A Poor Man's Budget Home

[lookaround 24]

Day 8 - Sat, Met up with the electrician to finalize the scope of work and also accept the delivery of cooker hood and hob.

Some of the works that was completed earlier on.

Iniitally did consider buying lights from Taobao or buying in SG but after purchasing kitchen and bathroom accessories from hoe kee, the sales uncle recommend us to go JB to get some lights. So we bought them from JB and spend a total of about 250 SGD on about 13 lights for the flat. I guess shopping in taobao would definately be cheaper if shopping in JB can get 13 lights. But the cons of taobao would probably be the shipment time and the lights might be broken during shipment or dead on arrival compare to JB. In all the lighting shops i went , they do give discount on top of the listed price . Plus all the shops in JB we purchased from, actually helped us to test all the lights are in good working condition before we left.

[PearlynLim 1]

If you are happy with yout ID, do you mind sharing your ID contact please? Thanks heaps!

[lookaround 24]

If you are happy with yout ID, do you mind sharing your ID contact please? Thanks heaps!

Hi, so far so good. But i haven reach the end of the renovation so can really, maybe i would be able to give you a truthful answer once the entire renovation is completed.

Draft 2 of the 3D drawing after our dicussion in day 3 of the renovation which he provide around the same week.

ID redo the living room 3d drawing which was in the wrong orientation but somehow after comparing the first and 2nd 3d drawing draft, i think i prefer the orientation for the 1st drawing. So i guess he make a "waste" effort this round.

2nd draft of the 3d drawing for master bed room toilet with the actual colors of the materials we chose.

2nd draft of the living room entrance with the actual colors, although this is the 2nd draft for living room entrance i am not sure why he never decorate or produce the effects for the partition wall. Probably he might be doing a 3rd 3d draft for me ?

Lastly, i would like to introduce the highlight of my renovation where more than half of the reno budge goes to. The renovation would be half if not for the extensive works in it. Presenting the final and 2nd draft of the 3d drawing for the kitchen.

Will post further development and updates when i have the time again. Thanks for reading.

[PearlynLim 1]

Thanks heaps for sharing! Looking forward to updates

[hawkenobi 1]

When i first look at the 3D drawings, i was abit 'wow' as i did not really expect a decent 3D drawing from the ID as my reno cost is pretty small scale(about 13K). Most id either quote a reno cost of about 30-40k to provide free 3d drawings or those who request payment for each piece of 3D drawing rendered.

There is the 1st draft of the 3D drawings provided by the ID.

Living room view 1, yes i build a wall partition to prevent prying eyes from looking into the flat and also a full lengh shoe cabinet. Plants and paintings on the wall not included.

Living room - Wrong 3d drawing orientation by the ID, anyway the scope of my work does not include fan , tv console, coffee table and feature wall. Once again, paintings are not including as part of the reno.

Kitchen and service yard 3d - Mr ID forgot to add on colors and thought i chose plain white and black. Kitchen accessories not included

Toilet 3D - Does not comes with potted plants and vanity below.

After looking at these 3D drawings, i wonder if most of these drawings come from a certain standard template set as some of the items are not included in my renovation. Not too sure if any bros or sis could advice if 3D drawings are really made to measure.

Usually if these drawing comes free of charge and your project is less than SGD30K it's highly possible that these drawings are recycled from other projects. As you would suspect the layout, material and items in the drawing do not match the quotation.

I did my design with a design consultant with real measurement taken. They provided me with a set of Autocad drawings and 3d drawing. The consultant and myself send out these drawings for quotation. The quotation prices span from cheapest 45k - 66k, based on the same design. We then select the best quote for the project and they help me manage the contractor and their work. My flat is a 5 room resale and I paid 48K for the renovation and 4k for the consultancy fee.

The consultant I hired can be found here boxwerx.com

Edited May 21, 2014 by hawkenobi

[lookaround 24]

Usually if these drawing comes free of charge and your project is less than SGD30K it's highly possible that these drawings are recycled from other projects. As you would suspect the layout, material and items in the drawing do not match the quotation.

I did my design with a design consultant with real measurement taken. They provided me with a set of Autocad drawings and 3d drawing. The consultant and myself send out these drawings for quotation. The quotation prices span from cheapest 45k - 66k, based on the same design. We then select the best quote for the project and they help me manage the contractor and their work. My flat is a 5 room resale and I paid 48K for the renovation and 4k for the consultancy fee.

The consultant I hired can be found here boxwerx.com

Given what i have paid and etc. i dun't really mind anyway. I just wanted a 3d drawing to use as a base to justify on the scope of the reno and have a feel on how the flat will look like. For my case, the layout is the same as what we have dicuss with him. The ID also share with us that if he just put a empty space, the drawing would look very empty, thus he took the initiative to add in some items not in the reno.

Lastly i think even if one pay alot for the work, the id might not neccessary produce a original drawing, as most HDB flats are about the same, i believe most id usually have a base template and do abit of customization to suit to the client needs.

[lookaround 24]

Day 9 Monday - 1st coat of Paint and Meetup with ID and carpenter

ID propose a meetup with actual carpenter boss doing the carpentry works for my unit.

So i took half day off from work to meet them up and also took the opportunity to monitor the progress of the renovation.

Upon entering the flat, i was greeting by the sight and smell of paint. Notice that for painting works, they only assign one worker to paint the whole flat when i was there. Fast foward to the agenda of the day

3 of us(me, id and carpenter boss) then proceed to review and confirm the actual measurement, scope of all the carpentry works of the flat. Luckily, there was this session organized by the ID, at least i wouldn't be in for a shock after the carpentry work is completed. During the review session, the carpenter boss also raise up some points on the practicality of some of the carpentry works in the quote. It let me ponder if i should some of the works for other stuff.

Our discussion carried us to various points of the house where carpentry is needed. It range from the exact length, breadth, height, angles,usability and use case of the actual carpentry.

The carpenter boss also did some drawings off the hand to explain on the practical issue of the carpentry as well.

At the end of the session, i walk around the flat and took some pictures.

Random snapshot of the electrical works around the flat that was completed on Sat, Day 9.

Additional kitchen electrical works that was completed, trunking will be hidden inside the cabinet.

Too bad renotalk have a limit of 6 pictures per post, will continue the rest of the story in next post.

[lookaround 24]

Day 10 - 2nd coat of Painting work

Day 11 - 2nd phase of electrical works(installation of lighting), Painting and Receiving of goods from Hoe Kee.

Originally intend to just catch and coordinate with the Hoe Kee delivery but in the end, we "outsource" this to the ID who make the necessary arrangement for us. Anyway since missy was free, she went up to the flat to give instruction on the installation. Receive a text from her that she was very impressed with the lighting that we have purchased.

Lightings preview, What do you think of this light ?

Temporary holding area for items that are waiting for installation. Storage heater, lightings which i haven make up on where to install it and etc.

Too cut the story short, we went up together and go through points of our renovation and decided that we will give the id additional work by adding 7ft kitchen cabinet. Pretty tired today and i have hit the max picture limit in the renotalk ablum, will continue to post the lighting of the flat another day.

[lookaround 24]

Did not post anything as i was pretty busy for the past few days and hit the limit on the picture in renotalk. Anyway here are back dated updates on my renovation.

My Purchases from Hoe Kee has arrived.

Originally we went to a shop in balestier that was recommended by our id for kitchen sink and miscellaneous accessories. The price of the sink at that shop was cheap, half of what blanco cost after discount but the sales person dun't seem confident of the product and raise many concern about durability about it. (Plus, they dun have in-house stock)

So one find sunday, Missy and i just went to Hoe Kee to see see look and was well served by Uncle Tony. In the end, we bought a blanco sink + tap combi, bathroom accessories and mirror from hoe kee. Uncle Tony also provided us some leads to where to buy cheap lightings in JB.

Renovation updates, partion wall painted, this is the partition wall which cause about 1.3 k in my renovation. As per the quote and id , there will be some creative mirror works on both side of it.

My kitchen lighting system completed

Each room in the flat was painted with a different theme, this is another room with a different theme in my flat.

Cheap and spare bulb bought from JB.

Original Quote= 13100

Haulage + Misc= 600

Electrical works= 600

Additional 7ft kitchen cabinet= 700

Total renovation cost as of now=15000( exact round figure) , still considering if i should ask Mr ID to design and build a 6ft wardrobe as i have walk the ground in several furnishing stores ( neighbourhood shop, ikea, courts) whereby the pricing of their wardrobe is about the same of what the id offer to quote.

Hopefully i will able to keep everything under 30K.

[gemini 8]

wow. I love your colourful kitchen!

Edited May 30, 2014 by gemini

[lookaround 24]

Make a sudden and surprise, no notice visit to our flat today to check out the renovation progress.

Was greeted with the notice outside my flat. Yes, the flat is back to a fairly clean state.

My $50 worth of corrugulated paper used to lay and protect the flooring of the flat for 2 weeks is going down the path of the rubbish disposal. There goes the poor man's hard-earned $50.

As soon as i enter the house, i notice this new tempered glass casement door in the kitchen. Did not realize the tampered glass door is slightly in jade green as i thought the transparent casement door would be transparent. I did a quick check on the edges,handles and handiwork of the glassdoor. Luckily, i did not spot any major flaws except that when the door is fully open from the inside, it will knock against the wall and "damage" the paint on the wall as there is no stopper on the wall. Would highlight this to Mr ID and see if the tempered glass door installation is 100%.

Was abit dissappointed when i stepped into the kitchen as i did not see any kitchen cabinets installed yet. (ps: After checking with Mr ID, he told us that the carpenter would need to fabricate the carpentry materials and then bring over the flat to install. Seems like, carpentry works is some sort of like pre-cast works). Anyway, the visibility change in the kitchen would be the copper gas pipe which i suppose i coordinate by him.

Welcome to one of the color theme, can you guess what is it ?

Bathroom shower screen with casement door, the installation seem pretty neat and well-aligned to the bathroom base.

Probably hope the ID and his team of contractors could complete the installation and delivery of at least one of the carpentry works by next week.

[lookaround 24]

wow. I love your colourful kitchen!

Thanks gemini, I hope the actual kitchen would be better or on par with the 3d design. Keeping my fingers crossed as so far the id is still able to deliver works to my expectations.

[lookaround 24]

Due to the additional carpentry works i have added, there is going to be some slip in the schedule.

Nevertheless i will share the purchase price of some of the furnishing i have purchased. ID will proceed with window works in the flat instead.

Initially i wanted to purchase a smaller samsung fridge that came with a free vacumm cleaner but the salesman recommended us this LG newer model and at a much cheaper price. After comparing prices, i think Best Discount offer the best price for this fridge model compared to the rest of retailers.

1)LG Fridge M492GSH Purchase at $640 - Best Discount Store

Some specs for those interested.

[cuttiz 4]

Due to the additional carpentry works i have added, there is going to be some slip in the schedule.

Nevertheless i will share the purchase price of some of the furnishing i have purchased. ID will proceed with window works in the flat instead.

Initially i wanted to purchase a smaller samsung fridge that came with a free vacumm cleaner but the salesman recommended us this LG newer model and at a much cheaper price. After comparing prices, i think Best Discount offer the best price for this fridge model compared to the rest of retailers.

1)LG Fridge M492GSH Purchase at $640 - Best Discount Store

Some specs for those interested.

Same fridge as us!

[Songz 132]

Best Discount Store or Mega Discount Store ?