Footprints Leading To Our Love Casa (^_^)

[meiz 0]

Hubby-to-be Calvin is the one who introduced me to RenoTalk website.

From the beginning when we had to look for ID Company for our new flat to getting design ideas for our house to the kind of water heater we should get, he would come in to this website to have a better understanding. Maybe looking at the T-blogs that others have created made him feel that this is a good way for us to document down our journey to build our love casa and also get helpful tips along the way. Hinted twice to me whether I would be interested to set up a blog since currently I am a free gal whose main duties are to coordinate our home renovation and upcoming wedding.. does he feel that I don't have much to occupy my time? Hmm...

I rejected hubby-to-be saying that I am not a very IT person (which is true as I don't have any Twitter account and this is in fact my very first blog). However, it sets me thinking that not only does a blog serves as a good remembrance of the home-creation journey for both of us, it can also be a surprise two-year anniversary gift for Calvin. Due to the renovation and upcoming wedding cost which burnt a big hole in our pocket, we agreed to give each other a present that is handmade.

And that is how this whole T-blog started.

[jaskel 2]

Welcome and congrats.

[meiz 0]

Thanks! Will try to have the discipline to come in and blog about our home selection and renovation process

[zone23 0]

Welcome to RT!

RT is a place full of friendly and helpful pple that are more than willing to share their experiences with ya.

Your purpose of starting your own T-Blog is a very sweet one and your HTB is a very lucky person! (In my case, my wife is the busy one! haha)

May you have a smooth and enjoyable reno journey! All the best!

[meiz 0]

Thanks zone23 for the warm welcome!

[meiz 0]

Hubby-to-be and I applied for a HDB flat under the Remaining Flat Exercise in the last quarter of 2010. This was our first application and we were very lucky to be able to get a queue no within the available flat balance.

I still remember the first time we went to Sengkang to rak-key the surrounding of our potential love casa. Compassvale Pearl/Beacon area gave me an impression of a bustling area with amenities (and a KFC at Rivervale if I don't remember wrongly!) nearby. Fernvale area on the other hand seems more peaceful due to the fewer estates built.

Being a lazy gal who prefers to have amenities within reach, my first choice was initially the Compassvale area. However as our queue no was in the 200s range, there were only low floor flats left by the time our turn came. Hence the weekend before the big day, we made another visit to Fernvale area with my parents to scout around. A family who had just collected their keys was gracious enough to let us visit their flat. Their unit was four floors directly above one available flat under our consideration so going in would give us a good idea of the flat interior.

Calvin and my parents liked the spacious flat setting while I loved the view of the living room as it was not obstructed by other estates. Not to mention there was a cute window ledge in the master bedroom! There was also a constant light breeze in the house due to the high floor. Definitely would be one of our top three choices.

After discussion, dear dear and I decided to put this unit as our first choice and hopefully it would still be available when our turn came.

On the day of our selection, we arrived at HDB Hub early in the morning. Crossing our fingers and monitoring the flats availability status.

Finally our queue no!

The whole selection process went smoothly and we are now the proud owner of a beautiful flat in Fernvale area!

Edited July 24, 2011 by meiz

[newnyew 1]

Welcome to RT and Fernvale

I have been staying in Fernvale for almost 2yrs n im still getting used to it!

hehe..

[meiz 0]

Thanks newnyew!

Went to my love casa a few times during these two weeks to either wait for deliveries or to check out the renovation progress (which is why there is not much progress on my T-blog these few days... will try to update soon!). Have to admit I do need some time to get used to it, esp the one hour journey from my current parents' house to my future love casa. But at the end of the day, like what my hubby-to-be tells me, the effort is worth it as it is for our new home, where we are going to build a family together. Though that does not mean I won't grumble at times to my poor dear, whom I know is also putting in effort and time into our new house. So thanks dear, for listening to me and showing your appreciation

[meiz 0]

Calvin and I waited anxiously for HDB's notice to collect our flat keys. When two months came and went, we called up HDB to enquire as our HLE would expire soon. Furthermore, if we plan to move in after our wedding in November, there needs to be some buffer time for renovation and preparation. Finally after another half month's wait, we held the keys to our love casa!

Views of our love casa at its natural state before they are gone:

Our main gate plus some cleaning tools that we brought to our love casa

Loved the spacious living room that constantly has a light breeze blowing in

Corridor leading to the three rooms

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2 (next to the master bedroom)

(to be continued...)

Edited July 29, 2011 by meiz

[meiz 0]

(... continued)

Master bedroom with the lovely bay window that makes me think of putting a few cushions there to read a good book

Master bedroom toilet with a ready sink counter

Rectangular-shaped kitchen which means I can only have one column of cabinets

Common toilet where I had to convince very hard to my hubby-to-be on the merits of using this toilet instead of that in the master bedroom to shower. Plus points include:

1) Since the common toilet would be used to wash clothes, we would not need to wash two toilets so often if we were to shower here also

2) We could save money as it would not be necessary to install a shower screen in the master bedroom

3) The master bedroom could be a dry toilet for us to freshen up and store our toiletries/make up items

Well, am I convincing enough? Lolx... Though I understand dear likes the idea of being able to shower in the master bedroom as it is a privilege for us both only.

Service yard area

And that about sums up our love casa

Edited July 29, 2011 by meiz

[stardust205 0]

Welcome to RT! and congrats on getting your new home.

Just a suggestion.. think you could make ur thumbnails bigger so that we all can view the details better?

[meiz 0]

Thanks stardust205 for your welcome and suggestion!

Sorry for the small pictures as I am an IT-idiot and just copied the URLs that were given to me when I uploaded my pictures. Am also not sure why some pictures appear bigger than others lolx.. will try to experiment further till I get the hang of it!

[meiz 0]

Hubby-to-be Calvin wanted us to have a peaceful and harmonious home. As such he thoughtfully engaged a Feng Shui shi-fu to "cleanse" as well as to give some pointers for our house renovation. Some advices given were on the preferred room colours and themes to use. However the trickier part was that based on the rooms' location, shi-fu suggested we sleep in another bedroom rather than the master bedroom. In addition, our main door would have to be tilt to a certain degree to better compliment our lives.

Imagine our dilemma when we heard these suggestions! On one hand, the changes are meant to be better for hubby and me and since we took the trouble to engage a shi-fu, we should listen to his advice. Yet on the other hand, these changes to the house are bigger than what we expected. I had always thought as the owners, we would definitely sleep in the master bedroom with the pretty window ledge. Instead the ideal room is Bedroom 1 (refer to my previous entry) which is the furthest away from the master bedroom with no bathroom amenities. And can the main door be shifted in the first place since it is built by HDB?

Although we would of course like to go along with the shi-fu's suggestions as they were intended to be good for us, however we also need to weigh their practicality. Based on the initial pointers, we asked around several designer/renovation firms but it poses several problems. Bedroom 1 is too small to accommodate a Queen sized bed together with our wardrobe. We may have to hack the wall between Bedroom 1 and 2 so as to have enough space. But there are still no toilet amenities. Also in future if we were to sell away the house, I think not many people will be keen on the merged room. After further discussion with shi-fu, we finally managed to "negotiate" and have our bedroom changed to Bedroom 2 instead. To make our room more special, we could hack the wall between Bedroom 2 and the Master Bedroom so that it is more spacious and link to the toilet. I raise both hands and legs to support this idea as it means my bedroom and wardrobe can be bigger!!! Lolx... Now to find a good designer firm and we are set to go!

[mz2811 0]

Hi Meiz congratulation on having your ideal home. Especially like your spacious living area, very nice.

[meiz 0]

Renovation is really a big and continuous learning process. From the cabinet laminate to the solid surface top to the drawer pulley system to the lighting and bathroom accessories etc, each topic requires some researching into. And not to forget the most important factor which will assist to oversees and pull everything together into a beautiful new house: a good ID firm

We chance upon our first shortlisted ID firm while strolling along Joo Chiat road. It was a newly opened shop and in fact the company name was not even up yet. Calvin's friend Chris was the one who talked us into going in as we were both abit apprehensive since ID firms can be abit overwhelming. Chris had just finished renovating his new house and was of the opinion that it won't hurt to hear opinions/ideas from different ID firms. The young lady who attended to us was the designer cum co-partner, and she mentioned she had just left one of the well known ID firms to set up her own company. She was indeed very creative, giving us ideas on how she could design the tic-tac laminate door for the bomb shelter, the master bedroom wardrobe etc. We got excited hearing her ideas but as it was an impromptu visit, we did not have our floor plan and the Feng Shui shi-fu had not given us his suggestions yet. Hence it was more of a general discussion and we subsequently went back again another day to discuss our feng-shui requirements.

The second ID firm we went to was via recommendation from Calvin's friend. Two of his friends had their renovation done up by him and their reviews were pretty positive. As it was good to have friends who have personal experience with the ID firm, we hence decided to take a look. The ID guy whom was referred was a pretty down-to-earth person who asked for our requirements and ideas. There were alot of things we did not know and he patiently explained each component to us. However, he also mentioned honestly he did not have any experience in doing a tilt door and hence was not confident of getting approval from HDB or how to go about doing it.

The third ID firm we went to was one that Calvin happened to chance upon on Renotalk.com website. I also could not remember why Calvin shortlisted this ID firm but the impression given was that the person who responded to Calvin's enquiries was pretty keen on following up to fix an appointment. Hence we went down to his office to have a further discussion. Equipped with our previous experience, we were now able to ask in greater details on all the components such as the ABS trimming, pros and cons of a suspended kitchen cabinet, tic-tac door etc. The person in charge who is a partner of the company was friendly and seemed knowledgeable on the various aspects of the renovation. He also did tilting of door before. The only thing was that I was abit uneasy by the cabinet workmanship as I felt the alignments were abit out and the gaps between the cabinet doors were slightly wide. However, he assured me that the actual house renovation workmanship is much better and we could always go onsite to take a look at the projects he is currently doing. The discussion went on for 4 hours from evening till 11 plus at night. We also went back another time for a more detailed discussion (also lasted till near 12 midnight) as well as an onsite visit to his current renovation project.

My good friend Kai had just gotten her new house and settled on an ID firm which her future father-in-law recommended. Calvin called up the company and felt quite at ease talking to the boss. However as he was currently tied up with work and could not take on more projects, he recommended another designer to us. Perhaps the person we spoke to was not feeling well the evening we went to the ID firm and hence abit distracted, not giving us much design ideas. She also did not follow up and gave us her quotation a week later than when she had promised.

The last ID firm that we went to was upon recommendation from another of Calvin's friend. They made an appointment to come for an onsite at our new house and even invited us to view their latest project that very night. Upon reaching their client's house though, Calvin and I were not very impressed with their carpentry work as there were places where the cabinet laminates were not pasted inline. In addition, the raw home concept that comes with concrete flooring and rough stone laminate cabinets were not really our style though I knew every house owner had his/her preferred home concept and the ID firm was carrying out the owner's wishes.

It took us about a month for us to select and sign with our ID firm. Along the way we also went to IMM to talk to several well established ID firms but to us they lacked abit of personal touch as they were more interested in promoting a package deal to us. The first three ID firms that I mentioned here were those that we were keener on due to the design they could give and their renovation experience. However at the end of the day, we also had to realistically consider our budget (which was pretty tight due to our wedding dinner to be held at the end of this year) as well as whether we could communicate comfortably with the ID coordinator.

We settled on the third ID firm because the person in charge "A" followed up regularly in asking us to meet and discuss the renovation design. He was willing to spend a few hours talking to us till midnight when he would be the last one to leave the office and even on weekends. He was also confident about doing the tilted door which is important to Calvin. Although his quotation was not the cheapest and slightly out of our initial budget, the cabinet workmanship of the project he went to was quite nicely done and it was the deciding factor for dear and I to both agree on choosing him.