What to consider when doing your Home Renovation - 8 Important Tips

Finally you got the keys to your new home! You are so excited with your family because you and your family have been hoping that you can have the set of keys to your new home as soon as possible so that all of you can move in asap. 

You have been flipping home magazines, browsing in the internet, checking in showrooms and dream about how your new home is going to look like. It should look like that showroom we saw last week. Oh hang on, what about the other showroom we saw the other week in Kuala Lumpur? Maybe I should engage an interior designer to design our new home! Why not?

 1. Do you intend to take care of your own project full time or are you engaging an interior designer or contractor? Do you have the time? It depends on what you want. To have an interior designer is good whereby they can help you to design based on your concept. You tell the interior designers what you want and they are able to come up with visuals for you to see. It is great to have visuals as you may not able to visualize in your mind sometimes. Get the list of your bulky stuffs so that when you plan your layout you will not miss it. Example : piano!

 

 2. Most of the times, new homes come with very minimum socket points. Even if purchase an existing home from another owner, you need to check this as well. Always install more socket points rather than ended up like this.

Do not think that after you have counted all your home appliances that you have, say 10 numbers, you decide to fix on that quantity. What about areas like corridor, hallway, bedroom, study rooms, kitchen, for your oven, microwave, steamer, blender, vacuum, internet, WIFI, charging port for all the phones that you have in the family! Those extensions for plugs and cables are just not ugly and unappetizing, it is hazardous to seniors and children as well.

 

3. Hooks for your clothes. If you intend to have hooks behind your door in the bedroom, remember to tell your contractors not to fix too high up.

A good height for back hooks should be around 5' 6" or for children's room, 4' should be good enough. I have seen real life experience before in my friend's house, the hook is so high even a 5' 7" can hardly reach. 😢 

4. Taps in the toilet. Sometimes, some new homes do not come with the outlet for bidet. So before you move in, you could have check if there is any near the WC. If there isn't, you may want to get your contractor to fix one. Bidet cum tap is very convenient not just for cleaning bathroom, it is also for collecting water if there is any water ration! 😁

5. Paint for your walls. Have you seen that beautiful interior design photo in that home magazine? You love the color so much that you ask your interior designer to find that particular color.

 

There are thousands of color in the paint section. Those special colors that you have selected has a certain code number. It is good that you keep that color code in your renovation file just in case if your child dirtied that wall, you can get another small can in the shop and paint that spot. But if you do not have that color code, then maybe you need to paint the whole wall!

 

6.Remember to plan as many storage space as possible. Drawers, pantry, cabinets are always not enough. There are always books, toys, cooking utensils, yearly Christmas decor that you use once a year. Of course it is fine if you decided to giveaway some of them before you move. In fact it is a great time to get rid of those old clothes that doesn't fit anymore or out of fashion. To have more storage doesn't mean to keep stuffs that you do not need. It is more for putting away your things so your home looks tidy and impeccable.

 

7. The air condition outlet position has been set by the developer. When the developer's Interior designer plan the showroom, it is always amazing and most of the time we can easily get attracted to it forgetting how we should design our own, and may blindly wanted to follow. After you collected the keys, check where is the outlet. Are you going to place your bed in the middle of the room or against the wall? Avoid having bed UNDER the air-cond. This is a no no as you may ended up drenched one morning when you wake up if the air-cond is leaking!  

 

8. By the way, did you plan a budget on your renovation? This is the most important part in fact but I placed in the last point. :) Because I do not want you to feel stressed!

Do you have unlimited budget? Regardless if you have a tight budget or money is not a problem, just make sure you make a list of needs and wants. Do I need that new sofa set or I can still use the existing one? Do I need that beautiful chandelier to hang it down from the ceiling at my living room or I can live without one? It is always wise to put a list of what you really need versus what you want. You can always make that list by rooms. Start with the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, study room, bathrooms, balcony etc. I will also recommend to have a pest control to come in to your home before moving in as an annual pest control spray is good to keep away unwanted insects and crawling friends. 

So now you have the whole lists before you start your dream home renovation. Plan and do not rush. Think wisely and have a great time doing your renovation!

 

 

 

Are you buying a new home or condominium?

 

Are you considering buying a new home or condominium and have started visiting the developers’ show room? If so, you would be very excited by the concepts of their designs and how good they look, right?  What you need to understand is that the sales people are almost always very professional and their sole objective is to get you to commit to a booking fee for the residence even if you are not 100% certain this is the right fit for you.

Firstly you must take the time to understand the floor plan and the actual area size as looks can be extremely deceiving. A friend asked me to go with them for a second look at a condominium that she was interested in purchasing. She showed me the layout plan and was very excited as it was a great location. She took days admiring the layout and have decided to place a booking fees. She insisted I go with her again and then suddenly we realized one thing. The presentation layout has a darker shade and the column is almost similar color. We cannot really see unless we use a magnifying glass.

We went back to see the showroom again and realized the pillar was being wrapped up against a high table. Then we counter check again and true enough, after a couple of days only, we realized the problem.  Also the use of mirrors in show rooms is very common to make the area seem larger than it actually i. This is another very good reason to understand the dimensions of the floor plan.

 

You will also see the furniture used in these show rooms are always perfect for the size and shape of the area you have which means you have very little chance of buying furniture which actually fits the space if you are shopping from furniture outlets or looking to buy off the shelf.

 

For the bedrooms, make sure that the size and shape of bed you want to have in your room can actually fit!  Generally, show rooms will have smaller beds or small wardrobe space (if any) which means when you actually move into your new dream home, half of your existing furniture doesn’t fit in or you have the added cost and inconvenience of custom make to suit the layout.

 

I would suggest before you purchase your dream home, always at least visit the property / showroom on 3 separate occasions and preferably another person to visit with you to give their opinion on the size, space and furnishing.  It is also great to see how the showroom looks at different times of the day providing this is a showroom located on the actual site or near the site on which you have purchased. There is a big difference when you look at a bare unit versus a made up showroom.

 

I hope this is a help and guide to you and wish you good luck on your new house hunting!  Check out our website for your home needs! 

Home is where WE want to be

 

Thinking about going home everyday after work.. unless you work from home now. If you work from home, it means you are in your HOME for 24 hours apart from heading out to buy groceries or maybe pop into your office if you required.

What do you want? Do you want to go back to a nice comfy home or you just don't care as long it has a roof, electricity and water?

 

Everyone would wish to have this living room. Big, spacious, comfortable sofa and a clean environment. But it doesn't mean that you can't have a small area but warm and loving? Isn't it as long as our family is around with us, any small or big home is fine? The concept of our home is more about the people with us and even though it is comfortable to be in big home, but think about all the dirty jobs you need to do! To have helpers is important, so think properly if you want to settle for big or smaller home.

 

Then the bathroom. The place whereby some may spend minutes in there, some may spend more than an hour. 😉 Bathroom needs to be clean definitely, and if you are looking into buying and renovate your new home, check the floor and wall tiles! Are the tiles on the darker shade and not just plain white? Darker color is easier to clean that's for sure.

New condominium bathrooms nowadays mostly are in white or whitish color. But what if that condo unit is already my new home and it is in white tiles? Well, either you use it for awhile and after a few years, do some renovations and get new tiles, or live with it! 😅 To be honest, if that home is where you are going to stay for a long long time, spend a little some years later and make good is fine.

 

And yes, kitchen! Kitchen cabinets are white too.. What is going on? A lot of developments are provided with white kitchen cabinets too if you did not notice. So there must be a reason 😬 But some developers allow you to omit those kitchen cabinets and give you a discount. Some do not allow so depends on your luck. Basically, kitchen cabinets with darker shade would be better too. But of course, white kitchen cabinets can look very grand too. 

Then our....snoozing area.. bedroom!

 

This is everybody's favorite spot. Bedroom is for everyone. After a hard day's work, we need that firm mattress to rest and have sweet dreams. Bedroom is very important so plan properly for your new home. The color should not be strong color and pale is good. Hopefully the curtain installed are sun proof like those in the hotels. This significant area is definitely important and everyone just want to lie down and laze in the bed. Get a good mattress for your good night sleep. zzzzzzz