Kitchen start off

Feb 3, 2013

Later that day, we met with Kuya to buy essential kitchen fixtures already. We just went to a nearby Wilcon (jeep away).

Here's the selection of sink. (And The Daddy's back)

It's a good thing that you bring along with you your architect and contractor so you would be sure about the measurements of the things that you'll buy.

 We also need to buy a faucet but before that we have to check out the water purifier first because they should be compatible.

Water purifier: The Daddy thought of buying a water purifier instead of ordering drinking water every now and then. Aside from that, it will look more good on the kitchen instead of a bulky water container. (Arte lang:)) I'll post a separate entry about water purifiers because I really learned a lot during our countless inquiries in all water purifier outlets in Manila. :) 

 After purchasing the water purifier, we had the appropriate measurement already for the faucet. But first Kuya measured the height of the faucet so that it wouldn't touch the cabinets above it.

Then we measure the water purifier's adopter and see to it that it would perfectly fit the faucet that we will buy.

So we now have the kitchen sink and faucet. Plus water purifier to start off the kitchen. According to Kuya, the sink is really needed to start off because they have to trace the kitchen top and prepare a spot for the sink.

 This is the actual location of the sink:

Before the day ends, Kuya got more measurements of the cabinets that he will do:

 Kitchen

 Kitchen

 Audio Visual

Audio Visual. Thinking of what we can do with excess vinyls. :D

 And the master's cabinets.

Complete with colors

February 3, 2013

The architects already packed up and cleaned the unit as well. So here is the picture of a clean and bare unit:

 View from the front door.

View from the balcony.

Remembering how it looks before (October 2012):

How time flies for our dear baby:)

Anyway, here's the purple-is-the-color-of-royalty office

The Daddy will definitely feel like a king when he's working here. ;)

Here\s the gray accent wall.

 I had uncertainties before when we agreed to use gray in one of the walls. I thought that it will look boring and will just look like an ordinary cement wall. But I'm so wrong. It looks good, different and stylish! I hope there are still other walls in our unit so we could have more gray walls!

 But this one will still be my favorite wall. The blue accent in the masters bedroom. This is also the reason why I don't want any other design or accessories here, just that blue wall.

So you've seen all the parts of our home. Initially we just want to use Earth colors. But I think adding blue and purple to it makes it more interesting and different. So far, I love it! I hope it blends well with the furniture and other future additions. :)

Lights and Plugs

Jan 31, 2013

Our architects texted us, informing us that they have installed the lighting fixtures that we bought already. And because we cannot wait, we visited the unit immediately.

 1. The entrance light and the 2. open space light (my favorite lighting fixture)

Here is another picture of the open space light. It uses warm light which makes it really cozy. I think it will really feel relaxing if this is the only light that will be left open while we're on the living room. :)

Well there's a CR fixture too. Wow.  

 This is the masters bedroom light. It uses pure white lighting. But I guess we wouldn't be using this too much because we might have lamps on our side tables. And we'll be using warm/yellow light for that which is really really conducive for sleeping. :)

 These are the dimmable drop lights aka show-off lights! Haha. Again, we might not have to use this that often. It is more of a design or accent to the ceiling. 

We bought this cute little LED light which will be used when we're sleeping. We used this to try all the outlets to see if they are working so we can already identify any problems. Fortunately, all of them are working. :)

So now, the contract for architect is close to finish. They just have some minor punch list to complete. The kitchen and cabinetry can start very soon.

Construction Progress Part 2. Almost done!

January 30 - we can now check the unit even during the evening because they finally installed the lights!

Aside from just checking the progress, we went today with Kuya Cabinet (our contractor for kitchen and cabinet) so he can also check the current status of the unit.

They finished the common area flooring already! We actually like it. :) 

Close up shot:

This is actually what I thought of before so I'm happy that it came out like this despite not seeing it's actual sample during our CW home depot trip before. 

Anyway, the most common flooring for the common area is still ceramic tiles but since we like a wood-like design, we went for Vinyl tiles. 

The sliding doors are also attached:

For The Daddy's office, the sliding door is exposed inside the room. But for the Masters bedroom, we chose to have pocket doors - or those that have space for the door to slide inside so that it won't be exposed in the room. This is more expensive because they will use more materials for this but this is more convenient for us because we don't want the door to be bothering the bedroom fixtures that we plan to place on that side of the room. 

Anyway, we started discussing some kitchen and cabinet details with Kuya:

He also showed us some samples or swatches for the kitchen countertop and the shower enclosure.

Kuya's quotation to us includes the granite material already for the countertop but the budgetary that he provided only fits these designs. But we like the black countertop already, so no need to ask for the more expensive designs to have more options. I'm actually looking forward to that black kitchen counter top. I think it will look really modern and stylish. But I have to balance it with a brown and wood-like cabinetry to still stick to the theme.

These are the choices for the shower enclosure. We chose the one in the middle because it's not that clear and not that plain either.  

These are Kuya's design for our approval.

 And today we also paid downpayment so he could already start mobilizing for the kitchen and cabinetry.

Yipee!

Sale fanatics

We went to the mall to just grab some food and stay for a while and we were greeted by another Homeworld sale!

And since we're crazy about sales, we decided to check the items out and went home with these:

Four pillows @ 175.00 each. This is the cheapest already because it is the SM brand pillows but still the same quality as with more expensive pillows (I hope!)

We also bought 4 throw pillows plus their pillowcase and curtains. I forgot their prices but I'm sure they are not that expensive :)

And since I think I have real readers now, let me give you a touch of instagram in this post. Say hi to our soup in a bread merienda for this day:

More construction progress posts after this! :)

Construction

So construction started last January 14 already. The Daddy and I visit the unit often to check on their progress. And to also take pictures.

Here are the construction updates:

January 17 - 3 days after the official start, we saw them installing the partitions and dropped ceiling already. I think they used gypsum boards for this because or dry partition because the condo unit doesn't allow heavy partitions such as cement (or "buhos" as what they call it):

Here's the dropped ceiling. Aside from being a design or accent in the ceiling, dropped ceiling will also help highlight the living room in the unit:

This is the partition in the masters bedroom:

Jan 26 - They have finished the partitions and ceiling already. Here's how it looks from the front door. You can see that the dropped ceiling is already finished and they have installed the ceiling fan as well.

Here it is up close:

The masters bedroom is almost done! We chose blue for its wall paint. Our architects were a bit uncertain on this choice because they said that it will look like a kid's room but we want it because it is very cool to the eyes and we also want a different color and not just the usual off-white. 

They also placed the floor tiles already. 

Before we left we can see them preparing for the common area floor tiles:

It really gets more and more exciting at this point because you know that there will be improvements and changes when you get back. :)