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turnerdhr

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Posts posted by turnerdhr

  1. Posted

    On 1/7/2016 at 1:21 PM, mrsyuki said:

    Dear turnerdhr

    We have also decided to choose chen and choi as our designer/builder for our corner semi-d in the east. We are very happy with their attitude and service. What a nice environment they work in. So inspiring.

    They told us it will take about 8 months for our reconstruction as long as i am not the fickle type! Not sure how long or what is the size of your build. For me personally, i want to go up to at least 5500sf or more. Hope the setback doesnt affect my dream plans!

    We have sent them all our images and ideas and are anxious but also very excited for our journey to begin.

    Can you please PM me your email as i have some questions for you. Will you be using any imported kitchen systems? What is your choice of kitchen appliances? A large Kitchen is very important to me : - )

    Many thx!

    Hello MrsYuki, have PM you my email.  i wish you well on your current recon build.  oh, btw what's the design of your kitchen?  What type of material did you select for your backsplash?  Did the studio also customize a dining table for you?  The oak dining table they made for us seats up to 10 and is also a very good space for the kid's homework time!  We saw something similar at DREAM but it was a little short and was meant for 8 people max.           

    Anyway, our dining area is a well designed large open-planned space with a the kitchen design based on the MANY MANY images of Poliform Kitchens which i sent to them as my open-concept dream kitchen!  I don't foresee doing another major renovation (hubby will faint!) down the road so i made sure my kitchen and dining/living areas were done up well.  The style i highlighted explicitly to them was i want something very modern and very luxurious like in those magazines and i am satisfied!  thank you chen+choi.

    I remember when we first had our initial consultation sessions at their studio, i made it clear that our family spends a lot of time around the dining area and kitchen so we wanted something big and well planned for heavy use by the kids and us.  Our kitchen and dining areas are the main focal points of our daily lives now and gets heavy and quite rough usage by the kids but i am happy to say it has worked out very well for us.  Remember to explain your daily lifestyle habits to them and they will do their magic.  PM me some of the pictures as you go along your reno journey!  I also recommend you joining the group buys for high-end furniture/light purchases.  good luck! 

              

     

  2. Posted

    Try Choi & Chen Collaborative. They are a husband and wife team. Very very good. Check out their fb page. I don't have their contact number but just tell them Chris from the Pest Control sent you, they will take care of your needs.

    Nice to see my builders being mentioned here. Sweet and talented folks who take great pride in their daily execution of the designing and build process of our new "Scandinavian-chic" house. We are >1/ 2 way into construction and enjoying every moment of the process. The work delivered so far meets our requirements and expectations. Our dream house is finally coming together. Thanks chen+choi : )

  3. Posted

    From the comments and sharing, it sounds like different projects will include/exclude different components in calculating the average PSF. For my project, I signed with a builder at $175psf (reconstruction alone). We're estimating it'll be $205psf if PC sum is included, but excluding professional fees... It's estimated because we are not at the stage where we have determined the detailed costs of the PC sum items. I think BCA's definition of "construction costs" includes the actual building cost and PC sum. Thanks to all owners who shared... we should learn more from each other about the workings in this industry..

    sorry, just to clarify, what is "PC sum"?

  4. Posted

    In our own experience, using builders with in-house designers couldn't give us the house we want.

    We had lived in a corner 3 sty terrace before our present place and we wasted a lot of time and $$$ re-doing things because builder didn't understand the details we were looking for (wooden louver screens, skylights, water feature in courtyard etc). i guess can't blame the builders and blame myself for my inexperience that time, because i didn't know that time that their in house designer was not up to standard. Basically, the finish product did not look at all like my pictures i sent to them!

    Going directly to builders seemed cheaper at first, but in reality it wasn't because the quoted price included only very standard cheap "branded" toilets, tiles, standard small aluminium windows.

    Our wish list was for nice BIG sliding glass panels, nice BIG tiles (designer look) for living and rooms, oak wood floors on 2nd storey and mezzanine loft, nice landscaping, modern italian look kitchen and wardrobes.

    Basically like those SC Global high-end developments for our interiors, and Sentosa looking houses for our exterior style. We even managed to put in elevator included in our budget (japanese made, very important must be from japan).

    We finally decided on chen+choi because their design and build quote to us was a lot cheaper compare to the high-end architect firms we spoke to and similarly to some builders prices.

    I guess because they are professionally trained and that makes the huge difference for the end product to look like those magazine style houses which we dream to have. I hope this helps!

  6. Posted

    thanks dhotshop. We know we are very lucky to have found our present designer/architect firm. God Bless them and fingers crossed it will continue to go well. We actually just had a meeting with them today and we were briefed on new problems, which was well-handled by their architect, PE and the team. No worries so far. People, please make sure your archi/designers are experienced in managing all the new problems that will come as you build your dream house. 3D-model into reality is not that simple especially when we expect a designer house!

    BUT boy can i tell you, we SUFFERED in the past. lots of tears! We went through real **** in 2005 and 2010 with our first 2 IDs doing our condo and terrace. It turned out SO BAD and we were pretty much taken for a ride by these uneducated low-lifes. One guy basically stopped work on our home and held us ransom because we were not happy with their work.... oh, they then demanded more money to hire more workers to speed things up...! uh-duh....?! like, how is it my problem if they managed the project wrongly and couldn't keep up to speed. Also another time got shouted at by their worker with all the famous Hokkien words and threatened because we were not happy that they kept damaging the new wood floors because they dragged their heavy tools around on it! Can i say my heart really break then?!

  8. Posted

    Hi Grace, beware...! we all went through **** before finding our current ID/architects whom we are very grateful to. Communication i feel is the key to a successful relationship with your ID. In the past, we were left hanging onto unanswered phone calls, with many sleepless nights and even sending lawyer letters didn't changed our desperate situations. We chose the wrong contractors and paid dearly for it. Cheap is never cheap in reality, and it will never be good when the dust settles. We wanted a "designer magazine" home and tried to find cheaper contractors to do the job, thinking that we could manage them smartly. i think there's a saying that has monkeys and peanuts in the same sentence. Choose wisely and remember don't be penny wise pound foolish.

  9. Posted

    Our Reconstruction project (3,400sqf) is currently completely managed by the design studio and our strict instructions are not > $1.2M (professional fees all in, including all lights and fixtures but no electrical appliances like oven etc). i think it's quite reasonable because we are getting marble bathrooms, good quality wardrobes with italian runners and big panel sliding glass doors. We bargained their quotes down to about 360psf, which is really good, keeping in mind that they're also all trained overseas from top architecture/design places

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