SGK

The Tampines unit is also about 18 years old, but the owners said that they just spent 130k to renovate the house 2 years ago, which I strongly doubt because 130k is probably enough for them to have golden taps and door knobs . By the way, I have gotten my flat already, but the reno will only start next February.

400k + 5k COV!! That is very very cheap as compared to EA flats at Tampines. The unit that I mentioned was first valued at 475k and they were asking for 600k. Then when their original buyers pulled out after knowing the valuation is so low, they redo a valuation and this time it was priced at 490k. They were still asking for 580k initially, but I believe they eventually sold at 540k to 560k. So I think your 5k COV is really low in the current HDB market.

Hi welcome to renotalk. Have you finalised your design? I have viewed one unit with the same layout as your when I was hunting for mine. I like this layout very much because I think the bedrooms are well hidden which means there is a lot of privacy. Moreover, the common toilet is accessible to guests because it is not hidden deep inside the kitchen. Unfortunately the owners of the flat were asking for a unrealistic price because of their very nice reno. You may want to take a look at some photos of the unit while deciding on your own design. The room that you are using as dinning room is used by them as a study and it is built with glass walls. Very nice.

No problem. The best part is when my wife and myself heard the price of the chairs from the lady shop owner and repeated it in disbelief, she thought that we meant that the price is too high and immediately said the price is negotiable, depending on how many pieces we are buying . When she heard that our house will only be ready by next April the earliest, she told us to place our order only in Feb. This is completely opposite to the sales people from all other shops who kept pressurizing us to buy immediately in case the particular design is sold out when we return to order.

Hi notforsale, I think it is quite common for IDs to ask you what you want for your house so that they can come up with a layout that suits your needs. You may want to discuss with your fiancee on the important components of the house. e.g Walk-in-Wardrobe, balcony, study, feature walls, storage cabinets, etc. before you speak to the IDs. The better IDs will listen to your requirements or proposed layouts and give you their honest comments and counter proposals. In this way, you are likely to get a house that you will enjoy staying in. To get some design ideas, visit the websites of the various ID firms or simply look around this forum. You should be able to pick up some really good and exciting ideas easily. As to your questions, here are my answers: Question 1: I am looking for an interior designer to help me design my home but they are not willing to show me designs until I sign up. But if they don't show me their designs, how do I know they are the ones I am looking for? Ans: All the IDs I met provided me with the 2D layout for free. There is one that tried pursuading me to pay him the design fee so that he can produce the 3D drawings but I rejected. Nevertheless he still provided the 2D drawings. Question 2: Is what I have encountered so far the norm in the industry or am I plain unlucky? Ans: It is quite unusual for IDs to request that you sign up with them first before they give you the 2D drawings. Question 3: Any advice as to what I am doing wrong? Ans: Conceptualise what you want in your house with your fiancee before seeing the IDs. Question 4: I have been browsing through this forum and found some companies which seems to have garnered some good reviews. I have shortlisted some of them to visit. Can someone give me some contacts of good interior designers in these companies? I am not familiar with these ID firms but Tau seems to have many good reviews here. You can also consider the ID firm I engaged: Earnest Interior. They too have quite good reviews here. Hope the above helps

Hi, I found their website and included it in my signature. The shop is located between furniture mall and Hotel Park Royal

Today, we went to furniture mall to look for our last few pieces of furniture - dressing table, balcony table and chairs and study room chairs. We went to many shops, and the balcony chairs that we saw are all quite expensive - > $250 per piece, even though the materials look very cheap. We were quite disappointed and decided to go back to Living Vision where we bought our big item furniture to look for a better bargain. But just when we were walking back to hotel Park Royal, we saw this unglam shop (I think the name is Comfort Interior or something like that) with many chairs stacked up and displayed in an untidy manner. When we take a closer look, we saw one of the chairs displayed was one of those that we were thinking of buying earlier in other shops. We decided to check their price. To our pleasant surprise, they are selling at about 30% to 40% of the what the other shop is selling. As we scan through other chairs in the shop, we saw more and more chairs that we have seen in other shops, and the price in this shop is very much cheaper. For example, an acrlic chair was sold in one shop in furniture mall for $299. But in this shop it is $119. I cannot understand why the price can be so different, and I am so happy that I haven't bought the chairs earlier . We also went to look at dining tables and sofa that are of similar quality to those that we bought **** Vision. It seems that we have indeed had a good buy. The only problem is we are not sure of the durability of the sofa and bed that we bought.

cchange the size of the picture using the view button of the acrobat reader until the picture more or less fill up the whole screen. Then press the printscreen button to capture it and open the program Paint, paste the captured image on it. Then save as jpeg and upload .

It is quite difficult to tell if the price is reasonable or not unless the dimesnions are given. For example, is you kitchen cabinets 20 ft? How about the feature walls?

Hi welcome to reno T-Blog. To post a pic, first upload your pictures to photobucket (www.photobucket.com). You will have to register for an account with them first. Once the picture is uploaded, click the "insert image" button in the post window. You will be prompted to input the link. Now go to your photobucket album and copy the link under the IMG code and paste it here. The link should be bounded by "" on both sides when it appears in the post window. You can preview to check that you are successful. You can also click here to learn more. Hope this helps and looking forward to see your floorplan and pics

By the way I think the space besides your MBR toilet is a good place to build a walkin wardrobe .

I stay near the MRT station. I mistook your floor area 104 as the block number and I remember block 101 is next to the hospital To insert image click the insert image button and copy the link of your image into the dialogue box that appears. Alternatively, you can just enclose your image link with "{img}" and "{/img}" and it should work (please change the curly brackets to square ones. I have to use curly ones here because the system will detect an error in my post if I use "[" and "]"). Note also the extra slash in the ending parenthesis. Use the 'preview post' button to check if youare successful before posting. You can also go to the first thread of this forum for more details.

Welcome to reno T-Blog. You are better than me : my first appointment is at the end of this year and the second appointment is likely to be around CNY. Any floorplan to show? I currently stay in Simei and i think your place is near Changi Hospital right? Any floor plan to share? Have you confirmed your ID or contractor?

I think so too. But have to listen to my ID's opinions first Thanks! Living Vision's showroom is indeed mostly black and white furniture but they say we can change the colours. Anyway our designer has chosen white to be the base colour of his design so it is the right shop for us. The only problem is that he has told us he did not like the recliner sofa we have purchased even though it is probably the most sleek and straight recliner sofas we have seen, and good comfort and quality. So we are asking him to go down to Living Vision next week to finalise the colours of the furniture and take a good look at the sofa. Hope he approves...

More Pics: Master Bed Room: Wet Kitchen: I feel that the wet kitchen doesn't look very impressive. Thinking of using glossy white laminate for the cabinets. Any comments?

So has anyone bought anything from Living Vision before? Are they really new?

Wow don't know why things happen this way but we bought almost all our furnitures at one go in a shop that we initially only plan to go in and look see look see. Our friend recommended Evov at Balestier Point to us becasue they have many furnitures with modern design. We decided to go there to take a look after work and as we were quite early, we decided to visit another furniture shop located there - Living Vision which was just opened (according to their advert on saturday straits times) because they have an attractive $1888 package for sofa, bedframe and dining table. So here we go. We told the Living Vision sales person Johnny that we are looking for better quality stuff than their $1888 package. Specifically, we are looking for 3+1 full leather recliner with high back (I am quite tall), 6-seater dining table with marble top, and bed. For matress we are quite 'qin cai' because after trying so many of them from so many shops I can only feel the difference between those very high-end ones and the rest. Since we are not prepared to pay $2000+ for a matress yet we decided to be more qin cai. So we told them we want to pay at most $6000 for the above sofa + coffee table + dining set with 6 chairs + bed and matress. Johnny and his boss took a long time to do their calculations and finally the boss says the items (inclusive of 2 bedside tables) cost $8000. So we say no thank you that is too expensive. Then we started our story: we have gone to many shops and some were able to offer this item very cheap, another shop has a big discount on that item etc and we worked out that we can buy everything with 6k (I probably was slightly dishonest here because I don't think we can get all those items with 6k ), except that our designer does not like the designs of some of those items. So the boss finally reduce the price to $6888. Then we ask them to include two nice bar stools for our breakfast counter. He agreed and so we paid the deposit. Everything was settled in about 1 hour plus, which is really unexpected because before this we have gone to so many shops, identified quite a few possible items but we did not commit. And how about the Evov which is the main reason why we come to Balestier Point? When I redo the calculations after reaching home, and assuming I can bargain very well at those shops that we have visited earlier until they surrender, I think I might be able to get all the items with $6888. So I can't say I have a very good buy. I only hope that the furniture will all be durable and last me many years .

My reno? If I am lucky I will get my keys in end January. So I still have to wait long long.... I bought my house by going to the seller's agent directly and even though she took our commission I believe she acted on the benefit of the owners by booking the first appointment late since they haven't gotten a new place then. According to her the second appointment will be one week after CNY. But last Saturday when I went down with my IDs to take measurements at the house the owners say they have gotten a place and are working towards handing over the house to us by end January. They are very nice people .

Wow, all the pics are very nice! But I somehow I like the toilets the most . So big - can construct big and nice vanity tops, not like mine.

I think whether Jaskel's offer is helpful to Ah Soon's existing customers or not should be left to the customers themselves to decide. The rest of the people should not be making groundless attacks on him, and worse, use offending words on Ah Soon's customers.

I have some of those recess areas about 30cm in depth and I will be converting them into storage areas by installing sliding doors and raising the base slightly (to protect from water). They can be used to store small items.

Hi hOurStyle, can you PM me the where I can get the clocks and their price? Thanks.

Wah, what you say make sense. Maybe because compared to mine which has a lot of carpentry work and hacking and reconstruction 15k is quite low. But then I am not sure if 2k is sufficient for one toilet. I am not an expert but for my toilets, just one small vanity top already cost $900. Shower screen another few hundreds, and I think changing the tiles may be the most costly of all.

Hi welcome to renotalk. Wow, how did you mange to keep your damage below $15k? From your pics it seems that you are doing quite a bit of reno leh. Wish you a smooth and happy reno experience.

Hi br0wnskinnedb0y, I also find the quotation quite reasonable. Maybe it is expensive compared to those by contractors. But if you are engaging an ID I think the carpentry work is lower than all those I have come across. But cost aside, the most important thing is you are comfortable with the ID and the company has a good track record.