kajua

Its up to your personal preference I think. For us, we initially wanted Kenneth too but he was busy. We even asked his buddy who is a friend of us to check with him . When we read in the forum about how good he was, initially we were also thinking about whether to wait for him or not since our wedding was 1 year away. But in the end we decided to give the other ID from Ideal House a try because of 2 reasons 1. Kenneth was too popular Thats bad cause means if we get him, we will be sharing his time with a number of other couples. A lot of them in fact, cause at that time we heard he was handling more then 10 reno at 1 go. So we didnt know how much time he would have for us if we got him. He is good but he is human after all and there is only about 16 hours a day. This issue was demonstrated to us as at that same time we were also getting quote from Patrick of Ho Bee. Another super popular one. But because Patrick was a 1 man show, helped on the admin side by his wife, it made it worse and clearer to us the pit falls of getting a popular ID/Contractor. When Patrick was loaded with renos (near the end of last year, think 14 at 1 go), we had to wait for many days sometime a couple of weeks just to get a response from him. Anytime we had queries, we called his wife and she relayed it to him and then we wait. When he cleared up his portion of the reno (think he take cares of wet works, then Ah Keong take care of carpentry), then his response became very prompt. 2. From the forum, we read that the work crew of Ideal House, irregardless of which ID from Ideal House was in charge was good. So since whatever ID we get , as long as from Ideal House, we figured the work crew would be more or less the same gang, so the work quality would be the same. Of course the icing on the cake was that we got along quite well with the ID that we talked to. His response to our queries was very prompt. Also when we went holiday in Krabi and told him which date we will be able to discuss about the quote. On the exact day, then he called us. So shows he really does listen to us which we think is good. Also he worked as a team, so we get 2 of them . So if one goes reservist or leave, we can call the other !! -Celest

We were quoted $800 for our 5ft solid sink support plus another $200 for a 2 panel solid plywood casement door. That was in Sept/Oct last year. Most of the other ID/Contractor we called quoted us also around this price. Our solid sink support is sort of standing in the middle so we have no wall behind it. The back as in the part behind thet tap. The front part where people normally stand we did not make it higher as we feel it might constrict us when we are using the sink. I think you will understand better what i mean once you see the pictures in our blog Actually we found from various discussion with ID/Contractor there is a way to minimise the impact of the water dripping if you use a normal wood cabinet. Just tell the ID/Contractor for the part of the cabinet containing the sink dont build the wooden base. So if there is any leakage of the pipes, it will just drip on to the concrete floor below the sink. But we still went ahead with the solid sink support

We are doing concrete sink support also. Steven or Max never ask us to buang, they just ask whether we want sliding or casement door Anyway it's your house mah, you want it they should do it what. Why buang? You pay them one leh. My friend even did a squatting toilet! You can see the picture of the sink support on my blog, its almost done with the sink embedded in it already. Steven made an extra 10 cm small ledge at the back of the sink support so its 10 cm higher then the sink level so we can clean easier We did the sink support because behind the sink support will be our service balcony . So it wil be quite wet, if we use laminates it might spoil faster. -Celest Waaahhh more ex then ours and Hobbes....what did you request to do to the house? Hobbes one also 38k only and he took 2 packages. WHo is your ID?

Hobbes jsut saw your blog waaah you got hob and hood on top of the aircon and free cabinet! So many freebies!!

In general, Paying more or less does not have any bearing on whether a house will be renovated in a good and usable condition. or not All depends on who you hire and your luck. The best material in the hands of a lousy worker will still result in a lousy piece of work The cheap material in the hands of a craftsman could end up with a masterpiece. Cheap and good is rare and you must be lucky. Expensive and crap however is very common. So never based opinion on just the price. To find a renovation package, price is a consideration but only as a gauge on what you can afford. Once you narrow it down to those few within your budget, from there more important is to check out their past project and your level of comfort with them when you negotiate with them. Opinions in this forum should only be used as a reference because of everybody's different expectation and in some cases, different agenda when posting. When checking out their projects, check in extreme detail. Quotes can lie cause there might be hidden cost, posting on forums maybe be not accurate because of a lot of reasons , material listed can lie too because you and I are not experts if they tell you a tile is top grade ask yourself this "Can I tell the difference aside from the price?", they say come from Italy again can you tell? BUT workmanship put in front of you cannot lie. You can feel it, knock on it, check it, etc etc. There you can tell if its good or not. See a few, if just see one it could be a just a specially prepared one, see a few there is less chance of that unless the reno contractor wanna go broke setting up a few perfectly built houses. Also the level of comfort when you interact with the contractor is important cause a lot of changes will still occur once you sign. If you not comfortable when conflict occurs, its gonna get messy. Anyways good luck with your hunt -Celest

haven't got the time to go down our house and take a look at the reno progress. so happy that steven took the initiative to send mms to update us !! kitchen sink support foyer floor tiles

hi blackapple, we got the living room light at 90 bucks. went a few places all quote us 95 bucks.

hi applefreak, yeah, really glad to find that light. my FH likes those bare florescent lights but i don't like. although he let me choose what i like but i tot he should get something he likes too... so the kitchen light design sort of compromise bah.... only thing is need to apply a layer of car wax to prevent the metal piece from rusting. skywolf, really!! very qiao wor that light was recommended by the staff. he said if we like bright lights, should get something with clear glass

Also went down to the house to take a look, the windows are up! and the toilet walls are done!! The windows were really nicely done up. i like the very good job they did at the joints...every smooth. My MBR toilet shower area A kinda retro looking tile The balcony floor tiles were also already done. Really impress how evenly it was done. The gap between tiles was really small also My solid sink support was also coming up Thats the poor uncle working alone to day. The other one went back to Malaysia for voting The place he is tiling is behind my kitchen cabinet. Was really impressed even these hidden tiles, they take time and care to do it properly

last evening went park mall, supposed to take a look at the energy saving lights at lightcrafts, ended up buying a bedframe from Scanteak. they were having 60 anniversary sale, managed to get the bedframe at $699 (u.p above $1200) today is another pocket burning day went chelsea lighting and got most of our lights and a KDK ceiling fan. due to low budget, can only get those simple lights living room lights bedroom lights kitchen lights after buying the above lights, no money liao. therefore.... tada...... our toilets and storeroom lights 15 bucks each with normal bulb holder. thought helping FH save money, ended up kenna suan, because his intention is to get a 3 bucks bulb but its supposed to last 7 years leh... don't know how true will start calculating from the day i use the bulb

Hi Darrenelle, ya ya, if not for the price constraint, guess i won't be able to make a decision on which tiles to choose saw your blog, the way u wrote about the quotation so funny... hehehe.... anyway, won't be surprise about such a huge difference in pricing. when we first ask for quotations, a couple of IDs also told us no 40k cannot be done, one even told us no 60k cannot well, glad that we got ideal house to do our reno. so far very satisfied with their service. provide good updates on the progress.

I think thats the brightest shade of green at Hafary. For this lime green color the selection of tiles was very limited . Just nice we like this one. Anyway it was a very hard color to match especially with floor tiles. Thats why we added in the white The Toh Guan shop was SBH. Yeah they have a very big showroom at Toh Guan, a smaller one at Balestier. SBH and Hafary were to 2 shops we were suppose to go to for tiles selection but we went Hafary first cause its nearer. Ended up we found all the tiles we wanted there so never went to SBH Happy tiles selection....its fun!

Oops sorry pmed you again

PMed you Steven number Yeah we face the same situation initially when we called Mr K. Think at that time he was handling more then 20 projects or was renovating his own place. So he diverted us to others. I think Steven and Max work as a team, just that different contract which will be the lead . In our case it was Steven, but when discussion or survey of the property both come together, at least that what happen to us. So when Steven not around (for reservist or what not), we can still get Max who since he has seen and met us and out place , would know about it -Celest

We dont really know what the actual difference. But we did ask the sales person at various places and they tell us all Sealy mattress use the same spring. So i guess the basic is the same . I think backsaver is suppose to be a "lower" end sealy range . They use the same spring as the posturepeadic but I think has less of those fancy features that comes with the higher range. What Edgeguard, Sense Response system etc etc. Since we also dont know know what all those fancy features do, we just based our decision on comfort level. We tried the mattress about 3-4 times at Courts and other ranges from Sealy , Simmons , Kingkoil, Serta at other shops but decided on the BackSaver cause we felt most comfortable. It is a bit firmer then other ranges which is what my FH liked. The other ranges got a plush top that sinks in which we didnt like Also another point was the price. It was going for 800+ but because of the Amex promotion (think no more) at Courst, we got it at 700+ King Size at this price is very hard to find for a Sealy. Comes with 2 mattress protector and 2 free pillow Only problem is finding a bed frame. Bedframe we like either dont come in King size or are more ex then the mattress!!! Oh yeah, even when looking for Backsaver series, you have to check the range. The one we bought was BackSaverX New Heritage. Its only available at Courts. Some other places got other BackSaverX, all going for more then $1000 -Celest

Oic. Didnt know yours was a new apartment. We also took the package, but the Elegance Resale package. But because that package covers up 121 sqm and ours was 122 sqm we had to pay extra for the extra hacking and tiles for the extra area. We got the 20ft Kitchen Cabinet instead of the Aircon since we had 1 package only We also hacked all our rooms and replaced it with tiles instead of laminates in the package. Maybe thats why it was more expensive. Cause i heard hacking cost has gone up since the sand incident We also paid extra for the replacement windows, grilles and solid sink support and running of hot water pipe Maybe thats why ours was more expensive. Good thing was that Steven gave us quite a bit of freebies Yeah Steven and Max both every responsive and very good in their followups -Celest

you got all this for 38k?!?!?!?! That is amazingly cheap!! You mean Max gave you all that including aircon and false ceiling and hacking of wall? All for just 38k?!?!? Ours is a 5Rm 122sqm.... we only did full house tiling (living dining balcony kitchen toilet 4rooms store) kitchen hack and tile, 2 toilets hack and tile, kitchen cabinet (28ft), 1 7ft wardrobe, all grilles and casement windows (excluding balcony) change both toilet bi-fold doors plus all the other things like pipes kerbs and shower screen in MBR toilet Whoa!! how did you get such a good price?

Mine 5 rm hack and replace all cost 33-35+ k How about yours? Cool select tiles .... I guess you be going Hafary, they have quite a few nice tiles there. There is a sales guy Simon he is very helpful with the matching of the colors of the tiles when we were there. You can check our blog to see the tiles we selected Just got an MMS from Steven showing us our just completed toilet wall tiling First time know contractor give MMS update on progress From our research on Renotalk before we sign up with them, there isnt much information on which ID has which speciality, I guess you could take a look at the various designs from the customers blog to see which one you like most . I think more important would be you giving them as much detail as possible about what you want, then I think most of them would be able to do a good job -Celest

Hi Hobbes, ours is also Steven and Max from Ideal Was yours just Max or was it both of them? Our house doing reno now, they are very fast. Told us need 5 days to hack to be on the safe side but finish hacking and clearing debris from whole house in 3 days!! Already started tiling! So far so good. We are both busy so can go down at night. We go every few days . But their workmanship has been quite good. I check the wall tiles quite smooth and evenly tiled . They even wash the corridor in front of the house so neighbour dont complain. No need to go down and monitor everyday is very good Steven always keeps us updated , even the kerb original design was a bit slanted, we also never notice but he told us when he done it will be a bit slanted because original design like that. Frankly we look a long time also cannot see the slant Hope you have a smooth reno -Celest

thanks thanks maybe can improve eyesight too have not gone down ikea to check out the lights yet leh. was busy searching for toilet accessories during the weekend. hopefully can go down this weekend to have a look.

the tilers were fast! sat went up in the afternoon, thinking they will only be working for half a day. apparently they were still working! appreciate their hardwork last evening went up again to take pics of the reno progress, half the common toilet wall tiles and part of the kitchen wall tiles are up. initially the tiler only fixed only one row of green tile, but i prefer to see more green tiles, so steven got the guy to add 2 more rows. within one afternoon, they had made the adjustment! Common toilet wall Kitchen wall so far very satisfied with their workmanship sat went down IMM, passed by one aircon shop then realised that the compressor for our panasonic aircon is too big for our casement window!! today steven getting the aircon guy to come down and take the measurement. hopefully it can fit in

Tiling works starts today!! Last night went up to the house and took some pictures of the house in bare state. Hacked Living Rm Hacked Kitchen and toilet Hacked MBR Hacked Bedroom and Storeroom Our Solid Sink Support Our Tiles!! At the moment, we are ahead of schedule. So excited to see our completed home!

went down Ikea at Alexandra on monday. saw a few lights which can be considered. thinking of going down to their store in Tampines, see if they have other varieties

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Hacking started on Monday liao!! Went up to the house Monday to see how was the progress. WAAHHH they are very fast. In one day already hacked the balcony, living room and half the kitchen . Couldnt go in further into the house because the wheelbarrow was blocking us. But really fast . I thought was going to take 5 days. 1 day more then half done, guess will be finished earlier Steven been keeping us well updated on the progress. Told us delivery of tiles will be earlier and maybe we have to move the date of delivery of items like basin and stuff forward. He has been quite flexible. He offers to fetch the items direct from the shops for us if the shop are unable to delivery. Thats was quite good of him Aircon we initially wanted to get from Natural Cool and got the quote already. But he said his contact maybe able to get us lower quote, and yesterday we got a lower quote. Same model, same company. 60 bucks cheaper. Tonight see got time or not. Got time go up and take pictures Now hunting for lights. What kind of lights do you all use in your storeroom and toilets? My FH wants to use bare bulbs and bare flourescent tubes in the kitchen . So ugly!! But if get those other lights will it cost more? Found my fridge liao, the electrical shop in TPY central having sale. Found a bigger fridge for cheaper price Is it true what the shop people say that Korean fridge no silicon at the doors so leak easier, while Japanese ones got silicon so dont leak that easy? Then after that will be bedframe, sofa, tv.... la la la la la

Our renovation by Steven and Max just started So far so good. Steven been keeping us well updated on the progress. Also for items delivery he has been quite flexible. He offers to fetch the items direct from the shops for us if the shop are unable to delivery Aircon we initially wanted to get from Natural Cool and got the quote already. But he said his contact maybe able to get us lower quote, and yesterday we got a lower quote. Same model, same company. 60 bucks cheaper. That was quite good Let see how the rest of the reno goes