This post has been in my draft since January 2020. I started drafting this post to gradually track how much I have spent to get my house ready & as of April 2022, I am excited to announce that it has finally been completed. From the bedroom to a mini office area, a nice living room, a comfortable dining area to the kitchen in one small studio condominium. In short, it took me 2 years plus to get the house ready from a bare unit to a stay in condition unit. Perhaps if it was not for the MCO, it would have taken me 1 year to get it done.
I got my key on the 27th of December 2019 & my initial goal was to get it ready in 1 year for a stay condition. In order to get it ready, I need a proper plan as the cost of getting the house ready is not a cheap cost, especially since I want to get the house ready based on a certain theme that I have set from the beginning. With the theme that I had for the house, I had to start to survey those types of furniture & renovation that need to be done but thankfully I have a close friend that is there to actually helped me out in terms of advising me & helped me with the renovation.
Getting the house ready from a bare unit is not an easy task. I realized that it is not about getting the furniture that I want to place inside the house but it is about getting furniture that suits my theme. I started off by surveying some furniture that is available in Shopee & other relevant apps since I thought that I can save some cost from this portion. After surveying & looking at the actual photos of that furniture, I decided to go all-in for IKEA furniture despite the more expensive price but with the quality that IKEA can provide, I have no complaints.
To make my house a living condition, first of all, I have to start to apply for water & electric. Once it is done, I have to install the house door which is not provided by the developer. Next, I bought aircond, light & fan. This is when the pandemic started to hit & all plans were halted for a while. In May, to help a “friend” that lost his job, I housed him for a couple of months. I bought extra stuff such as a fridge & I also did some light renovation for piping & wall painting.
In August 2020, I had to spend some money to pay for the MOT. I was supposed to follow up with another round of renovation but it was delayed again due to the ongoing pandemic situation. In March 2021, I decided to move in to stay while slowly adding furniture to the house. I made a few trips to IKEA to purchase furniture such as a bed frame, mattress, shoe rack, bar table, wardrobe, office table & many others. IKEA quickly became my second home for that 6 months. When I started to fix the first batch of furniture, it took me almost 12 hours to assemble everything alone. Over the next few times, assembling new furniture became quite a job that I don’t look forward to as it is quite exhausting after doing it multiple times over 6 months.
Along with the frequent traveling to IKEA, I engaged my close friend in June 2021 to help me with my kitchen renovation. Again, the renovation was postponed due to FMCO. Renovation job was not allowed until November 2021. With all the backlog of jobs that my friend had in hand, my kitchen renovation only started in March 2022 & it was finally completed in April 2022. So how much did I spend in total to complete my dream home?
It may look expensive for a 500sqft studio unit but I am honestly happy with the result. I managed to get the house to be exactly what I have visualized it to be. Before owning this house, I used to own another house which I bought when I was in my early 20s but due to mismanagement of my financials & debts, I had to sell that off in order for me to pay off my debts. I had no chance of even staying in that house & I had to sell it after I can’t afford to pay the loans. Nevertheless, I learn & I move forward. With this new house, I plan to pay it off within 10 years to reduce my housing loan interest. I will share it with all of you once my planning is finalized on the repayment plan.
There are many things that I’ve learned from this house renovation. First of all, the initial plan & visualization is important to get from scratch to the completion. When you have both a plan & vision, all you have to do is to execute it. For my house, I am very consistent with the color of each piece of furniture & item which resulted in the same consistent coloring match at each corner. My initial plan was not to furnish the house with full IKEA furniture but after a discussion session with my friend & my own survey, I am convinced with the quality of IKEA furniture for long-term usage despite being slightly pricier. The most important lesson of all is, never rush to get your house ready instead you can slowly build it over a period of time. Over the period of 2 years, I spent almost RM50,000 which was spent progressively and not in one lump sum. With proper planning, it is actually doable.
I can’t thank my close friend enough to help me not only with the renovation but also with his input & his help to design the unit. If you would like to engage him or his company, you can check out their social media as below:
Facebook: MIST Interior ConceptContact: Johnson Saw – 0125185758
OSS!
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