:: reno journey to our new home ::

[pocketpig]

Have viewed for more than 20 units since April ... finally found the one we love. We were so particular on the floor plan, we fall in love on the floor plan of the 3rd unit we viewed but we still not eligible to buy during that time (our first home still haven't met the 5 years MOP).
After viewing of few units and we decided to stick to that area with similar floor plan, this actually restricted and we only have limited choices .. i.e. it really took us few months to find the unit we like. Our first home was located in walking distance to Bedok MRT and we really like Bedok this area, it was so convenience and many nice food markets around; but we decided to look for other areas after viewing two units in Bedok. The hdb selling in Bedok was really overprice and we started to look around for areas such as Tampines and Sengkang .. finally we settled our second home at Tampines.

The new place we bought was around 15 years old and it was at the top floor ..
Already attended first appointment and we are going to collect our key end of this month.

 

[pocketpig]

Original floor plan bought from HDB :

 

[aspialle]

Which project is this?

 

[pocketpig]

Which project ? We bought the resale flat .. Built in 1997 ..

 

[aspialle]

Pocket pig, which block is it? I'm also top floor unit at st 71

 

[pocketpig]

aspialle, just PMed you ... so coincidence !

 

[pocketpig]

Proposed floor plan - draw with floorplanner :

 

[aspialle]

Wow pocket pig, u turn the service area to study area? Looks good ! What's your floor area? Mine is only 110 Sqm I think

 

[pocketpig]

Wow pocket pig, u turn the service area to study area? Looks good ! What's your floor area? Mine is only 110 Sqm I think

Sorry for late reply .. I have been so long haven't logged into sgbride forum.
Delivered my first gal in Dec ... then started to busy with her ~
Yeap, I changed the service area to study area .. the floor area is 120 sqm.

The 3D floor plan we did using floorplanner website :

 

[pocketpig]

Share some of the items we have bought for our new place ... from Ikea, from IMM ...
Check what've we bought for more details ~

 

[pocketpig]

Due to budget constraint, we designed everything by ourselves ... didn't hire any ID.
So husband started to learn to draw 3D drawings to show to our contractors for what we are looking .. here are some samples he did ..

The below one is for carpentry works in our living room, very dull compared to those professional 3D design --- just to serve as some basic requirements for carpentry works :

 

[pocketpig]

Here're some pics of pre-renovation started, pics were taken by iphone ..

 

[rabber]

Nice!!

 

[pocketpig]

The reno progress took about 5 weeks, long journey. Here I attached the pictures we took for week I and week V .. to see other week reno progress can refer to my blog.

 

[pocketpig]

Review on the IDs and contractors we have contacted :

* ID from Linewerkz : Discussed with them during one of the expo exhibition, total quote was 65K and missing many items. We dropped this during the first quotation.

* ID Loyd Pek from D Home : Emailed on 24 July and met up in his office on 28 July, know him from renotalk and quite like his design style but he was quite busy and will be out for a month. We didn’t continue to follow-up with him as we believed that he cannot meet our tight budget.

* Contractor Alan from Aian : Emailed on 24 July and 1st met up on 4 August and 2nd met up on 4 September. He was quite popular in renotalk and many recommendations .. but my husband didn’t have click with him although I quite keen to work with him. His quote was quite reasonable except the L box price.

* ID Kelvin Teo : Emailed on 24 Jul but I cancelled the meet up as I believed our budget will be too low for him to design for us .. though I quite like his works.

* ID from Summit Design : Emailed on 26 July and 1st met up on 27 July and 2nd met up on 9 August. The ID we met was quite a young and pretty lady . The final quotation still not able to meet our budget .. a bit higher compared to contractor – 32k without including carpentry works.

* ID from Artistroom : Emailed on 28 July and 1st met up on 1 August at their office. Was recommended from one of the t-blog owner, we didn’t go further for 2nd meet up because we understand that their price was in high side and their design might not suit us. They are very “artist” and can have many special ideas.

* ID New Nyew : Saw her design in renotalk and impressed with her works. Emailed her on 28 July and meet up at her place on 2 August. During the meet up, she brought us to see other units that she has designed. Both me and my husband quite keen to work with her but overall quotation was on high side .. Too bad that we cannot work with her due to our tight budget.

* ID Jimmy from 3D Innovative : My husband was the one who emailed him on 31 July, and we met up on the same day. He was also one of the ID highly recommended in renotalk and his quotation was at good price which can meet our overall budget of 45K. His revised quotation was sent 2 days later after we confirmed with our current contractor .. else we probably will sign up with him.

* Contractor Kevin Tee : Very popular in renotalk, others called him as Mr K. Emailed him on 5 August and meet up on 14 August .. as expected, his quotation is over our budget and we didn’t proceed further.

* Contractor Sky : Recommended by my friend, he helped her to do her place and was quite okay. We only contacted through email and phone, no chance to meet. Quotation is still higher than our budget.

* Carpenter Ah Tong : Recommended by my colleague. Emailed him on 5 August and meet up on 9 August National Day. Immediately confirmed him after received his quotation on few days later … he also provided some 3d hand drawings and his price was quite reasonable as compared to IDs and contractors. We decided to engage him to do all the carpentry works for our new home.

* Contractor Ah Huat : Recommended by my colleague, he helped her to do for her mother’s place. Emailed him on 18 August and 1st meet up on 16 August. We meet him again on 5 September after received his quotation. His quotation didn’t breakdown into different items and most are lump sum into one amount, quite different from other quotations that we have received. And everything is written in Chinese, he was not good in paper works. Overall quotation was very close to Jimmy from 3D Innovative, which able to meet our budget of 45K including carpentry works .. and at the end we confirmed with him to be our contractor for all the demolition, masonry, plumbing and electrical works.

Some other IDs that I have considered including : Inside Living, EHKA, Fervor Design, FSI, Fuse Concept, Museum ID … but I didn’t send any emails to them, quite tired to meet so many IDs.

In summary, we shortlisted our contractor based on quotation given due to tight budget of 45K. i.e. have no opportunity to get an ID to do renovation for us. Using contractor will need ourselves to do design and on-site management, my husband almost everyday going to site. There is no guides or advices given when choosing tiles etc and we have to go by our own to shop for stuffs … i.e. there is pros and cons of hiring contractor vs hiring ID.

 

[pocketpig]

Vendors that we have engaged, contacts and reno cost

* Carpenter Ah Thong : He was recommended from my colleague, my colleague have really positive comments about him. So we immediately decided to engage him to do all our carpentry works after the first meet up. Was quite happy to work with him, especially his humble attitude really made us feel no regret to engage him. I cannot say all the works are 100% perfect, but they are fine to us and we have no complaint of him. Some of the works are actually belong to contractor but he just claimed as carpenter shall do, and we asked Ah Thong to help us and he never reject us, really thumb up with his service ! [ hp : 9817 4936 ]

* Contractor Ah Huat : This was the first time we do renovation although it was our second purchased house. Due to budget constraint, we hired this contractor instead of interior designer. As most of the works are come from him, including electrician works, plumbing works, masonry works etc., we also faced most of the issues from his works. Beginning with the hdb permit application, he seems not familiar with those paper works and husband has to apply leave to go down hdb to go through with him. After that, there are many other issues such as kerb position was really wrongly placed, painting works are really messed especially the ceiling area are not smooth, some paintings on door are pealing off, final cleaning was not done, the paints that they used are not branded yet still charge for 1.9k … Overall, I will not recommend this contractor. We have to monitor the renovation progress very closely and my husband always have to take leave to see the progress else things will get screw up as he always intended to forget or mix up. We also didn’t find his quotation is cheap and he always will count and charge every single thing, some we really think is overpriced. [ hp : 8139 3299 ]

* Doors from Doctor Door : Quite impressed with the service of the guy who helped us to coordinate, we engaged Doctor Door to do our balcony sliding door, studyroom bi-fold door, bathroom glass door and shower screen. [ phone : 67538109 ]

* Kitchen top from Kompactop : No complaint so far. [ phone : 6886 4283 ]

Renovation Cost : Total less than 50k (carpentry works less than 20k and contractor works less than 30k).

 

[pocketpig]

Some snapshots taken before we moved in the place, my husband and sister were busy doing some cleaning .. I cannot do heavy works as my tummy was too big, going to 35 week of pregnancy.

More pictures to see here ...

 

[pocketpig]

The post-reno pictures taken for entry way and dining area, more pictures here.

 

[pocketpig]

We just revamp our living hall with some little changes ~ we got a sideboard for storage and décor purpose ... check out the post here for more details on how we style the sideboard.

 

[Amy Leong]

such a beautiful house you have!!

 

[pocketpig]

such a beautiful house you have!!

Thanks ~

 

[JasmineT]

Your house really pretty!