yuene

A busy weekend at the Haus of Yuene: How time flies, really... It feels so surreal, the knowledge that my renovation, which I've waited over 2 years for, is finally really going to take place this Monday. It seems like only yesterday that I was poring over issue after issue of interior design magazines for ideas, and now I'm installed in my mum's place, literally counting down the hours to the start of the hacking. Strangely enough, for someone who'd anticipated the whole thing for so long, I feel no sense of excitement; instead, as I packed, I felt rather nostalgic. All the old furnishings and items... good memories, man, good memories... being the rather sentimental girl that I am, I bid the old cabinets goodbye, and went through my near-empty rooms, recalling every event... guess I'm rather silly that way, but while I know I'll be coming back to it soon, it won't look the same as when I first moved in. My packing is mostly done; all that's left is to bring a couple more items to Extra Space, and to transport the kitties over to my mum's place, where they have been allocated a room to themselves (the lucky critters). My house looks terribly empty now. In all honesty, I actually like how empty it looks and feels at the moment, and I even momentarily toyed with the idea of keeping it that way permanently. Heh But part of the fun will be the filling of the house with the right furniture in the right amounts, so I'm looking forward to that, too.

froggy and sam jie: In the end, we went with Alpha Movers, because Shalom was a bit too costly (over $700 for the move there and back, compared to $450 from Alpha, also there and back). We're moving everything into Extra Space, and our parents' places. My house looks like a refugee camp now! Just got a call from RHB Bank, informing me that my renovation loan is approved. They also informed me on what items to bring--note that if you're opening the account with them, you have to bring the money in cash, or in the form of a cheque (same applies for the 1% processing fee). I'll be headed down this Friday afternoon since I'm on half-day leave.

Welcome to Renotalk!! Wishing you a smooth smooth reno!

Update 19/08 No progress on the packing, but a few things have happened in the meantime: 1) My reno permit for hacking has been approved! I received the confirmation from HDB in the mail this morning, on my way back from the banks. No problems with the hacking items, since it doesn't involve structural walls. Strange though, it says that the renovation works must be completed by 27 September, although hacking is allowed for only 30/08-01/09. Does that mean that the whole renovation must be completed in *gulp* less than a month?? 2) I applied for the renovation loan! Hb and I originally had hoped to cover everything with cash, but as we planned more and more, we realised that it was, in all likelihood, not quite feasible, if we wanted to have the renovation before more things in the house start falling apart! So we agreed that since he is footing most things with his savings, I would be the one to apply for the renovation loan. After a lengthy review of the possible bank loans, I decided to go with RHB, as its interest rates are pretty reasonable, and the bank had gotten good reviews so far for the service. Taking leave, I dutifully trooped down to The Rail Mall with the relevant documents. A preliminary review: Service in general at that branch of RHB seems to be not bad. I had to wait as there seems to be only one officer in charge of personal loans at that branch, so in the meantime, the teller informed me that drinks from the vending machine were on the house (score one for the little perks). There was a person in front of me, but she apparently decided not to take up whatever loan it was because it was too bothersome, and so it was my turn. The personal loans officer was pretty friendly, and took time to answer my queries on the loan types. Just for your info, there are two types of loans: the variable interest loan, which has an interest rate of 6.25% p.a., and the flat rate package, which has two rates for two principal loan amounts--3.88% p.a. for a loan up to $15K, and 3.22% p.a. for loans above that. There is an effective rate as well, which is, if I understand it correctly, just basically the idea that the proportion of interest in relation to the (remaining) principal amount will increase-- for e.g., if you take a loan of $10K, the interest is calculated using the initial principal amount x interest rate x no. of years that you will be repaying the loan for (e.g. 3 years), and NOT recalculated yearly with the remaining principal loan amount. So that would work out to about 5.8-7.3% p.a. overall. If you are taking the variable loan, do note that there is a minimum sum for prepayment, which is $5,000, with increment of $1,000. Kristi (the loan officer) also informed me that when I take up the loan, I would have to set up a savings account with RHB, from which the loan repayment would be deducted. There also is a minimum sum of $500 that must be maintained in the account, failing which there would be a transactional deduction of.... $2. Anyway, on signing the acceptance of the loan, a 1% payment has to be made (in cash), which cannot be deducted from the loan amount. So if you intend to go with RHB, do note that. Drawdown must begin 3 months following the signing of the letter of acceptance, and payment is issued in a maximum of 3 cheques made out to your contractor. The first is FOC, but the second and third will incur an administrative charge of $10 (WHAT THE....). Principal loan repayment begins the month after the drawdown; basically, if you took out the money first on 18 August, repayment kicks in on 18 September. OUCH. So I arranged for a flat rate loan, and worked out a comfy repayment period and amount for myself. Pretty much fuss-free, and friendly and helpful service all around. Then again, maybe it's just the start, so they're friendlier then. Will keep everyone updated on the ease of using the bank's services. Just for everyone's info, if you're applying by yourself, you will need: -your IC (they will make a copy for you) -your latest payslip or tax assessment -your CPF statement for the last 6 months. FYI, it's the CPF contributions statement, and not the transactions statement. If you're a dork like me and have printed out the wrong one, you can print it on the spot, assuming you have Singpass. -Contractors' official quotation -Proof of ownership of the property being renovated--for this, you can print out the document from HDBinfoweb, if you have Singpass, as well. 3) Had a moving company come over to give me a quotation for moving my house. Will receive it tomorrow. Hope my eyes don't pop out at the amount.

Congrats Samz on moving in! The place looks fabulous!

lachesis: Oh okay! Thanks for the packing tip. I will try that out! Packing is still very slow, so many things in the house still lying around. Must somehow get the inspiration to clear it all!

Yet another quick update (I feel like a Twitter account): Permit applied for. Hacking starts 30 August. I still have so many things to pack... oh. my. god. I'm really freaking out right now.

Jupiter: Ya, and my husband is playing Starcraft 2 instead of helping me pack! Hahaha... this one is hardcore man, he even took leave the day after buying it to play the whole day... one month to the reno... Still so much to pack away! ne0: Thanks man... I think it's really the weather, it's like siao lor, one day rain like siao, next day hot like siao...

ne0: Not quite... although my sinus is now unclogged.... from time to time it still hurts when I blink. But mostly okay now. Spending my MC working from home...

Samz: thanks... Been on MC 3 days this week now; just hoping that it'll clear up by next week. Boo to being sick!

Just a quick update: my reno start date has been shifted back to 30 August. Just as well, as I need more time to pack! I suppose I could use these two days to get some of that done... on MC for a throat/sinus infection...

Lol, orgy of tiles! That's a very apt description for the Hafary experience. Nice tile choices!! Your MBR toilet is going to look really luxurious.

Hi Rondy, Yup noted. But I'll probably have to change that tile, my contractor said it's not very heavy-duty for a floor tile, and might not be suitable. So it's back to the drawing board there... Jupiter: yup, finally! Must thank you for your contractor recommendation and advice!

Never mind la, Edmund's work will speak for itself bah! Jia you (8-11 more days nia!)

samgalz: ya, I went to the Balestier branches, because I wanted to go check out bathroom fixtures and lights too (in the end, only checked out bathroom fixtures...and realised we are going to be short of monehhh, so looks like we'll be using back a lot of our old furniture, like the fridge and the washing machine) thanks for the compliments on the tiles, but looks like it's back to square one for the kitchen floor because he says that those are not quite heavy-duty enough, so need to re-pick. Stupid girl, never ask if it's a wall tile or floor tile. Guess it's back to Balestier this weekend /sadface Haha, ya, I'm not too kanchiong about these things... partially because all my kanchiong-ing was done 2 years ago! Hahahahahaha so now the actual thing starting, I'm not so bothered liao... it's a bit of an occupational hazard I think. Things always come in last-minute, have to do things in a rush etc etc. lilith: thanks! I hope so too...

Yuene goes shopping for tiles: So anyway, on Saturday, my hb and I went to watch Despicable Me! Quite funny, though the storyline wasn't that fantastic; still, it was very enjoyable! Plus, the minions are hilarious. I shan't spoil the rest for you, but catch it on a weekday, when it's more worth the money. After that, we went tile shopping, because last week I emailed my contractor asking when he needed me to do the tile selection by, and he replied "latest first week of August... Oh you not kan chiong arh???" Since my hb would be working next Saturday, and the weekend following that would be National Day weekend, we decided to get things done now. So, off to Hafary we went... Our experience at Hafary: It seems like everyone doing their renovations was choosing their tiles at Hafary! It may have been 1pm, but the place was filled with people. It took us a while to be served; in fact, we were only served when we wandered upstairs in search of more tiles... but that suited us just fine, as it gave us some time to browse through and pick out the ones that we liked in relative peace. I also had a few ideas as to what I'd wanted, but after checking out the price tags on those tiles, we kind of gave up on those tiles (but we still got samples! just for the fun of it, heh) Not that there weren't enough pretty ones in the range we wanted... in the end I saw a combi that I knew I was going to fall in love with immediately, and I got samples for those tiles. We were served by Theresa, who seemed friendly enough (though she didn't give me any input, just got the tiles and that was it) After a little more browsing, we hopped over to Hup Kiong. Hup Kiong... It was a lot quieter there, us being the only customers besides a family. We were served by an aunty (whose name I can't remember), but the range of tiles was a bit limited compared to Hafary. Still, we did see a couple that we liked, including the mosaics (again, though, they were a bit out of the price range, and I don't want to bust that). The sales aunty offered some advice on the slipperiness of the tiles, which I was quite grateful for, because I do have a phobia of slipping and falling (I have an old back injury), and my tiled areas are all in 'wet' parts of the house. So... The top tile is the one that I considered using for my backsplash: since my house is all white, it would make a cute statement--plus, less grout lines! However, I need to see how much the cost is compared to a glass backsplash; if it's too much more expensive, then I'll have to scrap that idea. The bottom tile is my kitchen floor tile. It has a bit of texture, so it won't be slippery when wet. I didn't want to go for a wood-lookalike, as my whole house would already be laminates of a light blond wood shade. Kind of boring, if you ask me. The one on the left is the floor tile, nice and rough to prevent slips when wet, and the one on the right is my wall tile! It's not too clear, but if you can see it, there's a different coloured stripe on the tile...it's striped that way! I'm going to have it laid such that the stripes are parallel to the ground, to help lengthen the bathroom visually. ^^ And to congratulate ourselves for a job well done, we ate this:

I'm trying to avoid thinking about that for now. I don't want to get started on that nightmare known as 'trying to figure out what goes where'. Jia you for the moving!!! titanax: okay la, I rip clothes off also nobody want to see one lor... besides, muscle-bound women are... hmmm samgalz: Haha! Seems that quite a lot of guys love these things! Who knows, maybe they all post on the same forums. One of my salsa buddies turned out to have been a toy forummer that my hb knew long time ago...

Oooh kitchen's up! NICE LAMINATES! Will you be having lights installed under the cabinets?

Ya, because I also don't know what to say! It's that funny period when nothing reno-wise is actually happening-- can't really buy my furniture, no transformation etc. But OMG I just realised I'm exactly one month to reno start date. Just last year I was complaining that it was such a long way off some more. o_O and yup, it's really strange as things progressively go into various-sized cuboids. Just packing the toys took one weekend--thank god my PILs were here over the weekend to 'gang' some of his gundams and transformers across to their place, BECAUSE THERE'S A WHOLE MOUNTAIN OF THEM, ALL UNDONE, STILL IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!! grarrr /Hulk SMASH wahahahahaha 11 more days for you! You must be excited! Have you found a mover yet? And ya, I heard too, but change of plans... looks like we're watching tonight instead... Will let you know if it's good!

Oh okay okay... have fun!

ne0: LOL I actually have pics of the boxes lor... but only dunno where I left my card reader (nb I hope I didn't pack it in somewhere) so until then cannot upload them.

Titanax: Yes, it is... reno still in pre-hacking permit, pre-furniture purchasing stage... Only thing happening now is the packing... Only now then I know how much junk we have in this house. Now trying to sell as many items as possible.

Wooi! Going to Hafary tomorrow also? I'll be there too (around 2pm like that)!

Haha! Ya, still packing lor... My house is slowly turning into box-land... easier though now that my tenant has left... got the whole of the other room to stuff things into. Nothing much to update so far, except Tomorrow going to choose tiles! Headed to Balestier after watching Despicable Me... maybe I should go order my lightings too while I'm there. Pity my friend is away on conference, otherwise I can ask him to join my hb and I for lunch, since it's his stomping ground for 17 years liao...

*sigh* So besides watching my team crash out in spectacularly bad fashion on my wedding anniversary, I spent most of it packing! Only when I started on the non-essentials (like the books and toys) did I realise just how much junk we'd accumulated over the years. Wiping down, stacking and packing is no fun! I ended up with a huge back and neck ache from staring down at the pail, washing my figurines and toys, and then packing away the items and labelling them. I guess it was kind of funny especially when I was packing my Sylvanian family into boxes and bags--I guess I'm not the only one packing up!