Sweat, Tears And Hard Work: Dream Home Becomes A Reality

Most people factor in the aspects of location, price, and size when it comes to buying a home, but renovations are always an afterthought.

This, however, wasn’t the case for Mike and Felicia. Their similarity in taste made it easier to renovate their property in USJ, Subang Jaya, bringing their dream home closer to reality.

As soon as they got the keys, they immediately got to work on the renovations which lasted for a period of 7 months, completing just in time before they got married.

Renovations are chaotic, but not so much if it has proper planning and solid execution. Mike, being a home-renovator himself, worked extensively on the front porch, expanding it to fit two parked cars.

It was a difficult task, as he had to tear down the porch’s original pillars to fit in the vehicles.

Aside from the porch, Mike also extended the home towards the back, adding more square footage to his masterplan.

That wasn’t all, as more renovations took place internally. “There were initially 3 rooms upstairs, and 1 room downstairs. We broke down 2 of the rooms upstairs, and combined them into 1,” he said.

As Mike and Felicia are passionate believers in Feng Shui, there was a need to relocate certain doors in the house to face the correct directions, and more furniture was also added to the already built-in ones.

The renovations took longer than expected, as they wanted to ensure their home was as picture-perfect and comfortable as possible, when they moved in after their marriage.

However, at the same time, Mike had to settle some pending jobs from clients. To solve this, he decided to employ external contractors to help him complete 80% of his personal home renovations.

Being in the home industry and working on Hive Builders was advantageous for Mike, as he had access to some of the best fittings in the market, including Smart Home appliances.

“We looked into Smart Home initiatives, and installed smart switches. Most of our electricals and electronics in the house run on Wifi and Zigbee, which is similar to Bluetooth,” he proudly explained.

Based on customised settings, the home is able to set its own ambience according to the situation they’re in.

For example, if they’re watching a movie, the pre-programming will dim the lights, close the curtains, and give them the right mood to relax and enjoy the show.

Mike and Felicia began surfing through PropertyGuru for ideas on interior design, as well as Pinterest for inspiration, scrutinising each section and taking notes.

They then compared their notes, and came up with the look and feel they both agreed with. After that, visualisation came into play.

“We visualised the type of wallpaper we should use, what sort of tiles we needed, and basically every other minute detail,” Felicia explained.

Their contractor was also involved, and supportive of the ideas during their brainstorming sessions.

Due to Mike’s exposure in the home industry, he was aware of what could or could not be done. Only when 80% of their vision was solidified, did they hand the plans over to the contractors to carry out.

Of course, nothing ever goes perfectly in a realistic world, as Mike himself experienced when he recalled having to manage renovation issues in the 4th quarter of 2019.

“You imagine one thing, but it comes out differently, so you need to have a backup plan. Let’s say you ordered a particular type of tile, and the wrong one turns up. You have to return it, and this process will cause delays.

Accumulated, it eats up more renovation time. These were the types of challenges I had to deal with. Then, there was the issue of managing the contractor and his timeline. Towards the last 3 weeks, there were 20 men in the house… it was like a warzone,” he sighed.

Another hurdle that Mike and Felicia faced was finding a place to stay while waiting for the renovations to be completed.

Since Mike owned a vacant house in Puchong, they decided to move in there for a few months with only the bare basics: One water heater, one air-conditioner, one mattress, two chairs, one table, fans and lights.

However, very soon after, they had a buyer for the house, which forced Mike and Felicia to find another temporary stay. “We had to let it go, and moved in with a friend temporarily”.

“Looking back now, we’re happy that all of the major renovations were completed beforehand, leaving nothing to be desired now that we have settled in.

After finding quite a number of houses on PropertyGuru that appealed to us, we finally decided on our ‘happy place’ here,” Mike said with a smile.

They’re also very pleased with the surrounding community that is friendly and neighbourly.

With that being said, this lovely couple does not have any plans in the near future to move out of the home that they’ve so painstakingly built together.

Especially knowing that so much work, sweat and tears were poured into making it what it is today, this is truly a place worth coming home to!