My Dream Home - 4 Room In The Central Area

[mabaricows 0]

Woo.. Nice choice of living hall flooring tile, looking really interesting, size would be 60x60?

Think the final product will be very nice.

[Terencetcw 0]

Hi calliecats,

I love glossy things too...if im remember correctly at Hafary i did see something this is shinny

Imagine whole house flooring that shines with down lights~ Is so elegant

Any lining inside the black homo tiles? as i could see some lines inside the tiles...crack?

[calliecats 0]

Thanks for all the encouragement! I know some people will never use black. I just think it's cool & chic. Now I'm deciding on the grout colour to be used. Many people don't think much about the grout colours after choosing the tiles but I've discovered that it makes a great difference to the overall look. My contractor also shared with me that there are actually many many grout colours available (like rainbow colours, no kidding). I used to think that it was only available in black & white (haha). So now the possibilities are endless. The black tile for the bedrooms & the one for the living room are both 600x600mm. Counting down to hacking day!!

[starhopez 0]

Hi all, mid week already! I've gone for my tile selection (actually I had to go a few times before I could decide as there were so many choices!). Changed my mind a few times too. Decided to rip out the laminate flooring and replace the whole apt with tiles instead. For all the good things said about laminate flooring, I still prefere the squeky clean feel of tiles. So these are my final tile choices:

For Living Room/Dining Area & Bedrooms Floor(bedroom floor will be all black glossy)

For Kitchen & common bathroom (the floor will be the same grey tile for both bathrooms & kitchen, the white "pop out" tile will be for the common bathroom walls)

For master bath (the grey "horizontal" line tile is for the shower area only)

.

My contractor is a fairly young guy but he is engineering & electrical trained so he was able to advise me on the viability & on the technical aspects of my design, which I'm totally clueless about. I will go crazy if I take on someone that just tells me "up to you, lor"-that would simply be unacceptable to me! My contractor was also able to give me a quote that (compared to other contractor quotes I got) is very reasonable Upon his advise, I have also decided to incorporate mirrors in the living area & glass panels & doors to replace some walls that will be knocked down. He said that it will make the space look bigger & will give it a "manhattan apt look" (I like!!). He is patient even though I changed my mind a few times during the tile selection & accompanied me several times to change the order. Overall, I would say that I'm extremely comfortable with our working relationship up till now. Crossing my fingers that everything will go smoothly. Target to start hacking in 1 week's time.

Hi!

Can you share your contractor contact to me at starrypinky21@yahoo.com.sg?

Thanks!! =)

[calliecats 0]

Hi all, sorry to all fellow forum users who have been following my blog for the long absence! Shortly after my reno, I was posted overseas by my company for a few months & have just returned. Thus the long hiatus. I'm back now and it looks like I've got alot of backdating to do Please be patient & I will retrace my reno journey here to share with you.

[calliecats 0]

Here are some pics of the apt after the previous owner moved out:

Foyer Area/Kitchen Entrance

Living/Dining Area

Entrance to the rooms

Master & Bedroom 2 (the wall in between would be hacked)

Inside the rooms

[calliecats 0]

Kitchen

Bathrooms

Both bathrooms were original HDB style. Both would be drastically transformed by my contractor & would spot 2 totally different looks! Watch this space

[calliecats 0]

Good morning! As promised, here are the hacking pics. To make it easier for everyone to follow, I will be posting the pics in the order of the reno progression. As I was quite busy with work during the reno process, most of these pics were taken by my contractor & emailed to me every other day to keep me abreast of the progress. I was very pleased with my contractor for even thinking of doing this small thing for me!! 2 Thumbs up for service & customer satisfaction

In hindsight, I now understand why my contractor was so detailed about everything even before we started. He even went down to the smallest details so that he could get my opinion & preferences. Initially, I found it puzzling why he asked my views on all the small things but I went along with it. Later, he told me that it would be frustrating to many people if the contractor gave them some general quotation & then in the middle of the reno added all the additionals, which means extra $$ by the owners. I have heard of some friends whose reno bills blew up an extra 30%-50% from the original quotation. This also made many of their working relationships with their ID/contractor tense & unhappy. Being new to reno & not in the business of construction, sometimes as owners we do not even know when looking at the quote whether there are missing things or not. I appreciated his honesty & I was able to keep very near to the original quotation with only some small changes & no major hidden cost(I can say this on hindsight because my reno is over already). So I thank my lucky stars.

Living Room

Kitchen

Before hacking down kitchen wall

After hacking kitchen wall

Edited May 16, 2012 by calliecats

[ayazumi 0]

You must have been waiting very long for this renovation to happen. Seeing that the first post you posted was in August 2011. Must be quite anxious. Congrats!

[calliecats 0]

Hi ayazumi,

My reno was actually completed 1st week of Nov 2011, took 6-7 weeks from hacking to completion. Then, could not enjoy it as my company sent me overseas shortly after that

[calliecats 0]

Here are more pics of the hacking process:

Bathroom

[calliecats 0]

Window grilles all removed (I'm not going to have any grilles):

Master Bathroom before hacking down the walls (I will be having an all glass master bathroom, so all walls down):

Master Bathroom after all walls hacked:

Wall between Master bedroom & bedroom 2 down, to merge into 1 big master bedroom with walk in wardrobe:

To open up the apt further, I made a decision to hack the top half of the wall between living & master bedroom & replace it with glass & blind:

[May_dream1 14]

WOW!!! full glass master toilet! i like....

[calliecats 0]

Hi May_dream, yes, indeed! I toyed with the idea & then with my contractor's encouragement, I went ahead. Loved it ever since

[May_dream1 14]

Hi May_dream, yes, indeed! I toyed with the idea & then with my contractor's encouragement, I went ahead. Loved it ever since

show pic lah.... i want to see....