Home @ Punggol

[crypaz 1]

Ballot for this build-to-order in Sep 2009. It's the 2nd BTO project that we tried out luck for. Location wise not very favourable as it's 1km away from Punggol MRT, though it's near LRT. Our Q no. was 7XX, which exceeds the flat supply. There wasn't much choices left during our time to select a unit. This block was the only block with the most number of units left (guess it's also the most unpopular block). Actually prefer the balcony in the living room instead of bedroom, but majority are taken up. So the next priority is to get the highest floor without afternoon sun. There are high floor units available but facing afternoon sun, so i took those that face morning sun, and only managed to get a mid floor unit.Not a favourable unit but at that time demand was more than supply...there are some who ballot quite a no. of times before getting a chance to pick a unit...so is like either you take it or leave it. As we are not aware if future BTO project will we be getting a better or worse Q no. we just went ahead to select a unit. I guess there's no right no wrong...

Suprisingly, this most unpopular block was the first one to be completed. My guess is because it's next to a school so they want to complete it earlier. We were the first batch to get our keys in June 2012.

[casa 0]

Congrats and welcome

Hope to c your reno pics soon

[crypaz 1]

Pre-reno pictures

When i first step into the house, i nearly wanted to faint...it was so small...everything was small, even the MBR size is like the same as common room. Only the toilets are of decent size...

Living room

Kitchen

Common room 1

Common room 2

Common toilet

Edited August 9, 2012 by crypaz

[crypaz 1]

Masterbedroom with balcony

Masterbedroom toilet

Edited August 9, 2012 by crypaz

[crypaz 1]

IDs/Contractors

I started looking for ID/contractors during May. Meet up with 6 IDs and 3 contractors. Visited those Home & Furnishing shows at Expo.

Line***** - Meet up with this ID at expo.Went through our requirements, came back to us with proposed layout and quotation. As during that time we were still in the "looking around" stage so we didn't intend to sign up with her. Plus her quotation is out of our budget.

Su*** - The firm is very popular in renotalk. Visit the firm in their office. We got the layout and quotation from them, pricing wise quite reasonable.

Ar*****- Found this firm through renotalk, really like their designs. Unfortunately, meeting didn't turn out pleasant as our budget was too low for them...

Sto** ** ** - Found this ID firm through facebook. Meet up with the designer, told her our requirements. This lady was previously from a "branded" ID firm and she just started out on her own. We told her we do not want those standard showroom design and we like wooden stuff. She shared with us our is close to scandinavian theme. However, we dropped her cause quotation out of budget. Just purely buying her design is also out of budget. We also didn't have much chemistry with her. But appreciate the fact that she makes the effort to do some homework, show us the laminates and the flooring tiles we could us.

The de*******- Found them while browsing through ID firm, their design is abit close to what we are looking at... pricing wise so so...

F** - Meet up with one of the IDs at their office, conversation was short just by purely buying their designs already cost $5k. However, from the meetup, she suggest that i could just go for wooden theme, as those that i like is of a mixture of scandi, industrial, etc

D* ***** - Contractor, used to be quite popular in forum but not sure why recently quiet down. Got the quotation, pricing wise is the lowest of all..Makes me wonder about the quality of work

W**** - Contractor, recommended by my father-in-law. Pricing wise so so, not the cheapest neither most expensive. But didn't like the fact that he not really willing to lower the pricing.

H**** - Very popular in renotalk now, got him to visit the site on the day i got the keys..pricing wise i thought a bit higher as compared to 1 of the IDs's i got...

After meet up with IDs, i realise that with my budget, i can only go for those "non-branded" IDs or contractor. Initial thought is to have someone to help us with the colour coordination, selection of laminates and advise us on the lightnings. But after some thoughts, we feel that we can come up with our own designs without the help of ID by doing more research. We have direct contacts for carpentry and electrical. Was thinking it would be a waste not to use them as my family members have used them for their home reno, cause at least for pricing wise they are reasonable and quality wise is there. We just need to find separate source for tiling, painting and plumbering but that would mean alot of work and coordination on my side.

So in the end, we got a firm to do the tiling, painting, plumbering and shower screen. As for the rest like carpentry, electrical, doors and table top, we will liaise with direct contacts. We thought this would gives us some savings in reno.

Edited August 9, 2012 by crypaz

[crypaz 1]

Furniture shopping

After i gotten my keys, went in to do site measurement. I started with furniture shopping first before confirming any reno firm as june was GSS period.

As both of us likes wooden stuff, especially oak wood, we went places that sells oak wood furniture.

Went to whitewoods and Grafunkt. Bought the follwing from Grafunkt.

Dinning table (hubby like the legs while i like the white top)

Bedside table, bought the large wonderbox

TV consol (bought oak colour)

Edited August 9, 2012 by crypaz

[crypaz 1]

Went lush-lush, hubby choose this dinning chair as he finds that the legs of the chairs match the dinning table

Dinning chairs

Went paragon muji to order this bedframe, again it's oak wood

Went foundry to purchase this mega bulb, like it very much and going to hang it above the dinning table

Saw this sofa at mode studio, like the fact that the back support can be push backwards, so it can be like a L shape sofa, both me and hubby can rest our legs on it, and when i push the back support forward, it becomes a normal sofa. Went to a few places to look for something similar but pricing abit high. Enquire places which custom made sofa but they dun have this mechanism.

This sofa we saw was about 2.2m, our sofa wall is only 2m, so we bought a similar one, 1.9m also orange colour

Edited August 9, 2012 by crypaz

[crypaz 1]

Electrical works/Air con and City Gas Installation

Before i confirm the reno firm, i went ahead with the electrical works, air con installation and city gas piping and gas water heater installation in beginning of July.

Air con i went through my father in law's friend, didn't really go check out places like Gain City. Use him purely base on trust. Pricing wise comparable to outside.

City gas pipping

Gas water heater installation.

Initially wanted to use instant heater, but after some thoughts on the saving of electrical bills, we decided to go with City gas water heater. Installation of gas water heater also means additional cost on plumbering work.

[crypaz 1]

Aircon work, overall neatly done

[crypaz 1]

Start of renovation

While waiting for HDB to do the cement screed for my 3 bedroom as i using laminates, i confirm the reno firm and reno starts in end July. Engaged them to do tiling, painting, plumbering and shower screen.

I do not have a particular theme. Both me and hubby likes wooden stuff...so our house will have alot of wood... So i guess ours is considered wooden theme?

I set a pretty low budget for this reno. Reason being this house is going to be a weekend chalet for us, so we thought no point spending too on reno since we wouldn't be there often. So we try to think of ways to make the area looks nicer without having to do any additional overlaying or hacking.

I believe that reno can be kept simple ...and if you know how to play around with colours, lightings, buy some nice furnishing and decorate with your own stuff, the whole house will be unique on its own and will have the homely feel. Hopefully ours will turn out to have the homely feel.

Kitchen base

Cement wall for sink area. This was suggested by my carpenter.This is to protect the wood in case the sink leak one day. The carpenter will use wood to "wrap" round the cement wall

Fridge base

Washing machine base

Shower kerb

Edited August 9, 2012 by crypaz

[MsChocobanana 1]

Love your light bulbs!

[crypaz 1]

For lightings, initial plan is to use LED light kits attached to ceiling fans in all rooms and living room. We like those LED light kits as compare to those "traditional" lights as we feel that they look much nicer.

When we went shopping for lights, the sales staff actually discourage us from buying the LED lights kits. Reason being once one of the light spoil, you have to detach the whole thing and send it for servicing, which can be quite troublesome. As compare to those traditional light kits, you can just go NTUC to buy a light bulb and change it.

Upon hearing that, we became rather confused. We do not like those traditional light kits and i need to have light kits attached to the fan cause i do not have other source of lights in the room. We didn't want to have false ceiling as we wanted to save cost on that area. And since we dun play to use downlights, false ceiling is not required. She also highlight to us the solely based on LED light kits will not make the area bright enough.

We are very certain that we do not want those traditional light kits. If we were to do box up meant for downlights for all rooms and living area, my electrical cost will do up and we also need to incur additional cost for box up. After some thought, we decided to box up only for MBR and living room area. We will still go ahead with ceiling fan attached with LED light kits. For the 2 common room, as it will be empty, we were not that concern about no light source in the event the light kit spoil.For my living area and MBR i will have two light source, the downlights and LED light kit.

Since we are boxing up for downlights, we decided to box up the aircon casing as well to make it look nicer.

Box up for downlights in living room area

Box up for air con

Edited August 9, 2012 by crypaz

[crypaz 1]

Decided to use homogeneous tiles that look like wooden planks (150mmx600mm). Found a tile i like at Harfary. Cost $3.40 but is out of stock. The tiles will take a few months to produce and i couldn't wait too long...so dropped.

Make a few trips to Soon Bee Huat. It wasn't easy to find a suitable tile. Select the same tile as one of the forumer

Tiles arrived

Balcony tiles up

For bedroom flooring, i sign up with Supreme laminates during expo before my keys collection. Choose homogeneous tiles for living area for easy maintenance. For bedrooms, i prefer the wooden feel, though laminates aren't wood. Brought the tile sample to find the laminate to match. Hopefully the living room flooring and blend well with the bedroom

Bedroom laminate

[crypaz 1]

Love your light bulbs!

Thanks...I love them too!

[ben107 0]

Ballot for this build-to-order in Sep 2009. It's the 2nd BTO project that we tried out luck for. Location wise not very favourable as it's 1km away from Punggol MRT, though it's near LRT. Our Q no. was 7XX, which exceeds the flat supply. There wasn't much choices left during our time to select a unit. This block was the only block with the most number of units left (guess it's also the most unpopular block). Actually prefer the balcony in the living room instead of bedroom, but majority are taken up. So the next priority is to get the highest floor without afternoon sun. There are high floor units available but facing afternoon sun, so i took those that face morning sun, and only managed to get a mid floor unit.Not a favourable unit but at that time demand was more than supply...there are some who ballot quite a no. of times before getting a chance to pick a unit...so is like either you take it or leave it. As we are not aware if future BTO project will we be getting a better or worse Q no. we just went ahead to select a unit. I guess there's no right no wrong...

Suprisingly, this most unpopular block was the first one to be completed. My guess is because it's next to a school so they want to complete it earlier. We were the first batch to get our keys in June 2012.

Your floor plan looks very familiar! I think we are in the same project... but I haven't gotten my keys yet...