Remy Yosef

I understand that the area within my flat falls under my private jurisdiction in terms of changing the interior design, etc (as long as they're within the HDB guidelines), amongst others. And I am also aware that whatever lies beyond the main gate/door of my flat shall not be altered in any way as they belong to HDB. As such, I would like to know if there should be any penalty whatsoever that may arise if I changed the HDB-issued bell switch outside my door to a bell switch of my preferred design. Refer to the photos below: Original HDB-issued bell switch My new bell switch

What is the longest renovation period that would normally place for a new 2-room BTO flat?

I just came back from my new flat and my contractor had just installed false ceiling as planned. However, along the corridor I found that there are tons of debris which most probably could have come from my unit. My concern is the debris are placed right outside my neighbors' flats. What worries me is that I don't want to cause and unnecessary frictions between me and my neighbors even before I move in, let alone facing potential legal actions. I don't mind if they're within my unit just so I could prevent unnecessary rift among the neighbors. In any event, is this collection of debris normal? My ID told me that he had paid HDB to remove it but I'm still very skeptical about it till I see it's totally gone.

Oooh, everyday would be tough as my current residing place is far from my new home. Plus, I'm working shift so that adds to the difficulty in monitoring process. Well, it is my new home after all but the only flooring there's gonna be is the laying out laminate flooring in the living room and bedroom. The kitchen and bathroom already have tiling by HDB so I'll just leave it at that. It's a 2-room flat. My ID roughly drawn out what he's gonna do. He's gonna do the cabinet base and shower kerb for a start.

I just bought my kitchen sink as well as multipoint water heater from Adamas and lightings from Design Lights, both from Jalan Besar. Any opinions/reviews on these two dealers?

My ID informed me that he's starting the renovation work on my new flat today. From your experiences, how often do you check on the progress of the renovation?

My electrician quote me the following for my 2-room flat: 1) Downlight Points x 9 @ 35ea = $315 2) Covelight Points x 13 @ 25ea = $325 3) Double Power Points x 1 @ 80ea = $80 4) Hood Point1 x 1 @ 90ea = $90 5) Microwave Point1 x 1 @ 90ea = $90 6) Install HDMI cable2 x 1 @ 100ea = $100 7) Supply neutral wire3 x 5 @ 60ea = $300 8) Install Light Fittings x 28 @ 10ea = $280 Total = $1580 1Since my microwave and my cooker hood will be a bulit-in one, the plugs would be fixed to the socket inside the cabinet permanently, so my electrician will be installing a 2-gang double pole switch outside the cabinet for easy switching. This switch will then be connected to the two internal plugs for On-and-Off functions. 2There would be a total of 3 HDMI cables that would be lined in the feature walls and false ceiling, so he consolidated all 3 as one amount. Even for the HDMI cable, I managed to find the latest [available] version of HDMI protocol, i.e. 1.4 which could support IR control (to be elaborated below) and 3D videos. Even though the very latest is 2.0, 1.4 is good enough. 3I'll be installing Z-Wave switch modules for Home Automation system so they need neutral wires in the major lighting points. As for others such as TV and data points, he offered to connect TV and optic cables. I told him that I do not need them as I'll be using the main termination point in the DB box compartment to connect directly to my network router and set top box. Thus, the latter does not need a TV splitter as in the photo below (even though there's one more TV point in the shelter, I doubt I'll need that too). Photo 1: This is where I'll be centralizing all my TV and data devices such as the Starhub set top box, network router and external hard drives [whose data will be accessed wirelessly throughout the house via MyCloud connection] in a centralized compartment where my contractor is going to erect some shelving for those devices. Photo 2: Since there are going to be 2 TVs (one in the living room and one in the bedroom), they're gonna be connected simultaneously using a HDMI splitter placed in the compartment above. And with regards to controlling of the TV channels, I only need to use one main set top box remote control whose transponder IR signals would be transmitted via the IR-over-HDMI connection but this could only be done using HDMI cable version 1.4. Photo 3: So what do you think of the quote for a 2-room flat?