owlNbear

Even though our flat seems simple and straightforward, we encountered quite a few problematic areas pre-renovation. The bathroom, especially, was a huge, huge one! It took Bear and I (and sometimes contractor M) a few weeks of heated discussions to solve some of these problems. 1) Craftstone brick walls Our number one requirement. I've always been attracted to that aged, decrepit look, and I feel that natural textures like brick and concrete are a good way to bring out that sense of rawness. Problem: Cost of laying the bricks. Solution: Initially, I planned to settle for a very small area (maybe 6-7ft) to save cost. But contractor M was able to offer us a good price. PLUS, we're buying our bricks from Taobao, so that helps a lot. One box of bricks, covering 1 sqm, costs about $14 on Taobao. Over here in Singapore, it costs at least $90. In spite of the risk of cracked tiles from Taobao etc., I think the savings are huge and worthwhile in the end. 2) Black aluminium frame sliding door Our base theme is still an industrial look, and that would be incomplete without black aluminium frames. I found this image on (by a smashing interior design/architect team called 0932), and it was love at first sight, and I was determined to incorporate it into our interior deco. Problem: Cost of building a sliding door of this size, as well as concerns that the door might be too heavy, because our kitchen entrance is almost 8ft wide (after hacking the right entrance wall). Solution: Again, contractor M saved the day with his affordable price. We also decided to extend the entrance wall on the other side to reduce the width of the door, so that it won't be too heavy. 3) Lack of drainage points Because our kitchen isn't very long, we'll be placing our fridge, washer and dryer in a row, on the left side of the kitchen to free up tabletop space. We'll also be shifting the wash basin into the toilet (currently, it's located outside). And lastly, we're going to have a shower area, and a dry area in the bathroom. Problem: The washer requires a drainage point for water to be drained, but the only drainage point in the kitchen is located on the opposite side. The washbasin requires yet another drainage point. And lastly, the existing bathroom floor trap is located outside of the shower area, and not in the shower area itself. With so many drainage points needed, there would potentially be plenty of messy pipes running all over the place. It was a nightmare! Solution: Contractor M suggested we hack up the entire kitchen and bathroom floor, and rework everything from scratch. This will enable us to create 3 additional drainage points that will be neatly concealed under the floor. No exposed piping. Big sigh of relief, phew! 4) Combining the 2 bathrooms into 1 We wanted a combined bathroom that has WC + dry area + shower area + sink, more for convenience than anything else. But one thing stood in our way - the dividing wall. Problem: A few IDs warned us that it might not be approved. Solution: Really, nothing except an approval from HDB, which we were granted eventually. Pure elation and joy! 5) Lack of a storeroom Problem: As the heading suggests. Solution: We explored many possible layouts. But because our flat is so long and narrow, our options are really limited. We even wanted to build a room within the study room. But that will severely eat into the study room area, and make the entire room tiny and claustrophobic. Eventually, we decided to construct a full width sliding door, using the horizontal space in the study room, and using storage racks to hold our items. A cabinet is deinitely out of the question because of the length (14ft!), so just a sliding door to partition off the area would be perfect. Miss C, our carpenter, also very kindly offered to construct the sliding doors with plywood, instead of MDF boards, which are too thin and flimsy to be used as a partition. And that about wraps up the pre-renovation process. Many things we were unaware of, and it was only until the actual renovation work started, did we realize the many nitty gritty details that need to be tended to. A lesson I learned: planning is good, but also, be prepared for many things to not go according to plan, be prepared to compromise on other things, be alert, and keep expectations realistic. Next up, Day 1: Hacking begins!

Awesome

Wish there's a laugh-till-you-cry emoticon for this, haha!

thank you! I think we left comments on each others' posts at the same time...hahaha...

Hey twinklecloud! I've never encountered this before so I can't advise. It's a very pretty swing, fingers crossed for you that you'll find a solution eventually!

Here's a more or less finalized Sketchup plan of our house. We started out with a regular floorplan, did all the measurements and transferred everything over to Sketchup. Its been very helpful because unlike a 3D drawing which is just a single still frame, we're able to rotate things around in Sketchup, so there's a much better sense of space with this. Some other views from Sketchup and the reno items that we will be working on: Living Room Changing of main gate to scissor gateSupply and overlay vinyl flooringFull height shoe cabinet, 3ftSuspended ledge at the window, 7.5ftLabour only to lay craftstone brick wall, 22ftHack 1 side of kitchen entrance, 4ftExtend the other side of kitchen entrance using hollow blocks, 1ftAluminium frame door with 1 fixed and 1 sliding panel, only top tracks, 6.5ft Kitchen Hack all floor and walls tilesLabour and material to lay new floor tilesSupply and lay subway tiles at entire wall above lower kitchen cabinetPlaster rest of all exposed wallsLower kitchen cabinet with granite table top, 10ftFull height kitchen cabinet, 3ftBox up kitchen pipes, 1ftUpper kitchen cabinet, 5ftSide panels for fridge and box up washer and dryerRemoving existing 2 sinks, 2 bathroom doors and 1 wcSeal up 1 bathroom door entrance with hollow blocksInstall 1 PD doorSupply and change dustbin lid Bathroom Hack all floor and wall tilesHack wall diving 2 bathrooms to combine into 1Labour and material to lay floor and wall tilesRaise up entire dry area floor so that shower area floor is 'sunken'Construct and tile up concrete seat and 2 additional ledges at shower areaSupply and install glass shower panel with sliding doorFalse ceiling with downlightsVanity cabinet with solid surface table top and mirror, 2.5ft Master Bedroom Supply and overlay vinyl flooringHack 1 entrance to the bathroomInstall 1 PD doorCasement cabinet with round edge, 8.5ft1 Bedside unit with round edgeLabour only to lay craftstone brick wall, 10ft Study Room Supply and overlay vinyl flooringConstruct and install plywood sliding door with frame, 14ftOther Miscellaneous Electrical rewiring for whole housePlumbing and re-piping of whole housePainting of whole houseRepainting main door and 2 bedroom doors and replacing handlesReplacing floor trapsAcid wash, clearing of debris, laying floor protection etc.Budget: 30-35k Total damage: 35k I feel that we got a pretty good deal in the end, cost wise. Our initial plan was to just overlay laminate for the living + 2 bedrooms, and vinyl for the kitchen to save cost. Every ID that we met told us to do this so that we could keep within the budget. Even the brick walls, that we love so much, could only be a tiny 7-8 ft one. We were ready to resign to fate and compromise (or even give up) many items on our wish list. All this changed after meeting Contractor M. On our first meeting, Contractor M insisted that we use vinyl for the living + 2 bedrooms and tiles for the kitchen. He felt (feels) that laminates, no matter how careful we are, would eventually 'pop'. We were VERY reluctant to accept his ideas initially, until we saw his quotation. All I can say is, It was a rather pleasant surprise At first glance, it seemed pricier. But after doing our calculations and comparing quotations, we realized that contractor M was actually giving us very good value for money. To sum it up, we're very pleased that, because of contractor M's affordable pricing, we've managed to work everything that we want into our budget Of course there was still the carpentry side of things to settle. I mentioned in a previous post that I because contractor M doesn't offer carpentry works, we have engaged Miss C as our carpenter. After deciding on Contractor M, we met up with Miss C. We felt comfortable with her, but to be safe, we requested for a visit to her job site. Everything went well, and even Miss C's house owner was there, and very warmly (and proudly) showed us around her house. We didn't need much more convincing after that... ...And so the story begins! Next up, problems encountered post-planning.

Thanks for the recommendation! Fiance is a steak fanatic, so this is really helpful to know

I second fatcat's suggestion. Although I don't have as many CDs as you do (you've got at least 200+ CDs?), I have ripped most of my CDs so I can still listen to them without needing to have the physical disc around Very tedious but I think if you're a music lover and/or too lazy to search for the same songs to download online, it might be worth the effort. And also, that's a gorgeous gorgeous countertop! Love it

Hahaha can't wait till its our turn to say that. Gonna breathe such a huuuge sigh of relief. And also, love your sea-blue theme coupled with those soft lights...very soothing!

Yep definitely agree. Hiring a contractor helped to save on a lot of the cost so I could squeeze more works in. No complaints there

I checked the map and we're separated by the MRT track 409 is at Ave 10. If you're driving, just 5-10 minutes away It's famous mainly for the fish porridge (very fresh fish, and a long queue everyday!), Hokkien Mee, and fish head steamboat. Also, beside it is the 409 coffeeshop with very decent teochew porridge. I still think it's a brilliant plan, really out-of-the-box thinking. It made me take a really good, hard look at my 娘家 and go 'WOW...!' Therein lies the difference between (good) IDs and contractors For us, even with our contractor's advice, we still have to wreck our brains. But it's fun, lah.

Hello neighbour (for another 3 more months)! Welcome to AMK Have you visited the 409 hawker center already? Quite a few famous food stalls over here I'm at my 娘家 right now, and we have the exact same layout as your original one, even the same small square white tiles in the kitchen. So it's really surreal to see all this transformation taking place. Almost like it's happening to my own house. How exciting! Anyway wanted to congratulate you on your very successful home makeover The layout change is probably most amazing and impressive. Initially I was like, 'oh, this is my house!', but now I totally don't recognize it anymore. I was looking through the pics and I totally got lost (in my own house), haha!

Sorry! Can't help but notice, I find it a bit sayang. But it's ok, those pretty tiles that you've chosen will make up for it My bathroom has a 2.5ft wall right in the middle that can't be hacked, even more sian. Haha!

Those lights that you've chosen are really unique pieces. Wonderfully eyecatching, and a conversation starter for sure Haha! Looks like we're all living our dreams through hello's bohemian house

I think we're kitchen twins...I'm also going with white plastered kitchen walls as well, haha! And if your updates are real time, I believe we're doing the same thing at the same time By the way, will you be leaving the tiles behind the fridge unplastered? My carpenter told us that heat coming out from the fridge will damage the plastered walls and cause it to turn yellow and crack. So if you're not already aware of that, do take note As for the white grout, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll last for quite some time because apparently, white epoxy grout won't get stained or dirty so easily.

Thanks for dropping by nextstep! I've been following your bachelor pad reno blog for the longest time, and it's a really inspiring journey. Thank you for sharing Thank you cat Thank you! Transformation is in progress as we speak and I'll try to update them as soon as I can. Do check back for more Glad you liked it! Pinterest is so useful isn't it? So many pretty and droolworthy photos to look at. I've saved over 500 pins already Thank you babe, I'm relieved to hear that. I still feel like it's a bit 'huay hiao bai' to call it 'Parisian Chic', although it's really quite tongue-in-cheek, haha. Anyhow, I don't know if my place'll turn out to be like that at all, but what the heck, it's worth a shot Thanks for the compliments, I'm flattered Oh, your contractor is right. Don't worry! My contractor said that because we didn't want to do the additional waterproofing mah, so you're safe And Bear (the fiance) is also very kiasee, so I had to drop the idea to pacify the both of them, lol. Otherwise, I would totally go for the cement screed walls as well. Anyway, faster post more pics of the bathroom! I'm a huge huge fan of cement screed toilet walls if you can't already tell

For me, many things are beyond my control, but I can do my bit to help out whenever I can. I think that's good enough for me. (We really need to stop hijacking art's thread ) Any new progress with the 80's house?

Oh I see! Interesting I've always thought that the base of the 'bottom hole' is the same height as the kitchen cabinet table. I guess having two appliances in the holes would mean that the height has to be lowered, then.

Hello! How did the rest of your ID search go? I was reading through and you stopped at ID #5...was actually waiting for more elaboration on the rest! Hahaha. I think that's one of my favorite parts to read on the t-blogs here

Very pretty bathroom tiles! But that dua leng kong pipe above the showerhead..

Click for larger image Bear and I agreed very early on to have a cafe-inspired, rustic - industrial theme. After months of pinteresting, I spent another 4-5 weeks chiseling at our initial concept (and submitting them to the 'art-director' for approval every night before bedtime), until we arrived at our final theme - 'Parisian-Chic' in black, white and wood. Living + Bedroom + Kitchen Our first idea was to do a 80% white, 20% black white with wood accents. Later on, I decided to break the monotony of an all-white look, and do an opposing colour scheme instead. The final colour scheme: Living room: Dark wood flooring + white walls + white carpentry Kitchen: White/black flooring + white walls + dark wood carpentry In order to soften the stark harshness of the black & white combination, we'll be adding in lots of wooden accents, cozy fabrics, some rust/metal/glass textures, and plenty of dried flowers. An industrial look won't be complete without black aluminium, so we'll be throwing in a sliding black aluminium-framed door at the kitchen entrance for good measure. And yes, craftstone bricks and track lights. These ideas have been done to death. BUT, I believe that even something so frequently rehashed, can still be given a new breath of life, just by changing an interesting detail here and there. Lets see how things go from here Bathroom For the bathroom, I wanted to break away from all that white, and do something different from the rest of the interior. So we decided to go with a very rustic, raw look, resort-like concept. The initial idea of cement screed walls was scraped after contractor M insisted that it was an extremely bad idea, explaining to us that even in a dry areas, cement screed walls (in the bathroom) are prone to cracks and water leakage. So we relented, and decided to replace it with concrete looking tiles. We'll also be throwing in either tiny hanging loft lights in front of the mirror, or a false ceiling with downlights. Next up: renovation needs, requirements and details!

Thanks for the sarpork art and yakult

Your drawers look so tidy. An OCDer's dream come true

Hello! I'm having the same 工字 (learnt this term from the tilers, hehe) tiles above the lower cabinet as you are. Almost the whole wall is up already and I love it so far Sketchup is handy. Helped much of our space planning too. But curious, why is the microwave shelf so low?

Now that you've pointed it out, it's glaringly obvious to me so A) no I second the masking tape suggestion.