Our Home Renovation Journey - Start of Renovation Process

With the completion of the retification works and confirmation of all the design details, we were finally ready to start the renovation for our new home! 

We wanted to start the renovation as soon as possible as we were worried that the works may get delayed because Chinese New Year falls on 5th and 6th of February 2019. Most of the contractors are Malaysians and they normally take quite a long time off during the CNY period. But as usual, our ID had thousand and one reasons, in which he said he had to give one week notice to the different contractors and what not.. Hence, the renovation process was scheduled to start on 10th November 2018. 🙄

Our ID provided us with a renovation timeline so that we will be aware of the works that is going on in our home at any point of time. From the timeline, it is projected that the installation of the last items such as lights, glass works and quartz table top will be carried out on 2nd February 2019. The general cleaning and washing will be done on 3rd February 2019, just in time for CNY. 

We went by the new house on 9th November and we saw the tiles and cement left for our unit at the unloading area downstairs. There were a few loose tiles (common toilet feature wall) that were broken and left on top of a pile of cement. Took a picture and forwarded to our ID to let him handle. I really hope all the renovation works will be smooth and go into completion without much problems and delays 🙏.

The long awaited day has arrived.. 😁 The first few days would just comprise of the hacking of the half wall separating the kitchen and dining area, and also the floor tiles of the kitchen and service yard. 

The top half of the wall is gone! Finally some natural light in the kitchen and it instantly makes the place look that tiny bit bigger. 😍 They will be extending the half wall out a little more so that the opening to the kitchen is about 90cm (standard door width), and we will have a glass swing door. 

The contractors hacked the floor tiles in the kitchen and service yard as well. We are going to keep the flooring same throughout the whole house apart from the bathrooms. Our ID also proposed to remove the windows to the service yard and seal it up. Since we may get some carpentry done in the service yard, it would be better to remove the window as it will not be functional then. All the toilet fittings and vanity was dismantled as well. Initially we thought we could reuse the shower set for the common bathroom but our ID did not keep the fittings once they were removed and he said that once removed, there is a possibility that it will leak if we were to fit it back. Not sure if its true or he sees that we have no idea so he just smoke his way through. 😂

Our ID arranged with City Gas to install the gas heater on the 12th December 2018. We told him to make sure he is around to make sure that the people from City Gas install the pipes in a way that looks aesthetically pleasant and to ensure that the pipes can be covered by the carpentry works as much as possible. 

Basically the gas pipe will run downwards (behind the fridge) then across the kitchen (top right picture), there will be an adaptor to connect to our hob then the pipe continues into the service yard through the wall. Once in the service yard, the pipe will go over the service yard door (bottom right picture) and down to the opposite wall which is actually behind the common bathroom. The water pipes will run down from the heater and through the wall to the common bathrom. The pipes in the kitchen will be covered by the carpentry works but the pipes in the service yard will be painted white to try as much as possible to mask it. 

The electrician also started the wiring works on 12th December. We have 30 light points in total, with 2 fan points and quite a number for LED strips and cove lighting. Some of these lighting points are already concealed by HDB but we will be relocating the points while others are additional points in which the electrician will have to drill along the ceiling, stuff the wires in and plaster the surface to make it flat. This will minimize the exposed wiring and there would not be any of those conventional electrical trunking anywhere in the house. We also increased the number of powerpoints to suit our lifestyle. 

Apparently Hafary sent the wrong tiles for the Master Bathroom feature wall tiles, hence our ID had to arrange with Hafary to come, collect and replace the tiles for us. Hopefully tiling can proceed as scheduled. Cant wait to see the pretty 75cm by 75cm grey tiles. 😍