Path to a HDB Tai-tai: Carpentry

Initially I thought the longest and worst part of the house reno - false ceiling and electrical was over, and everything should be moving very fast, and my Goddess and the Horny Devil would be able to shift in before Christmas. I was terribly wrong.

Carpentry took an even painfully long time - 3 months. Even till now, her dressing table/cupboard was not completely done, and it sadly won't be done till after Chinese New Year.

But my Goddess and the Horny Devil are still going to shift in before Chinese New Year nevertheless, together with the other defects in the house which I will share more in future posts. Otherwise, they will never ever get to shift in if they were to wait for the whole place to be complete.

For carpentry, they chose to go with her father-in-law's contact from KL. While they are based in KL, their factory was in JB and they have businesses in Singapore. After comparison on the price based on the FIL's detailed drawings (he's an architect) with all his contacts, 2 of whom were Singapore companies, the Malaysia was the cheapest, half the quote of the other two. Thinking they can save a substantial amount of money, they went with the Malaysian carpenter of course.

Little did they realise, the workers will only come 1-2 times a week (that's because my Goddess and the Horny Devil didn't have much time to take leave to monitor them on weekdays) and by the time they drive down from KL to SG each time, it will almost be 12 noon! So technically they only had half a day to work.

When carpentry first began, the two of them were really excited (thinking they should be able to shift in soon).

Shifting the make-shift table as if it's part of the carpentry works

Tired after setting up one make-shift table!

Work started, first with the study room

Laying the base for the laminated bay window

Putting up the laminates on the bay window

There was a lot of carpentry works and it stretched for the whole corridor outside the house

Yay, bay window done - colours selected by the Horny Devil

A closer look at the laminates

Moving on to the study table.

The super long study table top

To ensure the study desk hangs firmly and safely against the wall, a hole was drilled onto the wall to insert the re-bar.

They drilled till the wall in the next room cracked! Luckily it was their own room and not their neighbour's.

Look at how thick and long the rebar is to support the whole table

Then the table top is inserted in. The instrument on the table is some balance meter to ensure that the table is 180 degrees horizontal

After that was the cupboards at the top

In the study was also a storage bed - the Horny Devil's concept so that this can add as a spare bed for future (kid's) use. But for the time being, this whole space will store his endless comics collection.

Meanwhile, they also worked on the feature wall/cupboards in the living area.

And the dining cupboards/shoe cabinet

With the shoe cabinets on the right side. Don't you think it looked like a fridge with its metal bar on the left and some ugly metal plates on the right?

Luckily the horrible looking fridge door was changed in the end

The insides were also changed. The poles (to hang my Goddess' heels - the FIL's design) looked more cheapskate previously. The poles now looked like shower poles, lol

And my Goddess got what she wants - a mirror at the shoe cabinet so that she can check if her outfit and shoes match before heading out

Slotting in the TB console - another suspension

Initially they had a shock, thinking why the console looked so horrible with a metal part as the opening of the cupboard doors. Luckily, this turned out to be facing the inside of the console.

And there's was a couple of eyesore mistakes made for the TV feature wall. First it had different colours. Who would want to emphasize the middle portion? And the wall right at the top where they wrapped with laminate juts out below the curtain skirting.

The two mistakes were fixed with extra laminates stuck on O.o

Guess what this 2 cute boxes are

Their movable beside tables

They wanted to have little compartments to store their endless accessories. So the toufu boxes. This was a concept gotten from the IDs that they visited - then their accessories could be showcased.

These cabinets are then placed on top of the bay windows to make it usable as a table top, a sitting/lounging area and storage space, all in one.

Initially the built in cupboards had a stupid design. It was concrete at the top - the cupboards end halfway.

More storage space now with the cupboards extended