Small House Holding Our Big Dreams

[bykaraanne 30]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

Yup I will be clearing stuff today. I just found out that I hoard stuff that I've no idea why I'd bought in the first place. Like unused bento making tools and still- sealed Cluedo board games. Did I think I could play by myself?!! 

Exactly! Can you imagine how much money we waste on these things? Sometimes it makes my heart break at how wasteful it all is! 

I've really been enjoying this lifestyle. I know that something I shove into hidden storage or high up I will likely not touch, see or use for years. So now I don't do that anymore. I do save a ton of money and time. 

People always comment that I'm always at home that's why I have time to clean or keep my house tidy. My house looks like my pictures everyday because I really just don't have so much stuff. Haha! 

We are living in so much excess. I wish you all the luck in sorting things out. And cluedo is fun when you have people over so I'd keep that!!! Hahaha.  

[Catt 8]

I'm meeting the contractor this afternoon at the new house and I'm nervous. I'm nervous about the pipes in the toilet because a mass in the middle of the wall I'm intending to demolish will mean that I have to keep at least half of that wall and my bathroom will remain tiny. Seriously I was too dazzled or possessed when I bought this place because I didn't even look at the frigging toilet properly  (seriously wtf Catt!). 

I drew up some instructions for the contractor which I hope will help him understand. I took away any L shape built-ins because the space restrictions meant I spent hours agonising over measurements and whatnot. The Darkling half and myself will just have to make do with 3m of wardrobe space.  I'm also stumped at what I'd do about the shoe cupboard.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Catt

[Catt 8]

I found these wall sconces while surfing away and I'm so in love with them. I had tried tb-ing for them with the help of my 2 TB Queens from work but it just wasn't happening. I was meant to spent obscene amounts of money for no good practical reasons. I'm half-caving in. 

 

Base on my half -assed logic, I need 4 of these to install as fixtures in the kitchen so that I could get some task lighting in for the sink, prep and counter area. I won't be installing upper cabinets with built-in lights so extra wall lights are a must. These sconces also come with cute switches that the manufacturer can install into the Base of the sconce  (I'm not getting them since these lights will go halfway up near the ceiling). 

OK I'm up, coffee time!

Edit: These are from Cedar & Moss.

http://www.cedarandmoss.com/lighting/tilt-cone

 

Edited May 7, 2016 by Catt

[Catt 8]

Actually my uncle contractor is quite stylo. He sent me a picture of these black subway tiles because I told him I was subway-tiling the kitchen. I have this preconceived notion that all uncle contractors are practical, and aesthetics always come in second. I thanked him for the suggestion, though I was already set on white subways since the kitchen would be quite dark with my black countertops and grey floors.

Anyhoos, so on Sunday, I packed the Darkling Half full of food from maccas (her brain stops working if she's hungry), and armed with a bottle of Oolong tea from NTUC, we went to SBH in Changi. For some stupid reason that I can't recall, I had a perception that it was one of the largest tiling stores and I would be able to do a one-stop there for all my tiles. It was a wasted trip since we selected some tiles we were kinda meh about (afraid there wouldn't be other choices in other stores...very kiasu, very ganjiong..and we also wasted time amusing ourselves with turnip design/ pimpley-looking tiles). We finally followed the contractor's advise and went to Balestier where there was a row of 3 tile shops (HK, LH and Hafary). These were smaller shops but they had a a better selection of tiles. We managed to find everything we needed within 2 hours (4 stores 2 hours =cabfare down the drain).

HK:

We found these really gorgeous tiles we wanted to use for the bathroom walls and floors. Rough enough to exfoliate dead skin off my feet, and to provide assurance to the Darkling Half that I wouldn't slip and fall and break my skull (yah I'm the clumsy one). Customer Service was poo...because we served ourselves. The two assistants were busy catching up on VoC or some nonsense. We filled in our own forms and guided ourselves through the store. 

Here's a picture of how a full wall would look. We both liked these as they looked like natural stone and had pattern variations for every tile. 

 

LH: 

We didn't get anything here as we hit Hafary first. However, since the living room tiles were the last on our list, we were only looking for those and came to the conclusion that everyone had their tiles from the same distributor.  At this point I was also getting a bit antsy and overwhelmed by all the choices ... I was only drawn to one leopard print toilet tile that had leopard heads on it. Leopard heads! OMG! Turnips and leopards!! Weeee!!

Hafary:

A more 'updated' selection from my perspective. It's a place where you could find all the concrete-lookalike tiles (and more affordable than I thought 'speciality' tiles would cost), stone-like tiles, wood-like tiles (if that's your thing), travertine tiles etc etc etc. The salesman was able to provide us with more information on how the tiles should be laid, though I was disappointed that he discouraged me from having rectangular tiles in the living room since the style had dived in popularity. APPARENTLY now everyone uses 60X60 cm tiles as they produce less grout lines- BORING AND I ALLOWED a 60X60cm into my life cos i was too weak from hunger to argue (obviously my stamina is worse than Darkling's and my sanity had gone to ****s by then). Anyway the Darkling Half chose the living room/ bedroom and kitchen floor tiles. 

A very innocuous and unobtrusive floor tile selection since we will be buying 'personality' furniture and didn't want the house to look too busy. We chose beige as we find that white is very glaring to the eyes. We spent 15 mins debating whether the tile next to it had more dots or swirls or lines vs the one we were choosing. I think the sales man wanted to throw us out or pick his nose from annoyance. It's 'beige-r' IRL than it looks here due to the lighting.

 

Darkling Half also chose the floor tiles for the kitchen (upper Left hand corner). It is supposed to have a concrete-like look. I've my doubts about how this will look as a whole since it is more yellow than I like it to be. But she likes it very much so I expect her to live out of the kitchen 70% of the time. I've my work cut out for me because I'm going to have problems choosing the right shade of grey to match the floor and countertop.

Finally, we picked these subway tiles. There weren't many choices for 3D white subway tiles. We either went with a 10X30 or a 7.5X15. After 2 stores, we finally found a 7.5X15, which was short and cute!

 

I'm happy because we stuck to the budget that the contractor gave us!

My apologies if this was a long post again.... but it didn't make sense breaking it up into a few posts.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2016 by Catt

[pipsqueak 3]

hahaha choosing tiles can be a major headache..i completely understand having just gone through it myself. 

i really liked your contractor's choice of black subway tiles! i have seen some completed renovations with black subway tile as back splash and it gave that extra oomph of glamour but white is always the classic heh. Looking forward to more updates and seeing how your tiles come together! Ooooo I really like your bathroom tiles too - when i was at hafary, even my contractor didn't realize these tiles were from the same family because the grains and patterns were so vastly different and yet it looks so nice together! 

[Catt 8]

3 hours ago, pipsqueak said:

hahaha choosing tiles can be a major headache..i completely understand having just gone through it myself. 

i really liked your contractor's choice of black subway tiles! i have seen some completed renovations with black subway tile as back splash and it gave that extra oomph of glamour but white is always the classic heh. Looking forward to more updates and seeing how your tiles come together! Ooooo I really like your bathroom tiles too - when i was at hafary, even my contractor didn't realize these tiles were from the same family because the grains and patterns were so vastly different and yet it looks so nice together! 

Yah I was so impressed by the uncle's choice and sorry that I wasn't able to use his suggestion.

The bathroom tiles are from Hup Kiong. I realize that these are the lighter ones n the picture when I actually selected the ones that were a shade darker. I was so happy whenever sales people mentioned that there were pattern variations! I think people have different preferences. When I showed this picture to my colleague she told me that I could get the contractor to hide the swirly patterns as they didn't match with the ones with lines.  I told her that I chose the tiles for the irregular swirls and would be upset if there were none in the carton!

[jesuisheureux 0]

On 5/16/2016 at 6:20 PM, Catt said:

Yah I was so impressed by the uncle's choice and sorry that I wasn't able to use his suggestion.

The bathroom tiles are from Hup Kiong. I realize that these are the lighter ones n the picture when I actually selected the ones that were a shade darker. I was so happy whenever sales people mentioned that there were pattern variations! I think people have different preferences. When I showed this picture to my colleague she told me that I could get the contractor to hide the swirly patterns as they didn't match with the ones with lines.  I told her that I chose the tiles for the irregular swirls and would be upset if there were none in the carton!

Catt, pls can you share your contractor name? I am interested in engaging for tiling works (have identified the tiles from Hafary already, just need a quote for labour and laying)... and am on tight timeline. Thanks!

 

[Catt 8]

On ‎6‎/‎1‎/‎2016 at 6:22 PM, jesuisheureux said:

Catt, pls can you share your contractor name? I am interested in engaging for tiling works (have identified the tiles from Hafary already, just need a quote for labour and laying)... and am on tight timeline. Thanks!

 

Pm-ed. Sorry for the late reply as I've been flooded with work this entire week and hadn't been checking my mails.

[Catt 8]

Ohhh my wall sconces have arrived late last night! It was not a heavy box as I could carry it up the stairs, and the light fixtures were all swaddled in tons of smooth thin paper. The funniest thing was that they packed latex gloves in with the box with an advisory that I should get the electrician to use the gloves while installing the lights, since they were of some 'artisan' finish that would develop a 'rich patina' over the years...yada yada yada hipster-stuff language.

They are bigger than I imagined (think mini cone-shaped loudspeakers), so these babies will go all the way up to the ceiling where I can kinda see them and kinda not have these big black things in the way, and now and then I can climb up there with microcrystalline wax polish ( I kid you not, they actually advise using this stuff and you can purchase it on their website or Amazon) and polish my g*d**n kitchen lights in my Martha Stewart outfit.

By the way I've been quiet here because my key collection is still 2 more weeks away and I'm super chill with the contractor (though now and I then I remind him I exist by asking him for random pictures of things he said he would supply for the house). Riding on the GSS to do the following: bought and warehoused the TV console from Grafunkt and the coffee table from Crate & Barrel. I will be back to Crate & B after I collect the keys and measure the wall in the hall so I can chose the size of bookcase I want. If I hit a total of $2k for my purchases, my delivery of $150 will be waived. Still pending the sofa, other lights, blowers, kitchen white goods (my sink! Not ordered yet), all toilet accessories and fixtures. All this will be ordered only after I collect the keys. Early days man...early days...

[Catt 8]

Yesterday I received a call from my contractor who was happy to announce to me that my renovation permit was approved, and all hacking works were approved as well.  So that means I can start in the first week after completion if my father finishes his 'cleansing' ritual the day after key collection. I'm still timing my buys (sink for last week of June, the rest in 1st week of July, before end of GSS) because if there is delivery right now to my current home, I will be scratching my head on how to move all the heavy items over to the new place without a car. Plus I live in a walk-up so it is not ideal for me or anyone else to be lugging stuff up and down the stairs.

The contractor also told me that I didn't need a HDB permit to change the pipes. I checked the HDB site, and I guess I don't need one if I'm only changing the "roots" dangling out of the main (straight) sewerage pipes. I really really want to remove that U-shaped pipe growing down into the middle of one of the toilet windows.

In the meantime, here are some of the pictures I've collected from Pinterest which are helping me in my design and colour-scheme.

Living Room Colour Scheme

It's proving rather difficult to find an orange-y tan sofa in the shade that I've shortlisted, so I think just getting the majority of the colours into one picture helps me to visualize what I think would go with it.

Initially I wanted to paint my walls grey or greige or taupe, but after serious late night 2 am brain-mauling, I'm going to stay with cream. I'm not great with matching subtle colours, so if I went with what I feel like doing, the house would look really psychedelic. I'll try to stick with the colour scheme of orange, grey and blue if possible. (Anything red will probably make it look very CNY... better not cos Darkling Half will kill me with a spoon).

Actually I rather like this orange and grey theme with dark furniture as it reminds me of Hermes' theme colours. The scheme below is the closest to what I have in mind as it matches my floor tiles.

 

Kitchen Colour Scheme and Cabinet Design

Most of my pinterest pictures are of kitchens. Because it's for Darkling Half, I feel a great pressure to ensure the kitchen is the nicest part of the house (and of course I indirectly benefit from her staying in the kitchen

I'm aiming for cabinets with indented handles so I hope the contractor won't let me down. If he is not able to do them (whether it's cost or skills), then my alternative would be handle-less, to go for a streamlined look, since the Darkling-selected floortiles, and the countertop are very busy-looking. I've also saved some sub-way tile kitchen pictures for the colour of the grout. My kitchen would be warm grey floors, white subway walls, black/ brown (hard to describe, look up Vanilla Noir Caeserstone) countertop, and lighter warm grey for the cabinets.

 

No handles. I think these indented ones look kind of neat but Darkling Half says it looks like something in an office.

 

This is closest in representing the colour scheme:

 

Finally the bathroom. My inspiration had always been this washroom. I like the stone-like tiles, but not the vanity because when I see wooden stuff like this in the washroom, I think of rot and mold. It's really contradictory and probably all in my head, since the vanity I'm planning for in real life would be made of laminated wood.

Bathroom Colour Scheme

 

Here's another. My tiles are the same for floors and walls, so I'm trying to imagine that using these pictures.

 

Bedroom

I'm not too fussed about my bedroom as long as my wardrobe looks simple and subtle and my bed is comfortable.

There's only one window in my room, so it's not the brightest place. I've decided to keep my bedroom flooring same as that for the living room since I think I will be hopeless maintaining parquet. Maybe one day I will have parquet when I grow up. This is my inspiration picture, but I haven't decided if I wanted to taup-ify one of my bedroom walls as it will become very dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2016 by Catt

[ricepapergirl 21]

Hi!

Just a pointer on no-handles or indented handles in the kitchen, depending on what kind of handles you get, just bear in mind they should be easily opened even with slightly dirty hands! For example, hand dirty with massaging raw chicken need to get spoon from drawer for salt and you really don't want to be touching indented handles with those hands, so something you can open with maybe your wrist or elbow or even back of hand is useful! But yeah, really depends on what kind of cooking you do.

[Catt 8]

Thanks for the tip @ricepapergirl ! Aiyah it didn't occur to me as I'm currently pulling utensils out of the dish-rack only (lazy rental household habits, my chopsticks and spoons have a permanent home in the dish rack).  Dang!! If I insist, maybe I have to learn how to use my foot to open drawers. Ooh I'm so annoyed with myself now.

[trcd 13]

6 hours ago, ricepapergirl said:

Hi!

Just a pointer on no-handles or indented handles in the kitchen, depending on what kind of handles you get, just bear in mind they should be easily opened even with slightly dirty hands! For example, hand dirty with massaging raw chicken need to get spoon from drawer for salt and you really don't want to be touching indented handles with those hands, so something you can open with maybe your wrist or elbow or even back of hand is useful! But yeah, really depends on what kind of cooking you do.

 mine are no handles too! one less thing to clean. the only way to get around it - kitchen towels!

[ricepapergirl 21]

16 hours ago, Catt said:

Thanks for the tip @ricepapergirl ! Aiyah it didn't occur to me as I'm currently pulling utensils out of the dish-rack only (lazy rental household habits, my chopsticks and spoons have a permanent home in the dish rack).  Dang!! If I insist, maybe I have to learn how to use my foot to open drawers. Ooh I'm so annoyed with myself now.

Maybe can get those drawers which are push-to-open maybe? Or like trcd says, just use kitchen towels when you need it? (I keep my kitchen towels out in the open, something else to think about!) Or just hang all your utensils outside!  

[bykaraanne 30]

One more pro to a handle-less system is that your clothes won't snag onto them while walking, so less of a hazard.  

i love my handles but my contractor did point this out to me and it's true haha!