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SimplePersonSimpleLife

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Everything posted by SimplePersonSimpleLife

  1. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    House In Its "Rawest" Form Excited to see the walls being hacked away here! See the lines on the ground where the walls used to be... Bags of of cement for the tonnes of masonry works that were coming up
  2. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    And The Masonry Works Begin... These were all the tiles that we shortlisted for each area. The idea of stacking them by sections/areas of the house (as well as all the choices for that particular section) was meant to allow us to visualise how the tiles would look like when one section meet another. Anyway, side track a bit… This is the real timber flooring that both my wife and myself we were exploring because they look gorgeously beautiful! Unfortunately they do come at a steep price so in the end we have to settle for the second best… in the form of timber-lookalike tiles For all our tiles, we actually sourced them from a grand total of 5 different suppliers… Guess Bernard must be screaming deep inside…
  3. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    And More Hacking! This is the wall of my master bedroom toilet. See the hammer symbol on the wall? This has to go!!! And whack the wall we did... As far back as the design allow us The existing pipe layout. Also gives us the opportunity to see how best to run the new aircon pipings. Another perspective of the master bedroom toilet with the front wall now totally hacked away. A step-back view of our master bedroom with the toilet on the right and the stairs up to the dining and kitchen areas.
  4. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    And Hacking Continues... This is currently the space between our metal gate and the wooden door. Hacking would be done to push out the wooden door closer to the metal gate to create a longer indoor passageway as well as open up the dry kitchen beside. In the midst of hacking... Slowly but steady! Looking from the dining area where the island would be located.
  5. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Hey @trcd, this was some time back! We took around 10 weeks to finish our reno back then if that is what you are asking
  6. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Hacking Starts... I was actually quite elated to see the start of the renovation works! And yes... So excited about the hacking. Hacking of existing floor tiles around the dining area. We are also pushing the door further out so that we have a longer internal passageway. The wall in front in the photo above would also be hacked away to create a open concept space where we would have an island here. Dining area facing path to bedroom 2 and 3 in front and master bedroom on the right. Kitchen... Massive hacking as there were a lot of cabinets... More destruction observed in the kitchen Walkway to the service yard in front with the common toilet on the left. View from bedroom 2 Hacking done halfway in living room. Hackers decided they had enough for the day and stopped here...
  7. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Selected One Both Daniel and Bernard subsequently came back to us with their quotes and we were pleasantly surprised to see that both sets of numbers were quite close to each other. As a matter of fact, we are looking at a small difference of some $2,000 which when stacked against the overall renovation quantum could be considered insignificant. We were expecting to see a wider spread between the two of them given that Daniel specialises in HDB projects while Bernard more on retail/condos projects so while the quotations came in very close to a ballpark number that me and wife had in mind, we were still surprised by how close the 2 quotes were. On the other hand, the fact that the 2 quotes were so closely aligned also served to validate that we were not being ripped off by either one of them; not that they would actually think of doing that to us given they have more to lose if we do not work with them on future projects...). Eventually, we decided to go with Bernard. Not that it was an easy decision as we were actually tored 50/50 between the 2 of them and even with all their strengths and weaknesses stacked up side by side for comparison, it was still very much a close fight down to the last contention point. Guess ultimately what swayed us towards Bernard was the fact that he was more receptive to creative designs/ideas and given his family specialisation around carpentries, we thought given the nature of our renovation work that he would be a better bet. Though his experience is nowhere near that of Daniel, we could see his passion for design works as well as his ability to connect with clients.
  8. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Hi @El LoCo, yes we thought adding an island would be a nice touch to our home, to make it more unique and special from conventional home. My wife is an architect but she does take up interior design projects occasionally Hahaha! @blackainmamba, I wld share more photos of the views subsequently! @trcd, spot on! Bigger size equates big floor equates bigger cost... @pipsqueak, thanks for your comment. Though well-maintained, most have to go cos they were quite out-dated...
  9. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Hunt For The Tiles Hunting for tiles is one of the first few tasks that we took on when we first embarked on our renovation journey, even before we start to engage our contractor. I must say that Hafary is a good starting point for anyone whom want to start the process of tile selection. This is one of those places where people get to view tiles in a very conducive environment, one where you can get access to a wide range of tiles and yet stopping short of being overwhelmed by so many choices... well at least until you start to shortlist and the need to make a decision of what to use for a specific area. That is where things get complicated... Very complicated... Things start to get blurred and just after a few minutes of tile viewing, you start to get hallucinated by every new tile that you come across, and start questioning yourself what is the difference between what you are viewing now versus what you just viewed... Indeed, the wide range of choices could actually make this tile selection process a mentally draining experience if you do not approach it in the right manner. Variety is one, price is another and then as I dropped deeper into the bottomless pit of tile viewing, someone in the shop just threw me another curve ball to tell me what size I am looking at and boy... I was so lost for that 5 minutes when I was alone until wifey came out from nowhere to say she had found something for the living room... the dining area... And then a new disbelief struck me... I never know my wife, a woman can be so decisive here... As a matter of fact, she started going through with me what kind of tiles we should be looking out for for each area of the house and so on... But then again before this, I had never really accompany her to such tile viewing sessions with her clients so this is the first time I probably have a better idea of what actually goes behind all those tile selection process.
  10. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    I just saw your thread and your house also look huge! Yes, both the kitchen and service yard are facing the common corridor though these are on higher ground as compared to the corridor!
  11. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The "Call For Tender" Process We have a few contractors in mind whom we had partnered up for previous projects. However, this time round it is a different ball game altogether given that this is our own house and we had to fund for the whole renovation project! So yes, budget is one of our top and key considerations. Quality and reliability wise, we are not too concerned as we are quite comfortable with the works delivered by these contractors from previous projects. To cut to the chase, we only looped in 2 of our contractor friends for this "tender" process... As in, we give them the scope of works and they come back with their quotations. The advantage is we have a side by side comparison of all the individual works. Contractor 1 - Daniel Daniel is a very friendly and nice guy whom was recommended to my wife by her ID friend years back when she started on her very first project. When I was first introduced to Daniel when my wife was doing up the interior design for a Bedok HDB unit few years back, I must say I was quite impressed with this guy. He came across as a very honest person and what is also so good about him is his chatty character and the belief that while he is in to make a living here, he is not out to squeeze people to make ridiculous profits; just enough for him and at the same time keep client happy. Contractor 2 - Bernard Bernard is a close friend of my wife and hails from a family of contractors. Young for a typical contractor in his early 30s Bernard nevertheless has the drive and creativity that we think are critical traits much needed in new-age renovation today where younger or sophiscated clients expect much more than a brick and mortar conventional design. He is more willing to work with clients on unconventional design and rather than shooting down creative ideas, he would actually offer suggestion on how the design might actually work.
  12. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Proposed Works The wife also did up some preliminary sketch ups on the proposed works to be done to the dining and kitchen areas which very much is the key focus of our renovation. Not wanting to waste too much time on the renderings and touching up, we decided to do just enough at this stage to get the minimal going for the purpose of getting the quotations in. View from dining area looking downwards into the living room and beyond the balcony. As our unit is facing the Chinese Gardens, our intention is to keep the space between the living room and dining area as unobstructed as possible to maximise the garden view from all angles as possible. With the kitchen wall hacked away, we are looking to create a dry kitchen area beside the dining area in order to create a continuous flow of space down into the living room with a Chinese Garden view to boot! We also pushed the original door entrance further out to create a longer passageway which also allowed us to put a shoe rack here. As our kitchen is facing the common passageway (or common corridor as some would call it), we thought we should cater for some form of privacy in the form of a big wooden door to block people from looking in from outside. This also allow us to create some sort of a divider between the wet kitchen and dry kitchen. When there is a need, we could just open the wooden door to open up the whole kitchen space.
  13. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Actually our dilemma is how to integrate these aircons into our design. Yes, definitely need to rerun the pipings if we are reusing these as you rightfully pointed out! It's indeed very retro!!!
  14. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Proposed Works With the desired layout done up, the wifey proceeded to put together the next few slides on the detailed scope of renovation works required which we would use to go through with our contractors in coming up with the renovation quotations. Leading up to this stage, because we had been looking around for tiles, we thought that instead of the default tile cost psf that contractors usually used for renovation quotations (which usually they under-quote to bring down the quotation quantum initially and would increase once client select a tile of high cost psf which is usually the case), we thought we would get them to quote based on the few tiles that we like for the different sections. Hopefully, this would put the subsequent quotations as close as possible to the actual renovation costs.
  15. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Retro Aircon Beside the parquet for the 2 bedrooms, I was struggling inside me if there is any way I can keep these retro-looking aircons! They were actually very unique and best... Still in good condition!
  16. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Hey @ricepapergirl, thanks for your comment here! Well, unlike the standard rectangular layout, our rooms have walls which are angled so I guess that poses a minor challenge to us in terms of designing around these angled walls. Yup, a pity if we hack those parquet away so wifey decided she has better idea to reuse those! Stay tuned!
  17. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The "Before Reno" Photos Inside the utility room Inside the utility room - another perspective Common toilet - Perspective 1 Common toilet - Perspective 2
  18. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The "Before Reno" Photos Passageway leading to bedroom 2 on the right and bedroom 3 in front Bedroom 2 - Perspective 1 Bedroom 2 - Perspective 2 Bedroom 3 - Perspective 1 Bedroom 3 - Perspective 2
  19. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The "Before Reno" Photos Living Room looking in from Balcony Balcony
  20. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The "Before Reno" Photos Master Bedroom - Perspective 1 Master Bedroom - Perspective 2 Master Bedroom - Perspective 3 Master Bedroom Toilet
  21. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The "Before Reno" Photos Coming in from the door entrance leading to the living room in front and dining area on the left Dining area and kitchen behind the wall Kitchen Service yard
  22. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Proposed Works Wifey immediately got down to work to list out the main works based on the desired layout that we had been discussing all these while. Basically almost all the floor tiles in our house has to go; interestingly despite the fact that this property is close to 30 years old, the owner somehow had stuck with the original floor tiles right from day 1 so you can imagine how durable such items were in the past (as compared to nowadays stuffs are not meant to last). While we have no doubt about the durability, we decided it is a no-brainer to replace all these with something of our time... something modern. The only exception is the 2 bedrooms where they are completely decked out in the original parquet and which wifey think she can do something about that to retain the original parquet but yet is synchronous with our eventual house design. Right now, the parquet flooring does look antique looking but otherwise we believe these are good parquet and would be a waste to replace them. The other area is the utility which we hope to save cost by retaining the existing floor tiles. We also decided to open up the current kitchen to create a more open concept merging into the current dining area. Basically our idea is to split up this space to create a wet as well as a dry kitchen section. The current toilet layout at the master bedroom is also not exactly optimal and given the space constraints as well as the irregular layout, it can be quite claustrophobic when one is inside. So we decided to remove whatever walls there are here... Yes, you did not read this wrongly... we are removing the walls from our toilet in order to open up this personal space. Nope, we are not exhibitionists... Eventually this is the revised floor plan layout that we had in mind.
  23. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Original Floor Plan And so our home journey begins from here (as a matter of fact few years back as this happened some time back). The first thing we laid our hands on was the floor plan which we got from the property agent which brokered the deal for us. As the property was old, the floor plan was actually hand drawn by someone! One look at the floor plan, you would realize that other than the living, dining, kitchen and service balcony areas, the rest are very much irregular in shape.
  24. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Nest We had been scouting around for our own place for quite a while and looking back, it did seem that we were taking forever to nail down a place we want to call our first home. Our requirements for our own property then were simple - BIG and cheap... Probably that explained why we were forever looking for our property back then! In Singapore context where land is scarce, it's almost mission impossible to find one that is big and yet cheap... Well... Unless, it's old!!! And so our quest for such property brought us to our current home - an ex-HUDC apartment in the west. At 1,700 square feet going at less than $700 psf, it fulfilled exactly the 2 main requirements that we were looking for in our first home. Never mind the fact that it's coming to 30 years old. To add icing to the cake, all the 3 rooms and the living room have unblocked view of the scenic Chinese Gardens in front of us!
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