5 Room Resale Reno Journey

[Starryun 1]

Hi Everyone,

We finally collected our keys at the end of March and we hurriedly carried out all the necessary rituals (door opening & 动土) so that technically we have done what we should before Qing Ming festival. Hacking started on last Monday and we are so looking forward to completion and moving into our own place.

 

My fiancé works in the architecture industry so he’s the brainchild of our place’s design. We will only be engaging contractors and doing all the coordination on our own. In order to get me involved and make me have a “we created this place together” feel, he asked for my inputs and we'll be doing some DIYs for our home as well.

 

Our journey starts from here….

 

Floorplan:

 

Draft design by the fiance:

 

Original condition of the house. Good thing that it’s chui since we will hack everything away:

Original condition of Living Room:

 

Original Condition of Hallway to rooms, dining area and kitchen entrance:

 

Original Condition of Kitchen:

.

 

Original Condition of Master Toilet:

 

Since we are the one doing all the coordination work, the poor fiance had to do all the measurements and works himself

Self measurement indications for the reno contractors:

 

The works has started and all the floor tiles are gone by now. We are currently waiting for the rest of the permit to go thru before further demolition can be carried out. Can't wait!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2016 by Starryun

[ricepapergirl 21]

Always exciting to see a new place being redone! Waiting to see more pictures!

[dukebluedevil 1]

Nice layout and great open concept! That long kitchen island is gonna look grand! 

[JohnJohn 13]

Just a thought, have you thought about switching your master bedroom and WIW? Better flow, can change the moment you come out of the shower and vice versa. Just my two cents.

[Starryun 1]

On 4/12/2016 at 8:33 AM, JohnJohn said:

Just a thought, have you thought about switching your master bedroom and WIW? Better flow, can change the moment you come out of the shower and vice versa. Just my two cents.

Hi JohnJohn, the master bedroom is slightly bigger than the WIW room. The planned WIW room is a combination of WIW and a storeroom. If we swop the room, way to access the different areas will be abit weird.

[blackainmamba 2]

Love your proposed layout. So excited to see your grand kitchen!

[Starryun 1]

Been long since the first entry as we took a whole month to clear our reno permits with HDB.

The reno works started early this month and its progressing slowly.

We are doing our own coordination with the respective contractors/vendors so things can get abit slow especially my fiance and myself are working full time so no one is supervising the workers. Hopefully the progress can speed up abit.

 

Progress so far (can be and cannot be seen):

• Floors leveled (kitchen, balcony)
• Storeroom hacked and sealed
• WIW door entry done
• water pipe laid
• elect wiring done
• aircon truncking done today 
• putty on exposed walls
• 2 common room tiled
• storage heaters installed

Below are some progress that i took a pic of:

The long kitchen wall now gone:

 

Kitchen floor leveled and chute area tiled:

 

Master Toilet - Cistern built:

 

Master Toilet - Wall Built, Windows changed:

 

Common Toilet - Cistern Built:

The walls for common toilet is built as well but i forgot to take a pic of it.

The guys are laying the tiles for this week! Will update again soon!

Edited May 31, 2016 by Starryun

[Starryun 1]

Below are some simple 3D sketch perspectives that the boy did for me so that i can visualize on the design.

Living Room

 

Kitchen view from living and from dining

 

Master Bedroom

[Starryun 1]

It's been sometime since this was updated as there are simply too much to do when you're your own place "main con".
Last weekend, we headed to JB to look for a ceiling fan for the living room. Previously, we saw something we like from Phyllux showroom but we think it was too expensive, so we put that on hold. After much research from the forums and blogs, we decided to head to Tampoi Lightings as they do sell Elmark Fans which is similar to the model we saw from Phyllux previously. Probably its a Saturday, the shop is full of people and therefore no sales person is free to assist us. 

Since no one is free at that moment, i suggest to walk a few shops down to Starworld Lighting (if i remember the name correctly) to have a look. Then we saw the exact same model that we are looking for! Woohoo~ The fan cost 1100rm, which is about $300 SGD cheaper than what we see over here. Super happy about it! We got an extra shorter bracket for our installation as the original set will come down to be at about 2.1m after installation which we feel its too low for a ceiling fan.

The warranty is 3yrs for the motor but we have to bring it back to jb if its spoiled..thats the down part. Other than that...its definitely worth the trip!

The packing of the ceiling fan:

 

The blades for this model is said to be made from wood, so they have the wood grains on the blade.
We gt it in white so its kind of beige blades with wood grains instead of the usual white plastic kind of blades:

   

[sganimefan 0]

On 7/5/2016 at 11:40 AM, Starryun said:

It's been sometime since this was updated as there are simply too much to do when you're your own place "main con".
Last weekend, we headed to JB to look for a ceiling fan for the living room. Previously, we saw something we like from Phyllux showroom but we think it was too expensive, so we put that on hold. After much research from the forums and blogs, we decided to head to Tampoi Lightings as they do sell Elmark Fans which is similar to the model we saw from Phyllux previously. Probably its a Saturday, the shop is full of people and therefore no sales person is free to assist us. 

Since no one is free at that moment, i suggest to walk a few shops down to Starworld Lighting (if i remember the name correctly) to have a look. Then we saw the exact same model that we are looking for! Woohoo~ The fan cost 1100rm, which is about $300 SGD cheaper than what we see over here. Super happy about it! We got an extra shorter bracket for our installation as the original set will come down to be at about 2.1m after installation which we feel its too low for a ceiling fan.

The warranty is 3yrs for the motor but we have to bring it back to jb if its spoiled..thats the down part. Other than that...its definitely worth the trip!

The packing of the ceiling fan:

 

The blades for this model is said to be made from wood, so they have the wood grains on the blade.
We gt it in white so its kind of beige blades with wood grains instead of the usual white plastic kind of blades:

   

Hi,

Is this the AirSprine fan that Phylux says is new? If convenient, could you share more photos of your purchase please? Thanks!

[Starryun 1]

17 hours ago, sganimefan said:

Hi,

Is this the AirSprine fan that Phylux says is new? If convenient, could you share more photos of your purchase please? Thanks!

Hi,

Yup, its that model. We have yet to install it, will take some pics probably next week when the electrician comes over to install the lights. 

[Starryun 1]

Finally, we've entered the last phase of the reno today! Yay~~~
The carpentry carcass came in during the weekend. I think they made at least 7-8 trips for the whole load of carcass to the house. 

Carpentry Installation: Day 1.

 

We had the master bathroom door (1st door) and shower door (the 2nd door inside) installed last week.
We used a u-channel to support the glass shower door instead of building a plint to support the glass so that the shower glass door is a seamless look from the floor to the ceiling.

 

 

[KFC1189 11]

Hi Starryun,

I really like your extended master bathroom and I love wall hung toilet bowl. It is so sleek. Are you going to have a bathtub in the bathroom?

Where will be your new storeroom? 

What tiles are you using for the living room and dining room? Are you going to use the same tiles?

 

 

 

 

[KFC1189 11]

Hi Starryun,

How big is your 5 room flat? I notice there is a rubbish chute (measuring 1m by 1m) inside your unit. I am wondering if your total floor space includes or excludes the rubbish chute area.

Thanks for the information.

 

[Starryun 1]

55 minutes ago, KFC1189 said:

Hi Starryun,

How big is your 5 room flat? I notice there is a rubbish chute (measuring 1m by 1m) inside your unit. I am wondering if your total floor space includes or excludes the rubbish chute area.

Thanks for the information.

 

Hi KFC1189,

We are only doing a rainshower in the bathroom, lack of space for bathtub. But the bathtub idea never crossed our mind as it can be difficult at different stage of life (like pregnancy, old age).
The storeroom is right behind the walk in wardobe in the second bedroom. We seperated the room by doing up a partition.

We're using the same tiles all over the house except for both bathroom and kitchen wall tiles. Will do up a post soon on the tiles and purchases soon!

As for the rubbish chute, it is shown in the floor plan provided by hdb but we have no idea if that space was included in the total area. My place is 120sqm =)