A Place Of Our Own.

[MingzhuAng 0]

After lurking around for 6 months in renotalk, and after confirming the contractor to engage. I have decided to create a t-blog like many others on renotalk, to record our reno process.

A long story below, for people who hates wordy things like me beware...

We search for the right place for 8 months in Serangoon N area last year march, since it is near hb's parents' place.

Few reasons i chose the area:

1. Easier for him to go to work with his parents.

2. the house around that area is slightly bigger then those in Sengkang.

3. we can get the grant.

4. That area is where i grew up in before my parents shifted to Sengkang and i like that area.

We took that long to search for the right place, it is because at that period, sellers are all asking for ridiculous cov and another reason is that i'm really picky. The unit must not be the highest floor, and 5th floor and above. The layout of the house matter to me too. Such as the size of living room and MBR, placement of furniture. Since hb is the most easy going type, any house he went into, he felt they are alright, for me i just didn't felt it is the right house.

After 8 months of search, we found the right house. Before viewing, we had a hunch that this is the house. We didn't tell each other we had this feeling, only after viewing, hb told me he had this feeling which i had too.

So we performed the OTP in oct 2010, and got our keys in Dec 2010. And promptly ROM-ed on Dec 2010 as well. Follow by, engaged a Feng Shui Master to view the house, as my hb wants it to be done. Since i'm the picky one all along, the fsm master says the house suits me perfectly for my bazi but not hb. So we had to make some arrangement for the feng shui to suit him since man are always the main house owner.

After fsm has viewed our house, we really really really took our own sweet time in searching for the right person to do our house, since we are not urgent on moving in. During the search period, my dad and hb's dad is really anxious to get the renovation started. As the saying goes, 皇帝不及太监及. This is really the case for us way before we got the house. They kept hounding us when to get a flat, when getting married etc.. So we always bruch them off..

After getting the house, every other week, i can say they hound on us, asking when the renovation will start.. -.-"

For us, we would want to take our time to find the right person who we can entrust this renovation to. And we finally found one and that is, lo and behold Alan from Aian Furniture and Renovation Contractor.

Before that, we wanted to get contractor all along since we have an idea what we wanted, but was introduced with ID, and their quotation always gone too far from our budget. And through recommendation from Immunity. I called Alan, and ask him to do an onsite quotation, he is rather efficient. After viewing the house at about 8pm, i received his quote at 10pm +. I can say he is rather efficient.

After receiving quote from Alan, since I'm always the indecisive person. I asked hb to make a decision between Alan and another contractor recommended by my friend. And hb felt more comfortable with Alan, i was too, but i still can't decide, just indecisive. After hb gave me an answer, i'll just follow with the decision. Actually i took really very long to decide even hb gave me the answer..

And finally, we started choosing our tiles yesterday and will be going for a dry laying session on the coming Friday for our marble tiles. My dad and mum will come too..

I will post the floor map etc in my later post, allow me to learn how to post the pictures first.

[MingzhuAng 0]

This is the floormap. We're actually the third owner, as the second owner got their BTO flat in queenstown, so they have to sell off the house which we bought. And the house suppose to have balcony and the walls for the balcony was hacked and now it forms part of the living room. And the wall between MBR and common room was hacked and forms a big MBR. Just as what i wanted. And this layout is exactly the same as hb's parents house just that a little smaller, since their's is EA.

And below are our planned arrangement. We will open another kitchen entrance due to the fengshui to suit hb's. As well as the bed arrangment.

Edited August 24, 2011 by MingzhuAng

[El LoCo 3]

Welcome to renotalk. Nice layout that u have come up with The hse look spacious, is it >1300 sqft?

[MingzhuAng 0]

Welcome to renotalk. Nice layout that u have come up with The hse look spacious, is it >1300 sqft?

Hi El LoCo,

thanks. It's actually a 5i unit, so its about 120 to 122sqm. EA would have 130sqm then.. If its EA, the mbr would have been much bigger and i can have what i wanted all in the MBR already. Since hb's parents had an EA with the same layout, i can say its really very big. They had a 19ft wardrobe. So envy...

[strikingreality 0]

Actually do you need the work desk in the MBR? If not, you can also consider having wardrobe in that section, hence allowing for more cupboard space?

ALso noted that your master bed faces the master bathroom... I suppose this is recommended by the FSM? Cuz according to fengshui, bed should not face door?

Additionally, usually ppl will put the wardrobe close to the bathroom and the bed at the other side. This gives a better flow than the other way round.

[MingzhuAng 0]

Early in the morning hb called fsm and consult him on the hacking date, and its going to be on next week's wednesday, 31st Aug. Last day of august. After i had received message from hb, i promptly messaged Alan and asked him to apply permit for us. Now waiting for the permit to be approved and the letter. Hopefully we can get it in time.

Yesterday, after confirming Alan, i can feel the weight of burden is put down. As this thing is weighing me all the time, as it is not done yet. Just cross my fingers, hoping it will be a smooth reno. Of course, we would be checking the progress of reno every 1 or 2 days.

Will be posting the selection of tiles later part of the day. Actually, hb and i are not expecting our house to be show room alike. Just hoping it looks simple and decent, that's it.

[MingzhuAng 0]

Actually do you need the work desk in the MBR? If not, you can also consider having wardrobe in that section, hence allowing for more cupboard space?

ALso noted that your master bed faces the master bathroom... I suppose this is recommended by the FSM? Cuz according to fengshui, bed should not face door?

Additionally, usually ppl will put the wardrobe close to the bathroom and the bed at the other side. This gives a better flow than the other way round.

Well, based on our bazi, hb has to face that wall to do things, as it will do him good. For the bed, we will have a full height tv feature wall right infront of the bed, so there is something blocking the toilet entrance. Beside, due to our bazi, placing bed over there will be much better for us. And the wardrobe portion, i need to face that side of the wall to do things as it will do me good too, since my dresser will be there too.

As for the distance of the wardrobe and the toilet, i feel its still acceptable since it is still not too far between them.

[MingzhuAng 0]

This is the tile for our living room, and 3 bedrooms. Actually, this is not our first choice, or rather not mine. hb chose this, i prefer another that is slightly more brownish, but they do not have enough stock. Hence, i'll accommodate on this lo...... haiz... Else i can be sure that the tile will look much better...

And this is the tiles for our kitchen. The standing tile would be for our wall tile and the other is the floor tile.

Below would be for our Master bathroom. The standing ones on the left would be the wall tiles where the rainshower is. As for the rest of the wall tiles would be the one on the right. Anyway, for the darker colored wall tile they do not have enough stock. Hence i guess we are quite lucky. And the lying tile will be for the floor. My dad mentioned that it is too dark. So i'm still considering to change it to a lighter tone ones, or should i stick to it.

And lastly, for our common toilet. The brown tile will be for wall tile where the door is and the opposite wall. And the white ones will cover all the rest of the wall. And of course, the tile lying down will be floor tile.

Edited August 22, 2011 by MingzhuAng

[strikingreality 0]

It's really your own comfort level... If you like the darker tile then go for it. Juz like in a wedding, our family members will always hv opinions but it's ultimately your own flat, so you hv the final say.

I think the darker tile is nice, the only thing is that I feel it doesn't go too well with the floor tile.

[MingzhuAng 0]

It's really your own comfort level... If you like the darker tile then go for it. Juz like in a wedding, our family members will always hv opinions but it's ultimately your own flat, so you hv the final say.

I think the darker tile is nice, the only thing is that I feel it doesn't go too well with the floor tile.

Yeap, so still considering if i should change the color of this floor tile to suit the darker colored wall tile, and another floor tile for the lighter toned ones. I'll check with my contractor if we can still change the floor tile this coming Friday when i meet him. The longer i look at it, the more i felt that the floor tile color doesn't suit the wall tiles. Actually, after bringing home the tiles, i kept thinking if i should have changed the floor tile.

Anyway, thanks for your comment.

[jackwolf 0]

one suggestion.. change your common toilet door orientation to the passageway along rooms instead of at the kitchen.. newer hdb house design...

[MingzhuAng 0]

one suggestion.. change your common toilet door orientation to the passageway along rooms instead of at the kitchen.. newer hdb house design...

i did thought of that, but if that is the case we would need to shift our WC and basin, since the place where we would want to open a door is actually the shower area. And i know that shifting the WC requires HDB approval. Hence, we decided to give up the idea.

Thank for your suggestion.

[MingzhuAng 0]

Today went for marble tiles dry laying, but i forgot to take pictures. Forgetful me..

After viewing, 70% of the tiles are alright. Still 30% of the tiles are not alright, since it is a natural stone, there are cracks line obvious to the hand touch. Also, some tiles, the sides are broken. Since my parents are there, they actually helped us to have a look. So, we realized a couple of them are not up to our standard. So, Alan assured us he will do a quality check for us when the tiles reached and he said it many times. I guess he is trying hard to emphasize as my father kept mumbling. And i also heard him asking the staff at Hua Khian not to give us those defective marble tiles. And he reminded them many times. So i'm more or less a little more assured. We'll see as it goes by.

And since we still had a little time, before Hafary closes. We make a trip down to choose another similar colored MBR toilet floor tile. And the forgetful me, again forgot to get a sample from them. Haiz.. What a forgetful day..

And Alan confirmed with us that we got our renovation permit approved. So we can get our renovation started on wed.. yayness.. Finally get something moving.. Initially, i was thinking we need to buy some cakes and visit our future neighbor and notify them of our renovation. Just before i say anything, Alan already told us that he will visit our future neighbor and notify them of our renovation. And he said it is his job to get this thing done, and we do not have to do anything. So 1 less thing to worry.

Alan also told us hacking will be done in 3 days, meaning by next sat all the hacking will be done and will be clearing of debris on sat. While tiling work will take 1 week. Since it is marble, it will not be an easy task and it is done by the specialist who lays marble. And we were told if laying of homogeneous tiles it will only take 3 days for our living room and bedrooms.

[MingzhuAng 0]

Previously i was curious of how the arrangement of the furniture will look like, so at my free time, did a sketch of drawing. It's not well drawn, but since i had done it, then i shall post it up for my record. Drawn for living room only.

We are not going to do a tv feature wall for living for the time being or maybe not anymore. As i'm playing with the idea of doing a diy tv feature. Just a simple one. I think my hands are getting itchy to do some diy. I google and found a link for diy-ing a tv feature: Groove's new lounge with floating wall build.

The problem for this feature wall is the material used to diy. I have no idea where to get the mdf board and the wood block for the skeleton support. No problem to the tools as hb hardware store can get them and my dad has them too. Perhaps will try searching it or ask my dad since he always diy stuff as well. Hopefully i can get them. And the tv feature wall looks simple and decent as what i have in mind.

[MingzhuAng 0]

Current condition of the house before hacking will happen tomorrow.

This metal gate will go, since our flooring will increase in height, and there will be a kerb at the entrance. It will be changed since hb hate this kind of door.

Upon entrance of the house, actually its a little dark though.

View from balcony

Kitchen entrance.

Kitchen, its really dark as the cabinets are in dark colors. And hb really hate this kitchen, and this style is not to our likings.

Edited August 30, 2011 by MingzhuAng