Most people find renovating their house a headache, I find renovating MY HOUSE a Joyful Experience!
*Huge Grin*
Though there were some hiccups here and there, it was EXCITING to see how "some" things can STILL be achieved using alternative methods. Well, if you do not know what I am talking about, go read my previous post "Progress of New House - Update 1".
When we planned to sell our house, we had already done our budgeting. Money set aside for renovation, for air-con, for a few furniture, for toilet accessories, for lighting etc
We were extremely happy with the quotation given by our contractor, which gave us a buffer from our renovation budget and we used this buffer on tiles. Choosing tiles that were above the quoted price.
If you still remember the tiles which we decided last month, read post "Renovation Company Confirmed" There had been changes.
We were not completely satisfied with the floor tiles of the living room and the 3 bedrooms, so we asked if we could choose from another tile supplier (SBH). We had been so kiasu, that we were shopping for tiles even before our first HDB appointment, which was 4 months ago! *laugh*
Back then, we had already decided on what tiles we wanted, but we could not find those tiles in the tile supplier (HFR) showroom, recommended by our contractor, so we simply chose the 'closest' to our original choice.
After going back home with the tiles samples from HFR, we started to discuss "The tiles will be with us for as long as we stay in the house. Do we want to make do with second choice for years? Or should we go for what we really want?" The answer was obvious.
So we called up our contractor and told them that we want to take from our preferred tile supplier (SBH) and they said "Ok!"
Yeah!
*clap clap clap*
We went down the next day and ended up choosing some from each tile supplier.
Living Room, 3 Bedrooms and Storeroom floor tiles from SBH
Toilet floor tiles from SBH
Toilet wall tiles from HFR
Kitchen floor tiles from HFR
If you noticed, we did NOT choose any kitchen WALL tiles.
That was because we did NOT want to have any wall tiles at all.
However, all these changed when the contractor went up to our house for the first time on 12th October 2012 and broke the 'bad' news to us, read "Progress of New House - Update 1".
We had NO other BETTER choice than to use wall tiles to 'hide' the crack on the wall.
We had thought of building a cabinet, but it makes no sense as it would be a FULL LENGTH cabinet, covering the rubbish chute opening.
I do not want that! I had enough of bending down and popping my head under the cabinet for almost 30 years just to throw rubbish into the chute, in my old house.
This time, I want to have easy access to my rubbish chute. No more bending over and No more opening of cabinet doors just to reach the chute opening. BIG X to that!
Furthermore, it would become a hindrance whenever I need to hang clothes.I can foresee my bamboo hitting the cabinet every time I shove the bamboo up.
Then we discuss about the chance of it cracking again and hubby came out with a solution.
Use MOSAIC to hide!
So that when the crack do reappear, we just need to change a SMALL piece of mosaic along the crack line, instead of changing the entire piece of rectangular tile.
Brilliant Idea!
*clap clap clap*
And so we went back to HFR, which has more range of mosaic tiles compared to SBH, to make our selection of mosaic tiles and Kitchen wall tiles.
The decision was HARD!
Mosaic tiles itself are already more expensive than normal tiles and to lay mosaic tiles, there are also additional 'laying' costs!
The ones that we liked very much, were WAY OVER our budget.
The ones that we don't were within our budget, but we do not want to face something that we don't like every single day.
Thus, in the end, we chose a design that we liked (not very much) and matches our kitchen colour theme; yet only a LITTLE over our budget.
So we thought tiles are FINALLY CONFIRMED!
No more changes!
But we were wrong!
*faint*
Just two weeks ago, I took out our supposedly-confirmed tiles samples and laid them on the floor to admire.
I realised that the Living room + bedroom + storeroom tiles were grey!
Noooooooooooooo!
We wanted white!!!
We saw that it was white at the showroom!
How did it turn grey?!??!
Once again, we went back to SBH with the sample and OMG! We found out that the lighting in the showroom and the way the tiles were displayed made the difference!
The tile which we chose were displayed vertically and it was under a yellowish spot light.
The moment we put the tile down on the floor and under a white spot light, it was greyish indeed!
After many minutes of pacing up and down the showroom.
We decided on a tile that has tiny sparkles on it.
If without any light shining on it, it has lots of pokka dots.
But when light shines on it, those pokka dots would glitter.
We were happy!
Yeah!
*clap clap clap*
Then last Wednesday 24th October we met up with the contractor at the void deck of our new house. They were there to distribute this slip of paper to my soon-to-be-neighbours :
My oh my!
Another problem arose with our selection of tiles.
*SUPER DUPER FAINT*
We handed our tile samples to our contractor, who has the same name as my hubby, just different spelling.
He said that the latest living room tile which we chose (that glitters) CANNOT USE ACID to wash, something which the contractors MUST DO before they hand over the house to us after the renovation is complete.
Yes, we did see the sign "No Acid" written on the tile when we were at the showroom, but we did not know that the impact would be this great.
My contractor told us that without using acid to wash all the tiles, the 'droplets' of cement that falls on the tiles during the laying of tiles process, would NEVER be washed off, so it is a MUST to wash with acid. He continued to say that after acid wash, this particular tile will lose at least 70% of its glitters and will appear BLURISH!!!!
OH NO!!!!
*CRY*
Hacking will start in less than 5 days time and our tiles need to be changed!
What madness!
Thank goodness my hubby is in the property line whereby he is in control of his time.
We rushed down and made the change that very day!
This time, we were REALLY SCRATCHING OUR HEADS!
What should we choose now?!
Spending more than 20mins pacing up and down again in the showroom, with no idea at all!
Then a very funny thing happened.
When you are so lost and you just hope for a miracle to happen, it HAPPENED!
*laugh*
This was our 5th time at SBH and yet, we had NEVER noticed this section of tiles before!!!
They are hidden in drawers.
We need to pull each drawer out in order to see the tiles.
And lo and behold, we FOUND OUR WHITE TILE, lying there waiting for us!!!!
Not completely white though, it has some lines on it.
It was also Matt surface!
Our almost perfect tile! (almost perfect cos it was slightly rougher than we wished)
Matt surface = No obvious footprints from our sweaty soles
Matt surface = Scratches will be less visible
The MOST IMPORTANT thing is it did NOT SAY "NO ACID"!!!
Thank goodness!
The 'Glittering' tiles were only reserved and not paid yet.
So we could still make the change!
*phew*
Yeah!!!!
This time is for REAL!
REAL YEAH!!!!
*clap clap clap*
As we had a buffer from the renovation quotation, we could use that allowance on the "alternative method" to level the small kitchen floor area that we needed to (mentioned in the previous post), this "alternative method" comes with a bigger price tag than Polyfoam, which was banned by HDB this year 24th September.
Well, did we exceed our TOTAL budget?
Its still too early to tell because many of the toilet accessories and lighting were way below our budget.
So currently, some above and some below our budget.
Only when everything is done in late December, then I would know if our TOTAL budget had been exceeded.
Till then,
I am looking forward to hear the sound of drilling and hacking in my new house.....
Whoo-hoo!!!!
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