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we are halfway to complete our 4 room flat renovation. some of the good stuffs done by the sub-contractor that we absolutely love it. the kitchen cement walls, done by the tiler. Though it was his first attempt for such request but he did it anyway!

Our 5 rm BTO is now already undergoing renovation. Tiling works and wiring are in progress. Pardon me but let me do some back dating work here. Renovation is really more hectic than we though it would be! We'll let the pictures do the talking. Here is our floor plan. Very typical 5-rm floor plan. Had thought of hacking the wall between bedroom 3 and living room so as to make a, very popular now, semi-enclosed study room complete with glass doors and black frame. This would very much fit into the modern scandi feel. But then did away with it after consultation with our feng shui master. Decided to do away with the wall between our master and bedroom 2 instead! [bEFORE] [AFTER] Much space and light after. Didn't know how much space was the wall hiding! Since I am in the mood of hacking, why not just remove the hideous white plastic box with mesh-like PVC material covering the drainage in the master toilet. Somebody may like it, somebody don't. This was an inital idea that alarmed our ID a bit but then was accepted cause it fitted our design! Alright the picture doesnt do it justice. But trust us, it's a lot bigger with the damned box removed. The black stuff is preparation work for our overlay~~ That's the update for another time..

Just received our keys this month to our 4rm BTO Standard flat @ Fernvale... YAY! After being a silent reader here for the past 4 months, I am so happy to be able to start my own t-blog. Hehehe. We talked to a few contractors and IDs before finalising on a guy who really impressed us with his responsiveness, his professionalism, and of course, the good reviews from RT! Hope he lives up to it! Although our budget for renovation is only $13K, we do hope to create our dream home according to our fave theme - Scandinavian! Here is our floor plan, will share more ideas in next post!

Hmm...have been procrastinating for a while to start this thread on our home. Finally decided to sit my a** down and start sharing our journey with you all. We are noob homeowners, so it is a learning process and hopefully what we share will be interesting and useful for you too. Do share with us too...especially those who are at the same stage as us, and those who had 'attained nirvana from this process Because I had procrastinated for so long before starting this thread, we had already finished on the early stages of confirming our ID...haha. One hand I am happy to get the ID confirmed and move on with the process, the other I don't suggest anyone to be like us. Despite reading so much from the 前辈s here about how to choose ID, we only applied maybe 20% of what we learned here and depended the rest on gut feel. Now, starting to worry and regret for acting so impulsively. Sigh~~ Time will tell, if our gut feel is reliable. So, in summary we contacted 6 IDs. Who did we get? 1. Space Sense We liked K****'s portfolio in industrial style so we sent him an enquiry. He replied to ask for our budget and requirements, then there was a long delay before he turned us down citing it is impossible to fulfil our requirements with our indicated budget. To be fair to us, we really do not know what would the cost for the intended renovation of our scale, so we mentioned an estimated of 35-40K hoping that our conversation can carry on and we can make more realistic adjustments to the budget. It is a pity that we were not given the chance to further our enquiry, or perhaps there was too much projects to handle for the ID firm. In another words, no fate with Space Sense. 2. BoxID Saw their work on an article from renotalk.com. Sent out an enquiry but no reply until a full month later. By then we are already in closing talks with the final ID so we did not proceed to meet up anymore. 3. Artist Room Read about them on renotalk, but no reply on our enquiry. 4. Three-D Conceptwerke One of their designer, Will, contacted us the next day after we sent our enquiry. Initially, I had my reservation because Will is not a local, and thought someone local will contact me since the firm is local. But not willing to discriminate, we proceeded to meet up with Will, who turn out to be quite an enthusiastic and friendly chap. It was easy to talk to him about the concept we are after, but we left the meeting feeling a little iffy if Will will understand what we really what and how he will propose the layout to accommodate what we want (will show below). But boy, we were pleasantly surprised by Will's proposed layout. It was interesting and quite similar to what we were thinking, only perhaps better. We were quite blown away. (And this is when our gut feel started to kick in over rationality...sigh). 5. New Nyew I really like New, and her hubby. We first visited New at her place, and both of them are very nice people. She spent 3 hours going through our floorplan and proposed her ideas right on the spot (even brought us to see her showroom in Yishun). She was also the only ID whom brought to site immediately following our first meeting to view our place, and she was the quickest with her response including the edits we requested to the initial proposed layout. Frankly, we were so closed to confirming with New had we not gone on to meet Will and saw his layout. I would still strongly recommend New to anyone who is looking for an ID 6. The Design Practice We found R****** from vincentinteriorblog.com. He was one of the recommended ID, and after viewing The Design Practice portfolio online, I found that he was the designer for a flat reno that I really like and bookmarked since the day we got out flat. Told myself my future flat can possibly look like that. Unfortunately, fate is not with us for R******. We waited long for his responses, and never get to fix down an appointment date. So, in the end, we decided to drop this enquiry as well. By now, you should have guessed it. Since our gut feel was so strong...we decided to go along with Will from Three-D Conceptwerke (TDC for short..lazy) Hmm....any renotalkers who had also used TDC before? Do share your feedback =)

Agree with you. Apart from viewing from impossible angles, the areas and spaces are generally exaggerated and shown to be larger than actual. A toilet can look so big that it can accommodate a large size tub with extra space for you to dance around but in reality, it is already a squeeze with a small tub and you have problems opening the toilet door! Even in this RT forum, I see many 3D drawings quite different from the actual outcome. But 3D drawings may be useful to those who otherwise cannot visualise. But need to remember these are like show flats and artist's impressions.

Minor Updates Hubby was just wondering 2 days back tt our ID have not updated us much on our reno. I reminded him that there's nothing to update as everything is in the carpentry workshop being fabricated right now. LOL. Just after he asked, the same day our ID whatsapp to confirm on the colour for our toilet vanity. Today, he sent the dimensions for our bomb shelter mirrored feature wall.. Looking at the carpentry of the other tblogs, I can't help but feel super excited about ours! But at the beginning of our reno, we already told our ID we are in no rush, so he said he won't rush the fabrication and will do a great job for us. Now all we can do is wait for updates! *Patience Patience Breath in Breath out!*

Your reno is looking very good. I love the tiles. Beautiful!

Was discussing my network plan with a colleague when we both should have been working. After reading blogs by maviscaste and kstoh, I'm sold on the idea of structured networking in the home. Too much of our lives are now connected to the net and too many devices benefit from being on the home network. Media players, tvs, printers, laptops... So without further ado, my plan: Instead of placing the router next to the ONT near my TV, I'm gng to run a long cable from the ONT to my study and place the router there. That means that the wireless reach should be a lot stronger and more even throughout the house. Running subsequent wires from the study out to the individual rooms also saves me wires! Versus running long cables from each room to the tv console. Plus I'm hoping that means the cables will be kept thinner and more manageable, and less unsightly. Also, having it all in the study is kinda appropriate since thats where my computer will be anyhow and it will allow me easy access if even I need to troubleshoot/ configure the system.

Choy! Should be the handing over is near.

24 May 2014 工字型 craft stone laying style. Sampled on my SGD300 corrugated paper. Subway in my kitchen! Tiles! Original door to Master Bedroom, already sealed up.

Here are our 3D drawings. It's the second round but we are still pending changes to colour of carpentry. Living Room Master Bathroom Subway tiles or Cement Screed tiles? We decided for the cement screed in the end. WIW Kitchen Gotta make some updates to the 3D. Not really as rustic scandi as I wanted though. But i am confident that the real house will look much much better, with all the decor and the right furniture in place! I must say, apart from the heart pain from spending so much on reno (so hard to get my ID to give discount!), the renovation works are moving very fast. I am astounded by the quality and speed of work. My hubby just went down at 6+ and one of the worker is still there working in my toilet! There was one day when he also saw one worker (the ID brother) working on the wiring in my kitchen in darkness.

Hi, Watch this video! For kek lapis, is a must to use Top heat. TK

In the meantime, while the renov is on the way, my wife and I have also purchased a few items: 1) First of all, a set of Grohe rain shower package that consists the rain shower with hand piece, shower mixer and a basin tap: 2) Elkay 2 bowl stainless steel drop-in kitchen sink with tap hole (Size: L800xW448xD230mm; Thickness: 1.2mm) - including a chopping board and drainer tray 3) Baron WC with Geberit pump system 4) Bowers & Wilkins EISA award-winning floor standing speakers to deliver a satisfying listening experience

Electrolux is 1 year warranty, the door can be remove, machine is made in italy, 74 litres Bosch is 2years warranty, machine is made in Turkey, 59 litres. The balance is up to you already. TK

Last weekend we engaged BTO Home Networking to convert the telephone lines in our 3 bed rooms to LAN points. Fast, cheap and good! 3 points for $100 We didn't need that many phone points in the house and fast, reliable internet is very important to us. So it really makes sense to to convert them to LAN points. DB Box before conversion After conversion, properly labelled. Kok Hua, the owner of BTO home networking, was a little late but it was because he was doing conversion for serveral other units as well prior to our scheduled evening appointment. He explained many technical concepts to us which we are grateful about. We just need to apply for fibre internet and put the modem in this db box. The whole process took about an hour. So now the points labelled MBR, BR2 and BR3 are LAN points that Kok Hua converted. The bottom right LAN port is the original point provided by HDB linked to the LAN port in the living room near the TV console area. Since we are building a study in the living room and we will might need additional LAN point for the constructed study. We are thinking of getting our contractor to add the LAN port in the study. Kok Hua advised that within the DB box, we can just use a Gigabit switch to share one of the LAN points into 2 points. Or maybe WIFI is good then all these worry is unnecessary. Overall good, but we haven't applied for internet yet so we couldn't test it. Anyway, there is a one year warranty provided so we will look for him if there are any issues.

Looks ok to me leh....color quite uniform. I dunno what kind of brush was used, but I didn't even see brush strokes on mine. Not sure what you mean by 'spoil'. Haha...you mean patchy color? Mine used 'Sail White'. All doors looked nicely done leh. Can also choose to apply a layer of protective something (I'm not sure what it is named) over the door instead of paint. My contractor said can retain the original wooden colors if I wanted, but the trend now is to paint the doors. Haha.....I didn't see any brush strokes on mine. Maybe coz mine was a lighter color so it wasn't obvious. The only brushstrokes were because I installed a new maindoor digital lock and have a couple of places to touch up....me do it vs the painter do it got difference. Agree, it's a nice protective layer on the door.

Finally, a place to call my own (or some call it the Bachelorette Pad, well at least for the next few years). My 4-room HDB resale flat - the floorplan:

TODAY IS KEY COLLECTION DAY! 15.05.14 a day to remember.... Started out early today, and got to HDB hub by 9am (our appointment was 9.10am). Went to get our fire insurance sorted at level 2 before heading for the key collection appointment. Yes, you need to buy the fire insurance first before going for the key collection appointment! After spending about 40mins signing many, many forms and wiping out our CPF OA-account, we were done and keys collected! We then later headed to level 3 SP services to activate our SP services account. Hubby and I then headed to my parent's place and picked up my Dad, and set off to our new place to see it for the first time! Upon opening the door to our unit, we were greeted with a bright and spacious living area. We were pretty glad with the space in the living room area, so that was a nice sight to be greeted with. However, we were quite disappointed with the size of the kitchen and the rooms... really smaller than we imagined! Floor plans really can be quite misleading... haha. Also another disappointment was the piping area and clothes rack in the service yard!! We have absolutely no space to stack our washer and dryer... so sad. ID confirmed it also. Washer and dryer will have to separated... really bummed. So our ID and his site supervisor then came and join us about an hour later at our unit to assist with the checking of defects of the unit. All in all, there were no major defects. No cracks on walls or tiles (we opted for doors and flooring by HDB). Main problems were chips on the doors and walls and some uneven-ness on the walls here and there. Hopefully these are not major defects and HDB will be able to rectify shortly. After hanging around at our place for 3 hours, we then left the place and submitted the defects form to the BSC office a block away. We read other people's tblog and were advised to lock up our unit with a numbered lock and chain... however, the BSC office of our BTO told us they do not accept numbered locks due to 'safety issues'. Don't know why they so troublesome! Duh... wasted our time and money to buy this numbered lock and chain specifically!! So had to hand over a key to our main gate instead. Generally quite pleased with our place! Even the hdb flooring looked pleasing to us... not as bad as people described. Sure, not as nice as homegeneous tiles or parquet or marble flooring if we had the chance to choose it on our own. But for the price we paid, and looking at the workmanship i think it's acceptable and we are happy to live with this. Still unsure if we are going to do Evorich HERF/Krono-o-floors vinyl flooring for our bedrooms... likely yes haha but haven't confirmed. We also headed to Royal Fanco at Jalan Besar to get the Baron WC and basin package... for $390 it's indeed a steal!! Lite Fusion unfortunately doesn't offer package anymore... when we visited they said just because we are a returning interested customer they will sell us the same Baron set for $480. Crossed them out - so Royal Fanco it is! Thanks to guojiawen for her recommendation on her tblog! heehee. ID has also sent over the revised 3D drawings, so i'm going to attempt sharing them on tblog now. 1. Living room area 1 Shoe cabinet will be the partition to prevent our whole house being overly exposed at the main door. Will also have some pockets of empty space in the shoe cabinet as shelfing to put keys/display stuffs etc. Shoe cabinet also then links to a bar counter. Bar counter area will have a loud NYC-times square type of wallpaper at the background to contrast against the black and white theme. Bar counter stools will also not be white... likely will choose a loud colour like yellow or orange etc. The bar counter is meant to be a stark contrast to the mostly white and black colour theme in the living room. Sofa is likely to be black instead of white, and coffeetable is white instead of black. 2. Dining area behind sofa. We will be doing a craft stone brick wall (white) and will be including a tinted mirror in the middle of the wall. Bomb shelter area will also have a feature wall and a tic-tac door to cover the bomb shelter door. 3. Kitchen area Chose a green and light grey color in the kitchen. I really love how green and grey comes so nicely together. Wanted to do Green and white but felt that that was a little too common. Notice we have a breakfast counter in the kitchen for quick meals before going to work/instant noodles before rushing out the house/supper or for someone to just sit around when the other party is doing the cooking etc. I will be decorating the wall tiles with stickers/posters as well for the breakfast counter so that it doesn't look so plain. 4. MBR toilet - the chosen tiles and design after overlaying. Aboslutely love the mosaic wall... thanks to hubby for agreeing to this little splurge! That's all the pics for now! Heading back to our place on Sat and Sun this weekend with our respective families for them to take a look since they are also equally excited about our new home. Maybe take more pics again this weekend...

Are you going to do ventilation blocks for your entrance as divider?

on kitchen's design.... Some images that we drew inspiration from... subway tiles + black lines + wood + white (from Kompacplus) subway tiles + wood + open shelves I know subway tiles are probably quite overused. But I can't help it and I want to have it for my kitchen, together the wood and white colour neutral look. Also would like to have some open shelves to put condiments that are most often used, and the rest being cabinets so that the cleaning is still manageable. Meanwhile... trying out many kitchen configuration in photoshop, just to test how it looks. First design by ID: One of the configuration I tested in photoshop In the end, because of the position of the gas pipe and water pipes on left side wall of the kitchen... the most economical way is to put the hob and sink on this side to avoid the need to route the pipes to the other side of the kitchen, and we decided that we will just buy microwave off the shelf to save money instead of buying a built-in one. So we ended up with this configuration....

Hi again~ I know its been a few days since the barn door locking mechanism was asked. Here is the hooked / lock / locking mechanism. Its something much simpler than expected. We only had the lock in the common toilet as the MBR toilet does not really need a lock.

Day 19 Progression was not what we thought to expect. We are only clearing each checklist one item per week. Still waiting for K to pass us the granite and laminate samples in order for us to pick the colour of the sink. So far we have selected Rubine Sink These are the 2 type of sink we have shortlist. It comes with various colours so have to wait for K's granite sample in order to select the right colour. The Rubine Sink on the left have a deeper sink compare to the Rubine Sink on the right. Should be going for the deeper sink and going for undermount. Mr K Things is moving slowly and K mentioned that rennovation will only completes in Mid January, 3 months to complete, is that common? K says the touch up will only be after Chinese New Year. K is having quite a fair bit of projects on hand maybe thats why his workers cant be assigned to get things moving quickly. He could only manage to arrange laying of tiles next week. Seems like every single job have a waiting period 1 week in-advance before commencement. The hacked off service yard walls definately makes the kitchen feels bigger. Still waiting for cement screeding finishing on the wall, we pick smooth finish for cement screed walls..

Hi Frankman, could you share the tabobao agent and shipping company you are using? Will be getting our keys soon and want to do some research! thanks! good luck on your reno!