House Renovation - designers or ala-carte?

[blessed777]

MMM:

Would like to share some notes on painting.


During xmas holiday last year, we decided to repaint the car porch and balcony of our 3.5 years old house. We bought sealant to patch up some holes created by the weather. Then we just started painting. We roped in the kids to help for those easy to paint area. While dh and me took the dififcult part which required standing high on the stairs, etc...

I downloaded the DIY paint guide from Nippon Paint and there we go. We did it. I suppose if you can do painting in art and craft, you should be able to a fairly decent job.

After this, I feel confident that we can do our own room painting in the future. What we cannot do are those hard to reach external walls or high ceiling at stairways which we require experts to do it as I don't think we can climb outside the house. Our frontage looks new after the paint job and this saves us thousands since we DIY. Doing so, also encourages us to do such minor \"renovation\" from time to time to upkeep the house.

This is encouraging, will consider DIY next time

[hquek]

Hi blessed777,


Sorry I can’t recall the price range. But I know that silestone is very very expensive compared with the other options and only available from 1 place. usually, you will have to get your contractor to quote based on the material you want. the companies selling these will only cut out the material using the model your contractor drew. No need to be shy, I usually get mine to quote different materials and then I compare to see what I want.

Even for solid surface, the price varies with pattern and brand.

[Funz]

Just out of curiosity. How often do you re-paint your house? I remember when we were younger, my parents will repaint the house like bi-yearly and, naturally, we get roped in as free labour.


On that note as well, how often do you renovate your place? We may have to do some reno at our place since the kids will need their own rooms soon. We are just wondering, should we redo all the rooms and toilets as well as the living room or just the kids’ rooms and toilets. Tempted to redo the whole house, but given the limited space in the kitchen, think no point doing kitchen this time round.

[MMM]

blessed777:

Thanks MMM


Those r also my consideration, if only $$ is not a concern.. coz i'm also thinking of changing flooring.. never done renovation before, is $.5k for countertop only ? (not including the cabinet) and what does it mean with top & bottom, thanks.

Hi,

It is 5.5k for entire kitchen cabinet including black galaxy marble top. We also had build in top hung cabinet as well as cabinets below and a full size at the size.

Since you are changing flooring, etc..., maybe should consider getting a reliable contractor.

[MMM]

Funz:

Just out of curiosity. How often do you re-paint your house? I remember when we were younger, my parents will repaint the house like bi-yearly and, naturally, we get roped in as free labour.


On that note as well, how often do you renovate your place? We may have to do some reno at our place since the kids will need their own rooms soon. We are just wondering, should we redo all the rooms and toilets as well as the living room or just the kids' rooms and toilets. Tempted to redo the whole house, but given the limited space in the kitchen, think no point doing kitchen this time round.

Renovation is a major ops. Usually we just do it before we move it and it is supposed to last us for years to come. We stayed in the last place for like 11 years before moving to current. No renovation/ repainting throughout. Painting is not difficult but moving furniture is.... The issue is also if you redo the whole house, must pack and store the stuff somewhere... After it's done, you still need to unpack... don't sound like fun.

But we do have some relatives/ friends who are into house moving. Eg. some sold their property banking on dropping property price so they can buy again.

In our case, our house is 3.5 years. We did major renovation before moving in but observed the outdoor area paint is washed down by weather and bird \"bombs\". But the key as to why we are painting is.... due to some communication issues, my very clever maid thought that my fil asked her to touch up the house paint when we were away for holidays.... Imagine our shock when we came back... patchy paints in car porch and storeroom :yikes: So it seems like we got no choice but to do up the entire car porch. Otherwise it will look awful for CNY. My dh's original thought is to paint the entire house every 10 years.

For my girls' room, i put those those wall decal. It is supposed to be paint friendly. However, I observed that over time, the paint will come down with the decal no matter how gentle we are. Right now their room is still very princess theme. I think I will do the painting (maybe this year Dec hols?) when we remove the decal.

We also like to keep to classic themes that won't go out of fashion. We also like to go for movable furnitures. So that we can change and who knows if we move again... we can move it along. We engaged a designer for the 1st house and alot of build in stuff. We cannot move anything when we moved. But we choose classic wood themes so till now when we look at it, it still look ok. It is currrently tenanted to a amercian couple who loves our house.

[blessed777]

MMM:

blessed777:

Thanks MMM


Those r also my consideration, if only $$ is not a concern.. coz i'm also thinking of changing flooring.. never done renovation before, is $.5k for countertop only ? (not including the cabinet) and what does it mean with top & bottom, thanks.

Hi,

It is 5.5k for entire kitchen cabinet including black galaxy marble top. We also had build in top hung cabinet as well as cabinets below and a full size at the size.

Since you are changing flooring, etc..., maybe should consider getting a reliable contractor.

thanks MMM

[blessed777]

hquek:

Hi blessed777,


Sorry I can't recall the price range. But I know that silestone is very very expensive compared with the other options and only available from 1 place. usually, you will have to get your contractor to quote based on the material you want. the companies selling these will only cut out the material using the model your contractor drew. No need to be shy, I usually get mine to quote different materials and then I compare to see what I want.

Even for solid surface, the price varies with pattern and brand.

Thanks Hquek, yes quartz(silestone, caesarstone) is one of the most exp. even more exp than granite, but it seems to be the best material for countertop. I think i'm going to opt for tiles (the thicker one fr counter top, not the one fr flooring or wall) as it is easy to clean, scratch free, heat resistance, not expensive and durable enough as long as you dont drop heavy things on it even if u do, it's easy to be fixed only need to replace the crack or broken piece with new one as long as u buy extra pieces when u order them the first time (in case u'll find trouble to find matching tiles in the future).
My concern for not opting the exp one is that i read when u need to change sink or build in stove u need to hack the countertop :yikes: there goes the $$.. unlike tiles that come in pieces, solid surface and silestone come in one piece so need to be hacked all together.. so i'm now considering of changing sink also on top of replacing stove n countertop :idea:

[xueyan]

Hi


Does anyone has a renovation contractor to recommend? My friend just bought a 3 room resale flat and is going to do up her flat with a tight budget.

Thanks!

[JusticeBao]

Try not to be influenced by them on your design…

[Autumn06s]

MMM:

For my girls' room, i put those those wall decal. It is supposed to be paint friendly. However, I observed that over time, the paint will come down with the decal no matter how gentle we are. Right now their room is still very princess theme. I think I will do the painting (maybe this year Dec hols?) when we remove the decal.


We also like to keep to classic themes that won't go out of fashion. We also like to go for movable furnitures. So that we can change and who knows if we move again... we can move it along. We engaged a designer for the 1st house and alot of build in stuff. We cannot move anything when we moved. But we choose classic wood themes so till now when we look at it, it still look ok. It is currrently tenanted to a amercian couple who loves our house.

Hi MMM,

you are right! over time the paint does fall off with the stickers. You can try wall candy arts brand, my girl peel and peel, re-stick and re-stick, not damage to my wall yet. bought from http://www.pinnaclewallarts.com

I hope I can save money by not repainting after she grows tired of her stickers.