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This February, RenoTalk brings you a brand new home & living fair, Only Home 唯有家 2016 – Café Confidential. Designed to appeal to homeowners old and new, it’s going to be an easy breezy affair at Toa Payoh HDB Hub Atrium Event Space. Grab a cuppa and have a chat with our interior design experts for a spot of inspiration. You could also just browse around for chic furnishings and stylish home accessories at the fair. Come make a coffee date with us and do bring along your floorplan! See you there! Date: 22nd to 24th February 2016 (Monday to Wednesday) Time: 10am to 10pm Venue: Toa Payoh HDB Hub Atrium Event Space (Outdoor area infront of Burger King) RSVP to join us and redeem your goodie bag at the redemption counter when you attend the fair! More information at http://bit.ly/fbOnlyHome2016CC

This February, RenoTalk brings you a brand new home & living fair, Only Home 唯有家 2016 – Café Confidential. Designed to appeal to homeowners old and new, it’s going to be an easy breezy affair at Toa Payoh HDB Hub Atrium Event Space. Grab a cuppa and have a chat with our interior design experts for a spot of inspiration. You could also just browse around for chic furnishings and stylish home accessories at the fair. Come make a coffee date with us and do bring along your floorplan! See you there! Date: 22nd to 24th February 2016 (Monday to Wednesday) Time: 10am to 10pm Venue: Toa Payoh HDB Hub Atrium Event Space (Outdoor area infront of Burger King) RSVP to join us and redeem your goodie bag at the redemption counter when you attend the fair! More information at http://bit.ly/fbOnlyHome2016CC

This February, RenoTalk brings you a brand new home & living fair, Only Home 唯有家 2016 – Café Confidential. Designed to appeal to homeowners old and new, it’s going to be an easy breezy affair at Toa Payoh HDB Hub Atrium Event Space. Grab a cuppa and have a chat with our interior design experts for a spot of inspiration. You could also just browse around for chic furnishings and stylish home accessories at the fair. Come make a coffee date with us and do bring along your floorplan! See you there! Date: 22nd to 24th February 2016 (Monday to Wednesday) Time: 10am to 10pm Venue: Toa Payoh HDB Hub Atrium Event Space (Outdoor area infront of Burger King) RSVP to join us and redeem your goodie bag at the redemption counter when you attend the fair! More information at http://bit.ly/fbOnlyHome2016CC

Date: 22nd February 2016 - 24th February 2016 Time: 10 AM - 10 PM Venue: Toa Payoh HDB Hub Atrium This February, RenoTalk brings you a brand new home & living fair, Only Home 唯有家 2016 – Café Confidential. Designed to appeal to homeowners old and new, it’s going to be an easy breezy affair at Toa Payoh HDB Hub Atrium Event Space. Grab a cuppa and have a chat with our interior design experts for a spot of inspiration. You could also just browse around for chic furnishings and stylish home accessories at the fair. Come make a coffee date with us and do bring along your floorplan! See you there! RSVP at http://bit.ly/OnlyHome2016CC to join us and redeem your goodie bag at the redemption counter when you attend the fair!

Hi All, Background of house - Resale flat and old tiles (small tiles) (Living Room Tiles) (Kitchen Tiles) (Condition of wall covered with wallpaper) Due to budget constraint, would like to find out from anyone who had experienced with their resale flat living rm & kitchen overlayed with homogeneous tiles instead of hacking and laying it with 3-in-1 prepacked cement and tiles. ID said better hack existing tiles and do up with new tiles then just overlaying it as new tiles might popped later due to:- 1) potential hollow space in old tiles 2) the moving of the soil etc... Worse case scenario, was thinking of overlaying Living room with homogeneous tiles but hack the kitchen and re-do all the tiles. So, needed advise badly for those who had overlayed their resale flat living rm and kitchen with homogeneous tiles 1) Has it popped so far? 2) Advisable to overlay living room and kitchen? Last qns, 3) as the condition of the wall and ceiling is very original and 'raw', should I plaster the wall and not the ceiling? All advise are welcome. Many thanks in advance for the reply.

hello all, i'm new to this as introduced by my friend to this forum. as i will be shifting into a resale towards the end of the year or in jan 2016 would like to know if there's anyway i can get a floor plan? the owner who passed me their original is decades old already. also, would be glad for a head start on what i can look out for and how long should i plan in advance to look for my contractor or ID... my concern is hidden costs if i were to sign an ID before getting my keys as to a few horror stories i've heard from friends.. or should i wait till i get my keys? to get a accurate quotation... heard a lot of extra costs esp for resale. kindly advise... thanks

How much trust you can give them ? IDs/ contractors especially we do know them even if is your best friend introduce you dont know that guys current financial status so at all time do not give "CASH" give cheque is ok but not 90% even before the job start choosing the right company is hard

Here is the quotation shared with us and we are planning to go with them. but it would be great to hear your thoughts on it as well. =D thanks! Demolition and Masonry Works a.To supply labour to demolish and remove L-shape brick wall between dining and kitchen $480.00 b.To supply labour to demolish and remove L-shape brick wall between master bedroom and bedroom $1,080.00 c.To supply labour to hack and remove door frame leading to bedroom $200.00 bTo supply labour and materials to screed and lay living and kitchen flooring with skirting in selected floor tiles ($3.50psf tiles)$ 8,970.00 e.To supply labour and materials to lay bedrooms flooring with 70mm x 12mm x 30mm vinyl strips $3,980.00 Dining a.To design and build 4ft oversized half height shoe cabinet with casement door in selected laminate finish $680.00 b.To supply and install 4ft 10mm tempered glass on shoe cabinet $500.00 500.00$ c.To supply labour and material to install 7ft Samsung solid surface for dining table top in selected design $1460 d.To supply and install 10mm tempered glass fixed panel for dining table base $300.00 Living Room a.To supply labour and material to lay ventilation blocks to separate dining and living area $1,500.00$ b.To deisgn and build 7ft suspended concrete ledge for TV console$1,090.00 c.To design and build 13ft full height storage cabinet with casement door in selected laminate finish 3,380.00$ Kitchen a.To supply labour to install new sink and kitchen applicances $400.00 b.To design and build 10ft top hung kitchen cabinet with casement door in selected laminate finish $1,430.00 c.To design and build 19ft suspended kitchen cabinet in selected laminate finish $2,720.00 d.To supply and install 19ft Samsung solid surface for kitchen top in selected design$ 3,090.004 Common Bedroom a.To supply labour and material to install veneer door with cylinder lock in selected colour $630.00 Master Bedroom a.To supply labour and material to install veneer door with cylinder lock in selected colour $630.00 b.To supply labour and material to build brick wall to cover existing entrance to bedroom 2 $380.00 c.To supply labour and materials to install 10ft partition wall behind bedhead and study table$1,300.00 d.To supply labour and material to install 5ft 10mm tempered glass panel on half height storage cabinet $550.00 e.To design and build 5ft half height island cabinet with casement door in selected laminate finish $1,250.00 f.To design and build 14ft full height wardrobe with casement door in selected laminate finish $3,640.00 g.To design and build 3ft suspended dressing table with drawers in selected laminate finish$650.00 h.To design and build 6ft suspended study table with drawers in selected laminate finish $1,150.00 i.To design and build 6ft half height bed head in selected laminate finish$1,010.00 j.To design and build 3ft side table with drawer in selected laminate finish$430.00 k.To design and build 10ft window bay with storage cabinet in selected laminate finish$1,950.00 Master Bathroom a.To supply labour to remove exisiting sink unit and soild surface$150.00 b.To supply labour to install new sink$100.00 c.To supply labour and material to install 3ft 10mm tempered glass fixed panel with aluminium frame for shower stall$500.00 d.To supply labour and material install 10mm tempered glass fixed panel for toiletries shelving$150.00 e.To supply labour and material to install 6ft half height mirror across the bathroom$560.00 f.To supply labour and material to 4ft Samsung solid surface for vanity countertop in selected design$650.00 g.To supply labour and material to install full height brick panel feature wall on shower head wall$1,400.00 h.To supply labour and material to install 10mm frosted tempered glass swing door with fixed panel$680.00 i.To design and build 4ft vanity storage cabinet with casement door in selected laminate finish$570.00 Miscellaneous a.To supply labour for disposal of renovation haulage and hacking debris$800.00 b.To supply labour for general cleaning$500.00 c.To supply labour and materials to screed and make good all hacking affected areas$1,500.00 d.To supply labour and paint to paint entire house$1,450.00 e.Submission fees to HDB for approval for hacking of walls$300.00

Dear Readers, I am writing this post to alert everyone on the questionable business practice of an Interior Design/ Contractor named Interior Factory Pte Ltd. The registered director is called Alloysius xxx, and the interior designer for our project is Xavier xxx. *** We got the keys to our BTO early this year. Just like other couples, we were exited to have a place of our own but at the same time, we were also nervous about choosing the right interior design firm that fits into our concept and budget. We settled on the above mentioned company after talking to several other IDs. It turned out to be a bad decision and the start of our ordeal. Long story short, we paid 95% (in accordance with the contract) what came up to be $31,000. A reasonable time frame for completion would be 1-1.5 months but 4 months into the project, many areas of the house like the Quartz kitchen top, window grills, shower screen and some other miscellaneous items are still missing. At this point, both the boss Alloysius and the designer Xavier were unreachable. Even on the odd occasion when Xavier picked up the call from a number other than mine, he sheds all responsibility on this issue, claiming the boss has taken all the money and gambled them away. To compound matter, their workers damaged the timber flooring on all 3 of the bedrooms. The dents are obvious and irreversible. Engaging another contractor to varnish them cost us another sum, on top of the amount to complete the unfinished work. On Interior Factory, Alloysius and Xavier -The address on the agreement is a home address rented by Alloysius. The problem is, he no longer lives there. Going down to this place, the other tenants told us he hasn't been living them for some time already. -If the above is true, then there's a conflict with the registered address on his NRIC. The address on his NRIC is the same as the address on the agreement. But if he doesn't live there and didn't update his current place of residence, doesn't that constitute to an offence under the Singapore law and penal code? This is all the more jarring as he intentionally conceals his real place of residence as an escape to con people of their hard-earned money. -From our understanding and talking to other contractors, he also owes other contractors and sub-contractors for the work they have done for him. While some have tracked him down and he promised to return them the money on a said date, he has never deliver and has been on the run since. -Xavier, while obliging and extremely friendly initially, started becoming less responsive and eventually uncontactable as the project drags on. Simple requests like rendering the color of cabinets, showing perspective from different angles all didn't get done. He even got the paint color of our walls wrong! He has already failed us on so many instances, building up empty promises like finishing this aspect of the renovation by a particular date etc. When confronted, he displayed an air of arrogance and proceeded to say there is no point looking for him. On hindsight, we should have: - Dictate our own payment terms. Some companies will point the industry practice of A% deposit, B% upon commencement of project and C% when blah blah blah is up. The point is, make progressive payment only when work is done, not when you assume the work will be completed. This way, if they run into cash flow problem (which is common) or any other issues, you minimize the damage and don't end up losing too much money. If they don't adhere to your request, take the business elsewhere. There are tons of companies out there. - Meet the boss of the company. Have a conversation with him at his office, not some other places like McDonald's. Be weary if he insists on meeting outside. *** At the end of the day, despite all this unfortunate happenings, we also have to hold our hands and admit that our inexperience. We were too trusting and too big-headed to accept advises. While I struggled to recount the experience, I believe it's our duty to highlight this case and bring it to the attention of readers here. It's been a rocky journey in building our first home, but it's even more depressing knowing that the law can't bring shady businesses like this to justice. CASE and SCT have limited power to act against matters like this. If we were to engage a civil suit against them, they could declare bankrupt and shut the business. Because these scumbags will continue to act in their own interests, it's best to know who are the black rats, avoid them and warn people you know about their questionable ethics.

please remove this thread, thanks.

Hi, Anyone have any feed backs on Benz Design Studio?

This t-blog chat is meant for documenting the process of both my HTB and myself on how we went about getting the resale flat with HDB loan, finding the renovation guys, the renovation and hopefully all the way till the house is ready when we get married in November. Yes, this sounds like more than a handful and very high probability of driving someone insane. I used to document all these in my "Little Brown Book" which is getting out of hand. Like literally. Scraps of paper spilling from the edges of the book and tags that no longer able to serve its purpose if i really were to tag them down. So a sneak peek of how my "Little Brown Book" looks like: I happened to talk to a previous Event Organizer which my company had engaged when i served the Company Welfare committee and we chanced upon talking about looking for a housing agent. The very nice lady, Carol recommended me Gilbert. I had told Carol to provide my contact number to Gilbert and i receive the phone call the very next day. We got to know that Gilbert is from K*****f**n*. Originally my HTB and myself were thinking, doesnt knightfrank does more commercial than hdb? But well, lets give it a go and see how well it goes. We were almost sure what we wanted and told him our requirements i.e.: Which townWalking distance to MRTMin floors and aboveOnly corner unitSizing of the flatBudgetDoor facing (with the advice from the fortune teller previously at farm mart, now at pioneer point) The next week, we met up and saw at least 7, sorry it is 9 houses that fit all the requirement in 6 hours. A marathon that got us really exhausted but we saw two houses that caught our eye. One is fully renovated but shows some signs of design fault with regards to aircon ventilation that got the wall a little murky in the Master Bed Room which i fear for. And the other one is just a plain old house with no built ins at all and it is just clean and spacious though areas that needs to be done, needs to be done say for toilets and kitchen. We picked the second option which we called it "our place" and told Gilbert to express our interest to purchase the house, the whole buying thing got a little bit exciting as there were other buyers who are interested in the place. But we got it. (HE HE HE ) It is a spacious 5I which is very boxy and filled with beams across the house.Floor plan as below: And it is time to source for Renovators....

Started this quite late but got inspired by a neighbour so here goesss.......... November 2011, my then fiance, now hubby, was waiting anxiously for HDB to release new flats and due to his foresight, Punggol and Hougang would be a good estate. It is still 'empty' now and not as crowded as mature estate, its accessible and in the near future, it would be a booming estate where property value would go up. Especially for Punggol So when the new releases came out, HDB released both Punggol and Hougang but after seeing the location of Punggol's BTO and seeing the waterway, WE'RE SOLD! It is so near the mrt, it has the waterway as a view and its so near the new big shopping mall thy're building (Watetown) which is the same size or bigger than Vivo City. So of course, duh punggol waterway! With the new road opening up to Seletar, his drive to work from home would be 10 minutes or less, what a good life for him! So on January 16 - We collected our keys! Above: We were so happy that we chose a corner house! All that big space! We're already coming up with crazy ideas on how to make outside look awesome! Above: The living room. Sorry quite small! Above: Our Walkway Our kitchen and very tiny masterbedroom

Hi Is anyone try renovation with " Space Concept" before ? Please share your experience with me. Their office at Bukit Merah.

After thinking for sometime, i decided to write on the renovation for my house. From buying to waiting, to check for defects, sourcing for ID or contractors, buying furniture to cleaning up, moving and packing is a long process. Finally I have just moved in to my new house and have the time to go through this process. I like many homeowners wanted the best deal and the best place that we could call our home. In order to search for the best id or contractor, we went through a a number of contractors and ID quote. We repeated the same idea and concept for the house to every of them. The reactions of them are several 1) Cannot really be bothered Just take down what you want and send you to the door. In the end , there was no quote given. 2) Quoted a real high price although we have given them a range of our budget within $20K to $30K but quotation was $40K+ without any breakdown 3) Give a quote within your range but leave out a few items so that the quotation is below the range (Note: there may be the add ons after that) Contractor's pricing is definitely lower than an ID provided you know exactly what you need but in my case i am not too sure of what i wanted. I only knew i need a bigger kitchen and good space planning ideas as i do not have a storeroom. Only at One of the meetup with one ID, John, he was able to give me ideas, he drew a rough concept on how it would look and advise against having the cupboards full fledged across the living room as it is costly and it would make my living room to look very squeezed out. As my unit is a 2 bedroom SOHO, so with the height at 3.35m, i wanted my living area to be spacious. I thought his idea was perfect. He listens to our ideas but keep his options and suggestions open. A very patient and creative person. At the first meeting only, he could somehow make us convinced to sign up with him but we didnt as we wanted to keep our options open first and not commit so soon. He showed us photos of his previous works as well. A very down to earth guy i would say. So we waited for his quote and he gave us in a week time and offered to bring us to his in progress clients' place to see how his carpenter workmanship. But in the end we did not go but we went to the office to see the samples of the laminate , quartz. Till this date i am happy about the whole selection that i go with John as he has made it simple for us to understand and give suggestions easily. So after discussion we went signing up with him and has not regretted ever since. I wanted to upload some images but not sure how to do it so that i could show the raw photo and the 3D Drawing as well as the actual after renovation photo but not sure how to do it. Probably can advise?

I recently approach an ID at Soon Wing Building (Its the only one). Paid deposit to start work on renovation, however i could not contact them now. Do you guys have any experience with this ID. Do share more. Thanks.

Hi! I am interested to do a refurbishment of my apartment at The Parc Condominium. I say refurbish because I had a renovation done just last year when I moved in and it was a really crappy job. This and because my puppy had totally destroyed my doors, I would like to do a change. 1. 1st bathroom - Reno, includes Hacking of bathtub to convert to shower area. This will include changing of the tiles/wall/bay windows 2. 2nd bathroom - Reno 3. Change of bedroom doors (including doorframe, there are 3 doors) 4. Hacking of low wall between kitchen & clothes drying area 5. Painting of whole house Can anybody recommend me a good contractor or ID for the job? I have a tight budget for the above.

Hi, It is my first time meeting ID for my first 5 room resale flat. What are the questions should I be asking the ID? What are the works that they should cover and not? What are the hidden cost or gimmicks that they might play which may add on to our final paying price? I saw a topic on a list of questions to ask ID here before, but cant find the topic anymore. Can you help us?

Hello All! Thanks to all fellow T-blogger in renotalk, we have learnt much and finally get to start our very own T-Blog! Here is our floor plan for 4room BTO at Fernvale Rivergrove. We've opt-in for HDB tiles and doors. And heres our self drawn concept on what we plan to do. We spent around 1 month plus meeting 6 different ID and finally found our right one! The next post will share more about our ID meeting process and we'll collecting keys next week! So excited ~

Finally starting a T-Blog here with my free time! This post is over-due because I collected my keys 6 months ago, our first house at Anchorvale (5 Room) after getting married in May last year. The bare, clean and white area that we spammed lots of pictures before the commencement of all the renovation works. My fav part was the huge living room which made up for the tiny rooms.