cyprusblade

Oh the grip of the shoes is very important. Those hiking shoes provide the best grip, some sport shoes can be slippery too.

You have very nice dining table and chair set. Can kaypoh and ask what brand/model is the TV?

I have to admit I'm not very neighbourly. I'm only with the polite hellos and a few comments/questions but am paranoid when people ask too much. Oue immediate neighbour is a bit weird, he like to read the papers on the stairs in the corridor at night (save electricity?). They also like to plant their plants all over the corridor. I can accept it if the plants are nice but they're not well maintained and the whole corridor looks like a jungle.

What is the address for the sale?

No we're actually quite short. Then I'll just ask for 250mm then. Thanks for the tip. Oh I must have got my measurements mixed up. Applefreak, did you hear from Builders shop about the price of the intergrated sink? I also inquired and am happy to share the quote with you if you're interested.

Thanks applefreak. Can't wait for reno to complete!

Have thought about getting an intergrated sink. Any opinions on the dimensions below for a double bowl sink: Small Bowl Length: 300mm Big Bowl Length: 650mm Width: 500mm Bowl Depth: 550mm Installation Type: Undermount Configuration: Combination Bowl Faucet Holes: 1 Hole(s)

Can let me know your contact? I'm also interested in changing my doors. Thanks.

I prefer those with just horizontal lines across. Designs D, E & FG will be daunting to clean.

Just bought a 120cm (4 ft) Marble dinning round table with 6 chairs from The Helping Hands (Halfway house). Table was $679 and chairs $498. They happened to have a sale so price is after a 15% discount.

The bottom part of the main door does not close properly, even when the door is closed you can see a 0.5cm gap and can peep inside the house but since we're both quite careless, we can't remember whether it was already in this condition after handover from the previous owners or did it occur during the reno. I think we have to change the main door. As for the room doors, they have some impact marks on the front and we definately don't remember seeing this before reno and we think the contractor wouldn't admit to the damage judging from past behaviour. I will take a photo on our next visit so that you can have a better idea, forgot to bring the camera during our last visit. We'll ask him to change the gates over the weekend. Sink support was not stated in the contract, we are so careless. I think we need to be more firm and force him to give us concrete support for the sink. What is the proper term for such things, maybe we're not expressing ourselves well. The reason why we were so mad over this whole renovating issue was because we did not bargain with him when we signed the contract, we just asked him to give us the best prices. Maybe we were naive and we understand everyone needs to survive when they run a business so a bit of profit was understandable. When we chose the tiles, we choose more expensive tiles for the living room, rooms and toilet and he was apprehensive but we told him we were ok to top up. The top up was $650. With the electricals, he told us we have to top up $450 for 2 SCV points, 2 telephone points, 2 way heater switch and an oven point since it was not in the package. I'm not sure if he thought we were easy target when he told us he will charge us $150 for installing the lights. We had always thought installing lights is part of the service and not chargable. The buying of different brand switches as mentioned earlier was the last straw and had alarm bells ringing. So now we're trying to be more careful but he already went ahead and ordered glass shower doors before we agreed to it, so no choice. When we questioned him, he said I had already agreed to it, since when and how could I since I was out of town last week, I don't know who he imagined he spoke to. My husband also told him, please inform us of the date before you install the carpentary. He called me just now to tell me he will install this week but is unable to tell us the exact date. I already reminded my husband to call him to ask him the exact date again as we've notice he likes to tell me things but is not keen to talk to my husband and when he gets in a tight spot, he likes to tell my husband he told me already or I had agreed to some decision. Luckily my husband knows we usually have a discussion first before deciding anything otherwise he will cause us to have misunderstandings. We felt we have always been reasonable and hardly bargain with him except for counter top and free installation of lightings. Due to his actions we no longer trust him and just want to get the house done and never see his face again.

Am quite crossed with the contractor, found out he didn't sand down the doors before painting and just painted over. Not sure what to do now, maybe we just have to get new doors. Also tried to escape from re-doing the gate by telling us just straight bars down very ugly, look nicer with decorative elements. The thing we are most unsure about is he was telling us he was going to give us wood support for the sinks but I've read over here that concrete support is better. I told him at my grandparent's place we had wood support and that was water seepage to which he promptly replied was an installation problem. I can foresee if in future we have any water seepage problems he will conveniently just tell us it's the counter top installation problem since it's not done by him. So crossed and not too sure what to do???

Yes I was so happy with the price. The sales person we spoke to was called May (a Philippino, she's so friendly and accomodating, I highly recommand her).

I went to the showroom but the sales person didn't show me any samples that were on sale. Anything I missed out? But the sales person let me take some samples home to see if they match with my kitchen cabinets. Managed to scan them but u can't see the white one very well: Blanco Zeus Negro Stellar Both costs $190/ft inclusive of installation

Just went down to check out the house yesterday and quite happy to see the fresh coat of paints. We only chose three colours: Lilac White for the master bedroom, Lime Tint for the rooms and Lily White for the living room, balcony and service balcony. So now the house is nice and bright. The paint job they did on our main door is quite horrible they just painted another coat over the current orange paint so it was quite uneven and the door seems to have been damaged as it is now sinking to one side. We're thinking of changing the main and room doors but we'll probably look for another contractor, a bit fed up with the current one. Can't believe he went ahead to order our shower glass doors (10mm thick) at $450 before we even agreed to it. Not too fond of the front gate too since we didn't want some of the decorative elements and told him not to include them but when we went to the house and low and behold, the gate with the decorative elements still there. Told him to remove them. Following applefreak's advise, we went down to Builders Shop at Changi South to look at silestone counter tops which are around the $150-190 per foot and are stain, scatch and water resistant. We also went to check out the price of black galaxy granite tops and we almost !! when we saw the price $37.16 per feet (min order of 10 feet, no problems since we need at least 20+ feet), installation per order is $350, $80 per hole (for sinks etc). We calculated and when we saw that we'll have savings of 2K we called our contractor immediately and told him we'll not be doing the countertops. The profit margins amazes us. We also saw some of the tiles we chose for the house and they were 1/2 the price of what we paid. The next time we have to renovate a house, we'll DIY, so much cost savings. In case anyone is interested in the builder's shop, the sales service is really good. They're coming down to the house to do the measurements and are up front about all the payments. We even got a few samples to bring home to see if they match the cabinets.

NATAs fair is at Singapore Expo, more info here: http://www.natas.travel/ I went to Hokkaido 2 years ago on a fly and drive package from Prime Travel. Has a good time. Overall I feel the packages are more or less the same since they bring you to the same tourist spots but it's the food, accomodation and guides that makes a difference.

Anyone can help? Contractor told us he can offer $90/ft for 6ft slab, black galaxy china granite but price still remains at $150 for a whole piece no joint (think we need about 9/10 ft at at 1 side and 7ft for sink area) granite slab. The quality should be the same but the difference in pricing is another matter. Wondering if it's worth spending our money on or is this another case of asethetics. Another shocker: found out when we went to the unit today the areas we wanted sealed with plaster (small window in 2 bedrooms and hollow areas in corridor to room) was not sealed but painting of walls have already commenced. Spoke to contractor about it but he said the sealing will be done when the carpentary is placed in the house and the paint will be touched up later. Since the paints we choose belonged to the ICI/Nippon pentalite range, the touch ups will not leave any marks. Wonder if it's true.

Yes, that's why we have started nitpicking on everything. In fact, he just called me this afternoon to tell me the black galaxy granite top is $150/ft. I told him that about yang guo's quote at $90/ft and your blue pearl granite top (even more superior than black galaxy) is only $100/ft. So he said he will nego with his supplier or find another one. I'm so glad for all you forumers who gave us good advice, increase our knowledge and prevent contractor/ IDs fr thinking we're carrots, can chop!

Yes that was why we were upset. Plus we figured if we didn't call him, he wouldn't have told us.

I was crossed with the contractor recently. He called us to ask us if we wanted to buy some clipsal switches for the lights and electricals as there was a 50% discount at the shop. After some discussion we called him back to tell him ok. However, three minutes later we decided we prefer to get the zencelo range. Upon calling him, we discovered the switches he bought were not clipsal but the MK brand. I saw in the forum the MK switches gave some forumers some problems so we were not keen on MK switches. I explained to the contractor why we were not keen on this brand but he said his men had already bought the stuff. So I asked him if he can return it since it was not what we wanted in the 1st place. Not only was he not sorry for the mistake but he exclaimed in a disappointed voice oh I have to absorb it lor. Was so mad with him in the end we told him we'll buy our own switches. He only admitted it was his mistake a few days later. After this incident we are more careful when dealing with him.

The marble table you have looks very nice, the marble resemble the type our grand parents used to have.

Yes the shop you went to still cheaper and the marble nicer too. I don't like the man-made type of marble.

True hor, never thought about that.

119sqm 5 rm HDB

For those interested in applefreak's table, some info to share: Asia Passion- Blk 13 #01-02 Dempsey Tel: 6473 1339 125cm marble table + 6 coffee shop chairs $2400 Worldwide Furnishing- The Furniture Mall 7500D Beach Road The Plaza Block D #01-01/02 Tel: 6293 8581 4 and 1/2 feet table with lazy susan and 6 chairs (same type as applefreaks) $2680 Aero Furnishing Centre- The Furniture Mall 7500D Beach Road The Plaza #03-01 Tel: 6298 8997 4 and 1/2 feet table with lazy susan and 8 coffeeshop chairs $2180 Chin Heng Furnishing Centre- 17 Sungei Kadut Way Tel: 6368 8372 4 and 1/2 feet table with lazy susan and 8 (same type as applefreaks) $1780 5 feet table with lazy susan and 8 (same type as applefreaks) $2080 Shi Hup Furniture Decoration (Shop Applefreak got her table fr) - Blk 123 #01-106/108 Bukit Merah Lane 1 Tel: 6273 1498 The Helping Hand (Halfway House) 819 Upper Serangoon Road Tel: 6283 2204 4 ft Marble Table $679, 6 coffeeshop chairs with twin fish craving $498. Price was after 15% discount as they were having a sale.