waileong

1. You should be the one telling us. 2. In any case, it's the customer who should decide what he wants, not you, right?

V.Hive.

Too late now. These guys are all blood suckers anyway.

Careful. If you selling, either make sure you have a damned beautiful flat (so that people can literally move in) or a damned lousy one (so that people will not think twice about reno).

Just the top? PS. Sounds expensive!

Search and ye shall find.

Nothing worth doing is easy. Some people shop the world (or at least, go to Vietnam, etc) just to get specific pieces to match the theme they have in mind. You have two choices a. Blend in with the crowd b. Express your own individuality. For a., just walk into any ID, tell them you want a "resort" look, a "zen" look, etc. They have ready-made templates for that, they'll do all the carpentry for your TV cabinets, wardrobe, etc. Then go shop for L-shaped sofa, glass-topped coffee table, etc. and you'll be done. And your house will look like a million others from the ID. For b., you'll really have to work hard at it. You may shop for pieces from antique shops, salvage doors from old temples and redo them into dining tables, buy rugs from Afghanistan, buy stained glass from Turkey, etc.-- ie you'll go as far as you need to get something that fits. It will take lots of time, perhaps lots of money (depends on luck). But your house will not be like anything the ID can do for you. Choice is yours.

Reno is not a popularity contest.

Don't buy Ikea. As for screws, you can always buy your own.

Small or big is an individual opinion. As for the designation, do a search.

Hope you got loads of money. Replacing all the tiles will cost a bomb! Did you watch Money No Enough?

Are you going to implement whatever you read here? Will you get professional FS advice here? If you believe in it so much, then you should spend the $$$ to change the direction of the door, or else spend money for a FS master's advice on how to "neutralise" it.

That's what ads, magazines and websites are for. It also helps if you know what types of sofa you want, certain brands only make certain types.

How old are you? In the 60's and 70's, S'poreans were very poor and many people lived in 1-rm to 3-rm flats. Toilets then had squat bowls, and most people had bare walls, not tiles.

Well, it's your problem then, isn't it? The traditional finger pointing, which happens because you brought in your own electrician.

The third option is much better: Enjoy the new house without renovation. Many new condos come with "designer" furnishings, some even come with kitchen sets and appliances from Italy, Germany, etc. I've mentioned before, renovation is a huge drag, it costs a lot of cash (can't use CPF), takes a lot of time (to search for tiles, fittings, etc., review designs, supervise, etc) and involves a lot of risk (bad ID, lousy contractor, defects, etc). To me, the no 1 rule is to buy a 100%-move in house whenever possible, even if it costs a premium.

What is the problem? That he doesn't want to install the heater? Or that he wants to install that thing and you don't want?

That's interesting. Does that mean any kind of reno during the period may void warranty, even if it does not involve demolition of walls? Eg. redoing of bathrooms which may involve changing tiles (ie hacking of old ones), replacement of bathtub, etc. Although I must say it's a remote possibility, because most people pay big bucks for the designer fittings they see in the sales brochures.

Tiling itself alone does not cost thousands of dollars. A complete toilet reno incl. waterproofing, floor and wall tiles, change of WC & sink, installation of accessories, etc. does cost thousands of dollars.

There are conservation shophouses in Geylang. They'll never appreciate as fast as other conservation properties simply because of the nature of their location.

1. Why do you not trust the agent? 2. I'm sure the guy will do anything to close the sale. If you tell him that if he don't give you the warranty, you'll go to his competitor, I'm sure he can reconsider the warranty thing in your name.

Not to mention that a real WIW would be much bigger than the rooms we have in a HDB flat.

Location is fundamental information for any property. So is condition. Without such information, how to answer your questions? To begin with, there's no "enbloc" sale (in the commonly understood sense of the term here) for most landed houses unless they happen to be strata-titled houses. Hence the points raised by your friends are not relevant. Of course, there's no reason why a group of terrace house owners can't band together to sell all their land and their houses together, but the 80% or 90% majority consent rule does apply because it's not strata-titled, there's no MCST, etc. If your house is a historic Perankan house in beautiful condition (like some along East Coast road), and you can keep it so, then I see no reason why a beautiful house in good condition would not appreciate, conservation status or otherwise. It will always be sought after by expatriates for example, and very few buyers would think of tearing it down to build an ugly modern house in its place. There's only two things they're not making any more of. One is land. Two is old houses. Anyone can build a new house any time, but you can only find and restore old houses, you can't build them any more. Whether the rarity is going to be worth more than potential plot ratio increases, I leave you to ponder.

Without more details no one can say.

It's up to you to negotiate terms. I got my contractor to follow standard Radac terms.