Home on Mondays: Condo Renovation Tips

The best time to customize your condo unit is before you move in. We were first time home owners when we received our unit and we thought what came with the unit was enough for us. Well, we didn't really know what we wanted and just used bandaid solutions through the years. It made living in our unit a bit harder. 

We finally got around to renovating our unit after 10 years! It took so long because we lived in Singapore for awhile and contractors required the unit to be empty. Eventually got around to emptying it and by that time we had a good idea what we wanted to do.

Here are some tips for those intending to renovate or customize your unit:

1. Make a list of all the issues you want to be resolved, i.e. sink is too small, need more storage in the bathroom. Do this by room. We used this list to pick the brains of our architect for solutions to our problems, i.e. resolve heat issue in living room.
2. Have a general idea for a color scheme or theme that your architect can work on. We're not very visual people, so we ended up describing to our architect that we wanted the unit to feel like a vacation home. 
3. Have a budget and stick to it. Keep track of all payments and receipts. 
4. It's good to know a bit about construction materials so you can tell your architect/contractor if you have preferred materials. Add'l tip: don't use flat latex, always go at least for semi-gloss. 
5. Research! There's so much info you can find on practical design ideas on Pinterest which can be useful for you. It also helps to read and watch videos on home makeovers. 
6. Make a detailed list of what you agree to work on. Use this as a check-list and it is best to use the unit after the renovation so you can make sure it's livable. Your condo property management office will also probably send their engineer to check on the unit. We had some items fixed post-renovation, i.e. had to add holes in the oven cabinet and some electrical work had to be fixed. Also had to have some things tweaked and covered post-renovation. 
7. Make sure everything works, sockets, plumbing (no leaks!), any built-in items like your stove and oven. We had to have the aircon frame done again because they locked in the aircon unit and the cleaners had to destroy the frame to get it out. It was replaced with a velcro frame. 
8. Replace appliances/gadgets and furniture only if necessary. 
9. Salvage any materials if still useful.
10. Your contractor will probably do some cleaning, but it would be better to get professional cleaners to do a post-construction cleaning.

I covered in separate blog posts everything we had fixed in our condo unit. Here's a list in case you want to check out how we went about it:

• 
  Living Room
• Kitchen 
• Bedroom 1 & 2
• Common Bathroom
• Master's Bedroom
• Master's Bathroom

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Home on Mondays: Condo Common Bathroom Makeover

I almost forgot to feature the makeover we did for the condo common bathroom. It was used as is when we moved in and we just added a few fixtures through the years. The biggest complaint we had for the bathroom were the toilet and sink. The toilet was smaller than standard. It was quite uncomfortable. The sink was also too small. Of course, the bathroom did not come with any cabinets installed so even with the shelf add-on, it looked messy. 

Here's what we changed in the common bathroom:

Removed the old sink, installed a new bigger one

Removed the old toilet, installed a new standard sized one

Added a cabinet under the new sink

Changed the mirror to a cabinet 

Changed the ceiling light

Updated to a new exhaust fan

Kept the tiles and just repainted the walls

The space looks so much better now and got good reviews from it's original user (Miggy). Of course, don't forget to check for any leaks when the contractor turns over the finished unit to you. 

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Home on Mondays: Condo Masters Bedroom Makeover

Last week I shared about the changes we requested for the masters bedroom bathroom in the condo. Our masters bedroom was generally okay, but the biggest pain were the closets. We added built in closets when we moved in, but made the mistake of using cabinet swinging doors instead of sliding doors. We had to move stuff just to open the cabinet. The cabinets also looked dated. The cabinet was the main focus then for the master bedroom. 

Midway through renovations.

Old look of the masters bedroom

The space was just enough for a bed and closets. I tried to fit in a dresser and we eventually got rid of it because it got wet (the a/c dripped). On Sweetie's side of the bed, he was frustrated with his cabinet. Opening the cabinet was difficult because he had to move a stool everytime he had to open it. My cabinet was a pain to open also because I had a fan in front of it. 

Here's what we changed in the masters bedroom:

Cabinet doors changed to sliding doors

Changed color of cabinets

Changed the flooring

Changed the lighting fixture

Installed blinds

Added side tables since there was space for it now

We stayed in the condo for a few weeks and got to experience the changes. We brought only essential items. Our experience was amazing. The unit was also much cooler and we didn't use the a/c most of the time. We didn't bring a lot of stuff, but we managed. It felt good actually not to have so much things. The cleaner who came to work on our balcony said he was so surprised to see the unit empty. He said it looked beautiful. 

Staying in the unit for a few weeks gave us a better idea on some minor issues that need to be addressed. Will share next week on what to prioritize if you're acquiring a condo unit. :)

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Home on Mondays: Condo Masters Bathroom Makeover

One of the things I struggled with while living in a condo unit was the lack of storage in the bathroom. We were only able to add a rod for the shower curtain, towel holder and a shower caddy. We used makeshift cabinets to store extra toiletries. The toilet paper pack was perennially under the sick. The only nice thing we had was the laundry hamper which we got from Ikea. It looked messy even with the containers we used. 

I shared all my frustration to Arch. Wansi when we planned to renovate the unit. We originally only planned to add cabinets and keep the countertop. I really disliked the purple/magenta specked countertop. Through the years it started to fade and I disliked it even more. It came with the unit and I don't know why DMCI went for that ugly color. Anyway, since we were already renovating we decided to have it changed. We realized the new cabinets and mirrors wouldn't have looked good with the odd looking countertop*.

Here's what we changed in the masters bathroom:

Mirrors were lengthened to cover the wall end-to-end and added storage space behind it

Added lights under and on top of the mirror and changed the ceiling light

Changed the countertop

Kept the sink but changed the faucet

Added storage under the sink

Used dove gray paint for the cabinets

Re-painted the walls

Replaced the exhaust with a new one (the original one died after 8 years)

Original Bhagwan water heater still surprisingly working. We only changed the shower head last year. 

We were really happy with the makeover. We realized though we didn't allot any space for the laundry hamper. Managed to squeeze in a small one beside the trash can. Maybe next time we'll get a smaller one so it can go under the sink. 

*The countertop was really sturdy and is now probably installed in a new home. 

Home on Mondays: Condo Bedroom Renovation

It was our first time to own property when we bought our condo unit. Looking back, we should have probably spent a bit more to customize our unit before we moved in. We were in a rush to move at that time because we had to rid of our monthly lease since we had to pay for our mortgage. I was also scheduled to for heart surgery a few weeks after moving in. 

Start with mayhem and the mess is certainly going to grow. Life would have been easier if we had all the proper cabinets installed and furniture in place before we moved in. It was hard since we didn't have enough storage, so our home was perennially messy. 

Before and after emptying the room

No contractor wanted to work on our apartment until we removed all our possessions in the unit. That's why it took 10 years before we managed to get anything done. One of the most annoying issue in the bedroom was the closet. The cabinets had doors that would eat up so much space whenever it was opened. Another issue were the curtains. 

Property management required residents to use white curtains facing outward. It would also get warm, so to keep the heat out we doubled the curtains. We thought about having the windows tinted, but it's expensive. We then decided to change to blinds. It solved the issue of keeping the heat out. It also ate up less space especially in the bedrooms. 

Here's what we changed in the two bedrooms: 

Closet doors transformed into sliding doors 

Closets re-colored to dove gray 

Bedroom doors re-colored to white 

Accent wall added to make the bedroom more interesting 

Curtains changed to roller blinds Air-conditioning units are now properly framed 

Changed the flooring

Finally, upgraded the ceiling light

Home on Mondays: Condo Living Room Renovation

The "classic" look of our living room looked dated after a decade. It also made our living area smaller. We were told several times that we should have gone for lighter colors to make our space look bigger. The open shelves also made things look very cluttered. Through the years we also kept adding stuff to it. Never really had time to declutter. 

For our living room, our main objective was to make the space look bigger and clean. We felt our unit breathed a sigh of relief when we emptied it (haha). It really needed a good clean-up. Here's how it looked before we moved in -

How it looked before we moved out (didn't really occur to us to take photos of the cabinet in the past 10 years haha) -

We originally put the loveseat sofa beside the dining table. We copied that from Tita Pet and Uncle Fumio in their home in Tokyo. It saved a lot of space, but it wasn't really good for my back. It would have worked if it was on a platform.

There's a loveseat  sofa somewhere there.

How the cabinet looked when it was empty -

Here's what we changed:

Floor to ceiling living room cabinet was overhauled. Added cabinet doors to the top portion. Kept the drawers but changed the handles. Removed the glass cabinet and repainted to a lighter color. TV area also made bigger to accommodate a larger TV. 

Removed the metal shelf and re-used a Billy bookcase (those are really sturdy!). 

Replaced the lighting fixtures to nicer ones. 

Replaced the chandelier with a fan. It gets warm in the afternoons and the fan has changed the overall temperature a lot. 

Moved the loveseat sofa in front of the TV area, added a rug, an armchair and a side table. 

Removed the double curtains and switched to blinds. The blinds actually ward off heat and the sun better than curtains.

Work in progress.

Almost there.

The fan and the finished cabinet + blinds.

The new living room.

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Home on Mondays: Condo Kitchen Renovation

One lesson I learned through the years of home ownership is to get your place readied before you move in. Our first home was a condo unit. We weren't able to ready it before we moved in because we already extended our rental. We had to cross out our rental expense because we had a mortgage to pay. So we moved in with just a fridge, haha.

It was hard because it was Christmas so all our orders for furniture were delayed. We slept on the floor for a long time. Our clothes were in boxes and it was a huge mess (yes, we made the same  mistake again). Eventually we got our furniture, but it took a long time to get everything organized. 

The old look. 

Since we realized we should have added built in cabinets in the bathrooms. The kitchen was useful, but we didn't have enough space to place our kitchen appliances. Our fridge was too big and the electric stove and oven took a gazillion years to heat up. The cabinet doors in the bedroom ate too much space. Our large bookshelf was an eyesore because it looked so cluttered. We knew it was time to upgrade.

Finally after 10 yeaars we had the unit updated. We removed everything in the unit. Got help from the Squeaky.ph angels to pack everything. We moved it to our new home. Thought I'd start with what we did to the kitchen. Here's how it looked before move in -

Just after we moved in -

The messy lived in kitchen just before we left -

Here's what we changed:

Electric range to induction stove but kept the rangehood exhaust

Oven to built in electric oven

Side by side fridge to a normal 2-door fridge

Small sink changed to a larger sink

Added a side pantry cabinet

Weird purple countertop changed to off-white

Cabinets were spruced up too (finally removed the plastic on the handles hahaha)

Our shiny new kitchen after the changes :)

Now I want to move back, haha. 

Renovation was made by Alab Design & Construction (website and FB). Thank you Alab team, Arch Wansi, May, Mang Jo, Tukoy, Allan, Alvin and Kuya Gary!

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My Heart Skipped!

It does every day, haha. It was different though yesterday. Sweetie went to our old unit to finally pull out all the boxes. We commissioned a company to do some touchups. They will just repaint, fix the floor, replace cabinet doors and fix the lighting fixtures. They started working on the unit last Wednesday. 

My heart skipped when Sweetie sent a photo of a door being repainted. From brown it's now white! We just approved the colors the architect showed us and gave him free hand on what to retouch. I didn't know they were going to change the color of the doors too haha. 

They're also changing the ugly floor in the bedrooms. Luckily the living room and bathroom floors are still okay and would just need re-grouting. It would have been harder and more expensive to change them since property management requires a bond to do heavier renovation work. 

The work should be finished by end of the month. This also means we should finish unboxing and reducing our things in our home by then because we'll be working on our house by then. We're finally working on our to-do list now. We prioritized Mom in the past few months. Need to pace myself though, was out for three days straight and by Thursday I had slight fever. 

I think the new medication my doctor gave is starting to work. The pain has lessened and I could breathe better. We're trying to figure out how to use the oxygen concentrator. My doctor said it will help alleviate the strain on my heart. The sad news is according to the 6-minute walk test, my walking capacity has been reduced by 33%. I still hope it'll improve so I can still make lakwatsa!

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