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Introduction Hello everyone, been lurking around this forum for 2months to get a better idea on renovating my new home. TBH, I am a 1st time owner and have little to no knowledge on how to go about it, esp on a tight budget until I came here to read up. *Thanks all bros / sis for sharing!* Anyway, we have finally gotten our keys around end of August, thankfully, my flat is not 'bestowed' with tons of defects. Before getting my keys, have read a lot of bad reviews online for HDB optional component scheme and alas! I had opt for all the options. For 3 years, not sure if my decision to get OCS scheme was right and keep worrying that HDB might get me a lousy quality flat. Luckily, so far so good, only submitted 2 lines of defect, main door + 1 light switch. Others are checked by my I.D, he said, one of the best new flat he had inspected. (Some were no-eye see) Just pray a few years down the road, no funny tiles popping or such happen. *touchwood* Here's my floor plan, as my topic suggest, it is itsy bitsy teeny weeny ! But my wife and I are contended. It should serve our small family of 3 well I laid the structure of my furnishing on the floor plan, it is not drawn to scale cause I drew it myself on the paint app and my art is bad. Would like to share the journey of my renovation to all future flat owners on a tight budget and hopefully to learn something from the experienced ones as well. I.D sourcing with a 18k budget Most of the decent designs (even 3-room) which I saw online, cost around 40k+ without any furnishing, that reminds me why there are so little 3-room portfolio design around. I mean... if you are someone who can afford a $40k+ renovation, you probably have opt for a 4 or 5 room, make sense isn't it? lol Well.. many friends & relatives are aware that we are getting our new flat soon so they cannot wait to share their recommended I.D/contractors to us. With these contacts, we have met up with quite a number of them. I do not want to mention the I.D(s) which I did not shortlist. But one of the main reason is that they cannot work within my budget well even though they said they had tried their best. Most that I met up with are with positive attitudes though and I appreciate that, probably had my wallet to be blamed. So finally, I had decided to go with my friend's relative whom they themselves and a couple of our cliques had engaged him before with positive feedback. He offered me some advice to do away un-necessary wants, and focus on my needs such as excluding shower screen in my already usable toilet and common room wardrobe since my baby is still small. So we redirect the budget to my MBR which he proposed as it is our resting corner and we should make it as comfortable as possible. In general, we skipped all the costly stuff for living room like L-box false ceiling, cove lights / down-lights etc which will also incur more cost on your electrical works. Electrical works can be a killer for my pocket so I try not to install additional points. Squeeze budget! Final quotation Hacking works1 Haulage & debris removal Masonry Works 1 Supply labour to construct kitchen base Plumbing Works 1 Extend piping for kitchen & washing machine 2 Labour to install kitchen sink 3 Labour to install connect storage heater 4 Run & connect all inlet and outlet pipe Kitchen 1 Fabricate & install 11' bottom kitchen cabinet laminate finish 2 Fabricate & install 8' TOP kitchen cabinet laminate finish 3 Supply & install 11' solid surface worktop 4 Fabricate & install Full height Cabinet for oven 5 Supply &install 2x 11' tempered glass backing 5mm Living room 1 Fabricate & install 8' L full height shoe cabinet Master bedroom 1 Fabricate & install platform bed in selected laminate finished with drawer 2 Fabricate & install simple bed headboard 3 Tv feature wall & Ledge 4 Install false ceiling as proposed + 5 light point + 4 led light fitting + 2 T5 light 5 Fabricate & install casement wardrobe 6' L full height Painting works 1 Labour & material to paint whole house ICI / Nippon paint emulsion 5 colours Miscellaneous 1 Provide general washing upon completion 2 Provide floor protection with corrugated paper roll OPTIONAL (Included) 1 Fabricate & install 5' TV console & half height feature-wall with T5 lighting 2 Supply & install aluminum powder coated window grille for kitchen, living, 2 bedroom & service yard - Middle portion only 3 Supply & install sliding window at service yard Total $ 17,290.00 ALL CARPENTRY WORKS BASED ON SELECTED LAMINATED FINISHED C/W SOFT CLOSING & ABS TRIMMING INTERNAL WHITE PVC FINISHES unless otherwise stated Quotation still yet to include electrical / lighting installation works. Update 8th Nov (handover date) Electrical bill adds up to $860,thus totaling my renovation cost to $18,150

Hi everyone, long time lurker here deciding to give this T-blog a try in hopes that it will help time pass faster so that I can collect my keys sooner! I think I started lurking in this forum at least 1-2 years ago, reading up on people's t-blog and picking up advice here and there. I hope to get my keys in July as HDB updated that PCD is end July 14, so July please come soon! This is my floorplan. As you can see, a pretty normal 5 room layout, except that the main door faces the kitchen, which I haven't seen elsewhere before. Apparently not common? Not sure. Anyway I started researching on IDs back in the August last year because I was hoping to get keys earlier this year. But my development progress is slow. Some of the IDs I met were: 1. That ***** - Was really impressed by a fellow renotalker who used this ID, so I contacted them for a meetup. Back then I was gearing more towards the industrial look so I was really looking forward to receive their quote. In the end, they didn't get back to me. Not sure if it was because my key collection date was super far away. 2. Random IDs through the renotalk request for quote thingy which I immediately ruled out upon meeting them because they mainly did those modern contemporary style which I didn't like at all and also because of language barrier. 3. Mr Foo from Custombox - Also another ID that I was really impressed with so arranged to meet him at his place (also Mschocobanana's place). Hit it right off the bat in the first meeting so I was really keen, plus he is bilingual so I didn't have to struggle to understand him. Sent me the quote right on time as well and I found his quote reasonable. So signed with Mr Foo! Although back then I also heard of Mr K and Alan contractor, I didn't meet up with them, which on hindsight I think is a good thing because I don't think I would have the time to really check on the work and plus the recent mixed reviews. When I first started out thinking about the kind of design for my house, I was thinking of a mix of industrial and Scandinavian with more focus on industrial. However, over the past few months, I am leaning more towards Scandinavian instead now, with a touch of industrial. Hence the title of this T-blog, Our Scandinavian Home.

Hello! I need some feedback from blanco pleon 8 or 9 sink users. I have placed an order and actually would like to know lighter or darker colour is better for the sink.Rock Grey or AluMetallic? I went to the showroom and saw that Rock Grey has some white patches here and there on the sink.Alu metallic cant see much of the white spots but im afraid it might stain. I need ur reviews! My counter top will be black quartz. Thank u.

Scandinavian Modern Farmhouse Inspired Hi Renotalk Folks & Friends, Firstly, many thanks to a lot of the Brothers & Sisters here for the Reno sharing and valuable tips/notes over the past 12 months. I learnt that over the course of planning, it is rather difficult to keep to the budget as we built our dream house. My initial budget has increased almost twice! From wanting to keep it simple and save cost, we have decided to "invest" more for the long term and keep ourselves happier. Preparatory stage (Mar - Aug):- 1) Decided on the overall theme 2) Decided on my essential renovation requirements (family lifestyle, basic fengshui, etc) + Optional requirements (more carpentry, etc) 3) Meet up with recommended ID/contractors to compare quotes and doing research on them. 4) Request to view the ongoing projects for the shortlisted ones to check on workmanship and quality. 5) Confirm actual site conditions(amount of natural light, wind conditions, ceiling beams, etc) and then reassess my design plans, subsequent material selection and colour theme. 6) Enjoying the Reno Journey

Welcome to Renotalk! My 3rm resale flat is smaller than yours and as i am on budget, i do away with all those built-in cabinets (actually, i don't like them at all). I only did the kitchen area which costs around $2k+ and another 2k+ on the bathroom doors and <$600 on the bedroom doors. You can consider to paint the house yourself. I painted it myself and it costs me around $400! Enjoy your reno process!

Renovation has just started a few days ago, with kitchen cabinet base & some electrical wiring works completed. Meanwhile we are having headache with Furnishing. Wanted to get it by completion of renovation but totally unable to meet our budget of 10k. Anyway would like to share what I had gotten for my house so far. 1st door opening 'ceremony' Tecno Induction Hob TIH-280D Wife wanted Induction Hob since years ago, she like how they look and how it does not involve gas. Also safer for our little baby Rinnai in-built oven & Joven storage heater 25L Taobao stainless steel 2bowl sink & rain shower set (will share again after installation, maybe month end?) They feel sturdy and not those kind of cheapo material. Definitely a good buy if it works. SG kitchen sink / rain shower set way too expensive! Advance gift from my elder brother, Electrolux Tornado Vacuum cleaner, looks cool! Love it Naturai Air fryer, got it from a deal, just to test out if we really likes Air fryer food. Once more skillful we will get a better one like Philips? haha Hair dryer is Panasonic Nano, good reviews about it too since nano-technology 'protects' your hair... lol? Not really bothered about that fact though. Just like it since it is not very noisy. My dining set, got from Star Living, went many places to see, always unable to find a dining set at a reasonable price and to our liking. Finally found this as it matches our 'grey' concept well. Wife likes shades of grey so our kitchen cabinet, warddrobe, etc will be matched with grey.... Also signed with Kingsley Windows Furnishing for roller blackout blinds for my whole house. (MBR + Common Room + Living room) less than $600, pretty reasonable I would say. Rick from the co. is pretty patient and came prepared to our site visit thus we engaged him! The below pic is taken from google. Will install mine after reno is done Nothing much to take from my flat yet but yeah below few pics just for a glance

Completed - basin tap and Caesarstone top up - Fan up

Hi, Guy can anybody give me any advise that where i can purchase and see the actual thing of those aluminum type hang clothes track that can pull down and push up and also can push out to the window to dry clothes what is the price cost advise is appreciated

Saw a metal white Stool at Forty-Two & Got it! (delivery is 1st Nov so I will need to patiently wait) I tend to work on my laptop & cook at times so having 2 stools at the laminate table which will be my breakfast + multi purpose counter top will be so cosy!

You can always get electrician or contractor to do it, ID tends to quote abit more.

An update, went up to peek at the progress so far, the tiling for the curb at the door is done, and I am very pleased with the workmanship, looks very nice!! Pictures below: Cement base for my curbs in the toilet and kitchen and service yard are up too, but no tiles yet... Was wondering why my cement base for the washing machine is not the full length and texted Kelvin (ID) at 10+pm in the night, as usual he was very prompt to reply me, said that my sliding door would bang into the base if they did the full length as my service yard side was not big enough. An update on my reno loan: - STILL have NOT received my new cheques from Maybank! which means, Kelvin (ID) has actually started work and I haven't even paid him a single cent. Very thankful that he is willing to start work even though his payment has been delayed.

Thanks for your advice. I chose white grouting. I hope it does indeed gives a more rustic feel when stains appear.. haha. Haha, yes it was too late. However, the tiles do feel solid enough after 24 hours to let my mind at ease now.. This is how the mosaic looks after grouting and polishing. I lurve it so much. I think my kitchen looks a million dollars.. Haha.. It surely does feel so after me putting in the entire weekend in it. It was a good thing that wifey was out shopping in Bangkok and I could concentrate fully on this project without having to provide chauffeur services. I also did up the breakfast counter, the side cover panel, and the back cover panel, after my friend helped to deliver this 3 pieces to my doorstep. They were too big to fit in my sedan. My son doing his work at the breakfast counter after installation. Love it max! I also just installed the chimney hood halfway. I will be bringing the cover panels to be cut by the professionals. I simply have no guts to cut stainless steel sheets properly, and the dust that will be created, oh man it could be catastrophic to household harmony. This is how it looks at the moment. Wired it up already for testing already. Working perfectly. I will post final pictures after I installed the cabinet doors and the hood panels. Pardon the naked looks of the cabinets for the moment.

Thanks troublemaker, jiawen and binxuan for the compliments - I really had a hard time convincing Mister and I am so glad he says it is nice after the entire painting!! I am awaiting for my furniture to be in - it will be in this month, bit by bit. Hope it will all turn out well. Closing of renovation period To sum up, I collected my keys in March 2014, started renovation in May 2014 and completed my renovation in August 2014. It is a short 3 months but is pretty draggy cause I didn't do much (in terms of renovation) yet it took so long. So, here goes, everything under a single picture for easy referencing: Collage done here: http://photogramio.com/photoeffects I spent an overall of $14k but it was about $3k savings as compared to the scenario if I had actually got a ID instead (based on the quotation I've gotten from the IDs I've seen). Well, most of the savings come from DIY, searching for the reasonable prices and the help I have received from my family - we DIY the shoe cabinet, paint the walls, fixing up all bathroom accessories by our own. So, even with a tight budget, I am glad that everything went well and I have a home to call my own. Oh, and I found this contact for cleaning services that is quite reasonably priced ($300++ includes chemical washing - toilet, kitchen and living room; scrubbing of floor and wall tiles - toilet and kitchen; washing of windows and glasses doors/panels; wipe down of steel stuff in house etc etc) - let me know if anyone needs a good clean of their house Will be updating again when furnishing are in!

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I bought a digital door viewer! So eager to try it out! ">http:// ">http://>

as per title, anyone using Fujioh? I did a search but seems like no one using and the salesman was telling me this is a gd brand compared to the La Germania that I was interested in.

Pending reno works starting next week, looking forward to meeting ID this Saturday for lights shopping and viewing of 3d drawings... Currently having a slight headache from choosing color schemes for the home.. What would you choose? 1) Pink walls in the living room with white and dark furniture Inspiration: 2) Blue/Mint walls in the living room with white and blue furniture Inspiration:

I am planning to buy Mistsubishi System 4 air con, but installation is not included. Is there any good company recommend for Aircon installation with good price?

I got all my wooden doors and digital lock from Ricky Ang of An Digital. A very nice young man who made no less than 3 trips just to confirm the order. Trips include presentation of the lock, measurement of the doors, supervision of installation plus explanation. Such sales ethics are worth mentioning and deserves commendation. Ricky Ang An Digital HP 90998233

Hi jgsy, I am so sorry for the late reply but I've texted you the details Cheers! Yeah, the headache over it and the number of leave taken to coordinate was sure a pain but it is definitely worth it after everything. And.. my last of all my renovations is done, the toilet glass doors are up! Here's how it looks like:- There are some issues with the glass doors as 1) there's no stopper to stop it from opening outwards, 2) it is very hard to close and open due to the plastic flap. We'll be working with the vendor on the rectifications and I hope it can be resolved. Oh, btw, remember at the first few post, I mentioned I wanted to paint a brick wall. Oh well, I found some links about painting/creating the brickwalls on your own. They certainly helped me alot in completing my entire wall! 1) http://loftyromance.blogspot.sg/2011/10/brick-wall-effect.html#comment-form 2) http://do-it-yourselfdesign.blogspot.sg/2012/12/how-to-make-faux-exposed-brick-wall.html At one point, I even contemplated in using wallpaper instead from taobao (http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.25.eKMRRa&id=19655283033&ns=1#detail) Well, I still did my painting and I am quite pleased with it! It's not very very nice but I am just proud and liking it alot Now, I'm awaiting for my furnishings! Yays.

Reno process looks great! May I know which agent do you use for your taobao loots? How much is the shipping cost for 3cbm? Sea frieght?

Hi HLJL, interested to know about the blinds too! Can PM me as well?

Went to Mega Discount Store on friday to buy hood and hob. We were looking for the particular model, Techno TZ908 and TH958. Asked the salesperson at Hood and Hob section. He said that they dun sell techno brand. Disappointed. Walked out of the store, then my wife ordered me to ask for the model again at the counter. Somehow she always got it right at this kind of thing. The counter said they got sell the model we want, just that it is not on display. Their package price is S$699, vs the best previous best quotation of S$755 from Hoe Kee. Chop. Settled the Hood and Hob there and then. The reason of choosing techno brand is because of the review from 3 sets of parents, mine, my wife and my friend's. They just say techno is durable. We bought the cooker model starting with TZ as it is made in Italy, therefore the burners do not have holes at the bottom. According to the parents, this will prevent things from dropping into the holes making it hard to clean. One less thing off the checklist. Now we just need to look out for Fridge, Washing machine, Toilet/Kitchen accessories and curtains/blinds.

I chose Toshiba coz it has that "self-cleaning" function and that the compressor is made in Japan and assembled in Thailand!

really no idea to box-up, there too ugly but we must acceptable the easy way, when the pipes is stuck or MUP offer for redo the new piping else.

Welcome to Renotalk!

Here is the picture of my bathroom door. Its aluminium swing door. So far so good. But I think I might run into a problem later on. The whole white panel might cave in after 2 years time as there is no support in the middle... hmm... And... my Toshiba aircon! ">http:// I have installed 2 aircons. One is in the common room and the other in the MBR. The only visible trunking can be seen on both photos, above the mbr door and the toilet door! The common room does not have any trunking at all! ">http://> Toshiba aircon is really quiet! At least to me! ahahaha...

Another backdated post for 3rd of July on my kitchen On the 3rd of July, introducing one of the hidden wonders in my kitchen. My hobz cooker hood and hob with the kitchen lighting fully on.( Yes, my kitchen is very very bright and well illuminated.) So that night, i decide to turn off the kitchen lights and was 'wowed' by the lighting effects coming from the hood. The lights make by cooker hob seems like a 'treasure' or those safe in the movies. My hood lightings with my colourful cabinets, looks like i can 'secretly' do some cooking in the nights without switching on the kitchen lights. I took a step further and switch off the living room lights except for the hood lightings. Pretty isn't it ? Snapshot of the completed works of the kitchen sink, i cannot remember whether was it the id or someone who told us something about how to do the "connections" for the sink, which also resulted in us dropping a contractor who insist/propose to use wood to do the connection below the sink. As i was inspecting my kitchen, i realized that the 4 corners of my blanco silgrant sink seemed to be abit "crumpled" at the round ages, not sure if this is normal, thus sharing the pictures for all to see?

Just to share... I received a super lemon kraus ! Was disappointed to get the Kraus in such condition after " aiming " it for 1 year Pic 1 : - Scratches on the inner sink until its no longer silver in color but black color Pic 2: Scratches on the rim Pic 3 : Base scratched till metal is exposed Pic 4: Base scratch till metal is exposed

As requested by gashapon05, here are some photos of the surface trunking that are not concealed in my living room. Starting from the utility cabinet, I ran my own 10m fibre patch cord to the TV console area and there is a short run of trunking from it into the L-box. Above the shelf of the TV console, another run of the trunking allows for the fibre patch cord to drop down as well as the cat6 cables to run from the TV console to the study. As mentioned before, it is not possible to drill through the beams between rooms so the routing has to go just under the beams and so there is another of this short run where the cables exit the living room and enter the adjacent study.

Please check you mailbox. Thank you for your interests PHYLUX

What do you mean buy minimum charge? You meant future bills? Yes, gas can be used for dryer as well. Visit the Citygas web site for more details, there are difference gas heater there available. Currently they are on promotion bundle in with one dryer but only 1 and only 1 model of dryer. I choose the largest capacity Ferroli Prima FE10 model for the bigger capacity to cater for rain shower. Remember, you have to call City Gas to shut off your gas supply prior to reno work, else anything happen, liability is your. Cost is $60, I think. If you are keen to install, call City Gas, tell them the model you want and inform them that your ID will call back to settle date of installation. Of cos provided your ID is willing to do it for he will know best how the piping to be run for both gas and water due to carpentry etc.

Still an electrical heater so not considering. Point is, electrical cost is higher compare to gas. Also the usage is low. Currently using a Rinnai gas heater, serve me well over 10 years so the experience and confidence is there.

Citygas Heater is up. Dont quite like the numerous pipings running around but I guess that's how things work and hopefully will be better when carpentry is up Again I have to compliment my ID, all I have to do is call in Citigas to confirm model I need and he did the rest. The piping running are also decided by him which he knows best how & where to run.

all PMs sent! painting starts today!

PM sent. I hope u dont rush it. the moment u rush, that is the time when you just simply pay whatever price to get things done. Take your time.

Not sure why your photos are not showing. Let me help u :dribble: