Karyn Tan

Hey Rachel! There are new tiles constantly coming in… you be spoiled for choice when the time comes for tile shopping.

Ooh the track lights didn't come with remote But it's another type of lights, I didn't post the pics. Sorry for confusing. But hey, we also got the bigger sized ones. we thought they looked alright so we are sticking with it.

What?!? Has it been nearly 10 days since I last updated on the progress on my home renovation? Well… that is about as much as the progress I am experiencing in reality since the carpenter came down to take the measurements for carpentry works and nothing else moved. Honestly, I ain't quite sure how to continue with my update as everything is pretty much hanging but nonetheless, I am now presenting… CHAPTER 5: Work-In-Progress The tiling works had long been done and we were just waiting for more works to be added. The floorings and wall tiles are all up, followed by the lightings. A day/night comparison of how our feature wall looks like. Did I mention that the track lights were also purchased from the amazing TB? It has been turned on/off several times and left on each time we visit. These track lights are running perfectly well till date. The hubby also purchased some amazing lights for the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and even service yard. What is amazing is that the lights come with remote control which you can adjust cool or warm light, bright or dim light to your liking. You can even switch off the lights from the remote if you are too lazy to walk over to the switch to do so. And our beloved peranakan tiles that sit proudly along our bedroom walkway. We love how cozy it looks when the lights hit on it. It took one weekend day to put up the lights and put back the bathroom fittings. Pardon the mess. The hubby and I camped at the flat to fix up the DIY cabinets which we bought from Ikea and TB. This chapter to be continued with the pictures of my bathroom in its 70% done state… BRB

Hello, Mrs Khoo! Thanks for the comment! We wanted to have some flexibility in the bathroom so that we can opt to paint the walls over with other colors from time to time or simply add an additional coat of paint to freshen it up. I don't think it would get that mouldy though… I somehow recall that bathrooms in old flats are done up similarly too. Nonetheless, we have requested for weatherbond paint to combat the wetness.

Sorry, haven't been logging in here. Was occupied with seeking out cheap and good deals to furnish the home. Yes!! PV! Hello, future neighbor, Blk?? Level? I'll PM you shortly!

Wow, Songz sharp observation there! Thanks for the tip! Lucky for us, we aren't the heavy cooking sort otherwise it would be a major headache! Dwinsplace, Yes, I'm sooo in love with that color theme. My exact sentiments on the corner tiles. Love it how it is brilliantly thought out, kudos to my hubby's intensive research. What are the items have you purchased from TB so far? Which agent are you using? Do share your experience!

Hello again, Didn't mean to disappear for too long. Here comes... CHAPTER 4: TILES LAYING Having gone through rounds of discussions, we finally took a trip down to the tile shop to make our selection. These are what we chose: #1 Subway Tiles: Bathroom #2 Peranakan tiles: Foyer #3 Cement-like tiles: Bedrooms #4 Wood-like tiles: Living/Dining area #5 HoneyComb tiles: Kitchen Backsplash Daring choice? Don't care… just whack. Hahaha We realized that we have actually exceeded our budget after selecting the tiles and left item #1 and #5 out from the local supplier. Instead, we got it directly from China! Here are the 3D drawings based on our tiles and laminate selection: A lot of tiles = a lot of maintenance. Yep, we have heard. It really doesn't matter now cause to my hubby and I, it's Ai Swee Mai Mia (choose aesthetics over easy maintenance) . Since it is our first home, we have forgone any reservations and went with our gut feelings. If we don't personalize it and make it our space, when would we ever get this chance again? These 3D drawings are to provide only a perspective and does not reflect the finer details such as furnishings and bathroom fittings. We couldn't quite start work until all the tiles arrived. On a hindsight, we should have placed our orders from China earlier. This is how it looks like when it eventually arrived. This is only the first shipment. We have purchased our stuff periodically and as we are speaking right now, we are waiting for our 2nd shipment to arrive. We checked the boxes and most of the items arrived in good condition. The craftstone bricks we ordered below: The regular craftstone bricks turned out fine but many of the corner bricks didn't survive the hazardous shipping. Thank goodness we ordered plenty of extras of the corner bricks. In the end, we had sufficient left to fill what was needed. Here's a parting shot to tease your "appetite". We didn't plan for this but these peranakan tiles made its way here after a very quick and spontaneous discussion with the tiler. More on the renovation progress in my next post!

Hello Songz, Thanks for the thought! We are going with white, silver and some tones of brown. All is good as long as the primary color is one of those. Hahahah! Okok, the designs are coming up… slowly. Hope it doesn't disappoint. Yep, agree on point number 1. So we are keeping other basic elements as clean as possible. Thanks for highlighting point number 2. Have lived in older apartments where there are much tinier tiles esp in bathroom and kitchen so this is a blind spot to us. Let's see how it goes… heehee..

Congrats!

CHAPTER 3: OUR DESIRED HOME INTERIOR DESIGN With the aid of the Internet there is a vast supply of home inspiration available. Good photography coupled with a little styling is all it takes to make a space so desirable. Here are some inspirations we ripped off the web. Step 3: Visualizing our future home 1.Living/Dining Area (Lines & textures with lots of earthly tones) Yes, the brick wall trend has hit us hard. Despite how this brick wall has been done to death, there's just no way we can peel ourselves away from it. L-shaped sofa is another must-have for me which is usually challenging for small spaces. See how it sits in here without looking out-of-place. The hubby and I agree that this is a cleverly designed living/dining area that is multi-purpose - You can work on your com, dine and socialize all within this space. Very functional for a typical Singaporean unit. What the hubby had envisioned was mainly to play up the interior with lots of lines and textures. Below was what our intended TV console would look like, supposed to flush all the way to the dining table to double up as a seat. But this one was quickly shot down when the fengshui master instructed us to reposition our TV console. 2. Bathroom (Patterns & tiles) It is still all about textures and lines. I think subway tiles are quite the rage now. Makes the bathroom look rather old school in a beautiful way. There was also at one point in time when I fantasized about injecting some pink into the bathroom. 3. Kitchen I absolutely looooooove the material of the cabinets that sit in this kitchen, making it look so raw yet inviting. My kitchen fantasy was crushed when the fengshui master gave the option to use any of these 3 dominating colors only - White, Sliver or Gold. Like that, how??? Apart from the look and feel, we kinda had a wish list for elements to be included but wasn't quite sure on where to place them. 1. Chalkboard Wall I love to doodle and I have no doubt that my kids will do so too. I needed a space where the kids can make a mess with my full approval and this chalkboard wall definitely is it. 2. Peranakan Tiles The hubby and I often fantasized about living in a peranakan shophouse like these. I'm a little nonya, well, a descendant of the nonyas. It would be nice to embrace that heritage into our living space. The hubby was confident that we could weave in peranakan elements such as tiles into our home. But I was apprehensive. Each space deserves its little limelight, its feature per say. Planning for every corner of the home is a lot of work. I must say, the hubby has done an intensive amount of homework and all I needed was to approve. I am so thankful to have him! Doing this home renovation is another project (apart from marriage and kids) that has significantly brought us even closer. Our ID, let's call him SS, has of course supported our ideas with inputs to improve the functionality of our design. He might overlook some minor details at some occasions but we can overlook that as his service is satisfactory till date. He does go the extra mile to get things done. We are having a little carpentry issue right now and we trust that he will help us resolve it in no time. Next up, shopping time! It's a women's thing. Can't wait to share my loot for the home in my next entry. Watch out for it!

Thank you, Dwinsplace! Your comment is very encouraging. There's simply too much to share and it would be info overload if I packed them into lengthy posts. I like reading yours too! Gotta say, we have similar tastes except 1-2 features that is exclusive to us respectively.

Hello ecolour11, Sure! Actually, we are at the pre-carpentry stage. Will definitely share abt their workmanship too. I'll PM u the contact.. but first let Me figure out how to do it

Hello fellow Renotalkers, I'm new here though my husband already is a regular. I created a blog to document the joy and experience of building our home with my hubby but silly me, I had meant to place the content in T-blog but confused with the main blog platform also on Renotalk. Here are my first two posts. BLOG - CHAPTER 1: ID Search Months ahead of our key collection, we were contemplating whether to engage an ID or not. My hubby was very excited as he had been looking forward to start on our renovation project and he was very confident of doing up the 3D-drawings himself. I must say, he did some pretty decent perspectives for the home. But we still went ahead to get some quotes from ID first… ​Click to continue --------------------- BLOG - CHAPTER 2: Our 4RM BTO Space STEP 2: Space Evaluation (4RM BTO) Here's an overview of how our bare 4-rm BTO space looks like LIVING/DINING AREA We opted out of the floor tiles (living/dining/bedroom only) and doors option in order to get alternatives that suit our liking. View from our main door. ….. Click to continue Chapter 2 -------------------------- Anyone here who might be find this layout familiar? Guess most flats are laid out similarly these days. Moving forward, I will continue with my updates from here onwards.