fingerscross

The bedroom door was tilted for feng shui reasons? You have to ask yourself, will the tiles look more weird if they had used the old door position for alignment such that when you close the bedroom door you actually see 2 tpye of tiles? Being thru 3 reno projects and gng thru a 4th now....i pretty much understand how tilers work. The first tile they lay will be at the main door entrance...and every tile will take its alignment frm that tile. If the bedrooms are using the same type of tile as the living, most of the time they continue on. If its a different type then they will end the tile at the bedroom entrance and lay the diff tile at the bedroom entrance in the most central position....and every tile will use that tile as a guage. For your case the slant looks obvious partly because the tiles choosen were long strip type. If they were the squarish 60x 60 tiles, dont think you wld be able to tell there is a slant at the wall with a naked eye Maybe ID shld hav advised you to use the same type of tiles and continued on frm living room. To redo the tiles, you wld hav to hack away since overlay is out cos the bedroom tiles wld end up higher than living....that means you wld have to hack away the wardrobe as well....not to mention the aircon trunking that is so close to the floor. Feng shui is suppose to make our lives happier and not add trouble....maybe try not to focus on the slant at the walls and instead think of all the good energy coming thru that door.

Frm the photos, i find the tiler did a good job...tiles look slanted at the walls is definitely better than looking slanted at the entrance. I wouldn't ask tiler to redo this. Of course, this is just my 2 cents view, hope u dont mind.

Wah chill buddy.....i used to be in svs line many yrs back....back then the trick to get manufacturers to honour warranty was..."i want to speak to your GM...or i will write to straits times forum!" Now is "i will post social media!" Its about bringing out your nasty side and things will be done. With age catching up....i cant find myself doing this. I bot a Lxxxxxo leather sofa some 4 yrs back, was confirmed and double confirmed by the sales man that its 5 yrs warranty for everythg. Leather started to peel by the 2nd yr...lately it got worse. Checked the fine prints....alamak! Warranty only covers the frame....frame will spoil one meh??? Didnt even bother giving them a call.

Hi clarence, u got one nice display cabinet there.....tink it will go v well with ur lego display. So u got reztnrelax to only do the carpentry and electrical works? I rembr gng to some home n reno fair, they had this v futuristic and atas looking booth. Spoke to a random ID abt their carpentry charges. Didn't sit down with him thou cos a mental calculation put my reno cost at the 75k to 80k range. Their selling point is life time warranty.....but with all warranties, the devil is in the fine print.

Hi Clarence, thks for dropping by. Glad to know you enjoyed my post. As for trust, i do trust my current ID. My project will only commence in Oct. So i am glad he has everthing down in black and white. Right down to the smallest FOC item like window handles, so there wont be any argument then. I know what most are thinking....project start in Oct but everything finalised by mid Aug, this guy must be very kiasu. Actually i am. Truth be told, we aldy bought our sofa, coffee table and dinning set from Cellini in July, the weekend after we confirmed ID. We have also bought a fridge from Harvey Norman. Wife has asked me to stay home during weekends and watch Netflix. She feels everytime we go out i end up doing stupid things. Honestly i didn't expect the design phase to be a breeze. Partly because he actually bothered asking how old my kids were. My 2 teenage boys love the whole feel of their new room. My youngest, who is in pri3 is not fussy, he just wants his fav colour- green.

Tips for a smooth reno This would be our 4th reno project. I can still remember some 20yrs back when we bought our first house in TPY ... a modest 3-room resale HDB. Back then there were very few IDs & engaging one would have cost an arm & a leg. The whole house reno inclusive of hacking 2 walls & floor, tiling, rewiring, plumbing & carpentry cost less than $17k. Engaging an ID would have cost us at least double. ID vs Contractor: Today reno cost has risen in line with everything else. ID firms have sprung up like mushrooms after the monsoon. Even some old school contractors & carpenters provide design services. I feel ID firms provide greater value for money, reason being they have the volume. They are able to get better rates from suppliers & offer attractive packages. So far no package deals for resale condo IDs have ego: Designers tend to have big ego. A bit like the delusional hubby who thinks he packs an 8-incher. If a design is not to your taste, reject tactfully. If all else fails use feng shui as an excuse. Saying something is ugly is like the wife asking the delusional hubby "Is it in yet?". Thankfully my previous & current reno projects went through a smooth design phase & I didn't find myself having to say "Yah, this is nice but ..." Don't leave everything to the ID: As the home owner, we are only handling 1 reno project & we already find it overwhelming. Now imagine the ID who is handling 2 to 5 reno projects at various stages of progress, & another maybe 10 to 15 projects at various stages of negotiations. Add to that equation that each project has gone through 3 rounds of changes in design & color selection, that is a whole lot of information to process & remember. Let your ID know you have got his back & you see him as a partner. He/She is someone who will work closely with you & not for you. Hiccups are bound to happen: All 3 previous projects of ours had hiccups here & there. Keep cool & remember that all problems can be solved. Always opt for modifying/changing designs & work around the problem rather than asking ID to redo everything. The cheapest solution is the best solution.

After reviewing the photos again last night, wife highlighted that the red & yellow art piece was a bit out of place. Made the dining look like a temple. In this household my wife is always right, sometimes I pretend she is right but this time she is right. We decided to just bring an existing painting from our current house there. This one still has the red I want for feng shui reasons, but not so loud.

Carpentry work not shown in 3D drawing: 2ft seatie with storage outside main door 5ft sliding door wardrobe in 4th bedroom 3ft / 3.5ft mirror storage cabinets in 2 other bathrooms

3D drawing - Kids Bedrooms

3D drawing - Master Bedroom / Bathroom

3D drawing - Kitchen

3D drawing - Living/ Dining (The red/yellow art piece at dining, we plan to commission this from an online art gallery)

Can't seem to upload my 3D drawings. Anyone can help?

unable to upload photos ... kept getting error message "There was a problem processing the uploaded file. Please contact us for assistance." anyone can help?

Contract signed & Design Phase Signed the contract in July & were given 2 sets of laminate samples to bring home. For 3 days, we discussed (or argued) & slowly choose the laminates in the comfort & privacy of our home. First set of 3D drawings came out in 10 days. We were pleased with the designs, met up with Wayne to explain minor changes & also went for tiles selection. We went to Hafary & Soon Bee Huat. He didn't request for top-up though some of the tiles we selected exceeded the $3psf stated in the contract. What we liked about Inspire ID: Competitive price with nice designs ID very detailed & dedicated Allow to bring laminate samples back home to select Not calculative - ID more concerned about pleasing client & ensure design looks nice. Some of the tiles we selected were in the range of $3.40psf to $3.60psf. Laminates were in the range of $50-$70 per roll. What we don't like about Inspire ID: Payment terms - As the bulk of our renovation is carpentry, we are taking a big risk of non-delivery as 90% of renovation amount have to be paid upon measurement for carpentry. We would prefer if they split the amount into 2 - i.e. 1/2 upon measurement & 1/2 upon delivery of partial of the carpentry.

Sourcing for ID The most tiring part of the journey so far. We email IDs & carpenters with a detailed list cum floorplan, without any response. After sending out more request for quotations, 2 carpenters replied with a lot of items omitted from our list. Not sure if it was deliberate or carelessness, either way it doesn't reflect well so decided not to follow up. Met up with total of 3 IDs. 1. ID B from Dxxxxx Ixxxxxxx ID B did our house 6 years back & we liked her style. First quote came in at 70k, way over our budget of 50k. After removing items like TV console, feature wall & platform beds, it still came up to 56k. She did revise the quote to 52k with a few items added in when we informed her that 2 other IDs quoted a much lower price. However, we still didn't select her as her quote always have items omitted or with errors (eg wrong measurement). 2. Wayne Chan from Inspire ID Group - Selected ID We did a walk-in & was impressed with their attitude. We were greeted by 2 guys, one told the other "pass to Wayne" & he took our floor plan & job list to make copies. Within a minute, Wayne came, introduced himself & showed us upstairs. He went through our floor plan area by area & drew neatly on it. We had initially wanted to do 2 separate 8ft wardrobes against 2 walls in our master bedroom. Wayne then proposed a walk-in wardrobe of 8ft by 8ft instead. For the junior suite, he pointed out a design space planning flaw in our initial design. Within a minute, he came out with an alternative so that my son wouldn't have to sleep facing the toilet door. By now, we were very impressed with him & the worry about having to deal with an "Ah Beng" ID was no longer there. Almost immediately, he went straight to the top of our ID list. 3. ID W from Cxxxxxx Ixxxx The showroom/office was very impressive. The receptionist made about 6 calls to different IDs but none would entertain walk-ins. Finally we were attended to by a team manager. He scribbled on our floor plan & after about 20mins discussion, it was over. Quotations Quotes came in 1 day apart from the other. Wayne from Inspire ID Group - 48k: 0 items omitted, 1 extra item included. We were told that for overlaying of toilet wall tiles, need to extend concealed piping. Response to queries - almost immediate or if with client, will respond within 2hrs. ID W from Cxxxxxx Ixxxx - 47k: 0 items omitted Response to queries - few hours to a day. I remembered messaging him in the afternoon "Let me know when is a good time, I give you a call". He replied the next day afternoon "Ok". I just LOL. After reviewing the quotes, we decided to adjust our budget to 56k since the renovation would have cost us 56k if we had signed with ID B. Met Wayne to add the following items: curved false ceiling with cove lightings 7ft TV console connected to a 10ft side buffet cabinet at dining area 4.5ft moveable buffet cabinet Tall boy in kitchen for oven other minor additions