leonjennawong

YOU KNOW HOR, the other day my sister suddenly came over to me and went like “Hahaha! Heart Attack Inducing tiles!! Does Jenna know?! Hahaha…” For those who just joined me at my humble T-blog here, my sister was referring to my dearest CFO’s choice of kitchen flooring tiles mentioned in Post #248… By the way, I did show CFO my post about her… She laughed lei. Hahaha.. ANYHOWWWW! Today I have a few pictures to update on my Master Bedroom wardrobe & Master Bathroom vanity cabinet progress!! Actually we had already confirmed our Master Bedroom wardrobe laminate choice before… But we asked for a re-selection of the laminate due to our worry that it will not suit our new choice of the whitish-coloured #Alsafloor Eden Oak… MASTER BEDROOM WARDROBE LAMINATE CHOICE #CalvinTan actually already took the initiative to recommend a couple of laminate colours that he thought would be most suitable for our theme and for matching against the #Alsafloor Eden Oak, and even took pictures of the laminates and sent them to us… ERMMM… But CFO & I (actually mostly me la) didn’t have a good feeling & wanted to wait till we went down to their showroom to have an actual look at the laminate in real life! As it turns out, WE CHOSE THE EXACT SAME LAMINATE CHOICE THAT #CALVINTAN RECOMMENDED. Following which I felt both happy and sad.. Happy that we managed to snag such an intuitive and suitable ID for us; but "sad" that we.. Aiyah not sad la. Well, it was more like a feeling of “Err.. what the…? We should have just trusted his judgement right.” Wahahahaha… We finally went ahead with #Lamitak Oak Granada for our Master Bedroom wardrobe carcass and #Lamitak Designer White for the wardrobe doors PICTURE OF #LAMITAK OAK GRANADA AGAINST THE EDEN OAK #ALSAFLOOR (As the wardrobe carcass will be sitting right on top of the vinyl floor, we were comparing them against each other for colour suitability & contrast!) PICTURE OF #LAMITAK DESIGNER WHITE (CFO’s fingers very shiny hor. *hwing hwing!*) MASTER BATHROOM VANITY CABINET COUNTER-TOP/ LAMINATE CHOICE The colour choice for the Master Bathroom Vanity Cabinet counter-top & laminate was also tough… But luckily we have the trusty #CalvinTan and #Edgar!! Read on to find out why I’m so relieved to have them on my project… The 2 of them actually took all colour elements within that bathroom and put them together in front of CFO & I.. It was a joy to watch them work their designer brain juices at the discussion table.. Heh heh heh... Out came #Edgar’s iPhone with a picture of the greyish stone-like tiles.. Then out came the physical samples of the assorted design motif wall tiles… All the different laminate catalogue books taken out & strewn across the table… And they didn’t even push the decision back to CFO & I; They had a good couple of minutes to think about the existing look & feel of the Master Bathroom, and gave a proposed choice for us to consider. I must commend them again, for their showed really very good ownership on the design. #Edgar even took the initiative to retrieve the big samples of the #Lamitak laminate for CFO & I to visualise! Once again, CFO & I were all smiles, because our decision to engage #PoshHome was vindicated once again. We avoided a potential sticky situation, and finally decided on the not-too-light-and-not-too-dark #Kompacplus 10.20 Boston Cherry and the dirty-scratched-stone-finish #Lamitak Carlo Marmo Flavio DXP 1333K! See picture below! PICTURE OF MASTER BATHROOM VANITY CABINET COMBINATION (#Kompacplus 10.20 Boston Cherry and #Lamitak Carlo Marmo Flavio DXP 1333K) I shall end this late-night Saturday post with a hearty goody nighty to all my dear readers… Have a peaceful Saturday night and the tip of today is: Try to empty thy bladder before watching Transformers 4. Peace out!

Aiyooooo MESSIECAT!! I'M SO SORRY I MISSED YOUR MESSAGE!! *gulp* sorry sorry make you wait so long for my reply... hahahaha... Firstly, I'm very humbled by your question and I will be glad to share what I have found out... Let's get this kick started with the standard face-off of Laminate Flooring Vs. Vinyl Flooring.. *rubs hands together in glee* heh heh heh... (btw fellas, if i missed out anything in this comparison or got some facts wrong, please correct me... Then we can all learn from my mistake! ) CHARACTERISTICS COMPARISON BETWEEN LAMINATE & VINYL FLOORING EXPANSION & CONTRACTION - Laminate flooring apparently expands and contracts a lot more as ambient temperature changes throughout the day. As such, installers will leave a small gap at the sides (joining-line-between-your-floor-and-your-wall). The purpose of the gap is to leave some room for expansion of the laminate flooring to take place. Without which, your laminate flooring may buckle and pop up as the excess matter have nowhere to go. That being said, since there is a gap left against the wall, you may want to install a wall skirting over the gap to hide it! I've been told that vinyl doesn't expand that much and you can cut out the vinyl panels such that they flush with the wall very precisely and beautifully... WATER-RELATED PROBLEMS - An age-old bane of laminate flooring is the warping and discolouration that comes with the DREADED WATER SPILLAGE & SOAKING! *cue horror music!Frantic laminate flooring owners can be heard scurrying off to find the nearest mop* While this is true for laminate flooring in general, I have come across many laminate products that claim that their laminates have wax-coatings on the sides of their laminate panels, which essentially stops this water-soaking phenomenon and the horror that comes with it. Wahahaha... On the other side, vinyl is basically a form of plastic. So you will never have to worry about water-soaking problems. HOWEVER, do take note that if either are not installed correctly (tightly) on a flat surface, you may find that the Makansutra-KF-Seetoh-Endorsed-Maggie-Curry-Gravy that you accidentally spilt on the floor the other day may have SEEPED UNDER your surface flooring and PONDED in the small crevice between your surface flooring & your true flooring. You will never be able to get at the grease trapped under your surface flooring, and that will invite many kinds of nuisances to visit you... Think of algae growth, the 'damp smell' that comes with it, festering of numerous types of pests, and the occasional nightmare that Makansutra's KF Seetoh will come and haunt that patch of flooring where his Maggie-Curry-Gravy lie. HAHA!! I digress yet again. NEW PRODUCT APPREHENSION - Do take note that if an elder chides you for going with vinyl flooring, sometimes it's just because the 'vinyl flooring' they have in mind are those 'hospital vinyl floorings'... If I'm not wrong, BOTH are called vinyl flooring. Other than that, sometimes it's because of the fear of the unknown and the inclination to opt for the familiar, which is laminate flooring in this case... TOXICITY - Both types of floorings have this concern which I cannot stress enough. Toxic gaseous emissions; usually the main culprit are VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and Formaldehyde in particular. If my memory serves me right, formaldehyde is a CLASS II carcinogen (i will not bore you with the details, it's just really super duper bad for your health) the last time I checked.. If this is even a factor for your consideration between laminates & vinyl flooring, please don't just go for the cheapest product (from China and/or dubious sources)... Your home is meant to be a safe haven for you & your family, not a stewing pot of cancerous gaseous emissions! (Dear readers, if in doubt, I'm happy to lend my expertise to look at the Material Safety Data Sheet of any laminate/vinyl flooring product, just send to leonjennawong@gmail.com! ) Now that we got most of the Laminate Vs. Vinyl conundrum out of the way, if you ask for my honest opinion about the #Berry Laminate flooring against the #Alsafloor Vinyl flooring...Well if I were to make a decision again, shockingly enough, I would go for #Berry Laminate flooring. My reasons are below: - #Berryflooring have many many MANY more choices of colours to choose from! - Also considering the fact that you will not be able to get the same cheapo price per-square-foot which I got for my #Alsafloor anymore because they have since increased their price. - #Berryflooring is thicker than #Alsaflooring; as such it gives a more solid feel when you walk on it (no hollow feeling), and it has a higher noise reduction rating, that will really help especially if your house is facing a busy road or the MRT tracks. - Though #Berryflooring is inherently a laminate and not vinyl, I am very impressed & confident of the water-proofing capabilities of their #HydroPlus technology in the #Berryflooring Riviera range - Checked that health requirements are within limits Well hope I helped! Laptop no more battery! Gotta go see ya good night sweet dreams!

Hey ho paintedlady140! Hehe... No la my beloved darling TV console won't be too high for my 60" TV... Actually I've come across quite a few t-blogs and facebook pictures that show a very low-height TV console, with the TV sitting on it. Erm, personally... I think it's a bit too low for my liking leiiiiii.. hahaha... I prefer to be able to slouch backwards in my delicious sofa; and if you can imagine, my line-of-sight will be angled upwards a little bit.. I think there will be lesser strain on the neck when you are slouching in the sofa because your head/ neck is supported.. (aiya but apparently not so good for your spine.. Hehehe.. ) I believe that if the TV is located too low, your neck will be forced into a sub-conscious forward flexion (think of your chin being tucked into your chest)... And that's when neck strains are more likely to occur... I would like to think that ergonomics is something that I should share around as part of my passion for my work in workplace safety & health.. But do take note that while there are general guidelines for ergonomics; it in itself is a very personal matter... What feels comfortable for me might not be deemed comfortable by someone else... Anyway for your information! I am going to mount my TV onto my supported false wall, and not going sit it onto my beloved darling TV console... CAN'T WAIT! HEHE.

Heh Heh OceanEleven good morning to you!! Selamat pagi, zao an! Sorry to be so hyper so early in the morning.. Wahahaha but I am on my way into JB with CFO and my good buddy Mr DF Muscle to go shopping for fans! Anyway hor, CFO is not very technically inclined also, but #CalvinTan will go through step by step with us how to read it.. Of course I already know how to read it but I kept quiet and let him explain in case I missed something out or I misinterpreted something... Let me try to check later if I can upload a picture with better resolution and edit the post above... Yeah can't really read the dimensions hor.. sorry sorry.. Lastly CFO & I decided to get internal white PVC cause we feel it's not really visible cause we won't leave it open most of the time for ourselves/others to see.. So go for the cheapest option lor.. Hehe..

Hello everyone! *wave wave!* Busy busy busy these few days! Sorry for my extended hiatus from this humble little space... My work is killing me. Heh heh MORE UPDATES ON MY RENOVATION! And this time it's...... DETAILED CARPENTRY DRAWINGS! #CalvinTan recently requested to meet up with us to run through the detailed drawings for the carpentry that we are doing.. He actually sent us an email with the detailed drawings first so that CFO & I could have an initial look first, and it gave us the opportunity to discuss between the 2 of ourselves first before we actually meet him... For this, #CalvinTan insisted to meet at our new house... He actually printed out all the drawings in A3-size papers (the drawings were very high quality by the way, see paragraph below for my justification ) and we used these for reference, going to each & every wall where we had discussions right in front of it, which made for easy visualisation and quick decision making! BUT. WHAT REALLY REALLY REALLY IMPRESSED ME about this phase of the renovation is that all of the detailed carpentry drawings are done using the AUTOCAD software... And they were great for visualisation of space because ALL DIMENSIONS WERE DRAWN TO SCALE! I must say I was actually quietly very very pleased with it because it really helped CFO & I to be able to have a good solid mental image of the amount of space that we have on the different walls. Incidentally, this was also one of the reasons that I recently told one of my friends while I was recommending #PoshHome to him... This is what I told him: #1) From what I know, most contractors & other IDs will probably just give you a hand-drawn picture that is not exactly "to-scale"; #2) #PoshHome's detailed carpentry drawing includes the entire wall-space of that particular living space, which was why I was saying that it really helped CFO & I to visualise the ENTIRE wall-space; Most other contractors & IDs only provide a hand-drawn picture of that particular carpentry in question, #3) It's hard to get this kind of service quality assurance.. And I might be wrong but I've not come across this kind of practice so far... So I will term it as a "best-in-class practice"! #4) Lastly, you cannot put a price on the accountability/ competence behind this kind of work quality... (Let's face it, one of our biggest fears is an irresponsible designer or site coordinator, right? ) So without holding you guys back any longer, do scroll-on down for my proud collection of my detailed carpentry drawings! DRAWING #1 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR SHOE CABINET - #CalvinTan advised that the shoe cabinet will not be full-height; in fact will be the same height as our main door so there will be a clean line at that space. - Not building the shoe cabinet to be full-height also gives the impression that it's a loose furniture, that is accentuated by the beautiful pencil legs below it and allows it to be aligned to our scandinavian theme.. - Will change the doors from a 9-door configuration, to a 3-vertically-long-door configuration to reduce the visual mess & give cleaner lines DRAWING #2 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR SIDE BOARD AND COLUMN - the back of our living area - This is the best example of what I was talking about earlier; good representation of wall-space and allowed CFO & I to have a good feel and visualisation - Oh, BTW we decided to have a #Eubiq track in-built onto the top of the side board with a flushed finish DRAWING #3 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR KITCHEN GLASS DOOR - Mainly for visualisation, especially for my unique veneer-wrapped wooden handle (Actually hor, now then I finally completely understand what my door handle will look like wahahahaha... ) DRAWING #4 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR KITCHEN CABINET - view when at kitchen entrance - TA DA! The exact look when we stand right at the kitchen entrance! - The 900mm space on the right is where our fridge will be.. hehe.. DRAWING #5 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR KITCHEN CABINET - view with service yard on right - And to wrap things up, behold the detailed carpentry drawing for the other side of the kitchen - Good for the conceptualisation of the height of our built-in oven & microwave (ergonomically, you wouldn't want them to be too low or too high) and controlling the expectations of the available counter-top space on that side of the kitchen... OK la ok la I better wrap up this post now, CFO is chasing me to go to bed liao.... Just now I told her 15 more minutes.. Now it's been more than 30 minutes liao... So she chase me again. Wahahahaha... Later kenna scolded by her.. Sheesh... Tomorrow's gonna be a looooooong day...! CHEERS TO YOU ALL AND HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND FELLAS!

LOL bianzi! That has not come up before in my discussions with #CalvinTan! In any case, I would not actually blame him if the aircon pipe really leaks because I am fully aware of the risks (which #CalvinTan duly advised) of concealing the air con pipe. Just some sharing on my decision process for the air con trunking concealing: #CalvinTan told us that there were basically 2 common ways of running the aircon pipe; You can run it along the room passageway or inside the bedrooms. Now here comes my list of the pros & cons of both options: RUNNING IN BEDROOMS: PROS: - Passageway is kept clear and nice, without the relatively ugly rectangular trunking running along the top of one side of your room passageway. And I stress that I only say it's relatively ugly because it can be something that only I am fussy about.. Hehe.. so don't get offended ah people... - Less water damage and easier to rectify if/when the aircon pipe 'leaks' CONS: - If you are looking to install a built-in wardrobe over that same wall space in your bedroom (which I am not doing right now for my Reno, but I would like to think that I would some day when we have kids ), you might find that you will potentially have even more problems if/when there's a leak. Leaks at just the right areas will damage your built-in carpentry & the losses will be even bigger. RUNNING IN PASSAGEWAY: PROS: - I can have my option of having of built-in wardrobe for my kids in the future without any worry of condensate leaking out & damaging carpentry CONS: - Like I was saying before, CFO & I find it a tad too ugly & jarring for the eyes.. Hehe.. Having listed out the pros & cons (there might be more that we are not aware of) that we went through, that's when #CalvinTan advised us on the relatively cheap partition box up option, which we ultimately took up! DISCLAIMER: WARNING! BORING CONTENT AHEAD! Haha.. Having already decided that we definitely want to hide the air con trunking as much as possible somehow, we measured the impact of this decision against the Likelihood of Failure & Severity of Failure matrix. Taking the Likelihood of Failure to be the likelihood of aircon pipe leaking, it will be a constant.. And taking the Severity of Failure to be the amount of money I needed to spend on repairs if/when the aircon pipe leaks; The run-in-room-passageway-and-box-up option wins hands down! *cheers!* I should probably also specify another 2 more factors in my decision formula; 1) which is the aesthetic factor of both options but I won't go into detail because aesthetics is a relative concept, different from person to person.. In this case, we think the box-up looks nice enough.. Hehe.. 2) and also the initial cost of building a partition box-up for the air con trunking which I mentioned earlier to be relatively cheap (and cheaper than I expected) In summary, we think the 'box-up & running along the passageway' option gives us the best monetary value (upfront & consequential) and lets us achieve a decent-enough aesthetic result.. HEHEHE. Thanks Songz! Haha at first I also cannot take it. But I love my CFO so much that I also inadvertently fell in love with the kitchen floor tiles. Wahahaha..

Continued...... Partition Works #4) One of the best renovation journey decisions made by CFO & I is the air-con trunking box up!! Really really happy with the finish.. It looks clean, just like a concrete beam, so the ugly air-con trunking is effectively hidden away from view! Good recommendation by #CalvinTan there.. See pictures below.. AIR CON TRUNKING BOX UP (TAKEN FROM LIVING AREA) - You will notice that the horizontal RC beam at the room passageway entrance has been lowered a little using gypsum board as well.. I don't know why the photo is a bit slanted.. #Edgar took the photo I think.. Maybe creative people think differently from us. Wahahahaha... AIR CON TRUNKING BOX UP (TAKEN FROM ENTRANCE OF ROOM PASSAGEWAY) - What did I tell ya?! :) The L-shaped box up looks so neat & tidy right! hehehe... A lot a lot better than having an ugly horizontal trunking running right above the door frames.. Blech.. AIR CON TRUNKING BOX UP (TAKEN FROM MASTER BEDROOM) - And just to show the entire work being done... The boxing up continues into the Master Bedroom.. where it terminates into another FCU.. OK I better go and try to sleep liao. It's 2am Singapore time.. Though back in Maldives, it's only 11pm.. Need to tweak my body clock a little.. Hehe... Good night everyone & sweet dreams! *YAWN* (creative use of emoticons heh)

HELLO SINGAPORE! WE ARE BACK! WAHAHAHAHA CFO & I HAVE OFFICIALLY NEVER BEEN SO SUNBURNT IN OUR LIVES. Really, you know. We are just so super chao ta (hokkien for burnt) & black right now. With regards to our humble renovation, well... What a difference a week makes. #CalvinTan & #Edgar have put up the finishing touches on all the partitioning works for us during our time away... But I only have the older photos for uploading tonight.. So bear with me till I get my grubby fingers on the latest photos k? Partition Works #1) CFO & I decided along our reno journey to box up the hollow recessed walls (flanked by the 2 reinforced concrete "RC" columns) at our living area & our master bedroom... - Living area wall was boxed up to achieve the clean, flat & big wall effect without having to deal with shadows cast by the overhang beam & those 2 "RC" columns; Also can help to run wires behind for my wall-mounted 60" TV.. hehehe (can see the work in Partition Works #3 below) - And the master bedroom wall was boxed up because the recessed wall gave us constraints when we try to maximise the width of our entire wall, which is a balancing act between the curtain pelmet width, side tables' width, king-size bed width & wardrobe length. Without the box up, we think the recessed space would play up against us especially when we try to place our king-sized bed against the wall... Partition Works #2) The 2 bedrooms' false ceilings have been put up, of which I will only show one picture since they all look the same (painting not fully done yet for the photo below, which is why it looks a little patchy)... Oh, and the air-con FCU recesses into the false ceiling have also been provisioned for.. Partition Works #3) The living & dining area false ceilings are also up! Seeing a large piece of plain ceiling without any L-box or cornices for cove lights etc. really gives me a feeling of a big space.. Pleased with the outcome! (take note the painting for this picture is also not fully done yet) The big recessed space in the ceiling is where my ceiling feature beams will go!! Can't wait for the next phase when my ceiling beams go up! To Be Continued.....

Hello Bbbddd, you can try this link http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/64054-leon-jenna-reno-experience/?p=842578... I have changed some things since then but the 3d drawings still gave me a good visual image to work with "imaginatively".. hahaha Hope the link works though.. Hey hey tessina! Long time no see.. I think the last time I saw you was when you recommended #GalangaLiving to me.. hehe good store with good prices! Just a bit too dark for my theme.. Anyway as you pointed out, the kitchen has indefinitely taken a move away from scandinavian theme & towards the vintage theme... CFO is so happy with her kitchen.. And thanks for your nice wishes!!

It's been a crazy week of middle-of-the-night waking up for all the fellow football watchers out there... And I say football watchers, not fans, because I happen to know that there are people out there who are catching the World Cup on TV just because it is the "in" thing to do now.. Wahahahaha... Anyway. Crazy crazy crazy couple of weeks.. Let's see, Spain got whipped at the World Cup qualifiers by the country-of-tulip-lovers, Arjen Robben looks like he is still maintaining what's left of his crop of hair, Cesc Fabregas swapped his blaugrana bibs for the blues etc etc... Oh bother. Enough about the world of football. I'd better blog the latest updates before I disappear for my honeymoon tomorrow morning... MALDIVES, HERE WE COME! *scratches "maldives trip" off from the bucket list* Hehehe.. WELL OH WELL, my humble home renovation has finally started to move into a more aesthetic & colourful phase with all the tiling works being done up!! Oh I just remembered, I forgot to take photos of the air con pipe running & trunking for you all so I guess that will have to wait. And seeing as I recognise that no one is going to be reading all this nonsense that I am typing here, and all you dearest readers are just going to go straight for the photos below, I shall waste no further finger-energies & shan't not don't delay any longer... BEHOLD BELOW... AND ENJOY!! KITCHEN WALL & FLOOR OVERLAY - All the tiles are evenly layed with uniform grouting gap in between... Very happy with the outcome! And it looks like I have to trust CFO's taste more!(anyway she chose me, so I have to give her taste some credit. Wahahahaha... kidding kidding!) The kitchen is giving me this vintage, old-school kinda buzz right now.. Oh, do notice the "empty" box on the floor at the fore-front of the photo... That's where the hinge of the glass door will be situated.. COMMON BATHROOM FLOOR OVERLAY - The downsized photo really doesn't do this finish any justice. One of the best decisions made during this reno journey, which is to overlay the HDB bathroom floor tiles... Good recommendation by #CalvinTan.. He even swapped the original HDB PVC floor trap strainer with a stainless steel one w/o me asking!! MASTER BATHROOM FLOOR & WALL OVERLAY - And keeping in line with the endearing phrase of "keeping the best for the last"... As I do when I save my egg yolks for later; which is something that I do more often than I would like to admit actually...... Ahem. I digress yet again. See below picture for my very beloved assorted design motif tiled wall standing proudly against the other greyish stone-finish rectangular tiles, exuding what-I-think to be a hotel-esque ambience... Yummyyyyy... Will be back in a week's time and in the mean time, #CalvinTan & #Edgar will be doing up the false ceilings, partitioning & painting while CFO & I go for a well-deserved break!! See you all again & have a pleasant week!