Transformation In Telok Blangah Drive

[soloqueen 22]

First of all, I would like to start by making a small introduction before going into our renovation details.

We had just bought a 36 years old 3NG resale flat in Telok Blangah Drive. The flat was mostly in original condition, which was what we were looking for all the while. Besides, it was also due to the nice and quiet ambient, and amenities nearby.

After the First Appointment with HDB, me and my wife discussed who shall we approach for our renovation. This is when we spend a lot of time reading reviews here and there, but there are too many ID companies with mix comments, which make us lost and confused. One of our friend had gave us a contact of her ID that previously renovated her flat, and this is where the whole story begins.

After making an appointment with him, we met him on one Saturday afternoon. With the floor plan, we share with him how we wish our new home to be like. He understood clearly what we wanted and gave us the confidence that he could make it come through, our dream home. We trusted him, and that is why we did not approach any other IDs.

Till now, our renovation had been started about a month, and definitely we had selected the right person to do it. He is our transformer, transforming a 36 years old flat to a condo-like 3 room flat. What else could I say? We couldn't be any luckier.

PS: I've shifted my blog here instead from Community Blog as I think here is more appropriate for blogging our renovation details.

[Takaishi 44]

Hi Roy Chong, which ID are you in?

[soloqueen 22]

Hi Takaishi,

I'm soloqueen and Roy Chong is my ID. He is from North West Interior Design, Macpherson Branch.

Stay tuned to see how he transform our flat.

[soloqueen 22]

This is the floor plan for our tiny 3-room flat, which is just 67sqm.

Edited January 17, 2014 by soloqueen

[claypot 46]

Welcome 3-roomer. Hope that you have a smooth renovation.

[soloqueen 22]

Welcome 3-roomer. Hope that you have a smooth renovation.

Thanks claypot. We are really enjoying our renovation process and can't wait to see the final outcome

[soloqueen 22]

During our first few appointments with Roy, we shown him some reference pictures on how we wished our home to be like.

The design and concept we were looking were really simple, minimalism, and mainly light colours to make sure our house doesn't looks small (since already so tiny).

During our discussion, my wife insisted that no matter how his design going to be, there must be brick tiles in the kitchen.

For our common room which also our study room, we would like to have something below where the table is hanging without any legs.

However, it looks like all the design and concept shown in the pictures will never happen in an old HDB flat. You might thought that we were dreaming, aren't we?

Is he able to impressed us? Stay tuned.

Edited January 17, 2014 by soloqueen

[Songz 132]

Welcome and congrats on a good ID ^^

Your floor plan is exactly like mine except for additional utility room.

[soloqueen 22]

After the Second Appointment with HDB, we officially took over the unit. We were shocked to see how the condition looks like. At that point of time, we were really afraid that Roy might not want to renovate for us anymore.

Living room:

Kitchen:

Master room:

Common room:

Toilet:

Could you imagine how dirty and messy it was? We really got no eyes to see.

As I mentioned in my introduction, we couldn't be any luckier. Roy accepted the challenge to help us transform this old original 3-room to our dream house (still on the way).

[soloqueen 22]

Welcome and congrats on a good ID ^^

Your floor plan is exactly like mine except for additional utility room.

Thanks

Yea, although mine was 3NG, but because of the size or what and therefore they couldn't build the utility room. Can't really remember what they explained to me earlier.

[Songz 132]

Do you have any floor plan which how the house will look like after the Renovation ?

I am currently thinking of my house design. LoL ~

[soloqueen 22]

Do you have any floor plan which how the house will look like after the Renovation ?

I am currently thinking of my house design. LoL ~

Did you mean the 3D drawings?

I will post it very soon and hope it could give you some ideas

[soloqueen 22]

After few weeks from our last discussion showing Roy the reference pictures, we finally had another appointment with him.

He had spent the past few weeks digesting our ideas and designs, and came out with some rough sketches for us.

This is where the interesting part begins as my wife is a fussy person who very particular with the details as she used to be a web designer.

He patiently explained to us all the details and the reason behind all his ideas and designs, and also taking into account what we would like to have. Besides, he knew what was necessary and what was not, advised us based on his past experiences.

This proved to us that we've found the correct person to do our renovation.

Edited January 17, 2014 by soloqueen

[soloqueen 22]

I would like to share some details of the sketches he prepared.

For the living room, we were dilemma on what material we shall use for flooring. Shall it be tiles? Or marble? Or laminate? Roy suddenly came out the idea of using cement which my wife all the while wish to have, but do not know this could be done. For me, I could hardly imagine how is it going to looks like, but my main responsibility is to take care of the budget. So it shouldn't be a problem if I couldn't visualized it by now. Most of the cafes now have this kind of cement flooring, I guess is the trend now. Ever since then, I will ask my wife whether our living room will looks like this when visited a cafe with cement flooring. Lol!

Besides, our TV console will be hanging on the wall and Roy suggested us to use mosaic on the bottom of the TV console. Could imagine the contrast between the cement and the mosaic.

For the kitchen, we will hack the wall separating the living room and the kitchen, and lengthen our living room with building a small wall. You could see that there will be brick tiles on the cooking area (insisted by my wife earlier). Further down the kitchen will be another small wall with higher height separating the washing machine and rubbish chute.

On the other side of our kitchen wall, there will be some hanging cabinets. The interesting part was Roy suggested us to shift the basin from the common toilet to outside, seating beside the cabinets. This was again due to the tiny toilets we have. Together with this, he suggested us even not to have basin in our Master Room's toilet. My wife really couldn't accept this as it will be really inconvenience when you just wanna wash your hand after toilet. After a lot of persuasion by him, we gave in and accepted his idea. He win dy by saying unless you would like to have a basin used on the aircraft.

For our common room, there will be a wardrobe cum bookshelves which is in open concept. As you can see, there will be a whole piece of table hanging on the wall which similar to the reference picture that we had shown to him.

Since there is no basin in our toilet, so this is how it going to looks like. There will be a glass separating the WC and the shower area. The best part is there will be some shallow part for us to put our toiletries.

Since our master room just allow the space for a wardrobe and a bed, therefore, there is really nothing much to show.

Edited January 17, 2014 by soloqueen

[Songz 132]

Can you PM me the pricing of your whole house reno ?

Looking forward to see the transformation