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The Introduction Time for me to share my renovation journey after much persuasion from my ID. Pardon me as this is going to be an abridged version, but feel free to post / PM if you need more details on any aspect. The Site Our family gotten a flat at Costa Ris in 2011 and finally received our keys earlier this year. We are kind of late due to administrative hiccups and by the time we received our keys, a good portion of our neighbours have already moved in. We thought this site is really quite good despite it being on the eastern edge of Singapore. It is rare to find a site that is walking distance from a main MRT line these days. The Floor Plan We opt for a 5-room flat as we intend to stay for the long haul, thus more space the better! We are happy with this layout as it gives us a long rectangular kitchen. The down side is the master bedroom is relatively small. From the onset we already have an idea to have an open kitchen concept by knocking down the wall highlighted in red. The Design Love wood, love simplicity and sleekness. These principles seem to be embedded into mainstream Scandinavian design and we'll go with that. Some pictures that we collected on our Pin board that make us say "Yea we want to live in a house like that!" The Interior Designers We met up with a few IDs in an attempt find the right one. I hate shopping for IDs as it gives me the same sick feeling when we are shopping for wedding studios, pre-sales promise you everything, post-sales give you everything else. As we do not have a clear cut idea of what we want to be done, we find ourselves comparing apple to oranges as different IDs have different ideas, which translates to different Bill of Materials and different cost. Meaningless. In the end we chose Nick that used to be from Renoguyz. He is different, he talks to you about fishes, flowers and bikinis. Deciding factor is that he is frank and not afraid to tell you what is nice and what is not. And now he have an assistant (Benny) so they remind me of Batman and Robin, which is always nice but I digress. The Plan As we did not opt for any of HDB add-ons, we pretty can choose anything we want which is nice. The bad part is that we have to choose from anything under the sun. Long story short, we settled on a plan to have the following key features: Kitchen Two row of cabinets and a breakfast bar topSubway tile backsplashGranite countertopCement Screed wallsHacking of HDB tilesLay with tiles of our choiceHacking of wall between kitchen and living roomBedroom Custom Wardrobes for all bedroomsStudy table and overhang shelves (aka the head cracker because I knock my head so many times on it) for bedroom 2Cement Screed floorClassic doors for all roomsToilets Full overlay of tiles for both toiletsVanity top for MBR toiletAluminum full louvre doors for both toiletsLiving Room Extension of Breakfast top to a dining table in the living room (Nick's proud invention)Feature wall: Brick overlay at TV areaFeature wall: Wooden Plank wallShoe Cabinet Others Electrical worksFlooring tiles + labourPainting, chemical wash and yada yadaThe indicative cost was about $47k but the final figure is being recalculated as there were adjustments along the way.

Hi guys! So we got the keys to our 5rm BTO flat in October, waaaaaaay ahead of expectation. Both of us are the rather chillax kind, so we did not really do any research on reno stuff beforehand. We are in our BTO FB group and were quite amazed that people actually signed reno packages even before they got their keys . For me, I need to have a feel of the physical space before deciding anything. So, we only started reading up on renovation stuff one month before we got our keys. Our theme for the house was unanimously decided long ago: Scandinavian with essentials of wood, grey and white. Despite being an overly-done theme, it is something that we both hold dear, and one that works for us. This is our floor plan: Living room Floor--at first I had decided on vinyl/HERF because of the nice woody look. But she was concerned whether there will be a smell from the plastic in the long run, and also whether it is truly waterproof (since they are assembled using the clicking system). A valid concern; so we decided to go for wood-grain tiles instead for the whole house (incld bedrooms). Sofa/TV console/Feature wall-- We had a long discussion about this and finally decided to put our TV along the wall adjacent to Bedroom 3. There will be a feature wall of long vertical woodgrain tiles (1.8m high each) that look like wood planks. And on top of that line of tiles, we will install a thin ledge for us to place photo frames or posters. Something different from the usual brick walls. Something like this for the feature wall, just that it doesn't go all the way to the ceiling: Example of photo ledge: Dining table-- It will be placed along the wall opposite the TV console. She wants a really biggggg dining table, so we are prolly getting a 1.8m long one, with a bench to match. Planning to place a bar table against the household shelter wall as well. Built-in storage/display cabinets-- I personally hate having storage/display cabinets in the living room, period. The HDB living room is already too small for my liking (heng we chose a 5rm), having any sort of gigantic cabinets in the living room will just make it look even more cramped. So there will be none. Except for a shoe cabinet that we are planning to build into that recess to the right of the main door. False ceiling/L-box-- None of this too. It will just lower the height of the ceiling even further. Lighting-- Planning for track lights above the feature wall area. And a black ceiling fan. Hanging "spider" lights above the dining table. Track lights along room corridor. LED near the main entrance. Kitchen We are going to hack away the whole wall facing Bedroom 3, and build a kitchen island in the middle . Both of us like to cook, and can't stand claustrophobic kitchens haha. The island will be 1.8m x 1.2m, and the side nearer to Bedroom 3 will feature a counter with stools. There will not be any glass partitions or doors between the kitchen and living room. Yes it will be open but we are not worried about the smell! We don't do heavy frying anyway. There will be kitchen cabinets on both top and bottom on the other wall, and we are planning to get either Kompacplus or Pacnel countertops. Leaning towards Pacnel tops because as of now, they have more colour choices! As for the cabinets, we prefer the surface to be less "flat", contrary to the usual sleek, contemporary laminate surface. After Googling, we found out there's actually a name for this kind of design: it is called Shaker style. An example below: We are leaning towards dark grey cabinets with light grey Pacnel countertop. Along the wall adjacent to the toilet until the service yard window, we are going to build a bottom side-board cabinet; on top we are going to put stuff like my Nespresso Pixie, toaster oven, Hurom etc. Bedroom 3 We are hacking away the whole wall facing the kitchen and replacing it with a black aluminium-framed glass wall/door, to make the whole house feel even more spacious. This will be the gaming/study room! Going to put my PS4, a 40inch UHD TV with a Yamaha soundbar in there. Master Bedroom Making a L-shaped full height wardrobe! Was contemplating the idea of a platform bed, but decided it was too expensive and the ceiling will be too low (planning to put a ceiling fan). Going to put the usual queen-sized bed frame! Toilets Going to install a vanity top with mirror box cabinet for both toilets! Prolly going to use black Pacnel top for the vainty. For the MBR toilet, there will be a glass shower panel (not door), separating the shower area from the toilet bowl. Cos I feel having a sliding door is too claustrophobic. For the common toilet, there will be a shower kerb with IKEA's shower curtain rod (no shower panel, to save costs). Panel only: Contractor We met a grand total of one contractor and one ID. We invited the contractor to our new house and told him about our plans and ideas, and to give a quote. The moment I spoke to him, I knew I could trust this guy. There was rapport, we could click, and he was clearly experienced in his field. He suggested alternatives when our ideas were not feasible. We were very comfortable with him and were eagerly awaiting his quotation. It came back to be around $48K! At first it was shocking. But after calming ourselves down and looking at the things we wanted, we concluded that it was a reasonable (though not cheapest) pricing. (We later changed some stuff and the price dropped to $46k.) On the other hand, the meeting with the ID was unplanned. I chanced upon this FB post of a so-called renovation "open-house", where various companies will be there to showcase their reno materials (kitchen tops, cabinets, tiles, lights etc), so that we can have a better idea of what materials to choose for our reno. So I thought to myself, why not? Upon reaching the place, there was a group of young people smoking in the stairwell right outside the entrance to the openhouse. Impression down We walked in, one young guy approached us, and introduced himself as an ID from ___ company, and offered to bring us around. At this point, we knew it was not such a simple affair. He brought us to see all the materials, tiles, tops etc. Along the way, he kept emphasizing on how credible and accredited his company was (rolling eyes at this moment ). At the end of the tour, he made us sit down and listen to him intro his company's reno packages. Upon first glance, the pricing looks reasonable. But upon closer scrutiny, we realised the package was super basic (plain white tiles @ $3 per sq feet etc). So if we add on the things we wanted, it will prolly add up to a substantial amount. Then he suddenly whispered to us: if we sign today and give the deposit, his boss will waive the 7% GST. Ermigawd. Are you freaking kidding me. That's like the lamest sales pitch ever. Everybody knows you have already factored in the GST into your pricing right?! We walked out without signing anything. The silver lining was that our time was not totally wasted; we learnt quite a fair bit about the materials TL:DR version : Not impressed with ID company, signed with contractor.

Hello renotalkers! I have benefited from this forum immensely and it's about time for me to pay it forward. I bought a resale apartment and obtained the keys only in late July. It's a 1 BR, only 52 sq metres (560 sq ft) in size. I was drawn to this space as it was relatively square-ish, not many bay-windows, no balcony, 2.9m ceiling height and floor to ceiling windows in the living room. Knowing that size was a limitation, my challenge is to make the space feel bigger than it is. The original floor plan (ignore the PES - the apartment does not have any PES) This was how I envisioned the new layout Red lines indicate the walls which I wanted to knock-down Blue line is where I would like the new wall to be erected Yellow lines is where I envisioned a concrete plaster appearance Besides the challenge of opening up the space, I wanted to keep the budget low and time-line relatively short, yet achieve a specific industrial look. I'll be dedicating quite a bit of my blog on how I kept costs low while maintaining decent quality. That means I will describe my thought process for contractor selection, material selection, purchasing from taobao etc Hope new home owners that plan to renovate will benefit from my blog. I shall post the before pics soon and some interim pics as reno is currently on-going. Happy reno-talking! EDIT: I realise that it is very cumbersome to go through an entire thread without a contents page. So I have compiled the links here 1. My thoughts on ID vs contractor. All home owners struggle with this question and meeting IDs/contractors can consume a lot of time and effort. 2. How I shortlisted and chose a contractor. The key considerations which led me to chose among the shortlisted contractors. 3. My taobao shopping list. With all the links from taobao sellers which I bought from. 4. My before pics. Demolition pics if you're into that sort of thing. 5. General Info on shipment of bulky taobao items to Singapore. 6. Since it's very difficult to estimate how many cubic metres each item is and the shipping charge is based on cubic metre, I came up with a way to estimate total cost of the bulky taobao item based on my first shipment when I purchase through peeka. 7. Some chinese keywords for shopping on taobao. Although taobao is cheap and therefore tempting, there may be instances of dissatisfaction. To provide a balanced view, Another poster's negative experience with taobao items. How I minimize risk of purchasing low quality items on taobao. 8. Info on the fibreglass concrete panels in my living room. 9. A guide on choosing paint colours for your wall. 10. Kompactop final pics 11. Info on artificial turf for balconies/planter/baywindows 12. Final pics - after 6 months of living in my place, this is more or less the final look of my place, though it tends to evolve with time (and clutter). To be included at some point.

Hi everyone, our renovations are ongoing now. We have viewed over 20-30 units over a span of 3-4 months. We loved some units but some was way over budget. The agent was very nice and she kept showing us despite us being so flicked minded. Finally we decided on this house! The reason being it is NS facing, high level, unblock view from bedroom and windy. It fits neatly into our budget too! Our floorplan: Our main aim for this house: not to look like a conventional HDB. We have no money to stay in condo, but at least we can stay in condo like HDB and so we were telling ourselves. HAHAHAHA. (So pathetic) Like our house hunting process, we went to 10 different IDs (IMM, Balestier Rd, Eunos...) then asked for quotations online. Some IDs are really "chui" and their designs are worse than a 10 year old drawing. Others are very "smoky" and they don't know how to handle the requirements. (Told me cannot be like this, be like that) Of course, there are a few whom I loved the designs but the price quoted is way too high for us. One of the quotations was 120k without changing windows and floor! We have a contractor friend and we asked him to quote as well. However, he kept telling us that this can't be done and that can't be done . Is our design really that hard??? And so after seeing SOOO many IDs and was about to choose my contractor friend to do the renovation already. I chanced upon reno blog and read the review of several IDs. We went to some and called some. Finally, we shortlisted one of the IDs. I called him and he sent us the quotation within 2 hours. Seeing that he is quite keen and prices are reasonable, I went to research further about him on the renoblog. No negative comments, check. Doesn't look like ID, nevermind. Mouth quite itchy, I think I can handle. Ok, him then! This is the design that I want. Hack the wall between the 2 bedrooms, build WiW, hack away the kitchen and extend it so we can have an island. I want to have a room within the kitchen (for maid next time in case)

Hi everyone, our renovations are ongoing now. We have viewed over 20-30 units over a span of 3-4 months. We loved some units but some was way over budget. The agent was very nice and she kept showing us despite us being so fickled minded. Finally we decided on this house! The reason being it is NS facing, high level, unblock view from bedroom and windy. It fits neatly into our budget too! Our floorplan: Our main aim for this house: not to look like a conventional HDB. We have no money to stay in condo, but at least we can stay in condo like HDB and so we were telling ourselves. HAHAHAHA. Like our house hunting process, we went to 10 different IDs (IMM, Balestier Rd, Eunos...) then asked for quotations online. Some IDs are really "chui" and their designs are worse than a 10 year old drawing. Others are very "smoky" and they don't know how to handle the requirements. (Told me cannot be like this, be like that) Of course, there are a few whom I loved the designs but the price quoted is way too high for us. One of the quotations was 120k without changing windows and floor! We have a contractor friend and we asked him to quote as well. However, he kept telling us that this can't be done and that can't be done . Is our design really that hard??? And so after seeing SOOO many IDs and was about to choose my contractor friend to do the renovation already. I chanced upon reno blog and read the review of several IDs. We went to some and called some. Finally, we shortlisted one of the IDs. I called him and he sent us the quotation within 2 hours. Seeing that he is quite keen and prices are reasonable, I went to research further about him on the renoblog. No negative comments, check. Doesn't look like ID, nevermind. Ok, him then! Actually one of the things that made us chose him is that he is not afraid to "scold" you if your design is unreasonable. That made us trust him and here we go! This is the design that I want. Hack the wall between the 2 bedrooms, build WiW, hack away the kitchen and extend it so we can have an island. I want to have a room within the kitchen (for maid next time in case)

Hi, i need to revamp my wardrobe. Thinking of doing the latest open concept wardrobe. Any recommendation??