This is our first house. A resale 4S flat located at st 12, walking distance to J8 & MRT.

Floor plan first…

Very very very ORIGINAL condition~

Background : ~20 years old 4S flat.

COV : 8k (Fixed the purchase price before valuation done)

Conditions :

Previously tenanted out for more than 10 years.

High floor with unblocked view from kitchen & 2 bedrooms’ window. NS facing, very windy.

A lot of build in cabinets + bath tub.

(Previous owner very “in”, 20 years ago already installed bath-tub leh, don’t play play )

For our renovation...all the existing items (entire house flooring/wall tiles, toilet acc, wardrobe, cabinet, doors, doorframes, grills, windows etc etc etc) ===> will go. A complete overhaul...hahaha

For easier reference, my hb (eddieadc) and I decided to post all the photos @ page 1

Edited December 2, 200817 yr by lakaik

Renovation journey begins

We started looking out for suitable ID/contractor to makeover our house since the day we signed OTP. After 3 months of “window-shopping” & “interviewing” a lot of IDs & contractors, we decided to engage sub-contractors.

Kinda very particular/picky especially on the workmanship and choose a group of sub-contractors to reno our home. They did the project coordination themselves and the sub-contractors move from renovation to renovation… The main contractor is my wet workz / tiling contractor, Ah Chuen. Very satisfied with his workmanship…never happier

=> there will always be some additional items to be added during the course of renovation; using sub-con it’s far cheaper

=> IDs tends to charge more but not necessarily mean better quality of work;

=> we want the quality workmanship that fits nicely into our slim budget

From this forum, we read a lot of advice not to engage sub-contractors unless you have plenty of time or if you only do minor renovation. We beg to differ, as we managed to find a group of sub-cons (they are friends for decades) who do the project coordination themselves.

We are doing total overhaul makeover for our house, everything have to go. It is now the 4th week of the renovation and we are very pleased with our sub-contractors and we think that they have excellent workmanship & attitude. By using sub-contractors, we may not save a lot compare to the cheapest quotation we get, but we are very sure that the workmanship & material used are much much better.

By using sub-contractors, we are more involved in the renovation progress and every detail/design/material is decided / chosen by us. This is simple as we know what to do after going to 10-12 IDs hahahaha.

Sub-contractors are more flexible compare with ID. Along the renovation process, we may have some ideas come across our mind, and it is very easy to communicate with these people and made changes accordingly without topping up $$ (ie: built a hollow block half-height wall…only use their labour hahaha). If we have engaged ID from the very first day, guess we have to top up at least few Ks more for our overall renovation & if suey suey engage some unscrupulous IDs then we will get jia-lat workmanship.

We have a very long “wish list” but due to the budget constrain, wish list remains as it is. We wanted to keep everything within budget because our cash is not “fat” enough and reno-loan is a big NO No no to us. We only want to do what we can afford. Till date, we are still within our budget. We are doing a simple and practical overhaul.

To be continued...

Edited December 2, 200817 yr by eddieadc

Aiyak, how come reno 2 image size looks different. Suppose to be the same like others... not sure why...

Edited December 3, 200817 yr by lakaik

Main Door

Living Hall

Kitchen View 1

Kitchen View 2

Masterbedroom

Edited December 30, 200817 yr by eddieadc

Masterbedroom Toilet

Common Toilet

WIW Door

WIW View 1

WIW View 2

Edited December 30, 200817 yr by lakaik

Bedroom 2

Sofa

Bedframe

Coffee Table

Lights

Edited December 30, 200817 yr by eddieadc

reserved

reserved

reserved

reserved

reserved

reserved

reserved

reserved

Congrats on your new home!

Can share your quotation for your total overhaul?

Good luck

Very clever hor... I am thinking what are those "reserved" for... now I know...

It is a good idea to engage contractor as they can provide better material when they earn a bit more..