pisces

Hi , My front door is quite messed up. The problem is that the previous owner put a grey laminate on the door which I dont like. So I asked the door to be painted white (on the laminate) which dont look good either. Any ideas from you guys what I can do to solve this. I dont want something really fancy just a regular door with the rectangular boxes design should be fine. Secondly, does anyone know if the HDB front door can be replaced and how much does a new one cost ?

Black mango I saw thier website. http://www.fanimation.com/products/fan_styles.html These are really the coolest I hv ever seen . Do you happen to know the price range ?

Nice house. huge and I thot mine was big mines 5 RM in SK.

I recently put a fan in my bedroom with light, I also wanna see how bright that one is. going there tonight . will let u know tomorrow.

Wow ! these fans look like something from a Star wars movie. Somehow I feel these kinds of fans will not make the place look cozy. To each his own

dstme , Agree with you. I think there is another simpler way to avoid nasty surprises. You can control the payments, though this approach is not completely risk free. 10 % pmt on Initiation 40 % pmt on 50% work completion 25 % Post dated cheque on 50% work completion - Here the post dated date should be a week after the expected completion date. 25% pmt on renovation completion. Anytime time in between if you have serious problems with ur ID/cont just withold the payment. U may incur a loss but it 'll be a max loss of 50% at any point rather than losing 100%. What do you all think ? but I dont think the ID and contractor ll agree to this.

I hv read your story and sympathize with you. As I said above earlier we must ensure that we get a good ID otherwise the reno might be our worst nightmare, looks like in your case the ID wasn't good but we can't use this as a bench mark for all ID's. Similarly for contractors I am sure someone might hv had a bad exp with a contractor as well but that shouldn't imply that all contractors can't be trusted. My reno work is almost 80% done and so far with my ID I haven't faced any issues, infact there were some minor problems which were promptly rectified by the ID without any hassles. Hope it stays that way till the end. Bottomline is whether its a contractor or ID , we must ensure that we give the work to a trusted, experienced and recommended person.

I saw one in Barang Barang - Paya Lebar last friday ...sorry forgot the cost

My ID painted first and then ll do varnish. Does make sense becuase the paint which could fall on the floor during painting can be removed during varnish.

I had similar requirements to yours. And your concern is very appropriate. You may want to read up on this thread http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7123

Thanks , but I still like the glossy look. Maybe semi gloss is the right balance to avoid the plastic look

Thanks Oops ...My ID did mention semi gloss but I forgot to mention here anyways I 'll ask him if hes got any samples. Oh well if the scratches are so bad I guess I 'll have to consider matt or semi gloss. BTW is semi gloss also very scratchprone or is it some where in between ?

Hi Again, Lately I have been posting too many questions on these forums . Well......I try to answer as many as I can too. Ok so which type of Parquet floor polishing should I go for ? Matt or Glossy. Gloss: I hv seen the glossy ones at a frenz place , look's real shiny & new but my ID says its more prone to getting scratched. Matt: I have NOT seen the effect of this ..so not very sure how will it look. ID says less prone to scratches. Can anyone post photos, advise thier personal experience soon . I have to confirm with the ID by tomorrow. Thanks

Sorry folks, I missed posting on this thread for quite a while. Thanks storeberry, GnM, Lady luck and applefreak for your advice. I did check with some contractors but it turned out that the expense for ID and contractor didn't hv much difference. The contractors costed a little less, but I would have to spend the time and effort to watch everything they do very closely and since usuallly I am very busy at work I cannot afford to spend the time to supervise everything. So I decided to go for a ID. Since the work at my place is almost done , My suggestion to all those looking for contractors is to consider a contractor only if you are 100% sure of what you want to get done to the smallest detail and if you have few weeks of time to watch the work closely. For a job like painting floor , chemical wash, floor polish and the likes u could definitely go for a contractor but cases where carepentery and such stuff is invloved an ID would be better. With ID's u can easily get suggestions for designs and hv more choices due to thier experience and they don't expect to be told each and everything. Most of the items can be left to them for a small extra cost. Like Lady luck said above just ensure that you get a good ID otherwise ur reno might be your worst night mare !! I was recommeded a very good contractor by one of the forumers here and though I am sure the contractor was good at the job, I was not able to use him becuase I didn't have enough time to commit my self for the reno.

Oh yea , I hv seen this shop too. They hv amazing clocks, But I hardly saw any clock there for less than $1000. Some were even above 10K. !! There used to a shop in Amara near Tg Pagar. MRT, they hv nice cuckcoo clocks.

Thanks for your reply. I will try this store.Hope to find them there. My tiles are those very light gray colour with some light blue markings.

Anyone got advice ?

Can't see the pic bro.

Hi , In my recently bought resale flat I removed some of the old toilet accessories, due to this some of the existing tiles have been damaged and need to be removed My ID cannot source the same old HDB tiles to match the existing ones and is proposing to put something else there. Do you guys have any ideas where to get tiles similar to the ones used by HDB ? Any sugesstions to rectify the situation ? Thanks,

I would agree with the others. Reno is upto ones preference and taste and should not be associated with resale. I will narrate my resale falt buying experience to cite an example. I recently bought a resale flat which was in quite good condition. I could have just painted the place, done a chemical wash , polished the parquet floor and moved in, the cost would be around 2K only. However some of the items were not upto my personal preference and I am spending around 13-14K for reno. I asked contractor to remove perfectly good built in wardrobes just because I did not like the color used in the formica. When ppl are looking for a resale flat the renovation does play a useful role in giving the buyer a feel of the house in the first viewing. But during further viewings the buyer will come down to the basics like location of the flat ,floor, amenties and the basic condition of the flat. Reno would not be the most important thing for most buyers, in fact it could be a hindrance if it does not suit the buyers taste. There is also a possibility that you and the buyer may share the same taste but unlike 'yuuhuu's post above I don’t think reno is considered during valuation. When I was looking place I saw a 5 yr old flat with a beautiful renovation of around 50K But owner was asking only 5K extra above valuation. Lastly, I don’t agree to the 10% rule. 10 years is a long time to live in a house, you should do renovation keeping in mind that you will be peaceful and comfortable when you reach home after a tiring day at work.