Our 4-Bedder Resale Condo Reno Journey 54.5k (excl electric works)

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2 steps forward one step back.

Jus abit of a sneak preview since the other wardrobe doors r not up yet (which is thankfully a gd thing). This one is frm bedrm 2. The doors r fitted on the wrong side, not a big issue since they wld prolly hav to take them down now anyway. 

We stood in front of the wardrobe trying to open n close...no issue with that. But with teenages and their sweaty, oily palms, we figured its not really a gd idea not having handles. Initially when we were in nego stage we agreed on no handles with id. Anyway i watsapp id a photo n asked if carpenters can provide those.....aft checking he got back, yup they hav n can spray paint it in matching laminate colour. Need to add $ ?? Well this is not a blog sponsored by Inspire u know......so yup, top up is needed. ID also need to pay bills right? For those who r wondering.....eh how come bible stand n plant racks free leh? Well, diff story for diff day. To cut a long story short, those were not added at the v last min. 

First pic the type of handle we want

Bedroom 2 wardrobe

Bedroom 2 bedhead n study desk, (doors nt installed for book cabinet n laminate nt done yet for desk drawers)

 

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A Sherlock Holmes Inspired Post

Another one of my totally unrelated to reno post. Been watching SH on netflix and tot i remove myself frm mundane packing task n use my mind abit. Read abt hdb resale flats gng for more than a mil in holland/commonwealth area.

The latest, a young couple in their 20s. Am guessing this couple was eligible to apply for bto but prefers this unit for the millon dollar view n location, prolly bcos its near mrt n amenities.

The funny thg abt view, after a while it becomes same old same old. When we go to beach resorts for holiday, first day chk in everyone goes wow! We wld rush to the balcony n admire the sea view...by the 4th day, no one takes a second glance at the view. After all the activities at sea, kids jus head striaght to shower n go for their gadgets. For those of u who have friends staying in houses with nice views.....after they have moved in for 3 mths. Find a weekend and drop them a msg asking them if they r home n what they r doing. Reply wld prolly be watching korean drama or netflix or playing ps4 or some online game or doing hse wrk. I can bet my last dollar, none of them wld reply, "oh im admiring my million dollar view".

Assuming the couple r high flyers n r nt eligible for bto n ec or mayb they dont wanna wait for one. Well, sengkang, punggol n yishun has some really affordable resale gng at 400+k. Thats a whole 600k lesser......even if the hse is not located near a train stnt, they cld own an entry lvl jap or korean car for the next 70yrs. Cost of running a car too high? Well, can always do hitch to defray some of the cost. Ur own car is definitely more comfy n reliable than the train right?

Amenities nearby u say, so its worth the extra couple hundred thousand? Currently we stay withing walking distance to 3 supermarkets, and 2 wet markets. We hav a 24hr minimart just downstairs. So which one we frequent most for our groceries? The one jus outside our hse....yup redmart is so cheap n convenient. If we need somethg urgently we get it frm the minimart downstairs. Hav nt stepped into a supermarket for a few mths. So if a property agent tells u "oh there is ntuc here, giants there thats why is worth buying" jus ignore the sales pitch. If this agent is a friend, dont bother buying a christmas present, an unused diary passed its use by date wld make a perfect gift.

I calculated the psf price, wow! $831 for a hdb...if u compare with the pte property in the area, yup its cheap, but tat isnt a pte property. We paid $800psf for our freehold condo, i seriously tot we r still in a buyers market bcos there are still some units in my area gng at the 780 to 900psf range.

Dear young jedi here, a property wld prolly be the biggest investment u will ever make. With all investment, always think of an exit strategy. Geeezz, such a long post, dont know if these buyers wld make $ out of their invesments, one thg for sure is that sour grapes gives the longest ffarttt

 

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The Final Leg

Its been said, a picture says a thousand words. So.....what's better than a picture?

 

 

 

 

                               V

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A post with a thousand and one words. Sorry, i decided not to post anymore photos till after completion and all furnitures n display ornaments r in place. This will be my 3rd last post, if i dont put a limit to talking to myself, i will seriously require therapy. 

Its been a roller coaster ride of disappointment > worrying > relieve > greatly appreciative to id n workers. Then rinse n repeat.

Disappointed bcos when we saw the doors for cabinets, there was a gap in between the different laminates. We did mention tat we wanted the laminates to be glued close together with no gap. We were informed it was bcos some of the laminates we chose chipped when cut. If they had done it the way we wanted, it wld turn out quite unsightly. Upon closer inspection, id was right, forgot which laminates chipped, i only know the fabric texture type didnt chip n cut cleanly. 

Worried bcos we were told carpenters will fill the gap with matching paint. We cld only guess how the end product will look. Id kept reassuring us tat his guys r experience n to let them complete first n see if we r satisfied.

Relieved bcos the carpentry turned out well. The painting for the in between laminate is actually more work for them and it requires a skillfull worker. 

Greatly appreciative bcos...... (we shall fast forward the advertisement)

Then disappointed again bcos the thg tat supports the shelving is quite ugly. They used a white plastic one instead of a brown one to match the internal colour pvc. I guess it wldnt matter when the clothes r in, jus tat now when the cabinets r empty that white plastic support sticks out like a sore thumb against the greyish brown internal pvc. If i had known earlier i wld hav ordered them brown ones online since they only cost like a few cents each. Anyway too late for tat now, we hav a schedule to keep.

Then worried again bcos there was a period of time things seemed to slow down to a crawl. Make thgs worse the PD glass door for yard was measured wrongly n they had to bring back. Were we still on schedule? I had aldy booked a date with movers n there was no turning back. 

After a short trip to Bangkok, we viewed the hse this morning n felt relieved n greatly appreciative at the same time. Hse has been cleaned, marble floor polished, so shiny i wld hav to warn my chio cousin in laws not to wear short skirt when they visit. The parquet floor varnish guys were aldy in the hse with id. I wld say 95% of work is done. Jus abit of touch up here n there. Looks like we can still stick to plan with regards to moving in date. Mayb without the PD door for yard, but tat one isnt a big issue. Quite glad we gave id a buffer of 2 weeks frm his est completion date. So a delay of a week on his part wont screw up my plans. 

Coming up next.....photos in a mth's time

 

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Thanks for sharing your renovation journey . Looking forward to see the final results of your home! 

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https://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/80586-wts/

 

Hi all, helping a relative sell some preloved items that are suitable for Balinese style.

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Some photos to share........

 

kitchen

Foyer shoe cabinet n full height mirror

Dinning

Dinning table from Ceilini. Quartz for dinning not v gd. Stains easily, compared to the one installed in my kitchen its worlds apart.

Master toilet

Ok...seems these r all i m allowed to upload, kept getting some error msg abt limit reached. 

This is one **** of a reno journey......plenty of hiccups with a 2 week delay. Work was still being carried out on 7 dec n we shifted in on 8 dec with no time to clean up b4 moving in. 

To be fair to id, delay was mainly bcos he was trying to match the socket colour with the schneider casing. So instead of jus matt black, they brought it to malaysia to match as close as possible to the brown. So.....all is forgiven for the delay i guess. Anyways, if no delays n no hiccups its not called reno anymore, tat one is called NDP 

I wont giv a review on id since it will be a biased one. What i will do however is share photos(when i can) of specific thgs  like door handles n stain test  i did on the quartz top supplied by them. Impressed with the quality. 

However, at this moment we r facing a major major prob, and despite full payment being made more than 2 weeks ago, boss of inspire id studio has not shrug off responsibility. Sorry i cannot go into details of prob we r facing....but the boss was here with supplier ystd. Then the installer came down today....i mean, seriously guys, i m impressed.....but prob not solved yet.....i m confident it will be solved thou. I offered an easy solution but boss Aiken found that my solution is jus temporary n will in fact cause more probs in future...so nope, if he cannot accept somethg, he dont expect his client to accept.....so yup, i m in safe hands i guess. 

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Just tot i clarify certain thgs. Not doing a review on id is not bcos id is not gd. But the thg is, he gave alot of freebies through out the reno project. If i say he this good that good i had to be fair to readers n list all the freebies i got....then indirectly sabo him n other inspire ids....wait other clients read liow say, "eh why this guy got this free that free i dont hav?" Then headache also. So i will jus simplify thgs here, will jus list a free 'upgrade' which i did not ask for and a small item i requested frm id. 

So contract stated to install mirrors in all 4 rooms dimension 7ft height x 2 ft width. When it came to glass measurement day. He decided to jus get the glass guy to measure all the way to ceiling. Even for masterbedroom wiw....which came to about 10ft height x 2.7ft width....so that the mirror covered the entire exposed wall in wiw. My wive loves the whole effect of that mirror.  For the other rooms the dimension was about 8ftx 2.5 to 3ft. 

For item i requested, it was jus a small piece of tinted glass. While doing packing in old hse, the glass frm tv console fell off n cracked on the floor. I jus watsapp him, " bro, can help ask glass guys cut a piece of glass for my tv console cos i broke it?"  He straight away replied..no prob n asking for the dimension. So yup, he is a very obliging individual. Yes this project we encountered lots of hiccups, but to sum it up, if i cld turn back time n go back to the time we were deciding which id to choose, i'd still go with wayne.

As promised...photos of the stain test i did with a spare piece of quartz the guys left behind. It was supposed to be for a shampoo rack for mastertoilet, but since id got tiler to use bricks n tiles to do a proper one(foc), the quartz was no longer needed n they left it under my sink 

After 6 hrs i wiped it with jus a wet cloth...there was still a slight yellowish patch at the chilli sauce and tomato sauce area which came off easily with mama lemonNext lot was wiped off after 13hrs with jus water. Yellow patch more prominent this time, same thing came off with a wipe with mama lemon

After wiping with just a wet cloth, the multiple sauces can be seen to cause a yellow patch

A closer shot of the patch

 

Came off easily with just a gentle wipe with mama lemon

 

Compared to my dinning table quartz.....haiz, even wiping off the stains immediately after a meal i had to use my car polish cos mama lemon still leaves a shadowy mark behind

Well tats all folks....limit reached again.

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living room curved false ceiling at night 

Marble look alike ceramic pots bot frm ezbuy

 

Storage n display cabinet

 

Bedroom 4 wardrobe

Bedroom 4 bed shifted from old hse

Masterbedroom bedhead n feature wall at the back of wiw

Walkin wardrobe

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Happy CNY people

Nothing about reno here anymore. Yah i know technically prev post shld be my last but talking to myself is so addictive i m back for more.

If fellow forumers see me at the coffeeshop, do step up to say hi. I m the one sitting alone with a bottle of tiger often mumbling to myself

So ystd was v day, so jus wanted to pose a question to readers here who have been married more than 7 years.When u guys hear the song "perfect " by Ed Sheeran, who immediately comes to mind? A) the wife B) the ex C) your colleague D) the neighbour's wife E) OLs in thight skirt crossing the road when u r stuck at a red light behind the wheel.

For newly married or gng to get hitched couples, well if your answer is not (A)....good luck! Hope u like the bto. 

For long time married wives on here, if hubby poses this question to you. Well, the correct answer would be (D) the neighbour's hubby. Nothing like a little competition to wake that old horsey of yours up  and have him gng again like when he was 23 with raging hormones.

Anyways...i really love this song " if i were a boy" by Beyonce n for the newly n soon to be married guys....listen to it every morning n u will have a blissful marriage. 

Huat Ah!

[MsChocobanana 1]

On 2/15/2018 at 8:47 AM, fingerscross said:

Happy CNY people

Nothing about reno here anymore. Yah i know technically prev post shld be my last but talking to myself is so addictive i m back for more.

If fellow forumers see me at the coffeeshop, do step up to say hi. I m the one sitting alone with a bottle of tiger often mumbling to myself

So ystd was v day, so jus wanted to pose a question to readers here who have been married more than 7 years.When u guys hear the song "perfect " by Ed Sheeran, who immediately comes to mind? A) the wife B) the ex C) your colleague D) the neighbour's wife E) OLs in thight skirt crossing the road when u r stuck at a red light behind the wheel.

For newly married or gng to get hitched couples, well if your answer is not (A)....good luck! Hope u like the bto. 

For long time married wives on here, if hubby poses this question to you. Well, the correct answer would be (D) the neighbour's hubby. Nothing like a little competition to wake that old horsey of yours up  and have him gng again like when he was 23 with raging hormones.

Anyways...i really love this song " if i were a boy" by Beyonce n for the newly n soon to be married guys....listen to it every morning n u will have a blissful marriage. 

Huat Ah!

HAhahha!! U r funny. I wouldn’t have read your thread if you didn’t drop by mine. 

Love your plants, the marble pot and table, the grey patterned wall on the MBR and walk in wardrobe! 

Dont need have a monologue with yourself, come chat with the other forumers! 

[fingerscross 3]

On 7/23/2018 at 10:58 PM, MsChocobanana said:

HAhahha!! U r funny. I wouldn’t have read your thread if you didn’t drop by mine. 

Love your plants, the marble pot and table, the grey patterned wall on the MBR and walk in wardrobe! 

Dont need have a monologue with yourself, come chat with the other forumers! 

Haha....Thks ah! I seldom dropby here ever since my reno completed. Wld prolly cringe if i read what i written back then. Older folks like me have plenty of 2 cents u know.....so everytime i browse i have a hard time resisting giving my 2 cents too freely