Reno planning is not an easy task

These few weekends we are occupied with planning our reno stuff... since Nick is having his "school holiday" it would be good for us to do some planning and sourcing to be ready for reno once Little NJ is out! Hahaha...

We have started getting some quotations way back but din really stream down to the items and confirmation. After working out some budget planning lately, we are really working on a super duper tied budget for reno... so got to be careful with our choice and what is really necessary for a start.
Sat, we went to Ikea, wanted to get a set of the kitchen cabinet system so that the contractor can work the size of the cabinet according to the system. Found out that the Ikea kitchen system cannot fit into other cabinet except their own Ikea plastic cabinet. Drop the idea in the end... cos I dun want to get Ikea drawer... kinda disappointed that I cant have a kitchen storage system... the price for a better kitchen system like blum or hatal (cannot rem the spelling) is quite x.... Ikea one is more economical but not really much cheaper and worse still I scare it spoilt easily like their desk and other furniture.
In the end I got some stainless steel bar for installation at the back panel for kitchen, some plate and bowl holder.. chin chye chin chye pick a few, burn 80++ bucks in the pocket.


Last Sunday I saw on newspaper there is a warehouse sales at Loyang for Turbo hood and hob. (http://www.happiness.com.sg/) We went to take a look and in less than 15 min, we settled 1 hood,1 hob and a microwave oven. The microwave oven is for my mum place. The hood and hob is for our new place.

Turbo has one is the smallest hob, measuring 60cm. The hood is abt 73cm... I wanted a small cooker so that I can have a bigger sink! Hahah...

We settled the hob and hood for a total of $450! I guess we save about 50 bucks, cos I saw some forum-er got it at about $500

We went to expo to walk walk see see. The 1st shop we sit down is selling roller blind. Nick has wanted a roller blind compare to curtain after seeing it at his uncle place. I do admit that the roller blind is more sleek and less maintenance. But the price wise is easily 2 times the cost of curtain. The lady start selling the mechanism saying its from Germany so more durable... We sign up for the package in the end with $200 deposit... but haven commit to the no. of panels we will do. Average cost about $600 per room... quite x.. we saw the same material (drape) at another stall, but different mechanism... cost cheaper... I later saw from forum, Ikea has the cheapest roller blind, about $100+ can do for 1 bedroom, but some people comment that the roller "sing age" after a while...but to be fair, also got people say they are ok with the ikea ones as they seldom "roll" up and down.

We walked pass a shop that sell door. I am attracted by the bi-fold door and they state 50% discount! But not exactly 50% I guess... its just some gimmicks....usual price $350, promo price $230 but we did a calculation, the total cost for 3 bedrooms doors (veneer semi-core) with level and 2 bi-fold toilet doors is about the same cost as what our contractor quoted. The contractors quoted us for hard-core laminate door, but she was unsure of the roller for the bi-fold... according to the guy who promo the bi-fold, he showed us 2 type of bi-fold, 1 is both top and bottom on "track" line and the better one is top on "roller" and bottom on "track" which make it easier to open and close. In the end we decided to get the doors from the show, cos the price work out to be around the same...$100 bucks as deposit.
Time to work out the budget sheet again...

Update on kitchen ware

We bought a sink, tap and dish drainer from Royal Fanco as recommended from forum. It's located at 135 Jalan Besar Singapore 208849. Tel : 6299 0543, boss is Henry. We almost cant find the place as I got the wrong address from forum. The forum state unit no 131 which is a ah nei shop :P In the end we manage to saw the shop...hahha

He showed us some very deep sink but Nick say deep sink waste water... not sure where he got this theory... hahha... our kitchen length not very long, about 2300mm so cant have a longish sink. In the end we settle for a Taiwan made brand call Crizto at $185 (size 670mm). It has some anti-condensing function... actually I thought all sink works the same. Henry say some ppl will go for anti-bacteria and stuff... din know got so much function... to me sink is just to wash dishes loh...hahhaha.... We got a more classy tap at $70 as chosen by Nick. To me tap is just a tap loh :P... Nick initially wanted a build-in dish drainer whereby the drainer is fixed to the cabinet and a glass door over it. It will make the kitchen look sleek and neat. The boss say provided we must dry the dishes if not keep inside will have smell... seriously I am not a hardworking person... plus I feel that have to keep opening and closing that cabinet quite lay chy. In the end we got the wall mount kind at $75. As they do not have the stock for the sink on Wed, we picked up the sink on Friday. Henry has the new batch of sink come in "improved" version. The drainer has a basket to hold rubbish...hahhaa...

As we din buy over 400 bucks so din get FOC delivery. We realized he got sell Turbo hood and hob also, got good discount also. Their water heater also quite reasonably priced. Guess we will go back to get the water heater.