Looking Back - My Reno Experience

[camoteq 0]

Hi Everyone,

Our renovation is just about completed, the ID will hand over the house by this week My wife Karen originally wanted me to post the blog while the reno was being done, but initially I didn't have the time, and on the times I tried, I couldn't connect to the site

Anyway, we started scouting for a house last June -- we were originally looking at Tampines / Pasir Ris because we have been living in the East ever since we came here to Singapore, plus the kids are studying in the East as well. After a lot of failed viewings, we sort of went outside the box and asked the agent to look for properties exclusively in Bedok Reservoir View (actually my brother was renting a place there and his place made a great impression on us, though we didn't consider it at first while we were searching).

After several viewings and no positive results, we were losing hope. But then the agent called us and said one of the owners is asking us to reconsider. To make the long story short, we decided to grab his offer. We did the Option to Purchase on Karen's birthday

HDB appointments came and went, and finally we were handed the keys to our new house on the 27th of November. The house layout:

More to come!

[CutePinkElephant 0]

Congratss!!! more pic more piccc.....

[pinkpetter 0]

Wah with that layout you can make a completely open concept kitchen! Looking forward to pictures!!!!

[camoteq 0]

Wah with that layout you can make a completely open concept kitchen! Looking forward to pictures!!!!

Karen wanted an open concept kitchen as well, but it wasn't really workable -- the kitchen area is really small!

During the waiting period between the 1st and 2nd appointments, we went to look for an ID firm (and we also discovered Renotalk during this time). We went to a couple of big names, plus quite a number of recommended reno firms both in this forum and from friends. They weren't quite satisfactory, for one or more of the following reasons: 1. quote had a lot of missing items, which we were afraid will reappear as a hidden cost later; 2. quote had a 'package', which the ID wasn't willing to breakdown into a detailed list; 3. price suspiciously too low (again, the fear of hidden costs); 4. some designs, which were quite weird, like this idea for the living room -- an island:

The green line is where you were supposed to walk to get to the bedrooms

Once, while talking to a friend, he mentioned another friend (Sean) who recently had a housewarming (I wasn't invited ). He said that the house was done very nicely, so I took a peek at Sean's facebook -- luckily his housewarming pics were there. Convinced, I asked Sean for the ID's (Alex) number.

I remember our first call very clearly. Alex's first line was: "There are two types of customers -- one, where you design and I just execute and coordinate the contractors for you; two - where you allow me to design, based on your general theme." Whoa, Matrix moment -- Blue or red pill? Having only a vague idea of design, of course we took the red pill second option.

The quote (one week after meeting the ID) was very detailed, and after filtering out the 'Optional Items' which we could live without, we arrived at a semi-final list of work items + price. Next step: First-day briefing on the first day of reno.

Some pics of the original house:

Common Bath

Masters' (w/ Karen)

Living Room

Small Kitchen

More to come!

[rolexboy 0]

congrats....

can't help but notice a "wrapped" up figure at the right side of "living room" pic...

tot it looks abit eerie....

hope to see more pics

[camoteq 0]

congrats....

can't help but notice a "wrapped" up figure at the right side of "living room" pic...

tot it looks abit eerie....

hope to see more pics

those are the previous owners' kids masked them out with Photosh*p Colored Pencil filter

[ivy 0]

aiyoh i also freaked out a little. I thought I saw a malay lady in tudong sitting there.....

[Angel81 1]

Congrates on ur new home! Looking forward to more pics.

Nice layout. I like having a service balcony and a pantry as well. So cool.

aiyoh i also freaked out a little. I thought I saw a malay lady in tudong sitting there.....

I saw the same thing! It was a little freaky.

Edited January 21, 2009 by Angel81

[ahwee 0]

those are the previous owners' kids masked them out with Photosh*p Colored Pencil filter

Scared me also leh, should just cut out the kids portion mah...thought how come got 2 kids with tulong looking back at me wor....

Anyway welcome to renotalk...i learnt a lot from here

[applefreak 1]

spam chop

pity the small kitchen

but maybe can expand out into the service balcony