annastans

Hello! Can I ask where you got the white louvre toilet door from?? I wanted that exactly and when I had asked my contractor if he could get us that he said he didn't know of any suppliers of aluminium louvre doors. May I know who your supplier is? Many thanks!

It's very true..it's best that you are there for the carpentry works so necessary changes can be made asap! I shall wait patiently for you caesarstone to be up then Yup, he has said it will be covered up by laminates completely so it should have the same look throughout. Have a good trip!

Hello jaykr! Yes we did up the concrete support at the strong insistence of the contractor. I was very doubtful of the final look and it's usefulness (maybe I still am a bit) but if everything from the outside looks good then I'm happy. So far so good I saw that your house is almost nearing completion! No pictures of the caesarstone yet?

Hello juxstapose, we got it from Hafary at Balestier. Thank you Makanology!! And I thank the contractor and his tilers for doing them justice

Now for the house itself! Finally managed to get some pictures of the house before the sun went down; Overlaying of balcony tiles done. I thank my husband for constantly insisting on this because I really like the final result! The cement base for the washing machine and mini storage area is done up as well. (So pretty!) View of the kitchen from the study. Walls all hacked and the breeze feels lovely! The sink erected with concrete support and those tiles! Once again, just lovely! I must say I had very mixed feelings about this look when I saw the final product. Disappointed would be a good word. But realistically, it probably looks the way it does because it's really bare so when some colours come into the picture hopefully it doesn't look this sanitary The tiling works were done up excellently except for small gaps at the corner joint but the fridge will block it and I won't be able to see it anyways. Plumbing works are due to commence tomorrow so waiting to see the WCs up in the toilet

Back after a bit of a hiatus so I must warn that it will be a pretty long post Renovation has been progressing at a steady pace and as of now all tiling works are done up so here's a summary of what's happened so far. Both my husband and I finish work late in the evenings so by the time we think of paying our home-to-be a visit, it gets pretty dark and we look very suspicious peeping through the windows trying to catch a glimpse of our house. Given our schedules, we have pretty much placed our trust in our contractor to organise things to ensure that tasks go smoothly and we also rely heavily on him to tell us when to purchase items. In one such instance we suddenly found ourselves very pressed for time when he asked us to buy alllll the bathroom accessories (WCs, wash basins, heater etc etc) by Thursday when we hadn't even seriously considered what or who to buy these items from. Very pressed for time, we went to GR Link Marketing and purchased all these items and here's a list of the purchase: 1) 3 WCs: Baron 303 2) 3 Wash Basins : (upside down) Only 2 pictured here as I couldn't lift the 2nd off the 3rd. It was so heavy! 3) 3 WB faucets (all 3 same design except that 1 is the shorter version of the other 2 as it's placed on the basin) ( 2 of this taller version) (1 shorter version) 3 Bidet Sprays 2 Rain shower sets with hand showers 25L Joven Water heater Lots of misc parts that I know not what they are called. I must say that Uncle Benny was very easy to talk to and the delivery service was excellent and on time; not to mention, the price was very competitive. What neither the contractor, me nor my sister (who was there on our behalf to settle the balance amount) could understand was how the WCs entered the house before any of us got there! I freaked out and called the delivery guy to ask why he left without taking the balance and he said he hadn't even reached :/ So basically we don't know who put the WCs there. Apart from the bathroom items, husband and I went down to mega discount store and purchased the Mitsubishi MRF62C SS and the Bosch HBN331E2J built-in oven at a good bargain too! Haven't arranged a delivery date with them as of yet so hoping everything goes well. Also, we managed to get all the down lights and T5s over the weekend through my very kind cousin and cousin-in-law who bought it for us from KL and to put it simply, buying stuff from Malaysia is soooo much cheaper!! Oh right! No pictures of that for now.. House pictures coming up in next post due to photo limit!

We have finally managed to fix a final layout for the kitchen after delaying works by a week, so I'm really excited that works are going to start tomorrow! Finally! We were told to buy the sink first so we went down to Jalan Besar today to pick out a suitable sink for the kitchen. It's currently residing in the new place so maybe will be able to get a picture of it when we go down later this week. We also picked out the tap to go with the sink and I'm extremely pleased with the final outcome! Not bad for the first home purchase I say! (tiles don't count). Will continue to post pictures as the renovation progresses!

hello mian1916, I saw this particular one at Mustafa but almost all stores carrying hobs and hoods will have this as well, just that they might not have the display piece. They will have the catalogue though so you can ask to see it. The shops along Balestier were a bit pricey for this model I must add. Are you looking to get a freestanding cooker?

It's been some time since the last post and we have been busy running around trying to finalise the kitchen layout and getting down to choosing the sink, hob and hood, so perhaps I could share what we have been up to Deciding on the counter top Initially we were planning to use the Indian Black galaxy granite provided by our contractor but the more we thought about it, the less appealing the black seemed in the kitchen as we wanted to keep the whole house as bright as possible and the black seemed to somewhat lessen this brightness. Also, it wasn't really helping the colour theme of the kitchen was supposed to be white/off white and blue. It was then that a fellow forumer, jaykr, was sharing with us on his opinions about caesarstone and granite and we decided to relook into the Caesarstone bit which really appealed to us because of the colours available. Now we are 80% of the way through with finalising our counter top so keeping our fingers crossed that all will go well. Deciding on a hood: Initially we were planning on having a chimney hood, as shown in my previous drawings, because it really looked beautiful and seemed to occupy space well. But after taking into consideration the fact that we were going for an open concept kitchen and that our cooking ranges from medium to high Asian cooking, we decided to put a bit more effort into finding a good hood. I must add that the review posted by this blogger, http://renovation-greencoal.blogspot.sg/2011/03/review-fujioh-hood-fx-900.html was extremely helpful in helping us in the decision making process when choosing a hood. The Fx900 is something I'm sure most forumers here are familiar with and it sounds like something that would most benefit the kind of cooking we do, but I guess we won't know until we actually start using it :/ We went down to a few shops along Balestier, Jalan Besar and to some of the big names to compare the prices for these hoods and so far it appears that Jerome, aka zero, appears to be giving the best price for this so will be getting this from him most probably Deciding between a hob/freestanding cooker Here comes the part I just CANNOT make up my mind about! So I loooooveeeee freestanding cookers just because they are so pretty! I wish I could hug them everytime I see them! That's how gorgeous they are!! I was specifically looking for something that has a gas oven and yes, a lot of places carry the EC530/830/930 that use gas ovens. The EC530 and EC930 SS are pictured below respectively; It So they are both beautiful and affordable but I was looking for something even more huggable. EF has some really good ones for gas ovens buttttt they are not available in Singapore So there is an electric model shown below, that was love at first sight! At $1,799 and a 105L oven, I think it's a steal. But in all honesty, I definitely don't need at 105L oven and I shudder to think of the electricity bill every time I were to use it. I haven't come across any reviews for this yet fortunately (I would be devastated if it were bad) or unfortunately (I can't tell if getting this is a good or bad idea). However, I have to decide if I'm getting this or a built in hob ASAP because it affects my kitchen layout and works are due to start this Wednesday (more about that later) AArgh! If hob, I'm interested in Ariston or Rinnai and I have my eyes on the RB-3CG if i haaaaaave to get a built-in hob. I have NO idea what built in oven to use if I decide not to go with the freestanding cooker. GAH! Deciding on Sinks/toilet stuff Moving on to happier things, I was earlier hunting around for my sink and toilet items when we saw this shop called GR Link Marketing. I haven't bought anything from them yet but their prices are very competetive and not to mention, their sales staff are so so soo friendly! I will definitely be going there again and will let you know if I've bought anything from them. Reno updates So Mr Yeak has helped us file for permit and while they have approved the hacking of the wall between kitchen and balcony, we are still awaiting their reply on the hacking of the wall between kitchen and study. Works were supposed to commence this Monday but naturally we can't start on Monday now (thank God! That gives me more time to argue with myself about the hob/cooker) so we are looking to commence either this Wednesday or the following Monday. I would like to end off with a picture of the bottom floor of the house before works commence. Hoping for a beautiful reno journey ahead! Goodnight!

Based on the tiles selected, decided to draw up a rough sketch to get an idea as to how the tiles look at their positions and with a particular arrangement. The following are the photos: The wash area and the wall here will be hacked out (wall facing the living area) to allow a little more light in. The cabinet drawers are arbitrary; haven't really thought through that yet. The toilet on the left most covered with white tiles, the fridge beside it and the hob area. Once again, cabinet layout is not confirmed for this too but overall, the tiles look pretty alright! Pleased with the end result

Thanks jaykr!! The 1 line you said that rings true is, "..get the best quality granite instead of the lowest quality quartz if cost is a concern" That made a lot of sense so sticking to the Black Galaxy counter top because I figure a black counter top isn't going to make the kitchen look all that miserable. That's 1 less thing to worry about! I'm happy again!

It's 26th April and yes, we have collected our keys!! Woohoo! Yesterday we collected our keys and went down to Balestier Road to check out some tiles; more or less decided on them and will update with pictures later. The only places we are looking for tiles mainly were: a) Balcony floor b) Kitchen Wall (1 type for main wall and 1 type for the accent wall) c) Kitchen floor After walking up and down a few shops there, we figured they were mostly alike so decided to just pick something and get it over with Today the contractor came over to take some final measurements and to go over the details of what goes where or what needs to be taken down where. My parents had come down for this and the open concept kitchen idea and kitchen tile selection didn't go down well with them too say the least. Hee! Hoping that the final outcome doesn't turn out too bad and I don't regret the final design choices! A mini war was going on within me regarding the kitchen (yes, the kitchen again) counter top and initially we had decided on Black Galaxy, but lately I've been questioning the choice because well, it's black, and I wanted a brighter overall look. Not to mention the not too favourable reviews I've been hearing about granite, and so second guessing my choice and whether to jump ship to quartz now. I'm not a serial cooker so realistically, solid surface might do, but I'm being a bit cautious here trying to get something a bit more resistant. Just today I hear about Corian Solid Surface and that it's a lot better than regular solid surface, but I don't know what to think anymore So many decisions decisions! - Ignorance is bliss.

Thanks for the tips adidaem. I completely got the date wrong; kept thinking it was the 24th today I'm not much of a newspaper reader so perhaps keeping close tabs on specific products I'm interested in is a step in the right direction. Thanks for the tip once again, and I'll give them a call tomorrow.

Eeek!! I just saw this! No doubt I've clearly missed the sale ! Haizzz thanks for the heads up adidaem, though I missed it. I'll have to start keeping my eyes peeled for future warehouse sales..Pardon my ignorance, but where do you get updates of these sales from? Is it all just on their respective websites? Please let me know if there's any special site I should be taking note of as that would be a great help. Thank you! Lol! I agree the current condition of the flat does help to save costs quite a bit. Always thankful for that

Oooo another great story! Nice! Yes, I couldn't agree more but I suppose all home owners will pay the price for something they would really like to have. Your renovation is coming along very beautifully I must add. I like the bright feeling of your house Thank you kooky! Thanks for dropping by adidaem! (It's like having a celebrity pay a visit ) Yup only when actual work begins will we know what lies beneath that peaceful facade . Like you said, it is a good thing we didn't have to pay for the COV! It definitely gives us a bit more space to tailor the reno works to our liking. The 1st floor flooring is marble so we will keep and polish it up; should be good as new! Carpentry is proving to take the biggest pie share but the carpentry is essential so we don't mind too much. Hopefully I can maintain a strict control over the budget in the course of reno..

Thank you summersann!! Thank you for that piece of advice cleong. We will do up all the items that will cause a lot of mess in this first phase. Yes! Not furnishing empty rooms greatly helps in saving cost.

Yes, the gap between the tiles does look very big but because we're working on a tight budget so we decided to leave the toilets as they are, apart from changing the WC and basin. Hopefully we will not regret this decision You stayed in Marsiling Drive too?! That's so cool! Wow, we were practically neighbours then lol! I wish you the same for your reno journey and I hope you have a home you desire at the end of the day Yes, truly blessed to get the EM from SBF! Haha i wish! Thank you for your wishes 3Dyms; we are very excited to start on this so will keep you posted surely on the progress, both good and bad Yup, from the first viewing it looked like it. The only problem I spotted that day was this: Spotted this dent in the marble and suspected something when the HDB contractor kept hovering over this particular tile as if to cover something. And when I finally spotted it after sneaking up behind him, he brushed it off -_- I might br wrong, but there's a very high possibility this was damaged during the restoration works but of course, they did not fix it. Tsk. i might be old fashioned but I loved the staircase and railings out of everything I saw in the house! Before viewing the house I kept hoping it wasn't some really really old design staircase that would remind me of my primary school and when I saw this, I was totally relieved. The low expectations helped

Oh! Near the Indian temple! You didn't move much from your old place to the new I see hee! I used to stay at Marsiling Drive! Wow, quite near.. I'm not sure if the corridor is narrow because I've never stayed in a corridor unit before, so no benchmark here . The unit's quite high actually. I've uploaded a picture of 1 of the toilets so can see it's the same type of tiles HDB has put for both of us, mine's orange and yours appears to be greenish grey! I can't tell the exact colour from the pictures Yup we're going with a contractor, Mr Yeak and I agree with you that thorough planning must be carried out. It's difficult to have a hold on everything so I'm trusting that Mr Yeak will do a good job using his expertise!

Here are some pictures of the house! Managed to pick out the most decent looking ones The living room and walk in area. We will keep the existing flooring. The view of the bare kitchen. Flooring and cabinets need to be done up and wall tiles will be changed too. We are going for an open concept kitchen so a couple of walls will be hacked down to make the kitchen brighter with more natural light coming in. View of the stairs. The stairs and the flooring for the 2nd level will remain cuz they were in quite good condition to begin with! The view of the balcony as seen from the MBR. The tiles for the balcony are remaining for now and casement windows for the high opening. MBR toilet. That's all the pictures for today and these should give an overall feel and condition of the house by now. "Not too shabby" in my husband's words and most of the renovation is for the kitchen. Toilets are ok la..except for the tile colours but can live with it

Thank you very much for dropping by spikedoll! Your renovation has turned out very well and I'm happy it has worked out for you Congrats El LoCo!! It's good to have a roof over our heads nevertheless jaykr, I just dropped by your t-blog and I am very very impressed by your tile selections! Especially the mosaic effect tiles for the toilets! Your place is taking shape very beautifully! Thank you for the welcome btw . This is in the 800 series. I'm not sure which SBF exercise you are referring to but the Sept 2012 exercise had just 1 executive flat, which was just nice this one. Of course. more options would have been great but we are happy we even managed to get this! And, 179sqm is huuuuuuuuge!! Wow! I saw your floor plan and it just looks like plenty of space to roll around in Hahaha. Yes, I've been staying in Woodlands (to me Marsiling and Woodlands are the same thing ) pretty much all my life. I lived in Marsiling for the most part though.Where's your new flat located? Thanks for the tip! I understand where you're coming from and we are on a very strict budget, so we are trying to retain as much as possible. The kitchen would be where most of the work is done. I can describe our plans more once I upload pictures of the house. I noticed your kitchen and toilet tiles are very similar to ours! Ours is an orangish shade though while yours is greenish. I am ok with those tiles for the toilet but not for the kitchen

Thank you Happy Ang! I've been stalking your blog silently all this while I love the Tiffany Blue in your kitchen btw! (I'm trying to see if I can find tiles in that colour, not the glass backing). Congrats that your reno has come out so well Thank you multi888 Thank you potatoes! Another EM owner I've grown familiar with in Renotalk! No COV but we're keeping our reno simple. We'll be splitting up our reno into phases so the more major and important ones will be done up in this first phase

Here's the floor plan!

We will be collecting our keys to our EM on 25th April 2013, so we thought this might be the best time to start our t-blog to provide a bit of background to our home purchase; Granted HDB (private was out of the question for us) has a few options through which we can buy houses, mainly the BTO, SBF and resale schemes. We were getting married in Jan 2013 and our search for a house was only beginning in Sept 2012, so the earlier we got a house to call our own, the better. As such, our best bet was either the SBF or resale. Of course there was the EC but small space for a high cost pitch really wasn't too attractive to house. My mentality when the house search began was, "Anything also can la; Near MRT, not near MRT also can." I was just excited at the thought of getting a place! Any place would have been exciting to me. But my husband had a very very specific criteria; He wanted an EM. Spaciousness offered by the EM was very attractive to him (Jumbo was just too big for 2 people and thank God we agreed on that) so with all his hopes pinned on getting an EM, we applied for the Sept 2012 SBF. We went for Woodlands because both of us grew up here and were very comfortable with the place but by the end of the exercise, we were disheartened with the final ratio ( 21 flats, out of which 1 was an EM and 6 other were immediately available with the rest ready 2013 onwards, and almost 500 applications) I even started looking for resale flats immediately after the final tally was out because it looked like we had a very high chance of not getting an immediately available flat, much less an EM. Resale was just too expensive and we silently kept hoping we would get a number at least within 100 so we might just be able to get our hands on 1 of the 21 flats. Results day drew near and I finally got a call from my husband-to-be then and I only remember hearing a soft panting amidst which i heard him keep repeating, "oh my gosh, i can't believe it, guess our number" And so I said, "Ok wow, 30??(Or something like that)" It was a number less than 2. From that day, we were faced with a different kind of dilemma; Which flat to choose?! To my husband it was very straightforward; the EM and nothing but the EM whereas I was very convinced it was anything but the EM for the reason that I found it just too big for us (and we all know who does the cleaning in the end). What followed were days of reasoning on why the EM, why not the EM until finally, yes it was the EM. Another blessing since our search for a house began was that our first appointment was a scheduled for a day immediately after a day we returned from our wedding. Talk about the perfect wedding gift If selecting the house was a problem, finding a contractor/ID was just as much of a headache. But of course, we had been following Renotalk dutifully from Sept last year so the comments and recommendations for IDs/contractors really helped. After speaking with a lot of them, we decided to give Mr Yeak, once again highly recommended by Renotalk forumers from what I understand, a call although we heard it's very difficult to get him. I am happy to say that it has been a wonderful experience so far speaking with him so long story short, we will be engaging him as our contractor for the renovation of our home. I must add that a super long starting post is no indication of future post lengths I will update more once we get pictures of our place (actually got already la from first viewing but we shall try to take prettier ones after getting the keys next week) It has been a truly blessed journey so far and we hope to have an equally smooth reno journey or at least take the hiccups in our stride Last but not least, here's the floor plan! Ok nvm; It was clearly too ambitious of me to think I could upload a floor plan with my first attempt at creating a t-blog I'll figure this out and share it with y'all soon! Thanks for reading and peace out!

Thank you adidaem and potatoes! I forgot about the toilets bit lol! Windows and shutters sounds like a not too bad option. Potatoes, I've been thinking about getting the chimney as well! Only because it looks pretty lol! Thank you for all the help pnce again, and it will definitely help in making a decision

Ohh so you're nearer to the Admiralty side then. Mine's Block 827, 145sqm. Do you have a t-blog for your renovation??