Toa Payoh HDB Flat Renovations

HDB (housing development board) resale flat prices in Singapore has been increasing steadily throughout 2012.

This is the flyer from one of the most famous agents in the Toa Payoh area.

Kenny Wong

You will love him if you are the seller. Toa Payoh is one of the most expensive HDB estates in Singapore due to its central location. Prices can range from $430k for a 3 room flat to $825k for a 5 room flat. And the COV can range from 70k to 110k.

And this is where my boyfriend and I bought our first flat.

So starting with the living room:

(clockwise from top left: before, demolition, after & construction)

Followed by the dinning room and walkway to the bedrooms:

(clockwise from top left: before, demolition, construction, after (night) & after (day))

Another before & after:

Pictures from the walkway:

Speaking of the walkway, we were told by our air-con service provider that the air-con ducting done by the previous owners were illegal because the piping is done by hacking through the wall.

Picture below, the old piping is in the wall, while the new ones are on the outside to be covered up with the false ceiling.

Still on the living room:

The store room and the shoe & umbrella rack:

As for the kitchen, there was no renovation done other than a change of sink.:

Next, the common toilet:

And the master bedroom toilet:

The study / future prayer room:

Bedroom 1:

Bedroom 2:

Master Bedroom:

The walk-in wardroom in the master bedroom:

Overall, the tiles in the living room, dinning area and the master bedroom toilet were changed. All the bedroom and study room floors were laminated. All walls and ceiling repainted. Toilet accessories and lighting were changed. Of course, there were also alot of hacking of all the build-in items left by the previous owners.

Total cost of renovation is slightly below $20,000.

It was all done with Impress 21 Design.

The service was average, the workmanship is good but not meticulous. The pricing is reasonable.

So when all is done, you actually get a sweet looking home like this:

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How to Make the Best of A Pre-Wedding Bridal Package

I was inspired to write this post after my terrible experience with Seletar Broadway Bridal which you will find here. 

This post is for those precious brides out there who still have a chance to better their experience with their pre-wedding bridal package.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

THESE ARE THE THINGS YOU MUST ASK AND GET COMMITMENT FROM THE BRIDAL SHOP  FOR BEFORE SIGNING THE PACKAGE WITH THEM,

NOT AFTER!!!

For Pre-wedding photoshoot + actual day make up, gowns, car, car deco & flower:

- Ask for unlimited make up and hairdo trial 

- Ask how many MUA are available in the shop for your Actual Day and make sure you try all their make up before you find a suitable one

- For actual day make up, make sure you know the timings of the make up and get the commitment before signing the package with them. If you do not know of the timing yet, tell them that the MUA must be available no matter what time you need them. In this case, it is especially important that the MUA is only servicing you on the actual day. Depending on your actual day plan, the MUA must  be available in the morning for the gate crash/ tea ceremony, afternoon if there is a church wedding, evening for a dinner reception and also for the second march in (change of hairdo and make up touch up). Make sure the same MUA is available for all timing the entire day. Also ask for a back up MUA and free trial with the back up MUA in case the original MUA is sick on the actual day. Also ask if there are extra charges if you require the MUA before 7am. Ask exactly how the charges is calculated. 

- For photo taking, ask for 2 separate days if you can afford the time ( 1 for indoor, 1 for outdoor). Both photo taking must start from 9 am or 11 am if you want it after lunch. For outdoor photo taking, in case of rain, they have to give another day of photo taking. Also, the number of outdoor locations must be unlimited as long as time permits. Try to spend max 1hr at each location and 3-5 poses with one background. Also the outdoor must be till 9pm so you can capture some night scenes. 

- For indoor photo taking, ask for MUA & photographer to only service your couple that day ( usually Seletar Broadway MUA and photographer service several couples per day and you will have to wait around for your turn. The make up room and changing room can get very crowded. You also loses concentrated attention of the photographer and MUA)

- For outdoor photo taking, ask for the MUA to follow for change of hairstyles and make up touch up. Make sure this is included in the package before you sign the package.

- Ask if ampules (both groom and bride) and fake eyelashes are FOC for all photo taking and actual day. If not, ask for them to be included in the package.

- Request to hold the package and go down to their shop before signing the package with them to view their gowns available for outdoor. They call these gowns second hand which means they will not look brand new. And they are only used for outdoor photo taking. (one bad thing is they do not have colored long, evening gowns that can be used for outdoor photo taking. So make sure, before signing the package with them, to have at least 1 white gown, 1 colored evening gown, 1 cocktail gown (short front, long back) and 1 short dress for the outdoor photo taking)

- Also ask for unlimited trial of gowns for gown selection.

- The actual day gown is the most important of the entire package. If you are going to spend tens of thousands on the wedding reception, you do not want to be greeting guests in an ugly old gown that do not flatter you or make you feel good. Seletar Broadways has lots of those gowns. So make sure before you sign up for the package, ask for MTM of both actual day gowns. If you have photos of them, show them on the spot and ask for their commitment. Then go to the shop and try all the gowns to check which type of gowns flatter you before re-deciding the type of gowns you want. Make sure they agree to everything before signing with them. For the MTM gown, they will often use the lack of material as excuse. So make sure you get their commitment that they will source for the material on their own. By the way, I have seen some brides wearing 3 gowns for their dinner reception. So you might want to consider it. Just include this in the package as well.

- Also for outdoor photo taking, ask if you can bring your own clothes and change into them for photo taking.

- For indoor photo taking, they usually give 4 different styles: 1 Actual day white gown, 1 actual day evening gown and 2 traditional costume). If you are like me and you want to bring your own traditional costumes or graduation attire, ask before signing if you can also bring your own cloths for indoor photo taking. Make sure the MUA do the additional make up styles FOC.

- Also, all photo taking should come complete with fresh flowers for indoor, fake flowers for outdoor, and also many sets of fake jewels and accessories, including veil and gloves and head flowers. Also ask them to show you example of head flowers they can provide because I doubt they have any. Importantly, get their commitment. I am not saying you have to utilize them, but make sure they are all included in the package in case you want them in the end. Also for actaul day, you should ask for Kua & two father jackets. In case you do not utilize them, ask for replacement with extra gowns for bridesmaid, mum, yourself or exchange for money. All these must be black and white on the contract.

- For the outdoor photo taking, if your car has enough space, make sure you have 1 MUA, 1 photographer, 1 lighting assistant (especially for night scenes) and 1 photographer assistant (usually this person will help you carry your items and change into your gown if the MUA is unavailable) following you for free.

- If your car still has space, bring a friend who is keen on photo taking along. Ask the friend to capture the tiring but enjoyable day of photo taking. Because the poses will cost $70+ later on, if your friend is able to capture the moments, it will save you lots of money later on.

- My bridal package includes a car for actual day but does not include a car for pre-wedding photo taking because we are using our own car. You can also bargain on that if you are smart enough.

- For a package like mine that cost $3288+, there was only 30 poses at first. After bargaining, it becomes 36. But in fact, because they are such hard sales people, I should have asked for 50 poses and bargain from there.

- Also the photos are later printed on 15"x 24" cross page pvc, make sure they give you the best quality their shop can offer. The package also includes smaller books (as mentioned above in my bridal package), so get them all. They also have canvas, framed photos and guest books with selected poses. If you are like me who do not like their quality of canvas, framed photos and guest books, ask them to replace with poses and money. (as described in my package)

- Also, make sure you bargain for them to absorb the GST. This is commonly done in other bridal shops especially during roadshows.

- Another important part is do not believe them if they tell you that that is the last day of their promotion. You will see them at roadshows else where the following week. I have seen them at Suntec city and Expo. And on both occasions, they came to grab me and my bf to their stall, dying to promote to us again and again even after we signed up with them.

- Most importantly, you should know that this is your big day and most of us only get married once in our lives. So ask for everything you need and only sign the package if it is truly what you want.

- This list of mine is non exhaustive. So if you have more ideas to make the bridal package to the bride's advantage, share your great ideas with me!!

All text and image files and other content on this website is the property of the seventeenthstorey and protected by copyright. Copyrights and other proprietary rights in the content on this website may also be owned by individuals and entities other than, and in addition to, seventeenthstorey. Seventeenthstorey expressly prohibits the copying of any protected materials on this website.