Now Thinking About Renovation

This step is more difficult than I thought because after surfing RenoTalk these few days, I realized that the renovation industry is extremely competitive i.e. too many players, big and small, from interior design firms to renovation contractors, can be difficult to decide on which to use, even if I decide on using renovation contractors instead of design firms, I still have to determine which are the reliable ones. The worst part is there are plenty of dubious forum members, sometimes it is quite difficult to tell who are the real homeowners who are there to share.

So far I have one recommendation from a member in RenoTalk but I haven't contacted the contractor yet because I still don't know when I can get the keys, anyway let's look at some pictures, we are still thinking of how to do it, feel free to chip in some ideas if you have. By the way nobody is living in the flat but the owner's stuff is still there.

Kitchen Entrance

As you can see, the living room looks alright, the kitchen tiles is okay but problem is they are sharp and I feel that it is quite dangerous, furthermore this kind of tiles not easy to clean. So I intend to change the kitchen tiles. After owner removes those two cabinets, I think we want to put our fridge at the corner. As for the leftover space until the end of the lower cabinet, we will put our own tall cabinet, the movable type, don't like built-in cabinet.

Kitchen Rear

So this is the rear view of our kitchen, you see the small newer looking area where the washing machine stands, that part was added via HDB Main Upgrading Programme (MUP) in 2001, you can't see from this angle but they also added a toilet there, anyway we don't intend to change anything in that new area, maybe just change the tap and toilet bowl, floor and walls are acceptable so no need to change.

Toilet, Stove and Sink

Now comes the worst part, this is the original toilet, see the entrance is so narrow thanks to the stupid position of the stove, safety hazard because if we are not careful, we could end up hurting ourselves. This toilet was also upgraded via MUP, same thing, floor and walls looks okay, probably change only tap and toilet bowl.

Closer Look at Stove and Sink

Look at that stove, if we really get to work, first thing is to remove that stove, bloody hell damn in the way, my wife don't like that kitchen sink, she wants a new one, so the main thing here is to totally get rid of both the stove and sink, including the small wall that separates them, but I think we might have to redo the wall tiles. Anyway we want to relocate the stove and sink opposite, but then again, it's just our thoughts, in the end whether feasible or not still have to check with the contractor.

Now I don't know how much it can cost, I probably have around $10K after setting aside for the resale flat deposit and agent fees, still have to buy fridge and etc, sigh, but one thing for sure is I'm not going to take any loan, worse comes to worst, slowly renovate and buy.

By the way if you guys have any contractors to recommend, please let me know, most important thing is reliable and I don't ask for as cheap as possible, just give me reasonable pricing, I see some quotes on RenoTalk, some contractors or design firms anyhow charge, just aluminum windows can cost $7K+!