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I hope this information will be useful to all homeowners who wish to save cost on home renovation works. Just as any other couples, we approached a few interior designers to build our dream home. To be frank, we were quite disappointed with their proposed ideas and design. Im proud to say we were the designers for our own home but of course with the help and advice from our contractor. Since we had to keep within our budget (arrival of our baby around the same time), we decided to do the renovation with a contractor after hearing from friends that it is possible to have a wow home makeover and save significant savings too. Information on renovation ideas are also readily available online. We were very much involved during the whole process. We invested our time on phone calls and checks to ensure evrything goes as plan such as the correct colours, design and layout as discussed with our contractors. Here are some of our house's photos in progress and the outcome. Im unable to upload all the completed photos due to size. All the best in planning your dream home!

it's not my tree. it's planted within the pedestrian kerb itself as i do not have a planting/green verge outside. i had to remove it so that it allows for me to open up the new access to my house as previously there isn't any space for vehicle access. But i did not have to plant back any new tree though since there's no space to replace it. removal and disposal is done by my contractor. BUT this was done after we had gotten the approval from NParks. Can't just remove any trees without approval (even if within own house) if the girth of the tree is above 1m and your property is in a trees conservation zone or originally a empty plot of land. will get fined for any removal without consulting NParks first. submission fee is for them to assess the development plans and give approval. exact amount is $1605 ($1500 plus 7% GST)

box culvert not done means need approvals from BCA, LTA, PUB, NParks. i also had to do up the box culvert for my house along with all the necessary works like new drainage, railings, kerb, etc. cost me more than 10k just for this part in construction cost. for the box culvert, what you need to do is just what is required for your entrance. don't have to do up the entire width of the house. no point you spending money to do up public infrastructure. yes, approvals can take 3 to 6 months because of all the waiting time in between and there's so many agencies to clear. and you need to clear the agencies like LTA, PUB first before the final plans can be submitted to URA and BCA for approval and then issue of permit to start works.

if the sloping roof is until the 1m setback line from their boundary, there's nothing you can do about it as this is legal. you can't control how water flows and which direction the wind blows the water

This is amazing! Thank you very much for giving a detailed one. This will be a great help when I discuss with the local contractor here.

Just more knowledge for all. CSC basically is short for Certificate of Statutory Completion. Key word being Statutory. This is, in layman's term, a collective acknowledgement / confirmation that approval is issued by all gov department (ie: in charges of water, sewer, structure, electrical wiring, fibre cable, etc). So when you don't have CSC, your licensed electrician / licensed plumber can't submit to have incoming water, electricity, gas, telecom, etc. How are you as a owner going to move in if property does not have incoming supplies. I don't think any Singaporean would dare to mess with the tax man on property tax. Simply put it. The building regulation links everything & everyone up to be responsible & liable. Even the property owner is liable. I strongly urge all property owner to read the fine print of all those documents you have to sign during the initial stage of the job (Both commencement of design / construction stage)

It's a silly forum when spam bots can post anything, and we can't post legit links. I don't think there are any mods who are listening .... hello....

Shift meter box usually means you need to pull new main cables from meter box to your inside DB. If don’t want to pull, can extend the wires but not really recommended. upgrade to 3 phase 63A is about 5k plus payable to SP. 3phase 100A is just under 10k. Your internal wiring cost is based on what your own electrician quote you. when you upgrade, SP will put in new smart meter for you. No additional cost as this is part of the fees you pay. pub is another cost need to pay if you intend to shift the water meter as well

Don't buy BTO flat. Go open market "resale flat" then no need to pay resale levy to HDB

i feel the lift-up storage place to be under the bed is not well designed. if want to take out things have to remove the mattress to gain access. then everytime if want to take things have to repeat this process. very troublesome and not so practical.