A Hodgepodge Of Ideas - 5I Resale Flat

[scarlett 1]

Hello everyone!

So I've been following lots and lots of t-blogs here. Thank you SO much for being so helpful with all your information. If you click on my profile you'll see I've enquired in so many blogs about contractors and IDs.

If everything goes well, my husband and I will be collecting our keys around Nov-Dec after the completion. This is a 5i resale flat in Yew Tee, an area very dear to us. We love this area because it's still not as crowded as neighbouring towns, and its connectivity to Jurong East (and JB ) is good.

Anyway, the title of my blog is 'A hodgepodge of ideas'. Simply because we aren't really 100% sure which direction we wanna take. The flat was renovated by the current owners and very well maintained. So we aren't planning to do an overhaul. Just the toilets mainly, and we are thinking about doing up parts of the kitchen. We are also toying with the idea of changing the common toilet's door orientation because unfortunately it's facing inside the kitchen right now. And the rest of the work will be general touching up work - checking electrical wirings, plumbing, painting, polishing of parquet floors for bedroom, washing the rest of the house, fixing skirting... as I type, it feels like the list just keeps going on and on.

After reading through numerous t-blogs (and I am still reading!), we decided to do 2 things: 1) request for a quote through RenoTalk, 2) enquire about some contractors/IDs whose work we liked based on t-blogs.

The problem with number 1 was that so many people started calling me. I felt like a celebrity! Anyway, a couple of them seemed promising so we continued the conversation. Number 2 was more helpful because we got to see the actual work posted by the clients so we get a good idea. Once we've met with the ids/contractors, I'll update as to who we've decided to go for. This will probably take a few weeks!!

Ok, now going to try to figure out how to upload photos so I can upload our floor plan and some ideas for bathrooms (this is as far as I've got ). I hope to keep this blog going as our renovation work progresses. Stay with me!

Edited September 10, 2015 by scarlett

[scarlett 1]

here's the floorplan:

[lorennzo 0]

well, im sure you will be very excited to start planning for all the renovations and purchasing of furnitures and electronic items. haha

[scarlett 1]

well, im sure you will be very excited to start planning for all the renovations and purchasing of furnitures and electronic items. haha

Hi Lorennzo, thanks for dropping by! Yes we definitely are

Hello everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend as much as I did. In addition to voting, eating and relaxing, my husband and I decided to do some work relating to the house. We met with one renovation contractor and an ID (back to back meetings). I will not be revealing their names/contacts now, but here are my initial impressions:

1) Renovation Contractor.

- knowledgeable. He knew what we were looking for from the start. We both took a liking to him because he seemed to understand us and our requirements. We reiterated our tight budget a couple of times as well so I'm positive he will try to work within that budget when he gets back to us with a quote.

- cost saving measures. He advised us on a couple of things relating to cost. E.g., we wanted to change the common toilet's door orientation but he advised us against it due to the cost involved of building a door and also changing the plumbing/fittings. He also advised us against concealment of the toilet pipes because he said that in the event that a leak should occur, we would need to hack the entire thing to open up the concealment, meaning more $$.

- friendly and articulate. He is articulate, and that is important because we don't speak a local language (but I am local, thank you!). So communication is really important. He understood everything we were saying and vice versa. Important because communication is of utmost priority when you are renovating your house!

Overall, we are looking forward to his quote and hope it's something reasonable so we can proceed with him.

2) ID.

- friendly. He was warm and welcoming. Listened to us as we spoke, and noted down our suggestions.

- definitely a designer. Since he is an ID, he definitely chipped in with his opinions on design, e.g. colour, orientation, etc. This was helpful to us since we have close to zero sense of design haha.

- helpful. He, too, discouraged us from changing the door orientation of the common toilet. So I guess it's definitely a no-go.

- not so encouraging about the cost. He told us that our budget of $15k may be too tight to do the toilets and kitchen. We are now toying with the idea of redoing the kitchen cabinets, you see. But no hacking of tiles will be required.

- not as articulate. This was the main problem, I think (in addition to the fact that it will probably cost more but we'll wait for the quote before assuming.). The ID was not as fluent in English I think, so there were certain times I had to repeat my point 2 or 3 times before he understood it. This makes me a bit worried because like I said earlier, communication is really important because this is our house. What if we want something but something else is done? We are stuck with it forever!

Overall: A nice guy. Their portfolio is decent too. So let's wait for the quotes.

The quotes will come in later this week so let's wait and see! We've decided not to meet anyone else for now.

[scarlett 1]

Hi everyone. Here's a small update after a loooong hiatus: we STILL haven't finalised our contractor. Our 2nd appointment is this Friday, though. Hoping to finalise our contractor this week as well. Stay tuned for updates... our journey has been a long one so far!

[Lazyfatcat007 5]

Hi Scarlett, mine too... Fri the 13th..

Hope you finalise your contractor soon!!

[Luxexplorer 2]

Welcome to the blog and we look forward to sharing your excitement and ideas and shopping lists

[scarlett 1]

Hi Scarlett, mine too... Fri the 13th..

Hope you finalise your contractor soon!!

Hi Lazyfatcat007, yay! Big step for us this Friday then Yes, I hope so too really. It'd be a big headache solved for us!

[scarlett 1]

Welcome to the blog and we look forward to sharing your excitement and ideas and shopping lists

Hi! Thanks so much. I hope to contribute as soon as i've finalised our contractor!

[scarlett 1]

helloooooo everyone. apologies for the long hiatus! i didn't want to update the blog until i finally had something concrete, and at long last i have something to report.

after meeting countless IDs and contractors, we have finally settled and signed with one:

Mr B (I decided not to put in his name here for now!). We don't have a theme - that's why it's hodgepodge haha. mixed up themes everywhere.

our experience meeting several IDs and contractors was a tiring one. one of the IDs offered a really competitive quote. he promised to throw in a lot of free items, and said he could give us these prices cos his tilers and glassmen were 'doing him a favor'. in the end we decided not to go with him because he was really putting the pressure on us and we felt like we were being bullied (not in a mean way) into signing. and i did some research and realised that their firm's review is not that great anyway.

so...! Mr B has been a contractor for about 20 years now. he's an incredibly humble man. he's sort of a one-man show, and so he doesn't take on a million projects at once. he does a lot of landed properties, and the first time i got in touch with him, he really wanted us to go see his ongoing project. that was quite impressive cos no other ID/contractor offered that. in fact, when we asked some IDs to show us, they made excuses. one even took us to his own house and said that their firm renovated his house! so weird. anyway, these are what we'll be doing:

1) full overhaul of 2 toilets - hacking all tiles, replacing all fittings, MBR toilet installing new vanity top with kompacplus, tempered glass shower screen in both toilets, etc

2) dismantling kitchen cabinet and reinstalling new one - no hacking of kitchen tiles. kitchen countertop will be kompacplus

3) full house painting - 5 colors. Mr B agreed to throw in painting of our bedroom doors

4) installing 2 bifold doors for toilets

5) varnishing wooden skirting

5) chemical wash of whole house

of course, the above isn't in much detail. there are additional things like labour charge for installation of all the fittings etc. so the total comes up to about $19,750. we left out the following that we originally wanted to do: changing of bedroom doors, installing a door at kitchen entrance, varnishing of parquet flooring for all 3 bedrooms. our budget simply doesn't allow it. and these things can be done later after we move in as well.

so! what have we bought so far? quite a lot of things actually!

1) sofa set from Big Box - this is probably the best purchase ever. we're both SUPER happy with it. 3+2 fabric sofa for only $699! best.

2) dining set from Courts - another purchase we are happy with, but more expensive. so we bought on 0% instalment plan. it's a 7 seater - 4 chairs and a bench

3) cooker hob and hood - another great purchase. it's the Fujioh 3773 white color one, 3 rings. one is an internal ring, which is very unique and good for cooking! only $699+$40 (cos we took the white one). From Hoe Kee in Tanjong Katong

4) 2 shower sets. One is a Rubine instant heater with a shower head for the common toilet - $119. and the other is a Rubine instant heater with the rain shower - $360, and a new model! Both look nice and sleek and reasonably priced. also from Hoe Kee.

5) a lot of random things like a happycall frying pan that i got for $50 from Giant in Parkway Parade. hahaha.

6) we chose the bathroom tiles as well from Soon Bee Huat. super nice baroque design. **** happy!

right now we are doing a lot of online research on aircons. we wanna get a system 4, and yesterday we went to Gain City to get an idea. they were pushing the LG Artcool mirror model, saying that it's fully made in Korea etc. we almost bought it but my husband decided that we shd do a bit more research first. i agree. also looking at ceiling fans. Fanco i heard is good, but so expensive if we wanna get the light and remote. haiz. as for televisions, Gain City and Mega Discount both seem to have competitive prices. need to make the trip down to Mega Discount store to take a look.

photos of the items will follow later. lazy to upload now. watch this space! finally will be updating more often

Edited December 8, 2015 by scarlett

[dien 1]

Gooday Scarlett,

Good to know the good news and congrats on your new house.

Seems like when WE resale buyers try as much to save cost on what can be salvage,

there's always conditions of items that are not able to be saved... I guess due to the

conditions of resale flat that are 30plus yrs...and most of the contractors/Id's

they want the best for us home owners to stay for long without back & forth.

[scarlett 1]

thanks dien! my flat is only 13 years old so not that bad la i think. haha.

anyway, question for anyone who reads this: which air conditioner would u recommend?! we are looking for a system 4 and are confused between Mitsubishi Starmex, LG and Hitachi!

[sapphire89 5]

thanks dien! my flat is only 13 years old so not that bad la i think. haha.

anyway, question for anyone who reads this: which air conditioner would u recommend?! we are looking for a system 4 and are confused between Mitsubishi Starmex, LG and Hitachi!

I think most ppl go for the Starmex but I personally went for the LG Artcool. We thought it seemed sturdier and BTU wise could still support our living area's cool requirements.

[Lazyfatcat007 5]

Hi Scarlett, you might wanna check out my blog.. KS, Kara, Lux, Ahyong and some others shared their comments. I decided to go with ME in the end since spare parts will be easiest to find...

[scarlett 1]

thanks guys. Lazyfatcat007, may i have your blog address please? sapphire89, i must admit i was attracted by LG's looks. it looks really sleek and stylish. but i read in one of the forums here that apparently it may have issues if installed lower, i.e. below a false ceiling? i'm not sure also. so confusing