hello fellow forumers!

me and my wife-to-be decided to chart our journey in making our love nest in the western town of bt batok. after 5-6 failed attempts at securing a BTO, SOBFs we decided to say "screw it" and went resale. the search lasted over a year cos i was really choosy, and i was really amused with property agent names. we went thru a titan, belmont, cash, and other names not unusual enough to catch our attention.

finally in jan 2011, the flat called out to us. apartment was really well maintained and neat. plus it was really spacious for a 4-roomer, at 114 sqm. and there was a stone feature wall to boot!

we hesitated for a while before deciding to bring the folks in for a quick recce. after a few hours of nervous discussions, the deal was sealed.

here's some pics:

living room

kitchen

balcony

funny thing about this balcony is that its completely indoors. drawback is not much direct sunlight. but we're thinking of getting like a patio in. searched around for more info on this model 4-rm and came up with this: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?sh...l=indoor+garden

so we're looking for contractors/IDs to do up the kitchen and toilets. if u have any recommendations, i'd be happy to get ur pm!

cheers

rr

Edited March 28, 201115 yr by rottenramone

In case you are wondering why the pictures are stamped with this guy called "Alan Wee". We are not advertising for him. He is the seller's agent and we found our place on propertyguru.com.

We ended up engaging his colleague as buyer's agent. Actually didn't think we could have gotten the flat otherwise, cuz there were other interested buyers offering higher COVs.

She has a somewhat funny name too - Coco.

Collecting our keys next week! Nothing done!

Anyway, here's the floorplan.

Edited March 28, 201115 yr by strikingreality

Having last seen the house during the viewing within the first few weeks of January, we actually cannot really recall what we wanna do for the flat except for the following...

- Overhaul kitchen, install bar counter or island.

- Overhaul MBR toilets

- Overhaul Common toilet

- Install wooden decking on the balcony

- Laminates for the bedrooms

Erm what else... think think think.

Edited March 28, 201115 yr by strikingreality

Although nothing done, we did make our first purchase over the weekend.

As we are not in a hurry to move in and we didn't want to rush to get the flat ready for the wedding, so we decided that we will start the renovation after the wedding and the minimoon in May. Hence target start is 3rd week of May.

However, my mum insisted that we get a new bed for the wedding. =.= Don't know why we can't wait till after we move into the new house... sigh. There goes my custom bedframe.....

So off we went to the east to the Lifestyle 21 fair to check out some mattresses. Figured that we will prob get the best deal here, since with all the major brands around, we may be able to have more bargaining power.

Along the way, we stopped by Surpreme Floors. Remembered them from the last furniture fair when we popped by enroute from the Borders Book Sale. The salesman funnily (perhaps scarily) remembered us from the previous fair. And since we brought our floor plan along, we took it out and sat down for a chat.

And 45 minutes later, after lots of questions, some bargaining from us, inputs and some help from his senior colleague and even his head of department, we signed on the dotted line of the credit card slip.....

Wooden Decking and Laminates bought!

(On hindsight... I forgot to check whether there is a drainage hole in the balcony... if not, how to wash the wooden deck??? HDB balconies got drainage hole?? Pardon me for the swaku questions!)

Our ID/Contractor hunting process is definitely not systematic in any way... as seen by our laminate/wooden deck purchase out of nowhere.

Anyway, Surpreme recommended one of their "regulars" to us.

Turned out these guys worked for Designer Guys. And he was pretty prompt in following up, calling us within 1 hour of our finalising of purchase with Surpreme floors. He seems really eager to meet up, so we met up with him.

Don't think the meeting was very fruitful, because other than what we listed above, we do not really have any idea on what else we wanna do...

Also the guy we met up with isn't really good with suggesting ideas so it was somewhat awkward....

He then said he will come up with a quotation based on what we want to do and get back to us....

We went back to searched renotalk on Designer Guy... turned out that there was a really bad review of them just posted a few days back... and the owner is in the process of going to Small Claims Tribunal to get back his money!

OMG. Makes us kind of skeptical, since the review is so recent....

Hi and welcome here..

Dun tink u need to do much given d current reno is looking gd and seems neat..

I cnt help but to say ur layout is d same as mine except tat i'm at d extreme east side of singapore..

Mine is at d top flr hence fortunately theres roof over my interaction balcony (as termed by hdb).

Watever shelter u intend to do at ur interaction balcony, advise u to seek hdb approval.

Hv a smooth & enjoyable reno ahead pal!

In case you are wondering why the pictures are stamped with this guy called "Alan Wee". We are not advertising for him. He is the seller's agent and we found our place on propertyguru.com.

We ended up engaging his colleague as buyer's agent. Actually didn't think we could have gotten the flat otherwise, cuz there were other interested buyers offering higher COVs.

She has a somewhat funny name too - Coco.

Collecting our keys next week! Nothing done!

Anyway, here's the floorplan.

others offered higher COVs and u got it??? the seller like u folks and entrust their hse to u...

Hi and welcome here..

Dun tink u need to do much given d current reno is looking gd and seems neat..

I cnt help but to say ur layout is d same as mine except tat i'm at d extreme east side of singapore..

Mine is at d top flr hence fortunately theres roof over my interaction balcony (as termed by hdb).

Watever shelter u intend to do at ur interaction balcony, advise u to seek hdb approval.

Hv a smooth & enjoyable reno ahead pal!

Hi hi! Thanks for the welcome!

It's so hard to find other owners with the same layout! Do you have a t-blog??? Would love to see what you did...

Actually we don't intend to build any shelter over the balcony... we love the open-ness and airy-ness of it...

Do u know if the balcony have a drainage hole?? Sorry about asking... I bought my wooden deck without thinking about it then! So stupid of me!

others offered higher COVs and u got it??? the seller like u folks and entrust their hse to u...

Actually owners seem eager to close the deal... I don't know why though, cuz they are not doing contra or buying something else. They are moving in with their son...

Deal was closed on the first day of viewing. The other COV was 2k higher than ours, but buyers want to wait a couple months before finalising. Heard from our agent that even after deal was closed, there were even higher COVs than the original 2 considered coming in.

Actually we like the owners too... they really took care of the house...

Hi hi! Thanks for the welcome!

It's so hard to find other owners with the same layout! Do you have a t-blog??? Would love to see what you did...

Actually we don't intend to build any shelter over the balcony... we love the open-ness and airy-ness of it...

Do u know if the balcony have a drainage hole?? Sorry about asking... I bought my wooden deck without thinking about it then! So stupid of me!

ya, same sentiment... agreed quite hard to find... esp when only selected older block plus selected unit will have such layout, so this make it lesser..

Sorry, I too lazy for t-blog, and also I bought my flat 6-7yrs ago alrdy... I only do basic reno... re-do entirely on toilets & kitchen.. lightings & switches... marble flooring re-lay with laminate floor... Not much fixtures/customisation...

Gd tat u like that its open & airy.. for me, I dun like so hv to find one at top flr... Fyi, u hv to pay a price for the airyness... its the ease of attracting dust & dirt...

Ya, there's a drainage hole.. its at a corner.. Depending on your orientation, either right/left of the balcony entrance. At least tats for mine...

Unless u will be washing floor, else the drainage will be useless. For me, its useless as it had been covered with laminated flooring...

We're back!

Basically after our last post, we continued visiting other IDs/Contractors etc.

And along the way we also realised that our lists of wants started growing longer and longer!

This was the list before:

- Overhaul kitchen, install bar counter or island.

- Overhaul MBR toilets

- Overhaul Common toilet

- Install wooden decking on the balcony one contractor advised that this is not suitable as our balcony does not have any direct sun, will become a haven for pests.

- Laminates for the bedrooms

New items to the above list:

- Laminates for the rest of the house (except kitchen area)

- Settee for the window area (similar to bay windows - storage ledge by the living room window)

- Retile the balcony flooring

- Invisible grills for the front facing windows (windows in kitchen, MBR, and 2nd bedroom faces the car park - no view to speak of!)

In the midst of the 2 months of ID/Contractor searching, we took 3 weeks out for last minute prep before the wedding, the wedding itself on polling day, and the minimoon after the wedding to Bali.

So newly wed and less bogged down with other distractions, we came back and receed a few more IDs. At the end of it all, we contacted 10 IDs/Contractors, of which 2 turned down our project even before visiting, 2 did not get back to us after meeting us, and the remaining 6 gave us a quote ranging from 21k to 45k. In the end, we went with the ID whom we felt most comfortable with, understood what we wanted, gave the most reasonable and logical recommendations and advice.

Paid a hefty deposit and chose our floor laminates yesterday! If nothing goes wrong, reno can start in 2-3 weeks! Can't wait!

Edited June 12, 201115 yr by strikingreality

I am so glad that we are doing our reno in this period. Probably saved us quite a bit since it's GSS.

So we bought these...

Line TV Console. Though I secretly like Air Division's Telegraph, this is easier on the pockets

The largest one (bottom left) for my side table

Without the organisation box - gonna use this for dining table.

Our Inspiration Booklet...

Hubby saw this book at Page One and we love flipping through it and look all the beautiful homes. It also details several famous/wellknown Scandinavian furniture and fittings. Almost an encyclopedia of the Scandinavian design. Unfortunately, it cost a freaking $60+. Thank god for internet shopping, for we found a soft copy on Amazon.

Edited June 29, 201115 yr by strikingreality

looking good so far! for my references... instead of buying books... I went ole school - borrowed from library @@

Our Inspiration Booklet...

Hubby saw this book at Page One and we love flipping through it and look all the beautiful homes. It also details several famous/wellknown Scandinavian furniture and fittings. Almost an encyclopedia of the Scandinavian design. Unfortunately, it cost a freaking $60+. Thank god for internet shopping, for we found a soft copy on Amazon.

those who're also interested in this book, it's available for about $30 here.

http://www.noqstore.asia/product.aspx?zpid=3332255