fingerscross

Beedroom 2/ junior suite Hacking away wardrobe and replace with sliding type. Headboard and study table done as well

Master toilet Extensive work done here(planning and wet work wise)to make it look good. ID trying to do as little and hack as little to help me safe cost, but i m really not into shower kerb. Hence not making his work easy. Most likely the floor needs to be hacked with new layer of water proofing done to make the slope he suggested at the shower area. Then there is the wall tiles. He suggested just doing a feature wall since white goes with almost everythg. But to do the slope, they need to hack abt 0.5 inch deeper at the shower area so might result in the old white wall tiles loosing its seamless waterproofing contact with the newly laid floor tiles. Then there is that constructed vanity.....now i totally understand why some IDs will suggest hack everythg and just relay. Keeping my fingerscross on this one

Masterbedroom Hacking away existing wardrobe and do a 8x8 ft wiw. ID designed a feature wall and headboard on the outside of wiw

Yard toilet This is the smallest area of the house that has gone thru the most changes in the planning phase At first i wanted to hack away the whole wall where the sink is and extend my kitchen....but i very pantang, feng shui wise, not good to have my kitchen below someone else's toilet. Then i wanted to remove toilet bowl n cut 2 small holes and have a planted aquarium here. This got Wayne all excited since it will beautify both the dinning and kitchen. While the tank will be "easy" to maintain since its aldy in a toilet. I used to have a planted tank in my first house....the full system type with co2 n stuff....nice to look at, ****-lot of work to maintain. The plants grew real fast and constant trimming and replanting was required to keep the desired look. This part drove me nuts....at this age, dont tink i want this kind of cheap trills. Then i wanted to seal off the entrance and knock a small entrance at the toilet paper holder side so that it becomes a little ensuite for bedroom 4.....didnt even get to ask ID for quotation. Youngest son knocked some sense into me...he said, " Dad if i take another 5 steps, i get to use a bigger toilet, why would i want to squeeze into this?" He liked the aquarium idea better. So i tot, maybe the same 2 holes idea and a terrarium and keep some frogs in there. Went to research about this and nope, just as hard work. Frogs will get infected and that could mean a visit to the vet....worst then keeping fishes. With fishes, if they are infected and dont look like they will survive, i can just.....ok u dont wanna know. Finally we settled on removing the toilet bowl and sink, will chemical screed the wall tiles, overlay floor tiles and just convert it into a second yard. Will have my dryer in there.

Yard and utility Remove utilty door. Will use this room to iron clothes. Overlay floor tiles for utility. Remove floor tiles and do waterproofing for yard and relay tiles. Yard seems rather small, hence we converted the yard toilet to be like a second yard

Kitchen Complete overhaul of the kitchen. Because the kitchen and dinning tiles are flushed, cannot do overlay. No choice, hack away and relay. The yard door will be replaced to pd glass door

Bedroom doors looking kind of tired 04 bedroom doors and 01 toilet to be changed to veneer type

Dinning A 10 ft side buffet connected to the tv console to be done on the long wall side. Other wall will be a movable 4.5ft side buffet in matching laminate. (Movable bcos i want to adjust it such that its right at the centre of the dinning table)

Living room TV console without feature wall to be done on one side and full height storage cum display cabinet on the other

Foyer Will be doing full height shoe cum display cabinet here. Will get management to shift the intercomm further in near to where the light switch currently is. The other side will be full height mirror

The house entrance. The shoe cabinet shown is done by previous owner. Since the condition still looks ok we will keep it and just do a 2ft seatie with storage next to it in matching laminate

Now back to my reno journey. Just got our keys and ID asked to meet tomorrow together with tiler. He is hoping to start asap after chinese 7th mth. I took some photos ystd for all to see the the current condition of the house

Sorry for the lack of urgency with the tips. Experienced abit of a writer's block when i got to the final bit. There was so much i wanted to say, yet felt that.... So i've decided to keep this simple. A reasonble and understanding client will get a reasonable quote. However, to be fair to your ID, wld be good to let him/her know your true expectations to avoid arguments later.

From Tiler To Contractor To Tiler To Driver The first person i seeked advise frm aft buying my unit was an acquaintance who used to do odd job as a tiler cum painter freelance. Then he started to take on whole projects and sub-out the things he couldnt do like carpentry. He couldnt fight with the big boys for the hdb market so he just did mainly resale condo. Fussy clients wld find the slightest fault with the work done and in the end after numerous rectifications, he wld give up and give discount or even forego the final payment. The one project that made him give up as a contractor and go back to being a tiler....a resale condo in the south-eastern part of spore. The client flew overseas frequently so rendered little to no support when it came to dealing with the Management Committee. The Chairman of the Management Committee was of the same race as the client. The Chairman stayed one flr below the unit undergoing reno. He worked the night and slept till early noon in the day. Work was only allowed to commence at 2 30pm(his rule) and was to stop at 5.30pm (management rule) So naturally there was delay in handing over. At first the client claim nevermind nevermind. Prefered not to fight for contractor's right. Then upon handing over found fault with minor minor things and brought up that because project delay by 6 mths he incurred additional rental cost. Soooooo Discount!! Making a huge lost on a severely overun project. Coming up next....how to nego a gd deal for your resale condo

Resale Condo - The Unloved Child of IDs Just for this post, resale condo here refers to developments older than 5 yrs and the residents there have stayed long enough to forget that renovations are noisy and messy affairs. Below is kind of like a flash back for me too. So you've just put your downpayment down, got your bank loan approved. You're thinking what a bargain! Lets do up everything! You send out your floor plan and job list to IDs ,contractors and carpenters thinking they will be tripping themselves over for this fat project...........PAHLeeeeeeeesssss!! BTOs vs Resale HDB vs Resale Condo BTO Walk pass any ID showroom and you will see displayed prominently are attractive packages for BTOs. The big ID firns are all fighting for this piece of fat meat. Why? The lifts are all boarded up. Most units are undergoing reno so in the event something is damaged, very hard for HDB to pin point a particular ID firm. Most importantly, no one to complaint about noise and mess. Resale HDB ID firms dish out pretty decent packages for this market pie. Mainly because HDB dwellers are generally easy going people. We r mostly nice and tolerant of our neighbours, hence very little complaint abt noise n mess. Unless you stay in Yishun of course. If you r a Yishunite and the song "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" by The Clash is playing in your head. Just remember this....Halimah loves you Resale Condo If you've read till here, then i guess you lot are not into quickies. For resale condo, we too have our reno package.....its the most expensive package. IDs taking on our project means having to deal with security, estate manager and fussy neighbours. Its kind of like staying in a condo makes one noise intolerant. So how does one nego a good reno deal for resale condo??? More on this later. Coming up next...(Based on a true story)

Prelude To The Grandpa Story Anyone actually looking forward to this post?? This is kind of like a warning post. The next post will be a looooong one. Its sort of relevant to reno, more for owners of resale condo and newbie IDs. Hope no one reads till the end then grumbles, "WT£! Totally not relevant to me, wasted 5 mins of my life! I could have made a baby with that time!" Story akang datang, will type, read and post as i go along....patience young jedi

Resale and condo, when combined together it becomes a very vulgar word to IDs and contractors. While we are choosing them, they are choosing us. Might dwell more on this in my blog in a couple days time when i feel like telling old grandpa stories. In the meantime, happy sourcing.

Wah seh, i just realised i typed a whole long grandfather story without answering Han Xiang's question. Must be cos it was done at 5am. Ok i wake up liow bro. To answer your question now. Nope not possible to have 0 scratches on your wardrobe. Tiles finishing near the wardrobe wont be nice also. Never heard of hacking floor without removing wardrobe b4. If you do go ahead with hacking pls share photos, i like to be corrected every once in a while.

Hi, just read thru your whole journey frm start to end and realised its you who inspired me to go to Choo Chiang. Thks for the tip. Since posting my blog, I have a habit of reading other ppl's last pg, now slowly playing catch up. Are those electrical cables laid on the floor? If they are, its an accident waiting to happen. Not to you guys the current owners, but when you sell. The new owners wont know about this and if they undergo a reno, the demolition workers might be in danger of electrocution. Be sure to inform your new buyers when you sell. The worst that could happen.....you inform your buyers and they go ok ok, but they dont under go reno. Later when they sell they forget all about it and nvr inform the new buyers.

Hi Han Xiang, thks for the update. First off b4 i give you my opinion, hope you understand i can be quite straight sometimes and really mean no harm. If i m in your situation, i wont hack the door frame n tiles. I always believe thgs happen for a reason and sometimes thgs dont go our way may not be a bad thg, its someone up there wanting to help us. Now back to your situation. Firstly, since the masterbedroom door has been tilted, you and you wife take turns n stand at the bedroom room entrance feet slightly apart and align yourselves to the new angle facing out. Does it feel weird? Does it give you a bad vibe? If it doesnt then we proceed to next step Blue colour in masterbedroom is really a no no colour when it comes to feng shui as it signifies water. Water washes away the passion and love, hence no good. The slanted tiles look more obvious bcos of the blue wall and aircon trunking. Mayb try painiting a pastel pink or pastel yellow colour so that it blends in with the floor better. You can try to get your ID to do this for you FOC. Its much much cheaper than hacking everythg As i suggested previously, for the wardrobe area, just use an odd shaped rug with striking colours will solve your prob there.

Thks for sharing, its a good idea.

Your second property??? If so i must thank u on behalf of ah gong for contributing absd to the ah gong fund Anyway now is a good time to buy, with enbloc craze back, only a matter of time the tide turns

Love your hexagon display cabinet, its beautiful! Personal opinion is that quartz is much hardier and easier to maintain. If you eat Hai Di Lao u will notice that their tables are all quartz....when they are clearing the table, one wipe and all the stains are gone and the table looks like new again.

Totally agree with you on this, but its so easy for logistics co that are not pte ltd to get out of bad reviews.....just go ACRA set up a new co. and they can start with a fresh sheet. So maybe b4 engaging a mover, wld be gd to chk how long they have been in business. Wah thanks for the compliments ah! So tempted to give you a like but wait ppl say i kelong

Your 3D drawings are nice. Is there any reason why the TV cannot be on the storage staircase side? You could have your sofa on the wall side instead. Would not only save you $1 to $2 k on the TV console and feature wall, also make the walking path to the balcony wider.....sorry just love that balcony. Of course that would also mean giving up some of the storage space at the staircase. Alternatively if storage space is precious commodity, you could have some storage space built above the TV at the feature wall side. I find that feature wall is somethg that most IDs mark up alot. Carpenters charge a low psf for this while IDs charge a high pfr