A Journey Home

[Christine_D 1]

After years of renting a place and constantly moving from one flat to another almost every 2 years, we got fed up and decided to buy our own from the open market.

February 2011 we started hunting for a flat. We were very blessed to have an Agent who is so patient, responsible, and understands what we want. He guided us in every step and reminded us if we have an appointment with the Bank, Lawyer and HDB.

Had our 1st appointment in 1 Apr 2011 and collected our keys in 13 May 2011.

And we all thought it ends there....but we wanted the flat to have our own personality. It'll be our Home for maybe as long as we live.

Everyday, I visit Renotalk Forum, read other people's journey. Renovating your house is not easy. You gotta find good deals , good ID/contractors and sometimes you just want to bang your head on the wall due to stress. But hey, it'll be worth it.

And so....our journey begins....

Our Contractor is ClosetRobe and the designer is Esther Tan. Lucky to find them at Singapore Expo on one of their Road Shows.

Reno Start Date: 6 June 2011

Expected Completion: end of July 2011

Edited June 19, 2011 by Christine_D

[Christine_D 1]

We took a few pictures before the renovation started:

This is the Living Room and the Dining Room:

The Kitchen:

The Common Toilet:

The Master Bedroom

The MBR Toilet:

Edited June 19, 2011 by Christine_D

[Christine_D 1]

The flat is 5I. It will cost a bomb if we are going to do a full renovation.

Hubby and I decided to do just some parts of the house...the Kitchen, Common Toilet, False Ceiling, Bomb Shelter, TV Console, Master Bedroom and MBR Toilet. We decided for the 2 other bedrooms we'll just paint it for the mean time. Once we have enough funds, only then we will touch it.

Week One, all about the hacking. They took out the existing cabinets in the Kitchen and Master Bedroom, took out the cornices and hack the tiles in the 2 toilets.

Hacking of the Kitchen Cabinets:

The Cornices:

Common Toilet:

Edited June 19, 2011 by Christine_D

[jaskel 2]

Welcome to RT. Wish u have a smooth reno ahead.

[Christine_D 1]

Welcome to RT. Wish u have a smooth reno ahead.

Hi Jaskel! Thanks so much!

Yeah, im wishing too that the reno will be smooth but i guess every reno has it's bumps.

Got a word from our contractor 2 days ago, the neighbor downstairs complained that there is a leak on their toilet ceiling due to the works done in our toilet.

When our contractor did an inspection on their flat, the stains are already dark yellow, meaning it's an old mark and not due to our reno.

waaaaaa!!!!! !! Neighbor downstairs probably thought that since we are new owners, they can get away with it.

Our contractor settled it with them and offered to paint their toilet ceiling. Lucky them, got free paint!

[jaskel 2]

Hi Jaskel! Thanks so much!

Yeah, im wishing too that the reno will be smooth but i guess every reno has it's bumps.

Got a word from our contractor 2 days ago, the neighbor downstairs complained that there is a leak on their toilet ceiling due to the works done in our toilet.

When our contractor did an inspection on their flat, the stains are already dark yellow, meaning it's an old mark and not due to our reno.

waaaaaa!!!!! !! Neighbor downstairs probably thought that since we are new owners, they can get away with it.

Our contractor settled it with them and offered to paint their toilet ceiling. Lucky them, got free paint!

Yes all reno have hiccups here and there, but most importantly, all can be solved peacefully. but don't worry, trust your contractor able to solve all if not most of them.

As usually there are some cheapo ppl awaiting for their upstair to do reno then can save the 50% cost of share paying to rectify the leakage.

[Christine_D 1]

Week 2: The Re-wiring, Air-con installation, False Ceiling and the Toilet Tiles

The re-wiring of the whole flat is done. I think it just took them a day or two to do it.

There will be a total to 12 down lights and 1 chandelier in the middle for the living room, a chandelier in the Dining Room, 2 normal lights in the Kitchen plus 2 hanging lights for my hubby's breakfast counter , Common Rooms and Master Bedroom. Of course, this is aside from the heater and Aircon. Phew!

False Ceiling is up as well after the re-wiring.

Aircon installation's done. Bought our Sanyo System 3 Aircon from Gain City. It's not an inverter but it's ok. We're not heavy users anyway.

Toilet Wall Tiles for Master Bedroom and Common Toilet is almost finished. They haven't done the floor tiles yet as they want to make sure that it's not leaking. Don't want to get a "valid" complain from the neighbor downstairs.

Master Room Toilet, love the wall tiles.

Common Toilet

Slowly, the flat is turning into our home with our own personalities.

[Christine_D 1]

Here are some of the things we bought for our flat:

All the lights are from Lightings.com.sg(Jalan Besar). After weeks of comparing prices from a lot of shops, we find theirs very competitive. We managed to save a lot!

Philips Downlight

Simple Bedroom Lights

Dining Room Chandelier

Mattress and Bedframe from Bed and Bedding Centre in Balestier. They were having a sale and we managed to get the Slumberland Mattress Nature Series and Bedframe for less than $1500!

[Christine_D 1]

Before the renovation, Hubby and I were contemplating on what our theme will be.

After buying half a dozen of magazines, hundreds of hours on the internet, we decided to go for the Modern Contemporary look.

We went for the colors White(Hubby's favorite ), Gray(we think it's cute ), Black(is the new white ) and a splash of Red(our wedding motif! ).

Hubby is the king of the Kitchen, that is his turf. I don't have a picture of his kitchen inspiration, it's all in his head.

The Living Room and the Master Bedroom is my area.

And as for my inspiration....Tadan!

I soooo like the colors but will change a bit the furniture design to make it modern contemporary.

[Christine_D 1]

Week 3: Toilet Wall and Floor, Kitchen Base, Washing Machine and Dryer Base and Wardrobe

Weekends is our only day when we can inspect the progress of the work being done. Yesterday, we also met the painter from http://www.singaporepaintingservices.com/. The price is reasonable and competitive. They will be able to commence work this Wednesday and should be able to finish by Friday, 1 July. Can't wait to see the finish product. Surely the flat will look different once it is painted.

Our contractor informed us that they should be able to finish by 3rd week of July. I'm getting excited already!

Toilet Walls and Floor is done already. Just left with the toilet accessories.

Common Toilet - Cream and Brown to match with the Kitchen floor

Master Toilet - White, Gray and Black

Kitchen, Washing Machine and Dryer Base

The L-Shape will Hubby's breafast/coffee counter

The L-Shape Wardrobe which will take up one side of the room will also hide the Master toilet

Edited June 26, 2011 by Christine_D

[hafiizh 0]

Progress looks good - it's coming along nicely! Can't wait to see how the kitchen turns out. I designed my kitchen myself too so it'll be good to see another male-oriented kitchen design

Best wishes on your reno!

[Christine_D 1]

Progress looks good - it's coming along nicely! Can't wait to see how the kitchen turns out. I designed my kitchen myself too so it'll be good to see another male-oriented kitchen design

Best wishes on your reno!

Hi Hafiizh! Thanks!

Saw the bar stools for your kitchen and we really like them. Maybe we'll visit the shop where you bought them one of these days.

Hope they have it in red.

Ey, love your big windows as well.

[Christine_D 1]

Week 4 - The Painting Works

Two weeks ago, I arranged for the Painters to do the work last Thursday. As we are unable to supervise coz hubby and I were woking, we gave them the combination to the lock and asked them to do their work. Probably you're gonna think we are crazy and too trusting but we have no choice . Hubby and I can't take any leave as we saving it for the moving day.

Well, our trust paid off. We went there this morning and it was nicely done!

The painter whom i always forget his name was there too. We did a site inspection and paid him for the nice work he has done.

We told him we might be calling him again as we want them to do some touch up, if necessary, once the lights are up.

I'm loving the immaculate white walls of the whole flat. They painted it with Snowflakes(1164) from Nippon Odour~less series.

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom Feature Wall in Fire Engine Red

Feels like heaven if you are in the Common Rooms aka The White Rooms

White Room No. 1

White Room No. 2 - This will be our Study Room also

Edited July 6, 2011 by Christine_D

[Christine_D 1]

Whooooppppsss....reached the maximum number of pictures in the previous entry.

The Living Room Feature Wall painted in Smoke Pearl Gray

The TV console will be at this wall as well.

The view of the living room

The pictures are not that good as Hubby did not bring his camera and i'm using mine.

Hubby not in the mood to take pictures coz he just finished his 12hour night shift and i drag him along with me to see the flat.

We're at 70% done with the renovation. Next week will be carpentry works.

Yahooooo!!!! We're almost at the finish line.

[Christine_D 1]

It's one of those rare days last Wednesday that Hubby managed to see what's going on at the flat and what works were being done.

He was surprised and quite pleased that the flat is clean, the doors were installed and the Toilet floor and wall tiles were nicely done.

Finally! The Living Room is clean....yeahhhh!

I'm in love with these doors. The Master Bedroom has a sliding door while the rest are the normal ones.

Almost done with the Common Toilet.

Hubby's "Goth inspired" MBR Toilet.