tikiman
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Everything posted by tikiman
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In our search for wood ceramic tiles, We discovered different tile shops may carry the same tile, but at different prices. An Italian wood tile (white smoke) at a boutique tile shop in tiong bahru quoted me at 10psf. While shopping around at Hup Kiong @ balastier we were quoted 7.50psf for the same tile. The cost difference is more than 1K if we were to use this tile. hence it pay to do research/leg work.
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We initially saw some at Hafary, they were ceramic tiles. Somehow they design was not what we were looking for. after doing some research on renotalk and advice from a tiler, we found Ann Huat @ Zion road. We were so happy to see the wide selection selection of cement tiles We had the next problem... which design to choose.
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After calculating the cost of laying the wood tiles for the whole house, we realise that it will heavily deplete our reno budget. It was during a visit to Lian Seng Hin (to see more tiles) that a sales lady gave us a solution. She said it will be a waste to spend so much on tiles in the bedrooms when most of it will be covered by furniture. LSH have wood tiles of smaller dimension (15cm x 60cm) that are made in china. They were comparable to european tiles at a fraction of the cost. Luckily one of their design matches the tone and color of SBH Betulla. Hence, we finalize our floor tiles with LSH's in the bedrooms and SBH's Betulla Naturale everywhere else.
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We wanted to have wood ceramic tiles in the hall and bedrooms. Hence, we have visited many shops along Balestier and Changi, ie SBH, HF, Hup Keong, etc. There are lot of selection to choose, coming from china, indonesia, spain and italy with price ranging from $2.50psf - $12psf. In order to look like wood strips, the tiles are long with running design. Some were 15cm x 120cm . We were told by the sales person that the longer they are, the higher chance of warping, which is a big headache for tiler to lay. As we want the whole house to look bright and airy, we opted for tiles that are lighter with a washed-out look. We narrowed down to 3 choice: Hafary Betula Rett SBH Manitoba Frassino Naturale SBH Manitoba Betulla Naturale
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Actually, he did my brother-in-law's place. Based on his feedback, the workmanship was good and the fittings are still in good condition after 5 years. My BIL is a very fussy person, and he just got the same contractor to do some minor reno improvement recently. Will pm you the contact shortly.
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When we viewed the house, we liked the layout, but found the condition of the unit very run down. 1) The colors of the flooring was liver brown 2) The walls were painted orange and yellow, which made the whole place dark. 3) Wall switches were held with tapes. 4) The parquet floor in the master bedroom had signs of water damage. 5) The window grills were padlocked and ex-owner has lost the keys. 6) The toilets were very dirty, WC/basins were pink in color, and bifold doors were coming off the hinges. 7) Aircon unit was very old and defective. 8) Main fire-rated door cracked and gate rusted ( how one can cracked the door... my father-in-law 20yr old door is still in very good condition) We saw the positive side that we can hack everything and rebuilt it according to our design Our reno main scope: 1) redo flooring 2) redo toilets and plumbing 3) redo kitchen - open concept and new cabinets 4) total electrical rewiring 5) change lighting and aircon system 6) reposition store room 7) replace window grills, main door and gate
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From the start, my husband & I did not want to have an ID to design our place as we already had an idea of what we want and only needed a contractor to execute the work. Hence, we asked several contractors to give us a quotation for the scope of work that we listed. Contractor A He is a true blue contractor, has a good knowledge on the works, reliable as he has done my brother's place, but zero design sense. Contractor B 2 guys who did some measurement and gave me a very low quote, and said its still nego. We were worried when quotes are too low, as it usually means hidden cost later. Contractor C Introduced by my housing agent, came to see our place and turned out to be an ID. My hubby told her we do not need an ID, so she did not even send us a quotation. Contract D We showed him our place and listed our needs. All his replies were 没问题. In the end' he 没回复. Naturally, we ended up engaging Contractor A, but only after several round of refining the quotations on the scope of work. We also did a lot of research on the cost of renovation to ensure that his costing are reasonable.
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We started hunting for a HDB resale flat early this year and after a long process, we finally found a place that we love in Tampines. As we are starting our renovation, my husband (Tikiman) suggested that we should start a t-blog on renotalk. After all, we have gained a lot of information scouring through this forum, and it would be nice to share our own journey. The reasons we chose to buy a resale HDB unit : 1) Older units are bigger in floor space. 2) We dislike the bomb shelter because it is located in the middle of the unit like a sore thumb. 3) New HDB are built so close, neighbours can share salt/sugar via the kitchen/yard. In our search for a HDB apartment, we identified few requirements to fulfil: 1) Quiet and peaceful neighbourhood 2) Square layout without odd corners 3) No bomb shelter 4) Airy units with large windows / high ceiling 5) Corner unit 6) Last but not least, LOW COV haha... Tampines is a mature estate and individual neighbourhoods show unique characteristics. In the course of our search, we have walked the different neighbourhoods of Tampines at nights, off-days and on weekends to have a sense of the surrounding and to shortlist the neighbourhood that we like. Afterall, we can renovate the internal space of our apartment to fit our taste/requirement, but we usually have little control over the outside surrounding. Will share more details on our unit in the next post... Tikimum
