Our 5Rm Dream Project @ Capeview (Impossible Budget)

[kdtioh 0]

Been a lurker in this forum since starting of 2015 and i guess it is time to share my renovation journey with you guys.

In fact, I've gotten our keys since last year(early Dec), but due to wedding/honeymoon etc, we took our own sweet time to find ID/contractors.

It is a 5 room BTO at upp serangoon view and my favorite part of my new home is the awesome view from the balcony. I love nature!

A glimpse of our floor plan and some sneaks.

We set an impossible budget of between 25k-28k for reno and not compromising on designs and carpentry works.

We also plan to buy most of our stuff from taobao, thus saving more $$.

Can it be done? we shall find out real soon!

Edited May 7, 2015 by kdtioh

[wsketchpad 0]

Great layout and view! I think it's doable since floors are already done. I hope you succeed!

[Freb 10]

doable, good luck!

[kdtioh 0]

 

Our self designed Reno Plan

• Full height Shoe Cabinet with seat, to act as divider in front of our entrance door for privacy and fengshui (requested by wifey for her countless heels/boots collection.)
• Top and bottom kitchen cabinet on one side, bottom on the other.
• Kompacplus top (we both love it)
• Sliding glass door for kitchen
• Overlaying subway tiles for kitchen
• 2ft Full height TV feature wall - I wanted a crafted brick wall but wife objects(too difficult to maintain). After further considerations, I decided to settle for laminated feature wall for easy cleaning and to save $$ (remember our tight budget)
• Suspended TV console
• L-Box with Cove lights (demanded by me) - simply love the cove light ambiance effects.
• Walk in wardrobe - wardrobe space will never be enough for ladies, therefore a must have for my wifey. (bedroom 2)
• A "man cave" for myself - work desk / gaming area ( bedroom 2)
• To overlay tiles on flooring and shower area of our bathrooms. We simply want to add "resort style" to our bathrooms.
• Change out both bathroom sink and add on vanity. (we did not like the sink provided by HDB)
• We wanted to merge our room 2 (WIW) with our MBR but decide against the idea as we do not want to hack any wall or relay any tiles to add more cost. In the end , we came out with an idea of installing a new door frame(with top pillar) right outside bedroom 2. (We did not op in doors by HDB)
• Baywindow seat with storage and some display space in our MBR.
• Bedhead on half of the sunken ceiling, with cove light . (bedside tables optional if budget allows)

Some of the sample ideas we gathered.

Seems like a lot of stuff to be done and to keep it below 30k is a uphill task for us.

More updates to come...

[Freb 10]

Top hung Sliding glass door is pretty expensive, need to reconsider

[zngmybto 0]

That view is dang awesome. Good luck on staying within budget. Taobao is the witch devil and will make you want to buy everything. All the best!

Fa,

thisbtotrendmustdie.wordpress.com

[Clar06 0]

love the view and floor plan of your new flat!

Me too, I love the idea for the headrest for the bed too, but when I asked for some quotation, it cost almost $1k just to build a 5ft headrest without sidetable..

and mine is around 11ft, so I have no choice but to give it up.. sad life

[Clar06 0]

Top hung Sliding glass door is pretty expensive, need to reconsider

yup, it cost around $1800 for my place, but rather big piece though.

[kdtioh 0]

Thanks for all the lucks! heh. need all of it!

Great layout and view! I think it's doable since floors are already done. I hope you succeed!

doable, good luck!

That view is dang awesome. Good luck on staying within budget. Taobao is the witch devil and will make you want to buy everything. All the best!

Fa,

thisbtotrendmustdie.wordpress.com

I will not be getting my top hung sliding glass door kitchen from ID/Contractor. Will be sourcing directly from outside. I managed to find one with decent price. Tempered glass etc.

Top hung Sliding glass door is pretty expensive, need to reconsider

Your headrest doing full height? full height will be more ex than half. I am doing half, so maybe half price ? lol

love the view and floor plan of your new flat!

Me too, I love the idea for the headrest for the bed too, but when I asked for some quotation, it cost almost $1k just to build a 5ft headrest without sidetable..

and mine is around 11ft, so I have no choice but to give it up.. sad life

Edited May 9, 2015 by kdtioh

[kdtioh 0]

I have only met 5 IDs/contractors, some introduced by relatives while others is contacts from fellow T-bloggers! I am sure many of you will be familiar.

It is the most tedious process cause have to review quotations and spend time meeting them.

1) First ID i met is introduced by my relative, who did a few of my relatives' house. G is from Or***Cu** and met her in my new place. Told her what i want and G also give a few ideas too. She promised a quotation soon and never hear from her after that. I even text her a few times to remind her. She apologized, giving some excuses but still never hear from her. Maybe she is scared off by my budget. haha. Gotta strike her off and move on.

2)Second ID i met is actually an ID doing reno for my sister-in-law recently. S is from Co** Co*****. Saw his work in one of Tblog too. He is very friendly and I think we can hit off quite well. Some of his ideas are very helpful and gave us good vibes. Got his quotation very promptly and we even meet up for a 2nd time to discuss further on pricing, what to exclude etc. I feel his pricing is quite competitive but still a bit out of our budget.

3)Third ID i met is not by appointment but through walk in as their office is near my parents' place. JT is from Co** Li****. Told him want he wanted and got his quotation very quickly the next day at 32K+. I didnt really click during the meet up and he didnt give me sincere feeling. I never follow up with him after that.

4) Forth is a famous contractor in this forum. J & E team. I am sure many of you guys will know them. Met him directly at my new place. J have a clear understanding of what i want from a contractor point of view and even suggested the pros and cons of doing some of the carpentry works i wanted. He even drew out the layout of my kitchen straight away during our discussion. I am quite impressed. I also know they are very busy due to their sudden popularity. haha. One of their work is from my neighborhood and I went to take a look. All I can say is good workmanship and everything is neat.

Got their quotation promptly from E. Was expecting a more competitive pricing from them since they are contractor. Was not disappointed as their price was the cheapest so far, although still slightly out of our budget. 29-30k ish. Short listed J&E team.

5) The last contractor is my wife's friend. Let's name her C. Our first meet up with C is outside at a cafe and we told her what we wanted and our budget straight away. She is attentive and paid very close attention to what we wanted and wrote down every single details, as well as drawing some rough sketches to make sure it is what we wanted.

Got her quotation a few days later and was surprise it is very competitive and very close to our budget. With a bit of cutting here and there, I am confident we can work something out.

To cut the long story short, it is between J&E team and C. After a few meet ups with both of them, cutting here and there, asking for discounts etc, we decide to go with C. (J&E pricing still way off )

Her price is the cheapest at 25k + without electrical works(cos difficult to finalise this price). So i'll say i will be around 27k , giving my budget of electrical works of 2k+-. (I did a rough calculation and found out i will be doing a lot of electrical works.)
I have to say throughout of meetups, C is very meticulous in details and gave many suggestions on what is practical to do and what is not.

Price aside, i shall reserve my praise until the end of my renovation and see how it goes. Will be updating if i have the time.

PS: I will NOT be sharing my quotation to be fair to C. Those interested can PM me for C's contact or others.

[kdtioh 0]

There are a few things i have excluded from the reno quotation in order to achieve our budget:

1) Room Doors and toilet doors(swing slide) will be getting outside.

2) Study table as it is much cheaper to get from Ikea. $800 vs $200+

3) Bedside table (TB!)

4) Bathroom Mirror cabinet

Have a question for you guys. Any of you relocate your heater tank to service yard?

I personally find it very ugly to be situated on top of my common bathroom.

Some of my taobao lightings buy and electrical plan

[Freakerz 5]

If you relocate your storage heater to the service yard,the size of the heater will cause your drying equipment to be redundant . And unless you use gas heater.You will also incur extra cost to do plumbing works to supply the hot water to your toilets .

[kdtioh 0]

Heya!

Thanks for the reply.

I know i will seldom use my drying equipment because i have bought a washer/dryer machine.

I have just ask C to quote in the plumbing works to relocate storage heater, hopefully isnt way off from our budget.

If you relocate your storage heater to the service yard,the size of the heater will cause your drying equipment to be redundant . And unless you use gas heater.You will also incur extra cost to do plumbing works to supply the hot water to your toilets .

[kdtioh 0]

Household stuffs we have bought so far:

SMEG 2 Door Fridge

Our most expensive buy strongly requested by wifey. Grew into it and got convinced by her.

Most importantly fit into our retro kitchen theme.

Bought from Unilite.

Grohe Rainshower Set

One of our earliest buys last year during a big sales at Grohe.

Bought the rainshower set for our MBR bathroom and the normal one on the right for common(brown color)

Rinnai oven

Fujioh Hobs and Hood

Granite Black Kitchen Sinks - waltz 780

All bought from Universalunion

Europace wine chiller

The rest are from Taobao:

Kitchen faucet

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.216.2SCuFf&id=14400209618&_u=d1rl2pql31aa

Bathroom Sink

http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=19094432629&spm=a1z09.2.9.70.Q1IyIQ&_u=d1rl2pql2e90

Bathroom Sink Tap

http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=17643974061&spm=a1z09.2.9.198.egcAgd&_u=d1rl2pqlaeb7

Will update more once our Taobao loots come!

Edited May 12, 2015 by kdtioh

[kdtioh 0]

As C is a contractor, we dont have 3D design drawings(must pay if you die die want). So we must use more of our imagination!

However, we have some very detailed drawings ( which i appreciate it very much).

Our Living room and shoecabinet(divider)

Our Kitchen area and bathroom

Our WIW and MBR area

Our renovation starting soon! cant wait

Edited May 15, 2015 by kdtioh