Before and After

Hi again !

We've recently finished this job in PJ. The job was to renovate a second-hand condo. This family is frequently posted overseas and each posting will require them to stay in their host country for at least a couple of years. As it is, they do not know when or where their next posting will be. The challenge is to renovate the house with minimum spending ( since signs are there that they may need to relocate again next year ) , helping them to prioritise their budget, also to prepare for the eventuality that the unit will be rented out in the near future.

Now, to prepare for a house to be attractive enough for good rental income requires attention on 2 rooms : the kitchen and the bathroom. To minimise spending, we need to use economical materials which is robust enough for the wear and tear of a rental unit. To ensure that the end result will look good is SIMPLY ... CHOOSING THE RIGHT COLOURS.


KITCHEN

The original kitchen was enclosed and the height of the base units were extraordinarily low. No one knows why except guess that the previous tenant must be very short.

WHAT WE DID :

We tore down the wall so that the kitchen now opens up to the living area. The modern kitchen should no longer remain dark and oily and remains hidden from view! We put in soft ambient lightings, use a breakfast counter as a visual border to separate the cooking and the living room.

The lady of the house likes light and soft colours so we used a lot of creams and ivories. The whole room costs RM20,400.

** Feedback from the customer 2 days ago :

She says the breakfast counter is proving to be a " social magnet" - her kids like to gather there and so do her friends when they come over. People like to hang around there for a drink and a chat.

MASTER BEDROOM

There wasn't much hacking here except to remove the old and worn carpet and making over an old and tired looking room.

WHAT WE DID :

We stripped away the old carpet, gave the existing pine floors a good polish and repainted the old set of wardrobes.

** This is the extremely beautiful view from the MBR.


MBR BATHROOM

This MBR bath must have looked as grand as a hotel bath in it's prime but years later as at now, the tiles and everything else look old and requires a thorough makeover.

WHAT WE DID :

We tore down all the tiles, shower, shower screen, sink, wc... We used ivory, grey and black tiles and put in a new long bath. This room costs RM6,600, not inclusive of accessories and tile cost.

SON'S ROOM

We removed the old cabinets from the original position, put in new wardrobe at the opposite wall so that the window area is not covered to allow plenty of light and fresh air in. This room's wardrobe costs RM2,000.

DAUGHTER'S ROOM

The daughter's favourite colour is pink and her mom was initially quite reluctant to use pink as she tried imagining the whole room looking horrendous! If parents cannot afford to indulge in their children's whims and fancies, normally I would recommend something neutral that can be carried into a child's teens. In this case, the parents were very keen to ensure that their kids live an enjoyable and memorable childhood. So I proposed pink to be used only on the focus wall with the rest of the 3 sides ivory with white cabinetry.

This room's wardrobe costs RM4,000.

Dining Rooms Decorating Gallery

Though this kitchen is fairly neutral, the banquette makes a color statement in a mix of blue vinyl (for kid-friendly clean up) and a coordinating fabric on the backrest. The view is dominant so window treatments were eliminated and the chandelier was kept out of the way.

Turn the tables in a dining room by blending designer goods with items from discount stores. In this splashy dining room, a flea market table teams with pricey Louis XVI-inspired armchairs. Bargain-priced accessories justify a few splurges, including a focal-point rug.

This room is a fiesta of color! The blending of styles includes retro, modern, country, and even a little tropical (notice the hint of a pineapple motif in the chandelier), based on the look of Fiesta pottery.

In a small room, space planning is the key to success. To make the most of this diminutive dining room, which shares some of its 200 square feet with the front entryway, an efficient butler's pantry with a glass counter hugs the wall adjoining the kitchen.

Bare wood floors gleam under the 1940s Heywood-Wakefield table and modern designer chairs. Overhead, a trio of pendant lights serves to illuminate the length of the table and supplies a touch of tailored and striped pattern to the otherwise plain scheme.

In this vibrant dining room, a curvy valance adds height and impact to the arched windows. Instead of an expensive arched rod or curved board, the valance is secured directly to the wall by hooks. The fabric is pulled into casual pleats and "horns," then tied with a rope trim that runs the length of the treatment.

A formal dining room is all about entertaining. This dining table seats six for an intimate affair or can expand to accommodate a party of 12. French doors around the room allow dinner parties to spill out onto an adjoining patio. A traditional sideboard, which stores extra linens and dinnerware, can serve as a buffet.

A simple banquet is the perfect solution for a small space dining room. To add a bit of cottage flair, this room pairs a mix of antique inspired chairs with an oak table.

Choose casual fabric like this simple stripe to add to the cottage feel.
Mix and match wood types in the room for a more rustic approach.
Search flea markets for antique chandeliers like this one or your local home improvement stores for a replica.

Drenched in red and gold, this dining room looks like a million bucks. Tinted plaster mixed with marble dust coats the walls, buffed to produce a soft sheen. Dining chairs upholstered in gold damask are a soft touch against the wood table. A large area rug brings color underfoot and gold drapes tie the palette together.

A blue Asian-style rug contributes fresh color to an otherwise neutral dining room. Though all of the room's woodwork was painted white, none of its linear quality or substance has been lost.

Family-friendly wicker chairs surround this homeowner-crafted farmhouse-style dining room table. Nearby sits a 400-year-old carved chest with hand-forged hardware.

The neutral floor and area rug duplicate tones of the wood and wicker.
Loosely fitted chair cushions can be cleaned or updated as needed.
Touches of iron are repeated in the wall sconces and chandelier.

A dramatic painting gives this sunny dining room its punch. The other elements in the room are kept clean-lined and neutral to balance the powerful focal point. Chairs covered in washable white duck surround the simple farm table. The light-tone wood floors are left bare.

Before and After

A condo project in Kelana Jaya...

Reflections…and Remembering Our Social Responsibility

Reflections





Happy New Year 2009 !





Another year has come and gone. I would like to take the time to reflect the year gone by and thank all our clients and readers of this blog. We are experiencing a change in the way customers think as compared to those days before I attempted to write this blog.





What changes am I talking about?





Before, we always meet customers who simply refuse to reveal budgets for fear that contractors will cheat them. There shouldn't be any need to fear. It's a free market out there. If one feels that a contractor is trying to take advantage or not fully trustworthy, one can just go on to the next one. We want to thank customers who have trusted in our approach enough to reveal their budgets so that our work becomes so much easier not having to guess and proposing all the wrong materials in the process. I remember a time a few years ago that I proposed melamine boards with the thinking that a particular customer may want to economise but got a rebuke for offending him instead.." You must see what kind of house I'm having! Why are

you not showing me the higher end materials! " Again, I would like to thank all those who have made our work so much easier not having to make wrong guesses.





Customers are also now coming prepared for meetings - equipped with layouts, list of electrical items for every room, list of their likes and dislikes and also their allocated budgets so that we could help them prioritise their spending.





Remembering Our Social Responsibility





While some people define "social responsibility" as caring for the poor and destitute, I personally think the definition should also include caring for our extended family members, friends and workers. In times of economic uncertainty like this, if we see people close to us who are suffering we should offer help in every little way that we could. Last time, Chee Hoong and I would just give some cash to people who lost their jobs and sympathised with them but now I realised we made a big mistake. By giving cash, we were perpetuating the cycle of poverty because the recipient does not know how to come out of it. What we should do if people were to come to us again is to teach them how to make money and where to start and then give them enough cash to tide them over for 2 days.





What we've been doing is to share our knowledge with our workers about upgrading their income and life through the pursuit of life long education. The whole concept is simplified as " Our income is in direct proportion to the value that we provide" . Our senior supervisory workers are paid based on a profit sharing basis so that they have the vision to move forward together with us. Unfortunately the saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks " holds true and very often we have to leave certain workers behind when stubborness makes them blind and refuse change their mentality and continue to carry detrimental attitudes.





I also want to remind myself not to forget the orphans, the old folks and the single moms. I personally feel that we shouldn't tighten our belts so much as to reduce giving back to society, from whom we've received our blessings. If we've not lost our jobs, no one in the family been retrenched so that our financial burden now increases, then there is no reason that we cannot continue in our giving. If anyone were to ask me which organisation to give to, I would like to suggest seeking out the small and lesser known ones simply because they have not been proactive or just do not know how to "market" themselves and solicit for funds. If you still do not know where to go to share some of your blessings, you might like to send a cheque to Desa Amal Jireh, a village set up for orphans and old folks in Semenyih.