leonjennawong

Hey eveste! don't be stressed! you have a long time to start learning and planning... the fact that you are here now is great! My new flat is along Yishun ave 1.. diagonally opposite to shaugnessy.. hehe

OK actually I would like to talk about our experience with the choosing of IDs first... Of cos it started with the dilemma between main contractor & interior designer... ultimately we decided to engage an interior designer because honestly we are not really 'design' people.. we only know how to see and point and exclaim that we like this, that everything... a bit worried that our house will become like rojak after that... hahaha... We started off right here in renotalk... my fiance posted our floorplan in this forum and a few IDs started to call up.. We met the following: 1) #James from #ImageCreativeDesign - he is one of the most sincere IDs we have met & ironically he is one of those who called us as a result of us posting our floorplan up in renotalk. When we met him we were complete NOOBS, and I must give him credit.. he really did explain a lot of technicality to us... we went to his showroom and he showed and explained to us the pros & cons of materials (laminate, veneer, solid surface, workmanship concerns when using certain materials etc.) In the end decided not to go with him because we had a rude shock when suddenly got 7% gst.. (told you we noobs liao, didn't even know got gst).. Also our first visit took a looooooong time to finish. 4 hours talking about our designs and our preferences. can you believe it. hahahaha.... well, the turn off was that on the 2nd visit, suddenly he brought in a 'kah kia'.. he mentioned it's to help with on-site renovation stuff... we had concerns if there would be any problems with communication between us and this 'kah kia'.... all adds to the chemistry breaking down i suppose... another fact was... the quote is also not that cheap wor.. my fiance and i ended up trying to remove stuff from our quotation to try to fit it into our budget.... oh well.. not going ahead... 2) #michelle from #absolook - we actually met from one of their harmless 'open house' events where they seek permission from one of the clients to, well.. open house la. the design was very modern contemporary.. like rezt&relax type lor.... didn't go with her in the end because no chemistry & the quote was not that cheap either... 3) #cissern - spoke to a couple of their sales staff before at dunno which interior or furnishing expo... the latest was this guy with thick black spec frames.. omg. bad breath. and i don't know... why so many modern contemporary designs on show! haha... anyway not very impressed with sales pitches... so... skip.. (oh yeah, one of their sales guys even told us that cissern got the sole right to replace BLUM hinges with their own company name on it.. he even showed us the hinge with the cissern logo on it.. i am honestly a bit skeptical la.. BLUM is such an established brand lei. why would they let another company remove their company name/logo lei....? anyway even if that were true, i don't see how having their company name on my kitchen hinges is supposed to impress me. for all you know, you are paying more money for those hinges, for them to pay royalties to BLUM... aiyah, guesses. i think the bad breath clouded my judgement. heh heh..) 4) #rezt&relax - i think the most expensive? we didn't get a quote per se but we talked to their sales designer... and he was telling us that our reno cost will come up to about $60k. SIAO! omg. but they do mention that they have life-time warranty... so.. maybe there is a market out there... home owners who do want life time warranty.. but for me, the initial outlay for my reno matters more.. next time things spoil because of usual wear and tear den so be it... hehe.. people say no money cannot afford to be fussy. BUT i say, no money, all the more you need to be fussy so you are clear and sure that you are getting the best you can! =p 5) the legendary #MrK from #h20interiordesign - somehow managed to get a meeting with him despite his tight schedule.. his meeting was very fast.. i think in 30mins? My good friend also told me that his experiences with contractors are lidat one.. chop chop straight to the point, and it's a bit one-way... you just tell them what you want and they will absorb.. from time to time he will chip in and suggest a slightly different way of doing something because of material limitations etc. etc. technical stuff basically... initially he was our best bet... cos we heard so many good things about him... somemore.. omg no gst. you know hor, if my reno costs 20k, i would have to pay 1.4k gst... thats like another piece of carpentry lei. our govt is rich enuf... anyway #MrK is not very cheap also lei... I think renotalk has made him too famous.. as a result he is too busy... supply and demand theory kicks in... end of story - prices raised. hehehe... andddddd.. just when we thought that MrK was the definite choice.............................................................................. (sorry to be continued, need to go eat reunion dinner liao. btw all you readers, happy CNY & HUAT AH! =p)

Just let me start off with my floorplan.. nothing too spectacular... govt give you what you take what.. *bo bian* heh heh... It's a 5 room at Vista Spring @ Yishun.. internal floor area 110sqm... Let's hope we can turn it into our dream scandinavian home...

Hey hey I am finally starting a T-blog of my own! Have been an avid follower of this forum for a short while... Since October 2013? But this forum has really helped my fiance & I alot & we managed to learn alot about house renovation from here.. the basic technical knowledge.. like the difference betweeen laminate & veneer... quartz counter top better or solid surface better... etc etc.. So new home owners don't fret!! This forum will be your best friend with all the helpful people around! Heh heh... Well my fiance & I are just a simple young couple trying to make a life together in our small red dot... getting married soon, so we wish that HDB will quickly hand our keys over to us!! Ok disclaimer: I hope I will find the time and strength to continue to update as often as I can… ahhh nowadays quite busy.. So, here I am! Just for this space to be a record of our renovation journey & appreciate all advice given by all you renotalkers.. Thanks in advance lei.. hahaha...

Hi all, sorry we have been really busy lately. Their contacts are as follows: James Tng: 9875 9809 Mr K: 9022 2321

Still available? Could you upload a picture here?

Anyone here knows what kompactop is made of? Looks like normal laminate to me lei...

Since the last update, we met up with #imagecreativedesign the 3rd time: We have viewed a couple of 3D designs and drawings. I have to say, the kitchen was EXACTLY what I wanted. I absolutely loved it. We couldn't really decide on how we want the living room, bedroom and toilets to be, so that still requires some discussion. After further discussion, the quote turned out to be almost $29k. Of course they managed to give some discount. We really wanted to go ahead and sign the contract, but since it was a huge amount to spend, and we haven't discussed till this stage with any other ID, we asked him to wait. He was very patient and understanding, no hard selling. We managed to meet up with the LEGENDARY #MrK. But this guy is from #H2Odesign. I think there is another one from #IdealHouse? Anyways, he is more like a contractor uncle. He obviously knows his stuff and has surprisingly creative ideas too. Our friend compared James's and MrK's quote before and MrK's is cheaper. We have shared our ideas with him and still eagerly waiting for his quote! We went to #Absolook's open house and spoke to Michelle. Nice lady to talk to! We went ahead to discuss our reno and design plans.. quote also turned out to be roughly $29k. But we discussed it at the open house in a rush so there were many things to change in the quote. We haven't seen the final quote yet. Comparing these 3, we find ourselves ranking #MrK first. Mainly because of his many other good reviews and generally cheaper quote. He did mention that some have feed backed that his quote is more ex. #Imagecreativedesign is a little pricey even though we love his service and attitude. We find ourselves trying to remove or reduce things here and there so that it is still within the budget. #Absolook's Michelle is a little inexperienced because she is quite young.

PM-ed all of you!

Thanks so much kstoh! I read ur blog on ur new place last night, it's really great!! One of the prettiest homes and most detailed blogs I've read in here..

Sorry kstoh, another question.. Pls pardon my noobness... Got another 3 questions.. Sorry for taking up so much of your time.. 1) Ur Cove lighting is using fluorescent tubes or LED strips? 2) White light and not warm light right? 3) did you paint the ceiling a darker colour shade to bring out the Cove lighting effect even more? Looks really good.. Thanks!

Omg kstoh, ur living is **** nice.. Ur photo has convinced me that I must go for Cove lighting in my living room!! Haha and thanks so much for assuring us noobs that the ceiling fan will not necessarily cause flickering shadows with the Cove lights... But.. I still have a question.. Paiseh.. Haha =p my question is how many inches is your ceiling fan? Did you buy those shorter blade type? Thanks so much again for your advice and guidance

Music box, hope you can see this.. How many inches is your ceiling fan? Did it cause flickering shadow when you turn on your Cove lights at the same time? I need some advice on this... Can't imagine lei... =p

Hey steelze, how many inches is your ceiling fan in your living room? Did it cause flickering shadows when u turn it on with your Cove lights? Thanks so much!!

Cedric Omg I love your balcony lights!! Can u pls let us know where u got them from? Pretty house!

Which firm is this Mr K from?

Pm-ed you as well!

I have pm-ed you guys! Update: The lady who was supposed to meet us from #IDEmboss has left the company and did not assign us to anyone else. We have decided not to follow up with them. The Mr K from #H2O design is a little unresponsive on msgs sometimes. We are still keen to meet him.

No we had no idea! Okay the 2010 reviews were bad but the 2011 reviews look good. We decided that we will establish clear and concise communication with him from the beginning. We are still pretty impressed and we have confidence in him. We will let you all know how it goes if we really engage him. Thanks for showing this to me.