Aaab's Hjem

[ymjp100 0]

For leechaorui who asked, this was what the original stairwell and steps looked before the renovation. It was well-maintained and tiled.

This set of photos show the state it was in before our 2nd appointment. The previous owner was very accommodating. We could freely bring Steven, our ID from Ideal House, to the apartment for site visits. We could take measurements, photos and roam around the entire place.

[ymjp100 0]

And this was how the stairwell and steps looked after renovation.

It looks very unfinished without railings and cement screed steps. Our neighbours, parents, friends and the assortment of visitors we received were constantly asking when will the railings be installed and why isn't there any finishing for the steps. It is a running joke.

This is a similar picture as above but with the dining room light switched on.

Even the HDB Technical Officers that had visited me 4-5 times to inspect my complain of a leak in the common toilet on level 2 commented that without railings, the steps were dangerous.

Not child-friendly.

By the way, the picture above shows where the glass panels are fixed. Only on the top and second flight of steps.

As you might have noticed, the glass panels are fixed on the sides of the steps instead of the edge. This way, we can retain the side profile of the steps which we really love.

If you are sharp, you might also notice that the wall overlooking the stairwell from the masterbed room is glass.

Let there be Light! Well, at least for the stairwell which can be quite dark even in the day. A glass wall will solve that problem. But create another. More of that later.....

[idealistic 0]

A very comprehensive floor plan

Nice viewing so many pictures and 3d design is not bad too!

[yuene 0]

Very nicely done!

[january 0]

Looks good!

I like what that wood laminated panel on the ceiling, it really does elevate the design.

Cheers to your almost completed reno.

[evokc 0]

By the way my unit is just beside the PIE. Plus MBR is facing PIE, we hope that with all windows closed it will not be too noisy.

Very nicely done. My wife is considering without railing too but due to our 2 kids, this idea was drop.

Like your dining light, my ID proposed the same dining light as yours in our 3D drawing. Where did you bought the light from?

[ymjp100 0]

A very comprehensive floor plan

Nice viewing so many pictures and 3d design is not bad too!

Thank you idealistic! Will post more pics when able. 3D pictures can be quite deceiving 3D pictures are great for visualisation, but still we paid alot of attention to details which cannot be re-produced by the 3D pictures.

Happy viewing.

[ymjp100 0]

Very nicely done!

Thank you. Enjoyed following your t-blog.

Hope you can buy the Ikea bedframe by Jan 11!

It is worth waiting for the bed that you really desire. Especially so when it is one which you will spend hours upon hours upon it.

[ymjp100 0]

Looks good!

I like what that wood laminated panel on the ceiling, it really does elevate the design.

Cheers to your almost completed reno.

You are right about the laminate-panel on the ceiling. My wife and I agreed that the laminated panel on the ceiling has no practical function except to hold the aesthetics of the dining room and rest of the house together. It also forms an invisible partition to indicate that the space under the panel is the dining room.

Looking forward to more pictures of your renovation.

[ymjp100 0]

By the way my unit is just beside the PIE. Plus MBR is facing PIE, we hope that with all windows closed it will not be too noisy.

Very nicely done. My wife is considering without railing too but due to our 2 kids, this idea was drop.

Like your dining light, my ID proposed the same dining light as yours in our 3D drawing. Where did you bought the light from?

The window of our bedroom faces the CTE which is about 120 metres away. It does help that there is a primary school in between to act as a sound buffer. But in the dead of the night, the constant drone generated from the tyres of the vehicles moving along the expressway can be unnerving.

Being on the 2nd floor (our unit) may not be so bad because sound travels outwards in all directions. So with the school and trees blocking, we should count my lucky stars because it could have been worse. We noticed that the sounds generated from roads tends to be heard at the mid-levels of a high rise flat. My guess is that sounds are attenuated by the trees and structures when you live on the lower levels. And at the higher levels, the attenuation is a result of distance and there is a coefficient factor to this. At the mid-levels, it is actually louder. But this does not apply to the noise generated from the basketball courts, playground etc etc that is directly below the block of flats.

Of course I may be wrong. Just my casual observation.

My humble advice is not to underestimate this noise. Get thicker curtains if you are a light sleeper. Or ear plugs.

Regarding the pendant lamp, it is a reproduction of the Artichoke by Poul Henningsen. I have scoured the various lighting shops around Singapore and none had a good reproduction. You will find many similar ones but they are not glare-free which was a key design consideration. Finally found a satisfactory model online and we had it shipped from China and assembled it ourselves. I shall PM you the online retailer and price. By the way, the lead time was about two months.

[january 0]

Don't worry so much about the noise... I live next to a major road and I got used to the sound pretty quickly, in less than a week. In the daytime planes fly by and sometimes I don't even notice it...

So you shipped the light from China... Just curious are you shipping in any other furniture as well (big items)?

I think your place has lots of potential to look really spectacular if you do the styling well... but judging from the designer (replica) items you have in your home, your place is gonna look pretty swell.

Thanks for reading my t-blog. My place is still in a mess right now... can't wait for it to be done.

[ymjp100 0]

Don't worry so much about the noise... I live next to a major road and I got used to the sound pretty quickly, in less than a week. In the daytime planes fly by and sometimes I don't even notice it...

different levels of tolerance for noise I guess....we have friends who live near Paya Lebar, Sembawang and Tengah Airbase, and you are right, they have grown used to the sounds from the aircraft. no choice anyway. Singapore so small. Many residential areas will be near a major road or above ground MRT tracks.

So you shipped the light from China... Just curious are you shipping in any other furniture as well (big items)?

if i recall correctly, the lamp was the only item we bought online from an overseas retailer. art prints do not count as furniture right? our dining chairs and sofa were made overseas (China/Malaysia) and shipped to Singapore but the retailer (Lush) operates locally. carpentry might have been made overseas (Malaysia) as well but our ID is local definitely. we know some people ship container-load worth of Indonesian wooden furniture. Another friend went to Denmark for his honeymoon and shipped back a huge carton worth of secondhand authentic Danish classics. Supposedly, this method of shipping is less expensive than buying through a local shop.

I think your place has lots of potential to look really spectacular if you do the styling well... but judging from the designer (replica) items you have in your home, your place is gonna look pretty swell.

ooooo.....pressure to live up to your expectations hahaha......

on buying replicas, we respect intellectual property. so we made sure that the design patents for the repro have expired. usually a patent lasts no more than 20 years from the original filing date. and the replicas we bought were in line with the original design considerations. for example the Artichoke - glare free and well distributed light, we found it very suitable for the dining room. moreover, it was originally designed for a restaurant in Copenhagen. we also bought an Arco lamp repro for the living room so that a specific area can be lit without affecting the cove lights and unsightly cables. I shall explain this with pictures in the near future.

In any case, we were inspired by this quote and not too concerned about getting it right in our first attempt. Hence; a lifelong project:

Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it. For a house that was final, one that stood in symmetrical relation to the house we were born in, would lead to thoughts—serious, sad thoughts—and not to dreams. It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality

—Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Thanks for reading my t-blog. My place is still in a mess right now... can't wait for it to be done.

I am sure you will be happy with the result. Patience pays dividends.

[evokc 0]

ymjp - Thx for your PM. Will check it out, but 2 months waiting is too long for us. Maybe to look for other design.

January - I used to stay near Thomson road and it can get very noisy when modify cars drove by. Hope my past experience will prepare me for the noise generated from PIE at night. As I have never stay in a high floor just next to noisy road.

[ymjp100 0]

This was how the living room looked like two months ago:

We did not want to have any direct lighting in the living room. So it was cove-lights all round. At the same time, we wanted the option of having only the coffee table lit. Next requirement was: no PLC downlights. So the Arco Lamp design was practical in achieving our requirements. This is a repro (of course!).

The three repro lamps: Artichoke in dining room, Random Light in stairwell and Arco Lamp in the living room forms a straight line. Not intended. Just happened to be. Whimsical serendipity.

[ymjp100 0]

ymjp - Thx for your PM. Will check it out, but 2 months waiting is too long for us. Maybe to look for other design.

The source I provided is the only one I came across with the inner cylinder that shields the bulb. Which is a design feature found in the original. Local repros all do not come with this cylinder. And a copper top/white base repro lamp is equally rare.

happy light-hunting!