Old New Flat On A Shoestring Budget

[kirinshibori 0]

Anyway, back to happier stuff...

Due to the non-delivery from Insani for the following items...

[kirinshibori 0]

We got ourselves these instead...

Not as flash as the Grohe/Hansgrohe stuff... but it should fit our needs.

[kirinshibori 0]

This is like the nicest switch ever, but the price is not very nice, haha!

It's from the Merten M-Plan Glass series, with real glass and thermoplastic rocker switches...

So, true to my shoestring budget... I stuck to the plain jane MK Slimline R6 that HDB gave as rectification replacements and bought some Legrand Mallia for those new additions...

MK Slimline Plus

Legrand Mallia

While getting the switches and sockets, I also bought an ELCB for the isolated mains that I'll be using for my antique hifi... but that'll be another entry by itself.

[kirinshibori 0]

It's been a long time since I updated... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can move in to the new place in 2 weeks' time.

Anyway, decided that I will post my initial space planning design up since my father-in-law actually translated it into Autocad dwg for me to DIY a 3DMax perspective... alas, he was too busy and only managed to pass me the file now. With the renovation nearing an end, I don't even know if I can be bothered with coming up with a 3D, lol... Regardless, cannot let my FIL's efforts go to waste, so I'll just post here as a start.

The actual plan has the living and dining areas swapped, and the MBR WIW done away... cos the actual room is simply too small to accommodate a WIW!

[kirinshibori 0]

Pardon my half past six drawing... anyway, this was what I gave my carpenter when we started the reno more than a month ago...

The final product is pretty similar, except I have no money for the removable cupboard at the foyer, some appliances have changed make and position, and we're using oak and ash instead of plywood for the exterior...

[kirinshibori 0]

There's still some way to go till the end of the renovation, but this is the same perspective view as the "3D" I posted earlier...

[troides 0]

kirinshibori,I love your choice of wood. It goes very well with white walls and black lights

Keep the pictures coming!

[adidaem 6]

Wow. Excellent drawings! Any others that you did?

[kirinshibori 0]

Wow. Excellent drawings! Any others that you did?

I'm humbled by your compliment... please bear with me as I subject you guys to more of my doodles...

The MBR WIW concept (refer to space planning diagram above) was scrapped due to a lack of space, but this was what we had originally intended to do. My spouse termed the access door on the right as the "ninja door", lol, as it is supposed to resemble the cupboard door on the left when closed.

As for the common toilet, I was exploring the idea of a wall-hung WC, but the cost for achieving it was prohibitive, so we scrapped the idea too...

[kirinshibori 0]

kirinshibori,I love your choice of wood. It goes very well with white walls and black lights

Keep the pictures coming!

Thanks! I like how the wood turned out too.

We had actually planned to use plain plywood for the drawer and cabinet doors (what were we thinking of?!), and we were horrified by what we saw when the kitchen cabinets came... even with shellac and lacquer, the result wasn't what we intended as the wood grains and colours just didn't work.

After discussing with the carpenters and topping up for the extra material, we chose oak veneer for the drawer doors and cabinets and solid white ash strips for the grille doors. The internal plywood carcass was waterproofed with some sort of marine polyester resin and both the internal and external cabinets would be finished with shellac and lacquer. I think this sort of carpentry is pretty uncommon, rather old-school and very time consuming! I have my issues with the carpenter; though overall, I'm grateful for the time and effort they put in for my project. But yes, my carpentry is kinda bottlenecking everything else!

Anyway, I'll skip the kitchen for now and post the wip toilet pics...

The Ikea Godmorgan sink cabinet only cost $100 (the sink cost $199 though, no discount ) as it was discontinued as-is, but I got my carpenter to laminate the sides as it came originally as black-brown. The drawer fronts are white and the best thing is they come with Blum tandembox full extension drawer rails with blumotion... so I pretty much got the wood for free, considering the 2 sets of rails would cost almost $80.

[kirinshibori 0]

It's slowly shaping up.

There are also 2 Ikea hacks seen here.

The dining table is using legs from the dining table in the Skogall dining set, while the table top is a 10-ply plywood with white laminate top, PVC bottom and actual wood trimming at the side. This is the offer that is still on at Ikea.

The foldable table attached to the island uses the frame from the Norbo drop-leaf table.

I bought the table for $40 from Ikea's as-is; however, the table top was damaged during the renovation, so I got my carpenter to fabricate a table top and re-use the frame. It's not evident here as the house is still rather dusty, but the solid surface is very glossy and I could have chosen hi-gloss black laminate for the table to match the sheen. But I guess matte black is good too in that scratches are less obvious.

[rae13 0]

Looks very nice! The feel is like wat u have posted in yr inspiration pic.

Can u review the vinyl floor? R u using the high resilent flooring?

[kirinshibori 0]

Looks very nice! The feel is like wat u have posted in yr inspiration pic.

Can u review the vinyl floor? R u using the high resilent flooring?

Let me try to sum up my thoughts about the two flooring.

Laminate

Pros:

1. Cheap! At $3.50/sqf before GST for Made-in-Germany AC4 laminate boards with upgraded "solidstep" underlay and skirting... I can't really ask for more...

2. We love the look! Yes, it's a piece of photograph under a piece of plastic... but it achieved the look we want, and guess what, Japanese floors are predominantly laminate boards nowadays as it is low cost and low maintenance.

3. Can't see the scratches, but that's because of the colour and tones.

Cons:

1. The "floaty" feeling... which was minimized with the "solidstep" underlay upgrade but highly dependent on the levelness of your cement screed floor. All I can say is, you get what you pay for. My cement screeding was done FOC by HDB and it was a disaster. It was so bad that the flooring people stopped work as the floor was so uneven that the boards cannot be installed. I had to get my tiler in to do an emergency rescue and rectify the uneven portion so that the flooring installation could continue.

2. No matter what they say or do, laminate floors do not like water, especially at the edges where they meet the wall. That is where whatever wax coating or waterproofing becomes nullified as the board is cut to fit the walls, exposing the vulnerable inner HDF.

Vinyl (aka High-end Resilient Flooring)

Frankly, I'll just call it vinyl, whatever else is just marketing speak. Btw, it's known as Allure Trafficmaster in the US.

Pros:

1. Waterproof. Kitchen-friendly, but not recommended for bathrooms as it is a floating system that is installed by click and lock, so water can still be trapped between the vinyl and your sub-floor after prolong exposure to puddles of water, and in a high humidity area such as the bathroom, it could lead to unpleasant odours as yucky stuff start festering there...

2. The feel is solid. I love walking on it, and the texture feels like I'm walking on wood grains. No creaking, no floaty feel but again, do yourself a favour and get proper cement screeding, cos the vinyl tiles are pliable and will follow whatever curvature your floor throws at it.

3. The embossing is pretty impressive in terms of look and feel, but some of these embossing were so eye-catching that we caught sight of the repeat patterns, lol!

4. AC5, but note that it is not scratch proof, cos my carpenter managed to scratch it with his nailgun air compressor...

Cons:

1. Relatively expensive, at $5.95/sqf before GST but without skirting, it isn't cheap.

2. The look... but that could be due to the colour and pattern we chose. I think we prefer 2 or 3-strip planks to match our desired look.

3. Less forgiving than laminates if our young ones fall on it as it is only 5mm thick and nothing separates it from the concrete floor.

I really regretted not choosing a lighter tone for the vinyl, so that the dining area will flow into the kitchen area better. Given a more generous budget, I'd have chosen vinyl for the whole house; the other option is to use the faux wood ceramic tiles we have in the bathrooms for the kitchen. Anyway, those are all wants and not needs, at least that's how I try to convince myself!

Edited May 10, 2012 by kirinshibori

[kirinshibori 0]

We're getting our bedroom doors replaced... anyone knows if there are cons to getting solid timber veneer doors versus semi-hollow veneer doors for the bedrooms other than cost?

The guy getting our doors suggested sticking with semi-hollow as there will be less expansion/warping problems in the future as well as less likelihood for the door to sag at the hinges.

Personally, I prefer the feel of a solid door as I'm quite sick of the vibration and noise when you close a semi-hollow one, but the other me says that I'm not as experienced as the door guy and should take his advice... help, anybody?

[adidaem 6]

We're getting our bedroom doors replaced... anyone knows if there are cons to getting solid timber veneer doors versus semi-hollow veneer doors for the bedrooms other than cost?

The guy getting our doors suggested sticking with semi-hollow as there will be less expansion/warping problems in the future as well as less likelihood for the door to sag at the hinges.

Personally, I prefer the feel of a solid door as I'm quite sick of the vibration and noise when you close a semi-hollow one, but the other me says that I'm not as experienced as the door guy and should take his advice... help, anybody?

I prefer solid... better sound insulation - which is important IMO. Something I didn't consider for my doors.

Hey, for the kitchen cabinets any backing behind the strips? Else inside may get dusty ya? Paranoid me thinks lizards and cockroaches can more easily crawl over the stuff inside too, which is kind of gross. =P