Our Very Own Place To Call Home

[stinker808 0]

Hi all,

Just wanna pen down the process of finding our new place, selection of IDs, progress of renovation til the complete work done for it.

Been reading up this wonderful forum since we got our place in Woodlands. Doing research every night to gather all the relevent information that this forum has tonnes of to allow my selection process til the completion to be smooth running. Kudos to those who offered their experience and advice.

So, after our second appt with HDB on the 18th of Feb, we went out in search of the ID who we can trust or rather our gut feeling tells us. Talked to at least 14 IDs, including those more promiment ones whom are always talked about in this forum and based on our budget constraints, decided to go with the referral company.

Finally, we signed on the dotted line on the 5th of Apr and waited for our very first 3D drawing to be out. Quite excited to be honest since it's our first place afterall.

Since working in on my company's laptop, will just post the 3D drawings first before uploading the rest.

Cheers

WIW

Living hall - Whole stretch of Feature wall to cover the bombshelter

Kitchen

Edited April 13, 2011 by stinker808

[stinker808 0]

As promised, pics from the start of this journey.

Original floorplan:

Pictures taken before taking over from owner.

Living hall

From another angle

Bomb Shelter right smack in the middle

[stinker808 0]

Kitchen

Guest room

Intended WIW

[stinker808 0]

MBR

[superchrisho 0]

Congrats! Place looks very new and clean still. Think your reno will be fun! =) Designs look good

[stinker808 0]

Given the tight budget constraint (Everything in at around 20K), I have to try and minimize some costing in order to free some amount up to buy nicer and better white goods and furnitures if possible.

Some of my hardwork - Dismantling of existing laminated flooring for whole house, dismantling of kitchen worktop (Plywood with Laminate)

Saved another $700+

Living laminated flooring out

Guestroom on the way

Kitchen top

[stinker808 0]

Now, all the laminated flooring is up liao..... did all the work before i started the blog to remind myself of the handwork put in and to cherish the place.

This sat will meet up with the ID for wallpaper, laminate and tiles selection. Once all these is done, the renovation will be able to start by next Wed or Thur. Woohoo......... so anticipating the process and looking at the process of transforming a bare house to a place me n wifey can call home......

Will post the process pics as time goes by

Cheer

[stinker808 0]

Congrats! Place looks very new and clean still. Think your reno will be fun! =) Designs look good

hahaha.... ya, the place still looks new cos the previous owner only renovated the place for 1 year only. But think because the materials that his contractor uses are not the better quality ones or the owner did not mantain it well enough, ended up we have to change all the laminated flooring..... (Thought can save some $$ when confirming).

I hope it's fun as well..... Been going up the unit at least once every week..... Really looking forward to the start and the end........

Saw your T-Blog too..... very nice looking...... Especially the light switches... super retro...reminds me of the time when I was staying in Boon lay with my grandma.....

Just to check, for the doggy hole at the door, how much is it to construct one? Or rather, cos I will be changing the room doors as well, can get my ID to do the cutting?

Cheers

Edited April 13, 2011 by stinker808

[stinker808 0]

Met up with the ID yesterday to confirm on the laminate, get quote for wallpaper and selection of tiles. Everything went quite smoothly until wifey went to ask the ID if the living hall design was thought out by him. Unable to give convincing answer and when wifey asked about any other customer have the same or similar design, he blurted out that on in Jurong have the same design!!! Wife's thought of the design suddenly did a 180 degrees U-Turn....... Kept mentioning how can the ID use the same design done by others and gave it to us, just changing the colours does not make much difference.... Haiz...... so now, called the ID, told him about the issue, can sense that the ID a bit unhappy.

Just to check with all the rest of the bros and sis, do u guys encounter such problems during ur confirmation of design with ur IDs? Like using the same design that was used on others and u get the same design? Appreciate all comments and advice.

Also, we changed the colour of our laminate prints for the WIW wardrobe, wifey asked ID to re-draw a 3D, he also seems reluctant to comply, a bit unexpected.

I understand that we are a referral case for the ID but doesn't that mean that he should put in more effort in order to upkeep his reputation?

Anyway, I'm always the mediator for such issues between wifey and contractors or any service provider that we ever engaged. Will go down on Wed to pacific the ID and hope everything goes well from there. Wish me luck!!! Meantime, I will upload the pictures of the laminate that we chosen for all the carpentry work.

Cheers

WIW

Center laminate which we changed, asked for another 3D drawing, ID a bit buai siong

Black Laminate

Edited April 17, 2011 by stinker808

[stinker808 0]

Feature wall

[friends78 0]

Just to check with all the rest of the bros and sis, do u guys encounter such problems during ur confirmation of design with ur IDs? Like using the same design that was used on others and u get the same design? Appreciate all comments and advice.

No right or wrong answer really. Personal preference I wld say. For our case, we are not willing to pay for 3D when we first start to source for IDs/contractors. So we are kind of prepared to receive duplicate designs and will go for it if we like what we saw... We even saved a lot of nice pics that are posted by owners so that we can copy the designs in case the 3Ds/2D are not nice...Anyway, as long as the designs are nice, hse owners like it... Why not?

[stinker808 0]

After another round of negotiation and meditation, the second set of 3D drawings are out.

Living hall - New

Living - Initial

WIW - New

WIW - Initial

Any fellow bro or Sis would like give some comment of the previous design and the current one and guess which one wifey eventually chose under the influence of my dear sis-in-law....... Lucky for her, at least wifey feels more secure after their debate and advice.

Thanks for all the advice in advanced

Cheer

[kyxyy 0]

nice design! Prefer the new design for Living and WIW...

load more pic of your progress...

[stinker808 0]

nice design! Prefer the new design for Living and WIW...

load more pic of your progress...

Hahaha... Thanks for your reply. The first reply on the new designs

Definitely will upload as the process continues.

Cheers

[hafiizh 0]

personally i prefer the old living design with the criss crossing sections.

in the end though, most important is which ones you and your wife like! best of luck, the place looks nice pre-reno, i'm sure it'll be even nicer after