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Ealier this holiday morning a man came to my home claiming to be sent by the government/HDB to check if our home had any repairs to be done. My wife let him in and showed him the ktichen window (the sliding mechanism has worn away making it difficult to open/close) and the choked master bedroom toilet (I suspect the maid knocked the air freshner into it and it has become lodged in the elbow). He gave us a quote for $450 and asked for a $200 deposit so he could order spare parts to which my wife made out a cheque. Strangely, he asked for the cheque to be made out to his name and not his company. I find this all to be highly suspect as: - Wanted a deposit for spare parts before any work was done. I would have thourhg a real contractor would have these standard parts stocked and readily available (http://s233.photobucket.com/albums/ee8/shimeng_pb/?action=view&current=IMG_0352.jpg) - Again, person wanted cheque to be made out in his name, not the company's name. - Company (Chong Cheng General Contrctor) not listed on HDBInfoWEB as either a registered rennovation, window or rennovation AND window works contractor. - According to the HDB emergency maintenance staff, they do not send contractors to do "cold-calling". HDB seems to have a refferal service, so the only time a contractor comes knocking on your door is when you have explicitly requested for one. - I had previously gotten 2 plumbers to look at my choked toilet (on seperate occassions) and they both said it was impossible to fix without hacking up the toilet bowl. Not sure why this fellow seems to think he can do it without taking apart anything - Did not show any official "sanctioned by HDB to check your home out" letter/ID. I might be wrong, but even if his company is legitimate it is false representation to claim to be sent from the government. Plus, HDB says you should only have your windows serviced by a registered contractor (http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10297p.nsf/ImageView/RESIDENT_HAND_BOOK_PDF/$file/0420+Windows.pdf), and they certainly aren't listed. What do you guys think? I have asked my wife to put a stop on the cheque just in case.

Check out the pinned thread on the reno blog thread.

NTUC was having the points with cash top up for Zwillings J.A. Henckels knives. So there I was happily buying and exchanging until my wife ask me....... Wife : Are you joining the Iron Chef? Me : No. Why? Wife : Then why in the whole wide world do you need so many knives? 3 out of the 4 knives I had changed.

hi. i think your comment is abit unnecessary. alot of people also do modern theme. a common theme does not mean it is less creative. you can choose to read another t-blog if you find mine boring.

During the long wait, I've been playing around with floorplanner.com to plan our desired layout for the flat. As the master bedroom was really small, one of wifey's "must-have" is a wardrobe length of at least 3m. On the other hand, my "must-have" is a long study table. Therefore, we have to sacrifice one of the bedroom which is fine with us as it is only the two of us who will be living in the flat till we have kids in future. In total, we've revised the layout 18 times. I will share some of the them here: