Mullane86

Khng, Thank you! Will try to blog more often... Hi Sarah, Yeah, I am proud of myself… To-buy list left with Rice Cooker and Volkswagen Beetle only. Lol. You must be thinking, RICE COOKER?!! Yeah, somebody promised to get it for me. Still waiting after 3 months.

So long never update here. Well... I've bought a projector for my house. So can watch movie on the big screen. Too bad cannot play my 3D movies. If I want to watch 3D movie, then just watch on my TV loh. This is me watching Life of Pi... Now you see it... Now you don't... Anyway, who thinks my bed is too small for me? When I have people over, they ask me how do I sleep on this bed? I'm not that tall, so why need to get a bigger bed... Haha

Yup... Used my friend's staff discount.

It was a crazy 2012 for me. Still can't believe I have my own house at the age of 26. And I don't have to be married to own a house. Or wait for 35. Bonus was not too bad for me. A slight 0.03 drop. But nonetheless, I'm grateful. Went to Ikea the other week to get Stenstorp Kitchen Island. Waited for my friend to come back from Maternity Leave. So I got 15% discount! Had to remove my bicycle pole to make way for the island. Wanted to put it in the middle of the kitchen, but doesn't look good. And recently, there was an upgrading. It is still ongoing. They changed the waste pipe, door, gate (optional). I love how it looks. A little like condo. Door cost me $50. Wrought iron gate cost $55. Oh, I also bought TV console from VHive. Cost me $368. Not much option for me. I wanted a white console, must be 180cm long, and cheap. And this is the cheapest. I want to get ikea ones. But I have to bring home and assemble. So lazy. Vhive have free delivery and installation. *Thumbs up!* I got myself a 42" 3D Full HD Smart TV. Cost less than $1100 from Harvey Norman. Then added the extended warranty. That cost about $270++. I also top up $199 for the sound bar and sub woofer. That also put extended warranty. All in all, my entertainment set cost me: $1441. Don't ask me about the maths. But it's a good deal! Comes with 4 3D glasses. Watched Transformers 2. I tell you, Megan Fox's *** and breasts really round round one. I also got a projector screen. Not sure if you can see from the above photo. There is a screen over the TV on the ceiling. To buy list: 1. TV Console 2. 47" LED 3D SMART TV 3. Coffee Table 4. Mirrors for the Bath rooms 5. Microwave Oven 6. Rice Cooker 7. Wardrobes 8. Bed Frames 9. Projector 10. Volkswagen Beetle (Lol)

*CLEARING COBWEBS HERE* Haven't updated in quite a while? Got this Ikea Malm Queen Size Bed and Wardrobe for my brother's room. He doesn't come home often cause he is still in the Orphanage. Maybe next year he'll come and stay with me. Getting my TV end of the month... Are there any year end sales I should look out for?

Woah! HDB screwed up big time! Approve wrongly? Nonsense leh... Chin up! Hope it goes smoothly for you from now onwards.

Hello Onion! I had to cover the table because I was mugging for an exam. Very addictive you know. Doesn't matter if I am alone. I will still play. Lol. Massage chair is a good idea, if I have a balcony. That would be a good spot. Lucky for me, the TV area still got space. But I'll probably not put sofa. Planning to get a comfy carpet and throw some pillows or bean bags. You can come by if you are near Gombak area. My number is 91856125. We can talk about your upcoming reno project. Sister New Nyew! Yes, I am taking good care of your baby. After every visit from friends, I will wipe the metallic sides because of finger prints. January, I hope to have a open house. Then I will invite you! Hello May! I agree it was a good deal! The pool table was taken care of very very well. $500 well spent! Glad New agreed to sell it off to me. Hey there Remy, Understand. If mum don't like it, better not buy. I can't wait to spend more money! Lol! Hello Adi! If you ever get a pool table for yourself, I recommend you to do laminated flooring. A few friends came over and dropped the pool ball on my floor. My heart broke for a while, but thank God! The floor is very VERY HARDY! No bumps, nothing! It was amazing. I think Sister New Nyew will agree with me.

Sorry for not updating my T-blog in a very long time. Loving the life, man. About 2 weeks ago, I bought a Cosmo 7ft Pool table from New Nyew. Got it at a very good deal of $500. Thank you! The table first hand cost $1300. Then I bought the dining top from Ron of Pool World. That's another $200. End of this month, I'll be getting 2 benches from Ikea. Woohoo! Can't wait for that. You know, I have spent all my savings. And every month, when pay day comes...OMG. I just buy more things! Really living the life. Have to start my savings from scratch now. So many more things I haven't buy. 1. TV Console 2. 47" LED 3D SMART TV 3. Coffee Table 4. Mirrors for the Bath rooms 5. Microwave Oven 6. Rice Cooker 7. Wardrobes 8. Bed Frames 9. Projector 10. Volkswagen Beetle (Lol) Till my next big buy, Adios!

Hey Bro, where did you buy it from? Is it the same model? I was thinking, if I am greedy and want to hang 3 or 4 bicycles instead, can buy the 2 extra hooks or not...

Onions, forgot to reply about the dryer. I am lazy to hang my clothes out. So dryer is really convenient for me. My utilities bill just came. Its $22.92. Quite cheap. Maybe because only moved in 12 days.

Hi onions2hot, My $13467 Reno has the cooker and hob included. But not in the $3100. I told my ID to include cooker and hob because I have no cash to buy separately. They also included the kitchen sink and tap. Together with replacing my big wash basin in the kitchen to a small square one in the common toilet. Black kitchen top can see scratches. If got ants crawling, you cannot see.

Hi Onions2hot, I don't have the quote with me right now, but I can give you a ballpark figure. It's about $3100. Come with the soft-closing Dish Rack. But the rest of the doors can still be slam. As for the linings, it's all a matter of playing with the colours. I didn't want 1 colour. So I asked for 2 colours. I wish the orange lining would be more. But it can be seen only on the drawers and the sides. I will upload a photo of the laminates upclose, next week. You want black linings? What about the colour of the doors and kitchen top?

It's great that you can have a WIW... The Town Council guy said my flat is prefab-unit. So if I hack the walls, it might collapse the building. (or something like that.) Yes you are right, I need a store room. Thank God I didn't hack it away. I just realised I have so much boxes..

Hi Broccoli13, how much? Have you installed yet?

Hehe... Next time when I take photo of my house, I'll make sure to hang one or two bras.

Hi crypaz, thank you... Haha, can say I am neat la, but I'm a girl Hi Spikedoll, New house of course clean. Give me a year. Maybe start to collect dust already. Lol Hi Bro, I got the bike stand free of charge from my contractor. I asked him to install a stainless steel pole. But he said it will be permanent. And I haven't decide where to put the pole. So he said he'll get me the movable one. The brand is Minoura. Made in Japan. I googled it and found out it cost $115. Not sure where he bought it though. But very easy to install, even for a girl Hi Casa, It's big because it's still empty. I don't have Class 2B license. Planning to get it early next year. So I don't have motorbike, yet.

Now master bedroom. When it is empty... With mattress on floor... No wardrobes... Bookshelf use to put my folding clothes... This is bedroom 2. It is empty. Maybe I should rent it out. How much should I charge if it's unfurnished?

Photos are taken after I moved in. Got a good deal on the fridge. I know it's big. But I love it! <3 Stacked my dryer to my washer so I save space. Installed the bicycle pole myself. Not very hard. Now no money buy bicycle. Bought these 2 chaise lounge chairs from Ikea As-Is.

My contractor never take photo for me when they did the hacking of the kitchen wall. These are photos taken 10 days after renovation. Photo taken from kitchen. Photo taken from living room that can see master bedroom. View of store room and 2nd bedroom

Hi Onions2hot, I understand how you feel. It sucks not having a stable roof over the head. Already no parents, then still have to keep moving every few years. But heads up! You are a stronger person now with a home on the way. So happy for you. I registered for an account under Renotalk so I can help other orphans who might be in the same dilemma as me. Hoping to see photos of your new place soon! You must be very excited!

Hi Alisa, yes my first idea was lime green and white. But when my friends heard Lime Green, they said this: 'So Melayu'. (Greens are associated with Malays because of the colour of Ketupat.) I didn't want black and white. Hmmm.. Cause I wanted my kitchen to look bigger, brighter and more spacious. With Black, it will make my kitchen smaller. Anyways, I will reveal the colours I picked in the next post. Stay tune!

After my selection of flat, I already started looking for IDs. Sent plenty of enquiries. Only 3 replied. Maybe the rest don't want to waste time doing 'small projects.' Tell you all something. I engaged the first ID that replied to my query. *CRAZY* PM me if you want to know which company and who is my ID and contractor. I have all kinds of ideas for my place. Who doesn't, right? I want good quality, cheap and fast. Who can offer this to me? Good and cheap, is not fast. Cheap and fast, is not good. Good and fast, is not cheap. Heard of this? I want smooth and sleek. I want open concept kitchen My personal favourite. But I cannot do this for my kitchen because then I'll have to move all the water pipings. Don't know what colour to pick. So thought go for lightest brown. But look like ah-ma colour. It's a nice colour. Very safe. This one also look like first photo. But a little boring because of the single colour. So if I want 2 colours what is the other colour?

Hello Mike! Thank you thank you. 3 room for now... Just a stepping stone... Hi Restlessfeet, that is because Town Council already did up the place before HDB sold it off. But the work is not exactly nice. Only single coat of paint. And the rest quite 'chin chai'. Hi May_dream1, Year 2007 - Year 2010. I emailed HDB to let me rent directly from HDB because paying rent in the open market is expensive and not really for long-term. HDB reject my application. Because my pay is more than $1500. Ask me to continue renting from open market. Applied a few more times, but all got rejected. Year 2011 - Instead of asking HDB to let me rent from them directly, I asked for permission to let me buy my own place. HDB replied and approved. But only resale. Come on lah, orphan where got money to pay COV and buy resale? Oct 2011 - I sent an email to PM, Lee Hsien Loong. I went to look for his email. lee_hsien_loong@pmo.gov.sg Told him I cannot be paying rent until I'm 35. Or afford a resale flat with high COV. Long story short, I got a reply and my appeal was approved! I don't believe in going to MPs for help. So I went to the source instead Hi Onions2hot, How old are you? You should have emailed to PM Lee for help. Hi Remy, Sure... Will post whatever I have Hi Mrs Loo, I wanted a walk in wardrobe and 1 big toilet. Reading so many blogs on Renotalk makes me want all this. But in the end only hack 1 wall. No choice. My reno budget is really very low. Sent out 20 enquiries for quotes, only 3 came back to me. These IDs only want to do projects with big budget Hi Charlene, to encourage people to get married bah... When I first appealed to HDB to let me buy a flat, they actually told me to get married. Quite pissed off la Hi Nexer! Where are you staying? Okay will try to post more pictures Hi Casa, Not much reno pics. My contractor lazy to take photo and send me. Could be he scared I will ask him alot of questions. But really, not much photos during the reno itself. After reno got photos that I took myself

History During the March Exercise for BTO and Sales of Balance Flats, there were about 4000 units from BTO and 4000 for Balance Flats. Who doesn't want new flats? But the thought of waiting another 3-4 years for completion, is not favourable. So I chose Balance Flats. Balance Flats, some are really new, cause nobody picked them during BTO. But some are repossessed units. Which Estate? Tough decision. So what I did was to wait until last day of application exercise before I sent in mine. I did all the ratio. Number of flats vs how many applications received for all the estates. There were 10 units in Bukit Batok, but only 34 applications. That's not a bad ratio, I thought. So I took the chance. A month later, I got my queue number. Couldn't believe my eyes. Magic number 7. I already have the unit numbers and blocks. Like I said, there were 10 units. But only 9 units that Malays are eligible to take up. Don't mistake this as only Malays are allowed to take. Chinese and Indians could too. eg. Malay-1, Chinese-1, Indian/Others-1. This means any race can get the flat. Malay-0, Chinese-1, Indian/Others-1. This means only available to Chinese and Indian race. By the time I go to HDB for the flat selection, I am left with a handful of units. And I know which unit was the best among them. Cause I went to the units and talked to the neighbours! I know, very kaypoh for someone my age. But no choice bah. Have to stay there for many years down the road. The unit I wanted, the neighbour said the owner couldn't afford to pay for the installments. So HDB repossessed it back and placed it under Sales of Balance Flats. Future plans, that didn't happen So my original plan was to hack 2 new doorways to the bedroom. And convert my store room to become Walk-in Wardrobe. Also wanted to make 2 bathrooms to become 1, since the toilets are bloody tiny. And for the wall between my kitchen and living room, to be hacked, to make open concept. But unfortunately, HDB declined the permit. Store room is a fire hazard. And I cannot hack the walls to make 2 new doorways. Quite upset with the turn of events. But hey, there is always a reason behind everything. Timeline March 2012 - Application of flat under Balance Flat May 28th 2012 - Selection of unit July 18th 2012 - Collection of key July 20th 2012 - Application of renovation permit for hacking July 26th 2012 - Application of renovation permit the 2nd time since hacking of walls and conversion of Walk-in Wardrobe not approved. July 27th 2012 - Renovation permit approved July 30th 2012 - Renovation starts August 13th 2012 - Renovation ends The future that did happen in the end So actually the only renovation works I'll be doing will be the kitchen and also flooring for 2 bedrooms, 1 store room and living room. Toilets not allowed to hack too, if I forgot to mention. $13000 loan taken up from RHB Bank, loan tenor of 5 years. Lucky for me, the unit already done up by HDB. They changed both toilet bowls. They changed the kitchen and toilet floor tiles. They also changed the wall tiles for kitchen and toilets. They did the electrical re-wiring for the whole unit. Changed all doors in the house, including the toilets. So $13000 just for laminated flooring and kitchen.

Hello, welcome to my first post!