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

Veneer Doors

Choosing the right type of door for your home is very important. You may wish to save some cost in selecting a hollow door but be prepared...a hollow door has the least sound proofing. If you are watching TV in the living room and your partner is trying to get some sleep in the room, even with the door closed...he will be disturbed. Of course a solid door is not 100% soundproof, but it will definitely help to minimize noise.

We selected veneer solid doors for our bathroom and bedroom. We choose veneer as we think it will give our apartment a more modern look plus there are many options to choose from...you will be spoilt for choice (different colours and woodgrains).

Tip: Make sure your ID indicate in writing the type of door you will be getting (solid, hollow etc) in the contract.

When our doors were installed we were given hollow doors. We discovered this as we found the door suspiciously light...so light that it is impossible to slam the door shut on it's own. Another way to check is to knock on the door, you will know if sounds hollow. Our ID insisted solid doors were installed but eventually admitted that they made a mistake and agreed to change the doors.

We highly recommend you to find time to visit the door supplier of your ID...at least you could speak directly to the sales staff and request them to show you the different types of door, hollow, semi-hollow and solid. This way when your doors are installed you will know exactly what type of door it is.

Tip: When choosing coloured veneer, that what you see on the sample sheet will not turn out exactly the same on actual door. After varnishing, the colour will turn at least a few shades darker.

We selected this colour for our doors. Notice how much darker the actual door turns out?

Below are the pictures of the doors we have installed for our home :)

Master bedroom door

Study cum guest bedroom double door

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).

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.