WHAMPOADAILY 0 Report post Posted February 11, 2017 (edited) HI GUYS! I've been an active reader for awhile now , and since we're about to start our reno in a matter of days, I decided we'd start a topic here to document & share! Just like how fellow users have helped us learn with your kind input. Below is a floor plan of our Whampoa 4room point block resale flat. My Best other half and myself loved this place on the first viewing, and decided to make this our home by our second visit! No regret thus far. We completed the purchase Sept 2016, Haha, yeah I know its been >6months since. However, much of the delay is...well, we really wanna enjoy the journey and not just rush through the whole process. It's been 6 months now and we don't regret one bit with how slow we're taking things, because through this period we've learnt alot from just window shopping, speaking to sales person, reading renotalk etc etc! The unit has gone through HDB upgrading works a couple of years back so it isn't of original condition. On the floorplan, you'd see an extended living room, and that is where an additional balcony was added to the unit, part of HDB's plan to upsize older HDB flats. This unit gives us 3 comfy sized bedrooms, 1 small kitchen, 1 WC (Yes! Love it!) and a longgggg good-sized living room! We've decided against hiring an ID for the fact that we prefer to work under our own schedule. Secondly, we felt it is not necessary to engage an ID since we're keeping things simple and that few K could well be spent on better things (like honeymoon haha!). I also am against working within the purview of a "consultant". Let's hope all works out well for us! We're doing a major overhaul to the unit and hacking commences this coming Monday! I'm a relatively active Instagram user, hence will update much more on instagram via picture posting & instagram stories, rather than typing here. Well, I will try to update as much as possible but yes, most of the updates will be via our account at @WHAMPOADAILY . Follow us! (: Edited February 11, 2017 by WHAMPOADAILY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fifteenmay 40 Report post Posted February 12, 2017 house looks really big and well maintained! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Whisperer 2 Report post Posted February 12, 2017 Indeed, the living room is spacious! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHAMPOADAILY 0 Report post Posted February 16, 2017 (edited) Fellow Renotalkers! its been a couple of days now and we are just about done with hacking and removal of debris from the unit. There's nth too drastic done to the house so far although the hacking process is actually the most major part of our Reno haha! Next up we're waiting for tiling to start! Though we might get the air on guys to come get things up as our contractor strongly recommend us to get the aircon trucking up before he begins tiling. His main concern is to minimize any accidental cracking with the floor tiles should other contractors not be careful enough when they come by to get work done. Attaching some pictures , before and after side by side , for your reference : Just wanna highlight these last 2 pictures! You're right, they are of the same location. If you're wondering if we hacked the walls behind the closet. Nope we did not. All we did was to tear down the closet you see in the "before" picture. The previous owners of the house had a wall between bedroom 1&2 partially hacked. From there , they then got IKEA to do up a closet in each room, creating a small space between them which they used as a storeroom. The access to the storeroom is through the back of the closet! Basically you open the closet, and inside the closet there's a second door. Pretty innovative I'd say! With the closets removed, we now have a huge bedroom made up with 2 bedrooms! Very happy with the space we see now. More pics & Video is up on IG WHAMPOADAILY Also, we need much help! Any of you have good recommendation for lighting/electrical works? What's the market pricing like? Pls share with us! Scratching our heads hard because we're really new to this! Edited February 16, 2017 by WHAMPOADAILY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHAMPOADAILY 0 Report post Posted February 16, 2017 On 11/02/2017 at 6:45 PM, fifteenmay said: house looks really big and well maintained! Thank you fifteenmay! Overall pretty satisfied with the condition when we bought it but even if it's really old, hub and aren't too bothered by it because we planned to have it all done up. All the best with your resale unit too!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fifteenmay 40 Report post Posted February 16, 2017 36 minutes ago, WHAMPOADAILY said: Thank you fifteenmay! Overall pretty satisfied with the condition when we bought it but even if it's really old, hub and aren't too bothered by it because we planned to have it all done up. All the best with your resale unit too!! wow total rehaul! can't wait to see the end products! i followed you on insta to see your updates too! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHAMPOADAILY 0 Report post Posted February 16, 2017 (edited) Hello Again! Before I get busy with work, thought I'd better put in some updates ,otherwise it will be too much to handle by my next return! I'm currently outstationed for work hence my poor Best Other Half has to shoulder the tedious task of overseeing the works to the house. Tiling should commence this week! Here's some pictures of the tiles we're using for our home. You may have noticed that these tiles sits on our floor that is before hacking. Why, you must be wondering! So... My Mister is the sort that leaves most of the decisions relating to aesthetics to me. Like most guys, he doesn't have much he wanna do to the house, so long as things are done properly , doesn't incur sky high reno cost, most importantly, comfortable to stay in. In a nutshell, I get to decide everything! (Haha!) i must say I have gone to greater lengths to find the tiles I want. These tiles were delivered to the unit before we applied for HDB Reno permit because they were ordered in from you-know-where! In fact they were behind schedule, hence the delay in Reno for months.. They have really sailed some seas! So explains the cracked. Much of the tiles came cracked too! Mister's heart cracked when we inspected the tiles box by box too. Haha! Anw, we're using white glossy subway tiles for kitchen walls. Those floral printed tiles are for our kitchen floor and dining. 70% of our house, namely the living room and bedrooms, will stick to homogenous tiles of grayish tone. We started tiles hunting before keys collection, from hafary to SBH. We decided on one China-made tile from SBH at $2.70/sqft. Right before CNY we headed to SBH wanting to place order for it. However, unfortunately SBH didn't have the quantity we needed. And they're discontinued so there's no way for us to put it on waitlist! Sobs! In the end , we ended up with this grayish one below, from Liang Seng Hin (below, second from left) Price is steeper but I'm glad we settled on this. Why? Because the one we almost ordered from SBH has some grooves to it, to enhance the look and feel of real wood. I was a bit skeptical about that because cleaning will be an issue in future! Going with hexagonal floral mosaic tiles for our toilet! Should be close to something as seen below, however may not be exactly the same depending method the tiles are laid. Now back to my concern, anybody has lighting/electrical contacts to recommended pls? Thank you!!! Edited February 16, 2017 by WHAMPOADAILY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHAMPOADAILY 0 Report post Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) Hello everyone! WOW it's been 2 months going 3! This is my third update on Renotalk, even though I have been inputting quite a lot on Instagram out of convenience (; As of today, Our Reno is slowly coming together! The overall look and feel is there , just haven't go on intensive buying for furniture to complete the look. Anyhow ,Below are some progress pictures (; Only remembering clearly that the hacking started on 14Feb Bcus it was Vday haha! Hacking and removal were completed within hours. Not much noise made since the flooring were 90% vinyl, where 10% of tiles were for wet areas like toilet and kitchen only. Drilling to remove kitchen/toilet floor tiles , and toilet walls were done on second day. We maintained the kitchen wall as our contractor says that it's not necessary to hack the kitchen wall, and that plastering over would do the job. We welcome cost reduction hence went with his suggestion! By the third day, the unit was ready for tiling works! Edited April 30, 2017 by WHAMPOADAILY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHAMPOADAILY 0 Report post Posted April 30, 2017 THE HORROR.... Previous owner had the entire house ceiling lowered Bcus of false ceiling. It goes from the living through the hallway, kitchen and all the rooms. We only realized how much beams were in this house after removal works were done. As this house is old (enough) , we were faced with lots of uneve walls and ceilings after the house we reduced to this state. No that much of a biggie since we're redoing the entire house. But some of our plans were reconsidered due to the existence of 9999999 beams and awkward spaces in the house. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHAMPOADAILY 0 Report post Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) I was away for week on the first week hence didn't catch up much with the progress. BOH sent over some updates over the week while I was away. The tiling guys came within the same week to start tiling! Started out with the kitchen. Our main contractor said our toilet and kitchen tiling is a chore , Bcus the tiles come in small pcs. Haha! the tilers did a wonderful job! Tiles pictured below are from taobao! I shipped them in with Ezbuy and went through a hard time with Ezbuy. Through this episode I have also decided that I'd never engage Ezbuy's forwarding svc again. Before we started with the kitchen wall, tiler laid out the subway tiles in two patterns and have us pick one. He explained the best of 2 choices and we went with his , because we believe it is best that way to avoid wastage and tiles warping/popping overtime. Excluding kitchen and toilet, the rest of the house is now tiled with grey floor tiles, with black grouting. Tiles seen below are sourced locally, not from taobao! Tilers also screeded the toilet grounds to prepare it for tiling works! We had plenty of hiccups with the toilet because of the water piping. Example, before hacking we were threatened by the possibility of having to rerun the piping should the hacking guys drill through them by accident. That's because nobody knows how the piping were done by the previous owner's contractors. Hacking team pre empt us on that and we are thankful that it all went smoothly! Should it happen, we'd have to bear the cost of doing up the piping, which isn't cheap! That weekend we had to finalize our decision on aircon since we needed to figure out where to place the drain pipe outlet before the tiling guys can continue with the tiling in the toilet! We have heard plenty of horror stories with GainCity when it comes to aircon purchase. But since there was a GC fair at Expo, we made a trip down on a Saturday. Other than completing our aircon purchase, we also spotted our ideal Fridge in pearl White on display! Our home will be mostly neutral/white tones hence a white fridge has always been our choice. With that, we decided to put the $$ on it! We bought the Hitachi 550L Inverter 2 Door fridge in white! It has since been delivered, after bargaining for the latest delivery date we can possibly drag on. Haha! $39 for a Salav steam iron which comes in dusty pink. Pretty lightweight , and pretty pretty! Pictured above is a 40cm hanging mirror which I got from Target Australia! Planning to place it above the toilet vanity. Size is just right for us but we have really limited space above the vanity due to exposed pipe running right below the ceiling. With that, BOH have to bend down a little to see his face haha! This renders it pointless. Thinking of selling this. Any takers? Edited April 30, 2017 by WHAMPOADAILY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
d3n 14 Report post Posted April 30, 2017 nice floorings! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHAMPOADAILY 0 Report post Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) 24 minutes ago, d3n said: nice floorings! Thank you d3n! Edited April 30, 2017 by WHAMPOADAILY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snoozee 97 Report post Posted May 1, 2017 can share which seller you bought the tiles from taobao? the rooms facing the expressway would be quite noisy at night even with the windows closed. is yours the top floor unit? normally only top floor unit will have such thick beams. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
May_dream1 14 Report post Posted May 2, 2017 from your windows, can see my unit...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fifteenmay 40 Report post Posted May 2, 2017 On 30/04/2017 at 10:33 PM, WHAMPOADAILY said: I was away for week on the first week hence didn't catch up much with the progress. BOH sent over some updates over the week while I was away. The tiling guys came within the same week to start tiling! Started out with the kitchen. Our main contractor said our toilet and kitchen tiling is a chore , Bcus the tiles come in small pcs. Haha! the tilers did a wonderful job! Tiles pictured below are from taobao! I shipped them in with Ezbuy and went through a hard time with Ezbuy. Through this episode I have also decided that I'd never engage Ezbuy's forwarding svc again. Before we started with the kitchen wall, tiler laid out the subway tiles in two patterns and have us pick one. He explained the best of 2 choices and we went with his , because we believe it is best that way to avoid wastage and tiles warping/popping overtime. Excluding kitchen and toilet, the rest of the house is now tiled with grey floor tiles, with black grouting. Tiles seen below are sourced locally, not from taobao! Tilers also screeded the toilet grounds to prepare it for tiling works! We had plenty of hiccups with the toilet because of the water piping. Example, before hacking we were threatened by the possibility of having to rerun the piping should the hacking guys drill through them by accident. That's because nobody knows how the piping were done by the previous owner's contractors. Hacking team pre empt us on that and we are thankful that it all went smoothly! Should it happen, we'd have to bear the cost of doing up the piping, which isn't cheap! That weekend we had to finalize our decision on aircon since we needed to figure out where to place the drain pipe outlet before the tiling guys can continue with the tiling in the toilet! We have heard plenty of horror stories with GainCity when it comes to aircon purchase. But since there was a GC fair at Expo, we made a trip down on a Saturday. Other than completing our aircon purchase, we also spotted our ideal Fridge in pearl White on display! Our home will be mostly neutral/white tones hence a white fridge has always been our choice. With that, we decided to put the $$ on it! We bought the Hitachi 550L Inverter 2 Door fridge in white! It has since been delivered, after bargaining for the latest delivery date we can possibly drag on. Haha! $39 for a Salav steam iron which comes in dusty pink. Pretty lightweight , and pretty pretty! Pictured above is a 40cm hanging mirror which I got from Target Australia! Planning to place it above the toilet vanity. Size is just right for us but we have really limited space above the vanity due to exposed pipe running right below the ceiling. With that, BOH have to bend down a little to see his face haha! This renders it pointless. Thinking of selling this. Any takers? Oh why!!! I wanted this badly when i was lookong for a morror in my common bathroom! Its perfect size and colour..I cldnt get it from taobao and i gave up! Oh shucks..i settled for a boring ikea mirror instead!! Cries... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
