leechaorui

Heard that one way to deal with a haunted house is to send a big group of men in uniform to the house, stamp their feet and make some noise there. After that, the house is cleansed as the spirits will be chased away. Just hearsay. Those who feel that their house is not clean may want to invite their army buddies and friends to their house and give this a try. Cheers!

You can try getting a quote from a reno ID or contractor by specifying what you want. I renovated my kitchen and toilets some years back and it cost me about $10K for something simple. This includes electrical wiring, switches, change WC, water heater, tiling, etc...

I think developers in general don't insulate floor but the cement and structure separating each floor is quite thick. You may want to check if water seepage is from other sources.

Hi Reno145, Do you stay in a landed house? Your capentry work looks very nice. Mind to share more photo shots?

Welcome. Hope to see more pictures of your new flat.

Congras. Hope your second reno will turn out the way you wanted. Cheers!

Choose Chengai for quality or Merbau for price.

Actually, if they just collect their own letters; I think just leave it. After some time, they will find that it is inconvenient to collect letters from your mail box and they will start getting the senders to send the letters to their new address. Some pple will take longer. As long as it doesn't affect you, I think it should be okay. Anyway, you are the owner and you can decide if you would like to allow them. If you decide not to, better to let them know in advance that you are going to change the lock in eg. One month's time. Cheers!

Yoongf, is the granite a good choice for living/ dining room? For kitchen, do you also recommend granite or some other types of flooring?

What are the pros and cons of painting vis a vis using wall paper? Is it better to apply wall paper on a plastered wall without paint or better to paint the wall first, then apply wall paper? Is wall paper durable? My neighbour applied wall paper and it look very nice. However I spotted some bubbles in between areas. Just wondering whether wall paper is lasting. Any views?

Is installing wood on wrong iron really good? I saw the laquar fading off for some of these wooden gates and I think some owners paint over the wood once every two years.

I think you can still hack away and replace two pieces of tile. You should have some extra tiles leftover. If not, just buy two pieces from the supplier.

I used the side of my terrace to play modified street football. I noticed that your side terrace look quite wide. Will you be able to convert it into a mini football area since your hubby and kids like football? Cheers!

You can call Kelvin at 98758882 for a quotation.

I think the quote will also take into account the type of laminate you use, the thickness of the wood and any other special requirements.

I did my re-roofing for about $10K. The cost depends on the size and complexity of your roof design. If it is normal roof with surface area of 1000 sq ft, it should be about $10K, and this include the new aluminium covering for the wool. The good German tiles have good inter-locking system that prevents water from sipping in even when there is heavy storm. The good quality large german tiles comes with 50 years warranty. The aluminium covering for the wool further prevents water seepage and I think it is used more for heat and sound insulation. Roofing construction does not come with terminte treatment. For termite treatment, my experience is to use baiting system to destroy the entire colony of termites. I had termite infestation in my house because my neighbour's house was infested with termites. My neighbour used all kinds of poison to destroy the termites without avail because the termites are smart creatures. Once they know that you use poison on them and see their fellow termites dying from poison, they stop consuming the poison and start spreading to other areas. Hence, my recommendation is to use the baiting system to destroy termites. If your house doesn't have any issues with termites, then there is no need to do anything. You can always opt to find a solution when termites attack your place. A baiting system cost about $5K.

Hi green giraffe, When will you be able to complete your A&A work? Your house look big. What is the land size of your place?

I have seen high class places putting carpets on the steps. However, I agree with you that maintenance will be an issue - dusk mite, collect dust, liquid spill, etc... problems. Jam, you may want to re-consider parquet or re-install the staircase. I think triangular steps is a danger and people can trip and fall quite easily.

I have stayed in condo, HDB and landed. Depending on location and the unit you get, the pros and cons are quite different. I can't comment on all condos and landed but just to share my experience of the two which I own. Condo I think the floor area is 3 + 1 bedroom, leasehold 99 years, 1770 sq ft at very high floor on a hill with lots of greenery and mature trees on the slope. Accessible to MRT, coffee shop & market by 15 mins walk for older pple. Very convenient, cooling and comfortable. Maintenance fee is quite high but if you own 3 cars, more or less can offset the maintenance fee. Got tennis court, swimming pool, child care, grocery shops, playground and lots of space in the estate. Very ideal for living as the condo is sitted on a large piece of land and not those type of cramped condo. I can't stand cramp condos where you can see your neighbours very clearly from your balcony or through the windows. Children has a lot of space to run around and there is some security guards that patrol the place. I think there is enbloc potential and is a fairly good investment. Landed Quite near MRT, 15 mins walk for young man and 25 mins walk for older folks. Quite near CTE and TPE. Near to eateries, shopping centre, sports complex, wet market, etc... Lots of people jog in my estate and they are the "free security guards" for my place. I have been to China for two and half weeks and left the door ajar and the gates are not locked. Nobody came in to steal anything. Neighbours are friendly and usually, my family will cook something for them and they will also cook something for us. Very friendly. The estate is also not jam pack with cars unless it is election time when the nearby sport complex football field is used for rally talk. Generally, the estate is not noisy except for my family ( the children makes a lot of noise playing even in the night ). Neighbour only say that the children are very active. I think there is space to park a few cars in my house and at the side along the main road, can also park a few cars. So far, no problem with parking or people scratching car. For rodents, ants, cockroaches, these are inevitable. As long as you do not throw food around or leave them at the table, you see very little of ants, cockroaches problem. Occassionally, you see rats passing by but when the drains were upgraded and covered, hardly see them anymore. Not as cooling as condo but more spacious and there is plenty of room for gardening. We plant our own sweet potato, herbs, lemon grass, ginger, banana tree, curry tree, etc... So far, so good and quite happy. There is also no horrendous story about maintaining the exterior. Probably paint the place once every 5 years. Nothing to maintain. Only need to pay fees for rubbish disposal which cost less than $19 every month. I find living in landed house very economical and convenient. I think end of the day, you have to be selective of which unit (condo or landed) that you want. Not all condos are free of parking problem and not all landed are in ulu places. I think it is no good to make generalization and based on generalization decide whether condo or landed is better. Choose based on the pros and cons of your selected unit (condo or landed) and whether you think it is suitable for you. Cheers!

Hi and welcome. How long will your A&A work takes? Hope to see 3D pictures of your completed house. Cheers!

As HDB is primarily meant for owner occupation rather than help owner collect rental, I don't know if renting HDB to collect rental and staying in condo is allowable by HDB. You may want to check with HDB.

As long as you get qualified persons, there should be no problem getting CSC when your house is completed. $500K is very tight budget. A more comfortable sum is $850K of which there will be budget for lighting, nice toiletries, good parquet or bamboo flooring, air conditioned the whole house, curtains, customed made wardrobe, kitchen oven, sink, etc.... Construction cost is escalating and raw materials and labour cost have increased. I think to rebuild the house into 3.5 storey would cost you easily $700K inclusive of piling, using quality water proofing materials, lots of double glazed glass windows, etc... The other $150K could be for some nice fine furnishing and lightings. If you need info on loan, you can pm me. I got a friend in this mortage business and he would be able to advise you. On time needed, I think typically construction takes about 8 to 10 months. Planning would take longer if you could not do it on a more intensive basis. A lot depend on the speed you and your architect work. Cheers!

You can try pebble wash with homogenous tiles.

How does normal clipsal switches and powerpoints look like?

Congras to your purchase and welcome to renotalk. Hope to see more of your reno pic.