An Executive Maisonette In The Northeast

[cleong 1]

A quick sum up of the problems that I faced with this contractor, which is why I've not revealed nor recommended him to anyone else.

They extended the renovation permit two more times beyond the initial permit. Sorry to my neigbours' extended suffering...... hacking began on 7th Sep and tiles were only brought in on 2nd October

A look at the original cabinets - probably as old as the flat itself. The kitchen was an odd arrangement with the stove next to the windows.

While it was nice of them to start off by protecting the flooring, it didn't last long because the workers were careless

They didn't protect the parquet staircase landing as they bounced wheelbarrows of hacking debris from the second floor

No pictures, but sometime during the hacking/plastering they managed to chop off my newly installed OpenNet cabling, requiring a follow up visit by Open Net. The contractor was made to bear the cost.

Most of the casement windows had this problem and the window contractor had to be called in to fix it. Little wonder because the first time the windows were installed, the guy worked till it was dark (the flat had no electricity by then) as a result he was half-blind and rushing and seemed to just forced everything to fit.

Edited June 12, 2011 by cleong

[cleong 1]

I nearly blew my top with this one. When I visited the flat, the contractor's man had all my three toilets opened up and parts arrayed across the floor. I asked the contractor if that's the right thing to do, given all the itty bitty parts that each toilet seat and flush comes with, and kicking around the rest of the renovation stuff, and he instructed his man to pack up the two that weren't immediately being installed. The man promptly dropped a spanner in front of my eyes onto one of the cistern covers with this result:

A great birthday present - they took the best part of a month to finally get it replaced.

Air con installation. Recommended by a friend, and is pretty decent. Responsible too. I have his contact if you want to try him out.

That's it as far as the major problems go. Next up, when I take more photos, I'll show some more of the little features/stuff.

[666 0]

Hi Cleong,

The trunking around top hung window it run outside the window?

Nice job..

[cleong 1]

Hi Cleong,

The trunking around top hung window it run outside the window?

Nice job..

You spotted that one The trunking could have simply ended where the fancoil was, but we agreed to run the trunking a few extra inches to the window to make the trunking less obvious. Its actually empty in there. Part of my choice of trunking location was to make it as unobstrusive as possible, but tucking it under pillars and beams, and sometimes also using plaster to merge it with the existing walls.

[666 0]

Yeah, spotted that 1, since the installer made ugly trunking in my MBR, i start to take note of everyone's trunking

For the rest of the areas, i tink its almost standard..

[cleong 1]

Received a question on the cost.

The total for renovation works came up to around 50k, going over my initial quote by about 10%. I extracted 2k of late penalty (2 months late) back, and furnishing the rest of the house was around 10-12k (aircon 4k, sinks and taps 2k, appliances 8k, etc).

[potatoes 0]

Hi Cleong, nice to have neighbours like u.

Thanks for your advice you gave me regarding renovation cost and other reno issues I faced. You were right, my final bill worked out to be around 50k, inclusive of wardrobe, DIY shelvings, lightings and accessories.

What I like best on your design is the staircase and the lightbox Your place look very spacious compared to mine.... I will take your idea on recycling old stuff, to make place clutter-free:) I will attempt to do this regularly too.

Hope u don't mind putting picture on how u create storage in your balcony

[cleong 1]

Gonna show the photos that "inspired" my home's final outcome. As I didn't want to pay for an ID's services, I had to coordinate it myself by doing a lot of browsing on the internet, particularly Renotalk and Propertyguru's flats for sale for inspiration. If you see your photo in here, let me know and I'll happily credit it to you. The photos are of three different homes, and represent the slight differences that I had to reconcile in order to make everything work together.

and my result:

These two pictures were lifted off Propertyguru, and formed the basis of the "look and feel" that I wanted. I wasn't quite sure I wanted Balinese art on the wall, so I have bare walls till I decide what to hang on them.

This is probably the single most outstanding feature of my admittedly budget renovation. I also copied it from someone else! But slight differences, as my lightbox is taller and I have pillars on my staircase owing to strength concerns.

Edited December 12, 2011 by cleong

[cleong 1]

Our interpretation was quite different though:

Hotel-styled bathrooms caught our fancy. I believe this came from one of the T-blogs here.

Finished product:

This is the only 3D used during the renovation, a visualization of kitchen layout and colour scheme. It was created by a friend's company. I opted not to have open shelves, or a chimney hood, opting for more closed storage space and we also shifted the oven subseqently.

Edited December 12, 2011 by cleong

[cleong 1]

Hi Cleong, nice to have neighbours like u.

Thanks for your advice you gave me regarding renovation cost and other reno issues I faced. You were right, my final bill worked out to be around 50k, inclusive of wardrobe, DIY shelvings, lightings and accessories.

What I like best on your design is the staircase and the lightbox Your place look very spacious compared to mine.... I will take your idea on recycling old stuff, to make place clutter-free:) I will attempt to do this regularly too.

Hope u don't mind putting picture on how u create storage in your balcony

The short answer is that we don't store anything in the balcony as my wife's plant racks are there, along with garden hose and sprayer. We put some bamboo poles and brooms at the corners but generally there's nothing else. As we live next to the stairwell we bought a lockable Toyogo cupboard and placed it next to our unit - stores gardening materials, tools and stuff without getting into anyone's way. The same location is where we put a recycling bin so that we don't have to keep recyclables in the house, as they sometimes will attract ants and cockroaches.

Here's how my balcony looks like today:

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[potatoes 0]

Nice:) is that a retractable awning system ? Can you PM the vendor and cost? I m also looking for something like this. Does it really help to keep the rain away?

[cleong 1]

Nice:) is that a retractable awning system ? Can you PM the vendor and cost? I m also looking for something like this. Does it really help to keep the rain away?

Hi potatoes, I suddenly got reminded in the Maisonette thread that you asked me about my awning - the electrically retractable awning came with my flat, so I don't know who does it. According to

http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10324p.nsf/w/HomeRenoGuidelinesBuilding?OpenDocument#Awing

you don't need a permit for the installations as long as you keep within their guidelines. I kept the existing awning structure and just changed the fabric for between $400-600, can't remember the exact cost already. You can contract Green Garden Awning Co. at 64822867. It is pretty useful for managing rain, though when it gets really windy, the balcony will get wet. It also makes a noticeable difference to the living room in controlling light level in the day.

[potatoes 0]

Hi potatoes, I suddenly got reminded in the Maisonette thread that you asked me about my awning - the electrically retractable awning came with my flat, so I don't know who does it. According to

http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10324p.nsf/w/HomeRenoGuidelinesBuilding?OpenDocument#Awing

you don't need a permit for the installations as long as you keep within their guidelines. I kept the existing awning structure and just changed the fabric for between $400-600, can't remember the exact cost already. You can contract Green Garden Awning Co. at 64822867. It is pretty useful for managing rain, though when it gets really windy, the balcony will get wet. It also makes a noticeable difference to the living room in controlling light level in the day.

Cleong, Thanks for your reply:) I like yours becos it nicely cover your air con compressor. Looking at mine, I think it is quite difficult to cover the compressor and I don't like it to be too low as I have a 4 ft wrought iron grill obstruction

[potatoes 0]

Hi bro Cleong, couldnt PM u. Wishing u a merry Christmas & happy new year! I was outside your unit few days ago. U r lucky to get a nice space outside where u have a cabinet and recycled bin.... I m also impressed with the things u have done to your reno, particularly your staircase and cove lightings the retractable awning system is something I look forward to install but hesitated becos I m a little worried about the outlook and design. It looks good from the outside....are u free to invite us over to your place? Hee Hee ... Kay po to see your Reno live rather than just pics

Edited December 25, 2011 by potatoes

[cleong 1]

Hi bro Cleong, couldnt PM u. Wishing u a merry Christmas & happy new year! I was outside your unit few days ago. U r lucky to get a nice space outside where u have a cabinet and recycled bin.... I m also impressed with the things u have done to your reno, particularly your staircase and cove lightings the retractable awning system is something I look forward to install but hesitated becos I m a little worried about the outlook and design. It looks good from the outside....are u free to invite us over to your place? Hee Hee ... Kay po to see your Reno live rather than just pics

Hi,

Probably Monday afternoon? I've got a pretty packed weekend ahead...... in any case, I note that the position of your aircon while similar to mine, uses a different bracket which would preclude you placing the awning in the same position as mine. I suggest if you want to do it like mine you would need to buy a different aircon bracket.