cleong

Hi fellow top-floor/penthouse owner, as it is regarded as a maintenance access door for purposes on maintaining rubbish chute, so you can get Town Council or HDB (Can't remember exactly who) to do it. You do not need to pay for it to be done yourself.

No COV is always a good place to start, but do get the wetworks, masonry and carpentry work out of the way, you can't do these in phases later on without going through a lot of trouble. The only thing you could do is skipping furnishing the rooms that you aren't (yet) using.

If ulu + Northeast then probably in the Hougang in the vicinity of Buangkok?

Depending on design, hacking walls may need PE certification = additional cost. Doors are not cheap. If you do your front door, you may be tempted to do the rest "to match" and there's a large number of doors in an EM once you get started...... I kept all my original doors. Good quality solid Chengai wood, just retro style. Live with it loh. Carpentry can be expensive if you start doing toilet counters, built in wardrobes, etc, can you do without those? Wiring. The youngest EM is also more than ten years old already; if yours is past its teens, do consider switching out the old wiring and circuit breakers for safety. Also, the existing amount of lighting points may have to change to match the placement of your furniture, work and living areas. Electrical work isn't something you can completely avoid. Even if it is just small money, reconsider if you really need false ceiling/feature walls. Make sure your basic infrastructure is taken care of first (water pipes, electrical, structural), move to function, before working on aesthetics.

Perhaps you can show your floor plan and we can advise. Wrought iron is more expensive. I originally wanted wrought iron window grilles at my common corridor windows...... Abandoned because of cost.

Sorry to say but you would unlikely be able to come below the budget you set for the things you want to do. Try getting quotes from IDs and taking items out in order to come under your set budget. EM renovation prices have consistently increased in the past two years I've observed. So what you might be able to do with 40k will be less.

May be a bit late now, but you can wire two sets of lights, one for the cosy warm white feel, and another for the cool daylight functional lighting. You can turn on either, or both. I have cool daylight in the ceiling lights of the kitchen and warm white counter lighting.

Paid below 500k back in 2010. Still got first timer rebate...... COV was mid 30k. The renovation ordeal took three months or so.

This quote is from 2010, no point expecting similar prices. The contractor has gone out of business anyway. Top of the page you can see my balcony shot. And this is how it looks from the living room looking out. Most people go for ID. As I said, I have a good idea what I wanted. I went to a few ID firms which quoted me between 50-70k inclusive of their design fees. I suppose you should go with one of the recommended IDs from this forum.

I think any Courts/Harvey Norman/Best Denki, when faced with a bulk purchase, will be willing to make a deal. Ours came from Harvey Norman. For around $7k plus we managed to get 2 LCD/LED TVs, each with a home entertainment system, cooker hob and hood, fridge, washer, oven, and a few other small items which were enough to furnish our home.

Here's my downstairs toilet: There isn't a wet/dry area due to obvious space constraints. Its good though, because after guests have been through, I can hose it down completely. I used a frosted sliding door instead of bifold or swinging doors too. Take note this toilet has no windows. You can see a narrow air gap above the door at the ceiling in the first picture.

Going by current trends, don't expect to get much change from 50k. Low 40k for my reno back in 2010 and I didn't hack most of my floors.

Ask them for their contact number and new address. You will still be getting their mail and will need to get them to come collect or forward it to them. I had a credit card company debt collector come to my house looking for the previous tenants who defaulted on their credit card bills. Fortunately they are legal and were satisfied with our explanation.

False ceiling just traps the heat in the space between. You could badger the town council to re-lay or thicken the rooftop water proofing but there's not much you can do. If I recall correctly, the difference in height is slight. Not immediately noticeable to me. And carpentry usually goes by per-foot-run.

Yes it is. On the really sunny days it feels like there's a giant radiator panel on the ceiling and you *have* to throw open all the windows to air the house out (which happens pretty quick). If you're heat intolerant like me, air conditioning is a must.

It takes a bit of work but yes, individual pieces of parquet can be removed and replaced.

Don't be too fussed about the in-progress situation. Try to wrangle a refurbishment of the flooring and kitchen surfaces after the renovation is completed. The clean up should happen during the touching up phase. My staircase landing was completely unprotected during the hacking phase and this was the result of the workers moving debris downstairs: Whatever the parquet contractor did, they managed to plane the parquet down or lacquer the scratches out. You have to be realistic. Doing a partial renovation will involve some spillover to the things that you want to retain. Its more important to secure a written pledge to make good what was damaged during the course of renovation, than worry about protecting it. Not sure if that's a solid surface or granite countertop but I suppose some polishing work can help as well.

Please do a search, this has all been covered before. Good luck with your search.

Merry Christmas everyone, especially the EM owners

If you let us know your address/neighbourhood, maybe someone has a similar floor plan he/she can let you look at - or even a completed renovation to refer to.

Actually I can understand why - letting renovation contractors construct load bearing platforms/floors can create problems if it isn't done properly.

Bro, no pictures yet?

Go for a holiday with the kids...... although short notice, maybe its good to go visit the in-laws? Otherwise a staycation...... there are cheap/reasonable hotels in Singapore if you know where to look? Sometimes you got to ask yourself, how much money would buy you peace of mind... and if you can afford it, probably its money worth spending.

Just like some places have soft launch and official opening, you could probably do the same - move in on your desired date and then officially move in with all the ceremony, etc on the 9th. Problem solved.

Aside from slight spatial trickery, that set of 3D renders is the most realistic I have ever seen. At first glance I thought they were real pictures.