My First Reno Journey

[wheat 0]

Some weeks back, before we even closed the deal with J, we went shopping for tiles with J at Hafary.

We have chosen earth colour tones to fit into our theme.

Here are some pics!

P.S: Images might be a little blur

Kitchen floor:

Ground floor toilet:

Top: Wall tiles; Bottom: Floor tiles

Common toilet (2nd Floor):

Left Top: Feature wall; Left Bottom: rest of the wall

Right: Floor

MBR Toilet:

Yes. They share the same wall tiles as the common toilet in the 2nd floor. We chose blackish floor tiles for the MBR toilet instead becox it prefers black. However, J did highlighted to us that the residual of soap/shampoo may left some white spots if we do not wash away those residuals properly. Otherwise, no issues.

[kooky 2]

Congrats!

We also bought our current flat via SOBF system and collected the keys in September last year.

We had been played out by our 1st contractor, resulting in delay in the entire reno process. We only engaged our current contractor in late Nov and he had already met up with us a few rounds to discuss on layout and talked about reno cost. We know him through my brother so somehow feels that he is rather reliable. As it is close to CNY, most of the workers will be going back to their home country so we were informed that the earliest he can handover the flat back to us is in Mid-March, There is nothing we can do but suck it up.

Looking forward to see more of your reno pics. Best of luck :-)

[wheat 0]

Wow! Super big master bedroom!

Do share more photos, ok? Thanx

Yes, the new MBR will be bigger. I like the idea of divding the sleeping area with the WIW & study area. So in any case that the wifey or I have to stay up for work, we wont be interrupting each other's sleep. Moreover since wifey is doing shift work - sometimes she has to wake up at 5am for morning shift, i wont be disturbed by her when she dresses up for work

The bigger space will also better accommodate a baby cot in future!

Sure, i will try to upload more photos. Both the wifey and I are not the photo type of pple :/

[summersann 6]

Finally, i have some spare time to pen down in detail the renov journey thus far (retrospective entry).

All in all, we only shortlisted 3 IDs and 1 contractor based on recommendations from friends and forums. Secretly, i admire forumers who have the patience, strength and enthusiasm to share with >10 IDs/contractors their ideas. The wifey and i felt so brain draining after each session with an ID/contractor . I guess we're both lazy bums

Having some ideads in mind and wanting scandinavian as the theme, we spoke to 4 shortlisted IDs/Contractor:

1. Inside Living, J - Our first impression of her was a down to earth lady and someone who we can entrusted this entire project to. We felt comfortable sharing with her our ideas. She gave us some input as well. Most importantly, we can sense the sincereity in her.

2. Urban Design, S - Design was normal. No input from her and we felt that if we engage her services, we might as well find a contractor.

3. Dhome, L - Impressive design from this ID. Naturally, the wow factor came with a price! Apart from the price, another main factor that stopped us from engaging his services is due to his hmmm.. how do i put it... sloppy attitude? He sent his assistant to meet us on out first appointment as he was sick. Okay, acceptable reason. But on the third appointment with him, he stood us up. Called him several times but didnt pick up his phone. The moment he stood us up, we decided nono , this ID is not reliable. We might just MIA during this renov journey.

4. Famous K - Saw several of his project in the t-blog But he's too pricey for us. Though he justifies that he uses good material and good workmanship, i guess being high in demand has raised his market value as well.

So after several meetings, we decided to engage Inside Living, J. We had a site meeting with all the sub-con, plumber, electrician, aircon man, window etc on last saturday, 05/01/13. So far, she hasn't disappoint us. During the site meeting, she portrayed her management skills and seems to be a good coordinator. After some bargaining, we offically closed the deal with on last tuesday, 8/01/13!

We have more or less finalized the 2D floor plan:

Due to budge constraint, we decided to retain the marble flooring on the first floor and do laminate flooring for the second floor. For laminate flooring, we have engaged the services from inovar floor.

Basically, these are the list of major things that we intended to do:

- a 7ft half height shoe cabinet beside the door entrance

- Hack away the existing kitchen wall and extend it to about 4 inches longer.

- A collapsable folding door entrance to the kitchen. Initially, we wanted a glass slide/swing door as wifey was against the idea of open concept kitchen for the fear of greasiness to the house when she cooks. Then, we decided on collapsable folding door entrance so that we can have the privilegde of having an open/close kitchen. Best of both world

- A 4ft island counter with rollers in the kitchen.

- Glass block divder to create divder for washing and kitchen area. At the same time, the glass block serves to bring in some light into the kitchen

- Storage area underneath the staircase

- Brick wall feature at the TV console area (a must have for scandinavian theme!)

- 4" Platform at the back of the living room & a low storage c/w special hinges as work table which is directly behind the sofa.

- Convert bedroom 2 & 3 to the new MBR becox we find the existing MBR ted small

- Integrated WIW & study area

Love the platform idea in the living room!

All the best with your renovation

[HappyAng 0]

Yes, the new MBR will be bigger. I like the idea of divding the sleeping area with the WIW & study area. So in any case that the wifey or I have to stay up for work, we wont be interrupting each other's sleep. Moreover since wifey is doing shift work - sometimes she has to wake up at 5am for morning shift, i wont be disturbed by her when she dresses up for work

The bigger space will also better accommodate a baby cot in future!

Sure, i will try to upload more photos. Both the wifey and I are not the photo type of pple :/

U got a big vanity too.. Btw, what is the rectangular thing near the WIW?

Target when can complete your renovation?

[wheat 0]

To help you visualise better, here's some of the 3D pics. Afterall, a picture speaks a thousand word isn't it.

Kitchen:

Living Room platform area:

This is the platform area with low storage c/w special hinges as work table which is directly behind the sofa that i previously mentioned. The wifey insisted of having the platform. She calls it her "yoga corner" or a small playarea for our baby in future. However, currently, we're in a dilemma if we should do away from the special hinges work table as it cost about 1K. Also, it does look abit weird, like out of place. J was saying that we can replace it with a small little glass top table. Helps to save $$$ too!

WIW:

Vanity counter will be outside the toilet. Looks interesting.

Due to our tight pockets, there will not be any carpentry works in the old MBR except for floor lamination, plastering of wall, painting works & doing up the toilet.

I hope the end product would not deviate too far from the 3D pics.

However, there will be some changes to the colour scheme and some layouts. We have yet to receive the new 3D.

Last week, we went to select the laminates for the caparentry work. Goodness, both wifey and I have very poor concepts of colours! We can't seem to visualise how the caparentry will turn out to be. We felt so exhausted after selecting the colours

[summersann 6]

WIW:

Vanity counter will be outside the toilet. Looks interesting.

Due to our tight pockets, there will not be any carpentry works in the old MBR except for floor lamination, plastering of wall, painting works & doing up the toilet.

I hope the end product would not deviate too far from the 3D pics.

However, there will be some changes to the colour scheme and some layouts. We have yet to receive the new 3D.

Last week, we went to select the laminates for the caparentry work. Goodness, both wifey and I have very poor concepts of colours! We can't seem to visualise how the caparentry will turn out to be. We felt so exhausted after selecting the colours

Wet areas can be extended out to the bedroom? Any waterproofing done?

[summersann 6]

Wet areas can be extended out to the bedroom? Any waterproofing done?

Oh oops. Not the bedroom, because it looks like you're placing it at the area that used to be part of the walkway outside the bedroom and toilet upstairs. I mean, wet areas can be extended outside of the designated bathroom area?

Edited January 13, 2013 by summersann

[HappyAng 0]

To help you visualise better, here's some of the 3D pics. Afterall, a picture speaks a thousand word isn't it.

Kitchen:

Living Room platform area:

This is the platform area with low storage c/w special hinges as work table which is directly behind the sofa that i previously mentioned. The wifey insisted of having the platform. She calls it her "yoga corner" or a small playarea for our baby in future. However, currently, we're in a dilemma if we should do away from the special hinges work table as it cost about 1K. Also, it does look abit weird, like out of place. J was saying that we can replace it with a small little glass top table. Helps to save $$$ too!

WIW:

Vanity counter will be outside the toilet. Looks interesting.

Due to our tight pockets, there will not be any carpentry works in the old MBR except for floor lamination, plastering of wall, painting works & doing up the toilet.

I hope the end product would not deviate too far from the 3D pics.

However, there will be some changes to the colour scheme and some layouts. We have yet to receive the new 3D.

Last week, we went to select the laminates for the caparentry work. Goodness, both wifey and I have very poor concepts of colours! We can't seem to visualise how the caparentry will turn out to be. We felt so exhausted after selecting the colours

Nice 3D drawing! Btw, do u have any door separate living room and balcony?

[wheat 0]

Yep! We do have a folding door at the balcony...unfortunately we do not have the 3d pic for our living rm

Can't imagine not having one cos we did not cover up our balcony area..

[jetlee724 0]

70k to 80k seems to be the benchmark for complete overhaul of EM nowadays. I m glad to have done mine exactly 1 yr ago at a much lower cost.

Keeping the marble flooring is certainly going to reduce ur reno cost quite significantly. The other big costs would be the staircase, electrical rewiring, plastering. Don't forget that there is added cost for lightings, furnishing....

how much will whole EM plastering cost? pls advise, thanks

[wheat 0]

Oh oops. Not the bedroom, because it looks like you're placing it at the area that used to be part of the walkway outside the bedroom and toilet upstairs. I mean, wet areas can be extended outside of the designated bathroom area?

Don't think there's a prob...seen a few units doing it...

As for waterproofing, dun think it required cos it's just the vanity..the wetness wun be as bad as the shower area..anw this is done at the 2nd level, if there's any issue with waterproofing, I'm still the one suffering in the end

[wheat 0]

So we started with hacking away the kitchen tiles, wall tiles and toilet tiles on last monday. Since then, renovation work has stalled We're awaiting for HDB approval for demolition of wall. Despite the J chasing after HDB and the extent of her posing as the house owners to ask HDB officer to hasten the approval, we're haven gotten the green light

We're also awaiting our quotation from Mr electrician for rewiring and electrician works.

Meanwhile, we have decided on the air con company, twin city. Although twin city didn't quote us the best price, we're quite convinced with their workmanship and quality (since J has also given us her reassurance). See, we're such easy trusting pple

Was quoted $3150 for mitsubishi inverter system 3 (2 9000 BTU and 1 12000 BTU), stainless stain bracket, double insulation, Tai sin copper wire of 23G and 3/8 inch.

We also went shopping for some furniture and household appliances:

- hansgrohe 11th anniversary sale: rainshower set x 1, shower mixer, taps x 5

One of our fav buys - the basin mixer 260 metris highriser from hansgrohe. Bought 2 of it specially for the vanity counter in the MBR.

- king size kingkoil bamboo comfort mattress

- Fujioh Hood and Hob from Hoe Kee

FS890

The MK800 was supposedly to be more efficient in oil absorption and noise reduction which is absolutely true. But.... it isnt very aesthetically beautiful. We thought that it looks kinda heavy and bulky. Anyway since wifey doesnt cook often, we dont really need the MK800. Initially, we wanted to settle for the FX900 which looks sleeker in designm the promoter in hoe kee recommended us the FS890 instead. Although the FS890 has weaker oil absorption as compared to FX900, the promoter explained that FX900 is made in china which wouldnt be as lasting as the FS890 which is made in Japan. So we settled for FS890.

For the hob, we gotten the FG773SVGL

Also gotten the blanco sink from hoe kee!

Alrights, that's for all now.

Edited January 13, 2013 by wheat

[wheat 0]

Wow,

You are lucky like striking 4D. At least COV saved can be utilised to do Reno to your liking mah

Wishing you all the best for your Reno journey!

Yea! Just when we got so discouraged from all the BTO results, we manage to get this EM.

Seriously, renovation for EM is very pricey. sighx.

Thanks dube!

[wheat 0]

Congrats!

We also bought our current flat via SOBF system and collected the keys in September last year.

We had been played out by our 1st contractor, resulting in delay in the entire reno process. We only engaged our current contractor in late Nov and he had already met up with us a few rounds to discuss on layout and talked about reno cost. We know him through my brother so somehow feels that he is rather reliable. As it is close to CNY, most of the workers will be going back to their home country so we were informed that the earliest he can handover the flat back to us is in Mid-March, There is nothing we can do but suck it up.

Looking forward to see more of your reno pics. Best of luck :-)

Yes, i do agree that it's very important to choose a reliable contractor who has good management skills and someone who communicates at the same wavelength as you. Same as you, most likely our renov will complete in mid-march due to CNY hiatus of 3 weeks.

All the best to both of us! Am also looking forward to seeing your renov pic!