Serangoon North Renovation By Defong Interior Design

[ayazumi 0]

DAY THREE

Hubby managed to tear down one wardrobe, which took him about an hour or more. Luckily my papa came over and helped him to dismantle the other 2 wardrobes within 1.5-2hrs. Come to think of that, it is not worth the time and energy to save a bit of money to tear so many carpentry things by ownself. Please do not try this at home. Leave it to the professionals.

MBR wardrobe down

Future study room wardrobe almost down, need to dismantle the big shelves and table into pieces before disposal

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[ayazumi 0]

The most difficult wardrobe in last room down too. Hubby took more than 1hr to dismantle it.

Slight damage on the left side of the wall

The bed is also dismantled. Mattress and head board threw at level 1 What you see is the bed support.

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[potatoes 0]

Wow! I think it is really hard work to dismantle all the wardrobe on your own.... Can save u a couple of hundreds. I dont think I can manage this.... I rather pay my ID $$$.

Anyway, u can now look forward to new wardrobes

Edited March 17, 2012 by potatoes

[ayazumi 0]

potatoes: Yes, really tough work. We didn't save much also because we have to pay the factory to dispose the debris. The amount of debris we are throwing is really a lot. I think the factory may charge us another $200 for the second trip. I agree with you to pay the ID/contractor the money to dismantle/disposal. It is not worth to do these by our ownselves.

Edited March 17, 2012 by ayazumi

[ayazumi 0]

End of today's work. The amount of debris pile up as a mountain again, more than yesterday. My papa and bangalahs will collect and dispose the debris tomorrow. We also managed to dismantle the window aircon unit. We didn't dare to touch the wall aircon unit as we may mishandle and drop the aircon out from our unit. Too dangerous.

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[muska1119 1]

potatoes: Yes, really tough work. We didn't save much also because we have to pay the factory to dispose the debris. The amount of debris we are throwing is really a lot. I think the factory may charge us another $200 for the second trip. I agree with you to pay the ID/contractor the money to dismantle/disposal. It is not worth to do these by our ownselves.

I thk the key thing why id/contractor charge so much was also cos of the cost of each 'container' is fix abt 700-900..depending on amt to tear.. Luckily hv u v good helpers

[ayazumi 0]

Hi muska1119. I agree, the debris bin/container can cost quite a lot. My helpers are my hubby and father. They are my strong men

[Sze Hui 0]

oh... then have to make sure people here will read about this so that they will not do the same mistakes..... so hopefully everything will be smooth for you. Just need to pay a bit more.... as a lesson learnt.

Actually i think tis is mutual between both. For me and my contractor, i make alot of changes even after signing the quotation. I had already seek he's agreeement and he was very ok with it. After all the changes, my final quotation was lower by more than $1k. My contractor wqas also not tight on $$, so i guess he doesn't really bothers about all these.

[Sze Hui 0]

Oh, that was based on our calculation. Initially, he quoted us a lump sum, but we divided into the number of wardrobes we have, so estimate one wardrobe is $180. That was how we derived to $180 per wardrobe. Sorry for the confusion. When we asked how much to dispose the wardrobes, he told us $150 per wardrobe. To be fair, he did say that if the items are small, he can ask his workers to help us throw. But given to the situation now, the items are not small at all - All bulky items.

btw, u can actually get ur town council to throw some of the debrises to save $$. 3 items FOC per month

[Sze Hui 0]

also, forgot to mention that 30L for central heater for 2 toilets is just fine. 15L maybe abit too small. Also, u can even link it to your bathroom sinks etc, so 30l is not that big. Mine heater is also same as urs.

Edited March 17, 2012 by SzeHui

[ayazumi 0]

Hi Szehui. Thank you for visiting.

Yes, we thought of calling town council to arrange their contractor to collect the bulky items for us, but when we thought of that, was a bit too late. They need at least 3 days in advance notice. We are starting renovation next Monday, so no time for town council to collect the items next week. Therefore, we have to dispose off the items ourselves.

As for the heater, we also thought of 15ltr might be too small for us, so we bought a 30ltr, but afraid 30ltr will be too much, but Ariston does not come in 20-25ltr. We are not doing hot water pipes for the sink/basins, as this will add additional costs to our budget, plus we don't really need hot water for washing hands or plates.

[Akitsuki 0]

Actually i think tis is mutual between both. For me and my contractor, i make alot of changes even after signing the quotation. I had already seek he's agreeement and he was very ok with it. After all the changes, my final quotation was lower by more than $1k. My contractor wqas also not tight on $$, so i guess he doesn't really bothers about all these.

Yes. I agree some contractor doesn't mind small changes at all. But the items we cancelled was more than 3k. So I think its normal for him to wanna lock in his profit.

Edited March 18, 2012 by Akitsuki

[ayazumi 0]

DAY FOUR

My papa's bangalah workers went to the house this early morning to clear all the built-in wardrobes for disposal. Left the bulky items such as TV, console, and 2 aircons to be cleared tomorrow morning before Kevin's contractors start work tomorrow.

We met Kevin this evening, and he clarified the renovation progress with us. We have also agreed on the additional/cancellation works that we want to do, so he will be amending the VO and send to us later. Based on his professional experience, he quickly did all the measurements and markings within 5-10 minutes. We believe he and his contractors have worked very long, and have strong mutual trust and understanding already, if not he would not tell us that his contractors would start the demolition work in the morning (without him), and he will come in late morning.

As mentioned earlier, we intended to hack a new door way for the MBR, so that all 3 room doors can form a short "corridor". This is the marking that Kevin has drawn to show the HDB officer, who will be coming to visit the house.

In MBR

Outside MBR, in Living

Pardon for the dark pictures because we have switched off the electricity from DB. The house will be pitch dark for the next following days/weeks/one month.

We are ready for tomorrow morning's demolition works. The contractors will be coming as early as 9:30AM tomorrow. We look forward to the smooth renovation progress.

Edited April 24, 2012 by ayazumi

[Valerie Low 0]

Exciting! Tomorrow is the day your reno officially starts - wish you have a smooth reno journey! I really salute your hubby and father for the hacking work. We thought of doing that before. But after seeing what you have gone through i think we should not try. But anyway, there are only kitchen cabinet and a few racks to be dismantled in my new house, so the hacking cost is still ok.

[ayazumi 0]

Valerie: Thank you for your wishes. We both are also excited about it. In future we will not want to try to dismantle built-in furnitures anymore, especially built-in furnitures like ours, too many things to dismantle. Luckily we didn't commit to dismantle the kitchen cabinets made of concrete.