X-Living in Bahagia - Chuck and the Bamboo Stalk

The fairytale story tells of a man named Chuck who was sent to the market one day by his wife to sell their collection of whiskey. As Chuck proceeded to the market he met a stranger who offered to trade four "magic seeds" for the whiskey. Chuck accepted the trade and returned home with the seeds in his pocket. Chuck's wife was angered that he had not obeyed her instructions to sell the whiskey and threw the seeds out of the window. As Chuck slept, the seeds germinated and a gigantic bamboo stalk grew in their place by morning.

When Chuck saw the huge bamboo stalk,

X-Building in Bahagia #12 - Hacking to start

Temporary Notice of Renovation Works pasted on the glass window. The renovation can officially begin from 14th April to 16th April (3 days). We will start on 15th Tuesday and have a move-in ceremony (动土仪式) before that.

X-Building in Bahagia #10 - Selection of Tiles for Level 1 and Both Bathrooms

Christina has given us some tile shops contacts along Balestier Road. Last Sunday, we went to LSH and Hafary (2 shops at the extreme ends of 1 block). The first shop we went to, we were super inexperienced but the lady was nice and patient enough to attend to us (even though the afternoon looks really hectic).

We've decided to replace our expensive chengai wood deck (we were quoted 3k+!) at the patio with these wood-looking tiles. But the tiles at LSH are 15 x 60, which make it a bit short to replicate the strips.

They're cheap though, $3.30 psf. And the walnut oak grains are beautiful.

X-Building in Bahagia #7 - Some Proposed Interior Layouts

Finally. We’ve given 5 briefs away, 1 gave up, we’re left with 4! I wonder how some people in the forums can go up to asking for 10 quotes! Chuck is already so tired coordinating and repeating the things we wanna do. I’m very tired opening the windows and doors and locking them up a while later. All in all, we done this 7 times within 2 weeks! To the 5 different IDs, another repeat session today to one of them, and one session with our friend. It is indeed a tiresome job to build this home.

Anyway, we also went to check out the Modern Living Home Fair at Expo, and we realized we’ve only covered 100m in an hour before we got to rush off to another place. Our last stop at the Expo was at Supreme Flooring - a super laminate flooring which I was rather impressed with. Anyway I might check it out again this week. On the other hand, I have no idea what to expect from the IDs while waiting for all the quotes to come in.


Image from Chweech's reno thread at myhometown.sg

I mentioned about this useless original floor plan

X-Building in Bahagia #5 - The Uncluttered House. A Comparison.

Let us take a look at the empty house and gauge the space for ourselves.

Patio

The patio area where it used to be cluttered with boxes (of course the previous owner was in the midst of moving away). They left us with a very old shoe cupboard with an attached seat.


The mini garden area didn't change much - but the christmas tree was removed (thanks) and some cracked pots stayed put (thanks again).

X-Building in Bahagia #4 - Keys collected. What to Hack?

Good news, we got the keys! Tomorrow will also be the first time we're meeting an ID. We found her contact when we were doing our rounds some time back around the area. The contractor Christina told us she designed some homes in the same area so we reckon she should be experienced to offer some good ideas and solutions to very problematic space planning issues.



I'm pretty excited about it and have been thinking about what changes we want to do to our new home. I would like to bring our concerns up to the ID and listen out to sound advice. That of course, includes staying within budget. We need a major revamp here!