DAY 50 - Part 1

There was no work done yesterday, Wednesday, so I didn't post anything. We're nearing the end of renovation works and I'm surprised that they could afford to break for one day. At this rate, they are not going to complete by mid-November. As is our ritual, we went to the apt at around 10pm plus, after work. It's so difficult to leave the office earlier. There's work to be done and I can barely finish it. So the shoe cabinet at the entrance of the house has been installed. I feel as if the floor space of the house is creeping inwards inch by inch. There's so much built up furniture that has encroached the once humongous space that we are now left with very little. Sigh. 
Anyway, the outstanding (as in not yet finished, but yes, they've been pretty good too) work that's yet to be done are:-

01. Finishing up the long cantilevered table at the study
02. Installation of the kitchen sink and the standing cooker
03. All the bathroom fittings, the doors to the shoe cabinet and TV console
04. Three pendant lights for the dining table in the living room
05. To straighten all door handles
06. Finishing up the wardrobes and rectifying the oversights
07. Installation of the Ring video doorbell
08. Installation of the glass in the glass showcase
09. Installation of the glass doors in the study and kitchen
10. Connecting all the switches and sockets
11. Chase of a 2-gang power socket under the sofa
12. Paint the tiles outside the living and study windows
13. Replace the door magnet door closers
14. Replace bulbs in the kids' bedrooms and kitchen to brighter ones
15. Install clothes pole hanger
16. Install AO Smith digital thermometer
17. Install the washbasins in both bathrooms

And the list grows longer. Separately, I still have to get our Haiku fan installed, and arrange for the installation of the digital locks once the works are done. Oh and we also have the roller blinds to be installed at the end.

The shoe cabinet and niche at the entrance next to the main door.

The casing or frame for the door at the study room entrance.

A frame at the entrance next to the kitchen counter. 

Also the kitchen door frame.

The cantilevered long desk with no legs. It's as long as the study room, end to end.

View from the other side of the room.

All's good now with the glass display cabinet. The drop has been fixed, and the cupboards on top are back up.

Not sure where this piece is going. We tried figuring it out but had no idea. Most of the major pieces are already up and we can't imagine where this will go...

The cupboards are all up but there were some issues. The leftmost door of Em's wardrobe cannot be fully opened because the air conditioning duct is blocking it. The steel gate of the front door is very difficult to close from the outside and there are a few other issues. Some problems have been fixed, or are in the process of being fixed. I still haven't got the confirmation if the handover date is still in mid-Nov or not. The bathroom fittings haven't been installed yet and we just went to see the guy who makes roller blinds. We spent an hour with him looking through the samples he brought along and learnt that there are three types of blinds: The perforated type which offers no privacy, the dimmed out blinds that offer privacy and lets light in at the same time, and there's the blackout blinds that is opague and keeps the light out. We expected the blinds to cost abt $2k but it was more than $2.5k so that's yet another additional cost. We made a total of 10 roller blinds throughout the house, mixing the dimmed out and blackout versions. Shudder. It's roling rolling rolling, the money, that is, rolling out of my pocket! 😓

Emma's wardrobe. See the aircon trunking on the top left...

The left door can't be fully opened because the trunking is blocking it.

A closer up view.

Since the door can't be opened fully, the drawers below suffer the same fate.

No problem with Meg's wardrobe.

Her desk looks good too.

Emma's desk.

The other issue is with the glass display cabinet. The top of it should be flushed and I'm not sure why the top right panel is protruding down. 

A closer look at what I mean.

Then the pocket door between the girls' rooms doesn't slide back into its pocket easily. This is the reason. The lock is probably not aligned well. It can't turn either.

No problem with this handle. Glad they've taped it up so that it doesn't hit the wardrobe door whenever the door is opened. They will install a doorstopper soon, hopefully.

I don't mean to be too "eem cheem" but the fact that the door handles are not straight does bother me. I will raise it with the contractor. Almost all of them are like this so I'm inclined to think that "it's like that" but the one in the bathroom isn't like that so I think it's a matter of straightening it. Since it bothers me, I shall raise it.

Our snack table for the workers.

This is what I saw in the morning...

In the night when it became this. Not sure why they removed the front cover of the TV console. Please ignore the different colours in both pictures. The pix above was shot under natural light and the bottom one was shot under tungsten lighting.

The protrusion or drop had also been rectified. They took a few days to fix this. The first pix above was shot a few days ago.

DAY 48

It's quite draining to go to the house every day, mostly twice a day. But I feel it's worth the effort because potential problems or mistakes can be identified and rectified early. MJ and I are particular, but I don't think we are overly so. It's natural to want mistakes to be fixed and so far, our IDs and contractor have been very obliging and responsive. 

We asked for power points inside the cupboards because we want to install the heat rod in all of them to keep our books and stuff moisture free. This is especially important for books to keep them mould free as well.

I think the colour combination turned out alright. 

The cupboards now have doors!

The grey kitchen colours seen in daylight.

(L-R): Kitchen sink area, fridge area and counter area.

Em's desk is a good size. We almost didn't have this built due to lack of funds but decided that this is important for the kids.

Meg's desk.

Another view of Em's desk.

This pic is to show the mass of fibre hairs that make up the gypsum board partitions. These partitions are used mainly for the false ceilings and walls.

Half the doors have gone up in Ems' room.

A third for Meg...

A little evening sun hits the parquet floor and the tiles in the living room. The brown in the flooring will eventually fade over time.

Their signature TV console, with little horizontal slots to allow the invisible remote control signals to cross and communicate.

DAY 47

The bedroom wardrobes have been erected, the cupboards at the kitchen counter too. I've lost track of what work is done each day. One just has to compare the before and after photos for an idea. I'll let the photos do the talking.

Shelves for the cupboards.

Wardrobe in Emma's room.

Wardrobe in Meg's room.

The master bedroom wardrobe.

Mr Inspector at work.

The opening for our Blanco sink.

They'd made a rectangular plate that can be lifted to access the floor trap. The workmanship for this was truly professional and neat. Even MJ was impressed.

The place is getting messy again...

I think by now you will be 'tired' of this same view...