tim_chenie

Hi Cantona7, May we know how much you saved from taking out the things you mentioned from your renovation list? Mind posting the original cost and the amended cost for comparison? Thanks in advance! Kinda agree with your ID, that is if you are not expecting a lot of visitors coming to your house for gatherings now and then.

Hi MaCe, Thanks for your recommendation, will surely visit them when searching for our DVD Mini Hi-Fi. Hi eR1c, CONGRATS on getting your new house, hope to hear from you soon about the HouseWarming Party. Hi xiaomumu, Yeah, your house do look similar to ours, though the facing of the storeroom door is different. So you are also renovation your house now? Saw that measuring tape and exposed wiring in your MasterBedroom Floor. The original condition looks quite nice, guess not much needed to be renovate right? Ours is not really completed yet, now going through the Tiling Phase, the Kitchen concrete stand for the sink and stove will be done by next week, next comes the Carpentry for the Kitchen top and bottom cabinets, then the whole house wiring, whole house painting and last comes the chemical wash. Expected date of completion is 10th August 2007, but think will have some delay. Just hope we can move in before the Hungry Ghost Festival, which is on 26th August 2007. Kinda "Pan Dan" on these things. Our whole renovation cost around 25.5K, include GST is 26.5K, but taking out the AirCon System so total cost will be reduced to 23.2K, inlcude GST will be around 24.5K. How about your renovation? Mind sharing your list of renovation items and the cost? And can we see more photos of your new house, it really looks nice in the original state. Thanks in advance!

Hi MaCe, How cheap do you mean by cheap? Maybe will go there to get our DVD Mini Hi Fi. For those interested here's Everjoint website:Everjoint P.S. : MaCe, is this the one you referring to? Hi eR1c, OIC, we are not doing plastering as it will be additonal cost and the wall condition is still OK. But as most of the time the focus will not be on the wall, we can still live with some minor "humps" here and there. We saw the latest reply in your T-Blog that you are getting System 4. WOW, FOC, our favourite word for now. Yeah, maybe after the Hungry Ghost Festival, so when are they handing over the house? 1 week later?

Hi spikedoll, Thanks, we also can't wait to move in too Just visited your blog and saw quite a few nice scenery photos, guess you are a pro photographer? And my floor tiles kinda look similar to yours too. Guess we had the same taste Hi eR1c, We think so, by plastering you are referring to filling up the gaps between the floor tiles? Think they will do the concrete stand for the kitchen sink and the stove next, after they are done with the kitchen tiles. Just visited your blog and seems like your house are fully renovated. When is the housewarming party coming up? Inviting the forum members? By the way, how much did you spent for your Mitsubishi Starmex System 4 Aircon? Hi MaCe, We bought all of our electrical applicances from Hong Liang, but later found out from the forum that some shops within their area are actually have lower prices. But at least its one of the reasonable priced shop recommended by most members too .

18 July 2007, Wednesday We met with the contractor supervisor who is in charge of laying the tiles and settle on the position of the mosaic tiles. Almost all the rooms were completely laid with floor tiles, so nice. Next is to get the kitchen basin delivered so they could worked on the cement stand for the basin and stove. The Floor and Wall Tiles for the Bathrooms, right is for the Kitchen while the left is for the Master Bedroom. Mosaic Wall Tiles for the Bathrooms, the Pink one is for the Kitchen and the Green is for the Master Bedroom. Floor Tiles completely laid in the Master Bedroom, except for the skirting. The holes at the wall are also patched up with cement. Floor Tiles completely laid in the Guest Room, except for the skirting Still in progress in the Study Room. That's all for now folks, can't wait to see the wall tiles to be up! P.S. : Anyone noticed there is a Moon Eclipse recently? We witnessed one yesterday (17 July 2007) while on our way to our new house. Just wanna share with everyone.

Hi everyone, We are back with 3 days of photos updates! Basically, the floor tiles were now laid in the three bedrooms and living rooms, and tommorow they will finished up the washroom wall tiles. So here goes: 16 Jul 2007 (Monday) Screeding was in progress in the Living Room Tiles and Sand in the Master Bedroom All the stuff was shifted into the Guest Room Floor Tiles in the Study Room And more stuff in the Kitchen 17 July 2007, Tuesday We arrived and saw the lights in the house were on, and when we peeped in, we saw the floor tiles were laid. We were happy, finally some progress, but we just stopped at the main door because we reckon the the contractors left the lights on to dry the cement, and maybe to let us know not to step inside Tiles were fully laid at the Living Room

Hi jamez, The one we are using now is ACDSee, software that comes along with the digital camera I bought, I believe most digital cameras comes with their own version of software. There are also freewares avaliable, such as Google image software, think its Picasa, but can do a search for it. Hope it helps. By the way, glad to see your original state photos, hope to see more in the future!

Hi xiaomumu, So WIW is Walk In Wardrobe Actually thinking of having one custom made, but too much to include within our budget. Maybe will do it in the near future. We think as long as we did it simple and nice, is good enough for both of us, not need like Grand Hotel style lah. My rewiring package is 2.5K, dunno have you seen what we posted previously of what is listed in the package. If you don't mind, can you post your package details? Maybe the contacts too if you have? Yeah, never know when you need somewhere to store the barang barang like the vacumm cleaner, luggage bags and stuff. Our total cost is 25.5K but we removed the System 3 Non-Inverter aircon, so now is 23.2K. Almost the whole house is done up. How about your renovation package? Heard alot of raw material (e.g stainless steel, copper) prices are going up, so now the renovation package is higher. So have you started your renovation? Or had completed oredi? Mind starting a Reno T-blog too and share with us your renovation journey? :good:

Yeah, who come up with this forum anyway? Really provided a good place for newbies like us to get experience from. I am using photobucket too, so far no problem, maybe its your photo file size? Just a small advise, maybe you can resize your photo to maybe width 400pixels so that the photos will not filled up the whole place.

Welcome to Reno T-blog! Hope to see more photos in the future!

Hi everyone, Here's an update with some photos we taken on Sunday. Basically the screeding is in progress, and they are actually waiting for the tiles to come on Saturday, but we only manage to select the tiles on that day itself, so no tiles are laid yet. Hopefully today will see some tiles on the floor or walls. Kitchen Floor Screeding, notice the footprints? Dunno they will re-screed the floor again? One comment given by our "uncle" who was like a freelance in renovation was that the workmanship is not really good, so kinda afraid the final product will not be nice. Kitchen Bathroom Screeding, almost done, think they are really waiting for the tiles MasterBedroom Bathroom Screeding, almost done too. Another comment by our "uncle" was that they should scrape off the ceiling of the toilet before they began with the screeding as if they done it later, it will be more troublesome and messy. Anyone had the same experience? That's all for now folks, will be updating again soon. Hi MaCe, Had a talk with our freelance renovation "uncle", and he said that certain workmanship is required to paint with EasyWash type of paint as one entire wall must be painted continuously to prevent different shades of colour from appearing when the paint dried. But he also comment that if the original wall is not dirty, you can basically use EasyWash to paint the wall without the White paint. Any comments on that?

Hi xiaomumu, Our house condition is not too bad, but the bathroom ceiling seems to be covered with water bubble marks, dunno whether is caused by upstairs anot, but did not see any water drop everytime we visit in the evening time. We think we are going to stay in our house quite a long time because we invested quite a lot into the renovation. Do it once, do it good, as the saying goes. What's WIW? Our plan intially was to knock down the storeroom for dining area, but the agent and contractor advise not to because future owners may want a storeroom when they wanted to buy a house. So the storeroom stays and we have a small space for dining area. So you are still looking for contractors? Or you had engaged an ID (Interior Designer)? For our case, to save cost, we got the contractors without any Interior Designers, but we are always debating on the design Maybe you can look at some of the other member's blogs for reference too

Hi xiaomumu, Yes, our flat is near to 20 years old located at Tampines, 84sqm too. How about you? Where are you located?In Tampines too?

Just realised that we had not post our floor plan yet, so here goes: Floor Plan And here's some sample tiles we got: We had another discussion with the contractor again and he was able to get back to me regarding the painting and the rewiring. For painting, he says it ok for a different shades of the same colour for a room, no extra charges for that, but the paint will be those ordinary paint, all that for 1K. If want those Wash and Wear type, need to top-up. And if want different colour in one room, workmanship will be charged. For rewiring, all the sockets will be double-sockets, four each in the living room and kitchen, one each in the three bedrooms and one aircon socket in the masterbedroom, plus two telephone ports and one TV/SCV point in the living room. The MCB will be changed too. All that for 2.5K. If want to move the MCB down to adult height, then need to top-up 300. Additional sockets will be charged accordingly. Any comments?

Hi everyone, We are back with the 6th day of renovation (Friday 13 Jul 2007). Basically all the tiles had been removed and transferred to the "BIG Rubbish Bin", and the wall and floor surface are being smoothed with cement, dunno what is that process called. Here's some update photos to share: BIG Rubbish Bin filled to the brim Kitchen Kitchen Bathroom Kitchen Bathroom Wall being covered with cement MasterBedroom Bathroom That's all for now folks!

Hi fteocs, Welcome to Renotalk T-Blog, hope to see renovation photos soon. We just began with our renovation, but still not sure of what to do. Different ideas from two different mindsets:P All the best for your renovation journey!

Hi MaCe, Thanks for the recommendation, just went to Nipponpaint website and seems like there's limited range of colours to choose from. Dunno whether it is the same case as ICI Dulux? Just visited some of the other forumer's T-blog and found the COOLSERVE website that has quite competive price for aircons. We were quoted 2.3K for Mitsubishi System 3 Non-Invertor but were surprised to see a much lower price at COOLSERVE website. Wonder if there is any hidden costs? Anyone hired this company before? Care to comment? Also browse through the forum and found some related topics on Aircon, here's some link to share: How much u pay for your Mitsubishi Aircon?, (System3 or 4) Air-con Which Air Conditioner System Combination To Choose? And found two blogs that focus on Fans and Aircons: Just Me and My Singapore Ceiling Fan Singapore AirCon One section of the AirCon Blog talks about the difference between Inverter and Non-Invertor: Singapore Air Con : Inverter or Non Inverter Any recommendation for good service and competive price Air-Con Company? Still trying to source for a price lower than 2.3K. But heard some lower prices because they did not include the brackets and other stuff. One company I got from the forum topics is Cool Breeze Aircon (Contact 9387 3367). Any comments on their service? Hope this helps for those who are like us searching for the right Air-Con System.

Hi redbottle, Do you happen to have the contact for Hong Tar? Can you pm us the number and address? Well, we are just really novice at this renovation, so trying to absorb as much information from this forum because we have no much people to consult. Maybe will consider invertor, like what recommended by eR1C, but need to consult our budget again. P.S.: Tall HDB apartment you got there, how many storeys is that?

Hi redbottle, Welcome to Renotalk T-blog, hope to see more of your renovation photos posted here. We are also in the process of renovation, so trying to learn more from this forum and the experienced forumers. By the way, did you get your air-con from COOLSERVE? We are quoted 2.3K for Mitsubishi Non-Invertor System 3 by our contractor but they are offering 2K inclusive of installation, so wondering if there are any hidden charges? If you got your air-con from them, any comments on their service and workmanship? All the best for your renovation works!

Hi gingar, Welcome to Renotalk T-BLOG, hope to see your house transformation photos posted here. Have you sourced out your interior designers or contractors yet? Or still in the process of searching for one? Lots of recommendations in forum maybe you can take a look in : Renovation Firms and Services All the best for your renovation works!

Hi eR1c, Yeah, can't wait to see the start of the next phase! Also can't wait to see them ment the holes. Glad to see your house coming to completion, can't wait to see your completed renovation. Just browse the web again and manage to find some website for wall paint simulation, for those who are interested here are the links: Nippon Paint Colour Scheme Program Nippon Paint Product Range ICI Dulux Paint Mouse Painter Program ICI Dulux Paint Product Range Hope this helps.

Hi everyone, We are back with the fourth day (11 Jul 2007) of our renovation. Lots of hacked tiles still lying around the places and a few more holes were found. Check with the contractor that they will fill up those holes later, do not know whether is they hacked wrongly or the wall condition is really that bad. Wire meshes are exposed at the Kitchen Washroom wall. Holes are found by the wall side of the MasterBedroom Washroom entrance. Living Room Here's more photos! Study Room The "Two Cranes" Divider The BIG Rubbish Bin We will be back with more photos. The next stage of renovation will begin soon.

Hi everyone, Just contacted our contractor and ask him to get the rewiring package details from the electrician, just to be on the safe side. And also browsed the web for more information on HDB Fire Insurance, for those who are interested, here are the links: HDB Fire Insurance Policies AHA Fire Insurance FAQ AHA Public Housing Protection Plan As for the painting works, anyone tried the NIPPON paint promotion packages by HOMEFIX DIY Store? Seen their advertisements on the Saturday newspaper. Can comment on the two packages and the work quality provided?

Hi big orange, Thanks for your recommendation, but we are going for more light "HAPPY" colour concept for our house, so try to avoid dark colour, though we know dark colour is easier to hide the dirt. So are you doing your renovation recently? Care to share your link to your blog and your renovation experiences? Really interested to know more because we are so newbie and not much people to ask around. Hi eR1c, Thanks for sharing your blog with us, its really an eye opener Hope to see more of your photo updates! Hi MaCe, Thanks for your advice, will definitely try to browse through the electricals subforum, but we actually posted a topic on Rewiring but no much response then:P But from what we gather, the costs of rewiring ranges from 2K to 3.5K, but do not know what is included in the package. PUB testing is not a must? Does it means that it not compulsory for the HDB fire insurance scheme? Yeah, saw a lot of forumers got KDK, if not Amasco. By the way, how long your $20 fan last before they retire? zz3 to6 months?

Hi eR1c,guess you had met my wife, maybe you might even catch a glimpse of her on one of our renovation photos. Your house is really nice, hope ours turns out to be just as nice, though we are still pondering about our colour scheme. We are like the yin and yang. Opposite attracts. Thank you so much for your advices and we hope to learn more from you.