Day 5 - Floor-Tiling and Grouting Day

Yesterday, the tilers completed tiling the wall and today, they tiled the floor and applied the grout.

I had requested for grout that does not get washed off even with chemical washing and Dorothy said that it would have to be white grout. Let's hope it stays forever and ever.

I requested for a drop-down instead of a kerb.

Xiao Hei said my master bedroom bathroom floor had height allowance so he agreed to do it. 

I think a drop-down looks much better than a kerb and best of all, it does not take up space like a kerb would.

While the wall and dry area are given the same tile, the darker shower area is tiled with wood tiles. 

They look lovely. 

I did consider tiling the whole floor with wood tiles but decided that it would look busy ie. more tiles and more grooves.

The area that would be boxed up.

We are pleased at how the wall and floor turn out. Let's hope the workmanship is good and the bathrooms won't fall apart upon our use.

Shopping for My Bathrooms

I had gone to 2 shops recommended on Renotalk for my bathrooms' form and function: 

1) GR Link Marketing at 155 Jalan Besar and 

2) Heritage Bathroom Gallery at 718 Geylang Road.

I first went to Heritage to buy the tile-insert floor traps and steel floor traps as it seems to be the only shop that sells tile-insert floor traps. In case anyone is curious, a tile-insert floor trap cost $38 while a steel one cost $18.

You can get your tiler to insert a small square of your floor tile in the floor trap and it would look flushed with your floor.

I had thought that my affinity with Heritage ended at the floor traps as GR Link Marketing was all the rage on Renotalk.

I went down to GR Link Marketing on a Friday night, 7.30pm.

When I was there, the boss, Uncle Benny, and his wife were busy with other customers. Coco and I were left to browse around. 

When Uncle Benny was done with his customers, he told me that he could knock off $50 off the $138 price tags of the basins if I also buy my toilet bowls at his shop.

An Arino Caprio cost $320 while a Baron cost $350 without further discount. 

The next day, I called up Heritage and told her the deal that Uncle Benny could give me, without spelling out the shop name. The lady, Irene, said that they had a better deal: $360 for a Baron w888 toilet bowl and a basin. If you just get the toilet bowl alone, it cost $290.

So I went down and took a look, but honestly, I was quite ready to buy at this shop.

Pardon the poor quality and nil composition of the pictures. They are purely functional - for me to remember what I bought and to tally with the actual products when they are delivered:

Coco liked this triangular basin back at GR Link Marketing. I find it okay, no sharp corners, broad. So this is it for just $10 on top of the $360 package.

Coco and Baby loved this. 

Coco first chose this, and Baby said,"It looked like a water droplet!"

I was hesitant about it as it had an overflow hole. I always find those holes very disgusting as they hide dirt, mould and whatnot in them, but we could not find another one that we really liked, so this is it for the common toilet.

Paid $40 on top of the $360 package to get this.

I had fallen in love with this fountain tap years ago. So there's no question about it.

Actually I had wanted it to be placed at the common bathroom so that guests can play with it, but Coco didn't like the idea. 

$130

Can't believe an idealistic and impractical mummy actually has a practical daughter!

Something I didn't think I had to think about, until she showed me 3, after I told her I wanted 'stainless steel with cover'.

Coco chose this, with a round holder - you see the top of the holder? It's round, right? Another one that looked similar was oval in shape!

$30 for one holder

I had bought 2 bidet sprays and Irene said I had to have this for water adjustment. 

I didn't really want to spent money on this until she said that if I didn't get this, my contractor will give me a $4 cheap and awful looking valve!

$12 for one angle valve

I even had to choose the stopper! 

Coco felt that the cheaper ($12) and smaller one looked 'classier' than the bigger and more expensive one ($18)

Bought a toothbrush holder too as I am sick of seeing the bottom of my mugs dirty.

I also bought a 35-litre Joven storage heater in the hope that my master bedroom bathroom is able to have the piping run from my common bathroom.

In all, I spent $1415.61 at the shop inclusive of GST. 

I am short of a common bathroom tap and a second rainshower system, pending for the plumber's approval.

My Affair with Arino Caprio (not Leonardo De Caprio)

The first thing that anyone would relate a bathroom to would be the throne. And for a very long time, I only had one dream throne in mind, and in my heart:

Arino Caprio

Very nice, right? So cute and lovely.

It has only 1 year's warranty for leakage. A lookalike, Baron w888, has a 10-year warranty behind it.

I told my elder sister about my indecision about the toilet bowls,"The Arino Caprio is very nice, but it only has one-year warranty. The other one (Baron) has 10-year warranty leh ... I don't know which one to get ..."

My all-time practical and ever pragmatic sister went,"You stupid or what? Of course get the 10-year warranty one lah? Who will get the 1-year warranty one?"

Then I showed her a picture of Arino Caprio under a soft lighting.

She immediately changed her expression. With a sheepish smile, she said,"Very nice nor? You can get this one for your master bedroom toilet and put the 10-year warranty one at the common toilet."

See?

Any female human being whom I showed the picture to melted and commented that it looked lovely.

As for William, he doesn't care if it is made of steel. Any thing that allows him to dispose his waste is lovely.

Uncle Benny at GR Link Marketing said that 30% of his customers who bought it called back to complain about the need to flush 2 or 3 times before the waste would disappear. The supplier's advice: don't use too much paper. Immediately, something in me told me: this is not for you.

Despite that, the form of the toilet bowl still had a place in my heart. 

At Heritage, I enquired about Arino Caprio again. The lady, Irene, said that lots of customers complained about the flushing system (again) as it is a one-tick toilet bowl. 'One-tick' would mean it is water-saving, using just 3.5 litres of water to flush out the waste. However, the downside to that would be the weak flush.

When "30% of the customers" complain, the number is still less than half of the total number of customers who bought Arino Caprio, but when "LOTS of customers" complain, it sets me thinking.

Picture of Baron w888 on the internet:

Some people say it looks 'exactly like Arino Caprio', but if you had been to GR Link Marketing, a simple side-by-side comparison will show that Baron w888 is bigger and taller.

In reality, at Heritage, Baron w888 looks like this:

I would say Heritage is clever not to place Arino Caprio beside it as without the comparison, it really does look like the pirated version of Arino Caprio.

With the good deal offered at Heritage - $360 for Baron w888 and a basin, coupled with the friendly service, I sealed the deal with Heritage. 

Day 3 - Tiling of Walls

Yesterday, the Day 2 of the reno was making good the walls. Guess I forgot to take pictures as the bathroom didn't look too much different from how it looked on Day 1.

Day 3:

The colour of the tiles seems a bit pale on camera. It definitely looks beige-er than this.

When I took pictures of it with my S4 and watsapped them to my sisters, they thought it was white!

I like plain and beigey toilets, so I chose something really plain. I had wanted a really beige tile for the common toilet but William, Coco and Dorothy felt that it would darken the toilet.

Did I mention that I almost quarrelled with Dorothy on the first day of reno?

I overheard the tiler Xiao Hei telling Dorothy that they would not tile up the parts that would be boxed up. I felt troubled by this and told my neighbour about it. Her immediate response was: This is 偷工减料 (cutting corners).

So when Dorothy came by the next day, I told her about my neighbour's comment and she appeared to be insulted,"我没有偷工减料！(I am not cutting corners!)"

It was not pleasant as we told each other our expectations: she 'assumed' that I didn't need the boxed up parts to be tiled since they would not be seen; I had expected mine to be done in the same way as most homeowners' as I have read on Renotalk.

I had hoped that William could speak up. He ended up keeping quiet and looking at his handphone!

As if in an answer to my prayer, my neighbour appeared at my doorstep and said that she would like to come and view what the workers were doing.

I immediately told my neighbour that Dorothy really wouldn't tile up the covered parts and my neighbour helped me to 'argue' with Dorothy. Dorothy was unhappy with my neighbour apparently as she said something unpleasant (but what - I forgot) as a retort. My neighbour ignored her and went straight on to take a look at my bathroom.

Dorothy later backed down and said that she would get the tilers to tile up the covered parts, adding,"You had a bad experience with a previous contractor. I don't want you to experience it again."

That I appreciate.

Day 1 - Hacking

Yesterday was the first day of reno.

An indian guy worked alone and hacked the master bedroom bathroom.

At the end of the day, this was the sight that greeted me:

 I am a little displeased that the basic work of protection is half-past-six done:

Parts of the floor were not covered up

We put the bedframe upright, but even the bedframe was not properly wrapped.

It gives me some insight on the quality of their work. Can't help but worried.

Ah Hoi

Dear readers who are searching for a carpenter,

I am afraid I won't be sharing Ah Hoi's contact anymore.

After sharing with a few readers, I have difficulty contacting him when I need some work to be done at my house.

When I finally managed to speak to him, he said that he had too much on his plate and would give the jobs to his friends. However, his friends didn't always deliver quality carpentry and he had to deal with the complaints. Right now, he has so many jobs that he has to reject those who found him 'from the internet'.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Bathroom Reno Journey 2 Starts

I have been sourcing for a contractor for my bathrooms.

The reno should have taken place last year. It was a shame that I didn't get the right person after sourcing for more than 10 contractors and IDs.

This time, I only asked 3 to give me a quotation.

The first one was TilerSeng from Renotalk forum. He runs a renovation company at Design House. His quotation, without my add-ons ie. creating a wall to flush with another and boxing up of pipes already came up to more than $14k. It was very detailed though.

The second one was Calvin from Posh Homes. He had a very good review from a renotalker. She claimed that he was cheaper than contractors, provided very good service and was very prompt in his replies. I called him and asked if he was interested in renovating 2 bathrooms. He said he would get back to me but got a Cayden to follow up on me.

Cayden was slow in his replies. I didn't think he would be the one, but gave him my time anyway.

It didn't pay off. He promised to email me a quotation within 1.5 days, but at least one week has passed and there is still no news from him.

The third one was Dorothy from In-Lookz Home. She was compared to Alan on Renotalk forum. The forummers felt that Dorothy could have been more responsible than Alan. I gave her a call and she seemed nice.

I was surprised that she went to Soon Bee Huat to find me similar but cheaper tiles and placed them at my doorstep. And in that plastic bag, there were similar wood tiles that I had looked at but didn't mention anything about. I felt that she was sincere. I gave her a deposit of $1200 against my better judgment. I think I am having contractor fatigue. A little tired in sourcing for the right one.

We chose the tiles at Hafary Eunos last Friday. Today, I asked for her final quotation. It came up to $14, 708. Quite expensive I thought, but like I said, contractor fatigue.

Just hope that the bathrooms will turn out fine. I love wood tiles but not sure how they will look in totality.