hippobb

Yeah!! we finalised the reno price with our ID cum Contractor Mr A. and here's what we are going to do ... the layout done up by him... Our actual balcony doesn't have any side windows... other than that, the layout is pretty accurate to scale... we din really specify lots of requirements to Mr A. only tell him we need to renovate the whole hse and kitchen we wanted a L-shape cabinets and this is what he presented back to us.... so we must say that this guy has some good & nice ideas that are both practical and pleasing... and yahooooooo....we are going to get a WIW in MBR....wifey's favourite...

Yah .... abit scary u know... cos I think ur kitchen wall and carpentry works will be the big cost items for ur reno bill..

Hi Pinktini Congrats to your new home! ... envy the size of ur hse.. Nice layout design that you have done up using google sketchup... I tried using that but gave up have been using floorplanner ... my reno will be starting soon btw dun mind me "kpo" abit... for all the items that you are doing.. did u manage to keep ur reno cost down to below 40k? can share? Thanks Hippobb

Over the weekend, we went up to one of the units done up by our potential ID to take a look at his carpentry workmanship... and we find it quite good... the unit's carpentry for all the 3 bedrooms were done up nicely but have not yet been cleaned and vanished yet... one side of the kitchen was already up without the hard top... tried the drawers, closets, wardrobe sliding doors... overall not bad... check for miss-drilled holes at the cabinets and quite good no miss-drilled or misaligned carpentry pieces... This unit that we see did not have any flooring done up.... we were abit dissappointed ... but this Guy was very fast to acknowledge this and tell us that we can view one house over at HG this week as the tiling would be completed... and we say ok... Have yet to sign any confirmation yet but our potential ID says he's going to do up some 3d perspective and his proposal and will show us later in the week ... one of his ideas was to lay different tiles and mosaic strip to distinguish the pathway towards the bedrooms and also make the dinning hall and living hall stands out... Will see how it goes this Wed or Thurs... and if possible will post some 2d & 3d perspective pics..

Back to my yepping... Hippobb's reno-sutra 5. Your own feeling, your own hunch... Never never discount those small hunch or uneasy feeling that you or your partner might have when you talk to ur potential ID.... cos half the time your hunch might be correct ..... When we went to the famous Wxxxxx company .... the first on our list, we laid down our requirements and started talking to the guy who served us.... the first impression he gave us tells alot of tales... and when we finally received our quotation, the first thing that came into me and my wifey's mind was his price looked reasonable but there seemed to be alot of hidden costs here and there.... I started reading renotalk and came across Lawry's blog which true enough there's something to this co. Always believe in this small uneasy feeling or hunch that you might have when you start ur ID firm selection process...

Our hippobb family little migration plan... ok just got a call from extra storage space @ ubi and was quoted 387.50 for 1mth rental of a space that is 66sqft roughly the size of a small bedrm... and for an extra $1+ which is at $389 ... I can rent the storage space for 2mths... just put a refundable deposit of abt 373 bucks... will make a trip down next week to settle this extra storage space needed... We plan to get the extra storage space to store some of our newer stuffs that we intend to keep 1. our 4mths old L-shape sofa ... this piece of furniture is detachable... 2. our 5mths old low decibel direct drive toshiba 9kg washer (hee hee I'm big size ..wear large size clothes so needed a 9kg one) 3. our 2year old electrolux dryer... seldom used but still like brand new.... solid piece of machine that we appreciate during the raining days... 4. my kiddo's umpteen boxes of toys .... ( maybe we should start dumping some.. hmmm) 5. some of my boxes of books... 6. 2 book shelves, 1 cabinet 7. some boxes of clothes and barang barang... and we will dump the following 1. my old trust worthy 10yr old national fridge which panasonic dun make those fridge that can last anymore... 2. the dinner table and chairs.. 3. study table & chair 4. a cabinet... and for the 2mths during the hse reno... and that is provided that we do find our ID after this sat.... We will either bunk in at my mum's place or inlaws's place...

Ok .... u guys must have thought I yep alot rite.... before I forget... here's my floor plan...

Hippobb's reno-sutra 4. Communication & frequency wavelength I always believe that communication is very very important.... it has to be 2 ways comms.... when you go sourcing for your perfect ID firm, perfect ID or perfect project manager.... the first person that serves you usually the so called potential ID will start talking to you.... this is the time whereby they will try to do their sales pitch to attract you.... My take on this communication thingy is pretty simple... - The ID or person serving you ... needs to at least be talking clearly and also needs to at least understands the basic things that I spell out in my requirements. example a. if you relate ur requirements to the person in simple plain un-slanged singlish... and he starts talking back to you in broken singlish, hokkien or chinese.... then u better rethink again if you wanna shortlist them or not.. b. If you relate ur requirements and you asked for feedback or suggestions and all that the the listening person reply back to u is ... OK or Can or maybe .... then u better rethink again ... c. If you spell out ur requirements to the person and then when the person comes back with a quotation nicely done up but half of the stuff are not what you have spelled out.... ie laminated flooring at all the bedrooms - one very common item in the ID standard package promo... then I strongly urge u to rethink again... d. If you tell the person all ur requirements and when the person tells you her idea and what she's going to do for ur reno...but when u take a look and then say can you change this and change that .....and u noticed that immediately the person's face changes colour.... then I also strongly urge u to rethink again.. e. If you go to a ID firm ...and the person serving you starts talking - NON STOP.. boasting about what they can do for u what their design is and workmanship quality etc.... comms is one way .... then I also strongly urge u to rethink again too...

Hippobb's Reno-sutra 3. Freebies... If you noticed.... alot of biggie ID/reno firms are giving you free toilet accessories, free aircon, free cooker hob. free this free that.... For me... maybe its just plain human mentality of a simple Singaporean... the more freebies they throw in.... the more suspiscious I gets... suspiscious as to why they are throwing carrots at you to lure you to board their PRIRATE SHIP??

OK ...patiently waiting for Saturday to come... Did some research on some of the IDs that I approached... decided to list down some interesting points ( some inputs were from the grapevines from friends & relatives - also read fellow Lawry's reno blog too) for fellow renotalkers who's gonna to embark on the reno journey to ponder about .. Hippobb's reno-sutra 1. One of the most important thing and easiest to accomplish is before you decide on who to give the job to.... have a check at the hdb approved registered contractor list and take a good look at the potential ID firms biodata ie like how many registered directors, date of registration and most importantly have they flout any HDB rulings and what are the things they were penalised for. You should check it out ... cos I realised that even a few of the big ID / reno firms were actually penalised the last 24mths - some were for minor issues like failure to put up the notice that the flat is undergoing renovation, not obtaining the permit on time, permit laspes..etc All these tell-tale penalties sums up to one thing for that particular firm's working ethics and this might be a tell tale sign that they might be a potential PRIRATE SHIP... Look at it this way, if the firm or ID incharged of ur reno project cannot even be bothered about those small things like putting up the permit notices ....then how meticulous can he be when it comes to big reno projects ??? 2. Nowadays, you will notice that even with those biggie ID/reno firms the moment you walk in and tell them that you want to do a major hse reno, the ID or whoever is attending to you immediately whipped out a piece of printed promotional brochure and then they will tell you... for major house overhaul package or brand new houses they will have 3rm 4rm 5rm and EM or condo package with the corresponding price you pay... For sure these packages does looked attractive.... I took a deeper thought into the packages ... it kinda appear to me that some of the stuff might be factory pre-fabricated.... ie the kitchen cabinets and the top... very very high chance that they sure are factory pre-fab... or even the cabinet or washer mortar base are pre-fabed....... ok there is nothing really wrong with pre-fab kitchen cabinets if you are a owner with simple requirements and you agree to what your ID recommend - for example ur ID firm says they will do a 11 ft kitchen cabinet to and bottom and if you agrees to that then most likely you are ok..... but if you were to tell ur ID firm that ok you want a 9.5ft bottom L shape kitchen that is of 65mm depth and a taller height...then the ID firm might run into problems as they now needs to go to a caperter maker to do the extra job... extra job means extra monies for the ID firms to pay ... if your ID is meticulous they will follow up on these closely and make sure they are made to your specs but in cases of a lazy ID or a greenhorn ID .... these extra specs are given to the 3rd party carpentry to decide on their own and that is when the issues comes.... This is one factor to think about if you wanted something complicated...

Btw Bran888 I forgot to tell u - if its the main sewage pipes that is giving u the problem... then I think its the town council issue... if its the toilet flooring then its the HDB issue... these 2 gov offices are 2 different entity... a safe bet for you will be to go to town council tell them about ur issue and they will help u to contact the correct entity to inspect the issue area....

Hi Bran888 I saw ur pic... Yes, I have the same issue as u ..except that mine is worst cos becos of the toilet .... the ceiling leaked.... my potential ID mr A. was quick to explain why the ceiling leaked due to the toilet... high chance there is a small crack in the waterproofing creed layer, water always follows the crack and runs along the crack to a point whereby theres the end of the crack, the water will then consolidate at that point which in my case was the ceiling and then the water will start seeping thru the flooring cement and finally it drips down to my house... his explaination was exactly the same as what the HDB engr told us when he came to inspect the damage.... So for ur case, I will urge you to settle it as soon as possible before you start any renovation...

And..... We went to the MP just last night... Man ...... we went to the MP's meet the pple session registered ourselves given queue numbers and waited from 7pm to 9pm before our MP arrives with her body guard.... prior to her arrival, we were interviewed by volunteers who would helped to typed out the official letters concerning each different cases.... When it came to our turn for the interview, we told the volunteer about our case and immediately he knew what to do... told us this is very very common in HDBs flats and usually it would be the downstairs party to report and seek for subsidy... So I asked "what if the upstairs party disagree to do the rectification" the volunteer who is definitely an experienced one told us .... "dun worry, the upstairs party will surely agree to the rectification most of the time ...reason being that ....although we are the party that are victimised.... it is the upstairs party that will stand to gain... from having a new done up toilet flooring and also part of the kitchen floor.... but they pay the same amt like us at just 25%... We were like Oh.... ok...... and after that MP came and shook her hands and the volunteer told her our case and immediately she turn to me and said ok so u need me to help u asked for a subsidy ? and I replied yes and then she said ok will send out a letter tommorrow for you.... and thats it.... Last night ..We went home feeling happy.... telling ourselves we got a good MP and....ok we will denitely vote for my MP again...

Ok btw remember in my first blog note I mentioned about my ceiling leaking issue? Here's the whole saga to share ... good info especially to those who bought resale flats .... About 2 months back, we noticed there was a whitish residue patch of watermark on one of my kitchen ceiling lights and also directly on the floor area below the kitchen ceiling light. Wifey and I had lots of theory as to why there was this water mark ...ie upstairs neighbour washes their kitchen and caused this....ie upstairs neighbour forgotten to close their kitchen windows and it rained cats and dogs so heavily that their kitchen flooded and caused this... So I decided to do a CSI investigation and stake out one good sunny sunday afternoon at 1pm for a few hours.... and then at about 4pm, we noted that there were droplets of water dripping down once every approx 10mins for a short span of half an hr... Told my wife that this gotta be the auntie upstairs washing their kitchen..... so we decided to make a trip upstairs an hour later but by then the upstairs neighbour was out of their house already....... no choice but to go for dinner and then when we came back went up again but still nobody seemed to be around... Now... we do know that my direct upstairs neighbour and my direct downstairs neighbour are related - sister and brother relationship and we know the downstairs neighbour better and we did talk and chat b4 for kids stuff so decided to voice it out to the downstairs neighbour... the downstairs neighbour was nice and we showed her our kitchen ceiling issue and she too agree issue is from her sister in law unit...and told us that she will alert them and see what can be done... so on hearing that we thought ok ..shes gonna take some action rite... 2 days passed without anybody from upstairs coming down to at least take alook at our plight... and the ceiling leaking still seemed to continue leaking.... so no choice.... wifey on the advice of her excercise kaki... went over to the town council office and let the town council know about the issue.... and believe me .. town council was **** quick to act on this, they immediately get a HDB engineer/contractor to contact us ... fix up a time to come and inspect and see the damage... Ok at least the issue is moving.... finally we thought... HDB engineer/contractor came.. took a glance at the kitchen ceiling ... and then went to the toilet and took a glance at the common toilet and say .... this issue is caused by the upstairs toilet and also it might be caused by the upstairs household kitchen water drainage pipe .... due to some cracks in their waterproofing layer..... and then the HDB engineer went upstairs with us to check out the neighbour .... but again...the upstairs neighbour was not around ..... even their mum was not around so the engineer had no choice but to leave an official card note at their door step... and the HDB engineer told us they will come again after they have contacted the upstairs... Now... 1 hr later after the HDB contractor left.... the upstairs neighbour's mum came knocking at our door with their son (our downstairs neighbour).... the downstairs neighbour started to look at our issue and then said this is a very common issue and because now the HDB is currently doing upgrade works and with all the building disturbances ...these small issues will be amplified .... blah blah blah... and then he said his house is also like that ..his ceiling for both toilets he also needs to do patch work himself.... and the upstairs mum also said she did their patch work for their ceiling also..... and finally ....the downstairs neighbour said something which I felt was abit too much - " OK u go and report me then I will also go and report you for his ceiling " ..... I was like WTH ...I am having the issue now and u are threatening me ah.... OK nevermind ..I said to my wife... nevermind downstairs not so much of an issue cos we are going to renovate the whole house so this will eventually solve the problem downstairs ...and we don't want downstairs to pay HDB anything but no matter what the upstairs neighbour needs to solve the issue ..otherwise if I renovate my hse and the ceiling started leaking again then we will be damned... The next day we make sure that HDB engineer came at the time they were in and take a look at their kitchen and their toilet ..and then bring the upstairs mother and the engineer to our unit and let all know about the issue ... the HDB engineer was kind enuff to re-explain everything to the upstairs auntie again.... and then infront of all parties we asked how much will we need to pay... the HDB engineer told all that ok roughly both me and the upstairs party will pay $325 bucks ... ie 25% each and town council will pay 50% of the whole renovation....but someone need to go to the MP during their meet the pple's session and asked MP to write a official letter to town council to get the subsidy..... this I volunteered... We then also make it a point to let all parties know that we will be renovating so downstairs issue will be settled becos we dun need them to pay any monies.... The upstairs neighbour's mum was very happy..... she thanked us and told us "paiseh leh paiseh leh repeatedly".... we are now abit relieved....

Hi Rickoveron Will pm u my ID contact after we have sign and started reno... will let u know see how he's workmanship this sat.

Hi Branyeo Ok will PM u his contact once we sign and started the reno....

Hi SGK, Thanks!! will keep your offer in mind... Will wait till I see 1 of the units done up by a ID recommended by a colleague this saturday....

After I sent my emails to a several ID/Contractors recommended by friends and also followed by a voice call, only 1 called back and asked for more time to quote and is supposedly to call me back this week, 2 of the IDs/Contractor was probably so busy until they forgot about my simple request for quotation and then finally when I was about to decide on who to give the job to......... White Knight on a Horse cameby ...... Then there is this one ..... this particular one ...who is recommended by my colleague whose current staying house is renovated by him and that his new house will also be renovated by this same ID/contractor .... emailed me and asked for a meetup at my place.... I called him back and told him "I dun want to waste his time travelling all the way down and my time and that I will prefer him to have his quotation ready" ... he replied me confidently saying dun worry lets meetup.... so I was "ok lets meet... the most I will only waste 1hr of my time to repeat all my requirements again spelling out our wants" Ok lets call this particular ID Mr A. We met just end of last week and both me and my wife was pleasantly surprised by what he prepared for just a simple first time meeting. First thing that made us raised our eye brows was that this jovial guy ...actually took my floorplan and did some simple coloured designing based on our floor area based on what we wanted... ie the L-shape kitchen, the mbr cabinet where its supposed to be... and then he showed us his quotation.... which after going through every items we find that it was lower compared to the rest of the ID firms (though not the cheapest) and it included electrical works and the whole quote was well within our budget.. he was then quick to identify that if we were to do an L-shape kitchen then we would probably end up with a small kitchen work space.... so he proposed to close off the existing kitchen entrance, open the entrance at another positon and then do up a U-shape kitchen.... we liked his idea.... then next he proposed to us to relocate our common toilet entrance so that a nice shower screen can be created.... again we liked his idea.... and when it comes to the masterbed room.... he was the only ID that proposed to us a walk in wardrobeconcept at my MBR cos he says my MBR is one of the biggest floor area MBR and that a walkin wardrobe will be possible if we were to shift the toilet entrance. We at first thought that all these additional stuff that requires hacking will probably cost us a bomb ..... but was again pleasantly surprised when he explained to us that all the hacking works is already included in the masonry quote... we hack more walls or hack lesser walls the price will also be the same..its only the rebuilding of the walls that he will charge... as compared to other IDs, they will charge you for any additonal hacking of the walls that you might have... Next thing that we were again surprised is that Mr A. is extremely well versed in the HDB rulings, we mentioned abit of stuff and he is very quick to tell us that ok hdb got this ruling to do this and that ie min. height that you need to have for ceiling works, min height that you can have if you were to do a balcony level up etc.... so this prompted us to asked if his firm is HDB registered contractor and he confidently tells us his HDB reg contractor no... we suspect that he is the boss.... Finally, we asked if we could view one of his later works and he invited us for a viewing at the Dxxxxx Pxxxx this sat for a unit that he almost completed... Like what most pple said, first impression lasts..... I was very happy that I did gave him a chance to hear him out in the first place.... and also We were very very glad to have meetup with him as he gave us a lot of confidence that he is responsible and can handle the job well.... When I got to office today, I checked with my colleague about this workmanship and he said Mr A is pretty ok.... got hiccups but he is very quick to rectify... he won't be like some that will dily daly and complain when things needs to be fixed..... also my colleague pointed out a very very important point and that is - alot of renovation contractors has a lot of bad habbits like soccer betting, gambling issues, smoking issues...which will reflect very bad on the work done if affected .... but this mr A. doesn't has this.... So now we are waiting patiently to view the unit this coming sat.... and of course by now we are 85% sure of who to pick.... Btw, dun be mistaken, I am not the contractor or ID... or that I am going to recommend him to anybody so that I will get any good out of it....

City-design Their so called senior ID served us... asked us to sit down and asked abt our budget... and then said "ok very simple everything is in my head... i can give u a rough breakdown right now..." ok we thought... so he started quoting us ... one thing we do appreciate is that he gave us some ideas about shifting our toilet washing basin and recreating our shower screen.... when the quote came back finally, we were shocked!!! the quote was 30% over our budget and the real thing that irked us utterly is we were served by this so called senior ID...but in the end another guy called us up and gave us the quote... I mean if you are not free and need to pass this job to another colleague at least have the courtesy to give me a call and tell me lah ....you dun just asked another guy to come and quote us... anyway renotalk forums does have some negative feedback abt them... U-home we went to this one the following day.... pretty professional I would say... their show room was pretty well setup and the ID was pretty ok.... they too has a standard package and also quoted us with the additional top ups.... and the price was well within our budget and we get freebies like aircon and toilet accessories.... first impression was pretty good... so wifey short listed this... we were concerned as we have a feeling that there seem to be some underlying hidden cost and also that the pretty ID might not be all too well versed with the HDB requirements and rulings... renotalk has no serious negative talk abt this one... The interior place This one was recommended by wifey's friend.. feedback was responsible and good ....so went down and met up with ID. Meetup was pleasant, ID knows her work, knows what we want and we feel we could communicate with her ...... the quote for our reno was not the highest but was also not that cheap... it was abit over our budget and that is after we tookout several things... wifey liked this ID so we shortlisted this one.... renotalk got no negative talks abt this one but another forum the singapore brides forum did have a couple toking abt their so so workmanship... Some tom dick harry Contractor Ok... by now after toking to several IDs and reno firms, we roughly know what we really one, what we really need and what can be done and what can't be achieved... so wifey has this friend's uncle who is a aircon contractor...he told us he can do the reno .... he said "reno dun go to those big ID firms, he can find contractors to do for us with simple design ideas ...cheaper and in the end ..the end product will be the same" .... so we welcomed him to our place to quote.... He came and started asking us tons and tons of questions...ie where do u want to put this, where do u want to have that, how many electrical pts you want to have, how do you want to do your rooms, how do you want to do your kitchen how do you want to do your toilet..... the final straw came when ....he asked ok where you want to positon your new aircon and how u want to run your aircon pipes - wifey thus tell him off "I thought aircon is your expertise, you should know where to put the aircon how come we need to tell u...." In the end, when we checked with him if he is hdb registered contractor...he cannot answer the question ..so we told him off nicely saying that we welcome him to quote but we would prefer a hdb registered contractor and that we din want to waste his time... and then there were some ID/Contractor that were recommended by friends and colleagues whereby for us by now has become abit tired of looking round for one.... so I just emailed a couple of them, the floor plan, our requirements and a sketch design of where i wanted the kitchen L shape to be and my mbr cabinet...

Ok after discussing with wifey we decided to set our reno budget to about 40k and here's what we plan to do HACKING WORKS Hack off existing floor tiles ****/dining , 3 bedroom & store . Hack off existing floor & wall tiles at kitchen & 2 toilets . Hack off existing side skirts ****/dining, 3bedrooms & store Hack off exisiting wall tiles at balcony area Dismantle existing top / bottom kitchen cabinet . Dismantle existing wardrobe at master bedroom & bedroom .2 Dismantle existing t.v console **** area . Dismantle existing aluminium sliding door between living & balcony . Dismantle existing cornices & ceiling plaster design ****/dining, balcony and foyer area MASONRY WORKS Level off balcony with living area Supply & lay 60x60 cm homogeneous floor tiles c/w skirting for living/dining , 3 bedroom , balcony & store . Supply & lay non slip homogenous floor tiles for kitchen . Supply & lay full height ceramic wall tiles for common + master toilet . Supply & lay non slip homogenous floor tiles for common + toilet . Supply & apply chemical waterproof membrane for 02 toilets flooring. Supply & apply waterproof membrane for kitchen Supply & construct mortar base for kitchen cabinet . Supply & construct mortar base for washing machine with tiles finish . Cement Creed for kitchen wall after hacking Make good and smoothen out all hacking works TIMBER WORKS Supply & install solid timber door c/w lockset & stopper for 3 bedroom & store. PLASTER CEIL WORKS Simple design Fabricate & construct design L box light holders for living area . Fabricate & construct false ceiling for dining area , passageway & foyer area . Fabricate & construct false ceiling c/w light pelmet for master bedroom . Fabricate & construct simple L-box for balcony and bedroom 2 & 3 . Seal up louver at 2 bedroom entrance & store . Supply & plaster whole house internal wall & ceiling . PLUMBING WORKS Supply & rerun new single stainless steel piping for kitchen & 02 separate toilets. Supply & connect inlet / outlet piping for kitchen sink and washing machine . ELECTRICAL WORKS Rewire & re-run whole house electrical cabling ALUMINIUM & GLASS WORKS Supply & install aluminium bi fold door c/w acrylic panel for 2 toilets . FOYER AREAS Design, fabricate & install full height cabinet using solid plywood with selected laminate finishing ( L4 ft ) . KITCHEN L Shape Design - kitchen cabinet MASTER BEDROOM build in cabinet Appx : L 7 ft TOILETS Shift washing basin point for 2 toilets to make space for shower screen installation Install shower screen for 2 toilets install WC and washing basin

Hi All, Thanks for the welcome message!! will start posting pics after the final design is ready...

Hi, Have been reading Renotalk's forum thread and fellow forumer's reno blogs, this site provided wifey and I with lots of insight and ideas. Started this thread to keep a mini diary of the reno journey. We have been staying at our current's place for more then 11yrs at Serangoon area, we has'nt moved since as we loved the neighbourhood, the amenities at the area and most important of all we liked the size of our old 5rm improved flat. We were the 2nd owner of my house and when we first shifted in, the place was in a move-in condition so we did'nt do any major reno back then just minor aircon unit replacement and white powder coating windows and windows grille replacement. Decided to do the reno now for the following reasons - 1. HDB started upgrading our area to beautify and include lift landing on every floor of our flat. Ever since they started the major upgrading works at my block last year, my old ceramic italian design floor tiles started popping up, the side skirts also started cracking and dropping off the walls. We got a small kid and we thought since we din do any reno before maybe it will be a good time to do a major one now. 2. The original design was very outdated especially the kitchen area & the flooring, toilet area, ceiling flora design cornices. 3. Also about 2 months back, wife noticed that the kitchen ceiling has been dripping water once a while... ( will talk abt this case later ) And..... there we go, we decided to do a major reno... now we are in the process of looking for a good and reliable ID or contractor firm... have'nt sign anything yet but we are almost 85% confirmed about who we would give our reno job to.... will share with everyone our reno id visiting experience in following email to come....