Old New Flat On A Shoestring Budget

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Flooring

We wanted laminates, we wanted it cheap, and we wanted it good. But there's no free lunch. I went to countless Expo furniture fairs and compared the different brands. We were looking at light coloured flooring to keep with our theme.

I was considering Supreme, but found it expensive and the designs also didn't suit our taste. We looked at the German brands and found that they were pretty much the same, save for design. What we really wanted wasthe Quickstep Go at $3.50/sqf, but we ended up with Parador ($3.50/sqf) from Evorich due to the availability of 12 months IPP. Just before we signed with Parador, I was seriously considering Kronotex. However, Shaun told me to get the cheapest possible product that I was comfortable with, so Parador it was.

If money was no issue, I would either go from Quickstep Largo/Eligna or Allure Trafficmaster. I'm a Consumer Research magazine fan, and in their comparison of flooring, Quickstep and Pergo stood out. Allure was well rated too. But when is money not an issue, haha!

Design-wise, v-grooves are nice and give the impression that one is using real wood, but they cost an impressive amount too...

We actually supplemented our Parador laminate flooring order with Allure vinyl flooring for the kitchen. The need for the floor to be waterproof is the primary concern here. There are tiles that mimic wood, but they are still more expensive to lay psf when compared to vinyl tiles, so vinyl tiles it was.

Matching the colours of both floorings as well as thekitchen cabinet skirting was tricky, but I reckon we got it pretty **** close. So, we'll be having laminates for the living/dining, all 3 bedrooms and the home shelter, vinyl for the kitchen and tiles for the foyer and bathrooms.

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Tiles

This was one area where we could have saved heaps, but we (I) simply could not stand the bathroom tiles. Also, to fit with our Japanese theme, we needed tiles for the foyer (Genkan). So, we busted our budgets and decided to overlay tiles in both bathrooms. The other option was to use Faithcoat, which costs less than 50% of the tiling charge. However, we decided that since we begin and end our days in the bathroom, and it was going to be major works that we would be hard pressed to pursue once we moved in; we'll just bite the bullet. Do it once, do it right, and so, we splurged.

Tiles were chosen from Hafary (yawn), but they do have an impressive range. We managed to choose our tiles within 2 hours with 2 kids in tow. Unfortunately, the uneven tile issue still exists with current Hafary stocks. But we're not that picky, so it's still alright for us.

These are the samples of the flooring we selected; the foyer tile sample is not available.

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Water Fittings

I wanted good water fittings as I have been replacing the HDB standard ones in my current place after 8 years. What I noticed was that the cartridges of the mixers got really stiff with age. I started researching about cartridge quality and ended up with the Grohe/Hansgrohe dilemma. We shelved the plan to get those 2 brands for a while as the cost felt prohibitive. The first piece of sanitary fitting was actually a made-in-Japan Toto thermostatic mixer that we bought in Tokyo for the common bathroom. Although it's an old model, it still serves its purpose in ensuring that the water temperature remains constant as our kids take their shower.

I subsequently followed up with the purchase of a Hansgrohe kitchen mixer, Grohe thermostatic shower mixer and Grohe handshower from insani24 in Germany. There is some problem with the shipment currently, which I hope will be resolved soon. Their prices are cheaper than Iceprice though. I bought my Rubine basic mixers and Monic stainless steel kitchen sink locally, and those were at a good price thanks to a friend.

As we had decided to revamp our bathrooms, we bought new WCs and basin cabinets as well.

The WCs are the ubiquitous Arino Caprio.

While the basin cabinets are from Genova and Ikea.

I got the Godmorgon wash stand for $100 in an As-Is flatpack and will be getting Mr Teo to laminate it. All the wash stands are soft closing with water resistant wood. I just hope the wash stands can fit properly.

The common toilet has an annoyingly short depth of less than 400mm for the sink. To circumvent the constraint, I decided to change the original wooden door to a PDdoor. I hope I'll not fall prey to the same issues that plagued other users.

For the master bedroom toilet, the distance from the doorwall to the WC is only 780mm, so I'm cautiously hopeful that my 800mm Godmorgan can fit after shifting the WC towards the shower area slightly. Otherwise,we'll have to reverse the installation of the wash stands.

Edited March 31, 2012 by kirinshibori

[kirinshibori 0]

HDB Cement Screeding

Cement screeding was provided very quickly by HDB, we got a date that was less than 2 weeks from the date of form submission. Quality-wise, it wasn't that bad but the workers splashed cement pretty high up on to the wall.

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HDB Rectificantion

This is currently on-going.

By "virtue" of our new flat being rather old (8 years old), there are a lot of corrosion on things that are metallic. Window handles, door handles, sanitary fittings, and even the screws inside the switches and sockets have signs of corrosion on them. Plastic mounts and stops on the windows are also largely cracked.

There is a problem though. As the new financial year for HDB is in April, most of the contractors' contracts are coming to an end, and there will be fresh rounds of tenders. This means that I'll have to wait until the new contractors are finalized before rectification work can continue.

Our technical officer has been helpful so far. Hopefully, the rectification works will not be a showstopper and she will be able to complete our rectification soon.

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Air Conditioning

The aircon was the first appliance that we bought, which I bought from Gain City in Dec 2011 during their Suntec sale. The initial order was for a Panasonic inverter system 2 to keep costs down, but I ended up changing the order to a Mitsubishi inverter system 4 as we realised that the aircon is something that you install and forget until it breaks down. Furthermore, aircon installation can be quite an inconvenience after we've moved in, so we decided to do it right the first time. One constraint at Kallang Heights is that the aircon window is only 715mm tall, so that restricts our choice of aircon to Mitsubishi Electric and LG for an inverter System 4. I really wanted to get the LG Artcool mirror finish series inverter, but 18,000btu just wasn't enough for our living/dining area due to the open concept kitchen, therefore we chose the Mitsubishi Starmex inverter with a 26,000btu fan coil unit in the living/diningroom.

The Outdoor Compressor.

I decided to let the pipes enter the house through the top pane of the aircon window. However, this means sacrificing the window pane and if we would like to change the window in the future, it would be quite involved. For the last 8 years, I have had not much need to open the top pane of my aircon window in my current flat, so I reckon it will not be an issue, fingers crossed. The hole that remains would most likely be sealed up with partitionboard and plaster.

I upgraded our piping, so we have massive 4 inch casings running throughout the flat, and in the case of the master bedroom, it's 2x4inch for the 4 FCUs, so we have this massive 8 inch trunking as shown below.Hopefully, it will blend in once we've painted over it.

The trunking runs along the ceiling into the corridor before splitting between the bedrooms and the living/dining room.

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continued...

The trunking is visible in the kids' room, but there are no visible trunking in the guest room as the two FCUs are installed back to back.

The trunking from the corridor to the living/dining room is quite an eyesore. We'll have to think of something creative to minimize the visual impact.

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Current progress

Hacking works have been mostly completed. For now, we're waiting for the plumbing, electrical and tiling works to finish. Then we'll be bringing in our carpentry, which hopefully will happen end of next week... to be continued.

Btw, what are the recommended microwaves with grill function and dishwashers at the moment?

[piknik 1]

Hello, me the "no money still wanna do reno" here.

Very interesting how I found your case so similar to mine. From how we entered the sale of balance flat (tried our luck) to budget constraint 10K reno only stretched to 20K and more.. Especially the theme: Japanese contemporary.

I love your bedroom doors: can paint those white. Mine can't be painted white without looking less awlful. I have White ceramic floor tiles already so will only laminate the floor in the future, when can't stand the ceramic tiles anymore. My most expensive part of Reno could be the kitchen: hacking required, PE, make good of wall, glass panel, carpentry,.. Budget for it is already 9K. Haiz...

Seems like your reno will soon complete?

I suggest the sharp super steam oven for healthy food. But it's expensive, nearly 1K.

Why do you want a dishwasher? Cannot opt it out to save money and electricity? Electricity cost is higher again. My guess is you dislike washing dishes. Everyone hates it.

Wish you a smooth reno.

[adidaem 6]

I like your inspiration pics, and ur blog is an interesting read so far. Do go for the dishwasher. I wish I did when I was renovating.

Hope u hv a smooth Reno n a beautiful home at the end of the journey.

[potatoes 0]

Nice reno progress.

I m sure ur place will turn out to be beautiful like what u hav in the inspiration photos.

[kirinshibori 0]

Hello, me the "no money still wanna do reno" here.

Very interesting how I found your case so similar to mine. From how we entered the sale of balance flat (tried our luck) to budget constraint 10K reno only stretched to 20K and more.. Especially the theme: Japanese contemporary.

I love your bedroom doors: can paint those white. Mine can't be painted white without looking less awlful. I have White ceramic floor tiles already so will only laminate the floor in the future, when can't stand the ceramic tiles anymore. My most expensive part of Reno could be the kitchen: hacking required, PE, make good of wall, glass panel, carpentry,.. Budget for it is already 9K. Haiz...

Seems like your reno will soon complete?

I suggest the sharp super steam oven for healthy food. But it's expensive, nearly 1K.

Why do you want a dishwasher? Cannot opt it out to save money and electricity? Electricity cost is higher again. My guess is you dislike washing dishes. Everyone hates it.

Wish you a smooth reno.

Hi Piknik, you're right, we're going to paint all the doors white! Including the main door, and gate, everything! But I have a nagging feeling that we'll regret it 'cos with 2 precocious kids running around the house... they will probably treat all the white walls as their canvas, haha... Yes, the kitchen is expensive, but since my friend is helping me with the renovation, he gave us a very reasonable rate for hacking and making good. We were also lucky that the PE was not required.

I collected my keys about 3 weeks ago... we are actually taking our time with the renovation, but he's fast... so I just gotta keep up. Don't think it'll complete so soon though. Anyway, we have until the end of April, so there should be plenty of time.

We're thinking of a Sharp one, but probably just convection plus grill... that would probably still cost us more than $350... so we're keeping our options open.

As for the dishwasher... we used to have a domestic helper, but now we don't... and I used to use dishwashers while overseas. It actually saves water (uses <15L per wash) compared to hand washing, but definitely uses more electricity. At 1.05kWh, I think it'll be ok, about 2hrs usage every day... And you hit the bullseye again, I don't like washing dishes, haha!

[kirinshibori 0]

I like your inspiration pics, and ur blog is an interesting read so far. Do go for the dishwasher. I wish I did when I was renovating.

Hope u hv a smooth Reno n a beautiful home at the end of the journey.

Thanks adidaem. I liked your T-Blog too. It provided me with a lot of useful information, especially when we were deliberating about the hood, cos the Fujioh you're using was one of our options since it could fit the tight space we had.

Yes, unfortunately, I treat the dishwasher as an essential item in the kitchen, haha...

We also bought an Arc lamp, albeit a replica, at a dirt cheap price though... but I wonder how it'll fit in with the overall theme, guess I'll know when I assemble it together with the carpentry and furniture...

[kirinshibori 0]

More pictures from my Idea book...

This should be how the 玄関 or foyer is supposed to look. But we have a problem with achieving the look as the step up from the bare floor to the laminate floor is quite low. I've communicated all I can to the tiler and Evorich... hopefully the resultant effect would be acceptable.

[kirinshibori 0]

Oh, and I'm hooked on to "Before and After" on on LiTV every Sat at 9pm, haha... they call in "Reform" instead of renovation in the Land of the Rising Sun.