Renovation progress - Part 3

Finally the carpentry work is more or less completed....

However we noticed that the dishwasher was not installed correctly. This is how it ended up...the bottom part of the dishwasher dangling! It turned out our carpenter do not know how to install a dishwasher and neither do our ID! We asked our ID and carpenter to visit the Harvey Norman store where we bought our dishwasher so they could see how it was installed and the sales person who sold it to us informed us that he will be able to explain to our ID in detail. Both our ID and carpenter were extremely reluctant to go and we ended up going to Harvey Norman showroom ourselves and took photos and instruction for our ID as we were not willing to delay the project any longer. So much for counting on our ID to go the extra mile!!! This small issue caused us so much stress. But in the end we managed to get it fixed.

More pictures! :)

We bought a new hydroculture plant (maintenance free) for the balcony.

Renovation progress - Part 2 (Carpentry)

Due to the tight schedule my ID assigned 2 different carpenter to work on my home. One carpenter will be doing the kitchen and bathrooms (light colour laminate). The other carpenter will work on the two bedrooms (dark colour laminate).

Kitchen

Kitchen/Fridge area

Common bathroom

Study cum guest room

Custom desk

Master bedroom wardrobe

Kitchen work triangle

If installing a new kitchen is part of your renovation plan, think hard about how the kitchen is going to be used. Do you need a full traditional kitchen if you mostly eat out or do take-away?

Tip: Do keep in consideration the kitchen work triangle when designing your dream kitchen as this will help to facilitate a smooth flow.

The idea of a kitchen work triangle is to to place the three most used work areas mentioned below with a good distance apart so as to minimize traffic through the work zone: 

• Refrigerator - storage area
• Sink - cleaning/preparation area
• Stove - cooking area

If the work areas are far away from each other you will lose time while preparing a meal. If they are too close together you will have a cramped kitchen and it will be difficult for another person to pass through or work in the same kitchen.

My challenge in designing my new home kitchen is to work with whatever tiny space that I have and make my small kitchen fully functional. Below is my kitchen work triangle:

Due to space constraint, I designed the kitchen layout such that the oven will be below the induction hob. The dishwasher will be next to the oven and then there is the sink. We settled for a small stainless steel Reginox sink as we wanted to purchase a dishwasher. Both of us hates to wash the dishes and our Bosch dishwasher has been a lifesaver!

For those who thinks dishwasher is not practical and does not clean so well, this is totally untrue! As long as you rinse leftover food from the plates right after a meal and before you put it in the dishwasher, they will come out looking sparkling clean :) Cooking and cleaning up has never been easier. 

Song Cho stainless steel dish rack - 430mm x 260mm which we purchased. We got a small rack as washing and drying of utensils, pots, pans will be done by the dishwasher, so there is really no need for us to have a big dish rack.

We went to many stores looking for our kitchen appliances such as Best Denki, Courts, Hoe Kee however we found the best bundled deal at.....Harvey Norman Millenia Walk.

Harvey Norman has such huge collection and variety of the appliances. We got a good discount plus Brandt was having a $400 cash back promotion. In the end we got Bosch oven, dishwasher, hood and Brandt induction from Harvey Norman.
  
I have always preferred induction stove over traditional gas stove, reasons being:

• It is extremely quick and easy to clean after use as it is just a flat surface, you just need to give it a good wipe and you are all done!
• Water also boils much faster, food cooks perfectly on all sides, aesthetically it looks nicer....did i mention there is a child-lock safety as well?

There are just so many reasons for me to choose induction :) We spent a lot of time looking for a good induction within our budget as we did not realize that induction could cost so much!

Our Brandt induction hob

For those out there who are interested in induction hob but unsure if you should settle for ceramic hob as it looks the same as induction but cost much less,you may wish to read on.

Both induction and ceramic hobs are made of hard wearing glass. That is where the similarity ends.

• Ceramic hob has an element under toughened glass which starts heating up the zone as soon as you switch it on. The zone will glow red according to the heat level chosen.

• An induction hob heats up only when a ferrous pan is placed on it. As soon as the pan is removed (or when the zone is switched off) the heat generation will stop.

• Induction cooking is a lot more energy saving than ceramic cooking as heat is generated only through the area that is actually touching the pan. The induction zone will automatically switches off when the pan is removed.

• An induction zone will immediately adjust power output when you change the setting to a higher or lower level. Ceramic zone however takes much longer to heat up or cool down. As a result, induction is much quicker than ceramic or even gas.

Hacking completed...Tiles up!

Finally all hacking work have been completed and they started to lay the tiles for the kitchen, yard and bathrooms. This is the exciting part for us as the home is starting to take shape :)

Master bathroom

We took a long time to hunt for this bathtub as we needed to find one with specific length and comes with a  middle bath mixer. Most tubs have their mixers at one end or the other. We combed the entire stretch of Balestier road and eventually we found this tub at Sim Siang Choon (Changi) for a bargain price of $400! 

Love how glossy the wall tiles look!

Jovian 50L storage heater which we bought from Wasser Bath for $320.

Study cum guest room

We will add a work station in the right corner

Planter which will be converted to a balcony

Planter after decking

 

Looking towards dining and kitchen area

Mess and stains made by the workers. We complained to our ID many times and it was cleaned up only a month later. By then it left a faint stain on our marble and parquet which could not be removed! :(

Mess again in living room

Touching on the quality of overall work done, I would rate 6.5/10. Well done on the surface but upon closer inspection you will notice a lot of flaws. The ID does not check on the flaws, you have to make sure you inspect everything.

3D Drawing ~ 1st draft

This is the 1st draft of the 3D drawings received from Plush...I must admit that their 3D drawings are gorgeous! They manage to conceptualize my vision and design ideas very well...even though we had to go through many rounds of meetings before they truly get what I want and produce the drawings.

Entrance, kitchen & dining room.
Dish rack above kitchen sink is missing, so they will have to add this.
I have also requested for a 3D view of the fridge area.

Master bedroom.
I requested them to change the wardrobe to a darker brown as I have an existing bed with a black head board.

Master bathroom.
Requested ID to change the bathtub tiles to match wall tiles instead of the floor tiles.

Study cum Guest room.
Bookcase and work desk to be changed to dark brown for a more manly feel.
Desk to be shifted to opposite side and sofa bed next to bookcase.

Common bathroom.
Glass shelve to be added just below the mirror (above the sink area).

Selecting our tiles at Lian Seng Hin

We met our ID at Lian Seng Hin in Balestier Road to select our tiles. We were served promptly by a friendly sales person who was very accommodating despite the store being quite crowded. Our ID seem to know everyone there so everything was handled smoothly and quickly too! We did not spend too long there as we already have some ideas of what kind of tiles we want.

Below are the tiles we have chosen:

Common & master bathroom wall tile

Common & master bathroom floor tile

Kitchen floor tile

We had a small issue at LSH as we were informed that we are unable to select the bathroom wall tile we wanted as it cost $3.40. In our contract it states that we can select any tile costing up to maximum of $2.80. Of course I was terribly upset as prior to signing the contract I did inform our ID on the type of tile I wanted for my bathroom wall and I even emailed him a picture of the wall tile. I would not have known that the tile I wanted cost more and it is unfair for me to select another tile as this is the only design i wanted since the beginning. Eventually our ID relented, much to our delight! We were happy with their flexibility.  

Advice to readers out there, best if you could negotiate with your ID to allow you to select tiles up to $3.40 so you will not face issue of having to top-up the cost of your tiles should you take a fancy to the higher range one. You will have much more choices :)

By the way we also selected our kitchen counter top and bathroom vanity top. We settled for solid surface as the price is less expensive than granite and quartz but yet it is low maintenance and looks just as good.

We selected Blizzard.

So far we have no problem maintaining our solid surface counter top...still looks as good as new! One regret though is I wished I had selected the solid surface with a bit of shiny specks (just for the glam look..lol).

Hacking starts

 The hacking work started as scheduled and the whole process went very smoothly. We were not there when they did all the hacking....we left it in the good hands of our ID. We checked in on the apartment after all the debris were cleared and this is how it looks like:

Kitchen walls hacked! We are keeping the yard door.

There used to be a kitchen sink in this corner. We are going to put the fridge here instead.

 These area near the ceiling were boxed up. We removed it as we prefer high ceiling.

Living room, Window grilles removed.

We removed the built in display cabinet on the wall.

Hacked the wall of the 2nd bedroom. We will convert this room
into a study cum guest room and install a double glass door.

There used to be a vanity area next to the master bathroom door. We hacked the wall to install a clear glass window as this is where the bathtub will be. The idea is to be able to look out though the glass window while you soak in the tub.
It also make the small bathroom less claustrophobic. 

Condominium apartment pictures- Before renovation

It has been a long time since I started this blog with the initial intention of documenting the whole renovation process. With all the distractions of the renovation, I did not manage to complete the blog.

For information, we selected Plush Living as our ID.

Below are the pictures of the 2 bedroom apartment we purchased before renovation.

Living room / Dining room / Kitchen

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen 

Kitchen - Sink area next to yard

Guest bedroom cum study room

Common bathroom

Master bedroom / Bathroom

I will briefly run through the process of how I make decisions before making an offer to purchase.

• I have a few basic criteria which is to have a master bathroom with separate bathtub and shower, a balcony or terrace, an open concept kitchen and last but most importantly is walking distance to MRT.

• Each time i visit a unit I am interested in, I will make a rough sketch of the floor plan (as you know most units does not have an open kitchen and some have a very small master bathroom). When I get home I will try to find a picture of the floor plan via Google images if the agent could not provide. I will then work on the floor plan to figure out if walls can hacked to make an open concept kitchen and to expand a small bathroom to accommodate a separate bath and shower. 

• Basically I will already have a vision of what I am able to do with the apartment after the first visit.

• Above is our floor plan. In yellow are all the walls that we plan to hack. Of course we cannot touch the structural walls.

• When you enter the apartment there is a very small entrance way and the kitchen is just next to it, separated by a wall. I plan to hack this wall to make an open concept kitchen incorporating a small island. This will also make the entrance way more brighter and create a better impression as you walk though the door.

• We will also remove all window grills as we do not have any young children.

• From the picture of the living room, you can see a narrow planter just outside the window. We plan to level the planter up and convert this space into a small balcony.

• In the common bedroom we plan to hack the wall to install a wood framed double glass door. This room we will convert to a study cum guest bedroom and install a custom made full height bookshelf incorporating a small wardrobe.

We plan to revamp the whole unit keeping only the existing marble flooring in the living room and parquet flooring in the bedrooms to save cost.