My Modern Zen 2-Room 35sqm (Type 1) HDB BTO Apartment Renovation Journey

[pandacel 0]

Whee black glass backsplash! And single glass panel to protect vanity cabinet! High 5 high 5! 

[MiniBean 2]

Congrats!! Well done and really hope you will be settled down soon!

Looking forward to your posts and of course the curtains , it will make better effects!

 

 

[RyanYTH 87]

22 hours ago, 2Roomer said:

I have been following your blog closely and am really impressed with how you realised your vision. Your actual unit matches your initial plans very closely. 
Thanks for all the useful advice you've dispersed throughout the blog. Looking forward to see how your unit looks with furniture and soft furnishings.

Thank you very much and it is my pleasure.
I'm glad that the advices and tips I put in the blog is useful
That said, i'm thinking of doing a Blog Entry with a summarized list of advice and tips for renovation.
Would be helpful as a Quick Reference Guide. Thanks again!!

10 hours ago, pandacel said:

Whee black glass backsplash! And single glass panel to protect vanity cabinet! High 5 high 5! 

Hahaha i'm glad you liked it!
Glass was one of those things that once installed, immediately can see how nice it looked.
For the longest time the ugly kitchen wall was exposed. So happy that its covered up now lol

7 hours ago, MiniBean said:

Congrats!! Well done and really hope you will be settled down soon!

Looking forward to your posts and of course the curtains , it will make better effects!

Oh yes! I've been waiting to do the conclusion of the curtain guide, but
the main issue I face is.....I don't have a ladder!! hahahaha!!
And no, i don't want Jason's contractors to help, because I wanna test if hanging the curtains can be done safely by only 1 person.
Thats because down the road, curtain dirty already may need to wash, and during that time Jason's contractors won't be around.
I've ordered a Ladder from Lazada tho, it should be arriving soon i hope lol.

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Once again thanks everyone for your kind words
Today was handover day, furnitures also started coming in, but I wanna compile one shot make a solid
long post to showcase all the furnitures and stuff I got, so the next blog entry might take awhile!

[CaseBlue 2]

Congrats!! So envy!! can I request a photo of your living room and bedroom together? Meaning looking into your bedroom from the living room diagonally also can and then from your bedroom out to your living room. I want to see how it look like for reference. Or did I miss any of such photos?

[Kelvin Cheng 1]

Hi,

congrats on ur reno completion. May I know how is your built in wardrobe in your bomb shelter? I remember u were talking about engaging contractor from smarthome automation to customize it. Any picture of the completed wardrobe? I am thinking of doing the same thing btw.

[RyanYTH 87]

On 20/11/2017 at 11:30 PM, CaseBlue said:

Congrats!! So envy!! can I request a photo of your living room and bedroom together? Meaning looking into your bedroom from the living room diagonally also can and then from your bedroom out to your living room. I want to see how it look like for reference. Or did I miss any of such photos?

Thanks!
I prepped these photos to show in the next blog entry, but hey why not show a sneak peak
As usual, sorry for the bad image quality. my phone camera is potato lol
Here ya go!

Looking into Bedroom from Living Room diagonally.


Looking from Bedroom out to Living Room diagonally.

19 hours ago, Kelvin Cheng said:

Hi,

congrats on ur reno completion. May I know how is your built in wardrobe in your bomb shelter? I remember u were talking about engaging contractor from smarthome automation to customize it. Any picture of the completed wardrobe? I am thinking of doing the same thing btw.

Hi thanks
Yes built in wardrobe is still in progress. In fact I'm getting the team come do measurements and also install Slidearm tomorrow.
They couldn't do it earlier because I was still renovating and the place was very messy.

I will of course be doing a dedicated blog post about it.
For now, here is how it might look like. (Plan is still not confirmed)
Also, Quoted Price is $650, not $968 as shown in the picture.

Edited November 21, 2017 by ryanyth

[MiniBean 2]

I realized you don't have many things to store. Living room no cabinets  

The Recliners sofa look comfortable!!

I assume everything stored under the bed since bomb shelter is occupied.

[RyanYTH 87]

1 hour ago, MiniBean said:

I realized you don't have many things to store. Living room no cabinets  

The Recliners sofa look comfortable!!

I assume everything stored under the bed since bomb shelter is occupied.

Actually i'm planning to get a display case like this to put right next to the TV.
I'm still deciding if it will make it look too cluttered.


Oh yes the sofa is very comfortable. I can't show it in the pictures, but they can recline close to 180 degrees.
I've napped there quite often at night while watching tv lol

Yea most will be stored at bed or the tv console drawers etc.
And if the pole wardrobe does it's job well, can put some barang barang also.
Trying to go minimalist too. Less Clutter = Less Stress

Edited November 22, 2017 by ryanyth

[RyanYTH 87]

Blog Entry Date: 23rd November 2017 Thursday
Click Here to go back to Page 1 - Table of Contents

Post Renovation - Furnitures and Appliances (Kitchen)

Sorry its taken me so long to post this, quite alot of action happened this week.
In fact, I think i’m gonna split them into separate blog posts.

Monday 20 Nov 2017 was the official Handover day, when Jason officially handover the apartment
back to me and after my final inspections, I paid the last 10% of my renovation fee to him.

It was also the day when my furnitures and electrical appliances start coming in, and there
was a slight hiccup with the washing machine piping, which I will discuss in detail below.

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First up, the guys from Courts came and delivered my Refridgerator and Washing Machine.

No issues with the fridge, and I was advised I need to wait about 4-5 hours before turning it on.
I’ve read about this, because during delivery, some chemical in the refridgerator gets sloshed about,
and it needs some time for it to settle down after installing otherwise fridge will spoil if you turn power on too early.

Installing the Refridgerator


Refridgerator Installed


I like it that there is a nice gap allowance at the side nearest to the wall
for me to be able to discreetly store brooms and cleaning equipment.


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Next up, the Washing Machine had some problem with its pipe not being able to connect to my HDB tap in the Kitchen.
HDB’s tap is those “Push In to Lock” type but the Washing Machine head I got was the Screw In Type.
This was not an issue because Jason and I had already pre-empted this to happen.

But what happened next was something that should have NEVER been done, according to Jason.

The installer guy from Courts actually rotated the HDB tap clockwise in an attempt to show me
that I can simply take out the HDB tap and buy a different water tap from any Hardware Shop
that will then allow me to connect up to the Screw In Pipe that came with the Washing Machine.

When Jason came later and inspected the tap,  he found that it was actually LEAKING.
This is why you should NEVER EVER turn this tap because it actually connects to
the internal water piping in the walls which will leak if the tap is loose.

This is the Default Tap installed by HDB
DO NOT ATTEMPT to twist or turn it in anyway!!


This is the incompatible water tube that came with the Washing Machine


To resolve this, Jason immediately called his Plumbers who arrived on-site.
He already had them on stand-by so they came quite fast.

What they did, was of course first repair the damage done by the Courts Installer guy so the HDB Tap no longer leaks.

Instead of using the HDB Tap to supply water, they used the water pipe meant for the Kitchen Sink
and installed a 2-way pipe to route water also to the washing machine below the cabinet.

This is the Original Kitchen Sink water pipe before modification


This is the 2-way pipe that was installed.


Because they needed to route the hose discreetly out to the washing machine,
they cut a hole and put in a plastic cap to nicely hold the water pipe going to it. 


This is how it all looks when photographed together.


Washing Machine finally installed successfully.

Everything was installed nicely, and I was even able to do my first wash successfully.
Kitchen Sink’s water pressure was also not affected and the whole thing looked perfect.

Instead of just getting a compatible pipe to connect to the Kitchen Tap, this alternative way looked alot neater with
all the pipes hidden away beneath the Kitchen Sink, and best of all he didn't charge me anything for the parts and labour.

Dear Readers, Lesson Learnt.
Luckily Jason was there with his Plumbers ready and standby to resolve the issue quickly.
I myself didn’t know that you couldn’t turn the default HDB Tap. So remember if you’re getting
Installers install your Washing Machine, DO NOT let them touch that HDB Tap if you have it in your Kitchen.

Tsk tsk tsk. Looks like Courts haven’t been giving their installers proper plumbing training when installing
Washing Machines. I wonder how many homes were affected with water leaking because of what they did? For Shame.

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Next up was this nice Kitchen Trolley I got from VHive. I love how it looked with that marble top
and it also functioned very well as additional storage + portable Kitchen Counter-Top.


This is how it all looked standing together with my Refridgerator (Left) and Washing Machine (Right)


I’m especially happy that while the Lower Freezer door of the Refridgerator is blocked by the Kitchen Trolley,
I am still able to fully open the Top Part of the Refridgerator with the Trolley still there!!

And here are some pictures on the Kitchen so far after some furnishings

Remember the default laundry rack from HDB that I did not want to remove?
At first I was thinking maybe I should’ve changed to a smaller version.

However, after doing my first laundry, I realized the extra space above my Refridgerator allows
me to be able to nicely accommodate and hang some of my short pants which is not too bad.

Another view of the Kitchen.
Remember this space I have in the Kitchen? Now I can use it to store my Foldable Bicycle and also E-Scooter.
The conveniently located electrical socket also allows me to access charging point for the E-Scooter easily.

Spacing between Dining Table isn’t very cramped and I can still walk in and out smoothly.
I’ll need to buy a long mat to protect the flooring against dirt where the bicycle is parked at though.

Addendum:
Added a bench and dining chair to the dining area to complete the look.
Waddya’ll think?

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And so thats it for the furnishings so far for my Kitchen.
And you thought there are no more adventures AFTER Renovation huh?

In the next Blog Entry, I’ll showcase furnitures and appliances delivered for my Living Room, so do look out for that!

As always, Thanks for your support and I’ll see you soon!!

Click Here for the Next Blog Entry: 
Post Renovation – Furnitures and Appliances (Living Room)

Click Here to go back to Page 1 - Table of Contents

Edited March 7, 2018 by ryanyth

[SuperZ 7]

No doubt this is one of the best renovation I have seen. In the beginning, you mentioned about $25K. But through the process, you encountered a lot of mishaps. Just a matter of curiosity, what is the final total renovation amount?

[RyanYTH 87]

2 minutes ago, SuperZ said:

No doubt this is one of the best renovation I have seen. In the beginning, you mentioned about $25K. But through the process, you encountered a lot of mishaps. Just a matter of curiosity, what is the final total renovation amount?

Thank you very much for your compliments!
Yes quotation is about 25k. Compared to other horror stories in the forum I would say mine aren't mishaps,
more like annoyances lol Actual renovation amount not including furnitures and appliances is 30k++

I will be posting my budgeting spreadsheet where I will put in every single item where possible of my entire renovation.
Taking abit of time though because i'm currently still working on my next Blog Entry about furniture and furnishings on my Living Room

[Melvin Kin 0]

On 5/23/2017 at 10:52 AM, ryanyth said:

Nope electrical appliances aren't factored in the 25k. I budget 10k for that. Furniture is also separately budgeted at another 10k
I'm guessing ill probably not use up the whole budget I set but I thought I'd just put extra aside just in case.

My links do allow 3D view. You need to click on the icon on the right panel that says "3D".
Is there anyone else who is unable to see the 3D view in my 3D design in 5D planner? Do let me know, I'll probably do a screenshot or something for folks who are unable to access.

You're lucky u got a 47sqm. However, based on your reply in the other 2 room thread... I'm ... not sure if a 2 room flat is a good choice for you though.
No offence, but your infamous quote categorizing 2 roomers being "mishapen and twisted individuals" ruffled more than a few feathers...
Maybe u want to give up your 2 room and give other 2 roomers a chance and consider buying a resale 3 room or even a much bigger resale 4 room instead?

Just saying.

lol... most of them quotes are copy and paste from other forums anyway thou i think i did emphasis or perhaps not, doesnt matter lolol.

what your total burn up to date thou? Let say including most of your needed furniture and appliance.

hmmm... 

cancel that , saw u replied someone else on the total quote.

But square kitchen is such a nice perk compare to rectangular one hmmm

 

Edited November 25, 2017 by Melvin Kin

[bykaraanne 30]

Like your blog + your bachelor pad (?) is looking good!!  

cant wait to see the final post!

[RyanYTH 87]

1 hour ago, bykaraanne said:

Like your blog + your bachelor pad (?) is looking good!!  

cant wait to see the final post!

Thank you very much, i'm glad you like it

[neutronstar 1]

Congrats, your house looks really nice =)