1 to 2 - The walls actually have to be roughened before the tiles can be installed. Otherwise, they will just fall off because these porcelain are really thick (12-15 mm) and much heavier than ceramic tiles. 3 to 4 - Laying the white floor tiles. They are really heavy because they measure 80 cm x 80 cm! 5 - The extra high tile skirting - because if it's too thin, the tile skirting would have a tendency to crack under its own weight.
1 - Installing the car porch tiles 2 & 3 - I made a part of it slightly elevated for easy parking - I can then roll the car until the tyre hits the kerb, leaving space to walk in front of the car. 4 - Unfortunately, I didn't plan this properly. When I recently tested the kerb, my car's bumper would almost touch the wall if I drive it close enough to touch the kerb, leaving no space to walk behind the car. Looks like I will need to extend the kerb 2 feet further out... 5 - They screwed up the slope, so we had to extend the drive way further out...
1 to 5 - Installing the guide rod for the folding main gate. Basically, they drill a series of holes to implant steel rods, which they then solder to the stainless steel rod.
1 - After the gate guys installed the steel roller rod, the tiling guys came to finish tiling the driveway. 2 - I intentionally made the trough wide to serve as a drain, with a drain at one end. I also recessed the steel rod in the trough so that its top would be at the same level as the tiled surface - this prevents a bump when going up the driveway. 3 - The driveway was slopped to this end, so that rainwater that drains into the trough flows down the drain. 4 - This is what the final driveway looks like...
Installing the master bedroom's glass facade Here are some pictures of the window installers installing the master bedroom's glass facade - basically three large windows and a door.
Installing the sliding doors and windows The same company was also contracted to supply the sliding doors and windows elsewhere. They do very good work IMHO, so if anyone wants their contact, let me know.
Installing the granite tops My ID recommended that we use black granite (Shanxi Black) for the master bathroom. Here are the guys installing the granite tops.
Installing the folding gate The gate guys came back to install the folding gate. They started by installing brackets into the wall.
Unfortunately, the gate design wasn't what I ordered. What's with the shiny bits???? But they said the base design is correct and they will replace the wrong bits later. We will see... Installation is quite simple - lay the two pieces side-by-side, and bolt them together. Then check to see that everything is in place before this half is hoisted into place.
Then it was time for electro-welding! First, they placed some rags and laid plywood on them, before wetting them down with lots of water. I have no idea why they needed the rags and plywood but I think the water was to conduct electricity for the welding. Then they welded the gate to a stainless steel cylinder with a ball bearing inside. That cylinder was welded to the wall bracket. This cylinder is a joint that allows the gate to pivot.
This is what the cylindrical joint looks like after welding. Ugly, right? Well, they painted over it with brown paint and the gate seems to work properly!
Testing The Lights The problem with LED lights is that there is a considerable amount of variation between manufacturers it's very hard to determine how bright they are just based on the specifications. So we bought a small batch of 6" and 4" LED downlights to test. We installed them in a few rooms to test them out. Fortunately we did so - in some places, the 4" downlight was not good enough, so we will be replacing them with the larger 6" downlight. I have to say though that I'm very impressed with the current generation LED lights. They are very bright, allowing us to cut down from the earlier proposed 12 downlights in the hall to just 8.
When we discovered that the kerb in front of the main door was too short - http://forums.techarp.com/adrian-wong/27121-my-house-renovation-project-13.html#post372556, we wanted to extend it by 2 feet. Fortunately, I measured the length of our car and determined that doing so would leave too little space to park the car, so we added a single row of tiles, extending the kerb by 1 foot. As you can see, there is now enough walkway space in front of the car when the tyre touches the kerb, and sufficient space behind the car for us to walk around it. Just nice!
For easier parking. The kerb is as far as any car can go, and ensures that no matter how forward anyone parks, there's always enough walkway space in front.
The oven / grill is going to be in the dry kitchen. Unfortunately, we don't have gas ovens any more. I thought of buying a standalone cooker + oven but found out that even in such cookers, the oven is electric.
