meiz

Hubby-to-be Calvin wanted us to have a peaceful and harmonious home. As such he thoughtfully engaged a Feng Shui shi-fu to "cleanse" as well as to give some pointers for our house renovation. Some advices given were on the preferred room colours and themes to use. However the trickier part was that based on the rooms' location, shi-fu suggested we sleep in another bedroom rather than the master bedroom. In addition, our main door would have to be tilt to a certain degree to better compliment our lives. Imagine our dilemma when we heard these suggestions! On one hand, the changes are meant to be better for hubby and me and since we took the trouble to engage a shi-fu, we should listen to his advice. Yet on the other hand, these changes to the house are bigger than what we expected. I had always thought as the owners, we would definitely sleep in the master bedroom with the pretty window ledge. Instead the ideal room is Bedroom 1 (refer to my previous entry) which is the furthest away from the master bedroom with no bathroom amenities. And can the main door be shifted in the first place since it is built by HDB? Although we would of course like to go along with the shi-fu's suggestions as they were intended to be good for us, however we also need to weigh their practicality. Based on the initial pointers, we asked around several designer/renovation firms but it poses several problems. Bedroom 1 is too small to accommodate a Queen sized bed together with our wardrobe. We may have to hack the wall between Bedroom 1 and 2 so as to have enough space. But there are still no toilet amenities. Also in future if we were to sell away the house, I think not many people will be keen on the merged room. After further discussion with shi-fu, we finally managed to "negotiate" and have our bedroom changed to Bedroom 2 instead. To make our room more special, we could hack the wall between Bedroom 2 and the Master Bedroom so that it is more spacious and link to the toilet. I raise both hands and legs to support this idea as it means my bedroom and wardrobe can be bigger!!! Lolx... Now to find a good designer firm and we are set to go!

Thanks stardust205 for your welcome and suggestion! Sorry for the small pictures as I am an IT-idiot and just copied the URLs that were given to me when I uploaded my pictures. Am also not sure why some pictures appear bigger than others lolx.. will try to experiment further till I get the hang of it!

(... continued) Master bedroom with the lovely bay window that makes me think of putting a few cushions there to read a good book Master bedroom toilet with a ready sink counter Rectangular-shaped kitchen which means I can only have one column of cabinets Common toilet where I had to convince very hard to my hubby-to-be on the merits of using this toilet instead of that in the master bedroom to shower. Plus points include: 1) Since the common toilet would be used to wash clothes, we would not need to wash two toilets so often if we were to shower here also 2) We could save money as it would not be necessary to install a shower screen in the master bedroom 3) The master bedroom could be a dry toilet for us to freshen up and store our toiletries/make up items Well, am I convincing enough? Lolx... Though I understand dear likes the idea of being able to shower in the master bedroom as it is a privilege for us both only. Service yard area And that about sums up our love casa

Calvin and I waited anxiously for HDB's notice to collect our flat keys. When two months came and went, we called up HDB to enquire as our HLE would expire soon. Furthermore, if we plan to move in after our wedding in November, there needs to be some buffer time for renovation and preparation. Finally after another half month's wait, we held the keys to our love casa! Views of our love casa at its natural state before they are gone: Our main gate plus some cleaning tools that we brought to our love casa Loved the spacious living room that constantly has a light breeze blowing in Corridor leading to the three rooms Bedroom 1 Bedroom 2 (next to the master bedroom) (to be continued...)

Thanks newnyew! Went to my love casa a few times during these two weeks to either wait for deliveries or to check out the renovation progress (which is why there is not much progress on my T-blog these few days... will try to update soon!). Have to admit I do need some time to get used to it, esp the one hour journey from my current parents' house to my future love casa. But at the end of the day, like what my hubby-to-be tells me, the effort is worth it as it is for our new home, where we are going to build a family together. Though that does not mean I won't grumble at times to my poor dear, whom I know is also putting in effort and time into our new house. So thanks dear, for listening to me and showing your appreciation

Hubby-to-be and I applied for a HDB flat under the Remaining Flat Exercise in the last quarter of 2010. This was our first application and we were very lucky to be able to get a queue no within the available flat balance. I still remember the first time we went to Sengkang to rak-key the surrounding of our potential love casa. Compassvale Pearl/Beacon area gave me an impression of a bustling area with amenities (and a KFC at Rivervale if I don't remember wrongly!) nearby. Fernvale area on the other hand seems more peaceful due to the fewer estates built. Being a lazy gal who prefers to have amenities within reach, my first choice was initially the Compassvale area. However as our queue no was in the 200s range, there were only low floor flats left by the time our turn came. Hence the weekend before the big day, we made another visit to Fernvale area with my parents to scout around. A family who had just collected their keys was gracious enough to let us visit their flat. Their unit was four floors directly above one available flat under our consideration so going in would give us a good idea of the flat interior. Calvin and my parents liked the spacious flat setting while I loved the view of the living room as it was not obstructed by other estates. Not to mention there was a cute window ledge in the master bedroom! There was also a constant light breeze in the house due to the high floor. Definitely would be one of our top three choices. After discussion, dear dear and I decided to put this unit as our first choice and hopefully it would still be available when our turn came. On the day of our selection, we arrived at HDB Hub early in the morning. Crossing our fingers and monitoring the flats availability status. Finally our queue no! The whole selection process went smoothly and we are now the proud owner of a beautiful flat in Fernvale area!

Thanks zone23 for the warm welcome!

Thanks! Will try to have the discipline to come in and blog about our home selection and renovation process

Hubby-to-be Calvin is the one who introduced me to RenoTalk website. From the beginning when we had to look for ID Company for our new flat to getting design ideas for our house to the kind of water heater we should get, he would come in to this website to have a better understanding. Maybe looking at the T-blogs that others have created made him feel that this is a good way for us to document down our journey to build our love casa and also get helpful tips along the way. Hinted twice to me whether I would be interested to set up a blog since currently I am a free gal whose main duties are to coordinate our home renovation and upcoming wedding.. does he feel that I don't have much to occupy my time? Hmm... I rejected hubby-to-be saying that I am not a very IT person (which is true as I don't have any Twitter account and this is in fact my very first blog). However, it sets me thinking that not only does a blog serves as a good remembrance of the home-creation journey for both of us, it can also be a surprise two-year anniversary gift for Calvin. Due to the renovation and upcoming wedding cost which burnt a big hole in our pocket, we agreed to give each other a present that is handmade. And that is how this whole T-blog started.