Finally... Our Home

[alamak 0]

hi alamak, what's your decided layout? can show here? please take note of beams when planning your layout of living areas and light planning. will be very odd if your sofa or light is below or too close to a beam

you can see my t-blog to see my layout too i have 4 living areas divided by the beams.

don't hack the wall tiles at all. cover it with cabinets, and laminated spraypainted glass as backsplash!

this is our confirmed layout.

we did note down the beams. thanks for the advise.

i've been following your blog and esp the other 3-roomers.

Hi Alamak,

Can be done. But cost won't be much cheaper - you probably save less than $500. First of all, hacking process is not very expensive. The laying of new tiles is the main cost factor here. Ask your ID to quote the hacking price for the wall tiles alone. Moreover, after hacking, they also need to touch up on the edge of the tiles that were not hacked.

What I suggest is, if u prefer to have new tiles rather than back splash, u can opt to overlay tiles on the exposed areas only. The cabinets will hide the old tiles and u save on the hacking cost at the same time. Just a suggestion.

thanks for the suggestion. will consider it with my gf again. headache, esp when the reno date is drawing near and so many things to decide.

Edited November 6, 2009 by alamak

[yuene 0]

Ooh! Your new layout looks nice! Maybe you'd want to move the sink outside the common toilet into the bathroom?

[alamak 0]

Ooh! Your new layout looks nice! Maybe you'd want to move the sink outside the common toilet into the bathroom?

thank you.

yah, maybe we will do that cos FSM says cannot have mirror in the kitchen and living room. So if i put the basin in the kitchen and no mirror abit weird. But move the basin into the common toilet also headache, the toilet so small!!!

[yuene 0]

thank you.

yah, maybe we will do that cos FSM says cannot have mirror in the kitchen and living room. So if i put the basin in the kitchen and no mirror abit weird. But move the basin into the common toilet also headache, the toilet so small!!!

Ya, I know what you mean! I guess what you can try to do is get a corner basin, like this one:

Edit: ARGH stupid, it's not showing up... okay this should fix it...

That way you can make use of the corner and not eat up so much space... anyway as it's currently just the two of you it would still be fine... I find that I use my common toilet for showering very very rarely, so it should be fine, I think...

Edited November 6, 2009 by yuene

[alamak 0]

Ya, I know what you mean! I guess what you can try to do is get a corner basin, like this one:

Edit: ARGH stupid, it's not showing up... okay this should fix it...

[ig]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/yuene/Renovation/you_and_me-61.jpg

That way you can make use of the corner and not eat up so much space... anyway as it's currently just the two of you it would still be fine... I find that I use my common toilet for showering very very rarely, so it should be fine, I think...

thanks for the pic. the basin very cute.

Edited November 6, 2009 by alamak

[alamak 0]

need some advise.

this is roughly our lighting layout

1) the 4 down lights in my living room L-box, enough illumination?

2) I am planning to put a hanging light above my dinning table. But looking at my diagram, i don't know how to fit it in so that it doesn't look out of place.

any advise? thanks.

Edited November 7, 2009 by alamak

[yuene 0]

need some advise.

this is roughly our lighting layout

1) the 4 down lights in my living room L-box, enough illumination?

2) I am planning to put a hanging light above my dinning table. But looking at my diagram, i don't know how to fit it in so that it doesn't look out of place.

any advise? thanks.

Hmm, I was just speaking with a contractor this afternoon (he came to take measurements of my place), also regarding the number of downlights to put, and his advice was to have six in total (2 each on the long sides and 1 each on the short sides). Not too sure about the hanging light... his suggested solution was to do a false ceiling there (also since the kitchen ceiling is lower-- you might want to check if yours is also lower too) which won't end up looking as tin-tei...

[Mickey M 0]

Hmm, I won't do a L-Box. I will do false ceiling instead, less restriction to where the lightings points can be. From the pic, at the dining area (the yellow box area), there won't be any false ceiling. Instead, create a lighting point in the centre of the box to have a hanging light. The yellow dots will be down lights. I think it is nicer if the down light is shining at the centre of the sofa and at the entrance of the kitchen.

[alamak 0]

Hmm, I was just speaking with a contractor this afternoon (he came to take measurements of my place), also regarding the number of downlights to put, and his advice was to have six in total (2 each on the long sides and 1 each on the short sides). Not too sure about the hanging light... his suggested solution was to do a false ceiling there (also since the kitchen ceiling is lower-- you might want to check if yours is also lower too) which won't end up looking as tin-tei...

yah, that's what i am thinking also. add 2 more lights at the 2 shorted ends. my kitchen ceiling is also lower. hmm... maybe dun put hanging light, just add the other 2 downlights and then maybe buy a floor lamp to light up the area between the dining and kitchen entrance.

[ig]http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu102/hushbee/layout-lighting.jpg

Hmm, I won't do a L-Box. I will do false ceiling instead, less restriction to where the lightings points can be. From the pic, at the dining area (the yellow box area), there won't be any false ceiling. Instead, create a lighting point in the centre of the box to have a hanging light. The yellow dots will be down lights. I think it is nicer if the down light is shining at the centre of the sofa and at the entrance of the kitchen.

thanks for the suggestion. but the ceiling at the front of the living room is quite low, we don't think we want to do false ceiling at the whole living room and make the whole ceiling too low. also already busted our budget, so try to find some solutions to our existing plan. actually thought of doing a false ceiling to half of the living room ceiling but don't know how it'll turn out.

Edited November 7, 2009 by alamak

[yuene 0]

yah, that's what i am thinking also. add 2 more lights at the 2 shorted ends. my kitchen ceiling is also lower. hmm... maybe dun put hanging light, just add the other 2 downlights and then maybe buy a floor lamp to light up the area between the dining and kitchen entrance.

thanks for the suggestion. but the ceiling at the front of the living room is quite low, we don't think we want to do false ceiling at the whole living room and make the whole ceiling too low. also already busted our budget, so try to find some solutions to our existing plan. actually thought of doing a false ceiling to half of the living room but don't know how it'll turn out.

The floor lamp sounds like a good idea...

[alamak 0]

The floor lamp sounds like a good idea...

yah.. save $$ also.

[alamak 0]

finally decided on our contractor today. selected our cabinet laminates on the same day. now waiting for his drawings.

doing all the planning this month before the reno starts early next month.

Edited November 8, 2009 by alamak

[gantan88 0]

need some advise.

this is roughly our lighting layout

1) the 4 down lights in my living room L-box, enough illumination?

2) I am planning to put a hanging light above my dinning table. But looking at my diagram, i don't know how to fit it in so that it doesn't look out of place.

any advise? thanks.

IMO, i will consider NOT using a hanging light for dining area because it sort of 'fixed' your dining area to be there. If next time u need to say shift your dining table to the opposite side or simply changing the orientation of the table, you may need to relocate the hanging lights as well. Maybe just a false ceiling with down lights will do.

But if you dun see yourself making changes to your dining area, then the hanging light will do just fine, it creates atmosphere.

[ossify 1]

need some advise.

this is roughly our lighting layout

1) the 4 down lights in my living room L-box, enough illumination?

2) I am planning to put a hanging light above my dinning table. But looking at my diagram, i don't know how to fit it in so that it doesn't look out of place.

any advise? thanks.

confirmed not enough illumination, even if you use 2xPLC per downlight.

if you use this arrangement, one thing is that your sofa and tv console is not centred so it might look weird. another option, is to make a false ceiling that only runs above the sofa. use cove lighting in the same false ceiling to throw light to the tv console on the opposite end. but do take note of the angle of light because you don't want to create glare on your tv. it's unlikely though, unless you sit on the floor

IMO, i will consider NOT using a hanging light for dining area because it sort of 'fixed' your dining area to be there. If next time u need to say shift your dining table to the opposite side or simply changing the orientation of the table, you may need to relocate the hanging lights as well. Maybe just a false ceiling with down lights will do.

But if you dun see yourself making changes to your dining area, then the hanging light will do just fine, it creates atmosphere.

i agree too that the hanging light will not be ideal as it fixes your dining area. that's why for my place, i decided to drop the idea of having dining lights. i'll just use alpha v6

[alamak 0]

hi gantan88 and ossify, thanks for the feedback and advise.

we have decided not to have a hanging dining light. now have to plan the lights so that it is enough to illuminate the living and dining area without increasing our budget.

here's 2 more layout..

1) L-box with more lights

2) half false ceiling with cove light

The round thing at the kitchen entrance is a floor lamp.

any comments? thanks,.

Edited November 9, 2009 by alamak