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

[aprilfoollove 0]

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!

HI !

Can you pm me your contractor details pls ?! Thanks in advance!

[qrsy2k 0]

Hi possible to pm me your contractor details too? Thanks

[VonVon 0]

Hi please pm me your contractor's contact. thanks

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Hi Jez,

Thanks for sharing all the useful tips and the wonderful reno journey of your dream home. Can you kindly PM me the contact of your contractor? My new home is coming soon and I've just starting looking for ID/contractor. Thank you so much!

[McMoo 0]

Hi Jez,

Thanks for the contractor details and tips.

[carolchua 1]

Hi I was looking through your t blog and I really love your home! May I have your contractor's contact, and the links to taobao for your bathroom accessories and sofa? Thank you:)

Ps: your inbox is full and I couldn't message you

[egoldalan2015 0]

Hi Jez, getting my key next month, can PM your contractor? thank you in advance! Alan

[zwmyxyj 0]

Hi Jez,

Thank you for sharing. Hope you are enjoying your HomeSweetHome.

Care to share your contractor's contact. THanks.

Regards,

Jas

[malky 0]

Hi Jez,

Nice house.

I am getting my keys soon

Care to pm your contractor's contact/quotation?

Thanks in advance

[lozo 0]

Hi Jez,

Would you be able to share your contractor's contact? Looks like his carpentry's pretty neat.

Cheers and Thanks

[winguy 0]

Hi, can PM me contact details of the famous J&E?

And being a contractor, do you think it is a good idea to engage J&E if we are totally inexperienced and almost clueless on what we want?

Would prefer someone who can guide us.

Thanks.

Edited May 18, 2015 by winguy

[JimAndJane 0]

hi jez2014, i really enjoyed your posts and jokes =D

we wanna get JE's contact details from u.. would it be convenient to share your quotation and variation order details with us too?

can we get the TB links for the sofa and USB-chargeable LED motion sensor light pls?

lastly, alaska is such a nice honeymoon place! did u guys go free & easy or with tour group? can share the details?

thanks in adv! (couldnt PM u coz inbox was full)

regards

jane

[rembrant16 0]

Hi there,

Hope it is not too late but I found your blog while searching for reno ideas and I have a good time reading it. More importantly we are impressed with the design and finished product. Doyou mind sharing with me JE's contact?

Thanks!

[Zio 1]

I guess TS (thread starter) no longer visit this forum, his last log in (1st May).

So don't expect contacts of JE.

Cheers

[v01ded 0]

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your Reno experience. Can you please share with me the name and contact of your contractor? Thanks.