scarlett

thanks jimmya you're the one who gave me gene's contact, so thanks! do you have a reno blog or photos of your place? just wanna see the work quality etc. you could PM me.

hi, recently one of the contractors quoted me for overlaying the floor tiles in our 5i resale bathroom (both toilets). however, we prefer to hack the floor tiles altogether as my best friend experienced a problem when she initially chose to overlay. the neighbour's bathroom ceiling started leaking. so they had to stop work and then redo the entire thing by hacking, thus incurring double cost. so which would you suggest? overlay floor tiles or hacking? this is for a resale flat. any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

thanks everyone. i have no issues with how Gene looks, so long as he does the job. i am sure that he is a good id because he knows his stuff. i got that impression when i spoke to him. my main issue is the cost. and also not sure about the work itself. he has been quite flaky with us - turned up 45 mins late for an appointment, n then the quotes also had quite a few amendments. still thinking..

i met Gene from 3D innovations a number of times. he's been nice, very responsive. but also very, very pushy. there's another thread i wrote in about this. so the GST thing is a major issue for people on a tight budget, i.e. me. and for our quote, the GST amounts to $1,500. i can do aLOT of things with $1,500. e.g., i can buy the bathroom fittings, i can buy lights and fans, i can buy a sofa and a dining set. we repeatedly requested Gene to waive the GST but of course he won't be able to because it's not in his hands. anyway so yesterday he said that he got his various contacts to reduce his prices here there and everywhere. i appreciate his effort, but it also makes me feel like i'm super pathetic and he's doing a huuuuge favour to me. i don't want to enter into a contract with an id who thinks he's doing a huge favour on me i think. and he also keeps telling us to respond quickly and seal the deal. but yeah... we are still taking our time and thinking.

Hi, I recently spoke to an ID firm, M.O.R.I.D (https://www.facebook.com/moridinteriordesign/). Would like to get anyone's opinion. Are they good? Their Facebook page seems to have good reviews. But wanted to get an unbiased, genuine opinion from here. Thanks!

hi everyone, am considering engaging Batisah Interior Design for our renovation. Does anyone have any experience with them? Thanks!

Hi! Thanks so much. I hope to contribute as soon as i've finalised our contractor!

Hi Lazyfatcat007, yay! Big step for us this Friday then Yes, I hope so too really. It'd be a big headache solved for us!

Hi everyone. Here's a small update after a loooong hiatus: we STILL haven't finalised our contractor. Our 2nd appointment is this Friday, though. Hoping to finalise our contractor this week as well. Stay tuned for updates... our journey has been a long one so far!

Hi JessicaKong84, I'm so sorry I just saw your query! I won't be installing the L-box . Mine is a resale flat and the pipes were previously not concealed also. And all the contractors/IDs I met advised against concealing it. So won't be doing it lor. I'm still searching for a reasonably priced contractor/ID.......

hi jennyt, that's the thing. i'm also a bit concerned cos one of my contractors quoted the same price for both toilets, when the common toilet is smaller. so the price for the common toilet should be less right? :/

hi, pls could you pm me the catalogue as well? thanks!

hi, please could you PM me your price for your system 4 aircons? we are still contemplating between mitsubishi starmex and daikin. many thanks!

hi there, i'm not too sure about overlay quotes as mine is a resale and we are doing hacking of the floor tiles. as for laying, the best quote i got so far is $2150 for both common and master toilet. when i asked why both the prices are the same when the common toilet is smaller, he said that's because the supplier charges them as a lump sum. i'm not sure about that actually, because all the other quotes i got were different for the 2 toilets. i got a BTO package quote from an ID which seems really reasonable though (he sent it to me because it was labelled resale but when i checked, he said sorry it's actually BTO). if u want i can email it to u. could u pm me ur email add? i can't reveal contractor yet simply because we still haven't decided yet. all the quotes are out of budget so far! probably need to increase budget... haiz

Hi Renowip, thanks for your reply. hmm, yes i think i will try doing that. seeing the difference in charges between the different ids/contractors has me concerned as well.

Hi everyone, So I've been gathering quotes from IDs and contractors for our 5 room resale flat. I have a separate t-blog here: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/72372-a-hodgepodge-of-ideas-5i-resale-flat/but no updates yet because I can't find someone within budget! I'd like to ask your expert opinions here please. Are the following quotes reasonable for laying of wall tiles in the MBR toilet and common toilet? My husband and I find them very high. Or is this the standard rate these days? Please advise! Thank you. Contractor 1 Supply labour and equipment to lay wall tiles - Master: $3,600 Supply labour and equipment to lay wall tiles - Common: $3,250 Total: $6,850 Contractor 2 Supply labour and equipment to lay wall tiles - Master: $2,150 Supply labour and equipment to lay wall tiles - Common: $2,150 (should be less since this toilet is smaller, right?) Total: $4,300 Contractor 3 Supply labour and equipment to lay wall tiles for both toilets: $5,480 ID 4 Supply labour and equipment to lay wall tiles - Master: $3,600 Supply labour and equipment to lay wall tiles - Common: $3,250 ID 5 For both toilet walls (this ID is smart - they split the costs so they look very cheap at one glance. but overall still quite reasonable): $3,995 Please could you advise which is the most reasonable? Our toilet sizes: 230 sf and 180 sf (wall? i took it from one of the quotes, and they have our floor plan). Thank you!

Hi Lorennzo, thanks for dropping by! Yes we definitely are Hello everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend as much as I did. In addition to voting, eating and relaxing, my husband and I decided to do some work relating to the house. We met with one renovation contractor and an ID (back to back meetings). I will not be revealing their names/contacts now, but here are my initial impressions: 1) Renovation Contractor. - knowledgeable. He knew what we were looking for from the start. We both took a liking to him because he seemed to understand us and our requirements. We reiterated our tight budget a couple of times as well so I'm positive he will try to work within that budget when he gets back to us with a quote. - cost saving measures. He advised us on a couple of things relating to cost. E.g., we wanted to change the common toilet's door orientation but he advised us against it due to the cost involved of building a door and also changing the plumbing/fittings. He also advised us against concealment of the toilet pipes because he said that in the event that a leak should occur, we would need to hack the entire thing to open up the concealment, meaning more $$. - friendly and articulate. He is articulate, and that is important because we don't speak a local language (but I am local, thank you!). So communication is really important. He understood everything we were saying and vice versa. Important because communication is of utmost priority when you are renovating your house! Overall, we are looking forward to his quote and hope it's something reasonable so we can proceed with him. 2) ID. - friendly. He was warm and welcoming. Listened to us as we spoke, and noted down our suggestions. - definitely a designer. Since he is an ID, he definitely chipped in with his opinions on design, e.g. colour, orientation, etc. This was helpful to us since we have close to zero sense of design haha. - helpful. He, too, discouraged us from changing the door orientation of the common toilet. So I guess it's definitely a no-go. - not so encouraging about the cost. He told us that our budget of $15k may be too tight to do the toilets and kitchen. We are now toying with the idea of redoing the kitchen cabinets, you see. But no hacking of tiles will be required. - not as articulate. This was the main problem, I think (in addition to the fact that it will probably cost more but we'll wait for the quote before assuming.). The ID was not as fluent in English I think, so there were certain times I had to repeat my point 2 or 3 times before he understood it. This makes me a bit worried because like I said earlier, communication is really important because this is our house. What if we want something but something else is done? We are stuck with it forever! Overall: A nice guy. Their portfolio is decent too. So let's wait for the quotes. The quotes will come in later this week so let's wait and see! We've decided not to meet anyone else for now.

i just spoke to a consultant from ZL construction. he seemed nice and knowledgable. now awaiting his quote

here's the floorplan:

Hello everyone! So I've been following lots and lots of t-blogs here. Thank you SO much for being so helpful with all your information. If you click on my profile you'll see I've enquired in so many blogs about contractors and IDs. If everything goes well, my husband and I will be collecting our keys around Nov-Dec after the completion. This is a 5i resale flat in Yew Tee, an area very dear to us. We love this area because it's still not as crowded as neighbouring towns, and its connectivity to Jurong East (and JB ) is good. Anyway, the title of my blog is 'A hodgepodge of ideas'. Simply because we aren't really 100% sure which direction we wanna take. The flat was renovated by the current owners and very well maintained. So we aren't planning to do an overhaul. Just the toilets mainly, and we are thinking about doing up parts of the kitchen. We are also toying with the idea of changing the common toilet's door orientation because unfortunately it's facing inside the kitchen right now. And the rest of the work will be general touching up work - checking electrical wirings, plumbing, painting, polishing of parquet floors for bedroom, washing the rest of the house, fixing skirting... as I type, it feels like the list just keeps going on and on. After reading through numerous t-blogs (and I am still reading!), we decided to do 2 things: 1) request for a quote through RenoTalk, 2) enquire about some contractors/IDs whose work we liked based on t-blogs. The problem with number 1 was that so many people started calling me. I felt like a celebrity! Anyway, a couple of them seemed promising so we continued the conversation. Number 2 was more helpful because we got to see the actual work posted by the clients so we get a good idea. Once we've met with the ids/contractors, I'll update as to who we've decided to go for. This will probably take a few weeks!! Ok, now going to try to figure out how to upload photos so I can upload our floor plan and some ideas for bathrooms (this is as far as I've got ). I hope to keep this blog going as our renovation work progresses. Stay with me!

Hi! Your renovation looks great! Simple and nice would you mind PM-ing me your ID's name and contact, as well as the details about the door holder? many thanks!

hi! nice work. could you PM me who your contractor/ID is? i really like your kitchen and bathroom tiles. good choice.

Hi, has anyone here engaged MJS Interior before? How is their work? Thanks!

Hi Jullykhor, please share your contractor's details with me too. Thank you so much!