dietgalvon

Fiance and I are finally back from our vacation and we can't wait to get started on building our home! Of course, we dropped by Muji in Japan and we love what we see there! However, many of those we could not possibly bring back, and some wants are too harsh on our pockets. We would likely still get some PP storage drawers from Muji locally since they are too bulky to lug back. The struggle is real when in a paradise of all things acrylic, PP and MDF (woody). I felt that if I didn't ask what we intend to use the items specifically, the fiance would have many impluse buys from Muji - this is SO rare! To save our pockets from bleeding, I told myself that (1) we should only buy the item if we know what we want to use it for and (2) while it is easy to find acrylic storage on taobao, it is harder to find quality woody ones. This is how we decided on woody feel for our study desk accessories! MUJI JAPAN PURCHASES (1) MDF STORAGE STAND (A5 SIZE) Cost: ~SGD 19 Cost in Singapore: SGD 26 Being the 'admin controller' of the home, I sure would need this! (2) MDF 3 DRAWER UNIT Cost: ~SGD 32 Cost in Singapore: SGD 49 Woops, this is actually quite costly. The shade is actually exactly the same as the book stand (not sure why it appears to be lighter in shade). We searched for taobao sellers and the price is cheaper than we purchase straight from Muji. But upon seeing the photo reviews (huge variance from what we saw in Muji), the fiance said that we should get this from Muji instead. This is for us to store our stationary. (3) TRIPLE HANGER Cost: ~SGD 45 Cost in Singapore: Unavailable* *Could not find it in the Muji Singapore website. It was love at first sight with this wall hanger. I remember seeing a similar hanger in taobao and it's about half this price. It doesn't look as pleasing and the hooks are chrome instead of wood, tough. I love the feel and the mechanism of this! There is an indent at the top of it that could hold pictures. Simple, nice and functional. We find it rather pricey but for items in the MBR, we always close one eye, lol.

High 5! What other fans are you getting? I read your t-blog! Your fridge (glass version) costs more. The silver (non-glass) one I picked initially is cheaper so it doesn't look as sleek as this Samsung one haha. Cool! We engaged a contractor so we have to mix and match the combinations ourselves; hope it turns out fine as well. I would be signing up for ezbuy prime membership, so international shipping for everything (includes furniture) which is prime is only $2.99 per order!

PM sent! Thank you!

My fiance has went to Japan (for work), leaving me 6 days without his company before I go over to join him. As such, I spent the weekend settling things for our home! I organised our excel sheet to keep tracking of spendings and checklist for the home! Ezbuy's Free Agent Fee for the whole of April is great - I'll likely sign up for prime to get stuff for our home and wedding. Hehehe. So, my mum handed me a brochure from Audio House. Seeing the prices there make me... feel like I have to make a trip down. (Don't know for what since we have already purchased most from Gain City. ) The fiance would usually just let things be but he went along with me to Audio House to check out the items. The listed price of the items are not as low as Gain City (for most items) but the sale they had was really attractive - they come in the form of vouchers. Adding in the value of usable vouchers, we would have saved a couple of hundreds if we had gotten the stuff from there. Turns out, Gain City's after sales service is really good (though I couldn't say the same for the person servicing me -.-). They told me they can't match the price but they allowed me a refund. With that, the fiance took time out to accompany me to Audio House, and we "re-purchased" the items (updated in the previous post as well). We changed the models for some of the items we initially got as well. PURCHASES - PART II (1) SAMSUNG FRIDGE (362L) Place of purchase: Audio House Cost: $839 Initial Hitachi fridge (395L) was selling at $819, while this Samsung fridge (365L) was $839. We decided to get this fridge because it looks sleeker and mainly because it has 3 ticks. For an appliance that has to be switched on 24/7 we decided that the extra $20 is worth spending. (2) PHILIPS 50" FHD LED TV Place of purchase: Audio House Cost: $799 (free wall mount installation & 3 years warranty) Comes with TV box This is our living room TV, to replace the Sharp 50" non-smart TV. Price at Audio House was $749 (no free wall mount installation), so we reckon that with the $50 price difference, it cost exactly the same as the Sharp's. What's better is that Philips TV comes with 3 year full warranty and this comes with a TV box! So we got a non-smart TV, but can use andriod apps all the same. ^^ (3) PHILIPS 50" FHD ANDRIOD LED TV Place of purchase: Audio House Cost: $849 Looks exactly the same as the one above (haha). This was a pretty good deal because I wanted to get this from Gain City (and save the hassle of changing all my items) but they told me that they could not match even the price (without voucher value yet). The difference between this and the living room TV is that the andriod box is 'built-in', so there is no need for an external TV box. *Other than using $320 in vouchers for the items we got from Audio House, we kept additional $40 vouchers for the Ariston storage heater that we intend to get (the fiance say it's nicer because it looks like an aircon, lol).* (4) SIMMONS BEAUTYREST PLATINUM - QUEEN SIZED Place of purchase: Expo (furniture fair) Cost: $2,700 Comes with bed protector and 2 pillows We went to the furniture fair and was surprised at how empty it was. We only tried 2 brands - Sealy and Simmons. For the beds we tried at Sealy, price is about $2,500 (with 5% rebate with OCBC cards). We asked for firm beds, but the beds we tried are still not that firm. We went over to Simmons, and really liked this bed we tried - firm, but plush! It costs $3,012 (as we bought in advance), but we decided to walk away to consider in case it resulted in another impulse buy. After ~45 mins of discussion and research, we found out that Sealy makes softer beds. Still the difference in pricing made us try both Sealy and Simmons beds again - and our final choice is Simmons. We negotiated a bit, and agreed to this price. I hope it's a good deal! (5) PHILIPS POWERPRO BAGLESS VACUUM CLEANER Place of purchase: Philips SG eShop Cost: $199.50 (inclusive of $20 delivery) I did not have intention to buy the smaller items first (also that's why I did not keep the remaining Audio House vouchers that we got), but the mum came to me today and told me she got a 50% discount code for Philips items in their estore. She told me that she's going to get a spare iron if I don't need the discount code. So I went into the estore, and decided to get either a vacuum cleaner or a airfryer (make use of discount code, else an iron would only save my mum about $60?). We went to Gain City, and learnt that actually the 'newer' airfryer works the same as the older version in my current home. As such, I decided that I will just use the Mayer airfryer that my mum has (it's a free gift from somewhere lol) and intend to gift to me. I wanted to get the handheld vacuum cleaners but my mum warned me that they might not be "powerful" enough. Indeed, the salesperson told us that that is true, and 5 hours of charging power equates only 20 minutes of use. Gain City does not carry the usual bulkier Philips vacuum cleaners, so we went to Courts instead. After listening to what the different versions of Philips bagless vacuum cleaners have to offer, my mum suggested that I get this, because it comes with a turbo cleaner (for beds). I wanted to get a cheaper version but after 50% the difference is only $40 and my mum said, just go for this model. This costs $379 at Courts! (6) VENTO FINO 2 (OAK) Place of purchase: HT Lightings (JB) Cost: ~$304 (after GST) Thanks to recommendations by fellow renotalkers, we went to HT lightings some time back during one of our trip and just decided to get this! This is for our MBR. I got the chrome version though the matte black one was newly released then, because of our theme. The staff showed us how the fan works and we are loving the swivel and the wind! We lugged this all the way back (poor fiance), as we didn't have a car and thought that considering that we need to get 3 fans, we need to make at least 2 trips anyway. We are considering to get a ceiling fan for the living room and a wall mount KDK fan for the kitchen. My mum might be able to drive us in for the next trip, I hope she really does!! If not, we will just lug the fans back in, but perhaps take a cab back to Singapore instead. That's all for now! I really need to pack my luggage soon~

Hi CJES, shelvings are usually added to make use of the space in the DB box; can store shoes (sideways) or anything else! Wasn't quoted for the DB box yet. Air-con box up should cost ~$600.

Hehe, to save costs we are not doing any works for common toilet and the other 2 bedrooms. We will get vanity cabinet/mirror and study room items off the shelf. By the way, more than 1 contractor suggested to have the cement sink support. I came back and asked my mum, she told me it's money that cannot be saved because if there's leakage at the sink area, all the carpentry would be wasted. Hmm, we had already signed with Evorich before we confirmed a contractor. Getting Evorich to do the platform as well because we're laying vinyl which we will be getting from them. I recall the flooring (LR + 3 BR) to be $4k plus and $700 plus for raising a 6" platform. PM sent!

RECTIFICATION OF DEFECTS Tips: 1. Number the defects; easier to list it down 2. Take pictures of the flat to track defects rectification 3. Take note of new defects created in the midst of the rectifiction Last Saturday we had a joint inspection with the HDB officer, and the workers came to rectify the defects. We were told that the workers will remove the masking tape labels so I took pictures of the whole flat with the masking tape labels. Please be very careful about the new defects! We had them change 2 of our socket casing and the walls were affected (they said they will rectify it) and more cracks surfaced after they removed the basin to fix a cracked wall tile. They are still in the midst of rectifying the defects. FIRST MEET UP WITH CONTRACTOR ON-SITE Last Sunday we meet J and E at our place for the first time. Like I mentioned, they really do take quite a while to respond. We waited for 2 weeks or so because they arranged a time to meet with us. But the meeting was good - they seem to know everything! Same vibes per our first meeting (haha) - experienced and we felt that we are in safe hands. J went around taking measurements while E was looking around and telling us what we should take note and also answering our questions. We signed the contract on the spot that day! They gave us a Nippon paint book and laminates portfolio for us to explore and we are really excited about it! We are heading to Japan so we can only kickstart things 2 weeks later. Works that we would be doing: Living room Change DB box doors & add shelvings Full height shoe rack Tic-tac door to conceal bomb shelter Entrance kerb to be laid with tiles Kitchen L-shaped bottom cabinet (w/ quartz top) Cement sink support Bar height dining table Hack half wall Hanging shelves (attempt to cover sewage pipe) Box up gas pipes MBR L-shaped wardrobe Dresser Platform (for bed) - To be done by flooring guys Flush recess wall MBR Toilet Vanity cabinet Top Mirror Shower screen Overlay floor and wall tiles PD door Misc Aircon box up (KIV) We initially didn't want to box up our air con trunking to save money but E suggested to run the air con trunking around our living room to avoid having a false beam in our already tiny living room. As such, we might need to do box up. *** Till we come return from Japan~ We would be choosing our flooring when we're back!

Hello @daryl78, I'm not too sure yet but I certainly doubt so! We chose a white hob purely to fit our theme hahaha

Yup, we won't be able to fully let down the laundry thingy if we were to stack them. Arghhhh!

Yup if you don't mind that's fine too! Just realized that I won't be able to stack my dryer on top of my washer because of the laundry pulley thingy. So the hot air shall remain in my service yard instead of let out of the window. Sounds like a great plan for your kitchen! Will follow your updates, hehe. PM sent!

Hello renonoob2017, PM sent! Oh! I think there'll be an issue! The tube usually comes out from the back of side or the dryer and it will be really hot. I intend to let the hot air out of the window. Really innovative to put the washer in the kitchen within the enclosed cabinet! Do you have to shift the water outlet to do this?

Hello @matchalatte! Yup the dryer does! My mum loves to use the dryer because the clothes are softer than if hung dry. To save electricity she would hang dry till 80% dry before using the dryer. Yes I inadvertently bought the one with the tube as well - it is an outlet to let out the hot air. But the price was good so no complaints! My mum says the tube is unsightly and hard to manage, so she got one that doesn't have the tube. Hers was a Fisher & Paykel, at $600 odd. Tiong Yeong sells more of sinks/taps/heaters, etc. I didn't do much price comparison though, just went there because it was recommended to me hahaha. Hope that helps!

We will be having a joint inspection with HDB on the defects of our flat this Saturday and are finally meeting our contractor this Sunday! Excited that things are finally moving~ STARTING FROM ZERO Here's the very first few photos we took of our flat! Our living room is tiny~ And so is the dining area! We initially wanted to hack half wall and fabricate a bar-top (with seats facing the kitchen), but upon seeing the flat we realized that it won't even be enough for two (lol). We tweaked the idea a bit and decided to have a bar height dining instead! Kitchen/Service Yard The pipe there is diagonally opposite the kitchen wall I intend to hack, and my mum is very concerned about the pipe being visible from the living room (we are not doing top cabinets). She suggested that I do a top cabinet or keep the kitchen wall. This gave me second thoughts about hacking the kitchen wall because (1) friends say aircon don't work well with open kitchen concept (2) our wall is tiny but that will cost us $1.5k to hack and (3) no hacking means need not spend money to conceal the pipe. The fiance still prefers to hack the kitchen wall for aesthetics reasons and we are thinking of alternatives so that we don't spend money on a top cabinet that we likely would not fully utilize. My mum is again very concerned over the gas piping that is going to be visible because we are not doing top cabinets. We intend to box up the piping or in the worst case scenario, live with it. Omg, why is it protruding that much? Short passage way to MBR; I think one bulb is enough to light up this area (lol) MBR Toilet; I am a little upset that I can't have a big mirror because of the placement of the window, but things just got worse when I saw that the window is SO huge. "Feature" wall for both MBR and common toilets Well, good thing my toilets wall tiles are completely white except for the wall behind the doors. To be honest, this "feature" wall isn't all that bad. Our current plan is to overlay the MBR toilet floor and wall tiles but I am feeling 'sayang' because (1) I am okay with the white wall tiles, (2) this "feature" wall ain't all that bad and (3) we can save $2k. But the last I heard the fiance says he still wants to overlay the wall tiles; likely going ahead with his decision because I always can't decide hehe.

Thanks @kingandbin, yet again!

Hello kingandbin! Could you share the length of the tracks you used in your living room? Trying to gauge what length I need for my living area! By the way, just some months ago when I started reading up on reno you helped me a lot (those PMs you replied!). Finally, it's my turn for reno and I have to thank you for clearing my doubts during that period!

My fiance and I just completed the list of defects and would be submitting it to HDB service center soon. Crossing fingers that all will be done before we leave for Japan in 2 weeks' time! Also, currently we are waiting for J&E to get back to us to arrange a meeting time to formalize the contract (it's been 2 weeks). Oh wells, we were prepared for the wait! Anyway, we are currently having second thoughts of our initial plan and would need some time to dwell over it. Arghhhh! We started shopping around for the electrical appliances. Now that we have purchased most of them (if not all), I wondered if we had acted too impulsively. We didn't do much price comparison and thought it's easier to buy all from the same store. As I am not very particular with the type of electrical appliances we use at home (trust me, I spend so much more effort and time on the minute things when buying off taobao), I did not do much research on these. Hence, the process of settling was really easy - bring fiance to the store, listen to the recommendations, fiance decides, purchase made. LOL. PURCHASES - PART I (1) YORK SYSTEM 4 AIR CONDITIONERS (4 TICKS) Place of purchase: Gain City Cost: $3,280 with 5 years extended warranty ($389 for extended warranty) All I gathered from whatever I read is that usually people chooses Mitsubishi air conditioners. Personally, we do not have any preferences. We decided to settle for an inexpensive brand with extended warranty largely because we understood that the life span of air conditioners is about 7 to 10 years, regardless of whether they were used or not at all. With an initial idea of an open kitchen concept, we chose System 4 still because my mum advised that the rooms' air conditioners would be cooler if we do not on the living room unit often. We only have plans of using the ones in the MBR and study room, and decided that this is good enough for us. (2) FUJIOH HOB Place of purchase: Tiong Yeong Hardware Cost: $430 Again, all I told the fiance was that we can consider Fujioh or Bosch (we only needed the hob) based on what I have gathered from forum (forum-ers definitely can be trusted!). We first went to Hoe Kee, and while we like Bosch as it looked really easy to clean, we wanted to get a white tempered glass hob instead. Hoe Kee told us that they do not have any white for Fujioh ($400+), and the next feasible choice is Turbo ($500+). We left the store because we were not in a hurry to make the decision yet. We next went to Tiong Yeong Hardware to check out kitchen sinks, and chanced upon Fujioh hob in WHITE. We decided to buy it immediately! We don't get to choose the internal flame burners though because they only have one piece left for the white! We will return to the store to buy sinks in due course. For now, we are happy we managed to get a white hob at this price. Heh. (3) SHARP 50" FHD DIGITAL TV Place of purchase: Gain City Cost: $699 + $50 (for wall-mount installation) My fiance and I do not have the habit of watching TV so we bought a non-smart TV for the living room - this is for the fiance to play games on his PS4. He wanted a 50" though I initially thought a 43" was sufficient for our tiny living area (lol). (4) HITACHI FRIDGE - SLS (395L) Place of purchase: Gain City Cost: $729 There were tons of refrigerators in the store that we didn't know where to begin. In the end, I recalled reading most about Hitachi, so we just decided to scale down to Hitachi fridges (first). In the end, we find that this size was just right, and the price was right, so we didn't bother looking further. (5) BOSCH DRYER (6KG) + BOSCH FRONT LOAD WASHER (7KG) Place of purchase: Gain City Cost: $595 + $690 (free stacking kit) Dryer Place of purchase: Audio House Cost: $649 (free stacking kit, though I would not require it) Washer Place of purchase: Gain City Cost: $690 I am using a dryer at my maiden home and I love the convenience. I was prepared to buy it at a later stage if the price wasn't right (my mum is against a 2-in-1 kind of washer/dryer), so I was glad I saw this deal at Gain City - dryer going at $600! Upon getting home, my mum told me that I shouldn't get a dryer that has a pipe (omggg) because it's very cumbersome. Oh well, I doubt I will change it though, I shall live with it (haha). We initially wanted to get a ~$500 LG washing machine, but realized that the drum was puny as compared to the other $700 and up ones. Most washing machines are also about ~$700 so when we were introduced to this Bosch washing machine, we decided to get it since it costs $700. *** Actually, we also placed deposit for a SONY 50" 3D ANDRIOD TV that costs $1,199 at Gain City (for MBR). But due to our lack of research, we were slightly misled by the salesperson and decided that we only needed a regular smart TV that should cost below $1,000. So, we are planning to get this changed. We must be the laziest shoppers on Earth (lol). I shall refrain from buying impulsively from now on.

PM sent!

PMs sent!

Over the weekend, my fiancé and I went to check our flat for defects! There were a huge number of defects - if given a choice I would opt out of the HDB options just to save myself the trouble, omg. ASSISTANCE REQUIRED I would be getting HDB contractors to do the cement screeding for me, and thereafter lay vinyl flooring. However, there is this area of the flat that I'm not sure what is going to happen to it. I asked my flooring liaison, he said I need to get contractor to level it with cement so that vinyl can be laid. I asked the contractor, he said I need to top up $200 for him to hack it away, lay concrete to rebuild it to a height that vinyl flooring can be laid. I am not sure which is the 'correct' way, and I certainly hope I don't have to spend too much! Can those who got HDB to do cement screeding and laid vinyl flooring shed some light? *EDIT* Thanks to @d3n's advice, we would be laying tiles at the entrance instead. Grateful for the help received here!

Thanks guys!

@Yplailai PM sent!

THEME: MUJI-INSPIRED Before we even decided on a Muji-inspired home, we knew that we are attracted to the a light wood/white theme. It was until we walked into Muji a couple of months ago that I told my fiance - I want a Muji Home! I like how simple the whole store is, yet it can give off such an extraordinary feel. We decided on the colours that we will use: Light wood, White, and chrome. This picture just about encapsulates the feel that we want our home to have - open, spacious and homely! MEETING WITH ID & CONTRACTORS Our plan is to make our home simple and functional without spending too much. Our initial budget was $30k, but we realized that it was not enough for all that we wanted. Our rule of thumb was - we would not compromise when it comes to our MBR (and my shoe rack ). In that respect, with some tweaks, we managed to keep within our budget (for now, at least). As newbies, we didn't know what to expect, so we started our search with a plan to visit an ID firm whose projects (on Facebook) I like. 1. ID - N from W*****.com We walked into this ID firm because we couldn't find the ID firm we planned to visit. We communicated to N on what we like and our budget, and arranged to meet him a week later. The quotation came up to exactly $30k but there were some items we didn't ask for and most of what we wanted were not in the quotation. No brief design layout at all. N was all the while trying to impose his designs and ideas on us and even asked us to sign on the spot or put a $1,000 deposit and he will proceed to draw the design for us. -_- Subsequently, N kept texting us and he wouldn't accept that we decided not to engage his services. He kept telling us that everything can be done within $28k. I also did not learn anything from him at all - bad experience! Eliminated~ 2. ID - M from C********* This firm was just beside that ID firm we wanted to visit and I recalled seeing their projects on Facebook. M was quite detailed, and we learnt a little regarding the materials used. We conveyed our style M and followed up with some pictures of the designs that we like. A week later, M showed us a 3D plan. It was not very close to what we expected, and the quotation was way out of budget. Eliminated~ 3. ID - Z from A******* This firm was the one we wanted to visit right from the start. This time, we did not exactly told Z what we wanted because we wanted him to give us some ideas instead. When we next meet, he gave us a brief design layout and we learnt quite a bit from him. Perhaps due to the scale of the firm, the perks were very attractive and the quotation was surprisingly very reasonable. We were very tempted to engage him until we saw a negative review of Z on Facebook. As Z was quite young and does not appear experienced, we did not want to risk having an unhappy journey down the road. Eliminated~ (At this point, I was so drained by all the visiting and we could not find one we could work with. I turned to getting contacts from Renotalk/blog instead - thanks to everyone those who replied to my PMs! I was SO GLAD I did this and wished I did so earlier because that would have saved me so much time! ) 4. ID/Contractor - N from R******* We could tell that N was pretty experienced and he is a very 'straightforward' man. There were some ideas he outright told us was 'ugly' but he also provided us with some good ideas. He gave us a quotation on the spot and said that his is a "no hidden cost" quotation. His quotation was quite reasonable but we were afraid he would not want to do some of the things that we wanted. Eliminated~ 5. Contractor - J & E from C*** X**** (THE CHOSEN ONE) I first met with J and I liked him immediately. We could tell that he is a VERY experienced man and he gave rather insightful comments. I personally liked that bit of 'old school feel' in his book with lots of hand-drawn drawings. E that day seem rather nonchalant and I was honestly quite afraid the renovation journey would be tough considering the reviews of CX (slow to reply, etc). We received the quotation and it was a little over our budget. I was trying hard to reconcile the pictures of their finished projects, the reviews of their carpentry, the cost of the renovation and the managing of the renovation. But I knew that, I really like them! We next met with E to discuss on the revised quotation and yes I would agree that they require some nudging. But to my surprise, E was very welcoming and nice! The revised quotation just about fits into our budget too. I am totally blown away by their experience in the field and I know I would pick quality over price even if it takes more effort in managing. So, we chose them in the end! 6. Contractor - E from DX I******* By the time we met with E, we are quite sure of what we want/need already. He is a quiet but nice man, and he also replies fast. I could tell that he is experienced despite how he is a man of few words. His quotation for some items are significantly cheaper than (5), and I was really tempted by the low quotation. However, by this time, I already have 2 very good choices ((5) and (7)), hence this is being KIV until further notice. 7. ID - MH of L**** P****** S******* This was through a recommendation of a blog I follow. The reviews of MH was very good. Albeit he was a young man, he was quite experienced and REALLY patient. My fiance really like him - he has a soft spot for people who are easy to work with - and he told me after the first meeting that he would pay for such better services. We were really torn between MH and J&E because we want both experience and quality. What was taken into consideration was also my perfectionism that I would prefer to take charge of every single detail in my home. The final quotation was $2k plus more than that of J&E, and we eventually picked J&E. And that's the end of our painful search for IDs/contractors. I was really, really tired but glad that the recommendations do not fail me!

I have been an avid silent reader of this section since Dec 2016. I have to thank everyone here who is so open to sharing information that I have learnt so much in the past 3 months! My fiance was amazed by the sheer amount of information I found here (hehe). We just received the keys to our flat yesterday and finally it's my turn to share on our renovation journey! This is the floor plan of our 4-room SOBF flat: