A Couple’s Decision to DIY their Home Renovation (part 1)

Introduction

 

Do you feel excited when:

1. You’ve collected your new nest key?
2. You’re discussing your interior design of your new place?
3. You’re shopping around for your furniture and fittings at megastore?

But at the same time, do you have these feelings?

1. Haiz, it’s really expensive for a house of this size” - when you first step into your new nest
2. “Sian.. it’s really a huge sum involved” - when you turn to the last page of the renovation quotation,
3. OrhKay, let’s look at other models”, when you flip the price tag of the furniture…

Well, we go through the same feelings and process as most people nowadays. However, we dealt with it differently with our BIG house. For that reason, we are delighted to be invited by Renonation.sg to pen down our house transformation experience and share with you!!

A quick profile of us (AKA MYPS):

1. Famous within friends as Lobang King and Thrifty Queen (some may call us “Stingy”? you decide later).
2. Hobby: Movie and Music + Cooking + Coffeeing!
3. Strengths: Negotiation & Networking (These strengths place an important role when come to dealing!) Weakness: Thick skin (probably annoying) and Done too much homework = Knowing too much (If you Wanna save money and not kena Chop? You need to do homeworksssss! Especially when your wedding is running together with your renovation. Time is Money, So Save Money = Spend more Time DIY!)
4. We are a Couple but still different person: Her: Prefers Design + Wow factor + Great deal Him: Prefers Practical + Quality + Great deal.

As you are aware that the price tag of renovating and furnishing a house definitely comes BIG, so considering in additional to our hobbies, requirements and size of this Executive Apartment (EA) house, the price tag is definitely BIGGER!!

So how big is our house? Let’s catch some preview below:

Current living room (view from bedroom door)

Current living room (view from sofa)

Current kitchen (view from kitchen entrance)

Current seller's kitchen (view from service yard)

Current master bedroom (view from bedroom door)

Current common bedroom (view from bedroom door)

Current common bedroom 2 (view from bedroom door)

Current common toilet (view from door)

Current common toilet (view from vanity)

 

Quick Renovation Profile of our Home:

1. House: Resale Executive Apartment (sounds great but still HDB) Size: 141sqm / Price: < $600k / Area: Northeast Most importantly, we purchase WITHOUT a property agent! SAVE 1% agent fee of the purchasing price = est. $6k saving! => DIY your purchase sourcing and documentation. (Agents don’t hate us =x)
2. Home Theme: Wooden + Vintage + Cafe style +  Featured Walls + Big Wardrobe
3. Design by: DIY (Ourselves)
4. Specific Renovation works: Hack off everything / No overlaying / Change all floor & wall tiles / Hack - 2 x walls / Build up walk-in wardrobe walls / Brick wall / Carpentry / Re-wiring Electrical / Plumbing / Change bi-fold doors and toilet door / False ceiling everywhere except kitchen & Balcony / Box up toilets piping / Painting of walls & pipes and door Cost of renovation: <S$75k (Most quotations we got are >$75k without re-wiring / tv walls & the most only false ceiling in living room!!) (Generally, a BTO 5-room a normal renovation cost around 40k to 50k without hacking works / brick wall!! So ours consider expensive? Think again!) Cost of furnishing: <$30k (Expensive? Let’s decide when you see what we buy!)

So how did we do it? (Click to view)

We do the hard way =( Instead of engaging an ID, we actually source the different contractors ourselves via our network. (Remember Him is a LoBang King) Engaging an ID is definitely better in a way from space planning to colour combination to project management, they just basically help you to settle everything. But it’s doesn’t come cheap as you can see the price tag we mentioned above.

Given that we need $$$$ for our wedding at the same time, we go for the Cheaper option but a Harder way.

Through numerous meetings and discussion with different peers and experts, we, ourselves, finally manage to transform our floorplan with some basic drawing. See BELOW!!

Click for a bigger picture!

 

So what’s next?

In the subsequent blogs, we would share with you on our transformation process of our resales EA. Under this segment, we will provide you with tips and reviews on the following:

1. Pre-purchase consultation services on certain products{What you should look out for} - Don’t just buy because it looks stylo! Buy it because of Quality, within Budget, Knowing that the products can be fixed on the desire area!
2. Installation process: Never ever think this is not important!, it affects the final outlook and theme!!
3. After effect: Wooow, we want to show off to you how the final outcome as well as the functionality of our purchased products.
4. After sale service and Reviews: Why is this so important?

Next: A Couple’s Decision to DIY their Home Renovation (part 2)

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Written by MYPS. Do email to us at support@renonation.sg if you wish to know more details on our renovation.