A Place To Call Our Home @ Amk

[ivy 0]

maybe u can consider to do laminate flooring for the bedrooms, it may save u some cost. How much to borrow depends on how much is your final quotation.

if u are thinking of flooring, wardrobe just for MBR, kitchen cabinets (it also depends whether u want top bottom or just bottom, whether u want granite top, solid top or postform top), toilet etc.

The bill i guess will exceed $10K. It may be $15-$20K? depending on the measurement and ur selection of materials.

Don't forget u must set aside cash for toilet accessories and furnitures which cannot be paid thru loan. As for your air con, you can actually ask ur future ID/Contractor to include in the quote so that you can get the loan to cover if u are looking at reno loan lah.

[merryman 0]

maybe u can consider to do laminate flooring for the bedrooms, it may save u some cost. How much to borrow depends on how much is your final quotation.

if u are thinking of flooring, wardrobe just for MBR, kitchen cabinets (it also depends whether u want top bottom or just bottom, whether u want granite top, solid top or postform top), toilet etc.

The bill i guess will exceed $10K. It may be $15-$20K? depending on the measurement and ur selection of materials.

Don't forget u must set aside cash for toilet accessories and furnitures which cannot be paid thru loan. As for your air con, you can actually ask ur future ID/Contractor to include in the quote so that you can get the loan to cover if u are looking at reno loan lah.

Thanks Ivy..

I see... how does the loan work? Sorry I'm such a reno-noob... You have to get the quote before getting the loan amount?

I'm just thinking flooring, kitchen cabinet (likely just bottom), (might even cut wardrobe), toilet..

I think toilet accessories and furnitures not that bad with credit card installment payments... but do need to do my sums since there might be renovation loan involved, and my other regular payments...

[pinkpetter 0]

mm merryman.. dun worry about your budget. I also went around all the IDs telling them I only had 12k to do my house. Nearly got doors slammed in my face I think. hahahah Never mind, I've learnt to be more thick skinned I guess.

Ivy is right. You need to set aside cash for stuff so you might want to take a full loan for your reno. Besides it's always safer to keep some cash with you for emergencies.

Yup you must get the quote then you can apply for the loan. So try to get everything included in the quote. You have to submit the quotation (in english) to the bank for the loan.

You can live without some furnitures first and slowly buy... LIke I dun have a dining table. haha

Edited June 17, 2009 by pinkpetter

[merryman 0]

mm merryman.. dun worry about your budget. I also went around all the IDs telling them I only had 12k to do my house. Nearly got doors slammed in my face I think. hahahah Never mind, I've learnt to be more thick skinned I guess.

Ivy is right. You need to set aside cash for stuff so you might want to take a full loan for your reno. Besides it's always safer to keep some cash with you for emergencies.

Yup you must get the quote then you can apply for the loan. So try to get everything included in the quote. You have to submit the quotation (in english) to the bank for the loan.

You can live without some furnitures first and slowly buy... LIke I dun have a dining table. haha

That's fine with me too considering that my wife and I don't really cook much, just like you and your family... and true, was thinking about living without some furnitures first but getting the reno done first... does it work to have renovation done first and getting kitchen cabinet done later? But contractors usually tend to charge slight cheaper as a whole renovation process than multiples..

Oh, didn't know must get the quote first... the bank already put 'lower of $30,000 or 6x of salary' still need to be so ma fan de

one ID (a friend of a friend) also told me 10k is very little to do what I want... lol

[xvirusga76 0]

Merryman,

basically to save cost, try to minimise any hacking or too much carpentry workz as they are the ones that build up the bulk of the cost of the reno. For ceilings, no LBOX or cove lighting as you end up paying a mountain for the lights, depending on how many points. If you wan simple cornice will do, which is about 200 per bedroom. For TV consoles, go buy the ready made ones, think every where's sale now. Flooring wise, over lay is definitely much cheaper than hacking up all.. just some two cents worth..

for us, we ended up topping up 8K because i added quite a bit, like partionboards to flush up the whole wall, L-Box / cove light, extension of wall , buidling new walls, tons of hacking, basically, major overhaul, so gota pay the price of it. for our kitchen we have very little top cabinets. Only one side.

Do anticapte top ups, in that way, you wun be caught by surprise.

Edited June 17, 2009 by xvirusga76

[aubrey 0]

merry man, have u decided who? if not maybe can ask uncle or jason. im sure they are willing to do in "batches" for u. cos that was what he said to me. he said do the ground work, things like carpentry can add on when i have enough money and after living in, can decide better if its needed or not. my 2 cents worth but of course u must have built a certain rapport with uncle too.

[zerochristy 0]

That's fine with me too considering that my wife and I don't really cook much, just like you and your family... and true, was thinking about living without some furnitures first but getting the reno done first... does it work to have renovation done first and getting kitchen cabinet done later? But contractors usually tend to charge slight cheaper as a whole renovation process than multiples..

Oh, didn't know must get the quote first... the bank already put 'lower of $30,000 or 6x of salary' still need to be so ma fan de

one ID (a friend of a friend) also told me 10k is very little to do what I want... lol

We also will not cook so much.. and our kitchen is small. We are going to live with some basic furnitre too.. I told hubby actually no need sofa too.. but if we intend to get the TV, tv console and sofa would have to come it together. Coffee table did not buy but we got a small magazine rack also a side table can tong pang as a coffee table first

No dinning table & chairs as we have a breakfast counter and we will get 2 chairs frm ikea. (PS: We redeem ikea vch fm the citibank point, if you have point its the best time to redeem now)

We did not redo our kitchen but we tear down a tall cabinate to make way for our fridge. Will intend to redo the kitchen next time we have the money.

Edited June 17, 2009 by zerochristy

[pinkpetter 0]

hehe one more thing to share wor... SIGH...

When I was doing reno, I did the sums, between putting hanging lights in the living and doing false ceiling...

I now have 3 hanging lights there so it's 3 hanging lights VS false ceiling/cove + lights. The latter was more expensive by an estimated $200-$300. So I took the hanging lights...

Then NOW I REGRET!!! cos my electricity bill is VERY expensive! My hanging lights use about 140 watts each time we turn on both and it's not even bright! And that's not including the third one... and current electricity bill is super ex. I reckon with well-planned false ceiling, etc... I can save about $20-$30 each month (after calculating)... So in less than a year I would have "earned" back that $200-$300 installation costs. More long term savings here.

Very sian whenever I think of it.

[aubrey 0]

pet, after hearing what u said, i must be thankful for not doing those fancy lights. my home is very simple, just the main lights and thats it. uncle commented my lights not bright enough. i could see his thought bubbles forming but i think he did not suggest anything cos either too late to suggest or worried for our pocket cos as it is, our pockets are vomiting blood.

[xvirusga76 0]

Updates for Noon

A day of general cleaning up before the overlaying of floor laminates tomorrow, fixing back all the doors they took out at the beginning of renovation, fixing up all the toiletries, wash basin, toilet bowl and stuff. We even managed to get one of them to help fix 2 ikea white shelves in the utility/study room. The tiler Ah How is back to fix up the rest of the skirting and flooring.

the ah neh today is a much better one compared to the other other yesterday. He's more pro active, remb Uncle complimenting that this is the Best Ah Neh he has, thou i do find him overly dressed for cleaning workz in his rugged jeans, white Tee and earings! ahahah...

I had to rush back to work, and left them there. Hopefully, the glass divider can be fixed up today, if not tomorrow. Also, we realised that 4 panels in the living room being hacked, think they have generally tested for hollow tiles.

Living Room & Kitchen - Before Renovation

Living Room & Kitchen - After Renovation

Black Wall at the Foyer of Two Bedrooms - notice we shorten the entire entrance to only 850mm and the misalignment of the Aircon Unit?

Edited June 18, 2009 by xvirusga76

[xvirusga76 0]

L-Box for Living Room

Next, MBR Before

MBR After- Our mocha brown feature wall surrounded by mass of whites, FH, knowing my fickle-mindedness, secretly ordered a small can of mocha brown in anticipation of changes as my initial plan was to keep the MBR totally white.

Edited June 18, 2009 by xvirusga76

[xvirusga76 0]

Sons' Bedroom - Before

Sons' Bedroom - After (Sunny Lime Feature Wall, which i felt its too light now especially so against the sunlight, looks kinda YELLOW. think I may want to change it to Celery Green! )

Our initial plans was to paint the feature wall with green stripes like Klipp-Klapp, but, due to too much hassle, we scrapped the idea However, i still feel that the Sunny Lime is too light, cant really tell the green when the sunlight shines in. May want to change the wall to Celery Green instead.. wonder if Alan will flip.

Utility Room - Bisque

Recolor the water pipe to match the wall tiles in the toilets

Edited June 18, 2009 by xvirusga76

[familyof4 0]

pics a bit small leh

[aubrey 0]

ya man!! be generous! blow it up!!!

[xvirusga76 0]

We bought our remaining downlights and T-5 lights(with casing) at Chuan Seng Huat last nite, which cost us another $600plus. Each downlight, with double tube, is about $31 dollars le! T-5 with casing about $12 for 4" i think. Cant wait for them to be fixed up tomorrow! We too, bought this dinning light (grabbed from Family of 4's blog).

Btw, does anyone have problems with uploading of the pictures to your blog? i kept getting this error message saying i have uploaded more than allowed pictures in one mail.