Tinkle,
We also have diff tastes from the previous owners. Prev owners are my parents age. So u can guessKhaha.. think roofing cost us about 2k. we used the brick tiles cos hdb did not approve the Perspex? see through material cos of fire hazard. Think our contractor lugi for the roof.
Gate for the stairs. Dont think Im going to do it cos my cousins with little kids told me that they found it more hazardous cos the adults kept tripping on the beam. The one on the floor. They nearly fell quite a few times while carrying their children. So they teach the kids about safety on stairs and all. But we all still feel breathless when we see the kids attempting to fly down the stairs. Require constant vigilance!
My maid stays with my kid in one room upstairs. The other rm currently is spare bdrm, converting to study rm soon. Think if I have one more kid, will let my children stay in the same rm to foster sib relationship. Then the maid will use the other room. In my family, we are very pro keeping the kids in the same room till they grow up. To teach sharing and all that. I shared rm with my younger bro till I was 13, then I had my own rm. My hubby and his bro stayed in the same rm till they went army. Dont know whether it makes a difference to relationships, but we tryKhahaK
Re: airconditioning the lower level. We wanted to have 3 aircons but the piping was a huge prob. So in the end we have one big one and one small one. Honestly, when weather is hot, or theres lots of ppl, I feel that the air con is not cold enough even at 18deg Celsius. Have to supplement with fans.
We also bought our place above valuation. We thought we had to pay a lot of cash down also, but in the end, we only had to pay half of the expected cash amt. we used the govt grant to buy this place. Maybe that made a difference. Youre not taking the loan from a bank rite? we took 80% loan in the end.
haven't take photos of my place yet. give me some time..i can open house for you if u want! haha..