Renovating your HDB Flat - The Kitchen Sink, Hob and Hood.

And the kitchen discussion continues.

Picking your sink. When picking a sink, you need to have an idea of the design you are looking for. What kind of materials are you looking for? I had went with a stainless steel sink, but there are other materials to consider, like composites, cast iron and solid surfaces. Typical HDBs, should be able to get by with a double bowl sink, with one big bowl and one small bowl.

Next is the faucet to go with your sink. There are many different kinds of faucets out there. Go feel free to look at as many as you can. The one I finally picked, was a simple faucet, that is long enough to make washing dishes easy. Also the drain can be cleared easily by lifting up the metal drain filter when it gets clogged up.

Undermount or overmount? This is one thing I never considered until they came to install my sink. It refers to whether your sink is the kind that just drops into a hole on your kitchen top, or need someone to screw it in from underneath your tabletop. Mine was just dropped in, and I had a plumber install the faucet. Both methods have its pros and cons. Read up more at Do-It-Yourself Undermount-vs-Overmount Kitchen Sink. One thing I did not like about my overmount sink is that water tend to accumulate at the edges near the wall, and constantly need to be wiped dry.

Choosing that Hob and Hood. There are a few choices out there. Commonly used brands appear to be Turbo, Fujioh and Rinnai. For the hob, you can pick between tempered glass or stainless steel hobs. I find tempered glass looks really good. The only worrying concern I found online, is that there are rare instances where the whole hob might shatter during use. 

Places to check out are Courts and Gain City. Sales folks are always happy to share with you their knowledge, so do go and ask questions. I also checked out a number of places in Geylang where a number of shops sold kitchen and toilet accessories. Some places provide bundles for a single brand, but it is not necessary to buy both of the same brand. I personally chose a Turbo tempered glass Hob and a Fujioh Hood.

My contractor had taken measurements to include the space to slide the hood into place. And a hole in the table top space for the hob to slide into. However, my hood was a bit shaky when set into place, so he had to make some adjustments to stabilise it.

Check out the rest of my Renovation Blog

Master Bedroom | Bedroom 2 | Bedroom 3 | Bathrooms | Dining Room | Living Room | Shelter | Service Yard | Kitchen 

Lights and Electricity | Air-conditioning | Bath Tub | Sofa | Washing Machine | Sink, Hob and Hood | Curtains | Filling up the rest of the home

Renovating your HDB Flat - The Kitchen

I read somewhere that modern day couples spend very little time in the kitchen cooking, preferring to eat out or order takeaways. Obviously the author of that article never met my wife yet. Nowadays, the kitchens of new HDBs are getting smaller. So, you got to really maximise your space in there to be able to hold everything you would expect in a kitchen.

All great chefs have big fridges. If you plan to cook often, or you have many people in your home, when choosing a fridge, think big! It's going to hold your vegetables, fruits, yoghurt and all the healthy food you will buy. Ahem.. That said, it will also hold your soft drinks, beer cans, ice cream tubs, chocolates, etc....

Best Denki has a refrigerator buying guide. It's useful to check it out to know what to look for in a fridge. I just went for a top freezer model, with lots of space, and lots of ticks for efficiency. My parents have a side-by-side fridge, which I find quite restrictive in terms of space. You are going to have some problems fitting in that special 2 kg cake you bought for the birthday party. :)

The only thing to note, is that you make sure the fridge you buy, can fit through your front door, and your kitchen entrance. This includes consideration for space for manoeuvring that fridge into position. Take note where will your not-yet-completed cabinets will be. Once built, they can pose a problem to moving your fridge into place. I bought myself one 490 litres fridge from LG, the biggest one I can fit into my kitchen.

Look for energy savings! All refrigerators in Singapore have an Energy Efficiency Rating. This is determine how efficient the fridge is, and also lists the capacity of the fridge. When picking a fridge, just remember that better efficiency will offset it's purchase price in the long run.

Get a kitchen door to keep the smells in. I gotten one folding kitchen door. Very solid door that helps keep all the oil and smells in the kitchen. Note that the frame will reduce width and height slightly, meaning your earlier door measurements for your fridge might need to be re-taken again.

Kitchens need raised floors. Simply because you will probably mop this place the most often, and you do not want water seeping into your brand new cabinets. I also had a small raised dais just for my fridge.

Also, take note I have also added a edge protector to keep the sharp edge covered.

Choosing your table top. There are a lot of choices when if comes to choosing your table top. For the newbie, do go visit IKEA's kitchen section, where they have a lot of variety of tabletops you can check out. If you already have a contractor, he should be able to provide samples of stone tops as well. For more details of what types are out there, check out Houzz Kitchen Counter Top 101. Quite insightful. 

My wife insisted having quartz for my kitchen. Since it was non-negotiable, I stuck with her decision, even though it is much more expensive than solid table tops. We picked a quartz that is white with specks of grey.

One personal suggestion is to maximise the amount of table top space available. You will start to realise that you will run out of space very quickly, as you start to populate every corner of your kitchen. Space for your cups, jugs, spice tray, rice cooker, preparation area, mini-oven, etc.

Cabinets for storage space in important. You will need to figure out what colour your cabinets will be, and how easy to maintain them, especially if you spend a lot of time cooking. Oil stains will form over time.

Decide how wide and how deep your cabinets need to be. Take note that those rice cookers, BBQ hot plates, will take up a lot of space. Shallow cabinets means they can't even fit in. A majority of my cabinets now house a variety of bulky household appliances. I wish I had asked my contractor to make some of the cabinets deeper, so that I got more space to work with.

You also need to pick out the handles. Do you want to be able to hang stuff from the handles? Make sure you choose those that allow to do that.

Create some hanging space as well. It is a kitchen, so chances are, you're going to have a lot of things to hang. Cooking utensils need to be hung to dry. Cleaning towels as well. Go grab some GRUNTAL metal rails from IKEA. Simple and functional. And IKEA have a number of accessories that work well with the metal rail.

Drying those plates. You will probably need some space to dry your dishes. Instead of buying a table top drying rack, go with one that is built into the cabinet above your sink. Save you some table space, and blends in nicely with your cabinet design.

Don't trust that red/blue tape on the wall. I had a nasty lesson on behind-wall piping. When you have entered your new HDB, you will have noted that there are blue and red tapes pasted on the walls. These are meant to mark where the water pipes are. They only provided a "rough" estimate where the pipes are.

While mounting up the cabinets, my contractor's worker drilled 20 cm away from the tape. Pop goes a pipe and water gushed all over my new cabinets. I did raised the question to HDB office downstairs, why the tapes do not show the precise locations, but I got the reply, that we must keep more than 20cm distance away from the markings. However, out of good will, HDB will help fix the pipes without additional costs.

Check out the rest of my Renovation Blog

Master Bedroom | Bedroom 2 | Bedroom 3 | Bathrooms | Dining Room | Living Room | Shelter | Service Yard | Kitchen 

Lights and Electricity | Air-conditioning | Bath Tub | Sofa | Washing Machine | Sink, Hob and Hood | Curtains | Filling up the rest of the home

Renovating your HDB Flat - Putting In Your Curtains

You need to keep the prying eyes of your neighbours out of your home. You need curtains. If that is a new HDB that you are renovating, chances are, your neighbour from across your block have a full view of your bedrooms.

Sizing it right. Before you buy your curtains, make sure you know the kind of curtains you want. Half height or full height. Take a look at the height of your windows. Do they reach from bottom to the top? Grab a measuring tape and make measurements. Height and width. The width of your windows will determine how many curtains you need. And also how long your railing needs to be. 

How much light to block. Do you need your curtains to block out all the lights (blockout) or just let in around 40% of the light. Those that need blockout curtains so that they can sleep in real late, will need to look for professionals. Department stores might not have the really good blockout curtains, so make sure you can test the opacity of those curtains. Department store do give you a large choice of different curtains from different brands. I got mine from Robinson

Picking a colour. Remember that your curtains will cover one of four walls of your room. Do have some thought into what colours works for your room and what kind of feeling you want for the room. Warm or cool. Bright or dark.

Letting some light in. Now if you are like me and have semi opaque curtains, you have gained an additional advantage. Your curtain's colours will fill your room with coloured light, make it very easy to way to change the feel of a room, just by changing the colour of your curtains. Of course, this works best with light coloured walls.

Notice what you are buying. When you buy those curtains, the pair of curtains you buy have the same patterns. Having the same colour does not mean they have the same pattern. 

My wife had a good laugh when I hung up all the curtains, and then we realised that though our curtains are of the same colour, one had stripes while the other had polka dots. Checking the packaging, one curtain was 355# D.Brown. The second one we got was 388# D.Brown.

Don't forget your railings. I got my railings and brackets from IKEA. It is at an unbeatable price, and there are some choices of how you want the ends of the rails will look like. After buying it, you either drill the screw holes yourself, or get your contractor to do it for it. Mine did it for me for free! 

An additonal note about the railings from IKEA. For the master bedroom and living room, the railing had to be quite long, so I had to buy three wall ceiling brackets, instead of two.

Check out the rest of my Renovation Blog

Master Bedroom | Bedroom 2 | Bedroom 3 | Bathrooms | Dining Room | Living Room | Shelter | Service Yard | Kitchen 

Lights and Electricity | Air-conditioning | Bath Tub | Sofa | Washing Machine | Sink, Hob and Hood | Curtains | Filling up the rest of the home

Renovating your HDB Flat - The first few days inside your empty HDB flat

So you finally get into your home. Once you have gotten over the euphoria about your flat, let's talk about your next steps.

Check your letterbox. Mine had TV cables provided. And a metal tap head for ... I have no idea for what.

Bring something to sit on. The floor is very dusty. If your parents decide to come by on your first day, don't make them sit on the dirty floor. Chairs or picnic mats will be useful.

Bring brooms, a dustpan, a mop and pail. Doesn't hurt to clean up your new home on the first day right? Also it will help to clean up the floors for the next few steps.

Turn on the water. Go to the door outside your unit. My unit had one two doors, one for gas and one for water. Open the one for water. For my block, I share the same two doors as my neighbours'. So when turning on your water, take note which set of pipes are yours. DO NOT turn on the gas. Leave that for Citygas to handle.

Check your floors, walls and ceilings. After cleaning up the place, you need to start checking on everything. HDB gives you some time to complain about defects. So start checking! Check that there are no cracks in the walls and ceilings. Also take note, cracks can appear later, when your neighbours start renovating. HDB has a small office set up downstairs where you can lodge your complaints.

Test your floor tiles. This was the most exhausting part of my day. If you have chosen to have HDB provide tiles for your unit, time to get on your knees and start tapping. I used a pair of wooden chopsticks, and tapped every single tile in the house. Listen out for hollow sounds, to make sure the tiles are done properly, without empty spaces behind them.

Check the windows. Open every window in your home. Make sure they swing out smoothly. Check all the rivets to make sure there is none that are rusty or damaged. Remember, Singapore law is very tough on killer litter criminals.

Check the toilets. Flush. Make sure that works. You will need to check the small levers on the pipes. Make sure they are opened, to let the water flow. Then do take a your first dump in your new home!

Take note where the pipes are. Where the pipes are laid will directly determine what you can or cannot do in your toilets and your kitchens. You will also take note where the heater pipes are, cos that's usually where your heater will be installed.

Check the taps. They also have small levers under the basin that needs to be turned to allow water to come through. Please don't drink it immediately. Let the water run for a short while. Use it to fill up that pail for washing.

Check the power points. Do bring a extension bar that lights up when turned on. I used mine to test every socket in the house to make sure they all can provide power. Do check your power-box to make sure you have turned on the power for your home.

Check your gate. Make sure there are no ugly scratches on its surface. Some scratches are expected, but if yours are too big and obvious, let HDB know. They will send someone to file it off and paint over it. Do note that you might end up with bright patches on your gate, so complain with caution. I had one neighbour who just repainted his whole gate.

Bring an extra lock. HDB provided you with the keys to your home. However, when your contractor starts work, you will not be giving them your home keys. This extra lock will be what you pass to them. I used the lock to lock the gate, however, I did note some neighbours actually used bicycle chains as well for their gate. The keys to this extra lock will also be passed to the HDB office for them to do repairs to your unit.

Renovating your HDB Flat - Lights and Electricity

Lights is needed in every room. You also will need electricity in every room. So what did I learn from my experience?

The cost of your HDB now includes wiring. For new flats, HDB will provide the wiring for your lights, for all the typical spots. For my four room, that means one for each room, and one just outside the master bedroom toilet. The switch panels will also be provided. All wiring is built into the walls. 

Shifting those power points. If you want to customise the locations, your contractor will need to get an electrician to come in and re-lay the wires, which can include some drilling work. That's why you got to work on the lighting and switch locations before the painting starts.

Decide where the power points will go. You should get the electrician to move any power socket points and light locations to your preferred locations. For power points, I suggest you should take note where your electronics will be placed, like television, dressing table, work desk, refrigerator. Do consider have one near the dining table, to power that steamboat in the future.

For lights, you can get them to lay extra light points, e.g. I got them to set up a second light point in my corridor wall to provide more light there.

Power for your kitchen. Take note where your power points will be in the kitchen. One needs to be near the stove to power the hob, and have a few to power your appliances like rice cookers, ovens, etc.

Where I got my lights from. I bought my lights mostly from Lightings.com.sg. It has the best prices I can find. After travelling to so many shops, they provided me with value for money. I actually visited their store at Tradehub21. I feel that you just have to see the lights light up before buying them. I did not include light installation, relying on my contractor's men to install instead. Make sure you know the price you got, does it cover delivery and installation.

Becoming an light expert in a 5 minutes. To become an expert on buying bulbs, check out this video by the US government. It will teach you all about lumens. It will also talk about warm or cool lights. That means whether they are more yellowish, or more white respectively. You can also have a mix of the two, to get a more balanced light effect in your room.

Replacing them in the future. See if you can get some spare bulbs from the light store. I intentionally purchase lights that use the same size light bulbs, so that I can save on how many spares bulbs I need to keep in my storeroom. There are different sizes of bulbs and tubes, so take note what wattage yours require and what sizes. So that next time you don't buy the wrong replacements.

I personally keep a number of Phillips bulbs. They are pretty reliable, and I can use them for most of my lighting.

Paying S$3.90 for a ceiling lamp. For the extremely budget conscious people, IKEA's LOCK Ceiling Lamp actually have a very simple lighting frame you can use for places like your store room and corridors. It can support up to 60W bulbs, providing around 400 lumens.

Also note that the IKEA's bulbs that they place near the LOCK Ceiling Lamps are 11W bulbs. If you need brighter ones, look for other choices.

LED Lights are really nice. I have looked at LED lights as well. Very cool looking and environmentally friendly due to their low power usage. But unfortunately, i avoided them, because the savings you could have from using them, is offset by the costs of replacing them when they fail. And for a LED strip or panel, when one LED fails, you can't just replace that one LED. The whole strip needs to be replaced.

Check out the rest of my Renovation Blog

Master Bedroom | Bedroom 2 | Bedroom 3 | Bathrooms | Dining Room | Living Room | Shelter | Service Yard | Kitchen 

Lights and Electricity | Air-conditioning | Bath Tub | Sofa | Washing Machine | Sink, Hob and Hood | Curtains | Filling up the rest of the home

Renovating your HDB Flat - Meetings with your contractor

The date is coming close. You are getting excited about going down to HDB to pick up your key. By now, you should have already visited your contractor or designer a few times already. Since I only engaged a contractor, I will share what I have experienced.

You need to decide on your colour scheme. Things look horrible when you do not give any consideration how everything blends in. You will need to coordinate the colour of your furniture with your wall colours or wallpaper.

I used Nippon Paint for my home. Also, Nippon has a really cool online tool called iColour that lets you try out colours in your rooms.

This article in Renonation.sg provides a good guide on how to many those colours work for you.

Make sure you have your floor plan. When you get your keys, you will be given a copy of your flat's floor plan. Else you can also buy a copy of your floor plan from HDB. When I have not gotten the keys to my flat, I took the launch booklet that had a small picture of my home's floor plan, and blew it up, large enough to do some planning.

Be able to show what you want. Tell your contractor what you want. Show some pictures. If you can draw, draw them. If you can't, go take photos from furniture fairs or furniture stores. I had a lot of photos from IKEA to help visualise what I want. Do describe in as much details as possible. A good contractor should be able to draw actual diagrams just based on your descriptions.

Make use of your contractor. Your contractor will also draw from their experiences and provide their own suggestions. Listen to them. Mine had some fairly good ideas, but one or two not so great ideas too. Their office should also have some samples they can show you. Design samples, colour palettes, etc, are usually available.

Making your room look good. You will need to select the laminates for your cupboards. These will be glued to the sides of your cupboards, and some of them really adds a lot of class to the look and feel of your room. Pick from glossy to matte surfaces, with floral designs, or chequered patterns.

Be patient. My personal experience, a couple deciding on the actual colour, can take hours. If you think you have decided on a single colour so it will be a fast decision, you will be surprised. There is a surprising number of different shades and tints of one colour. My wife and I took ages to pick the laminates for the cupboards. My contractor was quite patient with us, but after 30 mins, he decided to give us some space to think while he go answer a few phone calls.

Renovating your HDB Flat - 6 months before you get your keys

So you have been checking out the fairs, visited IKEA a few times. Around this time, you can actually start some proper decisions.

Decide on what you want. By now, you should know what furniture you want, what is their usual prices. Watch out for offers and deals on those items during the next few months. Some stores only will have sales once a year. Ask their sales folks. Some will share the exact dates when those sales will come by.

Place those orders. Around this time you might be able to place your orders with some of your favourite stores. They will be able to "hold" your furniture up to 6 months, so if there is a good deal, time to take it! But do verify what if you need more than 6 months before taking that furniture. Usually, negotiable.

Getting your spouse's opinion. Assuming you are married, that means there is that one other person you need to consult. With your homework done in the last few months, you should have a feel on what your spouse likes. If he/she is the kind that does not want to provide any comments, go ahead and tell them exactly what you will buy, what colors you will use, etc. Let those thoughts simmer in their mind for a while.

Note: Discuss and try to come to an agreement. Don't start throwing words like "divorce" just because you two refuse to agree.

Ask around. Talk to your friends. Talk to your family. You will be amazed at the treasure trove of knowledge everyone who already have a HDB flat can share with you. Tips, tricks, horror stories, brilliant ideas. There are all there. All you need to do is ask.

Note: The only exception is the overly demanding parent. "Aiyoh, that cupboard so ugly." "Aiyoh, your dining table so small". AVOID at all costs.

Decide whether you want contractor or designer.This is where you probably have an idea whether you want a contractor or designer. I went with contractor. Because it is cheaper. Period. Why else did I spend so much effort doing so much research and learning so many things about the renovations. Because I cannot afford my own designer.

I had talked to the interior designers. Make sure you check what is covered by their offer. Some packages do not include the renovation costs.

Anyway, talk to your friends and family as well. They will probably have their own ideas on who you can call.

Know the time frame you will be starting your renovations. Interestingly, once I started talking to my contractor, I learned a few times. There are some things that will affect your start dates. Watch out for Chinese New Year.  Everyone is rushing to finish up their renovations before CNY day.

7th month. Even if you are not superstitious, your spouse might be. Your parents might be. Heck, your contractor might be too. Try to avoid it.

Know your Fengshui. I believe that there is some logic behind all the mystical beliefs behind fengshui. Pick up some books and read up. Even if you don't believe in everything, it does provide some very interesting ideas.

Renovating your HDB Flat - 1 year before you get your keys

One of the reasons for starting this blog, is renovations. I have been asked by so many friends, about my renovating experiences. So here is, a step by step list of what I have gone through. (I will add more posts over the next few weeks.)

Before you get your flat, there are some things you can do to prepare for the project that is your future home.

Get to know your prices. I say know your prices is because everyone asks me what's my budget. How am I suppose to know my budget when I do not know how much that "die die must get" sofa will cost me? This is where you start ramping up your knowledge as a "part time furniture guru".

Visit furniture fairs. Singapore Expo have quite a number of furniture fairs you should check out. They have a few throughout the year. Visit and get to know them now. So that when your flat comes by, you know what kinds of deals you can probably get. e.g. the "sofa + bed + dinning table" bundle.

Check out furniture stores. There are many clusters of furniture shops around Singapore.  Some places I visited includes Furniture mall, IMM, Sungei Kadut, Tradehub21. These are mostly in the west side of Singapore, so those staying in the east might want to wait for fairs at Singapore Expo where all of the stores will gather in the east.

Give IKEA a chance. I really liked IKEA furniture, just because they have really good pieces, and have great prices. My favorites are the white pieces, where I have white spaces to decorate with wall stickers. The biggest grips from friends about IKEA is "their furniture don't last long". Well, affordable + 10 years, I think that's long enough for me.

Visit Toyogo. Make at least one visit to Toyogo Toa Payoh. You can find a lot of stuff that a new home will need. Big pails. Pots. Containers. Clothes Racks... The list goes on. *edit - Toyogo have moved to it's new location - 2 Kallang Avenue, CT Hub.*

Sign up promotion newsletters. I signed up for Singapore Promotions which lead me to some of my best buys! Watch out for lots of warehouse sales that happen during the year. There are also some "fake" warehouse sales that offer even worse prices that furniture fairs. Lucky you have already know what are the prices you are looking for, right?

Visit websites. Heregotsale is another good site, thought there is not newsletter you can sign up for. So you just got to drop by their page often.

Check out renotalk forums. The Renotalk forums, have a large number of posts talking about everything about renovations. You need reviews about the store you want to buy from? Google "renotalk" "Store name". Make sure you check every furniture store you are planning to buy from. There are many complaints against many stores. Read. Learn. Know what to look out for. e.g. lousy delivery team, poor after-sales support, damaged delivered furniture.

First Post

The first post is the one to set the stage. (Probably the one that is done the worst.)

So here I go.

I am starting a blog to start writing about the things I learn in life and hopefully this will also be helpful to the many Singaporeans out there building their own dream in Singapore.

I will run from topic to topic. Depending on what occupies my time the most in the months.

A bit about me.
I just gotten my HDB flat last year. Finally living in my own unit.
I am married without kids. Planning to have one.
My career is facing huge changes due to billion dollar purchase by a China company.

So this year, I'm keeping track of my life. So all these things, I will learn, and I will share.