steelze

yea... will definitely put aside a buffer. You got ur house already? How ur reno going along?

hi kenlim, thanks. PMed you the ID.

thanks for the detailed explanation. think i will get it for my house. u got also used the city gas dryer? it costs abt $700.

Apparantly, the contractor's quote has many missing items. To include those items into my quote, the amount will be higher than the ID by couple of thousands bucks. I will still keep searching for quotes bah. My budget is 35k. buffer 3k. furniture not included. currently also trying to sort out my kitchen layout and tiles selection with the ID. cause i already put deposit with him. might as well get some products /services out of him.

thanks bro. I'll contact ur main con soon. Your glass panel is good deal. yeapp..

heyy thattrader, guess what?! we have exactly the same floor plan!!! but i am living at Sims Drive Blk4*. And i am also sourcing for reno ID and contrators too! Looks like ur reno will start before me. mine will only begin in Dec'2010. haa.. will follow ur blog closely moving forward. Anyway, u mentioned abt overlay the laminate flooring over the existing tiles. what's the pros n cons of doing that as compared to hacking n tiles b4 laying the laminate flooring? i have the same budget as u. ard 35k. quite hard for me cause need to erect /re-erect walls for my studyrm n storerm.

thanks for sharing. 2k not cheap worz. probably u did the whole glass sliding door. how bout carpentry, door n window quotes?

Yo neubie, nice reno you have there! especially the kitchen. the open concept feel. feel so warm and nice! Anyway, wanna ask you on your following items: Glass work Your glass provider also provide free labour to install the glass panel? How's the costs like? I'm also inspired to do my kitchen same way as you did! kekekee. Carpentry work Can PM me your carpenter's contact? How's the charges for per foot run for the wardrobe, TV console, feature wall, kitchen cabinet and vanity? Doors & Windows Where did you get your veneer doors, main door, wrought iron gate and windows from? How much each?

Not much progress now as it's still in an early stage. Currently pending the ID to revert me on my kitchen and common bathroom drawing. Still very headache where to find carpenter for my carpentry work. The ID's quote for carpentry freaking exp. The other contractor which i have shortlisted doesn't want to do my carpentry business unless i let him do the whole unit. -_-! ID - Overhaul (see above posts for the task list) + electrical work = approx $35k - Free gifts: bathroom sink X2, WC X2, shower set X2, accessories X2, kitchen sink, hob and hood, free false ceiling and L-Box @ living room, dining room, foyer area and passage way. - caprentry (3 wardrobe, 2 tv console, 2 feature wall) is top up of another approx $8k - workmanship unknown. not many reviews on workmanship in renotalk. - hdb licensed Contractor - Overhaul (see above posts for the task list) + electrical work + carpentry = approx $38k - good review about his work attitude and workmanship. but he has not replied me since my last proposed quote of $33k for everything. - not hdb licensed As of now, we are thinking of engaging the ID for overhaul, then outsourced the carpentry work (except kitchen cabinet as it's in the ID's package) to other parties. What do you guys think? Wise choice?

hey bro, i'm also at your stage now. But i have yet to confirm which ID or contractor to go for. Both of our quotes are comparative, but i have yet to see their workmanship. How do we check on workmanship? just tell the ID and contractor to bring us to their completed units like this?

Yo blue8179 and singabox, i'm also looking for the carpenter for my reno in Dec'10. I have this contractor who provides carpentry too. But he said he doesnt wanna do our business unless we let him do the whole house. -_-! He said carpentry must be done together with the whole reno. If not, very difficult to coordinate. True meh? or he's smoking me. Anyway blue8179, i felt sorry for you lah bro. Contractors always like that. Initial stage very responsive and sui sui. But during reno, all changed face. My current ID also everything also ok ok. Looking from your experience, i better ask him to record down black and white every single details (e.g. tile model, laminate code, paint colour) in the contract before i sign.

You have any carpentry quote so far? My ID quote me $230/ft for wardrobe and console. $150/ft for feature wall.

nice flooring colours u have there. what's the living room colour? Care to share?

Wanna ask you guys for direct sellers' contacts for the following items: 1. Tempered Glass (for my fixed glass panel in mstr bathroom; 3ft by 6ft; 10mm thick) & (kitchen swing door; 3ft by 7ft; 10mm thich) - my id quoteing me $320 (fixed glass panel) and $400 (swing glass door) - too exp i guess 2. Bedroom doors (veneer) - current quote i have is $248 nett 3. Main door (Solid nyatoh) - current quote i have is $450 4. Main gate (solid wrought iron; galvanised for anti-rust) - around $350 from CNS (heard bad reviews about this company, but it's cheap) 5. Carpentry - wardrobe (casement swing door) quote is $230/ft - wardrobe (sliding door) quote is $250/ft - TV Console quote is $150/ft - Feature wall is $230/ft Please PM me if you have better quotes for above items. Thanks!!!

Wow, so qiao. Wanna ask you how long you took to walk to Kallang MRT and Aljunied MRT. I have checked out your t-blog. Nice condo you have there. Congrats for the upgrade. Tough to get upgrade nowadays. =) Thanks thanks. I hope so too. Now still at a very preliminary stage. Gotta do more research and sourcing. Thanks pal. Yea, we are also looking forward to our mstr bedroom.

Thanks for the advice! Yea, good point tt u bring out abt seeing the ID's completed work. Which key areas in particular should we examine the workmanship? We are staying at blk 40. A bit deep inside the estate. U used to stay at the en bloc units? So, u r the lucky ones who moved to kallang heights few yrs back right? =)

me too. will only get my key in mid dec. hhaha.. kumi will be our test rat. i am staying in 3rd floor. hopefully like what u guys mentioned, the water pressure is big enough for rain shower. kekeke.

Bedroom 3 Study room Master Bathroom Common bathroom Kitchen I wanna ask you guys for advice. For 3D drawings, is it ok for us to keep asking the ID to redraw until we are satisifed with even the smallest detail like change in laminate finish for 1 small carpentry? Or add more perspective drawings from other view angles? I don't seem to have enough comfort with just several drawings before we kick start the actual reno. You guys usually have how many drawings?

3D drawings for our reno. Overall, we are pretty satisfied the design and colour theme. We want our house to be simlple and a bit of luxury feel with earth warm tone. Living room Master bedroom **To be continued in post #3 below.

Hi all, here is our first house. IT will be for myself, my wife, my first baby boy (coming out anytime in Oct10) and a maid. 1st appt: 22-Sep-10 2nd appt: 16-Nov-10 Offical key receiving date: 10-Dec-10 (we are letting the seller to stay for a month out of goodwill) Our budget is really low. Yet we do not want to compromise on the design as this is our first house. Therefore, thorough planning and sourcing are very important. To date, we have sourced more than 20 IDs and contractors. This is still an ongoing process and it's really tiring which many of you have also gone through. We have received more than 15 quotes in total, and have narrowed down to 2 quotes currently. 1 is from an ID company, while the other one is a contractor. I will disclose their companies once we have finalised with the agreement and start the reno. Stay tune. Floor Plan We are lucky to have a squarish layout. Easy for us to play around with space planning. Current condition The previous owner didn't install the studyroom and he hacked away the storeroom. We will want to restore these 2 items back. After considering various ideas from the IDs, we have decided to go with this layout as of now: Proposed layout We will combine the mstr bedroom and bedroom 2 into a huge mstr bedroom. Reasons being that both my wife and I love to slack ard in the room most of the time. TV, 2 computers (for dota-ing together), baby cot, big wardrobe, toilet, queen sized bed and big windows (we love natural lights) are few of the mandatory items. The original mstr bedroom is small and dark. Reno task list Our reno task list involes a whole unit overhaul. These include: 1. Hacking of bathrooms, kitchen, living rm and bedrooms floor tiles and wall tiles (bathrooms and kitchen). 2. Lay wall and floor tiles for bathrooms, kitchen and living room. 3. Lay laminate flooring for all bedrooms. 4. Hacking of walls. Building of walls (using hollow block & cement). 5. False ceiling @ foyer and dinig area. 6. L-box and clove light holder @ living rm and all bedrooms. 7. Plumping work 8. Painting of whole house. 9. Carpentry work (wardrobes for all bedrms; kitchen cabinet; tv console & feature wall for living rm and mstr bedrm) 10. Electric work (whole house re-wiring); and 11. Ceiling fans and air con. We wanna contain our budget to 35k for the above reno. Some IDs and contractors didn't even bother to reply us after hearing our budget. But we will persist with this budget. Fortunately, there are still few nice IDs and contractors out there who can compromise with our budget here and there. We have just received our 3D drawings from this ID. See next post. =)

yo sgnick, wanna ask u where u get your wrought iron gate, bedroom doors and main door? Also the person who change all ur windows. Now pending vincent's reply on my proposed budget. hope he can meet it. =]

waaa! you are lucky. I'm getting my house this nov'10. but the previous owner never apply for the free initial rollout installation. so, i wrote in and explained. but no luck. What is your mentioned circumtances?

Hey gimz, i been to that CNS factory last month. wow.. really have many varieties of gates. that sales lady (young china girl) did explained to us that 188 is hollow one. must top up $50 for solid iron. If u want anti-rust, you can top up another $50 for galvanised it. if you want lighter colours for the gate, another $50 top-up. so, total roughly abt $330 to $400 (depending on the gate design that you choose). compared to what those contractor /ID quoted (around $450 to $650), it's cheaper. Who knows that contractor /ID may just get the $188 for us, and quote us $450. as for the lousy svc, it's really heng-suay lah. All of us sure have encountered such experience during reno phase.

from the recent reviews on that PDoor seller, looks like he doesn't deserve any of our customers' money. I wanted to buy PDoors for both my newly renovated bathrooms. After reading the posts, i rather go for bi-fold. worst thing to experience in reno is lousy customer svc. can anyone PM me or post the name of the shop here? so that other bros and siss wont step into that ****ty store.

Hi Charon, can PM me your electrian contact. many thanks!