Managing expectations

Our home should be done by the end of this week. Besides the ceremonial high that culminates into the changing of our door lock (we’re currently using the communal one from the renovator for easy sub-contractor access), the husband and I have learnt an important life lesson – one that taught us to think long and hard about what we really wanted for our home… and achieving the wishlist without burning any bridges or pissing anyone off too much.

Here’s a chronological order of reno-work progress for our home, since we first began on 28 February, exactly a month ago from today:

Week 1 (28 Feb – 4 Mar) – Air-conditioning, false ceiling, electrical work, kerbs (kitchen, service yard, bathrooms)

Week 2 (5 – 11 Mar) – Painting, carpentry (kitchen cabinets, wardrobe, shoe cabinet, TV console, bathroom cabinet), lighting, false ceiling touch-ups

Week 3 (12 – 18 Mar) – Touch-up painting, changing of kitchen cabinet and shoe cabinet doors, glass work (shower screen, shower cubicle, kitchen backsplash)

Week 4 (19 – 25 Mar) – More touch-up painting, wallpaper, granite countertop

Week 5 (26 Mar – 1 Apr) – Changing of TV console laminate, checking itsy bitsy scratch on wallpaper

You can see from the italicised portions that we are perfectionists. I knew I was fussy about aesthetics but I didn’t know I was that neurotic about it – getting all whiney about imperfections in carpentry work, rehearsing with the husband to make sure he sounds no-nonsense enough to bulldoze our requests through, having sleepless nights worrying how the home will look like. That being said, I was mildly surprised that the husband is quite a fussy person too. He might have been infected by my fussy-bug. It’s not impossible, considering how I’ve been very vocal about my complaints over the past month.

What we have learnt, as owners of our first home, renovating (and paying for) our very own place for the first time, is that what sets a good renovator apart from a bad one is his ability to induce CHANGE. Change in 2 ways – in transforming your home, and making changes to the design and material without additional charges. Having worked with suppliers in my line of work, though none of them were from the construction industry, I know how the ability to throw your weight around and move people is… earnt. It’s based on rapport and the amount of respect the supplier has for you. There are good suppliers and there are bad ones. And there are good suppliers who are better to some over others. The ability to have things sent back and redone is something that we should expect, but not take for granted in a good renovator. I’d been duly warned by a colleague that nothing is perfect – expect a certain degree of variance between what you want and what you get. What’s important is having a renovator that works with you to solve an issue, regardless of the magnitude.

The husband and I had a disagreement with the renovator over our living room laminates. In the end, we agreed to disagree. But he was relenting enough to have the laminate changed, in hope that the carpenters will do a slightly better job this time. I can’t say there wasn’t a tinge of unhappiness when we had that discussion – I was fuming. But the net outcome of that disagreement was positive. If the new laminates arrives with the so-called inherent imperfections of glossy laminates, at least I can say, we’ve tried our best. That’s all that matters, right? (Let’s pray that the laminates will turn out fine.)

I’d taken a number of work-in-progress photos of our new place but am now hesitant to share it online. Simply because the good people who bother to read my blog are probably those who’ll end up being invited to our housewarming party.  Don’t want to kill the surprise!

I promise I’ll post pictures of the new place AFTER our housewarming party. Hopefully it remains in pristine condition.

Before then. PLEASE PRAY THAT MY LAMINATES TURN OUT FINE OHKAY?

False ceilings

The package from our renovator comprised, among other things, an L-box false ceiling that would hold downlights (we intended to have 8-10 of these lights in the living room alone). However, when my renovator went to our place for measurements and light planning, it suddenly struck me that I’d inevitably OD on downlights (image below) since I knew very clearly I wanted a feature light in the living area (before the TV console) and dining lights (above the dining table). I couldn’t figure where to position the downlights in a balanced manner. Ideally, downlights should not be placed in tangent with your other ceiling lights. because, well, that pretty much kills the glowing effect of each light source. My living area is tiny and if I were to adhere strictly to the ‘no tangent’ rule while trying to make sure that the downlights are equally spaced, I’d end up with far too many downlights. Total overkill that’s too clinical.

How downlights look like. They’re very very pretty too, what my renovator called the “condominium-style” lighting (which basically means it looks classy… and expensive), but didn’t work for us.

Photo from lighting-store.com.au

So we decided to have cove lights. We were required to do a S$200 top-up as false ceilings for cove lights, apparently, are more work than standard L-boxes. And we thought, why not? If I were to go with downlights, each downlight holder (without bulb) costs around S$30. 10 X S$30 = S$300. And having downlights means I will have to pay for wiring works and installation for each outlet. Cove lights (which runs in horizontal strips) cost less in terms of wiring and installation and they essentially only require 1 point for each side of the wall you wish to illuminate. Some people frame their ceilings with cove lights on all 4 sides of the room, but I preferred only having them along the 2 sides of the hall so that nothing clashes with my pendant lamp in the living. I’m sure the T5s cost more than normal energy saving light bulbs for the downlights but not enough to offset all the savings I’d enjoy with cove lights. PLUS, I love how subtle cove lights look.

Cove lights!

The Wiki definition:

Cove lighting is a form of indirect lighting built into ledges, recesses, or valences in a ceiling or high on the walls of a room. It directs light up towards the ceiling and down adjacent walls ^[1]. It may be used as primary lighting, or for aesthetic accent, especially to highlight decorative ceilings. Cove lighting is valued because it hides the fixtures, and because it provides a very even, warm light.

Some sample photos pulled off the net so you get the idea.

Cove lights framing the ceiling centrepiece. Photo from vermontpassive.com

Cove lights on 2 sides. Photo from lightsandlights.com

So… here’s a photo of our false ceiling, all ready for the T5s! Our renovator created a recess in the false ceiling for our air-conditioning unit (on the right of the photo). How nifty is that! Btw, the area under the aircon was… plastered too with what they call a ‘box-up’.

Can’t wait to take more photos this weekend! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to capture all the wall colours accurately with my iPhone but I will try!

Week 1

A week has passed since renovation work first started at my new place. Here’s what we’ve achieved (with the help of our renovator) in 4 working days (work started on Tue).

1) Air-con fully installed

2) Electrical re-wiring completed

3) False ceiling for cove lights/ downlights/ air-con trunk concealment completed

4) Kitchen and bathroom kerbs completed

5) Wall paint – 70% completed

What’s on this week?

1) Completion of wall painting

2) Installation of lights and bathroom fixtures

3) Very possibly, installation of kitchen cabinets, built-in show cabinet, TV console and bedroom wardrobe

4) Very possibly, installation of sink, hood, hob and oven

Things needed to be done…

1) Plumbing and installation of water heater

2) Installation of bedroom wallpaper

3) Touching-up of wall paint, etc.

Dates to note:

31 March – Curtain measurement

7 April – Arrival of bedframe, mattress, sofa, dining table, coffee table, dining chairs, bedside table, footstool.

We will most probably be cleaning up and assembling our IKEA purchases while waiting for all this to happen. Right now, I’m having the ‘blinds or curtains’, ‘silver or beige’ window treatment dilemma. Will post pictures when more is completed (right now, the work done is hardly visual).

Godspeed!