Leon & Jenna Reno Experience

[leonjennawong 53]

Hello everyone! *wave wave!*

Busy busy busy these few days!

Sorry for my extended hiatus from this humble little space... My work is killing me. Heh heh

MORE UPDATES ON MY RENOVATION! And this time it's......

DETAILED CARPENTRY DRAWINGS!

#CalvinTan recently requested to meet up with us to run through the detailed drawings for the carpentry that we are doing.. He actually sent us an email with the detailed drawings first so that CFO & I could have an initial look first, and it gave us the opportunity to discuss between the 2 of ourselves first before we actually meet him...

For this, #CalvinTan insisted to meet at our new house... He actually printed out all the drawings in A3-size papers (the drawings were very high quality by the way, see paragraph below for my justification ) and we used these for reference, going to each & every wall where we had discussions right in front of it, which made for easy visualisation and quick decision making!

BUT. WHAT REALLY REALLY REALLY IMPRESSED ME about this phase of the renovation is that all of the detailed carpentry drawings are done using the AUTOCAD software... And they were great for visualisation of space because ALL DIMENSIONS WERE DRAWN TO SCALE!

I must say I was actually quietly very very pleased with it because it really helped CFO & I to be able to have a good solid mental image of the amount of space that we have on the different walls. Incidentally, this was also one of the reasons that I recently told one of my friends while I was recommending #PoshHome to him...

This is what I told him:

#1) From what I know, most contractors & other IDs will probably just give you a hand-drawn picture that is not exactly "to-scale";

#2) #PoshHome's detailed carpentry drawing includes the entire wall-space of that particular living space, which was why I was saying that it really helped CFO & I to visualise the ENTIRE wall-space; Most other contractors & IDs only provide a hand-drawn picture of that particular carpentry in question,

#3) It's hard to get this kind of service quality assurance.. And I might be wrong but I've not come across this kind of practice so far... So I will term it as a "best-in-class practice"!

#4) Lastly, you cannot put a price on the accountability/ competence behind this kind of work quality... (Let's face it, one of our biggest fears is an irresponsible designer or site coordinator, right? )

So without holding you guys back any longer, do scroll-on down for my proud collection of my detailed carpentry drawings!

DRAWING #1 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR SHOE CABINET

- #CalvinTan advised that the shoe cabinet will not be full-height; in fact will be the same height as our main door so there will be a clean line at that space.

- Not building the shoe cabinet to be full-height also gives the impression that it's a loose furniture, that is accentuated by the beautiful pencil legs below it and allows it to be aligned to our scandinavian theme..

- Will change the doors from a 9-door configuration, to a 3-vertically-long-door configuration to reduce the visual mess & give cleaner lines

DRAWING #2 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR SIDE BOARD AND COLUMN - the back of our living area

- This is the best example of what I was talking about earlier; good representation of wall-space and allowed CFO & I to have a good feel and visualisation

- Oh, BTW we decided to have a #Eubiq track in-built onto the top of the side board with a flushed finish

DRAWING #3 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR KITCHEN GLASS DOOR

- Mainly for visualisation, especially for my unique veneer-wrapped wooden handle (Actually hor, now then I finally completely understand what my door handle will look like wahahahaha... )

DRAWING #4 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR KITCHEN CABINET - view when at kitchen entrance

- TA DA! The exact look when we stand right at the kitchen entrance!

- The 900mm space on the right is where our fridge will be.. hehe..

DRAWING #5 - FRONT ELEVATION FOR KITCHEN CABINET - view with service yard on right

- And to wrap things up, behold the detailed carpentry drawing for the other side of the kitchen

- Good for the conceptualisation of the height of our built-in oven & microwave (ergonomically, you wouldn't want them to be too low or too high) and controlling the expectations of the available counter-top space on that side of the kitchen...

OK la ok la I better wrap up this post now, CFO is chasing me to go to bed liao.... Just now I told her 15 more minutes.. Now it's been more than 30 minutes liao... So she chase me again. Wahahahaha... Later kenna scolded by her..

Sheesh... Tomorrow's gonna be a looooooong day...!

CHEERS TO YOU ALL AND HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND FELLAS!

Edited July 5, 2014 by leonjennawong

[MessieCat 0]

I'm considering Posh Home too.. Would like to get your opinion on their default Berry laminate Floor vs the vinyl Alsafloor that you have chosen? I am definitely tempted to get Alsafloor because of the huge cost savings, but feeling very confused between laminate and vinyl, seems like some ppl say laminate very good and vinyl not good, and vice versa. What do you think?

[HansamuQ 5]

Leon and Jenna, congrats on your sweet home! I must say that your t-blog really is entertaining, i read it from page 1 to 7. And also "stealing" your picture for my future BTO also in yishun 5 room at Acacia Breeze.

Keep posting he updates of your reno ya!

And like others, can you send me your quotation break down for so i can prepare for my BTO too?

My email is qiweikw@gmail.com

[guojiawen 101]

Wow u put in so much thought and analysis into the box up. Ashamed to say I just let my ID settle as long as it looks nice. Haha..

[bianzi 52]

Nice la... Boxing the trunking

[leonjennawong 53]

Did Calvin tan provide warranty if Aircon pipe leak, he will remove the box and patch then up nicely in future ?

LOL bianzi! That has not come up before in my discussions with #CalvinTan! In any case, I would not actually blame him if the aircon pipe really leaks because I am fully aware of the risks (which #CalvinTan duly advised) of concealing the air con pipe.

Just some sharing on my decision process for the air con trunking concealing: #CalvinTan told us that there were basically 2 common ways of running the aircon pipe; You can run it along the room passageway or inside the bedrooms. Now here comes my list of the pros & cons of both options:

RUNNING IN BEDROOMS:

PROS:

- Passageway is kept clear and nice, without the relatively ugly rectangular trunking running along the top of one side of your room passageway. And I stress that I only say it's relatively ugly because it can be something that only I am fussy about.. Hehe.. so don't get offended ah people...

- Less water damage and easier to rectify if/when the aircon pipe 'leaks'

CONS:

- If you are looking to install a built-in wardrobe over that same wall space in your bedroom (which I am not doing right now for my Reno, but I would like to think that I would some day when we have kids ), you might find that you will potentially have even more problems if/when there's a leak. Leaks at just the right areas will damage your built-in carpentry & the losses will be even bigger.

RUNNING IN PASSAGEWAY:

PROS:

- I can have my option of having of built-in wardrobe for my kids in the future without any worry of condensate leaking out & damaging carpentry

CONS:

- Like I was saying before, CFO & I find it a tad too ugly & jarring for the eyes.. Hehe..

Having listed out the pros & cons (there might be more that we are not aware of) that we went through, that's when #CalvinTan advised us on the relatively cheap partition box up option, which we ultimately took up!

DISCLAIMER: WARNING! BORING CONTENT AHEAD!

Haha.. Having already decided that we definitely want to hide the air con trunking as much as possible somehow, we measured the impact of this decision against the Likelihood of Failure & Severity of Failure matrix.

Taking the Likelihood of Failure to be the likelihood of aircon pipe leaking, it will be a constant.. And taking the Severity of Failure to be the amount of money I needed to spend on repairs if/when the aircon pipe leaks; The run-in-room-passageway-and-box-up option wins hands down! *cheers!* I should probably also specify another 2 more factors in my decision formula;

1) which is the aesthetic factor of both options but I won't go into detail because aesthetics is a relative concept, different from person to person.. In this case, we think the box-up looks nice enough.. Hehe..

2) and also the initial cost of building a partition box-up for the air con trunking which I mentioned earlier to be relatively cheap (and cheaper than I expected)

In summary, we think the 'box-up & running along the passageway' option gives us the best monetary value (upfront & consequential) and lets us achieve a decent-enough aesthetic result.. HEHEHE.

Good progress on the Reno.

For me I cannot take mixture of complicated tiles as I prefer to have more constant and uniform look.

Thanks Songz! Haha at first I also cannot take it. But I love my CFO so much that I also inadvertently fell in love with the kitchen floor tiles. Wahahaha..

Edited June 30, 2014 by leonjennawong

[Songz 132]

Good progress on the Reno.

For me I cannot take mixture of complicated tiles as I prefer to have more constant and uniform look.

[bianzi 52]

Did Calvin tan provide warranty if Aircon pipe leak, he will remove the box and patch then up nicely in future ?

[leonjennawong 53]

Continued......

Partition Works #4) One of the best renovation journey decisions made by CFO & I is the air-con trunking box up!! Really really happy with the finish.. It looks clean, just like a concrete beam, so the ugly air-con trunking is effectively hidden away from view! Good recommendation by #CalvinTan there.. See pictures below..

AIR CON TRUNKING BOX UP (TAKEN FROM LIVING AREA) - You will notice that the horizontal RC beam at the room passageway entrance has been lowered a little using gypsum board as well.. I don't know why the photo is a bit slanted.. #Edgar took the photo I think.. Maybe creative people think differently from us. Wahahahaha...

AIR CON TRUNKING BOX UP (TAKEN FROM ENTRANCE OF ROOM PASSAGEWAY) - What did I tell ya?! :) The L-shaped box up looks so neat & tidy right! hehehe... A lot a lot better than having an ugly horizontal trunking running right above the door frames.. Blech..

AIR CON TRUNKING BOX UP (TAKEN FROM MASTER BEDROOM) - And just to show the entire work being done... The boxing up continues into the Master Bedroom.. where it terminates into another FCU..

OK I better go and try to sleep liao. It's 2am Singapore time.. Though back in Maldives, it's only 11pm.. Need to tweak my body clock a little.. Hehe... Good night everyone & sweet dreams!

*YAWN* (creative use of emoticons heh)

Edited June 30, 2014 by leonjennawong

[leonjennawong 53]

HELLO SINGAPORE! WE ARE BACK!

WAHAHAHAHA CFO & I HAVE OFFICIALLY NEVER BEEN SO SUNBURNT IN OUR LIVES. Really, you know. We are just so super chao ta (hokkien for burnt) & black right now.

With regards to our humble renovation, well... What a difference a week makes.

#CalvinTan & #Edgar have put up the finishing touches on all the partitioning works for us during our time away... But I only have the older photos for uploading tonight.. So bear with me till I get my grubby fingers on the latest photos k?

Partition Works #1) CFO & I decided along our reno journey to box up the hollow recessed walls (flanked by the 2 reinforced concrete "RC" columns) at our living area & our master bedroom...

- Living area wall was boxed up to achieve the clean, flat & big wall effect without having to deal with shadows cast by the overhang beam & those 2 "RC" columns; Also can help to run wires behind for my wall-mounted 60" TV.. hehehe (can see the work in Partition Works #3 below)

- And the master bedroom wall was boxed up because the recessed wall gave us constraints when we try to maximise the width of our entire wall, which is a balancing act between the curtain pelmet width, side tables' width, king-size bed width & wardrobe length. Without the box up, we think the recessed space would play up against us especially when we try to place our king-sized bed against the wall...

Partition Works #2) The 2 bedrooms' false ceilings have been put up, of which I will only show one picture since they all look the same (painting not fully done yet for the photo below, which is why it looks a little patchy)... Oh, and the air-con FCU recesses into the false ceiling have also been provisioned for..

Partition Works #3) The living & dining area false ceilings are also up! Seeing a large piece of plain ceiling without any L-box or cornices for cove lights etc. really gives me a feeling of a big space.. Pleased with the outcome! (take note the painting for this picture is also not fully done yet) The big recessed space in the ceiling is where my ceiling feature beams will go!! Can't wait for the next phase when my ceiling beams go up!

To Be Continued.....

Edited June 30, 2014 by leonjennawong

[leonjennawong 53]

could you share your 3D drawings here ?

Hello Bbbddd, you can try this link http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/64054-leon-jenna-reno-experience/?p=842578... I have changed some things since then but the 3d drawings still gave me a good visual image to work with "imaginatively".. hahaha Hope the link works though..

Not quite the scandi look I was expecting, with the use of all those patterned tiles, but looking forward to seeing the end outcome! Have a great honeymoon!!

Hey hey tessina! Long time no see.. I think the last time I saw you was when you recommended #GalangaLiving to me.. hehe good store with good prices! Just a bit too dark for my theme.. Anyway as you pointed out, the kitchen has indefinitely taken a move away from scandinavian theme & towards the vintage theme... CFO is so happy with her kitchen.. And thanks for your nice wishes!!

[Brian Huang 4]

Still in Maldives enjoying eh! haha. we'll probably see more updates once they're back!

[Takaishi 44]

am more interested in your kitchen

[tessina 9]

Not quite the scandi look I was expecting, with the use of all those patterned tiles, but looking forward to seeing the end outcome! Have a great honeymoon!!

[Giselle 2]

Hi Leon & Jenna

Can email your quote to constanceong26@gmail.com?

Thanks