It’s been a “very happening” week with different groups of workers coming in – sometimes even at the same time!

First, those big Baron boxes.

Got myself the very sleek looking Baron W888 WCs for the bathrooms. I like how the back of the WC can be almost flush against the wall because there is a recessed area at the lower part for pipes to go through.

The storage water heater is a Joven 35l, which ought to be enough. I’m able to place this in the service yard (rather than a bathroom) because it’s practically adjacent to both bathrooms! Which hopefully also means that hot water won’t take more than a few milliseconds to reach me in the mornings. 

The sliding windows in this flat are in good condition, so I kept almost all. But the grilles look like they will take too much effort to clean, so they had to go. The service yard windows are also somehow of a different colour than all the other windows  so they needed to be replaced too.  I engaged Home Aluminium Metal Works to install my new window grilles and service yard windows.

First came the window grille frames for my living room windows – the longest windows in this apartment. The workers carrying these had to take the stairs all the way up, which must have been exhausting because I am on the highest floor!

Thankfully the rest could fit into the lift.

As this was the first time I could see windows being dismantled, I looked on closely (but from a safe distance) and came away impressed by how systematically and efficiently everything was done. While service yard windows/grilles were being removed and installed, the window grilles in the rest of the apartment were also being installed concurrently.

Before and After window grille installation. Just a few spaced out horizontal bars so that they (1) don’t obscure the view, and (2) can be cleaned very quickly. The spacing between the bars might be too wide though to keep small-sized children or cats safe.

Since I have no children or cats, why bother installing window grilles? Simple: so that I don’t accidentally fall out of the window while cleaning or after tripping.  I didn’t need grilles to cover  the top mini windows because I don’t expect to be able to fall out of it. 

Works were done very efficiently and the Home Aluminium Metal Works guys even cleaned up after their installations (important if your place already has furniture and is being used). All in all, the installations took only about 90 minutes – and might have taken even less time if works had been uninterrupted. So why was it interrupted?

Because I also scheduled the installation of my Varlux automatic laundry system in the same morning. Here’s another very efficient and clean installation. He uses some sort of cone attachment with the drill to minimise the amount of dust falling to the floor – much appreciated, even if my entire place is already exceedingly dusty and messy

This is what it looks like once fully mounted. Would have liked to go with a larger model, but the part of my service yard next to  the windows is small – partly because of some huge pipes!  Thanks to my high ceiling, I don’t expect hung laundry to obscure the windows.

Total installation time (including  some waiting time for window installers to finish up, and demonstrating to clueless me how to use it) was less than 30 minutes.

Notice how white paint on the wall seems different from the white on the walls in the room? It’s not a trick of the lighting – they are really different shades of white. Whispering White in all areas outside rooms because it contributes to the bright and airy feel that I am going for. Lilac White for all rooms for its soothing feel.

I was really tempted to box up this (one of two) annoyingly large pipes in my service yard. But with a fresh coat of paint, it really doesn’t look too bad. In fact that small gap between the pipes and the wall will be good for hanging the broom and other cleaning tools.

I’m also no longer so bothered by the aircon trunking running across this room. Amazing what painting can accomplish! Although it probably helps that the trunking is above my eye level

This board covering the old (and no longer used) aircon ledge in the bedroom still sticks out despite being painted over. Needs to be completely covered!

Hmm I wonder what’s going to happen next week??