tangerinez

|| reserved for before pics ||

Original floorplan: intending to hack the wall between the kitchen and dining room

hi! i'm so excited to start the journey to creating our own cozy home and also to share our reviews and learn from all of you here in this forum! -------------------------- finding THE place: we started to look at resale flats back in Oct 2010 starting from the neighborhood which i grew up in. but the COV back then was ridiculous at 50k and above for a small 5 room. decided to stop temporarily, hoping that the property market will cool down a little. then we restarted the search just 3 weeks later because we got our wedding dates and realized we don't have much time left. this time we extended the search to a nearby neighborhood where the prices are lower. but the journey was a long and hard one, with back to back viewings every weekend. we simply had too many criteria: high floor but not top floor, corner, lift landing, no west sun, main door must be the 'right' facing, not too noisy, not too quiet, reasonable COV, suitable fengshui, and the list goes on. it didn't help that the mr prefers a renovated place to save on reno cost but i prefer an original condition so that we can hack everything. after 30+ units, 1 really painful miss and 1 greedy owner, we finally found THE place: - in the neighborhood i grew up in (PERFECT) - quiet and serene but with basic amenities 2 blocks away - really really breezy regardless of the time of day - reasonable COV now i'm more excited about the house than the wedding

hi bepgof, thanks for your detailed explanation. this is so cool. so as long as i am sure i can get a bank loan, i can actually exercise OTP on the spot. NICE! i always thought somehow you NEED to submit the LO together with the OTP. thank you!

thanks David! hmm, so paying 5k doesn't mean exercising the OTP? then what is the benefit of paying 5k vs paying 1k?

hi all, thanks for all your inputs! i'm still a little confused though. we've already had an AIP of up to 650k valuation. well, in short we are confident we will be able to loan from the banks. we know our financials well and all that. but the paperwork is making me confused. 1) It is a MUST to produce LO when exercising the OTP right? 2) Banks only issue LO AFTER you submit the valuation report for the flat 3) Means CANNOT exercise OTP on the spot when viewing house right (cos at that point in time, have not applied for LO yet) 4) If the above are true, how to pay 5k on the spot? haha, I hope I am making sense. Anyway, not many flats on the market now during holiday season. resuming search on 2nd Jan!

fiance and I looking for a place for about 3 months. expanded search from one estate to another. missed out on a perfect unit for us (our own fault cos we couldn't decide fast enough). and now no one selling cos holiday season. sad. anyway, can anyone educate me: under the current HDB rules, and assuming taking bank loan and not HLE, is it possible to offer 5k and exercise OTP on the spot? my understanding is in order to exercise OTP, you need an LO from the bank. am i wrong? thanks!

i've seen those staying in unit number 44 placing the words "shi shi ru yi" below the unit number. you may wish to consider that, if you feel uncomfortable with the number 4 in your number.

there is a temple off paya lebar road that holds annual "pray to tai sui" ceremony. the temple "enshrines the mother of the 60 Taisui (Star Gods) known as “Dou Mu Yuan Jun” and the 60 Tai Sui (Protectors of the Sixty Year Cycle)" (quoted from the temple's website). i'm sure this is not the only temple that has all the taisuis, but this is the only one i know. Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple http://www.shtemple.org.sg/cheng%20huang%2...0yang%20eng.htm PS: i'm not advertising for this temple. it's just that i'm recently visiting renotalk again because will be purchasing a home soon and is reading through the threads to collect ideas.

up till now, my mind is fixed on units that are just about to TOP, so choices are limited. but i guess at some point in time i might have to consider other options. hope to share reno experiences soon!

hi there! a big congratulations! this is my first post - i cannot resist because i recognized that your new home is Casa Merah! *envy* Casa Merah was my dream for the longest time (walkable distance from my current place) but i gave up after realising that i can never afford it. found another more affordable project and is trying to find the 'perfect' unit. will be very interested in your progress!