cocobliss

Sorry I have not been updating and my Reno has completed. Just want to share my experience with the ID I hired. T was initially a very impressive ID. don't be fooled by his outlook but he came across as sincere and meticulous. However, things stopped at there. We found him quite absent minded. Several times our requests were not reflected in his 3D. To the extend that the paint colours we chose were not incorporated in the 3D. Eventually when the walls were painted and we found the colours to be too dark, we requested for a change and we had to top up instead. He was also rude and sarcastic at times. We would usually go and inspect our house only after work like 8pm. Once we told him about an error and he replied "I will go and fix it now otherwise you will not be able to sleep". Wow! We pay money to be spoken to this way? We let it pass. Then when things went missing in our house like stools (sometimes the workers would bring to other units to use) he said he will buy a new one. I maybe petty but I think this is not the right approach. Down to the final payment, when we start calculating the works done and not done, I requested for an item to be removed as eventually I did not require that particular work. And he said that he did other things for me but he did not charge me for those. I think this was very calculative of him. If you didn't want to charge me, be cool about it. Not dig it up and make it as if you are doing me a favour. Overall, the carpentry work is good. So I guess that's most important. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend my ID to anyone else.

My renovation is one-third through, having some issues with my hdb screening. Hope to get some advice.

Hi I read that you laid vinyl for your whole house and hdb did thrnscreeding. Any issues thus far for the flooring? Like unevenness or hollow sounds?

*duplicate entry*

almost one year of hiatus.. how time files. we will be collecting our keys next month! since the last post, we have gotten married, gone on our honeymoon, and next we will be collecting our keys! have not really gotten down to IDs yet. but we will now start looking. and i think our strategy is kind of different now. instead of rampaging through renotalk, i decided to depend on word of mouth, and also location of the ID office is important to me too. don't want to be travelling 20km just to meet the ID to rectify a problem. we are also looking out for upcoming home/electronic fairs. will update when there are new news

went to UDH at Balestier to speak to an ID: BK. he came across as very sincere and patient, and he sounded knowledgeable too. however he gave me the feeling he is new in this line, or that he has very few projects at hand. projects by the company and projects by the ID are 2 different matters. I felt it was very important too that he showed a level of enthusiasm even though I told him i'm collecting my keys only end of 2014. their package was detailed, and also on the cheaper side. there're stuffs which you don't really need I believe you can remove. I guess it's important for the package to state the breakdown of works done. we left feeling good about BK. however we requested to see projects done by him, which he said he will revert back to us. if you look online, you would fine some negative posts of UDH. I think the ID is as important and its company, cos the sub-cons used by the company would be the same. so that really made us think twice. but I believe of BK is responsible, he can make our reno journey headache free to a large extend.

i've come across some "IDs" who do "ala carte" designing. it seems like they do not offer a package like other IDs. what's the difference actually and what's the pro and cons?

What do u all think of IDs who call u every other day to check when u can meet them? Passionate or irritating?

Yup.. I think that low quote is a carrot to secure a first meetup with them. Haha..

Not much updates as of late. Been looking at other aspects of our wedding. I am looking at 2 quotations i received from IDs and they only quote me $10k +?? While im still trying to learn the terms, this sounds too cheap and definitely exclude lots of other essentials, or even hidden cost? One even offered a free led tv..

Went to the modern living fair at expo. only my second time checking out such fairs. realised crowd is not big, and it spans over 1 week, unlike those IT and travel fairs. So today's agenda was to mainly check out furnitures, bed, and IDs. as you all would know, we are not what they would term "serious buyers". here's what we found out: the first ID we spoke to was so painful. mainly he talked sooooo slowly... stuttering... it was just painful. I somehow had the feeling that many IDs are not local. however, i am not against them. but if i cannot talk to them properly, i cannot hire them. we couldn't wait to move on. What i look for in ID. prefer a "older" one, as i would assume they have more experiences, bigger portfolio. most IDs were pretty young. which made me wonder how many works have they done. while they would always show me company brochures and catalogues, i would always request to see THEIR own works. of course they won't have it with them. so if we decide to go a step further, i will definitely request that. i would even request to view actual works of their flats. to summarise, those that impressed us: plushk***n (supposedly is ID) postu***e (mattress) Fuse***t (ID) nov***a (furniture) magi***l (near our area so we already knew of this company) if u really want to know: Skyc*** (the really painful conversation) also went to sim siang choon nearby. let's just say it's out of our league. my very preliminary budgeting: total $30,000 (including kitchen) kitchen $8,000 found out that a decent storage queen bed frame with back board (mattress included) should cost around $1200. what do you all think? I'm starting a list of "cluster areas" where you can go and find several IDs/furniture/furnishing shops. anyone wanna add to the list? 908 upper thomson road10 toh guan road301 upper thomson road62 sungei kadut loop51 kaki bukit industrial terrace (kaki bukit rd 3)288 balestier road51 sims avenue246 macpherson road479 sims avenue51 ubi avenue 163 hillview avenue33 ubi ave 344 kallang place

a short update.. as mentioned, i am looking for IDs now. What i did was look through renotalk and also registered myself through several portals (where you send 1 request and 10 IDs call you back. haha..) from those shortlisted from renotalk, and those who replied me, i gave their portfolio to E for the first layer of filter: see their design nice or not. so if E doesn't like, out. Like, 2nd round. Afterwhich, i will look through renotalk again for those E passed, and then filter out those which has generally negative reviews. Finally, will meet up with them. E will look through their portfolio again, while i will observe their vibe. i am a sucker for service, so even if the designs are good, but the ID doesn't give me a good feeling, out. i mean, you really wanna be careful if you are paying $30,000! Hopefully i can share a list of the shortlised IDs soon

Thanks for the tip!!

When is your expected key collection? so you actually chose and signed with an ID before collecting your keys.

another concern of course would be buying furnishings and furnitures. initially i thought i could buy all from a single vendor eg. star furniture. but it seems to be everyone buys everything from everywhere. the scouting must be really tedious! a part of me may be too lazy to go to that extend, however the amount saved i believe would be substantial. another popular source is taobao. however i am still undecided about it. concerns of cos quality and shipping. and it doesn't beat being able to feel the product yourself.. hmm.. IKEA. an obvious choice, however am concerned about the quality too. as the staff are not affliated to the coy, they may not do their best? quality is another concern. i have some cheap ikea furniture which is filmsy and gets mouldy easily. you get what you pay for. am unsure about those more expensive products though.

Thank you!

me again. am deciding between ID and contractor. initially i thought i could do without ID. cos my E (wife-to-be) is a very creative and aesthetically inclined person (at least more so than me). so i thought i'd leave the design entirely to her, while i become the practical CFO. however after reading renotalk, i am starting to worry that it is not as easy as it seemed. i thought i could just produce the design, and then instruct the contractor on what to do. but it seems that there are the materials to consider, type of paint, flooring, lighting.. just so many! while i am still undecided, my plan would be to go to well known enclaves like paya lebar, defu, jalan besar, expos, and talk to IDs/contractors and shortlisting before deciding. from what i have gathered from renotalk, the below are pretty decent. 3D innovations Jimmy Tan Defong Kevin Plush Living Johnny Three-d Concept Werke Imposed Design K*l**d* spamming ID firm Interior Meter Square IntraDesign Dave ImageCreativeDesign James PoshHome CalvinTan i think for me responsiveness is very important. cannot stand people being mia. my experience with my bridal boutique. the boss can promise us everything. when it came to servicing, she mia. then now her staff is doing the work. at least her staff is a tad more responsive. how i am sourcing is also from those renovation portals where you fill up details and then IDs will start calling you. not very responsive though.. maybe my date is still far away; or my info is not adequate.. i hope to update as i go along, from meeting IDs/con to going for expo shows =)

my floor plan to start off..

Hi all, although I have not received news of when my keys can be collected, however i am already excited about its completion! for one, they are already starting to install the watertank for my block, but there are other blocks which are only around 50% done stacking.. how long more you think it will take to complete? Nevertheless, the optimistic me hopes it will be by end-2014, but ideally 1st quarter of 2015.. hopefully it won't go past mid-2015! I decided to start this and hopefully upkeep this. we are just at the very infancy stage of designing our house. in fact you could say even our "infant" is not born! I am now trying to read up on jargons, deciding on ID/contractor, and of cos shortlisting them. it's really been an eye-opener. everything is new to me, i don't even know if i know where to start. hence i decided to start early. get myself into the world of renovation so that at least i know what i am talking when i meet with the IDs. that's all for now. any feedback is appreciated

hi i see you ordered alot from taobao. did you order all at one go or everytime u wanted something u bought from that. wouldn't shipping cost alot then?