leechaorui

Nice wardrobe and flooring

Thanks for the compliment. I guess this is about the tip of the ice berg, there is really much more knowledge to construction than what I have shared. Cheers!

Roaches can stay alive and active as long as there is moisture. It is best that you keep the place free of water. When there is no food source and water (esp water), roaches will automatically find the place inhabitable.

There is a type of magnetic brush that allow you to clean the outside from the inside of your house. I think once a year, you can hire someone to help you use a water jet to clean the exterior of the house including the roof. This would help remove the stubborn stains and dirt that is stuck on your house, other than those at the windows. Cheers!

I enjoy reading your T/blog. Very humourous. Three Cheers for you!

Good size MBR. I think better budget a bit more for contingencies.

Agree, very beautifully designed and done up.

It differs from place to place depending on your specs, size, requirements, furnishing, etc... Best for you to get some quotes from architects and builders to give you a sense of cost with respect to your needs.

You can check on the contractors registration at the BCA website. I think it is not difficult to register with BCA. Only thing is most of the contractors are small timers and they can't bid for big projects (eg. condo development). However, bidding for bungalows and terrace houses are no problem. Even when the soil condition is very poor, you can still avoid micro piling. Go for second and third opinion from civil engineers and you will soon know that micro piling can be substituted easily by using RC piling. Only thing is your contractor needs to be experienced enough to do RC piling in a way that vibration is reduced and nearby properties are not affected. $500K all cost inclusive is a difficult figure to work on. $1 million for above average furnishing looks excessive for a built in of 3000 plus sqft. I build my place for $700K, all cost inclusive. I think built in is about 4000 sqft. Nonetheless, it is good that you have a bigger budget to work on. With your budget, I am sure you can get super luxurious furnishing if you go for competitive tender and control cost well.

Thanks. I missed it. Your place has 2 bedrooms and 1 utility room or are there more floors upstairs?

Hi Wind30, Could you share your floor plan?

Don't know how some people manage to re-develop their houses into 3.5 storey for very low budget like $400K or even $500K at today's construction prices. When I get quotations, it is always higher. Partly could be due to my requirements on the type of construction materials used. I think to build a small house at a budget of $1 million for 3000 plus sq ft is still very high by today's standard. Maybe, your architect is giving you some very high end luxury furnishing, long warranties, state of the art design and exceptional service. A reasonable budget for fairly high quality construction should not exceed $750K to $800K for a house of this size. I saw in the papers that some high rollers lost many millions in the casino over a few days. No offence or sarcasm, paying a few hundred thousand dollars more for the construction cost of a house may be a big thing for many. However, as long as you are financially comfortable and you like the service and product, it may still be considered as money well spent. Do share more of your construction in the T/blog. I look forward to seeing your construction process.

Congras and good luck on your rebuilding work. Hope to see more of your postings on the process you have taken, your selection process for builders and architect and what you plan to do for your house. Agree with you that it is important to be more specific in the quotes. However, there will still be many things that one doesn't know and therefore cannot specify such as the quality of cement used, the type of construction method of installing grills (sholder and joint with the rebar from the ground upwards as opposed to installing grills simply by using a bracket), quality of water proofing materials, etc.... Your built in area is huge for 2.5 storey which means that you have larger indoor space and lesser outdoor space as most of the land will be occupied by the building. 20% of your quote ($200K) going into piling is a lot of money. I supposed you are using micro piling and drilling very deep. I am also in the process of constructing my house. My piling cost me about $20K only for approximately 30 piles with penetration of about 25 metres. This included noise monitoring and vibration monitoring for piling works, licensed surveyor to set out the pile point, grid line and ECC, mobilizing of piling machine, PDA test, supply and drive in 150 x 150 RC pile to engineer's proposal and labour to cut off pile head. I am presently in the process of constructing my corner terrace. Although I have neigbours at the side and back, my contractor used RC piling without any major issues. You may want to review your piling work and cost of piling. For 2.5 storey, I don't think the piling needs to be very deep even when the soil condition is poor. If the soil condition is good, you may only need to do rough foundation which is even cheaper. The money saved can be used to purchase other items for your house construction/ renovation. Sharing similar experiences with you, I have also encountered friends who have rebuilt their houses using sub-standard contractor and architect. In the end, their house leaked badly, suffered from choke pipes because contractor used exceptionally small pipes to save cost, etc... The building process is frustrating and the end result is poor. Hence, it is important to choose the right builder and architect. Cheers!

You may want to try lighting.com at Balestier. This shop has got quite good feedback.

You may want to try stainless steel or granite top.

Practical words. Agree with you.

Very nice toilet. The WC set looks expensive.

You may want to take a few days leave to rest properly. If this problem comes back again, you may want to approach the Master that Lim75 recommended.

Original condition was already quite good. Now you have enhanced it much further. Very pretty. Cheers!

There are quite a number of IDs that forumers have used and recommended here already. Looking forward to see your 3D pictures.

I think you need to have a pipe that links to either the waste pipe or somewhere at the bottom of the wall for the water to be discharged. Otherwise the water will leak through the wall. I think best if you could re-install the storage heater and hack the toilet wall to redo the piping.

You can try introducing China lemon grass/ Citronella because this plant could repel mosquitoes. On the other hand, many species of insects feed on heliconia leaves. Maggots, bacteria and protozoans make their homes in pools of water in Heliconia bracts too. Hope this info is useful for you. Cheers!

You could get your contractor to sand, fill and re-seal the floor. The reasons for cracks could be due to moisture or drying out of the wood. Get a dehumidfier to suck out the excess moisture in the room. I think this should help mitigate the problem. Cheers!

I think you can ask the contractor to help you do the patching to close the gap.

Wish you smooth smooth reno.