Finally my house reno is coming to the end and I have learnt a lot from reading all the t-blogs here and decided to contribute a bit. I bought this place in May and finally collected key at the end of Sept after the tenant moved out. And it took me around 1.5 months for the whole renovation.

It's a 2 rooms apartment @ east and this is the floor plan.

Some photos of the house before reno (sorry it was taken before the tenant moved out):

1. Living room

2. guest room

3. MBR

4. MBR bathroom

I only went for 3 IDs for quotation and they are all recommended by my friends.

1 quoted very high and was not very keen on my reno.

1 was very keen and response to me really fast and even come out with 3D but I do not like the 3D and I think the ID was not careful so I decided to go with the 3rd one that recommended by my friend. We spent more than 3 hours when I collected my key to decide what I can do with the house.

Continue with photo as forum does not allow me to post so many photos.

5. balcony

6. kitchen

I bought a sofa from commune long before I got my key and I choose black color leather.

Since i'm on budget, the renovation is mainly in the master bedroom, toilet and living room. I did not do much to kitchen and guest room.

And this is the 3D but I have to say it looks quite different from actual.

MBR - I want a bigger wardrobe so built a L-shape wardrobe.

MBR Bathroom - overlay floor tiles, change glass door, vanity cabinet and cabinet below basin.

living room - cover the huge window with TV cabinet and study table.

I made a mistake when choosing the laminate for the TV cabinet and I do not like it. Wanted to change but have to tear down the whole cabinet and rebuild. I'm not sure if I have time to do so...

Some pics that I took during the reno.

1. The TV Cabinet

my study table

2. the huge vanity cabinet (I did not expect it to be that big)

3. MBR

Almost done now.

My balcony for drinks with friends (not yet done when took this pic)

Made a mistake and bought a fridge that's too big

Will upload more pic soon when I receive more of my taobao purchase.

This is the table that I bought from taobao and I have to say I'm really satisfied with the quality. The height can be adjusted and it can be a coffee table/study table or MJ table. I saw it from spaceman fb page but they do not sell it anymore and my ID also show me the same table. I managed to find it from taobao and my ID said the quality is much better than the one he found in SG and the price is just 1/3 of it.

I also changed all the switch to Scneider.

I was quite lucky that I have met many kind souls that offered me very good deals and great help during the renovation process. E.g. I need to do chemical wash for my aircon and it's cassette type and it's quite expensive. I found a company that's highly recommended by some guys in another forum and it's cheaper than other companies. He came down on a Sunday and told me that I only have to pay after I run the aircon for a few weeks and they really know what they are doing and the job is done very well. I have been asking him for the invoice and his bank account no and after 2 weeks, he still did not provide.

For the electrician recommended by my ID, he is also a very nice guy and whenever I bought my fan or light, he will come down to install 1-2 items for me and did not charge extra. He also helped me to go to Choo chiang to buy the Schneider switch and he had to go a few times to get all changed due to miscommunication.

Edited November 13, 201412 yr by fannz

Congrats on your reno. Very nice.

Can share the link on the table that you bought from TB.

Thanks.

This is the link to the table:

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.232.8vfrhP&id=17294930371&_u=d22p3suj70f2

I'm very happy with this rocker chair and I just ordered another one. I once fall asleep on this chair and it's so comfortable.

http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35071925909&spm=a1z09.2.9.125.e85Smb&_u=d22p3suj9da3

I also bought this "iRobot" type vacuum cleaner and still trying to figure out how to use.

http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=26099812608&spm=a1z09.2.9.67.8vfrhP&_u=d22p3sujbb2e

I bought this cocoon swing chair and quite happy with it too but the shipping cost me a bomb as it's 1 cubic meter.

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.249.8vfrhP&id=36202450458&_u=d22p3sujc982

Thanks for sharing the links. The rocker chair is my shopping list for my new place. Which agent/forwarded did you use? I am still shopping small items and using PEEKA.

I'm using Amcon. It's very easy to purchase from taobao and the shipping time from China to SG also quite short. However, it seems like they never coordinate regarding the delivery of items to my apartment. I told May regarding the requested delivery date but still got another guy called me to ask when I want the delivery. Then later I changed the delivery to weekdays and they totally have no idea about this and I took whole day off to wait for them. And they missed 1 carton and they asked me to go to their warehouse to collect.

I built a cabinet for study table and TV cabinet on my window bay and this is how it looked like before.

And this is how it looks like now. My key issue is I do not like the laminate of this cabinet and I was in a rush to decide the laminate and made the wrong choice.

I was in a dilemma for almost 1 week and finally decided to change the laminate. However, according to my ID, they will need to tear down the whole cabinet and redo the laminate and it will cost me a lot. Alternative is to change the laminate of the back to glossy white too and it will cost me $700.

A few of my friends who came to my house actually asked me to do wallpaper and it will make it look better. And I think it's a better alternative.

And it was done within 1 day.

I bought the Neoflam wokpan as they are having 45% off on certain size at homefix

For kitchen, I only overlay tiles and change the yard door and I kept all the cabinets from the developer since they are still in good condition. Maybe that will be the project next time if I want to do renovation again.

Nice and thanks for taobao links! Rocking chair looks really nice!

The neoflam is a good buy! I love mine as well