5I Resale Toh Yi Drive

[dukebluedevil 1]

Actually, renovation for our flat has already started. But I decided to start this to give back to this community and add to the rich pool of ideas here.

So here's how it looks now:

 

The total area is 1367 sq ft. The kitchen and access balcony wall have gone down. I have hacked the master bedroom wall to enlarge the room and allow for a bookshelf cum TV wall. The pictures in my next post gonna be illustrative.

The Look

We wanted something timeless/classic. We plan to stay in our home for a long time and don’t want something that will get tired very fast or turn out to be very impractical for our family living.

We are inspired by the works of French architect Joseph Dirand – see an apartment he did here: https://www.yatzer.com/joseph-dirand-saint-germain-paris. 

So if you were to put a gun to my head and force me to describe the theme of our flat, it should be modern french/european (??). But its even gonna have mid-century inspired furnishing. In short, I don’t have a clue. Hahaha. But here are some must-have features:

1. Intricate skirting and cornices (hope it doesn't turn out dated).
2. Louvre and shaker style doors.
3. As little built-in furniture as possible.
4. Herringbone/chevron style vinyl flooring (to extend to the kitchen thanks to waterproof flooring).
5. White windows (of course).
6. White/marble modern/open-concept kitchen (think kitchen culture etc.).
7. Kitchen island (yessss, finally get to have one).
8. Black and white toilets (dunno, just like black and white).

Just gonna post some pre-post hacking pictures next. I hope I keep this blog up! 

[dukebluedevil 1]

Pre-hacking

 

 

 

Post-hacking

 

Love the brightness of the flat! That pink wall in the middle of the picture has also gone.

 

 

 

[dukebluedevil 1]

I'm currently using a contractor, just for costs reasons. But I want to share a little bit on the many (many) IDs that we encountered.

Most left much to be desired but there were a few pleasant surprises. I encountered some creative design work and an ID with really reasonable prices.

Unfortunately, I couldn't go with the creative folk as I just didn’t have the budget for their design fees or overall quote. I received quotes of well over 100k. One firm suggested that I budget $100 psf which would mean an overall bill of over 130k!!!!

Look, I think you really get what you pay for when it comes to design. If I had a limitless budget for my 100% overhaul, I would go for architects or architecture-trained designers. I feel that for whatever reason, their sense of aesthetic is markedly different and more appealing to me.

But in the end (lack of) money talked the loudest and we decided to use a contractor. He seemed really keen for our business and made several trips to my place and a flooring supplier without any guarantee of the job being awarded to him. We clicked and he seems like a genuinely nice guy, so we’ll see.

No recommendations (if any) until the renovation is complete though. But if you want recommendations on other people mentioned above, please feel free to PM me.

[El LoCo 3]

Will be camping here for updates 

[Rynaed 2]

This is the same layout my inlaws have--it's very spacious!  I like the sound of your theme.  Interested to see how things turn out

[Changbp 5]

like your theme. Sounds like mine with some commonality. Though I could not achieve that look eventually lost focus and it got mixed up with American and country and a lil bit of London....

 

[dukebluedevil 1]

10 hours ago, Rynaed said:

This is the same layout my inlaws have--it's very spacious!  I like the sound of your theme.  Interested to see how things turn out

Yes, the layout/space was a big draw.

Am following your t-blog closely, my sister is American and I see a lot of similarities between your proposed designs and her house!

[dukebluedevil 1]

10 hours ago, Changbp said:

like your theme. Sounds like mine with some commonality. Though I could not achieve that look eventually lost focus and it got mixed up with American and country and a lil bit of London....

 

It has already started rojak.   Trying to keep it French-ish with the doors/flooring/cornice but with 21st century modern/scandi furnishings. The high skirtings are definitely not french. 

But i'm skipping the traditional French panels. I think it needs big spaces and high ceilings for that to work. I think it will look too "busy" in a small space.

 

[dukebluedevil 1]

My wife and I have bought most things for the house. Had to balance the "look" with practicality. So we couldn't get some stuff we really wanted.

KITCHEN

\

Had a look at the specs of the hob/oven and Mayer seems to be a real bang for buck purchase. Enthusiastically recommended by this Gain City dude who we later found out was the Mayer/Ariston rep  So check next time guys. But even at that point (I was furiously researching on my phone while the guy was going through all the appliances) these two seemed like a good deal.

 

This is our island hood. The extraction rate is 1000m3/hr (which was the minimum we felt given our open concept kitchen). We didn't really like the glass but decided we could live with it. But I got pretty upset later that we didn't wait as Teka held a very good sale later.

 

Built-in microwave. Wasn't planning to have a microwave at all as the helper doesn't use the current one. But bought this just because it seemed cheap. Hahaha.

 

 

So Teka had this great sale last week and we grabbed these three items for a steal. One of the things we wanted was to have all our kitchen appliances to be from the same brand. Teka was one of our preferred brands and we could have pulled it off. Sigh. Only if we were not in a rush :(. Now I will have a kitchen full of mixed brands and it will bug a little. 

Finally, our fridge from Best Denki. Didn't want the side by side door fridge as we don't really have much stuff to store on a regular basis. Decided to save some money on the fridge and electricity bills. We got it in gloss white to match our cabinetry. 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2016 by dukebluedevil

[dukebluedevil 1]

SOFA & ARMCHAIR

We bought a sofa and armchair from Habitat at Big Box in Jurong East. They were having some kinda sale so we grabbed!! They are both the same denim-blue and I hope it matches nicely with our flooring (as per the example below).

 

[dukebluedevil 1]

MOODBOARD

Just two photos two give an idea of what's in my head right now. 

So the white island (and the backsplash)  is going to be covered with a marble lookalike solid surface. We've used solid surface for many years without any real complaint so we decided to go for that. Major savings plus we will not have the joint lines. 

This exact look is impossible to achieve given that herring bone flooring looks way better with small pieces of wood (rather than the large vinyl planks). But we're hoping to come close. 

[dukebluedevil 1]

deleted. double post.

Edited March 11, 2016 by dukebluedevil

[pankponk 2]

Really love your floor plan.. i think really match your open concept... can do a lot 

[dukebluedevil 1]

On 11 March, 2016 at 4:38 PM, pankponk said:

Really love your floor plan.. i think really match your open concept... can do a lot 

Hope so! Its been a big headache so far!

[dukebluedevil 1]

RENO UPDATE

The wet works have been continuing, making good the hacked walls and the rockstone walls.

Some tiling work has also started and its a mixed bag so far. The contractor wanted us to confirm with the tiler which tiles to use and their location. But when we arrived (early), the tiles were already up

See that big tiled wall? It was supposed to be the tiles below. My contractor to be fair, asked us whether we wanted to re-tile the whole thing. But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade eh. Although we were feeling a bit mehhhhh, my wife and I decided to tweak the concept a little bit instead. We decided to use those vintage tiles for flooring only and to have the access balcony below to be tiled the same. Initially the access balcony were supposed to be floored using vinyl! I think its looking good so far.

A full height louvred-door shoe cabinet is gonna be built on that wall and to box up that pipe as well. Oh found another error, the workers covered up the louvred section above the room doors. These were supposed to be sealed with clear acrylic for aircon purposes yet still let the light through. Contractor promised to rectify it. I guess these issues will crop up now and then which is usual. Just need to be alive to these at all times.

 

 

Edited March 14, 2016 by dukebluedevil