Our Dream Home @ Woodlands Meadow

[guojiawen 101]

awesome planning! haha i didn't plan anything ... i think i will jus dump stuff into it according to my liking ... hehe

anyway, fyi, be prepared tt the "food prep" & "rdy to serve" areas will be VERY minimal with hob, sink & fridge in a lane. n also the cupboard area above your dish washer is basically 0 becos there is a big water piping there ... on the other hand, the oven side is a total clear space for you to play ard with anything ... jus tt its shorter in length compared to the other side ...

LOL. ya, we'd have done the same and dump everything into all available space if not for my friend advising me that when we eventually need to get around organising or cooking in the kitchen, it will be a pain. so i decided to spend some time doing up the planning hehe.

thanks for the heads up on the cupboard above the dish rack, i didn't even think of that. super noob here. haha.

for the food prep side, i'm thinking of finding those sink that can have attachable cutting board. so the top of the sink can be part of the prep area. saw this from somewhere before, just cannot remember where and what brand. will go dig that out and share more..

the ready to serve side.... i guess if really no space just turn around and place on the oven side before bringing out to dining area liao

[guojiawen 101]

Hi

Your quotation looks very good. Hope u dun mind sharing it with me as well as the ID.

The kitchen info you shared is very very good too ^^

Hello xiaohuiis,

I've PM-ed you

[NingNing 28]

AHHH! so helpful!! i was actually looking for the kitchen height thing. who knew u would have posted it!! u save my time to find it.

[guojiawen 101]

AHHH! so helpful!! i was actually looking for the kitchen height thing. who knew u would have posted it!! u save my time to find it.

haha! maybe that's why we are twinnies

[Songz 132]

Woah thats really some knowledgefor the kitchen.

Thanks for sharing but I think i am those that juz dump into the cabinet kind

[guojiawen 101]

Woah thats really some knowledgefor the kitchen.

Thanks for sharing but I think i am those that juz dump into the cabinet kind

Haha! If never cook much actually don't need to plan in detail..

As long as we know where are the utensils, pots, maggie mees, eggs and canned food can already

[coweye 4]

Useful info on kitchen planning. Thanks!

[Songz 132]

Haha! If never cook much actually don't need to plan in detail..

As long as we know where are the utensils, pots, maggie mees, eggs and canned food can already

Ok that sound like me :X

[guojiawen 101]

Useful info on kitchen planning. Thanks!

Most welcome!

Ok that sound like me :X

Haha, actually, that's me too. That's why description can be accurate

I'm more on the baking side. Hubby is the chef.

[guojiawen 101]

I'm suddenly thinking of making the entire house white.

White with silver/glass/mirror carpentry, white paint and then play around with blue furnishings - as compared to using blue for wall paint now.

i think my ID will

[guojiawen 101]

Ended my Skype session with my ID an hour ago.

Must applaud him for learning to use Skype despite not using it before! I know to our generation (1980s onwards?) it is a piece of cake, but he is not from the super tech savvy generation. He downloaded to have easier discussion with me (guess i really request many things, not easy to communicate solely thru email).

Went through my list one by one and asked for two perspectives for the colour scheme of the walls - one pure white, the other one white and blue contrast.

Since majority of the changes is for the living room, he will prepare that first. Once I choose the colour scheme I prefer then he do up the full set for the rest of the house

One thing I learnt today though, it is not advisable to mix mirror with the laminate because of the difference in thickness (mirror is thicker). In order to present a flushed surface for the mirror and laminate, the wood thickness will be compromised as the mirror will "eat" into the wood. ID says the carpentry will not last long and to him personally, it is not acceptable for his level of workmanship. But having explained the logic behind his advice, he said the choice is still up to us, and again caution that the wood may break easily.

Decided not to do that in the end as we chose customised carpentry to have it longer lasting. If we compromise the workmanship for aesthetics, then really defeat the purpose of customising our carpentry work!

So our carpentry work should be white with silver laminates then.

Looking forward to the new 3D draft!

Edited March 2, 2014 by guojiawen

[guojiawen 101]

Finally! Fellow neighbours updated they have received their HLE letters from HDB!

Gonna look forward to my sis-in-law update when it is received at home

3D drawings and space planning ready in 4 days. Yay, progress!

[mavicaste 58]

Sharing Our Kitchen Planning (and welcoming suggestions of course!)

Spent the last 3 days researching on kitchen ergonomics and realised that the work triangle won't apply in my case. This design is called a kitchen galley design.

Please take this sharing with an open mind, especially if you already cook very frequently at home and find the below planning nonsensical. LOL. Will be happy to learn more from you guys..

Here's our kitchen after minor amendments so you can gauge the orientation of the kitchen (still pending addition of lights under the upper cabinet on the oven side and changing of many of the cupboards into drawers):

1. Kitchen height - the ideal height is to take our height divide by 2 and + 5cm to that.

As shared by a fellow renotalk blogger

2. Toe kick (In our terms, the kitchen cabinet base) is essential for cooking ergonomics.

Basically, it provides a recess for our feet so we can get close to the counter top without losing our balance. Without that, we will be leaning over more and straining our back, shoulders and arms in the process *ouch*.

3. Planning our storage around the kitchen

Our kitchen is divided into 5 areas - the consumables (food), non consumables (cooking ware), cleaning (sink / wet area), preparation & cooking area.

The most used items shld be placed on the bottom of the top cabinet, and the top of the bottom cabinet, followed by the less frequently used items and finally the rarely used items (working our way up and down respectively).

I find this Blum Dynamic Space Planning page really useful in terms of having an idea what we need to store in a kitchen (especially since this is our first home, and... I don't cook).

So here's our two sides of the kitchen!

This is the fridge, sink and cooker hob side:

This is the oven side:

All pictures on organising the stuff inside neatly are taken from a super nice website - I heart organising! Loads of tips on keeping our house really neatly organised!

P.s After doing up the planning did I realise that we have more than enough storage in the kitchen for a small family. Haha!

Really helpful stuff you are sharing here.

[guojiawen 101]

Really helpful stuff you are sharing here.

Just sharing what I can since I also learnt alot from this forum

I tried to read through your sharing on the network stuff, though it is really beyond me , it should be great info for those who are interested too haha.

[guojiawen 101]

Updates!

Finally some updates for my home reno! Went MIA for a while. School has also re-started so will only update whenever there's progress (which i hope will be plenty soon )

- 3rd draft of 3D drawings are out (just for living room + shoe cabinet first)

- Submitting my BTO HLE application tonight

3D Drawings 3rd Draft

Can be compared against the 1st draft here

Shoe cabinet

Main change

- Instead of a complicated L shaped one, have decided to shorten it to the below.

- It's 3 ft + a settee. Looks kind of short though. Anyone can share if 3 ft looks like this size in real life? Told hubby it may be too small & he asked me to buy less shoes

Living room with blue contrast wall

Main changes:

- Felt that the walls were too blue in the previous 3D drafts so requested for less blue with a focal wall

- Feature wall design is now simpler and classier

- Feature wall and sofa switch sides

- Design of circuit breaker door was changed to pure mirrors

- Number of downlights is similar to what we plan to put in real life

- Dining table and hanging light are added in

Living room in pure white

Main changes

- Same as above just that there's no focal wall colour

- If this is chosen, blue will then be used mainly for my furnishings and deco

Toilet

Wasn't provided previously. Just wanted a rough idea how it will as we are only doing a full height storage mirror cabinet + 2ft vanity cabinet w solid surface top.

Any thoughts on whether I should go with blue focal wall or pure white?

I'm leaning towards pure white at the moment and use blue furnishings...