"our Place" - Somewhere We Go Home Together

[Pearlinda 0]

This t-blog chat is meant for documenting the process of both my HTB and myself on how we went about getting the resale flat with HDB loan, finding the renovation guys, the renovation and hopefully all the way till the house is ready when we get married in November. Yes, this sounds like more than a handful and very high probability of driving someone insane.

I used to document all these in my "Little Brown Book" which is getting out of hand. Like literally. Scraps of paper spilling from the edges of the book and tags that no longer able to serve its purpose if i really were to tag them down.

So a sneak peek of how my "Little Brown Book" looks like:

I happened to talk to a previous Event Organizer which my company had engaged when i served the Company Welfare committee and we chanced upon talking about looking for a housing agent. The very nice lady, Carol recommended me Gilbert.

I had told Carol to provide my contact number to Gilbert and i receive the phone call the very next day.

We got to know that Gilbert is from K*****f**n*. Originally my HTB and myself were thinking, doesnt knightfrank does more commercial than hdb? But well, lets give it a go and see how well it goes.

We were almost sure what we wanted and told him our requirements i.e.:

Which town

Walking distance to MRT

Min floors and above

Only corner unit

Sizing of the flat

Budget

Door facing (with the advice from the fortune teller previously at farm mart, now at pioneer point)

The next week, we met up and saw at least 7, sorry it is 9 houses that fit all the requirement in 6 hours. A marathon that got us really exhausted but we saw two houses that caught our eye.

One is fully renovated but shows some signs of design fault with regards to aircon ventilation that got the wall a little murky in the Master Bed Room which i fear for. And the other one is just a plain old house with no built ins at all and it is just clean and spacious though areas that needs to be done, needs to be done say for toilets and kitchen.

We picked the second option which we called it "our place" and told Gilbert to express our interest to purchase the house, the whole buying thing got a little bit exciting as there were other buyers who are interested in the place. But we got it. (HE HE HE )

It is a spacious 5I which is very boxy and filled with beams across the house.

Floor plan as below:

And it is time to source for Renovators....

[Pearlinda 0]

More of a gen Y who lives say about 50% of her life on the internet, i used Google to search for renovation and interior designs and read up on HDB page on renovation.

So here we go, google literally brought me to Renotalk and to be honest. Renotalk is so friggin' huge, i am quite lost as to how i even manage to get the T-blog up is a mystery and the picture uploading.. oh my god.

So, i sign up o Renotalk and with the permission of my HTB i did what i call there was no turning back. I uploaded the floor plan, placed on the list what i want to do and where and when i want to do it and my budget and blardy bla blah. The next day i was shocked to receive phone calls already clarifying about my requirements. The next three days was like an influx of contractors calling to meet up and pitch their sales and ideas.

There were a few issues that came up with the calls that i have been receiving.

There are just too many. I remember getting like 7 - 8 calls/messages from different guys and they were lost in the sea of messages which i couldnt even recall who is who anymore.

We did meet up some of the guys who have given us very interesting ideas that some we dare not try and some very creative space planning. But they were separated into two groups from our perspective. Those with HDB Contractor license and those without HDB contractor license. No offense here. We just prefer to have companies who are also licensed to do contractor's work for work efficacy. Most of the contacts do not have the HDB contactor license. So a few of them survived.

Next, the portfolio. Well, that is subjective too and we shouldnt say much. (just look at what i did to the kitchen toilet later, **** happens)

Thirdly, the person whom you meet is very important to us because we need to know that you actually know your stuffs and you are confident that you can handle our nonsense and perpetual absence and still get things right. (yes demanding but that is also why we need an ID).

We were considering between two IDs, one of which was not through renotalk and from a friend. The other one, a last minute tender but the quotes and the handler seems promising.

How did we decide on who to pick?

To be honest, solutions, the honesty level that we think we are getting (we have sourced for the pricing and we agar-agar know), confidence, and level of comfort in dealing with the ID.

So yes, my ID prevails. I like that they try to do their best in quotes and solutions and are frank about what is money wasting and what is doable an what is not. And also allows us quite a degree of freedom to have the things done our way.

hard hor.. i think so too.

So that is how i got to Renotalk and got my ID...