wei2 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 Hi All,I have been lurking around renotalk since Nov 2010.Finally, my turn has come to set up a t-blog here.Mine is a repurchased flat directly from HDB from their Sales of Balance flat exercise.Ironically, the biggest purchase of our life is like a gamble.We bought the flat without being able to touch it nor see it.There's no show room or model as it is an old flat.We can only rely on the poor resolution pictures found on HDB website to decide.1st HDB Appointment (Flat Selection): 17 Dec 20102nd HDB Appointment (Keys Collection): 28 Mar 20114 Room ApartmentType 3(H)Floor Area: 101m sqLocation: Hougang St 92FloorplanNevertheless, we were quite pleased with the condition of the flat when we first stepped in.Next post, will post up pictures of the current flat. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
May_dream1 14 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 Congrats!!! Now easy to get to buy from balance of flats! You are so lucky!!! The floor plan looks great! All rectangular, easy to play Reno with. Show more pic, please! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wei2 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 Congrats!!! Now easy to get to buy from balance of flats! You are so lucky!!! The floor plan looks great! All rectangular, easy to play Reno with. Show more pic, please!Hi May_dream1, thanks for visiting.I have been reading your t-blog all this while, envious of your big apartment and great location. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
west 1 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 congrats! hope to see your updates soon! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wei2 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 As stated earlier on, we were quite pleased with the condition of the flat.The unit has been vacant for 2 years.HDB removed all fixtures and did a repaint before they hand the keys to us.However, we do not understand why the previous owner choosed this kind of uneven tiles for the living room.It is very rough and traps dirt easily.View of our main door from the living room.Notice the stoney pathway the previous owner delibrately built, rough texture Together with the uneven grey floor tiles, it looks like the ground floor (waiting area for lifts) at my parents' flat!View of living room from the kitchen.Another view of living room.View of MBR.This room will be used as a wardrobe and makeup room instead of being the master bedroom.View of bedroom 2.This will be the study/working room. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wei2 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 View of bedroom 3.We will be sleeping in this room.View of kitchen from service yard.View of service yard from kitchen.Will remove the curb at service yard to make it into a long kitchen as the space i have is quite narrow.View of MBR toilet.Notice where the shower kerb lines in-between the window, that is where i'm suppose to put a shower screen. Headache. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wei2 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 View of common toilet.Notice how the fat ugly pipe is blocking my toilet window. Another headache.All floor tiles, have to go.Hack and re-tile for the whole house is a lot of money If you looked closely at my walls and ceilings, you will notice grooves lines. I didn't like it.There goes my money. $1500 for plastering the whole flat to smoothen the walls & ceilings.Next, i will post up about the contractors that we have met up with.6 of them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
May_dream1 14 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 Hi May_dream1, thanks for visiting.I have been reading your t-blog all this while, envious of your big apartment and great location.No need to envy!! Yours are equally big too. It's nice condition from all the pictures and definitely great to have both rooms as 1. Think your wardrobe will be big too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wei2 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 congrats! hope to see your updates soon! thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wei2 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 Met up with a total of 6 contractors within a month.By then, we were already exhausted and tired out.We are on a really tight budget, so it wasn't easy to find someone who can work within our budget. All the contractors we met up were recommended by our friends.1. Kenny - ID Form2. Ryan - Interior File3. Ah Hwa - ID Inspiration4. Donn - PL206 Studio5. James - CT Square Interior Design6. Ben - Summit Design Studio It took us 7 weeks after getting our keys to finally confirm our contractor.I know we were slow, but i need to be as cautious as possible.The quotes we received, ranged from 35k to 45k.After removing a handful of items, we managed to reduce the quote into a comfortable range for us.I do not have a specific theme for the house.All i want is simple, neat and clean-cut design.Nothing fanciful or exaggerating.My husband and i feel that Ah Hwa is the right person to work with.Easy to talk to, experienced, not calculative and most importantly, we feel that he is reliable.Unlike one of the contractors, who turned up 45 min late for our appointment,and another contractor took 3 weeks to send us the quotation when he promised he need 3 days only.And there's another contractor, we can tell that he is very experienced, but he seems to be too hard-selling.Contractors should listen to what owners want and advise, not reject our ideas just because nobody have done it before.Ah Hwa from ID Inspiration (subsidiary of Chng Poh Guan) not much discussed on renotalk.Hope that there will not be too much hiccups.Day 1 of reno, hacking will commence tomorrow!Maybe i will post up some details about my quotation later. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sleek 2 Report post Posted May 18, 2011 Unlike one of the contractors, who turned up 45 min late for our appointment,and another contractor took 3 weeks to send us the quotation when he promised he need 3 days only.And there's another contractor, we can tell that he is very experienced, but he seems to be too hard-selling.Contractors should listen to what owners want and advise, not reject our ideas just because nobody have done it before.welcome to t-blog, you have a bigger size 4room, it is in great condition and really lucky to get one of these sales of balance flats talking about these contractors, i had one who turned up 3 hours late and only after i msged him to check if he was even coming, didnt even have the courtesy to let me know he was running late, plus he never did come back to me with my quote which i didnt bother chasing for since he's clearly not interested in my small biz. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MeiLinChCh 1 Report post Posted May 19, 2011 Hi All,I have been lurking around renotalk since Nov 2010.Finally, my turn has come to set up a t-blog here.Mine is a repurchased flat directly from HDB from their Sales of Balance flat exercise.Ironically, the biggest purchase of our life is like a gamble.We bought the flat without being able to touch it nor see it.There's no show room or model as it is an old flat.We can only rely on the poor resolution pictures found on HDB website to decide.1st HDB Appointment (Flat Selection): 17 Dec 20102nd HDB Appointment (Keys Collection): 28 Mar 20114 Room ApartmentType 3(H)Floor Area: 101m sqLocation: Hougang St 92FloorplanNevertheless, we were quite pleased with the condition of the flat when we first stepped in.Next post, will post up pictures of the current flat.Hi..welcome to RT My flat also directly from HDB Sales of Balance flat exercise too Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hafiizh 0 Report post Posted May 19, 2011 I like the layout! Condition looks ok but enjoy your reno journey. Can't wait to see how it ends up Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wei2 0 Report post Posted May 19, 2011 welcome to t-blog, you have a bigger size 4room, it is in great condition and really lucky to get one of these sales of balance flats talking about these contractors, i had one who turned up 3 hours late and only after i msged him to check if he was even coming, didnt even have the courtesy to let me know he was running late, plus he never did come back to me with my quote which i didnt bother chasing for since he's clearly not interested in my small biz. i also feel that the contractor who only sent me quotation 3 weeks later because he is not interested to take up my project.in a way good for me also, makes the elimination process faster. no need to do a re-quote with him. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wei2 0 Report post Posted May 19, 2011 Hi..welcome to RT My flat also directly from HDB Sales of Balance flat exercise tooThanks for popping into my t-blog Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
