Refurnishing My Sengkang 5 Room Flat

[htng 1]

We have been staying here for close to 8 years already and we think it is time to renovate our old place. During this renovation, we decided to engage FSM to provide his input. After speaking to 2 contractor and 5 ID, I decide to go with Patrick from Ho Bee Renovation since I can do some sketches myself and probably design our home ourselves.

After discussion with FSM and contractor, this is the finalize layout. We decide to give the living, dining and kitchen a total facelift. There are nothing much to touch up for the rest of the area.

Edited May 30, 2010 by htng

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I will be changing my foyer and kitchen tiles only. I will not be hacking the rest of my areas.

Edited May 30, 2010 by htng

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I guess we need to confirm our fridge size and washing machine size as soon as possible so that they can proceed to build the base. Currently, I have shortlisted the following models: -

A) Fridge

1) Panasonic Inverter, NR-BY601X. I presume this is a great fridge and will probably save power over time. Electrical charges are so high nowadays so I think Inverter might be a good move

2) Samsung, RT63. This is also a power efficient fridge.

Really tough to select.

B) Washing machine

1) Samsung diamond drum, WA12VP. Seems like good features with mist shower and AG

2) LG, WFT1000. My friend say LG washers are good..

No big difference really but my wife and I dont like the detergent compartment for the Samsung washer. Too tight.

[fifteenmay 40]

I will be changing my foyer and kitchen tiles only. I will not be hacking the rest of my areas.

Your foyer tile is my masterbedroom tile!

[htng 1]

Your foyer tile is my masterbedroom tile!

good! Haha! I feel very nice tiles. What laminate did you choose to go with your design?

[Supersimon27 2]

Bro , long time no see.

Glad that you found a good contractor Hoo Bee not bad. He done up worldangle place Nicely . I visited b4

[fifteenmay 40]

good! Haha! I feel very nice tiles. What laminate did you choose to go with your design?

hahaha. that is our masterbedroom floor tile. no laminates : )

[htng 1]

My place already start hacking yesterday and will continue today. Wow! Whole house is extremely messy. Patrick's standard is very high which is good

1) He rejected the whole lot of foyer tiles because the tiles have different thickness and some has slight warpage. It looks reasonable and acceptable to me with very slight problem but since he say not good, will return and re-choose another design.

2) He also say the kitchen sink is not suitable for undermount despite shop saying can undermount because the surface is not the flat type. Patrick mention can do but there will be issue in future so I need to change it.

I read that for undermount, if we didnt do properly, it is a very drastic change because by replacing sink, have to remove the whole solid top...Wow! Nightmare.

Overall a very detail person...Hope everything will progress smoothly.

Edited June 1, 2010 by htng

[htng 1]

Some of my purchases so far:

1) Hob - Hobz tempered glass hob. I feel it looks good with high flame suitable for asian cooking.

2) Hood - Hobz hood which high fan flow speed. Well, in principle high fan flow doesn't necessary = oil retention efficiency but if speed is slow, it will make everything worst.

3) Washer. My wife and I consider very long before choosing this model which we are going to order shortly. We compare between Samsung, LG and Panasonic inverter. Since washing machine is used like 2 hrs per day or every 2 days, inverter dont seems necessary. Therefore we decided on Samsung, WA12VP because of Diamond drum, mist shower, AG+ and the 5 years motor warranty.

4) Fridge. Since we are going to on the fridge 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it is better to consider one with better energy efficiency. Therefore we thought Panasonic inverter will be useful.

Took us 1 week to finalize the above..

Edited June 1, 2010 by htng

[worldangel 0]

My place already start hacking yesterday and will continue today. Wow! Whole house is extremely messy. Patrick's standard is very high which is good

1) He rejected the whole lot of foyer tiles because the tiles have different thickness and some has slight warpage. It looks reasonable and acceptable to me with very slight problem but since he say not good, will return and re-choose another design.

2) He also say the kitchen sink is not suitable for undermount despite shop saying can undermount because the surface is not the flat type. Patrick mention can do but there will be issue in future so I need to change it.

I read that for undermount, if we didnt do properly, it is a very drastic change because by replacing sink, have to remove the whole solid top...Wow! Nightmare.

Overall a very detail person...Hope everything will progress smoothly.

Don't worry...he will do a good job

[htng 1]

Don't worry...he will do a good job

Thanks! I purchase this sink MN-TR106. Seems pretty solid and suitable for my usage. The salesperson told me it can be undermounted but Patrick advise me not to do it because this is not a true undermount sink. He mention he encounter a few cases of leak within 6 months. I am a bit skeptical initially and after checking with two other shops, they mention that undermount can be down with "undermount" sink.

After doing some search on the internet, MN sink is made by Mor-ning. After reading through their profile, I found out that they are actually a ISO9001:2000 certified company. I hope the sink quality turns out to be good.

Using topmount sink as undermount sink is actually a risk. For those who has yet to buy a sink, please take note of this. An example of undermount sink is as shown in the following website. Undermount sink has a totally flat surface

http://www.elkayusa.com/cps/rde/xchg/elkay...amp;vqmaterial=

Edited June 2, 2010 by htng

[htng 1]

After one week, door tilting is almost done. The main wooden door is already up and I am currently waiting for the metal gate to be ready. Contractor will be coming over to do some varnishing work this coming week...

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The foyer tiles looks pretty decent and has a laminate feel...Something that look like wood yet is more lasting than laminated flooring.

This is the interface between my foyer and kitchen tiles. I choose the lighter kitchen tiles so that the kitchen will look brighter and more spacious..

Kitchen cabinet base is also done.

Edited June 6, 2010 by htng

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The fridge base is also done.

A close up of the kitchen tiles

The interface between my foyer and living room tiles. You can see the contrasting difference.

[htng 1]

Sharing some sketches on my kitchen cabinet.

Decided to use the Blum, Aventos HL system for the dish drainer cabinet. Picture is from Blum website.