Site Meetings and More Tiling

Lunch Meetings have been given a whole new meaning especially when you are eating dust. I am not surprised if for this month, more pimples have erupted due to the over exposure of dust, cement and dirt. This comes with renovating a place. As the self declared project manager (between Sean and myself), I shall have to wear my pimples with pride like a trophy. It is not a common sight to get a woman inspecting a work site on a frequent basis.

I had a site meeting today with my contractor, the air-con subcontractor, electrician and plumber. The electrician and plumber are starting work tomorrow, so we had to run through the scope of work (which was fortunate). I found out that Hansgrohe apparently had missed out on some items. The sales lady while adding an item into the delivery order, accidentally took out the shut off valves for the vanity taps.  However, that has been resolved. I suppose you can never be too sure. Fortunately, the invoice had that line item even though the delivery order didn't.

The wet works folks should be done by today (for the time being). They will be back after the plumber has done the pipings to do the finishing touches to the bathrooms.

The Common Bathroom all grouted and ready for piping.
The Common Bathroom floor
Our Master Bathroom floor
The kitchen with the side curbs done midway during lunch.
The base for the refrigerator. Love the little touch like the edge of the curb being rounded. 

Of A Kitchen, 2 Bathrooms and our Living Room in a War Zone

I've just got off a 40mins call with my contractor. Sounds awfully long but it is something we must do. We went through all his drawings together and being the initial drawings, there was so much to make changes to. Technicalities of how the bathroom console should be designed, how the top can be mounted, etc. I love getting down to the nitty gritty of things. I love design on the whole.

The bathroom walls and the kitchen floor tiles have been completed. They looked beautiful. 

Our living room in a mess.
Putting the finishing touches to the kitchen floor.

The Common bathroom wall completely done in mosaic.

Tiled, Not Grouted.

Not too long ago, I was in war with myself, to Bisazza or not to Bisazza my bathroom walls. Any design fanatic will tell you there is no mosaic in the world like Bisazza. To many, mosaics belong to the HDB floors of the 70s and 80s, others may even think of swimming pools. However, mosaics are making a come back. So many architects and interior designers have been specifying Bisazza in their designs, unfortunately a very large portion of these projects have been fulfilled with China "Bisazza" copies. The Chinese will do what they do best, imitate. Quality wise, they are still not on par. 

Anyway, we have shelved the Bisazza bathroom till we (hopefully) have our own house. Paying for a Bisazza clad bathroom in a HDB just doesn't make sense. 

The wet workers have tiled 80% of both the bathroom walls and the entire splash back for the kitchen walls. The grouting hasn't been done yet. When I got there, they were about done for the day and had notified my contractor that they will not be working tomorrow. My heart sank. Watching the apartment go through the facelift was like watching and episode of extreme makeover. You get sucked in and the hunger to see bigger changes becomes an obsession. If it were up to me, I would forfeit their trip back to Malaysia for the weekend. I would even go as far as to make them work day and night to satisfy my restlessness. Alas, they are not machines (although they do work at supersonic speed). One must not forget that the renovation work started less than a week ago and this is their 3rd day of work (2nd for the wet work folks).

Can't wait for Monday to come! September is looming and it's time to do some moving.

The master bathroom.

The kitchen.
A side view of the glass mosaics.
Front view of the kitchen splashback.
The common bathroom
Close up of the common bathroom mosaics.

Cementing Two Wrongs

I have to say that this contractor never fails to impress me. His wet work folks are fast! Maybe it is the hungry ghost festival as well, that must deter many people from renovating their homes but I don't care! Thank God for the lull period that freed up the schedule of these craftsmen. They have done the waterproofing, screeded the floor and walls in the common bathroom, touched up the floor and wall where the wall between the master bedroom and bedroom 3 was, the kitchen walls and also the floor at the walkway.

When my folks told me to turn on the lights whenever I enter a room at night, I think that they are a just being paranoid as usual (afraid that I would trip on something). Today, I wished I did hit the light switch as soon as we got into the flat. We groped in the dark, managed to get near the common bathroom to peep in and then my husband dearest suddenly pointed to the the floor that I was standing on. I had left footprints in the semi-wet cement ground. When I realised what I had done, I quickly turned on the lights (the power supply was cut at the breaker) and started to examine all the tools lying on the floor and leaning on the wall. I picked up the closest leveling tool and tried to resurface it even at my husband's angry protests. Now this just gets only better. As it was semi-dry, when I swept the leveling tool across the surface, it got worse. A small part of the screed lifted off onto the tool causing a small dent in the nicely screeded floor to my husband's dismay. This is bound to dent the wet workers' mood. I think it is time to buy them drinks and offer my "deepest" apologies.

The walkway floor.
The patched up wall and floor between the two rooms.
The kitchen walls.

Sally the Window Dresser

When I think of window dressing, I think of "The Sound of Music" and the Von Trapp children dressed in new play clothes made from their old drapes. It is no surprise that Mr Von Trapp freaked at them wearing the old unwanted drapes. It was never a status or class problem (being seen in them), it was a dust and mite issue. He probably got rid of them as it was too tiresome to wash those heavy cloths.

The question is how important are curtains to a window? Today, Sally who is the mother of soft furnishings (with 30 years of experience in her pocket) came by to take the measurements of the windows.  Like a hawk, I was attentive; listening to her every advice and visualising the effect it would have on the rooms. The loud, attention seeking and rudely painted walls made it hard to phantom how the soft muted lilac and mustard yellow would play in the master bedroom and living room. They attacked every opportunity to distract me during my small subconscious moments. I must say however, we did make progress. Sally was my compass; my true north. She navigated me to what was right, and in that hour, functionality and design, snapped together becoming one.  She had found my vision.

Some samples of fabric for the curtains.
Sally, measuring the guest room window.
Our living room windows without the grills.

Receiving Tiles and Selling Metal

Monday blues? No siree! Never at Strathmore Avenue. Even though the hacking work has been completed within a day (instead of the scheduled 2 days), there is no rest for the weary workers or the over-enthusiastic me.

Today happens to be one of those days that Yaw Chong (Sean) and I decided to have a lunch date. Mind you, we don't do this very often, just once in a while, unplanned to add that element of the unexpectedness to our mundane work life. As our new home happens to be really near his work place, we decided to go over and store another box. When we got there, drenched in the morning's rain, were two pallets of tiles wrapped in what seemed like cling wrap, basking in the the glorious noon sun. It was beautiful. There was an air of satisfaction. The poor boy had spent the last few months studying tiles like as if it were his final exam and graduation was dependent on whether he could tell them apart or mix and match them the best. All I can say is the boy did well. if not, excellent with a star. The pictures are a proof of it.

Ever felt like a canary in a cage? I suppose that's why I don't like window grills. I've been told many a times that they are great for parents with kids. Keeps the kids safe. I reckon they are great for parents with kids, who have no time to teach them not to climb. I am an optimist. If they climb and fall, one less mouth to feed, one less to save for, and one more grand voyage for mummy and daddy. Think about the insurance we might be claiming! Seriously, I think when they are old enough to understand death, i'll give them a water balloon each for a "baby" and let them father or mother it around for an hour or so (that is really long in kiddy time) and then throw it out of the window and let it splatter. Then I'll tell him/her that is what happens when you don't listen and climb windows. That should solve the grill-less window and disobedient children problem. Window grills are hideous, no one should be allowed to manufacture them. They kill the aesthetics of the apartment and the reason why they need to go. Being a tree hugger and green bag toting individual, I decided to call a scrap metal company to sell the grills, our used cooper pipes and metal parts (kitchen cabinet baskets, exhaust, bamboo pole rests, etc). Instead of paying some folks to dismantle them and "throw" them away (bet they sell them too), I might as well broker my own sale and earn a little from this. The amount we made... I shan't give it away for the sake of leaving some mystery behind. Let's just say, we could take 2 others and ourselves to a nice fancy lunch at Au Petit Salut and there would still be spare change to tip the waiter. Go figure that. *wink*


The cement that arrived today.
The tiles sitting in their corner, resting.
Kitchen splash back tiles.
The common bathroom wall tiles.
The bathroom floor tiles. (left for the master, right for the common)
The sand in the living room. (notice the windows without grills)
Francis, removing the aluminum bamboo pole rests.

Day One

Day one and we are making good progress. These workers must be high on red bull or have a lot of pent up frustration. haha. They have taken down the wall between Bedroom 3 and the master bedroom, taken off all the bathroom fittings (tiles and floor tiles as well), demolished the entire kitchen cabinet (taken off all the wall and floor tiles too) and removed the flooring for the whole apartment. All these were done in a stupendous speed! Well done, boys. At this rate, moving in next month is very possible.

Our common bathroom naked without tiles or fittings.
Our empty kitchen. It looks like a cave.
Our master bathroom with just a tap.
The combined master bedroom and bedroom 3 without the wall in between. This will be our new master bedroom.