The First Blog Entry Ever!

[alprakas 1]

Heyya Everyone,

So, just like so many fellow forumers before me, I am embarking on a renovation journey of my own.

First things first, some details:

Type: HDB Resale 5 room,
Design Renovation for: Whole house
Floorplan: Below
Key collection date: Feb 2016

I have some special plans for the current master bedroom!

We want to hack a wall and partition the current master bedroom into two halves and use Bedroom 2 as my eventual master bedroom. One half of the old master bedroom will be a sort of wardrobe area and the other half, we plan to use as a library/study area. For the partition, I wish to build a full height wardrobe in the middle of the room as shown in the modified floorplan below. Of course we will need to hack a bit of wall in the master bedroom and move the door more towards the living room side.



Sadly, this is not going to be cheap, not to mention the complete renovation of the two toilets and the kitchen and plus the re-flooring of the whole house. Preferably parquet for the bedrooms and the library area and wood-grain plank tiles for the living room and the wardrobe area.

The thing is, I do not want any IDs to give me more ideas, I would 

Edited June 29, 2017 by alprakas

[alprakas 1]

Here is a 3D design that I drew myself. It is not perfect or even complete, but roughly our ideas are there. The colours are pretty random at the moment.

,

[dadajunior 5]

Hi,

I guess it is because it is close to cny. They are rushing to hand over the current projects

[Cokiee 0]

Bold idea (: I hope this works out well for you! Keenly watching this space.

[owlNbear 2]

HI alprakas! Oh wow 20. I met 8-9, and never want to talk to another one again There are quite a few famous contractors on renotalk. You'll find them if you do a quick search I have a small list in my blog too.

RE the 3D design: the colours might be random, but I that cute little 3D is going to come in very very handy

All the best for your reno! Hope to see more updates soon

[alprakas 1]

Hey Guys,

Frankly I did not think anyone was going to respond on my blog! Like I entitled my first blog entry, it was the first blog entry ever!

Anyway, back to business. Thanks to dadajunior I messaged and called Mr Boon. Waiting for him to get back to me now, once he has had a chance to look at my requirements. I will also leave a message to J&E, who seems to be quite famous here at renotalk, although I saw that owlNbear did not have a good experience with them. Lets see.

Thanks Cokiee, I hope it all comes together in the end.

Hey owlNbear, yes I saw your blog earlier and I am quietly following your reno journey as well. If you dont mind, maybe you can pass me the contact of your 7th ID, Mr B***y? Our budget is also in that ballpark 30-35 and I most sincerely hope that I can do all of that within this budget.

The 3D design is really quite helpful, I agree. And to be honest its quite fun to create one. I actually spent hours on drawing it. It is using a free software called Sweet home 3D, one can download online if anyone is interested. My wife sometimes has a lot of fun playing with her library/study area in the software.. LOL

So far, I have this quotation from a ID, who apparently, recently shifted to work for this contractor friend. total about 33 for all of the following;

• Design concept consultation

• Complimentary
• Space Planning & layout plan proposal

• Computerized Perspective 3D drawing
• Material and color scheme proposal
• Project management and site supervision
• 2 Years warranty with guaranteed after sales service

• Hacking/ Demolition Work
• Hacking off existing skirtings **** hall and bedrooms
• $ 200.00
• Dismantle & dispose off existing kitchen cabinet, master bedrooom wardrobe and all bathroom and sanitary accessories

• $ 350.00
• To demolish wall beside master bedroom entrance, include plaster smooth sides of wall after hacking

• $ 500.00
• Haulage Fee for uplifting of Raw Materials

• $ 600.00
• Clearing off debris to NEA approved dumping grounds

• $ 350.00

• Masonry Work

• Supply & Overlay 300x600mm designer wall tiles @ master bathroom ( Tiles @$2.80 to $3.30per sqft)
• $ 2,200.00
• Supply & Overlay 300mm x 600mm anti slip Homogeneous floor tiles at kitchen

• $ 1,800.00
• Supply & Overlay 300mm x 300mm anti slip Homogeneous Floor Tiles at Both Bathrooms

• $ 1,600.00
• To conceal existing sewerage pipies at both bathrooms using calcium silicate board

• $ 350.00
• Construct 50mm Height Mortar base for kitchen cabinet extension, fridge and washing machine

• $ 300.00

• Plumbing Work

• Replace Existing Piping in Kitchen & Bathroom to Stainless steel pipe ( hot & cold water )
• $ 800.00
• Supply labour to install 2 sets of WC Suites

• $ 240.00
• Supply labour to install 2 sets of Wash Basin & Tap

• $ 120.00
• Supply labour to install 1 set of Storage Tank Heater

• $ 150.00
• Supply labour to install 2 sets of bathroom accessories

• $ 50.00
• Supply labour to install Kitchen Sink & Tap

• FOC
• Supply labour to install bathtub at Master bathroom, complete w/ construct low wall for sides to support the long bath

• $ 600.00

• Parquet/ High Resilient Vinyl Flooring Works

• To supply and overlay High Resilient Vinyl Flooring **** hall & proposed wardrobe room, complete w/ skirting
• $ 3,900.00
• To supply and overlay Myanmese Short strip parquet at 2 bedrooms and Library room, complete w/ skirting

• $ 3,600.00

• Carpentry Work

• Design and Fabricate 28ft top & bottom Kitchen cabinet using Solid Plywood in Laminate Finish includes:
• $ 3,780.00
• a) ABS Door Edging

• b)1 nos of Stainless Steel Dish Rack
• c) 1 nos of Cutlery Tray
• d) Designer Handle or Chamfered door edging
• f) Slow Closing Hinges for all Casement Door
• g) Labour for installation of cooker hood and hob
• Design, Fabricate & install L10ft full height build in wardrobe w/ sliding wooden doors at Master bedroom in solid ply laminates, complete w/ roller wheels at door opening
• $ 3,200.00
• Supply & install 19ft Quartz top/ Indian Granite counter top

• $ 2,280.00
• Design. Fabricate & Install build in shoe cabinet w/ display shelf and cushion seattie using solid ply laminates at Foyer area,L4ft ( include mirror backing for display unit)w/2 ft cushion seattie

• $ 1,040.00

• Miscellaneous Items

• General cleaning for whole unit
• $ 200.00
• Supply & install 2 sets of Slide & Swing doors at bathroom

• $ 688.00
• Whole house painting, using Nippon Emulsion 5000 series

• $ 1,400.00
• ( include 1 layer of oil based sealer coating and 2 layers of undercoats)

• To supply and install 1 sets of aluminium frame swing glass doors for study room entrance
• $ 650.00
• To supply and install aluminium frame double panel swing doors at kitchen entrance

• $ 1,300.00
• To supply and install 1 set of 10mm thk tempered glass shower screen at Common Bathroom

• $ 488.00
• To supply and install coloured glass backing between top and bottom kitchen cabinet

• $ 800.00

Sorry about the messy formatting of the quotation. Cant get it to paste here properly from excel. Anyway, what do you guys think? Is this competitive? So far the guy seems to be quite responsive and punctual.. But I want at least one quotation directly from a contractor to have a proper comparison.

Edited January 24, 2016 by alprakas

[Malaxo 5]

Just a quick glance at the quotation and it seems quite competitive! I just purchased a 4 room resale and have raised my initial budget from 35k to 50k now.

[owlNbear 2]

Hey owlNbear, yes I saw your blog earlier and I am quietly following your reno journey as well. If you dont mind, maybe you can pass me the contact of your 7th ID, Mr B***y? Our budget is also in that ballpark 30-35 and I most sincerely hope that I can do all of that within this budget.

Sure I'll PM you in a bit. B has very affordable charges. It was only until I asked for a final quotation revision to include hacking off all wall and floor tiles, then the quotation went skyhigh lol We both (us and Mr B) felt quite sian after that. For different reasons of our own of course, haha. I do believe he was trying very hard to keep everything within our budget.

Oh, I just saw in your first post that you had already met some contractors from renotalk, but they weren't really ideal. My bad! Just to give you an example of my contractor's quotation (not trying to haolian, he has many flaws and bad points as well):

• $850 for all plumbing works (inclusive of repiping, and installing all bathroom and kitchen ware)
• Supply and lay floor tiles for both bathroom is $900 (Mr B comes close).

[gallopingpenguin 2]

Hi there, dropped by and have to say I'm loving your bold idea with the walk-in wardrobe and switching of the MBR! Really hope you manage to find a good and affordable contractor soon, JIAYOU!

[Changbp 5]

ooOOooOOoo... hidden room.

I suggest you can consider having the built in cabinet extended(just a front panel) to cover the door so when you first enter the walkinwardrobe, you don't see the door at all.

Like the Chronicles of Narnia(or is that some other show name?)... Open the wardrobe, walk in and then go into a different world.

So the internal door could be disguised like a wall with a handle to slide it open.

Or you have moolah, you can have no inner door. To make use of this dead space you could have this space be a bookcase. Like earlier suggestion, the WIW front extends till the left wall.. except the section near the inner door is a fake wardrobe door panel. Behind the door panel is bookcase with books accessible from the other side. Then this whole bookcase cum fake door panel assembly is built to revolves around a pole. Imagine you push on the left side of the fake door panel, you revolve the bookcase section of the wardrobe in order to enter the hidden room. You'll need heavy duty stuff for this revolving motion or you could motorise this with lots more $$$.

Like those spy movies, you move an object to reveal a hidden door...

[alprakas 1]

Hey you people.. Thanks for dropping by and the encouragement!

I suppose, some of you might be wondering why are we shifting our existing master bedroom to a common room.. Ah well, two reasons really.

1. All the windows in this house including the MBR and the common rooms overlook a nice park connector network, canal and very low rise industrial shops in the Sungei Kadut area... This was the main attraction for us to buy this house even though it is only at the 3rd floor. Sadly, if you lie down on the bed near the the windows of the existing MBR, the nice view is blocked by the wall from the Bedroom 2 (proposed master bedroom). This was really irritating for such a rare opportunity in Singapore, especially considering the houses we saw during house hunting. Almost all the other houses, we basically just saw blocks of HDB, some near and some a bit far, but blocks nonetheless. Anyway, the other bedroom kind of has unblocked view with trees and what not! Call me anything, but I like looking at trees outside my windows! So that was the first motivation.

2. The second one is more of my problem than the wife's. I do not like to hear the sound of toilet flushing all night long from the master bedroom toilet. I am a light sleeper and this can get quite irritating, especially at level 3 in a 12-15 storey building. Imagine everyone flushing toilets above us.. D@mn!

So in the end, we decided to move the master bedroom to the Bedroom 2. Then in order to have free access to the toilet, we plan to hack that wall, as I showed in the modified floorplan. Next, we thought of using that current MBR as a wardrobe area and use a partition wall to create a library/study in that room for my wife. And then in a stroke of brilliance , it occurred to me how about using a wardrobe as a partition that serves as both partition wall and a wardrobe to save cost. One thing led to another and we decided to have that secret door idea. Hahaha Is this how people write blogs, I feel like I am writing a story!

Changbp: Yes that is the idea. Unless I tell people, no one should be able to distinguish that door from the rest of the wardrobe. And the door will be an entire wardrobe, with all its shelves etc., upto the height of a normal door. Above that would be normal top cabinet in any full height wardrobe, which will stay put. Then we also plan to have rollers underneath this door to make it easy for us to open/close this, once it is loaded to some extent. One thing to note is that we considered the central rotating axis for this door, but it is not very practical since it provides limited space to move things in and out of the library. Therefore, the door will need to be hinged on the left wall. Width of this door is about 3 feet plus like a normal door.

What do you guys think?

[Changbp 5]

Couple of things to note for her hidden door.

1. You will have a gap at the bottom. But u can take care of it with those under door sweepers. However the level of the floor where the door rotates is important.

2. If there is no restraint to support unhinged side the weight will cause it to "slant", you will have a uneven gap problem. Upper side big gap, lower side small gap. Over time no more gap... cos already Rubbing on the floor.

3. parquet don't like rollers. Need careful choice of roller material if your flooring is wood.

[alprakas 1]

Hey Cgangbp, thank you so much for the comments! . Yes, for sure I need to be aware of such issues. For one thing, we plan to not load this area too much. Secondly, this door rotate towards the wardrobe area, where I will likely use Vinyl flooring,so that should help... We will probably need to be proactive in cleaning the underside of this door..

On a side note, has anyone bought and installed those remote controlled curtains in their house! D@mn those things look super cool.. Tried one in the furniture mall at toh guan road.. But they only had roll up type,not the roll sideways...

[owlNbear 2]

Hey you people.. Thanks for dropping by and the encouragement!

I suppose, some of you might be wondering why are we shifting our existing master bedroom to a common room.. Ah well, two reasons really.

1. All the windows in this house including the MBR and the common rooms overlook a nice park connector network, canal and very low rise industrial shops in the Sungei Kadut area... This was the main attraction for us to buy this house even though it is only at the 3rd floor. Sadly, if you lie down on the bed near the the windows of the existing MBR, the nice view is blocked by the wall from the Bedroom 2 (proposed master bedroom). This was really irritating for such a rare opportunity in Singapore, especially considering the houses we saw during house hunting. Almost all the other houses, we basically just saw blocks of HDB, some near and some a bit far, but blocks nonetheless. Anyway, the other bedroom kind of has unblocked view with trees and what not! Call me anything, but I like looking at trees outside my windows! So that was the first motivation.

2. The second one is more of my problem than the wife's. I do not like to hear the sound of toilet flushing all night long from the master bedroom toilet. I am a light sleeper and this can get quite irritating, especially at level 3 in a 12-15 storey building. Imagine everyone flushing toilets above us.. D@mn!

So in the end, we decided to move the master bedroom to the Bedroom 2. Then in order to have free access to the toilet, we plan to hack that wall, as I showed in the modified floorplan. Next, we thought of using that current MBR as a wardrobe area and use a partition wall to create a library/study in that room for my wife. And then in a stroke of brilliance , it occurred to me how about using a wardrobe as a partition that serves as both partition wall and a wardrobe to save cost. One thing led to another and we decided to have that secret door idea. Hahaha Is this how people write blogs, I feel like I am writing a story!

Changbp: Yes that is the idea. Unless I tell people, no one should be able to distinguish that door from the rest of the wardrobe. And the door will be an entire wardrobe, with all its shelves etc., upto the height of a normal door. Above that would be normal top cabinet in any full height wardrobe, which will stay put. Then we also plan to have rollers underneath this door to make it easy for us to open/close this, once it is loaded to some extent. One thing to note is that we considered the central rotating axis for this door, but it is not very practical since it provides limited space to move things in and out of the library. Therefore, the door will need to be hinged on the left wall. Width of this door is about 3 feet plus like a normal door.

What do you guys think?

Nice story! I actually love reading the thought processes that go behind different renovation ideas and processes. It can sometimes reveal really interesting aspects about a person and their everyday lives (oops somehow that sounds kinda intimidating, lol). Do share more please

[alprakas 1]

Hey guys...not many updates these days.. Still looking for IDs and contractors. Unfortunately, everyone seems to be busy in either finishing their renovations jobs before the CNY or in the CNY itself. Anyway, tomorrow I will be going to Hafary to check out tiles collection.

One thing, I have been considering is to overlay tiles over the existing homogeneous tiles for my living room and wardrobe area.. I know, it is not exactly recommended because of the tiles popping issues, but it really saves a lot of money these days for that.. Otherwise these contractors/IDs are quoting a lot of money for the hacking and then laying the tiles even for just the living room and the wardrobe area, close to 7K for 520 sqft. I have no idea, why is it so expensive to lay tiles. Actually, the hacking itself is not that expensive, less than 1K. But laying of tiles is almost 10-12 $ psf.

Is it reasonable, with a $3 tiles selection?

oh, and by the way, I want to install this bathtub in my master toilet! http://www.sswwbathroom.com/Detail.aspx?id=28

What do you guys think? I have taken the measurements and it checks out. I hope no big issues crop up though...

Edited January 30, 2016 by alprakas