Where else but the Kitchen!
Frankly speaking, when I first saw the flat, I was really disappointed as the kitchen is really small. I know I’m not getting a 5-room or a penthouse but it’s just too small. I can live with a small bedroom , small living room but not that size of a kitchen.
Our kitchen is a rectangle shape but could only line up the cabinets on one side and the opposite is the toilet and the bomb shelter.
By following the HDB’s placement of sink, hob and fridge, i would probably left with 40~50cm prep space. This is excluding the space that we need to put the kettle, rice-cooker etc.
I was telling myself.. We are going to stay for 5 years and would need to upgrade when we have children. “Just 5 years .. Just 5 years…”
So we try to maximize the usage of the limited space we have. Basically we need to have our dining table, workstations for 2, the sofa, TV console, some shelves in the living room. I cannot imagine how clutter it’s going to be. But anyway we got to live it not much choice unless I can strike the CNY 10m toto and not more than 3 folks to share the prize.
We went to Ikea to source for (cheap)ideas. It’s always a fruitful trip. We will be home with fresh ideas. So we came across those “L” shape kitchen,the shorter part of the L can be serve as a prep and dining table. That’s one hell of a space saver idea!!
But we have to spend money to hack down a wall so that we can extend the kitchen top. The circled area is where we going to hack.
Supposedly will turn in the something like the one below but erm.. more modern looking! Basically that’s the idea! To turn the hacked away space into a prep + dining area!
Is it a go or no go?is it worth it?Will I be lying on a pan-fried-fish-smelt sofa every other day?Will there be any fengshui issue?
The discussion went on for days. B said we are going to stay for at least 5 years might as well do something we like. ARGH! Fuck it! We are going to hack the wall!
We talked to our contractor and he was asking “are you sure? Next time if want to sell, the buyer will discount the value leh?”
We don’t care.
Contractor proceeded to help us apply the permit to hack that wall. After the submssion, you will be able to check the status (started off with “Pending”) from the HDB page with your singpass logon but anyway they took about 1-2 weeks before replying to my contractor that they need PE endorsement.
Ok.. That thingy burnt another big hole into our budget.
From the floor map, the wall looks harmless and hack-able (not those thick black lines which one look i know that can’t be hacked). But apparently the HDB officer told me they will need the PE endorsement if we are hacking the kitchen wall cause there might be cables or piping concealed in the wall. Anyway I know nuts about what other treasures hidden in that piece of wall , we just told our contractor to source whatever they need.
We agreed to pay $1100 for the PE endorsement. After googling a few reno-forums, yes, that’s pricey. I do not know how true but i read there are folks who paid only $500.
一种米养白种人, 一种 HDB, can have different kind of walls. Haha, i was trying to say different flats have different kind of walls, with or without “treasures” (hidden cables/piping) so i believe the price you paid for might varies. Or i’m just unlucky to met a contractor who chopped me. BUT anything above $1100, you are probably on the springboard waiting to be pushed into the carrot soup unless there’s strong justification that requires a very very very very senior PE to do it (as if you are hacking down the whole HDB)? That’s my guess.
Ok. Enough crap.
After submitting the PE approval thingy, it took another week for the status of the permit to change from “Pending” to “Approval”. My contractor told me that HDB will give them only 3 days to hack the wall and has to be completed by then. Not too sure what will happen if it’s not completed. The contractor will print out the notice and paste it outside your home or probably at the lift lobby to alert your neighbors that they are doing something legal.
Tada! The wall is gone! They will start doing the patching after the 7th day in 7th month. Can’t wait to see our completed kitchen!