Our Life Together

There are external companies that help you to do the defects checking these days (everything is possible now). So basically these companies offer a package that consists of 3 inspection trips to your home, which typically costs around $400.  1st Inspection: Identify defective works required and submit the report  2nd Inspection: Joint inspection appointment  3rd Inspection: Conduct the final inspection on the rectification works carried out We felt that it wasnt necessary and decided to carry out the inspection and follow-up by ourselves. I trust my eagle eyes and nitpickiness. I read online that some couples have a long list of items to bring to their new home during defects checking such as ladder, pail, torchlights, broom and what not.  We simply downloaded and printed a sample BTO defects checklist shown below and  brought along together with a few pens and post-it pads. That's all.. 😂 I think we took around 45 min to an hour to check throug...

We were rather disappointed by the first draft of the 3D drawings. The overall look and feel of the drawings were really not what we have envisioned our home to be. We were expecting to confirm the designs of the house before the key collection. However, as we were not satisfied with the 3D drawings, we had to spend time to really re-think and try to salvage the situation.  It would have been perfect if we loved the 3D drawings and just a few days later receive the keys to our home. BUT... since it did not turn out the way that we expected, we decided to meet our ID, talk over it and head down to Hafary again to re-choose some of the tiles.  This time, we headed down to Hafary at Tradehub 21 after he finished doing the on-site inspection and measurements at our new house. Although the Tradehub outlet was smaller than the one that we visited in Eunos, but they still had a rather large selection of tiles for us to choose from.  We first started to look for a r...

The day that we have been waiting for is finally here.. KEY COLLECTION!! 🏠 Our appointment was at 10:15am. We arrived earlier at Toa Payoh HDB Hub to have breakfast at Macdonalds before going to take our queue number.  Dad and grandma arrived while we were waiting for our queue number to be called. When our number was called, we went to the counter to sign all relevant papers, decide on the loan amount, the number of years, the percentage deduction for each person, pay our first conservancy charges, etc..  AND FINALLY..... WE WERE PRESENTED WITH OUR KEYS TO OUR HOME!!! 😍😍 At that moment there were too many things to take in, it didnt feel surreal yet. We went to level 2 of HDB HUB to open our SP account for the utilities. Once that  was settled, we headed straight to our new home to open the doors! 😁 There were so many contractors camping at the void deck of our block.. I guess it was only when we entered the compound and saw our block tha...

Our block PCD was scheduled to be end December 2018. We were expecting to get our keys in mid January 2019, in which the renovation works will be delayed as CNY falls on 5-6 February 2019. BUT....p eople from our block started receiving sms and email from HDB regarding their key collection appointment!  The dates given seemed pretty random but the first lucky couple was going to get their keys on 7th November. Obviously we did not receive anything. 😩 Previously, I emailed our HDB sales officer requesting for early key collection and she assured me that our application will be placed under urgent basis. So I decided to spam her mailbox. 😂 Actually it wasn't that bad. I just emailed her 3 times in a span of 1 week. I was constantly refreshing my mailbox hoping to see a reply.  Lo and behold! We received the sms notification and email on 5th November that we can collect the keys to our new home on 14 November!! 😄😄 Super excited and both of us kept wondering if we were ...

We scheduled to meet our ID at Hafary Eunos at 11:30 am. The place has a huge collection. Just after entering the building for a short while, we were both stunned at the range of tiles they had, wondering how in the world are we going to choose from all those tiles. Sometimes having a huge range can be a headache as well 😂. From the different tile sizes, to designs, patterns, finishing and textures, not including the huge range of colours with just the slightest variations to the undertones. 😨 We walked around excitedly and energetically in the beginning, touching and feeling the tiles for its texture and feel. After some time, the both of us were literally lost. Everything started to look the same to us.  Thankfully our ID arrived earlier and shortlisted some tiles that would best suit what we previously described to him and also some unique tiles that would help make a certain area stand out more. Our first choice for the flooring of the entire house (Living Room, Be...

We spent a pretty long time trying to screenshot pictures online that we would love for our dream home. We wanted to go for Scandinavian theme with grey tones. I guess in most cases, lighting plays a very important part to bring out the cosy feeling that we love. Some pictures of living rooms that we found cosy and nice.  We shortlisted a number of ID firms and met up with the IDs assigned to us to try to find one that would best suit our needs, be it in terms of pricing, rough design ideas and also whether we could understand each other and felt comfortable with. Can't believe it but we actually met up with 7 or 8 ID companies. The companies that we spoke to were:  Superhome Design  Jialux Interior  DB Studio  Cozyspace  DS2000  Earth Interior Lemonfridge Studio  It was definitely a tiring experience, having to explain what we want in our house and what we are going for over and over and over again. 😂 Hence I suppose we ...

After the booking of our unit, we were invited to go back to HDB Hub on 25th February 2018, 10:50 am to sign the lease agreement and pay the downpayment. Previously, the officer mentioned that the appointment will be scheduled within 6 months of the unit booking (1 June) but we did not hear anything so I emailed HDB and they scheduled us to go down on 25th February. Its like asking them to hurry take our money.. 😂  Here's the floor plan of our new home.. The projected completion date is end December 2018. Its still going to be quite a long while, we decided to start looking through completed projects of different ID firms, to save some pictures that we like and also shortlist some companies. Since we went for Sales of Balance Flat, we could not choose whether we wanted the flooring or the wall for the kitchen. Everything was already decided for us... So our unit does not come with floor tiles in the living room and bedrooms, has tiles (but we have no idea how the tiles look)...

Decided to post some background stuff to remind ourselves what we have been through. 😂 So after several attempts of applying for BTO for the Bidadari Estate and obviously failed to get any ballot number, we decided to go for Sales of Balance Flat in Bukit Batok. There were a few options in Bukit Batok, such as Skyline I and II (only a few units here and there), Sky Peak (the estate near Keming) and several estates in Bukit Batok West.  We went ahead to submit our application for a 5 room unit in Bukit Batok West Edge under the Married Child Scheme on 26 November 2016. West Edge had the most units available. Supposedly, 30% of the units will be set aside for the Married Child Scheme. So for us, our 2 balloting tickets will go into the draw for the 30% first. BUT we didnt make it.... 😑 then the balloting tickets will then go into the remaining 70%. Only then did we get a queue number to choose our unit.  Though I cannot remember what our queue number was, but we we...