p3nguins

Haha, current owners have 2 adorable kids, boy and girl. Quite alot of plastering etc need to be done too... Unfortunately we're thinking to hack all the tiles, 'cos given the theme/concept that we're gonna have for our home... the current tiles are not suitable (unless we're going for the "Retro Old School" theme hehee ) Will upload the remaining pics when i get home.. boss is gonna kick my a** if she catches me foruming while @ work haha

Hoot!... finally got down to it! Pics of our soon-to-be-ice berg ^^ Hope we'll be able to take one and all through this virtual tour without much confusion. Current owners...if by some uncanny coincidence you are all reading this forum.... we like what you've done with the place, but it's all gonna change one way or the other... This is our main entrance (from inside) Our L shaped living room cum service balcony, with the 2 partitions / mini-walls =X The all-mind-stopper beams.... 3 of them in fact....

OoO...ok coolies, tks for that. Been down with influenza since Wed (nahhh not influenza A otherwise i'll make headlines as the first Singaporean keke). Hehe 'glad' to hear we're not the only couple going through all these cr*p You signed up with Plush?? Almost went ahead to meet up with them, and Darren I think, but in the end decided not to. How's your experience with them so far?

Funny you should mention that.. our fengshui master and 2 of the IDs said the same thing. Guess we'll consider doing something about it but in a more 'presentable' manner Deduct GST? how does that work? I guess since we're not in a rush, we didn't want to make things ugly for the owners and ourselves. tks tks, but we're gona put the room back, as my mom is gonna move in with us so bye bye to the spacious MBR *wave hankie* Update on our hunt for a sculptor to work on our 'ice cube' home; We've been to a few IDs so far... a couple are the more 'popular' ones and the rest random pick-em-out / window shopping. Gave a budget of 35k but open to hear their concept / theme and work around the quotation (value for money), but of cos not to the extent of having a ridiculous quote. It's amazing how some of these IDs are able to give a quotation 40K odd just by looking at the floor plan (and we haven't even given them the specifics provided by the fengshui master) *is it just us, or does it feel like IMM is not a good place to engage an ID* bangwall.gif Kinda sad to see how success had gone to their heads, forgetting that perhaps some customers like us want to know that they are working with us, and not imposing their ideas onto us in a bid to make their work easier. Alas, as expected, all but 1 ID requested to see our unit first before he gives a quotation. Reason being we'll rest assured that whatever quotation he gives will be the final one; it can only go lower, not higher. *mental note - must remember to make appointment with owners to allow him to take pics and check out the place* Has anyone ever come into contact with an ID who is...well, 'over-confident' of himself and his work that it somehow turns you off? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, we can definitely trust his workmanship....but somehow it seems to get in the way of us 'clicking' with the ID... Most of the IDs seem to be looking to us for directions; but because we're a (not very creative tongue.gif) couple who are willing to experiment and do not want to restrict the ID's creativity while having to work around the fengshui specifics, we're actually very open to something different... Are we being picky, or do the IDs seem to have been spoon-fed too much or have sub-consciously embedded within themselves a standard design for all HBD homes..... Side track a bit - how do i link my Blog to this chat thread or a 'signature'.. sorry bit of an IT-idiot hehe

Haha those aren't even really walls to begin with, but rather 2 teeny frosted glass partitions with a wooden frame. Oh yea, by the way, came across your tblog chat that your agent had delayed submission of your resale application. That was what happened to us too! Friggin agent (seller's)... as a result our 1st appointment was delayed till 28 May, which so happens we aren't free thus delaying it all the way to the 3rd June. Gave both agents a telling off and in return we received a hang written apology hallmark card..... whoppie, what joy...... that means a great deal to me....

pinkpetter - But those two little walls facing the main door are still blocking the view into the living.. hehe Those are at the top of our 'to go' list hehe... ---------- Metalsubzero - Congrats!! I actually liked the modified layout.. Your MBR is huge!! And is that the full size of ur MBR toilet?? There's a WIW rite? LOL.. But how come there's 2 black pillars or such in the middle of the MBR? Thanks MSZ ^^ nope, it aint a WIW, but rather the previous owners had converted the area just outside of the toilet into a "dry" area where the basin or vanity" is ----------- preciousjam - The area between the balcony and living room...is it a room cos i realise there are beam on the left and right side? Hmm if I'm viewing it the same way you are, that 'room' is actually the current living room *a L Shaped Living room*, with the bedroom 3 being converted as a dining room. & yes...there are loads of beams dangling around..arghhh.... giving us a real challenge when it comes to the deco and theme of our home.. Hope the IDs we've been to / going to are able to work around those... ------------ Pinklady - so you intend to on aircon and fans the whole day for your penguin home? more pics please! how much is your budget can tell us? then what are the list of items that u intend to do? Neh..we're penguins with a TAN! lol... budget approx 34-40k? Likely to burst though, 'cos our icy butts were feeling a bit itchy so we went to consult a Fengshui master, and ended up with tons of 'specifications'... ------------- stage - Got current condition pics to show us? Nope, not at the moment but hope to have those soon as it'll make our work easier when we approach more IDs 'cos we realized that they don't usually request to view our home before coming up with the quotation? Is this normal? Wouldn't that mean that the more 'dishonest' IDs can throw in 'hidden costs' after we've confirmed with them? Any one had similar experiences?

psst..you...yes you... thank you for taking the time to click on our little thread. I'm sure you are hard at work in the office right now, and ya only taking a quickie (tea break that is), having a time-out before charging head on to the day's challenges, with a commitment and passion for your work eh... Yeah right.... We're first time home owners, and to be honest we were at a complete lost when searching for a 'cozy' little iceberg to call home. Fast forward - After much searching (3-4months), we've found such an 'ice cube', and have staked our claim on it indefinitely! *Muhaha* at valuation no less, no COV and at a location where we both always wanted and hoped to have. Mental note; we're extremely cash tight, hence being able to secure a home @ valuation meant a great deal to us as that meant we had spare cash for our reno - that in itself is a whole chapter all together Of course the journey to date has not been without its challenges i.e. useless property agents, causing us much unwanted and unwarranted distress, ridiculous "cash-above-valuations"demands, dodgy units and dishonest property agents... did i mention useless property agents? You know....those agents who never seem to get anything done right, and tends to look to you for answers when your parents poses a question to them on the then-potential unit that we were viewing....No? Well..we have, & it irks the heck out of my WTB and I...... not that they've done anything WRONG, but it's just that they've not done anything RIGHT... *shrugs* Of course this is not to stereotype all property agents, but it takes only 1 to ruin your day, let alone 2 (owners' agent) *shrugs*...go figure..... Fast forward - We've finally exercised the OTP, signed the resale application and all that's left to do now is to wait for the first appointment. Destination - Cck, 5I unit, 128sqm *hope i got the terminology correct* hehe Just managed to re-schedule our first appointment for early June (as per our request as WTB and I are on company training courses hence the need to re-schedule). Can't wait to take the process to the next step.....will try to upload our original floor plan, but the current layout is quite different as the first owners had made some major changes to it... yep, we're the 3rd owners ^^ Original Layout Current Layout On to the main point which I'm sure is the mother of all headaches for all new home owners... which ID to use given that there are just as many IDs as there are Indians in Little India on a weekend night - We've scoured from the east (bedok) to the west (IMM / tradehub) for IDs.....with no clear answer in sight as to who can * and we are able to afford* sculpt our iceberg cube. Especially since we have major reno works given that we have specific restrictions and a tight budget... who doesn't right.... Any tips, suggestions or advice is extremely welcomed as we're hoping to suck..i mean tap on everyone's experience here to help achieve our ideal iceberg where we hope we'll be able to nest for as long as we both shall live *or until the next en-bloc, whichever comes first* If there's anyone out there who is also new to this whole experience like we are, we know that any piece of advice no matter how small, can mean so much ... so pls, feel free to click on the 'reply' button and we hope to exchange pointers with one another.. to make the experience that much happier & memorable In the meantime, it's back to the the hunt for our ID..... fingers crossed~