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One of the first thing we did once we confirmed the ID was to look for tiles. And looking for tiles at those big tile shops were like going into an ice ream parlor looking for a simple ice cream cone and then being presented with a choice of 40 flavors. Except that the tile shops literally have thousands of them. As we had limited time to look around, we only ventured to the popular ones like Soon Bee Huat (Toh Guan), Hafary (Defu), Hup Kiong (Defu) and Unlimited (Bendemeer). We got part of the work cut out for us as we havd decided to use Allure HERF flooring for the main areas early on. We just had to make a pit stop at Evorich to finalise the color. Here is the result of our tile/flooring selection. It seems like we went wild at times with some of our selection, but hopefully the mix of themes (mid-modern, european, modern, chinese retro) will blend well together.

Thank you so much Ms Polar! Your description really helps. Looks like we will be sticking to the current layout.

Hi. Thanks for the tip. Do you mind sending me a pic of your MBR bathroom? Need to see the location of those pipes. The current layout has the sink opposite the WC. We won't get the chance to see the place until after the New Year.

Our ID has done sketches of the Kitchen and Bathrooms using Google Sketch. Here are some for them. Kitchen (yes, it is exactly like the IKEA kitchen set) Master Bedroom Bathroom Kitchen Bathroom

It has only been two weeks since we started working with our ID, but it seems like we have been planning for our new house for ages. Before we discovered Renotalk, our only exposure to home designs were the glossy covers of magazines and the nice interiors of other people's homes. But one thing that always caught my eye were the beautiful home designs found in the pages of the IKEA catalogue or in the showrooms of the Alexander and Tampines outlets. I liked the laid-back and warm feel of the IKEA design, especially with dark wood flooring, cosy furniture and warm lighting. So when it was time to look for a new home, I decided that we would design the place around that style. And of course after discovering Renotalk and reading the many helpful t-blogs, we discovered many new styles (eg. Scandi, Industrial, Mid-modern, Vintage) and we hope to incorporate some of these in our designs as well. Just pray that the different styles would mash well and not turn out like 'rojak'.

Hi. Nice ornate iron-wrought railings. Looks like you are keeping them. Btw, you hacked away the utility room wall? Are you doing a open-concept kitchen?

Nice progress! On the dressing table, I guess you can squeeze one next to the bathroom, but it'll be a bit squeezey if someone else walks in and out of the bathroom. Or you can affix a full length mirror on one of the sliding doors of your wardrobe and treat that as a dressing table mirror. Her make-up kit and all can be stored on a table next to the window.

I am planning to use the same tiles for by bathroom floor. Looking at how it goes well with your wall, I think it'll look nice on the floor too!

I think white skirting for the whole house will look nice for your different wood flooring. For the windows, I would remove all the black stickers. I think the off-white frames go better with your interior. If you don't plan to paint the black handles, just leave them as they are.

House Hunt Like all journeys, our house hunting journey was filled with moments of excitement (like when a new listing appears in propertguru or when we view a place that we just knew could be the one ), anxiety (like when we waited for the seller's agt to respond on our offer), frustration (when we missed out on one), resignation (when our dream house seems out of reach while the COV continues to set record highs) and finally relieve (when we took home the OTP). It is easy to pen down now what we went through then but when we were stuck in the middle of the journey, we really did not know where or when the finish line would be. At the beginning of our house hunt, sometime in July 2012, we sort of decided that our next house would be an EM. Of course we were naive about the COV, thinking $50k would be enough for most places. So we started by outlining the areas of interest. I had a fondness of little 'hamlets', places that are less congested, located a little off the main 'town' areas, with a little more greenery and 'kampung' feel. On top of my wish list would be places like Elias Road, Sunset Way, and Lorong Ah Soo. Of course we knew that budget, distance from work and availability would lead to us extending the net, even to places that were originally in the 'Do not consider' list. We started off by viewing this quaint ground floor corner 5A Mais in Hougang Ave 5. It had a small porch in the front and a strip of grass outside the gate that you could grow something or place a swing. But it just did not have enough space as we needed a 4th room for the maid. Caught on by the excitement of viewing houses, we quickly arranged viewing for 2 more units in Hougang that same evening. After viewing more houses around Hougang, we decided to cast the net wider and considered Serangoon North. Though it was far from MRT stations, it was not too far from where I worked, plus the old town vibe around Serangoon North Ave 1 feels interesting. Alas, it did not worked out as people were asking ridiculous prices for their old units. Next we decided to look west around CCK and Bukit Batok, places close to where we are staying. We almost closed on a 8th flr unit in Yew Tee; even had the option fee cheque written, but alas the seller could not obtain sufficient loan for his next house. Our hopes rose each time we hear that his loan application may be successful, but eventually we had to move on. One night while viewing a 3rd flr EM in Bukit Gombak, we got the feeling again. This could be it. The place was reasonably done up, it was near the MRT and the owner was selling the place directly (no agt com). We quickly arranged a second viewing and made an offer the same day. In the next two weeks, we were still in negotiations, but somehow the asking COV got higher each time and it eventually went beyond the limit we were willing to pay. No luck again. Along the way, we did satiate our curiousity by viewing places that were too far away (EM beside the Pasir Ris Fishing Pond), too expensive (Clementi Ave 6 and Sunset Way), units of different sizes (EA in Bkt Batok that overlooks the Church compound) and those that were never in our original plan (like Jurong West). So when our unit eventually came about, we were already 'wiser' and knew not to set our expectations too high or get over-excited. Well, the rest is history and we are glad that we pushed on not knowing how it would end. Sorry for the long post, just had to pen this down somewhere so that 20 years down the road, I can look back and relived the days when we were looking for a new home.

Hi. We are currently staying in Yew Tee too. Which part of Yew Tee are you in? Btw, are you targeting to complete your reno before CNY? All the best in your reno.

Hi. Can you let me know from which shop (SBH or Hafary) you got your MBR wall tiles, ie. the greyish ledgestone and the white one with little squares?

Yes, it is a corner unit. We checked with our ID on the feasibility of your suggestion but found the wall was only 2.8m. With a wardrobe (0.6m) and King Size bed (2m), we will only have 20cm left between the two !

Here is a rough plan on what we will be doing with the house. Proposed Layout Starting from the bottom right corner ... 1) Entering the house from the right, there will be a foyer to greet us. Built-in shoe cabinet and bench on the side. 2) Next will be the dining hall with tall bookshelves against the wall 3) Turning to the right, we have a open concept kitchen with a counter at the entrance and another 18ft of kitchen counter top/cabinets. 4) On one side of the kitchen will be the maid's room and on another a service balcony 5) At the top end, we will have the living room separated from the roofed-in balcony by a half wall-half big open windows kind of divider 6) Upstairs will be the standard 3 bedrooms with built-in wardrobes. We did not know what to do with the diagonal wall in the MBR, but we needed bigger wardrobe space, so we will place our bed between the windows and bathroom. It's a struggle to balance between aesthetics and functionality, and of course the piggy bank makes the final call.

PMed you. Wish you well on your reno too...

When we first looked around the internet on how people use the air well (besides wandering around the neighbourhood and peering at people's home from below), we chanced upon a photo of a WIW in the air well like what you mentioned. We did bounce the idea off a couple of IDs, but it either appear to be illegal or would just cost a bomb for approval and construction. So eventually we dropped the idea. Now the plan is to construct a L-shape wardrobe on the right side of our MBR for more storage, but that means the bed would be next to the attached bathroom. I am still keen to know what you learnt about such a construct.

Thanks! Renovation starts in the new (snake) year, right after 'Chap Goh Mei' .

Thanks! Yes, one of the challenge was to make that little corner not look out of place, especially since we plan to put a roof over the balcony. Ms Polar has guessed right my unit's location.

Thanks! Yep, the circular air-well is a dead giveaway. Guess you are staying in the same cluster.

Our renovation journey is about to start. We got over the exhausting house hunting phase in October and formally completed our ID hunt last week. Here is the original house layout to start off with, a 28 year old EM in the North East.

Love your vintage retro theme. I would also like to know the source and price fro the gate and windor grilles...

Hi. Can you let me know the name of the shop selling the relite fan and how much you bought the relite petite for? As for the loose bulbs, I guess you are hanging them from the top ceiling above the stairs. Mind me asking, how do you plan to replace the lights in future?

Hi. For my reno, I am also considering Op 2, ie. overlay living/dining and bedroom floors to save cost and time, though many IDs advised us to hack everything to avoid any problems in future. Like chezph and multi888, I am going for Evorich's HERF flooring. Our main reasons are for waterproofing, the padded feel of HERF vs laminate, and the smaller thickness (5mm)as floor height is something of a concern when we overlay. Btw, how much are you quoted for the Berry laminates?

Congratulations to you and Kenji. Hope you are recovering well and getting all the help you need on the baby.

Hi. We are also in the midst of finalizing an ID for our EM. Our timing is about the same; We had our 1st apt on 17 Dec and 2nd apt will be on 28 Jan. Although we are starting our reno only after CNY, we hope to quickly finalize one and start going into design details and buying stuff. Our shortlist is down to two. Hopefully decision can be made by next weekend. All the best in your search.