SGK

Hi Kopi, congrats on your moving in. It is indeed quite a long journey with both up's and down's. Take your time to unpack the boxes. I took 2 weeks plus to unpack mine, and it could have taken much longer if my wife did not throw away about 6 boxes of clothes. Do show some pics of your nice house and furniture after you have finished unpacking .

8 years ago I bought a sofa from them. They delivered one that is in a slightly different colour because they don't have the fabric we wanted and they did not inform us beforehand, hoping that we won't be able to remember the colour of the fabric we have chosen (super dishonest). But we have actually cut a small piece from their sample and we were able to prove to them that the sofa was in the wrong colour. Yet they refused to refund. After much arguments, we were told to go down to a particular branch to settle everything once and for all. A particular sales representative was assigned to speak to us. When we insisted on refunding, he actually raised his voice and shouted at us. After this experience, I told myself I will never get anything from Novena. But this time round I get most of my furniture from Living Vision and the service and reliability are just as bad, if not worse. I wonder if there are good and honest furniture shops around .

Both my ID and my window contractor told me that it is illegal because outside the toilet windows is ope air. If we install the ventilator fan (which will protrudes out of the window slightly) and and some parts of it drop off, it may hurt people who happen to be standing below. I think we only install ventillator fans on the toilet windows that open out to the yard area or aircon latch.

Thanks coldflamez. We wanted to install ventillator fans in the toilets initially but was told that this is against HDB rules. So no choice, we install the wall fans and hope that they will help to drive out the unpleasant smell .

Wah, you have saved a lot. My combined bill from my ID and windows contractor Alex is $68, 200, and I kept all the marble floors of the Living room, Dining Room, 3 Bedrooms and Study because I was told that it is expensive to hack marble floors.

Wah Wah Wah! Kopi, you have purposely kept all the nice pics so that you can show everything to us at one go and send us wowing non-stop, right? Your house is very nice. Every part is so pleasing to the eyes. So much time and energy have been invested in the renovation and finally you are going to enjoy the end-product. Congrats!

Thanks for the compliments. Your house looks good too, even after 1.5 years. I saw your carpet changed from the initial white to the recent black. Is it the result of dirt collection over the past 18 months ? Just kidding. Did you throw away the white carpet? Is it because it is hard to maintain? I also have a white carpet in my living room now and I can already see that it is turning black . Thanks Butter. Your reno was completed about 2 months ago right? How is everything? Enjoying the house?

I bought it **** Vision at Balestier Point. Can't really tell you how much it costs because I bought it together with many other items - bed, sofa, coffee table, bedside table etc. The total package is $6888. I guess if you buy the dining set separately and include 6 chairs then the price should be about $2500.

Sorry, the bedframe is largely covered by the comforter. It is maroon in colour and you can see a little bit of it on the picture. This is after the bedhead has been removed. Before that, the gigantic bedhead really stands out and the large patch of maroon is in conflict with the colour theme of the bedroom.

Thanks. I am sure your house will also look very impressive after renovation. My windows and grilles are done by Alex. I will PM you his contact as he prefers not to put his mobile phone number openly on this forum.

Hi Kopi, Simon and Rondy, thanks for the suggestion. I have more or less solved the problem already by unscrewing out the bedframe. The bed is still very much intact because being a platform bed the matress is just lying on 2 boards placed directly on the floor. That is, the bedframe is just surrounding the matress rather than supporting its weight. The open ends of the 3/4 frame are kept in place by the two bedside tables and everything looks ok. See picture below:

Hi babyleomummy, it is phoenix palm and it requires zero maintenance because it is an artificial plant:P . As you can see, the study has no windows - hence no sunlight and no air, so it will be quite difficult to grow such a big tree there.

Common Bathroom: Before Renovation: 3D Visualisation: Final Product:

MBR Bathroom: Before Renovation: 3D Visualisation: Final Product:

Master Bedroom: Before Renovation: 3D Visualisation: Final Product:

Kitchen: Before Renovation: 3D Visualisation: Final Product:

Dining Room: Before Renovation: 3D Visualisation: Final Product:

Living Room: Before Renovation: 3D Visualisation: Final Product:

Final Posts of Reno Pics for My House Last night My wife and I finally finished unpacking all our boxes and this afternoon we solved our bedframe problem by unscrewing out the gigantic bedhead and to our relief the remaining three sides of the bed frame stay very much intact and now our bed fits in nicely to our master bedroom. This means that we need not waste money buying another bedframe . With this we have more or less come to the end of our renovation journey and for the first time since we shifted in two weeks ago, we felt that we can really sit down and enjoy our home. Looking back, I will say overall we have a very enjoyable renovation experience which started last October when we 'blur blur' went to an interior design exhibition in Expo to look for renovation ideas. We spoke to several IDs there but ended up engaging Kennedy of Earnest Interiors to take charge of our renovation. The wait to start our renovation was really long because at the time we confirmed our ID we have yet to go for our first HDB appointment. Renovation finally started 3 days before CNY and after a short break during the CNY period, it went full-steam. While we encounter some unforeseen problems along the way, we are glad that our ID is able to solve all the problems for us. In some cases, the solution to the problems become a new design attraction to the house (though they don't come free). For example, the display cabinet outside the common bathroom and the raised flooring of the dry kitchen are all constructed to conceal ugly pipes. We are really happy with the overall outcome and a lot of credit must go to my ID As a closure to this journey, I will like to post some pics to record the transformation that the house has undergone. Starting from the study: Before Renovation: 3D Visualisation: Final Product:

Hi Kopi, your reno completing soon? I am sorry to read about what you and others who have engaged Jason Goh have to go through, but I trust that you have already gotten over the unhappiness. Anyway, I also have a very unpleasant experience with the furniture shop Living Vision at which I bought most of my furniture but I reckon it is a much smaller problem compared to those who have encountered dishonest and unreliable IDs and contractors. I would like to use your coffee shop to seek advice to solve the problem that I have with my current bedframe. This bedframe that I bought from Living Vision for $1200 - $1500 has a bedhead that is way too big for my bedroom. In fact, I cannot even open some doors of my wardrobe after the bedframe was set up. I certainly have to buy a new bedframe. Hence, I would like to ask if anyone knows of furniture shops that accept trade-in's. The bedframe will be one week old by tomorrow and hence it is still in good condition and it will be a waste if I throw it away. I will really appreciate it if anyone who knows of such lobangs can PM me or reply this post. Thank you very much in advance.

In my opinion you should buy later if you only want to receive it later. Let me share my experience: During the Gain City Expo sale in February this year, I bought most of my electrical appliances even though I will only shift house in mid-April because I thought the prices are better then. Then just a few days before my move, Gain City called up and said that the TV I have paid for is no longer availabe and I have to choose another one. I was very busy packing my stuff for the move then and had no time to go down to the showroom to take a look at the TV model they offered. In fact, I suspect they want to give me a cheaper model at the same price. In the end, I asked for another model and after much negotiation (and hence wasting precious time) I settled with the model I want with a small top-up. Then just one day before the move, Gain City called and said that the fans that I have paid for are also not available. So once again, I have to accept another model. I can't help but keep thinking if there is some dishonesty on their part. According to them, it is not their fault . They only ship in the items one month before the delivery to the customers even if the payment was made much earlier. So early purchase means that you may not get the item you want eventually, and may upset all your planning and scheduling in the sense that you have to quickly get a replacement in the last minute.

No problem. Glad to hear that you have found a good potential ID already. In a way, my experience of finding my ID is similar to yours. He is the last ID we spoke to and we initially were not keen in meeting him because we have already spoken to 6 or 7 before meeting him. The ID firm was strongly recommended by our colleague and we thought should give it a try. In the end, our ID gave us the lowest quote and proposed the most interesting layout. Furthermore he is very refined and always very polite and patient and we feel comfortable working with him. Wish you a smooth renovation ahead .

Hi, welcome to reno t-blog. Read your posts on ID search. Actually there are quite a few popular ID/contractors in this forum, like Supersiomon's contractor Henry. But my colleague just called him and he said he is superbusy and from now to June he cannot take on new jobs. Or you want to try my ID?

My dining table and chairs just arrived. I was a bit worried initially that the table may be too long for the room but now it looks like a nice fit:

Ha, yes the wires need to be tidier. Will do something about them when I have finished unpacking (another 28 boxes to go ). The dry kitchen was actually part of the original kitchen. The original design proposed by my ID was to hack the kitchen walls and build a open kitchen. We like his idea of open kitchen but thought that it will be difficult to clean the house when we do cooking. Hence, I propose dividing the original kitchen into a wet kitchen (for cooking), a dry kitchen (for simple cooking like microwave) and an extra storeroom/maid's room.