SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 23, 2016 (edited) The Nest We had been scouting around for our own place for quite a while and looking back, it did seem that we were taking forever to nail down a place we want to call our first home. Our requirements for our own property then were simple - BIG and cheap... Probably that explained why we were forever looking for our property back then! In Singapore context where land is scarce, it's almost mission impossible to find one that is big and yet cheap... Well... Unless, it's old!!! And so our quest for such property brought us to our current home - an ex-HUDC apartment in the west. At 1,700 square feet going at less than $700 psf, it fulfilled exactly the 2 main requirements that we were looking for in our first home. Never mind the fact that it's coming to 30 years old. To add icing to the cake, all the 3 rooms and the living room have unblocked view of the scenic Chinese Gardens in front of us! Edited May 24, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 24, 2016 (edited) The Original Floor Plan And so our home journey begins from here (as a matter of fact few years back as this happened some time back). The first thing we laid our hands on was the floor plan which we got from the property agent which brokered the deal for us. As the property was old, the floor plan was actually hand drawn by someone! One look at the floor plan, you would realize that other than the living, dining, kitchen and service balcony areas, the rest are very much irregular in shape. Edited May 24, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 26, 2016 (edited) The Proposed Works Wifey immediately got down to work to list out the main works based on the desired layout that we had been discussing all these while. Basically almost all the floor tiles in our house has to go; interestingly despite the fact that this property is close to 30 years old, the owner somehow had stuck with the original floor tiles right from day 1 so you can imagine how durable such items were in the past (as compared to nowadays stuffs are not meant to last). While we have no doubt about the durability, we decided it is a no-brainer to replace all these with something of our time... something modern. The only exception is the 2 bedrooms where they are completely decked out in the original parquet and which wifey think she can do something about that to retain the original parquet but yet is synchronous with our eventual house design. Right now, the parquet flooring does look antique looking but otherwise we believe these are good parquet and would be a waste to replace them. The other area is the utility which we hope to save cost by retaining the existing floor tiles. We also decided to open up the current kitchen to create a more open concept merging into the current dining area. Basically our idea is to split up this space to create a wet as well as a dry kitchen section. The current toilet layout at the master bedroom is also not exactly optimal and given the space constraints as well as the irregular layout, it can be quite claustrophobic when one is inside. So we decided to remove whatever walls there are here... Yes, you did not read this wrongly... we are removing the walls from our toilet in order to open up this personal space. Nope, we are not exhibitionists... Eventually this is the revised floor plan layout that we had in mind. Edited May 26, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 (edited) The "Before Reno" Photos Coming in from the door entrance leading to the living room in front and dining area on the left Dining area and kitchen behind the wall Kitchen Service yard Edited May 27, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 (edited) The "Before Reno" Photos Master Bedroom - Perspective 1 Master Bedroom - Perspective 2 Master Bedroom - Perspective 3 Master Bedroom Toilet Edited May 27, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 (edited) The "Before Reno" Photos Living Room looking in from Balcony Balcony Edited May 27, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 (edited) The "Before Reno" Photos Passageway leading to bedroom 2 on the right and bedroom 3 in front Bedroom 2 - Perspective 1 Bedroom 2 - Perspective 2 Bedroom 3 - Perspective 1 Bedroom 3 - Perspective 2 Edited May 27, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricepapergirl 21 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 Wow! The unit is super huge and the layout is really unique!! Looking forward to see how your reno turns out! I know there was someone else who went for an "open" MBR toilet as well on the forums. That view looks amazing and the parquet floor looks like really good condition! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 (edited) The "Before Reno" Photos Inside the utility room Inside the utility room - another perspective Common toilet - Perspective 1 Common toilet - Perspective 2 Edited May 27, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 31 minutes ago, ricepapergirl said: Wow! The unit is super huge and the layout is really unique!! Looking forward to see how your reno turns out! I know there was someone else who went for an "open" MBR toilet as well on the forums. That view looks amazing and the parquet floor looks like really good condition! Hey @ricepapergirl, thanks for your comment here! Well, unlike the standard rectangular layout, our rooms have walls which are angled so I guess that poses a minor challenge to us in terms of designing around these angled walls. Yup, a pity if we hack those parquet away so wifey decided she has better idea to reuse those! Stay tuned! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 The Retro Aircon Beside the parquet for the 2 bedrooms, I was struggling inside me if there is any way I can keep these retro-looking aircons! They were actually very unique and best... Still in good condition! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 (edited) The Proposed Works With the desired layout done up, the wifey proceeded to put together the next few slides on the detailed scope of renovation works required which we would use to go through with our contractors in coming up with the renovation quotations. Leading up to this stage, because we had been looking around for tiles, we thought that instead of the default tile cost psf that contractors usually used for renovation quotations (which usually they under-quote to bring down the quotation quantum initially and would increase once client select a tile of high cost psf which is usually the case), we thought we would get them to quote based on the few tiles that we like for the different sections. Hopefully, this would put the subsequent quotations as close as possible to the actual renovation costs. Edited May 28, 2016 by SimplePersonSimpleLife Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OceanEleven 203 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 27 minutes ago, SimplePersonSimpleLife said: The Retro Aircon Beside the parquet for the 2 bedrooms, I was struggling inside me if there is any way I can keep these retro-looking aircons! They were actually very unique and best... Still in good condition! The minimum to do is re run all the pipings again. After years if usage, time to change new to avoid choke. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
owlNbear 2 Report post Posted May 27, 2016 Your layout is super intriguing! Very excited to see how you and your wifey will whip everything into shape. Great plans! You guys look like you've got a good handle on things. Oh, I used to have that aircon decades ago. Brings back memories Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimplePersonSimpleLife 4 Report post Posted May 28, 2016 On 27 May 2016 at 4:42 PM, OceanEleven said: The minimum to do is re run all the pipings again. After years if usage, time to change new to avoid choke. Actually our dilemma is how to integrate these aircons into our design. Yes, definitely need to rerun the pipings if we are reusing these as you rightfully pointed out! On 27 May 2016 at 6:49 PM, owlNbear said: Your layout is super intriguing! Very excited to see how you and your wifey will whip everything into shape. Great plans! You guys look like you've got a good handle on things. Oh, I used to have that aircon decades ago. Brings back memories It's indeed very retro!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
