I have started to follow this forum ever since we laid our hands on a 3A resale 2 weeks back. Our house hunting quest has been rather smooth or actually, short. It took us less than a week to confirm this place

Needless to say, think we just rush into it but you know, when you get the feeling that this is THE place to make our love nest... Hmmm, it's like the gut feeling or the 6th sense telling us to just plunge in?

Anyways we are counting down impatiently to our 1st appointment after CNY. We have been unceasingly diligent in researching online, reading forums and spending weekends at Ikea, IMM etc. I don't recall working that hard before!

Would like to share what we have learnt, what we will be doing and the renovation journey we will be embarking soon.

Wishing time will pass faster!

After rounds of trial & error, I managed to figure out how to upload pics (I hope I did figured it out successfully!)

Here it goes, the floor plan of our first place:

Little 3A in the Wild Wild West by Makanology, on Flickr

We opted for a 3A due to the squarish rooms. The long & narrow 3NG is a real test of our creativity and both of us are not exactly slim & leggy folks

Edited January 27, 201313 yr by Makanology

We have decided to 'build' our house to be:

1) Easy to maintain. I am not exactly the most hardworking house owner here. I dread housework but yet I have an OCD with hair. I can't stand the sight of hair lying around. I will stop everything immediately and try to pick up the strands on the ground and throw it away.

2) But we are animal lovers and are proud parents to a chinchilla with a kick-a$$ attitude. This fella has a BITE and can bite anything in his way. He has successfully conquered the a/c wire (!), gnawed a hole in the plastic cover of the wet tissue container, 'snipped' off several of our iphone cables etc.

Here's the indignant chinchilla, Master Pika in his Yoda-ish pose:

Pika & his moods by Makanology, on Flickr

3) We are dog lovers, having kept dogs before and we would love to have our own pooch soon. I know this seems like a tall order, I mean, how to get the pooch to live harmoniously with the chin, right? Our chin is very alpha; he is allowed to 'book out' for 1-2 hours every night whereby he has the freedom to roam around the room. How do we teach our future pooch to recognise the chinchilla dominance and not see him as a meal? Well, just have to figure out along the way...

4) Last but not least, we are quite a pair with eccentric taste. We love colors and things from different eras. We love to experiment with textures and styles. And worse, we are obstinate cows hahaha. So it will not be easy to find a contractor that can work with us peacefully!

With all these in mind, we have to make our new place Pika-proof and pooch-friendly and easy to clean etc etc....

Edited January 27, 201313 yr by Makanology

We have decided to 'build' our house to be:

1) Easy to maintain. I am not exactly the most hardworking house owner here. I dread housework but yet I have an OCD with hair. I can't stand the sight of hair lying around. I will stop everything immediately and try to pick up the strands on the ground and throw it away.

2) But we are animal lovers and are proud parents to a chinchilla with a kick-a$$ attitude. This fella has a BITE and can bites anything in his way. He has successfully conquered the a/c wire (!), gnawed a hole in the plastic cover of the wet tissue container, 'snipped' off several of our iphone cables etc.

Here's the indignant chinchilla, Master Pika in his Yoda-ish pose:

Pika & his moods by Makanology, on Flickr

3) We are dog lovers, having kept dogs before and we would love to have our own pooch soon. I know this seems like a tall order, I mean, how to get the pooch to live harmoniously with the chin, right? Our chin is very alpha; he is allowed to 'book out' for 1-2 hours every night whereby he has the freedom to roam around the room. How do we teach our future pooch to recognise the chinchilla dominance and not see him as a meal? Well, just have to figure out along the way...

4) Last but not least, we are quite a pair with eccentric taste. We love colors and things from different eras. We love to experiment textures and styles. And worse, we are obstinate cows hahaha. So it will not be easy to find a contractor that can work with us peacefully!

With all these in mind, we have to make our new place Pika-proof and pooch-friendly and easy to clean etc etc....

Your chinchilla looks like he has a lot of character indeed!

It's probably possible to interact your future dog and chinchilla using proper introduction steps! Adopted my cat first, then adopted my dog after, and introduced them well, so they're friends now

Yes we reckon that the future dog to be a puppy hopefully. Pika is the size of a puppy so that he will not feel threatened by the puppy. And hoping that the puppy may think Pika is his/her sibling due to the similar size?

We have friends who first bought a rabbit and subsequently, a toy poodle. These 2 have never really interacted till now. They are not sure who will attack first!

Yes we reckon that the future dog to be a puppy hopefully. Pika is the size of a puppy so that he will not feel threatened by the puppy. And hoping that the puppy may think Pika is his/her sibling due to the similar size?

We have friends who first bought a rabbit and subsequently, a toy poodle. These 2 have never really interacted till now. They are not sure who will attack first!

Haha but puppies will still grow. But introducing a younger animal into existing households with animals is always a better idea then at least they grow up together. Adopt if you can and save a life!

Yes, 1st option is to adopt and will be stalking the doggie site forum once we move in and settle down! Also need to build a new house for Pika. His current cage looks very worn down as he keeps gnawing at the grills!

Yes, 1st option is to adopt and will be stalking the doggie site forum once we move in and settle down! Also need to build a new house for Pika. His current cage looks very worn down as he keeps gnawing at the grills!

You build your own chinchilla cage! Wow

Post more pictures of your place and renovation progress once you get started!

Welcome and looking forward to your progress! By any chance, staying around Boon Lay area too?

For your second appointment, usually it'll take about six weeks or even less if you're getting a HDB loan. Good luckz~~

Welcome and looking forward to your progress! By any chance, staying around Boon Lay area too?

For your second appointment, usually it'll take about six weeks or even less if you're getting a HDB loan. Good luckz~~

Hi thanks a lot and also for the pm! We are now staying in JW extension but moving to BB soon. Still considered as west I guess

Yes adopt to save lives! Too many homeless dogs but very few homes for them

Yes adopt to save lives! Too many homeless dogs but very few homes for them

Totally agreed with you!

Totally agreed with you!

It's so great to know there are people out there who care! I volunteer at an animal shelter and it's so frustrating trying to educate people about why it's not about the exotic breed or price tag. Thank you both for adopting!

Edited January 28, 201313 yr by summersann

We have yet to meet any contractors yet as our first appointment is only after CNY. At the same time, we thought this will be a bad time for us to pester any contractor, guess they will be busy with CNY handover?

Anyways, we think we will only look for contractors since we know very well what we want, from the color schemes in each room to the locations of the lights and switches. I think we will drive the ID (if any) nuts as we can be quite anal about stuff hahaha.

One ID has contacted us, asking if we need a quote. Still thinking if we should... Basically we have decided around 4 contractors to contact. Should we proceed to get more than 4 quotes? Am worried we get confused and then later, 头大!

We have yet to meet any contractors yet as our first appointment is only after CNY. At the same time, we thought this will be a bad time for us to pester any contractor, guess they will be busy with CNY handover?

Anyways, we think we will only look for contractors since we know very well what we want, from the color schemes in each room to the locations of the lights and switches. I think we will drive the ID (if any) nuts as we can be quite anal about stuff hahaha.

One ID has contacted us, asking if we need a quote. Still thinking if we should... Basically we have decided around 4 contractors to contact. Should we proceed to get more than 4 quotes? Am worried we get confused and then later, 头大!

It's completely up to you, but I say get more! We got around 10 quotes before deciding which one to go with. It was quite a headache because we ended up having so many things to consider. But the good thing was, we at least knew that we weren't getting "chopped" because most of the quotes came back to be about the same. Why not just get 1 or 2 quotes from good IDs, and during the meetings, you could get more ideas that you can use when you eventually hire a contractor?