They said we were too young for this home

[Delylalex 0]

Hello fellow bloggers. Thank you for sharing all your stories here. They have helped others and I in one way or another so keep them coming! Just sharing our renovation journey because idk I find that the support here is awesome no matter what kind of home you guys are building. Lotsa positive vibes and that's what we need in tough times. It's a typical 5 room BTO floorplan but the new one though with the bomb shelter by itself instead of being attached to like the kitchen or the common bathroom. Booooooooring layout. I honestly have never ever ever thought of staying in a matchbox like this OR in this estate at all but he said he wanted to give it a try so yeah. Unhappy me but above all that crap that I have swallowed, I am thankful and grateful we have a roof over our heads and food on the table on a daily basis. Amen to that. Shall I skip the floorplan and move on to visually enticing things like the moodboard? YEASSSS.

The rug, chairs.

The bluuuuuue the rug with touches of gold here and there.

The colour of the wall, the dining chairs, table, floor, display cabinet and everything in it, the collage. But...not the ceiling or wainscoting or pendant lamps.

The colours and elements for masterbedroom!

We chose a duck-egg blue for the playroom and we've yet to decide how exactly it'll look like but this is an inspiration for it.

The vanity cabinet. We decided to stick with the existing HDB tiles and just make things work around them so this is an inspiration for the Master bathroom and the common bathroom shall be a wet bathroom. Nothing special

The kitchen! It is where I will be spending most of my time at and it was so hard to have things MY way because well...he has his suggestions too but you see, I know how I work around my kitchen and I will make it easy for me. End of story. Shaker cabinets FTW! I have had my eyes on them for the longest time. 

We have an entrance walkway so yup

Our home won't look exactly like these photos and I never wanted to copy and paste so it would be a little of this and a little of that. Interior designing is the very very very fine line between being tacky and being a copycat. Idk how to put it in words but it is challenging. Renovation has started and it's about halfway through so I will slowly try to add in more photos. I know bloggers here are experts at TB and i really salute you guys. The prices are so attractive but I just don't have the time to wait and cannot be bothered to go through it meaarrhghhghghh. Besides, we like to touch and feel things before purchasing muahaha. We've bought some pieces from THAT ONE PLACE (nope not at level 1 but the one above) at sime darby which totally wrecked our pockets and also some preloved classic and beautiful pieces from carousell. I have no idea how all this will come together but I know it will. Well I hope it will haha. This could be the messy-smudgey initial look that would magically end up warm and homely. This journey (like life) is an ocean of possibilities. There might be storms and 10-storey waves crashing around but you've got your compass set right so just... go with the flow? I now welcome you aboard our ship. LOL SO LAME.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Delylalex

[Delylalex 0]

So if you were to stand with your back against the living room windows, this is what you would probably see...8 days ago. Our main door is along the same wall as the bomb shelter door (it is opened in this photo) and the original kitchen entrance was immediately in front of the main door! No way hozay am I gonna let people see the un-glam me cooking when they pass by okayyy so we sealed that up and hacked the other side of the kitchen wall. Which results in this photo. Gotta love my tilers for their efficiency.

The original entrance of the kitchen has been sealed. The original layout was ... If you were in my neighbour's service balcony (a mirror image of our floorplan), you would be able to see through my house all the way to our service balcony. Me no like the door colour and gate but... we'll see. Any of you knows if painting over them would work? What type of paint to use? 

I gotta say... Iphones have the best cameras la my sony experia sucks  so this is true to the original colour of our living room tiles. Laid random-staggered. 

We removed our service yard door and window so this is it before grouts...

We are SUPER stoked about our backsplash what do you think???

Edited May 22, 2016 by Delylalex

[Delylalex 0]

Renovation contractor/ID selection

Since we (especially him) already knew how we wanted our home to turn out, we decided that an ID was redundant. We needed a contractor. Someone who could give us a technical and practical POV. Having a Blum kitchen was appealing and so we narrowed down some from their list of certified installers. Some emails bounced back and some weren't replied. 

1) M***** C******

Some lady got back to me but when I sent her a draft of our plans, she never replied. Maybe because we weren't trendy enough? Idk. But these guys are known to be super ex.

2) Our contractor

They replied quite promptly and did a thorough explanation of how they work and invited us for a meet up. Very pleasant and accomodating team led by an experienced and humble Director. He clearly showed that he knew what he was doing and was able to provide the tiniest details we needed. The first round of quotation would be out in 2-3 weeks, they informed us, and we were so nervous because we have a budget to work with. We were pretty much set on them but when it finally came, it was quite steep! We don't have any ceiling works - just kitchen, vanity cabinet and MBR wardrobe but then we realised that the bulk was from the flooring. We opted out of the HDB floorings after reading horror stories and could not afford to wait for the free cement screed. But we do have all Blum hinges in our carpentry and a caesarstone countertop. Decided to compare with others.

3) D* F*** I*******

I read some pretty good reviews about them especially that K guy and emailed them but was attended by the A guy instead. We met and he was really bubbly and nice BUT he did not listen. He heard but didn't listen. Y'know what I mean? Like i spefically said I wanted shaker cabinets and he did say he could do it but was hesitant. He did our quotation on the spot and stayed within our budget but it was "nevermind, just take plain cabinets can already and if you decide to change your mind, just top up later lor". Ermmm. NO. Bye.

4) Some small company recommended by fellow forumers here honestly i cannot remember lol but it was affordable. Oh. Wait. Not HDB registered so okay bye.

Many months later we came back to our contractor and they thought we chose some other company and even filed our quotation away into some vault hahaha but yes we met again for some decisions and paid the 10% deposit. Some of the things I would like to highlight are

- up to $3.50 psf tiles (he was so so kind with this and did not ask us to top up at all)

-meticulous and takes pride in his work. The kind whom you can put your trust in because you know he's not gonna ignore eyesores.

-professional because they have company dri-fit shirts hahaha maybe it's just me.

So far, the whole team has been excellent and we haven't had any problems. I am however expecting some hiccups here and there, as with many things in life, so I shall embrace myself for things to come. 

Next up, some pieces we've bought

[Delylalex 0]

Essentials bought:

If any of you already have these items, please please drop me a review! 

I can't seem to find the right images for our bathroom sets so I'll just write them down here. We got the Grohe bauedge sink faucet and shower set for the common bathroom and the Hansgrohe Focus sink faucet and shower set. We couldn't decide on one brand for all so we went for both hahaha so that we can compare which is really better

Had our limbs on the Panasonic econavi inverter aircon but then switched to Mitsubishi Electric 5 ticks system 3 and 3 ticks system 1 (they don't have 5 ticks for a system 1) at the very last minute! 3 X 9,000 BTU and 1 X 24,000 BTU. 

[Peachydurians 2]

Welcome to renotalk! I like your t-blog, and your first photo on your moodboard is my favourite. All the best for your journey, and I hope this forum will be very pleasant for you! 

[Delylalex 0]

22 hours ago, Peachydurians said:

Welcome to renotalk! I like your t-blog, and your first photo on your moodboard is my favourite. All the best for your journey, and I hope this forum will be very pleasant for you! 

Aww thanks for the warm welcome! I'm watching the drama of my carpentry unfold in front of me. Will update for all to see

 

[Delylalex 0]

Because I like to keep people in suspense

hahahhh but yeah here's the sink section of the kitchen cabinet. Colours are inaccurate though cos of my gjskfjsnfjsj phone. I need an iPhone man.

And the one below are my MBR wardrobe door and the insides. 

 

Edited June 9, 2016 by Delylalex

[trcd 13]

9 hours ago, Delylalex said:

Because I like to keep people in suspense

hahahhh but yeah here's the sink section of the kitchen cabinet. Colours are inaccurate though cos of my gjskfjsnfjsj phone. I need an iPhone man.

And the one below are my MBR wardrobe door and the insides. 

 

Like the colour scheme! What laminate are you using? Lamitak?

[Delylalex 0]

7 hours ago, trcd said:

Like the colour scheme! What laminate are you using? Lamitak?

Thank you Yeah our contractor had laminate samples from 5 companies. We initially went through alll of them but said "aiyah just choose all from Lamitak la" cos Lamitak has really nice ones with pretty wood grains. My kitchen is a muted green and the mbr wardrobe is a light grey.

[yellowteacups 1]

hello! may i know where did you get your hob & hood and oven from? and how much did it cost please! thanks and advance! 

[Delylalex 0]

4 hours ago, yellowteacups said:

hello! may i know where did you get your hob & hood and oven from? and how much did it cost please! thanks and advance! 

Hi! We got them from Mega Discount Store @ kallang leisure park. It was a package for about $1500++ i think? I initially wanted a fujioh hob and hood because of heavy cooking but the CSA recommended these. 

[d3n 14]

nice!

[Delylalex 0]

4 hours ago, d3n said:

nice!

Thank you will update again as the carpentry is almost finishing..

[Delylalex 0]

Yay they've completed the MBR wardrobe, vanity cabinet and kitchen carpentry! Except for one cabinet to be installed after the countertop. Waiting for the Caesarstone one for the kitchen and Evershine one for the mbr bathroom. Here are snapshots of the kitchen one. Super happy with the look! The actual colour is closer to the 2nd pic although not exactly. All our carpentry is using Blum hinges and drawer tracks. I played with the Aventos HK and felt so awesome. Like "YEAH GONNA SLAM THIS oh wait soft closing is overriding my anger". Blum so brilliant please.

Edited June 11, 2016 by Delylalex

[Delylalex 0]

I think after these photos, you might finally agree that we are too young for this classic home. MBR is in a mint green colour and living room is a very very light grey, lighter than the MBR wardrobe. We just fixed the edison bulbs to our dining pendant lights. Woohoo.