Renovation – The Building Phase

Thought of I’d update you on why I am so busy lately…. These are the photos I took about a month ago, showing my new house renovation at the demolishing and re-building stage. The current renovation stage has almost finished with tiling and plaster ceilings. Will update again soon if you would like to see the progress.

We bought this 2000+ square feet condominium early this year, with a combo living and dining space, 3 bedrooms and 2 small utility rooms, 4 bathrooms and 1 powder room, a wet kitchen and a dry kitchen (if you wonder why we have dry and wet kitchen, please read on), and a balcony overlooking a sport’s courtyard. 2000+ square feet for a family size of 4 and my kind of hobby, I wouldn’t say that it is “enough” space for us to live in. Having said that, I have to engage an interior designer to help me with proper planning and design, hope that we can “create” more useful spaces to occupy.

After, 3 months of discussions, many meetings to finalize the design, we kicked-off the renovation work somewhere end of September. Basically, we have to tear down a few walls and convert the unit the way I like and hopefully will utilize all the spaces as much as possible. A proper cabinet system in order to store my huge quantity of craft tools and materials apart of the basic household items.

I really missed my usual routine between family, craft and work; I knew I am going to be super busy this time of the year, and this renovation project really occupied me more then I thought it would be. Hope that I can settle down in my new home early next year, with my new craft room and sewing room… YAY! Will keep you all update about the progress!!!

This is the original unit. Compare it with the next photo, you will notice that we have knocked down a few bricks walls.

With the walls taken down, it makes the whole area look a little spacious.

This used to be a small utility room, but I converted it to become my sewing room. Tiny huh~ pray hard that it is enough for me to use.
The door on the left is a bedroom.

My other craft room is just next to the wet kitchen. It used to be another utility room or maid’s room since I don’t hire domestic helper that stays with us, I decided to make full use of this room for my craftiness and material storage. Yup, another poor tiny little craft room for me.

Stove, oven, microwave oven and washbasin are located in the wet kitchen.
A typical Chinese kitchen normally split it into 2 parts, wet and dry kitchen with a door in between. Why? As many of you may know, Chinese cuisine usually involved lots of frying and steaming, full with wholesome “fragrant”. Though we have a kitchen hood above the stove, the smell and oil particles will still escape and stick on the upholstery, curtain, and floor. Isolating the wet kitchen will prevent the house from the funny smell.

The washbasin and dishwasher are in the wet kitchen too. There will be a new window on the wall.

This used to be a bathroom next to the wet kitchen and maid’s room. Since I already had 3 bathrooms and 1 powder room, I don’t need the 4th bathroom sitting there serving no purpose at all, and most importantly, I don’t have to get into trouble with another bathroom to wash and clean every week. So, I converted it into a laundry room for my washing machine, dryer, and a washing sink to sit in.
One of the house rules of this condominium is that no laundry hanging at the balcony, so this laundry room becomes very important for our daily huge pile of dirty clothes.

This is my favorite… A breakfast counter that I have been dreaming of all this while.
The breakfast counter is linked to the dry kitchen. On the left is the door to the wet kitchen.
There will be bricks tiling on the wall, yes yes yes!!! Great for photography props for my craft too. No more making faux brick wall panel which is not permanent though I enjoyed making one.

This is the wall next to my dining table, there will be a wainscoting panel here, one of my favorites too.

Call me crazy, but I am going to build a fireplace here. Yup, a fireplace in tropical weather… ha ha ha… no real fire, of course, just a cozy feeling area for family and friends chatting in and place for me to decorate according to a festival celebration.

The is the entrance to all the rooms. I am thinking of decorating it with photos to become our family photo gallery wall.

Wiring, piping and all utility work with hacking have to be done in this stage. I have lost count how many lighting points and power points I have added… lol
That’s it for now, will update about this soon.