Depending on the budget, you could hack a portion of the wall "closed welcome passage" and put up a wall horizontally by the main entrance (creating a passage way to the living area. The window there should be able to shine a bit of light into the house. Replacing the wall between the living area and garage with Large glass panels would also help brighten up the house. At the same time, will give your house the elite concept (of having a vehicle in the living area) http://homememo.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/kop-properties_sky-garage.jpeg Hope this helps. :)

I am so happy to see you here! I will have to go back and see if i can retrieve my posts... thought I would make them into a little book for my daughter, with photos. Quick run-down on the bathroom (not travels, no time) - The kitchen has a rather elegant sliding door with beveled glass panels. Painted white, since this was the original colour. GD's new bathroom has the doors I had picked earlier; i thought of polishing them but decided sprayed automobile paint (on a resin primer) would wear better. Especially since it is such a small bathroom, and she is so splashy. I have this finish in my kitchen and it has lasted 15 years now. A tad chipped here and there, but only needs a wipe down once a week. Same finish for the balcony doors, also split like the bathroom. We have a new wardrobe, a study table with built-in shelves, and a small chest of drawers for her odds and ends. I want to re-tile the tiny balcony, more as a little statement. Currently we are looking at Portuguese tiles, though I did think a mosaic with a funky cat might be nice. Let me see the costing. The room will be painted a neutral adobe, with bright white woodwork and an off-white ceiling. This means she can go wild with cushions and covers. Other changes in the flat; We have changed the glass in the master bedroom and living room from small cramped panes to a single pane for each section with a 1" bevel all round. Doubles the cost of the glass, but looks so elegant! The air-conditioning is being re-located. The compressors were all mounted in the bedroom and living room balconies, which looked terrible and meant the balconies (very narrow, only 30" deep) couldn't be used for anything. Not even plants. So they are being moved so that the compressors can be mounted at the rear of the building. two down, one to go. Now we can put in some nice plants, fishtail palms etc. The kitchen counter on one side came out intact and will be reused elsewhere. I am planning overhead storage, cupboards, and a draining cupboard for plates and glasses. Right now there is no dish washer, though a place is earmarked, but for now I will put in a cupboard with steel racks for cups, glasses and plates, all hidden behind pressed glass doors. This is all in the planning stage.... Pictures in a little while, they are mostly on my ipad and don't transfer well to the mac. They come without numbers... so I have to rename the or something. Somebody tell me how to do this!

Debbie, acm - Thank you very much for responding. This is a new apartment and not a remodel. I have attached the floor plan of the room & closet. In the photo below the closet is the space "DRESS" and having dimensions 5 ft 11" (X axis) x 4 ft 7" (Y axis). For representational purposes, the diagram shows an L shaped closet. Ignore that - this is a complete blank space. I am instead planning on putting the closet along the 5 ft 11" wall- but on the opposite side instead of the side shown in the diagram. So imagine my closet along a single wall, set against the wall marked with a thick dark line. acm - I did not mean a bi-fold. But rather the traditional shutter door which some may refer as a swing shutter. My dilemma is - should i use sliding doors or regular doors ? I divided my closet into 4 major compartments, each 1 ft 6" wide. So there are a total of 4 doors. Depth of closet is 2 ft. Hence walkthru space is 2 ft 6". When a closet door is open, there wld be 1 ft space between the open door & the wall. Within each of these 4 compartments, I have designed multiple external drawers upto 2 ft height from base. So the shutters/doors planned only for the portion above 2 ft. Sliding Doors - Pros - Swing space not needed. Can place a slim dresser in the corner if I want to later. Cons - Expensive as it will needlessly cover the bottom-most drawers; Sliding doors coming off rails. Regular Doors Pros - Inexpensive. Can be used to cover only the part above the drawers (need not cover drawers). This way I can open the drawers below quickly & easily. Cons - Not sure if 2 ft 6" is enough clearance space to open 18" doors. Hope this makes sense. What do you suggest?

We have taken help to prepare a layout plan of our apartment following are the key highlights 1) Would prefer unless unavoidable false ceiling lights, am more of a wall light or floor/desk lamp person 2) Kitchen layout is such that a large refrigerator cannot make way at the entrance of the kitchen.The left wall edge at the kitchen entrance can be torn down the right must stay (beam). Considering this I was thinking to take the slab to my right of kitchen entrance and keep the refrigerator 3ft width and 2.6 feet depth top left of the kitchen right next to the window and start the double sink right next to it. The right side of the wall to have cooking range and kitchen slab and aligned to the kitchen entrance wall a tall cabinet which will house the oven and microwave 3) The dining space has two two spots one adjacent to the kitchen and utility finishing at the study door. The second opposite to the kitchen entrance the cross path of Kids bedroom and master bedroom. 4) We wanted to have a 6-seater and looks like both the above spots as mentioned in point 3 cannot house it. Also we dont prefer a dining table right across from the main entrance. Hence we are looking at keeping a 4 seater (extendable ) aligned to the wall of the kitchen and utility area which finishes at the study entrance 5) There is an option to cave in the utility area into the living room , will that be of any good? 6) Entrance foyer - to have wooden beam like (lighter tone) work on ceiling and the wall on the right as we enter the apartment to have a low height shoe cabinet upto the edge. The edge of the wall to have a separator or Jaali to keep the visual away of the dining space from entrance. The shoe cabinet wall would have a large mirror on the upper halve. 7) Study room we prefer a colonial classic set up the powder room/small bathroom is being torn down to make that a part of the study. 8) Master bath and dresser area will need adjustment hence we thought of taking down the left wall of the bath and making the area look bigger. We are trying to avoid any plumbing work but there is an option we can do if there is a better plan. 9) Need ceiling and flooring ideas for the entire apartment. As of now we have thought to have a thematic approach of open beam light / heavy as a continuous theme in various ways all across the home.Marble tile of ivory is what we have thought now,with master bedroom and guest room to have a wooden flooring. Challnege is that builder has already provided flooring which we don’t like.So we can go tile on tile or break it up. 10) Guest room opposite to master bedroom has a cabinet designated area. Right beneath the window rather adjacent to it we prefer to have a seating area of 1.5 feet wall depth. 11) Kid room adjacent to the living room – we are looking for an idea for a cubboard. He is a 7 year old, hence making it childish theme and superhero look is not what he likes. He is a chess guy. Slightly serious for his age. :P 12) Looking at décor and design plan for both the balconies 13 ) any idea of change or improvisation for the rest of the two bathrooms 14) Want to prefer a sneakaway bar 15) Main entrance we prefer a larger 8 feet door than a current 7feet. Also entrance from outside wish a stone wall. 16) Does the idea of living room with one stone wall look good or rather textured wall in ivory. We wish to have large 7*8 or 6*5 painting on the opposite wall to TV above the sofa. We prefer the entrance wall of the living room to be the TV unit and Kids room wall of the living room to be the sofa wall. Largely to limit visitor free view towards the inside home areas. We also wish to have the TV sitting on top of an unit rather than wall fitted. Next to it could be floor lamps. I can also post additional photos or videos if required