hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 Hi folks, I'm back! After a couple of months of inactivity, that is. Been pretty busy with the house ever since we've moved in and currently we (we a.k.a me and the missus) are swamped with the preparations for our traditional wedding ceremony next month. Two locations. Two countries. *big sweat* I'll still hang out in RT occasionally whenever time permits. If there are questions here and there, do bear with me if you only get replies like once a week or something. Anyway, on to the story. I'm writing this entire piece off-hand while trying to recall as much as I can along the way. I'm pretty sure there will be bits and pieces being left out here and there, albeit unintentionally, so I'll just add those on whenever...(I would want to say "whenever I get the chance" here but I don't really want to promise anything) Yeah...yeah...you could say I'm lazy and all. I've got tons of pics here on my PC taken since day 1 of the reno 'till now, but I kinda lost the momentum when I saw the bunch of seemingly endless pics I would have to upload, organize, tag, describe, post etc. So, think I'll do this t-blog the quick and easy way. Short and straight to the pics that matter. A before and after comparison But first, for those whom I've bugged shamelessly in RT for the past few months as well as those whom I've PM-ed with before, you'd know by now that I've engaged Henry of I.D. Note Design & Build to doll up my Punggol 5rm resale flat. If you're interested to check out his portfolio and past projects, just head on to those links on my sig. So, in all manners of a customary RT-styled t-blog, I'll start with this...haha. This is the initial planned layout of the house before I went scouting around for contractors/IDs. Used Floorplanner for this as I only needed a 2D view of the whole place to plan stuff out. It's pretty easy to use and it gave me quite a good approximation of where things should be, the dimensions and how practical it is gonna be for me and the missus. I guess the house is pretty much squarish with 4 sides and 4 corners everywhere. I'm not really a big fan of odd shapes really. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) The Kitchen - Before I believe at the heart of a place that I'd finally call my own home lies in the kitchen, so let's start with that. Photo above of this messy old kitchen was taken on the first day of viewing. There wasn't any top kitchen cabinet and the bottom cabinet was made of those 80's-styled marble. Look real retro. We hacked it all off eventually. The Kitchen - After Yes, it's all white! Glossy white to be exact. I maintained the L-shape of the bottom cabinet (the kitchen sink area isn't in the photo) and had them suspended. The cabinet top is of the usual solid surface material. I came to understand later on that some effort have to be put in to maintain such solid surface tops from scratches, smudges and of course to avoid placing hot objects directly onto it i.e. kettle. Pretty much came up with our own design i.e. no. of doors, dimensions, inner shelves etc. Blum soft-closing runners installed on the 3 smaller drawers and Blummotion hinges for all the cabinet doors. Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) The Common Toilet - Before This is the common toilet located in the kitchen area. Old tiles, but basically everything's still pretty much intact. The Common Toilet - After Yeap, even toilets' gonna look white! Covered up the HDB sewage pipes. Went for a compact W.C. (on the left) and a shower screen w/ glass door on the right. Opted for a drop down (about an inch depth) to separate the dry and shower area. I had a lot of people asking me how come the wash basin is so small. That really is an honest mistake on my part. Kinda misjudged the basin's dimensions and its ratio to the size of the dry area. Got a good scolding from the missus too hehe. Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) The Study Room - Before Well, what you're looking at here is actually the small room in between the master bedroom and common room. The previous owner had the original wall separating this room and the master bedroom hacked off. You could see the adjoining adjacent wall there on the right. We wanted a small room as a study so we reinstated that wall in the end. It is far more expensive to erect a new wall than to hack it off The Study Room - After Obviously the room's still a mess now. Haven't got much furniture in it yet save for the suspended study table. The wall on the left is the reinstated new wall. This is the only room in the whole house that we've given a non-white coat of paint. Choice of color: Latte. Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) The Master Bedroom Toilet - Before The previous owners must have really loved marble tops. That, we've hacked away as well. Basically, we've maintained the position of things. Less hassle there. The Master Bedroom Toilet - After Went for a minimalistic form and choice of accessories. Solid surface top for the vanity with sliding cabinet doors. Full-length mirror so that I could see myself all nekkid in the shower (bad idea!). In the 2nd photo, you'd be able to see how the shower screen looks like. The t-shaped block next to the instant water heater is actually the gypsum board box-up for the HDB U-shaped sewage pipes. Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) The Master Bedroom No before pics and this is the only photo of the all-important room that I was allowed to post online Other than a new false ceiling for the downlights, a fresh coat of paint and a new wardrobe, nothing much else was done in this room. We maintained the existing floor tiles. The Wardrobe All laminated with glossy piano white. The wardrobe's approximately 7 feet in length. We came up with our own design for the interior shelving. This wardrobe served as a partition of sorts between the bed and the attached toilet. Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) The Dining hall - Before The dining area's pretty spacious I think. Could probably sit 8 just fine for dinner. The standard HDB-SCDF bomb shelter is next to the dining hall and you could see the shelter door there right before the kitchen entrance. The Dining hall - After We wanted a feature wall to hide the shelter door away, so Henry suggested the usual feature wall & tic-tac door. Again, design was our own. Chose black laminates with floral patterns as highlights. The missus chose that Looks much brighter in the end. We went through a whole lot of trouble getting those full-length wall mirrors installed. All four pieces were smashed to smithereens during the first day of installation. Long story to that but to cut it short, some young bugger idiotically knocked down all four pieces at the block's lobby area. The fella ran for his life when I chased him down with my trusty chainsaw. ...just kidding. But we never caught the idiot. Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) The Living Hall - Before The flat comes with a balcony. The missus and I debated quite awhile over the practicality of it. I guess most people would probably hack away the full-length windows and sort of extend out the living hall area. And one peculiar observation is that the full-length windows turn green as it gets darker in the late evenings. It wasn't some sort of solar film, so we couldn't do much with that. The Living Hall - After We got the entire ceiling in the living hall re-done with a new false ceiling for the downlights. Opted for a wallpaper-centric feature wall with a suspended TV console (own design). The missus got the wallpaper shipped in from Shanghai considering that it's only a third of the costs here. Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) Phew...it's been a long night and I gotta wake up for work in like 5 hours. There are a whole lot more details I've yet to put in for now, but I'll get to that in stages. Hope you folks had fun seeing the before-and-afters. If you're interested in the catalogue of photos I've taken of the whole renovation period, it's here. Cheers and goodnight! Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
froggy 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 Phew...it's been a long night and I gotta wake up for work in like 5 hours. There are a whole lot of details I've yet to put in for now, but I'll get to that in stages. Hope you folks had fun seeing the before-and-afters. Cheers and goodnight! hi hcbing thanks for updating - that's quite a lot to digest - esp when you are in the midst of so many things happening all at once! Your house looks so tastefully done - minimalist, clean and inviting! oops .. what happen to the mirrors? One question - did you have some kind of "guard" on that mirror wall? My place we also thinking of having mirror next to dining table, but is concerned about chair legs knocking on them ... btw all the best in yr ceremonial wedding! Have fun! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hcbing 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 (edited) hi hcbing thanks for updating - that's quite a lot to digest - esp when you are in the midst of so many things happening all at once! Your house looks so tastefully done - minimalist, clean and inviting! oops .. what happen to the mirrors? One question - did you have some kind of "guard" on that mirror wall? My place we also thinking of having mirror next to dining table, but is concerned about chair legs knocking on them ... btw all the best in yr ceremonial wedding! Have fun! Hey froggy! Just about to log off...and you're my first victim!...errr I mean question. Thanks for the comment. As for the full-length mirror in the dining hall, I do have skirting done right at the bottom to prevent the chair legs from bumping into the glass. Cheers! Edited August 16, 2010 by hcbing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pinkpetter 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2010 hcbing!!! NICE NICE NICE! I love the combi tiles you used in the toilet... and that HUGE cabinet you have in the hall... not only useful but very nice looking... and the way you placed the wardrobe in the MBR... all great ideas. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leechaorui 2 Report post Posted August 17, 2010 Very nice reno. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hippobb 0 Report post Posted August 17, 2010 Nice reno!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
valkilmer 1 Report post Posted August 17, 2010 The Living Hall - Before The flat comes with a balcony. The missus and I debated quite awhile over the practicality of it. I guess most people would probably hack away the full-length windows and sort of extend out the living hall area. And one peculiar observation is that the full-length windows turn green as it gets darker in the late evenings. It wasn't some sort of solar film, so we couldn't do much with that. The Living Hall - After We got the entire ceiling in the living hall re-done with a new false ceiling for the downlights. Opted for a wallpaper-centric feature wall with a suspended TV console (own design). The missus got the wallpaper shipped in from Shanghai considering that it's only a third of the costs here. hope come cannot see wires coming out from the tv and mio box huh? the wall is the default wall right? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
