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Now Thinking About Renovation

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This step is more difficult than I thought because after surfing RenoTalk these few days, I realized that the renovation industry is extremely competitive i.e. too many players, big and small, from interior design firms to renovation contractors, can be difficult to decide on which to use, even if I decide on using renovation contractors instead of design firms, I still have to determine which are the reliable ones. The worst part is there are plenty of dubious forum members, sometimes it is quite difficult to tell who are the real homeowners who are there to share. So far I have one recommendation from a member in RenoTalk but I haven't contacted the contractor yet because I still don't know when I can get the keys, anyway let's look at some pictures, we are still thinking of how to do it, feel free to chip in some ideas if you have. By the way nobody is living in the flat but the owner's stuff is still there. Kitchen Entrance As you can see, the living room l
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My Agent Managed to Secure the 2-Room Unit at $250K!

Just now I went to meet the seller and his agent, I saw the valuation report and the valuation price is $260K, while I took a closer look at the unit, my agent managed to confirm the deal with seller's agent at $10K below valuation! After that, all of us sat down together including the owner, and my agent officially offered $250K in front of the owner and he agreed, it was easier than I thought. After that I checked with my agent about the last offer, he said there were offers ranging from $230K to $250K, somehow the owner decided to sell it to me, but I can sense that he is very eager to sell, heard from my agent that the flat belongs to his father and he passed away so the unit is left to the him but he already has a HDB flat so he has no choice but to sell it. I also scouted around the unit and the block, looks clean, doesn't look like there were any Ah Long harrassment, the neighbourhood is also very peaceful, the people there also seems nice, the area is also very clean un
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My Mom is Really Annoying

She keep saying that I will have difficulty paying for my own flat but I did my sums and everything is fine! If I can't afford it, then plenty of people also can't afford it, and how in the world did my friend manage to get a 3-room BTO at Ghim Moh with his mom for $370K? He has to pay $1400+ per month! About $700+ of that in cash! By the way he is paying by himself. Let me show you my sums. The unit I'm buying is valued at $260K, my agent is negotiating $250K and seems like he succeeded, tonight we will pay the option fee of $1K, probably another $4K next week to exercise the option and I have all the cash ready, in fact latest by Monday I would have about $10K cash at my disposal, more than enough for the deposit and agent fees. As for CPF OA, by Monday I would have about $75K because I sold my stocks recently. By the way we qualify for $15K singles housing grant. Best Scenario Buy at $250K, CPF OA $75K, singles grant $15K, pay $5K deposit, loan $155K from HDB, month
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Beware of Perverts Posing as Female

Last week, my wife told me someone messaged her on wechat or something, my wife mentioned that person is a female Indian national. Then just now when we went for a walk, she showed me the conversation, that Indian "female friend" was asking my wife out during weekend, I looked at that person's profile picture and it looked suspicious, picture doesn't look real to me, then I told my wife it's very common for guys to use a female picture to try to hook up with women. So when we returned home, my wife asked her "friend" of the gender, then this person started apologizing and revealed that he is a guy. My wife was shocked, she was afraid I would get angry and she quickly deleted the conversations and told that guy never to message her again as she has husband already. For those of you interested to know this pervert, here is his email: alagumathi143@gmail.com Please feel free to add this idiot into your spam list. And to the idiot, you are such a f
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SGH Orthopaedic Appointment in Late May

So today I went to see the doctor in polyclinic, he gave me a referral letter to SGH, then I went to the referral booking counter and the earliest date they got for me was 23 May, this lead me thinking, I have a serious back problem now and I have to wait for more than 2 months, by then I think my back would have recovered, then again it's still good to go for a check. But are we lacking healthcare professionals? Too many patients too little doctors? Something is not right, in Thailand if you have a back problem like mine, you'll probably get to see the specialist on the same day, do the scan and whatever necessary but here, wait 2 months, what a joke.
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4 days MC

When I went to work on Monday I felt okay but while I was bending forward to wash my face in the gents, I felt a sharp pain and a click sound coming from my lower back area. After that, I went back to my seat and as I sat down, I can feel my lower back area getting sore and when I tried to stand up, I can't stand up quickly as usual, I had to pause for a while because my lower back area felt very tight and painful. So during lunch time I went to a nearby pharmacy and got some plasters, not effective though, the pain persisted but luckily we had a briefing session near my home so I went for it so I can go home early to rest, I put on plasters, applied pain relief cream and hoped for the best. But the pain is still there and even got worse, it is especially painful when I am trying to stand up from a sitting or squatting position, so yesterday I went to see my GP again, he asked me whether I still have his painkillers and I said yes, so he prescribed some muscle relaxant and gave m
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Viewed 4 HDB Resale Flats Today

Today I finally met my camp mate's property agent friend, he is a very nice guy, very patient, polite and knowledgeable, most important of all I can feel that he is genuinely trying to help me find a unit that we like. All 4 flats are in the Queenstown district, 3 in Commonwealth and 1 at Tanglin Halt. Unit 1: Well Renovated 2-Room at Commonwealth This one is the best, when we walked in, we instantly fell in love with it, the renovation is well done, so well done that we can just move in without any renovation work, they even have one extra bedroom added and it's quite big, problem is the valuation price, $329K, last COV offer of $11K was rejected by owner. I don't think I can afford it even if the owner doesn't ask for any COV, sigh, so this one can forget it. Unit 2: Nice Looking 3-Room at Commonwealth Compared to the 2-room earlier, this one is a bit lackluster but the condition is still good, I think we could probably get by without any renovation, but sam
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Shin-Sapporo Ramen @ Changi Business Park

Yesterday I saw a leaflet from Yum Cha, it says there is 10% off if we bring along the leaflet, they also have a nice looking set meal at $11.80 so I brought my wife to Changi Business Park today. The place looks new and desolate but once we got inside the Yum Cha block, wow, can't believe there was such a long queue, no wonder there's nobody outside, everyone is hiding inside! Hot weather and powerful aircon, no wonder why. Anyway the long queue really put us off and we happened to see this Shin-Sapporo restaurant just beside and there's a few tables empty, me and wife haven't really try any ramen so no harm giving it a go. We don't really know what is good so we started with the friends set where we get to choose one ramen each, my wife choose the Chicken Ramen, I choose the Tonkutsu Ramen, the Tonkutsu ramen's name is longer but I forgot what is in front, and then we choose the Menchi, it's minced stewed pork, I don't know what sauce they use but
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How to Marry a Thai in Singapore

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