summersann

FrancFranc!

Went down to the place today to take a look at the progress. All hacked! New master bedroom taking shape On a less happy note: HDB officer is asking for PE endorsement for the windows that we want to install in the bedroom wall facing the stairs. Called and tried to reason with him. He says he'll check with his coordinator again and get back to us on Wednesday Hope the work continues to stay on track! Went shopping for some furniture after. Bought ourselves the sofa that I was eyeing a while ago. It happened to be on sale this week, till the end of the year. At least some things are going well for us

We got the pasta pot, the 10-cup pot, and the 8-cup pot with a long handle it's on 20% sale at Taka now.

Yes!

Thank you!

Found a picture while browsing on the web, and realized that it quite resembled our current kitchen idea. Minus the long metal cabinet handles, metal countertop, the hood and the top cabinets. At least now I have something to help me visualize things Found a picture of our tile from the supplier's website! At least I think this is the right tile Ours is a slightly greyish white shade.

Thank you HappyAng, Onn and May_dream1! And thank you Rover for the advice! Asked the designer to pass us the HDB officer's contact number. They passed it to us, and told us that they'll continue to try on their side first to expedite the approval, but will let us know if they need us to push the officer. Haha Went down today to have the groundbreaking ceremony with the parents. The materials, workers and site manager were already there, spreading the protective covering and etc. It was quite exciting to see all the materials! Work begins! SP services begin too Left the place after a few minutes. Felt like we were getting in the way Shall go down soon to take a look at the progress and maybe take some photos of the "wreckage" Got a little too excited and bought some pots and cups today because of Christmas sales everywhere Did the same at Muji. We're going to run out of space storing these things

Open, definitely! I'm looking forward to my open concept too! May it not disappoint me Still waiting for HDB person to approve the last request. He's giving my designer headache and taking his sweet time to decide if it's "safe" to have a window opening (facing the stairs) for our new master bedroom on level 2. fingers crossed!

Thank you!

The wall (among others), soon to be taken down. The view. Spent about an hour after key collection today, taking pictures of the place before renovation starts tomorrow, and watching the designer and site manager mark the things to be removed/retained. It was quite exciting, hearing the designer go, "this one, don't want.", "this one, hack.", "this one, remove.", all over the house May everything go smoothly!

Bedroom 2. Bathroom (to be converted into the new master bathroom). Original Master Bathroom. From the stairs. Kitchen.

Living room. From the balcony. Stairs. Master Bedroom. Bedroom 1.

Looking forward to your renovation too!

Thank you! yup that's mark! We took a while to decide on the laminates, and are still somewhat deciding haha but Mark and Katy advised that we go for neutral colors because we're the sort who like colorful accessories. Can't wait for things to get moving!

Thank you!! We're on our way to HDB now to collect our keys going down to the place after to meet the designers and let them in so they can mark out the areas to hack. Tomorrow morning is the groundbreaking ceremony that the parents want to conduct, then hacking starts after (hopefully on time). Shall take pictures of the vacant house later! Have you collected your keys yet?

It's definitely more expensive than the usual fridge We've always wanted one, and actually budgeted for the fridge when we were purchasing our house and budgeting for everything, so we were just happy to get our designer's discount! I love the oven! It's very sleek, but the knobs are so cute in a kinda vintage way

Fruitful day of shopping. Bought most of what we need in the kitchen and the bathrooms Finally got the SMEG. The dream fridge. Our microwave. SMEG technology, but made in China. Recommended by the sales person. A good-buy, considering we only use the microwave for heating up food. Our hob. Didn't get the induction one in the end. Sales person recommended getting this since we don't cook much and don't need an induction. I love the oven. Our designers transferred their discount to us at the store, so we managed to save! Also bought our toilet bowls, sinks, showers and taps from another store. Forgot to take pictures of those. But then again, it's mostly standard stuff.

The current leaves motif in the bathrooms. Change the panel to mosaics? Totally undecided! I realize I stopped taking pictures after picking the laminates for our room. Must remember to take pictures of mom's laminates the next time we go down to select the colors for the door and window frames! Meeting the designers this Saturday to go shopping!

Suppose we pick the light wood laminate for our kitchen cabinets. This is how it'll look like. Dark wood? Light wood? These decisions are giving me a headache These colors are keeping me happy Picking the Accoya decking for our balcony. It's clear which one to choose. Love it when the choices are obvious. Not so for the laminates The mosaic tile that the designers are suggesting for our bathrooms. We're toying with the idea of removing the panel of leaves and replacing them with these mosaics instead. I'm undecided. Leaves or mosaics? The laminate for our wardrobe. Goes quite well with our current parquet color.

Finally, we're down to the last week before key collection. Renovation starts the day after on the 21st. Fingers crossed, everything go well please! Met the designers to take a look at detailed drawings and pick out materials. No pictures to show for the detailed drawings, but many shots of materials! With wood skirting. With wood skirting, but painted white. Which one is better? For now, we decided on the wood skirting painted white. The Caesarstones. Osprey was interesting. But we picked Snow in the end for the island. We're using Caesarstone Haze (close to very light grey) for the kitchen countertop, and Caesarstone Snow (close to cream) for the island countertop. The chipped piece of tile is the tile we're going to use for the half-height backsplash in the kitchen. It's slightly bigger than the original subway tile we were going to use (about 5cm longer and 2cm wider, or something like that), but it's got an interesting gradient down the sides, which makes it look really classy. Designers found it on sale (thank you designers!), so it's $6/psf instead of the smaller subway tile's $16/psf. So, bigger it is! Question: Dark, or light wood laminates for kitchen cabinets? Picking the floor tile to go with the wood skirting painted white. Super excited about the floor tile. Designers found this tile (apparently Italian) on sale. Original price somewhere from $8-$10ish/psf, but now it fits our $3.50/psf because of supplier discounts! They're going to place orders for us immediately. This tile doesn't come in the usual 600x600. It's 500x125 (or somewhere around there, can't remember), so it'll turn out parquet-looking in terms of layout. It's also slightly textured, so it won't be slippery. Good for the mom and the dog and cat! We eventually picked the cream colored tile. More pictures coming up!

Thanks for your picture! Helps put things in perspective! Was having a hard time trying to imagine just using the measuring tape

we're totally not heavy cookers (guilty to say, we eat a lot of take-out)

Thanks for all your ideas ultimax! we just met katy and mark yesterday and discussed further about my mom's room. they showed us the detailed drawing for that room and we've decided that it looks quite interesting visually as compared to the usual layout (wardrobe at the wall next to the bed/at the wall just before the toilet entrance). with this current layout, the pipes and trunkings are also neatly tucked away. if we did it the usual way, there'll be trunkings along the wall for the air-con. so we picked the materials to help make the room look brighter and hopefully less cluttered with this design. fingers crossed! we've got a plank at my favorite area, which is meant for sitting and putting on shoes i wanted the concave there because I wanted an area to sit and put on shoes, tuck daily shoes under the plank (dressy shoes and less-worn shoes go into the shoe cabinet behind the wall), and hang my bags/jackets. now it's the headache of making sure we pick the right materials!

Sounds like we'll both be starting and completing around the same time, if all goes well! Looking forward to pictures!

Met with the designers and decided on the hacking and reconstruction plan. ID will be applying for the permit and we'll hear from HDB in a few days (we hope!). Meanwhile, here are some key areas that I'm concerned about (as adidaem previously pointed out as well). Mom's bedroom Am concerned that the area will look cramped with the wardrobe and short wall erected (with a dry vanity on the other side) for the door to rest on. First floor Am concerned that the place will look cluttered upon entering the house, with the small shoe area on the left and the island on the right. Suggestions or opinions welcomed!