RnJ

Been a while since I was here! Our itchy hands last week - we peeled part of the film on the door till we couldn't anymore, it's SUPER sticky. Our contractor/ID said he will get someone in to remove it for us! Yay. :dancingqueen: Tiles of our bathrooms and kitchen have arrived. After going through soooo many different tiles, I've decided that I like: 1. Long tiles 2. Irregular, non repeated patterns 3. Tiles with running tones This is the common bath's. The rocky tiles will be our shower feature wall. Super love the irregularity of the floor tiles. Wish I could find more of these, but the selection's done - hopefully no regrets! And this is the master bath's. There's one missing wood lookalike tile that's not pictured. Think our ID went to pick them up after. The slate tiles are to be laid on one entire wall - our main feature wall in the bathroom - our long vanity top will be placed there. The (missing) wood tiles will be the floor of our shower area. We're trying to keep our bathrooms bright with light coloured choices for wall tiles! Hope it works! Forgot to take pics for our kitchen and yard tiles, it's a grey tile that looks somewhat like the colour of the cement on the ground. The kitchen is in massive destruction, I'm not sure if I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... Part of the kitchen base is hacked to make way for the dishwasher, the walls will be screeded and plastered over, and the floor tiles will be overlaid. The concealed wc structure that's half hacked. We finally decided to go for non concealed so the remaining will be hacked away. Our ficklemindedness is killing my ID (I think, although he doesn't say anything hahaha). I was pondering over this for the longest time - concealed or non concealed. R was like.. "Eh.. the WC is the least of my concerns. Can use can alrdy." Hahaha. I guess females (or only me?) tend to think too much. But still, renovation and building a home is mighty fun!

Thanks for replying.. Noooooo.. We have the same measurements for our sink and counter top. We may face the same problem Maybe you can paint the filter thingy on your tap black, will prob go better! In any case your kitchen really looks good!!

Hello! Don't mind me asking, how wide is your table top and your sink? Was the tap too big? I also bought a similar sink (450mm width) without the tap hole, now worrying about it!

Small, small updates.. Kitchen wall is gone. Yayyyy. Part of the wall is not hacked as it's supposed to cover the back of our fridge. Does it look odd..? Also, living room did not appear to be bigger after this wall was gone, but the kitchen felt alot more open and bigger! Yes! Illusion at work. Developer did not provide tiles behind the kitchen cabinets We're gonna overlay our flooring, our contractor said the tiles were still in gd condition. As for the walls, we originally wanted to plaster over them - a simple look with no wall tiles and just a glass backsplash but I'm having second thoughts on it now. Afraid the walls may come into contact with water from the sink very often and become old/mouldy. Argh. Tile the walls or not???? Common bath on the left - wow it is really just a tiny square box. Gonna have to think of ways to make it look bigger. Master bath on the right - two irritating beams left behind; hope they can be hacked away. Our flooring protected by these canvas sheets Realise the curtain rod is also gone, yay. Happy. Can't wait for the whole house to be rid of the yellowish looking brown. And can't wait for the blue sheet on the door to be gone.. Gonna try peel it off again tomorrow!!

If your ID isn't worried I think the chances of it popping are low.. They know best! Guess I'm just a big worrywart in general. Hahaha. But it looks great now! Def worth your effort looking for the right granite!

Nooo.. Will not keep the bathroom.. It looks like a disaster in current times. Hahhaa. It was provided by the developer many many years back.. Guess this was in fashion back then. Eek. Happy reno to you too!

Yeah.. the condition is quite bad though, maybe it can't be seen in the pics. Marble's cracked, wall tiles are cracked too, parquet's exposed to rain (dear tenant, y u no close window?!?) and faded/scratched, doors locks are coming off, even main door lock is loose.. Everything's gotta go! Can't really put our style into words, would say it is a little mix of modern contemporary and resort. We like bright airy spaces and wood textures/greenery. I like the scandinavian style (without the clutter) but R [my other half] does not unfortunately. Will try to post some pics soon! Xxx J

Hahaha it's the initials of our names, not romeo & juliet tho, we're corny but not that corny.... After checking Interior Affairs out (25% off), the prices were still too high.. we bit the bullet and bought Grohe stuff online. Now hoping it'll arrive safely and ASAP. Good choice on the mariah carey tap - I prefer that too!

Haha they are super loving creatures, they'll prob win over your family in no time! My mum actually likes my dogs now as they're well behaved and don't cause her any trouble. I think that's the most impt point to my mother - no fuss and no trouble!

Wah, it's so good to be able to choose internal laminates!! I'm only given the choice of coloured PVC or top up 15% for wood lookalike PVC. Will you be able to share if your carpentry quote was expensive pfr? Personally, I would not get marble for kitchen top. It'll stain very easily... Try looking for another brand of quartz maybe? You may be able to find lighter coloured quartz

Joining in the puppytalk, haha! Loveeee your pup! She looks so so sweet! What's her name? Anyways, you ordered sofas from Taobao right? Is it comfy (soft?) I'm toying with the idea of customizing a sofa from Taobao (crazy, I know..), and I want a soft, comfy sofa. I've been to china several times and their beds are as hard as a rock. Wondering if it is the same for their sofas..

Your new patio floor looks so minimalist and clean! Your reno seems to be progressing at a quick rate.. Have you decided on your bathroom stuff? Last I read you were toying with the idea of ordering hansgrohe from german websites (?) We're stuck with this dilemma too, to buy locally or to save and buy from overseas webbies. However, we're not sure if the shipping will take TOO long....

Oh noo, this reminds me that my dogs scratch the doors of my current place ALL the time, especially if the doors are closed! I think I've decided not to change any doors for my new place, otherwise I'll go through the same heartache as you with the new doors. Can the scratches be sandpapered away? You could try that, but I think it's difficult for dogs to kick this habit, unless he's trained from young, so he may scratch it again Anyways, your poodle (?) is so fluffy and cute! Xx J

Thanks mishmish! I love how your home is turning out... Can't wait to reach a more advanced stage of our reno, it's only just the beginning.. We thought about overlaying but we were advised against it because it's gonna be prone to all weather conditions (heat, rain..) & the tiles would pop sooner or later (as mentioned by several contractors we met). But the deciding factor was our budget. If we had a bigger budget for reno, then yes, we would most definitely overlay or hack it all up. It's 450sf. We didn't think about the costs of redoing this area when we bought it, didn't know it'll cost so much! Funnily though, I love your old patio floor tiles (the irregular shaped ones). Ahhh, would swap it for mine anytime! P.S Love your daschund too. Hahaha!

Continued.. Forum's driving me a lil insane by limiting the number of pics I can post! BedroomsAll bedrooms look something like this, parquet flooring with built in wardrobes. The wardrobes will be hacked away - all of it! We'll polish/touch up the flooring. Hopefully, it'll look as good as new as some parts are pretty worn out/scratched. Master BathThe wall tiles are marble apparently (couldn't tell - too ugly!) and I. Hate. It. Feels like it's a waste to hack it all away but there's no way I'd keep the toilet looking like this!! The design's so uncool oldschool. Hahaha. After much consideration, we've decided to do away with the bathtub and replace it with a shower area. The current shower area will be replaced with an extended vanity top. Trivia: Apparently it costs more to hack marble and granite. Certain contractors tried to quote us a 4 digit sum just to hack this one toilet alone. Whoa. No way. Okay. That's all the updates I have for now. Hoping for a smooth, smooth reno XxJ

Continued.. KitchenIt's tiny. And everything has to go. The cabinets are filthy, the solid top is yellowed. And there are unknown liquid stains here and there. Ugh. Common BathIt's tiny too. And everything has to go too. Even the cabinet door is dropping off soon. We're gonna replace the ugly/odd shaped shower partition with a modern frameless glass partition. Must!!

Been a while since we were here! Some before pics to look back on in future. Background of our homeIt was tenanted for many years and the previous tenant did not maintain the place very well BalconyWe bought it mainly because of this. The balcony!! Our dogs are gonna love it Sadly, because of its huge size, it costs a flipping bomb to hack up the current flooring, redo the waterproofing etc. We'll prob redo it next time if we can't stand looking at it. As for the time being, we'll fill it up with pretty outdoor furniture, as well as look for a good cleaning company to acid wash the entire thing and remove the stains from the grout lines and such (contractor advised us to look for our own cleaning co, any recommendations??) LivingWe originally wanted to keep the marble flooring, for value and budget purposes, but it didn't fit into our theme no matter how we tried to work around it, so we decided to overlay it with laminate flooring. We're also trying our best to peel away the blue film on the doors (pasted by the previous tenants) but to no avail. Anyone has recommendations on clear solar UV films that (hopefully) prevent heat from entering the house? We prob need professional help to peel the current film away too, it's uber stickyyy. Trivia: We learnt from our contractor that overlaying marble flooring with tiles is a no-no, due to its porous nature. DiningHacking away the wall with the window to create the open concept kitchen we always wanted. Can't hack the entire thing though, part of the wall is supposed to cover the back of the fridge, hopefully, it will not look too weird

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!! :lol: mrmerry, definitely need alot of luck! and can't wait to see how your house turns out! jaykr, yes, we're learning so much as we go along.. love your craftstone TV wall! wanted to do that but didn't have the budget for it, also, we've a large fountain in front of our living room so we're afraid of mouldy stuff growing in the gaps as time goes by.. sigh! edd, haha i'm a longtime stalker, finally able to do my own reno! Z3phy, thank u! congrats on your new puppy too, she looks lovely!

Hello people! I've been a silent stalker in this forum learning all about renovation, and now that reno for our place is about to start (for real..), we've decided to join in the fun and share! Here's our floor plan. Our place has a huge balcony that we love, we bought it mainly for that reason. It'll also be a great play area for our 2 dogs too Everything else is small though, like the kitchen, and the bathrooms... Hacking begins sometime this week. Whoop. Onward we go! Will share more about our ID selection soon. Xx J