Our Home in Kovan

Ok, did some searching and this should be what's inside of a WC tank fitted with Geberit system: Gone are those floating ball and piston.  It also mean that it is more expensive if things go wrong, you will have to replaced the entire system costing around $100.  Fortunately, Geberit tested their system for up to "200,000 times, an equivalent to ordinary family use of sixty-years".  

WC - Treo I don't have the exact details of it but I bought it because it was a ToTo CW166B look-alike with Geberit system built-in.  It was the only one I liked in the line up in that shop.  At that moment in time, I was mostly happy that the price is ok and I don't have to go elsewhere to do more shopping and comparison.   Other than aesthetic reason, this design is a little bit taller and steeper in gradient than the Roz (using it currently) and Johnson Suisse (used it before).  I was hopeful that the increase in height and depth will translate to more forceful flushing power.   Another consideration I had for WC was the coating of the ceramic basin.  Toto was the only one to mention that it had an additional coating of CeFionTect for extra protection: a little like Teflon coating for cooking pans - easy to wash.  No other brand has mentioned any special coating, so I assume ToTo is the only one who bother to do a little extra. ...

Tiler: Mosaic Soon (顺) He is part of sub-con of my ID.  Stocky guy with a loud and intimidating voice.  When asked his name, he proudly announced:  Soon!... call me Mosaic Soon! For you newbies doing renovation for the very first time, tiling or wet works rank the highest in terms of importance.  Cement mix is not right, level is not aligned, tilt not enough (in bathroom)... you will have endless nightmares with the house.  So... Be very nice with the tilers. I will just show you some works he has done mending the walls. Before After Before After I am paying extra attention on the walls because they will just be painted at the end of the renovation.  If it is not smooth and flushed, it will be noticeable.  We are paying him extra to do all these patch ups because it was not included in the quote.  Will cost us extra $600 more as I ripped off all the aircon pipings and the ceilings.  Worth it if he can do it right. ...

We have used them twice and this will be the third.  They are professionals: quick, efficient and careful.  Stuffs that need to be protected will be wrapped and cushioned.  Large items are dismantled and put back with proper tools. They are not the cheapest.  But worth it if you value your household belongings.

There is this additional pipe in the toilet which no one had a clue what it was for.  Can we get rid of it? Who else better to ask than HDB?  I couldn't find a contact point for renovation questions so I tried the general email contact:  hdb@mailbox.hdb.gov.sg . I don't think I have had much good experience with emailing to general enquiry of any organisation to talk about.  In this case, I too, have forgotten about it as soon as I sent it. The email was sent on a Friday night at almost 10pm.  The following Tuesday morning, I got a call at 9am from Don, a representative from HDB saying he would be in my unit at 11am to have a look. Don was there at 11am.  After surveying, he said it is part of sewage pipe system from older design.  Only a some units in certain floors have it and I was one of the lucky ones.  And no, it cannot be dismantled. One working day, one officer on site, question answered, doubt cleared.  I am left with t...

We spent a lot of time on the design of the kitchen.  This would be the final design: Do the new designers do drawings like this?  On pencils?  We still kept the drafts of the carpentry work in our old flat done by Mr Chua.  A heady rush of nostalgia... loved it! The other side will look like this:

Venetian Blinds: J&R CurtainBlind Concept Pte Ltd Small local enterprise run by a knowledgeable, affectionate and bubbly lady, Joyce Ong. We are going to have venetian blind all around: white panel with black tape, so it was a relatively simple discussion.  She knew well how the configuration of the windows without us having to tell her.  We went along with her advice on the panel size and length. Offered us at $2k and we bargain a little to $1900.  We think the price is in the mid range.  Don't really have a clue because this was our only quote.

Window:  Singapore Safety Window System Updates and Verdict No experience here.  Contacted Alvin, a contactor from reading Renotalk forum.  He asked a few questions to see if I am doing anything else.  After which, he said he would get his worker, actually his subcon, to contact me. I made the call before noon and met up with the two young Malaysian at 4pm.  After measuring, he immediately gave us a quote: $2300.  We bargain down to $1900 for the following: 1. Living room: 6 panel casement 2. Master bedroom: 3 panel casement 3. Kitchen: 3 panel sliding 4. Bedroom 1: 3 panel casement 5. Bedroom 2: 4 panel casement 6. 2xBathroom windows.   No grilles.  It was $19/sqft for windows with grilles and $14/sqft for windows only.  All in all, $2,300 and we bargained down to $1880. Price seemed reasonable?  Don't like it that we had to ask for so much discount after their 'best' price.  Tom came down the ...

How does the flat look when striped bare? Kitchen, before Kitchen After Master bedroom, before.  Laminate floor. Master Bedroom, ceramic tiles revealed. Bedroom 1.  The frame in the middle is the storeroom. Bedroom 2 Common Toilet.  It used was the squatting type.  You can see the square concrete box on the top right corner. We were wrong...everything had to be changed! This was perhaps the expensive lesson we learned: looks can be deceiving.  We Thought that we could still use the laminate flooring but they popped out in some places.  We thought that we could still use the aircon but it was using an old refrigerant and the aircon pipping's layout was horrid. The aircon duct ran towards the window... Went around the room... Across to the other bedroom before entering the master bedroom toilet. We thought that we could use back the ceiling box but the position of some of the down lights were wrong....

They stormed into the apartment and swiftly got to work.  The team of seven were seamless: everybody knew exactly what to do.  The foreman was a quiet, soft spoken man with a ready smile.  There were no loud instructions or hollers amongst each other.  The only noise was that of hammers and crowbars. On the second day, there was a heavy downpour.  I saw one of the worker shuffling up and down the elevator sweeping away the rain water and mud outside the lift landing on my floor and the ground floor. Lift landing outside unit Lift was kept clean Cleaning the floor all the way to the loading area What was scheduled for three days were done in one and a half.

Bath Room Accessories: Song Lin Building, Syed Alwi Road Randall said we cannot find prices like these elsewhere in Singapore.  A little exaggeration there of course but... yep, quite true. Items are mostly made in Malaysia or China and I can't recall the brands.  Picked out wash basin, taps, shower sets...etc for both of our bathroom.  Came out to just a little over $2000.   The exciting find for me was the toilet bowl.  As I had done my research, I had my mind set on a certain brand for its shape and features.  I found one here, looks exactly the same, fitted with Geberit system that went for one third of the price of the named brand.  Such a easy decision. I was also happy to settle everything in less than two hours.

Buying a HDB flat should not be difficult:  the regulations, procedures and dateline can all be found on the website. So we went ahead without any agent representation. What could go wrong? Seller, Agent Delayed Filling We placed our deposit immediately after viewing the unit.  We liked the layout, the distance from MRT and the condition of the flat.  The ERA team of husband and wife seemed amicable: we exchanged information about our children, complained about school systems and other parental affairs before discussion the timeline of the transaction.  It was early August.  We should be able to complete the transaction by October, they said.  The owner would like to request 2-3 weeks extension for time to move into his other HDB.  Ah, no problem, our son will be having his A-levels and we don't intend to do anything in November.  All of us were happy, hands were shaken and cheque presented. Why No Filling? A week later, we eagerly put i...