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fiestypink

Our 4-Rm Resale At Tampines

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the search for our dream home began a few years ago.

yes, we did try to get fresh flats through HDB’s sale exercises and it was a painful journey. we even met an MP because we were *that* desperate for a house. we finally manage to get a reasonable que number in the 2011's sale of balance flat exercise (no 45 out of 43 flats) but boy, it was daunting. we grew crazy monitoring the take up and the drop out rate. the units we wanted were taken up like hotcakes and we were running out of time.

so after a few failed attempts trying to secure a brand new flat with HDB and with the wedding looming near, we finally resorted to the open market.

so then it started, going through propertyguru and the classifieds in search of our dream home. every weekend and every off day from work was spent sitting down to discuss our finances (think atrocious COV payments) and viewing units in Simei, Hougang, Woodlands, Bukit Batok and Tampines.

till one fine day in late December… we found our humble abode at the outskirts of Tampines. after waiting for three long months, we finally got our keys on Friday, 6/4/12.

it has been a whole lot of great fun planning (and squabbling) for the house. we can’t wait to start living our lives together, right here in our own home. we have learnt so much from reading through this forum. thus, we hope to share our journey with you and hopefully be of some help to spark off some great ideas.

here's our floor plan:

photo-1.png

Edited by fiestypink
 

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we’re really lucky that our sellers were really easy to deal with. they were fuss-free and they kept to their end of the bargain. so we finally received our keys on Friday, 6/4/12.

the four long months were worth the wait. the indescribable feeling of gratitude and thankfulness for His blessings were indeed overwhelming.

here’s a few snapshots of our home pre-renovation. yes, the previous home owners (an elderly malay couple) left the house spick and span!

this the view from the main door towards the left.

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and this is the view towards the right.

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the kitchen entrace and the master bedroom + store.

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our kitchen. we will be hacking one of the kitchen walls and relocating the entrace to the common bathroom.

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the masterbedroom.

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we needed our house to be ready by June, just in time for our wedding. since we are both pretty much bogged down with work commitments and wedding preparations, we are aware that proper planning is important. (so we needn't pull our hair out... and be so **** stressed!) we started our search for our renovation contractor as soon as we exercised our OTP in January and got the floor plan.

we've been to the home fairs held at expo, and met our fair share of pushy salespersons. we even had one who insisted we pay a downpayment of 5K on the spot just to 'book' them and as a gesture to 'express our interest'. we went to reputable companies, only to have their IDs tell us that some ideas we had in mind were not workable (ie. we wanted to do away will the skirtings on the wall just above the tile. we went to IMM, and the friendly neighbourhood contractors in the heartlands. i lost count of how many actually, but all i could remember was that it was very, very, very tiring.

eventually we settled for a small renovation contractor as recommended by the future husband's colleagues at work. we fixed an appointment with him and went to his small humble office at city plaza.

while i was apprehensive at first, i must say that the boss won my heart. he was straightforward and was willing to listen... the best part was, (I'm a very visual person) he was able to provide hardcopy examples and pictures from previous clients / projects of things/systems/tiles ideas we had in mind. none of the other contractors/IDs we met was as comprehensive as he was!

he gave us contacts and encouraged us to source out our items on our own (we were more than willing!).

after sourcing around the WHOLE of Singapor (yes, literally :rolleyes: )so we got the following from the following places:

Tiles - White Horse @ Sungei Kadut

Toilet Accessories + WC + Basins + Pipes - Hubfarri @ Changi Road

Lights - lightings.com.sg showroom

Fridge + Washer - Mega Discount @ Kallang

Aircon - I can't remember, somewhere near Novena.. will update address soon

and the purchases were done before we got our keys in April! to save us the headache as our wedding is just around the corner. we had asked all vendors to keep our stocks and they were kind enough to do so.

Edited by fiestypink
 

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our contractor was efficient! hacking works done as soon as we passed the keys to him.

gone is one of the kitchen wall.

photo-7.jpg

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father in law checking out the view from our living room.

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one of the bedroom walls demolished to make way for a more spacious living room.

photo-11.jpg

 

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wow congrats! doing an open kitchen with island layout? :dribble:

thanks! it was one of our initial plans to have the island but after doing the measurements, walking space was really tight. so we decided to go ahead with the open kitchen anyway and we're trying to find a swanky cool table and chairs that can act as a breakfast table / island instead :)

Edited by fiestypink
 

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Hi fiestypink! Congrats! I like your original floor plan. Easy layout for WIW and island kitchen. :thumbs up:

thanks! we think so too! we've planned for the walk-in wardrobe. watch out for pictures! :good:

 

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we came down our house yesterday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised! the tilers are almost done with their works.

we are in love with our homogeneous tiles for the living room. we choose this particular design because we thought it was different. its not the usual 'shiny' homogeneous tiles type. we love its matte finish and the faux wood grains on it. makes it look like parquet! low maintenance and extremely durable.

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tilers are soo efficient! and he was nice enough to lift the cardboard protection for a while so we could snap a photo.

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we adore our kitchen tiles too. especially the texture. not apparent in this pic though. will take closeup as soon as we have the chance to.

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tiling for the MBR toilet completed! yes ugly piping. bluek. our contractor will be boxing that up for us.

photo-18.jpg

Edited by fiestypink
 

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Hi there. That is a very unique floor tile. Woody look, yet easy to maintain because it is homogeneous tiles. :thumbs up:

thanks! we thought it looks pretty unique too. tiling works all done and we're pretty happy with the end results!

 

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its been a while and we've been really bogged down with reno and wedding preps.

updates!

1. tiling completed

2. ceiling completed

3. air con trunking completed

4. painting completed

i'll let the pics do the talking

plastering works done and house in a better shape.

our study room and the guest room

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i was initially very upset as the aircon trunking had to travel a really long and awful way. but then our contractor helped to conceal it under one of the false ceiling and it looks so much better.

view of living room

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Edited by fiestypink
 

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my only qualm

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the stupid open net fibreoptic cable and the gas pipe :bangwall: :bangwall: :bangwall: we cant have it conceal totally. otherwise the ceiling would be far too low.

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our service yard.

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our master bedroom and the entrance to our mini walkin wardrobe & toilet. we dont like how the MBR colour turned out though. we're in the process of repainting. we're changing to the colour below:

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and here's our MBR floor laminates!

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our kitchen accessories!

we got a carysil granite sink

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the tap to go with the sink

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our ariston hob. we got it cheaper direct from our contractor who sourced it out for us.

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stove with hot pot area

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