It has been a very busy week and full of decision makings as we’re gearing towards our home renovation now. Our defect rectification has finally completed after two months, so we’re so glad to close that chapter and move on. I’ll share in another post on the summary of our defect rectification – what have been rectified to our satisfaction, what have been write-off, and important lessons learnt in the process.
Last week, we met with our ID and their appointed electrician a few times to finalize our electrical works, paint colours and materials selection. I’ll start off with electrical works.
Electrical Works
We’ve decided to engage the electrician recommended by our ID, without going around comparing the prices. Reasons: 1) we trust our ID’s recommendation, 2) he can co-ordinate with his electrician on the schedule and electrical issues (easier for us), and 3) they’ve worked together in many past projects.
The electrical points, lightings and ceiling fans’ positions
We met the electrician, Lester, and spent 2 hours going through the electrical lay-out and lighting of our home (our ID was present too). At first, I thought it was a relatively simple task. But it turned out to be a rather serious job. All of us put in a lot of efforts and thoughts into planning the electrical points, switches and lightings to prevent inconvenience in the future. Living in a house with awfully positioned electrical points and lightings can be a painful experience.
We’ve a lot of lightings in our home – cove lights in living hall and master bedroom, LED downlights in living hall and master bedroom, and lighting on bedheads, TV feature wall and dining feature wall. We also added additional switches and double sockets.
The overall cost comes up to $3.3K which includes wiring for 36 lighting points, 6 double sockets, data point and SCV point, installation for 56 lights and 4 ceiling fans, and change of two-way switches.
Personally, I find that Lester is a very experienced guy. He ensures that every corner of our home has sufficient lighting (without overdoing it unnecessary), and all locations of switches are put to our convenience. We’re pretty confident that he can deliver a good job for us. His contact details are listed below.
Paint Colours
In this meeting (they called it “Detailing”), we spent 4 long hours going through every single details of our home renovation, from paint colours to laminate selection and carpentry measurement.
We will be using Nippon Odour-less Premium All-in-1 paint. V and I are not very much into bold colours, so we prefer neutral colours with a lot of whites. Ultimately, we want a calming and relaxing ambience for our home.
Picture Credit: Nippon Paint
These are the colours and laminates that we’ve selected (mainly proposed by our ID):
Living Hall: [Paint] Lily White 1137 for walls and Whisper Grey 5009 for ceiling, [Laminate] Lamitak High Gloss Pearl and Karla Tivoli Elm for TV Feature Wall
Master Bedroom: [Paint] Lily White 1137 + Smoky 1112 for walls and Whisper Grey 5009 for ceiling, [Laminate] Lamitak Brandolini Viola Noce and Amerie Viola Noce
Bedroom 2 (Edison’s room): [Paint] Latte 1114, [Laminate] Lamitak High Gloss Pearl and Mocha for cabinet and Nappa Chocolatier for Bed
Laminate and Mirror Selection
Paint colours are relatively easy to choose, but laminate is a completely different subject. We went through room by room and item by item to make sure that the laminate matches the paint colours and window blinds that we’ve ordered.
Conventional clear mirror vs bronze-tinted mirror
For the mirror feature wall in our dining area, we’ve a hard time deciding between bronze-tinted and conventional clear mirror. Bronze-tinted mirror gives a relaxed ambience and soften the reflections, but it looks dark at night. The conventional clear mirror, on the other hand, makes our hall looks bigger and brighter. At the end, we chose the latter.
Carpentry Measurement
Last step was to finalize the carpentry measurement. Our ID showed us the 2D drawing of every piece of carpentry, it was a mind-blowing experience! Things to put into considerations: 1) dimensions of the carpentry items, 2) height and depth of the shelves, 3) door openings, and 4) dimensions of the walkways.
Even dimensions of our TV and sound systems, as well as mattress’s heights are taken into considerations for our TV feature wall and built-in bedframes with storage.
We had another round of discussion at our unit so that our ID can show us the actual dimensions of the carpentry (he drew them on the walls). We’ve a clearer picture of how the carpentry will looks like, and most importantly, we’re comfortable with the size of the carpentry and walkways after installation.
Yesterday, the workers came to lay protection sheets. I was completely amazed with their works. The first layer is a plastic sheet to prevent moisture, followed by thick cardboards on the floor, kitchen cabinets, worktop and backsplash, and even doors and door knobs!
On a happy note, electrical works are starting today. 🙂
