The Journey To My Home Sweet Home: Modern Contemporary 3-Bedroom Condo

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Hello Forumers,

After patiently waiting for 2.5 years, I've finally collected the keys to my new 3-bedroom condo unit at Bartley. For the past one year, I’ve been following Reno t-Blog Chat and I’ve really learnt a lot from the new homeowners here. Thanks to all the contributors who took their precious time to share their renovation experiences.

Today, I’ve decided to start my own t-Blog and share my renovation journey. To me, blogging is about sharing my experiences with the world – particularly on something that I’m passionate about. I also have a personal blog HERE.

To keep this page neat and tidy, I’ll put together all the useful links here so that you can navigate through it seamlessly.

Content Pages and Useful Links:

9 Useful Singapore Websites for Home Renovation and Interior Design Ideas

Our Defect Inspection Process - Part 1 | Part II | Part III (Final)

Designing Our Perfect Balcony - Part 1 | Part II

Shopping for Furniture, Electrical and Kitchen Appliances - Part I

Milestones and Progress Updates:

15 Sep 2015: Key collection

30 Sep 2015: Submitted the defect list to the developer

26 Nov 2015: Finalized all renovation and electrical works with ID, electrician and outdoor specialist

If you have any tips or recommendations, please feel free to leave me a message. I love to hear from you too! Happy reno-talking!

Floor Plan:

Here's the floor plan for my 3-BR condo with 1,098 sq ft:

Living in a tight urban space, my challenge is to make my home feels larger and more livable. And of course, I need smart storage solutions to maximize space without making my home looking more clustered.

3D Drawings from our ID:

Living Hall - we're still undecided whether to choose stucco wall or laminate for our TV feature wall.

Foyer - we want a built-in shoe shelf with a small settee

Edited November 29, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Dining Hall

Master Bedroom

Study Room

Common Bedroom (for my son)

Renovation Budget: $35,000

Edited October 19, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

[ZzzMonster 7]

Congrats! Is your place Bartley Residences?

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Congrats! Is your place Bartley Residences?

Hello ZzzMonster,

Yes. You are right!

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Pictures of my home before renovation:

Balcony & Living Hall

View from my balcony

Master Room

Edited October 19, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Common Bedroom

Common Toilet

Kitchen Cabinet (Built-in from developer)

Edited October 19, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

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Pictures of the condo facilities:

Edited October 19, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

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The beautiful swimming pool with rock waterfall feature and lush greeneries

Edited October 19, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Defect Inspection:

The joy of collecting our keys doesn’t last very long. We’re now plunged into the dreaded defect inspection process. As I’ve expected, our defects are quite overwhelming. Thus, we’ve decided to engage a professional defect finder to help in our defect inspection. We engaged Ark Interior for their professional service.

Some of the defects in our unit - scratches, chips, dents, hollow tiles, warped doors in cabinet and wardrobe.

Read my blog post HERE for detailed information on our defect inspection process and main defects in our unit.

Edited October 19, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

[ZzzMonster 7]

Wow... Quite a number of defect. Mines not so bad compared to yours.

But I like the laminate that the developer use and also how the bathroom is done up.

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Hi ZzzMonster,

Yeah, I like the bathrooms too. Care to share a picture of your laminate flooring? Looking at the badly done parquet flooring now, I regretted choosing it. Should have chosen the laminate instead. Happy to hear that your units have lesser defects.

Edited October 19, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

[ZzzMonster 7]

Mine's not Bartley Residences. I'm from another condo. I went to see Your condo's showflat when it was launched. So I recognized it when u show the floor plan 😀

Edited October 12, 2015 by ZzzMonster

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Designing Our Perfect Balcony:

Balconies are often left drab and under-utilized, but the right decor can turn this space into a fabulous and functional outdoor living space. Way before we collect our keys, we already have interesting ideas on how to renovate our balconies. We want to have an after-work husband-and-wife chillax corner, a kid’s outdoor play area, and a small garden (a water feature would be a bonus!) at our front balcony.

Our front balcony has the size of 5m x 2m. Our living hall is quite small, thus transforming our front balcony into an exterior extension of our living hall is very crucial. Our very first idea was to make a mini putting green. A combination of artificial green turf and wood-decking is visually pleasing, and we can also incorporate both adult chillax corner and kid’s play area in one place.

Below are some balcony reno ideas that we have:

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Read my detailed blog post HERE.

Edited October 19, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties

[OurLittleSmarties 0]

Shopping for Furniture, Electrical and Kitchen Appliances:

While waiting for our defects to be rectified, we spent a great deal of our weekends shopping for furniture, electrical and kitchen appliances. Now, we’ve purchased most of them – except for our mattresses.

1. Philips Avance Collection Airfryer | 2. Happy Call Pan | 3. Nescafe Alegria Coffee Machine | 4. Hyflux Water Purifier | 5. Dyson Pure Cool Purifier Fan | 6. WMF Diadem Plus 6pc Cookware | 7. Dyson Cordless Vacuum Cleaner | 8. Samsung 50″ SUHD 4K Flat Smart TV | 9. Samsung 320 W 4.1 Ch Soundbar

More details HERE.

Edited November 16, 2015 by OurLittleSmarties