brighttlights

Whilst we prepared for the administrative works (appointments with HDB/banks etc.), we decided to start reaching out to IDs and contractors to begin our budgeting process. We emailed 10 different ID companies in Dec 2014. They were either big names we saw works we liked in magazines or recommendations from Renotalk, friends and colleagues. There were 3 big names that we wanted to work with but unfortunately they didn't revert to any of the many emails we sent them. Eventually we met up with 6 IDs and 2 contractors and spent many many weekends discussing with them. The longest meeting took more than 5 hours! The initial 3 quotes with received from 3 of the IDs were astronomical. We knew that gutting out an old flat would be more costly than doing up a new flat but we were absolutely shocked by the prices - they were ranging between 92K to 97K. And we were barely asking for any carpentry as compared to those that we've seen on Renotalk. One of which, was recommended by my secondary school friend. We really liked the mood board he created for us and felt a strong rapport with him. For us, it was really important to find a working partner that we were on the same wavelength on and could trust. We deliberated hard for a couple of weeks but eventually decided to drop him as his quote was way beyond our budget. For those who do have the budget, I'd recommend this ID based on my friend's review as well as his beautiful works that we got to take a glimpse of. We were really stressed as we were worried that the decision to purchase a resale flat was totally wrong. We did not plan to spend so much money just on renovations. And those quotes excluding electrical works, air-conditioning and furnishing!

Thanks! I will go take a look there

As first time home buyers, we were deliberating between applying for a new BTO or purchasing a resale flat from the open market. Both options have their pros and cons. Eventually we decided that the most important thing for us was to find a place really near our families. Unfortunately there won't be any more upcoming BTOs at Pasir Ris area and private condominiums are way beyond our budget. So we decided to purchase a resale flat. Honestly, I really like the practical layout of the new 5-room BTOs. HDB also did the right thing to eliminate the ugly, obstructive and non-value adding beams. And having a spanking new flat means no legacy issues from previous owners, less headache to patch up the flooring or the walls or any changes to the house structure. Oh, and i really envy the service yards of the new BTOs! Nicely partitioned and hidden away behind the kitchens. Anyway, once we decided that we will get a resale flat, we knew from the start that our journey would be quite different from a BTO home-owner...

The previous owners were the first owners and stayed in the flat for >20 years. They had altered parts of the original structure and built some false walls in the house: - curved wooden platform in the balcony area - removed walls of the study - removed original kitchen entrance walls and built a fake angled wall - built an angled WIW in the master bedroom - false ceilings in the living room/balcony/study - textured walls in all rooms (the rough sandpaper kind?) We liked the flat's location (really near both M's grandparents as well as parents) and so we went ahead with the flat purchase even though we knew we had to knock down the entire place and re-do it. Major overhaul ahead!

This is the original floor plan:

And so, my husband M and I decided to take the plunge to purchase a 5rm resale flat in Pasir Ris last September. As it was way ahead of plan (we were to only start flat hunting in 2017), we were not quite as prepared as many fellow forum-ers here. Thus I had to start speed-reading through the various Renotalk forums to try to acquaint myself with some renovation basics. The forums and blogs are like amazing treasure troves with so, so much information available and whilst I haven't spend enough time browsing all the reno blogs, I have learnt much and am thankful for the existence of all the Renotalk forums and blogs. We hope that we can be able to contribute back a little to this very helpful community!

We did consider Legrand grey switches but the colour tone seems to still contrast quite abit with the black trunkings. The electrician quoted us an additional 780 to replace 39 switches/sockets. Sounds quite an exorbitant price thus we are still undecided. :/

Ah, okay. We wanted to have the black switches/sockets to be a smooth continuation of the black conduits and trunking which are meant to be the accents for the "industrial look". We had focused much on the aesthetics part of it; thank you for pointing out the durability. Now I've to discuss further with my husband. Thanks for your advice!

Hi there, Could you provide the quotation (with pictures) for a matt black ceiling fan for living room? I'm looking at a 48 to 50" fan with remote control functionality. Thanks in advance!

Hi there, Your industrial themed house is very inspiring! I am in the midst of doing up my house; would like to check with you on e brand of black switch you use. Im getting my electrician to install black switch/socket/box etc and he claims there is only 1 brand avail locally called Fu Yin (made in China). Thus would like to seek your review on your black switches. Thanks in adv!