What's Next After Collecting Keys?

Our renovation has sort of come to a halt, waiting for the main contractor to rectify the defects, HDB screeding work to start and approval of the renovation permit before renovation kicks off. As we will be hacking the kitchen wall, Uncle has told us that it would likely take a longer time for HDB to approve.

Mrs Shen and I are also finalising the design of our home. There are changes to be made after considering the actual electrical, water and TV points. The worst design of the home is probably the main bedroom toilet door blocking the huge area of the toilet. Generally, I think the workmanship of the main contractor is good.  Probably, this is the reason for the longer construction time for our project.

I took two photos of the living room views yesterday when I was at our home to inspect the first defect list which we have passed to the main contractor.

Mrs Shen and I are busy lately with purchasing furniture, electrical appliances, lighting, toilet fittings, etc… As baby due date is drawing nearer, she is also less mobile than what she is normally. This is when I start to really appreciate our family car these days.

We Finally Collected Our Home Keys

We finally collected our keys on 11 April 2013. We visited the gynae in the morning and had breakfast at Kovan market before heading back home to take a short rest.

Although our appointment was at 4 10pm, we left for HDB hub as early as 1 00pm as we needed to activate the SP services account, apply for fire insurance, have lunch and use bubble tea vouchers which we bought online.

We scanned our appointment letter early at 3 pm and was very lucky that the HDB officer attened to us after waiting for about 25 mins. The whole process of key collection takes about 45 mins. We finally collected our keys and rushed down to our home before the sun set.

We followed some basic procedure for the intial opening and we stepped into our home for the first time after waiting for it for more than 3 years.

 

We applied for HDB screeding on the following day and issued the defect list to the main contractor today (Saturday). Hope that the renovation kicks off fast and we can move into our sweet home soon.

Alvernia Hospital Maternity Visit

Mrs Shen and I visited Alvernia Hospital on Saturday for maternity tour. It gave us the details about admission and tour of how the maternity and delivery rooms look like.

We would be collecting our keys next Thursday. Hope we can rush to our home in time before night falls to take some pictures.

Finally, Key Collection Date

433B TOP

 

 

The MSCP and 433B finally obtained TOP on 26 Mar and HDB has also updated our flat status. Hopefully, HDB will expedite the handing over of keys to us since we have waited a long time for it. The residents of the later projects such as Fernvale Ridge, Punggol Sails and Punggol Ripples have received their keys. We are super lagging.  

Busy Weekends

We started our purchasing for home and baby stuffs for the past few weekends. So far, we have purchased the following items:

1) Rice cooker
2) TV
3) Fridge
4) Washing machine
5) Mattress
6) Shower water heaters
7) Baby cot
8) Electric breast pump
9) Baby carrier

Thus, like many young couples, we are storing lots of stuffs in our own rooms. Due to the hot weather recently, we also bought a cooler fan so that Mrs. Shen can have a cooler night rest everyday.

There were 2 different rumours online speculating if the main contractor have handed over the keys to HDB. I was at our project site on Friday to observe the progress too. The only unique issue was that all the windows of our block was closed up. I believe it is the sign that we should be getting our keys soon.

Hope to receive HDB's letter to collect keys next week.

Kicking Start Our Home Design

We received our HLE application approval letter last Friday. So almost everything is set up for the key collection. We have also made our choice to ask our uncle for help for our home renovation.

We had a brief discussion on last Wednesday and made an appointment to select the floor tiles on Saturday afternoon. We would not be getting a lot of tiles though, only for the living room. After some recommendation, we selected the tile with fade pattern on it.

After tiles selection, uncle passed us the laminate design to choose for our wardrobes, TV console, cabinets, cupboard, kitchen solid top etc. I like this arrangement as this gives my wife and I ample time to discuss and select. I guess we would not be given such treatment if we have chosen to engage other ID or contractor. So, we spent the weekend selecting and start preliminary designing for our home.

This is my artistic wife's work piece. Copyright.

We have also purchased our fridge (free vacuum) and washing machine (free microwave) from Gain City. They were proactive in matching the lowest price that we have found out and waive off the delivery charge since we purchase more than $1500.

I was at FP to see the progress. It seemed like the painting of the block is completed. They were also removing the support for the barricades at the basketball court side. Hopefully, they are in the midst of removing the barricade. I think it would be time for us to move in once the barricade is removed.