infatuation1527

Hi @Raylowwl, I think Mr Sim is a super nice guy so I thought I'd share his contact above in my edited post All the best for your reno journey.

This post is about two days late. Anyway, we met Mr K up last Saturday to discuss the electrical works. He was on time and shortly after, a guy (should be the electrician) came. Planned electrical works around the house for about 1 hour and he said he will give us the quote soon. Walked around the empty (and dusty) house and noticed that the toilet bowls have been removed and placed neatly in the bomb shelter. Yesterday, Teck Tai also came to install the door arm! Initially was quoted $65 by this guy called Joel 9635 9956 but later saw from my estate's FB page that they got it for $50 so Joel honoured the price of $50 for our estate! Joel was prompt throughout and the installer was also on time. I like the fact that he called me before installation and he waited about 15 - 20 min for me to arrive at my door! Anyway, electrical quote came back to be on the high side so we frankly told Mr K that we would like to outsource. He was cool about it and said no problem at all. We got Mr Sim (highly-raved on Renotalk - 9818 2445) who is really superbly nice! Hubby met him and hubby told me that Mr Sim felt paiseh to "snatch business" from other contractors so he actually told us to use the electrician provided by Mr K and also "taught" us how to negotiate further and get a better price from Mr K's electrician. He also gave a few good suggestions and this was how we managed to cut down on 2 data points and get a lower price from Mr K's electrician in the end. So yes, we went back to sign with Mr K's electrician after some negotiation. It seems like eletrical works will commence tomorrow! Next post will be updated with another Amazon buy and my Taobao loots (via sea shipment)!

Today is the start of hacking works! I shall let the pictures speak for themselves. Mr K took the initiative to send us the photos, probably because we told him that we won't be able to be there today. We did ask Mr K whether he would give us a project schedule. However, I think he prefers to do things at his own pace and we are okay with it as long as he is able to handover in mid October as promised.

@OceanEleven any links to share for LED track lights on taobao? I agree that local prices are a total rip off.

Selection of tiles at Hafary Eunos Yesterday was a super tiring day. Saturdays and Sundays are usually out for Mr K, no choice hubby and I took half day off to meet him to select everything that we needed to select. We met him directly at Hafary (Eunos) and we selected our tiles pretty fast? However, some were already out of stock so we had to do a second round of selection. Luckily, we didn't take too long. We reached at 2pm and left at about 3 plus. In summary, we selected stuff for the following: - Bedroom floor tiles - Living Room floor tiles - Kitchen iQuartz counter top - Kitchen cabinet laminate - Shoe cabinet laminate - Internal cabinet laminate - Bedroom headboard laminate Just a note. The tiles selection was at Hafary but the laminates and all other selection was done at Mr K's office which was also in Eunos. At Hafary, he asked if we wanted to bring home samples and I just said yes. Now I don't know why I brought the samples home? Haha.. Anyway the photos are not very clear. I just hope that they turn out nice in the end *crosses fingers* Oh yes, as our tile selection is up to $3.50 psf, and we chose the tiles that cost $4+ psf, we had to top up about $700. (homogeneous wood tile) (toilet floor will be the dark grey tile behind and the wall tile is the one with the masking tape) (also homogeneous wood tile, a lighter colour than the bedrooms) Selection of kitchen counter top When I first sat down in Mr K's office, my eyes were glued to the Caesarstone display rack. I saw this marble look white counter top sample and fell in love with it. However, I know it is exp so during my first meeting with Mr K I already told him that I wanted iQuartz. So I selected a white marble look iQuartz counter top that looks like this: Mr K said that if I want this, I would need to top up. Unless I choose pure white, then no need to top up. Later, maybe he saw that I was whining a bit about paying and paying, so he said that he will try not to make me top up. I told him I am already paying extra $700 for my tiles (actually I wonder why do I have to pay so much more because my toilet floor and wall tiles I selected the $3.21 ones, then my living room and bedroom tiles I selected $4.41 ones. So shouldn't the shortfall from the $3.21 make up for the $4.41? Note that my tiles selection is up to $3.50 psf.) In the end, he said I don't have to top up for the white marble look iQuartz top. I wanted to question Mr K regarding this but since hubby advised against it and he already said I need not top up for the marble look counter top, I decided to let it pass. My quotation includes 5 Blum drawers for the kitchen so that's something that makes me happy. While discussing about the "layout" of the internal cabinets shelving, we only managed to come out with 4 drawers. Mr K then said that for the lower drawers, he will try to split it into 2 thinner drawers instead of 1 thick one. Painting works Initially, hubby and I wanted to paint the dining table wall black but Mr K advised against it. In the end we went ahead with a dark grey paint colour for that wall. We left his office at about 5.30pm and by then all of us were tired. Good news is that Mr K says hacking will commence on Thursday and the rest of the work will follow! Just to share the payment terms. 10% - confirmation of contract 50% - before commencement of hacking works 35% - before commencement of carpentry works 5% - during handover So we have entrusted Mr K with 60% of $ as of now! Door arm installation Read from my estate's FB page that there is this door arm thing (apparently it helps to hold your door and not let it auto close). Got to know this installer called Teck Tai Hardware. They were quite responsive when I called them. On the same day, the installer called to arrange an installation day (next Monday). It cost $50 for brown colour. In case you are wondering what I am talking about, it looks like this: Need help! Anyone has an example of what type of LED track lights should I buy? Size / specifications / pictures / anything would be good! Thank you.

@Zhirong have you personally tried Jackson.com.sg? @honeybunny yes! Our quote includes a 2m casement wardrobe and a bed head for us to put tissue box. It also includes a study table attached to the wood part of bedroom 3 and a 4 ft shoe cabinet.

@Remon that was told to us by some IDs! Not sure if it's true though. Anyway we also didn't want false ceiling because it would add on to the cost. When is your reno starting? @matchalatte alto fabric is really very expensive? What about comparing it to local vendors? Comparing it to taobao definitely makes it very expensive. I didn't know that pvc is a cheap material. Any idea what is considered good quality material for blinds then?

Today, Justin from Alto Fabric came down to do an on-site measurement for our blinds. He was on time for the meet up and easy to talk to. He came with a female assistant, possibly his wife? Anyway, he quoted us the promo price of $889 for our 4-room flat. We told him that we would also need blinds for the hacked bedroom 3 and told him to estimate the cost for that. He said the blinds for bedroom 3 would cost $300+, so blinds for the whole house would cost about $1400. He showed us a few samples of the fabric to be used. He said that this is good quality PVC and prolonged exposure to the sun would not cause any "cracks". He mentioned that the promo price should stay for about a month from now and he would inform us if the promo ends. Hubby is quite unwilling to reject his friend's uncle but because his friend's uncle quoted $400 more ($1800 in total) so I've successfully convinced him to get Alto Fabric to do our blinds. On a side note, we contacted UniArm for the soft closing of the main door and they were really stuck up. The first time I pm them on fb on a sunday, they replied with a "pls contact us again on monday as our office is now closed". When I pm them again on monday, they simply replied with a "no installation for your estate on monday". I went to my estate's fb page and got to know another vendor called Teck Tai. Let's hope for good news. The purpose of the soft closing is to protect the door when reno works start and they need to move bulky items in and out of the house. Can't wait for next Monday!!! On a side note, here's my Kraus kitchen faucet! Very sturdy and in great condition!

Nothing much happened so far, except that I just asked Mr K if our 3 permits (hacking, overlaying, window at service yard) have been approved. He's really fast. Almost instantaneously he said that he will check and let me know again, and 5 min later he texted me saying that everything else is approved except for the overlaying of tiles. He said that overlaying permits usually take very long. I shall update again next Monday (24/7) when we meet him to select our tiles at Hafary and laminates at his office. Till then!

Thought I'd do an update on the reno works that hubby and I have decided. Our quotation came up to $41k and these are what we have requested: (Note: We won't be sharing our exact quotation as we feel that it is better if you consult Mr K directly on your individual needs and wants.) Flooring Initially, we were quite decided on using vinyl flooring as that would enable us to achieve the "wood" feel and at the same time not bursting our pockets because vinyl (as compared to tiles) are really much cheaper. However, hubby and I will be adopting a dog and some IDs that we met have advised that if the pet pee is not cleaned up after several hours, water may still well seep into vinyl. Not wanting to run into any problems in future, we decided to play safe and go with homogeneous wood tiles instead. NO False ceiling No false ceiling because we will be having track lights for the entire house. We also don't want any creepy crawlies stuck somewhere up there. Some IDs also said that depending on the design of the false ceiling, some ceiling fans "wind strength" may be "blocked" by the shape of the false ceiling. Overlay both toilets Hubby and I decided to spend a bit on beautifying our toilets. It came up to $2,500 per toilet for wall and floor tiles. Hacking of bedroom 3 Perhaps the main focal point of our house would be bedroom 3. Initially, bedroom 2 was a study room and bedroom 3 a game room. However, we thought that we would have no place to house the computer table and iMac in future if we were to have kids. So we redesigned bedroom 3 to make it a game + study room, leaving bedroom 2 completely untouched. As mentioned previously, the decision to go ahead with tempered glass panels with metal outlines was not easy. I hope we make the right decision. Kitchen Initially, we wanted to have a wet and dry kitchen, i.e. The fridge and tall unit will be placed "outside" where the dining area was, making it the "dry" area of the kitchen while the sink and oven stay inside, making it the "wet" area. The kitchen wall will be hacked. However, after pondering over the idea for some time, I told the hubby that putting the fridge and tall unit outside would cause the living room and dining area to have lesser space. So, we scraped that idea and placed everything that needs to be in the kitchen back to the kitchen. No kitchen wall will be hacked too. We will be plastering the walls of the kitchen with any exposed tiles. This idea was gotten from a fellow renotalker as we do not want any white ugly kitchen tiles to be seen. We are doing both sides lower cabinets and 1 side top cabinets... trying to have lesser things in the kitchen to create a more spacious feel. Living room We will be having a craft stone feature wall on the tv side, stretching all the way to our shoe cabinet which is beside our DB box and main door. No built in tv console as we can easily get a scandi look console from v.hive or star living for under $300. $41k excludes electrical works as that has to be done on site. Mr K has advised that $5k is quite exaggerated so we are budgeting it at about $3k. We have decided to have blinds for the entire house. Hubby's friend's uncle owns a curtain business so we have gotten a quote from him at $1,800 got the entire house (including our hacked wall in bedroom 3). My research also tells me that Alto Fabric is a not bad vendor and we are meeting them next week for an on site quotation. Will update then!