3 Room Hdb - Maximum Reno, Minimum Budget

[kimsim 8]

We just did a site survey with my ID last weekend. Took some photos and basically its major works.

This is the kitchen. Everything has to go

The Master Room Toilet

Common Toilet

The Mster Room. The previous owner loves yellow.

The common room

We took a few shots of the living but it was too under expose. Plus it is also yellow anyway

Wow something old age, how much would you invest for reno all?

[chngster 6]

Wow something old age, how much would you invest for reno all?

I'm setting budget of $50k

$40k for actual renovation, $10 for furnitures and electronics.

As of now I'm still within my budget.

[kimsim 8]

I'm setting budget of $50k

$40k for actual renovation, $10 for furnitures and electronics.

As of now I'm still within my budget.

That is good enough for all

[chngster 6]

Pls advise if anyone knows.

If I am to light up my kitchen with tracklights, would 10 nos of 7W or 12W be sufficient?

[lhheng 1]

10 does sound like a lot. I would guess maybe 6 but that would depend on how bright you like it to be and the natural light you get from your windows.

Do take note that larger wattage track lights may mean that it is larger size in nature and fitting 10 maybe very in your face for your kitchen.

[chngster 6]

10 does sound like a lot. I would guess maybe 6 but that would depend on how bright you like it to be and the natural light you get from your windows.

Do take note that larger wattage track lights may mean that it is larger size in nature and fitting 10 maybe very in your face for your kitchen.

Hi lhheng

Thanks for the advice. I'm thinking of using LED. So u think 6nos of 7W is good enough? I mean going by maths it would be 6 x 7W = 42W. That's how it's being calculated I presume haha

[chngster 6]

Hi guys

Went to Hafary at Eunos yesterday with my ID (Nick). This place is like a haven for all tiles in all kinds of material and forms. Its like a one stop shop for all kinds of flooring that you want. They also have toilet accessories and also like a cafe should you want a coffee. The coffee is free by the way. There's like hallways and hallways of floor tiles ranging from marble, to stones, to wood grain, brick wall tiles and anything you can possible thinl of. Wife and I were so amazed by the selection which also means headache from too many choices. Sometimes too many choices is not a good thing too. It was helpful that our ID was around to give advice on what we need and also the color scheme and combination. Below are the selection we have done. We didn't really need to selec much but we still took a good 2hrs. Here's what we need

- Kitchen flooring

- Toilet flooring

- Living and bedroom flooring

Kitchen Flooring

We wanted to do cement screed for the kitchen floor. Wanted a nice raw feel for the kitchen. But ID advise to get cement screed looking tiles as we needed the tiles to hide some piping and wiring. Also unless if you can accept fine crack lines and uneven coloring from whoever is doing the cement screed, where the color may go horribly wrong too, if not go for the cement tiles.

Toilet flooring

Main consideration is that it shd be not slippery when water is poured over. We had to sneakily pour water from our water bottles on the tile and took off our shoes to feel the tiles. Esp impt as we have 2 small kids and a slippery toilet floor is the last thing we want. The flooring also complement the cement screed wall that we will be doing.

Living and bedroom floor

We wanted to have a woodgrain flooring for our rooms and living. We went to see the parquet selection, way over beyond our budget of $3.20/tile. The selection was well over $8.80 per tile.

We went thru the woodgrain looking tiles. Most of it was cold feeling and we thot that the cold feeling doesn't really go with the wood look and the overall feel of the house.

We somehow unexpectactly came across Vinyl flooring. They are like laminates but without the hollowness. Like tiles but without the coldness. Like parquet but without the pricing. We dont have to worry about grouting as there would be no visible connection between pieces. I was told by the ID that they have to cement screed the floor and the pieces will be glued over the screeding. Pricing was easy on the pocket and the color was pleasing to us. So we took this somewhat unheard of method by faith and hope everything turns out good.

We left the warehouse showroom with pieces of samples of the flooring we want given free. Overall it was a nice and exciting experience. Its like again a huge gallery of tiles and it be hard to not be able to find what you want. Unless if that piece of flooring you want is sold out which we did saw a few popular ones taken up. But the sales people say that even if its sold, they usually will have stocks coming in within the next month.

So once again if you are selecting tiles, I'm sure this is a place you won't want to miss.

[chngster 6]

More photos on the shopping adventure at Hafary. Check out the hallways of tiles

[chngster 6]

Another milestone

Bought our first items online from Ebay and Qoo10. Digital locks for our main door and gate. This will save the hassle of carrying keys and having holes in the pockets or having to serach for them thru the bag.

This is the Samsung lock for the main door. Bought from ebay. Almost 4 times cheaper if you are to buy it locally.

This is the Gateman lock for the iron door. Also almost 3 times cheaper. All we need is to find someone to install it for us.

Something good about digital lock, 1 keycard can open all locks. Or if you don't want the keycard, then just use the PIN and remember it. You can also install pre-program PIN if you have your parents or in-laws visiting and the PIN will be erased after the visit. Good and convenient. And once the door is closed, the locks will auto locked and we don't have to worry if we had locked the door or not.

Total damage, $580 for both locks. Now have to see how long delivery takes.

[abbytan 1]

Care to share the links for these 2 wonderful digital locks? Thank you.

[chngster 6]

Care to share the links for these 2 wonderful digital locks? Thank you.

Hi Abbytan

http://list.qoo10.sg/item/IREVO-GATEMAN-SHINE-V-CARD-KEYS/416541041

This is the Gateman one. I believe its the equivalent to Yale 323 model

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-Ezon-Digital-Door-Lock-SHS-P710-Push-Pull-Two-Way-SHS-P717-for-US-EU-

This is for the Samsung. Do note how your door opening is. This can be a little tricky as I was also nearly caught into it. Most of our house doors are push in from the outside. So you need to get this model that PUSHES the lever from the OUTSIDE so u can go into your house. And the inside of the house you PULL the lever from the INSIDE so you can go out of the house.

Most seller sells the same model that goes the opposite way. Meaning you pull the lever out from the outside and push the lever from the inside which entirely defeats the purpose of convenience. Hope this helps.

[Woods72 2]

Another milestone

Bought our first items online from Ebay and Qoo10. Digital locks for our main door and gate. This will save the hassle of carrying keys and having holes in the pockets or having to serach for them thru the bag.

This is the Samsung lock for the main door. Bought from ebay. Almost 4 times cheaper if you are to buy it locally.

This is the Gateman lock for the iron door. Also almost 3 times cheaper. All we need is to find someone to install it for us.

Something good about digital lock, 1 keycard can open all locks. Or if you don't want the keycard, then just use the PIN and remember it. You can also install pre-program PIN if you have your parents or in-laws visiting and the PIN will be erased after the visit. Good and convenient. And once the door is closed, the locks will auto locked and we don't have to worry if we had locked the door or not.

Total damage, $580 for both locks. Now have to see how long delivery takes.

Hi, i am looking to buy the Samsung Digital lock too. When will you receive it? Do give us feedback? Is the any warranty?

[Woods72 2]

Hi Abbytan

http://list.qoo10.sg/item/IREVO-GATEMAN-SHINE-V-CARD-KEYS/416541041

This is the Gateman one. I believe its the equivalent to Yale 323 model

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-Ezon-Digital-Door-Lock-SHS-P710-Push-Pull-Two-Way-SHS-P717-for-US-EU-

This is for the Samsung. Do note how your door opening is. This can be a little tricky as I was also nearly caught into it. Most of our house doors are push in from the outside. So you need to get this model that PUSHES the lever from the OUTSIDE so u can go into your house. And the inside of the house you PULL the lever from the INSIDE so you can go out of the house.

Most seller sells the same model that goes the opposite way. Meaning you pull the lever out from the outside and push the lever from the inside which entirely defeats the purpose of convenience. Hope this helps.

The ebay link dun exist anymore. it has been removed

[chngster 6]

The ebay link dun exist anymore. it has been removed

Hi Woods72

http://m.ebay.com.sg/itm?itemId=151364299616

You try to see if this link works.

I doubt there's warranty. But cos it's like almost 3 times cheaper, I guess it's fine. Seller seems reputable too. eBay has a 14 day money back guarantee. Will post reviews on it once I tried. I shd get it by next week I hope.

[chngster 6]

Today my window contractor came to measure my windows. I'm using my own contractor to do the windows cos it's cheaper than my ID. My ID also suggested to get my own contractor too as he also subs out to others. It's good to have such advise from ID who doesn't mind if u use another contractor. It's not like some ID/contractor who wants to earn on everything. He even said he would help co-ordinate with the windows contractor on the renovation schedule.

In general windows and grilles contractor can be easily found and would usually be cheaper than contractor or ID. That is if the contractor or ID that you hire has this item as their own trade. Also usually windows and grilles doesn't affect the rest of the items that you are renovating. It's pretty much quite independent. The only thing that will affect is probably if u are tiling the walls in the kitchen or toilets. Otherwise once your hacking (if any) is done, they can pretty much start anytime.

I got my window contractor from this forum. Quite reputable and despite not having a website, he does have a FB page to showcase his projects. Pricing is pretty much competitive but for reliability and workmanship, I guess paying more is fine. I even got him to do glass doors for both my toilets. I wanted to let him do my rubbish chute cover too, but he declined as he advise it's better to let my ID cover it for better interfacing. Another contractor who gives good advises and not try to earn as much as he could.