we have a move-in date

... and it is: Friday 15th of August. After far too many months of renovation, we'll finally be able to enjoy our new home.

Lots to do from now until then though.

sheesh, nearly there.

We have the exterior painted now, and an auto-gate installed (all important for getting in/out during Singapore's frequent rainstorms).
Most of the rooms are approaching completion, with only the lighting remaining - happening yesterday and today. We have tried to retain the character of the house, which is what attracted us to it in the first place. We fought hard to retain the original windows and grilles. The fixed glass at the top of the windows was originally louvers, but we have updated with reeded glass.

tiles and parquet

A little more progress, it seems now that end-July is now our estimated move-in date. Here's Aiden inspecting the master shower tilework.

And we now have teak parquet installed in the upstairs rooms. It's a nice honey-colour.

tiles.

Here's the current view of progess on-site looking towards the front door. Half of our lounge terrazzo-like tiles are laid, and you can just see the edge of the new staircase railing.
Much of the kitchen tiles are laid too, with grout yet to be applied. It will be a little brighter than this, though it is going to be quite a dark kitchen in contrast to the lounge.

progress, progress

We visited the site this weekend, and it's starting to look more like a house than a site...

Top floor is painted on the outside, and the scaffolding is down, so the tiling around the house can begin.

Newly completed: Tiles are up in the master bathroom, though the flooring isn't done yet.
Kids bathroom has tiling-in-progress.

All the false ceilings are complete and plastered, ready for painting.

yay!

we have a roof

Here's the current state of our renovations. We now have a new roof, and heightened ceilings, though the site still looks like a bit of a mess.The new kitchen is nice and bright. I'm standing where the kitchen sink will go, so the kitchen has a nice view of the back yard.
Here's the master bedroom, Aiden is standing roughly where the old room ended, and Elliot and I are on the extension. It is nice to see everything slowly coming together.

up on the roof

Tomorrow our roof tiles arrive and are due to be installed. As we speak, our home has nothing protecting it from the frequent showers. There's not really anything to protect at the moment... no flooring, paintwork, tiles or anything nearing a completed finish. Today we had a site visit to try to nail down current issues like final window positions and finishes. Still lots to do on the house, but after the roof tiles go up, that will be at least one thing that is completed to the final specifications. Here's hoping that the remaining issues are resolved quickly and we'll see things progressing at a much quicker rate.

work in progress

It's been a while since the last update, we've been spending all of our weekends looking at tiles, toilets, shower mixers etc. We haven't even started on looking for lights. In any case, there has been much happening on site - the extension as you can see above is up, and this will be the family yard for alfresco dining and relaxing in the cool of the evening. this area will remain open so we'll have a sheltered place outdoors. We have selected all of the tiles for the house, and even found a terrazzo-like tile for the living area to replace our much loved, but now forever gone floor. Bathroom stuff is almost all purchased as well, with only 2 toilets, mop sink, mixer to purchase.

intrenched.

Work continues apace at the back of the house. The inspection trench that protects the sewer line is in place (that's it in the centre of the photo). The footing foundations are probably poured by now which will support the extension. Not much happening inside the house for now, though that will change soon, as soon as the foundation is dried and the I-beams can start going up. For those not familiar with our plans, the extension is all constructed in exposed steel I-beams rather than the conventional reinforced concrete. This will result in a lighter - slightly industrial feel for the extension. As for our flooring, it's going to cost $5000 just to do the radar inspection, so we'll probably just farewell the terrazzo and look for something similar to replace the entire downstairs floor.

approval to commence

The government approvals have been given to start work on the extension, so our builders can begin on the major construction work. We're still not sure how badly the gaps underneath the slab are - and at this point, saving the terrazzo is only about 50-50. We may (depending on cost) bring in some high-tech gear - ground penetrating radar - to check on the gaps below the terrazzo without having to break it up. In the meanwhile, it's nice to see things happening every time we visit the site.

The lounge area has been opened up, and the wall through to the downstairs room removed so we'll have front-to-back light and air circulation though the house. We're planning some big folding glass doors through the wall you see in the picture above so there will be lots of light into the living/dining area.

demolition started

After many months of planning, our builder has moved onsite and has started with the prep work.

We wanted to keep the existing Terrazo floor, so they have layered it with plywood to protect a bit.

The old pinex ceiling boards are gone. We'll have a new roof in a while, but in the interim we have high ceilings!
Farewell kitchen wall! we'll be extending the kitchen to about twice the current size.