mafacifa

More kitchen 3d pics These are the 3d pictures I created with SIMS 2 of how the kitchen would roughly be like. As you can see, my stove is facing the glass panel so that people can see me cook (as if I can cook very well...) or I can see what is happening in the living room as I am cooking. The stove is also situated at the breakfast counter so that I can serve dishes on the spot to my future hubby (juz like a japanese restaurant). I understand that the sink will be pretty far from the stove but I think for the design's sake, I dun mind sacrificing a few steps and putting in a little bit more effort to achieve the look that I want.

Hi! I am mafacifa's fiancee again! I will be uploading my own 3d pictures of what my house should look like. I have been playing SIMS2 since 5 years ago. Din realise that a computer game can help me in the designing process. So, here are some pics of what I would like my kitchen to be: Here is the entrance to the kitchen. We intend to have a glass panel and a glass door. We have decided to have a glass sliding door instead of a swing one but if we realise dat the reno is over our budget, we will juz stick to a swing one as it is cheaper. These pictures are created using IKEA kitchen planner. (Thanks IKEA!!) The layout is based on the actual size of our kitchen but after consultation with Mr Yeak, he said that the pipes might be at the extreme left corner of the kitchen. Hence, I cannot lie down on the worktop to chop my things anymore as some space will be used to cover the pipes. Looking at the second picture carefully, there is a wall partition to separate my laundry area from the kitchen. I dun realli like to c washing machines in kitchens. Since there is space in front of our store room, we intend to build a solid wall and I will have curtains to cover the laundry area when guests are around. It is also very convenient to do piping as the washing machine will be juz in front of the toilet. In front of the wall will be a fridge. I do not wish to create a space for the fridge in between the cabinets in case I wish to upgrade my fridge to a bigger one in the future.

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Hi everyone! I am mafacifa's fiancee and also the one running around to meet up with ids or contractors whenever he is busy. I have met up with Kelvin from IdealHouse, Mr Lau from Ban Yew and Mr Yeak from Basic Image Interior Design at Yishun. Here are my reviews of their service based on the first session with them: 1) Kelvin from IdealHouse One thing for sure - he is a VERY GOOD listener such that I had to stop and tell him that he can voice his opinions if he feels that my ideas are not practical or sound odd because he seemed to agree with 90% of my ideas. Maybe because I sounded too confident and he did not want to burst my bubble. haha! Or, I did not give him the opportunity to showcase his creativity. However, on that day, I came 30 minutes earlier than my appointment and I could see him busy doing the layout plan for me - last minute work. This time, it is good that he did it last minute because he will have to erase his drawings anyways as I know what I want. BUT I am not sure if I want to leave the renovation of my house in the hands of a person who works last minute. I know how these people work cos I am one of them. So, nothing will get done if both of us are last-minute workers. Perhaps, it is unfair to judge him based on the first session. So I shall give him chance lah! Nevertheless, thanks to him, I feel more confident with my budget. CLC quoted us above 40k for our house renovation, excluding the living room's glass walls that we intend to have. So, when Kelvin asked what my budget was, I said 40k and he immediately said too much. He assured me he can try to quote me 35k, provided I use an external glass provider which is fair enough as the glass will actually add up to thousands of dollars. All in all, I like talking to him but I prefer a more assertive man to be my id to convince me that he can control the workers. 2) Mr Lau from Ban Yew He is recommended by my aunt. She raved about how cheap his services are and we can try to bargain for free gifts. According to her, the workmanship is pretty good as well. His office is located at Eunos and he has a workshop right below his office. Very contractor-ish... As I just met up with IdealHouse, I thought I can try to push for 30k (excluding the glass) with Mr Lau. My auntie said cheap mah... BUT the poor man looked so stressed when I told him my budget and yet I wanted this and that. He looks like he is in his late fifties or early sixties and I am not sure if he can understand all the ideas that I convey to him as I spoke English when we discuss my ideas. He has two young men as his assistants. I am not sure what their job scopes are but one of them offered to sit in with us to discuss the ideas but Mr Lau waved him off, saying that he would be fine but after talking to Mr Lau for 10minutes, I was sure we were not fine. I hinted that I would like his assistant to come in but he did not get it. So, in future, if his assistant offered to help out, please insist on him staying in the room to make sure all the information is jotted down. After one hour of telling Mr Lau my ideas, the floor plan was in a big mess as we had no rulers. I even offered to write down some of the things in case he missed them. Haiz... He did not offer much advice as I think he is still processing my ideas but he said it would be good if he can check the condition of our new house. Nevertheless, he told me that he would try his best to meet my budget. He is indeed a sweet old man, always smiling even when under stress. BUT I am not sure if that 30k includes 3d drawing with ID services as they do provide them. I forgot to inquire about it but we'll c the quote first. 3) Mr Yeak from Basic Image Interior Design. Amongst the three of them, I like Mr Yeak the best. He is confident and gives very practical suggestions and could identify possible problems which others did not. The way he waved his measuring tape around is scarieee... it looked like he was brandishing a sword lah... got sound effect - SSAAAPPPP!!! He did that to help us visualise better because we kept saying we did not have space to prepare our food but then, because he did that, we realised we do have enough space, like he said, "You can even lie down on your counter to do your chopping." Funnylah this man... But when we said our budget is 35k, he said, definitely not enough but I forgot to tell him we will get our own glass contractor. Oh well.. we will see how his quote is like. One more thing about his company - they do not provide 3d computer drawing but rely on 3d sketches and I worry about that cos I need to visualise the design with colours. Actually, I think I described slightly different for the different guys especially to CLC. Perhaps, CLC's quote will be lower after our second session as our requirements have changed. I can't wait to get quotations from these guys!

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thank bakchang and congrats on ur key ceremony.. haha. Yeah u are right, to save money, need to substitute it with hard work and sweat. haha.. have a good reno journey!

good advice there i must say.. time is the main limitation... as for me, i'm trying to reduce some cost by getting direct from contractors or suppliers for some work. but major works will still b carried out by main ID or contractor.. hope to get positive session meeting with ideal house later this week...

yah. maybe an itemised breakdown would be good. coz there are a few items that are in the package that i'll not be doing so i can roughly know what reduction in price i can look out for. the package method cant suit everybody also. maybe in future firms can be more transparent in their charging model. currently i'm now sourcing on my own glass contractors and sliding balcony doors.. got a few replies for glass and all gave quite a fair bit lower than ID. any recommendations for contractors doing balcony doors?

hi SFF, can share the contact? Need to check whether he does glass panels and sliding door as well. thanks

Hmmm... very quiet here... anyways here is my update on ID visits: Got a reno quote from CLC and gonna visit Ideal House ID soon. Also waiting for first quote from FlyingIdeas. Based on the CLC quote, there maybe some things quoted in a lump sum package approach. I find these packages pretty vague. Maybe its better for them to list as itemised. Any of u guys requested ur IDs to have a detail breakdown??

issit quickstep.com? haha

Hi. Any contacts for quickstep distributor?

hi, can pm me ur ID and cost for the glasses for ur study? thanks

hi all, can please pm alex number as well? many thanks

hi all. need to seek any advise here. im currently staying on second floor and has a pretty big balcony (not corridor facing). abt 4m long. currently the house owner installed grills and sliding windows on the balcony wall latch. so, it no longer look balcony-ish and more like an extension of the living room (he also removed the sliding doors at balcony entrance) we want to put back the balcony sliding doors as well as removing the balcony windows.. this is to create a more outdoor balcony effect.. au naturel.. rain or shine, we are ok. so the issue now is safety leh... since 2nd storey, not sure can hav spiderman climb in from the balcony and breakin... i dont think sliding doors which locking mechanism is tat secure leh... any options wld u suggest? get the lock and maintain sliding windows only with no grills? with grills (abit ugly)

Update on ID hunting.. so far none replied with a proposal.. guess they are pretty bz.. Handover soon in Sept.

hi madcat, nice reno done.. thinking of having some glass partitions for my reno as well...

haha... good review there mhurizan. So do u recommend me to pay a visit to IDeal House for my reno? Lol

first appt done last week.. ID hunting season starting soon.. been very bz lately.

nespresso is the best.. easy to make, easy to cleanup.

hi all. just my 2cents worth. recommendations would go with what u are comfortable with. in terms of usage, price and whether u are those tech ppl who always need to have latest tech. Usage: If you are using ur TV to watch mostly free to air tv shows and 20-30% of it for DVDs, BluRay... getting a solid LED TV is not worth paying. Maybe those recent plasma models would do that comes with Full HD and at least 2 HDMI inputs. This is for future expansion of ur HDMI equipment. Price: This is relative, LCD and LED are very much alike. The main diff is that is uses LED backlighting instead of tube kinda lightings. Pls correct me if im wrong here. I feel that LED tech will soon be overcome by the 3D TV and hence, its price will drop by alot... So now may not be a right time to get LED. Technology: Like some mentioned, plasma used to have those burnt-in thingy but this was the past. Also, older plasma TVs have limited operating hours but now, I think it has improved by quite a fair bit. Normally ppl change their TV sets after 5-7 yrs if nothing goes wrong. As for the LCD versus LED, as mentioned earlier, LED TV have LED backlighting so that it can give better color distribution and clarity, etc. But not all LED TVs are the same. Some LED brands have better LED technology. For example, instead of emitting white light, the LEDs will emit the color closest to the picture area. This will give a sharper and clearer image. This explains why some LED TV brands are more expensive than others. So, if ur eyes are sensitive to true black or not, getting an entry level LED TV is not recommended, u can spend on higher end LCD or bigger Plasma screens. I'm also looking for TV like you and I have previously bought an LCD, and Plasma for my parents and viewed my friend's LED. When playing HD videos on all these three, I dont see much diff between plasma and LED (may not be same for ur eyes ) but i were to compare our invoices, wah piang.. almost double price for LED. I can buy a home theater set with the diff. Another test I did, just watch free to air on all 3 TVs.. all look the same. hahaha.. So I hope these info wont confuse u further. Hope u can do some light reading on the technologies before visiting these salesperson. New tech doesnt mean better tech. Some tech needs time to mature and improve over a few years...

hi reuben, can share the contact for your ID? I will be starting my ID hunting soon. Thanks

haha thanks. but at the moment, the previous owner extended the living into the balcony. So my first visit to the house, I tot the living was big lah. Now, we need to reconstruct the balcony back create an outdoor feeling... As for the kitchen, it appears long-ish as we do not have the laundry area. We tried a few combination of where to place the washing machine. its pretty weird. Will share the pics soon.

hi all. just my 2 cents. I dont think its necessary to 'anticipate' this opennet like having those lan points with cat6 cabling to all ur rooms and paying the additional reno cost.. Coz, at the moment, the infrastructure for internet transmission is relatively fast. take the maxonline cabling for example. the only limiting speed factor are the ISPs. You pay more monthly subscriptions, u get to use the speed fully. Though, it may not be true for some cases. Also, at the moment, there are limited devices that can operate or run giga ethernet speed. If there is, its expensive and mostly not for home consumers. Unless u are doing some home trading stock market stuffs. Another opinion is that Cat6 cable compared to Cat5e cables are more expensive. But for home use, Cat5e is sufficient already and networking latency wont be felt unless the cable is more than 100m. Also, slow speed is not due to cabling only. So why pay for Cat6 if you dont need the ultra high speed. An average family would be surfing the net, making IP phonecalls and watching IPTV. So, this fibre to the home can only be matured in 2012 - 2014. I think for now, only Japan has fibre to the homes. Until then, equipment will be expensive and mostly not for home consumers as giga speeds are mostly in server centres. Therefore, probably for my house reno, I will just prepare the internal cabling as shared by the OpenNet peeps to a central point where I would place my termination point and possibly connect it to a wireless router for all other devices. Its cheaper and easier setup to get a power wireless gigabit router than using rj45 faceplate (LAN points). This setup would work for most HDB owners.

thanks lachesis. Our unit is 150 sqm. Ya, pretty big balcony. Stay tuned while we upload the before upload pix soon... anyone has any ID or contractor to recommend?