cleong

A quick sum up of the problems that I faced with this contractor, which is why I've not revealed nor recommended him to anyone else. They extended the renovation permit two more times beyond the initial permit. Sorry to my neigbours' extended suffering...... hacking began on 7th Sep and tiles were only brought in on 2nd October A look at the original cabinets - probably as old as the flat itself. The kitchen was an odd arrangement with the stove next to the windows. While it was nice of them to start off by protecting the flooring, it didn't last long because the workers were careless They didn't protect the parquet staircase landing as they bounced wheelbarrows of hacking debris from the second floor No pictures, but sometime during the hacking/plastering they managed to chop off my newly installed OpenNet cabling, requiring a follow up visit by Open Net. The contractor was made to bear the cost. Most of the casement windows had this problem and the window contractor had to be called in to fix it. Little wonder because the first time the windows were installed, the guy worked till it was dark (the flat had no electricity by then) as a result he was half-blind and rushing and seemed to just forced everything to fit.

I'd overlooked showing how I ran my aircon trunking - it was particularly difficult and convoluted how the previous owner had it run, and I could only slightly improve it: The trunking runs in low along the wall from the balcony mounted compressor, rising up next to the MBR toilet entrance to the MBR fancoil. It also splits up at the top of the doorway to serve the other two bedrooms: Showing the trunking running over the entrance along the wall. Only coolant pipes in there, because the drainpipes for the other two bedrooms run down from the white pipe you see to the left of the frame to the floortrap of the MBR The long run of trunking causes problems and has already leaked once. The installer came back and judged that it was a combination of renovation debris and the length of pipe causing the issue. Where possible the trunking is tucked under the crossbeams In the next posts I will be showing some of the problems I'd encountered.

I'd overlooked showing how I ran my aircon trunking - it was particularly difficult and convoluted how the previous owner had it run, and I could only slightly improve it: The trunking runs in low along the wall from the balcony mounted compressor, rising up next to the MBR toilet entrance to the MBR fancoil. It also splits up at the top of the doorway to serve the other two bedrooms: Showing the trunking running over the entrance along the wall. Only coolant pipes in there, because the drainpipes for the other two bedrooms run down from the white pipe you see to the left of the frame to the floortrap of the MBR The long run of trunking causes problems and has already leaked once. The installer came back and judged that it was a combination of renovation debris and the length of pipe causing the issue. Where possible the trunking is tucked under the crossbeams

Some overdue pictures of the MBR: King-sized Ikea Malm bed and headboard storage combo with Ikea bedside lamps and custom built wardrobe with sliding doors Ikea tv cabinet - used the same wood finish for the study's table and book cabinets as well.

Hi potatoes, PM me if you wish to drop by

Our solution to the tight MBR washroom was to cleave a corner off the shower stall but that brought its own problems because the door hinge didn't really like the angle it met the shower stall glass. We had quite a bit of leakage to the outside of the stall until the contractor came back to fix things up. Its better now, but we still have to take care not to spray water against the door.

Yeah I'm one of those dumbos that have individual switch control for my balcony lights - I always turn on both at the same time or not at all and I find that it made no difference if I had one or two switches. Anyway, csingeu, take it easy. The house is so large that you really won't notice or care about most of the minor imperfections once you start living in it. More important is the feel and the ergonomics and the simple fact you like it all. I was rather bothered by the tilted walls in my unit but I hardly notice it anymore because I am no longer looking for the problem. Don't sweat the small stuff. I had a narrow window between Chinese 7th month ending to when I got married in late November. My contractor assured me that he could deliver before I got married, and he didn't manage to meet the deadline. By beginning of October I was on the phone every day, visiting every day trying in vain to make sure things were on track. I found that it made little difference, and my meddling in some cases put extra stress on them which was counterproductive. Add this stress to my wedding preparations, and a week-long overseas work trip one week before my wedding, and our honeymoon after the wedding, you can imagine how everything converged at that one point of time. ......and I haven't got onto the topic of money. Everything cost money, renovation, getting married, going on honeymoon. And then the car needed new tires! Fun times.

Below the sink? They constructed a brick base. Inside the base no tiles if I recall. But they do construct a channel for water to go into the floor trap should you need to hose down the kitchen floor and that is tiled.

Mine was not. I agreed with my contractor not to do so in order to save some money. What you can't see can't hurt you anyway and later on you'll forget about it.

It'll be possible to smoothen out the handrail bannisters - it just takes time and workmanship. Don't let the contractor take the easy way out. Same goes for the wooden balcony doors - I have to say that the exposed screw thread in the panels just smell of "can't be bothered" workmanship. If they can do the wooden doors they can go the extra effort for the final finishing touches. I suggest you have black brush seals at the bottom edge so that rain or dust does not sneak into the living room from under the doors. It could help keep airconditioning in the living room as well. Lastly for my storeroom, what I have is a little press-in press-out type of latch that makes the door a pop out door. No knob or pull out handle required, so its quite "stealthy". Some people don't even realize I have a door there.

Try to get the images to appear inline - it makes for easier reading

Use the insert image function, and add your image URLs in between each of the [ img ][ /img ] tags (remove the spaces).

Added IMG tags for you.

Hi, the flooring is marble. I got replacement marble tiles to replace what couldn't be polished or repaired.

You would be better off setting aside $40k. Anything less than that would be a bonus. For the bedrooms, are you planning to construct new built-in wardrobes or use the existing ones?

It would depend on what you what to get done. 25k is probably only enough to hack and change the floor tiles and fittings in toilets and kitchen, do cabinets and not much else. No new floor tiles for the rest of the house, no new windows or grilles. Depending on whether you've got three or two toilets, that will vary your cost by $1000. A new System 4 air con will cost you $4000. And we haven't started talking about essentials like furniture, washing machine, stove, etc. Rewiring the house will cost another $2000-3000, as will new plumbing, both of which I feel is necessary given the age of the house. Are you prepared to put up with just painting over the rest of the house? You might want to post more photos showing the condition of the place so that we can see the scale of work required.

You get the city skyline view and fireworks - mine is blocked and I can't see the CBD

There's really no guideline for COV. Do not forget that the actual worth of the apartment you're looking at is already posted as the valuation price. Anything above that simply reflects one or a combination of several things: Demand greater than supply Valuation lagging compared to actual current market value Greed of the seller Desperation of the buyer The valuation report would already have taken into account all the tangible attributes, including location, accessibility, amenities, floor level, facing, recent past transactions, renovations and so on. Regardless, the seller is free to set his/her desired COV price and wait for buyers to match it. If there are no matchers because the unit simply isn't worth the asking COV, the seller either does not sell, or lowers his/her expectations. You as a buyer should keep in mind that you will need to budget for renovation besides the upfront COV. All told, you'll be needing to come up with 100k easily, so don't get carried away with the COV bidding. Very often, it is the agents that are persuading sellers with phrases like "80k can try" in order to represent them in the sale and get the commissions. I suggest you try to talk to the owners themselves if you're really interested, and have your chequebook ready to show that you're making a serious offer. Otherwise, walk on by, and something better may come up. Out of curiousity, which area can a low-floor EA command 80k?

Hello neighbour - we're in the same block

I guess we might be neighbours then you can take a look at the thread that I started in the Reno T-blog subforum for my experiences

I live at Block 12x, and paid 35k COV on my unit back in July 2010, how much did you pay for yours? If its an original condition unit, and you're expecting to do a top to bottom renovation, you'll need to set aside at least 50k.

What block are you at?