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I suppose I should just cut the story short as my BB girl is grasping at legs and exclaming "Papa, papa, I, I... I want to work!" (To her, hacking away at the keyboard in front of PC is working) As title suggests I'm trying to make my cosy 3rm be different from standard cookie cutter design. With any project, setting the budget is most important. My current cash flow allows for 50k expense. Its broken down 4 categories. 1. Electronics 10k 2. Furnishing 10k 3. iD/Reno 25k 4. Unknowns 10k Will continue update later.

Hi everyone! I would like to share my renovation journey with you guys so that we can exchange ideas and advice to build our dream home together Let me start off by sharing my floor plan :

Finally my turn to share the renovation journey after 4 years of our BTO application! Please bear with my bad english and my inability to make this as interesting. So, my parents (or rather, my mother) has been feeling really envious of my friends who are all getting their keys to their new flat and started asking me if we can still apply for a new flat. So, did my research and asked lots of questions. And yes we can! So started throwing $10/month starting late 2010, and finally gotten a not too good number after a year plus (the fate for second timers..). Since the project we get to apply for is a huge project, it is taking a longer time than the other project which was launched in the same month. So! Like many others, lets start with my floor plan! Pictures of the bare unit will follow soon!

Hello everyone, I'm going to 'graduate' from this renovation journey pretty soon. Thus, I decided to share this t-Blog with everyone, as well as to keep it as a record for myself in future. I also hope that this t-Blog can manage to help someone too. My wife and I were considered quite young when we apply for this BTO in 2012. I was 25 years old while she was 20 years old then. We had no peers going through this stage and we had absolute zero knowledge on the progress. But we went ahead anyway. We considered ourselves very lucky as we managed to get queue number 26 (First timer + Live near parent scheme). We get to select many units and eventually we decided on a high level unit with good view. Being young and with low cash funding, we need to save as much as possible. Thus, we began sourcing, reading reviews from the internet, forums and seek advices from people. Let me share the layout of my unit: Earlier on, I mentioned that we had zero knowledge right? We started out by meeting as many IDs as possible. We had zero idea on what we actually want. IDs are IDs afterall, they shared many different ideas with us. After meeting about 6-8 (we lost count) IDs, many quotation, we soon have idea of our own. It was like jigsaw puzzle, we took the good advices from different IDs and it became our idea. Finally, we met up with a contractor which was recommended by my new neighbour. I shall name him as 'Steven'. Steven is able to fulfil our requirements at a much lower price than IDs. My neighbour's parent unit was done by him, and it was pretty well done. As such, we decided to pick him for this renovation journey. Check out my renovation work within 25K budget (Painting, Window grilles, Ceiling, Carpentry, Plumping works, electrical works) Let the journey begin... Contents LayoutBare HouseAirconKitchen Part 1Kitchen Part 2Kitchen Part 3ToiletElectronic LootsFurniture LootsMalaysia LootsOnline Purchases Sneak PreviewLiving Room Part 1Living Room Part 2Bedroom 2 (Study Room)Bedroom 3 (Guest Room)Master BedroomLiving room (Final Photo)Taobao Loots 1Taobao Loots 2

Hi Guys Need your opinion and views on a particular issue. Currently I am waiting for my 1st Appointment to pick a unit under the SOB. We have decided to select a 5rm 'Repurchased Flat".. The problem is that, when we went to the unit to view it from outside. We saw that there are tons of debris.. It seems that they hack away the falls ceiling, kitchen cabinets, cornice and etc. All those stuffs are still in the house and it looks a complete mess. My question is, 1) Will the HDB clear all of the debris/rubbish inside the house? 2) The bedroom wall beside the Master bedroom wall was hacked. Will HDB reconstruct the wall to separate the room? Thanks in advance!!

Hi all, It's finally time to start this blog that I've been dying to start.. Literally, itching fingers! And here's how the story goes~ Somewhere in 2012 when my then bf was in Canada on exchange, we started talking about the "queues" for flats and how we knew of people that couldn't get a number even after 8 tries. The horror and disappointment these friends experienced were not lost to us and we decided given the lag time for building, we were going to try our luck with applications as well. It was an in thing then, I'm sure it's still the in thing now. True to the high demands back then, our first application fell through! To be fair, we weren't expecting to get it. After all it was the premium flat in Punggol with the balcony units 11x or something oversubscribed. That was one of my dream home styles, having a balcony! Well, I'll have to settle for a service yard and consider it "THE BALCONY" then. *Sighs* So when we got the it the next time with a decent queue number to boot, we were like "wow.. that was easy?!?" Imagine our embarrassment when we told the same friends who still hadn't got there flats. Fast forward 2015 It's been 3 years now and we've grown up, graduated from university, accepted that we will never get any of the carrot grants that the govt has dangled for making flats more affordable (20k then turned to 40k now), and engaged to be married next year, we are finally planning for our new home together... Ok it's really just me with the planning and the fiance to approve the plans and the budgets. I'm the one with the very specific ideas including a kitchen island (woohoo!) and he's my true blue CFO (give me the main points! chop!). As you can already tell, if you leave it up to me to decide, I'd think we'd be or at least be going bankrupt by now. There's so much to learn from the forums here that, it's also time for me to pay it forward. We've actually signed our IDs on over the weekend and I will share a little later our interview process with the 4 we picked out and how we ended up with the ONE! Hurray! *Jumps with joy*. Meanwhile, I'm sharing my floorplan so that you can guess what I plan to do with the place! You will note how interesting where the household shelter is placed unlike the convention of blocking the kitchen wall off. Till then, hasta la vista, baby! *winks* XOXO, Sapphira

Item: Modern Rotating Computer Table Dimension: 100*60*75 / 120*60*75 / 140*60*75 White/ Black available Please visit web for other dinension! Price: $250 (Inclusive of Shipping, GST and Table Set) Such modern table cost over $500 in singapore! For more groupbuys infuture, please join https://www.facebook.com/groups/1503506503275156/ INTERESTED PARTY PLEASE FACEBOOK MESSAGE ME. https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a312a.7728559.2014082902.1.MEbEiZ&id=45614004517&_lang=zh_CN:TB-GBK&thwarea=hw&toSite=main

Hi Fellow forum members, I would just like to feedback on my experience with Best Tech and Midea system 4. In Dec 2014, my wife and I went shopping around for air conditioner at a consumer fair. We chanced upon best tech booth and went in to take a look and was served by one of the salesperson. We were looking at a system 4 and he recommended Midea, as he was using it as well. Tempted by the price (mistake of my life) and the insulation material and 2 times installation thrown in, I signed on the paper (The Start of my nightmare) The aircon finished the installatin in March 2015 and we began using it. Before this, I placed great faith in my choice due to the confidence and branding sales talk done by the salesperson from Best Tech. On the first night, aircon was not cold!! (We had a 22K btu compressor and our room is only 12K btu). We had patience and told ourselves, the aircon was breaking in. Using the aircon for a week, my wife and I felt like a clown each night, when we have to turn on our fan at full power, coupled with the aircon at 17 degree celcius. The living room aircon is even worse. Literally, one fan at full power is more powerful than my aircon at 17 degree celcius. (I am literally typing in sweat now) Called in to Best Tech several time, each time they will request that you leave number and never got back. I have to standby the phone and insist that someone attend to me immediately, before they allowed a booking of aircon appointment (So this is singapore no. 1 company in Air Con). Cut the long story short: 1st Best Tech visit to home 5th June 2015: A pair of chinese and indian technician came. The indian technician was a second fiddle to the more experienced Chinese Technician. The indian technician keep on insisting that aircon was cold and I have to challenge him to bring a thermometer and prove to me. Chinese technician was better, he said that the aircon was not cold and check the compressor with findings that the gas was a bit low and cited that his company did not check it before installation ( , what is this?? SIngapore most trusted aircon partner). He proceed to top up, the situation did not get better. He told me to monitor and went back. During this time, the indian technian climbed my drying yard wall (dirtied my new paint!!), even though I provided the chair. 1st Best Tech visit to home 4th July 2015: Really did not get better, I called them again. The same scenario of calling and waiting and transferring happened. Fast forward -> The same pair of technicians visited us, chinese technician literally tell us that there is nothing much he can do and can only refer back to Midea (come on, as if I need you to come to my house and tell me this). At this moment, the indian technician went to check my compressor and done nothing to it, as all the gas level was right. They were here for 10 mins and decided to leave. (#&@(*^(*#&) Wasted my time to wait. Subsequently, I have to keep chasing Best Tech to make my appointment with Midea! This is a painful process, apparently they don't do emails and communicate between the principal and reseller via fax (welcome to the 21st century). Finally i got my appointment on 25th July 2015. Midea visit to home 25th July 2015: Midea technician came, measured the aircon gas, said that pressure too high because pumped too much gas inside ( ). He released the gas and set it to normal. Next he checked the cooling coil and measure it with the thermometer. He mentioned that the cooling coil is doing the work of blowing air but not efficient (i.e not strong enough), however the cold air is absence and takes a long time to feel cold air. (Yeah, I experienced that right from the start). He mentioned there is a problem with the compressor and will inform his company to send down rectification solution. ** wait ** and wait** and wait ** and more waiting !** MIDEA DON"T CALL and when i called the customer service, they told me they have reflected the problem as compressor low aircon gas, I was like WTH! OH COME ON! Seriously, come to my house and enjoy the aircon suana!!. This customer service guy is call jason.He said he has faxed to BEST Tech and they need to come back to my house and top up the gas ( ). I called twice and still waiting..... Today is 7th of Sep 2015 and I am still waiting for MIDEA OR BEST TECH to GET BACK TO ME! My advise to fellow homeowner Go for a established brand like mistubishi and also reseller. I am humbled by my experience and will continue to wait. Anyone who reads, constructive help will be good. If the operation manager of BEST TECH is reading, I am still waiting for your guys and soaked in my sweaty T shirt!! CONTACT ME to fix my problem! if not, offer my to trade up to a Mistubishi aircon.

After years of waiting, Finally collected my keys in July 15. Have been browsing for renovation ideas on internet and decided not to engage Interior Designers. ID are too expensive. With some knowledge on renovation, I will be the designer/coordinator for my own house.

Hello all! My hub and I just went to Malaysia to buy fans and we would like to share our experience. We have been reading through renotalk and we found that the most highly raved shop to buy fans in Malaysia is Tampoi lighting and Starworld. Given the positive experience and reviews by other Singaporeans, we decided to go there to check out the Aeratron AE3, in hope of getting a good price. However, much to our disappointment, the prices there were pretty steep! We were intending to get two of the Aeratron 50" fans (one for my friend) but the salesperson said that the price could not be reduced further. One Aeratron fan was going for around RM 1600. Since we did not expect that the fans would be so expensive, we did not have enough ringgit on hand to buy the fans we wanted. Fortunately, one Malaysian colleague of ours told us that we could check out another shop called HT lighting, where the price there might be cheaper. Refusing to pay the huge amount for the fans, we decided to take a cab down to HT lighting. We were greeted by a friendly salesperson when we arrived. The shop is not as big as Tampoi and only a selected number of fans r on display. We did not see the Aeratron fan on display and were so worried that the shop may not carry this fan. Luckily for us, they have the fan! And even luckier for us, the price was way CHEAPER than Tampoi! By a few hundred ringgit!! Man were we glad that we did not buy the fans from Tampoi and made the decision to come down! They did not have the stock available in the shop, but at another outlet so the sale lady kindly drove us the place to collect our fans. After collecting our fans, the lady offered to give us a lift to city square! So nice of her! We highly recommend this shop, given their good service and cheap prices! Note: We heard from the sale person that prices for imported good will be re-adjusted from September onwards, so do get the fans and lights early before the price hike! They have the vento fino fans too. There is another shop called Best light nearby which also sells fans and lights at a cheap price, but they don't carry Aeratron.

Hi there! We will be receiving our 4-room BTO Flat keys soon. Our preferred theme is Japanese Minimalist / Zen / Muji style with creative storage ideas. Does anyone have any IDs / contractors to recommend? Thank you!

Hullo Renotalkers, I'm starting this t-blog because I gained so much from senior t-bloggers, and hopefully this space will be as memorable for others in future! I've named myself the Bookworm because reading books is pretty much the only thing I know how to do, while my better half is, well, brilliant. Kind of like Gandalf- “Though one Wizard that I know took up the art long ago, and became as skilful in it as in all other things that he put his mind to.” The Hobbit, Chapter 2 So, hmmm. We collected our SOB BTO keys in Feb via the FIL because we were overseas (you know you're Singaporean when you understand all the acronyms!), and now that we're back for awhile, we decided to set our home affairs in order! This is what we've done so far (will do a separate post on each): 1) Mood board 2) Contractor (no ID) We're currently awaiting our revised quote! Then the stone will start to roll, hopefully. I'll wrap this introductory post up with our very ordinary and standard floorplan: Love, the Bookworm

Hello All! Thanks to all fellow T-blogger in renotalk, we have learnt much and finally get to start our very own T-Blog! Here is our floor plan for 4room BTO at Fernvale Rivergrove. We've opt-in for HDB tiles and doors. And heres our self drawn concept on what we plan to do. We spent around 1 month plus meeting 6 different ID and finally found our right one! The next post will share more about our ID meeting process and we'll collecting keys next week! So excited ~

I am 75% done with my reno works at my new bto. I must say I am quite pleased with my contractor (Jeff). Everything very well taken care off, very efficient in answering queries and doubts. Keen on giving feedback and suggestions.To be honest, i had my doubts and was quite skeptical if he was like some contractors who are out to cheat us He's not an Interior Designer, but did provide 3D drawings before work starts to show how the layout will be like. Most of the input from me of course after looking at countless photos and ideas. I am happy with his overall service, he goes down everyday to make sure everything is in order. Anywhere I not too happy about, he try his best to accommodate. I am writing this post to promote his services and am willing to share with anyone who may be interested in getting a quote. I'm in no hurry to move in as my newborn is only 5 months old and wife just went back to work. so need help from my parents with my boy. SO agreed to let him use my place as a showflat for awhile. So if you just got your keys there, feel free to drop by. PM me and I will share his contact. Here are some of the stuff i did.One side feature wall with brick-like tiles aka Craftstone.Whole house tiled with wood-like tiles. really look like parquet but better lasting, wont scratch and very low maintenance.Hack 2 walls. Kitchen side hack half den add glass. Make kitchen brighter and look spacious. #rd bedroom hack half wall, also add glass so can look out to the living room. Got that classy feel.Full kitchen cabinets on both sides of kitchen, full length shoe racks, toilet mirror cabinets, 2 bedroom wardrobes, 2 tv consoles.Whole living and dining room false ceiling. Installed cove lights, down lights and 2 ceiling fans even though i have AC. Super afraid of the heat.Tempered glass shower screens in both toiletsService yard install windows to prevent rain entering.Box up alot of unsightly AC pipes.Whole house fresh coat of paint. Literally whole house.Grills installed also for safety,Lightings: Whole house LED lights. Jus get from Qoo10 or taobao. Very cheap and good. Aircon: I got the LG mirror one. Looks cool at the showroom but havnt seen it in action yet. Heard LG alot better than 3 years back. Now all made in Korea. I got it from Best Tech Katong. **** good their service. Even the installation crew also not bad. Usual BTO 4pm can finish already mine they only done at 6pm. Also no complaints. Cause my position of the aircon very unique due to the hacking of my wall. Kitchen Applainces: All got SMEG ones. Have lobang. Heater, kitchen sink and toilet stuff. All go Hoe Kee to get. Wont go wrong. So many generations people all go there to get. Their service and saleperson top notch. Will continue recommending people there. Total slightly more than 30K. I find it reasonable as i compare around, no one can beat this quote. Ok tired already. Have qns ask me. If you gonna stay at Macpherson Residency, rmb can drop by my place for a look. THese few days while i was there already have some curious aunty and uncles walk in to see. I dont get any commission but i do feel that if people give good service, must promote them abit.

Original brand new room door provided by HDB. Selling at $60. Interested pls pm.

Our home came much quicker than expected, cus I was 30 out of the units available and signed in April 2013, but we just got the HLE letter and saw that the fences have already been torn down. Apparently ours is the first block and it's only been a little more than two years (Nov 2012 BTO, though!). Anyhow, we chose a 3R because (1) We balloted for PLENTY of 4Rs and just didn't have the "luck" for it, so we thought maybe that's just not God's plan for now; (2) I was just starting a business then and we didn't want to carry debt. We are super young (23yo) and debt-free, and this house is quite low maintenance for us so we are quite happy with it! No plans for children but even if we have one it can take it. Haha! So I am quite excited to get the house going but we have a great place to live right now so we're not in a hurry to move. Having lived in an area that's surrounded by renovations / construction, I know how "vomit blood" it can be to clean it everyday. And I've heard stories from other RenoTalkers. But somehow, the people in my estate don't believe how hard it is to clean! Haha! We went down to see our block since it was unfenced (but stairs still sealed up, only got to go up to the carpark) and generally was happy with what I saw. Love the colors and placement of things, and love the way everything was built. Should be a happy 5 years (or more)! Starting with our floor plan: We are meeting 3 contractors next week, and probably a 1 - 2 more in the next few weeks. Met with an ID but I have such a clear vision of how I want everything to look in my head (I am a designer, albeit not interior designer, by trade) and the IDs really disappointed me and bombed us with ridiculous amounts like $44k even though I didn't need that much. London is my second home and holds a super important place in my heart. I've collected various London trinkets from our honeymoon and our longish trip this year, so I hope to bring a piece of it here. So many IDs keep interpreting it as "victorian" which isn't what I want, so hopefully the contractors can help me out! And this is also why our home will be "Little London" -- like Little India or Chinatown. Haha! Will update as time passes and link everything to a content post in the next post! Hope I can help fellow 3Roomers as we're SO hard to find but I personally love 3 Room transformations!

The Introduction Time for me to share my renovation journey after much persuasion from my ID. Pardon me as this is going to be an abridged version, but feel free to post / PM if you need more details on any aspect. The Site Our family gotten a flat at Costa Ris in 2011 and finally received our keys earlier this year. We are kind of late due to administrative hiccups and by the time we received our keys, a good portion of our neighbours have already moved in. We thought this site is really quite good despite it being on the eastern edge of Singapore. It is rare to find a site that is walking distance from a main MRT line these days. The Floor Plan We opt for a 5-room flat as we intend to stay for the long haul, thus more space the better! We are happy with this layout as it gives us a long rectangular kitchen. The down side is the master bedroom is relatively small. From the onset we already have an idea to have an open kitchen concept by knocking down the wall highlighted in red. The Design Love wood, love simplicity and sleekness. These principles seem to be embedded into mainstream Scandinavian design and we'll go with that. Some pictures that we collected on our Pin board that make us say "Yea we want to live in a house like that!" The Interior Designers We met up with a few IDs in an attempt find the right one. I hate shopping for IDs as it gives me the same sick feeling when we are shopping for wedding studios, pre-sales promise you everything, post-sales give you everything else. As we do not have a clear cut idea of what we want to be done, we find ourselves comparing apple to oranges as different IDs have different ideas, which translates to different Bill of Materials and different cost. Meaningless. In the end we chose Nick that used to be from Renoguyz. He is different, he talks to you about fishes, flowers and bikinis. Deciding factor is that he is frank and not afraid to tell you what is nice and what is not. And now he have an assistant (Benny) so they remind me of Batman and Robin, which is always nice but I digress. The Plan As we did not opt for any of HDB add-ons, we pretty can choose anything we want which is nice. The bad part is that we have to choose from anything under the sun. Long story short, we settled on a plan to have the following key features: Kitchen Two row of cabinets and a breakfast bar topSubway tile backsplashGranite countertopCement Screed wallsHacking of HDB tilesLay with tiles of our choiceHacking of wall between kitchen and living roomBedroom Custom Wardrobes for all bedroomsStudy table and overhang shelves (aka the head cracker because I knock my head so many times on it) for bedroom 2Cement Screed floorClassic doors for all roomsToilets Full overlay of tiles for both toiletsVanity top for MBR toiletAluminum full louvre doors for both toiletsLiving Room Extension of Breakfast top to a dining table in the living room (Nick's proud invention)Feature wall: Brick overlay at TV areaFeature wall: Wooden Plank wallShoe Cabinet Others Electrical worksFlooring tiles + labourPainting, chemical wash and yada yadaThe indicative cost was about $47k but the final figure is being recalculated as there were adjustments along the way.

Hello Everyone! After years of lurking around here, learning so much from all the seniors here, I am finally starting my own T-blog! Why Smelly Nest? Its just our pet name for each other Lets start with the conventional boring floor plan. ">http://http://s307.photobucket.com/user/melakamalacca/media/Punggol/floor%20plan.jpg.html'> Our unit is a tiny 87 meter sq ( 90 meter sq including air con ledge). So our main challenge is creating enough storage for all our rubbish. The next post will be summarizing our visits to the IDs.

Hihi, I am H - the husband... M is my wife... and so we are "H&M" (we are not that well known swedish retail clothing company). Warm - Our home is really very warm!! Or should I used "HOT" instead.. Haha... No wind at all despite that our living room is not block at the moment. ...view from our living room... Time seems fast forwarded once we got our keys. But before that, it was a looooong looooong....... 5 years wait! Every BTO seems building faster than our project. We are starting this blog to detail our reno journey for our first home ~ A tiny 83sqm HDB BTO 4 room flat before it's gone without us noticing it. ...our floor plan... cheers, H

We applied for our BTO flat in Sep 2011, during that time, we were able to choose between Punggol Waterway Brooks and Waterway Woodcress. After some discussion with Missy, we have come to a conclusion, a 5-room Waterway Brooks flat will be our new house after our marriage. (One of the reason is because Waterway Brooks is closer to a LRT station in terms of walking distance and Sheng Siong is within walking distance)

Hi all, Long time lurker, first time poster here! We just completed our renovation and are looking to do up the blinds and black out curtains now. Man, these things costs a lot! We have a few quotation but RE Design Interior Curtains Service is the most favourable quote so far. Anyone has any inputs on their experience with this company? Appreciate the inputs and reviews from all! Regards, M

Hi everyone! Just wanted to check if the top floors in new BTOs have the same issue as older HDBs where the top floor generally has low water pressure. I just collected my house keys not long ago and am deciding whether to install an instant heater or a tank heater. TIA!

Hi everyone, I just collected my house keys for my BTO and my unit is on the top floor. When I inspected the house, I noticed that both my MBR and Common Toilets have full false ceilings installed. I am just wondering if this is how it's done for everyone nowadays? And it's weird because I thought toilets not allowed to have false ceiling or at least not as low as my house one (definitely below 2.1M...). TIA!

Started this quite late but got inspired by a neighbour so here goesss.......... November 2011, my then fiance, now hubby, was waiting anxiously for HDB to release new flats and due to his foresight, Punggol and Hougang would be a good estate. It is still 'empty' now and not as crowded as mature estate, its accessible and in the near future, it would be a booming estate where property value would go up. Especially for Punggol So when the new releases came out, HDB released both Punggol and Hougang but after seeing the location of Punggol's BTO and seeing the waterway, WE'RE SOLD! It is so near the mrt, it has the waterway as a view and its so near the new big shopping mall thy're building (Watetown) which is the same size or bigger than Vivo City. So of course, duh punggol waterway! With the new road opening up to Seletar, his drive to work from home would be 10 minutes or less, what a good life for him! So on January 16 - We collected our keys! Above: We were so happy that we chose a corner house! All that big space! We're already coming up with crazy ideas on how to make outside look awesome! Above: The living room. Sorry quite small! Above: Our Walkway Our kitchen and very tiny masterbedroom

Hi all! Just want to say a big THANK YOU to all T-bloggers who have shared your designs /ideas /pictures /information & experience here. It has been a great help, especially to us newbies who know next to nothing about renovating, & I truly enjoyed reading all the posts. Now's my turn to start my own T-blog, hope you enjoy it^^ Standard BTO 4-room plan: