OceanEleven

Facing the main door.

The entrance foyer. Brilliant idea from Mr. Foo! Taken with back facing the main door.

Chances of more than 500 are slim now, especially after the first round of purchase. Even if one is shopping frequently on Amazon, max hitting SGD300 will stop to avoid GST. So planning is important when buying.

Study room blind is up. Known as double blind. It prevent others looking in yet allowing amply natural light coming thru.

I think the main concern will be the interior of the carpentry that will turn yellowish and not should much of the exterior laminate. Exterior laminate are expose to moving air hence not such a big issue. My previous carpentry are all having white PVC interior and seems like a magnet for mould growth. You need constant airing and cleaning, else put those "thirsty hippo" may help to keep dry.

IMO you should narrow down to a few ID/contractors you would like to work with. They can be base on hear say, renotalk, friends etc. There is no point to mass email IDs and expect them to revert exactly to your needs. Some may not be able to understand what you need. To be fair to them as well, they cant afford to spend hours on one quote unless there are chances for confirmation. So selectively meet up with some IDs and discuss about what you want and get a more accurate quote. At the same time, you can have a feel of the ID and see if there is a chemistry or on the same frequency. Once you have narrow down to 1 or 2, you can invite them to visit your new place when you get the keys. From there a clearer picture will be presented to all. Certain features are not shown on the floor plan. Eg, Beams, pipes, drop etc and these will play a huge part in designing. Things you think may fit might not be feasible afterall. From my experience, trust and communication is very important between you and ID. It paves the way for a smooth reno. Also the contract you signed on, will not be the final one. Main reason is that as reno progress, more ideas will flow in, better design will surface as well. That is when a good ID comes in and work his magic. Generally, no ID will be lead along and focus much until the project is on. I have a great reno experience, though it took very long (not ID's fault) and almost everything turns out the way I wanted.

Small item you can consider to buy from Taobao. Pretty useful for the extra hangers. Do note, may not fit some hangers. http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.348.YSMlrm&id=20376427890&_u=s1n55c8t512f

More kitchen pics please.

Interest in Brick Wall is high so update a little more here. Surprisingly many still unable to find the craft brick seller. Google it and you can get the answer already. They are known as Craftstone International Sdn Bhd located at Kulai, Bukit Batu. They have an office in Sungei Kadut Street 1 but the price is local price and no free delivery to Singapore. Call the JB office and Serene is the lady you should speak to. As mentioned, they do not deliver to Singapore. They outsource the delivery to Singapore. Cost SGD250 per trip. Delivery only to address site and not to unit. ie downstairs only. Another alternative is to drive in and meet at the Shell station right after the JB customs. Depending on the quantity bought, a car should be able to fit in 10 cartons. Note : Per carton is very heavy. My guess is easily 20kg. Please declare GST. Per pax may bring in SGD150 worth of items if out of Singapore for less than 24 hrs.

3-5 weeks before requirement of items. This is including shipping time and delivery to your place. Sea freight estimate at 7-14 days. This is also subjected to availability of items. If item is available and seller can deliver anytime, then order 7 days in advance from your desired shipping time. ie Today is 1st August and you want all items to reach you by end August then you must place your order by 10th August. And all items to reach Amcon by 15th August and then to sea freight out. Estimated will reach you by end August. Sea freight is subject to China Customs, Singapore Customs etc, hence sometime may face a delay, especially during China long holidays. Items purchase that needs customization eg. study/dining table, chairs, sofas, please check with seller about delivery time. Some items may require up to 4 weeks or more to fabricate, hence you ordering time should be much earlier. eg to sea freight out by mid August for the dining table which need 4 weeks to make, you should have order it as early as 1st July. Also you need to take into consideration of domestic shipping time. eg buying from Shanghai to deliver to Amcon Guangzhou may take 5 days or more. The duration is also very much depending on the local scene such as public holidays. CNY, 三八, 五一, 十一, 双十一, 中秋 are some dates to take note of.

I replaced all my doors. Main door included. Fire rated 2 ply. Done by Ricky Ang from An Digital 9099 8233. Overall a great deal since I am doing 4 doors. Ricky is attentive and patience in explaining despite I took months to confirm with him, He came down no less than 3 times to meet, such service oriented attitude is a rare find nowadays. Close up of the laminate look. The standard handle. Didnt wanna top up to change other design.

I can visualized the finished look.Kinda more of a complete look. Currently on one side only, no doubt is looking fabulous but still lacking the X factor. If cost is not that huge, should really consider. Like wise when I do my brick wall and decided to take the plunge.

Yes, matter of fact $6k plus. Practically complete rewiring. 28 x 13A double point, 2 aircon switch, oven point, 3 way & 2 way switches, 6 data point, TV point all rooms and maybe phone as well. 1 x kill switch too, or maybe 2, new DB boxes etc. Anyway, now still "bleeding" badly..... Better keep your finger cross. You'll never know how much you are gonna add on. It is better to do more 13A, will comes in handy.

I dont think Eames Lounge Chair come dismantled. Perhaps only the leg support can be loosen for packing. Else likely gonna be complete chair in 1 box and the foot rest in another. Overall volume maybe close to 1 cbm.

Personal opinion. You should wrap around the corner as well. The look will be much much better. Making it more "even" and natural. Aesthetically, will be very pleasing to the eyes. Refering to this: The other side of living room

Dont worry about accepting the goods in Taobao. Accepting them means the money will be release to the seller. So after certain amount of days of goods arrived and no one accepting, Taobao will auto release the money to seller.

Amcon charges if buying yourself = RMB550/cbm + $35 documentation + 7%GST Amcon charges if Amcon buy for you = RMB550/cbm + $35 documentation + 7%GST + RMB50 per link I have never use Peeka before but I remember Peeka is more costly than Amcon. http://buy4u.peeka.sg/rates = Peeka Rates See the rates and you can mak a comparison.

Not going to share the links, a little disappointed by the quality. No it is that bad but kinda fail on some expectation. The curtains are usable, pretty ok I would say. Did not like the rods I bought, didnt look that great, no gonna use them. I went for some plain and simple type, using "eyelets" or rig type for easy hanging. So, for curtains are still ok, value for money, rods etc, can forget it.

Welcome back! (Again) Couldnt had put it better about Mr. Foo. His earnest attitude is definitely a big plus along the reno journey. His casual dressing often lead others mistook him as a contractor rather than an ID. Perhaps this casualness makes him a very hands on person. And yes, he is always present when a big or new phase is starting during the reno. Absence of 3D is not an big issue, his free hand drawing is good enough to express the shape and look of works you are getting. His willingness to listen to you is really pleasing. But wait, that does not means you will always get your way. Matter of fact, Foo wont hesitate to tell you what you want may not be the best but yet he is able to improvise and counter propose something even better. ​Of course, if one insist, he will still design to meet requirement but best suited to the needs and looks. Good choice of ID you had made and I believe you had a pretty enjoyable reno journey.

Above are some postings on TB, Tmall and shipping via Amcon. Consolidated on the same page for easy reference. Hope they can be of help for those venturing into TB and Tamll.

You can refer to my blog. Post 577,579 & 580

Amcon & Shipping Some folks are still a little confuse so I will try to be a little more detail. Set up an account in Taobao or Tmall, set up in one and you can use the same account in either site. Go fill up the delivery address in Taobao**, as always, all online shopping needs a shipping address. Shipping address, please refer to above writings. You MUST write in 2 address for Amcon to identify as your item. Else simply shipping to Amcon China will not indicate who the buyer is or what is inside the package. Next is the payment in TB, I understand when nowadays when you sent up a Taobao account, you will auto get an Alipay account. Alipay 支付宝 is the payment platform similar as Paypal. If you did not get the account, suggest you to get set up one Alipay account as well. In Taobao, after placing an order, the site will direct you to payment page. From there choose this ： 海外其它地区版. From there, you will see Nets payment. Yes, Nets payment. Surcharge is SGD1 per transaction. And from here, I believe the rest is history. So there you go, Taobao made easy for all. As mentioned in my earlier post, first identify your forwarder. In my case, I employed the service of Amcon. So I will make my purchase, informing the seller to input delivery address as "Amcon address/My address". (Refer to my earlier post) The 2 addresses is for seller to send to Amcon and your address for Amcon to identify that it is your item. If you are consolidating, then please email to Amcon, informing them the "Amcon address/My address". Instruct them not to send until you give the green light as you are consolidating. Next follow up with a phone call to Amcon Singapore to confirm they received the mail and understood your intention. So far Amcon aint a big fan of replying email so do your part to chip in the effort. When you are ready to ship, please prepare a list for Amcon. Details needed: Domestic delivery number (快递单号), delivery company name(快递公司名), item description, quantity and value. All these can be found on your Taobao account under purchased item. Info are need for Amcon to ensure all items have arrived at Amcon warehouse and ready for shipping. Also for custom declaration and GST purposes. Hope the above helps. Happy shopping. Note: You only need to inform Amcon once that you are consolidating and do not ship out your purchase till you are ready. Multiple reminder are not require and unnecessary. Do so when your FIRST item is ship out and not wait for a few to ship out and NOT

Shipping By AMCON I did a little homework, ask around a little, made some calls and decided to use Amcon. Why I choose them? I called them a couple of times; I even spoke to the lady boss – May. Communication is there but pretty much on the vague side though. Only thru more conversations I managed to get a better grasp of the complete process. The process is actually pretty straight forward, especially if you purchase yourself and send to Amcon’s warehouse in China. Though Amcon provide purchase on behalf option but I believe the charges is RMB50 per order (regardless of quantity) which I totally skipped. Amcon has 4 warehouses in China. Namely – Guangzhou, Dongguan, shanghai and Zhejiang Yiwu. So choose one point as your delivery point. I used Guangzhou because it seems most items on Tmall or Taobao are from the Guangdong region. Next, when you order your items, you have to “mark” your items. By marking means filling in a standard for all delivery address such as following: **广州市越秀区北站南路69号义庆商储仓135 / 112库 联系人：倪先生 / 何小姐 电话/传真：020 - 3637 7718 手机：137 1160 1896 BLOCK 135/112,NO.69 BEI ZHAN NAN RD,YUEXIU,CHINA 转 Ang Mo Kio Ave 6 Blk xxx #xx-xx Singapore xxxxxx (your name) (mobile number) 转 = transfer This is for Amcon to identify things you have ordered and to consolidate. One shortcoming is that Amcon will not follow up if they received the items. You have to tracked it yourself from Tmall or Taobao (so far both will indicate item been delivered and signed for), neither nor will Amcon check the items for defects. So practice caution when purchasing fragile items. Do note that though Peeka offer to check items but limited to certain packaging only. Anything that is wooded crated, they will not check as well. In my opinion, the risk is still worth taking, especially if you have getting savings from the items purchased after comparing with getting locally. “Marking” means by filling the above address ** in your Taobao account and set it as default delivery address. Pros & Cons Pros: Reasonable shipping rates, office in Singapore, able to consolidate items, good for bulky items. Cons: No checking of items, a bit slow cos only sea freight, no informing when received items. Charges LCL Charges From Guangzhou Warehouse to your Address A) 1 CBM 550RMB/CBM B) Documentation Fee SGD35/set C) 7% GST

CONSOLIDATED POST ABOUT TAOBAO AND TMALL Taobao & Tmall The interest and enthusiastic in Taobao and Tmall has always been high among folks. Most can spend hours and days searching for the ideal item to purchase. Then again, some pre-requisite are required before one can venture further. Able to read Chinese, is half the job done then. The rest, there is always Google Translate. Just to pen down some thoughts and journey went thru. Searching for the dream item is not the hard part. There some many items to of various design, pattern and colours to choose from. Choosing to buy from who is the tricky part. First there is Taobao and Tmall. So what is the difference? From what I understand, Tmall are more of premium sellers. Chances of getting fake stuffs from there are lesser the sellers are more reputable, quality assurance is there as well. Then again, this does not means Taobao has no good stuffs or mainly fakes. Practice some due diligence, if an offer looks too good to be true, then mostly it is. For me I will look for those with 1) sales transaction 2) comments 3) higher diamonds rated seller. Read thru the comments, make sure the comments are coming from different names and also are frequents buyers and not some bogus buyers. Takes a little time but normally shall pay off well. Next, the interesting part, all vendors has a MSN like chat 阿里旺旺, if you are able to type Chinese, download it. You can chat directly with the seller, asking questions of your concern and clarify some doubts such as colour & dimensions (esp for wood grain furniture). And seriously, you can bargain a little as well if you are buying a few items or more, or request free delivery to an address in China. With chatting, the seller can "custom" a link for you to meet your requirement be it the pricing or dimensions. Troublesome you may say but to me, it is part of the fun of online shopping. I always chat when buying big ticket items and kinda get a little discount here and there. I was looking for some rain shower head, found this vendor, chat with him and found out that he is selling bidet spray as well but not listed on his site. So he sent me some pics, ask him about the material so end up buying 2 shower head and 2 bidet from him. He gave me a discount and I got some savings. Now he is offering me with more of his products for my consideration, send me mails with pics of some faucets and taps, will seriously consider if the price is right. Actually there is a small hiccup when buying from him, we both calculated the wrong amount to pay, I paid RMB60 more and the same evening, he refunded me straight away. If you ask me, do I trust them? Yes and no. Yes because the Chinese are slowly moving into the phase of understanding the importance of customer service, word of mouth. Passed were the days where they do guerrilla warfare, whack & run. Sometimes due to the lack of monitoring in QC, one may get a lemon item once in a blue moon. Still it wont deters me from continuing to buy from there for some items are pretty enticing. Like a study table, local prices are like $500 up to $1k or more, carpentry is like $120 per foot run, while in TB/Tmall, you can get easily for approx. $300. Making it more appealing if you are buying 2. Later I will post abit on how and who I used to ship the items. Payment to Taobao or Tmall Paying to TB and Tmall has always been a pain in the xxx. The more direct approach is buying thru agent but then agent charged a fee that sometimes makes the item no longer attractive. Eg. Peeka charges a 5% or min $5. If the item is low value, it is more contemptible to use such service. Not to forget, Peeka allow only up to 3 orders consolidation. (I think so) So another way is to use Credit Cards, which personally I avoid at all cost. This, firstly due to the unfavourable exchange rate and the 3% additional surcharge as well. So what can we do then? We can use Alipay. All you have to do is to register an Alipay account, now Alipay can even accept Singapore mobile. This is a safety security function, when paying, Alipay will send a 6 digit pin SMS to you r mobile for payment. To top up to Alipay, we can use AXS machine, to purchase Alipay Purchase Card, choosing from RMB200, 500 and 1000 to. You will have to enter your email and contact. Receipt will be issued and email sent. The email as follow: Please find your Alipay Purchase Card transaction details below. Transaction Date/Time : 2014-02-09 10:51:29 Amount Paid : SGD $218.70 Card Value : RMB 1000 Card Serial No. : 800300xxxxxxxxxx Card PIN : 2xxxxx Email address : abc123@gmail.com Contact No : 9xxxxxxx Also included are the instructions to top up in Alipay. Sounds easy right? But there are dome shortcomings as well too. 1) Unfavourable exchange rate charged. On this part, one has to do your own math, whether to buy thru agent and pay the fees/surcharge or thru this method. 2) Money top up cannot be refunded. So there will always be balance in the account. So it is better to plan and count how much you need before you top up. Personally, I will still use this method. At least I get to control what I spend, know how much I have; TB account will have record what I had bought. If received a super big lemon, I can deal direct with seller. Thru agent, there is no record unless agent able to retrieve for you but this will involve agent details such as payment, accounts etc. Any refund is also back to payee and not you. Long and tedious I feel. LATEST UPDATE Payment in TB, I understand when nowadays when you sent up a Taobao account, you will auto get a Alipay account. Alipay 支付宝 is the payment platform similar as Paypal. If you did not get the account, suggest you to get set up one Alipay account anyway. In Taobao, after placing an order, the site will direct you to payment page. From there choose this ： 海外其它地区版. From there, you will see Nets payment. Yes, Nets payment. Surcharge is SGD1 per transaction. And from here, I believe the rest is history. So there you go, Taobao made easy for all.

Welcome to RT! So you have yet to confirm with any ID/contractor? If that is the case, you have wanna slow down on all purchases as they play a part in achieving the look you want.