85% Complete

Our renovation is almost complete save for some minor area touch up.

Kitchen

The kitchen is our favorite. It turned out more spacious than we expected after the installation of cabinetry on both sides. The estimated width of the walkway is about 1.5 m and that is plenty of space. I think kitchen space like this is really rare in the public and private property market nowadays as space becomes a scarcity (probably with the exception of landed homes).

The top hung cabinets are laminated in gloss white for a clean look. The lower hung cabinets are topped with white solid surface top with matching white powder coated glass back-splash and metallic grey laminates. The look we are going for is clean, posh but durable and low maintenance.

Living and Dining Room

The living room is almost ready pending the brick wall. We love to have the brick wall but we are experiencing some hiccups in getting it. Instead of boring you with the full details, let's just say, it'll be delayed. Otherwise, the living room is ready to receive furniture.

Mirrors are nice. It makes the small dining room look bigger and brighter than it is.

Office/Study (Cabinet)

I love the effect where the wooden flooring runs directly into the wardrobe. When I first saw this kind of effect in Flamingo Valley show flat and I told myself I want this effect for my wardrobe. The small hole on the left side of the cabinet is for my small fish tank. =)

Bathrooms

An Update (Oct 3rd 2011)

False Ceiling and L-Box

The L-box has gone up in the living room and the false ceiling has gone up in our dining room of our apartment recently.

We selected to go with L-box for the living room because we want a ceiling fan. This has more of a utility value because we don't want to have the air-con running most of the time to save on electricity cost. Having a ceiling fan, hopefully, won't affect the aesthetics of our apartment look much.

The false ceiling of the dining area unfortunately had to be lower than the L-box because it had to cover part of the original kitchen ceiling which was lower than the living room. Hopefully when the wall features of the living and dining room go up, they will draw attention away from the discrepancy in ceiling heights.

Kitchen

After the laying of electrical wires and running of water and gas pipes, we are now waiting in anticipation for the kitchen cabinets to come in. Now that we've bought the hob, hood, oven and kitchen sink, the carpenter has the exact measurements for the solid surface kitchen top cut outs. So we are happy to report that the kitchen cabinet fabrication is in good progress. =)

Bathrooms

We are quite impressed by what has been done to the toilets. Boxing up the exposed pipes really made a difference to the outlook. We have ordered 90% of the sanitary fittings so it's a matter of time that they are up.

Light installation is in progress and we are in anticipation that the painting is completed soon so that we have more colors in the photos for our next few updates.

A Simple Plan

Spatial planning for our crib turned out to be more difficult than we expected. It was the first hurdle of beginning renovation.

It is an art that requires careful balancing of functionality, aesthetics, budget and practicality. Working within the limited space of 721 square feet and structural constraints of beams and pipes, we sought to revamp the layout of our apartment into living spaces that are functional and modern.

For instance, our idea of a modern functional master-bathroom should at least house a bidet, wash basin and a shower cubicle to provide convenience and privacy. Our main headache here was the space constraint. It took some imagination, gut feeling and heavy duty spatial planning to achieve what we want.

The extent of spatial planning was also something that we had to grapple with. In the early stages, several interior designers we spoke to proposed major spatial rearrangement which entailed, hacking down entire rooms and recreating them in other parts of the apartment. The proposed ideas were fresh and unique but feels not quite adequately practical nor budget friendly. Sometimes we got the feeling that the IDs were trying to get their designs into the next issue of "Home and Decor" at our expenses.

Finally, we arrived to a conclusion based on what we need. We need to retain the structure of the original layout as much as possible. There is a possibility of renting out the place after the 5 years Minimum Occupation Period as stipulated by the HDB. A two bedroom apartment is easier to rent out that a one bedroom.

So instead of totally revamping the layout, we applied minimum creativity touches, specifically in the kitchen, master-bedroom and master-bathroom, to bring in a balance of aesthetics and practicality. Focus was more on renovating the basic fundamentals of electrical wiring, pipes, tiles and windows for a modern and practical feel. For instance, unsightly pipes were made invisible by covering them up.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was our simple plan. =)

Living and Dining: No major revamp. Dining area was enlarged by pushing back the kitchen divider.


Kitchen: Kitchen can be sealed by sliding door. Food preparation counter is beside fridge. Cooking hob is opposite counter, washing area is beside the stove for convenience as it is usually the last step of the process. A tall cabinet is to be erected beside the washing area to cater for storage needs.


Office: Currently blank. A built-in cabinet will be erected beside the entrance for storage needs.


Master-bedroom: Storeroom is collapsed to make way for walk-in wardrobe. Wardrobe will extend into the bedroom. Master-bathroom will also extend into the bedroom to provide more space for what we need. We reckon that bedroom is for rest so only minimum space is required. Any additional space has been utilized for more useful purposes.

Work In Progress!

As renovation progresses, our apartment is fast metamorphosing from a dingy old flat to a brand new apartment with modern finishes. The new windows did a great job with natural lighting and ventilation control. Plastering the walls helped to alleviate wall and ceiling imperfections. New tiles made the floor looks up to date.

At present, the apartment still looks drab and grey but it's nothing that a fresh coat of paint and electrical lighting cannot fix.

Work in progress: the tiler and contractor's work stuff are still strewn all over the place. Walls and ceiling had been made smooth via plastering of ultra hard compound. 

The dividing wall between the living room and the kitchen had been pushed back to make both places more optimally functional. The stiffener (protruding beam across the living room ceiling) marks where the divider wall used to be and it will be covered up by the false ceiling. 

The new windows serves to throw more light into the kitchen and make the space appear bigger and they also better ventilate the apartment.

The apartment really looks "industrial" with grey tiles and grey walls. Me like ;)

No more dingy kitchen toilet!

The future office. Nothing much done except wall/ceiling plastering and installation of new windows.

The master-bedroom work in progress, the master bathroom had been extended out.

The future walk-in-wardrobe

We had lots of showflat inspiration and a contractor who's a "toilet specialist", the toilet better turn out good! =P

Hacking Day & The Demolition Team

10 August was the first of three hacking days for our crib.

From the 10th until the 12th, the demolition team will come to the crib and hack away everything old - tiles, doors, fixtures and fittings, in order to make way for the new.

Led by a contractor named Ah Tu (who insisted that he cannot sing)*, the demolition team of 4 Indian/ Bangras? were captured on camera having a great time demolishing our apartment:

*Ah Tu is the name of a famous Chinese Singaporean singer.

Floor Tiles Selection Shortlist

Today, we shortlisted some floor tiles for the kitchen and 2 bathrooms with our designer, Jeremy, at Balestier Road.

For the uninitiated, Balestier Road is a must visit for those who want to buy floor tiles, lighting and sanitary ware. Parking is a chore but the plethora of home renovation supply stores is enough to let you browse until your heart's content. Eateries are aplenty along the street so after you tire from browsing from store to store, you can just sit down for some local delicacies.

That being said, we spent only over an hour at Lian Seng Hin and shortlisted all that we need. The kitchen floor is a warm light grey color to blend with the white glossy kitchen cabinets and also to provide a contrast with the Havana Oak in the living and dining.

The bathroom tiles color scheme also didn't stray a lot from grey and white, we decided on this color scheme because we want to achieve a certain timeless style that doesn't go out of style. Hence we steered away from attractive and shiny mosaic tiles which might go out of style in several years time. Not good for resale value. =P

We reckon that developers of those spiffy new condos might have gotten something right by not playing with too much colors and fanciful tiles but chose to maintain a healthy balance of cost effectiveness and style.

Our next step is to place the samples of our shortlisted tiles under natural lighting conditions in our apartment to see if the color coordination works. If not, then it's back to the selection process again.