A Meeting Of East And West In Tampines.

[RimBlock 0]

I also had my staircase railings changed out for a quote of $4000 plus $150 for demolition of existing staircase. If yours is $2000 its a good price, but take care that it is structurally sound.

From this:

To this:

We have more or less the same as you used to have and my wife hates it .

We will probably go for roughly the same as you but with a wooden rail along the top and the glass being hung from the rail and supported by the stair sides. Oh and we are going to have the same light on the stairs as I really like that but maybe with a bit of detail along it like the decals.

Isn't it safer to have the safety film coating the outside of the glass as opposed to the middle? That way even when the glass breaks they'll be held together by the film... and is probably still usable if you don't mind the "distressed" look.

just some thoughts.

Yes, suggesting putting a transparent film across the front and back may make my wife feel a little safer, good call .

She is looking at wedding dresses today for some reason . We are also trying to think up boys names for the new one. She is imaginative to the point of being scary. I had to veto Amadeus when our last one came along .

RB

[RimBlock 0]

Keys today, hooray, hooray........

Finally getting the keys today. Will be able to look over the place tonight again with torches as power will be on again tomorrow.

Called SPServices just after lunch on Friday and got the 'Our working hours are.....' automated message. Seems they skipped office before end of working day on Christmas eve . If I want power and water for today have to pay S$50 extra for short notice . Henry said ok lah , tomorrow can. So now lights tonight when we visit. Must take the torch.

Discussing stairs tonight when Henry comes to collect a set of keys.

RB

[RimBlock 0]

The fun of a cross cultural marriage........

My wife has said she needs to pray and make offerings for the gods before we can enter the new apartment. This has to be done before 4pm or the wrong 'type' of gods may get the offerings. We only get the keys after 4:30pm so cannot go to our new place until tomorrow.

Been waiting so long and now have to wait even longer.... .

Oh well.

On the good side, Mr Koh from the Town council will be visiting tomorrow to look at the ceiling water damage. Hopefully they can fix the leak and any reno we do will not be troubled by a leaking roof.

RB

[gimz63251073 0]

The fun of a cross cultural marriage........

My wife has said she needs to pray and make offerings for the gods before we can enter the new apartment. This has to be done before 4pm or the wrong 'type' of gods may get the offerings. We only get the keys after 4:30pm so cannot go to our new place until tomorrow.

Been waiting so long and now have to wait even longer.... .

Oh well.

RB

well to be really frank, such practices are not standardised within the community itself even. i.e. my wife parents and my parents all have different "rules to follow". each adapted from what was being told to them and what they gather from friends and relatives.

so imagine that singaporeans who are of the same race have cultural differences...hahaha...

congrats on getting your keys!

[RimBlock 0]

I suspect it is being driven by my MIL.

MIL and wife Took my youngest to the temple to see medium at temple in Bedok when he was very young and restless. Was told mischievous ghost wants to play and not let him sleep so well. Gave charm but not work. Fed him Gripe water for wind and baby rice to help him feel full and he settled down in no time.

Of course, everyone is entitled to believe in anything they want as long as it doesn't adversely affect those around them. Maybe we were just lucky the medium was wrong (or the ghost got bored).

RB

[May_dream1 14]

congrats!!! must let us know how much damage was the whole reno to your wallet. All the 3D designs looks so fantastic.

my 4 room flat quotation by my ID already $50k without sanitary wares, rewiring, curtains etc. But if your EM able to do it, i don't know why mine can't. and believe me, yours looks much nicer than mine.

[RimBlock 0]

Hi May_Dream

Our reno quote is currently 37K for the basics (complete new toilets x 3, kitchen, remove an lay new laminate flooring and complete replaster, painting). Glass wall and doors to partition off the utility room (wall hacked by previous owner). Little light wall hacking.

Not included are sanitary ware (currently up to 2K not including showers), electrical (est around 1.5-2K as we are just re-trunking the existing wires and laying some network cables), no work to the stairs although we are investigating the options, no freebees like bamboo pole holder for the kitchen ceiling or toilet accessories (not a big deal as they are usually not so good quality free).

Due to the company we booked under and the time of year we were able to go GST free so that saved a chunk of cash.

Would estimate around 40-42K all in.

So far we are also very happy with our ID who will not promise what he cannot deliver, will point out issues with our ideas but will also try to find work arounds. His latest task given last night..... on a 2K budget, suggestions on how to change / improve the stairs handrails (my wife hates them). To replace to our spec will be 4K+. We have been quoted 2-3K outside and Henry is happy to have the outside contractors come in and do it but cautions on safety requirements. We will have a couple of people come round to give quotes and go from there.

RB

[May_dream1 14]

Hi May_Dream

Our reno quote is currently 37K for the basics (complete new toilets x 3, kitchen, remove an lay new laminate flooring and complete replaster, painting). Glass wall and doors to partition off the utility room (wall hacked by previous owner). Little light wall hacking.

Not included are sanitary ware (currently up to 2K not including showers), electrical (est around 1.5-2K as we are just re-trunking the existing wires and laying some network cables), no work to the stairs although we are investigating the options, no freebees like bamboo pole holder for the kitchen ceiling or toilet accessories (not a big deal as they are usually not so good quality free).

Due to the company we booked under and the time of year we were able to go GST free so that saved a chunk of cash.

Would estimate around 40-42K all in.

So far we are also very happy with our ID who will not promise what he cannot deliver, will point out issues with our ideas but will also try to find work arounds. His latest task given last night..... on a 2K budget, suggestions on how to change / improve the stairs handrails (my wife hates them). To replace to our spec will be 4K+. We have been quoted 2-3K outside and Henry is happy to have the outside contractors come in and do it but cautions on safety requirements. We will have a couple of people come round to give quotes and go from there.

RB

Also incl new kitchen cabinet, right? I saw the 3D design for the kitchen cabinets.

Mine is 50k for hacking whole house incl 2 toilets, kitchen, living/dining, 3 bedrooms. Then re tile the whole house + kitchen cabinet and wardrobe in masterbedroom. THat's about it!!!

i am willing to pay 40-42k too but can't really find anyone able to do that for me at the moment. who is your ID?

[RimBlock 0]

Only things I would mention in difference is that bedroom walldrobe built in is expensive. We bought a nice waldrobe for 1.2K and can reposition should we wish to and take it with us if we move in future. Can change the doors if we want a change.

We are hacking the current laminate flooring but putting down new midrange (Malaysian) laminate rather than tiles. This will be cheaper than if laying tiles.

On the other hand, our place is 150sq mtr so bigger I would imagine. Difference in price should not be so much.

I was quoted by another company that 40K only do kitchen and toilets and nothing else possible.

Have a chat with home success and Henry. Their number is on the website. I have mentioned to Henry he may get a call. Obviously no obligation to call him though .

Just met him and passed on the second cheque (40% on start of works).

I will post up the time-line if I get a chance to scan it tonight.

Henry it still working on the 2K stairs challange .

We also need to get all the sanitry ware and network stuff this weekend. Gonna be busy.

RB

[RimBlock 0]

...and let there be renovation.......

Study room area just inside the door

Our ugly stairs protected

Living room

Kitchen

[RimBlock 0]

Downstairs toilet (notice the P trap for the toilet.)

Master bedroom with wardrobes all gone (notice mould on aircon trunking from condensation).

MBR again

MBR toilet

[RimBlock 0]

Common toilet

Ugly stairs still ugly from the top looking down

So just about all the hacking was done in one day. It was a little easier as the old laminated floor would have been quite quick to remove.

Taps have been saved so we can take a look and see if we wish to reuse any for now and replace later.

RB

[RimBlock 0]

The tiles have arrived

We have also decided to change the sinks to something a bit more different.

Common bathroom

Master bedroom bathroom

RB

[RimBlock 0]

Oh dear... quite a bit has happened and didn't realise how quick.

We have bought the toilet sanitary wares. 3.3k..... and only mainly cheap stuff. No super expensive taps or sinks. And that was after 10% discount. Buying for 3 toilets is really expensive. We also bought a Jovan 50ltr water heater as out 30ltr one runs low on hot water with two rain showers going. The 50ltr one was only S$310.

We have also bought our lights and ceiling fans. 1.3k.... 3 Fans and 6 or so other lights. Again, nothing very expensive but will take pics when they arrive on 13th/14th.

I will be taking Friday off (8th Jan) for the electrical work site planning as I have specific requirements for the network wiring. My network stuff has arrived. 2*300Mtrs of cat6 cable (from 3m). Wall boxes, keystone connectors, patch panel (24 socket). I have also agreed to buy a full sized 42U server cabinet . It will go in the study room where all the lan cables will terminate and I can use it to store my tools and computer spares as well to keep them out of the store room.

I will also be using cat6 cable for my HDMI cable run between my amp and projector by means of a pair of HDMI -> cat6 converters. These allow short HDMI cables and long Cat6 cable runs to cover long distances as HDMI has a limit of 15mtrs and I am estimating needing between 12 and 13mtrs. Doing this way is also cheaper than a high spec (QED) 15mtr HDMI cable.

I will probably have some cat6 cable left over (100->200mtrs) if someone wants to PM me and we can arrange a reasonable price but it will only be available around the end of Jan after I have finished all the patching and cable runs.

This week is mainly for the tiling and plastering. Friday has lots of other things happening. I will try to remember to scan the schedule as I keep forgetting .

Oh, we are sticking with the current stairs as we have a few other things we need to add on for;

Hack the double laid tiles in front of the main door and rebuild concrete step. (S$300)

Purchase and install new main gate. (S$500)

Change bedroom doors ($200+ each)

Put water heater tank above false ceiling in corridor area in front of upstairs master toilet. (S$300)

RB

Edited January 3, 2011 by RimBlock

[RimBlock 0]

So we got the electrical quote.

S$1600 package price for all the sockets and trunking but use existing wires. This is fine with us as the wires are new type (red/black/green&yellow).

Extras are oven connection, hood connection, lan cables etc. Probably going to come to just over 2K. There are quite a few sockets around so not so bad a price for an EM.

The fan for the study room is too big. Whilst the fan will fit, the amount of air it pushes around will make and glass wall and doors vibrate. We need to arrange to change from 56" to a 36" or 42" ceiling fan.

Plastering is going on well in the bedrooms and stairs. Tiles are going up in the kitchen.

The Town council guy has not called back about the leaking roof and whether it was fixed. Some marks are coming on the new plaster in that bedroom but plaster still fresh and wet so Henry suggest to let dry and monitor then call town council again if it gets worse.

I took the morning off as per the fathers and sons government scheme for father son time to take him to his first day at secondary school. Have a parents briefing tonight at the school so will meet with my wife for dinner in Tampines and then off to the school.

I am selling my 1.5TB WD Green hard drives on VR-Zone as I will get some faster ones better suited for an array. One sold, 4 more to go .

A few other bits have arrived for my NAS box. New motherboard & memory. Just awaiting the graphics card and sata controllers with cables and then it will be done.

Will take more progress pics on Friday which I will take off to supervise the electrician and measuring of the kitchen cabinets.

RB