Reno@VistaSpring - Brickwall done!

This week, the brick wall is up!!! And we have been pushing our contractor to quickly get an appointment for the vinyl flooring to come in to do the flooring. But it's really close to the Lunar New Year, so it seems like the whole world is rushing to get their renos done before the CNY.

 close up on the brickwall after the grouting is completed.

All the loose wirings have been pulled in the house too, now waiting for the flooring before the carpentry can start next.

 Aircon trunking done too. The FCU will be installed later, so it wouldn't get dusty for a long time.

Aircon trunking in the master bathroom, no choice have to cross over here to get to the aircon ledge. Think I need to talk to the contractor how to box this thing up.
See the brown and yellow wall in the master bathroom? We are going to overlay the bathroom wall with the new feature wall tiles. That way, the whole bathroom wouldn't look too jarring with so many colours.

 me to Jules: ok darling...go and press the lift!

 and off he goes!!

catch up with me on our reno journey at CCK Maisonette and CCK2 Maisonette!

xoxo

velle

DIY Reno or Not

often I get emails asking whether do I think home owners should do the reno themselves or hire an ID to do the job.

let me put it this way.

Either
you pay someone who does the job for you while you are earning more money or having a starbucks coffee, chillax with your colleagues or friends, if not spending time with your family or fulfilling your travel bucket list. You pay for the time that don't need your time. Get it?

or

you do your own homework, scroll down thousand and one websites to learn the ropes. In other words, to do your own reno, if you are not experienced, be prepared that your reno will take a longer time than required.  To do all these, you must have time and patience. End of the day, most probably you might have quite a good self satisfaction.

this is a short summary.

here comes the longer part: (you can skip it if you don't want to read)

you pay the ID to do the following things, more or less, things that you probably aren't good at

1. design & space planning
2. drawing up 2d drawings
3. building up 3d drawings
4. telling you whether your kitchen appliances fit or not
5. what sizes of toilet bowl and sinks to buy
6. giving you a quotation , reno budget
7. project manage during the reno - thousand and one phonecalls to be made like to the contractor, the electrician, the tiler, the partition works guy, the plumber, the aircon guy, the carpenter etc etc
8. tell you how many lights to buy, what kind of lights to buy, what size of lampshades to get
9. tell you where you should put your powerpoints and how high
10. decide how to run your electrical wirings, how best to conceal them
11. what kind of tiles to buy, what sizes to choose, what goes with what and how to lay the tiles on site
12. the type of laminates to choose, believe me, there are thousand and one laminates and so many different catalogues to choose from
13. the colour PVC to choose, again selection can be quite tiring now
14. the different types of countertop to go for
15. choosing painting colours
16. choosing electrical faceplates
17. do things which you might take days to do, your ID most probably does it in less than half the time that is required.

these are just some basic items, every home reno is different so the list is not exhaustive.

ultimately the call is yours.

Reno@VistaSpring - Grouting the brickwall

Are you wondering why the bottom of the brick is so pronounced in black?? it's not the black grout lines, but it's empty!! haha...the laying of the brick is completed but it's not fully grouted in white yet. So the "black" parts are the empty gaps between the bricks which the tiler needs more tiles to grout one by one....after this then we need to wait for it to dry before we paint and seal it.

 here's a closer look at the gaps between the bricks...

 meanwhile, all the dry partition works are done up too, going to do a skim coat later

 false ceiling completed in both bathrooms!

 and our dear electrician had to hack quite a bit to realign all the ceiling wirings again.... seriously, it's not easy working ceiling stuff! debris gets into your eyes you know!!!

 

Did you know that Michelango painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling until he almost went blind because the paint kept falling into his eyes?

 

so truth be said, I think it's worth every penny paying your electrician to do the dirty work because seriously I haven't the faintest idea how to hold a drill and definitely not up against a ceiling!

Reno@CCK Maisonette - Carpentry in progress

remember it was just last week that Jules was playing with the "boxes" and now the shoe cabinet is up! The woody interior is looking really smashing!

The kitchen carpentry is still in progress. Usually kitchen takes the longest because it has the most number of drawers, swing doors, accessories. Not as modular as a wardrobe.

Here's another side of the kitchen and the afternoon sun is streaming right in. The other photo shows how sunny the balcony is now...good to sun your clothes now!!

All the carpentry comes with internal colour PVC - something nice to have if you have the budget.

 sneak peak at the bathroom

Workers are cleaning the place, painting and tidying up before they seal the parquet and all work has to stop for the parquet to dry up. All in good planning!!!
To hide the electrical casing, we did a box up all around and the owners bought mini recessed downlights for the box up area. Looks really pretty now with fewer exposed casings.

bye!!!

Reno@CCK2 Maisonette - Parquet flooring

Another week has past! and the owner has delivered all the ceiling fans to site. This week, the parquet has been laid, this is usually done last because we need to prevent other workers from scratching the floor. So after this, carpentry can start!

 the place is getting brighter! electrical works still in progress...

 Parquet flooring in the bedroom upstairs

 parquet at the staircase foyer and staircase itself

Reno@CCK2 Maisonette - Finally the wall is down!

Painting makes the whole place new!

Hello!
It's another Sunday at one of our reno site. Today my helper is off so we got to bring the 2 rascals along with us and hubs is having a field day!!! Hubs is in charge of carrying the 2 boys while I'm in charge of the camera.

The staircase is looking really spiffy! Looks real good without the railings, white sides and rough screed flooring. Super uber cool...but we gonna have 2 boys residing here, so got to have new railings for safety. We probably will try this combo at another maisonette if given the chance. One where the children are already adults.

Lower floor bedroom - painting and light holder completed. Looks so much brighter and spacious. Though it's actually very compact.

This photo starts to show the upper bedrooms where one of the wall is finally hacked away!!! And the light and shadow being cast onto the walls. Yes we have finally received our approval from BCA to knock down the walls. Kudos to our home owners, PE and contractor who has worked so hard to get this approval done. It's like moving the mountains!!!

zoom in on the feature wall tile at balcony

 ta-duh! i give you the upper floor bedroom where there's NO MORE WALL!!!

I can't tell you how much anxiety this wall has given to both my homeowners, us as well as our dear contractor who needs to meet the reno deadline by feb.

Master bathroom - colour palette drawing reference to one of St Regis Bal Harbour Resort - Suite bathroom.

 wee! sunny yellow!

Baby james is fascinated with the wall tiles! BTW, this is the boys' bathroom. and the wall and floor tiles are chosen by the eldest son. Kids nowadays have really good colour sense huh!

ciao!