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i dont think u can change to a kind with the lock. i tink can contact ur town council if the door is really loose.

floor and wall epoxy paint is different. floor epoxy (for kitchen / bathroom) is rough. I had mine done up for 1.5yrs i tink, but some parts which are exposed to sunlight have turned yellowish. frankly, 20k for ur apartment is highly unlikely... u might want to judge if a renovation loan is cheaper or paying instalments for electronics is cheaper. congrats on getting $0 COV!

sounds like a trap that hdb dig.. its bad... but hey, no real reason to go for BTO right? buy resale lor?

the website does not indicate that interest have to be paid. 3times the grant given of 45k = 135k. is that the amount they told u to pay?

one company which was borrowing to invest would be 2nd Chance. Listed on the SGX. They borrow from banks to invest in reits, reason being yield on reits are higher and they can pocket the difference. No prizes for guessing what happened when the credit crunch came: 1. banks stopped lending to them 2. reits are traded in the market, so accounting wise, have to mark to market value. reits came crashing down, dragging down profits and hence the share price of the company. 3. the company cannot borrow from banks, cannot re-issue shares as share price is too low and cannot have no choice but to sell of reits at depressed prices. they were lucky the credit crunch was short and they survived. Corporate finance attempts to measure many things, but its not sufficient. Now companies would rather hoard cash as they are wary of a similar crunch becos the crunch is still quite recent and in their memory. Come a few years later, a new CEO comes in, it could be in a different situation. Many biz do not use leverage at all or use very little leverage. What's their concern? FOr example, asia enterprise.

concrete sink support with tiles is a nightmare to maintain. Thought about the process of scrubbing groutlines? the worst thing is when one of the tiles crack... you can always outsource your aircon contract, there is one renotalk guy who got good reviews. Otherwise, getting from distributors are fine as well. Do you believe in "good after sales service" by contractors? I believe that for most cases, its probably lip service. The odds are often not tilted in your favour... what is the ugly vanity counter that would cost thousands to revamp? got picture? i doubt it cost so much to make a vanity counter using solid surface wor?

there is a similar thread in this section. need to do some homework..

no idea, fengshui master told fren. fren believe, so fren din buy. i din consult fengshui master on purchase of flat or layout. i consulted wife instead on purchase of flat and layout. wife like flat and layout = buy and harmony in the house. Life goes on. interesting phrase there... the difficult part is in making the thought becoming an action. Somehow reminds me of the book 7 habits of highly effective people...maybe thats where he got his inspiration?

the cost of equity fundamentally depends on the risk free rate, since risk free rate is academic, then cost of equity would be similar right? To put it simply, if the fundamental key input is arbitary, the end result would be arbitary. Garbage in, garbage out. There is also a risk where corporate finance does not cover - events with a small probability but has disastrous effects. I read it in a book somewhere but forgot the title. Corporate finance can be used when everything is fine, business as usual. But once crisis kicks in, things go haywire and you no longer know what input to apply. the CPF is the cheapest form of loan for the govt, book entry till maybe 40yrs later then need to repay. where to find? CPF's special account is risk free but no longer at 4%, and have to discount away liquidity (put in cannot take out).

i think i am that "someone"? think bepgof's example illustrates whether you would give up 0.1% of returns for locking up your money? i suppose there can be many variations, for example, splitting up the $250k into $100k, $100k, $50k and spread over different banks. An investor can then use $100k to buy property, stocks, etc when he thinks its of good value. Hence, he need not put $250k into just one bank. That would reduce his "opportunity cost". Alternatively, you might get a different answer if you compare SG govt bonds (the true risk free rate of return) as compared to fixed deposits (where only 30k is guaranteed in the unlikely event of a bank run). When i was in school, we were taught that the US 30yr bond is the risk free rate, i wonder whats in the syllabus nowadays?

have heard of ppl avoiding flats becos the flat is not ideal for marriage, like couple will end up in divorce. why not just select another flat if you feel uncomfortable?

for electrical works? try choo chiang. for water pipes? try hardware shops in jalan besar (plenty of them)

Completed our one seater sofa! Fitting in nicely. Remember this chair? Last minute decor on the wall. Putting IKEA fabric into IKEA photoframe. Going Arty farty. haah! Thats it for chairs. Wife has banned me from getting in anymore chairs..

painting first. just in case painters damage ur wardrobes/shelves, etc.

stainless steel scissors rusted.

i think opportunity costs used traditionally in corporate finance and economics is quite academic and impractical. as the investor himself, i would be concerned instead with real returns. It would be risky to say put everything in bonds or everything in stocks or everything in gold. Most would want some form of diversification as we are not experts like Warren Buffett. but with FD rates at less than 1%, it can hardly be called an investment! I dun even bother to putting excess money in the FD, i rather wait for a good opportunity for stock market to drop and buy in. Bonds or even preference shares will drop in price during recessionary periods or during crisis periods as seen in bank preference shares during the Lehman crisis. That puzzles me a bit as i was expecting a "flight to safety". However, i guess the market does not feel that bank preference shares are safe enough.

nope its not illegal as not all renovation works require HDB's approval. Non-licenced contractor can always piggyback on another person's licence to carry out the works that require HDB approval.

Hi, we got it from the "thieves market" at Sungei road. Near to Sim Lim square. But it depends on luck whether u can find it.

Junk we picked up. Those that was dumped at the HDB void deck, we are literally karang guni in disguise... This piece is extremely hard to sand off, with like thousands of layers of lacquer used! You can see the difference between sand and unsanded areas. But the wood grains are really nice though.. Still work in process, gonna rush to make it before CNY!

The sofa i always wanted. Retro kind, the kind that has slim handles as well. Chanced upon a person selling it on gumtree.sg at $60, so we bought it! Sofa was in good condition. So we got down to working on it. The usual process of sanding, priming and painting it white. Bought Foam for it. Bought fabric from IKEA. My wife made them into covers!! Final product:

KPO here a bit... its almost like everyone speeds on the road. U can do, but don't get caught. Cos when u get caught, u cannot use "everyone also do" as mitigation. As the person selling it, he will surely convince u that its ok, but if later HDB ask u to take down, will he bear the cost? of course not mah... i think its not a huge error to do it.. but then again im not hdb officer... haha i sound so contradictory...

Verbal warning - one ear in, one ear out. written warning - can throw the paper away after reading. I still think no one should profit from HDB rental. Its a fundamental problem in HDB pricing to begin with, i think i can write an essay on that.. hah...

omg..is there a typo? $900 per meter is freaking expensive. at that price, it should last u a lifetime! normal kitchen cabinets can last a good 10yrs if done by a proper carpenter. But most of the time, its the user who needs to maintain it properly. eh, i think the ping pong table is quite useless to be brutally honest... money can be spent in better places. No offense ya. Looking forward to your reno,

Hanging around in the game (of stocks) is surely an indication of one's ability. Being able to survive the ups and downs in a market is no easy feat. Every bull run will have some youngsters come out to claim that he can make $X amount of dollars, but afterwards they keep quiet. Most probably lost it all liao... i think bepgof did very well in 2011 when STI was down 17%. Congrats! Fund managers on the other hand would have done much better for themselves becos they collect management fees! haha. Investors of the fund would have a totally different fate altogether. The market has already priced in recession prices for property developers, companies are seeking to raise funds by issuing bonds, etc. These points toward a slow down in 2012 and may be a good time to start researching. Recently Wing Tai caught my eye. Still looking at it and trying to figure out the financials.