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Hi all, I seldom write bad reviews on anything, preferring to say nothing when i have nothing good to say. In this case, I've received such horrible serivce that I feel like i have to say something even though its going to be a long story. Its been a long time since i've come into T-Blog, but I used to update regularly on my T-blog Journey Home. Which i should really update again now that my home is quite lived in. So at the end of november, I went to a furniture shop at Jalan Besar that was owned by Lush. And there i bought two stools, (called Fortune Cookie Stools by a brand they carry called Matzform). Each stool was about 300 bucks, which I think most people can agree is not exactly cheap, but once in a while, we do indulge. The sales person, Dino, said he would try his best to deliver it before Christmas and said we would probably get it by then. The invoice wrote that delivery would be in 4 to 6 weeks. 1 week before Christmas, nobody has called, so i call to inquire when i would see the stools. They said oh, its not gonna arrive before Christmas, but it would be in by 15th January. Definitely before Chinese New Year. I said okay, do you promise by 15th Jan I will see the stools? They say yes, for sure. I tell them to please keep me updated if there the stools come earlier or there will be more delays. They said, yes, we will. Fast forward to Jan. I call around 15th Jan to ask, where my stools are. Again, no apology or anything for not calling me, just a "Oh, its delayed. But definitely before Chinese New Year you will get those stools." At this point, I'm getting frustrated. Nobody has called to tell me of delays, every step of the way, I've had to call and ask, nobody at Lush has taken any initiative to call me to inform me of delays. In fact, apologies for the repeated delays were also not forthcoming. All I kept hearing was, delay in shipping. So, 2 weeks before Chinese New Year, I am in full Panic Mode. I call and ask, where are the stools, I have guests coming during CNY, and the extra seating would really be important. The person calls me back after a day or so to say, we can deliver those stools tomorrow. I say fantastic, and i arrange for delivery. Day of delivery, my mother in law is at home waiting for it, as they are delivering during office hours. The stools come, and my MIL calls me saying "Its all scratched and there are dents." I talk to the delivery people who tell me, "You mean you dont know? these are the show room pieces, your new ones are in bad condition, so we cannot send you your new ones, we lend you the showroom ones for CNY." Since I had no idea of this arrangement, I called the office to ask what was going on. The office also expressed no surprise that i didnt know i was getting showroom pieces, which made me suspect they were hoping i wouldnt realise. They then said that my stools were still in shipping, and that they would be in Singapore 27th Jan but they were afraid it would be too short a time to ensure delivery so they decided not to risk it. At this point, i was getting really mad. First I had to call myself to find out where my stools were, secondly nobody told me they were sending me showroom pieces until it arrived at my door, and they followed this up by giving me different stories. Delivery guy says new stools arrived but in bad condition, office says they are not in Singapore yet. The office people then tell me i should be MORE UNDERSTANDING. As its CNY and these stools are called Fortune Cookie stools so they are very popular. But i ordered them in NOVEMBER. its not like i ordered in Jan right? All the while, they were completely unapologetic about it until i called a customer service officer to complain. When they delayed it the second round, I asked them to compensate me for the delay and they offered me $50 vouchers at their store. This time, after i REPEATEDLY said that they should compensate me, they said okay how about 88 dollars of vouchers. To which I said I would not be purchasing anything from them again, so i would have no use of vouchers. So after many tos and fros, they said 88 dollars in cash. Fine. And they said they would TRY to send my stools before CNY as I wanted to have new stools and not old ones for CNY. When i asked what would happen if they could not send me new stools before CNY? They said then they will refund me and take back the show room pieces. Take it or leave it. No compensation. This was basically the attitude they took throughout the entire episode. In the end i got so frustrated i said just take your stools back and refund me, forget compensation. And they did. But the entire episode has left a sour taste in my mouth and I will never buy anything from them again. Thanks for reading.

Finally the balcony blind is up. Cant wait to enjoy my coffee and relaxing at the balcony

Really wish you good luck and hopefully they could see all our frustrations here, although I doubt they do

Hihi, yah I suppose that's why most ppl dont shop on Rakuten Japan yet. One way you can do is to use the Chrome function of Auto-translate (although the translation is a bit funny at times). Anyway, I tried googling for a similar item in Taobao, so I think if you want, can consider getting from Taobao? http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.532.KVisRB&id=37961025370 HTH ~!

The house is really progressing very nicely The living room flooring and bathroom tiles is a very good choice Hope to see more updates soon

Yeah waiting for your WIW... Study table is fast too. How many sockets being provided?

I would say1. That you were parked for a brief period of time eg 15 minutes. 2. The reason was that you had a very sudden onset of diarrhea and needed to use the restroom urgently 3. Be apologetic I've gotten away using that excuse before. It saved me 70 bucks. Worth a shot. Heh. If re appeal, it goes to another officer who may be more compassionate so don't give up on the first rejection. Gd luck! Edit: if you had a kid, might be worth saying that ur kid was the one who had the diarrhea urge. Heh

yes, cover whole wall, becuz the hdb tiles very ugly

Hi, yes, my solid surface is from Ikea. I enjoyed using my ikea's kitchen. It is very functional and it matches all the ikea's accessories/fittings. While the soft closing provided by Mr Yeak for my other carpentry is decent and ok, Ikea's soft closing (supposedly Blum) is much better. We have no budget for Blum in our carpentry. Buying the ikea kitchen was very tedious: 1. I have to go down to ikea to study and research before knowing what I want and what is suitable. 2. I have to write down every cabinet that I want so that I can tell the ikea guy what I want to buy. I also use the ikea's kitchen planner software, which was not easy to use. 3.Then I have to liaise with the ikea contractors - one for kitchen cabinets and one for solid surface. And inevitably, I bought some wrong sizes for some cabinets. But luckily, the ikea contractor helped me to bring to ikea to exchange. I need not go down personally. Working with Mr Yeak is much easier. I simply have to call him or at most, meet him to discuss. I will PM you Mr Yeak's contact.

It's been awhile.... We've been busy cleaning and packing x 1000 times and slowly shifting our stuff over. Here's a very "zen" photo after a looong day of "work" Just chilling on a cool saturday night.... My amzing bath basin is up This mirror cupboard contains all my skincare, make up, girly things My table desk with space for hidden power sockets

Not much update this week as not much work was done in the early week Platform for Carpentry, Fridge, Washing Machine + Kitchen Floor Tiling Done Tiles for both MBR & Common Bathroom Done Aircon Piping (Done by Tim from this Forum) will be laid and will be completed by this weekend. **Next week Water & Gas pipe will be laid follow by the start of False Ceiling & some Box-Up.

Went down to blum showroom today. Address below: Showroom S.E.A. #02-00 Ubi Biz-Hub 150 Ubi Avenue 4 SINGAPORE 408825 Was served by a lady called Caroline. A very experienced and nice lady! She took time to look through my carpentry drawings and advice me on the different fittings. Look for her there if you are interested in blum products!

Usually if these drawing comes free of charge and your project is less than SGD30K it's highly possible that these drawings are recycled from other projects. As you would suspect the layout, material and items in the drawing do not match the quotation. I did my design with a design consultant with real measurement taken. They provided me with a set of Autocad drawings and 3d drawing. The consultant and myself send out these drawings for quotation. The quotation prices span from cheapest 45k - 66k, based on the same design. We then select the best quote for the project and they help me manage the contractor and their work. My flat is a 5 room resale and I paid 48K for the renovation and 4k for the consultancy fee. The consultant I hired can be found here boxwerx.com

Hi, so far so good. But i haven reach the end of the renovation so can really, maybe i would be able to give you a truthful answer once the entire renovation is completed. Draft 2 of the 3D drawing after our dicussion in day 3 of the renovation which he provide around the same week. ID redo the living room 3d drawing which was in the wrong orientation but somehow after comparing the first and 2nd 3d drawing draft, i think i prefer the orientation for the 1st drawing. So i guess he make a "waste" effort this round. 2nd draft of the 3d drawing for master bed room toilet with the actual colors of the materials we chose. 2nd draft of the living room entrance with the actual colors, although this is the 2nd draft for living room entrance i am not sure why he never decorate or produce the effects for the partition wall. Probably he might be doing a 3rd 3d draft for me ? Lastly, i would like to introduce the highlight of my renovation where more than half of the reno budge goes to. The renovation would be half if not for the extensive works in it. Presenting the final and 2nd draft of the 3d drawing for the kitchen. Will post further development and updates when i have the time again. Thanks for reading.

Oh genesis89, i am engaging a contractor. And in fact, i dont think i'll be getting any 3D as the carpentry is a different contractor.. But i have done some raw layman drawing on the design and dimension of my kitchen. Will post it up soon. Meaning... i have engaged different ppls for different job scope. And i have no renovation experienced ah! So fingers cross! Hopefully everything turns out okay! After my renovation is more or less complete, i will post out the different contacts if they are good.

When i first look at the 3D drawings, i was abit 'wow' as i did not really expect a decent 3D drawing from the ID as my reno cost is pretty small scale(about 13K). Most id either quote a reno cost of about 30-40k to provide free 3d drawings or those who request payment for each piece of 3D drawing rendered. There is the 1st draft of the 3D drawings provided by the ID. Living room view 1, yes i build a wall partition to prevent prying eyes from looking into the flat and also a full lengh shoe cabinet. Plants and paintings on the wall not included. Living room - Wrong 3d drawing orientation by the ID, anyway the scope of my work does not include fan , tv console, coffee table and feature wall. Once again, paintings are not including as part of the reno. Kitchen and service yard 3d - Mr ID forgot to add on colors and thought i chose plain white and black. Kitchen accessories not included Toilet 3D - Does not comes with potted plants and vanity below. After looking at these 3D drawings, i wonder if most of these drawings come from a certain standard template set as some of the items are not included in my renovation. Not too sure if any bros or sis could advice if 3D drawings are really made to measure.

For my budget, i aim to keep it below $25k for all reno works including electrical. wish me luck! Here's a list of what i need to get done: Kitchen white/cream granite top cabinet top and bottom on one side hacking of service yard build in oven in tall unit White powder coated window grills Sliding kitchen windows Clear tempered glass kitchen door (frameless) Living room Tv + computer console White powder coated window grills shoe rack beneath openet Install aircon sys 3 L box for whole of living and dining area 2 ceiling fans with light kit MBR + bed room Floor to ceiling cabinet, wall mount fan White powder coated window grills Toilet vanity set in both toilets mirror cabinet in both toilets shower curb in both toilet

Bedside tables I tried to find suitable bedside tables, but I did not find anything suitable. Most bedside tables available are bigger than the 40cm width which I was looking for. I quite like some side tables from kimono-net. A side table roughly costs $180 and comes un-assembled. I could assemble myself or pay $40 for assembly. Overall cost will be maybe $220, which was rather costly. http://www.ki-mono.net/index.php So I got Mr Yeak to custom-make 2 bedside tables for $250 each. The bedside tables are built to fit the available space perfectly, fitted with wheels, for easy moving and covered with the same laminate used for the other carpentry. image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr Source of inspiration: Journey East Inspiration for the bedside table came from Journey East. The one that Journey East is selling seems much bigger. image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

love the layout of your space

When I was a newly wed renovating my 5rm several years ago, I didn't do any babycare facilities such as the milk station and hooks for sarong cradle (see photo below). So when my daughter came along, we have to make do with changing the baby on the bed or study table. We bought a standalone frame for sarong cradle. It is common for most newlyweds not to allocate budget for babycare. Afterall, newlyweds have tight budget coz there's wedding, honeymoon, new house and reno expenses to take care of. Well, try to ensure you have no sharp edges in the house. All edges should be rounded. Our sarong cradle hook One hook is provided in each bedroom square hole with round peg by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr Sarong cradle frame (bought from kiddy palace) frame for sarong cradle (1) by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr frame for sarong cradle (2) by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr Most contractors will give you the sarong cradle hook free. Installation charge is probably part of the "install accessories" quote. Some contractors quote $10 or $20 for the sarong cradle hook. The frame from Kiddy Palace is alot more expensive. I don't remember the cost though I think it is more than $100.

More MBR carpentry is up! Here's my TV console, shelves (under the window recessed area) and study table. I have positoned the study table to face the pond. I will only be able to see the sky though when I sit at the study desk. In the TV console, louvre doors are used for the compartments housing IT equipment such as DVD player. I love how the carpentry laminate matches the parquet floor. Jay (my ID) really has very good colour sense. image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr The MBR wardrobe is done. image by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

My Grohe Blue Pure (the tap has separate internal waterways – one for filtered water and the other for unfiltered water, which means I can drink directly from the tap!)

Our funny bedroom ceilings In all 3 upstairs bedrooms, we have a square hole which contains a sarong cradle hook. We realised that it is less nice to have the square hole. However, we feel that a sarong cradle is a super important equipment when you have a baby and we decided to have one above the bed. vMBR ceiling by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr square hole with round peg by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr We didn't have such ceiling hooks when my daughter was born 2 years ago, so we bought a sarong cradle frame from Kiddy Palace. The broad square base occupied alot of space. frame for sarong cradle (1) by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr frame for sarong cradle (2) by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

ooh u r using the same contractor as my friend. unfortunately her reno doesn't seem as smooth as yours.