D-Day + 1273 : Had been busy...

Indeed. Had went around hunting for lights, suitable appliances for the kitchen, designs for the various carpentry. Boy were we glad we had requested for Edmund to doll up our house slowly.

And since our last visit a month ago, decided to drop by for any surprise.
We love it to open the door and see something had been done up.
Of course, had a made a few trips in between, some with surprises, some without.

For today, had caught Ah San and his buddy doing up the floor tiles for the living area.

Already opened upon arrival

Doorway and dining area

Ah San soaked in sweat

Ah San's buddy

D-Day + 1236 : Multitasking

Many to happen today. Little did I know.

Went there in the morning and was surprised that the kitchen cabinet base was up.
Ah San the tiler was already hard at work with the common toilet tiles. He had his radio on, but quickly turned it off when he realised I was there. Told him its alright to keep it on but he seemed paiseh to use my electricity. In the end, I had to turn it on for him.

The wonderful sight that greeted me. Empty house no more.

Ah San the tiler

Master toilet awaiting tiling

Common toilet almost done up

Tiles of the master bath area

Common toilet's tiles

Out of a sudden, a guy just came in with his tools bag and proceed to the kitchen. I was wondering who the hell is he until I saw his City Gas polo tee. Didn't know that Edmund had also arranged for the gas pipe to be laid today.

Captain Obvious: "That's the gas pipe!"

Then, along came another 2 guys to run the cable trunking for the power switches and downlights. Watched them for a while and got really disgusted with one of them as he was spitting non stop! He must have had faeces for breakfast that morning. Not that I mind a lot, since the floor will be cemented and tiled but it's really damn disgusting.

Mr Phlegm in white

All done up

Next came Edmund. I leave him to supervise his workers and I busied myself with photo taking.

My main purpose was to wait for the grand arrival of the aircon man.
Had went for the offer by Everjoint after comparing with Hong Tar and Gain City. Reviews in renotalk was good and their price the lowest. And also, the only with no extra charges for the extra installation trip to make it a total of 3 trips.

Edmund had advise that since we are overlaying the tiles in the toilet, the aircon man had got to hack holes in the walls for the aircon trunking before the tiles are up. This is to prevent excessive vibration and causing the overlay wall tiles to not stick to where it should be.

Luckily, though Mr Richard, boss of Everjoint, did not fully understand the rationale, he agreed to our request of an extra trip just for hacking holes.
So it was agreed to be on 3 June where the tiler and aircon man will meet and get the job done.

To my surprise, when the aircon (Toto) man came, he merely discussed with me how the trunking will be run from the rooms to the exterior and starts to leave.
Obviously there had been some misunderstanding somewhere as he said he wasn't informed to hack any holes by his boss. Luckily a phone call to Richard (with a pissed tone) was all it takes to get things straightened out. I have no interest in the conversation between Toto and Richard, but the holes I requested were right where they should be.

Toto using eye power

My balls shrank watching him. Told him to watch it.

The hole - coming from the room

The hole - going out to the ledge

D-Day + 1229 : Official start of Reno!

Consulted FSM Mr David Tong and today between 9-11am will mark the start of the whole renovation process.

Only thing to be done today will be the dismantling of the stock toilet bowls, basins and shower mixers in both toilets.
So it also marked the day where there will be no more shitting during future visits.

The uncle came around 10+am and all that are to be dismantle are all lying in the storeroom in a jiffy.

Edmund dropped by and had some discussions and told him to let the reno be slow as we are not in a hurry to move in and also to allow my cash to flow smoothly.
Also, passed him the payment to officially start the tiling. If I had not suddenly remember the cheque, I guess he would have forgotten to collect from me as well.

D-Day + 1178: The Defects.

Not sure to count myself lucky or not, but my list of defects for the newly acquired 'quality' housing from HDB is rather short, as compare to some other residents in the estate.

Most astounding would be the cracks on the toilets' wall tiles. I mean, what kind of quality are we actually paying for a 200k+ house? After reporting to the BSC and having them rectifying the defects, more cracks appear. Same goes for the dents and scratches on the main door. More would appear after the first round of rectifications.

I'm just so glad that I did not opt for the HDB's floor tiles and doors. Save me some trouble there.

Almost all windows have this problem

Broken 'caps'

Cracked 'caps'

Cracked wall tiles

The crack ran the whole column from top to bottom

One of the dents on the main door

D-Day + 1174 : The Ritual

Had not consult any FSM on this auspicious date. We simply chose a good date base on the calendar and went along with it. And based on it, we have got to open the door between the auspicious hours between 7am to 9am.
Luckily, I had rented a car on the previous day for the tiles hunt thus getting to Jade Spring wasn't much trouble. And as it was the Ching Ming period, we had to quicken the prayers so that I can send my Mom, whom is helping out with the prayers, to the interchange by 8.30am so that she can go about with her own schedule and we can rush back to meet Edmund whom will be doing site measurements for the upcoming reno.

Arriving at around 7.30am, we wasted no time in setting up the prayer proper.
No throwing of pineapple, salts, green beans, etc.
We did some modest praying and burning of incense papers.

Po Pi Po Pi...

Forgot to poke holes for air inlet thus had a hard time keeping the fire going

HUAT ah!

After the prayers, things went like a whirl wind. First is to send my Mom to the interchange, then we have to return the car at Khatib, grab some breakfast and rushed back to Jade Spring by 9am to meet Edmund.

We made it, but Edmund did not. So we had some time to finish up our packet breakfast and took photos rooms.

View from the Living Room

View of Yishun Ave 11

Future Study Room

Guest Room

Master Bedroom. Thanks to MBT for the size.

View from the MBR

View of Floral Spring BTO from MBR

Master Bathroom

Common Bathroom

Kitchen and service yard. THANKS again to MBT. Edmund's comment on first sight: "Wah! So big ah!"

Household Shelter (with the complimentary tiles)

Dining area

The doorway

D-Day + 1173 : Keys collection!

On April Fools' Day, we were scheduled to collect our keys at HDB. Was it a joke or what?

Nevertheless, the process went on rather smoothly.

Upon arriving, we proceeded to get our basic home insurance first, without which, we will be denied the collection.

Then we waited for our number to be called. And after much signing and wiping cleaning of our CPF account, the keys finally landed safely in our hands! Too bad we couldn't proceed to open the door immediately as we had selected an auspicious date for that.

Keys to Main Gate, Main Door and Letter Box.

Next up will be to continue our renovation homework. Had decided to visit a 2 tiles showrooms: Hafary (Defu branch) and Gallery T.

Here are some tiles we took a liking to at Hafary.

Homo tiles for the living and dining

For the Master bathroom. Too bad it was low on stock.

Another for the Bathroom

Common Bathroom. But... low on stock as well

Wood textured tiles for the 3 bedrooms. Love it, but the price was a put off.

The tiles we chose from Gallery T.

Walls and Floor for Master Bathroom.

Walls and Floor for Common Bathroom

Master Bathroom tiles on display

For the kitchen floor if we decides to overlay

Floors tiles for the 3 bedrooms

Another one for the Bedrooms