Maison De Style Champêtre @ Punggol

[CountryGlow 10]

Hello Reno-talkers!

I'm finally able to start my own T-Blog after months of reading and waiting for keys to our new BTO flat! We have finally started renovations this week! Firstly, a shout-out of "thank you" to all fellow T-Bloggers who have shared and contributed your design ideas, home/reno pictures and TEN-cents worth of knowledge and experience from your reno-journey. So much are in store here for a noob like me to gain ideas and information to our big project R-E-N-O-V-A-T-I-O-N

Well, I will first start off by explaining a little on the topic title to my T-Blog - "Maison de style champêtre @ Punggol" (means Country-style home in French). The reason why I name it as such is because I always adore country-style themed homes and would love to design my first home to one of such theme! Thank God my hubby is cool to live in my desired theme for our first home and I shall invest all my time and effort to research and create a beautiful country-style maison for us! I always love English and French country homes (the Laura Ashley sort) and had done a fair bit of research in the ID, decorations, accessorising etc. We embarked on our quest for our country-designed home about 1 year ago when my friend recommended us to her neighbour who owns a ID cum furniture company which sells french furniture (victorian, baroque, modern classic..). The lady boss was hosting a tea party that day with a 50% off storewide promotion and we had popped by for some window shopping to gain inspirations for our dream themed home. Never to know that I fell in love with the furniture there and bought ourselves a fireplace mantel, serpertine, french buffet cabinet, sideboard and mirror! I could have bought the entire shop home if renovations had started then! Geez...thank goodness it had not but we only came to realise that we had bought our furniture way before we even collected our keys and we were kinda like stuck to this French theme for our home as we have already spent quite a bomb on the furniture (no turning back now!). What comforted us was the 50% storewide savings and the lady boss was so nice to keep all our furniture items in her warehouse until our house is ready. We thought that was really nice of her as she knew our flat would only be ready about 1 year from then and yet allow us to take up her storage space at such great discounted prices. Since that day, it was the start of our "maison de style champêtre" adventure...no turning back or regretting...Which we didn't, surely!

As a prelude, let me share on the floor plan of our BTO 4-room maison. (As everyone would say, typical floor plan it is!)

Here are some photos & examples of our hope-to-achieve dream home

[CountryGlow 10]

Getting an ID or/and contractor for such a niche theme is definitely not easy. We started ploughing through home decor websites and magazines to gain ideas and hopefully find a suitable ID with a country-style portfolio. As what we have expected, there are not many whom we can consider. We have however managed to meet up with 3 IDs which we gave up eventually because one of them couldn't really understand what theme we wanted, while the other 2 gave great design ideas but with a BIG price tag I gotta admit, probably half of me have already expected the 'uncommon or unpopularity' of a country-style theme, hence, we didn't put much effort to search for IDs, knowing that there are not many out there in the market. And since Hubby and I are clear of the design and layout we want, we decided to be our own ID and engage a contractor instead! *That's a big step of faith which we decided to take*

Well...scouting for a contractor who has experience renovating country-style themes is none the easier. Unless we have the exact pictures and designs which we wanted + good good communication skills to convey what we have in mind, we figure out that our desired theme would likely backfire. Horribly. But thank God, we managed to get 2 recommendations from our friend & my aunty who had engaged them to do up their almost-country-style-homes and so, we met up with Mr B and Mr J!

Mr B - Nice and patient contractor. He had done up my friend's home and achieved the country-cottage theme. However, he charges pretty high for his carpentry works.....which is out of our budget. But as we know that country-style theme is all about the carpentry e.g wainscotting, trimming and accessorises, we could have engaged him even if it means blowing a bigger hole in our pockets. We put him on our KIV list and met up with Mr J next.

Mr J - He's my aunty's contact. Also a nice chap but he's not experienced in the theme we want. My aunty however gave us good reviews of his character, workmanship and post-reno services, which we thought are crucial to our considerations. Plus his quotation turns out to be reasonable, which my aunty also told us that Mr J is a generous contractor whom we can negotiate on certain costings and throw in some 'freebies' for us. That, scored him brownie points. Hehe!

Seriously guys, my hubby and I thought through real hard before we came to a decision on which contractor we should engage (although there are only 2 to consider, it was tough). We are most worried to choose the wrong contractor as we certainly don't wish for our country-style maison to end up a flop. In the end, we chose Mr J as our contractor. The next big step of faith. As we believe that one's workmanship and post-reno services are very important, we decided to give him a shot. Of course we took on the onus to communicate clearly to him on our actual designs as we partner along with him to construct our dream house. Keeping our fingers crossed, we finally started renovation this week! Oh yes, prior to that, we went through 2 months of ding-dong-ing with BSC on our rectifications and for HDB to approve our hacking and the renovation permit. This past CNY break was the longest one we had as we can't wait to start renovating our new flat...!

Before I share more on our renovation, these are our requirements which we communicated clearly to Mr J

Living room

- As our standard BTO flat doesn't come with tiles, we bought long wooden-like tiles separately and Mr J only needs to provide labour to lay tiles.

- No false ceilings or built-in TV consoles (as we have purchsed all our french designed furniture separately)

- Wainscotting i.e. Chair-rail and beadboard on living room walls

- Hack through half of bedroom 3 wall to look into living room, fixed with tempered glass and white wooden border like a cottage window

Kitchen & Service yard

- One side with top & bottom cabinets, and the other side only bottom cabinets. White laminates with blue trimmings for a country-style kitchen

- Since Hubby & I don't cook much, we opted for blue solid surface counter top

- Ceiling to be painted baby blue (Hehe...I like a blueish country kitchen - see below 1st pic)

- Service yard to be painted a soft glowing yellow - see below 2nd pic for overall feel.

MBR and bedroom 2

- Bedroom 2 will be our walk-in-wardrobe + dressing room (can't wait to see my french dresser table! )

- Hack wall opposite MBR bathroom to WIW at bedroom 2

- Wallpaper at MBR and bedroom 2

- Tiffany green coloured door for MBR

Bedroom 3

- This will our exercise room cum Hubby's toy display area!

- Clear tempered glass PD door for bedroom 3

- Hubby is considering a built in cabinet for his TOYs.....

- Ceiling to be painted tiffany green (as seen below )

These are our requirements so far and hopefully will turn out to our expectations! We are still researching and changing our ideas on the go! Haha...thankfully, Mr J has been patient and accomodating thus far as we kept changing our designs which in turn, he has to keep revising his quote. *Result of not having an ID to help us.....* But it has been a great start so far! And I will be sharing on our renovations at the next update...

Edited March 15, 2015 by CountryGlow

[benetay 14]

Can't wait to see!!

[chilarvet 7]

Wow, so exciting to see someone do a country style theme like me too.

Love your idea of having the Wainscotting. Mind sharing how much your IDb is charging you for it per sqft?

Looking forward to seeing your renovation T-blog.

Cheers!

[CountryGlow 10]

Can't wait to see!!

Hello benetay! Thank you for camping in to support!

[CountryGlow 10]

Hi chilarvet, ^5 to our common interest in the same theme! So hard to find one who appreciates our beloved country-style theme

I did not engage an ID but a contractor. I wanted to do wainscotting on the walls of my entire living room and corridor but that would mount up to about $5k. We scrapped the idea and will focus on one side of the wall in the living room instead. That brought the cost down to about $1,200.

Then again, wainscotting could vary in designs and so is the costing. The more layering in your wainscotting, the more $_$ you will see!

Wow, so exciting to see someone do a country style theme like me too.

Love your idea of having the Wainscotting. Mind sharing how much your IDb is charging you for it per sqft?

Looking forward to seeing your renovation T-blog.

Cheers!

[chilarvet 7]

Hi Countryglow,

^5.. Haha.

I see.. wow really not cheap to do the wainscotting. But having some is better than having none.. I bet it'll still look great and bring a totally good feel in your living room.

[CountryGlow 10]

ReNoVaTiOn UpDaTeS

Week 1 ~ We are so impressed!

I mentioned the last time that my next post will be updates on our renovation progress...Indeed, there are lots to update! Pictures speak a thousand words, so let the photos below tell us all

__________________________________________________________

Official start date of renovation at our Maison - 12 March 2015

A) And the walls came tumbling down

Mr J has been standing by to start work right after CNY. However due to some hiccups at HDB's side, our approval for hacking got delayed for 2 weeks. As soon as HDB stamped the "approved" sign on our request form, Mr J sent his men down to our flat immediately *superb-ly efficient *

Creating a "hole" at the living room wall

Creating a "hole" into Bedroom 2 (our WIW)

*Photo taken at the MBR entrance *Photo taken from the MBR toliet

B) On the second day after renovation begins....

Met Mr J to confirm our piping and electrical/wiring points. When we reached our flat in the afternoon, his workers have already completed the extension of our TV point and other relocation and fittings of the electrical sockets in all our bedrooms

Extension of TV point across the living room floor

As we have decided to place our TV on the opposite side of the TV point, Mr J suggested to extend the TV point across the hall which will be concealed under the floor tiles. Note the white tube in pic below - that's the conduit pipe which contains all the wiring and will be under the tiles.

Side track: The pebble-like tiles beside the conduit pipe will be laid at the entrance of our main door. Hubby's idea to 'create' a mini porch at the front door for shoes area

Kitchen mortar base and toliet kerbs are up!

Cement floor screeding + sealing of Bedroom 2 entrance!

At this point of time, we are really impressed with Mr J's efficiency. In 2 days, he has started and completed the 'foundation work' which sets the ground for the rest of the renovation to take place. According to my very experienced Daddy (who used to be in the construction line), these are the basic work which requires more time and especially, experience and skills to get the job done well and quick. So glad that Mr J has been so efficient and we are excited to see what's in store for us next!

Next update...Tiling works begins...

Edited March 16, 2015 by CountryGlow

[benetay 14]

Very fast! Can't wait to see the final outcome. Have you started your purchases on things you will need when the house is done and all the hob hood etc?

[CountryGlow 10]

ReNoVaTiOn UpDaTeS

Week 1 ~ We are so impressed! (Cont')

C) Lovin' our Country floor tiles!

*Our beautiful floor tiles are from Spain and we got them at a special price courtesy of my Dad who brought us to his old contacts *

We popped over to our flat yesterday (Sunday) and we were surprised to see 2 workers tiling our floor. Most contractors & their workers rest on Sundays but not for Mr J. If his workers' schedule allows, they will work on Sunday too, depending on each renovation (according to Mr Worker A when I asked him). The cement screed needs minimum 8 hrs to dry and set in. The workers had finished screeding the floors on Saturday evening and started tiling on Sunday morning. Efficiency to the max!

**One thing which we learnt!** As our tiles are long and will warp gradually over time, each tile is laid side by side at 2/3 of each tile length (hope you understand what I mean). This method not only prevents the tiles from warping but act as a nice design to the entire flooring! We have also told Mr J to use grout that is closest to our tile colour to fill the gaps in between. In this way, the same colour grout will make the entire floor appear to have lesser lines. Hope it works as we imagine so...Haha!

Took some photos of the flooring which was already 70% done when we left last evening. Spoke to Mr Worker B and he told us that flooring, including the skirting, will be completed by Tuesday. *WOOOW*

Looking like REAL wooden-planks

Good and bad news ~ To overlay kitchen and bathroom tiles?

Thankfully that we made a trip down to check and we realised that we have over-ordered our tiles. Knowing that we cannot seek refund for the excess quantity, we are now contemplating to overlay our kitchen, service yard and bathrooms with the same floor tiles! All this while, (after trying to convince ourselves) we have little issues with the dull greyish kitchen and bathroom tiles provided by HDB, except that they are too dark for our full liking and that HDB contractor did not do the best job in tiling (we have to rectify the tiles with BSC 5 times before they meet our expectations). Now that we are toying with the idea of overlaying these areas with our bright and beautiful country tiles, I can't resist but HOORAY all the way! I'm most excited about overlaying the kitchen tiles as they will definitely achieve a better effect for our country kitchen! For now, we will just wait for Mr J to update us on the excess quantity after his guys finished the tiling to decide if we should proceed with overlaying. This, of course will be an (unforeseen) additional cost added to our overall renovation cost. Well, we shall see!

*Shout-out*

One thing though - My Dad, based on his experience again, mentioned that overlaid tiles will not last and will 'pop' over time due to constant expansion and contraction resulted by our weather. Does anyone know if there is any special chemical or cement in the market now to fix the tiles stronger together? Or any latest "Cement technology" will help resolve this issue? Would love to hear from anyone if you would know such info

[CountryGlow 10]

Hi benetay,

Yes, didn't expect such speedy work from our contractor! We know he specialises in larger scale renovation works eg for buildings and offices, so probably the reason why he coordinates and make things happen so quickly. Anyway, it's only the 5th day of our reno and I don't wish to comment all positive so early. We only saw the speed of things but haven't check the quality of it yet. Haha...we will think positive for now and believe that the reno will be smooth sailing

Oh yes, we have already bought most of our furniture, kitchen appliances, sanitary wares and even decorative items for our house! Expecting some loots from Taobao I will share more at subsequent posts when I have more time!

Anyway benetay - ur purchases from Amazon are looking good too! We have yet to reach that stage of buying the "titty gritties". Hehe...

I like what you did to your bathroom, that you re-positioned your vanity counter. We considered that too but gave up the idea eventually because we wanted to stick to our budget. We did minimum to both bathrooms, except throw in decorative items hopefully to beautify them.

Very fast! Can't wait to see the final outcome. Have you started your purchases on things you will need when the house is done and all the hob hood etc?

[HansamuQ 5]

ReNoVaTiOn UpDaTeS

Week 1 ~ We are so impressed! (Cont')

C) Lovin' our Country floor tiles!

*Our beautiful floor tiles are from Spain and we got them at a special price courtesy of my Dad who brought us to his old contacts *

We popped over to our flat yesterday (Sunday) and we were surprised to see 2 workers tiling our floor. Most contractors & their workers rest on Sundays but not for Mr J. If his workers' schedule allows, they will work on Sunday too, depending on each renovation (according to Mr Worker A when I asked him). The cement screed needs minimum 8 hrs to dry and set in. The workers had finished screeding the floors on Saturday evening and started tiling on Sunday morning. Efficiency to the max!

**One thing which we learnt!** As our tiles are long and will warp gradually over time, each tile is laid side by side at 2/3 of each tile length (hope you understand what I mean). This method not only prevents the tiles from warping but act as a nice design to the entire flooring! We have also told Mr J to use grout that is closest to our tile colour to fill the gaps in between. In this way, the same colour grout will make the entire floor appear to have lesser lines. Hope it works as we imagine so...Haha!

Took some photos of the flooring which was already 70% done when we left last evening. Spoke to Mr Worker B and he told us that flooring, including the skirting, will be completed by Tuesday. *WOOOW*

Looking like REAL wooden-planks

Good and bad news ~ To overlay kitchen and bathroom tiles?

Thankfully that we made a trip down to check and we realised that we have over-ordered our tiles. Knowing that we cannot seek refund for the excess quantity, we are now contemplating to overlay our kitchen, service yard and bathrooms with the same floor tiles! All this while, (after trying to convince ourselves) we have little issues with the dull greyish kitchen and bathroom tiles provided by HDB, except that they are too dark for our full liking and that HDB contractor did not do the best job in tiling (we have to rectify the tiles with BSC 5 times before they meet our expectations). Now that we are toying with the idea of overlaying these areas with our bright and beautiful country tiles, I can't resist but HOORAY all the way! I'm most excited about overlaying the kitchen tiles as they will definitely achieve a better effect for our country kitchen! For now, we will just wait for Mr J to update us on the excess quantity after his guys finished the tiling to decide if we should proceed with overlaying. This, of course will be an (unforeseen) additional cost added to our overall renovation cost. Well, we shall see!

*Shout-out*

One thing though - My Dad, based on his experience again, mentioned that overlaid tiles will not last and will 'pop' over time due to constant expansion and contraction resulted by our weather. Does anyone know if there is any special chemical or cement in the market now to fix the tiles stronger together? Or any latest "Cement technology" will help resolve this issue? Would love to hear from anyone if you would know such info

Looking good your tiles! So have you decided to overlay the kitchen tiles? Just to note, when you overlay the kitchen floor tiles, it will be higher, must ensure that it will be the same height as the living room.

[snowy89 12]

Happy to see that you have started your t-blog! Things are looking good.

Keep up with the progress and I am sure you will enjoy the process~~

The end results will be worth it!!

[CountryGlow 10]

Hi HansamuQ!

Thanks for the reminder! Came in timely

I've asked my tiler guys rgd the diff in height between the kitchen and living room and they mentioned that will have 5mm diff. That is like 0.5cm? Negligible enough that I won't trip (I'm a clumsy person )

We decided to do overlay for the kitchen! *do boogie dance*

Considering for the bathrooms now

Looking good your tiles! So have you decided to overlay the kitchen tiles? Just to note, when you overlay the kitchen floor tiles, it will be higher, must ensure that it will be the same height as the living room.

Edited March 16, 2015 by CountryGlow

[CountryGlow 10]

Thanks snowy89! Yes finally started on my t-blog after saying for so long. That is also becoz my reno got delayed due to HDB's approval.

Well well, all is good so far...and it's so true, I'm enjoying every single bit of the reno journey though super busy! Documenting it down for memories & to share with others any useful info. You t-blog is one of the few which I benefited from!

Oh ya btw! I remember you overlay ur toliet floor & wall tiles. Did ur ID or contractor caution you on anything like popping tiles over time?

Happy to see that you have started your t-blog! Things are looking good.

Keep up with the progress and I am sure you will enjoy the process~~

The end results will be worth it!!

Edited March 16, 2015 by CountryGlow