gimz63251073

wow ur fren must be kidding....haha.... first time i heard ppl say holland V is ulu... its so well connected by roads and buses.... of cos with traffic jams la...haha... jurong is ulu la.. used to live in taman jurong when i was in primary school...took 1hour school bus to get to school in bukit timah! but with jurong point, it makes things a lot more fun and being a mature estate it does has its charm. Boon Lay Nasi Lemak! Pros and cons la...we all choose something we like... hmm...my own definition of ulu: well connected by public transport to town in 30mins and easy access to food, markets and necessities (walkable distance). At my current stage, school for children is still of very low priority...haha... i cannot imagine having to take a bus out from my house for lunch... before buying my house, i walked around the area to look for coffeeshops, markets, go to the bus stops to see how well connected the area is..etc. My colleagues think im crazy to go to that extent...

frankly for 20k budget, forget about those IDs... look for contractor instead... things like feature wall should be treated as luxury item.. If want to cut cost you can: - opt for no kitchen wall tiles - DIY painting - outsource windows and doors The above are the simplest to outsource and can save a bundle. Would be even better if you can get a direct carpenter. Other things like furniture/fixtures: - furniture can get cheaper ones, can easily change later. - get normal taps, basins, shower accessories. My kitchen tap is like $20 and it does the job. - curtains/blinds get from off the shelves - buy only during sales, be it from IKEA, Tangs...etc... --> this saved me a lot!

maybe u can still steal a small pallet using a bike... was looking at some stuff i stolen online... think this looks brilliant as well...

ohh if the ID says ok then ok ba... i thought i read somewhere that HDB is very sticky on the toilet bowl thingy... how wide is the toilet? able to squeese in shower screen, toilet bowl and sink...? U got the dimensions for each section.? my toilet (3NG) is sooo small that i had to sacrifice one toilet bowl in order to have a shower screen...

it wasn't really on hindsight. Just a gut feel that with "the world is crashing" story splashed all over, hdb prices still held firm. So i reckon no point in waiting for it to get cheaper. So went and bought something within budget... EM at below 500k at not so ulu place...? uhh possible?

hmm...are u sure u can change the position of the WC?

wow the bicycle clock is so nice la... but the clock mechanism will work or not...haa.... not so sure... heard art friends sell clock mechanism. Or can dismantle from a cheap ikea clock? do post on your blog if its successful ya..? Pallet is free...just drive around industrial areas on wk ends...and steal... thats how i got mine....

i ever saw those bi-fold door at below $100 on classifieds...but dun dare to try...haha...too cheap till im scared. $150 is a good price already... did my shower screen at $380 thru contractor. think length is around 1.3 to 1.4m. 10mm tempered swing door. that time i was looking at classifieds, quite a few offering $350 or so. So surely can be done below $400.

wah u still wait so long... in the midst of credit crunch, when HDB price did not fall but increase by a little, i fast fast OTP le... if price dun fall during crisis...then its not likely to fall anytime soon as a crisis is typically followed by a strong rebound. but even in crisis, clementi area near mrt still asking for 30k to 35k cov, Holland V even better, minimum 30k, no matter how jialat the flat is. so no choice la....i also have to go more ulu places.

they have many many colours to choose from...

woah thats damm sh1tty la.... everyone knows the profit margin is being marked up elsewhere... but this is a relatively small prob la... u can just use bleach to clean urself also

i see i see....then it makes sense. however, working level people can still chut pattern. Have heard of bangala stealing paint from town council to help house owners paint their house... and they charge real cheap prices becos their paint is free... its good that you had new paint (opened freshly in your house). Some other unfortunate guy had to use the leftover paint from your house (quality might deteriorate). OT for a short while. A sony repairman came to quote my friend for TV repair. However, my friend found it expensive and did not take up the offer. The repairman then gave him a name card and said this guy offered cheaper rate and then my fren then asked the sony repairman to help him arrange. repair man say ok. Later in the evening that day, guess who showed up to repair my friends's tv? Sony repairman! *faint*... Just like to point out that the world out there is dirtier than we could imagine.

U are right, prices are still going up. Just that the rate of increase is slower now. Thats just a good way to sensationalise bad news.... frankly, if prices of HDB goes down, i think MBT would be in deeper trouble...

im not that convinced after reading marshmallow's explanation afterall, since the words come from a painter himself. so why should it carry more weight than what an ID says? for all we know, the painter may be snooking the whole world. But yes i agree that at a certain stage, we just want to get our renovation over and done with, thus turning blind eye to many things. for the chemical wash, not sure if its needed but u can always tell ur ID that since he is not going to do the whole house, the fees would be pro-rated based on floor area. put your audit skills to good use!

they will just putty up any holes and paint maxlite paint as base. u will not get any sealer as this is additional costs. Then paint your choice of paint. 2 or 3 coats, no one will know unless u go down n watch them paint. Most likely they will stop painting once the colour "eats". slight cracks may be covered by the paint but will eventually show up la... need to putty up but most painters are "blind" one. any uneven wall will still be uneven after painting if you do not plaster. Painting is seperate matter and cost all together. in truth, no standard practice la...everyone has their way of cutting corners like cheating on paint, its just like any other industry where they all got their own secret way of making more $$. Please make sure they cover up your furniture and stuff properly. My heater was painted during the painting process. Good luck!

very nice!! aren't u going to get a huge mirror for your WIW area?

The common belief that "let contractor handle to prevent delay" is largely untrue as well. More often than not, i see people having much later handover dates even though its handled by contractor or ID. Having self coordinated the majority of the renovation, it is really time consuming. It helped that my wifey had a 4 day work week and i had lots of leave to clear, plus we are in no hurry to move in (of course u cannot tell contractor that). Nonetheless, it was extremely fruitful. If i shift house the next time, i would manage it myself again if time permits. Its much more fun and most importantly, much cheaper!

well similarly, a plumber may drop his tools and crack your floor tile. Or scractch ur wall and damage the painting... not possible to cover tai ji. Best policy is to be there while they are doing their job and give clear instructions with drawings or markings. Then check that they have done their work properly and then check if they had accidentally spoiled ur other stuff or not before saying bye bye to them. a carpenter who manages the plumber would not be any different from a contractor. In fact, you might be charged even more...he may simply check the classifeds and anyhow grab a plumber without even knowing if they can do a proper job. Contractors tend to have regular sub cons and would possibly offer a better work in this case. to project manage, u have to take some risks... i would say getting carpenter to coordinate would be worse off than coordinating it urself. Instructions passed down twice is more likely to be wrong as compared to instructions being passed down once.

not sure why u would want plumber to coordinate with carpenter for kitchen..? Should be a straightforward case.... u get plumber to run the pipes and then carpenter to follow up with cabinets. After that plumber comes back to install sink and tap. A true blue carpenter does only carpentry and its not their forte to project manage. Thats the reason they remain as carpenters, doing what they are good at. If u are saying hacking and tiling same guy, i can still understand...as they usually come together.... so u can manage just one group of people to hack and tile. But mixing carpenters around may not be the best idea to go around. U could try though, afterall, u never know till u try right? The trouble is often finding enough contacts to do the tasks and u really need to know what needs to be done. Otherwise, u might end up asking them back for more trips and incurring extra costs...

if u are going to let carpenter manage plumber, which i doubt any true carpenter will, u might as well get a contractor to do it for u... if u plan to manage it yourself, u have to come out with your own schedule and dimensions for them to follow. Not easy but its not rocket science either. Going via contractor route does not mean hassle free...certain instructions get miscommunicated and many times rectifications are needed. To me, its just a matter of paying a contractor and having one point of contact or manage urself and having mulitple points of contact and paying less... Cheers!

Thanks! i guess im like ikea's target market segment...haha... really a fun process doing all these. Now its like we have too many ideas to implement but not enough space in the house as its just a 3 room. Oh sorry to hear about the glass...their charges for the glass was cheap so i thought u could try them for your glass and mirror works... actually for glass works can do later, after furniture is in also. Like that would make it safer when workers are moving the fridge, washer, etc...so that they don't damage your glass. So should still have some time to shop around... Cheerss!

U would surely see a vast difference once paintworks and flooring is done. it will be like a totally different new home! i guess laminate flooring could take up just one day, so there is still hope. Maybe they would have to come back for rectifications later on but should still be fine la... Must remember to lay protection on your flooring though. Laminates may be resistant to scratch but when a screw driver drops on it, will still create a dent. Cheers!

One issue in our WIW that has been bothering me: Our solution is to build a frame to mount the WIW mirror so that we can centralise the mirror for that area. So that its better look asthetically. So we built this frame using pieces of wood cut to size from Hardware shop: Yes thats my wifey doing the drilling! Amazing right!! Frame is built: Finally! Amazingly now the wardrobe looks bigger...i think its just an illusion of space... hmm...

What a day of drilling and doing stuff. Did quite a fair bit for today. Fixed up the tyre coffeetable What we did: Fix castors onto the round wood (customed to size) Screw the tyre onto the wood and Stick the 2nd tyre onto the first using expoxy glue. Put up the glass top and its done! Fixed up round mirror in kitchen. Its those round mirrors that are too cheap to resist during an ikea sale. Fixed up a rod to hang dish drainer and maybe some plants later.

oh no worries, its just going to be my "new" table in my room (my parents house) just going to be a normal study table...