DAY 18

(From left): Meg's, Emma's and part of the living rooms

As usual, I dropped by the place this morning en route home after dropping the girls off at school. I sometimes go there twice a day, sometimes once, and sometimes I don't go at all if I don't have time. Our usual routine is to go after work, by which time night has fallen and we view the place with the help of the mobile phone light, and more recently, a pretty bright LED torch that MJ bought. 
I did not manage to go to the flat yesterday because of the viewing and when I stepped in this morning, it looked like nothing much had been done, as it looked the way it did when I visited on Sunday morning. 
I thought it odd because they usually accomplish quite a bit daily. I saw that they had installed the rubbish chute hopper which was a relief because the wide gaping hole made me uncomfortable as it was a 'wide-open-door' for giant cockroaches who've shocked us on several occasions when they suddenly scuttle in front of us in the dark. 
I looked around further and when I looked up, I saw that they had installed all the brackets that would hold the false ceiling in all three bedrooms, the study and kitchen. They'd also installed the pockets for the doors in the study and between Meg's and Em's rooms (minus the doors) so all in all, they achieved quite a bit yesterday. 
I suppose they will continue with the living room today.  

The pocket part of the pocket door without the door has been erected at one end of the study.

Side view showing the pocket covered up with a piece of metal. They will remove that when they install the door.

View from Meg's room showing the second pocket door and the grid support brackets that will hold up the false ceiling.

Another view showing the main door to the room (right) and the pocket door between the two rooms.

The OCD in me wants to paint this awful mark left by the previous light fixture even though it's going to be hidden by the false ceiling.

Close up detail of how the brackets are fixed to the ceiling...interesting...

This pocket door comes as a complete system so I hope that the sliding mechanism will be smooth and problem free years down the road.

Brackets also up in the master bedroom...

... and the study. We orginally did not want a false ceiling in the study to save costs but after the wall between the study and balcony (in the background), the contractors realised that the ceiling heights in the two spaces were different. The study ceiling is a few inches higher than that of the balcony. My IDs suggested flushing the two ceilings so that my suspended ceiling strip lighting in the study would look nice against a flushed ceiling. We agreed but of course that meant the re-addition of the cost for that.

On the right is the balcony ceiling and the left, the study room ceiling. We've decided to level both up.

The giant circle has been marked. This will be the circular cove (or soffit) for the 60-inch Haiku fan that we will get. We did not want this feature but had no choice because our original ceiling is already low and with the false ceiling, it will be even lower. With this solution, the fan can still hang from the concrete ceiling (also making it more secure) rather than from the false one. The result is a circular 'hole' to accommodate the fan.

This contraption has been fixed to the top of a wall in the living room. It looks like a measuring tape but I'm not sure.

The kitchen.

I've mixed feelings about having our own rubbish chute within the house. We've lived without one for so many years! It's convenient to have one inside the unit but it's more hygienic to have it outside the house. Well no choice here...

It doesn't look like there's any change in the bathroom.