houseblog

we have a move-in date

2008-08-07T10:16:00.002+08:00

... and it is: Friday 15th of August. After far too many months of renovation, we'll finally be able to enjoy our new home.

Lots to do from now until then though.

sheesh, nearly there.

2008-07-18T12:21:00.002+08:00

We have the exterior painted now, and an auto-gate installed (all important for getting in/out during Singapore's frequent rainstorms).
Most of the rooms are approaching completion, with only the lighting remaining - happening yesterday and today. We have tried to retain the character of the house, which is what attracted us to it in the first place. We fought hard to retain the original windows and grilles. The fixed glass at the top of the windows was originally louvers, but we have updated with reeded glass.

tiles and parquet

2008-06-17T16:54:00.003+08:00

A little more progress, it seems now that end-July is now our estimated move-in date. Here's Aiden inspecting the master shower tilework.

And we now have teak parquet installed in the upstairs rooms. It's a nice honey-colour.

tiles.

2008-06-12T13:02:00.002+08:00

Here's the current view of progess on-site looking towards the front door. Half of our lounge terrazzo-like tiles are laid, and you can just see the edge of the new staircase railing.
Much of the kitchen tiles are laid too, with grout yet to be applied. It will be a little brighter than this, though it is going to be quite a dark kitchen in contrast to the lounge.

progress, progress

2008-05-26T12:27:00.001+08:00

We visited the site this weekend, and it's starting to look more like a house than a site...

Top floor is painted on the outside, and the scaffolding is down, so the tiling around the house can begin.

Newly completed: Tiles are up in the master bathroom, though the flooring isn't done yet.
Kids bathroom has tiling-in-progress.

All the false ceilings are complete and plastered, ready for painting.

yay!

colours

2008-05-13T13:00:00.003+08:00

We have recently had to decide all the colours inside and out for paints, counter tops and cupboards. Here's a sneak peek at the colours we're using for outside - Charcoal grey for downstairs, warm grey for upstairs, and architectural highlights in matt black. What do you think?

we have a roof

2008-04-28T14:40:00.002+08:00

Here's the current state of our renovations. We now have a new roof, and heightened ceilings, though the site still looks like a bit of a mess.The new kitchen is nice and bright. I'm standing where the kitchen sink will go, so the kitchen has a nice view of the back yard.
Here's the master bedroom, Aiden is standing roughly where the old room ended, and Elliot and I are on the extension. It is nice to see everything slowly coming together.

change of host

2008-04-28T12:58:00.001+08:00

We've recently updated our blog host, so hopefully all the posts manage to make the transition unscathed.

up on the roof

2008-04-09T19:14:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow our roof tiles arrive and are due to be installed. As we speak, our home has nothing protecting it from the frequent showers. There's not really anything to protect at the moment... no flooring, paintwork, tiles or anything nearing a completed finish. Today we had a site visit to try to nail down current issues like final window positions and finishes. Still lots to do on the house, but after the roof tiles go up, that will be at least one thing that is completed to the final specifications. Here's hoping that the remaining issues are resolved quickly and we'll see things progressing at a much quicker rate.

work in progress

2008-03-04T18:56:00.003+08:00

It's been a while since the last update, we've been spending all of our weekends looking at tiles, toilets, shower mixers etc. We haven't even started on looking for lights. In any case, there has been much happening on site - the extension as you can see above is up, and this will be the family yard for alfresco dining and relaxing in the cool of the evening. this area will remain open so we'll have a sheltered place outdoors. We have selected all of the tiles for the house, and even found a terrazzo-like tile for the living area to replace our much loved, but now forever gone floor. Bathroom stuff is almost all purchased as well, with only 2 toilets, mop sink, mixer to purchase.

intrenched.

2007-12-03T12:02:00.000+08:00

Work continues apace at the back of the house. The inspection trench that protects the sewer line is in place (that's it in the centre of the photo). The footing foundations are probably poured by now which will support the extension. Not much happening inside the house for now, though that will change soon, as soon as the foundation is dried and the I-beams can start going up. For those not familiar with our plans, the extension is all constructed in exposed steel I-beams rather than the conventional reinforced concrete. This will result in a lighter - slightly industrial feel for the extension. As for our flooring, it's going to cost $5000 just to do the radar inspection, so we'll probably just farewell the terrazzo and look for something similar to replace the entire downstairs floor.

approval to commence

2007-11-06T21:27:00.000+08:00

The government approvals have been given to start work on the extension, so our builders can begin on the major construction work. We're still not sure how badly the gaps underneath the slab are - and at this point, saving the terrazzo is only about 50-50. We may (depending on cost) bring in some high-tech gear - ground penetrating radar - to check on the gaps below the terrazzo without having to break it up. In the meanwhile, it's nice to see things happening every time we visit the site.

The lounge area has been opened up, and the wall through to the downstairs room removed so we'll have front-to-back light and air circulation though the house. We're planning some big folding glass doors through the wall you see in the picture above so there will be lots of light into the living/dining area.

let's not think about the hole under the floor slab

2007-10-29T18:20:00.001+08:00

...instead, let's think about pretty colour options for the house.

Which do you like? Let us know.

oops

2007-10-29T01:11:00.000+08:00

When hacking the kitchen floor, our builders were a little surprised to break through the thin slab. So now we have the potential problem that the slab might be thin in the lounge as well - and may need to be replaced in order to do proper termite treatment. We're hoping that we don't need to do this as it would destroy the beautiful terrazo (not to mention blowing our budget (again!)).

On a brighter note, we went tile shopping this weekend and found a great selection to shortlist. We're in the middle of colour choices... trying to put together a master palette for the house. It's not easy. ;)

demolition started

2007-09-13T13:46:00.003+08:00

After many months of planning, our builder has moved onsite and has started with the prep work.

We wanted to keep the existing Terrazo floor, so they have layered it with plywood to protect a bit.

The old pinex ceiling boards are gone. We'll have a new roof in a while, but in the interim we have high ceilings!
Farewell kitchen wall! we'll be extending the kitchen to about twice the current size.

the keys are in the bag

2007-05-04T12:24:00.000+08:00

All the paperwork is done and dusted - we have the keys to our new place!

It would be fun to throw a barbeque there this weekend, if not for the fact that there's no electricity, water, furniture...(and other 1st world luxuries). And did we mention that the place is in need of some serious renovation?

dot i, cross t

2007-04-26T17:49:00.000+08:00

Well, after 12 weeks of paperwork, 1 bank guarantee, 2 lawyers and 4 government ministries we have finally completed all of the required paperwork to complete the sale. The only remaining task for us is to collect the keys!

Exciting times.

We'll receive the keys in 9 days time! woo hoo.

hurray for CPF

2007-04-16T00:08:00.000+08:00

(mae's entry)

For the benefit of those who aren't familiar with our nation's numerous acronymns, CPF stands for "Central Provident Fund" which houses our compulsory savings contributions (20% of our monthly pay + a 13% contribution from the employer). It works like a fixed deposit essentially.

I received approval to use my CPF for the mortgage and Andy received permission from the SLA (Singapore Land Authority) to purchase - the latter is a pre-cursor to his using his CPF too.

This would be great for us, as our CPF is basically locked away until we turn 55, save for certain home purchases and government-approved unit trusts.

We've been delving into heaps of interior & design magazines to decide what we want, and it's been heaps of fun planning the look together. We're really conscious of retaining the character of the house, and the fact that we have a very limited budget - complimentary ends, fortunately.

Stay tuned on our next update - it make be a while as this baby may take a back seat to the real baby on the way.

view from the back

2007-03-18T22:39:00.000+08:00

We took some photos today of the back to help our potential architects/designers understand the space a little more. As you can see, the back is also in need of some TLC. We own the land right up the the beige foreground wall, so there is a decent amount of space at the back to do some landscaping and perhaps an alfresco dining area?? (from my rough calculation there's about 6.5 metres from the back of the house to the boundary). No doubt the neighbors who overlook this backyard will be happy about our planned renovation.

structural engineer

2007-03-13T18:31:00.000+08:00

Today we had a structural engineer at our new place to do a visual inspection. There was a lot of stuff that he told us that we already knew.

The roof leaks and needs replacing
The wiring needs to be checked
The concrete outside has settles and cracked

We did learn a few new things though

The structure is in good condition, pretty sound.
The bathroom downpipe is corroded and needs replacing
All gutters and rainpipes need to be removed

The roof timbers seem pretty solid, and the air in the roof-space smelt dry, not musty. We won't know about any termite infestation until the roof is being replaced however.

Now we really need to find the right architect/designer to get everything happening.

we have a plan

2007-03-12T23:05:00.000+08:00

Actually, we have two. And here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Here's the ground floor plan (click the image for a larger view).

And the second floor. Interestingly, what we're considering as the master bedroom doesn't have a door through to the bathroom in the plan. I guess it was added later. We also have an accurate date on the building - the plans were completed in 1964.

inspection

2007-03-06T21:13:00.000+08:00

On Sunday we got an architect friend to take a look at the place and he gave us some good advice on what can and can't be done with the renovations. It was also a good opportunity for Paul, Kim and Kate to take a look too.

phase one done

2007-02-24T00:05:00.000+08:00

We've sucessfully passed phase one of the purchase, and now there's only ten weeks and a gargantuan mortgage in the way of us receiving the keys to our new (old) home. We're already bursting with ideas to renovate the space, and are currently on the search for a good interior designer who has worked with old house conversions.

pictures, pictures

2007-02-10T22:57:00.000+08:00

As we promised, here are a few photos of the house.

Situated in a nice quiet street...

Here 'tis. Double-story corner terrace sitting with on 2656 square feet (roughly 250 m2) of land. House is about 30 years old and as you can see, in original condition. It has semi-sheltered off-street parking. Four bedrooms (3up, 1 down), 2 toilets (1 down, 1 up + bathroom).

Roof is medium-pitch. We're planning to remove the false ceiling when we get the leaks in the roof fixed to give a more "loft" feel upstairs.

The "garden" needs a little work (just like everything else). This view is down the side of the house towards the back.

View from the balcony towards the street.

This is one of the upstairs bedrooms with the balcony. Upstairs rooms are small, but squarish so will be easy to use the space efficiently.

Stairwell. Still has the original 60's/70's tiles.

View down the stairs into the living area. The space is pretty large and has natural light on 3 sides.

Right now, we're doing all of the paperwork to conclude the sale. We're also researching the renovation and wading through interior design mags to find inspiring ways to design the space. After the sale is completed, we imagine about 6 months of renovation work (in stages) to get the house in a ready state for us to move in. It would be really nice if we can spend Christmas in the new home... but we'll see how time and finances conspire to make that happen.

holy cow! we just bought a house!

2007-02-10T22:49:00.000+08:00

Okay, to be honest, the official sale has not been completed - We're at the point where the owner has accepted our offer, and we have 14 days to get all the legal/financial ducks in a row before confirming the sale.