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Makster

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Everything posted by Makster

  1. Forgot to list my door contractor, they did a good job installing 2 bifold bathroom doors. I got Ace ID.
  2. Here's the man himself if anyone's interested! Good service, very professional and responsible, and even vacuumed after!
  3. I'm so excited to finally get my digital smart lock! Ordered online and got Mr Lee to install. Was hesitating for a long time cos my gate was stiff after changing a few broken latches and repainting the gate. Didn't know how to fix the problem. Thought it'd be silly to fix a new lock on a creaky stiff gate! Well, Mr Lee detected the problem straight away and fixed it without additional charge! I'm super chuffed my gate is now sooo smooth, swings out silently, and I don't have to play tug-of-war with it anymore! It's also fun to swipe my finger to unlock the gate almost instantaneously! No more carrying bunches of keys!
  4. It's glossy but not as smooth as homogenous tiles, anti-slip, doesn't feel as cold to the touch as say marble. Easy to clean. Well, at least for black and white colours like mine, easy to touch up too! I noticed the green staircase in my daughter's school has black stains after a year but I suppose it's probably not well taken care of in the first place! many public places use epoxy paint too like HDB corridors, void deck, school toilets etc!
  5. The other section we painted over with epoxy paint is our kitchen cum dining. We had it done all in simple white this time. And because we're quite into the black frame trend, we paid extra to have the window frames @ the bathrooms & the kitchen painted black! There are lotsa colours to choose from for epoxy paint. You gotta mix the epoxy paint with 20% hardener. We contemplated DIY but decided our skill set wasn't good or fast enough - epoxy dries to a sticky finish fast (though complete drying is like 12 hours). The fumes are also quite noxious so ... Glad we left it to the pros! These pictures were taken by them... We didn't stay around much after they started work! My total cost of epoxy painting came up to $1700 for all walls and floor for 2 bathrooms, kitchen/dining, including paint. I don't know how long it'll last honestly, I can detect minor nicks and scratches in the kitchen if I look hard enough, but at this price, which also entails less hassle and cleanup, and a turn-around time of just 2 weeks to reno and move...we're pretty happy our gamble into unknown territory paid off! I only wish I'd discovered epoxy painting earlier! So is epoxy painting for you? Well, if you like simple colours, either plain glossy like mine, or the snowflake epoxy with its granite look that I personally didn't have a thing for, then it's a cheap and fast option. Don't expect grey slate tiles or timber tiles look - I had to give up on that design direction and make do. White and black generally look classy hence they were our choices. If you look through jaybon's portfolio on his Facebook account, you'd see he's done pink, green, yellow and lotsa grey too for other homeowners.
  6. Ok so here are some pics as promised! Here's the bathroom with its original blue tiles! Everything whitewashed with 1st layer of primer. Remember to clean your bathroom thoroughly before painting - I used Mr Muscle to maje sure all mould is removed prior as painter won't have time to clean for you! My "new" shower frame is trendy black! Got my floors a coat of black to glam it up! And finally... New doors New WC New wash basin c/w stainless steel cabinet, mirror, shelf & side cabinet New shower set New stainless steel shelves New stainless steel towel racks New 3-way ceiling light New toilet roll holder New bidet So basically the only stuff we kept were our stainless steel water heater and our glass shower frame!
  7. Hi! Yes! That's all we did for the floor and walls! Cheap & easy! No grout lines too.. all painted over. So no mould no black lines! I will post pics of the painting process soon. My painter is jaybon pro painter, mobile 8227 2177. You can find him on Facebook, he has a large repertoire! Everything incl cabinets can be painted according to him! My kitchen walls & floor were painted too! Alvin is a plumber. He dismantled the old WCs & basins and installed the new ones, as well as installed the sinks and faucets.
  8. Bathroom Reno Hack and retile was my 1st option to redo the bathrooms but it'll cost 5 digits for 2 bathrooms.... Overlay was another and it was half the price. I've no experience with tiling but I've heard many people say there's a possibility tiles will pop up over time and overlaid tiles are not as durable... Then, I came across an article on EPOXY PAINTING Intrigued, I decided to find out more. You can Google "epoxy painting" or "polyurethane painting". It was almost perfect! I had no cracks on my tiles, they were just discoloured, stained, porous, and I hated the original light blue anyway! So painting seemed a good and very affordable way to change the colour and waterproof the tiles at the same time! Here's what I found out: epoxy painting is waterproof, mould-proof, doesn't discolour etc! In my painter's text to me: "polyuretane epoxy paint is weatherproof and waterprooof.very durable.use for painting ships and metal bridges..can wash with detergent,clorox everyday..can last long for toilets except cannot push or pull heavy furniture on the paint coz it can scratch.." So for $370/bathroom, walls and floor, what more could one ask for? My total cost for 2 bathrooms came up to $3000 including all WC, basins, cabinets, shower sets, lights etc. Basically changed everything except the heater as it was still good and this brand with stainless steel tank is now defunct (it's so good, nobody changed their waters heaters!) Oh btw, I had a great plumber. Really nice young chap and affordable & reasonable rates too. Fixed up everything in my bathroom incl WC, wash basin, cabinet, mirror, except the lights, shower which we DIY-ed using existing holes, and towel racks which my carpenter fixed. If anyone needs, here's his contact. Alvin: 9247 7110
  9. Thank you! Just small upgrades but it makes moving in less daunting! For sure I couldn't live with bathrooms like the previous ones!
  10. Thanks! The price is even more amazing... Will blog about it soon!
  11. And as promised, here are pictures of the completed revamped bathrooms! Ta-da! 180 degree change from before right?
  12. The new above, and a mixture of the old and the new below... Alright, so if anyone's interested, please call Yeo directly to enquire. Just tell him his customer Mak from Anchorvale recommended! He knows us very well by now hehe... I won't be sharing cost as he gave us a special old customer price and besides, the scope of work is different. Plus this time round, I did a lot of minor stuff only. Just tell Yeo what you need, I love bouncing crazy ideas off him! In my next post, I will talk about bathroom reno on the cheap and sharing my plumber contact! Stay tuned & give a shout-out here if you find my post useful!
  13. Years later, we took out the pond (what were we thinking??) to build a full-height shoe cabinet, & detached the built-in study table into a mobile desk which we placed @ the living room. The study room was transformed into a bedroom, and the build-in master bed with side table, headboard, and display shelves were ripped out, as well as the shelvings in all the bedrooms. We built three new cabinets in the new Scandinavian style -not sure if we successfully married the old and the new style, but we sure didn't want the hassle and added cost of tearing out everything from before, especially when they were in good condition! To change the laminate color was not a simple matter of putting new laminate over the doors like I previously thought. It actually involves ripping out the doors, and installing brand-new doors! Well, I still like the dark wood colors! And of course I didn't want to spend the extra moolah! Here are pictures of my recent reno. It is still a work-in-progress, though it's mainly just some minor nitty-gritty to be touched up, plus more shelving for my shoe cabinet cos we can never have too much space! i have not decided what to do with the bomb shelter hole, now that I took out the bamboo chick blinds. The pics are taken by me who's no photography buff so no fancy touches or ambient lighting like the old pics! Of course style is also very personal. We did a simple reno this time round, but I'm sure you can ask Yeo for snazzier designs! I'm still contemplating building another full-height cabinet where the bomb shelter hole is to put the whole wall to good use but that entails taking out the bench. It's a tough call, ripping out stuff you built, like, and which are perfectly usable, but I could do with an additional cabinet to hide bedsheets or toys as our storage beds are full! 3 kids sure have a lot of toys and clutter! ?
  14. Haha I know, but then you can better appreciate the improved version later on which may not seem like much until you realise how bad it was before!
  15. What impressed me though, was the quality of the existing carpentry! you can be sure, after looking at the photos of the bathrooms, that the tenants didn't take particular care of the flat! Yet the carpentry was solidly built and stood the test of time! I didn't have to change the wardrobes in the three bedrooms, any of the existing cabinets, the study table or the kitchen! Just some slight remodeling of the kitchen, and some dismantling of built-in furnitures we no longer needed in the bedrooms and to accommodate 3 kids! It felt wasteful really to rip out such solidly-built stuff! I am SOOO thankful I found a good and reliable carpenter 16 years ago; he used top quality materials and his workmanship was great! To me, value is NOT about getting the cheapest price. It is getting good and lasting quality at a reasonable price. That is what I got with Yeo, my carpenter of 16 years, whom I have engaged on and off over the years, and of course I used him again when I decided to renovate and move in! Who else could I trust? And who knew the place better than him? After all he built my entire flat in the beginning! And by a pure stroke of luck, he turned out to be my neighbour so he knew the layout very VERY well and checked on his workers' workmanship every night! As a further testament, I recognise one of the workers from 16 years ago!!! So this time round, to show my appreciation and also cos he's the "old-school, not techie type", I decided to share him with all of you! Scroll behind for his contact! These are old pictures of my initial reno 16 years ago. We did our place in resort style. Some call it modern Asian style!
  16. I decided to write about my "resale flat" reno (I lump under this category as flat is 16YO!) which cost us less than $10k for - 2 new bathrooms - 1 slightly remodelled kitchen, - 3 new cabinets - whole housepainting excl ceiling which was painted 4 years ago - plus miscellaneous like hacking and dismantling Hopefully, this will help homeowners on a budget save money, and I'm also hoping to do a good one for my contractors and to give credit to these good contractors, many of whom are not tech-savvy and do not know how to promote their biz! Good things must share right? ? first, to clarify, the reno is akin to that of a resale flat cos my 5-room is 15 1/2 years old. We stayed for 6 years, rented out for 9 years, then decided to move back. We have always DIY-ed our reno and this time is no exception. No doubt interior designers may give a more polished look but they charge a 33% premium, and I'd rather stretch my dollar to do more stuff! Of course, these disgusting toilets had to go first! The tenants have trashed them up so badly, they are worse than public toilets! Sorry if I spoilt your appetite for a meal! I nearly threw up when I came to inspect the premises!? 
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