My Butterfly Cave

[steffie 1]

All thanks to the wonderful and dedicated Renotalk forummers who shared their renovation journey, preparation for my own renovation journey was made much easier. I hope that I will be able to benefit other future homeowners by sharing my own renovation journey.

 

As I embark on a new chapter in my life, I decided to renovate my current 5 Rm HDB flat in Sengkang which I have been staying in for the past 13 years. Except for the flooring in the living room and kitchen, every other room will get a complete makeover.

 

Below's a floorplan of the flat.

 

This is what the flat looks like before the renovation.

 

One of my biggest regret is the walk in wardrobe in the MBR which the bathroom opens up to. It is quite a pain to maintain. Dark coloured clothes end up having mouldy spots because of the moisture that comes from the bathroom after a hot bath. And because of that, I have to ensure that I close the bathroom door the second I exit.

This time around, it's going to be regular casement wardrobe for me - out of sight, out of mind. Hahaha...

 

The platform in the Dining room makes it rather restrictive, especially when entertaining a larger party of people. I can't put in too many chairs as they can fall over if not careful. Plus it is a trip hazard. Lessons learnt. No more platform.

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

Trying to achieve my dream home within my limited budget was definitely a huge challenge. As much as I would like a major overhaul of my place, my pocket just doesn't allow it.

 

ID or Contractor

After months of research, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do with my place. Therefore, to save on cost, I opted for a contractor instead of an ID. That, of course, meant a lot of preparatory work beforehand so that I can accurately brief the contractor what I wanted. Working with a limited budget, I had to ensure that I don't end up with costs that I wasn't prepared for.

 

My Renovation List

I listed down what I wanted to do and then started researching into how much each item would cost. After looking at the cost, I categorised the items into "Nice-to-haves" and "Must-haves".

My Must-Haves

• New kitchen cabinets
• Wardrobes for all 3 bedrooms
• Change of lighting
• New wall - When we first renovated, we knocked down the wall separating BR2 and MBR to create a bigger MBR. However, when my child was born, we realized that we need more rooms as we hired a helper to care for him. However, putting a wall back would not only cost us quite a bomb but take more than a month to complete as we have to re-do the bedroom floors as well. Therefore, to save on cost as well as renovation time, we put in a partition wall instead. Although on the surface you can't really tell the difference between a partition and hollow block wall, the partition wall doesn't seem as secure. Whenever the door hits the door stopper, it creates a really loud sound. And when I try to pull the door away from the magnetic door stopper to close the door, I have to pull really hard and it feels like the door stopper it about to be yanked out from the wall. So, now that I am renovating again, I decided to erect a hollow block wall back in its place.
• Bathroom Floor - There is only 1 drainage in the common bathroom, near the sink. So everytime after my child bathes, the floor becomes a mini pond as the water would need to flow from one end of the bathroom to the other end where the drainage is. As such, the common bathroom floor is almost perpetually wet. To add to the problem, my dog seem to prefer the soapy water in the bathroom rather than the water in his drinking bowl. To ensure that I have a healthy dog and I don't end up breeding more mosquitos than Singapore already has, I decided to hack and re-tile the bathroom floors and create another drainage at the shower area in the common bathroom.
• New main door and bedroom door
• New gate

 

Alternatives to my Nice-to-Haves

• Kitchen walls - I would love new tiles for my kitchen but that would greatly burst my budget. Therefore, to save cost, I decided to go with the current trend and plaster my wall with cement to achieve the cement screed look.
• Bathroom walls - I never really liked the HDB wall tiles but hacking and doing up the wall tiles again would strain my budget. Therefore, I decided to use the cheaper alternative and overlay the existing wall tiles. No one's going to notice anyway... hahaha....
• Shoe cabinets - I would love a full height shoe cabinet that stretched the entire length of a wall in my living room to house all my shoes. But that would have been out of my budget. Therefore, I settled for a much shorter shoe cabinet that stretched a large part of the wall but still able to house all my shoes.
• Bedroom floor -  I am absolutely in love with the wood-like ceramic tiles but that would have been out of my budget. To achieve the wooden floor look, I went for vinyl flooring instead.
• TV console - I would love one of the those swanky full height TV console. Unfortunately, that would set me back by a few thousand. It was between a custom made shoe cabinet or TV console. And no points for guessing that my shoes were more important. hahah... I decided to get a nice, swanky yet low cost TV console from Taobao instead.

 

My Search for a Contractor

I believe that the homeowner and contractor must have chemistry for the renovation to proceed well. I wanted a contractor who is experienced (since I wasn't, hahah) provided good advice and yet respect what I am trying to achieve for my own house.

 

After months of trawling through the Renotalk forum and reading the different comments and opinions on the different contractors by forummers, I arranged to meet up with 5 contractors listed in Renotalk whom I felt were reliable and responsible, from comments given by the forummers. 

• Edmund Ong, CX Reno (aka J&E)
• Kevin Tee, H2O Interior Renovation (aka Mr K)
• Tan Keng Sek, United Team (from Little Casa Blog)
• Mr Yeak Nai Chai, Basic Image and Design
• Ronald Goh, Designer House (aka Tiler Seng)

 

I also met up with 2 other contractors recommended by friends who have engaged them before.

• Dennis Lim, Debbie Interior 
• Maria Koh, Kepha Design 

 

All the contractors I met were very experienced and from them, I had learnt a lot about what was practical in my plans and possible cost-saving alternatives.

All their quotes were also reasonable as their prices were quite close to each other.

In my opinion, Ronald Goh and Kevin Tee were the most attentive and detailed. I noted that the items they included in their quote were very close to what I had briefed them (which meant they were listening when I was briefing) . Being attentive to me was important as I felt that we can avoid misunderstandings later. Both of them were also very quick and willing to respond when amendments were required. No need to chase them at all. 

 

It was a very difficult decision and after much consideration, I decided to leave my renovation in the good hands of Ronald.

Edited June 19, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

A good start.... Day 1 started on time.

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

Everything is on track.

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[gumbokins 5]

Hey! Clearly you've given a lot of thought about your makeover  looking forward to your updates...

[steffie 1]

And following in the footsteps of many Singaporeans before me, I had my first attempt at purchasing big ticket items from Taobao. I organized them into 3 batches.

1. Items that I needed my contractor to install
2. Furniture
3. Decorative items

 

I have bought items from Taobao before but always via a Singapore agent and usually only clothes and small items. I have never liaised directly with a seller on Taobao before so it was especially nerve wrecking. IMHO, for a person who scored only C6 for Mandarin, I think I had managed it pretty well. Hahahaha... Thankfully, all the sellers I contacted were very patient and understanding when I told them my Mandarin was not good. In fact, one seller (the curtain rod and accessories seller) even offered to correspond in English. I learnt that 亲 can be used to address someone and not just to mean "kiss". And when they ask me to 拍, they want me to order and not take photo. Hahahahah.... 

 

I purchased and shipped Batch 1 before renovations started and thankfully they arrived less than a week before renovations began. As I intend to keep the flooring in the living room and kitchen, the items are now all nicely placed in a corner of the living room. Batches 2 and 3 will be purchased soon and I hope that it will arrive only after the renovations are completed.

 

I shipped all the below items + 2 vanity cabinet, 2 bathroom sink and 1 kitchen sink (which I have yet to unpack because they are too big to open up) via Amcon Express. They charged me slightly less than $300, inclusive of documentation, shipping and documentation, to bring them in. To be honest, I was surprised at how well packed the items were. All the items came well padded with either bubble wrap or newspaper, in addition to the box that they came in. In fact, the seller of the curtain rod and accessories used so much bubble wrapped and tape to secure the items that I had a hard time removing them. My scissors is now almost not usable because it's so sticky. Hahahahaha...

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

So far everything seem to be on track. The contractor did pre-empt that there was some delay in the tiling but they should be able to complete on time. According to the schedule, tiling works in the bathroom should be completed by Day 17. It's Day 12 and they seem to have almost completed it.

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

Spoke too soon..... "Murphy" decided to visit on Day 13!

 

Went shopping in Ikea and decided to drop off the items at the house since the contractor would need to install it later. It wasn't a planned visit since I was there just the evening before. I noticed that more work was done to the bathroom floor as the cement was a darker colour from yesterday. And horrors of horror, I noticed that the drainage in the common bathroom was created at the wrong location. I immediately texted the contractor to have him locate it back to where it was intended to be at.

He told me honestly that I can insist on locating it back but it would mean delays as they would need to hack and re-waterproof the floors again. To be honest, I wouldn't have minded the delay but I figured had I insisted on it, it would mean inconvenience as well as cost incurred for the contractor. He offered to rectify the problem by contacting the aircon guys to return to re-do the piping as well as build a kerb around the water pipes to ensure water will not collect around the water pipes as they flow towards the drainage.

I must admit that I was disappointed since it was one of my must-have items. But I guess I can learn to live with it, plus I do really appreciate the contractor's effort trying to rectify the issue immediately.

Let's hope the outcome of the kerb will be a good one. Fingers crossed!

  

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie

[El LoCo 3]

Yr contractor is very nimble. The solution look neat. Can try to ask him to box up the pipes free for u if possible. 

[osiris7777 10]

Hi Steffie,

I am looking for contractor for my new house.

Can share the contact of all the shortlisted Contractors?

Thank you.

[steffie 1]

16 hours ago, osiris7777 said:

Hi Steffie,

I am looking for contractor for my new house.

Can share the contact of all the shortlisted Contractors?

Thank you.

I have PM'ed you.

[steffie 1]

20 hours ago, El LoCo said:

Yr contractor is very nimble. The solution look neat. Can try to ask him to box up the pipes free for u if possible. 

That's a good idea. I'll check with him.

[OceanEleven 203]

On 6/17/2016 at 11:39 AM, steffie said:

• New wall - When we first renovated, we knocked down the wall separating BR2 and MBR to create a bigger MBR. However, when my child was born, we realized that we need more rooms as we hired a helper to care for him. However, putting a wall back would not only cost us quite a bomb but take more than a month to complete as we have to re-do the bedroom floors as well. Therefore, to save on cost as well as renovation time, we put in a partition wall instead. 

Alternatives to my Nice-to-Haves

• Kitchen walls - I would love new tiles for my kitchen but that would greatly burst my budget. Therefore, to save cost, I decided to go with the current trend and plaster my wall with cement to achieve the cement screed look.
• Bathroom walls - I never really liked the HDB wall tiles but hacking and doing up the wall tiles again would strain my budget. Therefore, I decided to use the cheaper alternative and overlay the existing wall tiles. No one's going to notice anyway... hahaha....
• Shoe cabinets - I would love a full height shoe cabinet that stretched the entire length of a wall in my living room to house all my shoes. But that would have been out of my budget. Therefore, I settled for a much shorter shoe cabinet that stretched a large part of the wall but still able to house all my shoes.
• Bedroom floor -  I am absolutely in love with the wood-like ceramic tiles but that would have been out of my budget. To achieve the wooden floor look, I went for vinyl flooring instead.
• TV console - I would love one of the those swanky full height TV console. Unfortunately, that would set me back by a few thousand. It was between a custom made shoe cabinet or TV console. And no points for guessing that my shoes were more important. hahah... I decided to get a nice, swanky yet low cost TV console from Taobao instead.

 

Well, joining rooms aftermath are issues I faced as well. Not about space usage but more on when selling. Anyway, moving on it is great that you had decided to reinstate to 3 bedrooms again.

As for the kitchen wall tiles, if you are doing top hung cabinets as well, you can consider installing glass back splash. Aesthetically they are nice and great for installing suction hangers. Cleans easy using sponge, soap and wipe down. Money spent on hacking and retiling can be used instead to install the glass back splash.

[steffie 1]

9 hours ago, OceanEleven said:

Well, joining rooms aftermath are issues I faced as well. Not about space usage but more on when selling. Anyway, moving on it is great that you had decided to reinstate to 3 bedrooms again.

 

As for the kitchen wall tiles, if you are doing top hung cabinets as well, you can consider installing glass back splash. Aesthetically they are nice and great for installing suction hangers. Cleans easy using sponge, soap and wipe down. Money spent on hacking and retiling can be used instead to install the glass back splash.

 

I'm glad to finally have a real wall back. Kinda regretted it at one point because the extra space was not really utilized. It was just to make it more spacious and have more walking space. Other than a TV console, bed and wardrobe, I didn't have anything extra.

Yes. I absolutely love glass backsplashes. I will be doing a black glass backsplash for my kitchen cabinets to match the black solid surface top. Can't wait to see how it looks.

Edited June 21, 2016 by steffie

[steffie 1]

The renovations are slowly coming to shape. Although there were slight delays in the tiling, we are back on schedule.

I really appreciate meeting nice people in my renovation journey. I had arranged for the door guys to swing by to take measurement for my doors when the door frame was up. It was only then that I learnt that not only the door frames need to be up, the bedroom floor will need to be installed as well. And because the doors needed 10 days to be fabricated, the vinyl floor needed to be installed earlier. As a result, Ronald had to re-look at the schedule again to  to let me know the best time for the vinyl floor to be installed, I had to arrange for Arc Floor to install the flooring 2 weeks earlier than scheduled and door guys had to make a second trip down to measure for the doors again. I am grateful that everyone was tried their best to accommodate these last minute changes without tempers flaring or any unpleasantries.

Today will be a busy day at the house with Arc Floor coming to install the vinyl floor, Ronald getting the plumbers to do the plumbing and CityGas coming to re-position the gas pipes.

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by steffie