31 July 2012

First time published in China

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Last month, we have received the first book we were published in from China.

The "M2 Interior Design 4" book is a hearty publication of international design projects, and we are proud to be listed amongst some fine interior design projects.

 

 

 

17 July 2012

Day 12 - day before soft opening...

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Day 12 into construction - the day before soft opening of Bay Road Hair Studio, the air was tense on the construction site.

As the salon is quite popular and already has plenty of bookings on the 13th day from construction commencement, we had to have majority of "big item" construction done by then. Afterwards there will be bits and pieces to tidy up the loose ends during the routine day-offs.

The day started with builders completing ceiling tiles from 6am, whilst plumbers installing shampoo chairs from 8am.

Joinery units started arriving late morning (notice the microwave oven amongst the carcasses? They always bring it for heating up their own lunches on site!)

Electricians arrived on site about the same time to finalize cabling. Mirrors came around 3pm. It was the highest population density ever since construction commencement!

Clients and their family arrived around 6pm (when we went out to get dinner for the builders) to prepare the salon for soft opening on the next morning... Moment of truth!
Luckily the clients were very pleased with the massive transformation within such little time, and swiftly progressed onto cleaning and stocking up the salon whilst the builders were finishing up with the track installation.

We left just before midnight.. The construction site would be a operating hair salon in a few hours...!!!

13 July 2012

Multiple shortlisting!

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Whilst we were working away on construction site, IDEA Awards (Interior Design Excellence Awards) has announced the shortlisted projects for 2012 - and we are shortlisted in 4 categories!

They are:
Emerging Designer [Facet Studio]
Hospitality [Uchi Lounge 01 & 02]
Workplace Under 1000sqm [Connect Sydney]
International Project [M House]

We are always challenging ourselves with different building and space types, rather than confining to particular types of spaces.

  



To read about last year our project Sneakerology/ Streetology winner of IDEA 2011 Retail category, click HERE
To find out more about the IDEA Awards, visit: http://www.idea-awards.com.au/
To find out more about the 2012 shortlists, visit: http://www.idea-awards.com.au/category/2012/2012-shortlist/

12 July 2012

Day 11

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The clients of Bay Road Hair Studio returned from overseas, 11 days into construction.

It was a long day..

Starting from 8am, electricians came in to reinstall air conditioning and started to cable through the joinery units installed the day before.
At the same time, builders started their day with repairing and leveling ceiling grid - the existing ceiling grids are still in production now in a superficially similar but structurally different way, hence the new grid hangers needed to be adjusted one by one in order to securely clip the existing grids. At the same time the delicate grids were levelled with laser and carpenter's line, bit by bit... Patience is the key.
In the afternoon the builders installed additional structural framing for sliding tracks (have a guess, what are the tracks for?)
They then painted the new ceiling tiles and grids into a grey we specified to complement the floor and wall tiles, whilst the tilers came back to grout the walls.
2 coats of paint for the ceiling tiles were completed around 9pm and left to dry overnight.

9 July 2012

Day 9

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It is getting very close.. Day 9 at Bay Road Hair Studio site is again full house. I must say I am impressed with the punctuality and professionalism displayed by all trades, with the given limited space and time, everyone simply got on with what they needed to do with minimum fuss, and with the best craftsmanship possible.

Flow of the day was:
07:00-11:00
builder completing mirror frame
11:00-16:00
joinery installation to rear half of shop
14:00-17:30
wall tiling
17:30-18:00
clean up

... Not one wasted minute....

Day 10 is Sunday... A day to rest, for a stronger push on Days 11 & 12!!

8 July 2012

End of Day 8

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We arrived on site at Bay Road Hair Studio on the 8th Day into construction, when it was starting to get dark outside.

There was an unspoken tranquility in the little space, within the lovely setting overlooking the bay outside.
The builders finished boarding up the wall frames, ready for tiling on the next day, and started working on the frames for the mirrors. The frames house a few functions: mirror, lighting, table for customers, hanger for hairdresser tools.. And we just threw in mitre corners to add to the fun.

We have worked with our builder Ken quite a few times now (Watermoon, Uchi Lounge, Phamish..) and it is funny how he always started out complaining about how tricky our projects are, but always ended up gracing over the projects with loving and proud glance.

 
 
 
 

6 July 2012

Full house

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Today we had electricians (x2) and builders (x2) on site. Oh, and architects (x2), interior designer (x1)...
With a small site like Bay Road Hair Studio it feels very packed and everyone was courteous to one another to respect the space they needed to work on. It was very nice to see people checking with each other before they do something, to ensure no one would be inconvenienced.
It is also our job to ensure that there will not be an "overcrowded" situation on site, with working areas and trades overlapping, which leads to a stressful construction site.

5 July 2012

6 days down, 6 days to go

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Today wall framing are up and ceiling grid adjustment was being tested at Bay Road Hair Studio.

At the midpoint of our construction program (yes, we have 12 days to complete majority of the construction, and scope of work is rather extensive), things have been largely going on schedule and smoothly.

Now entering 2nd round...

4 July 2012

Tiling the floor

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Yesterday we finished tiling the floor at Bay Road Hair Studio.

Today due to grouting (application of mortar cement between tiles), site has to remain rather clean hence it was a very quiet day, more so for builders to prepare for the next task - wall building tomorrow.

1 July 2012

From the ground up

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Yesterday on site we leveled the floor with cement, to prepare for tiling next week.

Due to the minimal time we have for construction, it was very important to plan everything out as much as possible To not waste anytime on site, leveling should be done on Saturday to allow adequate drying over Sunday; to lay concrete for leveling means all plumbing rough-in underfloor need to do done by Friday afternoon; to enable underfloor plumbing, floor finish removal should take priority in demolition and finish by mid morning... Etc etc... Pretty much setting a goal (project completion) and working backwards.

So far everything has been progressing smoothly, and everyone on site and neighbors seem to be excited about the future transformation... I can't wait.