hermione

Just found out how to change my avatar, chose Yoda cos i think i can ask him to use the force on my house reno... lol... it's all so new to me...

the hacking starts... - kitchen entrance enlarged. - view from bedroom 3 into master bedroom facing toilet. the house feels more spacious now, very happy with the hacking decision. bedroom 3 is going to be our study. the decision to hack the walls gave me a headache for weeks... cos i am not using ID, so i must be able to visualize everything myself. in the end i decided to retain more of the wall instead of hacking it all off so that i have more wall space for shelves, tv, cabinets and etc. for anyone who wants to hack walls in their house, just go ahead. after thinking through where to hack of course! the flow is very important although i don't believe in fengshui. hehe. i'm still waiting for the approval for the service balcony wall... so mafan, holding up everything!

haha! i love livingetc too. i have to say i like it more than many other mags. so much good ideas! here's the preview of my bathroom tiles... finally dug up the pics from my one million home related photos all lumped into one folder... btw I bought my tiles from Harfary @ Balestier... seems like that's where everyone goes nowadays. The staff are quite nice tho. V friendly and patient. I went back like 3-4 times to confirm my tiles, cos one of my previous choices went out of stock. aiya i tell u, if u like something in sg, quickly pay and book, if not sure snapped up in no time... sienz.

btw just want to share some interior design websites I find extremely helpful (more ang-moh style though): - http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ - http://freshome.com/ - http://www.designspongeonline.com/ - http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/ - http://livethemma.ikea.se/ - http://www.livingetc.com/ ;)

Haha, ya I'm currently at 5 mins away near potong pasir v easy to go over...

haha, i dun dare to try Lai Wah leh, dunno nice anot, look super old school leh! I did try the chai peng at the kopitiam... so so lor... happygolucky u move in liao do you feel disturbed by the reno noise daily? I'm afraid when I move in will still have a lot of reno going on... hey reglxt, wanna ask u ah, what do you do with your leftover toilet fittings after changing to the new ones? throw? like so sayang hor? haha... i wish i know ppl who are doing reno who would want our fittings.

Thanks Happygolucky! Ya i love the river view, can see water everyday is shiok! haha! U start reno liao? I just went to the house today. Determined to check every 2 days at least. Shall post more pics soon...

Thanks Blowtoenhance! That's a very funny nick btw! Haha...

My basic floorplan layout that I did on floorplanner.com. Measurements are not totally accurate, but close enough I guess! I will also have top wall cabinets that are not shown here. On the side of the bomb shelter door is a full length slim cabinet so that I have more storage space. Cos most of my bottom kitchen cabinet space will be taken up by appliances like oven, washing machine, etc. My sink is a pretty slim and small one, as I have a dishwasher to do heavy washing.

ya man, i totally agree. reno costs are crazy! completely don't understand the logic behind some of the costs. But what to do, it's a contractor's world out there now. I bought all my necessary kitchen appliances first, cos die die kitchen must be up mah, they need to know the measurements before doing up your cabinets? I'm putting all my appliances under the counter, so must buy first so that they can calculate the measurements properly. I like my fridge too, took me a long time to find it. It's out of my budget, luckily my FIL is sponsoring the fridge! HAHA. You should get people to sponsor stuff during housewarming... So far I got a few big items that I found sponsorship for, lol... Or maybe lucky for me they volunteered to sponsor me lah

yay to us! haha... u know those ppl from sers got their flat at almost half price of ours? saw it in the papers. so shiok! our flats are really pricey. haha. buay tahan. ur view is really good! I was contemplating a high floor too, but got persuaded by my hubby. i also want to completely move in by CNY. we can bai nian at each other's house. lol.

i don't have that much new lighting points, i think the main bulk of the money goes to pulling new tv point cos I'm changing the direction of the tv, and adding new electrical points in the kitchen for all my built-in appliances like oven, dishwasher, hob, etc etc... And those need to be concealed in some way... I just left it up to the electrician to figure out a way. But I guess if I want to cut costs I can just let him lay trunking everywhere...

Gosh electrical is so expensive... just spoke to my electrical guy... he's charging me almost about $1000 to do all the work in my house. I wonder if it's too much.

mine is leftover balance flats, that's y no high floor for facing river... my queue number was 200+! and the dropout rate is so low... sad... haha... i hope i get chin chye neighbours who keep to themselves too. lol...

I bought my coffee table while furniture shopping! and my fridge! coffee table is about $200+ and fridge got discount from the price you see in the pic... haha must bargain with Har vey Nor man... I also bought my oven, hob and hood from there... TV too... so delivery will be easy! Year end really a lot of sales...

Haha, I don't mind climbing stairs down, but not UP! Hmm, we might put film for the service area windows that I'm putting up as that is the only windows I'm facing neighbours at blk 39A. But for the rest no plans yet. Initially I was afraid of heat, etc, but now that I've been there a few times, even when it's hot outside I don't feel it cos it's quite windy. Maybe cos it's dec, but I hope that continues! I'm facing the factories on all my other windows, nothing to look at and nothing to look at me too, so I think privacy-wise still ok! Prob just put curtains. Haha.

Thanks! I'm from 38A. hehe... low floor, cos by the time I was able to choose, I was only left with low floors for those facing the river. Doesn't bother me, I like not having to wait too long for the lift, haha... gotta look on the bright side... anyways here are some photos: - living room - kitchen - service balcony - master bedroom toilet - guest toilet

hi hi, been lurking here for a long time. decided to start the blog after fellow river vista neighbour gave me a little push! anyways i won't discuss $$ here in-depth, but can PM me, i will try to provide as much info as possible. here's the floorplan in my final scheme after hacking: Hacking: (1) service balcony wall to enlarge kitchen (2) kitchen entrance wall to enlarge entrance (3) wall between master and bedroom 3 I'm engaging an ID firm to do my contracting work, which is really good cos they are also able to advise me on design and layout. But I will still have to liaise some of my reno myself and do all the design and choosing of lights and so on myself. I also don't get 3D drawings as I'm not engaging them for design, but they did draw my kitchen as they are doing my carpentry. I am cutting costs to keep budget less than 25k for reno (exclude furnishing). As such I have very little carpentry (only kitchen). I am tiling the entire house except the kitchen, and overlaying tiles in both toilets. The killer is the tiling... they took up the bulk of the reno cost. Cannot imagine older flats that got to hack before tiling, will cost even more! My home will have more focus on designing with the right pieces of furniture, layout and accessories, so let's hope I achieve what I want - only time will tell!

no leh... everytime i go and check on progress i will check if there's reno notice on my neighbour's house or if the spam mail has been cleared but nothing as yet. have you met your neighbours? the thing is eventhough i am corner unit the next door's unit's door is still next to mine, so better to have good relations. haha. or at least no relations is better than bad relations! when is ur reno supposed to finish? i hope mine can finish in mid-jan! shall go start my blog now.

really? i check out McNair rd hdbs before! the new flats there are not that new right? and i think i didn't want to consider cos their living room windows are along the corridor type, no privacy or view. probably i didnt go to the right ones... i also went to the ones that hdb put up for repossessed sale before. haha. so scary, once i went to the whampoa one next to CTE, high floor, view also v nice, but got a slightly unsound man downstairs wrecking havoc. immediately don't want to stay there liao. now i just hope that my neighbours now are going to be nice!

haha! why would you guess that I'm 5-rm? I'm not lah, just a 4-rm. So hard to get 5-rm there, so little of it, harder than striking 4D! But I do go and kaypoh 5-rm reno by peeking, their view is so good!! and i may start a reno blog here too, good to note down the progress i guess. they should have an iphone app for this, will make my life easier.

Hi! I'm also fr rv, good to see ur house coming along nicely! I just started reno, not sure if i have the ability to update the progress here... haha... lazy lars...