Into the Unknown - 4R Resale @ Fernvale

[Aluunatic 0]

So after almost a year of searching and browsing thru the forum now it is finally my turn to start my own blog. 

As for the title, well it was mainly because before i started looking for a house i really detest staying in that area and when i was there once i literally got lost(there was no LRT and bus weren't that well develop then) and couldn't get out of that area until i decided to take a cab, i told myself i would never buy any house around punggol or sengkang

However after getting married and after countless months of debating we realise based on our conditions below this is the only area which really fits our bill

1. At least a 4 room with a budget not exceeding 500k(BTO is out of the questions as my wife is not citizen or PR) - Also i don't really like the idea of paying more for "renting" from the government

2. Has to be near the airport - both for work reason and me and my wife are frequent travellers so we don't really wanna have to travel far after coming back so west and north area is out.

3. Has to be near a school so that my child doesn't have to travel too far or preferably not need to take a bus to reach school. 

4. There has to be nearby amenities (shopping center / supermarket / gym / train station) within 50 to 100 meters.

5. Has to be able to do open kitchen - CO insisted on it.

6. At least level 4 and above.

And after browsing thru propertyguru and 99co we finally manage to find 1 which met all of our conditions and now after exercising our options here is the floor plan below!

 

 

 

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Well HDB finally accepted my resale application and the expected completion date + extension requested by the owner means i will only be able to take the key sometime in Oct(4 months from now and counting!).

However since now its GSS there is no harm in buying some new stuff for my new house 

First blood - Kitchen pots and pans plus some kitchen tools from WMF, bought from robinson about 1,300 after robinson dollar rebate.

7 piece gourmet plus cookware

7 piece kitchen tools 

60 piece cultery tools - wife loves to have guests so doesn't hurt to be prepared 

Got these as a free gift from the promoter there. 

Edited July 5, 2018 by Aluunatic

[Aluunatic 0]

Luckily me and my wife are the same personality(design wise) so for us to agree on the design we want for the house is pretty straightforward, hopefully it won't turn out to be a mess 

1. No theme (unless straight line is a theme)

2. We have decided on the color to be Dulux Nova white(saw it on 1 of the RT post and we just love it) and light grey. Only thing is we have no idea how to make the 2 color go together - so we decided we are going to have the ID/Contractor we choose to mix the color for us. We will let our daughter decide on the color she want for the room.

3. No top cabinet in the Kitchen on the stove side 

3. No curvy or weird edges everything has to be straight and clean and easy to maintain

4. Homo tiles for the living and kitchen + service yard + bathroom and HERF for the 3 bedroom

So here is the mood board we have gathered so far. 

Kitchen 

Living room 

Bathroom - we will try to make it as identical to MBR as possible. 

Bedroom - Couldn't find a proper image with a full size L shape desk so have to use some other image as a place holder

 

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2018 by Aluunatic

[Aluunatic 0]

So here comes the bad part of research, after going thru so many posts here and other site i realise that there are so many problems with purchasing furniture i.e.: wrong quality delivered; color is wrong; leg is spoil etc etc and the lists goes on. i know that is 1 of the reason why we only make minimal deposit so that if in the end something goes wrong we won't get burn that hard but still getting burn is getting burn no matter is $1.00 or $1000

So that made me a little apprehensive especially when it comes to bulk purchase from places i do not know and boy places i do not know is really alot  . I thought there were only so many furniture store in singapore and now the list is like never ending. 

So 1 fine day le CO was browsing thru facebook and saw this furniture store on discount and she was like "hey the sofa here seems to be like what we wanted why not we go take a look?", i was like "let me check their website first" 

So after going thru google, realise this furniture store(Kawah) doesn't have their own website only facebook and they are only establish since 2017(ACRA) which made me a little apprehensive. but afterwards i realise that they are in the same building as this store call Kawah Office furniture which have been pretty well establish with no actual bad review so i was like "maybe they are related since they are in the same building and have the exact same name, maybe the owner of Kawah office decides to venture into consumer furniture."

So long story short we decided to go there and take a look and true enough, le CO was very happy with the sofa(after comparing and sitting in countless others elsewhere) and in the end we decide to buy it together with the dining table and coffee table(forget to take a picture of it) Total of 4200 made a deposit of 2000 - will talk more about them once i receive the goods and everything is settled 

Sofa(small cushion not included)

Color we selected for the sofa

Dining table which can be extended up to 1.8m 

Dining Chair x 6 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2018 by Aluunatic

[Aluunatic 0]

A little excited and a little bored hence i decided to play around with www.floorplanner.com for space planning and have a better visualization of how our house would come out

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Went to Harvey Norman this weekend and after comparing it to Gain City we decided to go with HN not because of price but simply because me and le CO felt that the sales person serving us in GC was a little pushy and we felt kinda pressured. 

so in the end this are the items we purchased from HN

1. Brandt Hob / Hood / Oven / Mirrowave - Le CO doesn't want anything made from China in her Kitchen and Bosch set made in Germany was way out of budget hence we settle for this 2ndly Brandt is currently offering complimentary in home demostration 

2. Hitachi 2 door side by side fridge with ice and water dispenser 

3. LG Twinwash with dryer function - Pricey but in the end we felt it was worth it as both me and CO prefer to have a dedicated washer for things like kitchen cloth

 

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Continue from the previous post, 

4. Samsung 65 inch TV + soundbar - Since OLED was not part of our consideration, the decision came down to either LG UHD or Samsung Qled and le CO felt that samsung was definitely the clear winner(she say she can see the pores when comparing it on normal TV channel)

5. Samsung 40 inch TV for my home office. - just a normal FHD TV as this will be setup in my home office and mainly will be streaming news. 

6. Lastly something we brought over Prime day last month - Corelle 74 pc Diningware. 

[Aluunatic 0]

2 months 20 days and counting... to keys collection

Thanks to the people here on renotalk, i managed to buy the Grohe products i wanted from Insani24.de and the savings is (rough estimate based on what i bought i am saving around 2 to 3k) and i thought that this was going to take me about 2 months to ship here which is why i decided to buy early to give them more time to send it over, but in the end it arrives within 2 weeks. 

Wife and I check the goods once its arrive and all i can say is it really feels very solid although were larger then what we had expected 

So now all  that is left is for the installation and pray that everything is working as intended (in any case spoke with APAC grohe office and they say as long as the model i bought is approved by PUB they will also cover the warranty even if its bought overseas)

Edited August 11, 2018 by Aluunatic

[Aluunatic 0]

After waiting close to 2 months here comes the ID selection. Le CO and me went thru 5 ID / Contractor and finally decided on 1 that meets our budget and timeline.

1. N******** - R*** G*** - this ID needs no introduction here, manage to get his contacts thru 1 of the thread here earlier and he was actually the first one to reply back to us and setup the meeting. first appointment with him was together with his assistant(i presume) Jimmy, we sat down together and he discussed with us room by room what i want and true enough whenever we say something that he doesn't like he will give that "are you sure?" look and tell us what he thinks and recommends. he was also able quote us on the spot based on our requirement and work with our budget. Really like talking to him however in the end the initial quote was still a little over. Decided to KIV while we meet with the others.

2. D***** S** - D**** I******* - dropped the company an email and he was the one who replied. made an appointment with him the very next day. Was quite fustrated with him initally as we realise they have another office in Paya Lebar after we meeting with him and he chose to set the location at the Jurong branch office. during the meeting he was going thru with us the different types of laminate and countertops and le CO felt that he was quite bold in his design and detailed in his presentation in the pros and cons of each, he was also able to suggest the color scheme to and how we can match the furniture we bought however based on what he has introduced we felt that his quotation was probably going to be over our budget by alot but le CO really like the way he presents hence we decided on the 2nd appointment with him initially. However on the day of the 2nd appointment(1 week later) which we were suppose to go thru the quotation he went mia then told us on the 2nd week to reschedule and on the rescheduled date he told us he was sick. In short we decided to drop him.

3. ****** - U**** D***** - made an appointment with her after dropping a message to the company website. In short le CO felt that she was too quiet and seems not very keen in doing our business hence we decided to drop her.

4. J&E - Drop a message but no reply probably too busy.

5. E**** T** - E** D***** S***** - Recommended by friend, initial appointment with him was over dinner and basically we were going thru our requirement and he was at there eating don't know he was listening or not was quite worried until he started asking question then we were like "oh ok he is listening". in the end after the dinner he was able to tell us feasibility of what we want and how we can save money. i feel that altho he looks ah beng and non chalant, he was still able to listen and eat means he knows what he is doing. Decided to make a 2nd appointment with him to go thru the quotation. In the end he was able to meet our budget and we decided to sign with him  - will do a more detailed review once we complete the renovation. 

 

[hdb4ever 3]

Wow it's been so many months now. Your key collection - and start of renovation - is imminent!

[Aluunatic 0]

Haha thanks ya, the wait was almost unbearable :P 

[Aluunatic 0]

On 10/12/2018 at 7:28 PM, hdb4ever said:

Wow it's been so many months now. Your key collection - and start of renovation - is imminent!

Quote

yes couldn't wait for it to start 

 

[Aluunatic 0]

Finally with the keys in my hand here are some pic of the empty house before commencement of the renovation 

 

Edited November 21, 2018 by Aluunatic

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Continue from previous post

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Last post of before pics