beachfox 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 Hi Beach Fox, are u using 800 x 800 Homo tiles (ok i know tile the name sound a bit rude... ) My tiles is 600 x 600. Saw ur T-blog, you're staying in Yishun too? Which block? I'm staying in Yishun EM too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kobelala 8 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 (edited) Hi BeachFox, Yishun Central Blk 300+ behind Adora Green , wat bout u ?? Edited March 17, 2011 by Kobelala Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackwan 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 Hi Csingeu, 1st of all have to congrat that your are going to have your new home sweet home soon... Well, roughly read thru your 8 pages blog~ my 1st reaction was like " Phew~ swt!!" That's so many things have to do along the reno journey....... a bit stress sia~ But no matter how, for our future home, let's do the best for our love one!! Good luck bro...... and me too haha!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csingeu 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 Email sent Yo! Received and replied you liao! Do send me your quotation for comparison. Anyway, think you are doing quite a lot of big ticket items, not included in my quotation. Examples: 4) Supply and install full height glass panel cabinet at study room (11 foot run) 5) Supply and install tempered glass sliding door and fixed panel glass at study room 9) Supply and install tempered glass sliding door at kitchen entrance 13) Supply and lay chengal wood strips at balcony floor 15) Supply and install timber strips for staircase 16) Supply and install wood railing with tempered glass panel 36) To install a roller shuttle at balcony And I also noticed that your quotation is missing certain items... but maybe you don't require ba... Examples: 1. plastering - ~$3K 2. painting - ~$2k 3. electrical rewiring - $3.5K - $5K... gd to have more EM owners to exchange ideas and quotations for comparison... Do start your own t-blog and share with us your renovation ideas and plans! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soichiro 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 Also remember to get quote to do piping for toilet in the level 1 wash area if you want a WC but there isn't one there yet. Inexperienced ID/contractors may anyhow quote if they don't know what work is required. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csingeu 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 Hi Csingeu, 1st of all have to congrat that your are going to have your new home sweet home soon... Well, roughly read thru your 8 pages blog~ my 1st reaction was like " Phew~ swt!!" That's so many things have to do along the reno journey....... a bit stress sia~ But no matter how, for our future home, let's do the best for our love one!! Good luck bro...... and me too haha!! Hi bro jackwan! yes.. same to you for having your new place too! and yes, I think your renovation is starting earlier than mine... LOL... you must have great patience to go thru the 8 pages... LOL... but a lot of lengthy "essays"... i need more pics!! I think other than getting the new place, renovation is the next costly item, esp for resale flats. yes... a lot of things to stress over, but gd thing, got renotalk (can find a lot of useful info & lobangs), and also get "free" advice from fellow homemakers... but do take note of the recency of the posts/info... i've made the mistake of trusting the info abt teak furniture shop, posted in 2008/2009... *dots*... anyway, your new EA is in Jurong West also? where is it near to? how big is the area? I think it's gd to have more rooms... ... future-proofing!! gd luck for your renovation journey too! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csingeu 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 ohh... in any case, if anyone is wondering who symisa's husband is... that would be me Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
May_dream1 14 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 ohh... in any case, if anyone is wondering who symisa's husband is... that would be me thanks for telling us.... i was thinking who is her husband. hehehehe.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tangerinez 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 I love the dining table!! You and your partner seem to like teak. Hubby and me went through the teak dining set phase. I thought teak dining set will make a good signature look for the house, esp when we were planning to get loads of ikea furniture. At least we will have 1 set of proper furniture (hopefully won't collapse on us, LOL) But after a tedious afternoon of hunting around, the price put us off.. Too ex liao! Maybe that's why I like the current cellini one so much, cos it looks like teak! If you really interested though, my hubby should have the updated list of furniture shops that specialise in teak furniture. Or did he write it down somewhere in this t-blog... Hmmm... yea we love woody stuff and actually prefer the light colors but understand they are harder to maintain as they are untreated. *wonders why i always like things that are hard to maintain* the cellini one is great cos it looks like teak AND has a glass top so it's much easier to maintain. if it is convenient, can share the list of teak furniture shops? thank you! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csingeu 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 hey from my research and experience (hope it's still updated as my own wedding was just some 7 months back ): Amara: heard quite a lot of bad feedback leh, and i personally feel the shopping centre downstairs looks very run down... ever consider M Hotel? also near Tanjong Pagar MRT. Merchant Court: pretty hotel, lovely ballroom, great service (colleague just got married there 3 mths back) but on the more ex side. Novotel: overall quite okie, and more friendly on your pocket GCW: been there many times and their food have always been very good but think it's the most ex out of the 4 and personally feel the inconvenient location really doesn't justify the high price... one plus point is the bride can arrive to the hotel by a boat at the river behind... quite cute hahaha hahaha i think wedding prep is SO MUCH easier compared reno........ at least seating arrangement etc is a one day or the most one week headache, and wedding is just an one day event... but reno, if you do anything wrongly, you gotta face it for a long time Actually, our top choice was Merchant Court. though slightly more $$$, but like what you said lor... pretty hotel, lovely ballroom, and very accessible... but too bad, don't have our dates... and even the dates can make it... we don't have enough tables to meet the minimum... unless... maybe do wedding lunch... in fact, wife is psycho-ing me with that... i'm pretty much ok with anything... agreed that for reno, it's at least for the next 10-15 years... maybe... ... and lots of money... much more than wedding... i guess... wedding day/(lunch/dinner) gives you the gd memories... renovation gives you nightmares... and more if executed poorly... Your purchase from Cellini does looks good! i must say, the tv console from cellini indeed looks nice wor. very resort-feel too. that's makes me tempted too.. Novotel will be a good choice de, i had mine there! yeah... i quite like the tv console too... very resort feel (fits my theme)... and quite solid built... it's actually very heavy... i don't have much love for the coffee table though... think it's kind of clumsy, bulky and heavy... only reason why i'm getting it... is to match with the sofa set, tv console and dining set... though i might find a cheaper alternative, i might just get the coffee table too... hmmm.... Novotel is our 2nd choice... like the high ceiling... and the square ballroom and quite a private cosy foyer... though the place does look a little "dated" now... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csingeu 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 I got the flow series. Flow series bed (i didn't take the mattress cos I'm going to move my existing Sealy over), Flow sofa, Flow side table, Manhatten Dining Set (inclusive of 4 chairs) and Amphibios Coffee Table. Paid for the bean bag too and also cannot choose colours... Yah, they are very strict with their pricing.. Cannot means cannot... I went over to Loyang to make my purchase.. No customer somemore and yet they don't really entertain bargaining... Both our families very 'man fan', this uncle cannot be seated with that auntie...hence resulting big headache when it comes to seating arrangement. My mummy is the no 14 in the family and my hubby also got big family... Then my ex-office also political type.. Certain colleagues cannot click so cannot put them together and all don't want to sit with big boss.. Frightening event for us.. At least for reno, we can make decision and need not ans to anyone else... The flow series seem quite popular too ah? esp for the modern look... I'm still pondering whether to get the bean bag for $69.90.... i just might... already spending so much on renov... what is $69.90? we went thru 3 rounds to settle the seating arrangements... quite pain-in-the-***... just sometimes, relatives very ma fan... cannot confirm availability... and sometimes, quite "political", as you put it... bro i think you're lucky to have a such practical wife... haha anyway, for the contractor, maybe you can request to visit his recent project, so you can see the workmanship etc by yourself? i also spent most of the reno $ on restoration... end up many of the nice design ideas get thrown out of the window cos need to channel my very limited $$ to more practical use i started with one spreadsheet for reno, i ended up with at least 4 spreadsheets cos 1 is simply not enough She was telling me the other day, got someone "praised" her for being practical in renotalk... yes... one thing i haven't done is to ask to see one of his finished projects... might be a gd idea to talk to the homeowners regarding their renovation journey with him... i think i'm just taking things for granted... not very gd ah... i'm channelling my limited $$ from one "non-practical" place (aka my balcony) to more "non-practical" items (my 5.1 HTS + projector)... LOL... i am ok for this sunday afternoon.... my service will end abt 1pm then lunch etc.... maybe abt 4-5pm? Kobelala & mae29: if you are reading this, we are doing a house visit this sunday!! hey i got myself a Cellini set too~ hahaha i'll say their quality and build is good... the package will end up cheaper than ikea and really worth the $$! if you wanna have the storage bed frame but don't like the coffee table, you can nego with the salesperson to use the coffee table in exchange of upgrading the bedframe to a storage bed frame. i did something like that last time on the tv console, are you going to mount tv on the wall or place on the tv console? if you are going to place the tv on the console, i can help you strike out the Expedit option immediately cos Expedit is too short for this purpose (only 40cm in height) Based on my calculation, i also think the package will actually be cheaper than if I get most of my items from ikea, and an expensive mattress from Sealy... and since the quality of Cellini furniture is likely to be better than ikea (i hope)... ohh.. the storage bed frame is actually one of the available option... but wife doesn't like storage bed frame... she thinks the space won't be very useful at all... and it's troublesome to put things in and out of the under-bed storage... I'll be mounting the tv on the wall; the tv console is more for the AVR, centre speaker, wii, xbox + kinect (soon... very soon!)... oppo 93 player (wait til i find out where to get it cheaper... )... If i were to use the expedit as tv console, i would mount some "short legs" to it... i've seen my friends done it... looks pretty decent... but definitely not as sturdy as the cellini tv console I'm hoping to get... if i am you, i will choose ikea coffee table.... like you, i think the one from cellini is very bulky... but for tv console, its nicer to get the one from cellini. i think ikea's book shelf as tv console might not be suitable Will most likely get the tv console... as for the coffee table... tentatively, i should be getting it also la... hmmm... if i got time to look ard for cheaper alternative, maybe i'll consider otherwise... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dinobros 1 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 Hello everyone! I've been hanging around the forums for some time, and managed to get lots of really useful information here and also from some of the forummers (mae29, sgnick, Reiki, ymjp100, reglxt, RimBlock, etc). Been thinking of starting a t-blog chat for some time, but was lazy... And now it seems like a really good time... to really document our homemaking & renovation journey (before we start to forget a lot of stuffs) and, hopefully, get some opinions/comments from fellow homemakers. A short (or maybe not) background My fiancee and I have been looking for a place to call our own since early 2010. As we didn't want to wait too long for the BTO flats to be ready (i suppose they take 3-4 yrs at least) and both of us are nearing 30s and we don't want to stay in with our parents after our marriage, hence resale flats seem like a more obvious choice. Most would have known from the news, that COV was quite crazy for 2010. We decided to look-see and hope for the COV to dip a little, but alas, the trend was nowhere going south (except for maybe the last month or so, prob due to general elections coming soon). Hence we decided to try our luck at some BTO (eg. Punggol Waterway Terraces) and the Sale of Balance Flat exercise, but luck wasn't at our side (which may be a blessing in disguise). I'm currently staying at Jurong West area, near Lakeside MRT, and was actually looking to get a place in Punggol (as some of my colleagues said, it is actually a up and coming place, though my dad and mum think it's really very far away and ulu). I guess, like most people, our criteria for our home was location. Location as in near to town (as both of us work in the city area), and location as in near to amenities (kopi-tiam/food centre, shopping mall, MRT, schools, etc). 2nd criteria is super low or no COV (only in our dreams). We soon realised that other criteria do matters too, eg. facing of the unit (N-S facing), floor level, point blk?, door-to-door/corridor/corner unit?, 4-rm/5-rm/EM? etc. I guess it can't be helped, buying a flat is probably the biggest investment for us (and in fact most other people), and it will be a place to call home for quite some time. Can't fault us to be more choosy. Due to some reason which I shall not share here, we started house-hunting frenzy over the few weekends in Sep/Oct and decided to settle for a EM near Lakeside MRT. I've always wanted to stay in a unit with internal staircase; I like the fact that the "public" area (area to entertain friends, etc) is separated from the "private" area (that's the sleeping quarters, etc). And it's like the closest thing to staying in a landed property (yes yes... i know it can't be compared to a landed property... there's no car porch, outdoor garden, swimming pool, etc), and I probably can't afford a private property in SG, seeing how property prices are going now (unless I strike lottery or so). And given the fact that the new HDB flats are really quite small compared to the older flats, I really appreciate the spaciousness of a EM unit. BUT my fiancee and some other colleagues/friends have their reservations: 1. Not child-friendly or elderly-friendly due to the staircase. 2. Might be troublesome, when my wife-to-be gets pregnant next time 3. Big floor area = more area to clean (3rd toilet, staircase, balcony, etc) = more household chores 4. Potential taxing on the wallet 5. High renovation cost Finally I managed to convince her that this will be our dream home... and was glad that she also shares my thinking now. Some friends question us the need to get such a big unit, when it's only the 2 of us. My reasoning may be flawed, but i guess everyone has different priorities and preferences. For me, 1. SG is land scarce; other than the location of a unit, the size of a unit matters next. 2. Future-proofing; gives me more "room" for future plans (eg. childrens, parents staying in with us next time) 3. HDB not building anymore EMs (though they may build more loft units like those in TreeLodge or Dawson); so it can be considered a rarity(?) Our dream home To cut the story short, we managed to bargain and lower the COV to $27K. To some people (esp some of our friends who have bought their unit at low or zero COV, before the COV started to creep), it's a large sum to pay for COV. But as we have been looking for units ard my area for a while; we do get the sense (or misguided sense) of the COV for units ard the area. The unit is in quite original condition (will post some pre-renovation pics, when we go and do our inspection before the 2nd appt); some may think it's not worth paying so much for original condition; shall not argue more as it's a matter of perspective/preferences. Some info on the unit: 1. It's at least 26 years old and we are going to be the 2nd owners 2. Original condition 3. Ard 600m away from Lakeside MRT (using OneMap to measure the walking distance); hence maybe 5-10 min walking distance. 4. In between 2 major markets (Blk 502 area and Blk 492 area) 5. There's a neighbourhood park 1 block away. 6. My primary school is just downstairs (<200m away). 7. 5 min's walk to my parents' place (my current home) 8. Almost N-S facing 9. At the 10th floor (considered mid-high?) We paid $555K for it ($528K valuation + $27K COV). 1st appt was on 9 Nov 2010. 2nd appt was supposed to be b4 X'mas 2010; however, seller has problem with his new unit, hence out of goodwill, we decided to extend the 2nd appt by another 1 month til 31 Jan 2011 (which is in ard 26 days' time. i'm so excited!) Original Floor Plan Design theme As most of our holiday destinations are going to beach resorts @ Koh Samui, Bali, Batam, etc... and we really enjoy spa resorts/villas; hence for the design theme of our new home is modern resort feel; as we wish to come home to a spa resort everyday! hehehee... Reading the tblogs of fellow forummers here gave me a better idea of what we hope to achieve (though i think it will come at some cost, no doubt). That's it for now. I'll share more on our preferred space planning design in the next few entries and our thoughts on hunting for IDs/renovation contractors (think we or rather I have spoken to >10 different IDs). Hi Bro, When I was reading your post. It seems like we type it ourselves. Haha We went thru 7 BTO and gotten nothing at all. The waterway was the last straw and after that we decide to go for resale. We managed to find a EM in Pasir Ris as going thru the same process now. I am sure your renovation will be beautiful. Do keep updating the blog. Looking forward to your dream house update. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csingeu 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2011 (edited) Quick Updates! My Lighting Plan (draft v3) blue line - T5 cove lighting red line - under-cabinet LED lights yellow circle - downlights blue circle - normal ceiling lights green circle - motion-sensor light green triangle - wall-mounted uplights red triangle - wall-mounted outdoor downlights My thoughts: 1. may need some downlights or hanging lights at the breakfast counter... 2. upper toilets may need more lights; esp wall-mounted side-lights for the mirrors at the vainty counters for mirror lighting or just ceiling lights for general lighting... 3. my Arco lamp will be at the living room area, to provide 2nd level lighting, for reading purposes. 4. the bedroom study table will have table lamps for general task lighting... Pls give me your comments. Thanks! Edited March 17, 2011 by csingeu Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cleong 1 Report post Posted March 18, 2011 The number of lighting points and type of lighting you intend to use are going to cost quite a lot more than typical single lighting points. If you're getting halogen downlights they're going to consume more power as well. Cove and downlights involve false ceilings and suchlike which are also additional renovation costs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marshmallow 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2011 ohh... in any case, if anyone is wondering who symisa's husband is... that would be me hahahahaaha yea we would know if we read page 2 of your blog (or is it page 1? )... i remember the post on tom yam soup... LOL Actually, our top choice was Merchant Court. though slightly more $$$, but like what you said lor... pretty hotel, lovely ballroom, and very accessible... but too bad, don't have our dates... and even the dates can make it... we don't have enough tables to meet the minimum... unless... maybe do wedding lunch... in fact, wife is psycho-ing me with that... i'm pretty much ok with anything... Novotel is our 2nd choice... like the high ceiling... and the square ballroom and quite a private cosy foyer... though the place does look a little "dated" now... lunch is actually quite good cos you (and your guests too) won't feel so tired and still have time to mingle around and talk to friends after the banquet. but downside is a lot of pple still think hotel wedding lunch is very cheap and "under-bao" while in actual fact, wedding lunch is probably just $10~$20 cheaper per head as compared to wedding dinner. both choices are good, but if can't meet the minimum tables, then very risky.... we went thru 3 rounds to settle the seating arrangements... quite pain-in-the-***... just sometimes, relatives very ma fan... cannot confirm availability... and sometimes, quite "political", as you put it... She was telling me the other day, got someone "praised" her for being practical in renotalk... yes... one thing i haven't done is to ask to see one of his finished projects... might be a gd idea to talk to the homeowners regarding their renovation journey with him... i think i'm just taking things for granted... not very gd ah... now cannot do seating arrangement yet... can only do rough estimate of no. of tables required... the challenge comes when pple RSVP and you do the detail seating arrangement wah like that cannot talk so much in your t-blog liao... got "watchful eye" of your wife here... hahahaha just kidding ohh.. the storage bed frame is actually one of the available option... but wife doesn't like storage bed frame... she thinks the space won't be very useful at all... and it's troublesome to put things in and out of the under-bed storage... actually storage bedframe quite good leh. i like... can put a lot of those you-don't-use-often-but-can't-throw-away things there what i mean is, they have a lot of storage bedframe other than the one in the package. if you go to the furniture mall outlet, they have one whole showroom just for beds. so that time i changed to another storage bedframe that is not from the package If i were to use the expedit as tv console, i would mount some "short legs" to it... i've seen my friends done it... looks pretty decent... but definitely not as sturdy as the cellini tv console I'm hoping to get... actually without the legs it will be more sturdy? i would go without legs cos like that then dun need to clean the floor below the console~ Kobelala & mae29: if you are reading this, we are doing a house visit this sunday!! wait! this Sunday? okie okie need to tell hubby else he will faint~ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
