Finally Our Own Haven! 3 Room Bto...

[alfredt 27]

so exciting to receive keys to a new unit.

have a smooth reno experience and post more picts.

[Lyamani 21]

Oh yes it is! Have u gotten ur house yet? R u a 3 roomer too seeking ideas in here or wat?

[NingNing 28]

Hi NingNing thx for ur input! Ours is a 9kg washer and dryer which is supposed to be stacked on top of one another n looking at e way e pipes r situated in e svc balcony n e protruding out inlet pipe n e extension to pull down e clothes hanger etc.. Jus seems like tat side is totally cramped out for us..wen things r jutting out like tat how to stack dryer on top? Wonder if firstly our size washer dryer will fit into tat space anot.. We thot there may be some way tat plumber etc cud rerun e whole inlet n outlet thingy to e other side... Of cos wud be e best thing if somehow our items can be fit inside tis space but am worried wat happens if it doesn't... We r a big family n never run out of laundry to clear, especially wen I do separate washes for e adults n e kids, washing of comforters n bed sheets etc so we really need a big capacity washer dryer.. E other side of e svc balcony we actually intended to get ID to custom make a ledge table kinda thing or wat for my clothes folding so tat there's a designated system there but now it's all bout how e appliances placement is gonna be.. Headache headache.

Regardless of the kg, usually washers are around 60-70cm wide.

the protruding out inlet pipe? which one? the pipe sticking out of the floor? tts the drainage...

you should actually ask ur ID to solve this problem for you. as for the extension for the hanger one.. tt one really silly of hdb to put it there. mine is on the opposite side of my washer and dryer. but i am removing the hanger thing anyway.

[Lyamani 21]

Hi NingNing.. Nope not e one on e floor but e ones on e wall, there's e inlet tap thingy I think,tats sticking out n e dryer rope thingy tats sticking out where e dryer shud be resting against.. I have checked out so many ppl's blogs n pics of service balcony but nobody seems to have 2 stupid pipes like I have. At most it's 1 big one only or else none sticking out in their way of washing machine placement but mine is so dumbly situated. Can u see how much space there is between e big n thin pipes? Tat eats up so much into my precious space. Why do they need to do tat??? Grrrr! I seriously doubt the balance space available from the small pipe to the wall is anything near 70cm which is e bare minimum we need cos wen I checked out my washer model it's bout 65+cm.. N we gotta give some allowance for a bracket to be fixed to hold e dryer on top so at least 70cm but tis balance space looked soo tiny wen we saw it over there. Anyway going down tis sat for an onsite meeting wit ID so will measure it in detail again n hopefully he can find some solution for us. Overall our service balcony is a big disappointment to me 😒

[bykaraanne 30]

Following your thread closely as in a 3room bto-er too! Just me and hubby though, also had no luck with 4r but ended up with a great 16floor 3r.. My layout is slightly different from yours but overall quite similar so it's exciting! Mine block is building the 10f now haha but have been lurking here for a while...

Thank you for sharing your journey, look forward to your pics and congrats!

Haha here's a peek at my floor plan:

[Lyamani 21]

Oh tats nice u seem to have a big living room..kitchen sizes are as pathetic as always lol...tats to both of ours..our reno will be kick starting tomoro I guess..after looking at the actual unit happened to have some changes/add ons from our initial plan..will keep u posted on more happenings..am kinda stressed out wit some changes now kinda no mood to blog down lol..will wait for my moods to be up again before I can cheerfully yak away here haha tc!

[bykaraanne 30]

Oh tats nice u seem to have a big living room..kitchen sizes are as pathetic as always lol...tats to both of ours..our reno will be kick starting tomoro I guess..after looking at the actual unit happened to have some changes/add ons from our initial plan..will keep u posted on more happenings..am kinda stressed out wit some changes now kinda no mood to blog down lol..will wait for my moods to be up again before I can cheerfully yak away here haha tc!

Aww man!! cheer up! See ya around soon!

[Songz 132]

Oh tats nice u seem to have a big living room..kitchen sizes are as pathetic as always lol...tats to both of ours..our reno will be kick starting tomoro I guess..after looking at the actual unit happened to have some changes/add ons from our initial plan..will keep u posted on more happenings..am kinda stressed out wit some changes now kinda no mood to blog down lol..will wait for my moods to be up again before I can cheerfully yak away here haha tc!

Don worry about it too much, let the design part be handled by your ID & work around it.

There are sure to be solutions to it.

[Lyamani 21]

Hi guys... Ok I decided to post some updates today... Songz n bykaraane thx for ur consolation haha.. For a start, we had planned to settle all the reno works n move in next mth on the 26th April, holding our housewarming party on the 27th, as our monthly rental cycle at our current place is on the 28th,so we could save paying for an extra mth and jus move on before tat.. We even went to ask the priest for an auspicious day/timing to hold the prayers etc and had fixed the housewarming to be on the 27th.. AND THEN, we went down to Casa Italy yesterday to confirm our already purchased during Expo L-shape full cowhide leather sofa set's colour n chaise position(left or right).. We were told at tat time tat bout 4 weeks or so wud be required to indent the sofa upon our colour+chaise direction confirmation n so we thought it's about time n we better make e order soon so we can have it delivered on e 26th April...

The salesman den told us tat shipment will not come in til 3rd May or so n he doesn't know if it can be achieved on e 26th.. Tat he will have to check. Tat dampened my spirits a little cos we wanted e whole house complete wit furniture n all in time for e housewarming party.. Though hubby initially suggested tat we shall move out before e 28th so tat we cud spend e rental cost on other costs for e house instead of extending our stay here, he insists he wants to wait n hold out e housewarming til all e furniture n stuffs come in complete so we shall continue staying put at e rental house for an extended week or two depending on wen things comes together. Felt so disappointed with e timeline of the sofa. Have gotten e salesguy to check wit his side to see if anything can be done, gotta wait for them to get back to us. Damper!

The next blow was to do wit e flooring in our unit.. As we had initially opted for HDB to lay e flooring for us, we decided to overlay with laminate flooring for a nicer flooring instead of sticking to their cheapo ceramic tiles.. Think fellow owners shud take note tat tis causes an issue at ur main door area.. As the laid tiles is jus enough in thickness to leave jus a tiny allowance of space underneath ur main door, you cannot overlay laminate around the main door area.. The added thickness of laminate is totally impossible to be laid underneath e door.. So ID asked wat we wanna do, do we wanna leave e patch of area wit e existing tiles n start laminating from after e door area, which I felt will be so awful! After thinking much I came up wit e idea of pebble wash flooring.. Meaning they will have to hack away the few tiles at the doorway area and use cement and pebbles to create a different pattern at e doorway area, after which abit further up our laminate flooring will start from..

This was going to cost us an additional of $400 excluding the pebbles which r supposed to cost $18-$20 a bagful which apparently is more den enough for the area with lots of leftovers.. So we went down yesterday to Hafary wit ID to choose the pebbles color n type tat we want laid out n I had tis idea of doing a stripes design in 2 coordinating colors so tat e place doesn't look like a big patch of plain pebblewash, jus had a feeling wud not be as attractive as having say 2 stripes of a color n 1 stripe of another, given our small area.. But e difference wud be buying another bagful of pebbles as extra which was no big deal I thought.. N ID said we cud extend e area of e pebblewash til dining area to kinda create a foyer area look n I was so excited tat we were having something unique done in our small space..

(The 2 different pebbles we chose to do our striped pebblewash flooring.. Kinda limited on choices as we didn't wanna go for e sharp edged ones which had more variety.. These have rounded edge so won't feel prickly on e feet and safer.. E 2nd beigey color was chosen to match close to our laminate flooring color in e living so tat it's not too outstandingly off n e other color was to play wit e stripe design.. If worst case scenario we have to stick to a single color pebble wash flooring, it wud be e 2nd pebbles type..)

N DEN, ID msged me after we left saying he checked wit e tiler n was quoted an additional 300-400 for e stripes cos it's more work n material etc etc n tat will bring e total cost of e foyer area to almost 800 jus like tat! Simply not worth right! I was so pissed wit e spoil of plans on my striped foyer area n am now trying to nego wit my ID to get to talk to his tiler on best price to get tat done for me at cheaper price. Haiz... So now I'm waiting for his revert. Simply few hundreds gone like tat on an issue we didn't foresee coming at all.. Wudnt have been a prob if we didn't have tiles laid by HDB but since we do, it's a pain now. So I suggest unless u really want to stick with their tiles, do not opt to have tiles laid by them cos it's gonna cause u extra inconvenience n works later on to do anything else u wanna redo..

[ahhboi 15]

Look at the bright side, that foyer area will be quite nice and something more unique~

[Lyamani 21]

Yes...I'm hoping to get e striped foyer pebblewash done don't want 1 plain looking patch. But e initial quote is like double! So unless I get it at a good price, I can forget bout stripes! Pray pray ID can get good price for me! 😳

[claypot 46]

surprises especially additional costs during renovation is not new. most people experienced this. fault sometimes is with the ID for not checking and advising during the quotation stage (unless you make changes after the quotation is finalized).

[Lyamani 21]

Actually so far my ID is quite ok doesn't seem e type to anyhow quote us n cut throat.. Quite a reasonable guy who has been trying his best for us... But problem is e stress wit e extra add ons coming on n costs haiz... Am waiting to see workmanship n overall turnout of our house before I comment further or recommend him.. Tats only fair..

[guojiawen 101]

i have to agree about opting for the HDB tiles part.

if i've started reading renotalk a few years back, i'll definitely not opt in for it to have more choices during renovation too..

hope your ID is able to help with the pricing and the unique foyer area can materialise

[Lyamani 21]

Yes exactly! Thx for ur wishes.. Some updates, my ID got back to me tat he got e prices slashed down n now it's $580 for doing up my striped pebble wash foyer, yay!! It pays to be a nag n nego right lol! At least not too ridiculous comparing e possible quotes we wud have incurred.. He says we will do bout 5 stripes, dark, light, dark, light, dark, followed by our laminate flooring throughout e rest of e dining/living area... So there's a contrast from e last dark stripe to e actual lighter laminate flooring.. 😍😍😍

N I chased my Casa Italy salesman n told him i badly need our sofa indented n delivered latest by e 26th Apr as we have arranged for our housewarming prayers cum party on e 27th n he mentioned tat he needs to speak to his main boss, try his ways etc to try for e possibility as e scheduled shipment is on 3rd May so gotta try n tat he will try his best for us n he got back to me saying he managed to push thru! Said they have arranged for my order to be prioritized n delivered in their shipment on e 25th Apr so after sorting out etc can deliver on 26th.. Success!! Haha but still a part of me is worrying n holding my breath til I actually get e item delivered to me on time. We could arrange n plan anything but cock ups do happen no matter wat so fingers crossed!

N, yet another screw up. My ID found there to be a blockage at our service yard outlet drainage.. There's some cement hardened in there n water flows thru very slowly thus they need to get tat rectified by HDB's side before they can proceed masonry works. How **** irritating! N he can't do e arrangement wit e maintenance office tats temporarily put up at our project site, they need e owner to come down in person n sign bla bla before they can arrange a schedule n take further days to rectify e issue. Really wonder wat kind of works is being done by those builders. We pay ridiculous prices for our houses but end up wit so much issues n costs wit e place on top of e unit price. They really ought to wake up!

So masonry is on hold til I can go down tomoro to make arrangements in person. Wonder if tat will delay my overall work process.. Hopefully other works proceed in e meantime n e timeline is met. Gggrr