lyuira

Sounds expensive to me. I thought the usual pricing was $200 pfr. Are you doing some special design? As for white interior, isn't it a default option?

I second melancholic. Saw many houses where there was plenty of space, but it was lost to clutter accumulating everywhere. Built-in cupboards and wardrobes work very well at keeping the clutter away, but they do eat away floor and wall space. I always thought that the smaller the space the more one needs a designer to work on it, coz in the long run built-in storage looks better and is more economical in terms of space than any other furniture/storage options that can be added later on.

I think contractors won't recommend replacing a few pieces, because it might be quite obvious. I had my parquet polished and revarnished last year and it cost me $680 (no replacement). Of course, my total area is only about 1/3 of yours

I'm using Billy bookcases in my study. So far so good and I have lots of books. But I only put them in two rows.

IKEA has. You can try asking these neighbourhood furniture shops, they usually also have.

I heard that compressor is the costliest part of aircon system, so if you're changing it, you might as well replace everything, including fancoil units and piping. Just wondering though, how much would replacing a compressor cost?

Thanks, will check them out.

vade, Your vanity cabinet sounds very reasonable. Care to share your ID/contractor? Was yours a major reno? Or were you also picking and choosing? On my side, I guess, my tiling is a bit expensive and of course the vanity. Before I told them that I will source for my own cabinets, they wanted to charge $5.3k for a 5.5 ft vanity (with granite top $120/pfr, base, mirror and cabinets).

We were quoted to 3k to construct a custom-made table for the study room! And it was just a plain cantilevered board with drawers. So we went to IKEA, got their VIKA table tops with legs and created our own U-shaped table for $200 only! Then we bought those drawer units and put them under the table. Voila! It took some sawing though to make the table fit into our room, but it was a 15 min affair.

What I don't understand is why the vanity cabinet base is so expensive. It's just a cement box, but the ID refused to budge saying that this is the price. Oh gosh, bathrooms aren't cheap!

Went to see this ID yesterday and this is the quote provided: Most items seem ok, but some appear unjustifiably high. It's a condo bathroom, 6x8x8 (WxLxH). We need to hack everything and build everything from scratch, except for the ceiling and the heater. Hacking: $1000 Wall tiles: $1600 Floor tiles: $700 Plumbing works (ours is concealed piping): $600 Hot and cold tap: $120 Labour for shower mixer: $70 Toilet bowl: $120 Construct base for vanity (5.5 ft): $800 (We provide our own cabinets, wash basin and top, they just need to install them) Sliding shower screen, tempered glass: $550 Waterproofing: FOC Total: $5560 We are allowed to use tiles up to $2.80 psf The rest of the materials (mixers, wash basin, WC etc) are self-provided, so I get a feeling that they chopped me, didn't they?

I remember reading somewhere that you need special mirrors for bathroom, because normal ones will deteriorate too quickly. The problem with IKEA is that they do not drill holes in tiles or wooden walls and they don't tell you in advance. So you might end up with a mirror with no one to mount it. Happened to us before.

We are planning to renovate our toilet. We have another one, so we'll be staying in the apartment during the renovation. Now the silly question is - does someone need to be present everyday to check on contractors while they are working? Or do you think it's enough to see the results of their work at the end of each day and disturb the coordinator if something is wrong? We intend to engage an ID to renovate the toilet.

I think IKEA sells cabinet doors, but I'm not sure their size will work for your cabinets. Best to get carpenters to make new doors for you. Or you can ask them to re-laminate your old ones.

We have a cabinet under the vanity top and I find it incredibly useful. Of course, if you want the wooden one, don't splash water on it and leave the door open to maintain lower humidity levels.