monk8

we planned to have a fan in the living room...and the fan of choice is the haiku fan which i saw in some of the threads here...looks very good and sleek and minimalist!! BUT it's bloody expensive...$1200 for a fan!! out of my budget..if only i bought it earlier like last year when it's $700-$800.... so went searching for a sleek looking white 3 blade fan.... 3 brands came up after days of research...KDK, Relite and Amasco. KDK is cheap and supposely lasting. it has 3 blades and it's in white....BUT there is a red KDK logo right in the middle! why the **** did they put the logo in red right in the middle??! have to reject it since i will be looking at it for years to come... Relite is cheap as well. Never heard of the brand but it's supposed to be from UK but bought over by someone in SG or MY...cant remember.. Has 3 blades as well and in white...totally like KDK model but without the red logo....am going to place an order until I saw this fan in one of the lights shops when i went lights-hunting..... 2 blades a sleek 2 blades minimalist looking fan!! FINALLY! and it's cheaper than haiku but more expensive than KDK and Relite. the only catch is that it comes only in 52" and not bigger....i originally want a 60" as adviced by my ID...called him again to check and found out 52" is also okie but that will be the smallest size and not any smaller... went to Amasco showroom and found that they have many options.....2 blades, 3 blades, 4 and even 5. 4 blades 3 blades the more blades it is, the more expensive...except for 5 blades which is cheaper than 2, 3 and 4 blades. It's DC motor so it's consume less electricity... in the end, went with 3 blades since I want more wind power....2 blades also have the wind power but decided to go with 3 instead. it's better to see and test and feel the fan and it's wind power before buying...i do not have that with KDK and relite as the shops that sell them dont have them in the shops to test.

in the end, we went with the crystal pendant light as it will reflect nicely against the mirror and reflect the lights around the room. but we went with a slightly bigger size of around 40cm instead of the one in the pic which is the small one at 25cm.. bought it at Lights Station at jalan besar...

although we went without any pendant lights for bedrooms, my parents want a dining light instead so here we goes again searching for a dining light... shortlisted are 3 lights...2 from singapore and 1 from JB...have to let go the JB one as it's the displayed piece but really cheap!! so here are the final 2: the anti-choke which i liked and the crystal ball which is preferred by my parents...

searching for lights is a very tedious and tiring...been to balestier, joo chiat, jalan sultan and even to JB.... made a lot of changes...was planning to have false ceilings and cove lights for all the bedrooms then changed our minds and decided to go for pendant lamps instead......so went searching and here are some that could be considered....(not all shops allowed taking pics so these are some from shops that allowed) loved the dinosaur egg lamp.. there are also a few from Philips brand and one that i liked which has 3 light bulbs tied together... after a few weekends of looking and searching and going to all these lights shops....eyes were very tired and seeing stars.... however, all these searching for bedrooms' lights went to waste as we are not able to finalise 3 lights and in the end went with false ceiling and downlights!!

the aircon guy also came to remove the old aircon... and put lots of meter readers at the end to test the pressure i assumed...

the hacking and clearing of the rubbish took a week. then my tiles arrived...

first week of march starts....hacking!! very messy...

after 50% discount, cost $1900... and yes...feeling the pinch but since my parents liked it and it's white marble...guess it's worth the price after the discount... original price is $3800!! and that's just for the table... would suggest going to AIR for sleek and really nice designs but be prepared for the very "nice" prices as well or wait for the sales...

during these times, we also went shopping for sanitary stuffs, furnitures, lights etc... since i'm having minimalist theme so things are minimised....only need to buy dining table and sofa. read here about air division and lucky i saw that they had a sale so quickly went down to the main branch to take a look... have to admit that everything in AIR is so nice and also expensive...but very sleek designs for a number of items....the price is the issue... luckily we managed to see a gorgeous white marble table going for 50% off!! quickly grabbed and add a few chairs since there's 30% off with purchase! here's my purchase: i like the thin table top....very clean lines and i just bought the same chair they displayed as well.. as for sofa, will be buying at tradehub...a boxy grey 3 seater...it's made after placing order so dont have any pic..

after signing the contract with the ID...the first thing to do will be choosing tiles. word of advice for all new home-owner renovating floors....go and look at the tiles yourselves first..it helps! i went to hafary 4 times myself before going down with ID to choose...we were in and out in an hour...will be quicker if the kitchen tile is not out of stock and we have to rechoose another tile....lucky steven knows what i want and able to pick a replacement rather quickly. i cannot imagine myself looking thru the whole store with ID and spend a whole day or two or three days choosing the tiles.. therefore, do go to the hafary Defu branch instead of the Balestier branch...first trip was to balestier and i've picked a few tiles.... 2nd trip to defu and boy...i am glad i did that...the variety and range is so much more and i managed to find everything there.. also note that IDs and contractors normally will bring their clients to balestier branch first (could be becos it's smaller and clients will not be overwhelmed with all the choices?)...i insisted on defu as my choice of tiles are all there. after my 4 personal trips, i waited for my trip with ID and then showed him everything to ensure that the materials/ colors and surfaces are fine to use... here are what i have choosen: living room tiles are white in color but they ran out of sample to give me...

everything is dated and old... i want it brighter for living/ dining room and kitchen...especially kitchen as it's small. the window grills at the yard makes the yard looks very enclosed so removing that. changing the bathrooms as well...pinkish is not what i have in mind for bathrooms... but will be keeping the paquet for the bedrooms since they can be revanish...

yard bedroom and wardrobe bathroom

First, this is how the current place looks like before reno and hacking.. living room dining area kitchen

sorry for MIA for long time without any updates... it's been a busy and crazy 8 weeks...renovating a resale place is tough!! I will try to update everything that happened the past 8 weeks... here goes...

the prices at lite fusion not very expensive.. the sanitary stuffs are priced not too bad and the lightings there some cheaper than jalan besar and balastier...there is 1 particular light i saw costed $900 in jalan besar..after bargained still $750 but lite fusion sell it at $500!! lucky didnt buy at jalan besar.. i have bought my sanitary items at lite fusion since my ID is just a few doors down..easy for him to collect the items and installed.

hi gakuseisean, just wondering.. for a wall mirror in dining room, would you have the mirror placed just above the dining table or have it lower so that the dining table is placed against it?

Hi, I need some advices... i am wondering if there is a need to have cove lights and downlights in the living room. ID advised 9 downlights and i'm already having more than 12 T5 for cove lights... I'm thinking if cove lights are not that dim then can do without the downlights... anyone here fix only cove lights and no downlights in the living room? is it bright enough?

haha..he's good so far...week 2 of reno now.. from the Ideal House thread, he is one of the popular and good ones after kenneth who is the boss.

dont know how many...but if you read the Ideal House ID thread...you can tell who are more popular ones. you can call the firm and asked to speak to the ID you want..

first...i think you have to look at your timeline...if it's too early, like what Batman has mentioned...dont think any ID firm can guarantee material, labour costs etc. based on my personal experiences, i started my research in dec 2012, start to make appts Jan 2013...took me 2 months from jan to feb to meet up all IDs (i have 8 IDs!!) at least once, then round 2, round 3 and finally decide the final ID to use..that with CNY and work...very tiring mentally. I would advise you to start your research early....deciding what you want for your place and which or how many IDs to go for quotation... assuming you will get your keys in jan 2015 and get only meet 1 ID a month and know what you want to do with your place...you could start as late as early 2014..provided you dont line up 10 IDs to select.. however....do note that you might have issues like... - meeting IDs too early will be hard for them to give you a final price if it's way too early (normally the price they quoted you is valid for a month or 2)..and normally the IDs would like to see your place. - meeting 1 ID a month will be tough as well if you have many IDs to meet and if you dont have an idea what you want to do with your place. you can refer to my t-blog for the list of IDs i have been to...i chose the IDs with the best reviews in renotalk after my research. all the best to your reno journey..

haha...no lah... we are all here to share and learn.. i renovating a condo.

oh...ah..i see... thanks!

hi peggylee, mstar, happytogether and om3n20, i dont think i should send you the quotation as it depends on the items that you are doing for your house. You could ask for the same guy as me for the ID firms but it will still end up different as what jaglim has said. perhaps you could list down the items you are thinking to do and I will list the total prices quoted and the things I'm doing for my house for you to compare.

if anyone has any queries on the 8 IDs that I have mentioned above, please feel free to ask. I will reply as honest as possible. Will post pics later after uploading them...

thanks...journey is not easy even after deciding on the ID firm to do the reno...searching for tiles and lights = headaches. may i know what you meant by "what house"??