hi We too just bought a 1195sqft ,14yr-old resale pte apt in june. No balcony, no planter. Today is the day 1 of renovation.

I am the 2nd owner.

Doing a budget overhaul of the place.

1) Hack the whole house to re-config the rooms. The old configuration is kind of weird, when you enter you pass by 2 bedrms before entering the dinning area, then the living. We convert the rooms to living area and the living to rooms.

2) Built walls and partitions

3) Re-do all the floor. Living Marble has cracked, so we are re-do with homo tiles

4) Re-do kitchen

5) Expand Storerm and yard area.

6) Add in 1 powder room (basin &wc). Existing only 2 toilets as we think we need 1 more if there are 3bd.

7) rewired

8) redo plumbing.

Current bill is at $45k with Urban Design/San.

Pre-sale experience was good. And Day 1 experience-excellent Cos' he is on-site to advise work on the details. With old resale condo, there is quite alot of bits that are not floorplan and someone need to be there to "sup".

** Just a note : Condo pricing is different from HDB pricing because condo can only reno btw 9-5pm. So ID will need to budget abit more.****

Edited August 23, 201214 yr by Jgal

Just a word of experience from my renovation so far.

Renovating an old resale condo, it's not just the price and design is impt. The committment from the designer is also very impt.

Unlike hdb, the floorplan at BCA may not be accurate and if the condo does not have alot units. You may be unpleasantly surprised with wiring and piping there is not supposed to be there. The structural beam may be bigger than you see in the BCA floorplan.

We are in the process of hacking and we are glad that the designer is onsite all the time to ensure he could let us know all the details and let us decide what to do immediately. That's great, at least,we know what we will be getting instead of him deciding for us and later charge us for something we "didnt" want to do.

the designer that did out old house, only went onsite once! in the beginning of the project to address to the workers. Luckily, what we had was a new hdb, and his worker were doing many units in the same estate, so everything was managable.

My wife and I engaged White Space Living to overhaul my resale condo and renovations just started. we have to do away with the old kitchen cabinets, hack out the bath tub, feature wall, built-in storage, etc etc. the bill is about $60+k.

watch for your aircon installation. Condo piping is concealed. If aircon pipes not done properly, it will leak and destroy your carpentry etc. My aircon man advise to insulate the drainage pipes so that it would wet the wall.

Hi just a reminder . U can claim for property tax exemption while your unit is under renovation or empty.

Edited September 17, 201214 yr by Jgal

Just a word of experience from my renovation so far.
Renovating an old resale condo, it's not just the price and design is impt.