sohck

Uncle has too many projects so all those working for him siong until become very skinny.

Yes, thanks for the reminder. The gap is already existing, as the previous owner has overlay the tiles in the bedrooms with laminate and the living area is marble. Will have to be careful going in the bedrooms and have to live with it....

My wife and I went down to Best Denki at Great World City to snap up what we think is the last [few] units of the Sharp AX700 display set. Since last week, we have been going around Singapore looking for the Ax700, but to no avil. The unit has been replaced with the China-made (some say made in Thailand) newer model that has microwave built-in, larger capacity but requires lower watts to run. The advantage of water ovens is that it uses overheated steam (more than 300 degrees celsius) to cook food - as a result, the cooked food has less fat and is thus healthier. We have long given up microwave oven and mainly use our grill to cook. The grill will be replaced with this water oven when we shift to our new house sometime late July / early August. One thing to note: The Malay sales person at Best Denki Great World City was really customer-oriented. Not only she helped us with wrapping the set (since display set has no box), she took the pain to help us move the oven to the car park. Unfortunately I have forgotten to ask for her name but I must say she is one of the best sales persons I have seen in a long time.

Yesterday my ID went to my house and pasted the HDB Renovation Permit on the wall with masking tape. I took the trouble to verify that they are a HDB Registered Renovation Contractor. Phew, don't want to have unnecessary trouble later on. Supreme also came back to measure the dimension of the three rooms. He was disappointed after hearing that I am not going to lay laminate over living, dining and balcony. The price has gone up 5% because of that - I did not argue with him over the increased price as I can see that he is very sad his deal has dropped from $7000+ to $2000+. Hacking will start this Thursday. I will find some time to drop by to snap some pictures.

I don't think my ID has given me a proposed floor plan, but I will just ask him if he has one. It may not help even if you have my floor plan, as it does not show the beam and pipes. Is your floor plan the same as mine? One of the IDs brought us to a flat at Sin Ming that has exactly the same layout and orientation as ours, and it really helped us a lot. We realized that many ideas we initially had had to be given up because of the beams and columns, for example: - location of fridge has to be changed because of the beam at the kitchen; - book cabinet has to changed from a 2.4m to 2m because of the beam at bedroom 2; - because of the two huge pipes in the common toilet, we have to relocate the door and change to a mini-water basin, as well as change the swing door shower screen to a sliding door one; - abandon the idea of L-box and false ceiling because of the low ceiling; You may need to make another trip to the house you are buying and note the height of the ceiling, location of all the beams and pipes to better plan for your reno.

Not silly at all. Ah Soon needs a lot of chasing, for meetings, for quotations, etc., so it's good you start early. Moreover, you will be able to log in the low price of renovation if you sign the contract early. [i am assuming property market will improve and so renovation cost will increase too].

I have signed up with Ideal.

For me it's more of economical sense. My kitchen is long and small. After putting in the kitchen cabinet, backsplash, fridge, washer, sliding doors for kitchen, there is really not much of wall exposed. The ID has quoted me $2,000+ for the kitchen wall tiles. Instead I go for chemical cement on existing wall which is less than $700. Tip: most ID / contractor will still charge you for the wall tiles behind the kitchen cabinet although the part is normally not tiled. So do your sums carefully

Thank you!

That's the acid test - a customer-oriented ID (or any good sales person for that matter) will follow through even though the actual renovation is months away. In fact, those IDs that I shortlisted are those whom we contact in March and have been following up with us all these months. If somebody is not willing to do the follow up, don't give them the business!

Took annual leave today. Going to Toh Guan to pick my tiles later.

Went to SP Services on Wednesday to apply for water and electricity. The process was quite fast, about 5 minutes, but the customer service officer was quite chatty, spent at least 30 minutes chatting about our kids! Pity those people waiting behind, but thought it is quite rude to go off when she was speaking.

My search started the day after I signed the option to purchase the flat (26 Feb 2009). Key collection was 2 Jun 2009. So that 3 months +. During this time I got about 15 quotations and met 13 contractors/IDs. There are people who quote super high and people who quote super low. You don't want to go for the super high one and you want to know why some can go super low. You got to keep meeting them and asking quotations then you will have a feel how much your renovation will cost you. And like Marvin said, your requirement and idea will change over time, as you got inspiration from some of the show flats that you see. So you may to keep going back to your shortlisted contractors/IDs over and over again. Take it easy and try to enjoy the journey then you won't feel stressed out and tired.

I think is Blk 155. Cannot be your house, right?

I thought his office is at Commonwealth Ave?

Saw a TV show featuring a house designed by Meng. Was quite well done. Not sure about the pricing though.

Hi Rock, During my search we have checked out Ah Soon's work at one flat at Simei, I would say that his tiling work is excellent and his carpentry very good. The bathrooms were also very well done (in terms of choice of tiles, etc). We didn't like the colour combination in the master bedroom but that is probably not Ah Soon's fault. The shoe cabinet near the main door was very cleverly constructed, it covered the ugly DB box but yet provides storage space for shoes. If you don't have problem constantly chasing him (for appointments, quotations, etc) you can seriously consider him (for the price-workmanship).

I have gotten quite a few hand-drawn diagrams, but not sure if I should post it here. My ID will also be supplying some 3D diagrams (not many, maybe just two for the bedroom and console) so that we can visualize the colour combination.

3 "S" - Simple, Space and Storage.

Today we told Baroque and Ah Soon that we have signed with Ideal. I have also updated my signature accordingly. Baroque has very good workmanship and design, however, their price is 10% higher than Ideal. Ideal is more lacking in design but has excellent workmanship (at least for the showflat). Ah Soon is way too busy we don't think that is suitable for us.

Hi Rock, We have decided to go with Ideal. We cannot imagine ourselves running after Ah Soon all the time for the renovation, so we prefer to go with somebody who does not have so much business. There is also another more important reason, PM me if you would like to know. I would like your comments on Ah Soon too. Have PM you for that.

I am thinking of using car solar film instead. Think it blocks off more UV.

Let me know how much the solar film is. My balcony faces the west and I am also thinking of putting 3M solar film on the windows.

The existing kitchen. The previous owner has elected a wall next to where the basin is.

I met Ah Soon twice. The older man in the picture looks like him to me (unless my short-long-asti eye-sight is failing faster than I thought) except that the one I met has more white hairs. His company name is Fu Hua.