PinkMonkey
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Everything posted by PinkMonkey
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Current progress, the wall panels are up for living room. Hubby also fixed his speakers, but yet to do his cable management. Remaining work for living room : Curtains and skirting. Contractor also helped to fixed up the sofa and chair we bought from TaoBao. Will share our TaoBao buyings later. The wall panel for TV looks lighter in real life than in pictures. Look from master bedroom out. Our fengshui plants is also placed. Draceana plants are also chosen NASA plants to purify toxic in the air, hope to purify those renovation chemical smells away. The wood panel in this pic looks more like the real life color we see.
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Planning for Living Room - Part 3 (Wall Panel.. Cont) This is how Wall C is done. Even for the top part, the wires are concealed. For Wall A & B, its the same. Except it does not need Layer 1. It only needs layer 2 and 3. Layer 1 and 2, anti-insect and anti-termite oil are applied, this helps to prevent insect in future. (Just to play safe). Layer 1 is there to level the wall, as there is wires passing through. Layer 2 is where they nail the plywood onto the wall. Layer 3 is where the laminate are pasted on. And then Layer 3 paste onto Layer 2. So there is zero nail on layer 3 and yet holds together very strongly.
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Planning for Living Room - Part 2 (Wall Panel) One of the reference picture we used when designing our own wall panel is this. Why wooden wall? In most scandinavian home, you will see white brick wall. For us, we wanted scandinavian, but at the same time very practical as well. We wants somethings easy to maintain, so wall panel was our choice for the wall beside the dinning table, behind where we sit, and where the TV is. How good it is if you don't have to worry about dirt on your painted wall where you can clean. What we wanted to achieve is 1) Vertical arrangement of wooden wall panel. To make the wall looks taller. 2) The wood pattern in vertical lines as well, we hope this further make it even taller. 3) Make the wall, where the TV is placed looks longer than it should be. Because this is the 1st wall you will see when you open the main door. 4) Conceal all wires You may be thinking, if you want the wall to look taller, why use false ceiling? - Hiding wires, clean and sleek look. This makes the wall looks and feel taller than it should be. How we use it... So... how to adapt this wall panel to our home? Firstly, the laminate we chosen, max length is 8 ft. And we didn't wanna have any joint, so each panel = 8 ft tall. To get that seamless look. Then we have to plan width of each panel. Wall A & B will have 3 panels each of the same width. Wall C will have bigger width panel. There is 3 main ideas behind this arrangement. Wall C : If you see the picture below, by right, it should look really long, but since some parts are taken by the DB cabinet, so it is not that long anymore. To make this wall looks longer, we use wider width of the panel on this wall. Also, we use a slightly darker tone. Wall A & B : We use smaller width panel because this portion of the house is broken up by the passage way to the rooms. If we use same or wider width than Wall C, it will make Wall A & B in comparison smaller. so the smaller panel is to make the wall looks "bigger" We want the light to come in gently into the passage way. - Metal strip / trims were not used in between each panel. As we wanted to have a more comfy, warm feel. So we opt for black paint for the "gap" in between panel. This helps to create a bit of depth, making the laminate more standout.
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Planning for Living Room - Part 1 (Configuration) First thing we consider when planning for the living room was natural lighting. How lights enter into the living room. And how we can make use of it to lighten up the place. Tool we use is http://suncalc.net/ Secondly, we use this to see in general wind directions http://www.windfinder.com/windstatistics/singapore_changi Using these 2 tools + Google map, you will know the which direction sun and wind enters your house, and when and where you expect your house to be hotter. This helps you determine where to place your sofa, your TV etc (although in general you have limited options, but still you are able to pick the best out of the situation).
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Yup, I wanted to explain more on the living room in the next few posts. Quite a few thoughts were put into consideration when planning for the panel. quick answer 1) Yes, its laminate on plywood, but 2 layers of plywood were used. 2) No vertical metal strips between the panels.
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Thanks for the advise. You're right, actually on that planning doesn't include those existing power point. We have only added power point to the dinning area. The sitting area and fan area already have power point.
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Shopping list - TV There are just too many choices in the market for TV, with roadshow sales every weekend. Which TV should you buy? And what to look out for? I have breakdown the selection process to these 5 main points to ask yourself before hunting for your TV, so that you do not fall in sales talk trap and buy on impulse. - Budget - What do i normally watch? Sports? Movies? - Viewing distance - Placement of your TV - 4k or not? Budget TV value depreciates real fast, and technologies improves real quick. No point blowing up your budget now to get the biggest, when price potential drops 30-40% in a year. We can spend more on other renovation stuff. Content If you like Sports or Gaming on TV, go for tv with less motion blur. What i really means is those 60hz, 120hz, 800hz alien looking figure that TV sales man tell you during TV selection. In Sports program, quite often you see fast motion or camera view can pan over very fast. for example, soccer where the camera follows the ball very quickly. In big TV, if it is native 60hz, almost 90% chance you see those motion blur. But does this means buying a 800hz tv will be safe? Not exactly, in the market, most TV are either native 60hz, 120hz or 240hz (rare). 800hz for example are achieved by using TV's processor and artificially fill in pixels to make the motion more smooth, and that 800hz maybe recorded based on "best" results like a non-moving image. Below is an example of a very bad motion blur vs a decent tv. Simple way to choose: Google the TV model, go the manufacturer site. Look out of specification and look under native panel refresh rate. If it is 120hz, you have a chance of being a happy customer. If you like Movies, go for tv with deep black. In TV, many TV do not produce really black color when it should be black. You normally dim down your room when watching movies, and have deep black tv really sets the mood in. Simply ask the sales person to show you some very dark movies, like Batman. Here is comparison between a bad deep black vs a good one. The good one, black color is deep and uniform across the screen. In most showroom, you notice they always show you very bright landscape images demo, and you could easily missed this important factor if you want to use your tv for movies. View distance The closer you sit, the easier you see pixelation. Use this chart as a guide. Since our free-to-air channel are now all digital (HD 1080i), it's time to get a big TV ! Placement of your TV This is simple, if the place you are going to place your TV is near window.... well.. this happens to most BTO flats. Then you should get a Flat screen one, avoid curve tv at all cost! If possible, choose a matte finish screen over the glossy one. Glossy one gives too much reflection, making you hard to concentrate and bad for your eyes. Curve TV gives out even more reflection! 4K or not! Most TV content now are FullHD (1080p). You get 4k mainly only from paid TV. There are also TV with 4K upscaling, meaning their processor fill up more "agar agar" color to a FullHD and fill up more pixels. End results will be, it looks more "clearer" than a FullHD, but less detail than a true 4K content. The difference is really small. My choice in the end is Sony R550A - 60in. - My budget was $1500. Didn't want to spend any higher, as I want something that I can easily change after 2-3 years, without a headache - I watch mainly FullHD stuff, no 4K content. - I didn't need a smart tv, because I am connecting to android TV box anyway, which I can change easily later.
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You have really sharp eyes! Will post pictures of the toilet once the lightings are up. On biz trip now, relying on hubby to supervise work progress. We plan to use it as the side and backing of our wardrobe. Because large area of the backing is facing the bed, and the bed frame will use wood laminate, we wanted to create a contrast between the element used.
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End of the day, 1 portion of the living room wall is up. 2 more to go !
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Then, contractor further confirm interior of our MBR wardrobe. And let hubby have a feel after placing wardrobe, the remaining space for our King sized bed, if it is still ok. Planning of our wardrobe, 2 full sized area. Mine is with the pull out mirror Contractor explaining the space the wardrobe will take up. Another thing i didn't notice yesterday, the L-box for my air-con piping to the MBR bathroom looks quite neat. And then it's fixed up! We also brought this wardrobe sensor light from Ikea for contractor to install
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Today hubby went to supervise abit, and keep me updated through whatsapp Mainly due to contractor wants us to see some effects of the real thing before he do, as we didn't do any 3D drawing. Also he mention that it is better to see the real thing. Well, i think its good, at least better than after finish doing, and i have a shock. Most raw material for carpentry arrived. "Back-bone" of the feature wall is already up when hubby is there. the contractor crew team was rather fast and kept the last 2 pieces unseal to confirm with hubby placement of those speaker wires.
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Wiring started in the kitchen as well.
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Renovation Week 2 Well, it progress faster than we expected ! - Floor tiles layed for the whole house - False ceiling completed - some of shopping loots are here as well. Floor tiles are done, once skirting are up as well, then floor is 100% completed. False ceiling up !
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Thanks, will keep a look out for her post. Me too, can't wait to see the end results.
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That whole dbox "cabinet" or wall is about 20cm in dept. Picture of top and bottom. My LAN cables are done as well, requested the contractor to help me do it.
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False Ceiling and L-Box Well, 1 of the key element of theme is Minimalist. So less is more! Some good gesture from contractor without prompt, he helps to cover all up all air-con blower and and cupboard is used to cover the main door, to help protect these items without extra charges. I am glad that he pays attention to details, and even placing protective cover for electrical wires that run through the ceiling, saying it helps to ensure wire inside false ceiling does not easily wear off overtime and creates potential fire hazard. False ceiling & L-Box is used to hide these things Air-con piping Wires, especially all those speaker wires you can see below Tips & Tricks You do not necessary have to do very low false ceiling to hide those piping, using L-box does the trick as well. Hanging things on ceiling affects perception of a home's height. Making it feels smaller, so avoid hanging many big bulky lights or ceiling fan. Use CL2-rated speaker wires, they are meant for in-ceiling installation. And they are 3 times cheaper to get it from amazon or monoprice.com L-Box used to hide piping that run through the passageway All these wires into the home shelter which serve as media centre.
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Laminate selection After buying lots of Home&Decor mag, I kept seeing Lamitek laminate, and really like them. After asking contractor to show us other brands for comparison, the decision was clear. Off we went to the showroom they have at Jurong. We really like the clothe like laminate, and thought that it will be good to use in the bedroom, to bring out the softness of the room. Tips & Tricks Plain matte finish laminate are often finger print magnet. Consider this before choosing. Visit their warehouse if possible to see the full sized laminate. This is very important if you select laminate with wood-like or stone-like design. Because it is often hard to visualise the end product by just looking at sample. Stack laminate together, and if you also bring your tiles sample, place them together and see if they compliment each other. Pay attention the thickness of the laminate. Thin one are prone to chip off.
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Tiles selection Intend to use wood tiles for the whole house, except toilet. We chose wood tiles over real wood is because we don't really trust HDB quality these days, if water seep through our walls, our wooden floor will be gone, and this seems to be a common case these days. So wood tiles have the benefit of wood looking, and that water durability. Cons will be you cannot get that same soft wood feel when walking on it. We went to SBH @ Jurong, didn't find much we like. And later on, went to Hafary. They have more wood tiles selection, and their selection looks more natural (and more expensive ) Tips & Tricks Italian woods tiles vs china woods tiles: Italian one are more random, which gives an overall more natural look. maybe after every 5-6 tiles in a China tiles box, you will see repeat. In showroom, you always see they put up only 2-3 rows for display for china tiles, but italian tiles, they display in bigger surface to "hide" this fact. The longer the tiles the nicer it will be. Example 30 x 120 looks very nice, but not suitable for HDB where space is smaller. As it increases chances for tiles to warp on both ends = uneven floor. Always bring floorplan for them to advise the best suitable length you can go. Depends on your lighting selection, bring selected tiles under warm light and white light to see the variation under different lighting. Due to the color of tiles you choose, the color may turn out really different. Bring those sample tiles to your actual home for same comparison as well, due to facing of your home the effect will varies Google the tiles and manufacturer. In our case, we like what we saw on the sample pictures from the manufacturer site. Not all shiny surface tiles is slippery. For most tiles from good manufacturer, they produce both non-slippery one and normal one. In case, you seen some nice looking one you want for toilet, but not sure if suitable. Avoid dark plain color tiles for toilet, they are hard to maintain due to the water stain. A quick googling, this color tone of the wood tiles also fits well with the all black kitchen cabinet we have in mind. During our tiles hunt, we encounter this very large tiles (120 x 60) and it is glazed tiles! So suitable to be used for kitchen top. It has a near marble like look, and will match our cabinet well. Most importantly, it is large ! Main reason for this selection: - less joint for the long kitchen top. because it is long enough. Our kitchen is 2metre long, 1.2m means only 1 joint! - significantly cheaper!! as compared to counter top and granite.... not forgetting the expensive marble top. We also saw this display wall. And feel the great potential it will be in using in the toilet.
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Planning Some of the wishlist we have. - No TV console in living room. - Home shelter serve as media rack + storage - Wardrobe to block toilet door in Master bedroom. The lights when someone enter toilet at night sure interrupt other partner sleeping. Hubby wants to do a 5.1 speaker setup.
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The search for ID and contractor started ever since we got the dates on our key collections. Been to Expo, IMM and other reputable ID showroom... countless session and it was "interesting" and disappointing. In the past years, we were preparing for our new home, and I had many talks with my german and uk colleagues who have experience doing their own home improvement project. Learnt many things on renovation, and after talking to those ID, most were rather pushy for sale without much knowledge on renovation. They just try to smoke us through things. In the end, my parents introduce the contractor Y who previously did their home 15 years ago. Meet up with him and show him our ideas. Was impressed with his frank approach of telling us directly what can be done and whats not. Proposed realistic and yet does not sacrifice aesthetic ways of doing renovation, price was reasonable. And that's how our renovation journey starts.
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Moodboard Theme: Scandinavian, Minimalist, Contemporary Colors: Natural wood color, White, Grey, Black We love the warm woody feel, and the hubby wants some powerful speakers at home. But I was thinking... so little space, how to squeeze in those big floor stander and yet doesn't feel cramp... Main idea for the kitchen is sleek black/stainless steel combination.
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Thanks bykaraanne!
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Some photos before renovation: This is how "wide" the living room is ! Seeing all these pipes, I wanna faint
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Hello everyone ~ After years of waiting, finally I got my keys to our new home. We have chosen a 3 room BTO, it's small I know... but with 2 years of info gathering in this forums and other platforms, we believe we can make it into a comfy abode! Contents (To be updated soon) Shopping list a) TV b) Oven c) Cooker and Hoods d) Fridge e) Air-Con f) Bathroom accessories g) Laundry system h) Wifi remote controller i) Ergonomic furniture j) Other interesting stuff Completed Looks a) Living room b) Kitchen c) Bedroom 1 d) Master Bedroom e) Common bathroom f) Master bathroom As part of my job needs, I travelled quite abit and get in contact to many interesting home living concept that really helps make full use of space. I believe it is possible to enjoy comfortable living even with small area. Let's begin with the floor plan.
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