Wednesday, December 10, 2008
We moved in to our new home last Saturday. It was an eventful day with the movers arriving late and making a fuss over the cost of the move. Finally everything was settled and the things were moved. After a few days of unpacking and cleaning, the house finally looked decent enough for me to take some pictures. Its lucky that we had the long weekend to get the house ready and also be able to rest for a day before we had to work.
View of the living room.
View of the tv console with the dinning area.
The view of the kitchen, which we only cooked once or twice.
My Bedroom!
The other bedroom which will be empty for now... Will take photo of the study room when its ready... Now its just full of boxes... hehehe
Labels: house
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Work has been so hectic that I don't even have time to check mails or step into the office till yesterday. I am so glad that the week is over and weekend is here. When we went to the house today, so many things were already completed.
The divider from the balcony and the dinning area.. We feel that the divider is a little too little? Thinking of adding a few more beams.
The balcony and the main door.
The new main door and new shoe cabinet behind the door.
The living room with the tv console.
Entrance into the kitchen. The glass door for the kitchen is also installed
The kitchen before the installation of the kitchen cabinets
The kitchen cabinets... Is it nice??
The bedroom wardrobe. Forgot to take the entire view of the wardrobe.
The shower divider also installed.
Today the contractors will be installing the air conditions and finalising the cabinets. Looking forward to the completion of the house. Labels: house
Sunday, October 26, 2008
With the renovation progressing smoothly at the moment, we started shopping for furnitures. We went furniture malls as well as furniture shops around, we finally found somethings that we find suitable for us.
The sofa set but in lighter tone. We always wanted a L shape sofa but due to lack of space, we were only able to purchase the 3 seater. We also bought a side table that can be slide into the side of the sofa and be pulled out when we need it. This helped us to save space a little.
The small bench that goes with it so that we will have more seating space when people visit.
The dinning table with 6 chairs. They kept emphazing that the table legs are stainless steel. Love the black glass table top.
When we were at the shop, we were actually served by a salesperson who we were a little turned off by. He kept scratching his head and his uniform was not worn properly. We decided to head out of the store and to return later hoping that another sales personnel will serve us. Initially we thought that we were lucky as that personnel was not in the store when we returned. To our dismay, she referred us back to the same sales staff when he returned. we realised that he did not know the product well and had to ask his colleagues most of the time. This really did not give us a good impression. Nonethless, since the price was reasonable and we like the furniture, we proceeded with the purchase. Hope that all will turn out well.
Each year during Deepavali, its my grandmother's birthday. The entire family will then gather for a meal at one of our aunts' place. This year, they organised it at Noble House where its a dinner cum KTV session. The KTV session was "taken" by our uncles and aunties.
Mum and Aunty Cynthia singing....
Aunty Irene singing...
Mum and Aunty Irene... Mum seems to be singing a lot this night...
I did not take photos of grandma while we sang the birthday song and when she was cutting the cake. There were too many cameras and we were told to stand behind the birthday girl while singing the song so that our parents can take the photos. Grandma is already 80 this year. Time really flies...
Labels: Birthday, house
Friday, October 17, 2008
After the long wait, we finally got our wedding video! We were suppose to meet Celestine from Fotowerks at Orchard but due to work, Dear had to meet him by himself. I am quite impress with the packaging of the DVDs.
The box which held the DVDs.
The two DVDs, one highlight and one unedited video of the day.
Aren't the videos nice?? I love the way the DVDs are designed. I am trying to find a way to upload the videos... Any suggestion on how I can do it?
This is the second week into the renovations. We headed over to the house to view the progress.
The wall for the door is hacked to widen it and the edges are smoothened.
The wall to separate the cooking area and the laundry area.
The wall completed and smoothened.
The small window is where a glass will be placed to allow light penatration.
The rubbish chute and the platform for the washing machine.
The tiles for the toliets are all laid while the electrical wirings are mostly in place so is the air condition. The progress for the place seems to be good and hopefully we will be able to get the house done on schedule. Fingers and toes crossed.
Previously I had mentioned that we were having a competition between us on the house renovation. If you had visited his website, you will have noted the paranomic photos which he had posted. Before he post those photos online, he took tons of photos. Here are the evidence!
Taking photo of the master bedroom at one corner......
Another corner.....
Even the toliet....
He simply took a lot of photos and when I asked why.. he said just in case they don't fit well together.............
Labels: house, wedding
Thursday, September 11, 2008
We finally confirmed and signed on the contract for the renovation. We had to haggle and push a little for the little discounts that we could get from him. Finally we were able to agree on an amount that both of us were happy with.
On Monday, the Interior Designer (ID) will go over to the house to make accurate measurements and come out with the detailed drawings. Following that we will need to take an entire day to decide on the colours for the walls, cupboards, and the tiles. Oh dear... its a long and tedious process. Then its start work!
Its a lucky thing that we will been away for a few days in Bali to rest and relax after the wedding and before we immerse ourselves totally for the renovation process.
Oh dear the wedding is just two more days away!!! *Panick attack
Had a talk with Dad regarding the seating arrangements for the relatives. He felt that I was worrying too much about everything. What he said is true, I am a perfectionist. I will like for all the things to fall nicely in place. There must be a backup plan if something were to happen. However with Murphy's Law
Anything that will go wrong will go wrong!
I am pretty worried about the day. Its not that I do not trust the people who will be helping out but just can't help worrying. I remembered Sandy's comments at a friend's wedding:
At a wedding anything or everything can go wrong no matter how well you plan it. So don't plan too much and things will work out.
I agree however I just can't help but worry.
Labels: house, wedding
Friday, August 29, 2008
Its about two weeks left to the wedding. There still seems to be tons of things to be done but the most important guest list is done! What is left now is Dad's list of distant relatives whom he will like to invite. But from the looks of things they are almost settled. Phew. A huge relief for me.
Tomorrow the people from the Singapore Power Services will be going to our place to turn on the utilities for our home. Following that we will shift some of the items from Dear's home to the new house in preparation for the wedding as well as for Krissy's stay at the house.
In the evening we plan to play a little of our Nintendo Wii! We gotten it from Dear's colleague who had won it at their Company's Dinner and Dance.
Labels: house, wedding
Saturday, August 9, 2008
We collected our keys yesterday and finalised the sale of the house. What a date to remember 08 08 08. Hahhaa... I think its easy to remember this day where we are owners of a place to call our own. I did the final inspection of the house prior to the appointment at HDB. The process at HDB was very fast after we went in and signed some documents and we were done within mins! Isn't it fast??
Today we went back for a "first" look at the house. They left quite a no of stuffs, like the washing machine and rice cooker in the house. We will have to get the town council to pick up these stuffs maybe next weekend. Finally as promised here are the photos of the house.
The block under going upgrading at the moment.
The view of the hall from the entrance.
The view of the hall from the bedroom.
The master bedroom with the master bedroom toliet.
Master bedroom toliet. They left the heater without the shower head!
The two other bedrooms
The big kitchen where all the cabinets have to go.
View of the kitchen from the other side.
The toliet in the kitchen.
The view of our house from the outside. The neighbour hangs so many clothings outside with all three of their shoe racks. I will have to ask them to remove one shoe rack. Hiaz
After getting our keys yesterday, we have met up with our interior designer to inform him of the changes which we need to make. We have decided to assign the job to Alvin from Fused Concept as we felt that he is more creative in his designs and we are able to relate better to him compared to the other interior designers whom we have met up with. Alvin was pretty quick with his ideas and could churn out ideas almost immediately! Hahah He was so happy when we informed him that we have to remove the storeroom and place the bed there instead. However he was able to create a space for us to store all our bulky and ugly stuffs that we will have. Hahhaa. Looking forward to the renovation.
After viewing the flat, I wondered if its in its current condition, can we offer it to our friend who is coming to Singapore for a holiday. The condition of the house seems pretty good but after the owner moved all their things, the condition does not seem so favourable anymore. If its me who is staying there, I will also feel a little uncomfortable.
Initially we thought that we can retain the windown grills but today we tried to close the windows and found it difficult to move the windows to close it. There were lots of cobwebs and the windown panels were all damaged. In addition, the doors for the rooms were all also spolit. We were unable to lock the doors from within. I guess we will change the locks for the doors or change the doors itself.
Oh, my stupid laptop is down, I was using it suddenly I wasn't able to connect to the internet. No matter how I try, I was not able to turn on the wireless on my laptop. Hiaz. I guess have to bring it to office to ask my colleague to check it out. If its really dead, we will have to bring it to Dell for repairs. Its only about 2 months! I still have all my wedding montage inside... aggrrhhhh
Labels: house
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
We received the report for our house from Janis today. Apparently that the house isn't very good as the front door is facing a bad spot. All the initial plans which we have has to be abolished as they do not fit us. We have to change almost everything and some of the things have to be in odd positions.
If you remember, we decided to seek a FS opinion due to the predicament that the previous house owner was in. When we did that we also did tell ourselves that we will not follow what she tells us entirely. However after what she had analysed for us, there were a lot of things which we felt that we will need to abide by for peace and harmony. Both of us were feeling lost after the session ended.
We decided to take her views and try to incorporate as much as we could into our house. So now its back to the drawing board for our interior designer, whom we will try to arrange to meet this Friday or tomorrow. This definately will be a challenge for him. But then again maybe we have restricted his "talent" the first time as we were resistant to certain changes. I believe things will be better soon!!
Yes! We will collect the keys to our house on Friday. Then today we received a call from the agent saying that he needs the COV money to make certain payments for the house that the previous owners have yet to pay before the deal will be finalised on Friday. haiz. Luckily I was on leave today and was able to write the cheque and deposited the cheque before 2 pm. Hope that it will clear soon and things will go smoothly that day.
Labels: house
Tomorrow we will pay a visit to our FS master to review the report for our house. Having a little mixed feelings now as we are afraid that the report might not be a good one. Part of me feels that we maybe should not have gone to check the FS of the house, but will keep thinking about whether has the huge purchase affect our lives. Keeping my fingers crossed now.
We also finally recieved the letter to go to HDB on 08 August to collect our keys. Finally the sale can be finalised and we can be owners of the new house!
Labels: house
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Yesterday, we met up with the Fengshui Master Janis for a review of our new home. We decided to seek a Fengshui Master opinion as the previous house owner sold the house due to the lack of funds to finance the house. As they are not moving due to upgrading or other reasons, we felt that it might be a good idea to check out the house to prevent "bad" things from happening to us. Whats the harm? In the end, we might not even follow entirely but just sufficient and acceptable to us. Hence I seek the help of my online friend, Ghim to recommend me a Fengshui Master as she has also recently asked one to review her own house.
We met up with her at 11.15am at the MRT Station but she was early and I panick as the carpark queue was long. Finally we headed over to our new home. Before she started on viewing the house, she explained various things about Fengshui to us. Telling us what we should look out for or how should we do if we were to go to certain places. I did not sms her our birthdates and the TOP date for the house earlier, so she wasn't able to inform us on the spot whether we had bought the appropriate house. This made me half wondered if we should have seek her opinion even before buying the house. But its not logical for us to always go to her to get her opinion before we buy right? How much money we need to spend each time we get her to view the house? We are not that rich. We just have to just avoid or "make amendments" to avoid certain things.
Janis did not go to our home directly but stayed downstairs to take some "readings". She took a lot of "readings" as she mentioned that the "energy" was not stable and its a very borderline reading. In order for her to be sure, she needs to take more than once. Oh boy, she sure did take quite a no, more than 3 at the front of the building, 3 at the back and 3 more in front before we headed upstairs. While she was looking at her plate..... a lot of passerbys were looking at us. Oh dear, I was a little embrassed. HAhhaha...
When we finally went up, she commented that the house has a certainly good space and she will recommend how should we utlise the space avaliable to us. She has also told us the following things that we should avoid:
1) The dinner table should not be plainly visible to the main door.
2) There should not be any metal wares below the stove as it will hurt the health of the female owners. Earthern wares are more appropriate.
3) There should not be any drainage pipes directly at the bottom of the stove. This symbolises that whatever we bring back will go down the drain directly.
4) Do not place any clock on any beams that we will walk directly under.
5) Do not install any celling fan as it is a knife above our heads
Wow, I did not realise so many things. Haha. All above are easily acceptable to me. Its just that i am afraid of the colour scheme that she will propose and the position of the furnitures. We shall see what happen when we go for the actual review of the house. Keeping my fingers cross.
I also seeked her advice on whether we should open the house door the day we get our keys in August as its the lunar 7th Month. She strongly advised us against it and told us that she will recommend us a date that we will make our "presence" known that we are the new owners of the house and she will teach us. Oh that is really good! hahaha. Awaiting for the house review. Cannot wait!
Oh I forgot to take photos of the house again!
Labels: house
Sunday, June 22, 2008
We will be going for our first HDB appointment this coming Friday, 27 June 2008. I am a little excited and scared. This is a huge investment where most or all our savings disappear. In preparation of the appointment, we started to get our documents ready. While reading the document which informs us what we require to prepare, I read that we need to pay the stamp fee or somethings like that. This fee is approximately 3% of the sale price which we are paying for the house. How much is that??? $8850!! That is a lot of money. I hope that we do not need to pay cash at the moment for that fee, hopefully we can use our CPF to make that payment.
With further reading, we also realised that we need to pay a CPF HS Premium as we will be using our CPF to pay our loan. That is about $120 annually. Oh my...... Paying and paying and paying. Where can one afford to pay for so much things at a time?? We have been working for a while and we have some savings. What about those people who does not earn as much as us? What about those people who are young??? Its really really not easy to own a home to call your own.
I also finally pushed myself to contact the Fengshui Master that my friend has recommended. After talking to her and the date was set to view to house on 20 July while the review will be on 6th August. Its a little late but her schedule is fully booked. Wow, there must be a lot of people who purchased house and wants her to view the place. Hopefully the house is a good one for us with minium amendment required. *Fingers and toes crossed*
Oh, I forgot to mention that I am currently using my office laptop to write this blog. My office has finally decided to issue us the laptop to replace the slow computer with CRT. The laptop is a Dell Vostro 1400. Its a pretty good laptop and I almost wanted to buy it together with the company as I could get a good deal, but with the on going payments which I need to make for the house and wedding, I have to forgo the deal. With the laptop, it means that I need to work from home this way. Sigh. This may be a good thing too since I have a lot of paper work to do but there is no time for me to go back office to do them.
After the meet the parents session two weeks ago, we decided to head over to Chinatown to check out the things which we need to purchase first. We chanced upon the first store as we saw the large xi wordings hanging at the front of the store. They practically have everything we need from the face basin, lamp, tea set to the basket for GDL. They also have the xi stickers which we will need to stick on the oranges or wherever we want to. There were a total of 4 shops but one of them owned by an Aunty who keep asking ask to buy from her. We did not purchase anything from her as we did not drive that day. The items were also pretty bulky and heavy. So I want to drive over and we purchase the items then. On the other hand, its still early, I plan only to purchase the items only in August as we will only need them in Sept. This will solve the storage problem. Kkekek
We still have a lot of things to plan and prepare and schedule. We will have to get our butts into doing them fast. I am still dragging my feet to do these things...
Labels: house, wedding
Sunday, May 4, 2008
We finally have purchased our home today. Initially when we first viewed the place, we already liked it. However, the cash value that the owners were asking for were a little high base on the location and condition that the place is in. We were in a delimma. We wondered if we should get a place which is higher in level and has a better location to speak of. Better location like nearer to the MRT station or to other amenitities. After thinking for about 5 days, we decided to look for more flats first before deciding.
Over this weekend, we viewed more places. We found places with good locations, however we found some problems with the flat. The houses are not in their original condition, the house owners have hacked away one wall to either to enlarge the living room or the master bedrooms. Both Hubby and I decided that we will like to have the house in the original conditions so that if we have more kids its easier. In case if we do not have that many kids, we can also invite our parents to stay with us if its necessary. Hence with one of the rooms being removed, wasn't really ideal to us. In order for us to have the wall back will also cost us quite a bit of money.
The houses in general all have crack walls or ceilings. This is a worrying factor for us as we are pretty worried that we will have to repair all the cracks even if after we mend it now. Hence we decided to look at newer flats with not as good locations. When we viewed newer flats at Bedok Reservior View, we were more certain that we like the house which we had viewed initally. The houses are Reservoir View were smaller and more expensive. The house owners were asking for more COV even though the location is not as good as other places.
We were lucky that the house we were interested in was still available. We offered and was asked to sign the option to purchase form with a deposit of $50 today. Now we are just waiting for the approval of our HLE and we can proceed from there. Now... we are a lot poorer! Hiaz...
The ceiling in general is either cracking or leaking. The house is not in the original state as we will like it to be. The previous house owner has knocked down a wall to make the living room or the bedroom bigger. Labels: house
Friday, December 7, 2007
It was a hectic week to begin with. There seems to be more jobs on hand compared to before. Although only two of our team members were not present this week, one came back on Thursday, we seemed so short handed. There were more than normal problems being reported and the problems were not the normal ones. These problems were never encountered nor were they easy to resolve. Then there was the stupid security guard at our office. I shall not mention it anymore. He had just simply spoilt my days at work.
Now that we have settled the bridal shop and the venue for the wedding, I am wondering if there is a necessity to engage a videographer. Our photographer is someone we have gotten from the bridal as there is a promotion on going. We only paid $388 for the entire day with 200 photos printed and the rest return in CD. The portfolio of the photographer seems ok, however I wondered if he is really good. It is not easy to capture almost every moment but I will really hope that he can do his best. Moments of not only of us but of our guest as well, I will like to see what happened that day that I might have missed. Then I will be able to sit down one day and just flip the pages to recapture that moment.
As the photographer has been decided already, I think I will not employ another or ponder over it anymore. So I am thinking of getting a videographer. Haha. If I did not decide the photographer properly, I hope that I can get a videographer to capture the moments that the photographer had missed. But.... but... I am lazy... Haha.... I am very lazy to go to the internet to look at the portfolios and find out more. I have tried and most of them are just photographers and do not have portfolio for their videos. Hmmmmm........ try. I am try to push myself to do it.
Labels: house, wedding
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Today, we went to Bai Long Zhi to get the date for our actual day wedding. We were not really sure of the place hence we went a little earlier. We were told to go there at 4.00 to 6pm. We did not know that its actually the time which the shop is open for business. However since we were early, we were the second in line.
I am actually surprised that there are actually so many people who goes there for various reasons. Apart from choosing the wedding dates, people were there to actually choose the names for their unborn child.
When we went in, we were even asked to proceed to a certain room no. Its just like going to the Doctors where we get a no and the number flashes on the number board with the room no. After we gotten the dates we were happy as there were about 6 weekend dates to choose from.
But our happiness seems to be a little shortlived. We came to realised that we do not have a place to call our own at the moment. We had applied but we were so far away in the queue to be actually be able to choose a place that we like. The application for the houses in Bedok area is worst since its a mature estate. On top of that we are also not sure whether Bedok would be one of the estate that will be offered in August exercise. Oh dear.
We can always stay at either one of our parents place initially. Dear is willing to stay at my place with my parents. However I doubt that we will do that. Most likely we will stay at his place instead. hiaz. But do I really want to do that? Or should I wait for the house to come first?
Labels: house
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Although we have already decided to go ahead with the plans for our future, I can't stop thinking where would we get our money from. Money is required for ROM, Bridal Shop, Photos, House, Wedding Banquet, Renovation, Furniture and the list just goes on.
Although we are earning an income which allow us to live almost comfortably, we have just started working for just two years after graduating from Uni. On top of that we do not come from a very well to do family. How are we going to ever be able to afford the things which we want?
Well, we worked out the money which we have saved up as well as in the CPF to know that we can't afford to buy a big house. In order not to stretch ourselves, we are able to only get a 4 room HDB flat. But, there are also a thosand and one people getting that particular 4 room flat. From the HDB bimonthly sale, we could see that there are so many peoply applying, when will we ever get lucky enough to be able to get the house of our choice? In this month's bimonthly sale, we applied for Sengkang and Pungol. However I have heard enough negative comments to make me regret my decision. Then again, would I be able to get a place in Bedok, which is a town of my dream?
Everyone is also eyeing the houses that are built in central, but how many are actually left from the En Bloc sale to allow us to get it? Even if we are able to choose, I am sure we will only be left with those low level ones or those facing the MRT tracks. Get resale? Hmmm... house owners nowadays are asking for high cash values on top of the valuation done by HDB. As mentioned, we just started working, we will need the cash for other purposes. Therefore, we will never be able to afford the amounts which they are asking for.
Hence now the question will be whether we should take the flat in Sengkang or Pungol if the choice flats are avaliable. Ok, after discussion we have decided to shortlist the flats that are avaliable and go and select only if those are avaliable. If not, we will wait for those in Bedok. I hope that we will not regret our decision on this. I am just afriad that we will miss the chance for Bedok.
After getting the house, it will be renovation. It will be pretty expensive to renovate. Both of us will like to have a house which is "ideal" to both of us. I am sure that will not come cheap. The house is a place which we will stay for a while. I seriously doubt that we will ever shift unless necessary. We are lucky that there are such things as renovation loans. However, I am not sure how long will we take to finish this loan.
Oh, let's not forget about the furnitures and household appliances that we will require. Of course, we will purchase things which are a necessity first. We will not purchase a bed but just the mattress. Hahaha. Just sleep on the floor for the moment. We have also agreed on just purchasing the television first. I am fine without the sofa. Just sit on the floor will do.
Last but not the least will be the wedding. Although we have almost settle everything for the ROM, I am starting to question myself if we are spending too much on this ceremoney. Its just signing of the cert, do we really need to spend so much?? We will need to spend even a larger amount during the actual day. Hiaz. Money will grow from trees or drop from sky?
Labels: house, Money, wedding
