Maison De Style Champêtre @ Punggol

[CountryGlow 10]

Hi Zees! They are different "Mr Js".

Hopefully both Mr Js will value add to our reno journey!

Best of luck to ur renovation too!

Hi,

Mr. J we engaged is a contractor too whose office is located at Northlink. Is yours the same?

You may pop by my T-blog for pictures

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/70325-our-humble-beginnings/

[CountryGlow 10]

ReNoVaTiOn UpDaTeS

Week 4 ~ We are BACK into Motion!

Oh yes! Things speed up again since Good Friday. A slight 'halt' to our renovation the last week as Mr J's workers were busy fabricating our wardrobe and cabinets in their factory. While the carpentry works were happening back in the industrial estate, our bathroom shower screens and cornices for the hall and rooms are up! Very happy with our choice of the cornices as the simple and sleek design gives our long hall and passage-way a touch of sophistication!

(Pardon the dark pic for this shot)

(Shot taken from our Master bedroom)

I love the cornice design for the rooms too! Standing under this "boxed up ceiling" outside my MBR bathroom reminded me of the high astonishing ceilings of Sistine Chapel! If only we are gonna lay wallpaper with classic Victorian prints across the ceilings, too bad we are not. But still, love what we have for our house!

I guess the ugly metallic design of the ventilation plates outside our household shelters are a headache for some of us. Definitely a clash to our country-style theme, we wanted to do the most 'legal way' to seal up one of the metal plates which is above where we plan to place our fireplace mantel. Mr Cornice-worker was so intelligent and kind to help us flush the metal plate with white cornice cement! The metallic plate is gone! *Happy!*

Besides the cornices, Mr J got our shower screens for both bathrooms and the storage heater fixed up too! I must say that the quality of the shower screens i.e. the top track and sliding glass are real goooood stuff! Look like those they have in the hotel bathrooms!

Sliding shower screen in our Master bathroom. Check out the circle-knob to hold to slide the glass door...this is unique which I hardly see in others' bathrooms!

We wanted a L-shaped swing glass door for the common bathroom but Mr J said that the door opening will only be 60 cm wide. Since it is too narrow, we decided to do away with the L-shaped shower screen and just have one piece of tempered glass to separate the toliet bowl and the bathing area. Mr J also suggested to extend the pipes and shift the storage heater out to the service yard so that we won't have a big item above us when we are using the toliet. It was ideal! We contemplated but decided to scrap the idea since it would cost more for the extension. After fixing up the barrel, we thought that the toliet bowl looks pretty "cosy" being surrounded on the top and by the side. Hehe!

Edited April 7, 2015 by CountryGlow

[benetay 14]

Looking good already. after cabinet done very fast will be okay!

Your bed? Where you get it?

Edited April 7, 2015 by benetay

[CountryGlow 10]

ReNoVaTiOn UpDaTeS

Week 4 ~ We are BACK into Motion! Carpentry works PART I

The very next day...we headed down to our flat excited and surprised to see the workers fixing up our kitchen cabinets! I LOVE LOVE LOVE.........the babyblue laminates we have chosen! :dancingqueen:

We had initially chosen white laminates with blue trimmings and blue solid top for our kitchen to compliment HDB's greyish floor tiles. But since we have overlaid our kitchen floor with our (brighter) wooden tiles, I can now have my dream baby-blue kitchen cabinets which is sooooo sweet and cheery! This colour is rare for most kitchens and definitely suits our colour scheme of the hall and entire house!

Next - Work in progress for our 3m in length wardrobe & full height shoes cabinet next to the main door

Our full-height shoes cabinet - Hopefully enough for my shoes! ! ! *Hehehe*

Edited April 7, 2015 by CountryGlow

[CountryGlow 10]

Carpentry works PART I (Cont')

Up next! - *The highlights of our living hall*

(Work in progress - Wainscoting ) ... Chair-rail and beadboard running along the left side of the hall.

Here, we will be placing our dining table, TV console and buffet cabinet along the wainscoting

Notice the cut-out boxes at the end of the beadboard which Mr J had considered for us? They are meant to fit in the switch sockets for our TV, player etc and to be disguised along the wooden panels. So professional of him to think for us as he often emphasises on aesthetic and design

(Work in progress - Cottage window opening ) ...On the opposite side of the wainscoting, we have my "creation" of a Cottage window which will have a tempered glass fixed between a white wooden border, looking into bedroom 3. We will be placing our cushy fabric sofa under here...Lovely aye?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Really gotta praise Mr J's workers for their intricate workmanship and good attitude. They are friendly and gladly shared with us on renovation knowledge and help us rectify/ accede to our last minute requests to changing certain details of the carpentry works. Caught some shots when they were working - skillful indeed! :good:

Edited April 7, 2015 by CountryGlow

[CountryGlow 10]

Hi Benetay!

Yes all cabinets will up within these 2 days! Can't wait to see the end-result of our hard-thought-through ID!

Oh my Victorian-look alike storage bed! You'll be surprised where we have bought it from! It's from Seahorse!

Looking good already. after cabinet done very fast will be okay!

Your bed? Where you get it?

[myimaginaryhome 0]

Can't wait to see the end result!

[RookieBoy 0]

Hi, saw your home and understand your troubles searching for someone to do the theme you want. Co-incidentally, i'm doing something very similar with lotsa wainscotting, can you send me the contact for carpentry and the contractor?

thanks for sharing!

[CountryGlow 10]

Thank you myimaginaryhome! We are very looking forward too! Counting down to our contractor handing over our completed Maison!

RookieBoy - Sorry to miss ur PM. At this point of time, I will not share my contractor's contacts until our reno is close to completion. Stay tuned for that ya?

[RookieBoy 0]

ok, hopefully dont forget get back to me at that point

[clownprince 4]

i love your baby blue & the wainscoting! looking good! eggciting!

-clownprince's wife

[chower 1]

i love the wainscotting and the ceiling cornices! so cosy cottage-like~ thumbs up to your contractor and looking fwd to the end result!!

[CountryGlow 10]

Clownprince's wife - YES EGGCITING! ! ! We LOVE our baby blue kitchen too! Was a last minute decision to swop from white laminates to blue and they turn out impressive and super suit our theme! But aye...probably the kitchen now feels more farmhouse compared to french country. Hehe! More updates on our lovely baby blue kitchen next! Your sweet pastel colourful scandi home is looking very good too! Really kudos to you and your Clownprince who had painstakingly DIY your own "wallpaper" on your walls! We considered painting our walls but end up decided to give it a miss because it's too tedious and I can't draw for nuts. Hahaha...no talent. Anw, ur colourful pastel bookshelf rockz too! Can imagine stepping into a world like paddle-pop (ice cream, my favourite childhood food) in your home!

chower - Thanks too! Wainscotting is a BIG MUST for country homes. Either you do the box-beading kind or beadboards (which is like ours). I prefer the latter because it's more towards cottage than classic Victorian. Glad my hard work to research and carefully-thought-through designs paid off! But half the credit goes to my contractor J who helped me achieved what I dream of in our first home.

[CountryGlow 10]

ReNoVaTiOn UpDaTeS

End of Week 4 ~ We are VERY into Motion! Carpentry works PART II

Guess this has been the most exciting week since reno started! Our carpentry for the kitchen cabinets, walk-in wardrobe and wainscoting (what I considered the "highlights" of our new house) are 95% completed! All have been smooth except for some minor touch-ups and to install the knobs and handles for our kitchen cabinets and wardrobe I don't know about the speed of carpentry work for others but I must really give 10 thumbs-up to Contractor J's workers for their efficiency and commitment to deliver the best job for us. Must say that so far, all the different workers Contractor J has engaged (i.e. tilers, cornice-er, carpenters, electrician/plumber) are all friendly and take pride in their work. The hubby and I have left the 'work-in-progress reno scene' feeling happy and settled each time as we could always strike a nice conversation with any of the workers, with them sharing so much knowledge on each stage of the reno. I guess their friendliness and productivity let us feel assured that each part of the renovation works are in good hands.

Anyway, back to our cabinets..we will be buying our door knobs and handles from Taobao Since shipment would take about 2 weeks to reach, we told Contractor J to only send his guys back to help us finish the installation later this month.

We will be getting the below pumpkin-look-alike door knobs for our kitchen and shoes cabinet.

Tiffany green pumpkin for the shoes cabinet and white pumpkin for our kitchen cabinet

At the middle and bottom right would be the knobs and handles for our wardrobe doors. Single white silvery rose knobs for the doors and white ceramic handles for the drawers. Love our choices which are unique and can't find them locally...hopefully they fit prettily on our cabinet doors

Our baby blue (aka farmhouse) kitchen - C.O.M.P.L.E.T.E.D !

*I'll let the below pictures do the talking*

Overall kitchen cabinets on the right side

Doors alternate between panel-design and box-frame to match our beadboards wainscoting in the living hall. And a white solid surface top to compliment and contrast the sweet baby blue cabinets. Our Samsung fridge will be placed at the far-right corner of the kitchen.

A close-up on our top mount kitchen sink* (from Sim Siang Choon) / High curve-design tap (from Heritage Bathroom Gallery) / Fujioh hood (SLM 900) / Rinnai hod (2Gi) - latest model black tempered glass top with 2 inner flame burners

Our Samsung fridge, Fujioh hood and Rinnai hob were purchased from a neighbourhood store (*ahem* competitor of Goh Ah Bee) called Kah Hock Repairer & Trading. Bought our other electrical appliances from them as well...shop and save!

*Some regrets that we had not selected an Apron front kitchen sink instead since it will further enhance our farmhouse (& maybe rustic) kitchen...

Kitchen on the left side - with only bottom cabinets

Close-up shot of the panel-design doors - Great job done by Contractor J's carpenters!

Our baby blue kitchen - inspired!

Did our cabinets achieve this design which we got our inspiration from? I hope we did (with some photoshop and better lighting)!

Edited April 11, 2015 by CountryGlow

[CountryGlow 10]

Carpentry works PART II (Cont')

Features of our Living Hall - C.O.M.P.L.E.T.E.D !

Wainscoting - Chair rails and beadboards on one side of our living hall

Shot taken of the wainscoting from the kitchen entrance (Pardon the workers in the pic...and the mess! )

To match our beadboards/wainscoting that are adjacent to this side of the hall, we decided to ask Contractor J build a full-height shoes cabinet with panel-design doors.

Love the clean and straight lines on this creation...speaks so much of beautiful simplicity...This design was also inspired by a cottage house I have stumbled upon. See second pic below

Cottage inspired window opening

Last but not least...my cottage inspired window opening through the wall, overlooking into bedroom 3! Albeit the hesitance to hack this wall initially, we look at it now beaming from ear to ear. Besides creating a brighter and larger visual effect of our living hall now, the wall opening serves 2 important functions:

1) As I consider myself as a serious 'weight-watcher', we will be placing an exercise machine in bedroom 3, allowing me to exercise and watch television through the opening at the same time! Just need to turn on Hubby's Bose bluetooth speakers connected in the room and I am happy for a good workout each time! No need to squeeze another TV into this tiny bedroom.

2) As the Hubby adores his Iron-man and Transformers toys enough to (MUST) display his collectibles, we came to consensus to place his toy cabinets in bedroom 3 at a 45 degrees angle in the corner; which allows them to be seen through the wall opening, yet not directly placed in the living hall to 'spoil' our country-style theme. As long as it satisfies the man...Haha!

Of course to make our dream country theme of the living room perfect, the very-wise-me have also bought french lace curtains to drape across the window opening. Hiding both my exercise machine and Hubby's array of toy collectibles from sight when the curtain is slightly drawn. Hehehe...we are 2 very happy and satisfied people :)

Edited April 12, 2015 by CountryGlow