A Dream In The East...

[toonsim 0]

Well the story begins with 2 blur pigs searching for their dream home in the east.. (no lah.. dun worry.. not the type of long n lo-so stories.. )

We started back in May where the HDB prices was about to start their crazy gallop.. Found a nice place.. placed a bid of 35k over valuation n guess what! Lost! Already quite a lot of $$$ for young couple like us.. but it's NO MERCY! WINNER TAKES ALL!

So we went back home.. licked our wounds and continue our journey to realise our dream.. We got lucky the 2nd time round and managed to secure our new place for only 20k above valuation..

It's a 5 room resale unit in Tampines.. near amenities.. MRT is within walking distance.. blah blah blah Basically it's wonderful! haha..

The HDB admin did took quite a while though.. but finally after a long wait.. we declared ourselves to be proud owners of our new home (of course need lotsa of renov work lah.. )

And so our dream lives on... NEXT, the search for our ID is on!

[applefreak 1]

congratulations on getting a place to build your love nest

some pix to share?

[toonsim 0]

Well we must say it's not easy for first timers like us.. dunno where to start n being people in this era..

Our natural instinct points us to help online.. n Of course we managed to stumble upon renotalk.com..

We researched through lotsa n lotsa of threads.. read through most of the forummers' comments.. they were great! some are real experts in their areas..

So we gathered some of the online feedbacks and managed to come out with a list of IDs.. went thorugh with 5 IDs our broad plans.. I think like what other forummers say.. it's really useful to go through your plans with more IDs if time allows.. some of them have great ideas but budget might not meet.. But whatever the case you can take in some of these professional's advices and refine your plan along the way FOC.. cheapo hor.. haha..

The other thing that we like to share is a website which allows you to do some preliminary drawings of your requirements.. of course this was discovered through recommendations of our lovely forummers from renotalk.. it's floorplanner.com.. we did a brief sketch and showed the IDs.. some were impressed i must say.. haha..

After a few rounds of discussions and revised quotations.. we finally we decided to choose Ben Sng from Earnest Interiors...

This is our floor plan..

And the sketch we done on floorplanner.com...

Coming next up.. pics of our dream home.. in its original state..

Main door...

Living room...

Kitchen...

Common Toilet...

Master bedroom (1)...

Master bedroom (2)...

Master Toilet...

Bedroom 2...

Bedroom 3...

Study Area...

We met up with Ben on 6 Oct to choose the tiles for our dream home... He drove us to their showroom at Marsiling.. Nice chat with him.. long ride up.. but we were really excited at what's waiting for us..

So after a 30 mins ride from our place.. we were greeted by a huge and great-looking showroom.. I must also say they take great effort to maintain their place.. we even have to take our shoes off when we enter the showroom..

Anyway back to biz.. choosing tiles.. it's really not an easy job at all.. although we had some ideas on what we wanted but we were totally thrown off by the big collections of they have on display.. (although i realised later from other forummers, it's not really that huge a collection.. problem with 2 sua gus.. haha.. ) in the end we spent at least 2 hours there.. a lot of fanciful looking tiles and there were those love-at-first-sight.. haha..

We finally selected all the tiles we needed... (should have brought our cameras there.. aiyah.) will post the pics of our selection when all tiled up..

We met up with Ben on 6 Oct to choose the tiles for our dream home... He drove us to their showroom at Marsiling.. Nice chat with him.. long ride up.. but we were really excited at what's waiting for us..

So after a 30 mins ride from our place.. we were greeted by a huge and great-looking showroom.. I must also say they take great effort to maintain their place.. we even have to take our shoes off when we enter the showroom..

Anyway back to biz.. choosing tiles.. it's really not an easy job at all.. although we had some ideas on what we wanted but we were totally thrown off by the big collections of they have on display.. (although i realised later from other forummers, it's not really that huge a collection.. problem with 2 sua gus.. haha.. ) in the end we spent at least 2 hours there.. a lot of fanciful looking tiles and there were those love-at-first-sight.. haha..

We finally selected all the tiles we needed... (should have brought our cameras there.. aiyah.) will post the pics of our selection when all tiled up..

Some pics post hacking..

Kitchen.. all hacked..

Passageway.. old false ceiling gone..

MBR Toilet.. tiles all gone..

Living room.. all the ugly cornices gone..

Building materials all in.. even the tiles..

It's been a week since we last posted..

Actually last sat piggy n me went to shop around for our toilet accessories after the tiles selection.. we did some research online and found most people recommended poh joo n some friends adamas.. so we planned to go down n take a look.. But Ben recommended to us Eestilo de vida in geylang lor 35.. citing that they know each other n would be easier for them to co-ordinate things.. hmm.. at the back of our mind we were skeptical, suspecting that things might be more expensive.. But oh well.. since he recommended n offered to send us there.. why not take a look..

When we reached there.. we were greeted by this lady.. (forgot her name though).. she brought us around and started to ask some questions to find out more about our requirements.. of coz Ben gave them our measurements for some of the stuffs.. quite a friendly lady n very practical too.. at the very least she is not hard selling their stuff.. but after a while.. she told us she had to go n attend to some stuff n left us with her boss.. puzzled but who cares.. as long as the price is reasonable n we get what we wanted..

I must say she should have done so earlier.. haha.. her boss is Sunny Tan.. blond hair n quite plump guy.. but he sure is funny.. we were well entertained by him for the full 3 hours we spent there.. haha.. of knowledge wise.. we were very impressed by him..

For example.. we chose rinnai thinking as a set they should be cheaper.. a staff from asia excel oso introduced us to rinnai.. but he recommended us to using Fujioh Hob instead with a rinnai hood (for its design.. fujioh hood i must say in terms of design..CMI.. ) he showed us why so and explained in details why was it better.. we agreed n chose the fujioh hob instead.. the other incident is the kitchen sink.. both piggy n me wanted to go for the Franke sink after some forummers introduced.. but he rebutted the choice saying that actually most of the money spent would go instead to their design n branding only.. most of their products are now manufactured in China.. only some series are now manufactured in italy.. so he recommended to nova bella n explained the difference in materials used and of coz design wise is quite similar to that of franke.. n cheaper lah..

Only thing we found a little expensive.. n only realised after we got home are the towel racks n toilet roll rings.. brass chrome.. but cost us $190+.. i thought we should have bought elsewhere.. but oh well.. two totally charmed sotongs.. haha..

So we ended buying from them although not planned for.. total damages: $3195.. kitchen sink n tap.. toilet basins n bowls.. taps.. shower sets.. hood n hob.. n a KDK bathroom fan.. n a pair of satisfied n well entertained customers..

due to my work schedule n security concerns.. we din managed to visit our new place as often as we wanted.. but everytime we went there.. we are impressed by the works done..

3 efficient workers.. from malaysia.. young.. quiet but for their works i would give two thumbs up!..

The windows are now up.. both toilet tiles are almost completed.. n the floor tiles done for kitchen service balcony.. both toilets..

Everything seemed to be running smoothly.. some pics we took..

Living Room Windows..

Kitchen Floor Tiles..

Part of the back splash.. we chose mosaic.. quite nice effects.. n chio chio!!

Washing Machine Base..

Common Toilet Wall Tiles..

MBR Toilet Wall Tiles.. Not fully completed but we loved the effects! looked classy.. Black shower area.. mosaic behind the toilet bowl area.. white 3D tiles for the rest of the areas..

Only fault we found so far.. a wall crack from the window installation.. gonna ask Ben to rectify the problem..

Generally we are quite satisfied with the progress n worksmanship.. except for some minor hiccups.. else everything went to plans.. oh yah.. just remember.. actually we were still thinking about having stainless steel for the hood n hob area.. but seemed like Ben got it all wrong n mosaic the whole stretch.. haiz.. si bei blur leh.. not only that he thought we only wanted mosaic for the hood n hob stretch n just paint for the sink area.. no choice i guess.. n anyway seemed like a cheaper but still great looking options.. anyway gonna complain to him later today n sort it out on our exact requirements.. hopefully everything can be resolved to the way we hoped for..

So till the next update..

Been more than a week since I last posted an update.. well been busy i must say..

We went around hunting for things to match with the renovation progress.. n Ben told us they will be needing the lights soon.. so we as obedient owners went researching and shopping around.. thanks to the great recommendations from some of the forummers.. we zoomed down to DK lightings in Geylang.. I must say it's a rather complicated small shop.. but they so have enough variety to select from.. a simple family business runned by a middle age couple.. their service was great! Very sincere.. patient n willing to explain everything in details including the pros n cons to their customers.. more importantly.. their prices are very reasonable n not pushy at all.. n of coz we got our lightings from them without even gng to another shop to check out the prices.. haha.. total damages: $969 including a free door bell n light upgrade to energy saving bulbs..

Of coz we were also busy meeting up with Ben.. I must say that his proposed design were not really fantastic.. but safe and decent looking.. unfortunately piggy n me din really like their proposal n so we decided to do away with their shoe cabinet.. n start researching for our ideal feature wall.. browsing magazines and checking other forummers' design to 'tou shi'.. in the end we managed to find a console design which we like n plus a little simple design which we thought of.. so now anxiously waiting for their drawings and hopefully they can deliver.. so far i must say i am quite satisfied with their worksmanship..

Well enough said.. more pictures for all to enjoy.. till then..

MBR Toilet.. haha.. finally done.. both me n piggy love the effects.. more proudly we chose the tiles n design..

Our kitchen splash back.. mosaic style.. haha.. we love it..

Door kerb.. we use the excess tiles from the kitchen.. looks good..

Oh yah.. more to add.. we also installed our aircon today.. the electrical guys were here too.. so did the laminates people to hack the skirtings.. But our main focus was the aircon..

Started the day waiting for the aircon man from gaincity.. well as expected they were late.. what can i do.. but wait loh.. so patiently waiting for the aircon guy while enjoying a cuppa of kopi at a nearby kopitiam.. haha.. went back at the new timing.. n surprised to find the laminate guys waiting at my doorstep.. remembered Ben told me supposed to be thursday.. but whatever.. anyway they went in n started their work immediately.. shortly the aircon man came too..

All i can do was to patiently watch them work while they get my aircon up.. quite a neat job n met a very friendly n polite guy.. n when i saw that the position i told them was not good enough n I wanted a change.. they agreed readily.. very professional i must say.. n boy! they really work hard.. even skipped lunch to get the job done!

Din really checked out the electric guys though.. maybe another day liaoz.. by the time the aircon guy finished his job n tested with me around.. i am all shagged out liaoz.. take leave to do all this.. but i guess it's worth it.. it's my home afterall..

Our aircon compressor.. we chose samsung after knowing that their comsumption rate still reasonable and with more features like good sleep mode.. dunno if it works well though.. haha..

MBR Aircon.. short n neat trunking..

Water pipe to MBR toilet..

A complete kitchen floor tiles with the bases up..

Common toilet.. complete tiling with plumbing done..

Our gas water heater..

oops.. for those who have been following the blog.. paiseh.. i've been realli busy lately.. not only busy with the reno.. been real stressed at work too.. haiz..

But I am glad that everything went quite well for the house.. of coz there are some hiccups but reali minor ones i would say.. let me try n recall what happened for the past 2 weeks.. hmm..

oh yah.. after the tilings were up.. the electrical guys came in n did up the wiring.. not bad a job.. err.. at least for the areas that will be seen i must say.. seems like for areas with false ceilings.. they tend to bo chap a bit.. the trunking will be a little crooked lah.. holes can anyhow drill lah.. but oh well.. i guess most imptly it's for all the electrical points n lights to work at the end of the day.. can realli demand too much i guess.. anyway hide liaoz also cannot see.. close one eye..

Some of the pics post-wiring.. you can probably see what i am talking about..

MBR Wiring.. False ceiling for half the room..

Living Room wiring.. False ceiling also..

Wiring for the Kitchen.. slightly neater coz no false ceiling..

n of coz.. during this period.. Ben n gang were busy n must say they were quite efficient.. but then sometimes too efficient not necessary is a good thing for the owners.. you will then have to track closely.. if not there might be quite a lot of amendments to be done if they fail to follow your instructions well or did not plan out well enough.. luckily for mine.. the changes to be done were minimal.. at least for a lazy couple like me n piggy.. haha..

Oh yah.. the partition walls were up too.. hehe.. reali like them especially for my MBR.. although i guess most people would say.. makes our room look small but i guess it's still ok n makes it feel a little more cozy.. anyway for those who don't know.. the partition wall in my MBR is meant for the WIW that both piggy n I opt for.. it will be from alumix.. just to have a little more storage space for us.. so gotta sacrifice a little..

Here comes the pics on the false ceilings n partition walls..

False ceilings in my passage way.. finally cover up the ugly wiring..

n the inner passage way..

n they also covered the opening above the doors... looks so much nicer now.. hehe..

my MBR partition wall.. n recess area sealed..

Bedroom 3 recess area sealed.. smooth walls finally..

Kitchen piping boxed up.. only the exposed area lah.. the rest will be covered by the kitchen cabinet..

In the meantime.. my toilets fitting are also up.. starting to love it more n more.. especially my black n white MBR toilet.. should turn out very nice when fully completed..

My MBR toilet..

my square square mixer..

my common toilet..

closer look at my shower set..

n of coz the basin..

some minor hiccups that occurred during this period of time.. i must say.. as owners.. although we want our place to look its best.. we must also be able to adapt to minor hiccups too.. n be a little more forgiving some times.. what i feel is as long as the final product is presentable and to your liking.. that matters most..

if not our blood pressure sure to shoot up to the sky during reno process.. n will shorten our lives for nothing.. haha.. but easier said than done sometimes..

Loose wiring.. poor planning i must say.. lack foresight.. but oh well..

Wrong shower set.. aiyoh.. this Sunny ah.. blur leh.. tsk tsk.. must complain.. haha.. but i let Ben raar him first before calling them up.. Jasmine was the one who answered my calls.. n she was nice about it.. saying that they would check n get back to us.. anyway i feel that if they can get back the one he showed us the last time round.. then ok liaoz.. else.. our chio chio shower head.. tt's the prob with us.. like to carry camera around but everytime we shop.. we din bother to take shots even after we bought the stuff.. haiz..

Ugly hor.. so common looking.. Sunny! we want our shower head back!

Wow.. more choosing required from us.. painting.. bi-fold doors.. n bedroom doors.. the toughest choice would have been the painting liaoz.. Ben actually tried giving us some advices but kinda gave up when he saw the colours we went for.. haha..

Presenting the colours of our place.. 10 colours in all.. haha.. tt's oso one of the reason why Ben almost fainted i guess.. haha..

Our pink pink MBR.. nice cozy n romantic.. haha.. (Nippon Easy Wash - Sweetness n Love)

Blue n Bright orange bedrooms.. haha.. (Nippon Easy Wash - Harmony n Cheer) Personally I like the way Cheer turn out.. gave the room extra brightness n makes it look bigger.. Harmony was a little normal but still nice..

Our study room.. Galaxy! this is bryan wong's fav colour for the last series of Ba Jia Le.. (Nippon Venilex 5000 - Galaxy) haha.. turns out real chio! piggy n me love the final effects!..

Simple white kitchen.. (Nippon Easy Wash - Bluebell White)

n finally our common area.. (Nippon Easy Wash - Natural White Cane).. this is to give it a little natural n cozy feeling.. it should go well with our laminate flooring too.. hopefulli.. *keeping my fingers crossed*

[whiteice78 0]

Congrats. From your pic, I see the MRT line. Lucky you, 20k above valuation for 5 rm is indeed a steal. We began house hunting in july and the prices were 50k above valuation for 4rm tampines. Madness. In the end, we settled for a 10k above valuation EA in Pasir Ris. Also considered a "steal" considering the 70k above for 5rm in Bedok etc.

From your bathroom pics, I see that the width of your showering area is about 2.5ft. Will it be too narrw to bathe comfortably? I'm having this problem too.

[wtpoh 0]

Sorry, I did not see any MRT line in the pictures.

By the way, where is this dream house located in Tampines? The environment seems to have a lot of greenary. Thanks.

[simeiz 0]

nice...

i dun see MRT line also

look like in tampines street 3x.

[Cantona7 0]

Hi Welcome to Renotalk

Tampines is quit a happening place with Mall and interchange ard.

Ur 5 rm is so much BIGGER than mine. So envy....

[toonsim 0]

Congrats. From your pic, I see the MRT line. Lucky you, 20k above valuation for 5 rm is indeed a steal. We began house hunting in july and the prices were 50k above valuation for 4rm tampines. Madness. In the end, we settled for a 10k above valuation EA in Pasir Ris. Also considered a "steal" considering the 70k above for 5rm in Bedok etc.

From your bathroom pics, I see that the width of your showering area is about 2.5ft. Will it be too narrw to bathe comfortably? I'm having this problem too.

Err.. actually my house is nowhere near the MRT.. it's about 15-20 mins walk to the MRT station.. very near to where Poi Ching Primary School is..

Congrats! Pasir Ris is also a nice place.. We barely missed the crazy climb.. everyone seemed to filled with cash back then.. we were the 2nd grp who see this place.. n grab it immediately.. haha..

Actually today when I pop by after the shower screen is up. I think it's still ok for most people.. but I am sure for the more horizontally advanced people they will feel too squeezy for comfortable.. I am not exactly slim too but feel alright in it.. haha.. !!

Sorry, I did not see any MRT line in the pictures.

By the way, where is this dream house located in Tampines? The environment seems to have a lot of greenary. Thanks.

Haha.. the only reason why we get so much greenery is coz our house is on the low floor. But it is surprisely windy.. n more importantly no evening/noon sun..

[ms_white 0]

i love ur black mbr bathroom! hehe~ cos mine also black..woohoo~ and our common bathroom also white/cream~ double woohoo~ hee!!

[hongss 3]

Err.. actually my house is nowhere near the MRT.. it's about 15-20 mins walk to the MRT station.. very near to where Poi Ching Primary School is..

Congrats! Pasir Ris is also a nice place.. We barely missed the crazy climb.. everyone seemed to filled with cash back then.. we were the 2nd grp who see this place.. n grab it immediately.. haha..

Actually today when I pop by after the shower screen is up. I think it's still ok for most people.. but I am sure for the more horizontally advanced people they will feel too squeezy for comfortable.. I am not exactly slim too but feel alright in it.. haha..

Haha.. the only reason why we get so much greenery is coz our house is on the low floor. But it is surprisely windy.. n more importantly no evening/noon sun..

Cool, i'm also living ard that area. Your flat should be ard blk 700+. Maybe we r neighbours! Bought my flat in March this yr on mid floor, just b4 the price hike. Got it for 9k above valuation for my 4rm flat. Still consider not bad. My toilet layout is the same as yours. Wish i have a bigger toilet..hehe

Yes, the place is very windy and no evening/noon sun but i have problem when comes to drying of clothes..can only wind dry. Better to get a dryer. Another thing good abt this area is it is very quiet, esp. at night

Edited November 15, 2007 by hongss

[whiteice78 0]

Opps, in your living room pic, I saw a long horizontal grey structure hidden by some trees and I tot it was the MRT line.

[toonsim 0]

Cool, i'm also living ard that area. Your flat should be ard blk 700+. Maybe we r neighbours! Bought my flat in March this yr on mid floor, just b4 the price hike. Got it for 9k above valuation for my 4rm flat. Still consider not bad. My toilet layout is the same as yours. Wish i have a bigger toilet..hehe

Yes, the place is very windy and no evening/noon sun but i have problem when comes to drying of clothes..can only wind dry. Better to get a dryer. Another thing good abt this area is it is very quiet, esp. at night

haha. yup. we shld be neighbours i think.. i oso wish that my toilet was bigger.. the shower area seemed much smaller after the guys put up the shower screen..

ic.. not much oso have this prob hor.. hmm.. will take note of it n see how.. thanks for the advice!

i love ur black mbr bathroom! hehe~ cos mine also black..woohoo~!! and our common bathroom also white/cream~!! double woohoo~!! hee!!

haha.. thanks!

we love the feel that a black bathroom can give us.. a little cozy n you will feel more relaxed in there.. haha..

[cutebear13 0]

hihi,

i also brought my flat in tampines near dunman sec...

where is your located??

more and more tampines ppl here ..keke

[toonsim 0]

Haha.. more shopping for piggy n me during the last weekend.. n we really went to a lot of places.. First up.. Alumix!

Well this is not actuali the first time we were there.. we went there several weeks back while we were planning for our home.. so this time round we knew what we wanted and just went straight for it.. haha..

we were served by ZhenYi again.. very nice lady who always willingly give you some tips here n there on how to properly do up yr place.. of course it's more related to the wardrobe lah.. haha..

We will be getting a L-shaped wardrobe..n the plan look something like this.. total damage: $2200.99..

We also got another nice surprise n got what we had been looking for.. clear glass coffee table n a clear side table.. unfortunately piggy n I were so engrossed with the selection.. we forgot to take pictures again.. but I promise that we will show you our purchase when they delivered it.. hehe..

Anyway it was one of cheapest that we've seen.. the other place I've found n surprisingly too.. was BarangBarang.. during their sale of course.. similar prices but if you factored in the transport cost.. Alumix would provide us with a better deal.. damage for the coffee table (900 by 500 by 330mm): $312.95.. the side table (350 by 350 by 400mm): $201.70.. Very happy with our buy..

They had a slightly bigger coffee table going for ard $350..

Well.. of course this is not the end.. we had a long weekend to shop.. so we went to this place called renotalk which is located at around tiong bahru area.. n bought a pod chair (damage: $940) from them.. it was kinda piggy's dream to own one of these chairs n being her hubby.. how can i reject her right? haha..

Anyway the place seemed to be runned by a few young partners who imports design stuff from Hongkong into Singapore.. most of the imported stuff would be replicas of the originals bah.. but to us.. it still serves its purpose.. we had a few colours to choose from but we decided to go with the safe White n Black combinations.. Now all we can do is to look forward to the delivery.. haha.. !!

Well we also ordered this bedroom set (damage: $1646.01) for my mum-in-law who will be staying with us.. hope she likes it.. it's from Vhive n should go well with the laminate flooring n room colour we chose for her.. haha..

So much for this weekend.. pocket burned a hole again.. haha.. well i guess it's part of the fun of renovation.. till next week.. Have a great week ahead!

[applefreak 1]

wow you've got yourself real nice things

love the pod chair, but the price is also