marshmallow

i think she called cos bro cse e-mailed her.... but anyway, the HDB officer, a technical person, pointed out the contractor seems experience... maybe that's a good thing for our bro here

the HDB officer seems like a nice person... she actually bothered to explain so much to you you might as well read up on EPF when you have time... since you have that in your ground floor WC, rite? and this ground floor WC will be the one that affects your downstairs neighbour, so no harm knowing more~ hahahaha i'm sure you're speaking from experience too~

on the downlights: i think 8 will be good. i also have 8 downlights at the dining area though my home is so much smaller than yours~ while we only use 4 during normal days, it's definitely useful to have all 8 of them when you're doing cleaning... eye sight starting to fail liao, need bright environment to see the dirts clearly talking about framed art pieces, there was once we chanced upon a Romero Britto exhibition. hubby likes this cute and joyous style so much that he was set on put some of them at home. and i actually (stupidly) agreed to draw some after moving in... as expected, i've yet to do it cos i'm simply too lazy, and i'm sure hubby is also too lazy to decide where to hang the pictures~ yea i also wanna see your buys from molecule and iwannagohome~

i went to rite after that post... hahaha i also have many spreadsheets... i love excel... so every info is on excel.. i'm lost without the spreadsheets hahahaha yea sis May is paying the top-up with her "man hour" instead of real money... lucky her to have this option~

i also think it's the lighting, the shower screen, and the potted plant.... so now you know what you can do for your toilet liao~ and jia you for your exam maybe ask your wife to help in reno? i do think that gals can be "effective" towards contractors in many circumstances, just "deh" a bit and things get going... hahahahaha

yea i think the posts here move too fast to catch up... LOL

on the ceiling: HDB will write on the letter on their judgement on whether the leakage is caused by renovation work (most likely it will be). then in the letter they will instruct clearly to the contractor to rectify. as for other items, mistakes have already been made, no way we can turn the clock back, but he has already acknowledged the problems and he is taking action to rectify it. this is the most important thing you should focus on now

if HDB dun approve, better don't do esp when you are part of the "gahmen"

anyway bro, just do whatever you can with HDB. when you meet the contractor this weekend, just remember don't talk to him like going on a war.. try to talk in friend-friend manner and see if he softens his stance. he might have some concerns that need to be addressed. if he really can't do, maybe must ask your uncle to help liao.... though we all wonder why such common work can't be done~ jia you~ hope that things will go smoothly after this~

oh you can't come mah?

wah sorry can't advise you too much on the TV cos i'm just a simple user... my TV is a Toshiba, i just connect the cable directly to TV, i think the sales said something like the digital tuner is already in-built in the TV... can't remember exactly. your kitchen layout is similar to my sis's, just mirror image... we used to hang clothes on the right hand side (with reference to your kitchen layout). since the bamboos are at the ceiling, whatever below doesn't matter... just that we always have to arrange the shorter clothes to be hung above the fridge LOL

interesting photos... the birds are very pretty~

wow, you all have really good memories to dig out these old old newspaper reports~ just noticed that i have never heard of many of the MPs in that top 10 quotes... all those unknown names are from big GRCs....

did your neighbour contact HDB on the leakage? HDB will issue a letter to the contractor and ask him to rectify. btw, the analogy with rape is too extreme la... i am just trying to tell you that this is not a new problem and there are many ways you can make sure the problem gets rectify, with some reference from experience from fellow forumers. there can be many hiccups in reno, important thing is how to solve the problems with the best way. getting frustrated and angry doesn't get things moving.

the same design for that tap got water saving and non-water saving type. i think you got the water saving one... you can ask them to give you the fitting to replace the water-saving aerator. a few bucks only... you can call them and ask~

yup surely... when we manage contractors at work, also need to know when to hold tight, when to let go and compromise... but i think the issue we have here is that the contractor is requested to do a common job that everyone else is doing, but he claims that it cannot be done/difficult to be done. and the reason keeps changing from HDB not allow to drain water difficult to difficult to make.........

or maybe he should at least offer to change to another tiler that is confident in the job. don't tell me he doesn't know a single sub-con/tiler in SG that can do drop down when so many pple on this island are doing it.......

wahahahahaha... or.... hubby: let me see... let's go audio house sales today. got $1 deal. wifey: but i wanna go john little expo sales! *sulk* hubby: no! i want $1 thumb drive! wifey: no! i dun want to go suntec! *start fighting* Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

i believe we are not confined to the 2 situations you stated above. Actually it can be done so long as you plan your finance wisely and do not go to a big HDB unit for a start (for example, a 3 or 4-room flat that cost less than $400k). but cannot expect to buy a private property within like 5 or 6 yrs la... probably needs about 10 yrs time... it can be done. anyway HDB don't let us buy within MOP... so use this 5 yrs to accumulate fund and study the market lor.... i think one important point is "bitter first, sweet later"... if always "sweet" from the beginning, then very hard to accumulate the funds required for the property unless you are in those well-paid line (e.g. banking, finance, accounting). okie think i'm starting to sound like my parents LOL hahahahaha...

from what you wrote, i also got the impression that he is just giving excuses... hmmmm probably just hope that you are the ignorant type (that dun understand what he talks about) or the chin-chye type (that dun bother to argue with him), so he doesn't need to do whatever needful you gotta be firmed with what you want... and not like only today then he knows that you wanna do drop down rite~! cannot let him makan like that...

sure wet... my common toilet got similar layout, no matter where i put the shower set, sure something will get wet i supposed behind your wash basin is the door? in the end, we shifted the basin closer to the WC and had the shower set on the other side... but like that the door will get wet~

if you get more than one quote you will have the answer already. for haulage and debris clearing, i got quote ranging from $0 to $900~ Henry's one is somewhere in the middle LOL... i just give it to him lor cos overall price is reasonable, no point to argue over this item... His men also spend time to clear the debris and they are paid for their time. if i remember correctly, asking town council to clear, it's $240 per trip or something like that... different town council apparently got different rate, but not sure if all town council got this kind of service or not. if the town council doesn't provide, then you gotta pay the contractor for haulage... http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10324p.nsf/w/...al?OpenDocument

also on the kitchen sink purchased. top mount and under mount sinks are different if i remember correctly. so when buying sink, must tell the shop you want the sink for under mount. i was about to comment that bro Simon has his fair share of experience with bad painters haha... oops my downstairs neighbour also complained about the toilet ceiling. very common for resale flats... just do a search in renotalk and you can see so many threads talking about this. Contractor will settle everything.

congrats... finally moved in liao~ hmmm the washing machine sounds dangerous. i guess probably a dryer can go on the table but not a washing machine, since dryer's spin is less vigorous?

haha but May said wire mesh doesn't match with her resort theme... hmmm how about making a hole at the tiles? or maybe use wooden shelf with some gaps in between... something like those wooden benches in park hahaha~