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The Story of a Hometext and stills

Rhaimie Wahap

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Copyright 2011 by Rhaimie Wahap

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic ormechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial usespermitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

MI-V DesignWoodlands Post Of cePO Box 153 . Singapore 917309www.mi-vdesign.com

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A HOUSE IS MADE WITH WALLS AND BEAMSA HOME IS MADE WITH LOVE AND DREAMS

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PREFACE

Finding a house is easy but nding a hometakes a bit of a time and in our case, 36 daysto be exact. This book chronicles our pursuit in

nding that perfect home and its transformationprocess. 1

1 You may view the story in more detail here: http://storyhome.tumblr.com/

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Contents

Preface

The Beginning

Original State

The Plan

The Concept

Kitchen

Stairs

Living

Dining

Study

Master

Boys

Toilets

The End & Thank You

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THE BEGINNING

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ORIGINAL STATE

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One word to describe the at - loud . We were surrounded by brightly-painted walls - primaryhues of blue, red, yellow, green .... The country concept was evident - the brown-stained kitchen,

terracotta tiles, wrought iron gate and window grills. The decor was not to our fancy but we were

drawn by the immense size and the location (a mere 10-minute walk to the MRT, Civic Centre and

Causeway Point). We saw a huge potential in the at through the oil-stainedkitchen, lacklustre oorings and the overall aged conditions.

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THE PLAN

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THE CONCEPT

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White is not a mere absenceof colour; it is a shining andaf rmative thing, as erceas red, as de nite as black ...

G. K. Chesterton

LIGHT &WHITEThe light and white approach and keeping everything as simple as possible were the rules of thumb

when deciding the concept f or our new home. The entire house, except for the childrens bedrooms,

were painted white. The white theme continued with the ooring. Glossy off-white tiles further enhanced

the expanse of the house. What we really wanted was pure open space. The light andwhite approach had freed up the space in our home, making it look larger and more inviting.The ow of movement between the living, kitchen and the dining area was made seamless with the

open oor plan. We loved walking into our house and taking a sweeping look across a wide-open

space.

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The interiorwas dominated in white. White space providedits own challenges. Keeping the balance of white

and dark was essential, so the house did not feel lopsided.

N

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Contemporary style kitchen is characterised by its ef cient use of space, simplicity of form and openness. We chose this concept as we wanted our kitchen

to look modern and at the same time functional but above all, it neededto be practical. It had to withstand heavy cooking and food preparation and yet easy to

maintain. These pre-conditions had a great in uence on the layout design as well as the

choice for the cabinet nish. The nal layout was a combination of L-shaped and galley

for greater ef ciency with the hob and the sink placed side-by-side. The cabinetry was

kept simple omitting even handles and was laminate- nished and solid surface material

for the worktop. Light shade was chosen for the laminate and black for the worktop. Glasssplashback added a bit of sophistication . On one end of the cabinetis the breakfast counter and on the other, a tall cabinet where the ovens are. Overhead

cabinets with frosted glass doors house the dish rack and strainer. Parallel to the L-shaped

cabinet is another cabinet mainly for appliances like rice cooker, coffee maker and ble nder.

Adjacent to this is the refrigerator. Lighting is kept simplewith one ceiling lampserving as the main light source. In addition are two led spotlights and pendants over the

breakfast counter.

K

I T C H

E N

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The kitchen is often the heart of house

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As we need a functional albeit fabulous kitchen, it is important weget the layout and design right. The traits of a functional kitchen are: (far-left

picture) carved out openings for the various ovens, (bottom left) containers

containing essential cooking ingredients lined the hob, (top, middle) frequently-used utensils were hung on railing along the sink and hob for accessability,

(bottom, right) storage were kept at the minimumbut enough tostore all the things that were nee ded, (top and bottom right) pullouts were used

extensively for easy storage and again for easy access .

S

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S

T A I R S

The big difference between most HDB 1 ats and executive maisonettes is thepresence of the staircase . The other HDB development with stairs arethe terrace units at Jalan Bahagia and Sterling Road.

To save costs, we decided not to replace the stairs railing but rather to repaint

it. The railings were white-washed to blend with our concept. We were unsure if

repainting was the way to go but we loved the end-result as it matched beautifully

the light and white concept. The parquet steps were retained.

1 Housing Development Board

A mans health can be judged by which hetakes two at a time - pills or stairs

G

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L I V I N G

Psychological meaning of the

living room: A multidimensionalattitudinal analysis

G

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D

I N I N G

The family that eats together,stays together

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Y

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S T U D Y

Do you mind creativeclutter?

R

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M

A S T E R

A dream is a wish yourheart makes when you are

fast asleep

S

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B O Y S

Someone says, Boys willbe boys; he forgot to

add, Boys will be men

S

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T O I L E T S

Scrub-a-dub-dub

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The End &Thank YouThank you very much for taking time to view photos of our new home. The journey was tiring but ful ling.There are still much more to be done and many things still needed to be added. To us, a home is justlike a living being. It has a heart and soul. It is full of life and warmth. It is growing.

Congratulations. hoping all is well for the new house. Increase quality.

from Queen

Ca rd co u r t e s y o f o u

r a u n t S ha ms ia h O ma

r

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In any renovation, anxiety level is highdue to uncertainties. Did we make theright tile choice? Was the laminatecolour too light? Oh dear! Did wehack the wrong wall? What! $4000for electrical works? I am pretty surethese questions did at some pointof your renovation process did popup. We are done with our renovation

journey. It had been an eventful onewith both the good and the badstories to tell. We would like to shareour journey in this book.