Philips Carnival Sales 2011
Date: 29 to 30 October 2011
Address: 620A, Toa Payoh Lorong 1
Time: 9am to 6pm



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I'm quite reluctant to put up this post, but I think quite many are interested to find out my renovation costs.
The renovation of my house was mainly in charged by Mr Tan, my main contractor. He's an experienced and responsible contractor, with very good workmanship. Except for the carpentry works (see here for the separate quotation), Mr Tan is helping me with all other renovation works.
My renovation cost done by Mr Tan here:

(the above total inclusive of $3,700 for a 3 in 1 Daikin air-con and moving and installing the old aircon to my tenanted house of $400)

Do note that this renovation cost was given last year in November 2010, the prices might have changed. My house is 1152 sqft in total, my wall is at least 3 meter height.
I am very satisfied with the work done, nothing much can be critised, you may refer to my other posts to see the pictures of my house.
I highly recommend Mr Tan to be your main contractor if you're looking for one, it is definitely value for money.
His contact: 96354336 (He speak Chinese, simple English only)
(Btw he has a scar on his face, but he's actually a very nice person, haha!)

I have 3 glass doors installed in my house. 2 in the kitchen and 1 at my MBR bathroom. Doors can be expensive and cost a bomb to your renovation budget, thus choose the right design carefully and wisely.

Costs:
1) Hinged glass door at the entrance to backyard (clear without matte finished) - $400

(exclude sticker - sticker cost $2 from Daiso)
2) Sliding glass door at the entrance to kitchen (clear without matte finished) - $600

(exclude sticker - sticker costs around $10)
3) Hinged glass door for MBR toilet (matte finished) - $450

(Price listed above are direct price from factory, you might want to mark up a bit if yours are from ID or contractor)

How to save cost:
1) Buy direct from factory, I got mine from a glass factory in Marsiling
2) As you can see, matte finished is more expensive than clear glass door, unless the door is installed for toilet, you can choose clear glass door and decorate it with some stickers. The reason I put stickers on the glass door is to avoid people from banging against the door when it is closed, it is especially dangerous for sliding door, funny, but it really happen in my old house before, when the door is closed, you can't really see that it is closed or open..... Besides, the sticker also made my doors looked elegant, don't they?

Pros of glass door:
1) The pro is of course it looked more classy and elegant, definitely better than the wooden doors.
2) It creates spaces for small room, not only the sliding door, even the hinged door make you feel your room is bigger, the effect is just like those glass windows.
3) It is easier to maintain the cleanliness compare to the wooden door, no wear and tear on the door except on the hinge.

Cons of glass door:
1) Cost more expensive than wooden door
2) Need extra care not to bang the door (although it is tempered glass)
3) The hinge might give sounds over time as the door is heavy
4) High repair cost if any of the hinge spoilt
5) Need timely cleaning if not will have visible finger prints etc

Maintenance:
Just wipe with damp cloth will do, once a month. For door installed in Kitchen, you might need to use some detergent when cleaning and wiping, as the oil will stick on the door due to cooking, but still it'll be easier to clean compare to wooden door.



Contacts:
Those who are interested to get the door may contact Mr Tan at 96354336!

I bought my Rinnai Hob RB-3VA and Rinnai Hood RH-90CD from Asia Excel at IMM (see my review of this shop here).
I bought the set of hood and hob at $980. The price was not expensive consider I was getting a chimney hood and a 3 burner stainless steel hob. I like the design of the RH-90CD hood, and this is the reason why I'd waited it for such a long time.
A picture of it with the hob:


This is how it was displayed in my kitchen, sorry about the messiness.


I got my carpenter to fix the hood and hob for me, however, there were some problems after fixing, like the hood could not function and the burner very hard to start. I called the customer service of Rinnai and the lady told me I got to wait a very long time to get the problem fixed. I threw my tantrum on her and told her I waited more than a month to get the items delivered to my premise and now it couldn't function and I got to wait again?! She possessed very bad customer service and we had a few quarrels over the phone and at the end someone sound like the boss came to my place to fix the problem. I did not know who was the guy but I was very satisfied with his service, he fixed the problem and told me the hood was not functioning because of the bad job done by my carpenter, he also showed me the burner was not aligned properly resulted in the problem. He explained to me how to take good care of my hood and hob. I would advise that if you're paying someone to install the hood and hob, it'll be better to get the agent to do it instead of your contractor.



A closer look of my hood:


After a year of use, my Rinnai hood is still functioning well, but not the stainless steel hob:


One of the burners is very hard to start fire

As you can see, the inside of the burner is rusted
Look at the circled area, it was also rusted.

As my branded stainless steel pot bought from OG also got rusted, I don't know whether the hob rusted is because of our SG water (the salesman from OG told me the rust is from the steel in the water), many stainless steel items in my house seem to get rusted anyway. The salesman told me, if you can wipe of the rust by using detergent, it means the rust is not from the item, I don't know how true is that you might want to give it a try.

Overall, I don't find Rinnai products excellent in anyway compare to my previous Elba, but as the price is quite reasonable to me, I'll stick to this brand currently and monitor the hob.

I did not do a search on this company when i purchased my Rinnai Hood and Hob there. They've quite a bad review from Renotalk forum.
I bought my hood and hob from Asia Excel in early September, I specified my delivery on 1 October, later changed to 14 October but it was delivered only in November. Just one week before the delivery, the sales girl Serene called me to say that the hood I wanted was out of stock, and asked me whether I wanted to change to another hood, although I was angry, I did not pursue, I told her I would wait for the hood and told her to remind the agent (she said this was the agent fault and not her fault).
I can't remember how long had I waited and someone called me telling me that the hood was still out of stock, this time round I gave them a fuss as I couldn't believe after such a long time it was still out of stock, I told them they shouldn't sell it to me if it was out of stock, and the girl calling me asked me whether I want to change to another hood, again. I told her no, I just want this hood and I would wait for it as Serene told me the agent would order it again in a month time. The girl promised me she would fax the order to the agent again. But this time round, I lost my confidence in Excel and I got the number of the agent from them and I called the agent personally. As expected, when I called the agent, the aunty picked up the call told me she did not receive any fax from Excel, so I had to coordinate among them to make sure my Rinnai Hood and Hob can be delivered on time......
Lousy coordination, and you only got to know your item is out of stock just before the delivery time!

Although I purchased my Bosh washine machine and Sony blue-ray from Harvey Norman, I do not have good impression of their salesmen, and given a chance, I'll not choose Harvey Norman. Last weekend, I made my mistake by going to Harvey Norman thinking that it was Gain City! Anyway since I was there and I had limited time to purchase the items needed for my tenanted house, I decided to make my purchase there thinking that the price will not be different too much.
My requirement was pretty simple, I just want something cheap, because the items were for my tenant, a calculative owner like me would not spend too much on the items, and I told the salesman there frankly about my budget. I quickly settled my purchase of a Sumsung fridge at $449, a LG 6.5kg washing machine at $299, and a Techno Gas hob at $289. The salesman kept pushing another LG fridge to me, for which the design is obviously not as good as the Sumsung fridge, which I spent time to keep telling her why I didn't want it. She also told me that I need to pay $30 to the Techno Gas man to install the hob, fine.
My real fire started one day later when my tenant told me the hood is not working properly and I went back Harvey Norman to check whether I can add in one more hood. As I bought a Techno Gas hob from HN already, I thought by adding a Techno Gas hood I can save the installation cost or probably get a lower price, but this is not the case! I stand there waited 10 minutes like an idiot and the salesman told me my hood size is too big that Techno Gas has no matching hood for it, unless I consider Glass top hood!? I told him I want a cheap hood, and I'm ok with any brands, still, he searched and searched his catalog like I had given him a tough task! He then turned to me and said that only one hood from Electrolux can fit the measurement, and that costs $445, after discount will be $399, and I need to pay $35 for installation, she said this money is paid to the contractor and not HN. I was a bit unhappy as I can't believe Techno Gas has no hood (other than those higher range) that can meet my measurement. When I asked why do I need to pay for installation again as I had also bought a hob from HN, was it because they are different brands? She replied me that even if the hob and hood are same brand, I still need to pay for installation charge for both as they are two different things, she further gave me a stupid example that if you buy 2 water heaters, the installation charge will be doubled. Still, I gave in to say yes, as I did not want to spend time to argue on the small discount, she then told me that the size of the hood is just 2 cm more than the hole of my measurement, and lesser than my current hood, this make me worry and I can't take it anymore! I told her, I'm not buying anymore, I don't get cheaper price for adding one more purchase, and worst still I don't have choices over the hood! Why should I buy from HN then?! I'm glad that my mind was finally clear.
On the same day, I went to Courts in TPY centre. When I was there, I straight away told the salesman my measurement, and my budget, he immediately introduced a 3 burners UNO hood for $358. Uno is a brand under Techno Gas, I was surprised that Courts can find me one cheap hood that can match my measurement and yet HN cannot! The salesman told me no installation charge, just delivery charge of $30! He even told me if this hood cannot meet the measurement, I can upgrade to another Techno hood at no cost! Just pay for the price difference of $20! I regret for buying my other items from HN, as Courts showroom has plenty cheaper stuff and more varieties, each station they have a salesman who are promoting their items aggressively, unlike HN you get many uncles and anties with limited knowledge serving you there. If I were to buy my hob from Courts, I would have saved at least the $35 installation charge. I remember year ago I bought my items from Courts at 3 different dates, they did not charge me delivery fee for the subsequent purchases.
Xian! Money spent cannot be recovered, I just hope you do your research before committing the purchase, do not end up like me!