The Sky Parlour - An Executive Maisonette Journey

[twinklecloud 2]

Hi All

This is my first time trying out a blog. I figured that we should document our journey of metamorphising our resale EM into our dream Sky Parlour.

Kindly pardon if we get our formatting wrong. This is something very new to us.

Just a bit of background. We have been married for many years, and have been living in a small 4-room HDB. Recently in the last few years, 2 little people suddenly appeared, and started running around in our house. There is a need for a bigger house for all our belongings now, as well as for the 2 little people to run around in.

Hence we decided to move to a bigger house.

But Singapore is so small, all our houses are merely pigeonholes, and getting private/ landed/ condo is definitely within the "Only in our dreams" category. So we decided to get an Executive Maisonette. This is only affordable after we sell our 4 room. But after taking all the financing / bank loan/ 20% down for the EM, we realised "Oh $#!Ϯ We forgot to budget in the renovation!!"

Hence here we are, reading other people's experiences in their journey hoping to learn more. And now we're blogging our journey.

Floor Plan

Cheers!

[twinklecloud 2]

dear forummers,

would like to ask if to overhaul the whole place how much to budget? hack everything and do everything? really need those experience owners to advise..

still in exploring stages and hunting ID and getting quotations.. so tiring.. =(

those with same floor plan care to share what are the uses for the utility room? it's kind of small and no ventilation.. =(

thank you very much..

really alot to learn from all.. still reading some blogs to gain some experience and idea..

[Ahyong81 3]

For a 4rm resale, if you are intending to hack almost every hackable wall, changing the entire house floor and wall tiles, and carpantry for living room, kitchen and other design, water piping and electrical rewiring for whole house and also changing the entire house windows, doors and gate, it could easily reach budget above 50k to 80k, just for a 4rm.

So for a EM to do a entire overhaul will easily cost 80k and above.

You can check out my blog on this forum and see how much i have hack, reposition wall position by building new wall using hollow block wall. Changing almost everything i could in the house.

The cost of just renovation is already above 60k excluding funishing.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Ahyong81

[twinklecloud 2]

thanks Ahyong! will look into it. hunting for ID is also a headache.. care to share how do u shortlist them?

[twinklecloud 2]

any em owners who installed bathtub can share their review?

thank u so much

[doubleEM 4]

any em owners who installed bathtub can share their review?

thank u so much

Bathtub takes up space in the cramp bathroom designed by HDB and one has to decide if showering over the inset of the tub makes a lot of sense since the inside of the tub will be dirty with soap suds over time and if you do not fancy soaking in the hot tub daily then maybe can forgo this luxury for space in the tight area

[doubleEM 4]

Also congratulations on your new home and this is the old format of EM's where you have the luxury of a true balcony and big squarish spaces all around.

To be honest if you intend to re-model a whole EM and want to do it well and if a lot of inbuilt hacking off is required and then if you intend to build in a whole kitchen with a wardrobe in each room you plus re-plumbing and re-wiring you would be looking at close to 100K or above depending on your desired feel and look.

May I ask where is your purchased EM with this old layout and inset door entrance:)

[Ahyong81 3]

The floorplan looks exactly like my late grandmother house at bukit combak, now my uncle staying there.

[twinklecloud 2]

doubleEM,

thank you for the feedback on bath tub. really appreciate it.

my EM is at hougang...very old flat. has to redo the whole house.

here have a few things i still cannot figure out

1. laundry area - behind kitchen? but it will be so small and with kids ard it's alot to do.. care to advise?

2. balcony - we decided to extend it out and have a bigger living area

3. utility room - likely to extend it out to be part of kitchen area

4. study area - this is where we have an issue dunno where to place it.

5.storage - under the stairs is not enough and we are not sure how to go about.

already contacted a few ID, seen 2 drawings with out budget but the ID was not able to achieve out above with the budget.. =(

decided to explore a bit more ID and see what they can do..

anyone can advise on the above?

[doubleEM 4]

Laundry : something you can't do much as its very much part of the kitchen now. Only thing is to place your washing machine and dryer in the toilet which we did previously.

Or alternatively, if you are dating enough to you could build a divider to separate the kitchen and actually design a service "yard" laundry area but will send a you have in mind as well.

Because the more re spacing you do the higher the cost adds up due to the extra materials and work and hacking.

[doubleEM 4]

3. To extend kitchen out into utility is ideal but apparently in modern times may be hard to get approval from HDB as they dislike the idea of kitchen over an original room space.

Some safety and fire hazard issue so may be tough to get approval for this conversion but worth a try because we did want to push out kitchen all the way to the front but ID mentioned surely rejected based on their past projects so we amended to have the panel to segregate a wet/dry kitchen concept so the fire is still concealed within the original kitchen space on Hdb floor plan.

[doubleEM 4]

4. We converted the utility room into the study instead of extending out the kitchen from our previous unit.

So a choice has to be made if to sacrifice one of the common bedroom else the next best would be the utility room.

[twinklecloud 2]

Thanks doubleM. We are still exploring the possibilities...see what ID suggest. But we did consider the study but afraid ventilation within... So now is to make space and make a bigger kitchen..hehe...so many things to research and think...

Yard... We have the wc in the wash area so not that possible to put washing machine inside.

Need to think harder..hehe

Thanks for the input..greatly appreciate .

[doubleEM 4]

Well for the WC can remove and close it if you do not see much of a use for it. This way you don't have to sacrifice unwanted space and it get nicely hidden and tuck away.

Well that's what we thought when we did it at our previous place but it came without a WC

[twinklecloud 2]

was thinking also. but would prefer guests or kids to use it rather than keep running up and down for toilet.. that's how we feel...

at least upstairs still have some privacy..