Cloudy

wow congrates on your new place. The layout looks similar to mine but in an 'inverted' manner I am also doing a resort theme and my MBR toilet is also in the black/grey shades. maybe we can exchange pointers

Just got back from a long day of shopping for appliances. Managed to get the following from a shop in Hougang called Goh Ah Bee 1) Fridge 2) Hob 3) Washing Machine 4) Pedestal Fan 5) Electrical kettle 6) Vacuum cleaner 7) Rice Cooker 8) Sharp Steam Oven Interesting shop. No need pay deposit or anything. Just gave address and number can le....wonder what happen if their competitors send people down order in bulk and then disappear. Oh well, quite happy with the prices offered by them. After that, went to Jalan Besar and manage to purchase my dining lights. Will post the pic later after downsizing them!. Now I am going to purchase my WC and toilet fittings. Does anyone here know whee I can a reasonably good rainshower? Is it only those expensive brands like grohe then can get proper rainshowers? Thanks! ha ha, hope so too. however, so far everything I want to add also costs money. Example, If i want tinted windows (black or bronze) I have to top up $1 per sqft. Using lever knobs for my classic door instead of those round knobs, he also say will check have additional cost which i need to top up anot lol....sigh...a bit tired of this le but bo bian. Actually the funny thing about the window tint is, in his old quotation, he quoted me powder coated white frame windows. I told him to use the normal aluminum ones (bronze) which is cheaper. He told me will not really save much but about $1 per sqft. However, he did change it to that for me in the contract I signed. The funny thing is, the price when using powder white coated frame in the old quotaton vs using normal bronze aluminum frame in the contract which I signed, remained the same. Wonder where was the savings he claimed. On top of that, now when I said I wanted tinted windows, he say he can't absorb the additional cost which is $1 per sqft. Hmm....if I have my maths correct, doesnt that mean the savings from using normal bronze aluminium frame at $1 per sqft should be able to offset the cost for using tint windows? Anyway, here is the converstion in the email I had with him when clarifying matters before I signed the contract. Will have to check with him again when I meet him. " Q) The casement windows please change to bronze aluminium rather than powder coated as its cheaper A) I can change it to normal aluminium type for you but for your info, the difference willl not be significant as it's only a dollar difference per square feet. Q) For the windows, are we allowed to chose slightly tinted glass at the same cost quoted? A) I can give you the tinted glass type at no extra cost to you but they are normally in powder coated types as it will look much better. "

ok another quick and long update (contradicting hor?) Went with ID to shop for lights. Got about 13-14 lights from Singapore lightings at 1.3k. Now before you flame me, I understand a lot of people say that it is dumb to go with ID to purchase lights, etc as the ID will earn money from the shops and you end up paying a higher price. However, from my point of view, I am more of a give and take person. This i how I feel: 1) The lighting shop guy needs to earn. Its his job. 2) The ID also has to earn for the time he spends going with you to the shops. (Its opportunity cost for him to 4go possible meetings with other potential clients). Hence, what I do is, set my budget after doing my own recee. Go with ID and when they quote me above the price I can afford, I bargain. If they can take it, then I pay. If I cant afford and they prefer to keep to their margin, then I no choice have to go on my own again cos I don want to spend higher. At the end of the day, I am paying within my means. If they earn, its good for them as this is their livelihood. Let's face it. There is no way anyone can buy stuff at cost price even on your own. We are all out to earn one way or the other. Hence, whatever arrangement he has with the shop is non of my concern. Okie back to my reno. A pity i 4got to take photos of the lights. anyway, will pop by again this weekend and see if I can take some photos of the progress. I rem on thursday when I went, the toilet wall tiles are already almost completely up.

I am only using laminate for the rooms. to cut cost. However, in my current house, the rooms are also laminates from Supreme. So far so good, no issues with them. However, if there is water on them, you would need to wipe them off. Do not leave the pool of water overnight. This is the same with some tiles too. especially those non stain resistant homogenous tiles. Ceremic tiles usually come in 30x30. Which to me looks very old fashion in the living room area. If I had to cut cost, i would go for laminates instead of ceramic. Alternatively, go for 60x60 tiles that are in the range of 2+.

why not overlay with laminate?

my experience with Samsung so far so good leh.. that time my LCD spoilt, they came to my place, looked at it and replaced the back panel for me cos it was under warranty.

my ID also told me that step cannot be hacked even if i were to change from squatting to sitting.. so dumb of HDB to not allow this sigh....a bit weird to be sitting on a curb like that loh..wonder should ask my id to extend the curb a bit so that my legs will not be hanging when I sit there

Hi, Can you share with me the dimensions and cost of your shoe cabinet? 1) What is the width and height of the shoe cabinet 2) What is the length and height of your seat? 3 What is the cost? If not conveninet can PM me? Reason being that I am going to do something like that and want to see roughly how much would that cost me. Thanks!

thanks for helping me to find out. gosh, on second thoughts, pinkpetter u are right. It makes more sense to have the wardrobe on the side of the toilet!! **** i am troublesome lol

Thanks for you help pinkpetter. Is yours with a casement door or with sliding door?

i everyone, question time again keke.... Is it normal for a wardrobe with sliding doors to be 60-62cm in terms of depth? meaing that I will only have 53-55cm for the clothes. My current 2m sliding door wardrobe is 65cm in terms of depth and has 2 doors. Hence, am wondering if I will have any problems if I have a wardrobe with only 55cm in depth and 5cm is for the sliding door track.

cos we went there to measure and if we stick to the previous suggestion, the WIW area is only about 75-80 like that bah which i feel is a bit cramp. Atually not so much cramp. Its like castrophobic. Reason being that the wall is behind you and within a few centimetres, you are staring at a wardrobe that is to the ceiling. Anyway, spoke to my ID, he also suggested bed should remain at the left side cos its more ideal. Hence, we listen to him loh. Anyway, me and my wife don have the practise of coming out naked after bathing haha..so actually WIW anywhere also doesnt really matter. Main thing is to change without worrying about the opposite people looking in. So now thinking how to best relocate the bed to the left side loh...haiz..dilenma..i also paisei leh, keep changing my mind. Lucky my ID very accomodating. For example, today settled the toilet tiles to put vertical, but just now, I came home, saw horizontal tiling and then prefer to be horizontal despite the fact that one side will have only 2 piece or 2 piece + 10cm. Reason being that I find verticla makes the ceiling look higher, whereas horizontal makes it look bigger, which my toilet needs cos its very small Just msged my ID to tell him to change to horizontal position for the toilet wall. Hope he won't get angry sia...sigh.....

tiring day. Had a discussion with Andrew from 1030am till 3pm. Kudos to him for keeping that much time free in his schedule to accomodate me. Ended up adding a 3ft shoe cabinet to my quote. Reason being that we are quite happy with R&R's carpentry thus far. However, whatever I had reduced from not changing 3 sets of windows ended up in that shoe cabinet + the MBR toilet's louve window haha...with still a bit left to cover a small portion of the top up cost required for my tiles. When talking about the windows, was a bit surprised that for using slightly tinted glass for the windows, I had to top up. Reason being that for all the IDs and even my contractor that I spoke to previously, I was told that I would only need to top up if I used coloured glass such as green, blue, etc. Whenever I asked them for the choice of slightly tinted glass, they would always tell me that its the same as compared to clear glass. Anyway, Andrew told me its about 1 buck per sq foot for slightly tinted glass so I told him go ahead and quote loh since I want them to be the same type of tint as the windows that I intended to keep. Settled the doors, most of the lighting points and switches, with the exception of my MBR. Decided to change the whole layout totally and see if can force the basin into the small toilet instead. Only prob as highlighted by someone b4 is now the stupid louve window is blocking me from putting the mirror to ceiling haha....lucky i short, only a bit of my head will be cut off...no idea how to solve this issue tho.... We will be placing our bed at the let hand side as that side has no beam above us. Only issue is with the bed head's side will be facing the toilet entrance. Was told that we just need to close the door there when we sleep and all would be fine. Anyway, overall still left the MBR layout not settled. wonder should take his advise to do WIW or to just push it aganinst the wall and pull down the blinds whenever wanna change. gosh dilenma and dunno how haha...

ya man, couldnt sleep last night cos **** excited to see the ID today and discuss design and lighting stuff.. took leave next thurs to meet him go shop for lights and other fittings keke...chop chop de!!

its been a while since I updated the progress.. The hacking is finally complete after 4 days!! (1 day delay due to HDB's late response to approval of hacking my wall) anyway, popped by today and took a look. Could not really enter as the debrs were still being cleared. Believe by tomorrow I will be able to enter and walk around Some pictorial updates: Tiles at my void deck (Got my address there thats why I know is for my unit ) View of my unit after the 'bomb' went off!! http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php' target="_blank"> Will update more after tomorrow's visit!!

check your exterior walls too. My friend has a unit that has a crack on the exterior and when it rained, water seeped thru. Now he waited for 2 months but still no reply from HDB to get it fixed sigh. for me, after getting my house, I saw some hairline cracks on the outside leading to a major crack inside the house via the window ledge. Going to call HDB to rectify this.

weird, my FSM told me to put a water feature and keep it running 24/7 at the 'cai wei' (Wealth area). Did he explain to you why cannot have anything that require electric power supply?

oh ya, saw your t-blog...your sofa **** nice and also like your WIW. too bad mine no space to do a proper one so just make do with whatever we have haha...

I really like your WIW. big and spacious!

are your tiles black or dark in color? else wont the black grouting look a bit out of place? I know white grouting can be repaired with some white pen thingy sold at DIY shops. But then again, if its black grouting, then can totally don care loh....

No probs. The layout was our suggestion to the ID. Basically, we already know roughly what we wanted but just do not know the colour combi, the practicallity and what laminates to use. That is where Andrew helped us tremendously. sorry, no 3D pictures cos we did not do much carpentry so mainly have only 2 3D diagrams from the ID. The kitchen and the WIW placement. But he did give us a complementry 3D on our living room which we really appreciate. I think if I did more carpentry, he would be able to give us more diagrams cos can offset the 3D cost but then no budget so suck thumb

Thanks for all the advice! Will speak with my ID again on this. But like what some have said, maybe the horizontal subtle lines wil compensate for the difference cos my kitchen is already very long le. so dun know if place horizontal tiles will make it look longer or not...dilenma. Problem is, we can't really visualise and the 3D diagram given to use by the ID is actually on a horizontal tile placement and not a vertical as per what he told us.

I saw another place at Bukit Batok with my exact floorplan. Which area were you staying at last time?

ic. I also have 2 windows side by side in the MBR toilet. a bit irritated by that but no choice haha...thats also one of the reasons we wanted to shift the sink out. another reason is cos the toilet is small and cant really have a proper vanity top should i want to use shower screen ya, the sink I am moving to just outside the MBR toilet door and connectinig it with my WIW. this way, from the outside, it looks like one full wardrobe but from the other side, it has one 2ft or larger vanity top at the side. My wardrobe will approximately 6ft for my wife and then followed by another 4ft on the other sidefor me keke....

wah very very big leh your house!! congrates on getting your own place . Are you planning to hack any walls?