Mission (Almost) Impossible - 25K 4Rm Bto Renovation

[Guest Leslie Koh]

Please PM me the link for the sofa and recliner too!

[Doris Chin 4]

Thanks Jez, you are lucky, my company blocks taobao website, so cannot check anything at work..

[intonewlife 2]

Pleasr pm the link for sofa n retainer thanks

[mtothedy 1]

hello! please can you PM me the link of your sofa and recliner?

[Lawrence Lai 0]

Hi,

I am currently looking for id/contractor

Kindly pm me your id/contractor.

thank you

[jez2014 16]

3-D Drawings!

Guest Entry by the Spouse (Part 3)

A crime was committed.

A wooden plank, a light bulb and a drawing were all suspects.

I saw the wooden plank,

But the drawing was framed and hung.

And the light bulb got screwed as well.

Not very funny, I know, but its the best I can do given that its almost 2300h.

Anyway today's update will be about our 3-D drawings!

I was very happy to hear that our contractor would provide us with 3-D drawings of the house! From what I understand, they actually outsource the 3-D drawing to a design firm, at no additional cost to us - the only catch is they can only provide 3-4 perspectives.

This is because the 3-D drawing firm bills them per drawing, and at 3-4 drawings, they can still absorb the cost, but more than that and... you know lah. Money talks (and mine always says "bye bye!" )

So without further ado, here are the 3-D drawings of our home, and some comments on each:

Living Room

I did mention that we were going for a clean, Zen look! (Scandinavian is WAYYYYY overdone!)

The best part for me was knowing that the cupboards would give the wall a "seamless" look - the original wall had a ugly "indent". Those of you who have collected keys to your homes will know lah - not all walls are built straight. Stupid beams.

Our house paint scheme is "ceiling color". We basically made every room quite uniform except the ceiling splash some color. Not creative lah, but play safe. Simple is best.

The TV feature wall (the black and white bit) was actually the most complicated part! We had to do ALOT of mathematics to decide the actual width of each "white" square on the wall. The whole process was quite manual, and one point, even involved printing out rectangles on Microsoft Excel, to see if which rectangle size we liked. No wonder my maths teacher say algebra is useful manzzzzz! I had to let x be the height of the wall can!

Kitchen

Quartz top, eh, don't play play!

We heard many bad things about solid surface top AND granite tops (the former is **** CMI). So we forked out abit more to get iQuartz. The color scheme was chosen by yours truly - the ceiling she wanted green lah.

By building full height on ONE side only, we feel it gives the kitchen a more spacious look. Plus, save my money! Endangered species!

Study

My wife say look more like bedroom. But I absolutely LOVE working from a bed. So we decided to have a bed in the study (Weird, I know right!)

If you haven't noticed by now, I bold for you. The table SWIVELSSSS!

By some stupid luck, we stumbled upon this swivel table design at a furniture fair.

That means, when not in use, it can swivel under the brown part, and be hidden/kept against the wall. When I want to work (or play my games HAHA) from the bed, I just swivel it out!

At the fair, we were quoted almost $800... and it was supposedly on "clearance"! My heart say "yes", limpeh wallet say "no".

So... I tried my luck with Contractor JE.

I explained what I saw to Contractor JE. I even took out a paper to draw. He took one look at my dam cui drawing, and said "aiya this one, one extra plank only mah. No extra charge. Charge you as per normal study table."

My custom study table was FREEEEEE (at least the custom part).

That word. Loves.

Oh ya. The cabinet design also nice sia

Master Bedroom

This room made me VERY thankful we had 3-D drawings. My wife did the design herself, but HATED the outcome.

HENG AH!

You see, most MBR in BTOs now have a FUGLY aircon ledge window. We tried to use the air con ledge window, by building a table under it. Sounded like a nice idea. In fact, if you look at the 3-D drawing, it DOES look quite nice to work at a table with natural light.

BUT

It means the full height cupboard next to it is a JOKE!

Our contractor tried to warn us that the cupboard would be tiny - but it was the 3-D drawing that TRULY allowed us to see how small that cupboard would be. Store underwear only loh.

Thanks to the 3-D drawing, we SCRAPPED the table, and opted for a full height cupboard along the WHOLE wall. For the aircon ledge window, we built a "pole system, backless wardrobe". Meaning, just one horizontal pole across, can hang clothes is good enough liao. When aircon man comes, just open the cupboard doors and take the whole pole down. My wife volunteer liao

Moral of Story:

Please insist on 3-D diagrams! Lifesaver! Phew!

Overall:

I think the house has a nice clean look - and there's ALOT of carpentry for 25k. **** happy

Furthermore, when signing the contract we actually haggled quite abit to get extra paints, extra laminates etc - but end up never use. I will try to knock the price down further because in the end I choose so much white! White is actually the cheapest (we learnt from them)!

Next Episode:

Actual works start! Stay tuned!

Edited October 4, 2017 by jez2014

[Tre 0]

Fantastically helpful! Thanks for replying my pm with such detail. Feels like I'm ready to take the reno plunge already

Hope your dream reno proceeds as smooth as butter

[Emiclus 2]

I've never laughed so much at a T-blog before.

Gorgeous designs you have there. Would you mind sharing your contractor's contact? I'm still in the midst of confirming mine despite already getting my keys!

[soyabeancurd 0]

Hi jez2014, Received your pm reply! Thanks for sharing this blog and tips!

[Emiclus 2]

Hi Jez, you're one of the nicest bloggers here, thanks so much for your reply!

[graphicj75 0]

Hi Jez,

Your design is very awesome and very well thought off. You must put a lot of efforts & love into it. I agree with you that carpentry workmanship is one of the most important aspect in renovation. It really sucks that we had to pour in so much of money into renovation. I looking for a reliable contractor and was wondering if you so kind to let me know the contacts.Thks God bless

[jez2014 16]

Hi everyone!

We've tried to respond to everyone who posted. Do let us know if we missed you out by mistake. Thanks!

[Doris Chin 4]

Thanks for following the link to sofa! Do post pics once the sofa is unwrapped!

[alvinnoob 1]

Hi hi,

could you send your contact across as well? Do you happen to blog this on the website as well? Found it familiar.

[jez2014 16]

Hi Alvin,

We've replied you via PM

You're also very sharp! My wife used the blog on this website. But only ONCE.

That was at the start, when she was on maternity leave and wanted to manage both a blog and a t-blog.

Bored lah, so not itchy also scratch.

In the end (like most people), ambition was larger than execution, so we've abandoned that blog. Its easier to manage just one thing. DUH.

Hope that doesn't happen if we have a second child HAHA!