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ccting

Resale Reno On Budget - Scandinavian Inspired

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Hi everyone,

We will be going for our first appointment this Friday!!!and if everything goes smoothly, we will be getting our keys in mid-Nov :notti::notti: :notti:

Like many renotalk peeps, we have been following t-chat blogs diligently. We are inspired by the t-chat bloggers and we hope to share our reno journey with all of you.

First, we started following the different threads in Renotalk and we asked around for contacts for their reno. Although we have a brief idea of how we want the house to look like, we are open to both ids and contractors.

So far, we have met about 6 id and contractors. We will be meeting more id and contractors and update our progress soon.

The general advice is to source for a decent number of ids and contractors. So far, the quotations we received ranges from 53k to 71k :jawdrop: , more quotation to come in.

Wsh us luck and hope this home building journey will be a smooth and enjoyable one!! :thumbs up:

 

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Hi all,

we went for our long awaited first appointment!!!:dancingqueen: but there was really nothing much for buyers to do, except signing papers..

To sidetrack a bit... HDB received our resale application 2 week before 24 Aug (the day proximity housing grant was announced). as we will be staying near our parents, of course we wanted to get another (30K +20K) 10k more as compared to the higher tier grant (30k +10K). we sent in our appeal to get the proximity housing grant. however, when we went for the first appointment, the officer advise us not to take the proximity grant as we are still young, so he see potential in us that we will probably upgrade to a EC, EA or EM in the future. He said that we can save the proximity grant the next time... Also, in order to get the proximity grant, we have to ROM before the second appointment.. which is within next 8 wks.. and that is omg de fast :wub: ... so we chose to take the higher tier grant this time.

back to the house, we will get the keys in mid Nov... :sport-smiley-004:

this is the floor plan...

floor plan

we will upload the picture of the house once the current owners have move out..

that's all for today:) :seeya:

 

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To sidetrack a bit... HDB received our resale application 2 week before 24 Aug (the day proximity housing grant was announced). as we will be staying near our parents, of course we wanted to get another (30K +20K) 10k more as compared to the higher tier grant (30k +10K). we sent in our appeal to get the proximity housing grant. however, when we went for the first appointment, the officer advise us not to take the proximity grant as we are still young, so he see potential in us that we will probably upgrade to a EC, EA or EM in the future. He said that we can save the proximity grant the next time... Also, in order to get the proximity grant, we have to ROM before the second appointment.. which is within next 8 wks.. and that is omg de fast :wub: ... so we chose to take the higher tier grant this time.

Hmm. So u took higher tier grant of total 40k or just 30k?

My first appt was in June. The officer insisted that we will have to ROM before 2nd appt. Zzz

 

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Hmm. So u took higher tier grant of total 40k or just 30k?

My first appt was in June. The officer insisted that we will have to ROM before 2nd appt. Zzz

I took the 40k grant (first time + higher tier grant).. but the officer says we do not need to ROM yet, just within 3 months after the key collection. (but the 3 months can be extended, just write in again and give whatever reason, e.g. want to do customary with solemnization and show proof that you have booked the banquet alr)

 

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We were quite busy recently... hasn't been updating for quite some time.

It's time to review some of the id and contractors we have met.. but i will not send any quotation as it is unfair to the ids and contractors I have met...

1. J from Rezt and Relax.

the first ID we talked to when we were still gong gong!!! met him when we went to EXPO fair... initially we had good impression of this company as they were quite well-known and they are featured in local renovation show... so we sat down and talk about what to do with the house, where to hack and stuff... However, after a few minutes of chatting, it appeared to us that he is more like a sale person than a designer. he did not ask us about our requirement but the first question he asked was what was our budget.... nothing wrong in a sense, but he kept reiterating that Rezt and Relax is more expensive id film, but it make no sense to us why they command a higher fee without justification (he quote 60 to 80k for reno alone, excluding vanity, electrical, window.....) ... how to relax when we heard the price!!!:jawdrop: maybe it's just their branding... that really turned us off max...and he said he will send the quote to us... but no news after more than one month... my mr said they can really go rest and relax.....

2. W from TS dezign

saw the company facebook page and was quite keen to visit them as they seem quite experienced in resale projects... lots of real pictures on their fb page with good review. W is a patient guy who listens to his customers. He is also early for his appointment (very important)... He was asked about our needs and gave practical and cost-saving advices... we felt comfortable speaking to him... 2 weeks later, he sent us a quotation which is very detailed.. but price is on the higher side... have to drop him though we are comfortable speaking to him...

3. L from Absolook

Another very well-know id company. Met L, my primary school classmate. I sent him the floor plan and tell him what are the things i want to do before meeting... To be frank, I am really impressed by him. He prepared a proposed layout and also gave practical advices... No sale pressure from him as he gave us ample time to consider the quote... eventually we had to drop him as the quotation is still above our budget... sorry :bow: ...

I will update more review soon :yeah: wait ah :bleah: ....

 

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Hello.... sorry for the long wait... we are back again :notti:

back to the review of IDs and contractors..

4. V from V'Image

a colleague of mine introduced him to me as he got V to renovate his house 3 years ago. My colleague is very happy with his work. I contacted him and sent him an email with the floor plan and details. He got back to me within 2 weeks and even dropped me a message to update that he had just send the mail. Quotation was one of the lowest. I met up with him and further discuss the details. He is those down-to-earth person. He give a serious thought about what we want to do before he promise to deliver and I thought this is quite good as he don't give give empty promises. [shortlisted]

5. T from Starry Homestead

we came across this company on fb, saw many nice looking design and so decided to drop by. Typical ID film, nice show room and T is friendly. Once thing that particularly struck me was their slide and push door for toilet. This is very similar to the popular PD door, but users need not fully slide the door into half, in another words, more user friendly and cheaper too. Quotation was reasonable. But we believe can push the limit and find a cheaper one...

6. N from Renoguyz

a very popular guy in renotalk. we sent him an email and his reply was prompt and quotation was one of the lowest. The best thing is that when we met him, he revised the quote on the spot and sent us the revised quote immediately. Super fast :good: . I personally like his blunt character, when i gave certain suggestions about what to do, and he thinks it is not as nice, he will give a "are you sure you want to do this" face.. haha.. :huh: [shortlisted, of course...]

7,8,9,10...

Of course i received many quotations from other films. I do it the lazy way as meeting the contractors and ID is too time consuming and we kept repeating the same requirement again and again like a broadcasting machine... too tiring... So I gather the things I want to do and type it out as specific as I could and I mass sent the email with the floor plan to those I think I am keen on. [the contractors and ID will hate me for this... :curse: haha.. sorry :bow: ] Some get back to me, some don't... never mind because ultimately, I look at the quote, reviews online and which one I am more comfortable working with.. of course, quotation is the primary factor for me to help me decide which contractor/id to work with :deal: ..

:yamseng:

Edited by ccting
 

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we have a headache now!!! we need help... haha...

we happily bought the house as we are happy with the location and the facing of the house... but being first timers, we overlooked some details.. especially the common toilet... so we need help from the renotalk community :help:

gallery_71054_897_22260.jpg

common toilet (big headache)

my mr always dream of having a large vanity area... looks like it is impossible.. so now we wanted a wet and dry toilet area.. and this simple wish seems impossible... any kind soul can help w the space planning as we do not want to change the door facing..

gallery_71054_897_9325.jpg

gallery_71054_897_35419.jpg

the shower area is just in front of the toilet bowl... and we can't change the toilet bowl position and location :dunno:

gallery_71054_897_25241.jpg

we thought of installing a shower screen in between the basin and toilet bowl... will it be weird?

gallery_71054_897_5139.jpg

If we change this to a shower area, it is too small... and there is a big pipe there too...

anyone can suggest how we can wet and dry common toilet? your help is very much appreciated :D

Edited by ccting
 

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anyone can suggest how we can wet and dry common toilet? your help is very much appreciated :D

Go read up on Ahyong81's blog. He shifted his WC position, requires a little planing and of course more cost.

Some boxing up is required, might make the shower area a little narrower though.

 

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Go read up on Ahyong81's blog. He shifted his WC position, requires a little planing and of course more cost.

Some boxing up is required, might make the shower area a little narrower though.

thank you for replying... we have checked with the renovator and he says that changing of WC location is not permitted by hdb... not sure if it is true...

 

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Or you can relocate the wash basin to opposite the toilet bowl. Thus freeing up the original wash basin area to make it into a shower area.

Edited by Khng
 

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thank you for replying... we have checked with the renovator and he says that changing of WC location is not permitted by hdb... not sure if it is true...

Changing is permitted but not changing the main pipes for the WC.

What is done here, is moving the WC and adding pipes, which is doable.

Renovator is either green or simply doesnt want to do this job.

Yours is a resale, Ahyong81's also a resale, cant see why not permitted.

 

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Read my explanation at this thread

Starting from this post

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/72503-the-sky-parlour-an-executive-maisonette-journey/page-3#entry913360

Anyway i cut and paste the post here, so can read easier.

As long as one dont meddle with the structural slab of the wc and walls or relocating the orginal piping of the wc, it will not be of any issue. Its just a matter of using different connector wc and extra pvc piping to connect to the exisiting piping build by HDB :) No waste pipe is conceal under the flooring.

And concealing waste or water pipe within the structural slab/wall. This is not allowed in HDB rules. What my ID did was just to use additional PVC pipe and connect to the original waste pipe, and then build a low hollow block wall to hide the additional PVC pipe. Like I mentioned before, a lot of ID will tell their customer they cant do it because if they never do a proper waterproofing at your toilet, it might become an issue in the future. As long as the works are properly carried out, and waterproofing testing is done and passed.

Extract from HDB rules on renovation



Types of Work
Subject to the Following Guidelines/ Conditions

*Concealed waste/ water pipes in floor finishes/ wall

  • Floor slab and wall must not be tampered with

*Such work is discouraged as it may cause water leakage to lower floor unit if the work is not properly carried out.

Extract from HDB renovation website on erecting walls

wall_zpscxjdr6d6.jpg

Below is the image to explain how its works :)

toilet_zpscn9zjn7g.jpg

The waste pipe was not conceal at all within the floor slab, floor tiles and original wall and wall tiles. :) hope the pictures explain everything. If one decided to relocate their wc using the above method, please ensure your id/contractor to make sure that the workmanship is good and the connector is secure properly, if not later s*** might come out... :P

This is how the whole picture looks

20150926_090651_zpsuww6lxpr.jpg

Edited by Ahyong81
 

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It can be done as what i have explain before ;) amazing quite a lot of new id or contractor dont know how to do it. My id, his company has been around since the 1980s. I believe previously his company is just a contractor and over years it has become an ID, but to be frank, id and contractor are the same. Unless you compare with architect, then its different.

 

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actually I was kinda surprise that many of the newer ID/contractor don't have much knowledge on their work. During my selection of the IDs, there are some ID company which i went, they cant even tell me the difference between different type vinyl flooring.. They can just answer me.. its all the same.. just water resistance... but guess what the evorich HERF flooring is not only water resistance, its suppose to be water proof as well. Water resistance and water proof is not the same.

Even for vinyl flooring, there are many different types on the market.. They are definitely not the same and not only one type...... If the ID/contractor don't even bother to do their homework and research, I don't think I will feel safe to handover my house to them for renovation.

Nowadays internet is such a powerful tools, use goggle and you can find many answer and solution, although not necessary all will be true and correct, at least its serve as a guide and possible answer.

Edited by Ahyong81
 

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