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Next up, the flooring and tiles which will instantly set the look of our home, James brought us to Hafary at Eunos Ave 3. It was as I remembered, big with many many (have I mentioned MANY?) options of tiles. Having browsed through tonnes of Pinterest, I knew I wanted subway tiles in the kitchen which my hubbs very kindly let me have my way. So, our mission of the day is to find tiles for the 2 toilets, and the kitchen floor. Both of us thought though we have an industrial theme, we did not want the same for the toilets as it would make it look too cold. Hence we decided that once we choose a nice main tile and the complimentry tiles will easily follow suit. Boy.. were we wrong! First stop, we wanted to choose cement screed like floor tiles.There were only just around 100 types of variation of like tiles.. Not wanting to miss the perfect one, we scanned through everyone till we got numb. haha! We finally settled on a 60x60 grey stonish tile for our kitchen tile and a 10x30 subway tile for the blacksplash. We also chanced upon a display wall of wooden tiles which the hubbs like so we got it as well for the common toilet in the kitchen and paired it with 30x60 white tiles with a slight shimmer. Our common toilet is really small so I hope this will brighten it up and make it look bigger! Fingers crossed =) All this just merely took us 3ish hours? By then we were oversaturated and had to come back another day to deliberate on the master toilet. Going back with a fresh mind helped, we decided to use the subway tiles again and a really pretty diamond shaped tile that will def not win us the tiler's favour! we told each other to mollify him with "liang cha" whenever we see him! Haha!

Hi everyone, I am the wifey of pirvan =) I will try my best to contribute to this T-blog when my son is asleep for the day! 6 years ago, we did not have a fixed theme when we did up our current house.We just knew we wanted to create a warm and cozy santuary with a touch of luxury(just a smidgen) hence lots of wood, greens and warm colours. As posted previously by pirvan. Our wishes were executed beautifully by our prev ID. It was during this time that the hubbs picked up SKETCHUP to better visualize our concepts as well as to plan what goes where. Now, for our second haven,he used the same software( which is free btw)to try out different possibilities of how we want the place to look like while remaining functional. Doing this makes any discussions with our ID James from Design Cube much easier on both sides. As the boss mentioned, since we only have a short period of time to do a complete unheaval,the first few days were a blur of activity with a lot of people coming in and out! After hacking the original study room wall, the whole place really opened up (that will not last long though..) Next came the plastering and start of the toilet and kitchen tiling which was done really well by Jame's team. =) Pic 1:View from the main door Pic 2:View from the balcony Pic 3: View from the dining room Pic 4:View from the front door into the kitchen

Very lovely view.. relatively unblocked..Congrats ! Loving ur dining table and chairs as well , unique !

Hi Jshome, We did Vinyl flooring too ! no regrets.... luving it ever since it was installed =p although we know its resistant to scratches and water , I admit .. We are still very careful with it ..guess our "babying " will wear off in time When we chose "Aspen black " for our MBR ,we were warned that it might be too dark but we still went with it ... Love to see ur pics . Which company are you guys going with ?

Hi Ayazumi ! Firstly , Congrats on the reno being done .. Now... part 2 ! the constant cleaning and steps to make your home HOME! can so understand how tired it can be ! hang in there ya .. take it step by step and remember to take time off away from the house to prevent oversatuation ! W bought many things from IKEA too ..opted for their installation services too namely for our Billy bookcases ..faced a hiccup since they sent the wrong book case ( and if it not enuff, they installed it .. luckily I managed to get a refund on it !) Our shoecases,chairs ,sofas odds and ends we bought on our second trip there and decided to DIY ourselves ... uber tiring but kinda fun as weelll sooo not complaining . haha..looking forward to seeing final pics !

We bought so many things from ikea since both of us kinda like their look but having seen the many reviews abt their pots, cutlery .. we decided against buying them ! Tempting though , the colours are nice !

Hi Ayazumi, super know what you are talking about ,It happens to us too.. The house is also almost always present in all our conversations ! Hang in there !

Hi lovenestinjw, have pmed you!

HiHi! it was due to you sharing your experience that Pirvan stumbled upon Donny.. should thank you !

The ppl who are to install our door lock came today . Why does this need a special mention you might think .. coz we are not having the conventional lock ,instead ,we are getting We agreed to meet at 12:45 but they only came 1.5 hrs later !!Fail.. turns out they cld not get me coz the coordinator gave them the Pirvan's number instead.. Luckily the painters ,electrician was there so i had something to occupy myself . Ranting done.. that said.. The installation took ard an hour ,the lady who came was quite apologetic and friendly.. she taught me what i needed to know about the lock cool concept .. just like the ones you see in korean series ! My mum, after seeing that we installed one is now lusting after one herself !Sigh.. we are a bad influence on her ... We were given 2 original keys which looks like cute dog tags ,with 2 spares.. I hope hopee that I will not lose mine ! zzz..

Nice.. deceptively simple looking with many hidden hidey storage.. pirvan and I are on the look out for coffee and side tables too .

if I say I like, Pirvan will declar war on me !wahaha..We have agreed that we will share half half and I will only shift shift.. if he has excess unutilised space ! no need to be relegated to the storeroom .. resolution !

love the boxes! So vintage ,old school.. so much potential .. hmm must make a trip there to see if i can find anything =p Congrats by the way .. Looking forward to following ur reno journal

Hi Mdshahril, How is your progress so far ? keeping fingers crossed for you too thanks for liking our floor colour..It is called Aspen Black. We mulled over using that colour for a moment ! worried that the colour will be too dark. Whew.. That it looks great ! hmm.. Over the wardrobe,You gotta admit.. Females need much more clothes than guys,more looks, more combis! sooo be prepared if the balance tilts a bit.. just a bit

Apologise for the long hiatus .. Have been down with an irritating flu and both of us have been uber busy with work ..Firstly, thanks for all the suggestions on what kinda "alternative" storage solution I can get for my babe,lol ! We are on the last stretch of the journey .. feel that the progress have suddenly slowed down a lot compared to the beginning ..starting to be a bit tired as the house have consumed our lives for ard a quarter of the yr! nvm since we are finally starting to see the finishing line ! Anyways.. Updates ! Our ceiling fan has been fixed up .. was kinda worried that it would be too low mounted on the beams but it was just nice.. Kudos! The granite and marble tops for our kitchen and vanity has also arrived White marble to be on our island/dining table..The only downside is that the full length of marble has to be cut up into 3 pieces as the full length cannot fit into the lift .. Sigh.. Anyways,the Colour is quite lovely with chocolatey brown veins thru it. Read that marble is ideal for preparing chocolate on it but since it porous and white.. I am afraid that it will stain the surface.. hmm..will have to research more on that.. This was a cheerful fella who kepts humming ,whistling while working .. was game even when I disturbed him to smile for me !lol.. Now, the vanity .. a rich yummy cocao colour which goes well with the whole look .. Almost regret having to put the 2 sinks on top of it since it means seeing seeing less of it. lol The whole look ! There is a small blight though , the white marble had a flaw (an area which is not smooth ) Hoping it can be solved .. The marble peeps will send someone over on monday to have a look.. Keeping fingers crossed! The whole process took much longer than we expected though,we were there to wait for them at 10ish in the morning and the whole thing was only finished at ard 5 ? Uncle B also sent his head staff to do the final touch ups /cleaning of the windows as well.. He was guided by the many.. and I mean many post-its by Donny..all the metal ,plaster bits were cleaned and the windows were fixed,oiled so it will not need herculean strength to open it ..Thanks a lot ! One more major thing down.. Next up.. touch ups of the plastering and painting

Like what Pirvan says.. omg.. tired! Whenever we are free , we try to go down to have a look see ! However on saying that , happy doing it Peeps , remember though , you must try to sneak some R&R time away from the house during renovation to prevent oversatuation ! Now updates ! Remember I said the carpenter told us that they will be using a soft close system that is not BLUM but will work as well as BLUM ? When I "test droved" the cabinets (imagine both of us whipping every door close) , it slowed down before shutting close... I took a closer look to see what rival brand it was and was surprised that they used BLUM after all! Hmm.. Can i dare just say thanks to Mr Donny and Mr Ah Hui ( This is what they call him !) Heee.... Anyway , Pics of updates ! This rolling out cabinet will house/hide our rice cooker ,water boiler ,etc.. Door to our common toilet has been fitted! Whoever needs to pee now have privacy ! This the the 2 guys sent by Ah Hui to do out carpentry .. Their work is really not too bad ! The part where the laminates meet are quite seamless! Tadah ! My WIW ! :dribble:Well, more like I gotta share with pirvan.. whichhh i will gladly do so though I told him I may *ahem use some of his space ! somehow the whole length of wardrobe does not seem as big as i thot ! hmmmmmm

When we brought the sink back the carpenter was drilling holes for our sinks on our vanity , luckily we were there to decide where we wanted our taps.. this might sound weird but I am so loving our vanity more and more.. heh heh! In the next 2 days, Our kitchen cabinets will be up , My WIW will be up , consoles and beams will all be up . When its done,the place will look different again ! Fingers crossed ! At Ikea, after Donny left, we bought the Billy book cases which will be the main feature of the study room ,sofa,larder shelves, solid wood table top which is meant to be our study table .was there till past 11:30 to settle the arrangement of delivery . Shag.. Finally a peek at the DIY mini project done for us by Donny.. swee or what ! Its friday tmr ! TGIF.. nites peeps !

Pirvan is not in Singapore again .. shall let pics do the talking .. The choices that we decided to take for the kitchen table /work top .. keeping fingers crossed that it will work ! The day we had to make a fast trip to Hoe Kee to get the sink since Donny said it is urgently needed for the carpenters to measure and cut the hole on the work top.. It was cash and carry... after which we went to the new home to see the progress of the carpentry These here are not Blum but was assured by our carpenter and Donny that it will work equally well SInce its at a fraction of the price of BLum.. I am not complaining ! Lets see how it goes..

Hi Terrain, I did take a picture of the cover of the samples of laminate . Hope it helps !

In that we are opp.. my babe (pirvan ) likes a biggg Kitchen more than me .. I like the look of it but knowing the amount of cleaning whenever i cook.. ZOMG! lol..

Hi Getzski! read your T blog recently and ya man .. I think ur kitchen laminates and ours are the same ! We have decided to use white marble for the table top and and galaxy black for the work tops ! Donny says the laminate's colour is quite outstanding and that not many ppl is able to take it but we decided to give it a shot !great minds think alike no Thanks for the well wishes !

next comes the choosing of the laminates.pretty crucial too ! OMG so many choices ...never knew there are so many shades , textures, patterns.. and they are so very irresistable and we can only choose 1 . In the end, we chose matched it against the screed wall and felt it goes well together..The pattern is also very natural looking while standing out ! Just think screed, black granite and rustic woods...Lets hope the final effect is goodz! What do you think ?

The bulk of the carpentry in our home will be the WIW and the kitchen island ,both of which is something we really hope to have (and we are having it !) Since young, the kitchen has always been my mum's territory and because of her ,there is always a surprise waiting for us in there. Whenever she cooks,the smell will permeate from there to the whole house ,sometimes even outside.Its also where I will perch on the dining table with my legs dangling and chat with my mum .It is also a place where I bake treats for my luvs! Babe loves to cook as well host cozy gatherings with close pals .In short ,the kitchen is def one of piorities that tops our list . My ideal kitchen must have sufficient space for me when I bake, MUST have an oven , must be easy to clean and maintain annd must of course look goood. For him, it is crucial to have a smooth work flow and must be able to store his equipment easily .. as well as an island.an island's important !! to quote IKEA. The work triangle – creating an ideal work flow The main working functions in a kitchen are carried out between the hob, the sink and the refrigerator. These three points and the imaginary line between them, make up what kitchen experts call the "work triangle". The trick is to position these three points so that they are not too far from each other (this would make you walk backwards and forwards more than you need to when carrying out a task) and not too close to each other (this makes for cramped working conditions). Ideally, the line between these three points should not exceed 6 metres in total. The ideal distance between the different working points is 90 cm. If you’re thinking you don’t have room in your home for a triangular kitchen, don’t worry: the working triangle can be effectively achieved in many different layouts, according to preference and the shape of the room. The three main zones are, in relevance to the working triangle, are: storage (fridge/freezer and dry storage), washing (sink, dishwasher) and cooking (hob, oven, microwave). Placing them well is crucial to achieving an ergonomic work triangle, with a natural workflow and everything within reach. Because of this, he racked his brains and drew ,redrew and redrew diff plans for the kitchen . Finally, he came up with the design u now see in his first few entries . Donny brought the carpenter to do on-site mesurements, He is the guy who is in charge of all carpentry in our home .. dun let first appearances fool you..THough he looks "bengish " ,realy take my Hat off to this man . He went around with us to confirm what kinda cabinets we want, what height , gave us advice on better ways to do something etc..without penning anything down on a piece of paper.After that , he just took a fresh sheet of paper and started a rough draft of how our kitchen will look like .. though i know it is normal for him, but still impressed!

Hi everyone .. slowing filling up all the gaps of the reno process that has happen so far .. We have chosen our lighting ,scv,telephone and what not.. during our initial brainstorming sessions on deciding the number and location of the lights ,we racked up a total number of ard 40 points *gasp ! a shocker for me since my family home have no down lights, no cove lights at all.It was just one ceiling light each to illuminate each room . we squeezed our brains together and managed to reduce a impressive number of .......4 Babe wanted points in every possible corner of the room .. rationale was that since we are already doing it , we might as well put them in case we need them in future. Have asked my friends' abt it and have discovered that it is the same for their hubbies as well .. Maybe it is a guy's thing ? hee.. Introducing our electrician ,Kok Heng . he was quite patient with us though we changed our mind a few times . An overall quiet guy with occasional spurts of dry humor..quite happy to have him in charge of our lightings . This is him in a "meeting " with Donny regarding the lights and fan in our living room . our walls and floor were their drawing board He is a one man show who is quite efficient , withn a few days .Our wires were rerouted and switches in place . which are by the way MK switches. Have read that Legrand switches are THE ones to go for but they are really expensive. Both of us dun really go for brands anyway, if it feels good ..we'll use it ! Next up.. shopping for the actual lights! Ooots..

Hi Ayazumi , I agree.. The table was solid wood with very unique legs ! very rustic and one of a kind ..but we already have a dining table sooo nah.. did not get it . Thanks for stopping by !