Welcome to Punggol Spectra Part I

After months of planning, color picking, material choosing and nail biting, we finally managed to set the place up and all cosy. It wasn't the easiest process really, it was madness in fact. All the shifting and decisions making was crazy and also explains why I really appreciate the place now. I wanna like just stay in there 24/7!

Before I start to share some of the pictures and stuff, I would like to thank a few people who helped and make this happened. The mum who helped me packed my stuff, provided some of the stuff to start of the kitchen, the mother in law, brother in law and sister in law with the gifts, cousin Johnny who introduced the ID, mad amount of tips on air con choosing and what not, Malaysia purchases, Keong with the late night ferry of my boxes and delivery of food, and Jacky, V goh and Kelvin for the cleaning/delivery help as well. And of course the wife who helped a lot as well, wouldn't be able to do this all alone.(And of course your CPF was needed very much. :x) I really wanted to thank the baby sister but I just can't remember what did she do other than coming over all the time for dinner and playing the PS3. HAHA.

Punggol Spectra has this a "color code" for each block and mine is Pink! Suits me!

One of the tips I've learn from this renovation is that the Air con should go in before any other renovation works starts. Of course there are pros and cons, the cons is that the part behind the air con would be colorless and there will be a chance of your air con being dirty after all the renovation but the good part is that whatever boxup not done will can be rectified by the renovation company after that. And it will not dirty the walls or floors there after as well!

We went with Panasonic systerm 3 air-con as it is cheaper and comes with inverter(which means save power)

Initially we were considering a system 4(meaning 3 in bed room and 1 in the living room) but we dropped the idea as the price from a system 3 to system 4 is a huge jump as the compressor jumps from 1 to 2 pieces. It was a good decision, apparently staying on level 14 with nothing blocking you both front and back view can means very strong wind. I woke up feeling like I'm at Genting every other morning. brrrr...

Anyway, before the renovation started, the ID will give some 3D impressions mock up. And I was shocked when I saw the pictures. It doesn't looks like it's impression to me. It looked too damn real!

Dining and my built in crazy2-in-1 storage cum cat condo.

My full length shoe cabinet.

!st look of my kitchen.

The master bed room with 2 full sized mirror. koff koff.

The process before the 3D was produced was pretty fast and hustle free for us. It was a session of sit down discussion and another full day session of items selection. Our ID brought us to different places to select different items, materials, flooring, colors and even lights/bathroom accessories.

Some might choose to go different places or even JB to buy as it is cheaper but for us, we were caught up with too many things on hand and we do not want to be troubled to change or buy again anything that does not fit the design. It was a good choice too as one of the items was delivered broken and my ID just went again to do the exchange and re-purchase without me paying a single cent or calling anyone. It's the service that we paid for and it was worth it. (Kind of.)

Before anything went up, the wall came down.

As many of you should know or have heard that the new houses at Punggol are really small. There is no way to make it bigger and the only solution is to make it looks bigger. Knocking down walls for the "open concept look" and adding mirrors are two of the most common solutions. Thus, down you go wall!

During our BTO phrase, we were given a few options, to get the place bare or with doors and/or with flooring. We got our unit with the doors but no flooring as we couldn't decide and we heard some negative experience with the flooring. We got our flooring with our ID but still we are not at all happy with it. The glossy homogeneous flooring, it's so glossy that you will see every single foot print and it's so painful when we are doing the cleaning. We went with laminated flooring for the bed rooms and it wasn't up to my expectation as well. The workmenship was pretty bad. There are like little humps all over the place. They removed the flooring and re-do it but the problem remains and I was too tired to argue and went ahead and left it as it was. I might live to regret this but oh well.

Floor Tiles Up!

I've heard horror stories from the forum and my ID that some couples will make like 30 over changes for their 3D impression before starting work. Minor changes like color combination or shifting certain things from left to right. With that in mind, I think my money is really easy money! I only did a 2nd version and everything started quickly. Of course there is a perks to doing so too, being easy going also means that they will do my things much faster!

Version 2 of the dining area. Lamination changed and dining table removed. Our bar counter is the only dining area.

We left the dining area empty as I was expecting a gift from my friends. A foosball table, a full size one. But after shifting in, I enjoy having this area free. We play mahjong there, we play drinking games there and thus we dropped the idea of having the foosball table.

Full length shoe cabinet edited as well. Remove the center portion. Prefer it this way.

Lamination of kitchen cabinet now changed to follow suit with cabinet outside.

If you have noticed from the pictures, our design is actually very straight forward and simple. Despite some people asking me why did I build that big ass cat condo and cabinet blocking my living room. My reasons are simple, 1. I want something for my cats to climb, 2. it is something very different and unique, 3. I like it block my door and sofa so i can sit whichever way I like and 4. I can hide many many things in these cabinets. I also did not go with the popular false ceilings and ceiling fan. I didn't like the idea that the false ceiling will make the already low ceiling lower and make the house seems even smaller. And ceiling fans? I am just preventing this from happening.

Being 1.8m tall with no arms doesn't feels too righ

The saving grace for this project was the service, the speed and the workmanship for the cabinets. I was really unhappy with the flooring but seeing your place being put together quickly makes me happy. We were trying to make sure we could settle down before X'mas and we did! :D

1 of the many visits. Kitchen top not up yet.

My state of the art cat condo. Looks pretty close to the 3D right? Super impressed!

Bar top up as well.

We needed some stress test for the cabinets.

And the paint job wasn't very well done as well. But to be fair the guys did came back a few times to make things right and we also set our expectation a little lower each time.

The studies room with Lakers Themed Colors!

I was very glad that the place was up according to schedule. Although there are some minor hiccups left and right, we managed to iron some of the details later on as well.

During the renovation, something bad happened. My brother left us... He left us for a better place. And with that, we were not in the mood to hold our ROM dinner anymore. We cancelled the dinner despite it being a small dinner to begin with. No big bang, no music and nothing to cheers about. But we went on with the ceremony as we didn't want to go out of trouble to postpone with ROM and HDB for handling the papers and I believe that's not what my brother wanted as well. Thus the 1st happy occasion at the place was our very own ROM ceremony. 

Yes, I do.

And soon after we go into full auntie and uncle mode to get the house ready!

Whole new meaning to "shopping" and "Pak Tor"

And shortly after this was the longest day you will ever spend in your place. "Wait for furniture with no internet or any other entertainment day". I stayed over night as the 1st piece of furniture is suppose to reach by 8am and I didn't wanna be late. And yup, I slept over on the floor the night before.

My 1st sun rise at Punggol Spectra.

And after that was endless days of shifting things and unpacking. It was madness. And soon the official move in day!

Mummy says that the rice bucket must be full!

Mummy came and help with the ritual. Burn charcoal for water boiling!

Water boiling to symbolize 财源滚滚

Rolling of Ong Lai! Money Money Come Come again!

And garlic, 蒜头，有的算（钱）。

And slowly the rest of the things came and join us at the place!

My two kitties!

My toy collection. This is only a small part of it actually.

And of course super friends to come and teach me how to cook!

Super Friends to come and help me deck up the 2D X'mas Tree.

And yup, before we know it it's already X'mas!

And this is our 3 door Mitsubishi Fridge. Got it at a discount and it's pretty good.

For fridge choosing, size is a big concern for us as we were worry that the space allocated is not enough. And after size there was a few other criteria. 1 - the ice making compartment must be at the lower corner of the freezer area. Cause my previous fridge had it top right and that means water spilling all over the place before it reaches where it should reach. 2. Vege compartment to be at the lowest area so the "not-so-tall" wife can easily reach the vegetable.

Our King Koil Sofa from Courts. This is one of those sofa that you get to customize and choose your own materials. From the back cushions, side cushions to what you were sitting on. It's actually kind of scary as they have no software or catalog to assist you with this whole customization process. Which means there is a chance that after you pick and mixed it it will turn out really ugly. Lucky for Ah Smart cause I think I am pretty good with such stuff and TAR DAR~  Our awesome brown themed sofa that goes with the paint and all. It's not only pretty and good to sit, it's also very awesome to sleep on when you are drunk! 

Exhibition A - Rondy after a night of drinking.

Our stay at Punggol Spectra has been a good one so far. The location is good, we have like a few eating place around the area and even a 24hrs supermarket near by!The air is awesome and the company has been great. Check out our 2D X'mas Tree! All filled up with pictures already!

 

Meow?

Talking about company, recently Carrie from thecambelles.com/ dropped by and did a small photoshoot and I loved it! It's so pretty. But I shall blog about that in the Part II of Welcome to Punggol Spectra!

Mr.Smith, I like the peace in Punggol, not like Tampines. Too noisy.