firegoddess

Sorry bro, have not installed it yet and yes, renovation is still on-going as ID refused to do detailed drawings till ceiling was up and went through 2 months of ding dong on the carpentry details after that. Finally doing carpentry now and because of the sheer amount, ID claimed that 2 teams of carpentry men were deployed on site. Well, I got to see loads of bare bodied men these few days and would say that all of them are really very skilled and took pride in finishing each piece of carpentry in their charge. All the carpenters are very polite too and very considerate at giving leeway to a matron like me asking for minor rectifications on-site. We visited Gary & he was very good at demo & explanations. He even sent his man to have a site consultation with my ID on how this Vesta GL-988 is to be installed. He also provided a sample water pipe & pipe bolt to be used in water-tight securing the pipes going through our concrete/silestone counter top so that holes be drilled correctly. All these without having to pay for any deposit beforehand. So I highly recommend him.

Went to Mattress Atrium branch at the Furniture Mall along Beach Road and boy, loads of hard sell talk and using the tactic that they are honest and kept chasing us away by asking us to order from other shops since could get a lower price. Even though leather sample given stated that our chosen color need not charge extra, he said tagged wrongly & proceeded with add-on charges. We wonder samples were there for so long surely not now then discovered tagged wrongly right? The sales guy got worked up and impatient when we said Dunlopillow don't charge extra for increase in storage bed height. Common on, it's consumer's right to press for lower prices and it's up to sales guy to convince us that his is the best deal right? He got so worked up that he kept using the same tactic to ask us order elsewhere but we already visited his shop many times & really wanted to place order liao but he no see it. Then he said leather only for front of headboard, the back & bed frame are PU/PVC else another round of add-on charges. Next he said must pay in full then can order else please order elsewhere that's when I smell fish. If he sells good stuff, surely customers will willingly pay up difference upon delivery right? Why he so afraid? Never ever pay full in advance else get no service so we up & out the door & within 15 minutes, promptly ordered a full leather king size storage bed & a mattress from Englander a floor below. Sandy's English is not fluent but she gave very good service and really honest & sincere in wanting our business for she not only match her competitor Mattress Atrium price plus all the customization we wanted, she also gave us 100% real leather with our chosen color for all areas that can be seen including the bed frame plus absorption of GST which the other wanted to charge us 50% GST chargeable! We highly recommend Sandy from Englander on the second floor of The Furniture Mall Beach Road.

Thanks for pointing out and yes, it's painted, only first coat so extremely uneven. This is how the living rm ceiling looks like: Is this mirror nice? Worth while getting for my walk-in wardrobe? Everyday dress up with it should feel very happy right?

Thanks Battle. Very slow progress. Just met resilience floor guy and he said can't lay flooring till many other things done so another 2-3 weeks later. Will be ordering all lightings this weekend. Now gotta search for Roman curtain vendor, any lo bang? So none of you want to accompany me today for a FOC cooking demonstration by a chef using the latest combi steam oven? Sad, going alone then. Some more teaser photos of current status: New MBR: Living Rm:

Changing everything inside MBR toilet so have the following for sale, in brand new condition as provided by HDB so pricing them very reasonably: 1) Basin with peaslta stand plus hot/cold mixer tap S$120 2) Toilet bowl S$120 3) Shower set S$100 Take everything at $288. All already dismantled & ready for self collection. Interested please PM me.

Hi Neighbour, Congrats on getting keys. Try to guess from my bedroom windows photo.

Just gotten my new place at Ghim Moh Link and changing everything inside MBR toilet. Have the following for sale, in brand new condition as provided by HDB so pricing them very reasonably: 1) Basin with peaslta stand plus hot/cold mixer tap S$120 2) Toilet bowl S$120 3) Shower set S$100 Take everything at $288. All already dismantled so ready for self collection immediately. Interested please PM me.

Ordered Hitachi Fridge, De Dietrich Induction Hob 38cm Continuum & this oven, anyone recognise the model? Never know so difficult to choose an oven so finally decided to choose a combi steam oven as wanted healthy eating, so my reno budget is officially broken. Very long story in oven selection but basically found that the young sales personnel in main official big dealers are very courteous when dealing with you face to face but see you no up unless you have Tai Tai buffoon hairstyle dripping with bulging diamonds so will not invite you for product experiences & give all sorts of excuses. Non-official small ones with mature sales staff that actually utilise the ovens daily give better service, will tell the truth when doing product comparison and willing to match prices too if you bulk purchase. I was willing to order a more expensive brand but was bowled over by the fantastic features of the slightly cheaper one. Anyone keen to accompany me in experiencing a product experience by Chef Jimmy Chok tomorrow near Somerset MRT at 3pm? PM me.

Sorry IPineapple, Haven't purchased yet, but from experience, Optiled main office do have a very nice showroom & if you book appointment with them, an experience technical/sales staff will walk you through the various lights & give suggestion. They'll also email quote to you and provide you with lighting simulation if you can decide on light types & provide floor plan. If you are real keen, Optiled is also willing to go on site to provide overall lighting suggestion & site measurement for the light simulation. Only problem is they are very very slow as they only got back to me 2 months after visited them! They are very technical people so I do have trouble interpreting their lighting simulation result as they got problem trying to explain in layman terms. Good luck!

Just want to buy a bottom storage bed frame & headboard in full leather but seems very difficult to find reliable vendor. So if don't buy from Expo, where else to buy from?

This is fiber optics to create starry starry night effect. Intend to install this in my MBR ceiling but can only afford 120 fiber optics, unlike your video have so many so must be expensive. Haven't purchased yet, do let me know lobang too?

Pass few months went round many expos held in Singapore Expo but the bed frames & bed headboards are all made in PVC, but I'm used to using leather one. Please advice where can I get a real leather storage bed frame & headboard? Anyone got good lobang?

Wall constructed, cement patching done, aircon trunking done, wiring done and false ceiling going up within these 3 days hopefully. Very ugly currently so no photo upload. After CNY will do cement screeding, follow by painting then vinyl laminate. Also went to source for lights so confirm using mostly OptiLED with 3 years warranty which not even Philips brand can match, only 1 year. From our own sourcing of light shops, total lighting cost approximately five digits inclusive of 120 fiber optics for starry starry night MBR ceiling, with the LED strips taking up a third of cost. ID's lighting shop wanted to charge us 1.8 times on house brands compared to our own light shop, with only 1 year warranty! DH extremely unhappy with the steep chopping. Already kanna chopped when ID brought us to his bathroom shop but luckily I smart & insisted they put "Allow exchange & cancel of any items" on invoice so they prefer to keep us happy by matching the lower costings we managed to secure elsewhere, but still more expensive by S$1K!. As long as reno turns out to our satisfaction, a little $ into ID pocket is fine, makes him happy. Welcome to reno circle Knight78, no problem, PMed you. Very tired, yesterday collapsed & took an afternoon nap of an hour! I have been camping outside our unit for 3 days as ID & contractors got loads of decisions for us to make. Sometimes we travelled total of 4 times within a day to the unit, on top of searching for lights, appliances etc, in addition to hand feeding my chinchilla kit every 2-3 hours whose mum got no milk for him. Happy late nights & all over sourcing!

Confidential, I wanted many things in Kitchen so end up very cramp, not enough counter top now. Was very ashamed of myself when watching Junior Chief on TV for I can't even bake a cake compared to those kids so want a good oven now. Here're more kitchen appliance teasers: Changing the Alkaline Water Dispenser to the Vesta GL 988 instead of the previously mentioned undermount type due to it being the latest newest 9 plate model, healthier water to drink. So welcome cluttered counter top with 2 drill holes for inlet & outlet drainage. Acid water to be collected below sink for floor cleaning etc: Bought BlancoSubline 500-U Silgranit undermount kitchen sink, almost same material as Silestone so non-scratchable unlike stainless steel sink. Required a very small size so ended buying designer line costing double of normal size, very heart ache. Don't know can install Blum servo drive at bottom to create those desired sink drawers? Matching the German sink is the German Blanco sink mixer with pull-out tap & undermount soap dispensers but ID casted holes too closely , need to redo which they are going to fill up wrong holes & drill new holes further apart. Luckily still got Silestone top so should remain strong sink counter:

Long time no update due to re-selection of IDs which finally signed one up last month after going through our requirements with 4 IDs/Contractors for the first round, and another 6 for second round. All from first round dropped out except 1, got more responses from second round but was quoted S$100K so scary but we do concur that he's a true ID, alternative space planning & attention to detail is superb and will definitely recommend him if anyone got money for first class renovation! Went back to original one from first round as already went through few rounds of 3Ds and came to an understanding with each other. Dong Tu on 22 Dec then HDB didn't give approval till 5 Jan 2012 so lesson learnt: HDB Architects love to take year end festive annual leave. ID also dreaming for he submitted to overlay wall tiles in MBR instead of MBR Bathroom & forgot to submit wall hacking so re-submitted for HDB approval total of 3 times. Now must submit another one more, sigh! During this time another bomb shell from ID, he promptly went on vacation leave for 11 days guess that's why he kept submitting wrong things to HDB as he's dreaming of his vacation. During this period, these were done: Kitchen wall hacked, sink concrete & base for fridge built: New MBR walls hacked, big & spacious: MBR Toilet nice silver motif tiles, should interspace horizontally with the sparkle dark tile for some pattern or whole wall same tile?

Yeap, already ordered & they chased me for on site measurement but only just started hacking walls now so won't be on time for CNY. A few other items also ordering direct instead of going through ID. PMed you.

Going to have a mainly white MBR due to no choice as any other colour will cause us trouble. Hope it will turn out fine as still trying to acclimatize to white wardrobe, white headboard & bed, white side table so looking at loads of white furniture lately to get used to it. Dust can't see but dirt can see.

Welcome Kalle, If TV is very small size like 42" & below then sofa can position nearer, else sofa should be further away for bigger TV. Your ID trying to create private housing unblock view when you watch TV but HDB units very small. Can create low platform **** rm if want to retain the bay window height, should look nice and can double up as seats for dinning too. Not too sure about fridge facing opposite stove so if consulting Feng Shui Master, do so early.

Hi Renotm & iPineapple, Have PMed you. Do note that I'm still at the beginning stage of renovation so have not installed Silestone yet & definitely have never utilised Silestone before.

Hi Renotm, Read about Silestone from another forum & since fed up with existing peeling laminated counter top, told DH I wanted the best available like Silestone for this new unit. At first DH was & insisted on granite which he thought was durable & cheaper but after visiting some ID's show kitchens with terrible granite top condition, he went online to survey & couldn't decide between Silestone or the cheaper Caesarstone but was eventually won over by Silestone anti-bacterial property as we used to have cats who loved to sleep on counter tops. Ordinary Silestone range I'd be happy as its already expensive but when ordering, we swoon over the latest Platinum series, very glittery & eye catching so the most expensive. Since our kitchen is very tiny with very little counter surface, decided to choose this range as the dent in pocket will be limited. Will also be using this range on our tiny bar counter top, master bathroom tiny vanity top, cistern top, recessed shampoo shelf top & shower sitting block top. Then DH went overboard & became fixated & enamored with Silestone that's where he insisted on using Silestone for study desk tops but chose the range below Platinum. Tried to entice him into using other material like glass but to no avail so we'd be having the most expensive study desks in my whole life! ID wanted to charge markup Silestone but we decided on getting it directly so will PM you the pricings for these 2 ranges which we got in Nov 2011, our first renovation purchase before settling with an ID. During the recent great GSS sales, some not so sellable Silestone colours were on sale too so you might want to look out for that as they take measurement to cut the Silestone only after the carpentry is onsite, which is the last 2-3 weeks of your renovation. Good luck with your choice!

I'm with Albertchng & Mummymantras on vinyl flooring too as laminate flooring requires maintenance cost in 3-5 years time due to warp & scratch. Also I will be installing a GreenWall so need durable waterproof flooring, and I tend to drop things, very butter finger so might dent laminate. And will be doing exercises in Living rm so need flooring that gives a little to absorb impact & yet won't crack with my weight/shoes. Evorich gives lifetime warranty for residences so good for me. Do try to get some discount if buying direct as they are very willing to do your business else try to get from your ID who might offer you S$5.20 psf, the lowest ever come across to date.

Hi Sleek, Desperate now so do let me have your reno guy's contact. Thanks.

Hi Hugobossy, Please PM me your ID contact, thanks.

Got played out by one of the IDs (walk-in wardrobe featured above) or perhaps she chickened out! I'm desperate, anyone got good IDs to recommend as I need to start with another 2-3 IDs all over again? Especially interested in those that already stayed in your renovated residence for 1-2 years as you can tell whether their workmanship is good or bad. I've got plenty of carpentry to do up.

Hi MrDisco, Silestone installed in kitchen can't be moved if I move again that's why for the study desks with Silestone tops, am insisting removable kind so must well finished on all sides. Hmm, any lobang on which vendor will give great discount if buy everything single brand? They said good sinks only 3 brands: Frankie, Blacken & Franco I think, so any lobang too? Found a kitchen mixer tap from Kitchen Concept that can pull out yet got led light but at s$1450++ faint! Where & what to get for a powerful extractor fan as ID wanted to charge S$450 for ducting? Are you getting Brandt hood? Can't get downdraft extractor, HDB kitchen too small. Thanks Sleek, really appreciate that stamp of approval on De Dietrich stove as your 25 years & 3 different stoves outbid any salesman talk. Yesterday hubby persuaded me not to get gas stove so decided to get only induction so can get 60cm hood right? Oh thanks, will check out the extraction fans.