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Its been more than 5 years since my first t-blog (you can find it here) and it was time to move to a bigger place. Settled on Bukit Panjang as fiance's family was staying nearby and got this unit after just viewing it once! It was going at a great price considering the size and proximity to the MRT (about 10 minutes walk). It's almost double the size of my previous flat (65sqm) with double the number of rooms and a balcony! Love the floor plan. Previous owners hacked away the storeroom though which was okay as the position was rather odd - just beside the kitchen. Currently waiting for the appointment date (scheduled in late July or early Aug) . I would have to move out from my current place by end Sept so its quite rushed! Hoping to document the journey here and hopefully help others in their renovation journey as well! We are looking at a minimalist scandi theme as we want to keep the house open, bright and airy and with less clutter as possible. We both like white with woods to accent the house and some black here and there. The plan is to integrate the balcony with the living room. Getting keys in 2 days! Pretty excited and we are looking forward to getting more accurate quotes from our contractors and IDs.

Hi all! i am new in the forum, but have been following for a few months now. Just recently signed up just to share my humble experience in my reno journey. My 4rm BTO flat have been completed. I was lucky to have chanced upon this ID through our friend's recommendation. We fall in love with their proposal concept for our home and they understood clearly on the things we required like being space-savy with the looks of alittle zen/ scandi themed. They are actually a small start up company with her and her few partners with years of experience in this field. They are very knowledgeable on the renovation details and are able to point out concerns before construction and to advise better alternatives for us to choose from. It has been 3 months since the renovation is completed. My ID is still very helpful whenever there are any minor issues. Just sharing this experience as it has been a positive experience with her. Do let me know if anyone here is interested! She is also providing free consultation and advises even if you are not engaging them.

Greetings! Wifey and I applied for a 5RM HDB @ Canberra, which is situated between Yishun and Sembawang. Canberra is a non-matured estate with growing facilities. We hope that things will get better, especially when the new Canberra MRT is operational. So let's start off with our floorplan. As ours is from a SOBF: 1) No flooring is included for living and bedrooms - No issues as we wanted a different tiles design. 2) Kitchen wall is included - We wanted an open & close concept kitchen, so this wall must go. 3) Sanitary fittings are included - After looking at the HDB sanitary fittings (toilet bowls, toilet basins, shower heads), they are acceptable and we will not be changing them to save costs. Here is a video of the "Before" reno: Defects Rectification Fortunately, the number of defects are minimal. We had minor defects. The more notable ones are; hairline cracks on wall, rusty door hinges, low water pressure at service yard. BSC took 2 weeks to do the rectifications. Before planning for renovation, I read through this thread which contains useful knowledge from other home owners. This has helped shaped my plans and is a must read for all first time home owners. https://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/19954-materials-that-u-regret-using-installing/ We wanted to make our home look bright, open and lively. We did not want our home to have a "hotel" feel. Therefore we would be going for a bright woody/scandi feel with shades of white, brown, grey. Below is an example of our moodboard, some of which were obtained from other Renotalkers here.

Hi Everyone, First of all, I will like to thanks all the t-blogger for giving me ideas and introducing your ID / Contractor and where to shop. Really benefited a lot from you guys. Been waiting for about 6 years to finally get my keys for my project! Now, I can finally blog about my reno journey too~~ weee~~~

Rustic industrial vintage inspired sideboard cabinet - all steel frame galvanized with accompanying steel and wood drawers. Mounted on fixed metal castors (does not roll easily) Purchased at S$2580, selling at just S$800. Price fixed, self collection only. Please arrange own transportation and manpower, cabinet is heavy. Am on lift level. Dimensions: 120cm (l) x 97cm (h) x 44cm (w)

Hi all! I have been a silent reader for the longest time and have gathered many ideas from the various T-blogs for my renovation. We have received the keys to our place in October and hope to share our humble renovation journey with all of you. Like the title suggests, the theme for our place slants towards minimal scandi. We wanted a cosy place to call our own and felt that the scandinavian theme best resonates with us. First up! Our floor plan...

So how we got started on our journey or processes on our NN Loft? I must say that it all started out by proposing to my girlfriend / fiancee who is now my wife by asking her to apply a BTO flat. I know it sounds funny but isn't it a fact that some or even most couples before they get engaged, the guy pops the question of "Wanna apply a BTO flat together?" LOL! So that's where it all started...............Nov 2011. My wife and I logged in to the HDB website to see the sales launch in November 2011. There were a few locations or sites for us to choose. Punggol Waterway Banks and Ridges, Hougang Capeview and Dewcourt, Yishun Acacia Breeze, Bukit Panjang Fajar Spring and Bedok Golden Cassia. We went through all the locations that HDB launched and we decided on Punggol Waterway Banks and Ridges. This site will be located along the iconic Punggol Waterway. WATERWAY BANK AND RIDGES (IMAGE TAKEN FROM HDB WEBSITE) FLOOR PLAN OR RIDGES AND BANKS (IMAGE TAKEN FROM HDB WEBSITE)

Hi all, It's finally time to start this blog that I've been dying to start.. Literally, itching fingers! And here's how the story goes~ Somewhere in 2012 when my then bf was in Canada on exchange, we started talking about the "queues" for flats and how we knew of people that couldn't get a number even after 8 tries. The horror and disappointment these friends experienced were not lost to us and we decided given the lag time for building, we were going to try our luck with applications as well. It was an in thing then, I'm sure it's still the in thing now. True to the high demands back then, our first application fell through! To be fair, we weren't expecting to get it. After all it was the premium flat in Punggol with the balcony units 11x or something oversubscribed. That was one of my dream home styles, having a balcony! Well, I'll have to settle for a service yard and consider it "THE BALCONY" then. *Sighs* So when we got the it the next time with a decent queue number to boot, we were like "wow.. that was easy?!?" Imagine our embarrassment when we told the same friends who still hadn't got there flats. Fast forward 2015 It's been 3 years now and we've grown up, graduated from university, accepted that we will never get any of the carrot grants that the govt has dangled for making flats more affordable (20k then turned to 40k now), and engaged to be married next year, we are finally planning for our new home together... Ok it's really just me with the planning and the fiance to approve the plans and the budgets. I'm the one with the very specific ideas including a kitchen island (woohoo!) and he's my true blue CFO (give me the main points! chop!). As you can already tell, if you leave it up to me to decide, I'd think we'd be or at least be going bankrupt by now. There's so much to learn from the forums here that, it's also time for me to pay it forward. We've actually signed our IDs on over the weekend and I will share a little later our interview process with the 4 we picked out and how we ended up with the ONE! Hurray! *Jumps with joy*. Meanwhile, I'm sharing my floorplan so that you can guess what I plan to do with the place! You will note how interesting where the household shelter is placed unlike the convention of blocking the kitchen wall off. Till then, hasta la vista, baby! *winks* XOXO, Sapphira

One of a kind custom made industrial look inspired queen size bed frame, with faux black leather foam cushion rests (not pictured, attaches to head-board), and frame wood base boards. Mattress included is the premium Simmons BackCare Advanced S1000 Plush Top + Anti-dust Mite Protector (purchased in 2013 from Simmons at $4000) Mattress is in good condition and clean (has just been professionally cleaned last Dec before CNY. Can refer to the mattress brochure here: http://www.simmons.com.sg/downloads/simmons_backcare_advance.pdf. Only selling as a set, AT JUST $1500 (NON-NEG). Buyer to self-arrange movers. Genuine interested buyer, pls drop me a private message to arrange.

Hi Everyone, We have gotten our keys 1 month ago... As the excitement fades due to the stress of finding a suitable ID; we are no where close to confirming one... So far "designers"(not sure if they have design cert) we have talked to are: Summit Design - C* - Highly Raved about online. Fast and competitive price with the quotation. Did not arranged for a meet up. D'Planner - J**** - Shows that she 'can-do' and got a final quotation. Some good design in their portfolio Three-d (3D) Conceptwerke - A***** - Have the best design sense. But expensive. Would have confirmed if only the price is within budget Linewerkz - Quote from the designer: "I am the best designer in the world" "Do you know what is to scale?!?". Have some design flair but we had to run away after the talk Meeting prozfile and Intradesign; maybe...Cheap, fast, good; which 2 should I choose? Anyone also have quotes from 3D conceptwerkes to share privately? HELP!! Our case is unique; our parents are able to talk care of all the hacking, tiling, electrical and plumbling leaving less for the "designer" to do. Some ID we meet seem like they are doing US a favour by accomodating to our "Small" job but in fact, with the price they marked up more; they also earn almost as much for less work..... Understand the price; but the attitude.... NEXT UP: Ideas for our home!

Finally a chance for a breather after most of the works are done and a bit of time to share some good lobangs here. Hubby and i had to rush our ID as we hope to complete everything before cny, fortunately, he did not fail us. More on him later. First the story. Unit is about 1200sf and we predicted quite a bit of work done as the previous owner's design taste didnt fit us at all. We decided to source for contractors as we thought the cost was lower. After getting a few quotes from contractors and an Id, we were not too sure whether to still use a contractor as they are no frilles and generally we are on our own when it comes to any extra design elements. Somehow just didnt click. The ID was professional but we also felt the chemistry just wasnt there. Quite headache as we were trying to rush our reno before cny and it was already Nov.

Hi guys! So we got the keys to our 5rm BTO flat in October, waaaaaaay ahead of expectation. Both of us are the rather chillax kind, so we did not really do any research on reno stuff beforehand. We are in our BTO FB group and were quite amazed that people actually signed reno packages even before they got their keys . For me, I need to have a feel of the physical space before deciding anything. So, we only started reading up on renovation stuff one month before we got our keys. Our theme for the house was unanimously decided long ago: Scandinavian with essentials of wood, grey and white. Despite being an overly-done theme, it is something that we both hold dear, and one that works for us. This is our floor plan: Living room Floor--at first I had decided on vinyl/HERF because of the nice woody look. But she was concerned whether there will be a smell from the plastic in the long run, and also whether it is truly waterproof (since they are assembled using the clicking system). A valid concern; so we decided to go for wood-grain tiles instead for the whole house (incld bedrooms). Sofa/TV console/Feature wall-- We had a long discussion about this and finally decided to put our TV along the wall adjacent to Bedroom 3. There will be a feature wall of long vertical woodgrain tiles (1.8m high each) that look like wood planks. And on top of that line of tiles, we will install a thin ledge for us to place photo frames or posters. Something different from the usual brick walls. Something like this for the feature wall, just that it doesn't go all the way to the ceiling: Example of photo ledge: Dining table-- It will be placed along the wall opposite the TV console. She wants a really biggggg dining table, so we are prolly getting a 1.8m long one, with a bench to match. Planning to place a bar table against the household shelter wall as well. Built-in storage/display cabinets-- I personally hate having storage/display cabinets in the living room, period. The HDB living room is already too small for my liking (heng we chose a 5rm), having any sort of gigantic cabinets in the living room will just make it look even more cramped. So there will be none. Except for a shoe cabinet that we are planning to build into that recess to the right of the main door. False ceiling/L-box-- None of this too. It will just lower the height of the ceiling even further. Lighting-- Planning for track lights above the feature wall area. And a black ceiling fan. Hanging "spider" lights above the dining table. Track lights along room corridor. LED near the main entrance. Kitchen We are going to hack away the whole wall facing Bedroom 3, and build a kitchen island in the middle . Both of us like to cook, and can't stand claustrophobic kitchens haha. The island will be 1.8m x 1.2m, and the side nearer to Bedroom 3 will feature a counter with stools. There will not be any glass partitions or doors between the kitchen and living room. Yes it will be open but we are not worried about the smell! We don't do heavy frying anyway. There will be kitchen cabinets on both top and bottom on the other wall, and we are planning to get either Kompacplus or Pacnel countertops. Leaning towards Pacnel tops because as of now, they have more colour choices! As for the cabinets, we prefer the surface to be less "flat", contrary to the usual sleek, contemporary laminate surface. After Googling, we found out there's actually a name for this kind of design: it is called Shaker style. An example below: We are leaning towards dark grey cabinets with light grey Pacnel countertop. Along the wall adjacent to the toilet until the service yard window, we are going to build a bottom side-board cabinet; on top we are going to put stuff like my Nespresso Pixie, toaster oven, Hurom etc. Bedroom 3 We are hacking away the whole wall facing the kitchen and replacing it with a black aluminium-framed glass wall/door, to make the whole house feel even more spacious. This will be the gaming/study room! Going to put my PS4, a 40inch UHD TV with a Yamaha soundbar in there. Master Bedroom Making a L-shaped full height wardrobe! Was contemplating the idea of a platform bed, but decided it was too expensive and the ceiling will be too low (planning to put a ceiling fan). Going to put the usual queen-sized bed frame! Toilets Going to install a vanity top with mirror box cabinet for both toilets! Prolly going to use black Pacnel top for the vainty. For the MBR toilet, there will be a glass shower panel (not door), separating the shower area from the toilet bowl. Cos I feel having a sliding door is too claustrophobic. For the common toilet, there will be a shower kerb with IKEA's shower curtain rod (no shower panel, to save costs). Panel only: Contractor We met a grand total of one contractor and one ID. We invited the contractor to our new house and told him about our plans and ideas, and to give a quote. The moment I spoke to him, I knew I could trust this guy. There was rapport, we could click, and he was clearly experienced in his field. He suggested alternatives when our ideas were not feasible. We were very comfortable with him and were eagerly awaiting his quotation. It came back to be around $48K! At first it was shocking. But after calming ourselves down and looking at the things we wanted, we concluded that it was a reasonable (though not cheapest) pricing. (We later changed some stuff and the price dropped to $46k.) On the other hand, the meeting with the ID was unplanned. I chanced upon this FB post of a so-called renovation "open-house", where various companies will be there to showcase their reno materials (kitchen tops, cabinets, tiles, lights etc), so that we can have a better idea of what materials to choose for our reno. So I thought to myself, why not? Upon reaching the place, there was a group of young people smoking in the stairwell right outside the entrance to the openhouse. Impression down We walked in, one young guy approached us, and introduced himself as an ID from ___ company, and offered to bring us around. At this point, we knew it was not such a simple affair. He brought us to see all the materials, tiles, tops etc. Along the way, he kept emphasizing on how credible and accredited his company was (rolling eyes at this moment ). At the end of the tour, he made us sit down and listen to him intro his company's reno packages. Upon first glance, the pricing looks reasonable. But upon closer scrutiny, we realised the package was super basic (plain white tiles @ $3 per sq feet etc). So if we add on the things we wanted, it will prolly add up to a substantial amount. Then he suddenly whispered to us: if we sign today and give the deposit, his boss will waive the 7% GST. Ermigawd. Are you freaking kidding me. That's like the lamest sales pitch ever. Everybody knows you have already factored in the GST into your pricing right?! We walked out without signing anything. The silver lining was that our time was not totally wasted; we learnt quite a fair bit about the materials TL:DR version : Not impressed with ID company, signed with contractor.

Our biggest dream have come true. We finally have our own little abode after months of searching for a place that fits us and sourcing for contractors. Not forgetting the many trips to HDB since we are first time buyers who are not engaging an agent. So here we are, making our dreams come true. And this will be our little diary to store our memories. Home is where the heart is.

Hello everyone, Like many young couples, my SO and I are really excited to get the keys for our future home. Since then I have been lurking around renotalk, absorbing experience and ideas shared by so many passionate homeowners. As I will be starting my renovation soon, I feel that I should share my experience here, to contribute a little back to this awesome community. My home is a 4-room BTO flat, located at the northeastern area of Singapore. As this is a premium project, it comes with HDB flooring and I opted for HDB door. Below is the floor plan and pictures of the living room. Typical 4 room BTO floor plan. Realised many of my new neighbours hack away the wall between kitchen and dining area. Decided against an open concept kitchen as both of us are too lazy/busy to keep our kitchen neat and tidy all the time. Recess wall in the living room. HDB should just fill up the recess area to make life easier for us. TV console will be placed here. Still thinking of ideas for dining area feature wall. Dislike the wooden skirting around the living area and will be asking my ID to hack and replace them with matching tiles. We have collected our keys in early March but the last month was spent rectifying the defects with HDB and sourcing for contractor/ID. Both tasks are long and daunting, and I am glad both of them have been sorted out. During the meetings with different contractors/IDs, I have these criteria in mind: 1. Must incorporate our fengshui beliefs into the design 2. Pet friendly as we have a dog 3. Scandinavian theme (love the clean and simple look) with splashes of blue 4. Keep within our budget 5. The contractor/id must be able to commit and take care of our project personally, as we both work late Finally found our chosen one and signed the contract over the weekend, journey should start next week. Next, shopping time for air condition, hod, hood, sink and fridge....

Here's my 5rm resale flat layout. It's a point block and I really love how spacious the living room is

Selling the 4 chairs below for $80 each (nego if taking more than one). Bought in Feb 2014 and used only for 1 month then decided to change to white dining chairs instead. Condition 9/10. Collect from Tampines. Please sms if keen to nine seven four 3 four 3 six eight.

Ho ho ho… How exciting to have my own t-blog!! I have been reading a lot of t-blog before i get my key for my new 5room house, thanks to all owners who had shared their experiences here. I am a picture person when i find information here.. haha so there will be more pictures and photos than just wordy paragraphs, Basically, just to record everything about the house. Will upload the floor plan in a while! Bye!

Hello everyone! So excited to finally start documenting my reno journey. It hasn't always been a smooth process. We are very happy in our current place in Punggol but with 2 kids and a temporary live-in helper, we need a bigger space. Kinda regret hacking the common to join with master bedroom in current place as we only have 2 bedrooms now. Kitchen is not very big but has served me well. Living room is large and roomy with no awkward spaces. Overall, very happy with the house and Punggol the neighborhood. But my parents and in-laws are staying in the East so decided to move so we could have a bigger space and be nearer to them. We picked a 5A unit in Tampines as the pricing is much lower than EM (our first choice) or EA, yet the floor area is similar to EA in Punggol. Too big also I will have problems cleaning it alone. Seller was asking for very high COV initially but hubby fell in love with it so we made a few counter-offers which is a poor negotiation strategy but managed to close at half the asking COV. Just collected the keys last Friday after my selling's first appointment as the sellers already have somewhere to stay so allow us to come in early to start reno. Hopefully all smooth from here on and will check in often to post progress updates and seek advice from fellow renotalkers! Below is my floor plan. Yes big floor area = big renovation cost as we are overhauling the 18-years old house to build a home for my husband, me and 2 little girls as well as my 2 ragamuffin cats!

Hi all, BRAND NEW scandinavian chair from Lush Lush (Ava from the NEST collection) for sale. This chair retails for about $240 (before discount is $350) BUT i am selling it for $220 if you can deal at my convenience. I have 2 of these but am only selling one. Keeping the other one. Please contact me directly at 84187675.