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trying to achieve hotel-style toilet rainshower when switched on. water pressure is ok. sink + vanity with light effect from under the mirror.

nice... u will be glad that u are staying at the higher levels.. unblock

I always have a power point in the toilet at eye level on the wall beside the basin/mirror and I find it very convenient for hair dryer, shaver etc. It is away from water source. Not sure about HDB regulations. This is how the power point in my toilet looks like: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/62505-top-kew-drive/?p=826092

Just noticed that the electrical outlet at the tall unit cabinet as suggested by Alex has also been completed. Think my reno is completing soon. Hohoho... Just left with the following: 1. iQuartz top for the kitchen 2. Kitchen tap installation. It's actually installed already if you noticed from the pics above. Alex says will remove it and install on the quartz top later. 2. Minor painting - touch-ups / doors.

Nice lock you got there

Base 2 inches My plumber saw liao He said okay de

hello neighbour! nice kitchen you have there!

At this point of time, I would really like to give credit to my ID, Mr. Foo from Custombox. Not only he accompany us to choose tiles, despite only for only 2 washrooms and kitchen. He was there when running electrical,helping to decide where are the points and switches. Also he was there to help deciding where to run the aircon trunking and also the plumbing. To me, these 3 are important phase in the reno It will define future functionality and also the current cost plus aesthetic matter. Some due to lack of planning, runs into extra cost of boxing up ugly trunking or changing of carpentry to accommodate the trunking. Much thought has to be given to electrical, mainly the 13A plus and the switches. Eg. many will have living/dining light switches at the house entrance and may forgetting a 2 way switch to off these light from the MBR end. Imagine the inconvenience of offing the light at the entrance and to walk to MBR in the dark.

Very nice the whole living + study area ...

Our Reno journey has come to the halfway mark now. Now awaiting carpentry to go up. So far, it has been good with Renzz. My wife and I are very happy and satisfied with our ID. I always believe treat others like how you want to be treated. Treat ppl well and they will reciprocate. That's the relationship we had with our ID now.

In Progress - 9ft of toys.

Hi Danmify, I will not share my itemised quotation. But the total cost of reno is about $42K. I have made some changes in between the reno. So is still waiting for Alan to give me the final bill. The only thing I kept is the windows. Hope this helps! Thanks for the compliment razzberrie! Erm... In fact I did not keep the diamond clock left by the prev owner as I was not so into old school theme.

Ok sent friend! Good luck

Nearly forgotten my oil painting order from AE. Took nearly a month to reach......

Documenting the process we took for our choice of ID. Key things we looked out for in order of importance 1. Cost taking into consideration workmanship - bo bian since reno is expected to cost quite a bit 2. How comfortable we were relating to him/her - very impt since we need to relay our hopes & expectations for at least 2mths for the reno period, and even before & after e reno 3. Experience and responsiveness of the ID 4. Portfolio After contacting 15 different companies (realised it's this many only when i traced through my email archives!) with what we hope to do and our budget in Oct 2013, we waited for the responses. Am not going to list down all of them here, but we had to send reminder to at least 5 of them before they replied (i think a few never did reply). Maybe at that point our project was still 1/2 a year to getting keys and they were busy with projects on hand. But non or slow responsiveness is a big no no for us. Even a few who replied within a week, but failed to follow up promptly after our follow up questions was also struck off our choice. If cannot even reply emails, how to trust in handling the entire renovation that stretch over two months? If MIA will be worse. Maybe this is why we had an easier time shortlisting. We eventually met up with only 6 IDs. So a point to note for new homeowners, if possible (and can curb excitement), try not to request for quote too early. Busy big ID firms will not reply as our project is not on their priority. Plus if it just happen to be a busy period, their responses will be delayed and result in negative impression as well. But then again, if they can manage their projects and time well, I don't see why replies cannot be prompt. Really depends on how much importance we place on responsiveness I guess.. The 6 IDs we shortlisted (again w/o names as it can be sensitive - can PM me to ask if really keen) are as below: ID #1 Did up the house of my husband's friend and my ex-colleague. Cost was reasonable Highly raved in renotalk forum Experienced Informed us when he is busy and when he can reply us (to prevent misunderstanding of slow responsiveness) Reason for dropping: Charges GST. Which is a 4 digit amount for the amount of reno we had to do.. Otherwise we would have engaged him. ID #2 Prompt in replies for all emails Cost was reasonable Only in the field for 2 years No 3D drawings (As a form of saving cost for us. To pay if we want them) Reason for dropping: Met up as we were impressed with the responsiveness. However, lack of experience and concerns about lack of 3D drawings made us decide to drop this ID. ID #3 Prompt in replies for emails Cost was on the higher end but providing BLUM hinges More than 5 years of experience Sales talk and try to "upgrade" what we originally wanted to do but is a friendly chap Reason for dropping: Higher cost when compared to other IDs for the same amt of work required. Suay things happened both times after we met this ID (I know this is not his fault.. but I am pan dang.. so.... dropped him). ID #4 Prompt in replies for emails Cost also on the higher end but providing BLUM hinges Soft spoken (worried about him handling workers under him) Less experienced than the other IDs Also a friendly chap Reason for dropping: Higher cost when compared to other IDs for the same amt of work required. Soft spoken and we are afraid he cannot manage the workers under him. ID #5 Prompt in replies for emails Cost is reasonable but shot up after we changed a few things About 2 years experience in the field Reason for dropping: Lack of experience and can't really click. ID #6 The ID we selected Though not v responsive over email, whatsapp replies have always been prompt (so what i do is whatsapp to update whenever i emailed to ensure email is well received) Over 30 years of experience in the field as their parents started out as a carpentry company Brothers ventured out to do interior design, but carpentry work is in house by parent company Both very hands on individuals Reasonable quotation and good workmanship Flexible with requests (even with areas like payment terms - likely as they own the company) Recommended by a fellow neighbour from our FB estate grp So far, everything is good. Only con is there's not much online reviews I can find, so it's up to individual's comfort level to engage them. Hope my review help for those who are looking for your IDs at the moment! Will continue to update my experience with my current ID. Have already emailed him my preferred choice of carpentry colour and wall paint colour. So the next step is to wait for the 3D designs. Really can't wait! =D

finally managed to take a photo of my floor plan. as below! what i like about it is that it is blockish enough with no odd angles. easier to plan for furnitures and no wasted space as well. but then again, i know most new BTOs are also 99% the same floor plan la. it's a 5 room apartment at 112m sq. Internal area is 110m sq. Sharing our quotation which I hope is reasonable enough (after all the homework done, i am at least 90% sure). Will not be providing the breakdown though, so if keen, i think it's better to share via PM instead. Living Room Est 6 ft - L shape full height cabinet with divider and 14" settee w cushion Est 6 ft - Feature wall w mirror & tic tac door for bomb shelter Est 8 ft - Suspended TV console with full height feature wall Change 4 laminate doors (Covering the circuit breaker) L box with false ceiling for living, dining & passageway area Kitchen Est 41.5 ft - Top & bottom kitchen cabinets including tall unit for oven Est 17 ft - Granite kitchen top Tempered glass backing on both sides (between top & bottom kitchen cabinets) Tempered glass swing door at entrance Kitchen cabinet, washing machine & fridge base Toilets Est 2 ft - Suspended vanity cabinet @ MBR Est 2 ft - Suspended vanity cabinet @ Common toilet Est 4 ft - Solid surface top for both toilets Est 2 ft - Top cabinet with mirror doors @ MBR Est 2 ft - Mirror with plywood backing @ Common toilet Shower kerbs for both toilets Tempered glass shower screen (1 fixed, 1 swing) for both toilets MBR Est 3 ft - Two bedside tables Est 3 ft - Full height make up table with light holder, mirror & drawer Bedroom beside MBR Est 13 ft - Full height wardrobe with casement doors, colour internal PVC & 1 panel of mirror Est 9 ft - Suspended study table with 2 sets of drawers Est 6 ft - 3 layers of shelving beside study table Electrical Works Est 13 lighting points Est 2 double sockets Est 2 single socket Est 20 installation of lights Est 1 installation of ceiling fan Air Con Mitsubishi Starmex Inverter Sys 4 1 x 18k btu 3 x 10k btu 1/2" thick piping G23 copper pipes 1 year warranty for indoor units 5 year warranty for compressor Others Paint whole house w Nippon matex paint (but can change to other Nippon series) Install piping inlet & outlet for kitchen sink & washing machine Stainless steel piping for 3 points (City gas hot & cold water points) Chemical wash & general cleaning upon completion Haulage & removal of debris Installation of toilet accessories Dismantling of existing toilet bowl & basin Installation of hood & hob Installation of kitchen sink & tap Laying of protection cardboard during renovation Whole house aluminium grills Aluminium sliding windows at service yard Total cost of quotation: $30,000 before bargaining & discount

Even now, I leave this Hitronweb "Electronic Insect Exterminator" switched on in my yard the whole night. Seems to work well. Unfortunately, I had a hard time looking for the replacement bulb. Could not find it anywhere. In the end, I found it at Mustafa!

I am a sucker when it comes to the number of points (electrical, network, water, anything!). When the ID or contractor thinks I need one, I say 3. In the end, I like to think I was right most of the time! Those time I gave in to the ID or contractor's advice, I now regret. For the WC, I have 3 water outlets. 1 for WC, 1 for washlet, 1 for spare (or tap). I think most people have one or two. I think two should be the minimum. I thought I was clever but my wife is not too pleased that it looks a little messy. If you are getting a tap for your washing machine, you can consider this tap. You can connect the washing machine hose to the tap and yet have another tap for other use. But this tap will protrude out more, so it might not be suitable if you do not have sufficient space.

You are welcomed. So now you should know where to look out for to negotiate. Most people would tend to negotiate on reducing the costing of the 13 items, for example, the price of the air-conditioner, by swapping one brand to another. Or by reconfiguring its capacity. But the total cost of the 13 items constitutes only about 25% of the building cost, so these items shouldn't be the focus. Moreover, these items have a great impact on how the building would eventually look. If you were to replace the marble with homogeneous tile for the living and dining area, the look and feel would be different? The $200,000 figure for the wet works for each storey is just a guesstimate, as I don't know the proposed architecture for your house, the build-in space for each storey etc. Just 4 years ago, you could get a pricing range of $90-$110 psf for the wet works, or $90,000-$110,000 for a space of 1000 sqf. Earlier last year, I heard that the pricing has gone to $150-$170 psf. And then it kept going up throughout the year. You could read the headline news today, on the higher labor cost impacting building contractors. Also, you could discover that contractors would price the wet work $psf higher for a terrace than a semi-d, for example, because most of them don't like to do a terrace. It is true that the building process is somewhat less effient for a terrace, being flanked by 2 neighbors. If the neighbors are nice, then they wouldn't mind the workers to step on their roofs occasionally. But some neighbors would mind, to the extent of calling in the police to complain of the infringement. (Be very friendly, and attentive, to your neighbors during the construction, ok?) Cheers!

Lol...Yes, but GST is normally not part of the construction contract, and to be paid by the owner. I have a quick (some said lazy) way of costing a building, by apportioning each of the items listed below at $20,000: 1. Air-conditioner 2. Carporch cover, steel beams and glass with trellis 3. Timber and glass doors 4. Timber flooring for bedrooms 5. Marble flooring for living and dining areas 6. Tiles for bathrooms, kitchen and outdoor areas 7. Glass works for partition, bathrooms, staircase areas 8. Clay tiles for roof, sunscreen for open trellis 9. Electrical works 10. Sanitary & plumbing works 11. Bathroom sanitary fixtures and kitchen sinks 12. All windows 13. False ceilings and painting So we have a total of 13*$20,000= $260,000 here for these items. Of course, some items, such as Electrical etc, would be more than $20K but the point is to group the big tickets and assign a cost. And the cost of building each storey (the floor slabs, the columns and beams; the cement, bricks and steel rebars, the drywalls etc) should be about $200K, so when you have 3.5 storeys that would be 4*$200,000=$800,000. Others please comment on their ways of costing? Cheers!

Hmm, it's mainly done for commercial buildings. We dunno what's the effect will be like for normal home. Hope for the best..................