Kitchen works

Had an off day so went to settle the renovation loan matters, and dropped by our house to take a look at the progress. Chanced upon the tilers who were just wrapping up the works for the day. Really have to praise their good workmanship. Just looking at how they carefully take out the blue mosaic from the middle of my kitchen wall speaks quality and skills. We had to take out the mosaic because blue is a no-no in our house fengshui. So please dont get me anything blue related!

The rough edges of the demolished wall was done up properly. So far so good with the quality they are giving. This would be our open kitchen concept. Hopefully we are able to watch the tv/projector while preparing our favourite dishes in the kitchen. Wouldnt want to miss an exciting part while preparing snacks to munch on uh?

The cement base is up. Previously the pipe was located on the right at the blue upright line area. We were so upset with it because that would force us to put our fridge at a weird location. Luckily we consulted our ID with our concerns and he proposed this to us! Turns out we have been upset at nothing all along. Now the fridge will be located at the entrance while the sink is located beside it. More working space now!

Seriously look at how beautifully the mosaic were removed. None of my adjacent tiles were damaged in the process. Hats off to the tilers. And that two tiles above was because of the electrical point required some readjustment thats why the removal.

Closing up our original kitchen entrance due to the clash of fengshui. It was located near the main door, and due to the positioning of everything, the good 'qi' from the entrance would have flow straight through the kitchen door and out from the service yard if we had kept the original entrance. Hence, to prevent that, we close the original entrance and open another one at the side. We love and prefer the way it look like now anyway!

Nicely done tiles work. Still short of the last step of applying the grout between the tiles.

Making good the parts which the walls came down. And done the shower kerb for our MBR. Things are slowly falling into place.

That's it for now. We can expect our final draft of design and the aircon to be up soon!

The Start of Home Automation

Introducing the first purchases of the Home Automation. Have always been a fan of automating the house, or rather the convenience of being able to control the home electronics regardless where we are. Imagine being able to turn on the aircon in the living room while on the way home so that you will not be greeted by a stuffy house when you get back, or that you could be in the comfort of your bed and switches off all the living room lights, kitchen lights, toilet lights, televisions, etc without having to get out from underneath your blanket. No more urgh feeling of getting out of bed because we forgot to switch off the kitchen light! Woohoo!

Broadlink RM Pro is the heart of my entire home automation system. My system is actually quite laidback, where I am not exploring the Z wave or Zigbee, but rather staying with the common infrared or radio frequency. This way i would not be limited to only the latest few models of aircons and door locks that are equipped with Z waves technology. This Broadlink RM Pro is basically a universal remote control that well, remotely control every technology around it that is controllable with a remote.

The coolest factor is that it has a learning capability where you just have to point the original remote at it and press the button, and it will learn and copy the command for future uses! This way, with a one time set-up, all my remotes can then be kept away keeping the living room clutter free. Tried it with my current fan and lights and worked wonderfully, so shall bring it for the final test in my new home living room next time!

Livolo switches are like the arms of my home automation system. Almost everyone's light are controlled by the manual switch, but that would not do for my home automation system. Instead, the livolo switches are touchpads which could be toggled on and off with a remote. Pair this up with the Broadlink RM Pro and you know that the magic is starting to brew. I could not test this yet as i was not willing to dismantle my current plug to fit this in, but i have high hopes for it at the new home.

Of course, just reading about how great all this are would not be sufficient. Get to experience it first hand at my house next time when the renovation is complete and i will gladly introduce the world of Home Automation and the Internet of Things to you! Hoooya~

Ensuring the fine details

Every inches make a difference. Building a home is definitely hard work, but it will be worth it!

Let the walls down

The renovation have officially started. 

Creating an open concept kitchen by taking down half the wall. There is also another entrance to the kitchen because we will be sealing up the old entrance due to fengshui issues. However felt that the half wall is not exactly like how I visualized in my head, and maybe would hack a little more to give it the openness feel.

The other wall we took down was the wall between the MBR and bedroom 2. There is now no more bedroom 2! Instead, we have a huge MBR to play with for our design. It does feel so much more spacious with the two rooms combined.

Some additional shots of the house. Next up would be to fix the floor and tile up all the exposed portions. Excitedd!

Before Renovations

Been quiet for a while because BSC was rectifying our faults. There were a couple of dents, scratches, cracks, leakages, faulty parts that were all highlighted and fixed. Most of the defects were done up properly and the house is handed over back to my interior designer for the rest of the renovation. Things have been moving slowly, but we were in no rush either. The walls are going to be hacked down soon, so prior to that, this is some before photos of the house.

Our spacious living room. This would be the view that greet us everytime we step in through our main door. Loving the view more and more everytime i looked out of the window!

The wall that will soon feature my 140" projector screen. We had to downsize our projector a little from the previous 153" so that we can put some decorative shelves at the side.

An overview of our living room from another angle.

Our dining area. Gonna have some massive work here as we are planning for an open concept kitchen.

The kitchen. Am glad the kitchen does not have any awkward corners so we do not need to headache over it.

Our MBR. Looking small for now but the largest bulk of our renovation will be catered to our MBR. Shall not fill in too much details now so standby for the surprise!

Our MBR toilet. We are going to spend significant time in this cubicle too so we will be renovating it a little too to make it better.

Decided to take all this photos so that we can show a before-after picture at the end of the renovation. Just to see the journey we have been through from a bare room to a complete home. Cant wait till all this is over, but definitely enjoying the process as it goes!