RimBlock

A bit late noticing your T-Blog but if the option is still there you might want to do what we have done with our buyers. As the family moving in is muslim and will be throwing away the hob and oven (only 3 years old) we offered to purchase them for half of what we originally paid (this would have to be an agreement to be carried out after completion to meet with HDB rules). We get our oven and hob which we quite like for half the price of buying new, the buyer gets a bit more money towards their new hob and oven (if they also want an oven). The environment gets to see less wastage of items thrown away that are in good working order. If the option is still open, why not suggest something similar and then you have a chunk of cash towards buying something new that may better match the kitchen you want. Another common way to refresh a kitchen if you are ok with the layout would be to only change the cabinet doors (possibly the worktop and sink too). The cabinet carcass is a big cost for the kitchen. Changing only the doors could save a big chunk of cash in the kitchen reno. Wall cabinets can be taken down and rehung to allow changing splash back or wall tiles behind them. Just a couple of ideas RB

Thanks everyone. RB

Where was the article taken from ? Would be nice to have a link back to the source. Hardly rocket science when a seniour gov minister announces sweeping changes to the rules with no warm up period before they take effect and the banks, lawyers, property agents and even HDB have no idea how these new rules will affect people. People are waiting to see what the new rules actually mean in reality. 25% of the market is choosing to just wait and see for the most part. A large portion of the market were already commited like we were (excised OTP and just about to file with HDB) or had already filed. Others may have been people just wishing to see how much they can squeeze out of people with no real interest in selling anyway. As it has only been a month the statistics are also fairly pointless. If someone was to announce that people would be refused COE for a car if they were under 5ft 5", had come in contact with a camel sometime in the last 4 years and smelt vaguely of strawberries then the chances are that the number of people bidding on COE's would decrease as people try to work out what on earth the announcer is talking about and how it may affect them. I would imagine any political body making those announcements would also claim that the measures have reduced traffic density as well. Pointless statistics are pointless. RB

I believe it is part of the unit already as it will usually have a gate which you have the keys to. Ours has been modified so the front door is on the balcony and I believe the floor size is the same as yours. Bottom line though is to gust give the HDB a quick call. They can tell you offically the correct answer RB

Sorry to hear that but as you say, more money for other things . RB

Great, I will have a scan through your blogs. I am sure there will be lots of useful info in there. Strangely enough, you mentioning a family of four, my wife informed me two days ago that our family of four will be becoming a family of 5. Very early stages but confirmed. The big question now is boy or girl . My wife is obviously whilst like all fathers I am a bit more . Anyway, on a different note. I found a couple of good websites with 3d models and have downloaded lots last night. One of them is archive3d.net. I now need to examine, sort and categorise them as the downloaded files have nonsensical names. I also need to check on the quality of the models but they looked very good in the pictures. I have a wedding banquet for a family member, babies first month for my brother-in-laws new son and a one year celebration from my wifes work colleague all this weekend. Likely to be very busy and expensive . RB

Possibly. We reported it to the local police but without proof hard to do anything. Can't expect them to place a policeman hiding behind a tree all night to try and catch the plant nabber. They have far more important things to do like fining people for not paying tax on cigarettes . They suggested installing a camera but really, S$100-200 for the camera to catch a thief of plants costing S$20. Makes little sense. Our new place is top floor with only around 6 units on our balcony so fairly private. Will get some more plants then. Just hope our ninja snails do not follow us RB

Hi Kaijia, I don't get the keys until December end so I would expect for you to be completed first. We are getting everything organised and budgeted now so as soon as the key are ours the ID can start the work and we have time to 'fine tune' and make changes. We are also in the UK visiting my family for most of November so we can do nothing over that period. Are you also going to put up a blog ?. Most of the newer ones seem to be for smaller units and it is nice to see others ideas (and maybe 'borrow' them) RB

Haha, not mine yet, but thanks for the heads up.. Will do RB

See him staring, say high, wave and smile, get your camera so he can see exactly what you are doing, take a picture of him, say thank you politely. If he does not get the hint, print them out, hold an exhibition outside your front door call 'The seven deadly stares' and put up 7 pictures of him with captions like "Praying Mantis stare", "Enraged Camel Stare", "Striking Cobra Stare" etc. Have a different picture for each caption or take the same picture and repeat it 7 times . Second option.... When he is staring, have a mirror handy and then put it in front of himself. Let him fit with his reflection to see who wins. It is sad in a way that some older people have nothing to do so anything to occupy their time. We have a few older people who will just stand around and stare at us sometimes. Never saying anything but just stand there and stare and follow us with their eyes. No expression, nothing. We also have an old lady who likes to re-arrange the plants. As we are currently ground floor we have some pots with plants and some of them just go missing from the pots. One day this old lady confided in my wife that she had planted a new plant in one of our pots because it looks better in our pot than in someone elses We also saw a place when looking for our new apartment. One big downside was that the kitchen window looked straight through the lift lobby so everyone getting in or out of the lifts can see in to the kitchen. Great for recording the coming and goings of people but having no privacy in the kitchen is not so good. Needless to say, we did not buy. RB

Sorry to hear about your neighbour causing problems. Best you can do to start with whilst you look at going to court is to video his bad behaviour. Use your mobile and if he comes over shouting then video him at your front door, or staring in to your place etc. Strange how people modify their behaviour when they are being recorded and if he does not change his ways then you have evidence to hand of how he has been acting which will act against his claims of not doing anything wrong when it comes to court. If he comes to yours all dressed up to hide who he is then if you can reasonably safely, follow him back to his place when he leaves all the time recording so you have evidence he has gone to that place. Make sure you do not react to him when videoing. Be calm and polite even if he is swearing and cursing or just say nothing at all. Shouting back etc will be on the video and will not work in your favour. Hope it goes well. RB

I said I would post it up and I have finally scanned the space planning drawing from the ID. Nothing too surprising on our limited budget but still, interesting for some maybe. Here are also a couple of test renders with the 3d software. Note, these are test from spending a little time working out the software. Colours, furniture etc are not going to be used in the reno . Sizes also need to be confirmed so the scale is probably a bit off (sofa size, tv size etc). Biggest issue with the software is the very limited choice of models for things like sofa's, kitchen cabinets, tables etc. I am still looking out for some more suitable models as I would rather not have to build them from scratch. Test kitchen render Test living room render 1 Test living room render 2 The diagonal lines in the kitchen render have been fixed. I need to also find some decent textures for the laminated flooring and at very least we can play around with wall colour choices. Oh I also need to get the lighting plugin which will enable me to position the lights. At the moment the light source is center of the shot just above the ceiling. These were produced after maybe 3 hours starting from scratch. The upstairs is also modelled but I have not rendered any pics from there yet. RB

Thanks. I like both styles for the kitchen and so the question really was whether we wanted to go for something a little different or stick with the same old style. We decided to go for something a little different. As we plan on staying there for around 10 years, we can always change it later on if we really grow to dislike it. We are trying to make sure we have all the things needed in the reno inc boxing etc but have a bit of cash spare for sinks, toilets, showers, water heater etc which are not included. Luckily this is not our first home so we have most of the furniture we want. No requirement for any new furniture as a must have before moving in. Also, apart from the kitchen and bathrooms, the rest will be very simple plaster and paint. Anything else fancy will come later (i.e. TV feature wall or balcony glass ceiling). Oh and as for the facial. I have been given a doctors note to pass on to my wife making me exempt from any more facials . I am pretty sure I wrote the same sort of 'experience' article for my first time at a reputable massage spa. I can't seem to find it though . I will keep looking. Cheers RB

A very quick and dirty representation of what it may look like wither the cabinet colours all together. RB

Splash-back tiles After lots of back and forth my wife accepted allowing the kitchen tiles to be used in the downstairs toilet on the agreement she could put in a decal or stickers to add a bit of variety. She originally wanted a strip of 'feature' tiles and it was difficult to talk her out of it as she didn't understand that the room is too small to take a big strip of feature tiles and there was nowhere sensible to put them. I will wait for the 3d for the upstairs toilets as I do not have images of the tiles we selected and have not been able to find some without the names on the internet. When I get the chance I will try and modify the kitchen cabinets in Simply Home 3d to match our choices. RB

Note: the following are examples based on my memory and are not the exact colours we chose. The 3d drawings will be more accurate. Carcass Upper cabinet doors Lower cabinet doors Counter top (granite at no upgrade cost from solid surface).

Bathrooms and We started butting the wood effect laminate as the second option as it was very safe. We then started exploring ways of matching the green and black glossy laminates for the cabinets but could not find anything we were happy with. I brought up the suggestion of red rather than the mint green and to my surprise, my wife was ok with the idea. Unfortunately Henrys suggestion of white top cabinets she didn't like. As patriotic as my wife is, she made it clear she did not want a kitchen in the colours of the Singapore flag . After a lot of suggestion, testing and checking various sample books we settled on a deep red for the bottom cabinet doors / draw fronts, charcoal grey for the carcasses and light 'steel' grey for the upper cabinets. For the splash-back between the upper and lower cabinets we have some tiles with strips of different colours of grey. The wall tiles are white with thin wavy grey lines (removing the total whiteness my wife hates) and the floor tiles are light grey and slightly rough to avoid being slippery. The ceiling will probably be a reflective white. The laminates for the cabinets are all high gloss so very reflective.

Thanks Titanax. Ok, so now for the latest update. We met with Henry at Bukit Timah where they have a showroom in the Beauty World Complex (#01-05). We had sent Henry some pictures we had found that we liked for kitchens and bathrooms. Something closer to what we already have My wifes favourite More modern looking kitchens. My favourite for the deep red of the bottom draws.

Hi Freshpoison77, Just an update for you concerning the void area. After speaking to my current ID about the void area he has confirmed that it can be done and that he has done it for someone else in the past. So there is the good news. The problem is that it is not easy to get it approved as your ID will need to get in structural engineers and most probably put in an I beam across the void. The new floor area will also need to be certified up to a certain load for HDB sign-off. Surprisingly enough he suggested a ballpark figure of 3-4k which was a lot less than I expected TBH. Please note that this was a very rough figure though without doing the in depth research and even though our ID has 15+ years of experience it may still be a bit out . What were you quoted for this ? RB

Whilst looking for ideas I have come across a number of room planning websites. I am finding Sweet Home 3D to be a reasonable starting point. It is free, not so hard to use and will render nice drawings. There is an on-line version meaning that your designs are on-line so you can view from different computers but the size of the working area is fixed regardless of your monitor size / resolution. There is also an installable version which gets around this issue. Downside is that there are limited 3d 'items' to place in your design so you need to hunt around for something you like the look of. I had a look at floor planner but found issues importing my floor plan so I could draw the walls over it. I will be taking a look at Turbo Floor Plan tonight hopefully. This is a paid product but has a free 15 day trial. I have a copy of my EM floor plan in the correct format for Sweet Home 3D so if anyone wants a copy then PM me and I will send it to you. RB

Wow, You have quite a bit of work in there. I would also echo Cleong on the void area. I had the same idea and was informed by 3 ID companies that HDB unlikely to approve. Building across that area for display is very different to building across for a structural floor in the apartment. I would be very interested to see if you are able to attain a HDB permit for that bit of work as it is something I would also like to get done if possible. To be clear, there is no reason why it could not be done if the contractors know what they are doing in order to build out a reinforced concrete floor, it is just whether HDB will approve or not. It would make the master bedroom much bigger. Where is the toilet placed in your common toilet at the moment ?. If it is where the floor plan shows it then there may be problems relocating it due to the piping in the apartment below. We saw a number of EM's with the toilet in this small area and luckily chose not to buy. We didn't realise it would be a problem until speaking to ID companies after we bought. I have a little confusion about the two bedroom 3d's as well. The one you have as a 3d for bedroom 2 seems to have the door on the wrong side of the cabinets and there is no wall alongside the cabinets by the door (as shown in the floor plan). The 3d for bedroom 3 also has no door or windows in it. I cannot see from the floor plan any wall you could put cabinets on where there will not be either a visible door or window. If the one you have listed as bedroom 2 is really bedroom 3 then that would make sense but you still have no window or door visible in the other 3d and there should be regardless of whether it is of bedroom 2 or 3. It would be good to see whole the area under the void where you are proposing building to extend the master bedroom will look (ground floor next to the living room). Also are the master bedroom 3d's taking in to account extending in to the void area as they seem to show the MBR as it is on the floor plan. From the kitchen 3d it seems you are extending the wall facing the stairs so you can fit the two bowl corner sink. The wall is around 60cm as per the plan but an average sink like that would need around 81cm plus a little extra for the cabinet. I would guess 84 would be reasonable. That would mean that wall would need to be extended until it almost touches the bottom of the arrow for the "100 drop" on the floor plan. Presumably you are then hacking the other side (above the "100 drop" on the floor plan) to make a bigger opening for the door ?. It looks like a really nice way to do it. We have the half wall by the rubbish chute with the sink facing the window but my wife really does not like the wall as it seems to make the kitchen seem smaller. Saying that she also doesn't like the corner washing up bowl but it is a good layout and we may be able to adapt it to our way of working. This is where a top down space planning diagram would come in very handy. Love your dining area, very nice. Please don't get me wrong. These are just a few things that to me with the info seem worth pointing out just in case you had not already noticed them. That way you can check with your ID who may have a very valid reason for it being like that. If there is something amiss, it is better to get it confirmed now rather than after they start building, especially with an expensive reno like this. Really can't wait to get confirmation about the void area as we would also love to do that. RB

Thanks Yep, that is the one. It is usually a floor plan with the sofa, beds, dining table, wardrobe etc all drawn in to give an idea of where to place these items. It will usually come under the reno quote as space planning. If you have not got one and it is in your quote then maybe good to ask for it. The top down view can be a bit clearer than the 3d as you can see the whole picture and not just the perspective the camera is looking at. It should also be to scale so you could work out if a display cabinet would fit between the dining table and the wall without the dining chairs bumping in to it all the time for example. Just get the measurements of the display cabinet you are looking to buy, draw to scale and then you can cut out and try different placing on a print out of the space planning floor plan. Usually they are to the scale of 1mtr = 1cm so if you have a cabinet 1mtr by 0.5mtr you could cut out a shape 1cmX0.5cm. That would be very interesting. I would imagine you have a lot of built in cabinets and designer features considering the quoted price. I will try and do the same. RB

Hi Leechaorui, Thanks for the head up on the other places to take a look. We are going with the ID to look at tiles and sinks etc on Sunday just to get pricings as we do not get our keys until the end of December. After getting a discounted quote from Home Successes supplier we can look elsewhere and see if we can find anything comparable cheaper. Henry was able to confirm that we can do the renovation under one of the Home Success companies that have limited GST exemption. To maintain the exemption status they must process no more that XXX per year and as we are not starting until December we can hitch a ride on the GST free boat. This has allowed us to keep the budget at 36K (just under 3K in tax not required any more.). We are very happy with this as you can imagine. We took a look through the laminated flooring examples (Supreme - Malaysian wood - Click system). We chose Raffles Oak for downstairs and Bali Chengal for upstairs. The stairs are currently like the Oxford Cherry so hopefully should blend with the two different shades. I very much like the up/down coving light that people have installed halfway up the staircase wall. I have asked for a quote both with plain white fluorescent and with changeable multicolour led lights. I expect the led lights to be expensive but if we have some cash spare from the 'extras' pool of money then it would be nice to have. For the front we would probably add a decal to give it some detail rather than leaving it plain. A pic from sweetlittlethings t-blog (which was borrowed from kopi-o's blog here. We have also included doing the landing area at the top of the stairs in laminate flooring. For S$380 more it really is not worth leaving out. Whilst Henry was visiting we were going through laminates for the kitchen cabinets. We currently have beech textured laminate in our current place and like it very much. It is light, fairly natural looking and quite neutral meaning most people do not have a strong dislike. We do like some of the more modern colourings but are holding back a bit as they are less neutral with people either liking or hating it. To this end we have a fall back plan, use the beech finish. We have no idea of what other options we may like though and choosing a laminate without having an overall design to work towards is like putting a car together with only the pieces and no idea of what it is meant to look like. If you do not stay in a fairly 'safe' area styling wise you can easily end up with a mismatched mess. The same is true on just going and looking at tiles. We have therefore asked Henry to give us an idea. I have tried to give examples of what we like and dislike (my wife hates white cabinets especially with two kids who have access to pens and crayons sometimes). I would tend to agree with her . As we really have no idea, Henry is going to send us some pics over and we can highlight what we like or dislike so he can get a good baseline to start with. The overriding factor in this reno is that we are old(er), this is not our first reno, we have two kids and no maid. Things need to be practical, low maintenance and kid friendly. We have seen some wonderful ideas and beautiful reno's both here and in other places but a lot of them really would not be practical for us. This is again a very personal thing as two families with the same apartment may well use it in different ways. RB

Hi, Nice 3d pictures. We are purchasing an EM with the same layout only reversed (kitchen etc on the other side of the apartment). Do you have an are you willing to put the layout design in your thread ?. It would also be great to see your reno quote, without individual prices if you would prefer. 85K+ just seems pretty high so it would be interesting to see what you are having done. I will be putting up the space planning and quote in my thread here in the next couple of days as well so you can also compare. All the rooms in the 3d drawings look great but one thing did jump out. In the MBR bath, you have the window -> shower -> wall -> vanity. I see there is something in the wall but cannot tell what it is (mirror/glass). My only concern would be that there would be no natural sunlight able to get from the window to the vanity area. Have you thought about having the wall half wall and the top half glass ?. The new kitchen layout looks very nice. We still have no idea of finish for the cabinets. We will be putting in a granite counter top though as we love the one we have currently, the price is more or less the same as for solid surface and any extra will be absorbed by our reno contractors and it added value to our current properties valuation report. I love your glass half wall and door. We are a bit concerned about keeping a glass wall clean as we do not have a maid and we do cook now and then. Best of luck with the reno. Watching your t-blog with great interest. RB

So, a week later and still no quote from our last ID company even after chasing them so we have finally decided to go with Home Success. We will be putting down our initial S$500 to get the ball rolling. This covers the 3d drawings and is refundable from the total cost. Our initial budget was 20-25K for a very basic reno. After speaking to a number of companies it was clear that we would have to increase our budget just to get the basics done. Home Success quoted us a rough 36K not inc tax. When the formal quote was drafted this became 41K inc tax. Items not included; Upper landing laminated floor (400 extra) Toilet bowls, sinks, taps, showers etc (source ourselves or buy from their preferred supplier with discount) Lights (we have some we are taking with us and may use others already there or buy new ones) - S$????? Electrical works (only for kitchen, bathrooms as they will be completely striped) - S$?????. Hot water storage heater. - $300-$500 depending on size. New sys-3 aircon. The price came down to 36K total after removing a few items that were luxuries we really were not too bothered about. 36K is possible with another 10K for the items listed above. I will post up a rough space planning proposal (first draft) supplied by Henry when I get home tonight along with the results of tonights meeting. Again, Henry is coming to our place. Very happy with the service so far. Hopefully it will not change after the money gets paid RB