yokine9a

Hi sohck, how was your meeting with Ah Soon? Was it fruitful?

This method is Tell your ID to design the whole house & give you a detailed break-down quotation on each piece of work... then you remove those not so necessary stuff one by one during subsequent discussions to meet your budget.

I believe all real good contractors/IDs are always busy with reno projects going on... at the end of the day, it is this so-called committed to quality is important... it helps this good contractor outshines others. I engaged HB just after CNY last year, when they were not so busy, yet I was still the person inspecting the reno work... The worst part is, they are not so keen on quality... As long as things can work, they don't care about look... I didn't like the door handles they gave me, but the boss refused to change... my kitchen cabinet has many mis-drilled holes, can you imagine a drawer has 4 mis-drilled holes on one side? I can tolerate a busy contractor, but not lousy work.

Yes, it was an eye-opening session for me... from the sediment flooring to PVC rubber laminated flooring... & the BLUM mechanism is fun to play with too... Maybe next time, I will do away with handles for my doors/drawers Your house is really nice & high class, I don't think I have the $$ to renovate my house like yours, hahaha... nevertheless, I am satisfied & happy with my $10K renovated 3-room flat Hi sberrycupcakes, welcome to TPY As for your qtn, I paid $100 per foot for my granite kitchen top... you can supply your own granite, but this is not going to save much unless your granite is cut & polished to the length you want... raw granite is cheap, it is the labour work on cutting, polishing, transporting etc that is costly.

Hi wtc, $420 for living room, it is a dry-polish... I heard that wet-polish costs more but can do more work like smoothen tiny crack lines.

My contractor polished my living room terrazzo flooring. If the condition is good, can just polish it to restore the shinning surface. Not to sure abt restoring.

Hi jaskel, thanks very much for your time, food & walk thru of your house yesterday Spent too many hours in your house liao, feel so pai sei after looking at my watch on the time when leaving your place

Not a bad idea, part-time job for house-husband

Should be Lor 1 Toa Payoh @ Philips factory ba, they usually hold it there. I went to their last carnival in Aug 08.

1) Is it wrong to casual talk with the contractor's worker? (they will kapo and ask me how much I buy the house.) No, it is ok. In fact, both the tiler & painter talked to me more than their boss. They both knew how much I paid for the flat. I hardly see my contractor during reno. 2) Did your contractor workers leave down telephone number on the wall. If yes, how will you response? No, I didn't see any tel no. on the wall. Even if there is, I will probably just brush it off my mind. 3) Did your contractor workers ever ask from you money? No. 4) Does your contractor asked from you the last payment immediately after handing over the house to you? No, he didn't ask for the last payment till few weeks after I moved in. 5) Does your contractor ask you to install toilet bowl first? I saw a lot of member install last? My contractor didn't seek my permission when to install toilet bowl. As I didn't do any work in the toilet area, my toilet bowl was installed after it was delivered. I would say in the early stage of my reno work. But he didn't put on the bowl cover. There was once I noticed his worker failed to flush the toilet after use. I told him his workers could use my toilet but I am very particular about toilet cleaniness. I hate dirty toilet. He did something & no unflushed toilet bowl thereafter. 6) Does your contractor tell you, he cannot get workers? No. 7) How long does your house take to paint? (My house 2 weeks, blamed me on my selection paint instead of his manpower) 1-2 weeks ba. 8) Did your contractor keep dragging and telling you his workers cannot make it and suddenly paused your renovation for 2-3 days. No.

Well, at least with soft-closing mechanisam ba? If BLUM is expensive, then ask him to use other cheaper brand lah, like the one IKEA is using, not bad too.

Exactly, not easy to find chinese-educated fellows nowadays I was told that short-sighted people will still need reading glasses, but at a later stage of life. My friend who is 53, doesn't need it yet. When he needs to read small prints, he will remove his short-sighted glasses & read with his bare eyes. If you are keen on lasik, go for blade-less with laser cut operation. Lesser human error.

Yours look the same as mine... Mine is just simple cabinet with no BLUM & soft-closing mechanism. Since he promised to give you BLUM, you should insist for the change.

You wife must be very hardworking in taking care of the laminated cabinet for that 10 yrs... You can still go for it if you can maintain that kind of standard for your new house... But what about your kids, can they keep the sink area dry? I don't use solid surface, I use granite. If you still prefer laminate, which is much cheaper, go for good carpentry workmanship... Insist to use good quality laminated wood for inner parts as well, say no to those cheapo white plywood.

I am also chinese-educated but not from 华侨中学 Gosh, how come you need reading glasses in such an early age As for the BLUM system, yes, I heard that Ah Soon is using a similar brand. IKEA is also not using BLUM but something else. I heard that BLUM is pretty expensive. Well, as long as they can perform the same task, I reckon any brand will do ba...

Made in Japan... very expensive... my colleague bought it & highly recommended it to me... no need to monitor the fire... save your electricity/gas usage. 3L is $249 4.5L is $275 6L is $345 8L is $399 I went to Takashimaya in Apr, this is pricing I got ... plan to buy one for myself & one for my parents... they love to make soup whilst I want to use it to cook green/red beans soup BTW, don't go for those cheapo brands selling in NTUC or Sheng Xiong... they are not as good as those made in Japan.

I bought a super single max coil mattress... have been using it for > 1 yr now... not too sure about its history... individually pocketed spring... very comfortable to me. Don't just look at the brand when you buy mattress... you need to lay on it to have a feel

Hi, have you guys seem the carpentry workmanship of Ho Bee? I find it so-so only. Rondy's ID (Mr Yeak) quotes the same price as Ho Bee but he gives free BLUM systems & more expensive rocket switches. The popular contractor Ah Soon quotes even cheaper than 2 of them, also with free BLUM systems.

Don't go for slow cooker, try Tiger Thermal Magic Cooker... I am planning to buy 2 during the GSS (for good discount)

Hi honeygal, you might want to try this method. When you next flush your toilet bowl, press & hold on to the button, till the flush process completes & water in the tank starts to refill... I find this method helps.

Hi, welcome to renotalk... have any floor plan to see? Since Ah Soon is so busy, why don't you try Mr Yeak? Rondy's house is super nice & he engaged Yeak to do the reno work. Take a look at rondy's t-blog.

Go for it if you really like it & the price is within your budget. 9K COV is still ok since it is just opp the MRT/interchange, & you don't intend to do much reno work... btw, will that area be noisy since you are so closed to the interchange? However, it is also true that the price for HDB flats is still at the peak & it will go down further.

My parents' hse is using 2 heads as well... my Dad said I waste $$ for getting 3 heads in my own hse... most of the time, I use 2... one for cooking soup while the other to stir fry... the time when I use the 3rd one is to steam fish/egg/beancurd etc. I always make it an effort to use each of the head during cooking... just to ensure they are still working

honeygal, you might want to try this method to polish your black tiles. http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?sh...rt=#entry387932

aubrey must be very happy now, finally can start reno liao Glad that you have fixed your accommodation matter. Hope everything will be ok, don't forget to post pic on your reno progress