Newbie Reno Journey - Yishun Riverwalk

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

Been lurking at this forum of the past few years in preparation for my 5RM BTO at Yishun Riverwalk. The day finally came on 6 Mar this year for the keys collection.

As usual, I will start off with the floor plan of the unit.

[maxiblur 0]

Hi Deadend, I am staying at YRW too, looking forward to see you reno.

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

My mom had selected an auspicious date for the door opening on 8 Mar and so guai guai had to wait for 2 more days.

On the day of opening, we roll pineapple to symbolise 财源滚滚來 and pomelo to symbolise 一拿就有

Our view from living room, free landscaping service provided by town council

Unblock view from service yard with no ugly piping running across the beam

Check through the house for defect but basically nothing much to check as I did not opt in for the flooring and doors except for this leaking wall at the MBR which has been rectified within 7 days from report filed.

Don't know what is HDB thinking. Where on earth to find a washing machine with a width of 66cm to squeeze into the corner and they purposely extend the draining pipe to the corner.

Saw this area and first thing that strike my mind is to do a airport runway cove lights

Edited April 15, 2014 by DeadEnd

[Lyamani 21]

Hey hi Deadend welcome to Renotalk n we r actually neighbours! Im a 3roomer though n u cud check out my Tblog if ur keen..we r almost done wit reno n r moving in next week! Had been waiting ages til we were called for key collection on 19th March.. We r at 333B n have a beautiful view of e playground n landscape area downstairs too.. Wonder if we r facing e same side of view.. I agree wit e service yard piping issue, I'm having a hard time too, have to fit my washer n dryer stacked up there wonder if it will work, will comment on it after tis Thursday wen I've arranged for e delivery n mounting.. Maybe wud be helpful to fellow riverwalkers on e svc yard layout n appliance placement.. N hi to Maxiblur, ur from Riverwalk too? Nice to see fellow neighbours.. Look forward to sharing our home ideas n turnouts... ☺️

[Troublemaker 31]

Welcome!

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

The next stage is the most demanding process, ID or contractor, design? Everyone seems to be pushing their ID/contractor to me. Met up with a few of them and finally decided since new HDB are almost the same, I shall engage myself as the ID and design something that reflect my own personality and practical for my own use. I decided to take the Zen approach and select the contractor which are tested with positive feedback and reasonable costs.

I ended with 3 major groups, 1 x main con responsible for flooring, false ceiling and wall and hacking of wall, 1 x electrician and 1 x carpentry. The rest of the miscellaneous installation will be handled by myself, namely, doors, gas heater, storage rack for bomb shelter and glass door for MBR toilet. The reason I have chosen this route is because time is not an essence but quality is.

I came up with a 2D drawing to instruct the contractors what I want and the 3D drawings is in my head

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

Hi neighbours, nice to see your response in my thread.

Hope we can catch up one day!

Edited April 15, 2014 by DeadEnd

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

Start of electrical and aircon piping works on 29 Mar. All electrical and Aircon piping will be concealed.

Edited April 15, 2014 by DeadEnd

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

Tiles selection day. Collected samples from the 5 major showroom. Finally narrow down to 2 homogeneous samples from SBH and LSH. Although both look similar with a price difference of $0.30, the anti-scratch characteristic are very different.

After doing a scratch test with my keys, I got the winner. Stay tune for the final tiles selected.

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

The false wall and ceiling is finally completed on 6 Apr.

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

The wall between kitchen and living has been hacked away.

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

My loot from taobao finally arrived on 9 Apr by sea after more than 1 month.

Almost $3,000 worth of items which include basins, taps, lights, wallpaper, rain shower set, TV wall mount bracket, ceiling fan, curtain rod etc....wahhhoooo

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

Last minute DIY addition for concealed networking points, 2 for MBR and 1 each for common room before they start the floor tiling. This is to crater for internet TV and PC to fully utilised the full bandwidth of the internet connection. The cable used was from LHS of Sim Lim Tower using Belden Cat 6.

Ideally the 4 ports should be at the DB box cabinet, but to run the cables through the cabinet takes too much time to do a neat job. In the end, the modem will be placed beside the DB box and the existing data connection from the DB box connected to the living room will be connected to the Wi-Fi router at the living room. From there, the 4 data ports will be joined to the bedroom.

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

The sand haulage done on 10 Apr. The cost was $950 direct from the main con!! :curse:The sand must have contained gold element for it to command such a high price. As the per the reno contractor, the sand haulage for a 5rm re-sale flat is about $300. But the reno contractor is forced to buy the sand only from the main con for new BTO. The big profit dun know goes into whose pockets? Even the tiles have been monopolised, you can't find any similar tiles in the market and you can only buy the tiles from the main con. The cost for a 1ft by 1ft of ceramic tile is $5! They really penalised the owner for not opting in on the flooring

[Ray Tay Hong Choon 4]

These wood liked tiles are from Italy but they are not stored well by the supplier. More than half of it received are broken which had to be replaced.