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The "fish tank" look. Looks like an enclosed space in the carpentry. The frame amplify the "fish tank" feel. So instead of solid top of granite, stone etc, we replace with carpentry. And the top layered with tempered glass act as protected against the carpentry. Additional lighting are added, as ceiling lights are not bright enough due to design. Another design idea from Mr. Foo. The slide out is good for using rice cooker/electric kettle etc where the steam can emit directly and not onto the carpentry. Further to that, can act as an "island" for food preparation with things within reach.

Its really hard to have cheap and good in Sg becos almost everyone also wants the same thing but oh well, we still try our luck lah. We got our Anchorvale Horizon BTO flat keys in early April and after a full month of consulting 5 different IDs and contractors alike, we finally settled on our current contractor, Nick from Renoguyz. To be honest, initially we didn't even considered Nick for various reasons: 1) Too sloppy looking. Look as if he isn't serious. When we brought him to our house and told him the many things we wanted done in our house, he just looked around and went "hmm... hor...orh....orh..." without even taking any notes at all! *Another factor that WOWED us later is that despite not taking down any notes that day, within 24hrs Nick emailed us the quotation with all our comments in detail! This guy may look blur but he's actually very alert of what's going on around him!* 2) Too blunt and too honest. I die die wanted to have my dream of a bathtub in my MBR toilet. Nick kept putting me down and said difficulty such as aircon piping issues, height, etc etc.... to Nick, practically more important. So we went on to get quotations and consultations with 3 other contractors and ID. For the amount of work that we are planning to reno our flat: MBR wardrobe, bay side window, MBR toilet with cabinet shelving and bathtub, living room feature wall, false ceiling and kitchen cabinets. No flooring to be done as ours us the Premium scheme from HDB. We almost picked another contractor who had a good portfolio doing up for MBS until.... my hubby being the sharp one, spotted a quotation from Nick that the latter quoted us for quartz kitchen table top. The other contractor that we almost picked quoted the same cost as Nick, only that his quotation had solid surface table top instead. That means Nick's quotation is cheaper by 2k. 2k is alot for young couples like us as we have to factor in other miscellaneous costs from furnishings to electrical appliances and even our system 4 aircon. So that's when we decided to go ahead with Nick. No wonder he was recommended by one of my estate neighbor who have read good awesome reviews on Nick from Renoguyz. And being a kiasu lady, prior to my confirmation with Nick, I googled his company's name, his name and even his HP number to make sure I'm throwing my dollar at the right person. Guessed after all my initial impression of him is no less different from the other reviewers: sloppy, dazed and blur looking, blunt, but he gives cheap yet very good workmanship. So the whole reno loan process went on and after a few more time of meeting up with Nick we began to like him more. His top 优点 is Integrity. He has his reasons for being blunt which is giving the best work done for his customer. Like how I wanted so much to get chandelier lighting from taobao (cos many of my friends are using the same chandelier and it looks very nice. And cheap too.) for my dining table but Nick says no because the whole look won't fit our quasi Scandinavian-Modern Resort look. I didn't believed him at first and secretly went to Photoshop the 3D design with the mentioned chandelier and I was shocked by how good his visualization is. The chandelier indeed stood out like a sore thumb against the backdrop. Sometimes, lesser is always better. We started to like Nick even more. He rather say No to us than have the whole work end up crap looking. So much so that we ended up consulting him on the colors and types of matching furnishings to pair with the wall colors, cabinet laminates, the full length wall mirror, etc... Thats the good thing about Nick that my husband likes: brutally honest but it's for the good of the customer. Some customers may want their own designs/colors becos they look nice to the customers themselves but may actually not be nice at all becos of the clash. Nick is the sort that he tells us No means No. Yea, we kena lectured by him a few times cos we asked for some colors and designs that actually ended up looking ugly. We rather he be honest and give us the good workmanship than be a Yes man to whatever we wanted and end up look like crap house that is neither here nor there. Yes Man sales tactics never worked for us. I forgot to add too, for Nick's very low profit margin quotation (no wonder he charge so cheap cos he spoil market ), he gives a value added service as an ID (Nick had prior experience as an ID at D'Trenzo) without the ID cost. One ID we consulted quoted us 32k for less than what Nick offered at $24k despite the ID himself being the spouse of my husband's friend. I'll post pics of my 3D design flat in this post soon as my flat is still in the process of renovation. So far almost 2 weeks have past and my beloved bathtub and false ceiling is up. The carpentry is gonna happen this week and I'm too excited over it. I'm posting this up first as so far I'm very satisfied with what we've gotten. I will update more in this post as I go along over the next few weeks.

santorini inspired home sounds lovely

Camping here to see ur updates! so excited for u

Our nickel finished rainshower system Double glass rack from TB. 1 piece WC suite and nickel finished bidet spray. Both from Living Phenomenon. We got these individual hooks for towels and clothes because we find that those 1 panel with 4/5/6 hooks are not that pleasing to our eyes. We did not do any modification to our common toilet as we will not be using it often, unless urgent case. Joven 35L storage heater @ common toilet. Basin from HDB, not gonna change it. Glass shelf from TB.

Hi Aspialle, it is in Tampines (opposite Temasek Poly) I think Dec 2015 was the latest possible... the info board during the construction period indicated July 2014. Hi Family Guy72, According to my ID and the others whom we didn't select in the end... the workmanship is pretty good compared to some condos they've seen recently... In my opinion, I think the defects aren't very major, but really depends on your luck, some of my neighbours have worse/better workmanship in their units... and the main contractor seems to fix them pretty quickly... some stuff they will never replace - like doors, my scratched balcony door glass, manufacturing flaws in my sinks... some design flaws in my neighbours unit also cannot change.... so gotta live with it where abouts is your new place??

Continue from previous : Kitchen (From Entrance) Kitchen (From Utility Room - Back) *That is all the pictures for now. When all the items are in and sorted out, will post the final pictures.

Continue from previous : Common Room (Study Room) Master Bedroom (From Entrance) - Warm Light Master Bedroom (From Bathroom) - Day Light

IDs that I contacted either just randomly or through friend's recomendation. Lourve Design (Sheena) Met her at her office at Sembawang shopping center, sent her my floorplan. She replied with afew questions and didn't get back to me with a quotation. Subsequently I gave her a call and she said she have left the company. No follow up from anyone else in the company. Interi Koncept (Valerie) Heard raving reviews from an ex colleague that had used her, his relative also used her about 2 years ago and says that her price was reasonably good. If i'm not wrong, she's the boss. She came down to my house to do a site survey and we had some discussion. Received a quotation from her within the week, however it was on the high side for me base on the things that i was looking to do which wasn't much. She also couldn't be bothered to follow up or be open to negotiation. Overall feeling i get was that maybe I wasn't her target group as she had the "take it or leave it" attitude. I wouldn't deny her portfolio seems really nice, but then again. I have a budget to stick to and she wasn't friendly enough for me to consider her. Contractor: Annie Heard my friend raving about how she managed to work within my friend's budget and yet still deliver good results. However, she sent a guy down and from my conversation with him. He is almost as clueless as me when i raise my concerns on flooring, hacking of wardrobe etc... How can i trust him when he can't even answer simple questions? Next was he had trouble sending me the quotation as he kept typing the wrong email address. After giving him an alternate email. He forwarded the mail without the attachment. How careless and blur? I cannot convince myself to entrust him with my house renovation if he cannot be careful with the little things. Contractor: Max I had 3 ex colleagues using him. With 2 out of 3 giving him the thumbs up for his meticulousness as well as value for money. However, 1 of them did told me that workmanship was "so-so" only. Shortly after i got a quote from him, which was really reasonable. 1 of my ex colleagues dining room tempered glass door suddenly dropped and shatter. Even though he was fast to respond to my ex colleague's calls and helped them with the situation. I was apprehensive about his work now.. Now for the IDs that contacted me through renotalk's request for quotation services. 96 Degree (An****y and Be**y) Came, took a look, asked some questions and never send me any quotation. Not a single update from them thereafter. Maybe they think it's not worth their time and effort as mine is not a full scale big budget project. D'trenzo Received their quote via email, quotation was ambiguous but price was slightly lower than the rest. Gallant Concept (Andy) 2 guys came down and 1 of them had a different idea from all other IDs that i had met in regards to utilising the space in the hall (foyer). Credits to him for thinking out of the box even though at the end I wasn't comfortable enough to accept his idea. They came down a 2nd time to present me with their quotation despite me telling them that sending me thru email will be fine and if i had any queries i will get back to them. They came and went through the quotation item by item and we had some further discussion. Within the next 2 days they got back to me with a revised quote. I will say they are quite efficient and diligent in wanting to deal with me. However, i just felt that chemistry was lacking between us. Just no "feel" to choose them. Their quote is reasonable too and the ideas that they have were not the usual ideas i was presented with. Will recommend to others to have a discussion with them to get some ideas if they are looking for something different. Space Living Quite turned off by him trying very hard to put his competitors down by repeatedly telling me that the other IDs are all sales man, not designers nor contractors. As such i am only paying a fat pay cheque to them for nothing. He also repeatedly told me that he can match his quotation to the one I'm keen on if i use his services. Really a turn off as he didn't came up with any proposal. Just wants to "undercut" his competitors. After meeting up with all the IDs that contact me or i contacted them. My mother was attracted to only 1. Personally i was won over by this ID's patience in listening to us and not just doing a rush job trying to "see see look look" and then rush off. For every concern that me or my mother brought up he patiently listened and tried to advise. Even though he didn't have the best idea for us, this point alone scored him some brownie points. We also felt some chemistry with him.. However, his ID firm have one bad reviews online and no other good reviews or further information with regards to that bad review. Hence, we didn't dare to sign with him despite him meeting us 3-4 times to discuss ideas and quotes. It is only after meeting up with him numerous times, checking their facebook page and portfolio regularly did we dare to put the downpayment. I will reveal & review him when I post the 3D drawings. Keeping my fingers cross that following our heart sometimes is not a bad choice after all.