Honeygal

Sad to say, the reno is already costing me a ridiculous $22000++ to date - this is despite the fact that i engaged multiple direct/sub-contractors, no ID, and even retained flooring for the living and bed rooms and kitchen wall tiles. I suggest you pick a cheaper main project contractor. I picked Ho Bee, whose pricing is one of the steepest around. I had to use them because this is the only contractor who speaks English. They charge for every little conceivable item, no FOC items thrown in. Although I picked the $2 range tiles, they still quoted me for $3 range. They even charged me for dismantling 2 aircons (which they probably sold later!). To save cost, you should also do overlay of flooring if possible. I was silly enough to heed contractor's advice and hacked the kitchen floor tiles. I subsequently found out that my flooring can make do with overlay and hacking was completely unnecessary. The carpenter which I engaged gave me quality materials and charged me premium as such. On hindsight, I should have been firmer and insisted on lower quality. I did not bargain much either. So as you can see, my reno costing of $22000++ (will be much higher when the final bill comes) is not a good reference because a lot of the items could have cost less.

I did everything on my own - ie. told the contractor which walls to hack, which tiles to hack, which tiles to keep, locations of lighting points, desired dimensions of cabinets, etc etc. Also designed all cabinets and mixed and matched the laminates myself. Likewise for wall and floor tiles colour coordination. The final layout is in my head and is a work-in-progress all the time. My flat will certainly not be of showroom standard, but hopefully it will have more character than those ID-designed ones?

do all movers know how to dismantle and then re-assemble my queen sized bed? my bed and mattress together worth about $900. should i buy a new one or move the old one? the bed is only a year old.

well said - share your sentiments entirely.

You are so right, i realise the usage simply does not justify getting a door bell! Especially since i am only home in the nights and weekends, if at all. Pics of lights will have to wait till end Feb when they are delivered and installed!!

Visited Hock Siong warehouse today. These were a few of my finds. The furniture in the following pictures are extremely dusty, otherwise the condition is really very good. Bought two of these rosewood armchairs at $140 each. Cushions included. To match with my existing Chinese table & cabinets which i will be moving from my current place. Hope to achieve a contemporary Chinese feel to my living room, and not too chink-chong. These are classics and never go out of style: This lovely uniquely-shaped glass-covered top study table is made in Toronto, Canada. This fact is imprinted at the bottom of the table and discreetly inside the drawer. Culled from Four Seasons Hotel (that's what the sales person told me). Beautiful gold handles. Only $260. Terribly regret making my study table too soon, which cost me $380 and in my third-choice laminate. Does not look half as classy as this. May want to buy this as a living room console table instead. Not sure if it goes well with the above armchairs and Chinese furnishing in my living room: Thinking of getting this as a bedside table, $80 only. Made in North Carolina, USA: Welcome all comments!!

yep, my existing place has aircon, bathtub, tap mixers, cooker hob etc all of which i never use. neither do i use any of the condo facilities here. so i figure i could easily manage without these. as the unit is so small, thought i would take the chance and do without a doorbell too!

Am looking for a place which sells a wide selection of arty Buddha wall / canvas paintings, or just prints. These are usually duo tone (black & gold) and shows only the head. Also looking for places which sells ancient looking buddha sculptures. I only know of Lim's at Holland V. Please recommend shops, thanks!

beautiful beautiful! well done! i also had reservations about an all-white glossy kitchen cabinets (for fear they will turn yellow), so eventually settled for off-white, which is NOT my preferred colour.

i do not have any downlights in my flat . remember, mine's a no-frills decor i don't even have air-con, or any TV in the bedroom. No tap mixers, no door bell, no cooker hood, unbelievable but true. The 9 pieces include lights for every room, including storeroom and toilets. only realised i forgot to take pics of the lights on my way home, silly me! So can only post pics of the lights when they are installed.

i am using Unipac Aluminium & Reno. good service so far and reasonable price. for a $700 job, the malaysian guy actually took the risk of missing his train home yesterday afternoon, and rushed down (i only gave him 2 hours notice) to my flat. i wanted them to cover up the open windows frames in case there is rain (no reno for the next 10 days), and they obliged - considering they were open for half day yesterday.

All the tiles are in. And all are made in China. Urgh. Let's hope the quality is as good as they look. Now got to patiently wait till 4 February for reno work to resume. New PVC pipe in common toilet installed. Big, fat, hideous and taking up much precious space. Was expecting slimmer looking pipes. I feel this is going to be the biggest eyesore in the flat: Bought lamps from A Lighting (highly recommended by forumers here) today. Paid $550 for 9 pieces. Forgot to take pics. Pricing very reasonable. Great service. Range is small though, but enough for a small unit like mine.

hahaha, perfectly understand. my bank account has seen a dramatic drop in record time, like never before. very very scary! like you, i am also keeping flooring and kitchen wall tiles, and complete makeover for toilets only. electrical rewiring too. no fancy feature wall or boxing up of pipes etc. reno cost already over $20k. very painful. am even going for second hand furnishing now. sigh......

lucky that you had time to visit the factory. i was given a mere 2 hours to reselect the laminates (coz i was told, the laminate supplier closes from today), and didn't have much of a choice from the 2 books. it was also so tough having to visualise how it will look as a much larger piece . just keeping my fingers the selection turns out ok. errr, yes i was pai-seh and i did not do the 'scratch test' as i was afraid of defacing their sample books! wow, you have now gotten me even more excited about visiting hock siong! i was expecting at most, one floor of display space. thanks for the many tips, i certainly plan to get stuff from there, provided the pricing is reasonable. i have no qualms about using pre-owned items at all. gosh, i can't wait for saturday to visit the place!!!

floorplan here finally:

Will scan and post the HDB floorplan up as soon as I get my hands on a scanner. As I am not very creative and also not a colour-savvy person, I am playing it safe by working around only a few colours - black, white, neutrals - for cabinets, tiles, walls, furniture. Won't be able to post any pics until way after CNY coz contractor stopping work already and will resume only after 2 Feb. Most shops are also closed next week, so can't go shopping for lights, furniture, accessaries etc. Arrggh, 1 week of wasted time! Am anxious to check out this shop soon: www.hocksiong.com.sg. They sell pre-owned kitchenware, furniture, electrical appliances, lamps, etc from 5-star hotels and service apartments. The pics look enticing!

i could not find Comfort Furnishing in the telephone directory. where are they located please?

Carpenter claims a few of my laminate selection are out of stock, so i had to re-select asap - and from only 2 miserable book samples! So here are my final selection, hope they do not turn out 'obiang': Laminate for MBR toilet vanity closet: Laminate for MBR wardrobe: Laminate for Study Room bookcase: Will shop for lightings this week and post pics.

Will surely check about the sale, thanks for the tip!

Thanks all for the kind instructions re: uploading of pics. I have switched to photobucket, it's faster and i finally got the pics sized correctly: Second morn of reno and the kitchen cabinets, aircon, dividing wall, sinks, are already hacked: Master bedroom toilet - everything has been removed: The whole place is so dusty, really pity the blangladeshi workers working in this condition.

Thanks all who responded above, especially the well wishes And here's a big HELLO to both former and current amk residents on this forum! In addition to what I mentioned about the unbelievable amenities around, there is an extremely comprehensive bus route around as well. 10 minutes walk from MRT station (where i am currently staying the station is a 15 minutes DRIVE), and 5 minutes walk to avenue 3, which have buses plying to the north, south, east, west directly - Holland V, Parkway Parade, Clementi, Hougang, Sengkang, Orchard, Bukit Merah, Thomson, Paya Lebar, Bedok .....geez. ok ok , more pics, less words, so here are the BEFORE pics: The wall separating kitchen & living room will go. Wall tiles on the right will go too. Wall tiles in living rooms are so 80s. Am keeping the floor tiles (not that i love them, but for the simple reason of keeping costs down). Will also change shape of the passage door way to right-angle: Am keeping the wall tiles in the kitchen (again, not that i love them), everything else here will be hacked, including the window grilles (i never like the locked-in feeling of window grilles): Removing window grilles and aircon (don't need both) in the MBR. Keeping floor tiles: Hacking everything in this common toilet: Hacking everything in this MBR toilet: Am still struggling with the uploading of pics, they seem to take a long time to do. I would also prefer the pics much larger. Anyone knows how to do that?

The originals are way beyond my reach. Anyone knows where i can find reproductions of those colourful Kartell stools and chairs? Thanks!

My flat-hunting was over in 2 weekends, total time spent was probably not more than 5 hours. This unit which I eventually bought was the third i viewed and liked. To keep my options open, I viewed another 8 units. The flat-hunting was such a breeze coz I specified to the agent, which blocks I preferred, thus saving lots of time. I fell in love with the many conveniences at this AMK unit - wet markets, coffeeshops, supermarket, provision shops, bakeries (7 at last count), medical halls, clinics, beauty salons etc were all only a minute walk away. This was a god-send as where I am staying now, the nearest place where I can find food is an upmarket Italian restaurant, a good 15 walk away. Get real, who needs Italian food when hunger pangs strike? Oops, I digress. For my reno, not using ID. So managing everything singlehandedly. Am trying to keep costs as low as possible, so I have engaged one main contractor, an electrician, a carpenter and the window/door contractor. Will reserve my comments on these chaps after my reno is over. Have selected tiles, laminates and paint colour, let's hope everything blends in nicely! Reno starts tomorrow, yippee!!! Will post pics as soon as i figure how to do so.

Is Ah Keong's quote lower than Patrick's? Is his service as good as Patrick's? Can he speak english like Patrick? Have received Ho Bee's quote which is rather high. They seem very rigid on their pricing so am still looking around.

how much do you think your reno will cost you? your reno work looks very extensive. am checking around costs now coz my quotation (3-room corridor same as yours) now works out to $19000 - very high considering mine is very very basic and am not even doing my floor, or kitchen walls etc!