At that point I was living with my mum, and the neighbours were quite bad. I wanted to get into my own unit quickly. So the brief for this renovation was simple: reduce the scope as much as possible and move in.
An EC already comes with a lot built in — carpentry, kitchen, and so on — so there was not much to do compared to a full HDB gut. We started with loose furniture from Taobao and only engaged tradespeople for the minimal works that actually needed them.
Electrical works
Done by TK Electricians. The quote came in a little higher than I expected. Over the years his prices may have crept up — or maybe construction just got more expensive after COVID. Either way, when I compared with neighbours who also needed electrical work, the difference was quite huge. That's when I heard about Yongjin Electrical. Yongjin did a bunch of units within the estate. And almost all said good things about him. So I remembered Yongjin Electrical.
Fortunately TK Electricians gave a discount that brought the price down. The works themselves were well done, but I still felt he was a little steep on the price.
Painting works
Also done by TK Electricians. This time I learned my lesson from the HDB reno: I applied oil sealant for the walls and ceiling, and used anti-mould paint. After the damp-wall episode in Sengkang, I was not going to skip that again. Highly recommend not to save any money on this. My mould episode was really bad.
Carpentry
I did not do any inbuilt carpentry for this unit. Most of the carpentry-style pieces — like the TV console — were bought off Taobao as loose furniture. That was enough for how we lived in the space at the start. We wanted to only do what was necessary and keep inbuilt minimal.
We built an in-built TV console later at this wall to store more stuff. We did it with a local carpenter but I'm unsure if she's still operating — honestly, I wouldn't recommend. The hinges and doors started to fall off after about a year plus.
Lighting
Lighting was also bought off Taobao. That is pretty much it for this unit — keep it light, order what you need online, and skip the big build-outs where you can.
Curtains
The curtains were bought through a group buy. On hindsight, this should have been bought through Taobao as well. I cannot remember if we did every room at move-in, but later we added curtains for just a single room — measure it yourself with a measuring tape and order on Taobao.
That one room was only about $100, which is super cheap. I recall the original curtain quote was around $1,200 to $1,500 for the whole house — three bedrooms plus the living room, and mine was a high ceiling — though I cannot remember the exact figure.
For installation, I engaged someone recommended by the neighbours to put up the curtain track and so on, for maybe $100+. Overall it was around $200+ for that one room — super worth it. Not just on the pricing, the material is good, and it blocks heat quite well too.
Smart home — a regret
I wanted to do smart home this time round. Looking back, it felt like a scam — or at least not as useful as I thought it would be. I purchased a Homey device and hooked up some switches and a smart fan. Paid for a local vendor to have it set up. Overall, I do not think it was necessary. Switches are the right place at the most intuitive.
It may help to some extent, but when things go wrong you spend a lot of time debugging. The time saved from smart home was not worth the hassle when something breaks. If you are thinking about smart home, I would not encourage it.
Group buys — not worth it
When you first move in, there are a lot of group buys floating around. I felt those were also not worthwhile. You get $50 or $100 off, but because it is a bulk purchase, the vendor is not able to attend to customer queries that fast. Quality — or rather service — feels a bit degraded.
My zip track was bought through a group buy, and I felt the service was really not there. Same story with the curtains — the discount was not worth the service trade-off. Not worth it, to be honest.
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The renovations before and after this one: