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SimplePersonSimpleLife

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Everything posted by SimplePersonSimpleLife

  1. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Carpentries - Dry Island One of the exciting phase of any renovation is during the installation of carpentries. This is the time where the design starts to take form. View of the shoe rack and the dry island in the background
  2. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Ongoing Works False ceiling with cove lighting done! Fabricated carpentries delivered and would followed by installation! Mock up of wardrobe at master bedroom to assess walking space at toilet area as well as bed area
  3. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Electrical and False Ceiling False ceiling with cove lighting at passage way False ceiling works in progress at the balcony. Rather than using lamps, we decided to create a more unique cove lighting arrangement here. False ceiling **** room False ceiling at master bedroom with a cut-out for the air conditioning
  4. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Carpentries - Technical Drawings Common Toilet Plan view of common toilet View of of common toilet looking in from utility room
  5. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Carpentries - Technical Drawings Dry and Wet Kitchen Continued View of wet kitchen looking in from service yard View of of wet kitchen looking in from dry island side Front view of of wet kitchen High view of the wet kitchen
  6. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Carpentries - Technical Drawings Dry and Wet Kitchens Plan view of our dry and wet kitchen View of our dry kitchen area - We pushed out the main entrance/door outwards to create a longer passageway, and at the same time allow us to put a 2-section shoe rack Side view of shoe rack Front view of our island, shoe rack on the left View of our dry kitchen/island View of our dry island looking out from the wet kitchen Side view of dry island
  7. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Carpentries - Technical Drawings Space within the master bedroom toilet is limited and so beside putting aside an area for rain shower, the only carpentry works here are very much the cabinet below the wash basin. Plan view of the toilet - We replaced 2 sides of the brick walls with glass walls to open up the space View of the toilet from the bed area Another view of the toilet
  8. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Carpentries - Technical Drawings Carpentry works account for a significant part of our renovation costs and was also another area we paid a lot of attention to. Overall design while important could sometimes be let down by simple details and so detailing is something we were quite keen to get it right. Using cabinets or wardrobe as examples, simple things like how the doors/drawers should be opened, number of compartments etc actually might make a difference if we design them differently. We went through a few iterations with Bernard before ending up with the following technical drawings. Once endorsed and agreed, it would serve as the final specification drawings for Bernard's team of carpenters to start to fabricate the various carpentries. Master Bedroom and Toilet Plan view - The intention is to have our wardrobe as the divider between our toilet and our bed. In the diagram above, our bed would be placed horizontal on the right section of the room with the back of the wardrobe doubling up as our bedhead. There were also some considerations around the walking space between our wardrobe and the toilet and eventually we decided to sacrifice a bit of space here to make our sleeping side longer. View of the wardrobe from toilet side Frontal view of the wardrobe Wife's intention is to create a sleek looking functional wardrobe thus she requested for a slim perimeter border rather than something bulky Side profile of the wardrobe Interior view of the wardrobe - It is every woman's dream to have a walk-in wardrobe and it is no surprise my wife is one of them. However I managed to convince her otherwise mainly because of the unit's configuration as well as budget. As a result, while we have 3 sections of a floor to ceiling wardrobe, she basically wanted at least 2/3 of it... I managed to negotiate it to exactly 2/3 so what that eventually translate to in reality is... Two-third of the wardrobe is EXCLUSIVE hers; remaining one-third would be used to put my thing as well as any common stuff like blankets, towels, luggages, bags + 1,001 other things... View from the sleeping side
  9. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Concealment of Pipes Keeping aircon piping/trunking out of sight while not an easy task, is nevertheless something that is still within a homeowner's control or at least a high degree of it. On the other hand, existing water pipes are already fixed at certain locations and one can only do so much in terms of relocating them other than changing the running configuration in some cases. Thus, the latter case of exposed water pipes also posed a challenge to us in terms of integrating them into our design. We eventually went with the option of concealing or boxing them up. Pipes at our balcony - Before After boxing up Pipes at our service yard - Before After boxing up Pipes at our common toilet After boxing up
  10. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    The Tiling Continues... Entrance at the door Steps down from dining to the living room We used these big porcelain tiles for the living room - 1200 by 600 Wall tiles where the fridge would be located and the wall separating the space into dry and wet kitchen areas Master bedroom toilet with our rain shower area Common toilet - Floor trap set in place!
  11. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Hey @trcd, the primary reason in our case is more of convenience and aesthetic. We are reusing the same piping/trunking route as previous installation where most of these were concealed. In addition, we also considered the practicality and while not entirely ideal in maximizing the air flow here, it was still fine for us overall if we look at the grand scheme of thing Actually all my aircon fancoil unit are not above the entrance! Not just bedroom 2. Is there a reason for locating above that area?
  12. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    @trcd, wireless aircon?!!! Hahahahah... We shall see Maybe wireless electrical points would be better for a start!
  13. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Installation Of Aircon Beside one of the biggest ticket items in any renovation, air-con installation has always been one of the more downplayed aspects in interior design planning. In reality, beside making sure the fancoil units are placed at ideal position to maximize the flow/circulation of air, much more work and thinking had to be thrown in to make sure it does not disrupt the flow of any interior design work. For example, one of our clients actually told us their friend had their aircon trunking exposed from one end of the living room across to the other end just above their TV console. They had spent quite a fair bit on doing up the living room to make it their entertainment space with a $8,000 TV console only to end up having to see such exposed trunking whenever they sit in front of their TV... Existing and proposed locations of fancoil units and compressor Prior to the installation, we arranged for our usual aircon contractor to survey our home together with Bernard. We walked the ground together to see how the pipings/trunking should be placed and if the proposed location above was suitable. Delivery of our aircon on actual day of installation The amount of pipings and trunking we needed for our house Yes, we went with Mitsubshi as with 98.453% of our clients, which included my parents, my in-laws place... We went with a bigger compressor that allows us to power 3 rooms simultaneously or 2 rooms plus living room We went with one wide fancoil unit (rather than 2 normal) in the living room as we do not want to clutter up the space here. Initially the intention was to place it between the 2 existing locations but eventually we decided to reuse the existing layout of the unit to the left to keep all trunking hidden. Bedroom 1 - No trunking Bedroom 2 - Trunking but would be concealed subsequently as part of renovation work Master Bedroom - We decided to move the aircon location to the other side of the room instead of the original one as we are building a wardrobe in between our bed and the toilet. This is eventually the only place in the house where trunking are exposed!
  14. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Hey @trcd! The gate is the original one that came with the unit some 30 years ago! Too retro for us! For entrance and windows, these are 2 distinctive areas so not really a need for the gate to be matching the window grilles. If you want, you can PM me your current window grilles and the gate options you shortlisted and I can get my wife to offer some opinions. Hi @Reiki, yes indeed! I used to have a friend staying here and it was during those visits/stayovers during my secondary days that I fell in love with this place! I am amazed by the huge piece of greenery within the estate and when growing up and subsequently looking for a property, that became a natural option and eventually a natural decision for me! The only downside is the amount of reno that had to be committed but guess I am not complaining here
  15. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Tiling - Wet and Dry Kitchen Wall tiles are usually a standard feature for kitchen due to the greasy nature of activities like cooking etc happening in such spaces. Wall tiles make it easier to maintain where stains could be cleaned off easily using cloth. The split between wet and dry kitchen Tiles for wet kitchen extending beyond the service yard A step-back view of the wet kitchen with the service yard in the background. Even though me and wifey do not cook nowadays, we thought we future-proof this area by catering for wall tiles but this definitely push up the budget. Wall tiles unlike floor tiles are more expensive. Tiling for the dry kitchen area. This would be where we had our dry island. A step back view of the dry kitchen space with the dining area in the background Same tile we used for the passage way leading to the door
  16. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    @trcd, yes we did! The door and gate were too old and outdated for us not to do anything to it! Hahahaha We got a separate gate supplier to customise the metal gate according to our design while the wooden door we leave that to Bernard (our contractor) in his scope of works.
  17. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Tiling - Master Bedroom Bathroom
  18. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Hey @pankponk, this was actually a DIY floor trap done up by a fellow forumer some time back. Too bad I don't seem to be able to find back that thread but if my memory serves me well, he actually took the usual floor trap and spray that matt black! Not too sure how that would last over time though...
  19. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Tiling - Common Bathroom Wall tiles up at the common bathroom. The choice of tile was a tad too strong for me but wife reassured me that this would turn out well. Eventually, decided to go with her decision though I suspect I do not have too much of a choice actually Another view of the common toilet. Pipes were exposed and so the idea were to close this area up. How the floor trap looks like. Note that there is s minimum depth requirement so if the floor is not deep enough, this option would not work!
  20. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Floor And Wall Works In Progress The new brick wall demarcating wet and dry kitchen areas Look how the wet kitchen windows face out to the common corridor? That was also one of the reasons we went for the idea to create a dual kitchen space in the form of a wet kitchen and a dry kitchen space which would be separated by the new wall you saw above as well as a huge wooden door to give us the privacy we need.
  21. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Floor Trap... Rather than the usual silver metal or white plastic floor traps that you see in 93.4271% of the households here in Singapore, we thought we should spend some time to see how to make this more aesthetically appealing or at least blend in with the rest of the design. The last that we want to avoid is when we spend so much time and money on selecting a particular tile and then when it comes to floor trap, we got let down usually by the conventional floor trap that contractor would use for almost all projects. Which is why we thought we also invest some time to look at some other options. This was actually one of the floor traps customised by a fellow forum user (pls let me know if you are that person so at least I could provide due credit to you in this posting as I got this a few years back). This is actually a very nice modification to an otherwise a boring metal floor trap. The matt black is not only aesthetically beautiful but guess the floor trap might as well become a centerpiece in the design itself! This was the floor trap that we decided to use eventually. This is actually quite common in commercial and some condominium projects. We thought that this is a good option for us given such floor trap allows the floor trap to blend in with other floor tiles to create at least a more continuous flow as compared to a conventional silver or white floor trap which would have contrasted with the neighbouring tiles.
  22. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    A shot from my balcony today. Rainy day...
  23. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Tile Layout Plan Above was the tile layout plan that we got Berd to draw up before we agreed for him to start work on this area. This also allowed us to understand where the starting "complete" tile is as well as the ending "incomplete" tile.
  24. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    @trcd, no worries! Look like you are enjoying your reno works at the same time! @pankponk, yes! Exactly my same sentiments. Beside the lovely view of the gardens, what also drawn me to this unit is the stairs down from dining to living, creating a higher dining space overseeing the living room. However my wife's initial design was to close off the existing door/steps at the master bedroom area to open up the toilet space (which means no steps into the master bedroom...) but luckily due to design constraints where we cannot hack other walls to create a new entrance, I was spared this misery of losing that flights of steps!
  25. SimplePersonSimpleLife
    Making Absolutely Everything Goes To Plan... What do you do when you are a perfectionist? You make sure you leave nothing to chance including how tiles are laid... The direction, the grouting, the intersection... Everything... So we always make sure Berd was fully aware what tile to use especially where 2 different tile types meet. Another sketch by Berd illustrating the layout of tiles in our master bedroom toilet. All the details right down to how rectangular tiles should be arranged. This is so called the "a-b-a" arrangement. The "a-b-c-a" arrangement which we went with eventually.
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