bipps

Where are you coming from？ Private or HDB? When I was house shopping(HDB) last year, I made an offer 3 days after viewing same unit 2nd time within same week. If buyer comes up more than once more or less they mentally 'buy' your unit liao... And most units put up for sale were usually sold within 1-2 months. Unless it's a 2nd level unit above coffeeshop with a lot of fumes....Market at loss also might not get buyer so soon.

You could if the previous owner allows, but chances are they wouldn't as the flat technically belongs to them til the 2nd appointment is completed. What is the renovation damaged the property and 2nd appointment didn't get completed due to other reasons...You lose your reno payment, they get a damaged flat that they can't sell out.

Your DIY work **** chio can!! Are you using spray paint or lacquer for the gold finish?

Gives me an impression a toilet ventilation fan is more effective, plus cheaper too provided it's close enough to expel the smells from the cooker area la...

My response is late but no stopping me from sharing 7 years later. According to my contractor, marble CANNOT be overlay as they are natural stone. He refer them as 'breathable' and absorbs water may lead to further leaky ceiling issue from your neighbour downstairs. Therefore overlaying is not an option. Likewise I'm keeping the marble flooring intact though i dislike it saving me close to $20k

Prepared a Style Guide for my interior finishes for referencing before my 30day imageshack membership runs out...faster upload as many to archive it. Also added in a comment section which I will update on the similarity of catalogue or samples VS the actual finish. LAMINATES Wardrobe Laminate - Mountain Elm WPL3668MT Comments: Actual laminate on wardrobes looked more creme beigey than white. Not recommended if you going for white stained wood tone. Full Height Shoe Cabinet - Polar White Comments: TBA TILES Master Toilet Wall and Dry Area Floor Tile - SOON BEE HUAT Marmo11 Comments: Same same as image, Hafary had a similar tile called Marmo022? Extremely similar but pricing more expensive though both are Made in China. I still think it will look better if laid horizontally vs this showroom image. Master Wet Area Floor Tile - HAFARY Timber 002 Comments: Decided on this tile by bringing a little sample of Marmo011 and placing my floor tile selection side by side. Apparently, Timber002 is suppose to look like wood (Duh?). I didn't take notice to it's name but I must say the marble / wood tile combination sure looks good. Adventurous peeps may want to use this for shower feature wall. It looks like grey wood, but also looks like marble grains to me. Common Toilet Wall Tile - SOON BEE HUAT 6B60317 Comments: Was going after the marble look in hotels, and I love the look of travertine I see especially at Capitol Piazza toilets. This was the most realistic travertine tile I could find in SOON BEE HUAT AND HAFARY. The HAFARY one looked so fake. I'm sure anyone would have spotted the poor print resolution on the HAFARY ones. Highly recommended for the faux travertine look for this SOON BEE HUAT tile! Again, I still think travertine tiles lay horizontally brings out the actual marble look. Common Toilet Floor Tile - HAFARY RCRJ45 Comments: This was to replace my initial selection, objective is to avoid slipping in the bathroom as mom sometimes handwash laundry in toilet. I must say I like it alot! Looks suitable for outdoor garden use too! SOON BEE HUAT also has similar tiles like these priced lower.... Kitchen Floor Tile - HAFARY F2541D3 Comments: Wasn't 100% confident of this tile as it looked too smooth? Not enough wood texture for it to look realistic like real wood haha. Actual product did looked good and I like it alot! Wait till my kitchen cabinetry is up...see if the color matches up! PAINT COLORS Living - Universal Grey / Tulip White Comments: Universal Grey looked more white when I stepped into the house during daylight. You realise its grey only when comparing it with the white ceiling. Selected grey as I wanted to hang white frames on the wall and both colors marry each other happily. Comments: Tulip white, looked like a tinge of grey, but no lei. Actual paint color looked more whitish. I wouldn't say this 2 colors goes with each other very well, but still passable. Master - Western Navajo / White Comments: Trying to achieve a sunset relaxing color in my bedroom, actual color was TOTALLY OFF! Nothing like pale brown, nothing like grey brown, nothing like sand, nothing nothing nothing. Only to look like yellowish walls. This didn't impact my design much as my room furnishing are in white. white goes with anything. Guest Room 1 - Dream Yellow Comments: ehh.. one day I walked into the room expecting a nice faint tinge of peach Me asking the workers : eh? this room haven't paint yet ah.... Workers: paint already Me: where got paint! This one is old one la Workers: Paint already...You chose dream yellow right? *Brings along the dream yellow paint tin* Me: Har...why lidat one...like the old owner's color... Conclusion is, the dream yellow wasn't that bad la, at least that isn't the room I'm sleeping in. And mom didn't mind as long as it's a light color. But still looks like old paint job turned yellow, if you get what I mean? Guest Room 2 - Grace / White Comments: Was looking for a teal tiffany blue color, online, it looks perfect. Actual color was way more stark than this. Instead of having 2 walls painted, I told them to repaint the 2nd wall white otherwise the room will look too dark. Image below wasn't a true color as all the lights were turned on, would prefer having a more pastel teal than this. Think nursery room look.

Busy week for me...tons of errands to run. Going to ikea to get walk in wardrobe systems to fix, pretty surprise the 2m long mounts can fit into the little car. Guest rooms wardrobe fixed with rough edges and little defects polished up. I was a little disappointed with the laminates as they looked entirely different from the small samples and I forgot to head down to factory to take a look at the full size ones. Color I chose was white wood with faint grains, Mountain Elm. Actual ones turned out to be creme beige? See the difference in laminate color???? 13th April - Finally can see carpentry...Guest rooms wardrobes up!

I have never used a hood my entire life as mom's place is a standalone cooker with oven unit. Although I got one for my new place, I have a a few friends and my aunt commented that hoods doesn't do much to remove smell of fumes? It this true? I don't have fabric sofas but I didn't install a kitchen door either so abit worried about cooking smells getting into other parts of the house. Is there one consumer brand of hood that can remove at least 80% of the fumes effectively?

This is my first time using local agent.. my previous purchase years back were done up by GZ forwarder but having heard so many reviews on our local ones I decide to give it a shot. Peeka is out for me now as I cannot attribute anything to them except they have optional insurance and also very very expensive. In fact they refuse to insure one of the most fragile item I bought and I ended getting Amcom to ship (very risky! but no breakage sibei heng) I'm thinking it's not the forwarder but more on packaging issue when an item breaks apart. Very amazed at how the Chinese pack their stuffs..those layers and layers of cardboard and super thick air tubes that never seem to deflate even after I stomped on it the whole day.

You just reminded me to look through the bill, have this bad habit of paying for things without checking. The GST around $120, one item had to be picked up for extra SGD$40, delivery fees to my place another $40, documentation fees $35....all adds up. But this is definitely more worth it than using Peeka as agent as their RMB to SGD conversion is already a killer.

Me too! Since my kitchen is not done yet I also like to consider something more affordable than stone. The size of the tiles have more seamless fit to the conventional small square ones. Updates please @PinkMonkey !!!

Gam sia~ I'm going to buy spray paint tomorrow and spray paint it over the weekend...Do you think gold or silver is good? The current dark bronze more suited for baroque theme. And funny how the actual color and online image color differs so much! Here is the mirror link, I got the 800 x 1800mm selection. The 1st order was 700 x 1900mm and they weren't able to take on the order as 700mm too short?? So I had to increase the width and reduce the length for them to accept it... If you do happen to order it, remember to request for back/wall mount brackets attached on the mirror, mine came without and had to buy it from frame maker's shop.

The quote looks reasonable, and comes with 3D perspective so I think it's a good deal. Plus, the painting costs is one of the lowest I've seen for 4 room 5+1 colors. As for showroom vs actual quality, very hard to tell. But, if the showroom quality is crappy don't even bother talking to them! I heard majority of these ID showrooms are sponsored by the laminates, tiles, tops suppliers so it could be supplier's contractor that's doing the works and not the ID inhouse worker. Suggest to go down to actual site to view the quality instead of judging by showroom quality.

Bamboo Stick.Just like drying laundry...make sure it's dry before the next use!

Wah the legendary bachelor padder is still lurking here...your t-blog have fed me with alot of useful info! Like the wc position and smart switches information! And yes it is exciting at the same time mind challenging as every new thing you install, will somehow or rather affect something else!

Pictures please!

1.8m custom made wide mirror from taobao too! Super love this item in my walk in wardrobe... problem is it's meant to be a standing mirror therefore no brackets or hooks were given to have it wall mounted...Gonna have to source for those hardware myself liao...

What else happened between 10am - 1 pm on the Saturday?? The painting of the 2 guest rooms!!! Hey these workers have surpassed 'HIGHLY EFFICIENCY' already can!!! That morning when I arrived, NONE of these rooms were painted, AT ALL. So I was chatting to the lead worker for awhile and wanted to instruct him on the painting..brought him to the room...and shocked at how fast they painted the rooms...all I thought was 2 workers were chatting and sitting on the floor in the other rooms so I didn't bother even going in to see. They always shock me in a good way! Even when JL is not in town!

Unhappy Purchases that I used Peeka for... This standing vanity set from taobao (inclusive of tap, sink, marble top) is beautiful! But did not come perfect... One of the defects of the inner wood bar withholding the marble top...Use or don't use? Use! Use till damage and rot and I will never purchase such thing from taobao! Worker told me they won't be able to replace the defects with their carpentry as the risks of breaking the entire vanity is way too high... I will be happy if this can lasts 3 years. And definitely not cheap cheap type of vanity hor... This mirror CHIO SIA.....! From taobao seller's page that is... The actual thing... PUI PUI PUI PUI PUI!!!! I wanted to tell the worker that this mirror is so awful! Like ah neh color! You know the dark yellowish gold jewelry... But I didn't as all of them also ah neh... very nice people too. Going to spray paint it myself with either Silver, or Gold...which one better?? The 80KG sink....Super like it, Just not practical for old resale HDB as there will always be a gap behind it for pipe to pass through..unless condo or new BTO with concealed piping. Isn't it funny despite being as prudent as possible, things like that still happens after you make that massive decision to purchase items online. Now I ought to build a box up just like what snowy89 did...Here . Thank goodness I picked up the t-blog by chance otherwise I would feel like I'm in this alone.

9th April - TAOBAO UNBOXING DAY!!!! Loot 1 from Peeka - 340KG approv $550 shipping and agent fees Armed myself with the hammer I borrowed from my angmo boss, (wonders why he has so much hand tools at home)...ended up the friendly and nice workers unbox all these crates for me...would have gotten myself injured with the nails and sharp wood edges if I were to DIY all these myself. The workers put everything else aside just to do these for me.. ho touch wor... Loot 2 from Amcom Express - 1.88cbm approx $480 shipping and paperwork fees If you think this is nothing, think again, 40 packages big and small just from this Amcon shipment, ah this one I can DIY as all I need was a cutter, scissors, and my arms. Time spent to unbox EVERYTHING?? 10AM - 1PM. Not too bad for my Saturday morning activity! Specific item updates will be done once my entire reno is done and things fixed up. Some of the wood trash left behind....Carton boxes goes next to the recycling bin downstars...Wood trash will have to wait for workers to dispose it the proper way...Of course we can place it downstairs but kinda asking for unwanted attention as I'm the only unit doing reno works now and I want to avoid having unhappy neighbours and unhappy cleaners in my new estate.

7th April - The day I got angry over nothing...today is the day JL went overseas for 10 days so I did my due diligence to check on progress since he is not in town... opened the main door, kitchen floor in a mess...why are my wood kitchen tiles not up yet!!!!?? only screeding done??? walked around a little and as I was about to leave....I saw this....the dark wood tiles have been up! I didn't notice as the area was powdered with so much dust and plasterceil. And the tiles looked goooooood......! *feeling silly with myself for getting fed up over nothing So folks, I ended up NOT selecting SBH tile choices as I bought tiles from both HAFARY and SBH. Decided to return HAFARY toilet floor tiles as they were too slippery to be used in the shower area, never thought of slip factor when I selected it from the start. Therefore I can only reselect my chorchor toilet floor tiles from HAFARY though the SBH wood floor tiles priced similarly looked so much better....plus made in Spain somemore... eh....I thought I could be once proud I have Angmo tiles instead of Made in China ones... My HAFARY chorchor floor tiles... at least I can rest assured my Mom won't slip while she is in the bath..these 2 in 1 tiles looks like I could have my feet exfoliated at the same time whilst bathing. Save time sia!

I agree with you! Sometimes to make better decisions, I need more than just one JL to keep me in check....that's why I'm here! Yay +1 ! I realize after tiling that alot of coffeeshop uses this type of tile pattern...my 60 year old aunt also said so...but what's more important is owner have to like it! Check this out! If only the water piping didn't exist, I could play pretend I live in a palace.

Hey laks! Indeed this is like a mirror image of my flat! Except the WC 1 doesn't eat into bedroom 3. Even the indent rectangular hole in common toilet is the same as mine! How long will your reno take?

Saw this door during my reno research, it's called uPVC Foam Door (Foldable). Priced between $500-$700. It's pricey for a toilet door as glass provide better aesthetic plus cheaper too... I'm a fan of this door though they lasts forever, until the handle gives way and also not flimsy like PD or bifold doors. Google "Foam toilet door" and you will see many less known distributors.

In a dilemma on my kitchen floor tile choice! Planning to do ikea style beech wood cabinets for a soft clean look. Something like this type of color...However I still unsure what type of wood tile color should I be choosing to match with this beech color cabinets... my walls are laid using creme white tiles and no top hung cabinets. TILE CHOICE 1? My personal favourite! Feels warm to the touch (in denial cause tiles is cold) and printing of the grains looked super realistic too! Anyone on my side??? Please tell meeee TILE CHOICE 2? TILE CHOICE 3?