Laxton & Samantha's Little Roof Over Our Heads

[nautilus 2]

http://laxtonandsamanthalovenest.blogspot.com/

A blog about our journey of building that little roof over our heads.

[applefreak 1]

first to spam :notti:

[nautilus 2]

Haha. Thanks for the upzzzz.

[samkcy79 0]

Upzzzzzzzzzzz

[applefreak 1]

post some pix from your blog here

for lazy people like me who prefer to see the pix here

hope you don't mind

*edit - pix removed since it's posted by the t-blog owner

Edited February 27, 2008 by applefreak

[samkcy79 0]

Thanks applefreak

The reason why we decided not to post the blog here is becos RenoTalk is v v slow at times. Blogspot is more stable

Cheers!

Samantha

[applefreak 1]

yup have to agree that renotalk can be very slow at times

but think it's easier for renotalkers like me to follow the process

btw, love the way you 'carve' out a storeroom

looks very nice and yet totally functional

[samkcy79 0]

yup have to agree that renotalk can be very slow at times

but think it's easier for renotalkers like me to follow the process

btw, love the way you 'carve' out a storeroom

looks very nice and yet totally functional

Yeah.. thks.. We figured out that we needed a storeroom when we bought this flat. Also with recommendations and suggestions from friends, we thought that a storeroom is a necessity esp in the near future when we have got more stuffs and not forgetting children.

Samantha

[samkcy79 0]

Love nest found!

This is a 5 room point block unit. Previous owner have bought over the recess area (i.e i's a 4sqm part of the corridor) from HDB. That makes our place a total of 120 sqm. Located in the east and it is eqi-distant from both our parents' place. It there takes about 10 mins car ride to go to our parent's place or about 20-30 mins bus ride.

Floor Plan

Entrance and Recess Area

Edited June 14, 2008 by samkcy79

[samkcy79 0]

Living Hall

Dining Hall

Kitchen Entrance (Future storeroom to be constructed)

Kitchen Common Toilet

Master Bedroom and Toilet

Bedroom 1 (Future study room)

Bedroom 2 (For parents to stay in if needed)

_______________________________________________________________________________

Interior Designers

We approached more than 10 Interior Designers (IDs) for quotation from recommendations on various websites like RenoTalk and SGBrides.

Here's a list of IDs we have approached so far :

1) Barouque (Response was slow and no follow-ups after 2 amendments)

2) Earnest Interior (Approached them 2 weeks before CNY and no response til today even though the ID was very enthusiastic during discussion and he is also one of the highly recommended ID)

3) Intra Design (Quoted us $10K above the rest who have qouted us. Too expensive)

4) GPlan ( Approached them 1 month before CNY, no response til now.)

5) Ideal Home (Not bad, price was ok and it was 2nd to our choice of ID)

6) A-Win @IMM ( Approached them 1 month before CNY, no response til now.)

7) Wei Ken @ TradeHub21 ( Was attended to by a v v inexperienced 'ID', we had to tell her what to do, etc.. we became our own IDs)

8) Chew Interior ( Experienced ID attended to us 2 weeks before CNY and never hear from him ever since)

9) Darwin Interior (Good Price but were more interested in collecting the depo$it than any thing else)

10) De'sprit Interior (Approached them about 1 week before CNY and no news ever since)

11) Ideal Design (No recommended at all as ID also never respond even though we have approached them before CNY)

12) Home Concept @ TradeHub21

Quotation was emailed to us in 3 days! We feel totally comfortable with ID Patrick on first meet up. Always contactable even during CNY. Very approachable and has good and economical suggestions. Even amendments in quotations were also sent to us promptly via email. Gave us the 3D drawings and pictures free of charge even though we have not confirm whether we are engaging him. Mr Patrick also took us to a couple of completed and uncompleted units undergoing renovation to have a look at the carpentary and workmanship. Also, this is one guy who is really passionate about his job and treats every single home renovation project like his own home. 2 thumbs up so far!

__________________________________________________________________

Proposed Layout/Drawings from Home Concept

By the way we haven't paid for anything yet. These are the 3D Drawings provided by Mr Patrick.

Proposed Layout and Lighting Points (See additional storeroom created next to kitchen)

3D Living/Dining Hall

3D Kitchen

3D Master Bedroom

3D Bedroom (Only doing up one built-in Wardrobe for one bedroom as the other room is going to be study room)

_____________________________________________________________________

We Are Featured!!

___________________________________________________

1st Appointment @ HDB 22nd Feb 08, 9am

We spent over 2 hours at HDB Hub @ Toa Payoh today with my parents, seller and my agent. Everything went thru smoothly as the HDB Officers were efficient and thorough. We signed on almost 8 different documents in 1/2 hour with one officer. Also, today is the day that both of our CPF goes down to ZERO dollar.

SO, the first thing I did when I reached home was to check my CPF account online. That was sometime in the afternoon and $urpri$ingly the money wa$ still there!

Just checked 5 minutes ago, it's $till THERE!!

The 2nd appointment will most probably be some time in mid to late April.

Furnitures and Stuffs Before Reno

Teakwood Sidetable (from The Home Merchant)

www.thehomemerchant.com

Bought during a moving out sale at The Home Merchant. Quality teakwood stuffs at a low price. The Home Merchant is probably one of the best place other than ScanTeak to buy Teakwood furniture. They carry some of the finest teakwood furniture. Don't believe in cheap teak wood sale from Wihardja, Mirage Fineteak, etc if u are looking for quality teak wood. You can tell the quality of teakwood by:

1) Dark Stained teak wood furnitures are usually low grade wood. They are stained dark to hide the ugly wood grains (Good quality teak wood looks more creamy and golden brown)

2) If u run your hand on low grade teak wood furnitures, some how or another, the wood does not feel smooth and it's not nice to touch. Thus this can easily collect dust.

3) Low quality teak wood furnitures are usually nailed together

4) Pull out the drawers to take a look at the rails of the drawers. Good teakwood furnitures have metal rails and makes it easy to open and close.

5) Always try to lift the furniture up with your hands. Good ones are usually very very heavy.

6)Fine carvings are evidence of good workmanship.

Teak Wood Furniture Rankings

1) The Home Merchant @ IFC (Great workmanship. Great if u can catch the sale sometimes up to 80% off!)

2) Summit House Singapore Pte Ltd @ IFC (Good workmanship at reasonable price)

3) Scanteak ( Great place to find bed frames, good workmanship, look out for sales)

4) Teakland Gallery @ Serangoon (Great price to find low cost sidetables and chest of drawers)

5) Natural Living (carries more dark stained teakwood furnitures, likely are made of low quality teak wood)

6)Mandalay Gallery @East Coast Road (carries more dark stained teakwood furnitures, likely are made of low quality teak wood, quite pricey)

7) Mirage Fineteak @Gillman Village ( Wide ranges of outdoor and indoor furniture, rather pricy, quality of furniture is slightly better than Wihardja)

8) Wihardja Furnishing Pte Ltd ( Good place to look for low priced day beds and outdoor furnitures or shoe cabinets, furnitures always on sale, sometimes u might be able to get a lemon if u are lucky!)

Hansgrohe Talis S Kitchen Mixer

Bought at a steal!

Hansgrohe Talis S Kitchen Mixer

Bought at a steal!

Network cables Cat 6, Patch Panels, Wall sockets and Trunking for housing the cables

Laxton is planning to do some networking in the house. Hmm.. guy's stuff, so I don't know how to explain. Laxton explained that with network cables, internet connections is much faster than wireless network.

Look out for more updates on:

http://laxtonandsamanthalovenest.blogspot.com/

[applefreak 1]

pix pix :bangwall:

wanted to check with you, for the teak wood places you've mentioned

did you happen to see any chest of drawers?

am looking for a chest of drawers but just can't seem to find something reasonably priced and of a certain quality

[samkcy79 0]

pix pix :bangwall:

wanted to check with you, for the teak wood places you've mentioned

did you happen to see any chest of drawers?

am looking for a chest of drawers but just can't seem to find something reasonably priced and of a certain quality

Hi!

From my searches, chest of drawers are cheapest in Teakland Gallery. Also, the designs found there are quite nice. Workmanship is good. In fact it's where I would intend to buy side tables and chest of drawers in a couple of months.

Hope it helps!

Cheers!

Samantha

[applefreak 1]

care to share where exactly is teakland gallery?

is it the one along upper serangoon road near the vegetarian restaurant?

[haroldism 0]

wow~ wood lovers~ anxious to see your whole hse filled wif teak furniture~

[samkcy79 0]

care to share where exactly is teakland gallery?

is it the one along upper serangoon road near the vegetarian restaurant?

Hi!

It's along upper Serangoon Road , near Potong Pasir MRT station.

Teakland Gallery

20 Upper Serangoon Road

Singapore 347630

6283 2648

See Map: http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel...vel_site_43300/

Cheers!

Samantha

Edited February 28, 2008 by samkcy79