H & H Love Nest @ Tampines

[yeese 0]

HX & I dated for 3 years and finally on October last year, we tied the knot and became husband & wife. Although we had a great wedding and everything is blissful, the marriage is yet complete without a place to call our own. When we get to know that our PR status got approved, we start our HDB hunting immediately! Going through 20+ HDB with our agent, we finally found an ideal place in Tampines! Although its current situation is nothing much to be talked about, the COV is low enough to allow us a bigger budget for the renovation. The floor plan as below:

Edited February 18, 2012 by yeese

[yeese 0]

Below are some pictures of the house's current situation:

In my opinion, the process of buying a HDB is taking too long!! It is not until end March that we will get the key and start the renovation. The good news for this is that we have ample time to plan for the reno. As the house flooring is still at acceptable condition, we decided to minimize the renovation to:

a) Living Room (Feature Wall & Fake Ceiling)

b) Dining Area (Fake Ceiling)

c) Kitchen (Open Concept)

d) Common Bathroom (Dismantle & Rebuild)

e) Master Bedroom (Wardrobe, Feature Wall)

f) Master Bedroom's Bathroom (Dismantle & Rebuild)

Edited February 18, 2012 by yeese

[yeese 0]

After some search, we managed to get some quotations from the following IDs:

a) Weiken - Casper

b) New Creation - Xeon

c) Darwin - Jensen

d) Ideal Design - Wilson & Gregg

Darwin and Ideal Design's quotations were real close (Around 33K). Darwin was having some anniversary promotion but they are charging GST while Ideal's price was higher but they absorb the GST. After some consideration, we finally choose Ideal as their designer, Wilson is showing real sincerity. He willing to drive to our place after my office hour (which is after 9pm) to discuss about our renovation. Till now, there is no regret in this choice.

Edited February 18, 2012 by yeese

[yeese 0]

Below are Wilson's 3D Design of my house:

Really love the kitchen!

For the living room, decided to move the partition feature wall towards the wall so that it will not make our living room too small.

We find the masterbed room to be too dull in white but we have yet to decide on what colour should it be. Any suggestion from you guys will be very helpful

Edited February 18, 2012 by yeese

[yeese 0]

While shopping in IMM, some items in Hoe Kee caught our eyes:

Blanco Metra 9

Remer N77 Gourmet

The lady boss told us that the sink is a great buy as the original price is over $500 but selling at $399 now! After some sales talk, we decided to put a deposit on the sink and the below items:

a) Tecno Hood (KP 98888)

b) Tecno Hob (T 333TG)

c) Tecno Built-in Oven (TMO 28)

Not sure whether are they a good buy... If there is any existing user out there, kindly give some comment!!!

The lady boss also recommend the below item and to forgo the vanity cabinet that is recommended by the ID. We think this is a good idea as it will give us more than $200 saving!!

Edited February 18, 2012 by yeese

[DingDong 0]

COngrats congrats!! hahah welcome to tampines.. nice but getting very crowded town..hahaha

hope u have a smooth reno process and settle in nicely!

More pics along the way ya.

[yeese 0]

For electrical appliances, we are thinking of the following:

a) Television: Samsung 55D6000

b) Refrigerator: Samsung RSH5SUSL

c) Washing Machine: Samsung WA12VP (Saw it during January 2012 but found out it is listed as not available in Samsung website. Anybody know the reason?)

For current users, kindly provide some review on the items!

[Valerie Low 0]

After some search, we managed to get some quotations from the following IDs:

a) Weiken - Casper

b) New Creation - Xeon

c) Darwin - Jensen

d) Ideal Design - Wilson & Gregg

Darwin and Ideal Design's quotations were real close (Around 33K). Darwin was having some anniversary promotion but they are charging GST while Ideal's price was higher but they absorb the GST. After some consideration, we finally choose Ideal as their designer, Wilson is showing real sincerity. He willing to drive to our place after my office hour (which is after 9pm) to discuss about our renovation. Till now, there is no regret in this choice.

Hi Yeese,

Congrats!! Me and hubby have just gotten our PR status too and bought a resale flat at bedok. Hehe.. but we are only able to get our keys in April.. Looking forward to your reno! 33k for those you have mentioned above? Do you change window grill etc? I'm planning to re-do my flooring and also window. I guess i'll faint looking at the reno price. Anyway, we havn't sourced any ID yet.

[yeese 0]

Hi Valerie,

Congrats to you too! How much did you pay for your COV? Hopefully it is low enough so that you have a bigger budget for the reno

Currently the reno cost is still 33k (for the items I mentioned above) but expecting to add a few things here and there once we get the key, hehe... With so many items in the Wish List and a limited budget, I am putting the window grill low in the priority list...

Depending on what else you planned for your house reno, I think your reno pricing will be higher than mine if you are redoing the whole flooring... For my house, I am only re-doing the flooring for both the bathrooms and kitchen... And also raised floor in the living room... The rest of the house will be having its original flooring... (How I wish I have bigger budget!!!)

If you have yet to source for any ID, why not getting a quotation from my ID (Wilson @ Ideal Design) as well? Like his attitude towards his customer (that's me!) and his passion towards my house renovation... Not only that he drive all the way to meet me at odd hour to discuss about the renovation, he even bring us to JB to look for furniture! If you believe in feng shui, he can give you lots of amateur advice too!

[yeese 0]

Went furniture shopping in JB with my ID last Saturday... The first sofa set that caught my eye is....

Unlucky for me, my missus dun like it.. She worries that the design will easily get out dated. In the end, we chosen something more traditional:

As they manufacture their own furniture, this furniture shop allows us to fully customize our sofa. Very useful if you want your sofa to be an actual fit to your living room or you have an awkard sized living room..

For my customization, I requested:

a) Material - 'huang niu pi' or yellow cow leather.. According to a friend of mine, this is rare to find in Singapore... not sure how true it is..

b) Recliner - I added a recliner system to the 3 seater (only the two side seat.. middle seat remain original)

c) Colour - White creamy colour

Wanted to add a cup holder/Remote controls cabinet in the middle of my sofa but the sales person advised me against it.. Told us this design is already out of date...

For my wife, the greatest purchase of the day will be our marble top coffee table..

She managed to bargain with the sales person for a 50% discount! I guess they made enough money from us for the sofa... Oh yeah, she even managed to ask for a carpet and two pillows as free gift!

Will be getting a maching dining table but still waiting for a quotation from them...

Edited February 20, 2012 by yeese

[Terencetcw 0]

hi yeese,

Congrat on your new purchase hehe

Tampines 4 room flat was my 1st choice but the price was sky high...never forget the COV..

Guess what...we have 100% same floor plan...(can this be happen?)

[Valerie Low 0]

Went furniture shopping in JB with my ID last Saturday... The first sofa set that caught my eye is....

Unlucky for me, my missus dun like it.. She worries that the design will easily get out dated. In the end, we chosen something more traditional:

As they manufacture their own furniture, this furniture shop allows us to fully customize our sofa. Very useful if you want your sofa to be an actual fit to your living room or you have an awkard sized living room..

For my customization, I requested:

a) Material - 'huang niu pi' or yellow cow leather.. According to a friend of mine, this is rare to find in Singapore... not sure how true it is..

b) Recliner - I added a recliner system to the 3 seater (only the two side seat.. middle seat remain original)

c) Colour - White creamy colour

Wanted to add a cup holder/Remote controls cabinet in the middle of my sofa but the sales person advised me against it.. Told us this design is already out of date...

For my wife, the greatest purchase of the day will be our marble top coffee table..

She managed to bargain with the sales person for a 50% discount! I guess they made enough money from us for the sofa... Oh yeah, she even managed to ask for a carpet and two pillows as free gift!

Will be getting a maching dining table but still waiting for a quotation from them...

Wow... your wife is definitely very good at bargaining! Your ID has very good service too. But i may not need an ID. My cousin has an interior design firm and i may just look for him to do up some stuff. See how things go. I'm always very last minute keke.. Look forward to viewing more pictures from you!

Edited February 21, 2012 by ValerieLow

[rocksteady 0]

Hi bro mind giving me the address of this shop. TIA

[yeese 0]

Hi bro mind giving me the address of this shop. TIA

Hi rocksteady,

The name of the shop is VanHoden (No 30-32, Jalan Ros Merah 2/9, Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 JB

[yeese 0]

hi yeese,

Congrat on your new purchase hehe

Tampines 4 room flat was my 1st choice but the price was sky high...never forget the COV..

Guess what...we have 100% same floor plan...(can this be happen?)

Hi Terence,

Going through your blog now to steal some ideas!