Help! Em Reno

[EMSOS 0]

Hi all,

We are starting to plan for our renovation of our em in early December and need to complete by CNY 2013.

Can you please share with us your experience?

1. any lesson learnt?

2. Reno tips to share?

3. Anything to look out for?

4. How much is your estimated Reno cost?

[wishxpress 0]

Hi all,

We are starting to plan for our renovation of our em in early December and need to complete by CNY 2013.

Can you please share with us your experience?

1. any lesson learnt?

2. Reno tips to share?

3. Anything to look out for?

4. How much is your estimated Reno cost?

Hi use the search button ,

there a wealth of info dating many years back.

Good Luck on your reno.

[cleong 1]

Sorry, your questions are very vague. Each apartment is different, in a different condition and each owner has different things in mind for it.

1. any lesson learnt?

Engage a good recommended ID if you have more money than time. Be realistic in your expectations of completion date. Early Dec 2012 to Early Feb 2013 gives you no margin of delay or error. Given the complexity of renovation, the following can happen: shortage of workers, delay in delivery of material, missed furnishings/electrical deliveries, furniture not in stock even though ordered. Mine was promised for two months and took three and a half.

2. Reno tips to share?

Set your budget then add 10-20% to allow for cost overrun. Write down in detail all that you want in your renovation and try not to add on after the quotation is agreed upon. Be prepared to strike things off if your budget cannot stretch. Variations can run up even if you don't want it to.

3. Anything to look out for?

Leaks. Loansharks. "Good friends". Fengshui if you're into that sort of thing.

4. How much is your estimated Reno cost?

Around $45,000. Furnishing was another $10,000-15,000. A system 4 A/C is already $4,000.

[ymjp100 0]

Hi all,

We are starting to plan for our renovation of our em in early December and need to complete by CNY 2013.

Can you please share with us your experience?

1. any lesson learnt?

2. Reno tips to share?

3. Anything to look out for?

4. How much is your estimated Reno cost?

Hello EMSOS (I see what you did there....)

A good way to let other users share is to filter the extensive threads by using the search function and zooming into relevant ones. Good luck!

[EMSOS 0]

Hi ymjp100, what do you mean - "I see what you did there"? Thank you for the advise on how to narrow down my search.

Hi cleong, thank you for the advise. We are looking for lesson learn from previous owners in area such as - glass railing to staircase is maintenance painful, etc. in terms of budget - we are looking at hacking down the wall between the kitchen and living room, hacking the flooring and wall, carpentry to all bedrooms and kitchen - we set aside 50k excluding fittings. Do you reckon is a realistic amount?

[potatoes 0]

Hi ymjp100, what do you mean - "I see what you did there"? Thank you for the advise on how to narrow down my search.

Hi cleong, thank you for the advise. We are looking for lesson learn from previous owners in area such as - glass railing to staircase is maintenance painful, etc. in terms of budget - we are looking at hacking down the wall between the kitchen and living room, hacking the flooring and wall, carpentry to all bedrooms and kitchen - we set aside 50k excluding fittings. Do you reckon is a realistic amount?

50k may not be enough nowadays for major overhaul. If u keep the flooring n exclude bedroom carpentry, then maybe. Dont forget u still have 3 bathrooms.....Reno cost has risen significantly....

Hope u can find a good contractor.

[avbeng 0]

Hi all,

We are starting to plan for our renovation of our em in early December and need to complete by CNY 2013.

Can you please share with us your experience?

1. any lesson learnt?

2. Reno tips to share?

3. Anything to look out for?

4. How much is your estimated Reno cost?

Hi , i am newbie too and lurking in RT for advises and lobangs.

Recently i also bought an EM unit at west side. Been through lots of ID's ( some even did not come back to me )

Here is what i will be doing to my place

1. Hack lvl 1 flooring

2. Hack whole kitchen and flooring

3. Hack 3 toliets

4. Hack bedrooms cabinets and cupboards

5. Hack kitchen wall and rebuilt half height with glass ( open concept is good to see, not pratical to use )

1. Relay lvl 1 flooring with homo tiles

2. Rebuilt Kitchen ( top and bottom )with glass backsplash.

3. Rebuilt toliet with homo tiles

4. Rebuilt 3 toliets

5. Build a wall partition at existing dining area and place top hung glass door

6. L - Box for all bedrooms rooms with 1 side cove lights

7. False ceiling for new dining, passage way and living ( living with cove lighting )

8. Flat partition for tv feature wall.

9. re varnish lvl 2 flooring and staircase flooring/handles ( waned to change to glass but opt out reason being that having too much glass in the house makes it oo cold)

* i will be using all homo tiles for walls and flooring

MOst Ex quote almost 90k ( this one is thinking i am a huge carrot ripen to be chopped )

Cheapest is almost 52k

Then we hve mid ranges - 60 to 70, will be choosing a few to requte after viewing, in this range before finalizing

* will be starting my reno t-blog soon. wait for release =)

[EMSOS 0]

Hi all,

We have finally started our renovation!!!

We are planning to have brown / dark flooring on the 2nd level but yet having some worries on the turnout. Has anyone done that before and is able to share some photos?

[potatoes 0]

Hi all,

We have finally started our renovation!!!

We are planning to have brown / dark flooring on the 2nd level but yet having some worries on the turnout. Has anyone done that before and is able to share some photos?

Congrats! It's personal preference for colour of flooring. I dare not try dark colors as it tend to make the place look smaller and less bright. I still go for light colours even though people tell me it is hard to maintain.

Hope to see more pic of ur reno.

So did u engage an ID or contractor?

[EMSOS 0]

Hi potatoes,

Because of limited budget, we are engaging a contractor. Thus very apprehensive with the materials we choose etc....... such as the tiles colour. Haiz .......

[hafiizh 0]

Hi EMSOS like ymjp, I like your nick haha!

My advice - have buffers for budget and completion date.

Doesn't really matter ID or contractor, but trust and communication is priceless.

Good luck, looking forward to seeing the pictures!

[Bento28 0]

Hi , i am newbie too and lurking in RT for advises and lobangs.

Recently i also bought an EM unit at west side. Been through lots of ID's ( some even did not come back to me )

Here is what i will be doing to my place

1. Hack lvl 1 flooring

2. Hack whole kitchen and flooring

3. Hack 3 toliets

4. Hack bedrooms cabinets and cupboards

5. Hack kitchen wall and rebuilt half height with glass ( open concept is good to see, not pratical to use )

1. Relay lvl 1 flooring with homo tiles

2. Rebuilt Kitchen ( top and bottom )with glass backsplash.

3. Rebuilt toliet with homo tiles

4. Rebuilt 3 toliets

5. Build a wall partition at existing dining area and place top hung glass door

6. L - Box for all bedrooms rooms with 1 side cove lights

7. False ceiling for new dining, passage way and living ( living with cove lighting )

8. Flat partition for tv feature wall.

9. re varnish lvl 2 flooring and staircase flooring/handles ( waned to change to glass but opt out reason being that having too much glass in the house makes it oo cold)

* i will be using all homo tiles for walls and flooring

MOst Ex quote almost 90k ( this one is thinking i am a huge carrot ripen to be chopped )

Cheapest is almost 52k

Then we hve mid ranges - 60 to 70, will be choosing a few to requte after viewing, in this range before finalizing

* will be starting my reno t-blog soon. wait for release =)

Hi, just did mine with most of your work stated. U didn't include electricial wiring which cost me 4-5k. Contractor is good if u know wat u wan n don't let them lead u. I spent ard 74K n took me 2.5 months

[EMSOS 0]

Because of the condition of the unit we are planning a major overhaul.

We are:

1. Ripping up the entire unit leaving only the windows at balcony not change.

2. Swop master bedroom to bedroom

With the works in plan, the reno cost about 80k....... Really very "siong" ...... with only a concept already in mind and no 3d renderings, really scare scare. recently we were very excited when we chanced upon kaijia's t-blog! She did the similar works that we are thinking of doing, so it helped to assure us that the concept we had in mind is actually workable.

So we hope all will work out well.

[summersann 6]

Because of the condition of the unit we are planning a major overhaul.

We are:

1. Ripping up the entire unit leaving only the windows at balcony not change.

2. Swop master bedroom to bedroom

With the works in plan, the reno cost about 80k....... Really very "siong" ...... with only a concept already in mind and no 3d renderings, really scare scare. recently we were very excited when we chanced upon kaijia's t-blog! She did the similar works that we are thinking of doing, so it helped to assure us that the concept we had in mind is actually workable.

So we hope all will work out well.

We also did a major overhaul of our EM, and swapped our bedrooms too! Seems like the cost of doing that for an EM really does come up to be about the same for many people in this forum.

All the best for your renovation!

[HappyAng 0]

Hi EMSOS, wish u a smooth renovation.