Old New Flat On A Shoestring Budget

[kirinshibori 0]

Introduction

Welcome!

Disclaimer: there's nothing fancy here, everything's about practicality and value for money… So no nice 3Ds, space planning diagrams, etc., etc… Do bear with us as we chart our renovation process.

To be frank, we did not intend to get ourselves a new place to live this soon. There are a lot of changes in our lives at the moment and purchasing a new property was definitely not high on our priority list. Despite this, we were compelled to try our luck during the Sep 2011 Sale of Balance Flat exercise, and surprise, surprise, we got a queue number of 20!

We thought that the queue number wasn't too bad, until we realized that there were only 34 flats available. Ah well, no worries, we told ourselves, as my spouse is non-Chinese… but we thought wrong!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, our preference was to get a unit at River Vista @ Kallang, but when it came to our turn to choose, the only available units at RV were on the second level… After much deliberation (due to the ridiculously high selling price for the units at Kallang Heights), and some arguments with our customer service officer (mainly due to differences in the interpretation of ethnic allocation regulations), we selected a unit at Kallang Heights.

[kirinshibori 0]

Floor Plan

Quite a standard layout I must say, but our biggest lament was the lack of a service balcony. Well, we cook and do laundry every day, andthe two activities are not very compatible when they are confined to the same room, especially on a rainy day. So the initial design challenge was to have a kitchen that is friendly to both activities. After cracking our brains for almost 3 months, we gave up. The kitchen is simply not big enough to be partitioned, so we will just be using a gas dryer as well as dry our clothes indoors. The next design challenge was our bedroom. As my working hours are irregular, we wanted to have a walk-in wardrobe near to the master bedroom bathroom such that I would cause minimal disturbance to my spouse when I leave or return at some ungodly hour. Again, after wreaking our brains for almost 3 months, we gave up. As this was a last generation design, the windows are on the wrong side of the room, if it was away from the master bedroom bathroom, it would have been so much easier to segregate the sleep area from the ablution area. In the end, we opted for a very conventional layout for the master bedroom.

Edited March 30, 2012 by kirinshibori

[kirinshibori 0]

The Raw Flat

The Foyer.

View of the Kitchen from the Foyer.

View of the Home Shelter from the Kitchen.

Kitchen.

[kirinshibori 0]

Continued...

Living/Dining Room.

Corridor to the Bedrooms.

Bedroom 1.

[kirinshibori 0]

Continued...

Bedroom 2.

Master Bedroom.

Common Bathroom… tiles on the borderline of acceptability.

Master Bedroom Bathroom… these tiles have to go.

[kirinshibori 0]

Budgeting

When I said shoestring budget, it is no joke.The initial estimate was to complete essential works to get the flat in a move-in condition with $10k; with furniture, appliances and miscellaneous items, we wanted the entire process to take no more than $20k all in. After some planning, we managed to expand the budget, so it currently stands just north of $35k, and that's including all furniture, lighting, air-con, etc.; however, the initial outlay will be half of that. Sigh, talk about "no money still wanna do reno", haha… reminds me of another thread in T-blog.

[kirinshibori 0]

The Search for a Renovator

With the selection of our flat done in Nov 2011, we started our search for an ID/contractor and kick-started the process by visiting Expo fairs and sending the following to almost 20 IDs in Dec 2011.

We are looking at a Japanese Contemporary theme, which has a bright, airy and spacious feel as the flat is not very big, has dark external corridors and is facing other flats, thus may not get that much natural light.I have attached some images to illustrate the idea.

The confirmed works are flooring, window grilles, electrical, plumbing, kitchen cabinets, storage racks in the home shelter and full height shoe cabinet at the foyer, with a budget of <$10000 for the aforementioned items. Optional items are walk-in wardrobe in the master bedroom, wardrobes in bedrooms 2 and 3, shower screens for both toilets and exhaust fans for both toilets.

I will be requiring laminate flooring for living, dining andthe 3 bedrooms.

Window grilles are required for all windows with only the kitchen requiring sliding grilles.

For the kitchen, we are considering the possibility of incorporating a service balcony so that clothes can be hung indoors during rainy days while cooking goes on. The family cooks every day, but mainly Japanese and Continental style cooking, so no Asian big flame cooking. I am open to the idea of hacking the kitchen walls to facilitate the flow and planning of the kitchen and service balcony.

With regard to the living/dining room, we have an existing table for 6, but have no need for a TV feature wall, just a sofa for 3-4 people to sit and chat.

I have an existing queen-sized bed for the master bedroom measuring (2.1x1.7)m and the walk-in wardrobe, if proposed, should be designed such that it minimises disturbance to the sleeping spouse when transiting between the wardrobe and master bedroom toilet.

Bedroom 2 is for 2 children aged, 4 and 2. Space should be maximised to cater for their active play and they will be sleeping on mattresses on the floor that will be rolled and stored away during the day.

Bedroom 3 is for the maid.

There are no special requirements for the toilets, except for mirrors with storage.

Edited March 31, 2012 by kirinshibori

[kirinshibori 0]

Less than 10 IDs came back to us (I'm pretty sure it's the $10k budget, haha… And we started earnest discussions with them. There was also the wildcard entry of using Ikea's kitchen contractor. The following were IDs/contractors that we met:

1. Rezt n Relax (met over 3 months, first met at Expo fair and the patient designer went through countless design iterations after hearing our input; unfortunately we had to drop him due to cost)
2. Chew Interior (met thrice in Dec 2012, the sales designer had innovative ideas for the kitchen space but looking back, it was really wishful thinking that the service balcony and galley kitchen concept would actually work; the quote was also on the high side)
3. Home Fabric Design (met once, but reply to request for quote was the most comprehensive, with space planning and detailed quotation; experienced-sounding contractor, quite pushy in asking me to buy their 3D perspectives; never followed up after our first meeting)
4. E home concepts (met once, felt more like talking to a contractor, never followed up)
5. D'Trenzo (met once, designer inspired confidence, but never followed up)
6. Yonder (Ikea's kitchen contractor, was tempted to furnish the entire house with Ikea stuff, can pay by instalments, lol, and engage Yonder for design and project management; however, dropped the idea as we all know about quality issues with Ikea and the thought of having fibreboards all over our kitchen cabinets did not sit well with us; furthermore, Yonder's service is not cheap but it did feel like an ID… apparently all their designers are graduates)
7. ID Home Plus (our final choice, more of why we went with them to follow…)

[kirinshibori 0]

ID Home Plus (http://www.idhomeplus.com/)

They specialize in private property, and have a niche in constructing outdoor swimming pools. Not much relevance so far… but I know the boss, Shaun (hp: 97640504), as we used to be co-workers in our previous careers and I know him to be a dependable chap and that's half the decision made.

Before we got our keys in early Mar 2012, we have narrowed down our list of ID/contractors to Yonder and Shaun. Yonder was still in the race because they seemed to have good ideas for space planning and having carpentry (Ikea) paid interest free over 36 months just seemed so attractive, haha!

Anyway, after a few meetings with Shaun, the deal was sealed. My spouse and I were comfortable with him. He listened to our needs and gave honest opinions of feasibility and what was and wasn't necessary. He worked within our budget and the quotation was clear with no hidden charges. I visited one of his on-going worksites and things looked well managed. And most importantly, Shaun was going to oversee my renovation.

Unfortunately, we had to forgo his carpenter as it was beyond what we felt we could afford. To be fair, the rates were reasonable and the workmanship is supposedly good, but we are on a shoestring budget, so we wanted to explore more economical alternatives.

[kirinshibori 0]

Carpentry & Furniture

We found our own carpenter unintentionally. Mr Teo (hp: 83497084, speaks Mandarin and dialects only, and not sms-friendly, so you have been warned) was recommended to us by a relative. He had used Mr Teo for the custom-made sofa in his van. We contacted Mr Teo with the intent to request a quote for refurbishing the queen sized "zen" solid wood bedframe that we have used for the past 8 years. The price included collection, sanding down the existing paint, applying shellac and lacquer, refurbishing any loose components and delivery. It was not cheap, but reasonable considering the amount of work required and the price of a brand new bed.

Since he was around, we decided to ask him to quote for the kitchen cabinets, wardrobe, bathroom cabinets, TV console and some other items. He got back to us quite promptly and we found that the price was better than my existing quotes. The only drawback was that the handwritten order was priced in bulk, so don't expect itemized costing. I had an inkling of the market rates for the items I wanted, so it was ok for me since I could work out the rough price if I got the items elsewhere. Suffice to say, I found his quote value-for-money.

The other distinguishing feature about Mr Teo is the pride he has in his work. I am happy with what he has built for me so far, but since they are not finished, I cannot give a definitive assessment of his workmanship. But, so far, I am happy.

Another positive aspect is that he doesn't rein in my creative inputs. He will give objective comments on whether they are feasible, but even if they are labour-intensive, he is willing to accommodate my requests. As the pictures of the completed carpentry come later on, you'll discover that I am a "line" person, and my designs reflect that.

Anyway, we took the plunge and engaged Mr Teo for our carpentry works.

[kirinshibori 0]

Settling on a Design

These are what we wanted our home to look like…

[kirinshibori 0]

continued...

It's simple, open, and white with lots of wood, some dashes of grey here and there and possibly, some green plants to add a touch of nature.

After meeting all the IDs/contractors, we had a better idea of what we wanted and we started space planning and interior design on our own.

All my 3Ds are hand-drawn, so I'll not post them here. As my vision comes into reality, I'll post the pictures and let them do the talking. J

[kirinshibori 0]

The Kitchen

The kitchen gave us the greatest headache. As I mentioned earlier, we decided to give up on the service balcony. In fact, we went to the other extreme and gave up on hanging our laundry out. Therefore, our L-shaped kitchen is built against our window wall.

One of the main reasons we chose the flat despite its price was the potential to have an open kitchen and expand the space in a contiguous manner from the kitchen to the living/dining area. And so we went against the tenet of saving money and hacked our kitchen wall.

We also added an island to the open kitchen with an integrated shoe cabinet on the foyer side.

The kitchen design is based on the Toto Crassosystem kitchen and aesthetics-wise, we decided not to use laminates, but instead use finished plywood. In fact, you'll see that plywood and lines are a recurrent theme in all our rooms.

For hardware, we decided to use Hettich Quadro V6 drawer runners and Hettich Sensys hinges. And again, this was where we sort of blew our budget as we have 11 drawers in the kitchen. I went to Kranji one too many times to get the hardware, but I think it'll be worth it. The shortlist for the self-closing with dampening hardware included Blum, Hettich, Hafele, Ikea and DTC. Using Blum as the benchmark, only Hettich exceeded in performance. In terms of price, Hettich drawer runners were priced similarly to Hafele; DTC is significantly cheaper but I can't vouch for its performance. That being said, I still bought 4 pairs of DTC for my bedroom wardrobe due to the low price.

Our sink, at 850mm wide, is huge and true to our Japanese Contemporary theme, is single-bowl and in stainless steel. It's a Monic (supposedly made in Korea), has a huge 6 inch waste trap, dish basket, as well as a sponge basket. I have been using a 70/30 integrated double bowl for 8 years and found that it is not big enough for our pots and that the smaller bowl is a white elephant most of the time. My in-laws' place has a large single-bowl sink and there is more flexibility when it comes to washing.

I decided that there should be ventilation in the sink cabinet to reduce the effects of humidity under the sink, so Mr Teo will be extending my "line" design to the sink cabinet.

We also bought a Simple Human grocery bag can with bag holder, to be fixed behind our sink cabinet door. I hope it'll be worth the cost!

To make sure that he understands our requirements fully, we gave Mr Teo plenty of Ikea drawer insets so that the drawers will have enough space to accommodate all these accessories.

With the wall gone, space planning in the kitchen was pretty tricky. We realise that we cannot have any wall cabinets, which despite reducing the amount of storage space available, enabled us to save cost! Wehave 2 tall cabinets though, to house the fridge and the washer/dryer stack. The latter was desired as the open concept meant everything is in plain view, and frankly, washers and dryers aren't the most beautiful things around. Although our fridge is pretty slim, we decided to give it more space so that we will not be constrained when we change our fridge downstream.

The main requirement for our fridge was that it has to havea bottom drawer freezer. That limited the choice greatly. In the end, we decided that we are able to compromise and get a "three ticks" fridge and identified the Mitsubishi MR-BF43B as our fridge of choice.

I bought the stainless steel version online from someone who won the fridge in a lucky draw. It was such a coincidence that I actually knew the seller's husband way back. Even including a $50 delivery charge from Mitsubishi, the fridge is still cheaper than an Expo display set. So it was a win-win situation for both the seller and I.

[kirinshibori 0]

continued...

LG, Brandt and Electrolux were shortlisted when we were searching for our 7-8kg washer. I liked the LG F1422TD as it is similar to my WD-14331AD, which has been very quiet and reliable for the past 4 years; but I like the OptiA45 function of the Brandt; while it seems that the Electrolux 10741/10751 is well recommended in the forums. Interestingly, we bought none of the above. The final choice was a Samsung, the WF9904CWE, which is a 9kg front loader. We got the display set at the Gain City Expo sale at a good price as the model is discontinued. Time will tell whether this is superior to my LG Tromm.

We will be getting a dishwasher as well, and it is down to Bosch and Brandt. Again, we'll see which one is cheaper during the sales in the coming weeks. These are the ones we're aiming for.

[kirinshibori 0]

continued...

And for the hood, we'll be going for the EF Power Slim 90 SS due to space constraints. There are pipes above the position where we will place our hob, so we had to shelve our plan for an Electrolux chimney hood. The Electrolux wowed us by its low noise and powerful suction, but we've read here that there are issues with its finishing. Anyway, it's a moot point since we can't fit one in, so we hope that the EF's advertised 1000 cubic m per hr flow rate will be enough to keep our living/dining area from smelling of smoke and oil.