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Hi! We have been on this forum for over 3 years and have learnt a lot thanks to the generous sharing of information and ideas here. Now that our very own first home will be ready soon, it's time to give back. Our home is a 4-room unit in Punggol Emerald that was launched in April 2010 together with Punggol Waves. At the point of writing, some of our future neighbours have already collected their keys and commenced renovation works. Even though our PCD is still stated as 4th Quarter 2013, our block still has quite a bit of work to do and as the title suggests, we are looking at a more realistic moving in date of March to April 2014. In terms of the unit layout, we are really pleased that the kitchen is large by today's 4-room BTO standards as we are looking forward to finally hosting dinners in our home. On the other hand, this means the living room will be smaller but we feel the area distribution is balanced. The only gripe is that due to the way the Main Bedroom and Bedroom 1 are placed, the available options to hack or combine the 2 rooms are limited.

Hi Guys! I started visiting RenoTalk last year when I began scouring for news online about Punggol Emerald, my home-to-be in the very near future. It has really been educational and I've learned a lot about the ins and outs of renovating just by browsing the different threads here. I noticed there were very little threads about budget renovating and I got a little worried. But after doing my own research, I realize owning your first home can be a very affordable affair (you see I'm a poor social worker and my wife is pursuing a full-time diploma in Physiotherapy atm). The key is to prioritize the things I want to renovate which would absolutely cause a lot of trouble if I were to do the works after all the furnishing is in. So for this first post I will share what I have prioritized as Phase 1 for our renovation. Another thing is to include as much as you can afford into HDB loan; if you can afford a DBSS, most furnishings and fittings come with the price of your flat; you have lesser you need to pay by cash. In our case, the previous bidder helped us out by opting in for HDB to do the flooring. As we are not picky with the look of our floor, we saved a lot. Just a little background; we bought this flat (Blk 266C) during a Sales of Balance Flat exercise in March 2012 right after I proposed to my wife. Fast forward to when we are about to collect our keys on the 28 January 2014, we look back and are thankful for how things have fallen in place one after another beautifully (if possible I will share it in another post). We will be meeting our contractor on the 11th Feb (CNY break; thus that's the earliest), submit approval for hacking, and begin the other renovation works from the 18th Feb onwards. Hopefully we'll be done by end of March for Phase 1! We think of our renovation in two phases; Phase 1 for the major works, Phase 2 for fittings and furnishings and other DIY projects. Here's what Phase 1 includes: 1. Hack off existing wall at bedroom 2 and install new 10mm tempered glass approx. 1500mm (L) x 900mm (H). Quoted Estimate: 1,800. 2. Laminated Flooring for all three bedrooms @ $4 psf. (this is a little pricey. There is another company who can do it @ $2.80 psf). 3. 2 sets of 10mm tempered swing shower glass door to bathroom. Quoted Estimate: 1,200 ea. The kerb costs an extra $450 / set. 4. Dismantle existing wash basin and replace new ones. Quoted Estimate: $90 ea. 5. Labor to install owner's light fitting: Quoted at $12 / no. 6. New PD door to bathroom. Depending on design, lowest quoted at $450 / no. Phase 1's total estimated cost: + 7800 As you can see, it's really basic but necessary. Once this is in place, it's in a pretty much liveable condition, minus the furnishing. Our furnishing inclusive of installation of air-con and ceiling fans is expected to cost another 7,000 or so. My wife felt that if it was affordable to hack off the wall in the living room (bedroom 2), it would be a very unique feature that adds character to the home. If you were to leave that out, you save another $1,800 dollars. Alright, that's it for the first post. The subsequent posts will have more pics I promise. It will talk about Phase 2, and also update about how our reno has been doing, in real-time. =) Plus, feel free to let me know if you have lobang which can do the above at a cheaper price kthxbye!

PCD is 4th Qtr 2013. I have done 'research' work more than six months ago. Read up alot though I think we didn't do enough, we have our ID firm confirmed during an exhibition show. Have done extensive Magazine, website reno and design read up, visiting friend's home, appliances 'research', reno advices and so on. Below is the floor plan of the house. Shall update more when nearer to the reno date Hope this is a good start