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Hmmm...maybe a blessing in disguise that there is no stock? haha.. I have been using an IKEA table, very similar to what u have posted earlier. Except that i bought a clear glass to put on top of it instead. The see-thru effect gives an illusion of space as compared to frosted glass. One aspect of minimalism is making your furniture disappear, such as using glass tops. A pain to maintain really, just need to be more dilligent or simply dun invite people over as often... I too have been using white laminate flooring for around a year. every hair stands out on the floor just as everyone advised. But thats ok. The worst part is cleaning actually where u clean the "lines" or "groove" of the laminates, yes dust gets stuck there! I spent countless wet tissue cleaning it..Also have to clean silicon around the corners of walls, doors, etc as they will change colour. For budget stuff, do check out the IKEA as-is section. My fav place where some slight defects makes the stuff 50% cheaper!

uh my honest 2cents. this chair is totally not minimalist. Its a nice chair, but not minimalist. U may wan to try to look at those transparant chairs (not sure if its made of acrylic?). Something like this? http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=en&cp=9&gs_id=j&xhr=t&q=ghost+chair&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1024&bih=403&wrapid=tljp132599014715606&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=BwEJT7elNYeyrAeK3tEC Cheers!

how come people don't approach HDB for this? HDB too unfriendly?

Hihi, think u gonna have fun doing up the big house! so nice to get a jumbo flat. As for the kitchen layout, i suggest u try visiting the "blum" website or grab an IKEA kitchen brochure. Your question is on what we call the "golden triangle". The different activities: - taking out food from fridge - taking out sauces from cabinets - washing and preparation such as chopping, etc - cooking You need to visualise each activity and see which layout is best for you. This will affect your positioning of your fridge, your sink and your stove. Which in turns will affect where you put your powerpoints, gas pipes and water pipes. There are many possibilities in which the layout can be done, especially when you have a big kitchen. You could consider a long kitchen island which doubles up as a dining table. The visual effect will make your house look longer than it really is. Apart from the kitchen, you would also end up with "unhackable beams". This could be an icon if you do it up nicely, i have seen photos from flats where the beams are actually the focal point of the house. Anyway, have fun renovating, my apologies for the long post.

Singapore, unlike US, finance its spending by CPF. So they do not owe other countries monies. Singapore also tend to have trade surplus most of the time, and looking at how things are being run in this country, its unlikely that govt will overspend. US govt have to spend on healthcare, SG healthcare is most likely a profitable business. There has also been talks of another round of quantitative easing by US, where they will continue to print more money and driving up inflation. This will also keep interest rate low. Given the current outlook, the one reason which could drive USD up is the bankrupt of euro where people will have no choice but to hold monies in USD as an alternative currency. The thing proping USD up is its status as a reserve currency, and not becos of the strength of the USD. Such a "flight to safety" is not uncommon in history, i.e. in times of asian financial crisis, war times, etc... If im choosing a bank loan, i probably go for variable for a few years. as usual, my disclaimer applies.

US is already a bankrupt country with no ability to pay back its debts. The only thing holding its rating up is the reserve currency status. They are effectively holding other countries at ransom by getting those countries to buy its government debt. The government debt is merely a promise to repay, which US can always print money. Jim Rogers believes that US is bankrupt, Warren Buffett does not. I tend to lean towards Jim Rogers. China will need a long time to catch up before it can overtake US as the reserve currency, i think i will live to see that day in my life. Interest rates have to stay low till US manage to drag itself out of recession. Chances are, its gonna be hard. The US anaged to get out of the internet bubble with a housing boom. But now housing boom is burst, what do they have left to use? It may welll be the start of a long stage of stagnation. Just look at what happened to Japan after the housing bubble burst. EU is in deep trouble, everyone cutting expenditure which means they are all spending less. So who is going to buy all the goods n services that China produces? Germany was said to have budget surpluses due to its EU partners buying from them. The partners are all cutting expenditure, so who is Germany going to sell to? Every budget surplus is made possible by another country's budget deficit. Common sense has it that there is no way for all of us to have budget surpluses. Hence, gloomy is the global outlook, and low interest rates are the weapons used by countries to boost the economy. i will put my money on low interest rates for another 1.5yrs at least. But my disclaimer is that i do not put the money where my mouth is. I am on a fixed rate HDB loan.

fed has pledged to keep rates low till 2013 at least. they could very well stay there for some time. however, a home loan is like 20 to 30 years. The million dollar question is whether rates will stay low for 2 to 3 decades instead of over 2 to 3 years.

true, but delivery driver have to carry loads of stuff and newbies get suan by warehouse ppl/sales ppl. its different from sitting in office with air con and calling ppl on the phone.

yup i agree that prices of hdb will go down at certain point in time, just like it had happened in the past. Singapore is extremely vulnerable to external shocks and no doubt prices will be affected. my point in the earlier post was not to predict future prices but to state my observation of the government's policies towards property prices. Unless PAP is no longer in power, otherwise, i would not expect property prices to go down the drain, i.e. become worthless. It may drop or it may rise, but who knows? And why bother to predict, no one will get it consistently correct. Even HDB got it wrong last time. As they say "if you keep believing that property prices will come down, eventually you will be correct one day". Keyword is eventually.

In the first place, the valuation of the flat itself is made based on recent transactions of nearby flats. Should valuation method take into account years of lease, it will be substantially lower. However, it is in the government's interest to keep property prices high. They can: - sell land at higher price - collect more property tax - attract foreign investors - banks lend out more to churn the economy - people work longer years - many more advantages than you can imagine. And more importantly, to keep the people busy earning money. They will and always will try to keep property prices high, even in recession times or bad times. Though prices will be affected by external factors, they will do their utmost best to keep moving prices up. There is no other reason to make flats cheap for people. At least, i cannot think of any.

i guess it depends on what u want to measure. simply the yield is a return in percentage. Should you include: - repair and maintenance expenses? - cost of borrowings? - expenses related to rental: property tax, agent commissions, tax on rental income, etc. Also do you want to calculate the yield over a one year period? Or take an average yield over several years as rental rates may climb or decline. So back to the good old question of "what do you want to measure?" My 2 cents.

hats off to you. Nowadays few youngsters treasure the chance to study. Many just go through it as their parents forced them to. They probably realise the importance later. Never too late to pursue dreams.

i think financially u are in great shape, definitely better than most people in SG. Low risk taker is fine, investments are not limited to fixed deposits, bonds, shares, etc. We sometimes forget to invest in ourselves, which is the most profitable economic activity. Some people do very well in their area of work and thus earning high enough income to retire comfortably, with or without investing in all these financial assets. consider starting investing earlier if you have interest, can stay on sidelines to watch the euro and america crisis happen and learn from it. Failing accounting in uni is no problem... Analysis of financial results leave it to brokers. More often than not, the stock market is driven by sentiment, feel good or feel scared. My observations these few years.

paying off loans quicker saves interest, no doubt about that. In most instances, it would be logical. However, under a HDB loan where the rate is fixed at 2.6%, there is actually no incentive to repay it off as soon as possible. For example, u can choose to accumulate your CPF OA and use it to invest, (subject to meeting the terms n conditions). Beating 2.6% returns is not hard, accumulate blue chips when economy dips will get u more than 2.6%. Namely, SG banks, SMRT, Telecoms, etc. There could be a thousand and one scenarios where you could be caught in a situation when you have no $$ in CPF OA to pay for housing if u use the entire OA contribution to pay off housing loan. So normally i would prefer if i have some excess of CPF OA building up in the account.

precisely. Liability in the form of HDB loan is covered by insurance, so when one dies, insurance takes over. Spouse can live in flat still. Cash is king. Keep enough reserves in CPF ordinary account for rainy days. Slaves got many kinds: - slave to money - slave to career - slave to wife - slave as a slave (the kind we all know about) No person can be a King. We are all held to be slaves in one way or another.

no one wants to die young, but accidents do happen. It is not uncommon for perfectly healthy people to drop dead the next day. Its just to prepare for the worst should something unfortunate happen. Its just my belief that given the situation now, no incentive to repay lump sum.

but where are u going to get the pipes from..?

from what i see, the lump sum have several drawbacks: - u reach the valuation limit faster. Though u can save on some interest, but not much. Loan interest is +0.1% only. So u dun save much. - lump sum can be used as reserves when one is unable to work for whatever reasons, i,e take care of baby, go on sabbatical, retrenched, etc - if one dies young (touch wood), the CPF repayment can be covered by insurance. And CPF monies can be passed down to dependents. If i recall, insurance is cheap as its on reducing mortgage. I guess given this, i would be unlikely to make any lump sum payment.

errr i dun think i would spray a sink... cus you put things like spoons, cutlery into the sink. The lacquer might be poisonous! spraying the toilet roll holder, racks for shampoo and shower foam is still ok. Just drop by hardware shops, look under those "nippon spray paints" section. Would certainly have clear lacquer.

For stuff like toiletries holders and hangers, simply spray clear lacquer on it. Spray several layers for added protection. Will last longer.

u would have to prove how you have contributed to the mortgage payments. If u had merely passed cash to him, well then u would have a harder time. He could simply deny everything. If u had transferred the money via bank account, you have a better chance.

If anyone bothered to search, they would have found that there was a previous thread on "carpenter" vs "ikea kitchen" IKEA is often associated with "nice, cheap, stylish and fun" In terms of kitchen stuff only, IKEA would not meet the above if you had done your homework. You would note that i had specifically excluded quality in comparison as it would be difficult to compare skills of carpenter. That said, my sofa bed and table, photo frames, etc... many stuff are from IKEA. Im in fact an IKEA fan, i visit ikeahacks daily for fresh ideas, but ikea kitchen cabinets never appealed to me. They are freaking expensive when u consider those drawers. Do also note the IKEA warranty, please take a look at the finer prints before you buy based on 10yr warranty. Their compensation varies according to age of furniture (oh provided u keep the receipt hor). Most importantly, a term in there states that their appraisal is final. Of course, carpenters don't give warranty, so some might say IKEA's warranty might still be better than nothing! Any reviews, be it good or bad, should be used as a reference. As they always say, take stuff written on the net with a huge dosage of salt.

wow...

wine crate boxes...i like! any idea if anyone is selling?

If i see it correctly... ur plan involves extending the kitchen? Not sure if its do-able. WIW with curtains = great idea! Do also plan ur washing machine outlet pipe to lead to your toilet, so probably have to swap space with your fridge. The open kitchen part is ok so long as there is no deep frying and the ventiliation in your hse is good. I have been having steamboats in my open kitchen, still enjoying it.. haha. The location of the full height shoe cabinet would block out natural light in the living room, perhaps u want to put it against the wall instead..? Storage space would seem to be an issue, e.g. for big items. The area occupied by the sofa in the study area could be better utilised to convert to storage area in my view.