vicx1234

Hacking has been done and tiling has commenced! I actually think that we are a bit behind on the tiling, but given that our ID has only allocated 1 person to carry out the tiling (is this normal??) and that person's workmanship has been pretty good so far, we will have to a little bit more patient at this time. Former laminate floors gone Walls and floors hacked and awaiting re-tiling Sneak preview of cement screed lookalike floor and kitchen wood effect tiles

Hi guys, we have since gotten our keys and have officially started work on the renovations. It's going to be a long and arduous journey so wish us the very best! Let's start off with some of the tiles that we chose. Living Room tiles We were originally going to go for an industrial cement screed living room and had long discussions back and forth about the pros and cons as well as ease of maintenance of having cement screed floors. After much deliberation, we opted to go for the best of both worlds, homogeneous tiles which look like cement screed. Having visited a few tile shops along Balestier, we weren't quite convinced about the cement screed looking tiles that we saw. Luckily, our ID brought us to another tile shop where we managed to find one which had just the right look. I believe this is the lighter shade of tile that fellow blogger YTMO is using. Kitchen tiles We wanted to capture that scandinavian look and have wood planked tiles in the kitchen. Whereas some would have chosen to go with HERF, we managed to find a ceramic tile which had pretty wood grains, and in white too! Bathroom tiles By now I think everybody should be pretty familiar with subway tiles. We will be using it for both our bathrooms, with the grouting to be in black for contrast. Room tiles Don't have a good picture of the colour of HERF that we chose, so I'm posting somebody else's. After much consideration we decided to get HERF from Evorich in 'durban oak' colour which was considered safe, although we initially selected 'aspen oak' which is darker and actually much sexier (IMO). We were definitely not going to entertain having laminates in the room cos it may warp after time especially after coming into contact with water. The HERF will be deployed in the study, guest bedroom and master bedroom. Loving the contrast between the cement screed tiles and kitchen wood effect tiles

Thanks leong3956, having 2 different colour strips to switch sounds like a good idea, I may just do it. I am currently using LED warm light downlights for my living room, but have bought cool white ceiling lights (which uses LED light bars) for my kitchen. Since the kitchen is visible from my living room, I am concerned that the contrast between the different lighting colours will be too stark. In your experience do people use either cool white or warm white throughout the whole house? Is it ugly if you mix? Thanks.

the lights also lower the fans even more, for what are already short hdb ceilings =P

Actually carpentry can be the biggest chunk of the reno bill depending on how much built in you're doing, which could explain why some contractors want to take up that part of the job as well. My ID/contractor didn't mind me using my carpenter, so if you want to pay him a visit to see if you çlick', do let me know.

Have you settled on your contractor yet? Since this is a busy time of the year for IDs/Contractors, you may wish to wait till they're more settled before talking to them. But waiting is hard I understand, getting started on the renos can be a very exciting yet tiring/stressful process. Will stay tuned to your updates. Good luck!

Hey g0mug0mu, doesn't your handle mean rubber in Japanese? Anyway, thanks for dropping by and I'm excited to see how your reno turns out as well. I really love the white brick wall (which ironically has now become the safe option to have for a home), but we all got to get out of our comfort zone sometime! Figure having a white plank wall might stand out, hopefully in a good way. Will post more pics when it's up. Good luck for your reno too!

That's a nice looking fan, which shop did you see it at? We bought something similar from Crestar, a matte black fan from the ICOL series but at $200+. $600+ is a bit steep for a fan. Btw, regarding your papa bear chair or any other big/expensive item from taobao for that matter, try to get it from a tmall seller instead as it is much safer. These are 2 shops that I've found, though I'm sure there are more sellers on tmall http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a220m.1000858.1000725.20.qKO9Mv&id=21268016448&areaId=&user_id=729554021&is_b=1&cat_id=2&q=wegner&rn=54a9b44ae21d181fd04d5114dd0e3c9c http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a220m.1000858.0.0.fJr4Zg&id=20127659357&is_b=1&cat_id=2&areaId=&q=bear+chair Do note that the price differs depending on whether you are getting leather or fabric. There are some sellers listing the item for incredibly cheap, but that may just be the ottoman. You will only get the price upon making your selection at the top right hand section of the item page. If you don't mind buying from taobao sellers, get from those which have diamonds or crowns (crowns being the higher rating).

Hi claypot, thanks for your advice. The one that we have bought actually only comes in 1 colour so I'm thinking of changing the whole strip to warm white LED. How much would 1 meter cost and where can I get it?

Hi all, I'm having a difficult time deciding what kind of lighting to use in each area and need your advice. We intend to use warm white lighting for all areas of the house except for the study, toilets and the kitchen which we are currently intending to use bright white LED lights. Will the contrast be very obvious causing our space to not look as nice? Are we better off using warm white for the entire house? If so, how easy it is to change the LED strips in our lights fixtures from bright white to warm white? Where to I go to get it done? Thanks guys.

Some drawings/renderings done up on floorplanner using my limited computer skills. Space planning wise, I think the part we are most concerned about is the yard area. Might turn out to be very cramped with no space to hang clothes. Last resort - use a dryer or hand clothes out in the living room, which is going to be very ugly! What are your experiences with a condenser dryer anyone? There seems to be an orphan wall lamp hovering about in the 3d renderings, I do apologise. Am really not liking the small bathrooms, and it is becoming apparent that the walking corridor is not completely straight. So much for maximum impact visualized by having double doors as the MBR entrance. The study room is really small! I'm a bit concerned about the practicality of the space and whether it can fit 2 persons working simultaneously and comfortably. Let's hope it turns out alright.

3D Drawings - we're getting closer to the final picture First off, it should be mentioned that Jimmy does not do his own 3D renderings, but passes it off to another girl to generate it after briefing her on our requirements. We're not terribly impressed with the 3d renderings as we have seen better (presumably using better software) but it will have to do for now. Also, I think some of our input did not reach the girl doing the 3D drawings and the colour scheme for the MBR ended up plain wrong. Whatever the case, the 3D drawings were complimentary and not something that we had to pay for, so beggars can't be choosers. Living room - we will no longer be going for the brick wall effect since E thinks it's overused. Instead, we will be doing a laminate white plank wall Dining & study Guest bathroom MBR bathroom Our previous WIW concept. Originally we wanted to place the WIW in the main bedroom, but we opted out of that because that would mean our MBR would be very small if we wanted a TV in the room as well.

Hi mavicaste, Yup, my wife and I love it and we will be replicating that effect for the study, our toilet doors as well as the folding door separating the kitchen from the living room. Can't wait to see the final effect man. Stopped by your t-blog to check it out. Really excited to see you reno come along as well since we pretty much have similar concepts. Good luck!

Good luck with the reno! We're doing ours now and will be adopting a Scandi feel as well. Will be following your reno closely. Cheers.

Mood pics continued.. Thinking of painting the wall behind the bed a dark colour for contrast - charcoal perhaps? Would want the dog too if we could We will also be using folding doors to enable us to close off the kitchen during heavy cooking Industrial concept may come by way of cement floors and furnishings & accessories Like the idea of using recycled boxes or crates as book shelves, storage space. Probably not as cluttered as this though.

ID/Contractor Selection: Choosing the right ID/Contractor is really largely subjective. I can say it all boils down to fit in terms of whether you like a particular ID or contractor's design, and more importantly, whether you have 'mo qi' with the ID/Contractor. Shortlisted IDs/Contractors Mr. K (Contractor) - without a doubt, the most popular contractor on Renotalk. His portfolio has been pretty impressive thus far as seen from others' t-blogs, although he is also know to have a particular style or "template" to use an uglier term. We always thought we would go with him, but decided not to since he is known to be a bit more expensive and we figured he must be pretty **** busy during this time of the year. May have some regrets here. Alan (Contractor) - also pretty popular on Renotalk. his earlier reviews seem to be better, and judging by the number of projects he seems to be running, we didn't want to be chasing him all the time. Decision to drop. Artist Room - no reply Carpenter's Workshop - no reply Project File - had 1st meeting with them. We weren't blown away with their ideas, which weren't too practical to begin with. D1st1nct 1dent1ty - good portfolio of work, decent suggestions. Promised to quote within 2-3 weeks but didn't hear back from them. Voila Design - seemed more intent on pushing their ideas than really listening to what we wanted. Promised to quote but didn't hear back. Three D Conceptwerke (Vanessa) - in terms of design, we felt that they were the most willing to push the envelope. Vanessa, the ID assigned to us was very eager to take on this project. Judging by age alone, I doubt she's the most experienced ID out there, but she certainly made up for it with a lot of enthusiasm and creative suggestions. Concept wise, we liked her the most. If not for the high cost quoted, we would probably have gone with them. 3D Innovative (Jimmy) - I had heard of Jimmy's name being thrown around in the forum, but never really thought we would engage him because he's not known for his design prowess. If you look at 3D's portfolio online, their style is actually very different from ours. Also, reviews about him and 3D in general have been mixed, some good some terrible. Nevertheless, we initially shortlisted him because he was one of the first to respond to my call for a quotation. He was also willing to head down to our unit to check it out before quoting (though we didn't require this in the end). After meeting Jimmy for the first time, we were quite comfortable with him. He had some relevant input regarding the practicality of certain ideas we had, and was willing to sit down with us to discuss some ideas we had at length. Since we engaged him, we have met up a couple of times with him to discuss our renovation, which meetings sometimes stretch for hours. So far he has been pretty accommodating. Also, he didn't have a problem if we wanted to subcontract stuff like carpentry and electrical work to other people. He isn't the cheapest contractor around, but his prices are reasonable. Do remember to bargain though, and know the market rate before meeting with him. Having told Jimmy about the negative comments we read about him online, he did his best to assure us that he previously made a mistake by taking on too many projects at once, something which he would try to avoid this time around. After all our discussions, we felt sufficiently assured to give him the project. Let's hope the whole reno process goes smoothly for both his sake and ours.

Thanks OceanEleven. Yes it was a tough decision for us to make, but we decided that in the end we would be able to accept some headache in exchange for some 'luxury' amortised over the next 12 years or so. Do wish us luck

Hi bro, have you completed your reno yet? How's everything? I also engaged Jimmy of 3D Innovative and he's currently doing up our place. Any potential issues I should look out for? Thanks.

klbs, I think we are currently dealing with the same situation as you. We have one huge beam to one side of the room, followed by a smaller recess area on the other side. Our pole system contractor will be building a partition on both sides of the wall as well as on the ceiling, so that a frame can be erected on the partition for the sliding doors. They are quite experienced with these kindda things so if they are worth their salt, they will know how to handle it for you. If you like I can pm you a picture. Hope this helps.

Study which will be shortened to make way for a dining space Tiny bathrooms with fat ugly pipes. We should be boxing the pipes up. Guest room which will eventually become a children's room Wall currently separating bedroom 2 from the master bedroom - to be hacked to form 1 large room with WIW Of all things, I took pretty poor pictures of the master bedroom. You pretty much only see the sides and not the actual space we have to play with. Overall, the previous owner kept it in pretty good condition but the cabinetry was getting to be a bit worn so we will be replacing everything. Helps that they did not have a lot of built in items, which makes hacking easier and less expensive.

Before getting on to the contractor/ID selection process, let's see some "before" pics shall we folks? Part 1 Living & Study area at a glance Nice view of the greenery which greets us and our visitors upon entering the house. We had come across units which had trees blocking the view and consequently sunlight as well, but did not note such problems with this unit. Reverse view of the living room. We will be placing a full height cabinet where the mirror now is. View of dining area/corridor leading to rooms. Current open concept kitchen with island - we will be doing away with the island as we feel it's not the best use of space here. Future yard area

Hi OceanEleven, thanks for your input. Practically speaking, that approach makes the most sense and it's a bit of a luxury on our part to have such a big MBR and convert a room into a WIW. Our long term plan is to stay in this house for at least 10 years, and adjust accordingly depending on how many kids come along. If 1 or 2, they can live together in the same room for at least 10 years or so until they need their own space and if need be, we can then convert the study back into a proper room (albeit smaller than the other rooms). We will be using a pole wardrobe system for the wiw, so that should aid a bit in terms of reinstatement later on. But agreed, it will be more troublesome than leaving it intact. If you don't mind, how much did you spend on your reinstatement works?

Hi YTMO, I've got my t-blog set up, and will be posting pics soon. Stay tuned ya. Btw and I'm no longer surprised, we are also using Design Closet for our wiw! Did you go with Luke? His service has been pretty good thus far. We are also getting the ICOL fan from Chan Huat - love the matte look of it, and apparently it generates quite a bit of air because of the design of its blades. Do you find this to be the case with your fan?

Total area is 1357 sq ft

Just curious, how would you guys structure the layout of the unit if this were your place? Is there anything that we should have or could have done to make it a more livable space?