Our renovation - planning

Morning, we went for hbay tour to view tiles at White Horse ceramics and laminated flooring at Pergo. White horse ceramics are mostly from Malaysia. There are a lot of selections.. we see until blur blur heee. And they have mock up showrooms so it is really quite extensive.

Later we went Pergo and they demonstrate how good is their laminated flooring. They even try to scratch it, burn with fire and oil etc to show how durable it is & how they reduce the 'floating' effect of laminated flooring. We are really amazed at the demonstration. They have a lot of selections and different grading. We found that several laminated flooring are really very nice. But M do not like the 'floating' feeling of laminated flooring and the loud noise whenever u drop something or walk with heels. Parquet still feel more solid but more vulnerable to scratches.

Last at the trip, hbay bring us to a showroom at Citygas where they show their latest water heater, cooker hob and hood which uses government gas. The water heater is really v big and it is commonly shared by both bathrooms with a shower mixer. If u sign up with citygas, they will give a free bosch heater. But i wonder will we use it or not.

We rushed over to GPlan after our hbay trip, and reached IMM at 4pm. Kelvin got it mixed up, he tot we are suppose to meet at 2pm. He brought us to a big factory to see tiles. Oh gosh, the factory is even bigger than White horse and we are astonished at the many selections.. too many to select liao. Kelvin recommend the white polished homogeneous tiles for the living room. I will prefer slight patterns tiles (in fact i saw one v nice one at White horse) but there isn't any which i like at that factory. However M like the white tile a lot so we decide on that one lor.

For kitchen matt homogenous tiles, we have a hard time choosing. There are too many selections are all are v nice. M prefer light colours one, he chose a slight greylish close to white one. (Why he always choose white mah.. xyz*##% , so hard to maintain) . I took a liking to a beige tile with some light lines. It look like a piece of laminate floor board but is actually tiles. I tot it will look nice with my kitchen cabinet. However M is worried that we may tire of the design over time. Haiz.. dun know how to decide leh..nevertheless we still shortlist that tile lor.. Kelvin says will bring us back again before commencement of works to see if we want to have any list minute changes to our selection.

We went back to IMM and discuss about the perspective drawings which Kelvin has drawn. I raise some amendments. We went to see his parquet flooring supplier (just opp to his shop) and view those parquet samples. The samples are quite limited. We realise that parquet flooring colour is quite standard and the tonality are quite different. Reminds me of the laminated flooring and i agree that laminate flooring is really more nice. Haiz.. but still hard to decide leh..

ID search - finally settled!

Finally we have shortlist to 3 IDs - Joops, GPlan and Box ID. We liked their designs, so the comparison is price difference.

Joops quote is really expensive. About $27K. The designer, Raymond insist to use laminate wood for the feature wall (to cover our household shelter). Sure, it will looked nice.. but also expensive lor. M thinks that the main purpose of the feature wall is to cover the household shelter which is at the living room so there is no need to spend a lot on that.

So after we see the quote, we decide not to consider them.

Next come Box ID. We met up with Jeremy 3 times to discuss. First time he proposed an open concept kitchen with cement screeding flooring at the kitchen. M was very astonished and he cannot imagine how cement screeding flooring will look like.. hee like we no $$ to do our flooring like that. We find that Box ID's quote for flooring is really ex. About $4K whereas other IDs just quote us $1K! So much difference. He showed us my friend, J's house. I think the quality of the wardobe he done for my friend J is really good, based on my industry experience. So it is really 'yi fen qian yi fen huo'. Jeremy is quite nice though, he is willing to cut down to fit our budget. But the most he can reduce is 5-10%, unless we want to reduce our items.

We are in quite a dilemma and can't decide between Gplan or Box. In the end, it is $$ that decide lor.. since the difference btw their quotes are about $2K and Gplan gave us more items. So if u compare relatively it will look like Gplan give us a better package. But quality wise, i really can't tell. As for design, Kelvin (Gplan)'s ideas are quite good actually, and he will give inexpensive ideas.

I tell M that it be better that we dun spend too much now since we be taking a renovation loan and it be a burden in future. M agrees. So we finally decide on GPlan and went to double check with Kelvin on saturday for details and to see his 2 client's house, we quite like the false ceiling design of the units & the flooring looks okay. Kelvin also seen our house and gave some ideas. But we didn't sign on immediately cos need time to consider.

On Monday Kelvin called to say that their promotional package price is going to increase as his boss has just amended the price. So he cannot keep the offer for us too long. M discussed with me and we decided to go down to IMM to sign on. M is a bit unhappy with Kelvin, he thinks that he is using salesman tactic by trying to hardsell him. But i am okay with anything... actually Kelvin is quite ah beng lor.. i think not all owners can tahan him. Cos initally we talk to him, he is not quite willing to commit more by showing us his clients house etc. But later on after we meet up with him more, he can see our committment so he actually offered to show us 2 houses lor.

After we signed on, Kelvin is rather happy (haa of course), he suggested to meet up on this sat to see his perspective drawings and to see the tiles at his supplier.

............ to be cont

The first peek at our nest!

Finally! We went in our house today (date recommend by our shifu) for the first time. We bring in ang pow (with money), apples, oranges, Pineapples, Fa Gao, rice, salt, and 'Shi Liu' leaves with water. Before entering at the entrance, we rolled in 2 pineapples (as recommended by one forummer), then put the rest of the fruits at the centre of living room on a red paper. Then we spray ang pow, rice, salt all over the house. I also spray some shi liu water around.

After which we went around checking the defects, electrical plugs, water etc. We are quite satisfied with the house esp since it is empty for 2 yrs so we tot the quality will deterioate with lack of maintenance. The living room is actually quite squarish although seen from the floor plan to be longish. The kitchen is very big and long! Wow. And best of all is the full length window at our living room! Great! Never expect this cos i tot onie condo has full length window. And our view is full of greenery (as the park is just next to our block).



Full length windows at our Living room!


We can look at our master bedroom from the kitchen window



Our Longish kitchen

Taking possession!

We get our keys today!!

Heee.. a lot of documents to sign at HDB... then we activate our power supply, get our electrical plan etc etc.. the whole process took us 1 and half hour!

We still haven't get into our unit yet.. waiting for auspicious day :)

ID Search (IMM) - Part III

HI HI..

Here comes the ID search at IMM - part3!

We proceed to IMM to collect our quote from Desprit. The ID who attend to us is also called Kelvin. He is quite quiet, but when we ask him questions on design, he is able to answer. He suggested that we build a feature wall from entrance to household shelter. M like his idea.

When we compare his quote against GPlan, The Livinghub, 3D, his quote is somewhere in the middle. GPlan is however the lowest. We find GPlan quote too cheap to be believeable. So we approached the other Kelvin at GPlan on the same day to clarify on his quote. He added the kitchen cabinet size for us as our kitchen is quite big than other 5 room flats. So end up the quote is about $22K inclusive of air-con. We are quite satisfied with his quote.. so dilemma to choose whether GPlan or The Livinghub?..
Then one thing we realise about our proposed L shape wardrobe is that it can only be in casement doors but not sliding. Thus we decided to reduce the wardrobe size to only fit 1 side of the wall, as M say he can get another cheaper wardrobe for himself if necessary.

We still have yet to receive the quotes from Joops Associates, Lourve Design & Box ID whom we have approached. I have done a spreadsheet to compare the quotes.. heeee but can't show u cos the quote price are sensitive info ;)

So excited to receive our keys this week! Hopefully able to see the unit soon and everything is okay :)

Our wish items so far are:
1) Homogenous tiles for living, dining and kitchen.
2) Parquet flooring for all bedrooms
3) L shape Kitchen cabinet (top and bottom) with solid surface kitchen top. 29 feet-31 feet.
4) Kitchen sliding/casement tempered glass door
5) Change the 2 bathroom doors to other bi-fold doors (as the HDB current ones are too flimsy) 6) Solid surface Vanity top for master bathroom
7) Shower screen for both bathrooms
8) Feature wall for the household shelter
10) Wardrobe at master bedroom (7ft)
11) Cosy corner with raised platform (optional)
12) L-box/False ceiling for downlights at living room
13) Window Grilles for kitchen?
14) Pebble stones at the entrance foyer.
15) Shoe rack with sette (optional) or extend the feature wall to the entrance

Other IDs Search - The Livinghub

Today we met up with Jonathan from The Livinghub, recommended by my forummer friend. Surprisingly he is quite young, I think about late 20s. He explain in detail on his design layout, concept and quotation. We find that he is quite detailed as he mentioned the type of materials, size of the carpentry items (e.g. how many feet) and the origins of some materials (e.g. from china). Also, he is able to propose other items when we ask him for alternatives. What impressed us is his service attitude, cos he even suggest to prepare more detailed drawings even though we told him we need to consider and will not commit so soon. Other IDs firms are not willing to give further plans unless we commit on their quote lor.

The only drawback is the price quoted. We wanted other 'extra' items such as feature walls and different tiles for entrance foyer. But his quote after including these items will be around $28K. Compared to GPlan quote ($22K), it is about 6K difference. Also, GPlan is willing to provide system door kitchen cabinets (with solid top) , whereas The Livinghub quoted us laminate kitchen cabinets.

However we really like his attitude, and we didn't really trust GPlan quotation (afraid of hidden cost as it is not v clear) and M didn't like the GPlan designer, Kelvin cos he is too pushy. It is very hard to decide.

Well, tomorrow we will get to check out Desprit (another ID at IMM)'s quote.. see how it goes :)

ID Search (IMM) - Part II

At night after the hbay talk, we travelled to hbay to collect the quotations and design from the 2 IDs, GPlan and 3D innovations.

Take the bus for 1 hr from TP to Jurong.. (very tired). We arrived 7.15pm at IMM, 15min late for our appt with GPlan. GPlan designer, Kelvin called to ask if we have arrived. We told him we have just arrived. He say he haven't eat so we decided to go over to 3D first.

3D give us a simple plan and a quote of about $17K. We added a few more items, which i think will add up to about $20-$22K. I ask her if it is possible to add a cosy corner.. she has no idea where to put.. and M is quite against the idea bec of space constraints. Anyway we find that the designer at 3D is more contractor style as she tend to ask what we want (and what design we want) instead of suggesting ideas for us.

We went over to GPlan and Kelvin showed us some magazines and his own ideas on space planning and deco. We quite like his innovative ideas. His quote come up to $20K but include a system 3 air-con. We added few more items and it add up to $21K. One item we find very glaring is the L shaped wardrobe at the master bedroom. He charged $2.6K for 10.5ft wardrobe!! Twice of the price that 3D charged us. We ask him to reduce but he wasn't willing. However, some other items are cheaper than 3D quote. I told M we can just take out the wardrobe and buy our own instead if it is so expensive.

Kelvin try to hardsell us to commit today. M is irritated with such hard selling tactics and he clearly told Kelvin that we need time to consider even though we will missed his super free item (change of kitchen laminate door to compressed wood door) just be it. Kelvin was quite convinced that we are not interested in his package. We ask him whether we can visit his other clients' place and he told he can't unless we commit on his package. Reason being that he has showed before and some customers just 'steal' his ideas and ask other ID to do the same. We can understand his irritation.. so we didn't insist. We are quite convinced of his design ability as he is able to give us many ideas. And he didn't 'encourage' us to take on more expensive items. In fact, when we suggest divider at the entrance, he gave us another idea to save cost instead. If onie he is not so hardselling on us to commit the package immediately, we will like to sign on their svc.

In the end we told him we need to consider and can only commit after we get the keys and visited the place. Haa. its probably an excuse anyway but we really need to see other ID quotes to get a good comparison to convince ourselves this is the right choice. So far, GPlan and Joops really attracted our attention as we feel that their ideas are more practical and cost saving ideas. However i understand that Joops is more on the high side lor. We will see how and compare then.

Our wish items so far are:

1) Homogenous tiles for living, dining and kitchen.
2) Parquet flooring for all bedrooms
3) L shape Kitchen cabinet (top and bottom) with solid surface kitchen top.
4) Kitchen sliding/casement glass door
5) Change the 2 bathroom doors to other bi-fold doors (as the HDB current ones are too flimsy)
6) Solid surface Vanity top for master bathroom
7) Shower screen for both bathrooms
8) Divider to separate dining and entrance.
9) Feature wall for the household shelter
10) L shape Wardrobe at master bedroom
11) Cosy corner with raised platform
12) False ceiling for downlights at living room
13) Change current casement windows at living and master bedroom to sliding windows (optional)

Hbay SAFE talk on Renovation

Phew.. today is a busy day for us..

We attended the hbay SAFE tour today, and visited 3 completed HDB flats (by Strategic design) and visited Strategic design's workshop. The first flat we visited is at Toa Payoh, a Malay flat. It is about 124 sqm, 5 room flat. The owner has a cosy corner. However, we feel that it looks very cramp as she has quite a lot of items. The entrance has a small stretch of parapet flooring (near the shoe rack). The whole house is using homogeneous (matt) tiles, with the exception of bedrooms in parquet. Noticed that the house uses timber strips as divider. The kitchen top is also granite.. one of the hbay officer told us that granite has lines in btw, so even though it is more durable, she will still choose solid top because of asethetics wise. She also told us that water marks tend to be more visible on granite top. After hearing what she say and what i saw, I think I will prefer solid kitchen top than granite top.. hmm. Though my initial idea is to have granite top.

The second flat is at Rivervale. It looks more spacious. The most interesting is the feature wall used to block the home shelter. We saw an osim icology steam vacuum, just the one M is v interested in. The owner told us he regretted buying that as it is very difficult to use. I jokingly reminded M to take that in mind as i wasn't in for the idea of that steam vacuum. A few thousand dollars investment for a steam vacuum?! real expensive right, so no no... hee.

The third flat at Sengkang is already owner occupied. Again saw an interesting feature wall with shelves for putting pots of plants. The kitchen tiles is a bit more special and the living room flooring is made of granite.

After that, the chartered bus sent us to Strategic design's workshop at Ubi. There is a show room there with some kitchen and living room deco. We discuss with one of the designer on our needs and he try to introduce some designs for us. He suggested bathtub at the master bathroom, feature wall to cover the home shelter, partition at the entrance door etc. He also suggested TV console even though we told him we intend to buy our own.

Anyway Strategic is the onie ID so far who encourage us to take bathtub even though other 2/3 IDs we spoke to all recommend us to take shower screen instead as they say the space is too small for a proper bathtub. M is quite irritated with him as he thinks that he is out to get us to pay more by encouraging us to take on other items even though we told him we didn't want. I mean, some items can just buy from furniture shop right? Designer or built can be quite expensive and hard to replace in future leh.

I wonder how is the forum's feedback on Strategic design.. hmm will go read at sgbrides heeeeee.. :P

ID search (IMM) - Part I

M say his friend MN (who has just got married) is having a housewarming. MN stayed Boon Lay (So far!! ) . We decided to go IMM walk walk in the afternoon.

There are really quite a lot of ID firms at IMM, about 10+ located at same storey. Big firms we dared not go in cos scared too ex, small ones not sure about reliability. Some of the names of the firms which I have some impression are:-

1) Spacious - Very impressive, their deco. I think it is high-end (also read it from some forum).
2) El-fa - I know that one of the TCS star, Vivian Lai's unit is done by them. However I think they are quite dao. We hover outside for a long time, look at the books etc but no one bother about us. Maybe will have to book appt with them prior. However, I think it should be quite high end too.
3) 3D Innovations - We just pop in when a lady invite us. She ask us on the material etc, show us samples. She say will get back to us with design layout and quotation. M has an impression that she is contractor style.
4) GPlan - It is a medium size shop, with several designers. We talk with Kelvin, he has some interesting designs to show us. We are quite impressed with the designs but unsure about workmanship. Will have to wait for his quote and design layout to decide then.
5) Home choice - We take a look at their package deals but have an impression they are quite contractor style because they doesn't seem to be able to recommend design from the way we talk to them.

Evening, we rushed to MN's house for his housewarming. He recommend us his ID, Weiken, also at IMM. We are quite impressed with the workmanship and deco, even though it is quite simple but it is still very nice. I am especially fascinated with the dangling lights.. haaa.

Hmm.. part 2 will be out soon..Look out for it!


Something close to what I like :)


I like the timber platform and strips divider

Nest hunting

Deciding on the location of the lovenest is not easy.. as most couples will faced it.

It is a tough decision. M prefer new flats, whereas I will prefer convenient location with many amenities. Our parents, like most parents hoped that we stay next to their place. Even though our parents' house is just 20 minutes bus ride.. it is a very tough decision. The problem is there are no new flats available at my parents place. And we can't get the new flats at M's parents place cos too popular demand & resale flats are too expensive. So u can see it is such a dilemma having to make our parents pleased or ourselves pleased?

Last year we have first apply for Duxton flats at tanjong pagar, onie to discover later that it will be completed only 5 years later. So we cancelled our application. After which, we went for 2 ballotings but was not selected. Of course, my mum knew that we are not very willing to stay next to her and was very unhappy. We have thus decided that in the event if we cannot get a new flat near, we will buy a resale flat to be near my parents.

Soon after we rom, we received news that there is Walk in selection exercise coming. M rushed to HDB to queue. To our astonishment, people has started queuing from the previous night even though news only published today. So even though M arrived at 9.30am, the queue number we received is already 200+. Our appointment to select the flat is scheduled on the second day of selection. Later, i received news from my friends WX that her queue number is 500+ and another friend gotten her number at 2000+.

Just at this crucial point, M received news that his grandma has passed away. As he will be busy for the wake, we do not have ample time to visit these flats only until the night before our scheduled appointment for selection. On the first day of selection, we were checking frequently for units booked at the HDB website. When we see more and more units being sold, we were so worried that it is yet another disappointment! We are both in a dilemma between 2 places so much so that we are still undecided even when we went to HDB on the next day!

Haaa.. so eventually we decided upon our flat purchase in.. hmm u can called in at a spur of moment. I am quite happy with the purchase but concerned about my mum's feelings. She is sad and unhappy of course and it saddens me that she is unhappy. It is really very hard to satisfy all people's feelings. And what i can do now is to assure her i will take care of her even if i stayed out and she finally cool down. It is lucky that our flat selected is just 20 min bus ride.

I am happy that my friend WX is able to get a new flat even though her queue number is 500.. I understand that several fellow BTB are still not able to obtain a new flat at preferred location even after so many ballotings. It is kind of disappointing and tiring.

After going through this flats purchasing.. i really think that HDB need to increase their release of new flats at mature estates as the demand is so much compared to new n undeveloped estates, perhaps by building more flats for SERS redevelopment so that more can be catered for new couples. Resale flats are so much expensive even after the CPF housing grant and lesser tenure left. So even we wish to stay near our parents to take care of them, also not easy. In an aging society, we will need to stay near our parents to take care of them more so than our generation before.

Our Floor Plan