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Contents Page/Helpful Links NEW!! UPDATED -- Our Home 3.5 years Later - Here -- Budgeting for your BTO, how much should you spend? - Here 1. Our Chosen Contractor + Reasons why - Here 2. Color Schemes we considered - Here 3. $9000 for all appliances! Only $930 for Hood and Induction Hob! - Here 4. $99 bathtub! - Here 5. Taobao purchases - Round 1! Stainless steel bathroom stuff for cheapssss! - Here 6. Taobao purchases - Round 2! $300 Sofa! $200 recliner! - Here 7. Our 3-D drawings! ALOT of carpentry for $25k! - Here 8. Our Renovation Begins! Bath Tub and Hafary! - Here 9. Carpentry: The Study! - Here 10. Carpentry: My Custom Built Table! - Here 11. Carpentry - Workmanship!! - Here 12. Taobao - Things you: MUST buy, CAN buy, DON'T buy! - Here 13. Final Pictures of our Home - GOODbuy! (haha) a. Study - Here b. Living Room - Here c. Kitchen - Here d. Bedroom 1 - Here e. Master Bedroom - Here f. Toilets - Here g. Final budget + Our moving company + Sofa pictures! - Here 14. Things that could have gone better - Lessons we learnt when dealing with contractors - Here 1+1=3 in our 4 Room BTO I refused, refused, refused to apply for a BTO before the hubbs proposed - no way was I going to go down the way of a 'HDB-proposal'. Practical? Not very, but maybe I'm just a old romantic at heart. So yes, he proposed, I said yes, we got engaged, married, and only THEN, did we send out our first application for a HDB flat. That was in 2012. We lucked out and got an excellent queue number for our choice estate in Tampines upon our first application. Fast forward 2.5 years, and here we are, proud new owners of a BTO fresh off the factory floor. Perhaps the timing was just perfect - our little couplehood has since, grown to include a pint-sized dictator, which means that we need not worry about how we would have to redesign the house when the little one comes along. Now that little Z is here, he is part of our plans. (Maybe it would be more apt to say that our plans are centred around him!) Hence, the first steps towards building our cosy little nook, for our family of three. Our Design Inspirations Here are some images of designs that inspired us: Too many people doing Scandinavian these days. We like the simplicity, but don't want to be mainstream lah. So we thought about it, and quite liked Zen. My ideal study! I absolutely LOVE to work from a bed, hence the L-shaped bedside table is a really awesome design feature. We also want to keep Ah boy's room clean and neat.

What impressed me though, was the quality of the existing carpentry! you can be sure, after looking at the photos of the bathrooms, that the tenants didn't take particular care of the flat! Yet the carpentry was solidly built and stood the test of time! I didn't have to change the wardrobes in the three bedrooms, any of the existing cabinets, the study table or the kitchen! Just some slight remodeling of the kitchen, and some dismantling of built-in furnitures we no longer needed in the bedrooms and to accommodate 3 kids! It felt wasteful really to rip out such solidly-built stuff! I am SOOO thankful I found a good and reliable carpenter 16 years ago; he used top quality materials and his workmanship was great! To me, value is NOT about getting the cheapest price. It is getting good and lasting quality at a reasonable price. That is what I got with Yeo, my carpenter of 16 years, whom I have engaged on and off over the years, and of course I used him again when I decided to renovate and move in! Who else could I trust? And who knew the place better than him? After all he built my entire flat in the beginning! And by a pure stroke of luck, he turned out to be my neighbour so he knew the layout very VERY well and checked on his workers' workmanship every night! As a further testament, I recognise one of the workers from 16 years ago!!! So this time round, to show my appreciation and also cos he's the "old-school, not techie type", I decided to share him with all of you! Scroll behind for his contact! These are old pictures of my initial reno 16 years ago. We did our place in resort style. Some call it modern Asian style!

Hall is done!! Kompacplus is in. Niceeeee!

Here r some pics from diff angles with lights

@d3n@nerrad@matchalatte, I feel like i am so suay! Not once but twice. yes holding off payment for now, and not really mentioning this for now. We don't want to sour the r/s as reno walks is still undergoing, and he was still nice in other areas... maybe when it's time for the final payment, we will then confront him again. pray it will go well man. Updates 1st coat of painting done, they will come and touch up i think, nearer to end of renovation. Carpentry mostly installed, awaiting my quartz table top to be measured. Box up all done. Curtains chosen. Left tiling of brick wall on my dining area... My taobao items came, mostly hits! Loving my green wall. Colour is less vibrant and more muted in reality. There's my husband holding the tapestry, considering to put here. Love this pink wall as well. It's like vintage rose if i am not wrong. not the vibrant sweety kind of pink. anyway i only painted the wall near the window, and the vanity area. after putting the blinds, doubt i will be seeing much of this pink >.< Bedroom accent wall chosen colour. Nippon Gray Knight. Love this! Kitchen taken at night! Sorry, no lights installed in kitchen and dining area yet ,so a little dim. yellow, because of the living room track lights. You cant really see the marble wall tiles from here though with the poor lighting. Overall, quite satisfied. A part of me wished my blue was darker. Oh well, note to myself in the next reno, always trust my own tastes. I was contemplating a darker blue actually but i changed my mind after Husband's and Contractor M persuasion. This is still beautiful. Actually what i think will make it perfect is the shaker style cabinets... HAHA. but never mind, decision made not to have shaker style, and i will not eat my words. Now awaiting the ledge area (facing dining area) to be tiled with brick wall tiles, and with my iquartz, it should be ready!!