My exciting journey to owning and designing a flat

[Yplailai 4]

We have been looking forward to ownership of a flat, a paradise that truly belonged to us and where we can build a home. 

We are all set to collect keys soon and have started looking around for an ID. To minimise all the hassle and stress of going through a list of IDs, i have shortlisted 3 companies, one recommended by our friends and 2 from internet.

1) company A: prices are competitive, itemised and detailed quotation. ID very keen and consistent in following up with me (i checked price almost 6 months ago). Portfolio so-so only.

2) company B: prices competitive, quotation quite general. ID very pleasant to speak with, listens to me. The designs are quite refreshing too. And best part of all, i found out we had a mutual friend, and this mutual friend gave a very positive character reference.

3) company C: prices are slightly higher than the other 2, general quotation. I found this company from facebook and because they claimed to have dealt with alot of hotel receptions and photos looked impressive, i decided no harm to enquire. However, ID refuses to meet me at a location to my convenience, and i had to travel all the way to toa payoh (midway the skies poured and i had a baby with me!!!!!) so thus they were eliminated because i didnt have a pleasant experience or opinion. Luckily I didn't proceed further too, because i read online about some reno horror experience with this company and from the photos it really looked very bad defects, not something minor you can close an eye or rectify that easily.

It was a tough fight between company A and B, but eventually hubby and i decided to go for A because we can feel her sincerity in doing our super tight budget... i believe with clear communications, she can help us achieve our dream look at a reasonable budget

[Yplailai 4]

Background

We are an expanding family, with elderly and an infant

Budget

we are running on budget of 20k, and are quite prepared to top it up to 26k max if the value is there.

Theme

minimalist, zen, Scandinavian inspired. 

Features we want

- easy to maintain

-minimal cleaning

-won't get tired of looking at the house in future

-a well equipped kitchen (we love to cook!)

-light coloured walls and furniture for illusion of a bigger space.

-lots of light to brighten up the house and lots of electrical sockets

-some sort of a vertical garden to grow our own herbs (maybe can DIY)

-lots of space 

[geneo79 0]

Hi there

dropping a note that i will be following closely your reno t-blog.

Will be getting my keys 3rd quarter of this year, so I'm too looking around for IDs or contractors. And also i have the same budget and about the same needed features as yours

Do you mind to share the detailed quote from company A and the breakdown. My first time as well, and am trying to get a feel of how it works, and what to expect

Please PM me. Thanks!

[Yplailai 4]

22 hours ago, geneo79 said:

Hi there

dropping a note that i will be following closely your reno t-blog.

Will be getting my keys 3rd quarter of this year, so I'm too looking around for IDs or contractors. And also i have the same budget and about the same needed features as yours

Do you mind to share the detailed quote from company A and the breakdown. My first time as well, and am trying to get a feel of how it works, and what to expect

Please PM me. Thanks!

Pm sent

[Yplailai 4]

great news came my way today! key collection will be set for next week. And be meeting ID from company A tomorrow night to tie up loose ends before commitment.

this is layout of our houseplan.

the good

our bto is a small project of 3 parallel block of flats that sit on a north south position along a stretch of road.

our unit is on the east side, so all rooms and living room will capture the morning sun slightly. The other half of the building will bake under the sun from noon to evening and my unit will be cool when we come home. 

Service yard faces a field, no blockage of view or light, and hopefully captures the morning sun too. 

The bad

low floor. View? What view? I get a very magnified view of the grass patch. 

Havent found time to go down to site, but heard from hubby there's a very nice street lamp post right outside our living room window. 

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by Yplailai

[matchalatte 16]

hello! im an avid baker/cook as well would love to see how your well equipped kitchen would turn out. cant wait! 

any mood pics to share? congrats on your upcoming key collection, will be looking out for your updates. i think 27K is totally reasonable, i had a 50K quote for my 3 room BTO 

[Viv14344 1]

Congratulation and goodluck.

[Yplailai 4]

11 hours ago, matchalatte said:

hello! im an avid baker/cook as well would love to see how your well equipped kitchen would turn out. cant wait! 

any mood pics to share? congrats on your upcoming key collection, will be looking out for your updates. i think 27K is totally reasonable, i had a 50K quote for my 3 room BTO 

Hi! I'm new to this renotalk. What is a mood board and how to do it? 

[mamit 6]

12 hours ago, Yplailai said:

great news came my way today! key collection will be set for next week. And be meeting ID from company A tomorrow night to tie up loose ends before commitment.

this is layout of our houseplan.

the good

our bto is a small project of 3 parallel block of flats that sit on a north south position along a stretch of road.

our unit is on the east side, so all rooms and living room will capture the morning sun slightly. The other half of the building will bake under the sun from noon to evening and my unit will be cool when we come home. 

Service yard faces a field, no blockage of view or light, and hopefully captures the morning sun too. 

The bad

low floor. View? What view? I get a very magnified view of the grass patch. 

Havent found time to go down to site, but heard from hubby there's a very nice street lamp post right outside our living room window. 

 

 

really very similar layout

[matchalatte 16]

4 hours ago, Yplailai said:

Hi! I'm new to this renotalk. What is a mood board and how to do it? 

hello! its just some pictures that you like, such as those that inspire you or give you ideas. theres no particular way to do it, just upload some pics and thats it

[Yplailai 4]

Inspirations

kitchen

We will be doing a bright kitchen with lots of power sockets for all our cooking wares. 

I had wanted lights below the suspended cabinets so that i can see my food better or view recipe book at night or rainy weather. It will be helpful too, when i needed to get up at night to find some night crunch or to fix a bottle of formula for the baby without having to light up the whole kitchen.

i was told glass is expensive, and it will eat into my budget if i have glass doors like the photo. Also, i dont have much pretty and beautiful kitchen ware to showcase. It's going to look very messy with all my mismatched wares towering on the top and covering whatever light there is.

and if i just display a few choice china, it is a dreadful waste of good space. My kitchen is small enough as it is and we're going to inherit all my MIL's treasures. Idea KIVed

I was wondering if my ID can do some deep drawers for me to hide away my pots and pans and for easy access. I don't want to be shifting the front rows of pots each time i wanted to reach the back. Does that makes sense?

Living room

To save cost and maintenance efforts, we wont be doing up a false ceiling. And that makes it difficult for me to add lights. We weren't too keen on dusting that false ceiling. So the next best way i thought of is to add it to the feature wall!

 

My thoughts on designing a home

when you are a set of full time working parents, juggling your career, and an inquisitive toddler (who wants to open up every single door and explore), the one thing constantly on your mind is how to get one more hour of sleep. And the last thing you'd want is to do maintenance on the house. 

That's why we are not going to install a shower screen in both bathrooms and just keep it simple and functional.

 

[Viv14344 1]

Elegant and cool to the eyes.

[Yplailai 4]

Updates

so we met up with my ID to understand the package more. And after the meet, we weren't sure if we wanted to go ahead and engage this ID

1) the last quotation is even more itemised and detailed with each installation and electric socket listed out but,

the bill swelled from initial 24k inc gst to 28k inc gst

The first package included window grills, doors and non blum hinges, while the last excluded window grills, doors and using blum hinges. 

And we had to argue which quotation it was. End up i had to dig out my printed copy to prove my point while ID insisted it was a revised one?!?! Whatever positive feelings i had vanished when argument started, which i felt shouldn't be so. So we are quite prepared to drop this ID

our plans are something like: a row of storage caninets along the bomb shelter, a prayer altar, a TV feature wall and console, kitchen (parallel row of top & bottom cabinets) and a bedroom 6ft wardrobe, a sink in the service yard.

we didnt ask for false ceiling, flooring, bathroom works, no hacking no tiling no layering.. and it is alr 28k!

feeling like a cash cow right now, it sucks totally

Side track a little, 

i have a very close friend who is doing fengshui, and he is very well versed in Chinese culture and rituals. He has given us countless valuable advice from our pre wedding rites, to baby's first month and first birthday. While hubby and I are not particularly superstitious about prayers and all, we didn't mind to follow cultural rites as closely as possible. It's great to have someone who is knowledgeable in this aspects and guide you along.

so this friend will help us buy all the pineapple and what nots for rolling good luck. He has advised us to look at fengshui first before deciding on carpentry and colours with the ID or contractor. 

So yep, we have slided down the ladder all the way back to starting point.

 

Edited March 17, 2017 by Yplailai

[fifteenmay 40]

6 minutes ago, Yplailai said:

Updates

so we met up with my ID to understand the package more. And after the meet, we weren't sure if we wanted to go ahead and engage this ID

1) the last quotation is even more itemised and detailed with each installation and electric socket listed out but,

the bill swelled from initial 24k inc gst to 28k inc gst

The first package included window grills, doors and non blum hinges, while the last excluded window grills, doors and using blum hinges. 

And we had to argue which quotation it was. End up i had to dig out my printed copy to prove my point while ID insisted it was a revised one?!?! Whatever positive feelings i had vanished when argument started, which i felt shouldn't be so. So we are quite prepared to drop this ID

our plans are something like: a row of storage caninets along the bomb shelter, a prayer altar, a TV feature wall and console, kitchen (parallel row of top & bottom cabinets) and a bedroom 6ft wardrobe, a sink in the service yard.

we didnt ask for false ceiling, flooring, bathroom works, no hacking no tiling no layering.. and it is alr 28k!

feeling like a cash cow right now, it sucks totally

Side track a little, 

i have a very close friend who is doing fengshui, and he is very well versed in Chinese culture and rituals. He has given us countless valuable advice from our pre wedding rites, to baby's first month and first birthday. While hubby and I are not particularly superstitious about prayers and all, we didn't mind to follow cultural rites as closely as possible. It's great to have someone who is knowledgeable in this aspects and guide you along.

so this friend will help us buy all the pineapple and what nots for rolling good luck. He has advised us to look at fengshui first before deciding on carpentry and colours with the ID or contractor. 

So yep, we have slided down the ladder all the way back to starting point.

 

Congrats on getting your keys! 

yes i got a shock after seeing quotations... my inital budget was 35-40k without floors and all was coming back at 40k plus!  

[Yplailai 4]

13 minutes ago, fifteenmay said:

Congrats on getting your keys! 

yes i got a shock after seeing quotations... my inital budget was 35-40k without floors and all was coming back at 40k plus!  

Thanks fifteenmay!

i was put into perspective properly after the last round of discussions.

some sneaky ways of deflating the quotation:

1) excluding electrical works no false ceiling is 1k and with is 2k

2) excluding gst and later telling you have gst

3) in my case after studying both quotation thoroughly, i realised the first cabinet quoted was 4ft and the last was 11ft. And from the argument, my guts feeling was she intentionally quoted 4ft so she can "honestly" up it to 11ft (top up for my requirements) to be honest, 28k is acceptable to me too, but i am very troubled by the ID not being open and up front.