mrspiglet 2 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 littleones Your proposed bedroom layout is exactly the same as one of my ex-coll's! Quite a gd idea. She did platform for her bed and a mini stairs that leads to the WIW. We had the same tot for our house initially, but not sure if we will be selling the house in future, so play safe didnt hack Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) ohh ok i use to stay in 705 and now my grandma is still staying at 705. That estate is a pretty nice estate, quiet Hi ivy, I'm staying at 706 now! but actually 705 and 706 are quite far apart...haha.. It's a nice estate, only thing is need to take feeder buses out to Clementi mrt. Thanks, metalsubzero. oh, you reminded me of the kitchen. yah, older flats have long big kitchens...think maybe because our mamas cook alot in the olden times.. we don't need such a big kitchen now so we segregated the kitchen and dining area with the L-shaped cabinets. nowadays, new flats have very small kitchens (and rooms also) but they're spanking new and nice! i'd rather take a new flat if i had a choice. your house squarish-layout is very nice and big for a 4rm. in fact, if you add your kitchen and dining area together, i think it's rather big. Mine is door-to-door unit but because it's low floor, alot of people will climb down the stairs right outside our house. Oh, that's interesting.. why cannot put shoes above shoulder level? Our shoe rack is abt 5ft. Yes, we don't go for FS otherwise there would be alot of things to consider for the house...big headache And i'm afraid there won't be any 3D images cos i'm the designer..can't do 3D..haha.. Will put up photos soon. Thanks Wow, mrspiglet, stairs to WIW sounds really great! now..why didn't I think of that? does your ex-col has a blog or pictures to see? Edited May 22, 2009 by littleones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
XiaoBinBin 0 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) eh I'm also @ 706 now...hahaa scully ive already seen you ard I'm facing the new fitness area. Edited May 22, 2009 by XiaoBinBin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 wow, what a coincidence..haha.. I'm right at the other end, near to the big cross junction Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrspiglet 2 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 littleones Unfortunately i dun have pics of her bedroom. And i dun really keep in contact with this ex-coll, so cant help u on this. But roughly what she did was elevated her platform bed n its stretch across the width of the room all the way till the little entrance to toilet and do a step-down to WIW. Quite japanese style... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 no problem, mrspiglet, think i can imagine Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) We didn't take many BEFORE pics. here are some of them... apologise for my lousy photographing skills Looking at the metal gate, window grills, door arch and original HDB floor tiles, you can basically guess the age and condition of the flat and what a bomb our reno costs will be The living room and door The retro window grills The arch in my living room leading to 2 bedrooms at both sides The kitchen Edited May 25, 2009 by littleones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) Our search for the right ID/contractor was a long and tedious one. We were basically hoping to do Modern Classic style but IDs claimed that this style is expensive to do and needless to say, the prices quoted were way out of our budget Hence, we 'downgraded' from looking for ID to looking for contractors instead (since we also knew what we wanted) Here are our reviews of them: The IDs 1) Cissern (expo show) - quoted $61k the most expensive of the lot! Space planning not bad but ID has no expertise in Modern Classic style as she claimed that she sought info and help from other IDs. 2) Rezt & Relax (expo show) - quoted $48k also very expensive because the quote excluded alot of things like the toilet accessories and lights. Quotation was done haphazardly and printed on plain paper with ink smudge all over Despite all these, we actually wanted to consider them as they were quite sincere. In the end, we waited for weeks for their revised quotation which never came, so we garnered that they weren't interested 3) Chew Interior (walk-in) - quoted $48k. not much design at all...just doing reno works. no hard selling but also not very interested to do our case 4) Exodus 31 (walk-in) - quoted $45k. we looked them up as we were impressed with their space planning (creating multi-purpose furnitures) and nice Modern Classic designs in magazines. Design turned out to be quite unique. They proposed hacking away the storeroom to create more space for dining area and also create extra storage drawers in the dining area Hubby was very interested but not for me. It's a feel thing lah The Phua Chu Kangs 5) Gek Jin (brochure in mailbox) - quoted $29k. hubby not comfortable with them as too cheap...scared quality not good i was ok to give them a shot though since they were in the business for many years so shouldn't be that bad mah 6) Chin Guan Furniture Construction (friend's relative) - quoted $35k. was one of our final considerations. competitive prices. got RADAC Gold Award somemore. only thing is that we had to do alot of coordination work ourselves, like the arrangement to change sewage pipes and buy the toilet and kitchen accessories all by ourselves 7) DecoPac Services (friend's contractor) - quoted $46k but includes Mitsubishi System-3 Aircon, PLC lights, heaters, toilet bowls, sinks, and taps, etc. Most importantly, willing to go the extra mile to help coordinate everything. Eg. even though the changing of the sewage pipes was done by Town Council contractor, Daniel came down to help us oversee the works and paid the contractor first on our behalf 8) PROCreation (friend's contractor) - quoted $36k. Claimed they are ID charging contractor prices. I didn't manage to meet the ID so no comments on his services but quotation was not done properly. Many things were omitted in the initial quote. Imagine the hacking of the wall and floor tiles of the entire house was left out They also took some of our other quotes for comparison and see what they missed out. What a surprise when the revised quote came, certain prices actually became more expensive. eg. haulage charges suddenly increased from $500 to $900!! There was this $200 "Admin fees for applying HDB permit" which i didn't like as none of those above quote us for this! Isn't it supposed to be FOC? Quoting us $190 for the fridge and washing machine base EACH was also crazy as the rest were quoting like $50/each or even FOC So eventually, DecoPac won the job Edited May 25, 2009 by littleones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jamieogh 0 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) Hi! Congrats!!! We have similar floor plan! Sorry Littleones~ Edited May 22, 2009 by Jamieogh Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
poseidon_gal 0 Report post Posted May 24, 2009 so when your reno will start?? how big is ur floor area? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pinklady 0 Report post Posted May 24, 2009 wow your hse seems to be indeed a miracle indeed. what a blessed house! maybe when you finished your reno, you try to buy some 4D or Toto. maybe the miracle will come a 2nd time! haha so, hope to see some progress photos soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted May 25, 2009 poseidon_gal: our reno has started on 6 May 2009. if not wrong, i think the floor area is 92 sqm Pinklady: yes, we will try for the 2nd miracle so we can spend less on furnishings, etc. yep, progress photos will be up in my next post Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
booy 0 Report post Posted May 25, 2009 No wonder you name your home a Miracle.. Nice square layout! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted May 25, 2009 (edited) WORK-IN-PROGRESS (Part 1) Renovation has started on 6 May 2009. I estimated the work done to be 15% so far. We hope to move in by early July but looking at the progress now, not so sure if it can be done Everything hacked...except why is the fan still hanging there? Our kitchen. This picture makes me feel super uncomfortable...like the wall has a bad case of eczema (no offence cos i've got eczema too). That's the hacked wall (as indicated by the red circle in my floor plan design) to create the walkway for WIW. Edited May 25, 2009 by littleones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littleones 0 Report post Posted May 25, 2009 (edited) WORK-IN-PROGRESS (Part 2) We have a 'pipey' house - so many funny pipes everywhere.. This is the storeroom with 2 gas pipes cutting right across..weird huh? This is the common toilet. Check out the weird water pipes at the right end (supply water to the upper floors). There's simply nothing we (and the Town Council contractor) could do about it even though the pipes have turned rusty so our contractor could only try to box up the ugly sight We are also converting the squatting pan to the toilet seat. MBR toilet. Again, bad case of eczema and more weird pipes!!! That is an AIR pipe which is redundant but contractor cannot do anything cos it runs though the whole block. Cannot imagine i'm going to shower with the pipe at my side Sand and tiles arrived for tiling. Edited May 25, 2009 by littleones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
