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Design & Decisions Below is a 2D layout that we designed. And below are the (outdated) 3D renders made by yours truly. As we are using a Contractor, all the details are to be thought out by us. There are some major decisions to make which have high impact to the renovation. I shall list them here. 1) Whether to have a "walk-in" wardrobe. A "walk-in" wardrobe can be achieved by 2 main methods; Some hack and combine the adjacent room to the MBR, others create a mini "walk-in" wardrobe in the MBR itself by using the wardrobe to separate the sleeping and changing area. In the end, we went with a L-shape wardrobe as we wanted to retain the number of rooms and a L-shape wardrobe in MBR gives a larger walking space, which would be useful if we wanted to put a baby cot in future. 2) Whether to have false ceiling. The usual HDB floor to ceiling height is around 2.6m. As we wanted our home to look bright, spacious and airy, we went for no false ceiling. This would also meant that if there are any changes to the lights location, it needs to be determined early so that the electrician can shift them. 3) Position of TV (and other entertainment devices) in living room. The default TV position is on the right hand side of the living room. The default sofa would be facing the right wall and the study area would be between the common bedroom and the Sofa. However, this would mean that if someone approaches the living room from the bedrooms or kitchen, I would not be able to see them. I dislike this feeling of discomfort and would think that there would be occasions where wifey or myself would be startled by each other. To solve this, we switched the position of the TV console to be on the left wall of the living room. It is important to decide this early as this would mean that the contractor would need to relay the wires to shift the TV digital socket from the right, to the left. Another advantage of having the TV console nearer to the bedrooms/kitchen is due to the Smart Home concept. In one of the below posts, I wrote about having a voice controlled speaker. It is beneficial to place it in the middle of the home for it to hear your commands properly (either from the living room, dining room or kitchen) . Otherwise you would need to purchase an additional device. I will be also placing one of my Google Wifi node at the TV console area so that it can communicate better with another node which I will be placing in the MBR. The Google Wifi (or any wifi routers) will provide a better coverage if it is placed near the center of the home, compared to placing on the far right wall. 4) Electrical works (power sockets, Lan points, light switches) Electrical works needs to be finalized early as it is the first step of the renovation if you wish for the wires to be concealed. When planning for electrical works, always keep in mind the ergonomics of use, with the vision of you living in your home after renovation. Personally, I added quite a number of power sockets in the kitchen, shifted the power sockets higher for better ergonomics, and added a number of power sockets for display cabinet (for lights and printers etc). 5) Whether to have open or close concept kitchen. This is a tough question. The pros and cons for each can be found via a Google search. I shall not repeat them here. Wifey and I discussed for a long time before deciding on an open/close hybrid concept kitchen; we will hack away the kitchen wall and replace them with full height, top hung, sliding and folding glass doors. We will leave the doors open usually, and close them if we were to cook or if we were to switch on the living room aircon. 6) Whether you will overlay your bathroom and kitchen tiles. Some people may find the Hdb default tiles for bathroom and kitchen to be unsightly, and may choose to overlay them. Just remember that you need to decide this early and it will affect the height of the screeding for the living and bedrooms. 7) Type of flooring (Tiles vs Vinyl vs parquet vs marble vs cement screed). Parquet is not resistant enough for me. Marble is too expensive. Cement screed does not fit into our theme. We then filtered down to tiles vs vinyl. I did quite a lengthy research before eliminating vinyl; vinyl is not as water resistant as we thought. In the end we went with tiles, homogeneous tiles. Initially we did not know that there are differences in the type of tiles. There are mainly 2 types; ceramic and homogeneous. A quick Google revealed that homogeneous tiles is the better one, but with higher costs. 8) Whether to do an under-mount or over-mount sink. Similarly, there are multiple articles on the web comparing the pros and cons of under-mount vs over-mount. This decision needs to be made early as it would affect the preparation of the sink. Additionally, this decision will also affect your costs of renovation (under-mount costs more due to the additional work involved). For us, we went with an under-mount sink.

Contractor vs ID The search for the One is a simple task for us. We wanted to have full control of how the home should look, feel and function, and therefore we went for a Contractor. Various Contractors were considered, but we filtered them down and shortlisted the below 3. N** from R******* One of the famous Contractors used by Renotalkers. Got his contact from one of the bros here. Sent him our requirements and asked for a quotation. Reply was fast but the quote was too expensive for our liking. Therefore, we decided not to engage his service. E***** from D* I******* Another well-known Contractor. Similarly, sent him our requirements and asked for a quotation. Reply was slow (and only thru Whatsapp instead of email), and needs chasing from me before he responded. He did not provide a quotation via email based on the requirements that we prepared. Instead, he suggested to meet him at his office. Went down to meet him and discuss the renovation requirements. E***** said that he will prepare the quotation and send it to us. To test him, I did not send any chasers and waited for his quotation. It has been more than 3 months and not a single email/whatsapp/call. He may be too busy with his other projects. As we think that it is important for our contractor to be pro-active instead of reactive, we decided not to engage his service. PTL from M*** S*** C*********** (ACCEPTED) Got to know of this Contractor via a close relative who also engaged his service. Not very famous on Renotalk but has a facebook page that allows me to view his projects. Similarly, decided to send our requirements and asked for a quotation. Reply was fast (no chasers required) and quote was lower than N**. Decided to arrange for a meeting to discuss the renovation details. PTL looks young but he has many years of experience. He is also the "boss" of the company which I feel secure and is able to clique well (maybe due to same age). A separate check from HDB (https://www20.hdb.gov.sg/bn25/isos118p.nsf/List by Company?OpenView&Start=1&Count=15&RestrictToCategory=M) revealed that M*** S*** C*********** is a Registered Renovation Contractor since 1981 and had no Infringement History in past 24 months. Finally decided that he is the One. PS: For those who are interested, I have moved in for several months now and I am not actively checking Renotalk anymore. Anyway, for those who are interested, my contractor is Phua Tiong Lee from Ming Sing Construction. Tel: 98357831. FB: Just search for Ming Sing Construction.

Greetings! Wifey and I applied for a 5RM HDB @ Canberra, which is situated between Yishun and Sembawang. Canberra is a non-matured estate with growing facilities. We hope that things will get better, especially when the new Canberra MRT is operational. So let's start off with our floorplan. As ours is from a SOBF: 1) No flooring is included for living and bedrooms - No issues as we wanted a different tiles design. 2) Kitchen wall is included - We wanted an open & close concept kitchen, so this wall must go. 3) Sanitary fittings are included - After looking at the HDB sanitary fittings (toilet bowls, toilet basins, shower heads), they are acceptable and we will not be changing them to save costs. Here is a video of the "Before" reno: Defects Rectification Fortunately, the number of defects are minimal. We had minor defects. The more notable ones are; hairline cracks on wall, rusty door hinges, low water pressure at service yard. BSC took 2 weeks to do the rectifications. Before planning for renovation, I read through this thread which contains useful knowledge from other home owners. This has helped shaped my plans and is a must read for all first time home owners. https://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/19954-materials-that-u-regret-using-installing/ We wanted to make our home look bright, open and lively. We did not want our home to have a "hotel" feel. Therefore we would be going for a bright woody/scandi feel with shades of white, brown, grey. Below is an example of our moodboard, some of which were obtained from other Renotalkers here.

@Aosbath Is there a current promotion/discount for the 40L Digital Storage Heater? What is the current price for the 40L Digital Storage Heater? What are the dimensions for the 40L Digital Storage Heater? The mounting area for new BTOs are in the common bathroom. Is there a need to manually switch the DSH on/off? or can the control panel be configured that all the heating is automated based on time? How long does it take from order confirmation till delivery? How long is the warranty? Please PM me with the answers to the above.

Hi Can PM on where do you buy your Philip Hue lights? Other than lazada/carousell, are there any cheaper alternatives?

Hi Appreciate if you could share the contractor name and company so as to avoid.

Hi KingBin Appreciate if you could PM the contact for Contractor E and Contractor J&E. TIA.

Hi Appreciate if you could PM me the contact for Contractor 1 and 2. TIA.

Hi Appreciate if you could PM me the contact for Contractors E from C* R*** and D* I*******.

Hi bro. pls PM the name and company of your ID. Will be sure to avoid.