A Cozyhome For Two+Two

[RnJ 0]

Hello people!

I've been a silent stalker in this forum learning all about renovation, and now that reno for our place is about to start (for real..), we've decided to join in the fun and share!

Here's our floor plan. Our place has a huge balcony that we love, we bought it mainly for that reason. It'll also be a great play area for our 2 dogs too Everything else is small though, like the kitchen, and the bathrooms...

Hacking begins sometime this week. Whoop. Onward we go! Will share more about our ID selection soon.

Xx

J

[Makanology 29]

Welcome to RT & good luck to your renovation!

[mrmerry 2]

Welcome n good luck @

[jaykr 0]

Hi, Welcome to the wonderful world of renovation experience ( if this is your 1st time, like me. ;p )

After the whole renovation experience, you would be different person, skilled in my arts....;p

[edd 0]

welcome fellow stalker, all the stalkers and lurkers are beginning to surface one by one

[Z3phy 2]

Welcome on board!

besides stalkers, still got those kpo ones. like myself.

reno finish still hang ard.

Enjoy the process!

[RnJ 0]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!! :lol:

mrmerry, definitely need alot of luck! and can't wait to see how your house turns out!

jaykr, yes, we're learning so much as we go along.. love your craftstone TV wall! wanted to do that but didn't have the budget for it, also, we've a large fountain in front of our living room so we're afraid of mouldy stuff growing in the gaps as time goes by.. sigh!

edd, haha i'm a longtime stalker, finally able to do my own reno!

Z3phy, thank u! congrats on your new puppy too, she looks lovely!

[RnJ 0]

Been a while since we were here!

Some before pics to look back on in future.

Background of our home

It was tenanted for many years and the previous tenant did not maintain the place very well

Balcony

We bought it mainly because of this. The balcony!! Our dogs are gonna love it Sadly, because of its huge size, it costs a flipping bomb to hack up the current flooring, redo the waterproofing etc. We'll prob redo it next time if we can't stand looking at it. As for the time being, we'll fill it up with pretty outdoor furniture, as well as look for a good cleaning company to acid wash the entire thing and remove the stains from the grout lines and such (contractor advised us to look for our own cleaning co, any recommendations??)

Living

We originally wanted to keep the marble flooring, for value and budget purposes, but it didn't fit into our theme no matter how we tried to work around it, so we decided to overlay it with laminate flooring.

We're also trying our best to peel away the blue film on the doors (pasted by the previous tenants) but to no avail. Anyone has recommendations on clear solar UV films that (hopefully) prevent heat from entering the house? We prob need professional help to peel the current film away too, it's uber stickyyy.

Trivia: We learnt from our contractor that overlaying marble flooring with tiles is a no-no, due to its porous nature.

Dining

Hacking away the wall with the window to create the open concept kitchen we always wanted. Can't hack the entire thing though, part of the wall is supposed to cover the back of the fridge, hopefully, it will not look too weird

[mishmish 7]

Hey... Congrats on your new home! The balcony looks awesome.. I think we have the same considerations when it comes to a big balcony/patio.

One thing you can do is overlay the balcony tiles if you dont like it, then you can save in hacking costs. That's what I did for my patio. How big is your balcony btw?

I had the same issue with the marble floor as well, wanted to keep it because it's marble but really didn't like it. In the end we decided to hack it. But we were told overlaying it with vinyl or laminate would probably preserve the marble in case we sold it in future and wanted the marble floor as a selling pt.

[RnJ 0]

Continued..

Kitchen

It's tiny. And everything has to go. The cabinets are filthy, the solid top is yellowed. And there are unknown liquid stains here and there. Ugh.

Common Bath

It's tiny too. And everything has to go too. Even the cabinet door is dropping off soon. We're gonna replace the ugly/odd shaped shower partition with a modern frameless glass partition. Must!!

[RnJ 0]

Continued.. Forum's driving me a lil insane by limiting the number of pics I can post!

Bedrooms

All bedrooms look something like this, parquet flooring with built in wardrobes. The wardrobes will be hacked away - all of it! We'll polish/touch up the flooring. Hopefully, it'll look as good as new as some parts are pretty worn out/scratched.

Master Bath

The wall tiles are marble apparently (couldn't tell - too ugly!) and I. Hate. It. Feels like it's a waste to hack it all away but there's no way I'd keep the toilet looking like this!! The design's so uncool oldschool. Hahaha. After much consideration, we've decided to do away with the bathtub and replace it with a shower area. The current shower area will be replaced with an extended vanity top.

Trivia: Apparently it costs more to hack marble and granite. Certain contractors tried to quote us a 4 digit sum just to hack this one toilet alone. Whoa. No way.

Okay. That's all the updates I have for now. Hoping for a smooth, smooth reno

Xx

J

[RnJ 0]

Thanks mishmish! I love how your home is turning out... Can't wait to reach a more advanced stage of our reno, it's only just the beginning..

We thought about overlaying but we were advised against it because it's gonna be prone to all weather conditions (heat, rain..) & the tiles would pop sooner or later (as mentioned by several contractors we met). But the deciding factor was our budget. If we had a bigger budget for reno, then yes, we would most definitely overlay or hack it all up. It's 450sf. We didn't think about the costs of redoing this area when we bought it, didn't know it'll cost so much!

Funnily though, I love your old patio floor tiles (the irregular shaped ones). Ahhh, would swap it for mine anytime!

P.S Love your daschund too. Hahaha!

Hey... Congrats on your new home! The balcony looks awesome.. I think we have the same considerations when it comes to a big balcony/patio.

One thing you can do is overlay the balcony tiles if you dont like it, then you can save in hacking costs. That's what I did for my patio. How big is your balcony btw?

I had the same issue with the marble floor as well, wanted to keep it because it's marble but really didn't like it. In the end we decided to hack it. But we were told overlaying it with vinyl or laminate would probably preserve the marble in case we sold it in future and wanted the marble floor as a selling pt.

[mrmerry 2]

wa u said it best when u said " Feels like it's a waste to hack it all away but there's no way I'd keep the toilet looking like this!!" i think it applies to your place overall.

Its of qood quality and probably the condition isnt too bad also but its just not what u want..

Planning n planning! got any mood pictures that you have an idea of how you want your place to look like?

[Bengologist 1]

Continued.. Forum's driving me a lil insane by limiting the number of pics I can post!

Bedrooms

All bedrooms look something like this, parquet flooring with built in wardrobes. The wardrobes will be hacked away - all of it! We'll polish/touch up the flooring. Hopefully, it'll look as good as new as some parts are pretty worn out/scratched.

Master Bath

The wall tiles are marble apparently (couldn't tell - too ugly!) and I. Hate. It. Feels like it's a waste to hack it all away but there's no way I'd keep the toilet looking like this!! The design's so uncool oldschool. Hahaha. After much consideration, we've decided to do away with the bathtub and replace it with a shower area. The current shower area will be replaced with an extended vanity top.

Trivia: Apparently it costs more to hack marble and granite. Certain contractors tried to quote us a 4 digit sum just to hack this one toilet alone. Whoa. No way.

Okay. That's all the updates I have for now. Hoping for a smooth, smooth reno

Xx

J

Ha, the forum's also driving me crazy because I wanna post a lot of photos but only limit me to 5 pics per post.

Anyway from the pictures, the current bathroom still looks pretty decent, it's really quite a waste to hack it away. However, if it's me, I will also hack it away because I would want the whole house to be a replica of my idea and not someone else's style and idea.

Last but not least, welcome to renotalk! Happy reno!

Cheers!

[mishmish 7]

Thanks mishmish! I love how your home is turning out... Can't wait to reach a more advanced stage of our reno, it's only just the beginning..

We thought about overlaying but we were advised against it because it's gonna be prone to all weather conditions (heat, rain..) & the tiles would pop sooner or later (as mentioned by several contractors we met). But the deciding factor was our budget. If we had a bigger budget for reno, then yes, we would most definitely overlay or hack it all up. It's 450sf. We didn't think about the costs of redoing this area when we bought it, didn't know it'll cost so much!

Funnily though, I love your old patio floor tiles (the irregular shaped ones). Ahhh, would swap it for mine anytime!

P.S Love your daschund too. Hahaha!

Haha.. the terracotta looking tiles? I felt it was okay.. but wasnt thrilled with the yellow/orangeness of it. And it just didn't go with the theme/feel of the interior. Man, now i'm worried about my granite popping out since its overlaid. Am asking my ID now about it. But the granite weighs a TON so maybe thats why he isn't worried abou it popping out. It's super thick too.