5-Room Near The Reservoir

[saintinity 0]

Hey guys! Like everyone else, I'd like to pen and record down my first personal renovation for a 5-room resale! This house is purchased for our family of 5 grown adults. We have already started our renovation for about 2 weeks and I regret not trying to start my blog earlier; I blame my busy work schedule and part laziness/procrastination.

Anyway, here's the original floor plan vs the intended works.

Because we have 5 adults (namely my parents, my sis, my bro and myself), we needed at least 4 bedrooms and having enough space to erect the 4th bedroom was one of our main deciding factor to purchase the place. Hence we will be sealing up the dining area into a bedroom, the wall from the living room to the kitchen will also be knocked down. This does make our living/dining space a lot less roomy which we're pretty bummed, but have no choice.

We have started brainstorming about the design from the day we paid our deposit. Long story short, I have some training in interior design and does freelance 3D drawings so we did our own drawings and engaged a contractor to carry out the works. The selection process was a long and tedious one but finally decided on a contractor that so far we have no complaints of. Will share the 3D drawings in the next post!

[saintinity 0]

Here are some photos of the 3D drawings; The theme is really more to minimalist with a touch of resort (think wood, craft stones etc). We are also concentrating our renovation at our dining/living and the kitchen.

For the kitchen, we're doing new floor tiles, new cabinetry (with LED bottom-cove lights), granite top, glass top-shelves. We have a little window on the other side of the wall and we were thinking of having the washing area near the window with the washing machine. However, our FSM instructed us otherwise so we will be switching the basin beside the stove and scratch the cabinet idea.

For the living room, we wanted a full height wall feature/storage/TV console. My family is quite the hoarder and we have accumulated so much stuff over the years that our little store room is not enough to accommodate. We also wanted to do the TV console/storage to look like a feature wall and blend with the living area in hopes that we can keep the living area looking clean and spacious. The tiles will all be new and we will be doing a craft stone wall at the balcony.

Funny thing about this block of flats is that we are going to have 2 main doors. Our unit is a door-to-door and the lift upgrade (which will complete next year) will open a new door at the balcony area. The old door is actually beside the TV console storage.

Edited December 3, 2013 by saintinity

[sherting 5]

Where is this place with 2 doors? Pandan ?

[redder 2]

Ur layout looks so much like my ID's!

[faykin 0]

I like your balcony! Looks cozy and inviting

[getzski 1]

is this in bedok reservoir road 6XX 4th floor?

[saintinity 0]

Where is this place with 2 doors? Pandan ?

Bedok reservoir. In fact when we started our house hunting in the area, we already viewed a couple of houses who already had their lift upgraded and 2 doors.

[saintinity 0]

Ur layout looks so much like my ID's!

haha probably because our design is really simple. care to share your ID's designs?

[saintinity 0]

I like your balcony! Looks cozy and inviting

Thanks! My mum has a green thumb so we are expecting a lot more greens at the balcony.

[saintinity 0]

is this in bedok reservoir road 6XX 4th floor?

are we neighbours?

[saintinity 0]

Here are the before photos, the condition of the house as-is. Can tell the previous owners spent quite a bit on the renovation years back but we didn't like the cornice and the false ceiling (ate up about 1ft of the ceiling height). The floor was in ceramic tiles so we need to hack everything and relay new tiles (the biggest ticket item of our renovation). They also levelled up the balcony with the living room which was good because we wanted a bigger living, so our new balcony is also slightly smaller than it should be.

As for the kitchen it is also a major overhaul. We are not going to do new wall tiles and opt for cement screed + plastering, since the whole length of one wall is already full height cabinet. The contractor advised we can just do cement screed and plaster to save costs of new wall tiles. Any one also did the same for their kitchen? Any issues with this in the long run?

[getzski 1]

are we neighbours?

yes we are.welcome to the block! ...i can hear your tiler cement screeding the floor right now.

[getzski 1]

Here are the before photos, the condition of the house as-is. Can tell the previous owners spent quite a bit on the renovation years back but we didn't like the cornice and the false ceiling (ate up about 1ft of the ceiling height). The floor was in ceramic tiles so we need to hack everything and relay new tiles (the biggest ticket item of our renovation). They also levelled up the balcony with the living room which was good because we wanted a bigger living, so our new balcony is also slightly smaller than it should be.

As for the kitchen it is also a major overhaul. We are not going to do new wall tiles and opt for cement screed + plastering, since the whole length of one wall is already full height cabinet. The contractor advised we can just do cement screed and plaster to save costs of new wall tiles. Any one also did the same for their kitchen? Any issues with this in the long run?

same story as mine....i did what your contractor suggested. laying new wall tiles are really spendy. you are welcome to drop by my house and check the end results.

[saintinity 0]

yes we are.welcome to the block! ...i can hear your tiler cement screeding the floor right now.

oops! apologies for the disturbances! we're almost done with the noisiest part of the renovation already, the tiles are almost all up. I was hoping that my neighbours are all out during working hours so I won't cause too much disturbances. You work from home?

Thanks for the invite! really heartwarming to know we've got such friendly neighbours in the hood

[getzski 1]

oops! apologies for the disturbances! we're almost done with the noisiest part of the renovation already, the tiles are almost all up. I was hoping that my neighbours are all out during working hours so I won't cause too much disturbances. You work from home?

Thanks for the invite! really heartwarming to know we've got such friendly neighbours in the hood

yup....working from home. no worries....there's like a full fledged renonvation in this block and the one opposite once every 2-3 months, so got used to it. and it will never be as annoying as the late night MRT casting works in the wee hours of the morning.