sunboi80

oh good good... my wifey gave up after 1 day cos it's tough and tiring, but in the end i still gotta repaint the parts she painted... in the end i am the only one painting the whole house... haiz

painting is tough esp so if u'll have never do it before, it's not as easy as it seems... i spent 7days just to paint the whole house (hols + saturdays) so if the price is ok, it's better to employ some help...

ya at first i tot 130sqm might be quite big but after i went into the unit err... it's not so big afterall.. after puting in all the furnitures i think also not much space left... haha te toilet door u can ask the HDB contractor to change it ... $50/ door, bifold one room doors $30/pc, but workmanship not tat good... but it's cheap.. hehe no leh i didn't smell anything funny.. the choco smell shld be a nice smell.. or is it ur neighbours are cooking? did u hear aeroplanes flying pass? sometimes i heard many times in a day, sometimes none... dunno whether that will disturb u'll or not...

have u'll brought ur Parents/parents in law to visit ur unit?? Anyone have te same comments as my MIL?? 1) JW=ULU 2) Block very old 3) too big for 2 persons 4) "xi zhao", face afternoon sun (got meh??? bull**** hehe) my only feels the unit is abit too big for only 2 of us... cleaning might be a chore... what makes u'll select tis area huh? for me, 1) I dun like crowds, jams etc... so far away from city good 2) tis area near my parents IL (Ghim Moh, Buona Vista) and my house(Teck Whye CCK) 3) near Giant! means i no need to walk long long distance to get basic stuffs 4) not too big (130sqm only) only regret is no bay(full height) windows (like the other 4/5 rms flats around the same cluster)... haiz... share share ur views abt this area leh...

tat's wat i found after i started painting..at first i tot it's yellowish tint but then it looks more pinkish when applied... hehe lily white is more yellowish... anyway are u'll gg to buy the paint and paint urself? or buy paint and give to contractors to paint? or let the painters do it themselves? cos i think if u ask the painters to handle it most likely they will only let u select colors from the cheapest range of paint... in case of nipponpaint..it's the vinylex ... no 3in1 soft matt, no odourless, no easy wash even haha.... anyway easywash and above cost $50 and above for a 5l tin... the ceiling is a tricky thing... u might want to buy a small bottle and "experiment" first... paint the edge and see how it goes with the wall... haha... my wifey wanted a WIW also at first but after going into the actual 'site' to see, found that it's not really a good idea but it's feasible...... i've seen people with the same floorplan as us do it.. but in doing so their sleeping area becomes really small... quite tricky... in the end we settled for a built in wardrobe... else if u really wan, u can knock down the walls between bedroom 2 and MBR, put ur bed into Bedroom2 and convert the org MBR into a gigantic WIW... haha kitchen small?? aiyoh if u do L-shape kitchen cabinets top and bottom combined minus the space for the fridge total 34ft leh... just doing such a 'big kitchen' alot of vit M needed liao... I've seen even smaller kitchens lor 2m long and they tot it's big already... haha the study is not very big also leh... in fact it's the smallest (in area of all the bedrooms) i think some space is wasted in the aircon ledge, svc balcony, HHS lor... think those space also adds up to the floor area bah? Old flats are bigger.... ours is only the size of a old average 5rm flat... haiz but cost more... Anyway enjoy ur renos and furnishing of ur new apartment... it's gonna be a mad rush .. haha

u'll sure have good lifes...

u are planning to use 'barley white' for ceilings? i suggest u dun... cos it's rather 'pinkish' and hard to match with wall colors... use normal white better (matex) and cheaper as well... i initially painted my ceilings wif barley white but then after i painted my walls alamak...those look funny so i painted matex over my ceiling..waste time,effort and $$ (my barley white)... imho if u dun like flat white, use lily white will be better...easier to match with various wall colors... barley white will look nice on our toilet ceilings though hehe

after the flash on my camera, the green color looks like beige... so cannot show until i managed to get my camera to reproduce more accurate colors.. btw the colors u see on internet and nipponpaint/ICI website may not be accurate also cos of different monitors(they produce different color effects grrr..) best if u go to those hardware shop and get the color catalog from them... the colors in the catalog are much more accurate than the ones u see on internet...

my bedroom walls are all green in color... hehe MBR- Lettuce Green (Nippon Medifresh) Others - Rejuvenate (Nippon Easywash) haha

oh such a coincidence!... pioneer batch very few ppl only...ur wife and i shld hav seen each other before... gege

I took 1 week to finish painting my EA(w/o touch ups yet) touch work..neck and arms pain pain hehe... good luck to ur painting...

oh haha me also took quite sometime to learn how to draw a decent floorplan of my housie hehe ... my unit is facing the field... ur unit is facing the rd means it's behind lor... i think it might be quite dark... u must go open the door and view inside then u noe whether it's dark or not... but i think dun take too dark shades lor.. else might b quite dark... We using yellow for our living room also.. btw i dunno whether it's true or not but if non-white colors for ceiling will it be more ex? cos frm wat i noe they usu use Matex or Super Maxlite which are white paint and super cheap (~$18/7l can) whereelse those color ones are (~$30, pentalite, vinylex 5000) . I did my own painting that's why i noe the prices hehe... for my unit, the rain do splash in leh but for the other side i dunno perharps u can build a small roof for ur 'babies'? or move them inside when it's rainin... i also dun like grilles but grrr... old folks insistence, gotta keep it (our unit is RP unit, grilles already there) ... or like most ppl in our area, window up the balcony (i feel look terrible)

me , me I am frm 628... hehe Use google sketch to do 3D with wall color for ur HB lor... dunno nevermind learn lor... I am learning as well hehe quite fun... see if the effect is nice or not.. keke btw is ur unit facing the field or the carpark? if facing the field, living room is brighter can use darker shades... if facing carpark i think use lighter shades better... i seem my neighbour's unit (facing carpark) very dark esp when her floor is also those dark pink type of color... wah... like vampire house like that (hope she isn't in this forum hehe)

i was also pioneer batch in my sec school hehe Choa Chu Kang Secondary... just a neighbourhood school most of u'll probably never heard of it before...

i think the 3 mths conservancy fee can be paid by NETS lah... i can't remember though it has only been a few mths back... fire insurance there's 2, one covers just the house , the other covers the house and the furnishing inside of cos this is more ex... if i rem correctly the cheaper one is $9.60... the more comprehensive one i think is $60++ oh ya still got the HPS to factor in..but the HPS is a annual fee payable by CPF monies... and if u are applying SP services (water and electricity), another $100/150 security deposit... on that day is really PAP Pay and Pay... haha

haha i think u are right... the IDs we approached all quote us astronomical sums when we told them our budget is $12k haha... perhaps it's all a ploy to turn us away... hehe

my wifey is also like tat... no savings at all despite 5++ years of work... she wans to 'enjoy first, worry later'... now she is reaping the 'fruits'... many things for our housie wan to buy but $$ constraints... for me also hard cos most of the cash frm my side... very heavy burden on my shoulders now, since i've only just started working and my pay isn't that fantastic... but wat to do? love a person must accept them for wat they are right? now she realises her folly but abit too late... luckily i never gave up hope so i still have some savings to tide over this period...

spending is much easier than earning haha

blum hinges? i dun think they will provide lor... 1 blum hinge cost $6-8 liao leh... 1 cabinet door needs 2... so if u got 10 cabinet doors need at least 20 liao..which is $120 at least... it can easily go up to 30 also... btw blum hinges are special hinges with hydraulic fittings (as an attachment so it looks like a normal hinge with a hydraulic piston attached).. so that when u slam the door close it wun just go "boom" after a certain proximity to the cabinets, it will slowly close all the way... hope the explanations helps... there are also blum drawer threads as well... but they are more ex... $70 a pc ... for me i just take the basic ... no pt taking so much... cos for me i need around 60 of them... my kitchen is long and my feature wall has alot of hidden compartments as well... so i need alot.. save $$ bo pian... these are so-call "good-to-haves". I think s/s backing is included in the quote already right? the feature wall for the HSS also ..wat type is it? any design? or just a piece of wood? for my feature wall it's a display cabinet cum cabinets ... if i take a normal design ..just a door then the cost will be much lesser... the solid surface worktop... how long is it? the whole length of the cabinet? or just a small part? is ur quote part of a package?

we haben updated the pics yet... there's more stuffs done now.. one thing(reno) done but still got lots more... like furniture, electrical appliances ...wah... not out of the tunnel yet... when they just started work, i (only) went down abt 3x a week, mon, wed, fri... after work lor.. the reno workers usu start work early in the morn and stop @ 5pm during this time we are working so cannot go 'monitor' them... see if there's any deviation from our requirements.. if there is i can immediately feedback so that they can do the necessary correction work mah.. but now most things have been done liao so no need to go down so often... but we still go cc every sunday lor.. just to check the progress... we did not engage an ID so we gotta be more 'hardworking' go down and see see ourselves ... but i think even if employ ID we still gotta go down.. just to make sure there's no 'deviation' ... your quote looks fine... but u gotta buy ur own cooker + hob + sink u noe right?? cos ur quotation only states labor to install only not supply...wat abt water heater?

is it bukit batok sec?

ya, if u buy from shops it will be much cheaper... i wanted to buy those entire bedroom set at first but wifey wans to hav WIW but our MBR design dosen't really allow it so we gotta settle for a Built in one instead... according to her mum.. a full height wardrobe got no 'gaps' (behind and on top) so wun trap dust, easier to clean... and then u wun have to worry abt dust collecting on the top of the wardrobes also... my wardrobe is abit on the ex side but it's done by Ho Bee.. one of the pricey ones but they are recommended by many forumers here..so far they have been good...the quality of their work is also good.. Honestly speaking a built in one looks nicer... we've been around many furniture shops and ikea... one wardrobe of our length and ht is roughly also 1.5k+.. ours is around 7ft... i think i took some pics.. it's at my blog... u can click the link on my signature... capentry work usually cost quite a bit...so if u wan to reduce the quote, u have to reduce the amt of capentry u need lor... alot of things are good-to-have not must-have... for me and wifey, we just wan a simple and cosy place...

haha i can understand i was in ur situation a few mths back... even now also ... haha still under going renos... for defects, just write everything u are unhappy about... like yellowish switches also can.. just write... they are FOC anyway... many ppl reported hollow tiles... oh ya do check for water seepage from the windows also... need to go to unit during rain time and observe this is a defect as well.

my reno haben include furnitures, electrical applicances and other stuffs leh... even painting i DIY.... I did only minmal stuffs... tat's why the price.. another reason is our unit is a repurchased unit... the flooring is done already so we saved on that... that main cost of our renos is due to the kitchen ($4k), feature wall in living room( to conceal the HHS, $2k) and the Built-in wardrobe in MBR ($1.8k)... add in aircon and stuffs, total amt is above $20k already... I took loan frm Maybank... perhaps u'll could try there as well... anyway just a word of caution, cheap quotes might not be good... cos they may use inferior materials... make sure u press ur ID to tell u wat they will be using and do some research here so that u wun get conned by them... some ID **** good at talking but cannot deliver... haha anyway $19k for doing up the whole hse is quite ok... u can ask korea for her contact, she renovated her EA house for $19k also... quite a bargain and she did quite alot of stuffs...

there is no hard and fast rule that they must hand over the unit within 3 mths... like wat u said they are "supposed" to only... some fellas waited even longer... but generally i think 1-2 mths is the average lah... when u get the letter, there is a date on the letter for u to go down and sign the documents... they give u 3 mths for that, to go down and sign the papers... but of cos u can extend this as well.. after u sign the documents ( tons of them) they will pass u the keys and the unit is urs... no need for 2nd appt... the defects rectification will take some time though... cos HDB assigned contractors usu take their own sweet time to do things... (for my case, mine is like that gotta constantly bug them)