Moving

Today we moved into our new flat formally. We will stay here for a night and return to my in-laws place and stay until bb is slightly older so that we can bring him home every night.

Renovation Part 4

Here is our half completed kitchen cabinet taken before CNY. Some of the doors are not installed yet.

Yesterday, doors had been all installed, hole for sink and stove been cut. So next will be taking measurement and installation for the solid surface top, follow by the back painted glass on the wall. Will post the pictures when it is fully completed.

Now the carpenters are moving on to the master bedroom wardrobe. Still deciding on the colour of the wardrobe, headache!

Renovation Part 3

Actually there is nothing to update about the new flat renovation as most of the work had been completed except for the carpentry work. We are still waiting for the carpenter to come out with the cabinets drawings. They have yet to construct and hubby have been chasing me for it. But the carpenters are currently busy with my company's projects, so will have to wait. Hopefully we can get all these done by end of Dec.

However, during the weekend we manage to purchase some of the big item electric appliances. We got them from Harley Norman where there is sales going on and they gave us quite a good price. These are what we have gotten.

Renovation Part 2

We are now into end of the 6th week of renovation. Most of the works had been done. What is outstanding are :-

• Installation of light fittings,powerpoint and switches
• Design and construction of carpentry works
• Finding bedroom ceiling lights
• Laminated flooring for bedrooms

Renovation Part 1

Now we are into the 3rd week of the renovation. Well there is some hiccups along the way but we managed to solved the issues. Think they will be finishing the wet works by this week, so will be starting on the electrical, ceiling and plastering work soon.

before renovation

Finally we manage the nail down the final price with the contractor. Will be hacking most of the flooring including both toilets and kitchen and redoing everything. Renovation will start after the 7th month and hopefully it will be completed within 2 months.

Here is how our new flat look like before the renovation. Now will need to start shopping for the materials for the flat, eg tiles, sanitary wares, lighting etc.

Lucky...

we did not wait for the balloting result for the Bedok new flats. If we have waited, we will not have our own flat now.

We balloted in February and the results were only announced yesterday. Guess what is our queue number? Hahaha! is 541! I could not believe that we got such a "good" number despite that we have 4 more chances for being 1st timer, near to parents and after 4 times of futile ballots. For your info, we ballot for 5 rooms flat and there were only 95 units to choose from. Hubby says in the letter from HDB, they wrote that 800 applicants were 1st timers!

We really got no luck in getting new flats, only can get resale flats. Haha!

Woohoo!

I got good news to share! Wanted to blog about this great news on Monday but was too tied down with work to do so.

Well the great news is hubby and I finally got OUR FLAT! It is a resale 5rm point blk unit in AMK, 14th floor. Though it is not near the central/mrt, must take feeder bus, but we felt very comfortable in the flat the moment we step in.

Actually we viewed the flat last Saturday evening and also made an offer. However, the owner wanted something higher. Therefore we went for a 2nd viewing the next day and negotiate the price on the spot. After a few rounds of negotiation, tata... the deal is sealed. *smiling from ear to ear*

I am both happy and sad about getting a flat. Happy is because after 1 and half years of searching we finally got a flat which we like and within our budget. Sad is because we need to part with a big chunk of our savings for the Cash Over Valuation and our agent's fee. Will need to save more for the upcoming renovation, so no more shopping for me. Sob Sob!

In the meantime we will concentrate on our wedding preparations and after the wedding then we will start worrying about the flat renovations.

Unlucky

Something very sad happened last night. Me and husband decided to start to look for resale flat again as we are not going to ballot for the City View @ Boon Keng, too expensive. So we went to view a 5rm point block flat near his area. Is on the 15th floor, marble flooring and the cash that is owner is asking is within our budget.

Is hard to find this type of flat now. Usually the sellers will demand more than $50k cash for flats that are near central and high storey. After viewing, we walked around the block to take a look at the amenities. We decide to make an offer for the flat. We called the agent but he did not pick up the call. We tried 2 more times, but no luck.

So we went to Bishan for dinner. Around 7pm, he still did not return our call. We sent him an sms and he finally returned our call at 9pm. But to our dismay, the owner had sold the flat to a couple who came to view the flat after us. That couple offered for the flat straight on the spot! Sucks!

The amount that we wanted to offer is higher than them, so if the agent had answered our call, we might be the new owner of the flat. How can such things be happening to us? Our only hope right now is to pray hard that the couple's housing loan does not get approved, so after 14 days if they failed to produce the loan letter, then the owner can sell the flat to us.

We are truly very unluckly when it comes to finding our house. Sad sad sad

Choices

In life one will have alot alot of choices to make. For me, I have decided on my Wedding Gowns yesterday.

Choosing for the EG was the most tedious as the selection was quite limited as I wanted dark colours. After trying on various colours and design, I took a liking to a modern cut black cheongsam with the back totally exposed. This is the only design that flatter my 身材 other than bustier. Husband keep shaking his head when I try on a halter neck design as I cannot fill up around the chest area. Haha!

Finally I decided to custom make my EG as black seems to be not a favourite colour for wedding. I went for dark maroon colour. Hopefully I will turn up ok for me.

Important Dates to Remember
24 Jan - 1st Fitting
23 Feb - Final Fitting
25 Feb - Indoor and Outdoor Photography

Today me and husband went to view the City View show flat @ Boon Keng. I was abit disappointed with parts of the design, namely the area of the balcony and the ledge below the bay window. Both items took up quite amount of floor space and I deemed it to be very wasteful. Have to consider whether to ballot for the flat as this is the 5th time we are balloting and whether we could afford it as it is about S$550/sqft. So averagely, a 5 room flat will cost about S$600K. Another choice to be made - but this time is a lifetime commitment.

crazy sellers

These days the prices for HDB are going sky rocket high! Last friday, the newspaper reported that someone bought a Tiong Bahru 5rm flat for $675k!! The valuation was $550k, which means the buyer have to fork out $125k cash above valuation. The worst thing is, the buyer is a enbloc sales person and he/she paid the flat with FULL CASH!! They are really the black sheeps and causing the property market to go crazy.

Last night, my property agent called me saying there is a 4rm at AMK and the seller is asking for $350k!! OMG! The estimated valuation for the flat at that area is about max $260k. Yes, that means is close to $100k above valuation!

How can we afford to pay such a amount? They really think everyone is a enbloc sale buyer whose pockets are full of cash??!! We are just ordinary, average income Singaporeans who just want to get a HDB flat because we can't afford a private apartment. I thought HDB should be more afforable?

When can we have our own flat??

where are all the flats?

Now is really a very difficult time to buy a HDB flat as the demand for them is high but the amount of flats that are putting up for sale is low. Therefore, once there is a good catch, everyone is grabbing for it even thought one might need to fork out 30-40k cash above valuation or even more. Sigh. Such a big headache. After searching for closing to a year now, we are still at square one.

The valuation of the flats are getting higher. The price the owners are asking are also higher. Some are very far stretched or I should say 狮子大开口。For example, this morning I asked an agent who advertised on today's paper. It was a 5rm flat which was about 6yrs old, on 11th floor. The valuation is $430k and the owner is asking for a sky high price of $495k! OMG! These kind of flats, we do not even need to go and see, the price alone has scared us off.

So with such ridiculous pricing, how and when can we get something that we like and is within our budget? Really feel kind tired of flipping through the papers, calling the agents and viewing flats.

Walk-In-Selection

Supposingly today is the day for our turn to select for the flats for the latest WIS but last night when I went to check for the availability of the flats we like, just as I expected, those we like have all been selected. Sigh!

The moment we got our queue no, we know the chances of selecting our ideal flat is very very slow. Why? Because our queue no is 756!! Why? Because people started queueing up 2 days before and the news of the WIS was only announced on the actual day which is last Fri.

Last Fri, while I was going to work, I saw the HDB advertisement in the train station stating that the WIS is starting on that day. That was 8am. Immediately, I told jackson and he went down to HDB hub to take the queue number. He managed to get the number around 8.40am and our queue number is already 756! WT*&%#@??!! He already reached there so early and yet our number is so far.

How do those people get to know about the news? They have insider info? In the newspaper article, those people told the journalist that they saw the news in the HDB website. WT*&%#@??!! I only gotten the email alert from HDB on that actual day 6am, how is it possible that they saw the news on the webbie??!!

So demoralising...wasted our $10 bucks.... :(

TTS + upgrading

Yesterday I went TTS to visit ZX. He seems to be recovering well as compared to Monday when my other friends went to visit him. Last Monday he was not happy to see them, telling his gf very 'fan'. So JH and D went off after 10mins. Yesterday, ZX was okay. He talked alot but abit senseless. He kept mentioning about 雪山 and 真字. But at least he talked more now and can read magazine and recognize people. I guess in a couple of weeks time, he will be able to discharge from hospital.

On friday, my house started the upgrading of the toilets - changing of the water pipe, replacing with uPVC pipes, redoing the whole toilet. So there is what my kitchen and toilet look like now...

In the middle is the make shift toilet with no HOT WATER!

The floor of the toilet have to be rescreed and waterproofed before laying of new tiles

Right now, everywhere is dust and we have to wear slippers around the house (except for the rooms). Worst of all is there is not hot water to bath with. Cant boil any water. Such a torture! Sigh! Still got 8 more days to endure before the whole thing is done.

late night + flat hunting

It is almost 10pm but I am still in office slogging away. Basically, I have been working till 10 or 10plus everyday (except for sat & sun). Sigh! Work seems to be neverending and before I can finish what I have on hand, new work start to queue up already. Dont know when I can return to my normal work time - reaching home before 9pm so that I can eat my dinner and watch some TV to relax. These days, when I reach home, it is almost 11pm. Most of the time I will skip dinner and go straight to bed to get some reading to lull me to sleep.

For my flat hunting, it is not really very fruitful. We managed to view the not-so-old (more than 5, less than 10 yrs old)4R flats in amk. However, we do not fancy the layout especially the master bedroom. The space for the wardrobe is small, the most can only have 3 doors. OMG! How can it fit all the clothes and stuffs? *faint* Well the coming sat, will be going to view the 5R flat. Have to start saving very hard because the flats are not cheap! 300K for 4R and 400k for 5R!