Contentment Home

[Carmella 0]

Hi all!  This home is called the contentment home as we are happy with where we are at right now. Regarding the theme of the home, it is ''You like, can already''. Hahaha, initially we were fussing about what theme we wanted in the home. We bounced between a Nordic-Scandinavian theme to a resort feeling theme to a modern theme to a minimalist theme. In the end, we just went with what feels right because that is the most important! Doesn't matter what theme the home is as long as the people who are living in it are happy with it's state. This home has initially caused us a lot of headaches when we did not know what we want due to us being fickle. But we made it through! And I'm here to share the next part of the journey which is renovation with you all  
 

House Hunting

This was the worst part to the renovation journey as we could not find what we wanted We were looking for a 4 room flat that was not too big and was located near where we were previously staying (TPY). As everyone knows, TPY flats don't come cheap especially when it's nearer to TPY Central. Our only options were the outskirts of TPY as we wanted to have a 4 room while having it well renovated. We were very hesitant about living in the 'outskirt' as there was no MRT nearby but.... there are a lot of buses for us to take! So why not? A new change of pace and lifestyle for us to try. If we had gotten closer to Central, there would have been no way we could renovate our home to a level which was comfortable for us all and there's no point in buying a home where you're unhappy right?

PS: We did look at other 4 room resale flats in AMK, YCK and Hougang area. But our heart was fated and contented with only our beloved old town, TPY. 

 

This is our floor plan and as you can tell, It is a very old flat. There's only 1 Bath and WC which is located in the Kitchen and theres no connecting Master bedroom toilet etc. Many might hate the separated toilet but.. we LOVE it. We have an issue with touching wet floors with our bare feet. Unless the area is meant for bathing, it CANNOT be wet. Even the WC area cannot be wet. We are adamant to having the bathing and WC area be separated if we had gotten a combined bathroom. To which the house agent shook his head as more work for him 

 

Contractors Search

This is the part where we all sighed in disappointment. A contractor whom we thought was reliable turned out to be a irresponsible baboon. He quoted us unreasonably and forgot a lot of things in the quotation. Initially we trusted him and gave him the benefit of the doubt. However, all he gave us was crap. His quotes were reasonable for some but for others, it was completely overpriced. Seeing his quote was too over budget, we decided to source out other options to replace his electrical and carpentry. However, we wanted him to do our main works like tiling etc. He decided to not reply any of our messages and even left to go 'overseas'. Funny how when we called him, the tone could get through normally as though he was in Singapore.  Not only that, he proceeded to message us and tell us that he was busy overseas. Hence, his colleague would takeover. Fair enough, colleague says yes, yes she can do it. Fast forward 9 hrs, at 1am in the morning. She dropped a Whatsapp messaging telling us she is also too busy. Gave them a good 'talk', if you know what I mean, before I deleted their contact completely. Never going to recommend that company. 

Main Contractor:
Our next contractor (M) felt right the moment he talked to us. He was able to remember most of the things we wanted except he missed out ~3 things from the quotation? However, his colleague (C) was quick to help and communicate for us as there was a slight language barrier. M could speak Mandarin brilliantly, but his English was only on a ok-ok standard. But its ok, we were able to understand him and he was super nice in helping us try to keep to our budget. AND he understands when we wanted to use another company for their carpentry, electrical and air-con. So big thumbs up for his positive mindset! C too, super helpful. However, I do not know if they would do a good job, and frankly, I do not have time to be picky as we are rushing for time, having to move out by mid next month  
I will see whether they do a good job and if they do, I'll definitely update later after the completion!


Carpentry & Electrical & Air-con
As I said above, we sourced out a different contractor for carpentry, electrical and air-con. Carpentry guy (A) is a jovial bubble who listens and tries to help in whatever way he can. We know nuts about designing so we asked him to do the designs for us and we would tweak it as we see necessary. Just earlier today, he came down to discuss the design of the wardrobes and he bothered to listen to what we needed more. We will also see how his workmanship is as the progress moves on!

J is our electrical guy and is friendly but he doesn't talk much unless necessary. At least, he has good responsibility when it comes to informing us that he is going overseas.

Lastly, for Air-con, T is helping us. Nothing much to say about her as we never met before but she handled my current home aircon too. And it works fine, so yay?

 

Before Renovation Pictures

Yes, I am horrible at choosing the angles to take the pictures but I will improve! I hope..

Living Room

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Kitchen

Bath

WC

 

Hopefully the pictures are okay as I do not know how to upload pictures here properly  (edit: okay they are fine)

Edited October 2, 2016 by Carmella

[Carmella 0]

Works to be done!

We are hacking of everything; tiles, electrical wires, power points, toilet accessories, sinks, cornices, Basically ripping everything out. There is nothing that we want of the old house to be there. It may sound little but the majority of budget went to hacking and replacing works. 

We are doing a cove lighting with down lights and a pendant light in our living room while  the other rooms are just getting the normal lighting point.

For carpentry, we are looking at doing a 1 meter full length shoe cabinet (wish it was 1.5m, but you can't get everything you want on a budget right?), 2 full length wardrobes and top and bottom kitchen cabinets.

However, my dreams of hacking the toilet tiles are on hold as HDB is insisting to come down for a check before they allow any hacking works to be done in the toilet. If it is not approved, overlay it is...  Keeping my fingers crossed on it.

There is one thing I would like to say, even if it is out of your renovation budget now, you can always add on when you do have the money! It's more important to have the skeleton of your home up and going first. Furniture and carpentry can always be added later. We are looking at adding a TV console when the money comes as we love the look of it. Slow and steady as this is your house, there is no need to rush to complete everything.

One thing we agreed on was to have as many power point as we can afford as we hate the look of extension cords. We are probably going to be having 4-6 power points in each room (except the toilet) if it is possible! Besides, no harm having more power points. Never know when you need them.

Tiles

We only visited 1 shop and that was Hafary. We were lazy and couldn't really be bothered as the selection of tiles there was enough for us. After spending 1.5 hours there, all tiles began to look the same and our head was spinning so we decided to just go with the flow. The person who attended to us was super helpful as he helped us with the choices of the tiles. We went there without our contractor as it was a impromtu visit. We really went with the flow and there was no particular theme in our heads except: easy to clean and maintain. When the tile samples were placed together in the end, it flowed well and that was all we needed. Here are the selection of our tiles!

 

Living room

Bedroom 1,2,3

The top is our first choice but in the event if it is OOS, the below will be our second choice.

Kitchen

Top is our kitchen wall tiles and below is our flooring

Our backsplash which spans the entire wall where the kitchen cabinet and sink will be.

Our sink tiles as our sink is going to be a concrete sink not timber.

Caesarstone Oyster as our countertop.

Bath & WC

Top is the toilet wall tiles and below is our toilet floor tiles.

Overall tiles put together

 

Part 3: Hoe Kee

After looking at our tiles, we went to Hoe Kee to look at the stuff there. We are basically lazy donkeys who hardly leave the house, hence, we wanted to complete buying everything when we were there. Here are our buys! We have not gotten our dish rack and towel rack as we may want to order that from Amazon.

Water Heater Rubine water heater with booster pump

Bath 2 way tap

Bath sink tap Grohe 32809000

Toilet Bowl Roz 8368

Bidet Spray KrisRoz

Hob Bosch 7231SG

Kitchen Sink Blanco Naya 6

Kitchen Tap Blanco Mida L

Ceiling Fan KDK T60AW 

 

Didn't find or take a picture of my Bath sink But it's just a normal rectangular sink.

Edited October 2, 2016 by Carmella

[kingandbin 13]

Hello hello, welcome onboard! Such a cute name for your home  from the  looks of it your unit is on a high level. Nice!

Loving your tile choices; sensible neutral colours which will allow the furniture to speak for the theme! 1.5hrs for selecting the number of tiles you did is an accomplishment already. Shld give yourselves a pat on the back heh. 

Also, your purchases were done so speedily! Makes me feel super slow as I've yet to even purchase the kitchen sink. Haha  

[Carmella 0]

11 hours ago, kingandbin said:

Hello hello, welcome onboard! Such a cute name for your home  from the  looks of it your unit is on a high level. Nice!

Loving your tile choices; sensible neutral colours which will allow the furniture to speak for the theme! 1.5hrs for selecting the number of tiles you did is an accomplishment already. Shld give yourselves a pat on the back heh. 

Also, your purchases were done so speedily! Makes me feel super slow as I've yet to even purchase the kitchen sink. Haha  

Hi Thank you! I have read your T-blog and I too, loved your tile choices! 
We were too lazy to head back down to Hoe Kee or search for other options for the accessories so we just went with the flow and bought everything in a go. But we are still left with some things to buy Thinking of amazon but not sure whether it can make it in time.

[Carmella 0]

Hacking works started on Thursday. When I visited on Saturday, it looked as though a tornado came and ripped through everything. Luckily, I wore shoes and could traverse the place. Here are some pictures when I visited on Saturday.

Living Room

Kitchen

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Wardrobes in Bedroom 1 and 2 were dismantled and cleared but couldn't get a good picture of it. 

 

Hacking works will continue till tomorrow, Tuesday, 20 September. Can't wait till all hacking is done and ready to lay tiles etc  Air-con contractor is coming tomorrow to lay the pipes in the morning, so hopefully all goes well!

Edited October 2, 2016 by Carmella

[Carmella 0]

Time passes so fast during renovation and its such a tiring process of going down to inspect and choosing everCornice and windows are in the process of being installed. A quick update on the progress of our home. 

Tiling works are still in progress but kitchen tiling is done! When I went down on 30 September, they were constructing the cabinet and fridge kerb. Monday is an exciting day as our kitchen cabinets can finally be measured and begin fabricating. Not only that, our bathroom accessories are all going to be installed. Can't wait to see how that looks like. But our kitchen had a minor set back The tilers tiled our beam even though we told them not to. So now they have to hack it away. For a nice contractor, the tilers are pretty **** rude. Perhaps its because we do not know how to speak Mandarin well despite being Chinese so they try to take advantage of the situation. Previously, I told them on the side of the kitchen that kitchen cabinets are going to be installed, all exposed wall should be the backsplash tile. Whereas the tiles that are covered by cabinets can be the other kitchen tile. But they proceeded to tile it wrongly at the fridge area. Told them to correct it and ensure that the tile is the backsplash until the kitchen kerb ends. Then they showed me their black face  But its ok, we are the ones who are going to be paying and living there at the end of the day, not them. So I don't care whatever excuse they give, if we do not like it, change it.

The one trouble we had was to decide the placement of our TV.  With our odd walls, its hard to decide where the tv point and power points for it should be  Also, painting works to be started soon! Can't wait!

 

Kitchen tiles completed

Bathroom wall tiles completed (forgot to take the WC, but it's exactly the same)

Bedroom 2 cornice being installed

Bedroom 3 cornice fully installed

Chosen main door design and colour

Chosen bedrooms door design and colour

Our windows

Edited October 2, 2016 by Carmella

[Labuns 0]

Hi,

Your layout is exactly the same as mine except that I have an extra utility room at the back. Mine just started hacking and plastering. Kept the original homogenous tiles in living room.

[Carmella 0]

32 minutes ago, Labuns said:

Hi,

Your layout is exactly the same as mine except that I have an extra utility room at the back. Mine just started hacking and plastering. Kept the original homogenous tiles in living room.

Hi! We didn't do any plastering work except on 1 wall in the living room where there was tiles. My original tiles didn't fit our tastes so we hacked it all out Cost a lot of money to redo everything. Kind of wasted cause the toilet just underwent HIP but we still hacked it anyways. How are you arranging your furnitures in the living room? The living room is causing us headaches with the placement of the TV Not only that, choosing the size of couch is also a headache. Tried looking around for inspiration but there wasn't any pictures with the same layout as ours. Would be great if you created a T blog too  

[Carmella 0]

Went over to my place and was pleasantly surprised. For some reason, painting works are being done despite tile work not being completed. Strange, but whatever, it gives us a visualization of how it looks like painted. Sink supporter was supposed to be completed today but for some reason tilers said it can only be completed tomorrow. So now carpenter can only come and measure on Wednesday Ah.. the delays.

The place really transformed over the weekends. Grouting in my kitchen are done and OMG it looked so different compared to when it didn't have the grout. It was even better looking! Going to take a picture of it when I head down on tomorrow or Wednesday. My toilets too, floor tiles were completed. Have to say, despite the tilers being cold, their work quality is spot on. Windows were all up and the green doesn't look ugly as what we initially thought (yes we regretted for a brief moment and screamed WHY OH WHY GREEN, but now we love it ). Everything bought from Hoe Kee and Heritage Bathroom Gallery was delivered. Silly us forgot that our bathroom sink and mirror had to be less than 19 inches. We bought a mirror cabinet which is 500mm from Heritage. Just a few cm bigger than 19 inch but now we have to either exchange or get a new one cause it can't fit.

One problem, we have not even gone looking for our lights and the electrician is asking us to go buy it soon as he needs to install it. If any of you are willing to recommend where to buy our LED lights it would help us a lot

 

Bedroom 1 Painted

Bedroom 2 Painted

Bedroom 3 Painted

Living room Painted

 

I'm sure they will be patching up the paint later on after we fully install everything. Our living room paint was a bit of a let down. Was expecting it to have a cooler tone but can hardly see the difference. But it's ok I'm sure we can bring colours in with the furniture.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Carmella

[Labuns 0]

23 hours ago, Carmella said:

Hi! We didn't do any plastering work except on 1 wall in the living room where there was tiles. My original tiles didn't fit our tastes so we hacked it all out Cost a lot of money to redo everything. Kind of wasted cause the toilet just underwent HIP but we still hacked it anyways. How are you arranging your furnitures in the living room? The living room is causing us headaches with the placement of the TV Not only that, choosing the size of couch is also a headache. Tried looking around for inspiration but there wasn't any pictures with the same layout as ours. Would be great if you created a T blog too  

Hi, I am lazy to start a blog  The flat is hacked in the kitchen area, wc area and shower area.  Plastering is because of the rockstone effect which I dislike. It's on the walls and ceilings of the 3 bedrooms and living room, as well as the kitchen ceiling and wc ceiling. Tiling will start this week. I chose tiles from SBH. Have not plan carpentry. But plan to place the tv console along the wall of the main door. The sofa to be placed opposite the tv console. I heard its better to have the sofa against a wall. Dining table will be against the short wall between kitchen and bedroom. Mine also went HIP a couple of years ago but I dun like the tiles and the previous owners didnt maintain well. My sofa size is only 1.9 to 2m. I am also not doing any false ceilings. Removed the existing simple cornices in living room.

I also tried looking for same layout designs. Dun see any till I came across one under Space Atelier FB posts. You can take a look. Exact same layout  

[Labuns 0]

22 hours ago, Carmella said:

Went over to my place and was pleasantly surprised. For some reason, painting works are being done despite tile work not being completed. Strange, but whatever, it gives us a visualization of how it looks like painted. Sink supporter was supposed to be completed today but for some reason tilers said it can only be completed tomorrow. So now carpenter can only come and measure on Wednesday Ah.. the delays.

The place really transformed over the weekends. Grouting in my kitchen are done and OMG it looked so different compared to when it didn't have the grout. It was even better looking! Going to take a picture of it when I head down on tomorrow or Wednesday. My toilets too, floor tiles were completed. Have to say, despite the tilers being cold, their work quality is spot on. Windows were all up and the green doesn't look ugly as what we initially thought (yes we regretted for a brief moment and screamed WHY OH WHY GREEN, but now we love it ). Everything bought from Hoe Kee and Heritage Bathroom Gallery was delivered. Silly us forgot that our bathroom sink and mirror had to be less than 19 inches. We bought a mirror cabinet which is 500mm from Heritage. Just a few cm bigger than 19 inch but now we have to either exchange or get a new one cause it can't fit.

One problem, we have not even gone looking for our lights and the electrician is asking us to go buy it soon as he needs to install it. If any of you are willing to recommend where to buy our LED lights it would help us a lot

 

Bedroom 1 Painted

Bedroom 2 Painted

Bedroom 3 Painted

Living room Painted

 

I'm sure they will be patching up the paint later on after we fully install everything. Our living room paint was a bit of a let down. Was expecting it to have a cooler tone but can hardly see the difference. But it's ok I'm sure we can bring colours in with the furniture.

Which colours do you paint your walls? I love our windows. No need to switch on lights during the day.

[Carmella 0]

1 hour ago, Labuns said:

Hi, I am lazy to start a blog  The flat is hacked in the kitchen area, wc area and shower area.  Plastering is because of the rockstone effect which I dislike. It's on the walls and ceilings of the 3 bedrooms and living room, as well as the kitchen ceiling and wc ceiling. Tiling will start this week. I chose tiles from SBH. Have not plan carpentry. But plan to place the tv console along the wall of the main door. The sofa to be placed opposite the tv console. I heard its better to have the sofa against a wall. Dining table will be against the short wall between kitchen and bedroom. Mine also went HIP a couple of years ago but I dun like the tiles and the previous owners didnt maintain well. My sofa size is only 1.9 to 2m. I am also not doing any false ceilings. Removed the existing simple cornices in living room.

I also tried looking for same layout designs. Dun see any till I came across one under Space Atelier FB posts. You can take a look. Exact same layout  

Tiling works will take the longest. Coming to 2 weeks and my tiling works are still not done. Hate it especially when I have to hear the loud sound of the cutting of tiles. Poor workers who have to hear it directly and constantly

Oh really? Why is it better to have the sofa against a wall? Sadly we can't have it against the wall because the wall on the side of our main door will be our full length shoe cabinet. Yes the rockstone effect is not to my tastes too. Luckily, my flat did not have any of it which is surprising because it is a super old flat. I don't think we can fit the 2m sofa in our living room haha! Have to see after we move in. Don't want to commit to any long term furniture without knowing the exact measurements. 

We can't seem to find a gate design which we like too All either seems too messy or old fashioned. 

1 hour ago, Labuns said:

Which colours do you paint your walls? I love our windows. No need to switch on lights during the day.

Dulux Grey Star for bedroom, Dulux Moonlight Sonata for living room and Lilac white for ceilings.

[Labuns 0]

Thanks! We are doing Nippon colours Sailwhite and Misty.  Not changing the gate but will redo the main door frame and laminate the main door. If we change the original fire rated door, a new one would cost $$$$. So laminating it is the cheaper option. 

A full length shoe cabinet?? Wow you sure have many pairs of shoes. I plan to have the shoe cabinet behind the door.

Have attached my sofa pic. Very simple looking sofa. We can only have blue, grey, black, whites, cream, off whites, beiges in the living room as per fengshui.

[gumbokins 5]

9 hours ago, Carmella said:

Tiling works will take the longest. Coming to 2 weeks and my tiling works are still not done. Hate it especially when I have to hear the loud sound of the cutting of tiles. Poor workers who have to hear it directly and constantly

Oh really? Why is it better to have the sofa against a wall? Sadly we can't have it against the wall because the wall on the side of our main door will be our full length shoe cabinet. Yes the rockstone effect is not to my tastes too. Luckily, my flat did not have any of it which is surprising because it is a super old flat. I don't think we can fit the 2m sofa in our living room haha! Have to see after we move in. Don't want to commit to any long term furniture without knowing the exact measurements. 

We can't seem to find a gate design which we like too All either seems too messy or old fashioned. 

Dulux Grey Star for bedroom, Dulux Moonlight Sonata for living room and Lilac white for ceilings.

when my tilers were doing the work, they weren't wearing any safety equipment either. so scary...sometimes they would re-emerge covered in fine dust, red eyes

 

what kind of gates are you looking for? 

http://www.steeldios.com/products/

http://www.mydigitallock.com.sg/door-gate.html

[Carmella 0]

1 hour ago, Labuns said:

Thanks! We are doing Nippon colours Sailwhite and Misty.  Not changing the gate but will redo the main door frame and laminate the main door. If we change the original fire rated door, a new one would cost $$$$. So laminating it is the cheaper option. 

A full length shoe cabinet?? Wow you sure have many pairs of shoes. I plan to have the shoe cabinet behind the door.

Have attached my sofa pic. Very simple looking sofa. We can only have blue, grey, black, whites, cream, off whites, beiges in the living room as per fengshui.

That sofa is really pretty! Nice choice!  We have to change the doors as it is too difficult to lock it Very hard to close it shut and stuff. Especially the gate. HATE IT. The gate slammed shut on my hand once and there was a red clot for days. We did consider Nippon but found Dulux to be more of our tastes. 

55 minutes ago, gumbokins said:

when my tilers were doing the work, they weren't wearing any safety equipment either. so scary...sometimes they would re-emerge covered in fine dust, red eyes

 

what kind of gates are you looking for? 

http://www.steeldios.com/products/

http://www.mydigitallock.com.sg/door-gate.html

Yes! They weren't even wearing gloves! I'll take a look at both their sites but so far mydigitallock gates are looking more towards our tastes. If I were to want a gate from them, do I ask them to install or do I ask my contractor to get it for us?