Journey To A 5 Room Resort In The West

[panjangowner 2]

After reading through some of the posts here, my partner and I have decided to add in our experience too. Just a little background, I am in my mid 20s while my fiancee is in her early 20s so we have a tight budget to get our family life started. Not gonna be easy but it would be an enjoyable journey!

How It All Started

Early 2015, we applied for the sale of balance flats in Choa Chu Kang/Bukit Panjang and the number was pretty crappy so we scrapped the idea of trying for BTO/Balance of Sales since the units are smaller and lesser grants. Factoring in our CPF and savings, we decided to hit the nail and go for resale flats instead since the market is somewhat bottoming now. Flat viewing started around Sept/Oct 2015 and we have already decided on the location which was Bukit Panjang. Simply went to PropertyGuru and shortlisted a few units, arranged with the agent for a viewing and off we went.

Yes, plenty of our friends were wondering where on earth is Bukit Panjang but having stayed in Bukit Panjang for 10 over years, it is actually a very convenient location with the upcoming Downtown Line and buses. 20 minutes to Orchard via 972 or 190, seriously?!

House Hunting

Our fruitful yet tiring house hunting journey took us about 2 months. We started off by viewing flats randomly within the area and realised it was leading us nowhere as none of the units was to our liking. We then decided to view 2 to 3 units per area and once the units were not to our liking, we eliminated that area out of our choices as the units within that area were usually within the same batch so layout and design wise would be similar.

We had a few requirements:

1) Corner Unit (For privacy)

2) High Floor (Feels good to be up there )

3) Squarish layout (Easy to manage in terms of design)

4) Bright and airy (Good for health to have ample natural light! )

Simple requirements yet it was a nightmare just trying to find the right unit. Finally, we found one to our liking but the owner was reluctant to sell at our price and the agent told us that the house was previously sold at $465k but the buyer screwed up so the deal didn't go through. Considering how bad the market condition was, we decided to go ahead and offer a price of $435k which kinda shocked the seller I guess. The agent told us that he could try for $460k but we had no interest in paying over the market for the unit considering there was quite a bit of renovation to be done. Credits to my fiancee for being firm by telling the agent that we would settle for $450k, take it or leave it.

To cut the story short, we finally settled for $450k and valuation came about to $450k so there was no COV on our part either. Gotta give the credit to my fiancee as I was pretty alright with paying $460k which was $10k more but we really liked the unit and the house hunting was really tiring. I just wanted to get it over and done with!

DIY Procedures

We decided that it was pointless to engage an agent since he will just be doing the paperwork for us when we could do it ourselves which saved us at least a few thousand since buyer's agent usually go for 1% of the selling price as commission! Seriously, pay them $4k plus just to do paperwork for us? Nah!

Signed the OTP and exercised it with a total of $5k as deposit.

First appointment scheduled in Feb 2016 and keys collection in March 2016. We decided to take up all the grants available to us which summed up to $50k from HDB and ROM was not an issue since we would be solemnized before our second appointment. The procedures are pretty simple as it is all documented in the HDB website, I spent about an hour digesting the website and we were good to go. The seller's agent even told us not to bother with engaging an agent to save on the fees and we could approach him if we needed help, just that he could not represent both sides. Well, if we screwed up and the deal falls through, he will be on the losing end too. Feel free to call up HDB if you are unsure of certain things and they are pretty helpful I would say.

Tadah! Here is the floorplan of our house. The house has minimal renovation except for wall cornice and floor skirting since it was the first owner. Flat is about 18 years old so a major renovation was in the plans with a budget of $30k and another $5k odd for furnishings & furnitures.

Original Floorplan

Modified Floorplan (After hacking of walls)

Edited March 14, 2016 by panjangowner

[panjangowner 2]

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Common Bedroom 2

Toilets

Kitchen

Didn't manage to snap much photos but will make do with what I have at the moment. As you can see, the condition is pretty worn down and a major renovation is needed. On a good note, the house has minimal furnishings and fixtures apart from the kitchen/toilet/cornices/skirting.

Main Hacking Works

1) Wall between master bedroom and bedroom 2

2) Wall between bedroom 3 and living room (replacing it with a half glass)

3) Wall in the kitchen to build an open concept kitchen with kitchen island)

4) Removal of cornices and skirting

5) Hacking of kitchen/service yard/toilet

Tiling & Plumbing Works

1) Overlaying the floor tiles of living and bedroom with vinyl flooring

2) Laying of new tiles for kitchen/service yard/toilet

3) Building bottom cabinets and island for kitchen

Edited March 14, 2016 by panjangowner

[panjangowner 2]

Just thought we did share abit on our journey in the selection of IDs & Contractor.

Prior to making our choices between ID & Contractor, we were receptive to either but we already had an idea of how we wanted the house to be so it was more of getting someone who could execute our ideas and improve on it. We signed our option on 28 November 2015 and I arranged to meet 4 IDs/Contractor on the very same day.

1) Contractor A from L&B

• How we knew him: Through my colleague whom had engaged him to do up his BTO recently
• General Review: He was the first guy we met and he had the advantage of taking a look at the unit personally since our seller was agreeable to it. Largely receptive to our concept and gave us suggestions along the way to improve and cut costs. Pretty prompt in replies via whatsapp and came back with a quotation within a week or so. He even brought along some samples of flooring for our second meeting which was value added service as some of the other IDs said they will show it to us when we head down to their showroom. As both of us were working and we don't drive so travelling down to their showrooms can be quite a hassle after work. His quotation came back quite above our budget so we made some amendments and we should be hitting our target of $30k. Throughout the initial phase, he was receptive to discussions via whatsapp which was really important rather than some who would just MIA. I did messaged him for his opinions on a sunday and he replied me patiently. My partner had to stop me from doing so as it was a Sunday and we should give him a rest.
• Rating: 8.5/10 (Reserved rating as we've yet to see his quality of work but service/communication wise top notch, absolutely no complaints)

2) Jeffrey from I**** Interior

• How we knew him: Recommended via 
• General Review: Second guy that we met on the same day. The first impression he gave us was that he ain't gonna be cheap as he was docked in branded clothings. He was probably a designer and had no clue about the manual works. Since he was here, we decided to listen to what he had. He wasn't really prepared when he came as he did not even have our floorplan ready although I had emailed him previously. He explained that he had too many projects ongoing, etc. Fair enough, so we told him our ideas and he cut us off before we could even finish. He saw our floorplan and said he was very excited by it as he could revamp the whole house easily since it was so squarish. He then went on saying he could do this and do that without taking into consideration our budget constraint. He then showed us pictures of his ongoing projects in Orchard and asked us to guess how much the custom fridge cost which came up to $70k. We couldn't wait to kick him out of our house to be honest. He disappeared for the next few weeks till I asked him if our quote was ready. He met up with us and showed us the modified floorplan that was drawn by his assistant but no quote was given but he said it was not gonna be cheap. Huh?
• Rating: -100/10 (Don't bother with this joker unless you have deep pockets and have no idea what you want to do with your house)

3) David from Int* Lab

• How we knew him: Recommended via 
• General Review: Third guy that we met on the same day. He gave us his well designed namecard/brochure upon meeting us and got down to business straightaway. He had our floorplan ready in his tablet and listened to how we wanted the house to be. We had high hopes for him initially but his quote came back way above our budget. Unfortunately, he is off our list too.
• Rating: 7/10 (He was pretty receptive to our ideas and came up with improvements)

4) Jacky from L* P*** Design

• How we knew him: Recommended via 
• General Review: Fourth guy that we met on the same day. Similar to David, he was receptive to our ideas and listened to what we want. He told us that quote will be ready in about a week or so but we have yet to hear from him since. Since he wasn't keen then we weren't keen either.
• Rating: 6/10 (He was pretty receptive to our ideas and came up with additional suggestions but MIA)

We met up with several other IDs/Contractors subsequently but they've yet to come back with their quotations so we will leave it as it is first. However, we are more or less decided on choosing one whom we were both comfortable with instead of us having to try and hunt them down just for quotations. Repeating ourselves over and over again to different people can be really tiring. If you ain't keen in us being your client then neither are we!

5) Alvin & Jason from J***** Interior Design

• How we knew him: Through their Facebook advertisements
• General Review: We liaised initially with Alvin for about 3 months (from Dec till March) whereby he was really patient in listening to what we wanted and he revised the quote accordingly and even sent it to me late at night around 1am. We were really impressed by his work ethics. The company is newly set up only in March 2015 and they are still awaiting their HDB licence which left us pretty unsure at first. As time went by, he was not pushy about his services and told us that we can even wait till they get their licence a year later in March 2016 before we engaged them. That was what we were really impressed about as some contractors tend to be so pushy and unwilling to move ahead if we did not want to pay a down-payment or whatsoever. Alvin subsequently passed the baton to his colleague Jason who even did up a very simple 3d mock up for our desired kitchen and advised us as and when we messaged him for suggestions.
• Rating: 9/10 

We met up with quite a number of contractors/renovators to the extend that we were really tired of repeating ourselves over and over again. However, we are more or less decided on choosing one whom we were both comfortable with instead of us having to try and hunt them down just for quotations. Repeating ourselves over and over again to different people can be really tiring. If you ain't keen in us being your client then neither are we!

Some pointers to note when engaging/discussing with IDs/Contractors

Contractors - Go for them if you have a concept for your house and you know what you want. Show them your ideas and let them execute it but they will chip in here and there with their suggestions as they tend to be more on the ground when it comes to general works rather than playing the role of a project manager.

IDs - Go for them if you are undecided on how you want your house to be like and need assistance in space planning if your house has weird pillars/holes/areas that you cannot do much on your own. Some IDs that we met tend to have a ready made idea in their head that they will tried to sell/propose to us. Some might incorporate your ideas into their ideas but end up with a totally different end product.

Renovation is a massive costly project and loads of coordination need to be done (aircon/furnitures/electrical lightings/etc) but we are looking forward to it! Since our new unit is near my current place, I can pop by after work easily to just take a look at how things are going. Having a good contractor/ID will take away at least half of your headache as you wouldn't have to worry about not being able to find him or wonder where will he be if things screw up.

It would always be good to start early so that we won't rush into making hasty decisions too. After more than 3 months of meeting up with contractors/designers, we've finally decided to go ahead with Jason from J***** Interior Design while we await them getting their HDB licence. 

Cost

As of now, the quotation is about $35k before electrical works which is still within our budget so hopefully we don't bust the budget! Works are starting on 5 April 2016!

[panjangowner 2]

Over the past few weeks, we've been actively hunting around for furnitures while we await our keys collection and here are some of our purchases! 

1) Cellini Elda Sofa Set from Furniture Mall

2) LG 528L 2 Doors Fridge from Gain City

3) Samsung 8.5kg Washing Machine from Gain City

4) Dining Table Set + 4 Leather Chairs from Furniture Mall

 

Edited March 14, 2016 by panjangowner

[panjangowner 2]

reserved for house during renovation pt 2

[panjangowner 2]

reserved for furnitures 

[panjangowner 2]

reserved for misc

[panjangowner 2]

reserved for misc  

[panjangowner 2]

reserved for misc

[bipps 4]

Hey panjangowner, good to hear updates from you again! I recall we both made the purchase for BP resale unit end of 2015, and if everything go by the book I believe your reno should already be starting soon? I hope you don't mind me asking about some toilet issues, I'd be making a huge assumption that since we are in same vicinity, the HDB standards are more or less the same for 16 year old flats and above. I found out that the only toilet bowls suitable for both my toilet is the P-trap toilet bowl, which is rarer and pricier as well, are you facing the same issue with getting P trap bowls?

[panjangowner 2]

On 24/03/2016 at 4:50 PM, bipps said:

Hey panjangowner, good to hear updates from you again! I recall we both made the purchase for BP resale unit end of 2015, and if everything go by the book I believe your reno should already be starting soon? I hope you don't mind me asking about some toilet issues, I'd be making a huge assumption that since we are in same vicinity, the HDB standards are more or less the same for 16 year old flats and above. I found out that the only toilet bowls suitable for both my toilet is the P-trap toilet bowl, which is rarer and pricier as well, are you facing the same issue with getting P trap bowls?

Hey bipps, we've yet to shop for toilet bowls yet though! Which part of BP are you staying at? care to drop me a pm! 

[panjangowner 2]

2 long months later and our house is more or less done, I shall let the pictures do the talking!

The transformation is complete while we are in the process of rectifying defects. 

Edited June 7, 2016 by panjangowner

[ricepapergirl 21]

2 minutes ago, panjangowner said:

2 long months later and our house is more or less done! I shall let the pictures do the talking!

The transformation is complete while we are in the process of rectifying defects. 

 

 

Wow!! That's a huge space you have for your kitchen and living room!

[panjangowner 2]

2 minutes ago, ricepapergirl said:

Wow!! That's a huge space you have for your kitchen and living room!

Yup, we wanted open concept so we took down quite alot of walls too. 

[panjangowner 2]

Pre/post renovation pictures!