict your clock choices..... so i think it's nicer to seal up the holes IF you are doing other plaster wall work =)