LHWH

Hi Rose, Thanks for the Pics! I showed my contractor and alas, he said ours is resale, cannot dig into HDB wall and conceal trunking ( similar to the pipes), he did say that our bedroom table lamps wiring was concealed behind by his partition board so it is what it is. Feeling a bit scared now since we chose a very strong color for our kitchen wall- lakemont blue ( dulux) and yesterday's spotcheck showed that the paint is very sea blue-ish rather than navy. Another annoying thing is the carpenter lost our paper with laminate selection for kitchen cabinets and we have t choose again this weekend, so funny rightchasing payment and yet after a month he tells us no more laminate. Jokers. Anyway, our house should be ready by August first week. really looking forward

Our experience with gc was similar. They just love to push blame and we consumers being the noob have to pay and pay. Our contractor said the trunking was not what what was agreed previously and we now have crap trunking.

Hi Binzz, Our resale flat is 10 years old and previously the house was already on exposed piping so HDB licensed contractors have to keep it that way, in case of pipe burst or leaks it is easier to fix (without hacking). When we complained our contractor just sent us the link on HDB website stating why this is so...you better check with your contractor and confirm everything. Ours just happened and the pity is now we have a nice toilet but exposed pipes- which we will be painting white. I think you need to get your contractor to tell you how these pipes are run so you can visualise, for us we overlooked this and thus the shocker. Too late to complain now work is done. He is fixing the wall bracket today to cover that copper part behind the tap but basically, we have to live with that exposed tap Hi Eastlovin That lovely dog of ours is a Corgi...she is my wife's best purchase (according to the wife, corgi gets more praises than her branded bags). I was never a furry animal lover but even this dog has wiggled herself into my heart.

Hi Sapporo, you can start reno if seller has already vacated the house and then just sign an indemnity form from hdb that you are renovating before the 2nd appointment ...this means if anything cock up you take responsibility and the sellers are not responsible.

Pic 36: location of the fan above the bed Pic 37: original marking was ceiling light by previous owner. What should we do as the trunking is unsightly? Pic 38: Another school boy error. The wiring should be done below our counter top. Too much exposed trunking Pic 39: Power point to be placed beside tall unit instead on the wall which was show in pic 38 Pic 40: Plumbing job damaged the tiles and contractor has no solutions. Any idea how to fixed this? One silver lining is the carpenter helped advise us...he has been in the business many years compared to my friend the contractor who is only in his 20s. He told us about the kitchen piping and told us to insist it runs below. He also fainted when he saw the tap... He was upset the workers damaged the wiw and is now not going to move the rest of the stuff in until electrical works are completed.

Hi rose, where are the arm chairs from and how much?

Hi rose the pipes are stainless steel. Just that the tap behind is copper. We went to hoe kee today to buy the wall brackets to cover the copper part. Wife was very shocked as her place had concealed pipes so she broke down thinking the contractor had done things wrong and we might have to hack and re- tile. Now we know this flat cannot conceal she has calmed down abit. Hopefully the wall bracket makes it better...perhaps our mixer is too modern and the piping is too old school and the disparity is obvious. Will paint the pipes if possible.

We using only a contractor. And he said our resale unit is not concealed pipes so like that. We will go to hoe kee to see if we can change the mixer as this is just an awful looking thing.

Hi VCt I saw your post on the shower mixer. Mine is done horribly ... Wanted to see how your toilet mixer was done. Please show pic?

Pictures as below. Contractor says pipe cannot be concealed. Any suggestions to beautify it? Pic 34 Pic 35

I am also looking for chaise lounge or settee kind of chairs. Several hotels have them with a overhead lamp. Will be keen to know where to get these as well! Not those Victorian tufted kind thought. I saw one at Star Living but its rather low, more for laying down- like an S curve.

Hi val3h I would not recommend my contractor at all...his carpenter is just too expensive. My dad has been using this china carpenter for many years and I will use him next year for my additional carpentry work. We went to the flat today and a shocker...the wall tiles were done last week and today they fixed the shower tap and to our horror the tap is jutting out from the wall, not concealed by the tiles. I am not sure how they are concealing it? You can see the whole thing screwed to the wall. Simply ridiculous! Like kampong toilet piping and tap sticking out. HOPING FOR BETTER UPDATES NEXT WEEK.

Hi! Can I check with you what is the window grilles contact and cost? Also, did you hire a cleaning service for after renovation? Any recommendations? Many thanks!

Hi Binzz Good to know that his demands are reasonable. We shall proceed with the 50% then. To be honest, I don't see which part of my house is worth 38k ( total cost of renovation) we already did away with many stuff like feature wall in room and top shelves in kitchen. The cost of carpentry is just too high! I have to change the bars and handles of the windows, hack down a wall, do tiling work for kitchen, 2 X toilet . 38k does not include our vinyl flooring and air con- which cost another 6k in total. We spent another 2k on taobao for lights and dressing table and small knick knacks and 5 k on electrical stuff like washing machine , tv, soundbar etc. Our basin and toilet stuff was another 1.5k. You know when he first meet us without the study table addition he quoted us SGD27k I was over the moon! Now it has become 38k! Money just keeps flying and it's so unsettling that he keeps increasing the amount. I just want this to be over and completed so I can be done with the one issue and just truly enjoy our house. Definitely will need to add on more stuff, but that's for next year's budget

hi tommy, the contractor didn't show me or confirm layout I was the one who drew it to him as an idea and Saturday he told me that idea would cost me 1k so I said no lets cancel. Yes carpenter is inside the house now and he has completed the WIW. but electrical work and paint is not done. So you think its okay to pay 80% now? Usually when will the last payment be? After rectification?

Thanks all for your help. Now a new issue, our contractor showed us a quote the final one on Saturday and in the quote it was not mentioned this L shape cupboard we wanted to put in. He verbally told us the cost of that is 1k and if we are on buget we should not include it, we can do this later when we have the money. So we told him to tell the carpenter we will not be doing that L shape cupboard. Today he asked us to give him 50% of payment so by now it will be 80% paid to him and so far only tiles and carpentry are underway. And he said the carpenter has ordered the stuff for that L shape cupboard so we have to pay? Is this correct at all? We already said no, and it was not in the quote and he advised us not to do it and now he said we last min change stuff he don't know how to do things? I don't think this is good attitude and we are like being coerced. And he keeps insisting on the 50% payment. And unwilling to commit to completion date , just vaguely saying it is by August. We want it done by 28th July.

Question! Our main door is a fire door with the auto close mechanism. It's really horrible and I always need to step on a ledge to lick the door. Imagine coming home with groceries and having to do this plus have a dog running out. My contractor says this is hdb door and to change to another fire door is very expensive but he does not know the price.... Anyone can advise? Also I know some doors if you push hard enough it will lock itself and not close... Either we change the whole door or we change that mechanism. Has anyone done it?

Pic 29, 30 and 31: kitchen flooring done Pic 32: MBR flooring done Pic 33: Venetian blinds

Hi tommy, our sink was 195 sgd from royal fanco.

Thanks Vic! **** happy you have the tb links as well! Happy days!

Hi vicx what would you use to recommend hanging the picture frames? I don't wish to drill holes into the walls so would like to know which specific type of stick on hooks are good?

Pic 27: kitchen sink Pic 28: tap to go along with kitchen sink

Pic 25: Flooring tiles for MBR toilet done Pic 26: flooring for MBR and WIW done. Pic doesn't reflects the color well. It is supposedly to be light grey

Sadly we are beginning to have the sinking feeling the carpenter is the expensive kind... Our tv feature wall is just 5 ft floor to ceiling laminated feature with two open shelves to put sound bar and ps4 . Not much storage at all. As for the length of wiw and study... Study is bed room wall length and wiw is 2 wall length..not sure how much is that in feet or meter...

Hi ocean, can I check with you if you know what bulbs to use for the Smithfield ceiling light from Tb? Do you have a link from tb for the bulbs as well? Thanks so much!