paloma

Our kitchen appliances, waiting to be installed Going back to the basics with pen and paper drawings

Our kitchen counter almost done without grouting A worker filling the bricks with grout

Day 6-8 Our renovation work moves ahead speedily! Over the last few days, we had workers come in to fix our electrical wiring, more work done for our brick walls, and (gasps!) our kitchen counter almost completed! Fixing the wiring for our living room lights Craftstone in the master bedroom without grouting

Day 2 and 3 We were surprised to see that the red brick wall in our living room was up by Day 2. We love the exposed brick look, so even though some people may think it's quite overdone these days, we decided to stick to it anyway. By Day 3, the workers started to lay the cement structure for our kitchen counter. We'll be laying white subway tiles over it with black grouting. The brick wall in the living room A worker laying the cement structure for our kitchen counter

Hi thanks, will do!

Renovation Day 1 Our contractor came with a group of subcontractors, armed with their big tools, ready to start work at our place. Soon, our house was turned into a warzone, and we knew it will not be the same again! We must say, the work was done very quickly. Within an hour, two of our walls came tumbling down right before our eyes! Our kitchen wall getting the axe/A worker halving our study room wall Drilling the foundations of our kitchen wall Last bits of the wall before it all came crashing down This is warzone

Our floor plan: How our house looked like before the renovation: The living room The kitchen The master bedroom

After a year of waiting for our sale of balance flat, my fiance and I received our keys from HDB in March this year. We spent a month looking for a suitable contractor, and finally decided to go with one recommended by a fellow renotalk member, whose house we were really impressed with! As we had a good idea of how we wanted the house to be, we decided not to engage an interior designer and take on the renovation project on our own - with the contractor's help. At this point, we can't say if it was a smart move or if we were foolhardy, but diving into such a massive project - building your own home - is definitely not for the weak-hearted! There are endless decisions to make (Should we hack the kitchen wall? Where should our light points be? How thick should the brick wall grouting be?) and not having expert knowledge means we have got to do research on almost EVERYTHING. But so far, we are enjoying the process and hopefully will be rewarded with a beautiful home! We have rather ecclectic taste so there's no one style that we are aiming for. But we foresee there'll be a mix of mid-century modern, scandinavian and vintage elements in our home. For those who share similar tastes, we'll love to hear from you and share ideas and deals! Hope all of you will enjoy our future posts!