1st Day: Getting the Keys!!! HDB BTO

On 18 June 2013,

We finally received the keys to our new house. Our "ceremony" was simply to say "House owners are here. Other things please go away!" We then entered the house.
(We should have brought pineapple to roll on the floor. We did so only on the day we "officially" moved in.)

I suggest to bring the following items on your first day:

1. Fan
2. A chair/ stool
3. Toilet rolls
4. Masking tapes
5. Measuring tapes
6. Phone charger or anything that you can use test if the power sockets are working
7. Marbles? (to test hollow tiles and floor evenness)
8. Photocopies of your floorplan (to indicate the actual measurements)
9. A Number Lock (Important!!! so that HDB contractor can access your house to rectify the defects)
10. A camera phone
11. water/ thinner/ tissue/ rags (to attempt to remove any stains on the floor. There were brownish stains everywhere on our living room tiles. We got the HDB contractor to do chemical cleaning for us.)

Making ourselves comfortable

First thing to do: Open the mailbox! The "key" to turn on the water supply is found in the mailbox.

We had a hard time trying to turn on the water supply even with the "key". Our ID helped us to borrow a screw driver to unscrew a cap and then use the "key". I have no idea how to on the water supply.

Next: Check for any defects.

HDB will issue you a document to report your defects (HDB defect list) and the HDB contractors will then rectify based on the HDB defect list. Note that you can subsequently submit additional HDB defect list if you find additional things to report. We created our own checklist so that we would not miss out anything. 

Page 1 of our own checklist

Page 2 of our own checklist

Place masking tapes near the defect so that the HDB contractor can easily identify them. If there are too many defects on the parquet floor, you may wish to talk to them and get them to repolish the whole room again. Rather than trying to put masking tape everywhere.

Take photos of where you have placed your masking tapes so that you can  compare after HDB contractors have rectified your defects. 

Masking tapes everywhere

After hours of checking and putting masking tapes, we tried to summarise and write down the defects we had on the HDB defect list and went down to the BSC (Building Service Centre) located at the void deck of our neighbouring block.
( BSC is a temporary (think 1 year) office set up by the HDB contractors.)

At BSC, we submitted the defect list and indicated the number of our number lock. (If you do not have a number lock, you may have to come down to open the door for the HDB contractors when they come down to rectify your defects). It happened that the supervisor was also around that day so we brought him up to our unit to explain our defects.

In our case, the HDB contractors were very efficient. They took less than 1 week to rectify all the defects.

Last step (if you still got energy): Take measurements of everything and indicate on your photocopied floorplan.

You will need this measurements so that

1) You can buy furniture of the correct size:

     - space for sofa

     - space for your bedframe including your bedside table
        (take note positioning of socket plugs near your bed may affect the positioning of your bedsize table/
         the size of your bed)

     - space for your dining table

     - space for bomb shelter shelves.

     - the window frames (length x height) in order to give the estimated measurements when you ask for
        quotation for curtains/ blinds

     - space for fridge (this depends on how big is the kerb that you are making for the fridge.)

     - space for your washing machine/dryer. In our case, the laundry hanging device when retracted does not 

        allow us to stack up the dryer on top of the washing machine.

measuring the height to place washing machine and dryer

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2) Compare the actual measurements with the quotation of the measurements given by your ID. Also compare the actual measurements with the final invoice given by your ID. The quotations by your ID are based on floorplan and will not be the same as the actual measurements. Any difference in measurements means a difference in the price you are paying. 

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3) You may also wish to indicate all the powerpoints and light points on your floorplan. Consider whether you need any additional powerpoints, or relocate any powerpoints. Your dining light is supposed to be directly on top of your dining table. Your living room light is supposed to be directly on top of your coffee table. 

In our case, I forgotten that we have a light point in our service yard and did not buy enough "hamburger" lights. We shifted the dining light point slightly but we did not shift the living room light although it was a little off position. 

In our case, there are 2 light points in each toilet. 1 is the usual ceiling light point to put your bulb or "hamburger" light. The other is hidden inside the "grille" used to hide your water pipes.

LED strips created "Hotel romance" in the toilet. 

Note that any fixing of light, additional light point, relocation of light point, relocation of power socket, TV point, eternet point will be added under electrical charges in your quotation. 

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