DAY 42 - And Then There Was Light...

Our contractor told me he had fixed and connected the kids' bedroom lights and asked us to go have a look at it. So after work last night, MJ and I went down. Our IDs had the two rooms installed with cool white (6500K) and warm white (4000K) bulbs so that we could see the difference between the two in the actual environment. We were already leaning toward cool white because that's the best type of light for reading, and we wanted this especially in the kids room where they need bright and white light to read and study. Seeing it for ourselves sealed our decision (sorry Siu!). But we felt that the four lights in each room wasn't enough. It isn't bright enough. So we are going to up the wattage to the maximum that the lights can accommodate. If that still isn't enough or if the current wattage is already at its maximum, then we will change the lights. These are brand new LED bulbs but the brightness just isn't enough for the kids. So this period is when the lights are being installed. I dropped off the Philips Hue lights for the bedroom and living room yesterday morning and they were all installed by day's end yesterday. MJ and I also found some time to purchase the ZENcelo flat switches that I've always wanted from Chan Huat. The switches were of course much more expensive than the regular ones but I really wanted to have these ones. Chan Huat gave me a 20% discount since I bought over $200 worth. I believe the switches will be installed today. 

ZENcelo switches by Schneider Electric. The buttons are flat and flushed with the switch plate. I'll post some pix after it's up.

The kitchen counter plinth has somewhat become the 'drop off' point for all our smaller fittings. 

The warm white is still too tungsten for us, even if it does exude a 'mood' atmosphere.

For practical purposes, we've decided to go with the cool white, similar to fluorescent light which we are so used to. The room, however, looks a tad too dim for our liking.  

This was how the contractor indicated to us the switch to turn on the bedroom lights - with a brownish tape. Of course we didn't realise it at first and pulled all the switches before realising that that was his 'marking'.

HDB does not allow the electrical boxes to be concealed so we have no choice but to have the box protruding from the wall... it's so ugly! 😔

These switch boxes have been installed at armpit level, not the regular eye level that we're accustomed to. But we like it. Who says we have to follow the status quo? It actually makes better sense for the kids!

This is the light fixture in the kids' bedrooms. If the wattage cannot be increased, we will have to change all eight of them. Notice that the electrician did not fix the light as marked. This is probably because the reinforcements holding the false ceiling run above the markings so they've got to shift the light location a little. I asked them the other day what happens when they hit the false ceiling brackets and this is what they told me. 

The Philips Hue Aphelion White Ambiance round light. It can swing from 2200K to 6500K so we've got the best of both worlds. White light when we need to read, warm white when we want some mood lighting. My only regret is that we didn't get these for the entire house. That would've been ideal but they're expensive so we thought we'd put them only in the living and our bedroom of course! 😊 We wanted to get more but as mentioned before, we had to wait 1.5 mths for the stock to arrive. It's sold out everywhere. So now it's too late to get them for the kids' rooms and the kitchen.

We've got 11 Hue lights in the living room, and four in the master bedroom. I hope they're bright enough!

The oak veneer has been glued onto all the door frames. 

DAY 40 & 41

It's fittings time. When we dropped in on Sunday, the electricians were there fixing the lights. They tend to do the electric work on Sundays because it's not too noisy. There were two of them and by the end of the day they had fixed the lights in the bathrooms and bedrooms except for the master bedroom which will have the Philips Hue lights. I'd left the hue lights in my office and wish I'd had them ready for them to install on Sunday. When MJ and I went to the apt last night with the intention of bringing the hue lights there, we forgot to take the boxes containing 15 hue lights along so I dropped it off this morning since I was going in to take some daylight photos anyway. When we entered the house last night, it smelled of wood and glue. The workers spent Monday gluing the oak veneer to the door frames. Veneer is a thin piece of wood that is glued onto less expensive wood so that the finish gives the impression of a solid oak wood door but it's actually a poor man's solution to having a nice wood door at half the price (maybe more). The layer of veneer is really thin, about 2mm, so we'll have to be careful not to knock into it or it can get shaved off! This morning I was able to take some photos of the light fittings. The above light fixture is found in the bathrooms. They're warm white in tone and there are three of these in each bathroom. I hope they can withstand the heat and steam from MJ's long, hot showers.

Only two have been installed in the kitchen bathroom. The  last one over the shower area has been marked out on the false ceiling but not yet installed.

Three lights in the master bathroom. The bulbs are in warm white 2700K which is pretty yellowish. 

The four boxes containing 15 Philips Hue lights. These lights are great because you can change their tone on your mobile phone from warm white to cool white, perfect for mood lighting or when we need to read. These lights are so 'hot' selling that it's out of stock worldwide and we had to wait 1.5 mths for the stock to arrive. I wish we had installed the entire house with these lights but they are expensive compared to the regular lights so we hesitated.

Ah... so much better!!! 😄

The veneer strips have to be cut to size and glued. There were some hanging on the door closer. So that's why they kept the old door?

A close up of these very very thin veneer strips, no more than 2mm thick.

They come in long sheets that have to be cut to size to fit whatever it's going to be glued onto.

More strips lying around and the tin of glue that they use.

I used to like the smell of glue and I still do.

The darker strip is the original wood colour of the door frame. The lighter strip is the glued on oak veneer.

A closer up look at the difference between the two. 

The finished doorframe of the storeroom. 

The teak floor skirting has been painting white. I would've been fine leaving it in its original teak form.

What lies beneath.

I've always wondered how the fix the skirting to the wall. This was was being rectified so I finally got to see it. 

Ah...The single unit air-conditioning outlet has finally been sealed and plastered over. Yay!

Electrical trunking and oak veneer line the living room floor at the moment.