SGK

Thanks, we like the tree very much too and we copied it from some pictures that we found on the internet when we were looking for design ideas. And for the balcony, I was also thinking that it is a good cosy corner for board games. The only problem is that the living room area is not air-conditioned so the comfort level will not be 100%. We only found out from our ID after the renovation is completed that we could have applied for HDB's permission to install extra compressor and air-conditioned the living room and the dining room .

This is the balcony: I still feel that the balcony will look better and more cosy with a low table and some cushions rather than the current lounge tables and chairs. And here is living room under the illumination of 3 different group of lights: Cove Light (White), which provides the most illumination: Down Light (Warm White): Main Light (Halogen):

On a happier note, i have managed to set up my study and living room. The only problem is that my desktop computer does not have a wireless network card and is unable to access internet. So I am currently using my netbook for internet surfing. Here are some pictures that I have taken last night: Study View 1: Study View 2: Study View 3: The pebbles at the tree area is insufficient but our ID is giving us more pebbels for 'free'. This afternoon, my wife and I went to buy the pebbles and we were in this unusual situation of calling our ID to check if he is ok with the cost of the pebbles that we are buying whence it has always been him checking with us if we are ok with the cost of certain additional renovation items.

My experience with Living Vision can be described as disappointing and frustrating - and it begins with the saleperson - Johnny Chua (I hope I remember his name correctly). Three weeks before my move, he called and told me that the bar stools I have paid for is no longer in production and wanted me to choose another design from a list of photos that he emailed me. My wife and I were accommodating enough to take his offer w/o questioning if the prices are comparable. But just last Friday, the day before our move, he called and told me that the second design that I have picked is also unavailable. I was naturally unhappy about this because he should have checked that the list of stools he emailed me are all available before sending them to me. What is most annoying is that he said I have to wait for another 2 to 3 weeks to get my stools. So I have to shift in to my new house without the bar stools. And that's just the beginning of the nightmare!! On Saturday, the day of our moving house, I received a call from a lady who is a worker of the factory that manufactures the bed I ordered from Living Vision, telling me that my bed cannot be delivered on Saturday because the irrepsonsible John did not inform her of the date of delivery beforehand . So the bed frame was not available. I called up the boss Steven immediately to clarify and then I was told (to my horror) that other furnitures - Dining Table and chairs, coffee table, bed side tables etc will also not be delivered because John did not inform all the factories that we need the furnitures on 17 April (even though we have told him over phone a few times that we want the furniture to be delivered on that day) . Can you imagine how high my blood pressure was at that time? After much heated conversation over the phone, Steven agreed to try his best to get at least some of the furniture delivered and loaned us a temporary bed frame to use for a week first. In the end, we are still short of the dining table and the bed frame, and of course the bar stools that will take another 2 weeks to arrive. (update on 29 April: they say it will only arrive in mid May ) I think their service attitude is really terrible after they have collected your money. And can you imagine that the Johnny Chua still have the cheek to tell me his service is much better than that provided by Novena (another unreliable furniture shop) a few days ago. Have you made all the payments? If not, please hold back at least 50% in case he messed up the delivery again. I am glad that I have insisted on holding back $1000 until all the items are delivered, otherwsie I will be at their mercy now.

I find the pricing quite comparable to mine so the reliability and attitude of the ID should be the main factor. If you want to save some money, you can consider using aluminium grilles instead of wrought iron ones for the windows that face open air. Wrought iron is good for preventing burglars from breaking into the house so only corridor-facing windows really need that.

Our curtains were fixed today and the presence of curtains really make the house look a lot more cosy. Lightings.com.sg has also re-installed my dining room lights because the original one has a faulty frame and the light looks slanted not matter how hard the contractors tried to straighten it. Now the dining room looks really good I think: The water feature has also arrived and it really enhances the balcony: We will need more pebbles to fill the entire square hole of the balcony. We are also thinking of adding some small plants around it to prevent people, especially kids, from touching it because it can topple quite easily . We will be shifting in on coming Saturday. Can't wait to see how the house will look like finally when all the furnitures are delivered: .

The Balcony: We have bought a table and two chairs for the balcony. But now I am thinking that the balcony will look better if I furnish it with some japanese style furnitures, like the ones below: Any comments?

We have unofficially taken over the house (yet to make the final payment and still some minor rectifications to be done in the coming week)! On last Friday night, we went to clean up the house and took some pictures before starting work. Here are some pics: The 'tree area': The dining area with the bronze mirror of the storage cabinet installed: The dry kitchen and the display cabinet:

lihsin is my wife's account. I used her account to start this blog before getting my own account .

One other forumer just PM me to ask about my ID. So I copy and paste my reply to him below for your reference: My ID Kennedy is good in design and very humble and polite, hence very easy to talk to. But he is only about 1 year plus in this line and may lack the experience as compared to the more seasoned ID. For my reno, his senior Peter joined in a few weeks before the start of the reno and the whole renovation was coordinated by the two of them together. I would say the quality of the work is certainly very satisfactory, but then I am not someone who is very 'niao'. Hence, I can only give a more objective comment after my house-warming when I can gather the feedback from all my friends. In terms of pricing, Earnest Interiors is the cheapest among all the 7 or 8 designers (***, Ciseern, *****, ***, One Design Concept etc) I have spoken to. However, the other IDs were all found from the expo exhibitions (there are two such exhibitions every month) and they tend to be more ex and do not have much good (nor bad) feedback from this forum. I think people don't engage them because they are more expensive. So I can't quite comment on this. But certainly for windows, Earnest Interiors is not cheap. They quoted me $4000+ for changing about 75% of my windows and grilles. So I searched thru this forum and found Alex of Yick Hong and he quote me only $3145. Still, credit must go to Kennedy who gladly agreed to remove the windows component from my quote and worked with Alex to install the windows and grilles for my house. As for honesty, I think he is quite an honest chap. He never encourages us to buy lights or furniture from any particular shop so as to earn commission. He just advised on the design and let us do the shopping ourselves. My conclusion: Give Kennedy a call and let him give you a quote. You should also try some other popular IDs in this forum and you can compare their quotations, attitude etc so that you can get the best ID for your reno. One important thing: my renovation progressed very smoothly without any major delays and I felt very relaxed and enjoyable throughout. The only small delay is that they have yet to fixed the glass shelves of my common toilet even though we should have taken over the house by today. They will do it next Tuesday. All the best for your renovation .

No, but as you can see from some of the pictures, we created a square depression, about 100cm by 100cm, on the right side of the balcony platform. We will put our water feature (see below) there and cover the remaining area with pebbles. We will need to water-proof the area to prevent water from damaging the laminate of the balcony.

Sorry about this but when we visited the shop again in February, the pricing was very different - not cheap after all. We were served by a different lady and she insisted that the low price that we were quoted earlier cannot be true. So in the end we did not buy anything from them. But if you are still keen, the shop is Comfort Design. They have a website and you can see their products online.

Thanks for the compliments . We are taking over the house in 3 day's time and shifting in on 17 April. Will post more pics when the furniture is in.

I don't think I can say which ID is good or which ID is less competent based on my one renovation experience. But I think to some extent the renovation experience depends also on the customers - are we prepared to accept that certain designs may not be feasible due to unforeseen circumstances, that the designers and their teams of workers can also make mistakes etc. Will we regard our ID as professionals and respect their opinions and work with them? If so, many IDs are good IDs. My ID is Kennedy of Earnest Interiors. He is young and relatively new, but I think he has good and fresh design ideas, and is very prompt in answering my emails, sms and calls. Very friendly and polite, very easy to talk to. One thing good is that my renovation is coordinated by him together with his very experienced senior Peter and I think they form a great team. I will be taking over the house in 3 days time. I will post more pics in my T-Blog for you to take a look .

This is a difficult question to answer. How big is your unit? How many windows are there in your house? Any full-height windows? How about the grilles? Are you changing them and if so, are you using aluminium or wrought iron? The best is get a few contractors to go down to to the house to take some measurements and give you quotations. Mine is an EA, but I did not change the windows of the 3 bedrooms. I installed grilles for all windows and made a new wrought iron gate. Total about $3600.

After much debate (heated ones) with three or four people from Lightings.com.sg over the phone, they finally agreed to come down to install the light for free. The light comes with a frame, a part that has the ballast etc, 4 packs of rods and crystals and i box of halogen light bulbs. They told me that is the 'standard practice'. They explained that it is not advisable for the rods to be fixed to the frame before installation because once fixed, the light becomes very heavy and will be difficult to install. Also, the rods may knock against each other and get scratch during the delivery. I agree with all their points, but to me, they should fix and install everything when they deliver the light to my house. They cannot expect me, a customer who may not have much experience in fixing electrical stuff, to assemble every part myself. I am not buying lights from a DIY shop, am I? If they have told me upfront that I need to pay extra for the installation, I probably would have gladly agreed to it. I am unhappy with them for exluding standard service that other lightings shop provide to make their pricing look good and then charging the customers for the service after the sale is confirmed. By the way, you mentioned that you were told that there is no installation charge even when you asked the salesgirl? Then I think she is dishonest and you should demand for free installation. As for the fan, my model is crestar 54" SV. But I think it doesn't matter which model. All ceiling fans require proper balancing duirng installation to ensure that they don't wobble when turned on. I agreed to pay lightings.com.sg $35 for this because my ID's electricians could have done it have they been more skillful.

Master Bedroom Bedhead: View of Master Bedroom from the Entrance: Bedroom 2:

Views of the House from the Balcony: Views of the House from the Dining Room: View of the House from the Study:

Today, we went down to the house to take a look. Only one worker installing the skirting alone. The handover is supposed to be in one week's time, and only some minor work has yet to be completed. Most lights are installed, and the house looks very much better with all the lights turned on . So I took some pictures to compare with the 3D drawings and I am quite happy with the outcome. Here are some pics to share with everyone: View of Study from the Dry Kitchen: View of Study from Living Room:

The 3D drawings are nice. Just one small advice from my own reno, which is going to be completed on 9 April (Is that the day you are collecting your keys? If you are using light colur laminate for your carpentry, the edges may have some obvious dark lines unless you have ABS trimming for all your shelves and cabinets. My ID told me that usually ABS trimming is only for cabinet doors. So when I saw my book shelves for the first time last week, I was rather disappointed because the dark edges of the book shelves really spoil everything. Luckily, my laminates are close to white colour so I ask my ID to paint the adges white. After the painting, the shelves look very much better. So you may want to discuss with your ID on this first.

I bought this light: They say if they send the light with the surrounding lights attached, the rods will be scratched. But I bought my living room light from another shop and it is even more complicated: But the shop assembled every part for me. I will be going down to the house to look at the living room light if it is scratched and if I can assemble the dining room light myself. Sianz... As for the ceiling fan, my ID says needs specilaised technicain to do the balancing otherwise the fan will wobble when turned on. The Noel who served me did not tell me anything about this. She was only very enthusiastic in pursuading me to buy their lights. Maybe you can check with your ID if his technicians can do the balancing for the fan. By the way, I went to the branch at Balestier Point. I am not as lucky as you to have won a prize in their lucky draw. If I had won something, maybe I won't be complaining here .

I bought most of my lights from Lightings.com.sg because it has very good reputation in this forum. But my experience doesn't seem to be as positive as most of the forumers here. My wife and I were served by a lady Noel. Frnakly speaking, I find her quite rude. First, she bluntly commented that the dining light that I wanted to buy is not nice when my wife showed preference for a more expensive one. Then when we were looking at the bathroom lights, she kept pushing us to buy some lights which I personally think don't look nice at all. When we asked her the power consumption of the energy saving lights we were looking at, she said that it will be higher than the normal ones because they are brighter. To me, this is illogical. If the light has to consume more power to give more light then it is not energy saving! I think she needs to upgrade her knowledge in lightings! Another disappointing thing about the shop is that they don't really have many designs. Most of the lights are the same as what we saw in our previous visit two months ago. Anyway we still bought most of our lights from the shop becasue of its supposedly honest pricing and good aftersales service. Yesterday, my ID told me that the dining room light from Lightings.com.sg is not assembled completely and wanted me to call them to send someone to assemble. Also, the ceiling fan will require specialised technicain to install. When I call up Lightings.com.sg, I was told that I have to pay $25 for them to assemble the lights and $35 for installing the ceiling fans. While the amount is not a lot, I am uncomfortable with the additional charges which they did not mention when we purchased the items. I spoke to a man over the phone. When I asked him why I was not told of the possible additional charges at the point of purchase, he said it was because I did not mention that I need installation service from them. I am really pissed by this answer. Well, I don't buy lights everyday, so how would I know that I have to check with them all these hidden costs. Isn't it the responsibility of the sales person to explain everything to me clearly? Maybe their net price with hidden costs included is still competitive, but my experience with them is certainly not pleasant.

Yes, read from the Chinese papers today that a buyer has offered $900k and the owners find the offer TOO LOW and are still considering it.

Take a look at this thread. Should be helpful.

Bedroom 3 Wardrobe: