Interior Designer – Yet Another Wedding Blog

Renovation Journey : Let’s Get Tough!

As you are reading the previous blog entry, I am already typing the next blog entry! Got to clear my backlogs so that I can start showing lovely photos of my almost completed house with furnitures! 😀

So on 12 July, we had our solid top installation. It was actually a pretty fast process where the solid-top guys came down with these pre-cut solid tops and went to the various places in the house to start putting them into place. In just a few minutes, the solid tops were nicely positioned and glued at the side with silicone. The workers then help us to polish our solid tops. But as usual, there will always be some flaws as Feng spotted them and asked our ID to rectify them. 🙂

Say goodbye to scratch surfaces and hello to smoothies! Presenting our white kitchen! Sort-of. 😀

Happy to have the solid top for the breakfast counter so now I can use it with the MacBook Air without making my skin feel scratchy from the woody surface. 😀

Solid tops for the bathroom counter-tops! The holes are drilled to the position of our basins and taps by the workers after confirming the position with us. 🙂

Here’s showing the acrylic board and T5 light used in our bathrooms! We replaced the plastic mesh so as to have a cleaner look in the bathrooms. And as mentioned by our ID, to prevent any creepy crawlies from going in. :X

The T5 lights are actually brighter than our lighting point! Now we used it more often than the light installed. Haha! Luckily we didn’t spend a lot on the light. 🙂

I guess that’s all for today! Will try to come up with the next set of photos soon! We are reaching the end soooooon! Stay tuned! 😀

Renovation Journey : Woody Wood

Apologies for the lack of updates in the main page for at least one month! We have been really busy with the whole renovation process and I have been staying over at Feng’s house and since editing of photos is only limited to my house hence no updates until now!

Photos were uploaded last week to my flickr so if any one of you need any update, there will be a place to go to! Else you can probably head over to the link: Our Barn located at the bar above for latest update on our progress from Feng. 🙂

So it was about one week after the lightings were installed, on 7 July, our carpentry works were up~! So here’s a look at our more completed look! 🙂

On the right is the view from the front door’s point of view while the left shows the carpentry work done at the front door area which includes the shoe cabinet to the left and the household shelter feature wall on the right. The door hiding the household shelter was not up during the time of photo-taking. 🙂

An overall view of Our Barn from the living/dining room! 🙂

Our kitchen with the glass divider is finally up and we are so loving it as it allows light to enter from all directions giving the illusion of space for our small house. 🙂

The table will be our “breakfast” table which will most likely end up putting lots of junk and also the convenience of throwing anything we have on hand on it upon entering the house. 😀

Here’s our full-height cabinet/storage space! The only storage space with the most storage area in the Barn! The mirrors on the cabinet was not up at the time of photo-taking. 🙂

Our TV console and feature wall together with our Ikea pendant light. 🙂

Our entertainment room! Sort of. Hahaha! We will be having a 32″ TV mounted on the wall and of ‘cos having both our lovely PCs on the study table. This will probably be where we will hang out most of the time considering we used our PCs like 24/7. Oops. :X

Cabinet to the bottom-right is used to house our routers and what-nots inside so as to hide them from view. But both of us think this room will be the messiest no matter how we cable-manage everything. :X

Our Master Bedroom (MBR) wardrobe which both of us and everyone else thinks will never be enough for both of us considering I will be taking up most of the space in the wardrobe. Haha! Guess Feng might force me to do more spring cleaning for my clothes in future to make way for more new clothes. :X

My little corner in the MBR! My dressing table! Feng gave me the freedom to decide the configuration for the dressing table since I will be the one using it most of the time. Mirror was once again not up at the time of photo-taking. 🙂

Carpentry works in the bathroom! This is a view of our MBR bathroom and the long cabinet will be used to put TWO basins! Influenced by the various resorts we visited, we MUST have two basins. Haha! 😀

Remember the laminate trimming that I mentioned previously that both Feng and I hated? Our ID has went ahead to rectify the issue after we raised it to him. He didn’t inform us on the change and didn’t gave us the choice to choose BUT luckily the new trimming fits lovingly so we didn’t blame him. He loves to give us surprises but we both think he is an ID bad for control freaks out there. Haha! 🙂

Lastly, a view from the walkway. 🙂

Will post up another series of photos for the next phase soon but I am just too tired to do anything much nowadays. Been having some small hiccups here and there and it was tiring for both of us. Renovation has kind of come to a halt for us already except for some rectifications here and there which can only be done on weekends since we have already locked up the house with our own lock. We both hope that all will go well for the remaining work to be done. We need a good rest before moving on to more plannings for our wedding. Phew.

For more miscellaneous photos from this series, please head over to my flickr. Thanks! Will try to update as and when I can. 🙂

Renovation Journey : Paint, Eubiq and Doors!

It’s carpentry measurement day! It’s also a random surprise day! 😀

Thinking that we were the first to be in the house, we went into the bomb shelter to put our stuffs, only to realise there was someone else in the house. It was actually the painter! Didn’t know what he was doing in the other room but he sure was really quiet when we entered the house. Hur.

We realised the paint cans lying on the floor were ICI and Nippon Paint. Since we chose our paint from Nippon Paint, we asked our ID why was there ICI lying there and he said it will be used for the base coat. Phew. At least we are not being short-changed.

Anyway we checked out the air-conditioner trunking and false ceiling that were done from yesterday. Well… Air-conditioner trunking was as complete as possible and they helped to plaster back the visible hole they had drilled. False ceiling was partly plastered up so the guy was back to continue plastering our ceiling at the later part of the day. 🙂

Then Kenneth from ASL Power came back with our Eubiq track and power plugs! They were really fast in custom-making our 2 metre long track. In less than a week and it was done! Brownie points for them! So now we have the physical track to show the carpenter so he can do the measurement to cut out a hole to hold the track on our study table. 🙂

Carpentry measurement and discussion was longer than expected. I didn’t know there was so much to confirm until that day! Every single detail has to be confirmed and double-confirmed with the ID and us regarding the width of the item and how far apart they are. Not forgetting number of doors for the cabinet, whether we want drawer or casement doors, where to put the drawers or casement door, so on and so forth. So many configurations for the kitchen alone! o.O

Luckily when the kitchen discussion was done, other carpentry around the house was easier to decide until we hit the study room which is rather important to us since we will probably spend a lot of time in it. 🙂 So the measurement of the cabinet was changed again and again. But both our ID and the carpenter were rather patient with us. Brownies points again~!

Also during the carpentry discussion, our bathroom PD doors were also being installed! Our ID said the company is getting popular so they will be getting busier to schedule slots for installation. And since our doors are in stock, he decided to arrange an early date to install our doors. Say byebye to exposed bathroom! Now I can use it in peace! 😉

Renovation Journey : Happy Trunking Day!

It’s Happy Trunking Day! That means we are having our air-conditioner trunking and that means lots of noise, mess and dust!

Our ID also came down that day so that the air-conditioner workers can ask our ID any questions pertaining to the positioning of the trunking. We had one troublesome issue for the study room as the electrical wiring intersected with the air-conditioner trunking and unit position. So our ID advised the worker to remove the electrical wiring trunking and allow them to proceed first. Our ID will advise our electrician on the issue. Hope to see some magic done this coming week. *prays*

Also during all the drilling and hammering, the remnants were like hitting our precious unprotected laminates due to lack of cardboard to protect the floor laminates! o.O

Lesson learnt: Probably can consult your ID or contractor and get the air-conditioner trunking done before the laminates are up in the room. May or may not affect houses that use tiles for their room since it’s less damaging as compared to laminates. Also might solve the conflict the electrical wiring might have with the air-conditioner trunking and unit position ‘cos usually the trunking position is quite fixed and electrical wirings can probably run otherwise. 🙂

We got our air-conditioner from Kaisoon since Mushroom’s family had their renovation some time back and his brother researched Kaisoon to be quite a good and reputable company. So we decided to go ahead and use their service as well. So far so good. We will be having 2 days of air-conditioner installation where the trunking will be done before the installation of the air-conditioner units after the carpentry is up. 🙂

Also on parallel track, the false ceiling was being put up on that day too. It was to prepare for the carpentry measurement the next day so that the carpenter can have an accurate measurement of how high the carpentry works will have to be. 🙂

Lunch at Popeyes at Punggol Promenade Riverside before heading back to do a quick visit on the workers and gave them some drinks to reward their hard work. Then it was back to Feng’s house before heading out for some GDL/Dowry/An Chuan items shopping! 🙂

Renovation Journey : Tiler Plan + Bathroom Accessories 1.1

So we applied leave last Friday as our ID will be bringing down the tiler and electrician. The tiler was there to take note of which area to do up the tiling base and kerb and what tiling what we doing for our house. So here’s some drawings he did on our wall to facilitate his work after the wall comes falling down (hopefully by this week! grrrr.)

The electrician was here so as to consult with him on the electrical points and installation we will have in the house and of ‘cos to give us a quotation of the electrical wiring cost. Shall wait for the quotation to be sent to us from our ID before deciding otherwise an alternative we have in mind. 🙂

So after the tiler and electrician visit, .we decided to head down to Sim Siang Choon at Changi to take a look at the bathroom accessories. Here’s presenting our basin and basin-mixer/kitchen sink-mixer. 🙂

We also got our storage water heater for them. The remaining accessories will leave it for our bathroom accessories shopping part 2 at Hoe Kee. 🙂

Many busy days to come and we already had the most tiring Saturday ever. We need a break!

Renovation Schedule Update

Just a brief update :

7th May 2011

Tiles selection at Hafary, Balestier Road.
Dropped by lighting and sanitary ware stores, but found the price a little too steep for our liking.

13th May 2011

Met up with the electrician and tiler to confirm some details at our new place.
Electrician will quote based on what was discussed.
Still awaiting HDB’s wall hacking approval and 3D drawings.

15th May 2011

3D drawings version 1.0 received! Fabulous!

18th May 2011 to 28th May 2011

Our ID would be overseas on business trip. Hopefully, the hacking would have been approved, and tiling would take place during this period as minimal ID involvement is required.

Renovation Journey : In The Beginning

We have confirmed the Interior Designer (ID) for our new place! At this moment, I don’t think it would be the right time to reveal the firm or the ID yet. We shall let our renovation experience do the talking.

A brief outline of events prior to signing up with him :

2nd April 2011

First meet-up with him. A pretty short session just to indicate the type of renovation we intend to do, and our budget. We deliberately gave him only the bare minimum requirements so as not to restrict his creativity.

12th April 2011

Received the first quotation and layout design via email. Seemed pretty alright to us, with competitive pricing. More importantly, we were receptive to his layout design. Meanwhile, we collected the keys to our BTO flat.

18th April 2011

Second meet-up to go through the quotation and proposed layout design. A long session as we had a lot of details to go through, but it pays to be careful when it comes to this! Changed some things here and there, and before we knew it, we were starting to be won over by his ideas

23rd April 2011

Show-flat visit! Another round of questions and answers.

26th April 2011

Final meet-up to tie up the details, and we confirmed him as our ID.