steffie

Hi there, I have pm'ed you the contacts.

Hi there, I have pm'ed you the contacts.

Hi Stefanie, I've pm'ed you the contacts. Good luck!

Hi there, I've pm'ed you the contractor details. But I didn't send you their quotations though. Whilst the contractors will appreciate the referral, I doubt they will appreciate me circulating their quotes. Anyways, the contractors will be basing their quotes on your requirements so I don't think my quotation will serve much purpose. Good luck!

Hi there, I've emailed you. Good luck!

Hi Jas, I've just pm'ed you. I'm glad you enjoyed reading my journey as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Hi Stanley, I've just emailed you.

Hi there, I've just PM'ed you

Hi Taimi, I've PM'ed you. Good luck.

That's great, Buzzer. He's a reliable and honest contractor. Good luck with your reno.

Hi there, I've just pm'ed you

Hi Rahman, I've just pm'ed you.

Hi there, I've pm'ed you.

Hi there, I have PM'ed you.

Hi there, I've PM'ed you.

No wonder... hahha.... I went to Homefix and Kimable. Thanks for that. Will check Selffix out this weekend.

Wow! No kidding! I bought the stainless steel cleaner and tried it over the weekend. Very effective. I even used whatever was left on the cloth to wipe the tap and fridge... hahah... now I've got a really clean kitchen. But have yet to be able to find the Magic countertop spray though. Will try another of those household item store this weekend.

Sure. I've PM'ed you

Hi Candy, I've emailed you.

Thank you so much.

Hi there, I have pm'ed you.

Thanks for the tip! So interesting to be using a stainless steel cleaner on a solid surface top! Will try it this weekend.

Thanks for the recommendation. Can most certainly do with a good cleaner and seal. Quite a bother to maintain. Have you have asked them to return to polish it?

My last post so I will end with some of the lessons that I had learnt from this renovation experience: Ensure that your contractor provide you with a schedule before commencement and keep a close eye on it. Be around during installation of doors, especially if you are changing the direction of your main door. Luckily I was around when the door guys came. If not, they would have installed the door according to what it was previously. Be around when aircon guys are doing the piping so that you can tell them how you want the piping laid. Also have your contractor around as well to make sure that they don't try to "smoke" you. Ronald was a real lifesaver. Check often when your contractor are doing the foundation work so that errors can be rectified. After the cement’s dried, it may be too troublesome to correct mistakes. Be around when electrician doing wiring so that you can let them know exactly where you want to have the lighting or electrical points. Choose the contractor/ID carefully. The most expensive may not always be the best. Doing some research on his/her track record is very important. Contact previous owners for their experience working with him/her. If you want to build new walls or do cement screeding, get contractors that have experience doing it. I absolutely loved shopping on Taobao. But you need to ensure that you take time to read the reviews. Even with me spending hours on end reading up on the reviews, there were still furniture that didn't quite make the mark. And if you are fussy, don't get wooden furniture as they would most likely be scratched by the time they arrive. Just like how I had benefited from the many forummers who had shared their renovation experience, I hope that what I have shared would be useful to other homeowners looking to renovate their place.

Ronald did warn me that scratches on black solid surface tops would be obvious so I was prepared kind of for it. I wasn’t prepared though that even bottoms of porcelain bowls and cups can also cause scratches. Within 2 weeks of installation, my solid surface top was full of scratches and water marks (because we did wipe dry immediately). Ronald kindly arranged for the solid surface guys to come again to re-polish the surface. The guy shared that using Pledge would help to maintain the shine. All you need to do is spray it on the top, leave it for 10 mins and then wipe dry with a dry cloth. It has to be done weekly for those of us who don’t cook often and possibly about fortnightly to 1 monthly if you do.