Interior Designer - Koong Yee

Image by clevercupcakes via Flickr

Koong Yee was referred to us by our ERA housing agent.

He gets a 5% cut out of the renovation package if I take it up, Makes me think that a part of the cost of my renovation goes to paying him instead of going into the materials. A bit uncomfortable with that though.

But still, we manage to go check the place out. Here's Koong Yee's website. At least they bother to have one that is nice. (They are situated at Balestier area. Good excuse for chicken rice or bak kut teh.)

The assistant manager Stanley is engaged to Eunice, the person who followed up with me initially.

I must say that they are very professional about it and very personable. No hard sell or anything.

We went through our floor plan and discussed what we wanted of our dream home. I asked them to quote the ceiling price for the whole works to get a feel. And boy, the price is certainly vvvvv high.

The good thing is that they gave us the quotation breakdown. I will not publish it here out of respect. It will be unbecoming if a competitor sees it and undercuts them. But feel free to drop a comment or query.

Will be checking out others more.

Think in this industry, reputation is worth more than the price quoted. I sure don't want to get an ID that makes a mess of my house which I am going to stay for years.

Buying a Resale Flat - Calculating Your Financial Plan

Image via Wikipedia

Our 1st HDB appointment finally arrived on the 7th May 2010, our very first step of getting a place of our own.

The whole process is a breeze if you have a housing agent and the HDB officer walks you through everything. So much so that I'm nearly signing the papers blindly when presented to me. The whole process merely took about 2 hours including waiting time.

Anyway, in Dec last year, I did some manual calculations of the finances involved in buying a $400,00 resale flat (4 room) to get a ballpark figure. Actually, HDB has a fantastic calculator (click here) that does it for you. I think it came after the revamp of the website.

If the above link is disconnected again, just google "HDB Resale Financial Plan".

Basically, it does this:

• Total fees payable with the breakdown (stamp, conveyance, caveat)
• Auto calculation of loan required from HDB
• Total cash you need to fork out broken down into payment on 1st appointment and completion of resale
• Monthly mortgage loan installment

It's so easy to use it and I recommend printing out the results before your appointment with HDB. This is so that you will not have surprises at the first appointment and what you need on the spot, especially in cash terms.

At the first appointment, HDB will also work out the financial plan for the buyers which is a replica of what you would have done using the above calculator. I attach a sample copy of mine (blanco the sensitive details) for your reference.

And man... I love it when I don't have to fork out any COV. :)

Occasion - A Bridesmaid Dress Boutique - Raffles City

Image by kristiewells via Flickr

March 16 was a day out trying to settle our wedding stuff.

Remembered that we went out in the morning to IHM Church to negotiate with the administrator about our church wedding venue because there's going to be a archdiocese event on the day of our wedding. But all has been settled and done when we finally booked St Vincent de Paul on 19April2010. What a relief, retrospectively thinking.

Anyway, it was the day when we went hunting for a place that provides bridesmaid dresses.

Occasion in Raffles City level 3 is the very first boutique we visited. I must say that some of their dresses are nice. And the prices are quite reasonable too.

The thing about buying stuff like dresses requires the "mo qi" or the "at the moment" kinda feeling to know what you really want. Unfortunately then, Occasion's dresses did not strike any chord within us. Probably because we did not know what we really wanted yet. Moreover, we were concentrating more on going for our photoshoot in Taiwan a few days later.

 But at a cost of abut $60 - 70 per dress, Occasion is certainly worth a look!

Hunting for the Perfect Bridesmaid Dresses

Image by calypso Dragon 13 via Flickr

Been looking for a place to get bridesmaid dresses because our AD packages does not include.

We have been to places like Occasion at Raffles City Shopping Centre level 3 to survey market offerings. Daniel Yam @ City Square Mall level 2 is also not bad. The main thing about getting the dresses is cost. We hope to get them at below $100/piece without compromising the quality.

Yesterday, we popped by Love Potion as suggested by Addy. Very small outfit as compared to the above 2 but it was not too bad. Got a few designs and we are likely to go to them.

For our wedding in Oct, they suggested to confirm placing the order by July so that by September, the dresses will come in. It means it takes about 2-3 months lead time for such things, not unlike the AD gowns of MTM (made to measure).

In Sept, our bridesmaids can come in their own time to do the fitting the choose the designs. It takes about 1-2 weeks for alterations.

For 6 dresses, we can have 2 designs to pick from. For a package like that, it is about $85/piece before adding any adornments.

And our lovely bridesmaids can keep them. :)

www.lovepotion.com.sg

Resizing Your Proposal/Wedding Ring

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Addy's proposal ring is a little too large for her middle finger. Bringing it back all the way to US to change the size does not justify the cost.

Just only recently that her good friend Diana let us know that there's a jeweler who does resizing at Far East Shopping Centre. Popped by that place and manage to get a quote.

For white gold, it costs $30 to resize.

For Platinum, it costs $60 because of the need for laser-ing.

Also to note that there might be a line mark on the ring if you do resize. Do pop by if you do need the service. :)

Short Update on Things-To-Do

Really been too hectic to update anything.

A short update on recent happenings:

• Met and signed up with photographer, Sam.
• Met and signed up with videogragher, Ben.
• Visited Koong Yee for discussion and request for quotation on renovation
• Reconfirmed with SVDP on the church wedding venue and the overall floral theme

Going for our first HDB appointment tmr!

Still have a list of things that are not done yet that are in our face:

• Settle numbers and guest namelist for church and dinner
• Contact all our helpers and friends
• Plan for the rough programme for the day
• Collect our wedding photos from Taiwan