Sunday, August 2, 2009
Entrepreneurship in singapore
This is a good blog for singapore startup, entrepreneureal wannabes link
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
and then there was LIGHT!
All the lights fixtures we purchased on Saturday arrived this morning and Louis wasted no time in arranging for the electricion to get it all fixed up... After dinner today, me and my mrs took a trip down to the flat to inspect the work and to see our flat at night for the first time.
We decided to keep a tight budget on light fixtures as its something we can imporve.upgrade/replace over time. Hence, we selected only the most basic light fixtures even opting for plastic over glass... No fancy-shmancy lights, all basic and simple ones...
Heres bedroom #2 with the lights on at night. We realised that the room paint colour greatly affects the overall brightness of the room. Room#2 suffered from this. No matter. We will be putting a desk lamp in the corner anyways as this is to be a study as well...
As you can see from the MBR room pic, bright orange does very well in keeping the room bright and full of light!
Here's a view of the drop lights as well as the dining corner hangng lights... The dining light is the only orangey coloured warm lights... the rest are all cool white lights....
The kitchen is fixed with 2 big lights one for the main kitchen area and one just above/outside the common toilet area. here's the view from the inside of the kitchen.
Room #3, Popcprn yellow also helps in making the room light and bright.
A closer view of the dining lights.... so new, bubble wrap still on.. =)
A view of the kitchen from the kitchen entrance....
A view of he living/dining area from the kitchen corridor/entrance foyer area.... a total of 15 drop lights were used with 2 droplights in the false ceiling over the toilet entrance of the MBR area.
Thats all for now.. Tomorrow Louis has informed us that the new nyatoh doors will be installed... we also can expect that the kitchen cabinet works will begin and the toilet fixtures will be installed.
Something else you can;t see through the pictures is that the piping for the toilets and the kitchen sink was also installed today... All looks good.
I'll be updating again soon!
Mr.Wan
We decided to keep a tight budget on light fixtures as its something we can imporve.upgrade/replace over time. Hence, we selected only the most basic light fixtures even opting for plastic over glass... No fancy-shmancy lights, all basic and simple ones...
Heres bedroom #2 with the lights on at night. We realised that the room paint colour greatly affects the overall brightness of the room. Room#2 suffered from this. No matter. We will be putting a desk lamp in the corner anyways as this is to be a study as well...
As you can see from the MBR room pic, bright orange does very well in keeping the room bright and full of light!
Here's a view of the drop lights as well as the dining corner hangng lights... The dining light is the only orangey coloured warm lights... the rest are all cool white lights....
The kitchen is fixed with 2 big lights one for the main kitchen area and one just above/outside the common toilet area. here's the view from the inside of the kitchen.
Room #3, Popcprn yellow also helps in making the room light and bright.
A closer view of the dining lights.... so new, bubble wrap still on.. =)
A view of the kitchen from the kitchen entrance....
A view of he living/dining area from the kitchen corridor/entrance foyer area.... a total of 15 drop lights were used with 2 droplights in the false ceiling over the toilet entrance of the MBR area.
Thats all for now.. Tomorrow Louis has informed us that the new nyatoh doors will be installed... we also can expect that the kitchen cabinet works will begin and the toilet fixtures will be installed.
Something else you can;t see through the pictures is that the piping for the toilets and the kitchen sink was also installed today... All looks good.
I'll be updating again soon!
Mr.Wan
Monday, September 22, 2008
Laminates are IN!!!
Hi All! So quick the weekend has passed... I was off today so I visited the flat with wifey after i fetched her from work. By the time we arrived, the workers had left so we had the flat all to ourselves to view al the work. Since the last time we went, the laminated flooring has been installed. Here are this round of pictures:
Room#2 with the lavender walls and the newly installed laminated flooring...
A look at the false ceiling design of the hall. There will be drop lights all around with a ceiling fan in the middle.
This is our MBR toilet, fully tiled. Toilet fittings yet to be installed and shower screen to be replaced with a taller one. The current one is the standard height of 6 feet. We need a 7 foot shower screen cos we're giants :)
Popcorn yellow guest room with laminated flooring. This is our happy room!
Mrs Wan wants a door installed at the kitchen entrance so we had Louis design and install a damn big glass sliding panel door. the panel was so big that he advised us to make it smaller by placing a fixed wdth panel on the left side so that the door won;t be so heavy.
The glass sliding panel as seen from the inside of the kitchen.
Our bright orange MBR walls. The bright orange wall will be the direction our bed faces and I'll mount out tv there.
Well, i should be visinting again tomorrow as I'm off work for another day... Stay tuned for more updates. Hopefully the lights will be up tomorrow....
Cheerio!
mr.Wan
Room#2 with the lavender walls and the newly installed laminated flooring...
A look at the false ceiling design of the hall. There will be drop lights all around with a ceiling fan in the middle.
This is our MBR toilet, fully tiled. Toilet fittings yet to be installed and shower screen to be replaced with a taller one. The current one is the standard height of 6 feet. We need a 7 foot shower screen cos we're giants :)
Popcorn yellow guest room with laminated flooring. This is our happy room!
Mrs Wan wants a door installed at the kitchen entrance so we had Louis design and install a damn big glass sliding panel door. the panel was so big that he advised us to make it smaller by placing a fixed wdth panel on the left side so that the door won;t be so heavy.
The glass sliding panel as seen from the inside of the kitchen.
Our bright orange MBR walls. The bright orange wall will be the direction our bed faces and I'll mount out tv there.
Well, i should be visinting again tomorrow as I'm off work for another day... Stay tuned for more updates. Hopefully the lights will be up tomorrow....
Cheerio!
mr.Wan
Sunday, September 21, 2008
My MBR toilet inspiration
Hi guys,
I've had fantastic reviews on the choice of tiles for the MBR toilet.. so I'll admit it wasn't all from my own head... I got inspiration from a toilet design pic i found online... here's the pic, so that you guys from the forum can save it and reuse it for your own design inspirations or merely to show your ID....
Cheers!!!
Mr.Wan
I've had fantastic reviews on the choice of tiles for the MBR toilet.. so I'll admit it wasn't all from my own head... I got inspiration from a toilet design pic i found online... here's the pic, so that you guys from the forum can save it and reuse it for your own design inspirations or merely to show your ID....
Cheers!!!
Mr.Wan
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Latest Updates 21st Sept 08
So yesterday, me and wife had made an appointment with our ID to meet up at our place to check out the work and discusss some things. Here are some pictures of the work done over the week:
A pic of the kitchen with the tiling completed. Floor tiles in place and we only had to begin discussing specifics about the kitchen cabinet design.
Our MBR with the first coat of paint. Orangey as orange can be....
The adjoining room, in a lovely purple... lavendar or whatever its called..
Our MBR toilet. The tiling came out great. Louis also already put in the shower screen. But the standard shower screen seems to be too low for me and wifey...so we requested for Louis to replace it with a higher one which will go up all the way close to the ceiling...
Another view of the MBR. That briht orange wall is where our bed will face and where we'll place the television...
Another view of Room 2 which is kind of a wardrobe room, study and future baby room... =)
Well, thats that. After visiting the house we went to purchase our lights, ceiling fan and door bell... Another whopping 1000 dollars spent in one afternoon.... sigh... all the costs of renovation... but i guess its well worth it... will update again soon...
cheerio!
A pic of the kitchen with the tiling completed. Floor tiles in place and we only had to begin discussing specifics about the kitchen cabinet design.
Our MBR with the first coat of paint. Orangey as orange can be....
The adjoining room, in a lovely purple... lavendar or whatever its called..
Our MBR toilet. The tiling came out great. Louis also already put in the shower screen. But the standard shower screen seems to be too low for me and wifey...so we requested for Louis to replace it with a higher one which will go up all the way close to the ceiling...
Another view of the MBR. That briht orange wall is where our bed will face and where we'll place the television...
Another view of Room 2 which is kind of a wardrobe room, study and future baby room... =)
Well, thats that. After visiting the house we went to purchase our lights, ceiling fan and door bell... Another whopping 1000 dollars spent in one afternoon.... sigh... all the costs of renovation... but i guess its well worth it... will update again soon...cheerio!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
ID Hunting
Wifey and me had always intended to do minimal renovation to the house. We only had in mind to redo the kitchen and the 2 toilets. But after much pondering, feedback gathering and careful consideration, we decided that we should also redo the flooring as well as ceilings as doing this at a later stage would not only cause massive headaches, but would probably be more expensive if done on its own.
We began ID hunting approximately in July 08, by first visiting some ID firms in IMM. I've posted a review of the experiences below. As a starter guide to renovation, i strongly suggest that users first go through renotalk forums (www.renotalk.com) and read through all the relavant sticky threads that will give you a good understanding as well as an overview and feel of the overall Renovation process.
In the end, we took about a month and a half to finally settle on an ID that we were comfortable with.
A key consideration that we kept in mind during this process was that I would be away for a good 3 weeks while renovation was to take place and hence it was out of the question for us to hire a contractor. Furthermore, neither one of us had reliable contractor contacts nor prior experience with house-making. Being risk-averse, we decided that an ID was the best way to go and that hiring a contractor or sub-contractors to do up part by part would probably cost us more in the long run given the problems that arise from the lack of experience.
In actual fact, the renovation that we had in our head was not so much design heavy, it was just more construction heavy. We were not intending for our house to be designer level or anything but we did have some ideas of certain additions we felt like having. But due to the considerations I had mentioned previously, we felt that the additional expense we would have to fork out with an ID would in the end save us alot more. This is on top of all the heartache that could be avoided as well as the time that would be saved too.
Comparing all the quotations we had, we figured that the work we needed to do would roughly amount to somewhere between 25K - 35K. There were of cos IDs with quotations which said that the work i had intended to do would add to more than 40K, which we immediately ignored. I think a good rule of thumb would be to get a handful 3-6 quotations which fall within the rough budget and then from that handful dwindle down based on your comfort with the interior
designer himself.
Wifey and I in the end decided to go with Louis from Renozone because we were comfortable with him and we were confident on the quality of work and the delivery having known of the reputation of Renozone from the renotalk forums. I had initially intended to go with Colin, Colin was gracious and immediately called back to say he has too many projects on his hands and it would be unfair to us if he took us on. Instead, he asked if he could pass us on to Louis and he promised that Louis would deliver and do a good job. A combination of the turst we had in Colin and the belief we had in the firm from its reputation drove us to decide to go with Renozone. We then finally put pen to paper and hence stage II of our renovation journey commenced.
Review of ID's we visited (only the ID's we spent a significant amount of time with are listed here):
1. Inner View (Isasc)
Isasc was a good ID in terms of response. He was timely in his replies and got us our quotations on dates he promised. Our feeling is that he is more of a man handler and less of a designer. Refused to provide email quotations and always insisted on meeting in person. Overall, an ok ID.
2. City Design (Edwin)
Edwin is a DESIGNER and less of a contractor kind of ID. So if you want a house that is very stylish with lots of designer input, Edwin is your guy. This company has a weird style of working, they require you to commit a certain amount of money before carrying on to the design stage. I liked the guy and his ideas but he was just too expensive for the simple work we were intending to do.
3. Ideal House (Peter)
Peter is highy recommended. replied to my email and gave me a call. He is a nice guy who is not pushy at all. He lets you do what you want to do and lays it out straight for you. Seems like a sincere fella and i would have gone with him if his quotation was better. Still to expensive but highly recommended.
4. Renozone (Louis)
Vey jovial ID. Our feel is that Louis is less of a designer and more of a do-er. He is very easy to get along with and provides his inputs to try to keep cost low. He will work under your budget and offer alternatives to meet requirements. We went with his due to our confidence in the firm and the relative ease we are with him. Considering that our requirements are more work intensive and less design heavy we feel that Louis met our requirements. Most importantly, Loui sis experienced and i think he wil have no problems in terms of scheduling. Based on initial impressions, Louis works fast.
We began ID hunting approximately in July 08, by first visiting some ID firms in IMM. I've posted a review of the experiences below. As a starter guide to renovation, i strongly suggest that users first go through renotalk forums (www.renotalk.com) and read through all the relavant sticky threads that will give you a good understanding as well as an overview and feel of the overall Renovation process.
In the end, we took about a month and a half to finally settle on an ID that we were comfortable with.
A key consideration that we kept in mind during this process was that I would be away for a good 3 weeks while renovation was to take place and hence it was out of the question for us to hire a contractor. Furthermore, neither one of us had reliable contractor contacts nor prior experience with house-making. Being risk-averse, we decided that an ID was the best way to go and that hiring a contractor or sub-contractors to do up part by part would probably cost us more in the long run given the problems that arise from the lack of experience.
In actual fact, the renovation that we had in our head was not so much design heavy, it was just more construction heavy. We were not intending for our house to be designer level or anything but we did have some ideas of certain additions we felt like having. But due to the considerations I had mentioned previously, we felt that the additional expense we would have to fork out with an ID would in the end save us alot more. This is on top of all the heartache that could be avoided as well as the time that would be saved too.
Comparing all the quotations we had, we figured that the work we needed to do would roughly amount to somewhere between 25K - 35K. There were of cos IDs with quotations which said that the work i had intended to do would add to more than 40K, which we immediately ignored. I think a good rule of thumb would be to get a handful 3-6 quotations which fall within the rough budget and then from that handful dwindle down based on your comfort with the interior
designer himself.
Wifey and I in the end decided to go with Louis from Renozone because we were comfortable with him and we were confident on the quality of work and the delivery having known of the reputation of Renozone from the renotalk forums. I had initially intended to go with Colin, Colin was gracious and immediately called back to say he has too many projects on his hands and it would be unfair to us if he took us on. Instead, he asked if he could pass us on to Louis and he promised that Louis would deliver and do a good job. A combination of the turst we had in Colin and the belief we had in the firm from its reputation drove us to decide to go with Renozone. We then finally put pen to paper and hence stage II of our renovation journey commenced.
Review of ID's we visited (only the ID's we spent a significant amount of time with are listed here):
1. Inner View (Isasc)
Isasc was a good ID in terms of response. He was timely in his replies and got us our quotations on dates he promised. Our feeling is that he is more of a man handler and less of a designer. Refused to provide email quotations and always insisted on meeting in person. Overall, an ok ID.
2. City Design (Edwin)
Edwin is a DESIGNER and less of a contractor kind of ID. So if you want a house that is very stylish with lots of designer input, Edwin is your guy. This company has a weird style of working, they require you to commit a certain amount of money before carrying on to the design stage. I liked the guy and his ideas but he was just too expensive for the simple work we were intending to do.
3. Ideal House (Peter)
Peter is highy recommended. replied to my email and gave me a call. He is a nice guy who is not pushy at all. He lets you do what you want to do and lays it out straight for you. Seems like a sincere fella and i would have gone with him if his quotation was better. Still to expensive but highly recommended.
4. Renozone (Louis)
Vey jovial ID. Our feel is that Louis is less of a designer and more of a do-er. He is very easy to get along with and provides his inputs to try to keep cost low. He will work under your budget and offer alternatives to meet requirements. We went with his due to our confidence in the firm and the relative ease we are with him. Considering that our requirements are more work intensive and less design heavy we feel that Louis met our requirements. Most importantly, Loui sis experienced and i think he wil have no problems in terms of scheduling. Based on initial impressions, Louis works fast.
from work....
Well hello to all,
I'm now blogging from overseas in UK, i've been away for approximately 1 and a half weeks now and i'm glad to say that I'll be back next friday.
Mrs Wan has kept her promise and has been diligently updating the blog and making the trips down to the house to have some pictures taken and uploaded to the blog.
I'm really excited to go back to take a look at our home. Its really making me anxious.
Its a wonderful feeling, preparing and moving into a new place of your own and knowing that a whole life is ahead of you starting with that house.
Anyhoos, i'll blog again soon. Wifey will be making a trip to the new place again sometime this week, so i'm sure we'll have more pictures come Monday...
Wan
I'm now blogging from overseas in UK, i've been away for approximately 1 and a half weeks now and i'm glad to say that I'll be back next friday.
Mrs Wan has kept her promise and has been diligently updating the blog and making the trips down to the house to have some pictures taken and uploaded to the blog.
I'm really excited to go back to take a look at our home. Its really making me anxious.
Its a wonderful feeling, preparing and moving into a new place of your own and knowing that a whole life is ahead of you starting with that house.
Anyhoos, i'll blog again soon. Wifey will be making a trip to the new place again sometime this week, so i'm sure we'll have more pictures come Monday...
Wan
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