Measuring The Apartment

The front door.

We went to the apartment this morning as our IDs AH and H had to take measurements of the spaces and have a look at the physical apartment to get a better idea of the real thing before starting their design proper. We made an appointment with the owners when we met them at the HDB for our first appointment about 11 days ago. We are very fortunate that the owners are nice people and easy to get along with. The couple are similar in age to the both of us. They have two kids and are moving to a private condominium. What struck us about this family is that they are thrifty. We can tell by the basic, no frills decor in their home. It's clean but the fittings and fixtures have seen better days. They've lived there for about 15 years, also quite similar to the time we've lived at our home. Their furnishings are simple and their home is not cluttered. I had hoped that we would find an apartment like this, so that it wouldn't mean us having to be wasteful in tearing down nice and swanky furnishing and fixtures if the apt had been in a 'move-in' condition.

So we met AH and H at the void deck of the block at 10am. They were early and we were on time. All four of us were colour coordinated in black tshirts and dark bottoms (they were in blue jeans). We'd popped by the petrol kiosk to get some curry puff and cakes for the owners cos we felt bad to disturb on them on a Saturday morning. 

When we arrived at the door, the owners greeted us. They had two relatives from Malaysia visiting, which made us even more conscious of our intrusion. But they were welcoming and said "this is your house now" to which I replied "not yet!" So MJ chatted with them while AH, H and I took measurements and photos. 

I was glad for the opportunity to see the place again for a better impression of it. I shot photos of each room as well, but forgot to capture the kitchen bathroom. The next time we will see the apt again is when it officially becomes ours, when the keys are handed over by the end of July. 
We could have gotten the keys sooner, but the owners wanted more time to move out so we stuck to 8 weeks after the first appointment. The sale could've been completed as early as 6 weeks but it was their prerogative to choose a later date. 
AH and H were done after about 45 minutes. During this time, MJ chatted with the owners and asked questions about the house and other stuff.
After the session, the four of us adjourned to have coffee at Nex mall nearby to discuss our design requirements in greater detail. It was a fruitful session that took about an hour and our next meeting is in about 2 weeks' time when they will have the 3D drawings ready for us. Am quite excited about that! Once the design is approved, they will call for a tender and appoint a contractor soon after. The renovation is estimated to start in mid-August and complete by end October or mid-November. So realistically, we can look forward to a end-November, early December move. Our lives are going to change rather significantly after that! Here are some "before" photos. We will shoot the "after" transformations in a few months' time! Note that the spaces look bigger than they really are because I used a super wide lens to capture them.

From right to left: the main door, the kitchen entrance and the master bedroom door. 

The living room. Entrance to the kitchen is on the right. 

Another view of the living room diagonally across from the entrance where I shot the picture above.

The kitchen is quite small and narrow. It can't accommodate an island.

One of my two IDs taking a pix of the kitchen bathroom.

We need to cover up the dustbin! We've grown accustomed to not having a chute inside the house. All the post 1998 HDB flats have common chutes next to the lift landing.

The balcony. The study with the door is on the right. We will break down the study wall and use the balcony space to form a bigger study.

The study. The balcony is in the background.

Bedroom 3 which will be Meg's room.

Bedroom 2 will be Em's room.

Bedroom 1: The master bedroom. 

The master bedroom bathroom.

The view from the master bedroom. All the bedrooms share the same view. This unblocked view was one of the reasons we bought the apartment.

Our view from the living room. We don't get a clear unblocked view and the road is just at the foot of the block. But the left and right protruding sections block the East and West sun from us.