Retrospectrum Meets Modernisation!

[aubrey 0]

okay done! i welcome all ideas for improvement and all suggestions for colours and stuff. thanks to all in advance!

UPDATE

Living Room

the idea of hacking the wall to create a recess for the tv and the console actually comes from an ID whom i'd be very happy to recommend, just PM me. this helps to make the living room look bigger and it's refreshing instead of the typical create feature wall which will cut my living room into 2. gives me more room to play with and can add more seating into the living area. aligns with my minimalist idea too!

only thing now is the colour scheme which i am honestly not a pro in so i shall stick to basics. i dont really like too fanciful laminates etc so i may just also stick to plain ones in this case. we're also re-using our sofa bought last year which is brown. i'm also considering getting curtains. will ask uncle soon if he has any recommendations or just buy from ikea etc for all windows to install. think that's about it for living.

My Bedroom

i crave storage space so i hope to have lots of drawers if possible. the pro of the living room tv area is the con of my room since it eats into my room, making it smaller. but instead, i thought it will be great to place a bookshelf there to make up for the "bulge" into my room. uncle soon did not follow my idea of having my desk area to be flush with my bookcase, he had the intention that table will start from room door to the wall but im not too sure if i want that..

the purpose of placing my bed against the wall is cos i like to sleep against the wall, it makes feel safe. (weird i know!) but also, i am planning for the future possibility of having a tv mounted on the wall where my table and laptop are, so it will be perfect to watch from there. kinda like day-bed style. i want a comfy room colour scheme, 1 that is relaxing. yet i like bold colors too so gotta try to piece it tgt.

Mom's Bedroom

Our double decker bed is here, and the bed in my room was supposed to be a guest bed but i decided that i will place the double decker here so that i can choose to sleep with my mom, which i must admit i have grown quite used to in the last couple of years. mom wants a full length wardrobe to stash all her things so there we are. also, our current oldie tv will be shifted from living room to her bedroom for her viewing pleasure! she's got an old skool sewing machine which she holds dear, that will go to her room then. pretty straightforward.

Kitchen

easily my favourite place cos it has the most carpentry compared to the entire house! i have a nice color scheme in mind: light grey tiles, white wall tiles, white glossy kitchen cabinets (gloss or matte better? will they turn yellow with time?) & black worktop with s/s backsplash. unless uncle soon suggests something new for us.

as pointed out, the hob and sink positions will be switched around, just that in the program i used, it's prefixed so i cant change that. after the L shape where the sink is, we will move the WM over to have it next to the chute. so we have a bigger area for hanging clothes as compared to now, where our hob is right next to the window, chute under the hob.

the breakfast table is just a little dream, i did not bring it up to uncle soon yet, so not sure how much that is. but will forego if ex cos $$ not enough. to save space we're trying to do a collapsible dining table, uncle soon say can be done. (aiya only thing is where to place the chairs when the table is folded..) the only "out of place" element here is the ancestral altar but i dont see where else it can go. the only plus point is u wont see it from the living room cos its embedded into a nook as per the floor plan.

also, wanted a tempered glass door for the entrance to kitchen but out of budget. uncle quoted $750 for glass door plus he said he will do a thin partition wall so when i slide the door back, it "disappears" (actually its hidden by the partition board that is made to look the same with my wall and to ensure we dont hit the glass accidentally etc for the consideration from uncle there) just hope the kitchen turns out ok with our L shaped layout and dont look so cluttered or squeezy.

Bathroom & Toilet

Once again, straightforward. Dreaming of rainshower, uncle soon says very cheap, under $200 can source for me. I bet i'd be singing in the rain the entire time!!! still not sure where to put the basin, i know the norm is to put in where the shower is but when i used to play sims 2 i place it with the toilet cos to me, toilet = wash hand. oh no... how! /agonizes :dunno:

Okay that pretty much sums it up! I think uncle quite vague.. he said want to do L-box for me to hide the water pipes, want to do ceiling cornice, but i don see it anywhere in the quote. i scared later i forget he forget too. and only rmb 6 mths later!

p.s: it is very bare cos we're throwing away most of our stuff. what a headache, cleaning a room is bad enough. cleaning a house is worse. cleaning & clearing a house we stayed in for 23 years.. fantastic headache for weeks to come.

some of the stuff my mom found in her stash: 1985 isetan fashion catalogue

she's actually from china, hainan island but moved to malaysia and married my dad in sg. she was born around the time of second world war and has seen Mao govern. back then for some reason, food ration coupons were given out. she found a few that dates back to 1965. -_- i was like when she showed me.

Edited April 20, 2009 by aubrey

[lawry 3]

Oooh aubrey, this is quite nicely drawn!

The small breakfast table idea is nice, see if Uncle Soon can design something that can be pulled out from the table top to become a table, push it back in when it's not in use. I've seen that concept before in someone's blog, but I can't remember who's.

[pinkpetter 0]

heh.. the colour for the flooring can decide later la. I always think that light grey is easy to maintain.. my kitchen has that colour now. But white is much brighter and can brighten up the whole house. Black looks so cool. haha

I love the idea of the pull out table like lawry... and the recess for the TV is a nice idea too!

For the layout of the kitchen I would exchange the positions of the sink and hob, so that when the wind blows it will not get to the hob easily... unless you're using an induction?

[Smallboy 0]

wow..nicely drawn.

AGree with Pet, may want to change the position of the stove and sink. Switch it.

[preciousjam 0]

the layout looks great...agree with smallboy and pet that sink and stove looks better the other way round....

hubby and me gonna meet uncle soon this afternoon to get quotation. was telling him about the quotation in chinese, he gave me that kind of "Are you sure anot"look hahaha

Aubrey which program did you download to do the layout? think its a good idea esp if want to discuss with uncle soon what do we want to do....

[familyof4 0]

nice drawing!!! He met u so late no wonder he can't meet me yesterday....im sure the meeting is fruitful ya?

[Michele 0]

okay done! i welcome all ideas for improvement and all suggestions for colours and stuff. thanks to all in advance!

p.s: it is very bare cos we're throwing away most of our stuff.

Hi Aubrey,

Nice layout!!!

Just small changes in your mom's room:

- turn the bed 90degree --> better in fengshui, she can see who's coming into her room, and avoid direct 'bad air flow' (don't know how to say in English ) to her head when laying on the bed

- move the sewing machine to the window --> she can enjoy daylight and freshair when working

Btw, it'd better if you draw in exact scale

[cannotisit 0]

aubrey,

i suggest you stay with a relative during reno, esp the hacking of tiles. i have experience it once and it's very messy esp since u have furniture in ur hse.

last time when we renovated our place, we need to shift our furniture and barang barang into one of the bedrooms first as the hack kitchen & living rm tiles, after they finish with the living rm, kitchen n bedroom we need to shift all the stuff into the living.

the place is going to be very messy n dirty. our whole family spend one week in the hotel for them to finish hacking.

[aubrey 0]

lawry

thank you lawry, but u are too kind. yours are like much better. precisely measured and with sketchup 3d! mine i didnt measure, just plonk the stuff in. so in actual fact, my house is smaller, the empty spaces seen here should be smaller too.

ya the idea is nice, but its only a dream. no idea how much its gonna cost, have a feeling it will overshoot our budget which we cant afford too. all the same i shall just ask uncle to see how much it is.

pinkpetter, smallboy

my mom is so very adverse to black, she told me, if u want black, the black stays in your room only. kitchen is MINE! then i ok ok :bow: haha

ya i like the idea too. both ideas are from this ID (DeFong, very good in my opinion) whom we would have engaged if we did not meet ah soon and of course, our budget doesnt really permit, only permit ah soon.

actually in the picture i wrote a note that the positions are to b exchanged. i didnt in the picture cos the software just came with this preset so just use for illustrating the L but not the actual position. & we are using the common fire hobs.

preciousjam

regarding hob n sink position, can read the above, lazy to type. i used this web-based program call Floorplanner

quite easy to use as u see i drew it up ytd on my first use.

why did he give u are u sure a not look? u mean u requested for chinese official quote? i dont think u will be disappointed in this quote. share with us how its like!

familyof4

eek! is it! when i called him at 830pm to ask if he was still coming, he said he was held up at tampines, someone was late. is it from renotalk?? but i spoke to him approx 1/2 hour thereabout then he rushed off saying he was meeting another. he came ytd at 10+ pm. what time was he supposed to meet you? so sorry!!

Michele

thanks! its not perfect tho. we've got not much of a choice as the bed is a double deck so definitely 1 side needs to be against the wall since guard rail is on 1 side only.

heh i didnt draw to scale cos it was my first try. pls i wanted to hurry and finish it thats why.

cannotisit

oh tell it to my mom! she is the one refusing to budge. whatever the case it i will get ready all daily items and stuff to bring over to my neighbour's house as we are renting it for the time being, at least for the hacking.

and even so, it will still be like what u said, moving things from room to room cos the rest we cannot bring it out.

[cannotisit 0]

actually hor, now is the best time to throw out unwanted stuff. but seriously the moving of furniture is going to kill, that time we 3 guys plus my mom n sis also move till siao.

[pinkpetter 0]

aubrey

haha I know what you mean. My parents refused to have the dark wood laminates I wanted cos they say it's too dark too! white/off-white flooring is the only choice!!

Ahhh so your hob and sink will be exchanged! hehe understand.

[Smallboy 0]

Aubrey, some of them are coming over to my new place to look see look see Uncle workmanship. My tiles, wardrobes, feature wall..... should be up. Though not the clean clean state......

You want to come too???

25 April, Sat...... 10am Clementi....... can walk from MRT station. You can bring your mom too so she can 'fang xin" (rest assured). :)

[preciousjam 0]

hahah aubrey, i read somewhere in the forum uncle soon gave quotation in chinese and that's a first for us...

he didn't disappoint us...gave us a handwritten quotation in chinese....

and yes really can't resist his pricing...

[fondue_ 1]

hi aubrey, nice to see u this mid afternoon

have u went for tiles selection?

[prolin_g 1]

Hi,

Can I request for Ah Soon contact also. Is he a HDB registered contractor?

Please kindly drop me an email at prolin_g@hotmail.com

Thanks

Edited April 18, 2009 by prolin_g