Three's a crowd

The demolition team must be following this blog, because right after yesterday's post they decided to take up the challenge of having three jackhammers operating simultaneously. That's probably a good decision, since the human ear is seemingly uninterested in differentiating the deafening din of TWO jackhammers from the deafening din of THREE jackhammers.

Our merry band of brothers each with a jackhammer in hand. What are the chances that we'll find four of them jackhammering shoulder-to-shoulder tomorrow?

This is where we will be constructing the emergency fire escape staircase from the 2nd storey down. Hence the need to hack and remove all the decorative architectural details protruding out from the external wall.

Monitoring the progress of the toilet works can sometimes feel like the proverbial equivalent of watching paint dry. We could probably compile all the pictures into a how-to guide for re-doing your own toilet, but anyway do read on for the pleasant surprise of the day.

So this is what the K1 toilet looks like after a second layer of waterproofing cement screed.

And this is the K2 toilet with the pipes completely concealed. Not sure if anything else needs to go on top of this before they start laying the floor tiles. Watch this space!

Remember the adult toilet on the 2nd storey? The wall tiling was partially completed yesterday. Okay, so the floor is now prepped up for tiling. But look inside and you will see...

Look at that! High-end tiles at the back wall. And a band of mosaic to add a touch of class. That's surely way too luxurious! In truth, the tiles are remnants from Joe's previous projects, and they're probably just sufficient for the two adult toilets. Still, the creative use of the leftover tiles manages to make the toilets that little bit special. Sorry children, Uncle Joe doesn't have enough for you.

开工大吉 (Auspicious Start of Work)

Work on site is slowly resuming after the Chinese New Year break. It's not quite a flurry of activity, but some of these workers cut short their vacation in their hometowns up north to return to work sooner. For that we are appreciative.

In the adult toilet on the 2nd storey , there is good progress on the tiling of the wall.

In the K2 toilet on the 2nd storey (which we saw in an earlier post), the first layer of waterproof cement screed has been applied to the floor. The pipes for the plumbing are then laid, after which another layer of waterproofing will be applied.

Our tiler works on the piping in the K1 toilet.

Also on the 2nd storey, the electrical team has begun laying the casing and wiring for the electrical network.

On the 1st storey another pair of workers prepare the toilets for tiling, by roughening up the walls. There are five children's toilets plus one adult toilet on the 1st storey, so that's a lot of roughening.

In a move that's guaranteed not to delight the residents of the adjacent apartment, our demolition team turn their attention to demolishing various external structures.

Architects of yesteryears apparently have a penchant for adding superfluous structures to their buildings. And building them so solidly that they can probably withstand a bomb.

Two jackhammers working in unison can only result in a massive headache. So is it better to have only one jackhammer working at a time, or two jackhammers creating double the noise but completing the work in half the time? Or three jackhammers...

A last word on the water pipes, just to end the issue on that long-running saga. Here's the complete set of pipes with submeters to each individual unit.

Hello, Gorgeous!

The water cycle

The good people from PUB's "big meter team" were here today nice and early to install the main water meter and turn on water supply to the property. It didn't take them more than a few moments to get the job done.

See, that wasn't too difficult, was it?

So now that leaves the connection of the sub-meters supplying water to the individual units. For those who are interested in the nuts and bolts of home renovation, here's how we are progressing on that front.

The pipe connection upwards is done. Cement is poured to fill up the hole.

Not the prettiest finish, but we've treated you better than the previous person did. Please serve us well for the next 30 years.

Our guy spends another day crouched in his little nook.

By the evening, we're almost there but not quite yet. The plumbing guys will need one more day to complete the welding of the connections downwards. When that is done, another "small meter team" from PUB will come to install the sub-meters.

On the toilet front, wall tiling for the second toilet has been completed. Unfortunately the tiler will now leave for the Chinese New Year holiday, so toilet work is halted until then.

Nice shiny tiles for the K2 toilet on the second storey.

Inaugural staff meeting

Not an earthshaking event by any means, but a milestone worth recording. The first staff meeting for Orion Preschool was held on 12th February 2015 at Saizeriya in OneKM. Dinner and dessert took up the better part of the evening. In between eats, we found time to touch on the renovation schedule, staffing plan, program enhancements and long term strategy. Deep!

One for the album.

Still or sparkling?

Two litres of temporary water have been delivered to site. This has enabled the tiling of the toilet walls to commence.

If you are ever curious to know what expensive water looks like, here's a picture of said commodity.

The tiler methodically goes about his work. By the end of the morning, he has covered one face of the toilet wall. Progress is unhurried, as he gently taps the tiles to ensure that they are level and square to one another. A true artisan.

In other news, we finally get real plumbing people doing actual plumbing work.

This chap drills around the stump of the old water supply pipe, happily pausing to point out various service pipes and trunkings that are uncovered by the hacking. The dire condition of the stump section meant that he had to drill deeper and deeper into the ground in order to uncover and remove the entire joint.

By the end of the day, the section with the stump has been removed, and a new pipe welded into place.

Working concurrently, directly above, is this other guy, perched on a ladder and going about his work in various contortionist positions in that tiny space. For the whole day! He works quietly but occasionally glances down to assess the work going on below. Clearly the senior in the two-man hierarchy. His job is to clean up the small pipes in preparation for welding.

A spectacular transformation by the end of the day. Really top-notch work especially under such cramped conditions.

Of eskimoes and ice

All is quiet on the western front. There is still no water supply.

It's said that the NASA Mars Odyssey probe "took 10,000 separate actions to go right to get there." Applying for water supply is not quite on the same scale in the annals of human achievement, so it makes it all the more staggering how many ways we can get the first step wrong. One day it's a wrong form submitted, next it's a wrong account type requested, and thereafter a wrong procedure taken. It's a blessing that these people did not decide on a career in astronautical engineering.

Besides that problem of the gap in the main pipe, we found that there is another breakage in the connection that distributes water from the main supply pipe to the individual floors.

This pipe that is intact is, unfortunately, not a water pipe, but the existing gas supply pipe that we don't intend to use. Now, just beside this pipe, lying innocently on the ground...

...is what remains of a metal pipe, which appears to be where water from the main pipe will emerge. Notice that it's not connected to anything useful.

Looking up, there is a cluster of smaller pipes, dismembered in similar fashion. These are the pipes which will presumably send water to the individual floors. And for that to happen, they need to be joined back to the pipe below.

At the start of each day, we waited in anticipation for someone to turn up to fix the water meter. And at the end of the day, we leave hoping that it might happen the next day. Meanwhile, with Chinese New Year looming, the contractors and their tradesmen will soon be leaving for the long holiday break.

That leaves us with no choice but to call for the water truck. Joe orders 2 cubic metres of non-potable water, so that the wet works can commence. This will cost us a hefty sum of money, but hopefully allow work to continue until the water supply issue is resolved.

The good people who thought up this business model with water must surely rank right up there, alongside those selling ice to eskimoes.

From Mothergoose to Orion

This post is written for the benefit of those who are not familiar with the background of Mothergoose Preschool.

Mothergoose was established in 1987 and has since then, been operating in the Upper East Coast area. Unfortunately in 2013, the lease on our premises was not renewed. Efforts to secure alternative locations in the East for the preschool were unsuccessful, despite the combined efforts of the preschool management and diehard parents.

Page 1 of The New Paper article (22nd November 2013)

Page 2 of The New Paper article

So, after 26 years of history, Mothergoose Preschool ceased operating at the end of the 2013 academic year, with the children continuing their education at other preschools. Similarly, our teachers and aunties found employment at different preschools, but continued to keep in touch.

Now, the establishment of Orion Preschool represents a second chance for all of us to come together again. Using the same team to deliver the same approach, program and curriculum, our aim is to recreate that special Mothergoose experience for children, their families and our staff at Orion Preschool.

Mutant potato

Does anyone know what plant this is? It looks somewhat like a small mango tree but the fruit can only be described as a potato with spots. Should we cut the tree down?

On one hand, the tree provides some shade to the carpark area, but the weird potato-fruit seems to give off a faint, sickly sweet scent, and tends to turn a little mushy after falling to ground.

Mutant potato tree at the edge of the parking area.

Mutant potato growing on the tree.

It's really not a handsome-looking fruit, is it?

Maybe this is a good opportunity to test the extent of Google's reach into the world of obscure botany. For a start, typing "mutant potato" into the Google search bar calls up images of strangely happy farmers holding up their gnarly potatoes, plus the odd combinations of Mr Potato Head. Alright then, let's try "potato with spots" next. Whoa! Those are some really nasty-looking spuds.

Not intending to spend too much time labouring over this, the third and final attempt was "fruit that looks like potato with spots" and hey presto! Amongst the search results are a handful of photos, one showing a whole heap of these mutant potatoes, and another one with mutant potatoes stacked full in a rattan basket, like a tropical fruit basket sitting in your hotel room.

Oola.com lists the fruit as one of "18 Craziest Tropical Fruits from Asia" alongside such exotic species as durians, lychees, longans, starfruits, and the like. Oola goes on to say that "...in Thai cuisine its leaves are used as vegetables and the fruit as a salad ingredient. The Polynesians also utilized the fruit to treat menstrual cramps." Well, that's an idea for the children's cookery lessons (the salad, that is).

Eyechow.com politely describes it as a "bizarre looking milky white bumpy potato like fruit" and hints that "these fruits are not eaten, but rather ingested or applied as herbal medicine." They also helpfully suggest that the fruits are "great ammunition for throwing at your friends when you are a mischievous kid."

That last sentence more or less seals the deal. You're a keeper, Noni tree (or more scientifically, morinda citrifolia), although be warned that you're on thin ice here. After all, the odds are stacked against you when your fruit is also known as "cheese fruit" or "vomit fruit".

Choosing non-slip tiles

Since we have been given the opportunity to redo the toilets from scratch, we decided to install non-slip tiles in consideration for the safety of children, rather than placing another layer of anti-slip floor mats over the toilet floors, which we used to do. This will also improve hygiene since it allows aunty to wash the toilet floors more thoroughly.

So Joe has already brought in the main bulk of the tiles that we will be using. However, the non-slip tile samples that he has chosen for the toilet floors are not sufficiently rough. Perhaps people who are not in our line of work tend to underestimate the propensity of young children to slip and fall under the most innocuous of circumstances.

The eclectic mix of tiles that have been brought on site.

So we headed nearby to where Joe claimed was the showroom with one of the widest range of tiles in the country.

Narrowing down our selection to the roughest few pieces in the entire showroom.

This one looks even rougher than the surface of the moon (okay maybe that's overstating it by a bit).

The showroom provided a sample of each tile for us to bring back and consider. Just from the photo you can almost feel the texture of the tiles.

But the real test comes when the tiles are wet. Even under a shower of water, they should provide a decent level of grip.

And so we have a winner! Full Bodied Porcelain with Shade Variation. The cost is slightly higher than what we originally budgetted for, and it goes terribly with our white glazed wall tiles, but hey, function over form!

At the showroom, Joe said that the best way to decide was to test the tiles barefoot. He is right. Conventional wisdom suggests that the finger should be more sensitive to the textures of the tiles, but surprisngly it was actually the toe that detected the difference in grip between the two samples. If anything, this experience has led to a newfound respect for toe neurons.

Water woes

What fun will a construction project be if it does not run into a major crisis right from the start?

It's never a good sign when the main water pipe to your building looks a little like this:

The main water pipe supplying water to the entire property. Spot the missing link.

So that was Monday. Even then, you would have thought that this cannot be a huge obstacle.  But now it's already Thursday afternoon and it's taken a belated visit by the water experts to conclude that a meter needs to be installed across that little gap. Brilliant deduction, Sherlock!

So the toilet tiles have all been hacked, and the materials for laying the new toilet flooring have been delivered to site. Joe had planned to start the wet works today, but that cannot be done now because there's no water to mix the cementing materials. And we still don't know when the meter can be installed.

Cement and sealant on site crying to be opened up.

An assortment of tiles brought in by the contractor. Goody! Looks like we're having different-themed toilets!

But the workers do what they can. Fortunately, demolition works continue at a healthy pace.

On the 2nd storey, the ceiling boards are progressively being removed to reveal a bare ceiling which appears to be in pretty good condition. That means we can consider going for an "industrial look".

The ceiling at the 2nd storey hall. Smooth!

We already have a kitchen on the 1st storey, so the kitchen on the 2nd storey will be converted to a second room for the K1 children.

It's amazing how much damage one guy and a jackhammer can do in a single day.

This is what that same space looked like at the start of the day. Yes, it's not exactly tip-top to start with.

Renovation work commences

Contractors cannot be relied upon to appreciate the symbolism behind certain events. Despite specific instructions to wait, he came with his workers before the appointed time and proceeded to cut the chain and enter the premises. What an anti-climax to arrive and find the main gate already wide open! There goes the opportunity for the "ribbon-cutting" shot.

It's like arriving at your own party to find that the candles have already been blown.

The first time seeing the premises with the gates wide open. Welcome!

 Joe, our on-the-ball project manager proceeds to brief his workers on taking the building apart.

 Marking out the location to open a new door to the K1 classroom.

The workers start work on the toilets. All the floor tiles have to be removed and replaced with non-slip tiles. The toilet accessories will also be replaced with child-size fittings.

The end of a day's work. Demolish toilets - check.