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My Indian tenants broke the lease last month as he has found a job in the USA and would be relocating there. I went back to my condo on Sunday to take a look and found that it is in a very bad condition. Guess it is time now to do another minor renovation. I have thrown out most of the furniture, sofa (all black beyond cleaning), coffee table, TV console (already collapsed), dining table, a double bed and a single bed. That will make the renovation easier and faster. I have also asked a contractor for a quotation on the renovation. Will be posting the cost soon.

Hi Liang, Don't need to be paisei - a lot of people are on budget when it comes to renovation. Times are bad now so we need to be careful with our spending. Will look out for your posts, keep them coming!

Welcome here. Looking forward to seeing your blog. I don't think you can upload pdf here. Why don't you convert it to an image file first? The easiest way is to use a screen capture program to create the image file.

Hi Monday, Sorry my PM was full. I have since cleared it, you may PM me now. PS: I have difficulty sending you a PM too. Guess I have been out of this for too long.

Hi Friends, As stated in my new t-Blog "Simei Green Minor Renovation" we will be doing some minor renovation to our HDB flat so that my children can have their own rooms. The initial thought is to convert the study room to my daughter's bedroom and furnish the third bedroom for my son. A picture tells a thousand word. Let me figure out (or revise) how to post pictures so it will be easier for you to visualize what we want to do. Stay on for more updates.

Friends who read my previous t-Blog know that I love to post pictures because I am not good with words. However, I do not have any pictures of the condo unit to share now for the privacy of my tenants. But I will share those pictures when they move out on 23 Mar 2012. I need to revise on how to post pictures. Forgot how to do it after all this while.

This is the first quotation we received, I will not disclose the Contractor name here. But I must say the price do give all of us a shock. Marble Polishing$800.00 Marble Filling $250.00 Parquet Revarnish $950.00 Painting $1,300.00 Dismantle 2 x Vanity Set $100.00 Supply & Install 2 x Vanity Set $1,200.00 Touch Up Toilet / False Ceiling $80.00 Supply & Install 24 Cabinet Handles $280.00 Supply & Install Plywood below Sink $100.00 Cooker Hob $350.00 Dismantle and Replace Curtain Tracls $120.00 Acid Wash $200.00 Dispose Bulky Items $280.00 Replace WC Seat Cover $50.00

The minor reno/maintenance/touch-up we need to do includes: - Marble polishing (and filling up the gaps and cracks) for living and dining area - Parquet re-varnish for the three bedrooms - Painting the entire unit in white (as preferred by my agent) or off-white (as preferred by my wife) - Dismantle and replace the two vanity sets in the two bathrooms - there was an outbreak of termite two years back so I think it will be wise to replace the wooden set with something that is termite resistance (steel, plastic, whatever) - Patch false ceiling at common toilet - the water tank leaked about three years back, leaving a very ugly patch on the false ceiling - Change cabinet handles (24 total) in kitchen - Install a piece of plywood on the cabinet under the kitchen sink - existing one in very bad condition because of the leak - Replace cooking hob - Dismantle and replace curtain tracks in two bedrooms And massive cleaning of the house. Depending on who the new tenant is, we might have to replace our 2 x 13-year-old Sony CRT TV, sofa (in very bad condition now), washing machine, TV console, dining and coffee table. My budget is only $5,000 for all these. Do you think I can make it? I am not sure at this moment. Yesterday we got two contractors to visit our Simei Condo so that they can give us a quote on the work to be done. We received our first quotation last night and it was quite a shock. Read on for the quotation.

Hi Friends New and Old: After 2 years and 4 months (my last update to my t-Blog was on 23 Oct 2009, see http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=21050&st=480) I am back to this forum again. This time we have two projects: The first is to do minor renovation for my EC (now "condo" because it is more than 10 years old) and the other, also minor renovation for my HDB flat at Delta Avenue. Here's some background information - we bought the Simei Green EC in 1997, TOP 1999 and stayed there till 2009 when we shifted to our current Delta Avenue HDB flat. The condo is now rented to a Korean family since then. They have not been taking good care so the condo is kinda in a mess right now. We figure that we should do some minor renovation so as to fetch a better rental for our next tenant. As for our HDB flat, we will be some minor reno to one or more (not decided yet) of the rooms so that my kids (now 12 and 9) could have their own rooms. More on my existing "City Living" t-Blog. I am going to continue where I left off earlier. Ok, so read on for more on the Simei Green minor reno and move to my "City Living" t-Blog for my HDB minor reno.

Balestier Road - both the two sides are lined with lighting shops.

1. If you have window films you won't need curtains and blinds, unless you want to block the view from outside. 2. Yes, it will make the place dark. 3. Can cut off the UV, so you will feel cooler. And definitely will cut the glare.

Simei is a nice estate. I used to stay at Simei Green, the EC, from 1999 (when I first got married) till (2009) when we got our kids to River Valley Primary School. Now my condo is rented out to a Korean family and we have settled down at Delta Avenue. Some tips for you: - Bus 38 will bring you to Bedok (west-bound) and Tampines (east-bound). In between you could drop by and visit Expo. - If you want to buy chicken breast (to cook soup, maybe), get it from the stall that sells pork and chicken instead of NTUC. It's cheaper there (approx. $2.50 per breast). - The Chinese rojak at the last coffee shop is expensive but not nice, avoid. - There is a garden near block 227. Can see but cannot pluck the veg there. - There is a table tennis table at the block facing Simei Road. Table tennis table is hard to come by so once a while I will come back here to play table tennis. What else do you want to know?

Ok, research so far. Kim Seng CC has no table tennis table. Tiong Bahru CC has two, but peak hours are reserved for members.

I got Supreme AC5 (without rubber) for less than $4. Excellent service, worth considering. Not sure about Pergo, have not had the opportunity to use it.

The process of ID hunting can be quite fruitful too :-) Go around and speak with IDs. Extract their ideas - you may still use their ideas even if you don't give them the job. Look at the showrooms - find out what you like and figure out how you can use the features in your own house. I think a lot of people just rely on others when looking for ID/contractor. Some of the things shared on this forum is not entirely true, you got to experience it to find out. Moreover, what worked for others might not work for you, 'cos different people got different tastes. No doubt ID hunting is tiring, but fortunately you only do it once in many years. So why don't you take it positively and enjoy the entire journey? (Provided you don't look for a contractor that makes you vomit blood)

Actually I agree with nobody - I also asked for quote from Uncle before I confirmed my renovation. Cheaper than most but not the cheapest. I have two quotes that are cheaper than his (one contractor at Bedok and another ID at Bukit Timah area). At the end I picked the ID because Uncle's response time really cannot make it. Kept saying he will come by to explain the quote and wait till we confirm with the ID he still no show. Not that the ID is perfect (I did have my fair share of problem, check my T-blog), but I just can't help but to comment that why do you want to have such heartache (knowing beforehand that this is going to happen). I believe if you look hard enough you will be able to find quotations that are similar to Uncle's, but with less heartache. Just my two cents' worth, don't mean to critise anybody.

Hi Zio, Yes, I got all my lights from Strass. What happened was that on this day (can't remember the date) we were planning to get my lightings from Balestier Road. We started from Palace Lights (that's the first one we visited), asked about prices and then move on to the next one. The search ended at Strass when we were offered the lowest prices that afternoon (also because we were too tired to walk any more). As the lights we were looking were generic ones, so almost every shop sells them so it is easy for us to compare prices. I am not sure if Strass is related to Palace Lights, but the sales guy at Strass knows a lot about Palace Lights. He knows the names of all the sales people there, how they look like, even know what price they are selling. I did ask if they are related but he didn't reply me. So there is a chance the two shops are related somehow. I did read about the bad reviews about Strass at SGBridge forum, but my experience with them is ok. My lights were installed by my contractor (equally lousy actually) so my dealing with Strass is just on the purchase of the lights.

Wow, so many good recommendations! I have to keep fit to be able to enjoy all the good food. Thanks guys for the information.

Now that I have settled my house I will be out looking for table tennis table. First stop is Kim Seng CC, which is just 5 minutes walk from where I stay. Stay tune and I will update my finding.

Must be careful hah... My contractor initially quoted me $800+ for chemical plastering the kitchen. After it was done, and while rewiring the house, he found out that the wall was uneven after the conduit was removed (the previous owner actually did the plastering after the wiring, hence the problem). We were charged an additional $950 for the "plastering of whole house", and that was only the part that the conduit used to occupy. So please make sure you clarify all with your contractor. Do not make assumptions.

Go for Supreme! Mine is Supreme and I am happy with their quality and service (contractor made a few holes on my laminate, they came to patch it without charge)

Is this an old regulation or is it still in place? During my search of IDs I visited many completed/near-to-completed flats, and many of them do not have wall tiles in their kitchen!

What for, suggest you go somewhere else. One month already and my windows still not fixed. According to the contractor, wait for rain then give him a call then he will drop by and see what's the problem with the windows. Joke, right? Must as well say don't want to fix.

Ask your agent to help....

Reno completed and shifted in about three weeks ago. But busy shifting (without a mover) and thus no time to post completed pictures and night scenes. All the madness should complete this weekend, as we have to complete our shifting because we are renting out our condo this Sunday. Will post my completed pictures and air my complaints of my contractors sometime next week.