Renovation of our house

Our home is under renovation. We are living there. Imagine the mess and inconvenience with the ongoing work!

I have been planning to renovate the house for years. Then came the outbreak of Covid-19. When the pandemic finally stabilized, the two children were sitting for their public exams. At times, I would frown at the discolored ceilings and chipped doors.

One day, I felt that couldn’t take it anymore. At last, I scheduled for renovation work to start on the last day of my elder daughter’s A-level exam.

The story of our current home

After we got married in 2004, we temporarily put up in one of my rental properties. We didn’t expect that we would stay put until 2007. With a 2-year-old and a helper, four of us were squeezing into a one-bedroom apartment.

In the neighborhood of my in-laws and sister-in-law, there was a 5 to 7-year-old landed housing estate. Thanks to an interesting Singaporean belief back then. Many believed that the value of leasehold terrace houses could only depreciate over time. One should only buy landed houses with freehold status.

Because of that, the asking prices of these relatively new 99-year leasehold houses were surprisingly reasonable. In fact, they were even cheaper than the 3-bedroom units of a nearby 7-year-old EC project.

“Fast forward to 15 years later in 2022. The price of a 3-bedroom unit in the EC that we didn’t buy has increased close to 30 percent. In contrast, the valuation of our 20-year-old leasehold landed home has increased by three times. During the pandemic, houses in the estate were very much in demand.

Nonetheless, as the house is for our own stay, whether its valuation goes up or down has nothing to do with us. After all, a residence is an expense, not an investment with return. The lower price we buy, the earlier we pay up, the better.

– “Why people miss the big picture”, PropertySoul.com

When it comes to our home, we are very conservative and budget conscious. A home is not an investment but an expense and a depreciating liability. We believe in buying something very affordable and well below our means. We will only buy when both me and my husband alone can pay the full price in cash right at the beginning.

A house that desperately needs renovation

The landed housing estate we call home was completed in the early 2000s. Twenty years later, many of our neighbors have sold their house after their kids grow up. The new owners revamp the whole house before they move in.

Consequently, our house is one of the few ones in the street that is still in its original condition. Like it or not, it has a strong late 1990s feel!

The previous owner stayed in the house for four years. After we took over, it still looked new. As a result, we just did some minor touch-ups such as repainting the interior, polishing the marble floor and updating the kitchen. Overall, we spent under $40,000 in total for all the renovation, furnishing and appliances.

In the past 16 ½ years, apart from necessary repairs, there was no improvement work done. With wear and tear over the years, the house really looks tired now. However, it is inconvenient to do whole house renovation when the family is residing there. We also want to avoid the hassles of moving to a temporary accommodation.

Should we buy a new place instead?

It makes sense to stay in the same house

About 15 years ago, one by one my husband’s friends were building their own house. We thought we would probably do the same thing one day.

Then we witnessed all the hassles and stresses they had in the process. For some reason, usually the woman in the house was the most stressful one.

We have been staying in the same house for 16 ½ years. We were happy. But I am not sure how much happier we will be after we build a nice house.

In a CNBC interview, the late Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Charlie Munger shared his rationale for living in the same California home over the past 70 years.

[Buffett and I] are both smart enough to have watched our friends who got rich build these really fancy houses,” Munger said. “And I would say in practically every case, they make the person less happy, not happier.

A “basic house” has utility, said Munger, noting that a larger home could help you entertain more people — but that’s about it. “It’s a very expensive thing to do, and it doesn’t do you that much good.”

Another drawback to owning a mega-mansion, he added: Such an ostentatious display of wealth could spoil his kids by encouraging them to “live grandly.”

– “Charlie Munger lived in the same home for 70 years: Rich people who build ‘really fancy houses’ become ‘less happy’”, CNBC

Finding the right contractor

Despite the rundown condition of the house, my husband doesn’t think it needs any renovation. To him, renovation equals repairs: If things are broken, we will fix them. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

After my persuasion, rather than doing whole house renovation, we would settle with restoration and reconditioning.

The next step was to find a contractor. I did have experience arranging renovations and touch-ups for my rental properties. But that was quite some time back.

One day, I noticed a tall Chinese man with white hair painting the exterior wall of our neighbor’s house. It was unusual because:

1) We seldom see a local painting a house. The work is often done by Malaysians or foreign workers.

2) It is rare for a man his age doing exterior painting with scaffolding.

3) His painting is meticulous and of good quality.

I don’t mind paying more for a self-employed local painter. After all, renovation companies are all paying foreign workers a humble salary while keeping the rest as profit.

I brought up the topic with my neighbor. By coincidence, she also did her renovation work when her family was staying there. She picked a contractor who submitted the best quotation. It was this contractor who recommended the local painter. Both were honest people. Above all, she was satisfied with their customer service and workmanship.

She sent me the contacts of her contractor and painter so I could contact them separately.

The self-employed painter

I talked to the painter over the phone in Chinese and arranged a time for his visit.

He was a soft-spoken man with good manners. He recommended the colors to paint different parts of the house. Then he left the paint catalog behind for us to decide on the colors.

Besides, he said it would be expensive to change all the doors of the house (16 in total). Instead, he could help us repair the chipped parts at the bottom and paint over them. Then they would look new again. He could also help to touch up some wardrobe door and wooden tops.

This is so environmentally friendly! Remember the 3Rs of recycling? Reduce, reuse and recycle.

After getting details of all the work, he sat down for 15 minutes to come up with a quotation. When we finished our lunch, he was ready. After we decided to proceed, he asked for a 10 percent deposit for booking the scaffolding.

Every day he would arrive punctually at 8 am and finish at 4 pm. He had a friend who worked alongside him. They brought their lunch in the morning so they could have a quick meal mid of the day.

During a break, old uncle showed me photos of his three children. The eldest one is a government scholar currently pursuing his doctorate degree in a top university in the UK. The other two also graduated and started working. But he wanted to continue working instead of staying at home doing nothing. Above all, he enjoys painting houses.

Falling sick at the wrong time

I remember back in 2007 I was also the one managing the contractor for the renovation of this house. It was tiring traveling frequently from the east to the northwest with a 2-year-old. I soon fell sick.

This time I was psychologically prepared that it could be tiring and stressful for the renovation. The week before we were going around looking at tiles, shower screens, toilet bowls, etc.

Moreover, Christmas was around the corner. To prove that I could be artistic too, I was rushing to finish some handmade Christmas gifts for my friends and relatives. Every day I was busy running different errands.

Two days before the start of the renovation work, I felt muscle pain in my left leg. At first, I thought it was the new yoga pose I was practicing. Four days later, a few blisters appeared on my left knee. I had shingles! My daughter joked that I had “shingles” because of the “jingle” bells festive season.

Those itchy blisters gradually spread to my lower leg. It could be painful walking up and down the stairs. Fortunately, I didn’t have any flu-like symptoms or sharp pains.

Renovation done when we were away

It turned out that the two painters were very efficient. The progress was much faster than expected. After the first week, interior painting was completed. They were even faster than the worker replacing the tiles in the yards and the toilets. Old uncle’s workmanship was particularly impressive!

The following week the painters planned to paint the exterior of the house and touch up some wooden furniture. Since our parquet flooring had some scratches, old uncle promised to help us sand and polish it as well.

Earlier on, the contractor told us not to engage a flooring company to polish the parquet floor. If we were staying in the house, the strong smell from the work would be unbearable for us.

The next week we left for Hong Kong to visit my family. When we were back, the outside of the house was nicely painted. However, my dressing table and my daughter’s wardrobe doors were finished with an odd gross paint which was not what we wanted.

Furthermore, old uncle also started painting the parquet floor on the third storey with a darker reddish brown paint. On the contrary, we wanted to polish the floor in its original light brown color. Apparently,, he didn’t check with us about the colors before his work. Perhaps he didn’t want to disturb us while we were overseas. We also could not monitor the work while away.

Lessons learnt

Although he didn’t mind, I still felt bad that old uncle had to spend the next few days trying his best to rectify the work. On hindsight, the hiccups could be prevented with better communication. Looking back, I should have left the floor as it is and simply engaged him to do the painting.

Looking at the progress now, he is likely to finish all the work by tomorrow. That took him three weeks in total.

On the other hand, there is still outstanding work by the contractor. Hopefully, all renovation work can be done by next week before 2024.

Merry Christmas!

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