I think i complained too much for the past week. Haha. But the actual fact is i DO love my house. Just need to get the few pending items rectified - my cement screed kitchen floor, kitchen cabinet doors, wardrobe sliding doors and my platform bed!

Acrtually I already can visualise how it will look after all the furnitures and decors are in! *wohoo*

Pendant light in balcony. am getting a red modern lounge chair to match it!


Drop lights at dining area.


A click on the switch and you can have it in blue LED lights!
*kind of ah beng actually*


Matches perfectly with the glass panel at the foyer and my glass dining table! *table arriving tmr!*


Full length mirror installed in MBR toilet! See my BIGGG toilet now!!


Photoshoot in 2 weeks time. After much frustration and trouble dealing with the inhuman boss, i managed to get my leave approved. Now I need to get down and decide where to go for the outdoor shoot!

Arco Floor Lamp
Suits the living room nicely coz we don't have any centre lighting point for our living area.


Ball Chair by Eero Aarnio. I'll be sooo happy if i can have this for my balcony. But i doubt so for its price tag...

MAGIS Voido Rocking Chair


Bourgie Table Lamp by Kartell
I want this at my bed side!!



Read in the magazine that this 'PaperFold' chair (the one in yellow) is a prototype designed by the owner, i wonder whether its on sale anywhere? A red one will be great for our balcony too...

Forgot to mention one more thing that i found today.

My partition-board-lookalike wardrobe doors.... are warped! And all 3 pieces are warped!! the only reason i can think of is that my contractor is giving us inferior materials. Now i'm suspecting the many other items in my house might also be inferior! *urgh* I'm gonna make sure he tears them down and give me new ones.

Talking about this reminds me of my ventilation fan in the toilet.

We had asked contractor to help us contact KDK fan for the installation of their ventilation fan with Perspex. KDK has came up with a standard and sleek way of mounting their fans that looks like what is shown below, and i know that it costs ard $500+ to do it. That's also the price that he quoted us for this installation.


The other day when we saw our ventilation fan in our toilet, i was surprise to see that it looks kind of different. With closer examination of it, we came up with the conclusion that its not done by KDK. My contractor has got his workers to do it using a cheapo way so that he can earn the money for himself. Actually i do not have any issue about that. As long as the end product looks decent (it does look alright from the inside, but not from the outside of my house, which doesn't bother me), i'm fine with him doing it himself. But.... $500+ will not be the price i'll pay for it! When i agree on the $500+, i'm expecting the kind of workmanship i see at KDK. And he thought his work can pass off with the same price tag?? Fat Hope!

Another point that we're going to use to bargain with him at the end of the reno!

Just when i was feeling super happy about the pretty lights i managed to find for my dining and balcony area on monday... Today came another issue!!

I concluded that my contractor has got no aesthetic sense! I should have knew it when he suggested tat obiang curved platform design the previous time! We're starting to feel that we've made a wrong choice in choosing him.

#1: Saw our platform bed in the MBR. Another disappointment. *Nightmare*



Anyone seen platforms with such thick and ugly blindings before? NEVER! (at least for me.) I never imagine anyone could do up such an ugly platform. Somemore blindings and the laminate colors not matching one! *faint* This is an F9 on my scoreboard. They are gonna do something abt it. I'm NOT going to accept it. Worst come to worst i'll ask them to do a carpet over the whole thing.

#2:

My glass display shelve in the MBR. Isn't it common sense to make the base white? Have u seen a shelve that has the base of a difference color compared to the rest of it? *shakes head*

#3:

View of my MBR. Actually, there' nothing too wrong with anything, but i thought that the handle of the frosted glass door is kind of obiang. Bad taste! I had expected more modern looking ones. And i seriously think they did it to save cost.

The good things:

1) The polished marble floor is looking good. Shiny shine!


my favourite part of the whole house for the time being. My toilets!!

2) Common toilet: pipe color rectified! And I REALLY love the black ceiling.






3) MBR toilet. Everything up except mirror.
See my pretty black glass bowl and granite vanity top!






These pics don't do justice to my lovely toilets. They look much nicer in real life. the only problem with them is they're so cramped that i can't really take much decent pics of them!


4) New bedroom doors! Modern and nice!


5) Glass panel at foyer up! Nice!


6) Sliding glass door in kitchen. i like glass-y stuffs~

We were back on friday night! Had a good spiritual retreat and break at Port Dickson. Laksa and Chendol was superb at Melaka! Can't really wait to see the updates in our house so we went down immediately the next morning.

Glossy black kitchen cabinets:
Looks sleek and nice from the photos. but in actual fact, the workmanship was far from good. Dear has a major issue with the laminates as they look wavy and ripple-ish from far when light shines on them. Can also see 'dimples' here and there which i seriously think its due to their poor workmanship. Contractor keep trying to tell us that that's the original condition of the laminate. *liar* I can accept the slight wavy-ness to be the way the laminate is, but definately not the 'dimples'. Comparatively to that, my hood seem to be a small issue now.

Ledge for extra table space as well as to hide the washing machine underneath


Shoe cabinet. Also in gloss. Same wavy ripple-ish problem! *urgh*


MBR wardrobe sliding doors. Also in gloss! Same problem!! *faints* And the worst thing is they looked like some huge boring-looking partition board! Made me very unhappy! The big pieces of laminate here make the faults even more obvious compared to the shoe cabinet and kitchen cabinet doors.


I was so unhappy with it that i kept scrutinizing it. and see what i found:


A chip on the laminate! Confirmed bad workmanship! On top of that there were also dimples, scratches and stains on them. REJECT!!!!

These glossy laminates became the BIG major issue for us now, as we really can't stand the low-quality look of it. The dear even contemplate on changing the whole batch of them to a much better and expensive laminate so as to get rid of the ripples. As for me, i'm trying hard to think of ways to jazz up that dumb partition-board-lookalike wardrobe doors. The bedhead was disappointing too. the fabric we chose was too brown! i wanted something more greyish/black as tat's the color theme i want in my MBR. i don't like brown!!

Comparing color of bedhead to my grey wall.

.
.
.
.
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*sigh.....*




Okie... on to the more positive areas.

Lights up! Makes significant difference to the whole feel of the house!

Dining area. Havn't buy our drop-down light yet!


Living area. warm and cozy!


Wall colors looking good!


MBR L-box. Pretty!


So few positive things! Not enough to relieve us from the problems! =(

Just had the most stressful weekend since the start of my reno. Issues are starting to pop up. Next week will be the major week as 90% of my reno will be done by then. The BEST thing is that... we'll be out of town. The bad part is tat we won't be there to monitor the work, but the good part is that we get a break away from it. (which i seriously need! I've been having dreams of my house and reno for a few nights in a row coz that's basically the thing thats on my mind all day. especially with some of the existing screw-ups that you're going to read below.)

Based on that and my contractor's working ( bad) habits, we were cracking our heads to think of things we need to ask and verify with him before we're gone, so tat he follows exactly what we want him to do. I really hope i won't get a shock when i return the following week.

Unfinished kitchen cabinets:

Major screw-up:
Because of the rush of buying our hood and hob (as mentioned in previous post), didn't realise we got a hood that's more bulky than other normal hoods. *CRY x 1000* It's like 1 inch thicker than other hoods and also sticks out of the cabinet more! Made me SUPER SAD!!! #_# There goes my sleek looking kitchen! With a clumsy-looking bulky hood!! And i'm gonna put the blame on my contractor. All his fault!

Foyer box-up for glass panel:

Wrong laminates chosen. We op for a particular matt white laminate for the side of this panel so as to blend it into rest of the wall. But we realise that the white we chose was slightly grey and doesn't look good. *SAD* Might have to change the whole thing to gloss white laminate.


MBR wardrobe setup.

Looking good... reason being i'm the one that sort of 'designed' it. He basically just follow my drawing, which i recon that's actually the only way to avoid any screw-ups.

My drawing (edited using reference from closet design):


TV console: also designed by me. After warnings from the dear, i didn't dare to do a more complicated one coz i forsee they're going to ruin the whole thing!


False ceilings all done up. Can't wait for lights to be installed!
Dining area:

Living area:

MBR:


Tat's all for the house before we go on our short break. I'll be praying hard for nothing to go wrong!

False ceilings up!



Went to Audio House to get our washing machine and refridgerator. Got this Slim LG front-load WM at $499 and Samsung fridge at $1049. Our house is filled with Korean-branded appliances!!



Our trip to audio house left us with more complains about my contractor! When we were there, we realised that their hoods and hobs were nicer and cheaper than those we bought! Contractor kept bugging us about the hood and the hob (3 times in one single day). In the end we were sort of being rushed into buying them quickly and didn't have the time to slowly shop ard to compare prices.

I forsee even more to come! *cry*

Another problem with my contractor: he never gives u prior notice in doing things and does things his own way without consulting you, unless u ask him about it. Because of him, we had to rush to buy our toilet accessories and aircon very last min. This is getting more and more stressful...

Photo updates:

Pleasant surprise to see that the toilet fittings were installed! fast! We thought that the basin and tap looks really simple and cute, just the way we want it.


WC in MBR toilet. Contractor helped us to conseal the hot and cold water piping in this toilet. No exposed water pipes here! *jumps!*


Unfinished shoe cabinet. th wall was hacked off previously to give room for the cabinet. The back will be covered with laminate that matches the kitchen wall color.


Kitchen cement screeds done. Somehow we like the way the walls look in this grey-ish tone. So we decided that we will have them painted grey instead of white!


Structure of platforms up!
Balcony:


MBR:


Lighting points done. next up would be the false ceilings!