lyuira

Sounds expensive to me. I thought the usual pricing was $200 pfr. Are you doing some special design? As for white interior, isn't it a default option?

I second melancholic. Saw many houses where there was plenty of space, but it was lost to clutter accumulating everywhere. Built-in cupboards and wardrobes work very well at keeping the clutter away, but they do eat away floor and wall space. I always thought that the smaller the space the more one needs a designer to work on it, coz in the long run built-in storage looks better and is more economical in terms of space than any other furniture/storage options that can be added later on.

I think contractors won't recommend replacing a few pieces, because it might be quite obvious. I had my parquet polished and revarnished last year and it cost me $680 (no replacement). Of course, my total area is only about 1/3 of yours

I'm using Billy bookcases in my study. So far so good and I have lots of books. But I only put them in two rows.

IKEA has. You can try asking these neighbourhood furniture shops, they usually also have.

I heard that compressor is the costliest part of aircon system, so if you're changing it, you might as well replace everything, including fancoil units and piping. Just wondering though, how much would replacing a compressor cost?

Thanks, will check them out.

vade, Your vanity cabinet sounds very reasonable. Care to share your ID/contractor? Was yours a major reno? Or were you also picking and choosing? On my side, I guess, my tiling is a bit expensive and of course the vanity. Before I told them that I will source for my own cabinets, they wanted to charge $5.3k for a 5.5 ft vanity (with granite top $120/pfr, base, mirror and cabinets).

We were quoted to 3k to construct a custom-made table for the study room! And it was just a plain cantilevered board with drawers. So we went to IKEA, got their VIKA table tops with legs and created our own U-shaped table for $200 only! Then we bought those drawer units and put them under the table. Voila! It took some sawing though to make the table fit into our room, but it was a 15 min affair.

What I don't understand is why the vanity cabinet base is so expensive. It's just a cement box, but the ID refused to budge saying that this is the price. Oh gosh, bathrooms aren't cheap!

Went to see this ID yesterday and this is the quote provided: Most items seem ok, but some appear unjustifiably high. It's a condo bathroom, 6x8x8 (WxLxH). We need to hack everything and build everything from scratch, except for the ceiling and the heater. Hacking: $1000 Wall tiles: $1600 Floor tiles: $700 Plumbing works (ours is concealed piping): $600 Hot and cold tap: $120 Labour for shower mixer: $70 Toilet bowl: $120 Construct base for vanity (5.5 ft): $800 (We provide our own cabinets, wash basin and top, they just need to install them) Sliding shower screen, tempered glass: $550 Waterproofing: FOC Total: $5560 We are allowed to use tiles up to $2.80 psf The rest of the materials (mixers, wash basin, WC etc) are self-provided, so I get a feeling that they chopped me, didn't they?

I remember reading somewhere that you need special mirrors for bathroom, because normal ones will deteriorate too quickly. The problem with IKEA is that they do not drill holes in tiles or wooden walls and they don't tell you in advance. So you might end up with a mirror with no one to mount it. Happened to us before.

We are planning to renovate our toilet. We have another one, so we'll be staying in the apartment during the renovation. Now the silly question is - does someone need to be present everyday to check on contractors while they are working? Or do you think it's enough to see the results of their work at the end of each day and disturb the coordinator if something is wrong? We intend to engage an ID to renovate the toilet.

I think IKEA sells cabinet doors, but I'm not sure their size will work for your cabinets. Best to get carpenters to make new doors for you. Or you can ask them to re-laminate your old ones.

We have a cabinet under the vanity top and I find it incredibly useful. Of course, if you want the wooden one, don't splash water on it and leave the door open to maintain lower humidity levels.

We decided to do the reverse and removed the shower to use the bathtub. The area where shower was is now used for storage, we put this IKEA corner rack there. Quite nice. But the bathtub got a problem and is leaking now So nowhere to bathe

Was wondering how much is it to service the compressor?

My new fridge came in today and I told the delivery people to put it on the brick legs and they replied that in the old days people were scared of floods or leakages. Also if I don't use brick legs it's easier to wash under the fridge, because it can just be pushed forward and I alone have the strength to do it. Not so if it's put on brick legs. Then maybe the delivery guy was too lazy to put

Yep, it looks pretty as a partition, but is too distractive if put behind a TV, I imagine.

Well, taking all the nonsense silently is no way to deal with it either. But yeah, if you have chosen to complain, don't just send anonymous emails, make it a point to make a few calls and even go down. If anything, it will prove that you mean business.

I only see high-end property markets drop and COV drop, but nothing more than that.

Actually, it depends. I got quotes for my condo reno and some of them are quoting me HDB rates, and others, "condo" rates. But the sad thing is that those who give HDB rates are so slow in getting back to me, I'm scared they are not very interested, coz they understood they could've chopped me more!

Sometimes in humid weather leather sofa would grow mould. But whether leather or fabric will also depend on your room designs. Some designs are better suited by leather, others - by fabric. My preference if fabric though. My parents had enough leather sofas for me to dislike them sufficiently

I heard that there is some central body where you can submit complaints, but I forgot what it is. About one year ago I was so mad about my agent who entered the wrong address on PUB bills and when we asked him if the account number would change since address changed, he said no, so our GIRO was linked to the wrong account, bills and reminders went to some random address and in the end our power supply was cut. When we told the idiot, he refused to even apologise. So I wanted to complain, but later decided that unless he went against what was written in the contract, it made no point. And yeah, there are so many agents in the market and the market is still doing quite well, that filing of complaints is a waste of time, unless of course it's a catharsis for you

I think one contractor should be able to do this. Our job scope is somewhat similar and we're getting a single contractor to it. I can PM you my quote once they've gotten back to me. As for bank loan, try to take 80%, it's cheaper and banks are more willing to give it (we were also considering, but decided to do 80% in the end).