housethingsgoing
A frog and a duck living in a 4rm resale flat
Breaking down reno costs for our 4RM resale flat
760
If you’re a new/potential homeowner wondering how much to spend on reno, here’s our cost breakdown! The theme of our reno was…. “How can we renovate our resale flat without breaking the bank?” because buying a resale flat, paying for reno and furniture AND paying the downpayment for our wedding was sucking our savings dry lol. This is also why we tried to focus the main reno budget on the more important areas (kitchen and bathrooms) and our bedrooms and living room are still a work in progress, which we’re still experimenting with even today using loose furniture. It’s like… an ongoing home DIY playground for Duck HAHA. We also retained lots of usable items from the previous homeowners, which we planned to slowly 'upgrade' over the years. We’ve broken down the cost by parts of the house to make it easier to read, and also included a section on the things we could have done but DIDN’T do so you know what wasn’t included in this breakdown! Also, the prices are from 2023 so… do account for inflation. Quick disclaimer is that this is solely for reno costs (what we paid our ID) - it doesn’t include the cost of our appliances, furniture and everything else we bought on our own. 
“Reinstating the house” - $2,770 I guess this happens to everyone who buys a resale flat - unless you’ve managed to get a super beautiful home that aligns with your moodboard entirely. We spent a bit on removing the existing items in the house, which included hacking the kitchen cabinets and very huge built-in wardrobes from the previous owner. That said, I guess this cost could be a lot higher as the previous owner didn’t have too many built-ins (and no false ceilings or other carpentry in the rooms and living rooms). 
Walls and floor: $10,424 We removed the existing vinyl, cement screeded the floor and overlaid with new vinyl - yes our floor is vinyl! We always get questions about whether it’s tiles because it doesn’t look like the usual wood patterned vinyl. It’s actually just a stone/granite finish using larger panels of vinyl :) We also repainted the whole house because… the original colours of the house were pink, purple and blue and it was not a vibe. What we didn’t do: We didn’t opt for tiles (saw the cost and died, maybe for our next home if we somehow become richer) and went with vinyl for everything. We also didn’t change out the original HDB tiles in the kitchen and service yard, which turned out to be a massively bad decision because our tiles somehow corroded during renovation and we’re left with these weird stained tiles :( 
Living Room: $2,100 We added a fluted glass panel at our entryway for privacy and also flushed the recessed wall behind our sofa so the sofa could sit against a flat wall. And… that was all we did for the living room :) What we didn’t do: We didn’t add any feature walls, carpentry or any recessed lighting. 
Kitchen, Dry Pantry, Dining Room: $11, 470 The kitchen was pretty expensive because we expanded it to create a dry pantry (lots more carpentry was needed) and also because we made the (excellent) choice of using sintered stone, which is pretty expensive. So some quick math: bigger countertop + sintered stone = goodbye money :) We also had bifold glass windows and doors installed to create an open-close kitchen concept so that was also included in the cost. What we didn't do: We didn't conceal our bomb shelter door (which is in the kitchen), or change out the original service yard louvred windows and folding door. We also didn't do any reno works to the service yard. 
Bedrooms: $600 (all 3 bedrooms) We also did nothing to our three bedrooms except flushing one recessed wall in the master bedroom (same issue we had in the living room). What we didn’t do: Basically we didn’t do everything that most people do HAHA - no built in wardrobes, no headboards, no recessed lighting, etc etc. 
Bathrooms: $17,250 (both bathrooms) Our bathrooms were the original HDB ones with an absolutely terrible print on the wall (HDB, please can we choose better tile designs) so we gave them an overhaul. This included overlaying all the tiles, installing the new fixtures, adding niche walls and building custom vanities. Admittedly the sintered stone tops for our vanities were a bit much but hey, we love our sintered stone. :) What we didn’t do: We didn’t choose any fancy tiles that required top up, or include any customised mirrors, shelving or other fixtures apart from the standard ones. 
Electrical Works and Misc. Costs: $4,430 Our electrical works consisted mainly of removing and reinstalling fans, adding lighting points and new sockets. And finally, there is a part of reno called MISCELLANEOUS COSTS, which is where ALL the random things we never ever accounted for come in - the simplest and most random of things like hauling the debris out of your house, laying the paper protection, etc etc - all of these cost money :’) What we didn’t do: We retained some of the fans and most (if not all) of the original sockets AND thankfully did not have to change the aircon, so we managed to save quite a bit on the electrical costs in these aspects. Of course, as budget people we also opted for non-fancy switch covers and no concealed switches. So that’s a breakdown of our overall reno costs, not including our appliances, furniture and fixtures (like the toilet bowls, showers, lights, etc) 
To be honest, our ID was not the cheapest - we compared quite a few quotes from different IDs and kinda went with someone who was in the middle, and with whom we could work with. And of course, we have our regrets as well - things we might not have paid for if given a second change (sintered stone vanities LOL) and things we would have added on (new kitchen tiles) even if it means Duck has to eat caifan with no meat for the next 6 months. But with the number of reno horror stories that are going around these days, we're just going to be glad that we managed to survive our whole reno process and have the house come out in pretty good shape with just a few minor mishaps :) Let us know in the comments if you have any questions or thoughts about our costs/reno/house!
19 August
