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Hi All, Finally decided to write down my reno journey. Not a fan of writing/blogging but I'll try to note down as detail as possible. Also, pardon my lousy english >.< Here's some photos of the unit. Doggy guarding our maindoor From Entrance Living Room Kitchen Hallway Room 1

hello! just received my keys on thursday (: edited with my floor plan (: will continue to edit whenever i can! will start my reno soon!!!! our living room! our entrance! on the right is our bomb shelter (: our kitchen (: bedroom 1 bedroom 2 master bedroom (:

Hi all! After roaming renotalk t-blog for so long, it's time for some contribution. Like everyone else, after years of waiting, i finally got my keys. Below will be my floor plan: Next... Selection of ID time!

Hello everyone! Having seen the various blogs and excitement over home ownership and renovation, I decided to start this blog to account my own journey towards a place my wife and I would soon call 'home'. Ours is a cosy one bedroom condo unit measuring 527 sq ft or 49 sqm. Yeps, you read it right! It's small! But, with just the both of us and a little bundle of joy coming our way, it should be sufficient and easy to maintain for now! Below is the floor plan of our unit! We thank God that it's squarish and therefore easy to conceptualise in accordance to what we have in mind. The theme in mind we have is Modern English/French Classic. We didn't want it to be too Victorian or Baroque as those requires bigger spaces. Hence, we opted for a simpler touch with a mix blend of black and white as our main colors, thus invoking colonial style in mind as well. We were lucky to come across an exact same size junior suite when we stayed in Fairmont Le Montreux Palace in Switzerland for our honeymoon! We immediately fell in love with the whole mood, design and layout that we decided to replicate much of what we see there here in our own home. Below are pictures of the suite: As you can see, one of the practical thing about this layout is that the TV is able to swivel from the living room to the master bedroom. The other functionality about this is that the other part of the TV is a glass mirror. Hence, it can be used both ways - as a decorative piece in the living room if you do not wish to have your guests engaged in watching the TV or use it as a dressing mirror in the bedroom. We also love the white-washed wall beadings and cornices. No false ceiling either but just a central chandelier. Simple and elegant. What we intend to do different however is to have the cornices in black just as the picture below: Will leave all of you with that for now! Next up would be furniture inspirations!

A beautifully designed room built around the conceptual idea of a black and white simplistic modern design which also reimburses itself in classical abstract lines. The contrast in lighting helps with bringing out the details of the room from the art pieces and interior decor material. Spotlights help bring out a gallery perspective on the elements of the room and can be seen to be a good way of completing the experience A stunning set of classical furniture flavored with artistic elements which are used to highlight the atmosphere of the room without taking too much away from the cleanliness aspect of the whole picture. Even the kitchen has an artistic feel to it that is thrown out of place with the floral-abstract wallpaper contrast and the use of a black fridge. The bunk bed is built in and non-removable with a hard thick design that matches the environment of the whole home. Opposing walls are textured or painted differently to bring out contra without much distraction from the main purity theme of the overall design. We can see here again that subtle black and white decor is the best preference to keep everything in line with the main theme of the design. Lastly, we have a slightly darker shade of wallpaper with a repeated square pattern housing abstract art and design cues from energy and nature.

Final Product my lovely wife and i bought a house back 2011, now i just can't wait for the day we will be getting the key. Our flat is near its completion and so i decided to start researching on renovation, heres our floor plan HDB floor plan HDB suggested layout My own layout Color code: red - cabinet blue - table yellow - sofa green - wardrobe orange - bed pink - fridge i designed this layout based on the following reasons: 1. we will be living with my parents so we only need 2 bed rooms 2. Suggested study room beside living room will not be constructed as we prefer bigger living space 3. we will make a suite by joining bedroom 2 & MBR, bedroom 2 will be walkin wardrobe + study room. 4. kitchen service yard will be hacked to make kitchen more spacious, windows will be installed at the service yard my bro-in-law is an ID so he will help us draw an autocad version of our dream layout and give us some advice for the arrangement of furnitures, material to use, design etc The design we're looking for is simplicity and ease of maintenance, something like Scandinavian

I've been reading the t-blogs off and on for quite a bit and I must say, I really love some of the works here! My wife and I had purchased our first place in the western area of Singapore about a year ago (as we all work in the west) and it is an old 5 room HDB flat, conveniently located near a shopping mall, bus interchange and MRT. Because of it's convenience, we paid a truckload of money for it! Because of the amount we spent on the home, and because we are mostly practical people, we didn't really think want a very fancy home that required a lot of cleaning. So a simple, modest, no frills home is what we were going for. This also meant: 1) no cove lights, no false ceilings 2) little built in furniture 3) lots of space around In fact, we didn't even put in any blinds (or curtains) for about a year after we moved in! Because of our needs, I think it made it harder for our ID, who happened to be a relative of ours We did however did a makeover of all the water pipes and electrical wiring, as I felt those were the most important bits of a renovation. We are Catholics, so we had also wanted a prayer room in our home, and for it to be in a place at the centre of our home and I must say that we are very happy about how the room turned out! Anyway, it has been a year since we moved in, and the journey taught us a lot of things, and I thought to be able to share some of them with you here. especially on how things are like 1 year on! So first up, the entrance! The prayer room will be the first room that greets everyone who walks through the door. Don't worry, no one has to bow or anything, but I think it did make our neighbours do a double-take when they see our home when our door is open! To the right of our prayer room, is our sitting area. We did not want a typical living room area, and wanted just a space to chill and read, or when we have guests over, to sit around and chit chat. Because we are also starting a family, we wanted it to be as baby-safe as possible and as you can see, even for our table, it is actually a bean-bag in disguise! The round plates below the living room air-condition is actually some decorations that we bought from SKP for a birthday party that we had. The wife had put it up there and even though the party was over, we couldn't bear to take it down because they looked so pretty! We had also kept the living room floors because it was in such good condition. And too costly to hack it or overlay it! It's still pretty shiny, as you can see from the photos below, which is really kudos to the previous house-owners for maintaining it so well! Beind the sitting area, and on your right if you just step into the house, is our dining area. It's a beautiful deep-brown table bought from Castlery during a sale. They were phasing out this model and thus we got it at a good price. You can head over there to ask for which models are phasing out and ask them to give you a discount! Our lights should look familiar to all, they are the Ikea hotdog stand area lights! Very cheap and we can replace them anytime. Good news is, one year on, they are still white! The area behind the dining room is our kitchen, which we will come to later. From the other side, you can see our Daiso fan and a little shelf on the left. This little shelf is actually a narrow Muji shelf that we flipped on its side. We had used it to house our modem (because shifting the fibre network point to the rooms are so costly!) and also our speakers that are connected to a Chromecast Audio set. It is a must-have if you find Sonos speakers too costly. Just get any normal speaker, hook it up to the $50 dongle, set it up by connecting it to your wireless network, and viola. You can play music remotely on it! Some people ask me why it is better than Bluetooth and the answer is this; Bluetooth just transmits sound from your phone/computer to the speaker. For Chromecast, the dongle actually is the one streaming the music, not your phone. All you do is to send instructions to it. This means that you can continue to take calls and watch other things on your phone while your music is playing! As for the Daison fan, a must have for practical people. Just one Magic-clean wipe and you are done! No dismantling of anything and so on. Yes it is a bit noisier than a regular fan but not that much. Power wise is also good, unless you are standing a mile away. The most important thing is, it is super child-friendly too! It doesn't topple easily, because it kind of sticks to your floor. But it doesn't use tape or anything, so there is no sticky residue left on the floor if you move the fan. Next up is the kitchen! Like every young couple, we don't really use the kitchen much! I had contemplated a kitchen island because we have such a big space for the kitchen, but looking back, other than the costs, it might not be that child friendly so I think retrospectively, it is a good idea. We wanted a cement screed wall so that it will be easier to maintain, compared to tiles, where we have to clean and I must say that it was a good choice. We didn't need to have a backsplash too, because our stove actually came with a cover that can be used as a backsplash. We did have some learning points though; always cater for electrical devices in your kitchen and if possible, don't use your counter, especially if counter space is limited. We didn't really factor this in, and thankfully we don't cook complex dishes, if not, it will be a problem! Because our kitchen doesn't get a lot of light as we narrowed the entrance to our laundry area, the black shelves might not have been such a good idea. We had wanted this colour theme as it was similar to our church, but we realise that it doesn't work so well for small spaces with little light. We probably should have chosen a different colour. We also installed a fan in the kitchen, and I must say, I will be putting a fan in as many kitchens as I move into! It is so useful for dissipating smells and when cleaning, everything dries up faster! This is our sink area. Once again because of the wide space in the middle of the kitchen, sometimes we have to travel quite a bit between the sink and the stove! Not that it is a big problem, but we could have better used the space. But because there is such a big space, it really feels very airy and we can probably fit a movable island in the future if we need to. We have a double sink from Tekka, also a must-have because I think single sinks make it so difficult to wash dishes! However, I wouldn't recommend Tekka sinks because they scratch easily. Tekka taps however, are simply the best! You might have noticed the yellow plates, those were a gift from my parents, the old Mobil plates that you used to get if you pump petrol with them all the time. We inherited a whole bunch of them! Many of our friends, especially the older ones have them. You can also see a simplehuman sponge tray, which is really fantastic and looks really slick and even one year on, it still looks shiny! Now we do have a laundry area but because there is actually laundry there now, so I will post it up at another time. Our MBR is up next. Nothing fancy, it is the only room with a false ceiling (other than the MBR bathroom). We had a false ceiling done and build up cabinets to cover up most of the air-con trunking so it isn't really obvious. We had a bay-area set up, which we don't really use (does anyone have any ideas on what we can do with an un-used bay area?). I was thinking of converting it to more storage space actually! Our ID had also done up these movable side drawers, which are really good for cleaning and if you want flexibility. Especially if you have plans to set up a cot/playpen beside your bed for a future kid. I got the bedside lamps (the ones that every has) from a random shop in Balestier and our bedside switches control the bathroom lights so that it's more convenient for us. It also makes it easier for me to pull pranks on my wife when she's using the bathroom! I just wish that I had also made the switch to be able to control the main bedroom lights (which are the only lights that are dimmable in the whole house). Dimmable lights are super important for bedrooms. Next up is the MBR bathroom. I think it is gorgeous, especially at night. My ID had made a special compartment in the mirror so I can put an upside down tissue box, to dispense tissue. There are also shelves below, which I somehow missed out when I was snapping pictures. Open shelves are so important! And the Muji baskets are really helpful in storing stuff in those open shelves. I also got the usual Ikea transparent boxes to keep toilet paper! I also insisted on Grohe taps and shower heads for their (advertised) durability. So far the rainshower has been great, and it feels strange showering without one! The inset shelves in the bath area is also very helpful, just remember to build it slightly tilted so stray water doesn't stay! Now the remaining 2 bedrooms are pretty much renovation free, no built in furniture at all, as we want to keep it flexible in case our needs become different in the future. We currently have one designated room for a future child, which now houses a wardrobe and that's about it, and the other one is our TV/computer room. We got the beanbags from the same place that we got the ones in the living room, and that is from Ambient Lounge! The only tricky things about beanbags are the cleaning part. While the beans can be removed rather easily, cleaning them is quite tricky as the cloths are quite bulky! We had actually gotten the cloth mural from Disneyland, Florida, when we were there for our honeymoon a year ago. My father-in-law had set it up for us and done so beautifully. The hanging lights were cheap lights from Ikea and gave the room a "cafe-like" feeling. It's good to put the TV and computer together, as my wife and I can do our work and relax at the same time in the same space! Pretty useful when there are only 2 of you at home! The wooden table was also purchased from Ikea, which is basically a combination of a flat piece of wood with 2 supporting A-frames, all for just $100+ at that time. A really good deal as the piece of wood is very solid and thick, and I've no worries about bending. It's quite big and deep and as you can see, it houses many stuff! The bookcase was actually left behind by the previous house-owners. Once again, it is in such good condition that we just continued to use it after cleaning it! The semi-glass door is also really helpful and the stuff inside doesn't get dusty at all! I will update again about our nifty laundry area (which has a sink of its own) and also the cleaning supplies that we use!

Yeah!! Finally it is time for me to write my very first reno T-Blog, had been reading T-blog for like near 1 year, and had been patiently waiting for the time for my key collection so I can start on my T-blog soon. As per tradition, here is my 5 room Floor plan, got my keys on 3rd Jan, my reno (hacking first) will be starting on 2nd Feb. Now is the rectification period with the BSC folks. Already 2nd round, hopefully coming week can clear all the defects. I guess it's pretty standard layout for most of the BTOs, below is the HDB suggested layout. And this is my 2D layout, this is not the latest, there are some changes, yet to get the updated layout plan from my ID. Because this layout plan was done before i got the keys, so after getting the keys, realize that there may be some space constraint, so waiting for the latest copy.

my flat is coming and we will be blowing out budget at our wedding. looking for some simple home decor that isn't expensive but yet stylish. hoping to make my house look somewhat like this avoiding expensive built in carpentry. like this airy feel at home no clutter

Hi All, I would like to share one of my up coming project located at Fajar Hills. Before that I would like to clarify that I am an ID myself and I have been sharing some of my completed and ongoing projects here in this forum. Do feel free to comment or ask me anything you might want to know about the renovation. Concept Images Layout Plan Living area Master Bedroom Thanks for viewing.

The Nest We had been scouting around for our own place for quite a while and looking back, it did seem that we were taking forever to nail down a place we want to call our first home. Our requirements for our own property then were simple - BIG and cheap... Probably that explained why we were forever looking for our property back then! In Singapore context where land is scarce, it's almost mission impossible to find one that is big and yet cheap... Well... Unless, it's old!!! And so our quest for such property brought us to our current home - an ex-HUDC apartment in the west. At 1,700 square feet going at less than $700 psf, it fulfilled exactly the 2 main requirements that we were looking for in our first home. Never mind the fact that it's coming to 30 years old. To add icing to the cake, all the 3 rooms and the living room have unblocked view of the scenic Chinese Gardens in front of us!

Hi, I'm new here. I just need some opinion on how to find direct tilers for tile installation job. And carpenters for all kitchen cabinets and wardrobes. How do you search for them? Classifieds? Or any particular directories? I do not want all these contractors and interior designers who are just the middlemen and are in to make big commissions. Not everybody has a lot of funds you know. My friend who is an ID calculated my house at 841 sqft Supply labour and material to lay 3 in 1 prepack cement @Living, Dining and 3 Bedroom $? Supply labour and material to lay 600mm x600mm homogeneous floor tiles and skirting @Living and Dining $? Supply labour and material to lay 300mm x 150 mm homogeneous floor tiles and skirting @3 Bedrooms $? I really have a tight budget. So anybody can share some good direct contacts for tilers? Repeat: No contractors/IDs please.

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For celebrate Singapore 50th , we have create a SG50 sales , this is a great opportunity to let you refurnish your home. We only focus on 2 items like simple kitchen cabinet $100 per foot run and simple full height swing $200 per foot run or sliding Wardrobe $220 per foot run. For those who are interesting please call 96122476( Jax ) / 6842 0785 or email to star50@gmail.com.

We wanted our new home to look very simple 'like nothing at all'. We approached total of 3 IDs and 2 contractors. The quotations from 2 IDs were quite competitive (the another ID took my floorplan and did not get back to us), as for the contractors… I’m quite surprise myself that both quotations were on the high side and told me that I am unable to hack some walls. But to be fair, both different contractors did say that he need to go on site to give us a precise quotation. Yet comparing the psf charges from the contractors, their price are abit higher than the IDs. Ended up, we signed with one of the ID, Ronnie (Mr. OK Can), whom right till now, drawn us with his responsive and straight forwardness, most importantly we are comfortable with his presence. Every time we saw some minor issues, his reply always go 'Ok, can' and things will be fix swiftly. My renovation cost (paid 95% already) is $23,000 excluding flooring which we went direct to Evorich $4,782.90, so summing up to: $27, 783. This is our progress till today:

Finally have time to pen down my first renovation journey though nothing has officially started. Let me start with how I ended up with buying this 4A resale unit in Bukit Batok. Having stayed in Tiong Bahru for so long, it is really quite sad to acknowledge that with my budget it is very hard to afford a decent 4A unit in this area. So I extended the search further and further, and finally decided on Bukit Batok. Hard for me to find one unit within my budget from Tiong Bahru to Jurong (I searched based on the East-West MRT track, LOL). Chose BB because it is quite near Jurong, where the happening places are and the price seems okay for my budget. However, I have to admit that I hate Jurong East MRT and I think the authority seriously should do something about the crowd there. So I viewed close to 20 units in BB area and got a bit sian when I could not seem to find the "perfect" unit even after I extended my search. Have been viewing units from Jan till Jun and one fine day in June saw this unit that is abt 6 mins walk from the MRT and decided that is it. It is a 29-year-old unit with a floor area of 107sqm (the slightly larger size is due to its odd shape). The unit is in good condition but I still feel like doing an overhaul because the last renovation was done 10 years ago. When my friends and colleagues asked me about the price I paid, I tended to get reaction like "very expensive for a unit in BB leh, so ulu" or something along the line. It made me wonder whether I made the wrong choice due to my viewing fatigue. Sometimes when I check PropertyGuru and feeel a bit sad to see similar units with lower asking price. I tell myself not to regret and try to make the most out of what I have. Well, the choice has been made and I will be going for my 1st appt in early Aug. Here's the floor plan!

Hey everybody! After reading many of the forums here on Renotalk, I'm extremely pleased to say that it is finally my turn to do my renovation. My flat: Buangkok Vale @ Buangkok Green Size: 4 room A short story on my flat: Actually keys to the flat were given out in March 2013, but I had just then filed for a divorce with my ex-husband. Finally obtaining my legal documents from the Courts in June, I made an appeal to HDB to retain the flat with my name and my son's name, and after 1 year of struggling with non-responses from HDB, i have just only collected my keys to the flat in early August. After doing the necessary rites and etc, here are some pics of my flat! (1 year worth of dust on the floor has already been swept and mopped!) The main hall (ignore unused trash bag) The view from the window: Collage of the rooms and corridor: And one last one of my cheeky happy boy... More to come on my ID choice next post!

Hi guys i would like to share my rollercoaster journey which was what i went through for my renovation and i am so happy it turned out to be stunning when it was, at the midway, destined to look like a war torn battlefield. i got my keys in july and one month prior to that around mid june, my wife and i started sourcing for ids so we went imm , toh guan, the hot spotrs and decided to sign with a reliable id firm at toh guan (or so that's what we thought!). upon signing i was asked for my ic and had to make a payment of 10%. ok this is where the nightmare begins. the date of commencement stated in the contract was 1st july. mine is a resale flat at jelapang so needed to demolish everything. when i called the id as i took leave on that day, he told me had to postpone as hdb didnt approve for the works. so i asked jack which was our id at this firm why dfidnt jhe notufy us of this delay, i mean my wife and i bothj took leave to prepare for this day. he said hdb informed them very late. so didnt want to make things difficult i told jack its ok but next time inform me pls. when i called up jack to check when was the commencement of my reno was going to be. the hp was off dso i called the office . and i was veery rufdely toldf off by the person at the end of the line. i told myself thats it, im going to case and how do u expect me to trust a unreliable person to do my reno in one piece. almost seems like all talk no reno wqhen they were telling me about my renovation b4 i signed. I was quite lost. i was staying in a rented room whivh will expire in a month and my renovation still not started and at least a week will be wated im sure to have to stay at a friends plc or hotel as i thought it would be impossible to finish by 3 weeks and not forgetting my wife and I both have full time jobs. i informed my mum about this and asked for advice as i was lost and it was turning to be a really bad situation, stress and all. my mum told me her friends all engage this id which have been doing their new houses and she van speak to him and will asks if he could help my situation out. within an hr i got a call from mr lee, he asked for more info and i highlightd to him the end of my tenancy agreement isuue and his exact wds was " ok mr leong, u free now?' "we go choose tiles now". he drtove down to pick my wife and i at our rented plc at chua chu kang and drove to balestier and we picked the tiles which we wanted and he also showed us the photos of some of the tiles combinations and also told us the pros and cons of certain tiles etc. which i den realuse, the previous id DID not even let me choose which tiles i wanted which makes me wonder even if the permit went through, how would theyt know what tiles i wanted? i mean im paying for my reno, i should be able to choose? my gosh.. by the next day mr. lee came up to my house with the quotation and work schedule which his gonna try to get everything done in 3 weeks. while speaking to us his hp kept ringing he had to either silent the phone or pick up and say call u back. this guy is really going all out for us! the best part is we didnt show him our quotation froim the other firm nor did he ask, mr lee quoted us $10k cheaper!! and true enough i got whatsapp messages daily on the progress and i practically saw my house hacked , to tiles laying to plastering .. all on his daily whatsapp update of pics and wds. everything went on so smoothly my wife and i knew that Mr. Lee may not be as flambuoyant as those animated characters at the over advertised firms but i tell u, his planning and management skills are second to none. After the hand over we invited mr Lee over he came for half an hour and u guessed it, he had to oversee an ongoing bsite on a saturday.. but one thing he said really made us feel so happy to know our house was not only renovated by Mr. Lee , it was SAVED by him too. this was his exact words which after that day Mr. Lee was not only our reno guy, he is also our family friend. Thanks Lee. hats of to u! "when i do any house, i put myself in the owner's position and ask myself how would i feel and is it reasonable. that was why i took the job mr danny" - Mr Lee as for the id firm that that was not even doing anything but took my $ , it has sinced closed and the case is still under investigation by cpib . fingers crossed. wish me luck.

Hi everyone, I have been following Renotalk for some time and now being eligible to purchase a flat of my own, the time has come for me to make some contributions. After viewing more than 10 units, I finally found the place I would call home at Yishun. Although the COV was quite high for a 3 roomer, the location is excellent and the layout, clean and simple. My floor plan: Being a simple guy, here begins my simple Renovation Journey. More to come...

Hi all, I have been wanting to write about my renovation experience for a while now but have been putting it off until now . We took our keys back in July 2013 and officially moved in in Nov 2013. This forum has been a great source of information for me and I would like to give something back to the community. Hopefully, it will be of some benefit to anyone who is reading this . First of all, the floor plan: We started researching for our renovation since 2012. We read forums and flipped through home decor magazines at the library or bookstores etc. Take pictures - they might come in handy in future when you meet with contractors. A good idea is to write your notes in Google Drive so you can access them anywhere. We also kept a spreadsheet with all the quotation breakdowns from the contractors/IDs we contacted. This keeps things neat and easy to compare. Do include the prices of everything else you will need to budget for e.g. furnishings, electrical works etc. In this way, we knew for sure how much we spent in total for renovation (including all hidden costs!). Try to know what you want before going around asking for quotations. For example, we knew (after looking through countless magazines ) that we want a Scandinavian look for our house. That means: - furniture with simple and clean lines - bright, open spaces - light-color themes - wood-looking flooring - minimalism In short, there are lots of planning and research to do even before getting your keys. Do walk around home exhibitions (regularly at Expo) and furniture stores (IKEA). Shortlist the stuff that you like. Take note of prices and put them down in your budget spreadsheet. We had planned for a renovation budget of 40K (including furnishings) and I was quite proud that we spent within our budget AND did not compromise on the Scandinavian vision . Preview: I will try to narrate and dissect our renovation process in future posts in this topic so stay tuned! (I am rather slow in writing, so bear with me, hopefully just need a few weeks! ). P.S. In the meantime, you can head over to my wife's blog (http://yunzhijian.blogspot.sg/) for pictures and her views on our renovation (YES she has already finished her blog!! And I am still on my first post!!)

Hi my 3 room premium bto ( I have opt out the doors ) will be ready for key collection early next year.i have a tight budget and I just want to keep my house simple , any good contractor to recommend & any idea the cost will roughly be like ? Below are the stuff which I thought of doing : 1) kitchen - masonry (montar base), plumbing , carpentry work , installing of sink etc 2) service yard - montar base for washing machine , plumbing work , windows at service yard etc 3) doors - 2 bed room doors & 2 pvc toilet doors ( either cellular foam bi folding / folding doors ) 4) toilets - installing heater 5) electrical works 6) installing the lights 7) painting Seek all your advice & many thanks .

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