The Hojichas' Little Renovation Stories..

[hojichalatte 21]

Like most of us here, we were being introduced to Renotalk T-Blog when we got our own flat. Waited for 3 years, we finally collected our keys.... and stepped into the cement floor of our house. No, it's not a home yet, but it's our house! Yay!!

Here's our typical 4-room floorplan.

and again, like most of us here, we read up a lot in renotalk, and got to know about Mr K, The Contractor. The Hojichas think it's a waste of money to hire an ID since we have our own designs already.. so we decided to go with Contractors. Back in Mid-November, we collected our keys and quickly made appointment to meet up with Mr K, so excited about it... he was pretty tied-up and busy rushing projects before CNY, so the Hojichas decided to start our reno only after CNY..

Of course, in order to work with Mr K, we took it reallllyyy slow.. some of our neighbours already moved in! In the meantime, we met some others (e.g. The80sStudio, and some other contractors) and received many quotes as well. The strange thing is, the quotes all came back around the same price. How to pick?? So we are stuck....

* fast forward *

anyways.... in d end, we signed with Mr K. I still believe if he wants to do things fast, he can be super fast, coz due to permit issued dates pressure 3 walls were hacked within a day, but now we are kinda stuck with the next problem, the electric works!

Here comes the lil' story... sorry if it's a bit too lengthy and wordy..

The amount of electric works we required was first quoted to us as $2100. But we find it a bit expensive, and requested to see it in breakdown by points... so he replaced the $2100 with points unit price.. and we signed on that, coz when we calculated on our own, it's below $2100. Then after all the hacking of walls, it's time to work on electricity, so K brought his electrician up to our place to see, and this time, his electrician came back with a $3200 quote. >_<

It's only now then we know, shifting concealed switches/points/fan points are separate charges, not in the breakdown K provided us with...... and installation of hanging lights Vs. normal lights have different price tags too! Mr K told me that if we are not ok with this quote, it's ok, we can find our own electrician....... so now we are in the midst of requesting for quotes from other electricians for comparison.

Renotalkers, if you have any good recommendations, pls intro to us.

Thank you very much.

Story to be continued..... wish us good luck!

Edited February 17, 2014 by hojichalatte

[elin1029 23]

Good luck with you reno! So you signed with Mr K after all

If your electrical team is the same as mine, they are quite pricey. But I've seen the guys in action, and they're quite serious in their work. Recently they just came down to fix my noisy ceiling fans and now they are noisy no more. I was quoted 2.8k and finally got to top up another 1.5k, so a total of 4.3k just on electrical works.

[hojichalatte 21]

Hi elin1029, thank you!! yea.. it's Mr K after all.. didn't have much contacts with contractors... haha..

Wow.. 4.3k just on electric works? omgggg... i hope this issue can settle fast, so that my renovation can really start!

Good luck with you reno! So you signed with Mr K after all

If your electrical team is the same as mine, they are quite pricey. But I've seen the guys in action, and they're quite serious in their work. Recently they just came down to fix my noisy ceiling fans and now they are noisy no more. I was quoted 2.8k and finally got to top up another 1.5k, so a total of 4.3k just on electrical works.

[hojichalatte 21]

Some Before & After pictures...

The Main Bedroom

New owners, take note of such uneven sink-in holes in the wall, there's an exactly same thing in the living room too...
grrrr.. now we have to spend extra $ to box them up... :S

Bedroom 3

Main Bedroom
After free cement screeding by HDB contractors

Last look before hacking...

Edited April 10, 2014 by hojichalatte

[hojichalatte 21]

And... I will take this as the Day One of my house renovation. 開工大吉！

Walls hacked!!

After hacking, the concealed power points look like these... so cute~~~ =p

One thing to note for all new home-owners, please remember to activate your SP Services account before your contractor starts work! hahaha... we forgotton all about that, and Mr K had to call me in the morning to ask me to do that... =p

Edited February 18, 2014 by hojichalatte

[hojichalatte 21]

We started thinking about kitchen instead of living room, because kitchen requires most carpentry work to be done.. and this is my PERFECT IDEAL kitchen.

The thing is, we don't get wood solid tops in Singapore. Unless we go for laminate tops, which everyone has been discouraging us on that idea... so maybe we will go for all white.... or, light oak cabinets and white top. hee...

[hojichalatte 21]

We are kinda looking for black framed glass doors to replace the Bedroom 3, which will eventually become our study room..

It can be sliding doors...

or fixed panels...

more likely, we want it to be sliding, so that we can enlarge our living room when we have guests...

I saw this in one of our fellow renotalkers vicx1234's t-blog, and it's soooo beautifully done! She has shared with me her contacts, i.e. "Wellmax Metal Works", apparently, there were mixed reviews about their service and works... so we are still thinking... and another thing on my mind is, now that we are getting my own electrician and own flooring, I'm worried that if we get too many sub-cons, we may get too busy overseeing each and every of them?? Our jobs may not allow us to keep taking leave to during this renovation process... I wonder if Mr K can help to oversee their works.. Hmmm....

[mellenur 11]

hi hojichalatte, we have similar layout for living to bedroom area I think, is this Punggol?

Funny that I always see many people hacking that wall because we actually sealed up MBR entrance and combine with adjoining room to make a WIW. Although I must say this is partially why we are moving now because WIW is technically not a liveable space for me!

is the 2nd pic your kitchen entrance? why HDB make small entrances one? sigh

enjoy your reno process and post more pics!

And... I will take this as the Day One of my house renovation. 開工大吉！

Walls hacked!!

After hacking, the concealed power points look like these... so cute~~~ =p

One thing to note for all new home-owners, please remember to activate your SP Services account before your contractor starts work! hahaha... we forgotton all about that, and Mr K had to call me in the morning to ask me to do that... =p

[hojichalatte 21]

hello mellenur, this is Yishun! nowadays hdb new bto flats are more or less.. same, or mirror of each other la.. kekeke... initially we also tot of merging the MBR with adjoining room for WIW, but on second tots, better keep that room for future baby plans.

yeah yeah, second pic is the tiny kitchen!! that's why people like to hack hack hackkkk all the walls... hahahaa...

thank you and all the best to all of us! jia you!

mellenur, on 18 Feb 2014 - 2:58 PM, said:

hi hojichalatte, we have similar layout for living to bedroom area I think, is this Punggol?

Funny that I always see many people hacking that wall because we actually sealed up MBR entrance and combine with adjoining room to make a WIW. Although I must say this is partially why we are moving now because WIW is technically not a liveable space for me!

is the 2nd pic your kitchen entrance? why HDB make small entrances one? sigh

enjoy your reno process and post more pics!

[vicx1234 38]

hello hojichalatte,

dropped by to say hi, and also to tell you that there is someone called Andy who is advertising his aluminium works services here in Renotalk:

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/49500-home-aluminium-metal-works/page-9#entry832814

You may wish to check out the thread and call him for further advice if need be. Hope this helps

[AgnesPS 1]

Saw a lot of reviews of Mr K here. May I know how much is the cost for your renovation? I'm taking keys ard end of the year and sourcing some idea now. Hahaa..can PM me if it's not appropriate to reveal here.

Congratulations for getting the keys and all the best for the renovation! Post more pictures. I'll follow your blog

[hojichalatte 21]

hello hojichalatte,

dropped by to say hi, and also to tell you that there is someone called Andy who is advertising his aluminium works services here in Renotalk:

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/49500-home-aluminium-metal-works/page-9#entry832814

You may wish to check out the thread and call him for further advice if need be. Hope this helps

thank youuuu vicx1234 again! haha...

Saw a lot of reviews of Mr K here. May I know how much is the cost for your renovation? I'm taking keys ard end of the year and sourcing some idea now. Hahaa..can PM me if it's not appropriate to reveal here.

Congratulations for getting the keys and all the best for the renovation! Post more pictures. I'll follow your blog

Thanks, AgnesPS, i have PM-ed you!

[hojichalatte 21]

Day 15 Update

No pictures as there is basically no progress for the past week. But good news is we have found our electrician, and he is going to start work soon, means renovation can finally proceed to the next step!! Whee!!

On the other hand, seems like K has handed our whole project over to his assistant, let's call him Mr A. K has let Mr A liaise with us instead of himself, could it be because we are using our own electrician and getting Evorich to do the flooring, so he is no longer interested in our project? Hmm.. just wondering if all K's projects like that, or just ours? Renotalkers and fellow K's customers, any comments on this?

Edited May 5, 2014 by hojichalatte

[elin1029 23]

I was informed mine would be managed by his assistant right from the start, before renovation started.

[hojichalatte 21]

I was informed mine would be managed by his assistant right from the start, before renovation started.

Oh I see... so it's the norm lah.... ok ok.. thanks elin1029!