Finally A Nest For Lam Family

[jonkrisiggy 0]

We had been searching for our very own house since the last balloting exercise conducted by HDB in Aug 2007. Every weekend, without fail, we will have to go round and view quite a few no. of flats.

My hubby is quite a fussy person but he thinks that this is a life time investment and we are going to be in debt with a "6 digits" figures amount, we got to take our time to look for one that we really like.

Many agents had work with us but guess non work out until my online pal from Singaporebride forum recommended me her agent. In 2 mths time, we got the unit we want. A 5 room resale flat in Tampines Avenue 3!

Indeed it was "good friday"! Hahah! We got it on the "GOOD FRIDAY" and next day we sign the OTP. I will say that this unit... "love at first sight" for my hubby. He loves the layout and the area.

Amenities within 5 to 10 mins walk, there is greenery, windy, corner, high floor and sense of privacy. Best deal, since we do not have a car, he will just need to take a bus to work and the trip is around 15 mins to his office.

Valuation for this house is 335K and COV, we pay 42K... ( i think it is a bit steep but what to do, my Mr loves it )

Our 1st appointment with HDB is on the 2nd May 2008 and to us that day did not went well.

The seller suddenly requested us to give them an extension of 2 more weeks which means, we cannot do the completion on the 13 June 08 but 27 June 08. Hubby thinks that they had a valid reason so we just give in to avoid any further disputes. sad.gif I was quite reluctant actually... dunno.gif But what to do, if we dun give in, the poor folks got no place to move.

After viewing the house for then 3rd time on 26 April 2008, we then realized that we need to overhaul the whole place even though it is a move in condition flat.

My hubby says since the owner had been staying here for 19 yrs and we are going to stay here for long, we will need to overhaul the whole place.

To me, it is a major renovation work. All existing tilings had to be hacked away and replace with homogenous tilings for living, dining and storeroom. Parquets ( burma ) for 3 bedrooms and 1 study. Overhaul the kitchen and 2 toilets ( changing of tilings , waterproofing etc ). Electrical rewiring and re run water piping. Plastering whole house cos currently they painted the wall with rock tone which we feels hard to maintain sicne we have 3 young kids. Replace the false ceiling and L box... Levelling of the balcony for an extension of the balcony, carpentry works etc.

Some hacking to be done on the kitchen wall and shifting of toilet doors.

Recieved some quotes... all coming ard 40K to 43K.

[isasoap 0]

hehe congrats on getting the place finally!!

heeehee hazel here!

Can't wait to see ur fully furnished home!

[jonkrisiggy 0]

hehe congrats on getting the place finally!!

heeehee hazel here!

Can't wait to see ur fully furnished home!

Hi Isasoap,

Thanks a lot... but now i got a problem. Hahah! Newbie here... dunno how to upload pic.

Edited June 18, 2008 by jonkrisiggy

[BunBun 5]

You can use any source of photo uploading as long as you copy the url link of your uploaded photo from that source & paste into here

For eg, there is imageshack, photobucket and etc.

[mrlamkh 0]

Hi,

When I saw this newly created blog, I thought my wife did this for me. Haha...

Anway, this is Lam here... Ur story is so close to mine.

We 1st view a resale flat on a GD Friday holiday. My 1st appt will be Next Mon 23rd June.

Guess since we r all new owners soon & the LAM thingy, can we keep in touch?

I really lost how to start?

Any contacts?

Hope u can send me an email & maybe we can research together with my wife.

Tks & nice to know u...

Edited June 18, 2008 by mrlamkh

[applefreak 1]

spam chop

for the amount of works to be done, $40k sounds really reasonable

Edited June 18, 2008 by applefreak

[Jessie 0]

congrats!

hope to see more pix

[isasoap 0]

Hi Isasoap,

Thanks a lot... but now i got a problem. Hahah! Newbie here... dunno how to upload pic.

you can try imageshack..

and then copy the url to load the pictures here.

i also just learned! hehehee

[Yang Guo 7]

congrates on your new hse

hope to see more pics soon too

follow this easy step to upload pics

Go to http://www.picoodle.com/

1) click on the box beside browse, then click browse to find your pic on your computer

2) click resize (only chose website/emails OR message board) ->message board prefered cos can see clearly

3) click upload

4) copy the whole link at bottom "Direct link to image URL of image"

5) come back to renotalk, click the button "insert image", then paste your link you copied in (4)

[jonkrisiggy 0]

Here goes... My 5I resale flat floor plan @ tampines St 81. 122 sqm

[jonkrisiggy 0]

Some of the pictures taken before all these are going to demolish on 1st July 2008!

1. Existing Living and Dining area

1. Existing Kitchen area

[jonkrisiggy 0]

Hi Isasoap, Bun bun and Yang guo,

Thanks for your help! Manage to get it up already! Wahaha!!

Edited June 19, 2008 by jonkrisiggy

[jonkrisiggy 0]

Hi,

When I saw this newly created blog, I thought my wife did this for me. Haha...

Anway, this is Lam here... Ur story is so close to mine.

We 1st view a resale flat on a GD Friday holiday. My 1st appt will be Next Mon 23rd June.

Guess since we r all new owners soon & the LAM thingy, can we keep in touch?

I really lost how to start?

Any contacts?

Hope u can send me an email & maybe we can research together with my wife.

Tks & nice to know u...

Hi there Mrlamkh

Congrates! what a coincidence, we have the same surname! Hahahaha!!!

Eh... initially we also dunno where to start until we sit down and discuss what we want. Since we have 3 young kids... so we cannot have any fanciful designs or theme.

Before we have kids, we will like to have those laid back country style decor.

So we decided to head for contractor instead of ID... (some IDs quotes are ridiculous).

Most of our carpentry furniture will be custom make subject to quotation of course... if it is too ex, we will go for off the shelves things.

Hope this help.

[jonkrisiggy 0]

Just trying to update some of the things for my renovation... Maybe we are too kiasu. Most of the things we had already buy and now just awaiting the moment to "hack and pull down" the whole existing deco.

We got our tiles from Lian Sin Heng Co. (at balestier rd , jln dusun). Hubby chose homogenous matt light colour tiles 600mm X 600mm for our living, dining and storeroom.

For kitchen and kitchen flooring tiles, we had whitish grey tiles on the wall and grey tone homogenous tiles for the floor

When come to the tilings for the 2 toilets.. I dunno if we make the right choice... We had those grey mixing white running tone effect tiles for the wall and flooring dark grey! My in laws commented that the toilet seems very dark... My hubby thinks that his parents are bias against the colour because they love WHITE!! For sure, we know that white is hard to maintain.

For our 3 bedrooms and study, we are laying parquet wood. Many people told us that burma parquet are better as compared to indonesia parquet. Reason being : Burma wood is old wood , last longer. Indo wood is young wood, after sometimes, will contract and shrink and all the parquet will be falling out... Burmese parquet cost slightly more than indo but of course, I guess everyone will rather go for the better quality one to save the hassle in future.

Now both of us are pondering if we should have get the Fengshui master to view the house initially... All the colour combination is given by her. For the bedrooms wall, no other colour then light grey and light blue. For the study room and living/dining area, Rose white or light pink and light purple series... FAINTZ.. Dunno if the colour turn out to be nice or not... having a lots of doubts

Our toilet bowls (caroma), toilet basin shower accessories, mixer and kitchen are from Sim Siang Choon. Damage over there is $1800. For those other small accessories item like mirror, towel holder etc, we will be getting from IKEA.

The arc at the beam of the living and dining area, will be remove cos it looks ugly and thought without it, the entire space will look much bigger and brighter.

We are now awaiting for the kitchen cabinets, shoes cabinet, tv console, study table, wardrobes, partition shelving designs from our carpenter. But when come to the selection of type of laminates... really kind of frustrating... every thing look nice but how well does it goes with our wall and flooring... Really feel like banging our heads at time...

[jonkrisiggy 0]

These are some of the tilings that we had selected at Lian Sin Heng.

Living, Dining and Storeroom homogenous Matted tiles ( 600 X 600 )

Kitchen Wall and Flooring Tiles

Toilet Wall and Flooring Tiles