snoozee

TOP is temporary occupation permit you can only apply for it when the house is almost done. Only way to get this fast is to make sure the builder does everything properly and there’s not much rectifications after the inspection. attic can be used as entertainment room or extra bedrooms depending on what are your needs. My master bedroom takes up the entire attic. can do a skylight above the stairs to let light in. But depends on how your stairs is configured as well. If you have a lift and the stairs wrap around the lift shaft then no point having a skylight at the stairs

One thing to note is to contact Netlink Trust to relocates the existing fiber connection in the house first before demolition starts. I’m not sure how much they will charge to relocate the fiber cable but I had to pay more than 1k for them to lay a new cable from their distribution point to my meter compartment as mine was cut by the contractor during the demolition. If they charge less than 1k to relocate the cable then it will be some money saved which can be used for other purpose.

now already march. since TS haven't even gotten a QP or builder to start on the plans, I think almost impossible to have Christmas party this year in new house. assuming tomorrow the QP is engaged. say the QP takes 2 weeks to do the drawings and then submit. if everything goes well, URA approve by mid April. then after URA approval submit BCA for plans approval and permit. lets say BCA very efficient and takes 2 weeks to approve both, then will be start of May already. demolishing the old house takes about 2 weeks. so now is mid-May. sub-structure work take about 1 month so now is mid-june super structure takes about 3 months so become mid-september brick works and external/internal plastering takes about 1.5 month so is end-oct then need to do tiling, floor finishes, electrical wiring, carpentry, etc? left 2 months to completed up and get TOP cert is almost impossible. even if house is complete, legally the owner is not allowed to have gatherings, parties, etc in the house before TOP cert is issued. worst thing in construction is to rush which results in slipshod work. think TS To target for CNY 2021 or labour day 2021 would be more realistic.

$350psf usually does not include professional fees (architect and PE) as well as submissions to authorities. but if you can find a builder who can include everything in for $350psf, then it could be possible. sanitary works usually will be part of the contract. the sanitary fittings may or may not depending on your negotiation with the main con. same as carpentry. you can opt to get your own subcons (eg: carpenter, aircon, lift) in but normally the main con will then charge you a 5% profit in attendance on top of your nominated subcon's cost. sanitary fittings and carpentry cost largely depends on what you want to buy and do. if you want top of the line items (eg: toilet bowls that cost 4 digits) and a lot of customised carpentry, then your cost will just sky rocket. some people go to the extent of laminating the insides of the wardrobes or cabinets which I feel is unnecessary added cost. whether to do basement or not depends on how deep is your pockets. if money is not an issue, why not? however do note that basements must be fully enclosed if your land is above the 4metres SHD. if your land is low lying (ie : below the 4m SHD), then normally PUB will require your first storey to start at or above the 4.0m SHD which they define as the minimum platform level. then anything below this MPL can be considered the basement. but this are general guidelines and since each piece of land is different, the architect will normally draw up the plans first and then consult PUB and URA on the plans. I think generally for URA, as long as the plans are drawn up within the guidelines set by URA, basement shouldn't be an issue.

Get yourself an architect or builder Go to PUB website and buy the sewerage interpretation plans to see if there’s any sewer running through your house find a company to do a site survey so you can know what is the exact level your house is sitting on now. If you choose not to do this now, just walk around the neighborhood and see if any recently built houses are raised up from the road level or not. From this, you can estimate if your house is above or below the 4m SHD. Nowadays the agencies used Singapore Height Datum instead of mRL already. construction cost is about $350psf. So you estimate how much GFA you want and multiply by $350 time taken for a full rebuilt is at least 12 months excluding time needed for authorities approvals. After factoring in approval time, you are looking at at least 18 months

Unlikely to be. Just email URA to clarify

not sure how long you had been doing "homework" before you started house hunting. but there are various types of sellers in the market ranging from genuine sellers to those just testing market. those testing market would normally have the agents put up a ridiculous price for the house. so don't need to be bothered with them as unless you match the ridiculous asking price, chances of them selling is close to zero. those genuine sellers also fall into various categories : 1. owners who want to sell the house for financial reasons 2. owners who are old and planning to downgrade 3. estate sale if you encounter a owner who is selling for financial reasons, chances are that the house would be sold at valuation or below valuation since they want to get rid of the house ASAP for owners who are old and planning to downgrade, they may let go at or below valuation but their children (adults) may convince them otherwise and ask for higher. sometimes the owners may hold off the sale due to sentimental reasons as they may have stayed in the house for more than half of their lives already. houses undergoing estate sale also have the problems especially if the owner who had passed on has many children. the children will have their own idea on how much to sell the house for and unless the price is agreeable by all the children, chances are the offer will not be accepted even at valuation. of cos there might be additional categories which I've missed out but these are the sellers whom I encountered when I was house hunting years ago. personally I feel that buying a house also depends on whether you are fated to buy the house or not. Prior to purchasing my house, I had made offers for 2 other houses which was undergoing estate sale but my offers were rejected as the sellers were asking for much higher prices. the house which I eventually bought was a house which I had declined to view when the property agent asked if I was interested in it. Fast forward a few weeks later, I contacted the agent again to view the house with the intention of just viewing for fun. But my wife and I like the house location and potential for rebuilt and we ending up buying the house. As for the 2 other houses that our offers were rejected, they were sold 8 months later at about the prices which we had made the offer for earlier but was still lower than the asking price the sellers were holding out for. if you choose to buy a house at above valuation, do note that you will need to top up the difference in cash as you can't take bank loan for this. this extra cash will end up eating into your budget for renovation.

corner terrace, end terrace, inter terrace all fall under the same category of being a terrace house. a terrace house has a minimum plot width of 6m and corner terrace min of 8m. if the existing house currently has a width of only 6m, then you are unlikely required to provide the 2m setback and can build right up to the boundary. best is write to URA with the address of the said house to clarify what are the set back requirements of the plot of land.

I think what TS meant is that is anyone buying a landed house at a price above the valuation price. eg: valuation is at 2M, house is purchased at 2.1M

Question is, is the uneven gap there before the renovation? normally floor will never be graded level and there will be a slight gradient to allow for water flow. So if the floor has been graded to allow water flow in/out of the through the doorway, it sounds right that the gap would not be even since the base of the door is perpendicular to the slope when open. but there are products in the market which are self leveling screed and these are supposed to provide a level finish to the floor

Before the sale of cos nice la. Once sign already pattern all come out. Unfortunately if the date is put down in black and white, there’s nothing you can do about it. Just take is as a lesson learnt. my taking over was also almost 6 months as we granted the sellers 12 weeks extended stay rent free. But at least we managed to negotiate for a lower price in lieu of the extension and the sellers are ok with us to get surveyors in to perform the topo survey as well as visit the house another few times. But we were also mindful about visiting too many times to disturb them as well anyway, when you take over, make sure to do a through inspection of the house and make sure it is handed over in the condition agreed upon. Get the property agent to be around as well to witness the handing/taking over

bidet spray leak just buy a new spray from NTUC to replace. cabinet door just remove the existing screws and screw the plate to another location on the door. since you mentioned you hardly close the door, then might as well remove it entirely.

parquet would normally be laid on top of screed floor. the parquet itself would have a thickness of about 10 to 12mm for the wood (at this is thickness is what I see in market these days). you didn't mention what is your floor finish now. assuming that you do not have laid any new floor tiles after the parquet is removed and is just screed/plaster finish, then the contractor would have poured a slightly thicker layer of screed and plaster finish so that your floor would be more hard wearing. else you would encounter the plaster floor cracking after prolonged use if the layers are too thin.

hope you did manage to get something in return for the owner being a PITA and the extended completion.

have you engaged an architect and/or PE already? if yes, then send the set of draft plans to them and ask them which one to buy. if you have not engaged anyone, then just buy all. else after the time expiry, you need to pay BCA another $30 for plans search fees again.

Your fridge should be in the kitchen which is considered a wet area so the floor would have a layer of waterproofing membrane coated below the screed and tile layer. So when hacking away the plinth for the fridge, if the workers hack too deeply, it may result in damage to the waterproofing membrane and this may result in leak to your downstairs neighbour if you wash the floor often.

you need to check whether your compressor can be used for a system 4 aircon or not. normally aircon compressor would be sized according to the amount of BTUs for each wall unit to be connected to. so if you have a system 3 aircon, you would most likely have a compressor which has enough BTU system 3. sometimes system 4 compressor is used in a system 3 configuration for cases where there needs to be more BTU being supplied for a certain room which has a bigger wall unit. but if you have this configuration, chances of adding another wall unit is slim as the total BTU may exceed the compressor's capacity. best case is for you to install a separate system 1 unit for your living room instead. disclaimer: above is based on my own research and understanding. best is to consult an aircon professional to ask and confirm.

for small devices, a travel adaptor will work. but bigger equipment/appliance, need a transformer which can match the power requirements. some devices/equipment have adaptors which accept 110v to 220v so check before buying.

Again I emphasize (as always), GET THE PE TO CHECK The PE would have the knowledge of whether can or cannot as well as the latest codes and requirements from authorities from my searches, I can’t find anything on restrictions on reinforcements of structure. Of cos there are hidden rules and regulations which are not privy to people outside the industry also for PE, there are PE who are kiasu and kiasi. So a kiasu/kiasi PE may also request for piling for a house which may only need footings or even just raft foundation. This could result in a cost difference of 100k or more. ultimately if the PE decides that the additions can be done according to what he deems fine, who are we (layman) to judge his call?

You don’t get ID to do major works for a landed house. You need to look for a builder or architect to work on the plans and design

You need to get a PE to check on existing structure to see can add balcony and/or another attic storey or not. Else have to reinforce the existing structure to add the new attic cost of adding a new attic could be about 300k if need to reinforce structure since you need to build a new ceiling/floor for the 2nd storey and attic digital lock and auto gate depends on whether you want your main con to supply or not. If auto gate supplied separately, main con can choose to impose a profit in attendance on you.

to reiterate angstygal's question on the shower screen, based on the 3D drawing, you only have about 700mm of floor space between the wall and the shower screen. a shower mixer has a size ranging from about 100mm to about 200mm in depth. assuming you get a shower mixer which about 150mm in depth, then you would be left with only 550mm of space between your body and shower screen. would that be enough for you to move around when showering?

since the normal mode of transport is via public transport, then the house nearer to main road and MRT would make more sense for you. a 20 year old house is old but still not that bad as a 30 year old or more house. depending on the land size, 2500sqf for a 2 storey house is normal. assuming a land size of 6m wide and 30m deep, the actual land size would be about 180sqm or 1926 sqf. after deducting 9.5m (7.5m front and 2m rear) setback for front car porch and rear, you get a buildable foot print of about 6m by 20.5m which is about 123sqm or 1316sqf. so 1316sqf for 1 level, you can get about 2600sqf for a 2 storey house (without attic). so your 2500sqf of built up area is quite normal if there isn't an attic built up. 400k budget seems doable. you may wish to talk to a builder and see how much it would cost to do what you want and also maybe change the electrical wire, water pipes and roof at the same time as well. for window resizing, do check if there are columns in the way or not. cos if there are, you would still be restricted by the columns which you can't shift. but for an inter terrace house, it is unlikely there would be columns on the front and rear walls where the windows would be so your only constraint is the location of the internal walls for the rooms.

landed houses in 2 storey zone has a max height limit of 12m while houses in 3 storey zone has a max height limit of 15.5m. URA don't control the individual storey height for envelope control but BCA still requires a minimum of floor to ceiling height clearance of 2.4m. so a 2 storey house can be built with 2 storey with an attic and mezzanine within the 12m envelope as long as all storeys can clear the 2.4m floor to ceiling requirement previously the maximum height allowed for attics is set as 5m as the previous regulations before envelope control allows for 2 storey houses to be built up to 14.1m and 3 storey houses up to 17.7m. the 5m max height for attic is to prevent owners from "over building" the attic as some owners may choose to do a reconstruction to add on an attic to the existing house.

1. what is the normal mode of transport for you and your family? by public transport or by private vehicle? if by private vehicle, then I would say proximity to MRT or main road should not be a priority concern. 2. timeline. assuming you do not want to incur ABSD or want to claim ABSD back, you will need to dispose of your existing property within 6 months. unless your new landed property is in another family member's name who would not incur ABSD then this is not an issue. if you can't "siam" ABSD, then you will have to make sure you sell your condo and complete the landed purchase within 6 months. if the new house just needs a slight makeover, it can take maybe 2 months or so. but if you need to do major works, it could take 6 months or 1 year to complete not including submissions which can take 2 to 3 months for approval. do you have a place to stay in the meantime? attic is an additional floor area and it does need a roof as well. unless you want an open roof terrace then no need roof. the older house may be cheaper upfront but you may end up paying more to redo the house and the additional cost may exceed the price difference between the 2 houses. so you should ask yourself on whether you have the time to wait for a major renovation to complete or you need to move ASAP? do you prefer to make do with existing furniture, etc or you want to have new things for your "new" house.