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Faced with a small hiccup but nevertheless all settled and moved in after some delay. Expect defects here and there, its a hassle whenever workers come and rectify it. It will take sometime for some other defects to surface especially when I rushed to move in and didn't really inspect the property properly. Meantime had to bare with it and enjoy my new hobby, happy gardening.

Not sure if it is appropriate to share my story of my landed rebuild here in this forum. But I guess its the piece of vital information that all house owners like me need and will just like to share some experience I gained in my rebuilding journey. Being new landed home owners, my family bought a old semi detached house which was 1 storey high around Jalan Kuras, most of you should know that these houses definitely come at a steal because of it being relatively old and just 1 storey high. However, it definitely needed a reconstruction as it was not spacious enough to hold my big family. After the transaction was done and receiving the keys, the next step was definitely to call for a tender for my new home. It was indeed a tough job, D&B contractors and small scale contractors turned up for my interview and each submitting their pricing. There were about 11-12 contractors whom visited the site walkabout, prices ranging from $1.1million to $1.3million. These prices were abit steep and due to the preliminaries I have to set aside to the main contractors whom will help to manage the sub-contractors. Besides, from my new neighbor whom did his reconstruction 2 years before me had a nightmare with his main contractor whom owed all the subcontractors even after being paid by the owner in full progress payment. As we can see from this industry, the main contractors are like the "big brother" in the process, they are paid by the owners and can also choose to cut payment off from the sub-contractors and sometimes even refusing to pay them altogether. This leads to a vicious cycle where they sub-contractors will lead to poor quality and workmanship for all the works done. Even when these main contractors earn big profit, they will sometimes even abandon the project. The end results was us homeowners who paid for our house and yet get defective works all around. After hearing these horror stories from my new neighbor, I begin to consider doing the reconstruction my own way, by myself. I sourced for my own Architect and Consultant, where after 3 months of submission, the structural and architectural drawings were out. This was where I sourced for my own "sub-contractors". I appointed my main structural contractor as my builder to apply from BCA, as he was a qualified general builder. The main structural contractor was referred to me by my friend whom studied in civil engineering in ntu, this contractor was a young man whom had a father and son combination for the entire of my project, and they were in this industry for more 21 years and completed numerous landed projects all around Singapore. This further gave me assurance as the number of years and experiences with a proven track record was definitely what I was looking for. Guideline on Total Cost and Duration of my work: 1)Architecture Fee: $41,100 2) Consultant: $52,700--> 3 Months to release of approved drawings from BCA 2) Demolition Of Existing 1 Storey Corner Terrace: $21,100--> 3.5 Weeks (Actual quoted price: $25,000) 3) Excavation and foundation works: $60,000---> 2 months (Actual quoted price: $70,900) 4) Structural Works: $320,900--> 4-5 months (Actual quoted price: $330,000) 5) Plumbing Works: $50,800--> together with structural works (Actual quoted price: $68,200) 6) Electrical Works: $40,00-->together with structural works (Actual quoted price: $48,900) 7) Interior Designing and Finishing: $118,600---> 3-4 months (Actual quoted price: $140,100) Total cost: $705,200 , Actual Quoted Price: $776,900, Total Savings: $71,700 Actual Savings from handling the whole projects: $1,100,000-$705,200= $394,800 I basically have to keep track of the timeline I have given to each contractors and pop by 3-4 days in the afternoon to make sure that all these contractors have their man at work each and every day where the progress are up to date. This basically saved me the money for hiring project managers, as smaller building projects need not have an expensive project manager to be on site everyday. These were all the savings when I skipped the steps of hiring a main contractor to cover the whole work, and the relentless haggering the prices from each individual contractors. A savings in the housing cost, is a savings towards my future. As what the old saying " A penny saved is a penny earned."

This is the price i got for renovating my home Sharing of this price is for forumer to aware of direct electrical pricing. Don't let your contractor/id to over price you Lighting point $45 Switch Point (with big gang switch)$40 Single Power Point $80 Double Power Point $90 Data Point $110 Hood point $120 Oven point $120 Air con point $120 Heater Point $120 Installation Down light $15 Ceiling light $20 Hanging light $30 Cove light $20 Ceiling fan with light $55 Conseal Work (Hacking and make good with plastering) From $80 to $150 depends on length per conceal ptn This is the most reasonable price i got after getting more then 15 quote from id/contractor Think this is the contractor cost, i got this price because my contractor got his own team of electrician, at time he even hand on the job himself. Despite offering me at a bargain, his workmanship and coordination of work is fully satisfied by me and hubby. Anyone wish to have his contact, can pm me (I'll do my best to reply asap)

Always check the service company before you buy any home products. Akaz International Pte Ltd service Hobz and their service is terrible. They are never on time. They made me wait at home and did not appear. Not one time but a few time. They are disorganized and very rude to customer. They do not care if you have waited at home for them. They says to be considerate, just wait at home. The best part was the staff did not appear, they do not even bother to call to say that they are not coming. Very extremely poor service and rude company. Please, i advise that we check the service company before we buy anything. It is the worst experience. Do not get anything that is connected to Akaz Interntional. Thank you.

JS Carpentry: Wei Jie (project manager/designer) has been unresponsive. We hired JS to build a new kitchen. The team damaged our gas pipe during hacking, and we only found out through CityGas. Despite calling Wei Jie, he has been difficult to reach. The team of contractors (hackers, electrician, plumber) have not been punctual throughout the renovation. The hackers did not lay protective sheets and we're now delayed because of the damage done to our gas pipes. Irresponsible project manager and team of subcontractors. Wei Jie called back and told us to remove this feedback. Disappointing and stressful.

Thanks Jackwolf for the word of advice