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You can clean the stains on your tile/grout using something called HCL89. I usually get it from http://hcl89.byethost10.com or http://hcl89.atwebpages.com What it does is that it removes any stains as well as well as cleans your tiles thoroughly One thing is the HCL89 does not react with any chrome or plated accessories so your accessories will remain safe as you clean the tiles Hope this helps you out

I remember using the the HCL89 from http://hcl89.byethost10.com for my timber floor some time ago, it managed to polish my timber floorings like glass it was a rather good product. Good thing i like about it was it actually acted as a sealer and sealed the timber flooring for me which i find important because in a humid weather like ours its always better to seal any natural wood tiles to prevent moisture so that the wood tiles won't age so fast. My 2 cents

You can also use something called HCL89 to restore your tiles back to its original self I usually get it from http://hcl89.byethost10.com or http://hcl89.atwebpages.com For me i find this the most effective in restoring your tiles back in situations like these My 2 cents

There was some issue with tough stains on my tiles so decided to use the HCL89 from http://hcl89.byethost10.com and was able to remove the stain completely. Tried alot of stuff like vinegar and etc, but it seems only this HCL89 worked best for me to clean my tiles, good product

Was having some issues about the homogeneous tiles in my bedroom as the grouts had become blackened and the tiles were becoming dull and I had used the HCL89 from http://hcl89.byethost10.com and it really helped to clean my tiles, recommended.

Actually no wax can be rather difficult to remove from tiles as it sticks to the tile's enamel

The thing about mold is it spreads to even the non mold part

Those i think are red granite it will give your house a mediterranean look and feel

I don't think you can grind parquet from what i remember as parquet is basically wood, grinding it will cause alot scratches on the parquet

Had some issue with some tough stains on my homogeneous tiles, so decided to use the HCL89 from http://hcl89.byethost10.com and was able to remove the stain. Tried alot of stuff like vinegar and etc, but it seems only this HCL89 worked best for me to clean my tiles, good product

I hope this information will be useful to all homeowners who wish to save cost on home renovation works. Just as any other couples, we approached a few interior designers to build our dream home. To be frank, we were quite disappointed with their proposed ideas and design. Im proud to say we were the designers for our own home but of course with the help and advice from our contractor. Since we had to keep within our budget (arrival of our baby around the same time), we decided to do the renovation with a contractor after hearing from friends that it is possible to have a wow home makeover and save significant savings too. Information on renovation ideas are also readily available online. We were very much involved during the whole process. We invested our time on phone calls and checks to ensure evrything goes as plan such as the correct colours, design and layout as discussed with our contractors. Here are some of our house's photos in progress and the outcome. Im unable to upload all the completed photos due to size. All the best in planning your dream home!

But i guess if you have a mold problem then the black silicon would make the problem less obvious in my opinion

Actually you are right on this, i once dropped some wax on my tiles in my previous home, it was really impossible to remove

Alright folks.. Here are my pictures of my simple house. The theme is more like Nordic Minimalist. Feel free to correct me if u think it is another theme instead =) Kitchen: Before Kitchen: After Mini Laundry Area Bedroom: Before Bedroom: After Living Room: Before Living Room: After Work-Dining Area: Before Work-Dining Area: After Foyer: Before Foyer: After

Homogeneous tiles are like that they look very nice but have to be maintained

I noticed this as well, it very hard to try to find other types of woods

Oh correct skirting usually should be around living room area, thanks for pointing that out

Coloured grouts may be nice but when it comes to maintaining these grouts it becomes difficult

@CaseBlue Here are the pictures of my completed bathroom. Hope it will help. Note: My bedroom-side toilet door (slide and swing) has customized dual locks. This way, I can lock from bedroom for privacy whenever i have overnight guests =)

i know how you feel. i waited 5+ years for my BTO, countless times i just stood outside the gate and "sayang-ed" my main door from outside lol

Just want to share my experience on finding a contractor to renovate my new 4RM bto located at Canberra Street. Myself I am not able to take bank loan as my credit report is not good. So I only about to ask my Friend to apply for me a 3rd party renovation loan from the bank. But sad to say the renovation quotation I received from some ID and contractor was around $24k to 26k. My loan from the bank only can approve at $16k. I have no choice to put the renovation on KIV. One day I was looking at internet and Facebook I saw a contractor posting saying that they are able to let client to pay partial amount of the renovation amount in monthly installment. I contacted him and have a met up with him. He quoted me for my renovation @ $23k and I am so lucky that he allow me to pay the balance 7k in monthly installment. The renovation work is still going on and now is awaiting for cabinet to be install. For those who have tight Budget or not enough money for renovation maybe you can pm for my contractor contact. Anyway the amount for installment is base on their comfortable amount. Thank you for reading my post and have a nice day.

The thing is no matter what colour grout you use you will still need to spend time and effort to keep your grouts clean

What i remember is that grinding actually grinds down the tile material but polishing seems to only to polish the tile enamel only

I really doubt its plaster because if its plaster it should be easy to remove, i think it should be something else in my opinion

On Dec 2017, I've signed a contract with Invictus Interior Design with a Senior Designer called Lawrence Ng . For the start, he show me many proposal for my home, however, i do not really like it. Nevertheless, within a week, he comes back to me with many alternative proposal. He really matches with i'm looking for in design. Price is a matter though, but with the testimonial and services given and shown, I'm willing to give a try. He is very patience and understanding. With many year of his experience, he really gives me a peace of mind in the way he speaks and the way he handle things. He update us weekly of the project progression and finished work done with promptly photo images sent to our group chat, he also pre-inform us what's coming next for the following week as we have time to call in for the delivery services like hood/hob, ceiling fan and etc... My wife and i really feels very comfortable that we sign with him. In the end of the days, my house is handed over back to us within the expected timeline with Good Workmanship. We invited him for our house warming celebration with my family and relatives. We're happy and want to share this with my friends and family for the renovation done by him, and proud to tell my family that "This is Lawrence, He's my designer! Anything, you can just look for him for renovation." I've got what I'm looking for so many months. Project delivered in Good workmanship and timeline. I Highly recommend Lawrence Ng (91140775) from Invictus Interior Design. Price may not be cheap, but definitely reasonable, with the services and result given, it definitely worth it. Good Job Lawrence! All the Best to you. Thank you very much once again.

Lawrence work coordination was superb fast!!! He know his stuff really well! I would say some of the items he quo was a bit pricey.. But overall it was a pretty fast and awesome experience working with him. Thank you Lawrence and invictus interior design company!

Parquet seems to always turn out this way although it may look rather nice but there is alot of maintenance going into parquet floorings too

Yes Restri, Agree!! Thank you lawrence too. i signed up with lawrence too from invictus interior design this year. Tumbs up!! He renovated my place too in April 2018. the way he handle his worker is really good. For project management side, no hassle. He will settle everything before you even start questioning him. Result of my house renovation overall i can give 5/5. Design: 5/5 Price: 4/5 Coordination: 5/5 Service: 5/5 Workmanship: 5/5 If you want to renovate your house, with Good Service and Workmanship, pls look for Lawrence. his contact number is 91140775. Cheers!

Mold always occurs in areas with high moisture especially in toilets or rooms that are near toilets

Yes yes quite a lot.. don't faint at my feedback list lol.. Pardon me for unclear description of some items. During fabrication/measurement, I "sweet-talked" the carpenter to give me free shelves for DB box and he gave me "OK" sign immediately haha.. Actually, mirror door was added in at the last minute when renovation was about to end I reckon that if i were to ask for mirror door in the beginning, shelves would be automatically included. You and @mmoh are well-informed about JRL.. Of course, I was pleased to know there would be MRT station (Tengah Park) nearby but N.I.N.E years to be ready?? oh well..

Actually it also depends on the different kinds of tiles as well like for example homogeneous tiles tend to get dirty more easily

Finally my reno was completed and I would like to share with you guys what I have done to my place. Simple furnishing in dark earthly tone. 1. Living and bed room without furniture yet. 2. Furniture starts coming in.. 3. Re-tiled bathrooom (can't stand the original HDB white tiles...) 4. Kitchen with subway tiles

Personally i would hack the parquet floor and then put the vinyl tiles. But one question why do you want to remove the parquet tiles?

Correct, polishing should be fine but not grinding for ceramic as the ceramic tiles will be scratched

Wallpaper up and ready to move in Living rm Bedroom

TS if you wan you can try to use acrylic paint to paint your door, i will give a more better feel in my opinion

Personally i would use a darker colour so that in the future when the grouts become dirty or stained it won't be too visible

Marble flooring are like that if you spill anything on marble its better to clean it up fast

Repair KDK SS30H fan The standing fan has not been working properly recently. Few months back, when i press the "Louvre" button, the fan will automatically switched off. I can live without that function, so i just let it be. Recently, when i adjust the speed or switch on the fan, the power cut off after 1 sec of operation. So it's officially dead and i tried my luck and did a google search to see whether there is any way to revive it before throwing it away. I realised that this is a cmmon issues faced by people that got KDK fans in recent years, and the main faulty component is a capacitor inside the circuit board. So i decided to DIY and repair the fan myself. Time to dismantle the fan, unscrew every possible screws attached! After remove the top cover, the circuit board is exposed. The culprit is the yellow capacitor. Bought the replacement capacitor online, you can also get it from Sim Lim Tower. Each capacitor cost around $3. Make sure the specification is correct! 1.0uF / 275 VAC. I bought some extra and if anyone wanted to buy from me just PM me. Use a test pen to pry the capacitorto remove it from the glue, and snip off the two metal legs. Placed the new capacitor carefully, ensuring the existing leg touches the new leg properly, before solder them together and snip off the excess protruding part. Before soldering After soldering Time to do testing by pressing the On/Off, Timer and Louvre button. Yay it works! Hope this post will be able to help anyone that encounters similar issue and would like to try repairing the fan yourself.

TS you have any pictures of how the holes look like?

Blog Entry Date: 12th November 2017 Sunday Click Here to go back to Page 1 - Table of Contents End of 8th Week after Key Collection - Installed shelves for DB-Box, Solving Electrical Issues, and a Special Look at the Completed Works so far! Hello everyone, so this is the 2nd post where I’ll talk about events that happened on Saturday 11th November 2017. Before I do that, I wanna give a special shout-out to 2 lovely ladies who came over to take a look at my place and they told me they’ve been following this renotalk blog? OMG!! Apparently, they are also my downstairs neighbour!?!! I’m so sorry I didn’t manage to catch your forum nicks, also very paiseh my place looked so messy lol. Whoever you are, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok moving along. Guess what? Apparently the DBBox Cabinet installation wasn’t quite finished yet, and the Carpenters came to install a couple of shelves for it. Carpenter working on adding Shelves to the DB-Box Cabinet DBBox Cabinet Shelves Completed Not bad, I can put my WIFI Network Router on it nicely I guess. I requested for no shelves at the bottom sliding door area though. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh but Saturday’s Main Event has got to be the Electrical guys coming up to install the rest of my electrical works. Quite a fair bit of issues that cropped up I might add. Before I show all the issues that cropped up though, I'm happy to report that Ceiling Cove Light is no longer tripping Electrical MCB when I tested it. This bothered me quite abit, and I'm glad that at least this is resolved. Now on to the issues. First Issue: Almost immediately, we encountered an issue with the Dining Table Downlight. The downlight and LED Driver I bought apparently is too thick to be able to fit in nicely. Uh-Oh. After checking with Jason, he told me he would settle it later with either buying a more suitable downlight or check with his carpenters if they can modify it, need to see how. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Issue: While installing my Ariston Oven, apparently the Oven I got had a plug head thats using a Non-Singapore styled plug-head!?!?! At this point, I had to make a decision on the spot whether to cut the plug-head and connect it directly to the electrician’s electrical coupler. Cutting the plug-head would mean I might void my Ariston Oven Warranty though… Incompatible Oven Plug on the Left, Electrician’s Coupler on the Right. Aiyoh, after everything go so well with my Sanitary Fittings, SaniQUO sabo me at this last minute! At this point of the renovation, I was already very tired to chase anymore, and I just want everything to be completed. So I told them to proceed to cut the plug-head lah. If Oven do indeed break down, I’ll just act blur tell Ariston people I don’t know lor see how they react. Hope they still honor the warranty because they shouldn’t have given me an incompatible plug-head in the first place anyway?? Hope this oven can at least last a few more years before breaking down lor. Some of ya’ll reading may be thinking…Hmm…why not use those Adapter to fit the Non-Singapore Plug right? PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT!!! Oven is very High Amp Appliance at 15A and its better and safer to use Electrician’s Coupler which is rated at 20A. In fact the Electrician was surprised that my Oven came with a Plug-Head in the first place. Most Ovens according to him come with No Plug Head and is ready to connect to Electrician’s Coupler anyway? So Dear Readers, if you buy Ovens, do take note of this potential issue. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Third Issue: The LED Strips on the Washing Machine side of my Kitchen had some powerpoint issues that they needed to resolve with Jason, so they would not be installing it yet. This one sounds abit technical and complicated. I also dunno how to explain it properly, and I’ll just let Jason liase with them to handle this one. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photo Collection of Electrical Works I got the Electricians to dismantle and redo new Electrical Switches, but it seems that the buttons still feel crooked especially the water heater button as you can see. I can see the Electrician has tried his best already. It looks like issue is due to the quality of the switches itself. I’ll be checking with Jason how we can resolve this. Electrical Switches at Kitchen So funny, these switches here are so nicely done compared to the other ones I pictured above. Working on Switches at Kitchen (At Opposite Side) Fujioh 2 Ring Induction Cooktop is ready to use! (Haven’t actually cooked anything yet though.) Ariston Oven seems operational, at least the lights can turn on LOL!! Ceiling Wiring doing Concealment to prep for my Ceiling Fan (Shifting the cables towards Centre of my L-Box Cove Ceiling) Adding a hole for installation of Ceiling Fan Regulator --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With all of the issues and Work in Progress pictures out of the way, THE BELOW PICTURES were the end result of the Electrician’s work. Of course there ARE still issues to sort out, but I simply can’t help but have a big smile on my face when I saw these photos I took… My Bedroom Macdonalds has Samurai Burger, I have Samurai Bedroom!! LOL!! My Bathroom Got Hotel Standard or not? My Kitchen Actually only one side of the Kitchen for now, but yea I’m happy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What do ya’ll think so far? Light really does enhance the look greatly don’t you think? The last few pictures I took really caught me off-guard. I myself can’t help but gawk and open my mouth big big at what was done. OMG I look forward to MOVING IN!!!!! With 8th week now behind me, I’m now looking forward to the 9th and Final Week! This is it, the final lap for my renovations!! Thanks for sticking around so far, and I’ll see you in the next blog entry!! Click Here for the Next Blog Entry: 9th Week after Key Collection - Ceiling Fan is Up Click Here to go back to Page 1 - Table of Contents

This kind of issue with plastering is common and nothing to worry about

The message ive been waiting for so long finally arrives!!

Very long time never update the blog already. Sorry folks. Still waiting for my keys from HDB argghhh. Just wanna upload this simple but important milestone picture. The FIRST TIME i can literally stand right at my apartment's doorstep and touch my house gate!! AHHHHHHHHHH!?!?!?! where are my keys HDB??????

nice, good space planning n color combi.. tv 65" kinda oversize, if can reduce 55'' i am also a future 2room owner, coming sept to choose unit at punggol... side track a little, i am also an ID for 4years, those 2rooms owners feel free to contact me for advices or reno, quote renotalk 2roomer, giving good rate for 2rooms owners like myself thanks everyone.. pm me

Something like that acrylic paint also has a very glossy look to it too

Maybe she meant she kindly reminded the contractor

Hi veto, I will answer your second question first, I used only 1 ID to do all the work, except I sign up with Blum Kitchen myself so I just get the kitchen ready for Blum Installation and I called them to come, just took 1 day to install. I also signed up with Evorich to do my platform bed which I also get the room ready for installation and arranged them to come. Your first question is tough to answer, its hard to break down to how much each room cost. I planned my budget by having a list of items i need for the house In excel and I keep maintaining it as soon as i got a quote or made a purchase. I can clearly see how much total I am spending on the house. I will attach here for your reference, You can try create your list too so you can visualize. As you can see I spend over 50K including minor household items which I didn't put into the list. I will elaborate on the Total ID cost of 20,830.76 which I paid to the ID. This sum consist of : Painting 1200 False Ceiling 500 Living room Cabinet 2000 Besglas 1.6m Wardrobe 2000 Granite worktop for kitchen 1400 Overlay WC flooring 950 Masonary work in toilet 1200 Granite Worktop for WC 750 Sliding Shower Screen in WC 800 2 new Besglas toilet door 1160 I can estimate I spend about 6000 on the toilet and 7500 on kitchen. Hope I answer your question this way can give you a better idea to work out your budget. I only have one advice to you which is if possible, reduce the amount of carpentry work to minimum as they are expensive and hard to replace them few years down the road when they deteriorate. You will see a huge chunk off your ID cost if you don't do carpentry.

Its very common actually for parquet to have this termite problem hence sometimes a sealer would help after laying the parquet down in my own opinion

Renovations and Males I've been here long enough, and read enough to know that renovations are like males. Got some will be longer , some will be shorter. Some harder, some not so hard. And one person's taste in interior design may be absolutely poison to another. Just like no man can please all women mah. Unless you are me lah. My whole office is all women, I please ALL of them leh. Everyday also have to please them... ... ... "Please may I borrow your xxx, because I forgot yyy?" KNN lao le **** forgetful sia. Why we should talk about the Budget Anyway seriously, so on Renotalk you can find ALOT of posts (My post office also maybe don't have so much posts)... and EVEN MORE sh__tposts. (My toilet also maybe don't have so much sh__t). But nobody talks about budgeting. I mean, Renotalk is probably read by young couples getting their houses for the first time. And all of us young couples are probably on tight budgets right?? I mean, the wife and I definitely were, 3 years ago! But just like the government budget... nobody seems to care man! Well, I suppose, of course there are rich AF people buying resale, paying $1million for 70-80 year lease (cough... Pinnacle cough...) but aiya, those people obviously different league lah. Those people are royalty, they swim in money daily leh... I am a peasant, I swim in misery everyday. But why Singaporeans so money minded, WHOOOOOOLE DAY can talk about money... but here nobody talk leh? I suppose its because ultimately, money is a very sensitive topic in online sphere. If I say I earn $XXX, got people will envy me, say I show off, will also have people laugh at me, say I eat soft rice, earn no enough. Online anonymous lah, easy flame. Can never make everyone song la. Why share today? Since our own renovation experience in 2015, I (the hubbs) have been wanting to post about budgeting, but le wife always strongly discourage me. She say surely tio flamed. But today... I decided to go ahead and post ANYWAY (wifey you can diam diam)... because my younger brother is going to get his resale soon... so I just spent the afternoon with him, over a cup of coffee, giving him financial advice. It stirred something so deep within me, so urgent... I had to do something... GO TOILET LAH. Coffee always gives me diarrhea man. So, since I took so many craps for the day liao, what is one more crap eh? Financial Advice - Planning for your Renovation So if you're a young couple, or not so young in age, but young at heart... and looking for some financial advice when it comes to renovations, here's my PENny's worth. P: Prioritize E: Emergency N: Negotiate... I very clever hor... I purposely choose the abbreviation PEN because it sounds like my favourite part of the body. (PEN sound like the hand lor... DUH) Prioritize When I just got the keys to my BTO, I remember worrying most about the renovation costs. All my friends had told me it would be a bomb. Most of my classmates are lawyers, doctors, working for Shell lah, oil firm, traders etc etc. So they were dropping numbers like $60k, $80k... I think one even hit the six digit mark ($100k). These were eye popping sums for the wife and I. Scared the poop out of us. Speaking of which, now is Halloween... ghosts I not scared, but $100k still looks real frightening to me. Fast forward 3.5 years later... I realize that renovation costs are only part of the equation. Unless you're lucky and you have some fairy godmother, or some second hand goods lying around, you will also need a truckful of furniture, appliances, house insurance, house installments, even electricity bills, toiletries and groceries... everything adds up! Once you start living APART from your parents even CHYE PNG becomes expensive sia. Last time my mummy always cook for me... mummy I miss your free meals T____T In our case we realized that we had to put aside about $30k for the furniture and appliances, AND expect to spend an additional $1k per month due to having to feed and clothe ourselves. Ha nah, last time at my mother's house we were leeches that ran about naked and got free food, happy? So what do I mean by "Prioritize"? Firstly, there are daily things you CANNOT avoid. Total these up first. Transport costs, utilities, food, installments/insurance, all these HAVE to be settled. When you dilligently do these sums, you may realize (like we did!) that your "monthly savings" are going to become much less than what you are currently save. Bearing this in mind... you can now... Secondly, take look at the renovation, furniture and appliances you will need. There is no point in speculating "washing machine ah... should be about $500... Sofa ah... maybe $800 lah".... just open newspapers or go online to google the ACTUAL price at major department stores lah! That way, you get the accurate idea of how much all these appliances are going to cost. You HAVE to buy them soon anyway right? So no harm, you can also do some window shopping, go to those IT fairs to start to eye the models you want! At these IT fairs, usually the husband and wife both eyeball the models, but different type of "models" ... MEN THINK WITH THE CORRECT BRAIN PLS!!!). In our case, le wife actually created an EXCEL FILE to write everything down. And this allowed us to be dead sure that everything was going to be about $30k for the appliances/furniture we wanted. Thirdly, cut away things you do NOT need. There are two simple criteria you should ask yourself: Do I need it? Can I buy it LATER? For instance, when we first moved in, we decided that we DID NOT NEED the following: 1. False ceiling, 2. Hacking away walls And we decided that the following were NOT urgent 3. Sound system for the TV 4. Cable TV box or equivalent (you know those illegal ones, cannot mention lah) Now its three years later, and I can safely say, we have NEVER needed the false ceiling and extra lights in the living room (too bright means opposite block peeping tom can see me leh) I have NEVER wanted to hack any wall... (I mean, sometimes I kick a wall by mistake, and I curse it lah, but who looks at a wall and thinks... "I should have hacked you away dammit") The above two alone are probably $10,000 or more saved. That's TWO nice, big end of year vacations! We eventually DID feel bored at home, so we got the cable box but we are SO glad we didn't get the sound system nor cable TV. As a parent of two kids, the elder son is super sensitive to noise when he sleeps, so TOTALLY cannot watch TV with volume. I consider that a couple of hundreds to maybe a thousand saved! Emergency When the wife and I finally settled our renovation budget, we kept in mind the need to have an emergency fund. So we always kept $20k untouched. Experts in newspapers will always say simi 6 months or what lah... but personally, I say keep at least $20k bah. That's because $20k is like, the typical hospital bill for mega problems. In our case, my wife discovered a lump growing and had to go for biopsy. Immediately $20k was flushed down the toilet. Thankfully it was benign, and insurance paid out... but we still needed to cough out $20k first or else maybe hospital don't want to entertain us wor. So always keep a sizeable sum for emergencies! $20k to some of you might sound like peanuts... but to us then it was alot! And if $20k is also alot to you, we totally understand you Group Hug! It was because of the $20k rule that made us cut OUT some optional stuff for the house (like the false ceiling and hacking the study wall loh). I am really glad we didn't do it!! Negotiate Well, I'm sure everyone knows that you HAVE to negotiate with ID firms and contractors. Basically, the first quotation they give you is always marked up. Maybe its to test your "sincerity", I also don't know why. But there is always room for discussion. Keep pressing for a lower price, don't be paiseh! If the firm really cannot match your price, then they will say cannot lor. Nothing to lose here. Companies will usually recommend you take things away to save costs... this is actually a good opportunity to see what things are "chop carrot" one (slang for: cheat your money). For instance, most firms we approached would tell us NOT to do false ceiling to save costs. This led us to (in my opinion) correctly conclude that false ceiling is a definite luxury, not as important as some IDs make it out to be... so that made the decision to cut it out much easier! But more importantly.... a lesser known secret is... AFTER you have chosen a comapany, you will sign a contract, this is called the initial VO. AFTER this point you MUST let your chosen ID or contractor know your ABSOLUTE final price. For instance, if the contract you sign is $30,000, you must keep reminding them that you CANNOT exceed this figure. Otherwise sometimes there is the issue of "oops, this cropped up, we have to add this this this amount..." If you keep reminding them that your budget is very tight, they will be more respectful of it. Problems will always crop up during renovations. But if any problem crops up, since your chosen ID/contractor knows your budget is tight... they will be sure to CALL you to ask you about how to proceed or not. Better to have them call you than to anyhow proceed then subsequently bill you! In our case, there were a few problems that cost us a little bit more than expected, but because we kept reminding our contractor about our budget, they were very willing to absorb some of the costs lor. Last thoughts I'm sorry if this was a useless wall of text to some people. I mean, most of the people using this forum are probably well educated and wealthy. But three years ago, I was really a penniless pauper, struggling to see significant savings in my bank account. Three years later, I am still poor - my children eat alot man. LOL, genetics proven. If you ever come into more money (say, you strike TOTO), you can always renovate again, or buy more furniture. But once you buy liao, you can't undo it. The money is gone forever man. So think about it, the next time you're considering whether to get this or that for the new BTO, or if your ID/contractor suggests "this and that". Do I need it? Do I need it NOW? Cheers!