Lyamani

Hi guys... Ok I decided to post some updates today... Songz n bykaraane thx for ur consolation haha.. For a start, we had planned to settle all the reno works n move in next mth on the 26th April, holding our housewarming party on the 27th, as our monthly rental cycle at our current place is on the 28th,so we could save paying for an extra mth and jus move on before tat.. We even went to ask the priest for an auspicious day/timing to hold the prayers etc and had fixed the housewarming to be on the 27th.. AND THEN, we went down to Casa Italy yesterday to confirm our already purchased during Expo L-shape full cowhide leather sofa set's colour n chaise position(left or right).. We were told at tat time tat bout 4 weeks or so wud be required to indent the sofa upon our colour+chaise direction confirmation n so we thought it's about time n we better make e order soon so we can have it delivered on e 26th April... The salesman den told us tat shipment will not come in til 3rd May or so n he doesn't know if it can be achieved on e 26th.. Tat he will have to check. Tat dampened my spirits a little cos we wanted e whole house complete wit furniture n all in time for e housewarming party.. Though hubby initially suggested tat we shall move out before e 28th so tat we cud spend e rental cost on other costs for e house instead of extending our stay here, he insists he wants to wait n hold out e housewarming til all e furniture n stuffs come in complete so we shall continue staying put at e rental house for an extended week or two depending on wen things comes together. Felt so disappointed with e timeline of the sofa. Have gotten e salesguy to check wit his side to see if anything can be done, gotta wait for them to get back to us. Damper! The next blow was to do wit e flooring in our unit.. As we had initially opted for HDB to lay e flooring for us, we decided to overlay with laminate flooring for a nicer flooring instead of sticking to their cheapo ceramic tiles.. Think fellow owners shud take note tat tis causes an issue at ur main door area.. As the laid tiles is jus enough in thickness to leave jus a tiny allowance of space underneath ur main door, you cannot overlay laminate around the main door area.. The added thickness of laminate is totally impossible to be laid underneath e door.. So ID asked wat we wanna do, do we wanna leave e patch of area wit e existing tiles n start laminating from after e door area, which I felt will be so awful! After thinking much I came up wit e idea of pebble wash flooring.. Meaning they will have to hack away the few tiles at the doorway area and use cement and pebbles to create a different pattern at e doorway area, after which abit further up our laminate flooring will start from.. This was going to cost us an additional of $400 excluding the pebbles which r supposed to cost $18-$20 a bagful which apparently is more den enough for the area with lots of leftovers.. So we went down yesterday to Hafary wit ID to choose the pebbles color n type tat we want laid out n I had tis idea of doing a stripes design in 2 coordinating colors so tat e place doesn't look like a big patch of plain pebblewash, jus had a feeling wud not be as attractive as having say 2 stripes of a color n 1 stripe of another, given our small area.. But e difference wud be buying another bagful of pebbles as extra which was no big deal I thought.. N ID said we cud extend e area of e pebblewash til dining area to kinda create a foyer area look n I was so excited tat we were having something unique done in our small space.. (The 2 different pebbles we chose to do our striped pebblewash flooring.. Kinda limited on choices as we didn't wanna go for e sharp edged ones which had more variety.. These have rounded edge so won't feel prickly on e feet and safer.. E 2nd beigey color was chosen to match close to our laminate flooring color in e living so tat it's not too outstandingly off n e other color was to play wit e stripe design.. If worst case scenario we have to stick to a single color pebble wash flooring, it wud be e 2nd pebbles type..) N DEN, ID msged me after we left saying he checked wit e tiler n was quoted an additional 300-400 for e stripes cos it's more work n material etc etc n tat will bring e total cost of e foyer area to almost 800 jus like tat! Simply not worth right! I was so pissed wit e spoil of plans on my striped foyer area n am now trying to nego wit my ID to get to talk to his tiler on best price to get tat done for me at cheaper price. Haiz... So now I'm waiting for his revert. Simply few hundreds gone like tat on an issue we didn't foresee coming at all.. Wudnt have been a prob if we didn't have tiles laid by HDB but since we do, it's a pain now. So I suggest unless u really want to stick with their tiles, do not opt to have tiles laid by them cos it's gonna cause u extra inconvenience n works later on to do anything else u wanna redo..

Oh tats nice u seem to have a big living room..kitchen sizes are as pathetic as always lol...tats to both of ours..our reno will be kick starting tomoro I guess..after looking at the actual unit happened to have some changes/add ons from our initial plan..will keep u posted on more happenings..am kinda stressed out wit some changes now kinda no mood to blog down lol..will wait for my moods to be up again before I can cheerfully yak away here haha tc!

Hey thanks a lot for ur reply n advise! We actually went to do some fan shopping today n ended up buying 2 sets of 45" Amasco Refresh range ceiling fans for both living n MBR... Upon lots of contemplating n advise from e sales cum owner, decided to go for these as they had a sample model running n it was really windy n it's supposed to be Taiwan brand which I've been hearing recommendations about tat they make e best quality ceiling fans... Hopefully it was a right choice! 😃 all e best to ur reno do share more progress n completion pics!

Hi jus wanna check wit u.. Ours is a 3 room BTO n we r contemplating e exact 2 fans u installed... Only thing worrying my hubby is e overall size of e fans n if e wind circulation will be affected due to lack of distance space from end-of-blades to walls etc.. Also on wobbling issues tat some seemed to face wit kdk which has to be balanced well by official kdk installers who seem to be e ones who r able to rectify e prob.. How is e fan doing for u so far? E space u have seems to be quite substantial but wonder if it's any difference between e size of a 5 room's living/MBR n 3 room's living/MBR.. By e way we will be having LBox at both e area where e fans will come in,both living n MBR.. Wondering if e same sized fans will work for us as well.. U seem to have got a good deal for e fans... Did kdk guys install for u or normal electrician? Mind sharing contacts for where u bought ur fan pls? Thanks so much...

Hi NingNing.. Nope not e one on e floor but e ones on e wall, there's e inlet tap thingy I think,tats sticking out n e dryer rope thingy tats sticking out where e dryer shud be resting against.. I have checked out so many ppl's blogs n pics of service balcony but nobody seems to have 2 stupid pipes like I have. At most it's 1 big one only or else none sticking out in their way of washing machine placement but mine is so dumbly situated. Can u see how much space there is between e big n thin pipes? Tat eats up so much into my precious space. Why do they need to do tat??? Grrrr! I seriously doubt the balance space available from the small pipe to the wall is anything near 70cm which is e bare minimum we need cos wen I checked out my washer model it's bout 65+cm.. N we gotta give some allowance for a bracket to be fixed to hold e dryer on top so at least 70cm but tis balance space looked soo tiny wen we saw it over there. Anyway going down tis sat for an onsite meeting wit ID so will measure it in detail again n hopefully he can find some solution for us. Overall our service balcony is a big disappointment to me 😒

Oh yes it is! Have u gotten ur house yet? R u a 3 roomer too seeking ideas in here or wat?

Hi NingNing thx for ur input! Ours is a 9kg washer and dryer which is supposed to be stacked on top of one another n looking at e way e pipes r situated in e svc balcony n e protruding out inlet pipe n e extension to pull down e clothes hanger etc.. Jus seems like tat side is totally cramped out for us..wen things r jutting out like tat how to stack dryer on top? Wonder if firstly our size washer dryer will fit into tat space anot.. We thot there may be some way tat plumber etc cud rerun e whole inlet n outlet thingy to e other side... Of cos wud be e best thing if somehow our items can be fit inside tis space but am worried wat happens if it doesn't... We r a big family n never run out of laundry to clear, especially wen I do separate washes for e adults n e kids, washing of comforters n bed sheets etc so we really need a big capacity washer dryer.. E other side of e svc balcony we actually intended to get ID to custom make a ledge table kinda thing or wat for my clothes folding so tat there's a designated system there but now it's all bout how e appliances placement is gonna be.. Headache headache.

Hi peeps! Yes finally we got our keys today and went down to see our actual unit! Wow that was really exciting! Due to the rainy weather and by the time we made it to the house was bout 5+pm so it was kinda darkening.. Thus all my pics turned out crappy even with flash so I'm not gonna post any pics now.. Rather take better ones when we go down this Sat to meet our ID onsite to discuss real time plans etc.. On actual unit, I love how we r situated, we are right at the corner, the last unit of the stretch and tat gives us extra privacy which I love.. Nobody wud be walking past us, no peeping, no need to be conscious to be caught offguard by bypassers lol.. Though it's a clustered-blocks project, we are very lucky to be facing open space around us due to the layout of the project.. We have a beautiful view from living,kids room n MBR room windows which r gonna be overlooking e upcoming playground, water fountain, greenery etc tat has been planned within our project as it's highlight points.. Thus we have no obstructing views from neighboring blocks tat wud cause it to be stuffy, lack of privacy etc.. Gonna be windy without much of direct sunlight due to the way we are situated.. That also makes the house really bright and open which I love.. I'm e sort tat hates dark gloomy houses n will switch on e lights if it's dark even in the late afternoons etc so this is great.. Hope good luck too lol.. N surprisingly we felt the house is kinda spacious in the sense doesn't appear as scarily tiny as we expected it to be.. We have got all squarish and rectangular rooms n spaces without odd layout which is good..only disappointment is e kitchen which is way too crampy n worst, disappointed with e way they have planned out the service balcony! Show u y... See how e pipes r at e service balcony? How on earth will any washer or dryer fit in there???? What on earth were they thinking??? Plain rubbish work isn't it as if to merely fulfil the duty of installing pipes n stuffs not considering the practicality of it. E other side of the svc balcony is such.. So clean neat n empty BUT we need to probably run e piping, wiring and whatever not to bring everything on the other side to this side to house the washer and dryer which is to be stacked on top of one another.. Extra costs, unnecessary works n it jus doesn't make sense. I intended to have a suspended ledge or cabinet on e opposite side of e washer+dryer to be able to do my clothes folding, laundry activities there and tis plain empty side wud have been perfect but I need to shift to tat space now n wonder how useable is e other side gonna be for my worktop plans.. Wonder is ours e only dumb layout like tis or most BTOs face tis.. How do u guys manipulate tis issue? Any advise wud be greatly appreciated.. Lya

Beautiful fan there! Over our budget though😌

Hey thanks Alfredt.. Yea I like e way they look.. It looks like e hot fav theme of fellow renotalkers is Scandinavian or Industrial at e moment but we don't feel e attraction towards those themes.. Basically Modern Elegance is what we aim to achieve.. Hope things turn out as we expected all around.. Really anxious as we near the real phase.. 😬

U mean from e floorplan or e 3d?hopefully it is spacious enough n not too cramped up.. 😀 gonna check it out in person tomoro so will know roughly how e actual space is like...will take some pics of e raw state to post up.. Hope will be of use to 3 roomers or Riverwalkers...

Hi Happycouple.. At tis point it's standing at 26k+ n tats excluding electrical costs as ID prefers to let e electrician quote us on his own based on our needs..n also excluding any misc costs tat may be incurred upon commencement of works,unexpected rectification etc..hoping things don't bust further!

Hi there can I have ur ceiling fan catalogue too pls.. I need fans without lights n it's for HDB.. 1 in e living n 1 for MBR where e room has e wardrobe forming an L shape so it kinda cuts e ceiling space in half so wonder if e remaining space is possible or safe to add a ceiling fan.. Pls advise thx.. Lya

Due to e cramped space in e kids room, we decided to place only e built in study table n custom made bunk bed (double decker with pull out) in their room n extend the wardrobe space in our room so we have a 10ft wardrobe in the MBR.. So we will have to segregate the wardrobe space such tat it fits all e family's clothes.. Hoping it shudnt be a prob as I have e habit of folding clothes mostly so lots of shelving n spaces dedicated cud do e trick.. It helps tat we have a huge storage bedframe which wud hold all my spare pillows, comforter sets etc so I don't need e wardrobe space eaten into to accommodate bedding stuffs..

So there's some update.. We got our 3D pics! Made some amendments to e very first draft ID sent us to have furniture,lights,appliances as close to what we had already purchased.. Is about 80% there.. In 2 days time on the 19th we are getting our keys n starting reno the following Monday, 24th..

For our bed we went to Maxcoil at Bukit Merah, they have a small showroom there n got our King sized Coralinus(was told its e highest grade they have there, some hotels r using tis range as well, is 14" thick with pure latex pillow top) mattress n bedframe as a package at $2.4k.. Apparently it was worth $4k plus but we could get a better deal at tis isolated showroom n e sales lady Cindy is very nice.. We got e storage bedframe which has super huge storage space I cud literally hide under! N e pc they had in e showroom was only a Queen size! It comes wit e same hydraulic hinges tat e big S brands carry, which I confirmed wen we went over to e expo furniture show n kaypoed e other brands😋.. Out of e headboard selections we had, we chose tis particular one which is not as fancy looking as e flatboard ones, even e bling embedded ones as they were practically comfy n neck-supporting wen we sat leaning against e headboard.. Wen sitting up reading a book, watching tv or nursing e baby etc wud be really useful.. Encourage fellow bed-seekers to try tis kinda designs out as they really give good support to ur head/neck n u don't need to prop up a pillow for support.. Haven't decided on e color n material of headboard n frame yet as we hadn't confirmed e room's colors etc yet.. Will need to go down to confirm tat one of these days.. E deal: Got 4pcs hotel range pillows, 2pcs hotel range bolsters n 1pc mattress protector!

Our first purchase for our house was our fridge, washer n dryer.. Was at e audiohouse expo sale in Jan if I'm not wrong.. Love e Hitachi fridge, always wanted a black tempered glass french door fridge n hubby wanted e ice water dispenser on e front so tis had all we wanted. Huge though wonder how much space it would take in our tiny weeny kitchen.. But a family our size wud definitely do wit this right! N we got Electrolux 9kg washer n 9kg dryer separately, both front load which we intend to stack on top of e other, personally am wary of 2 in 1s as e whole appliance will be down if either one screws up so better to have individuals so tat both perform their max capacity n duties.. We always accumulate a huge load of laundry very quickly so we went for 9kg.. Dryer Washer

Hi all! Finally I have decided to create my own TBlog n finally managed to figure out how to post up pics! For starters, we applied for our 3 room BTO in a Yishun Riverwalk back in 2010, after several bad queue numbers for 4 room BTO ballots took a try in the lower number 3 room category n bingo! Got it.. That was before we started our family.. Through the years and now, we are a huge family with 3 kids! Surprise! No. 4 is on its way, due in June 2014! 😅 though we tried to appeal for a change of room size, 'pro-family' HDB insisted it would be unfair for the rest to bypass this way thus we could either cancel our application and start all over again for another unit(after ruining thousands of $ on open market rental for all those years??) or just wait to sell this unit after 5 years and upgrade.. So yea we are stuck with this for now, small but well most of us grew up in a small home with several family members right? N we made it, close knit, happy n healthy! So we shall put up with this arrangement for now.. We intend to upgrade a few years down the road.. But we'll make this our cosy home til den, making sure the best arrangement is made for each n every member comfy n happy! Our kids r aged 11(from my 1st marriage in case tis confuses u readers, 11yrs old within 4yrs of marriage??!!lol),3yrs n 2yrs old..of cos e latest edition is on his way due in June.. So we were anxiously waiting for e keys collection for our home cos somehow our project had been facing delays n drags from e start, delayed commencement, pause in e middle, bla bla.. So after much anticipation, chasing and shadowing HDB, we were finally told today that our keys are finally handed over to HDB by the builders! N after chasing my project officer, we were a schedule for the 1st batch of key collection, 19th March!! Next Wednesday that is! Wow that sounded gooood! I was so stressed out to get our keys so that we could get reno n settling down done soonest and in time for baby to arrive anytime in June and think at the timeline we have now, it's nicely possible! Yay! Soo many things to do though.. Our very first home n so many things r new, especially e reno journey.. Thankfully hubby n I had started our shopping n preparation as early as Jan this year when we got updates that we may get our keys in the 1st quarter of e year.. Mostly from Spore Expo sales, online recommendations etc.. We didn't do much ID sourcing as hubby is e type that's too lazy to look around too much n wud want to settle down with the one who offers him the best quote etc.. We did sign up with e 2nd one we spoke to, paid $500 n after which we pulled out n forfeited the money! That's another story.. I just didn't feel assured or safe with him.. Was all bout money but not in making me comfortable that he will realize our dream home.. Every idea I had he simply brushed it off saying its unnecessary n can make do without it n wit cheaper materials/alternatives which would totally scrap my idea of how my place should turn out like.. Finally settled with the 3rd ID we spoke to.. Was my find.. After talking over the phone n feeling some comfort level with him, got him to email me his quotation which was pretty reasonable, hubby agreed to meet him up and found him to be very professional n refined unlike e 2nd one, really contractor standard. Finally engaged him n r hoping he keeps up to our trust.. Sooo sorry I'm a very lor soh person, very detailed n thus this has gone soo long.. As much as I have learnt n benefited from RT n others' experiences, hope to share my experience so that others can benefit the same.. So pls bear wit me! First pic of e day is our floorplan..

Testing for e first time!

Hi there fellow ppl! Been a silent reader for quite sometime now but I need help from the experts here! I'm expecting my keys anytime within Mar/Apr n am sooo awed by the stuffs u guys have been buying from Amazon.. Great quality stuffs at apparently low prices n I got influenced to do my household shopping there too.. Had been actively dropping items into my shopping cart n finally checked out to pay n prepare for shipping when I got the biggest shock of my life! The shipping cost is costing much much more den the cost of items itself! All the items I selected are ones that are eligible to be shipped directly to Sg n even though I tried playing around n adjusting the items to a few small items which should not weigh too much, when I checkout it's still bout SGD$200+ for items worth SGD90++.. I'm wondering how could that be an economical factor for us compared to buying those locally.. Am I doing anything wrong here.. Can someone advise how to go about it? Better still if someone could help with including me in your Amazon shopping spree wud be even better! Looking forward to some helpful advise thx so much! Lya

Hi Blueclown,soo sorry to have hijacked ur thread n pouring my sentiments here lol...got so excited to find fellow neighbors here..I love how ur ceiling fans look so sleek n stylish..we intend to install one in e living n MBR(wo lights though) so cud u share what brand/model r they n where I bought them/price too pls... To cfcharles, seems like its gonna be ur turn anytime soon yea!so excited for u!do keep me posted on ur key collection so tat I cud get a rough gauge of wats e status of e rest of e project..n don't forget to share ur reno process too ok??!😊

Hi cfcharles,thx so much for ur input!according to HDB's update e probable completion is supposedly 1st quarter of 2014.. I read cases of ppl getting their keys way earlier etc n am afraid of ours delaying any further den April cos den everything will be jammed n won't be able to make it all happen in time..infact our HLE was accessed n approved in dec/early Jan itself n hear ppl say soon as HLE is done things move very fast u get ur keys soon after but don't seem like tat in our case lei😰called HDB even today to check any status n they said no updates they have not gotten e keys from e developer yet..so wonder when things will start moving.. We have prepared everything from furniture,lightings,appliances,sanitaryware shopping to engaging an ID n selected our laminates n materials etc jus awaiting 3D layouts as we intend to prepare everything so that once keys are in hand we can immediately start work but still....each passing day without the good news from HDB side makes me sick to my stomach!😫

Hi!!its my very first posting in RT after being a silent reader for months but cudnt resist responding to ur thread cos I'm a fellow Riverwalker too!!from Blk 333B though..ours is a 3room n I'm so painfully waiting to get our keys cos I'm preggy n due in June' 14 n we have to get e house ready n do our housewarming party before I'm due so tat things don't clash n we could be all ready for e new baby..every time I read of other BTO owners getting their keys my heart skips n beat n get more frustrated tat ours is still held back!!doesnt help wit e preggy hormones as well😳..so there goes let's keep in touch on e progress of our keys collection n reno journey..I'm longing to start my own Tblog but e uploading pics part is a big pain!its not turning out,how do I do it???pls educate me someone!meanwhile wishing all home owners a great n pleasant experience in renovating ur dream homes!😍