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Finally! It is our turn to contribute and start a T-Blog in Renotalk. Been reading quite a few T-Blogs since mid of last year to understand the renovation journey, tips etc. Not a wordy person, so I will not type a long essay and just go straight to the point but sometimes I may edit the contents of this T-Blog periodically so do check back if you are interested! This is our floor plan, a humble 4room BTO in Jurong West : Although our living room (TV/Sofa area a little small) seems to split into two because of the bomb shelter, we are blessed to have a long kitchen and we are going to do open kitchen concept which will effectively turn the whole area to look spacious! The bedrooms size is decent enough, except for the second room which seems to be quite small. Initially we wanted the third room to be our piano room but in the end we decided to use the second room instead. So the third room shall be our guest room for now. Our milestones: May 2013 - Apply for our BTO flat, we are lucky to get a very lucky queue no 71 to select our flat! Oct 2013 - Selected our unit and paid for the 5% down payment to HDB and the long wait for key collection begins... -_-" Mar 2016 - We done our customary wedding. May 2016 - We had our first honeymoon in Melbourne and truly enjoyed it as it was my wife's first time to visit Australia! Jun/Jul 2016 - Can't remember the exact month but we decided to kickstart our ID selection earlier. Visited quite a number of IDs before shortlisted our preferred ID last year Nov 2016. Oct 2016 - I know we are kiasu as we started purchases stuffs for our new home as early as last year October since there is quite a number of sales! LOL Feb 2017 - Our HLE auto approved! Mar 21st 2017 - Our key collection day! ID, window grille contractor, bedroom door and toilet door contractor came down to do on site measurement. Tim Wong also came down to do planning for aircon trunking installation. Mar 24th 2017 - Took 1 day leave to do through defects check with my wife. Submitted defect list to BSC for rectification. Mar 25th 2017 - BSC came down to our place to perform rectification. Window blind contractor came down to do onsite measurement. Also selected our window blind materials and given quotation. Installed shelving for bomb shelter. Apr 1st 2017 - Installed Varm on main door to allow 90 degrees opening without door stopper. Choose our wood material for our carpentry works with our ID and also finalise our laminates design for our carpentry works and wall colors. Apr 4th 2017 - Hack permit approved for hacking of kitchen wall. Apr 6th 2017 - Aircon trunking installation (1st installation). Apr 10th 2017 - ID sent us finalised carpentry works measurement and design. Apr 12th 2017 - Kitchen wall hacked. Apr 15th 2017 - Electrical works for power sockets. We didn't engage our ID's electrician as we found that his quote is quite expensive so found Mr Sim to do the electrical works for us. Apr 18th 2017 - Cement screeding for our flooring. Apr 20th - 22nd 2017 - Kitchen cabinet base / Shower kerb. Apr 22nd - 23rd 2017 - DIY painting (door frame + bomb shelter) Apr 22nd 2017 - Carpentry work fabrication Apr 24th - 26th 2017 - Painting for whole house. Apr 29th 2017 - Lightings & ceiling fan installation / Gas pipe installation / Aircon second installation. May 2nd - 4th 2017 - Vinyl flooring installation May 9th 2017 - Carpentry installation May 15th 2017 - Window grilles installation (Living room + Bedrooms + Service yard). Bedroom doors installation. May 20th 2017 - Blinds installation. Toilet doors installation May 27th 2017 - Taobao 2nd batch orders delivery. Jun 1st 2017 - Piano delivery. M1 Fiber broadband activation. Guestroom mattress delivery. Jun 3rd 2017 - Storage heater installation. Master bedroom mattress and bed frame delivery. Dining bench & chair (table left out!)+sofa+coffee table delivery. Washing Machine+dryer+refrigerator delivery. Jun 8th 2017 - Main gate installation Jun 10th 2017 - Gas activation. Dining table delivery. Tempered glass installation. Jun 12th 2017 - General cleaning. Kitchen mixer installation. Remaining switches & sockets installation on kitchen cabinet. ID handover! Jun 15th 2017 - Moving our stuffs to our new place. Jun 16th 2017 - Moving in to our new place! ---- Moodboard: We like Scandinavian themed homes very much as it is simple and not too old fashion (sorry to those Classic theme lovers!)... at the same time we want to throw in a bit of Industrial look to make it look more interesting... but instead of the usual black,white and woody feel, we want to throw in quite a large portion of grey (industrial feel) for our flooring and pastel colors to liven up our new home. Initially for the living room, I wanted some yellow as this color seems to be often overlook by other home owners ... but then I realised the exterior colors of our BTO is made up of grey and yellow... so... no go in case our home looks like representing our BTO lol For master bedroom, we wanted blue as it looks more calming. For piano room, my wife like sea green color. Some colors we like for our new home. We will let our ID to help our select the appropriate colors as we are not too good at matching colors. Table of Contents: 1. ID selection process 2. Our offline purchases 3. Our online purchases via Taobao/Qoo10/Amazon 4. How to buy from Taobao? 5. 3D drawings from our ID 6. Defects check We use this link as a guide - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7KsvqdzcsrpaW5kVEUwVEZqX2M/edit | Mainly defects found includes: - choked pipes (TIP: once you found one, just declare all and don't be surprise BSC can clear one bagful of debris!) - loose window handles/hinges - rusty hinges - masking stains on walls - uneven paint marks (those teardrop paint marks) - Spotted a "potential" leak issue... but seems to be ok after BSC checked. Our neighbours (3-4 of them) found this pest issue with the floor skirting. 7. Renovation progress Carpentry material selection / Wall color selection Aircon 1st installation Carpentry measurements Wall hacked! Electrical works (sockets and switches) Cement screeding by HDB contractor and a bit of hiccups... Tiling works DIY painting (door frames + bomb shelter) Painting by ID and some hiccups... | Painting completion! Carpentry fabrication Gas pipe installation Aircon 2nd installation Electrical works (partial lights installation) Vinyl flooring installation Carpentry installation part I Carpentry installation part 2 Carpentry installation part 3 Carpentry installation part 4 Bedroom barn door installation part I Window grilles installation Bedroom barn door installation part II Toilet lourve door installation Blinds installation Kompacplus top installation Plumber works AO Smith digital storage heater installation Main gate installation Tempered glass kitchen backsplash installation Gas activation It's a wrap! 8. Renovation completion Sneak peek of our love nest