ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted December 16, 2015 Hi all!I've been a grateful reader of renotalk for quite a few months now and have learnt so many things from here! I am hoping that by starting a T-blog, the discussions in it could also somehow help other people as well. My husband and I are "newlyweds" (when does one disqualify from being newlyweds? 1 year? 2 years? before kids?) and were lucky enough to spend a year away in London straight after getting married, where he studied for his Masters and I worked and also kept our tiny student dorm room clean and full of food. Since coming back in July this year, we searched around for our own place whilst living with his parents in his room, and in October, managed to exercise our option to purchase on a nice 30-year-old first-gen executive maisonette in Jurong West, which is also near to his parents' house.We've nicknamed our new place "Emma" (because it's an EM?), but actually it's not really our place yet till our second HDB appointment in end Jan 2016, and even then the owners have asked to extend their stay for another two months, so in reality we will only get our keys sometime in March 2016. Even so, we've basically been looking at renovations and furniture and tiles and light fixtures and appliances since October, so you can say we are preparing quite early.The layout! I've actually modified this from the version we received from HDB, since the current owners had done some modifications to knock down the wall between the utility room and the kitchen. The layout is very similar to twinklecloud's EM otherwise, a typical first-gen EM with the long balcony at the living room and much of the unit still in original condition or at least 15-year-old decorations.We don't intend to do that much modification to the existing structure, though we wanted to reinstate the utility room (and make it slightly longer to accommodate storage shelves and a bed if possible) and as a result, make the kitchen slightly smaller. After seeing twinklecloud's desired layout, we've also become a bit more daring and are hoping to change the kitchen toilet to an L-shaped toilet so that it wouldn't feel so cramped and potentially be wheelchair-accessible(??).There's also the usual hacking of tiles on the first floor (the existing ones are pastel, matt, 30x30cm and super retro) and thinking of overlaying HERF on the second floor to save some money. We are keeping the balcony open and maybe just installing a retractable awning. We are also not intending to have too much built-ins as we intend to start a family soon and want to keep the house quite flexible in terms of layout.Despite that, we've been looking at relatively expensive quotes, guess that it comes with the EM territory... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twinklecloud 2 Report post Posted December 16, 2015 Congrats on starting your t blog! Will be camping ard to see your house progress!! So excited for you..hehe.. We actually have the same layout! Except for the WC in the common toilet upstairs! Wish u all the best in your hunting... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 Hi twinklecloud!! Thank you so much for your kind words! Also waiting patiently to see the transformation at your house! We're like reno twins lol.Hoping I can find the right ID/contractor as well! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 My husband and I don't really have a "theme" per se. We spent some time looking online and then walking through many different furniture shops and malls. We started off with colour/material themes, from a lot of looking through other people's photos of their homes. Some of these pictures are of homes in Renotalk!These two really inspired us. We like the white walls with the concrete-coloured flooring, the walnut/dark medium wood furniture interspersed with more colourful pieces, and the simple colour wall.For our kitchen, I really liked this colour scheme of dark cabinets with a white subway tile backsplash, wood floors, brass handles and that wooden countertop. I'm quite wary of light-coloured cabinets in the kitchen after years of cleaning them at my parents' place.For our bathrooms, we wanted dark slate floor tiles with white subway tile walls and those black painted pipes!So in terms of a theme, I guess we're kind of... Danish/mid-century/chapalang? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scarlett 1 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 looks nice! i think your theme is a bit industrial too haha. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LittleDino 0 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 Hello! I recently got a new place too, and was actually very picky with my layout and interior decor. After many consultations with various interior designers, I got in touch with Singapore Carpentry (www.carpentry.sg) and they did an excellent job meeting my needs (I was actually very demanding with them). They met my decor needs and it was worth every penny I must say. So far so good, everything still looks as good as new. You can check them out, sharing only because I believe everyone should know about them All the best with Emma!! Congratulations to you both Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 Hi scarlett!Haha maybe? I originally wanted that black pipes on white wall look for most of the flat (maybe black ceiling fan, black track lighting etc) but husband seems to prefer white, so maybe the industrial bit is probably going to be less of an effect when we finally do up the place... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 Hi LittleDino!Thanks for your recommendation! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 Since we are newlyweds, we will have to buy most of our furniture except our bed and mattress, which we bought a year ago when we got married. We spent many weekends walking through different furniture areas like Ikea, the Furniture Mall, IMM, Tan Boon Liat etc and have most of our stuff picked out. Again, not sure we even have a theme, though we generally are attracted to stuff that have nice tapered legs, darker wood, and one of the conditions (which has actually reduced a lot of our choices) was that the furniture should be kid-friendly with rounded corners as much as possible, because we intend to have kids and anyway I have very young nephews and a niece who would probably be visiting us often.So here are some photos of stuff we've picked out, though because we picked them out so early we may end up having to get something else if they no longer carry it by the time we get the keys! Naomi sofa from Castlery in teal! It passed the butt+back test for us. We will get it with the matching ottoman to make it like an L-shaped sofa but with more flexibility in deploying the ottoman as extra seating elsewhere.Instead of proper armchairs, which were a bit expensive and actually not that comfortable, we were aiming to get two of these Roselyn chairs in yellow from Castlery. They seem to be more like dining chairs but are actually really comfortable.Not intending to spend too much on coffee tables (why is it that the pricing seems to be around $300 and up even at Ikea??) and saw this cheaper version on Qoo10. There's probably an even cheaper option on Taobao somewhere.It's not easy trying to find a nice wooden TV console with rounded corners! We are probably getting something customized by Second Charm because how pretty is this?Will post on the rest of the rooms in other posts! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lazyfatcat007 5 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 Hello ricepapergirl! Excited for your EM! The tv console is very cute! Looking forward to your updates!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twinklecloud 2 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 wow!! u r fast leg fast hand! lol.. so fast already started shortlisting your furnitures! hehe...your theme looks very very nice! i also kind of like your bathroom theme.. hehe.. black pipes.. hehe kind of look industrial.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twinklecloud 2 Report post Posted December 17, 2015 Hi twinklecloud!! Thank you so much for your kind words! Also waiting patiently to see the transformation at your house! We're like reno twins lol.Hoping I can find the right ID/contractor as well! u r most welcome ricepapergirl.. we are all here to learn from each other and to share knowledge! =)i am sure u will be able to find your "ideal" ID soon! time is at your side so make full use of it! i am looking forward to reading your tblog! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted December 18, 2015 Hi Lazyfatcat007,The TV console was a love at first sight for us!! We originally set aside a much lower budget for TV consoles but when we saw this in real life we both agreed the "upgrade" in budget was worth it. Second Charm uses teak planks, not plywood or fibreboard etc so we thought it was worth it, plus the handiwork is really nice. We're probably getting something that's been stained a bit darker though. Can't wait till my key-collection date nears so that I can email them to ask them to start fabricating! Hi twinklecloud, I think my husband and I are doing it the wrong sequence. We pick all our colours and tiles and furniture and fittings first, then we go look for ID/contractor lol. We even asked Castlery back in November on how long they can hold our purchases for us and they said max 3 months! So we have to wait. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dien 1 Report post Posted December 18, 2015 well planning ricepapergirl. Time Management is very important unlike me. lol.since you're still planning, I poison you with this ->http://www.spacefurniture.com.sg/It's at Bencoolen Street Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted December 18, 2015 Hi dien,Thanks for the compliments! Haha actually I think I just am impatient to get the place and since cannot, must find other things that "work towards" getting the place. Otherwise feel very antsy. If we spend our time shortlisting furniture at least we feel like we are doing something instead of waiting around counting down to the key-collection date haha.Space!! Haha actually my office is quite nearby so I walked down some time ago to check it out myself, but cannot lah, the price tags are all too scary!! Can only look, cannot even imagine buying! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
