#homeofyeo (A Humble 4 Rm Bto)

[Karyn Tan 2]

Hello fellow Renotalkers,

I'm new here though my husband already is a regular. I created a blog to document the joy and experience of building our home with my hubby but silly me, I had meant to place the content in T-blog but confused with the main blog platform also on Renotalk.

Here are my first two posts.

BLOG - CHAPTER 1: ID Search

Months ahead of our key collection, we were contemplating whether to engage an ID or not. My hubby was very excited as he had been looking forward to start on our renovation project and he was very confident of doing up the 3D-drawings himself. I must say, he did some pretty decent perspectives for the home. But we still went ahead to get some quotes from ID first… ​Click to continue

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BLOG - CHAPTER 2: Our 4RM BTO Space

STEP 2: Space Evaluation (4RM BTO)

Here's an overview of how our bare 4-rm BTO space looks like

LIVING/DINING AREA

We opted out of the floor tiles (living/dining/bedroom only) and doors option in order to get alternatives that suit our liking. View from our main door.

….. Click to continue Chapter 2

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Anyone here who might be find this layout familiar? Guess most flats are laid out similarly these days.

Moving forward, I will continue with my updates from here onwards.

Edited July 29, 2014 by KarynTan

[ecolour11 1]

Hi Karyn

Care to share your ID contact (Email and contact no) as I am sourcing one to get some comparable quotes? BTW, hope to be able to get some update from your blog or here on the services and workmanship of your selected ID. Thanks

[Karyn Tan 2]

Hello ecolour11,

Sure! Actually, we are at the pre-carpentry stage. Will definitely share abt their workmanship too.

I'll PM u the contact.. but first let Me figure out how to do it

[Dwinsplace 48]

Hey Karyn,

Interesting style of writing you have, always making it a point to end on a cliffhanger. haha. But I'm falling for it hook, line and sinker. Will follow this page for more updates!

[Karyn Tan 2]

Hey Karyn,

Interesting style of writing you have, always making it a point to end on a cliffhanger. haha. But I'm falling for it hook, line and sinker. Will follow this page for more updates!

Thank you, Dwinsplace! Your comment is very encouraging.

There's simply too much to share and it would be info overload if I packed them into lengthy posts.

I like reading yours too! Gotta say, we have similar tastes except 1-2 features that is exclusive to us respectively.

[Karyn Tan 2]

CHAPTER 3: OUR DESIRED HOME INTERIOR DESIGN

With the aid of the Internet there is a vast supply of home inspiration available.

Good photography coupled with a little styling is all it takes to make a space so desirable.

Here are some inspirations we ripped off the web.

Step 3: Visualizing our future home

1.Living/Dining Area (Lines & textures with lots of earthly tones)

Yes, the brick wall trend has hit us hard. Despite how this brick wall has been done to death, there's just no way we can peel ourselves away from it.

L-shaped sofa is another must-have for me which is usually challenging for small spaces. See how it sits in here without looking out-of-place.

The hubby and I agree that this is a cleverly designed living/dining area that is multi-purpose - You can work on your com, dine and socialize all within this space. Very functional for a typical Singaporean unit.

What the hubby had envisioned was mainly to play up the interior with lots of lines and textures. Below was what our intended TV console would look like, supposed to flush all the way to the dining table to double up as a seat. But this one was quickly shot down when the fengshui master instructed us to reposition our TV console.

2. Bathroom (Patterns & tiles)

It is still all about textures and lines. I think subway tiles are quite the rage now. Makes the bathroom look rather old school in a beautiful way. There was also at one point in time when I fantasized about injecting some pink into the bathroom.

3. Kitchen

I absolutely looooooove the material of the cabinets that sit in this kitchen, making it look so raw yet inviting. My kitchen fantasy was crushed when the fengshui master gave the option to use any of these 3 dominating colors only - White, Sliver or Gold. Like that, how???

Apart from the look and feel, we kinda had a wish list for elements to be included but wasn't quite sure on where to place them.

1. Chalkboard Wall

I love to doodle and I have no doubt that my kids will do so too. I needed a space where the kids can make a mess with my full approval and this chalkboard wall definitely is it.

2. Peranakan Tiles

The hubby and I often fantasized about living in a peranakan shophouse like these.

I'm a little nonya, well, a descendant of the nonyas. It would be nice to embrace that heritage into our living space.

The hubby was confident that we could weave in peranakan elements such as tiles into our home. But I was apprehensive.

Each space deserves its little limelight, its feature per say. Planning for every corner of the home is a lot of work. I must say, the hubby has done an intensive amount of homework and all I needed was to approve. I am so thankful to have him! Doing this home renovation is another project (apart from marriage and kids) that has significantly brought us even closer.

Our ID, let's call him SS, has of course supported our ideas with inputs to improve the functionality of our design. He might overlook some minor details at some occasions but we can overlook that as his service is satisfactory till date. He does go the extra mile to get things done. We are having a little carpentry issue right now and we trust that he will help us resolve it in no time.

Next up, shopping time! It's a women's thing. Can't wait to share my loot for the home in my next entry. Watch out for it!

[Songz 132]

For White, Silver, Gold

You can check with your FSM if its the same using white, grey & bronze / light brown color

Hope this helps.

[Dwinsplace 48]

I felt exactly the same way about brick walls. Passe, but please pass me some.

Your design is already done and in fact you're almost finished with your reno right? So this might be a bit pointless but 2 thoughts popped into my head that I thought I'd share.

1. Too much texture and lines in a small space makes it feel very complex and cramped. However, some say it's cosy. Perspective I guess.

2. Small tiles in bathroom means more grouting for mildew to set into and more to clean. As it is, i'm making the tilers lay more grout in the bathroom area to make the wall as flush as possible so that it will be easier to clean.

I'm loving your kitchen inspiration pic but i know I won't be able to keep my kitchen as clutter free. haha.

We wanna see the designs of your house!

[Karyn Tan 2]

For White, Silver, Gold

You can check with your FSM if its the same using white, grey & bronze / light brown color

Hope this helps.

Hello Songz,

Thanks for the thought! We are going with white, silver and some tones of brown. All is good as long as the primary color is one of those.

I felt exactly the same way about brick walls. Passe, but please pass me some.

Your design is already done and in fact you're almost finished with your reno right? So this might be a bit pointless but 2 thoughts popped into my head that I thought I'd share.

1. Too much texture and lines in a small space makes it feel very complex and cramped. However, some say it's cosy. Perspective I guess.

2. Small tiles in bathroom means more grouting for mildew to set into and more to clean. As it is, i'm making the tilers lay more grout in the bathroom area to make the wall as flush as possible so that it will be easier to clean.

I'm loving your kitchen inspiration pic but i know I won't be able to keep my kitchen as clutter free. haha.

We wanna see the designs of your house!

Hahahah! Okok, the designs are coming up… slowly. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

Yep, agree on point number 1. So we are keeping other basic elements as clean as possible.

Thanks for highlighting point number 2. Have lived in older apartments where there are much tinier tiles esp in bathroom and kitchen so this is a blind spot to us. Let's see how it goes… heehee..

[Karyn Tan 2]

Hello again,

Didn't mean to disappear for too long.

Here comes...

CHAPTER 4: TILES LAYING

Having gone through rounds of discussions, we finally took a trip down to the tile shop to make our selection.

These are what we chose:

#1 Subway Tiles: Bathroom

#2 Peranakan tiles: Foyer

#3 Cement-like tiles: Bedrooms

#4 Wood-like tiles: Living/Dining area

#5 HoneyComb tiles: Kitchen Backsplash

Daring choice? Don't care… just whack. Hahaha

We realized that we have actually exceeded our budget after selecting the tiles and left item #1 and #5 out from the local supplier. Instead, we got it directly from China!

Here are the 3D drawings based on our tiles and laminate selection:

A lot of tiles = a lot of maintenance. Yep, we have heard.

It really doesn't matter now cause to my hubby and I, it's Ai Swee Mai Mia (choose aesthetics over easy maintenance) .

Since it is our first home, we have forgone any reservations and went with our gut feelings. If we don't personalize it and make it our space, when would we ever get this chance again?

These 3D drawings are to provide only a perspective and does not reflect the finer details such as furnishings and bathroom fittings.

We couldn't quite start work until all the tiles arrived. On a hindsight, we should have placed our orders from China earlier.

This is how it looks like when it eventually arrived.

This is only the first shipment. We have purchased our stuff periodically and as we are speaking right now, we are waiting for our 2nd shipment to arrive.

We checked the boxes and most of the items arrived in good condition.

The craftstone bricks we ordered below:

The regular craftstone bricks turned out fine but many of the corner bricks didn't survive the hazardous shipping. Thank goodness we ordered plenty of extras of the corner bricks. In the end, we had sufficient left to fill what was needed.

Here's a parting shot to tease your "appetite".

We didn't plan for this but these peranakan tiles made its way here after a very quick and spontaneous discussion with the tiler.

More on the renovation progress in my next post!

Edited August 6, 2014 by KarynTan

[Puggy 13]

KarynTan, you ordered subway tiles from taobao??

[meatyiron 1]

Hi Puggy,

This is Karyn's hub. yes we did purchased the subway tiles and stainless steel moziac from TB. and surprisingly the tiles came in almost 99% intact. not to mentioned that its like 1/3 the prices quoted locally. =) (maybe 1/2 price after tax and shipment.) kudos also to my forwarder for the safe shipment.

Edited August 6, 2014 by meatyiron

[Puggy 13]

Hi meatyiron, can share the links for the tiles? Power la!

[meatyiron 1]

here you go links to my tb tiles.

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=23387312724

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=35535079277

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=20074502326

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=20179094953

[Songz 132]

Great purchases you made there

Must have made quite a substantial savings ...

Since you chosen Honeycomb tiles for the kitchen, I will suggest you spend more on a good Hood for suction to reduce the cleaning.