rockyAtRenotalk

That's what I'm intending too! But it's really super squeezy. Wife keeps saying that it's not possible but I think can be done

Not parquet. Wife took a liking for HERF flooring from Evorich... and woah, that wall is really kickass sweet!

Theme? No theme, really. Just functional will be fine.

No leh, so far minimum 20k to do 3 toilets. We need to hack everything and repipe because the pipes are all oxided liao. The rewiring is the cheapest among 3 quotes leh, the other ones quote 10k+ during the preliminary stages. Shucks... maybe my requirements too high. I feel like a carrot head now...

Side track a bit... What do you do for the super small 1st level toilet? P-type? S-type? L-bend? I was told I need to get my contractor to do up a customized l-bend. And my ID said I can only buy the smallest of smallest W/C. Is that what you guys do?

:yamseng:

Owner's impressions Alrighty.... so I got my hands a little dirty and did some 3D work on my own. No, these are not from my IDs, as you can see from the poor quality work. But at least this is something that we envision for our home. So here we go! Living Room Dining Room Kitchen

HappyAng, Thank you! And your EM is coming up really well too. I've been camping at your thread for a while, and really looking forward to your end result. Btw, I will "steal" your recessed toilet idea. ;0 Rocky

SeirenGrey, Wow, congratulations to you! Well, if you could choose your flat properly before you buy, then you could save lots on the renovation. But if you get something like ours, then there's much to do. Thanks! Rocky

Thanks, Z3phy! Will put up more pictures as the days go by.

spikedoll, Mine is similar. My re-wiring is closer to $7k. Aircon is about $4.5k. Do you have the problem where the piping is more than 15m and they charge you extra for that? And another question: what do you do for the 1st level toilet? P-type? S-type? L-bend? I was told I need to get my contractor to do up a customized l-bend. I have no clue about these things!

Yup, quite upsetting but that is the reality of life!

Texas5, Yup, the intention is to restore the balcony. But even then it might still be wasted because the windows faces the busy Ave 5. And like what spikedoll and cleong mentioned, 50k can't get much nowadays. ;( If I can get everything in under $100k, I will be happy. Re-doing my 3 toilets already costs me $20k, not including the w/c, basin and accessories. Rocky

Hi there, We have a problem and we hope somebody could enlighten us. Our new home is an EM with a toilet on the first floor. It is a very small space and as such the previous owner used a L-bend for the WC. My question is, is this the only solution? Are there alternatives to fix this? I spoke to a knowledgeable gentleman and he said that the l-bend requires customization from the plumber. My ID, on the other hand, tells me that I can only buy a very small WC for that toilet. If you have a solution, please let me know! Thank you. Rocky

Texas5, I have asked a few opinions on this and the answer had been mostly no. The walls are so thick and they look more like beams than just plain walls. But I have asked my ID to check again. You are right, its neither here nor there. On the flooring, the pictures are deceiving. The flooring is terrible. We have at least 8 tiles that have hollow sounds when you knock on them. And on some tiles, the discolourization is so bad you can still see the fish tank marks there. I could go on and on about the flooring but ultimately, wife said, "Hack the Floors!". 'nuff said... I bet she's reading this now. LOL... I'm so gonna get it. Hahaha

The search for an ID... We invited a couple of IDs in for discussion. But our experience was a bit messed up because we sent out our desire for renovation very early. Many responded and said ended the phone call with something like, "Ok, ok! Good, I will send you a rough quotation next week and we will be in touch". Almost none came back. We started to get the feeling that nobody wanted to do up our house. But anyway, it boiled down to these few options: ID #1: "Relak one corner" This guy came to our place, and did some measurements. He has 10 over years of experience in the field, and from the pictures from the company website, it was really wow! In fact, some of the items are exactly what we wanted. But the bomb came when he threw down the $$$$$$. Plastering, flooring, full kitchen cabinets, toilets, no electrical wiring was already $75k. We loved the design, but we just don't pull out cash from under our armpits. ID #2: A good friend starting out... A friend came to me one day and said that he's starting out doing renovations. Of course as a friend, we will all invite them in. But months afterwards, there was no news, so in the end we had to drop him. ID #3: The devil that I know... This guy did my good friends' place, and when I was doing my pre-wedding renovations, I worked with him as well. His products are pretty ok, but not of the highest quality. Prices are reasonable and he is the contactable type. Although he did mess up a little bit on my previous project, at least we knew his "pattern" already. Moreover, he was willing to coordinate with my other contractors - flooring, electricity, window grilles, kitchen. So that's great for me. We went to a few other ID firms as well, but most of them are like hawk to its prey. The moment you throw out the double floor plan, their eyes light up with $$$. In short, I find that all IDs have their own "ba-ooh" (body odour in hokkien), but knowing it first makes things a lot more manageable and predictable later. So, ID #3 it is! Hopefully all goes well.

So, what's going through our heads when we are deciding on the renovations? Basic needs - Priority 1 stuff 1. Popcorn walls/ceilings - asbestos was my key concern, but it seems plastering was the only viable solution. 2. 3x disgusting toilets - I don't want to go into details about these places. 3. Kitchen revamp 4. Utility room - restore 5. Electrical rewiring 6. LAN points in every room 7. Hollow floorings - hack and redo. From the pictures, you can't tell, but the flooring is quite discoloured and has many sharp edges. 8. Revarnish parquet because of many drops of white paint splattered all over the floor 9. Windows, window grilles and main grilles - replace because of prolonged wear and tear 10. Air con - Come on! This is SG. Enhancements needs - Priority 2 stuff 1. L box lightings 2. Cove/Alcove lightings 3. Skyroof - one bro did it, super nice. Saliva drip until everywhere... 4. Feature walls (Living room) 5. A great kitchen - more on that later... 6. Walk in wardrobe

Master Bedroom Master bedroom toilet: Bedroom 1: Bedroom 2:

More pictures... I realised that my photography skills are really terrible. I failed to capture the important things in the apartment, and instead focused on irrelevant things... Anyway, here are some pictures of the house from our "First time open door" ceremony. View from Dining Area: Living Room/Balcony area: Kitchen: Stairwell (Mum knocked her head here. Big baluku!) : Staircase:

Hello to all forumers here in Renotalk, 小弟, Rocky, here says Hi to everyone. We got our flat in September last year but have not started renovations due to other priorities. After scouring the Internet for concepts, hints and tips, I can't help but keep coming back to Renotalk for all the best and innovative ideas to trick out our homes. As a form of giving back to the community, we decided to start a t-blog. Some of the ideas you may like and wish to adopt, please go ahead. No need to ask - it's free. Anything that you don't like, no need to flame us because we probably had no clue what was in our head then! Haha... First off, our floor plan. T-blog... here we go!