🏗️🧱💰🛠 Home Renovation Budgeting: Where to save and where to spend?

233

Modern Organic
HDB (Resale)
~1,000 sqft
4 br
Couple Living

We once heard this saying, “If you want to know a person’s priorities, just look at how they spend their money.” This is very true when it comes to renovation. Our money always goes to our priorities - except that “everything” feels equally important when you want to build your dream home. In this article, we will share with you how we prioritize our renovation, and also some tips on how we saved money. We hope this helps you in keeping to your budget while building the home of your dreams. 1. Before you think about budget, prioritize the look and feel you want your home to be. For our home, we decided that we wanted to have a feeling of spaciousness, a bright theme, and a warm ambience. With this in mind, we looked at how we could transform our space, such as demolishing certain walls, or arranging the layout in ways to allow space. Once we knew our options, we considered how much it would cost to execute each of our ideas. 2. How much woodwork is needed? Woodwork such as the wardrobe, kitchen cabinet, storage cabinet are some of the most expensive items in your renovation, because they require measurement, material preparation at the factory, installation and adjustments. Hence, the more you can visualize how you want to use your kitchen, living space and how much clothing you have, the better you can decide how much woodwork you will need.
3. Tiles vs vinyl? Overlay vs hacking? If you purchase a resale unit like us, flooring will take up $8k - 10k of your budget. Assuming the existing flooring will be replaced, the two most popular options are tiles and vinyl. We opted for LURF vinyl by Floor Xpert, because we wanted a floor that is not cold when step on, and this vinyl has improved so much that it has low health risks compared to earlier batches of vinyl. Comparatively, tiles would cost more, and you need to factor in costs for cement and sand. We did not like overlay as it usually has issues with being not leveled, or air tends to get under the cement producing sound when stepped on.
4. What can you save on? - We did not spend on branded faucets, shower systems. We looked for quality items that were not branded. - Purchasing a sintered stone dining table from Taobao saved us $1k, compared to purchasing a similar table locally. - Choosing to use tiles for our kitchen backsplash, instead of glass, sintered stone or Dekton.
5. What did we invest in? - Synchronized sliding door by Austscreen - which expanded our dining/living space into one of our study rooms, creating more spaciousness for our home. - Dekton countertop, which was probably the most expensive item in our renovation list. We loved this investment because it is easy to clean, does not leave stain marks (unlike Quartz-based countertop), and makes the kitchen look high quality. - Metallic grey matte mirror - another item that reflects light and adds spaciousness. - Toilet window with ventilation fan. Whether you are going to spend 40k or 100k, at the end of the day, what is most important is that you will love to spend time at home. If you like long-term, like us, then investing a bit in quality products adds durability and peace of mind. Stay connected and follow our journey on Instagram @thelittlestarryloft for more updates. We can't wait to share more with you! ♡