Can't Seem To Leave Toa Payoh!

[KSJL 0]

So, after signing the contract with the id, I have to apply for a reno loan. The id recommended their loan specialist to me to help me to apply for a loan. I met up with her and passed her my documents. She looked very young. My bad hb said that I'm twice her size!! She said that she will help me to apply for OCBC and RHB. According to her, OCBC in a way is better because I can pay off the loan earlier, interest rates are competitive and I do not need to open an a/c with them as I already have an existing a/c. She would submit the application for OCBC first instead of OCBC and RHB together cos she said that if both approved, to cancel one would be quite troublesome. So, I ok and went along with her suggestion. That was Thursday before last.

On Tuesday, she sms me to say that OCBC reject my application. I was like, uh oh, die! So I said, what about RHB, submit can? Her reply was not yet and she would not suggest submit so fast cos she has already submitted appeal to OCBC. She told me to wait.

On Wednesday, OCBC called me up and said that they have accepted the appeal and will approve the amt I requested. Whoopee! I'm so glad I listened to her advice and waited. On Friday, she called me again to inform me that the bank will send me the documents and the loan is already approved.

Yay... now I can start requesting for 3D drawings. And reno can start when I get my key.

So far, my experience has been pretty good. I hope that it will continue to remain this way when reno official starts.

Congrats to you! So once you got your key your ID can start drilling, hacking,etc liao ah...u must be very excited to wait for this day to come right? hehehe

[sff 0]

Oh ... no wonder ! Cos when i cook, i sometimes use up to 3 o 4 burners at one time.

Wah, you really cook a lot. Mmm... what's that nice smell?

[sff 0]

Congrats to you! So once you got your key your ID can start drilling, hacking,etc liao ah...u must be very excited to wait for this day to come right? hehehe

Thanks. Yay. Wait for June 18 like very long. Can't wait to start everything now. But at the same time, will miss my old place. For the reno, maybe I really ks lah, everything except lights buy liao. So when during reno, id need this or that, I think I'll just say "orh, buy le, let me call them to deliver"! Think he'll get a shock!

As last count, I oledi settled 4 aircons, 1 kitchen sink, 1 kitchen tap, 1 hood, 1 hob, 1 washing machine tap, 2 basins, 2 wc, 2 basin taps, 2 mixers, 2 shower heads, 2 bidet sprays and taps, 2 mirrors, 2 toilet paper holders, 2 towel holders, 2 vanity shelves, 4 corner shelves.

Aiyah, I'm just very excited. Also, I know that's no time for me to get stuff when reno starts. I work till 6-7pm five days wk. My hubby work till 9pm even on weekends. There's very little chance for us to go out and buy things together. If got, it's like once a wk. If id want this, want that quick quick, how are we going to buy?

Hehe, not forgetting, I also got sofa, dining table, coffee table, 2 queen bedframes, 1 queen mattress, 2 computer desks... Think I can move it liao. Whee... hurry hurry...

[sff 0]

So, yesterday was the completion for my current flat. Now, I'm officially homeless. Waiting for my new key. Coming in another 23 days... Looked at my net profit yesterday, was so sad. It was less than what I had expected. I did not expected the paisi bank to deduct another 3 months worth of interest from my profit. Also, we got a lawyer from their panel to discharge my loan with the bank but they dun want. They want to use their own lawyers, so in the end, we ended up paying more lawyer fees. Really dislike the bank.

On a happier note, I received the reno loan letter and we have to decide how to disburse the amount to the id company. They give us 3 cheques free. 4th cheque need to pay $20. Luckily id let us pay with 3 cheques, and the 1st cheque I will give them when they start hacking my house, and that is already 55% payment for the contracted work. And he said that we can probably receive our 3d drawings next week. 23 days minus 7 days = 16 days. Think 16 days should be enough to choose materials, settle design plan, and buy lights.

[blueocean 0]

Hi Sff,

Oh .. that's interesting. Would it have been cheaper to use the bank's lawyer to discharge the loan ? How much were the fees ?

Generally, it is usually safer to negotiate for many small progressive payments as defined by stages :

1. Immediately on signing of agreement - 10%

2. On practical completion of each stage of works including all finishes etc. If the Works are of the specified standard, payment is made

Stages - a. Commencement of work and start of hacking - 5%

b. Arrival of materials and start of flooring work

c. Satisfactory completion of flooring work

c. Arrival of materials and start electrical work

etc etc

3. Satisfactory completion of all works - last 10%

The contractor would of course love to have the bulk of their money deposited into their account first. But note that the more you have paid out vs the amount of actual work done ... the risk becomes higher. It is harder to get back hard earned money once paid out ...

So, yesterday was the completion for my current flat. Now, I'm officially homeless. Waiting for my new key. Coming in another 23 days... Looked at my net profit yesterday, was so sad. It was less than what I had expected. I did not expected the paisi bank to deduct another 3 months worth of interest from my profit. Also, we got a lawyer from their panel to discharge my loan with the bank but they dun want. They want to use their own lawyers, so in the end, we ended up paying more lawyer fees. Really dislike the bank.

On a happier note, I received the reno loan letter and we have to decide how to disburse the amount to the id company. They give us 3 cheques free. 4th cheque need to pay $20. Luckily id let us pay with 3 cheques, and the 1st cheque I will give them when they start hacking my house, and that is already 55% payment for the contracted work. And he said that we can probably receive our 3d drawings next week. 23 days minus 7 days = 16 days. Think 16 days should be enough to choose materials, settle design plan, and buy lights.

[weii 0]

5. Bedframe

Hi sff, where did you bought your bedframe? If its convenience, can help take more pics of it, it look nice, something simple which im looking for.

[sff 0]

Hi sff, where did you bought your bedframe? If its convenience, can help take more pics of it, it look nice, something simple which im looking for.

Thanks. Bought it at Cellini. Sorry. Can't help here, cos I took the photo when I was in their showroom at Park Mall.

[sff 0]

Hi Sff,

Oh .. that's interesting. Would it have been cheaper to use the bank's lawyer to discharge the loan ? How much were the fees ?

Generally, it is usually safer to negotiate for many small progressive payments as defined by stages :

1. Immediately on signing of agreement - 10%

2. On practical completion of each stage of works including all finishes etc. If the Works are of the specified standard, payment is made

Stages - a. Commencement of work and start of hacking - 5%

b. Arrival of materials and start of flooring work

c. Satisfactory completion of flooring work

c. Arrival of materials and start electrical work

etc etc

3. Satisfactory completion of all works - last 10%

The contractor would of course love to have the bulk of their money deposited into their account first. But note that the more you have paid out vs the amount of actual work done ... the risk becomes higher. It is harder to get back hard earned money once paid out ...

To save cost, I asked my agent how can I get the loan discharged. He said that the cheapest way is to get HDB lawyer to do the admin work and private lawyer A to just discharge the loan. Lawyer A is in the bank's list of firms so we thought there was no prob. However, for some reason, the bank did not want to let lawyer A handle everything and insisted that they want to get their own lawyer B. We were all puzzled because we don't owe the bank in any backpayments and our payment records are clean.

So, fees - HDB lawyer ~ $300, Lawyer B ~$1100. Lawyer B paid Lawyer A on our behalf. Altogether about $1.4k cash. No CPF allowed.

And as for the id, I have signed the contract but I did not pay anything yet. So I don't need to pay the first 10% or so upon signing. Commencement of works 45%. So in order to help me save the $20 on the extra cheque, the id told me to pay the first 10% and the next 45% together when work commence. So far, all the ids that I've been to to ask for quotes, their payment scheme are about similar. Not one indicated that I can pay by work completion stages. I'm also worried that by paying so much upfront before material arrive, there is a risk. I went to their worksite for viewing before and so far so good. I can only hope for the best. I've seen a quote where upon commencement, 70% payment must be made already. For that, I totally cannot accept it.

[blueocean 0]

I remember that to buy a HDB flat via a bank loan, the lawyer's fees was about $2000 (but the nett is less as there is bank subsidy). Hmm .. to sell it is $1400? The fees still remain so high although most of the paperwork is done by paralegal staff !

Wah ... do make a 70% payment before work commences is crazy. For small item purchases with value less than $500 or so, i dont mind making 50% deposit etc but if the contract value is so huge $30k to 40k, it is scary to put such a big amount ahead ....

To save cost, I asked my agent how can I get the loan discharged. He said that the cheapest way is to get HDB lawyer to do the admin work and private lawyer A to just discharge the loan. Lawyer A is in the bank's list of firms so we thought there was no prob. However, for some reason, the bank did not want to let lawyer A handle everything and insisted that they want to get their own lawyer B. We were all puzzled because we don't owe the bank in any backpayments and our payment records are clean.

So, fees - HDB lawyer ~ $300, Lawyer B ~$1100. Lawyer B paid Lawyer A on our behalf. Altogether about $1.4k cash. No CPF allowed.

And as for the id, I have signed the contract but I did not pay anything yet. So I don't need to pay the first 10% or so upon signing. Commencement of works 45%. So in order to help me save the $20 on the extra cheque, the id told me to pay the first 10% and the next 45% together when work commence. So far, all the ids that I've been to to ask for quotes, their payment scheme are about similar. Not one indicated that I can pay by work completion stages. I'm also worried that by paying so much upfront before material arrive, there is a risk. I went to their worksite for viewing before and so far so good. I can only hope for the best. I've seen a quote where upon commencement, 70% payment must be made already. For that, I totally cannot accept it.

[kellogs 0]

which block at lorong 8 217?

[sff 0]

I remember that to buy a HDB flat via a bank loan, the lawyer's fees was about $2000 (but the nett is less as there is bank subsidy). Hmm .. to sell it is $1400? The fees still remain so high although most of the paperwork is done by paralegal staff !

Wah ... do make a 70% payment before work commences is crazy. For small item purchases with value less than $500 or so, i dont mind making 50% deposit etc but if the contract value is so huge $30k to 40k, it is scary to put such a big amount ahead ....

I am buying one now and the fee is $1.8k before subsidy, so I was quite shocked that I have to pay this amount for selling. After all, the lawyer only need to discharge the stupid loan.

[sff 0]

which block at lorong 8 217?

Nope. Mine is pretty new. Abt 11-12 yrs. Double digit blk. Both same number. Make a guess?

[sff 0]

Yesterday, we went to choose our floor tiles. ID said that we needed to choose tiles so that he can do up a design. So off we went yesterday cos if not we would not get a chance to go shopping together. Hubby works on weekends and I will work till late next week, so we won't be able to go out together.

After some discussion with the id, we decide to use the same floor tile for kitchen, service balcony and toilets. Cos he said if one area one colour, what colour do we want for the kerb? We thought that whichever colour we use looks odd, so we just and settled for one. Our current house use dark grey and we want a change, so we picked a lighter colour. We also thought that since our kitchen is open concept, we would like the living room and kitchen to be similar colour so that we can get a more harmonious feel and as if the space is big. By the way, I feel that house is not very bright, maybe lighter colours will help.

Living Room Floor / Kitchen, Service Balxony, Toilets Floor

We had a problem choosing the wall tiles because when they tiled on the panels, we thought that some tiles look great. We almost picked another design. However, when we got the sample tile, it looked different. Must be the lighting. What looked slightly beige-y, look white under a different light. When we saw that, we were like sian cos we did not want that and that meant we must choose again. The one we picked, we deliberately asked for samples so that we could view it under white light. It was acceptable. Then id arrived (he was not in the shop earlier), he thought for a while and suggested we could make the toilets look nicer. So we asked "like what"? He immediately took us to another section and picked 2. He said "hotel feel"!! We were quite amused and we just "ok lah".

Toilet Wall Tiles

Actually, we are quite chin chye people and we don't really bother if it is not obiang. Whatever tile is ok as long as we know how it will look like for the end product.

One of the difficulty I encounter when taking photo of tiles was that I could not get the right colour. Took a few times but colour aways off. Anyway, so I think my house is going to be more beige that I expected. Room floors also parquet, so ok lah, maybe there won't be one section that will look odd. My furniture going to be black and white, dunno will match or not. Also dunno kitchen cabinet what colour now and what colour will be my solid surface...

[Miss_YB 0]

More pics of the stuff I bought. I just went to make full payment cos I figure that I won't have time when reno starts and I'll probably be too confused with all the different balance payments for different items.

My 76cm 2-burner hob. Each burner has 100 holes.

Close up view of burner

My 90cm hood.

I like your cooker. Simple & easy to clean

[sff 0]

I like your cooker. Simple & easy to clean

Thanks. Me too. Took me quite a long time finally settle on this. Actually, short time lah, just that after I placed deposit, got doubts, so went looking for others, but in the end still back to this.