LittleDevil

Sharing my experience in sourcing ID firms - extracted from one of my previous entries. - A-Win Basically is a contractor company with not much design input. Quotation very brief and on the high side. - U-Home Recommended by friend. One of our 3 short-listed companies. A friendly and sincere guy with practical experience. Able to point out problems which our design might face in view of the layout. Reasonable quotation. - Fuse Concept Decline our request to meetup to discuss our needs. Send my floorplan and items we intended to do to him via email instead. Get back to us only after 1 month. Requested him to send the quotation to us first via email but to-date still have not received. - IntraDesign One of our 3 short-listed companies. Wow-ed by the design drawings which they showed us on our 2nd visit. No breakdown for quotation but all items are listed in details and overall price is reasonable (esp impressed by the quality of finishes they provide). - Ideal House Approached with high expectation due to positive feedback from forum. Disappointed at the ID assigned to us who is extremely young and inexperience. During our discussion, the ID did not take note of the specific things we want. The result - the quotation is a mess, grossly over-budget with things we did not ask for. - *** First impression quite good. However, ID went overseas during our 2nd appointment without informing us. Can't get through him on his phone the night before the appointment. Terribly late when we did meet up at our new flat to discuss on a rescheduled date. Mentioned going to the wrong address etc. Quotation on the high side. But ID told me can offer better price under another company! Very shady character... - Unimax ID appears very arrogant. Inflexible in adapting the design to our practical need. To date, we have not received their quotation. Guess they can't be bother about small fishes like us... - Plush Living So far our experience with them is good. Lots of sharing of designs and ideas during 1st and 2nd meetings. Reasonable quotation. Chosen as our ID. Seems to have a good balance between design input and practical experience. - Earnest Patient and friendly sales. Not pushy. Less design input. Quotation not cheap. - . Sincere and efficient iD. Appear a bit pushy. Quotation does not include price of tiles. Difficult to do comparison with other iD firms. - Inner View After 1st meeting, to-date we have not received the quotation. Staffs appear to be quite slack in the office. - ***** During the meeting, ID has mentioned their prices will be on the high side. To date, we have not received their quotation so I guess they are not interested. Dun think there will be those pretty 3D perspective drawings... But there will be 3D carpentry drawings. Will post them soon once I finalised the colour of the laminates.

Yup, pretty move-in condition. Initially decided to keep the living/dining flooring but hacking off the kitchen and toilets. End up decided to do a major overhaul. Looking forward to live in a whole new place! Budgeted about $45k for renovation. So far,managed to keep within budget still.. =)

Although we did garner some ideas through meeting up with various IDs, it is mainly verbal and based on floor plan. Anything beyond floor plan, will have to incur charges. Only one ID company offer to do 3D drawings on our 2nd meeting but that is because the ID company is one of our final shortlisted companies. And we appreciated that. Before deciding on who to engage, we have emailed for quotation from at least 10 ID firms. We dun do renovation often, as newbies, we need to source for a number of quotation in order to ascertain what is considered a fair quotation. For each ID firm that reverted, we also make an effort to go down to their office to meet them and discuss their quotation and reno idea. During the meetup, we assessed the ID for his creativity, professionalism and most importantly attitude/character. Cause we are looking for someone we can trust. For many of the IDs out there, the renovation of our homes is perhaps just another job/project out of the many which they are dealing everyday. But for many of us, the home owners, the renovation is a single BIG thing as it concerns our first home. I applaude to all the IDs who are as enthusiastic and passionate as their clients over their home renovation. As home owners, we wanted the best for our homes but we have limited resources and knowledge. As such, careful selection of ID firms and research on the renovation process/materials became very important. The presence of this forum allows exchanges of experience and knowledge which have made our life much easier.

Oh... there is a limit to the number of 20amp and 15 amp power point? Does it apply to all HDB flats? I will have 2 instant heaters, Syt 4 aircon and 2 built-in ovens...

Decided to start a T-blog to record our experience in renovating our own home... To being with, some photos to show the existing condition of the resale flat... Bomb Sheltor Living/Dining Area Walkway Kitchen - Dark with small entrance Some more photos... Master Bedroom Master Toilet Our place is a 5-room resale flat in AMK with a floor area of 110 sqm. here is the floor plan...

I guess the best way to know the renovation cost is to ask for quotation from various ID/contractor firms. Once you have a few quotations on hand to compare, you will able to ascertain the typical cost for specific reno work.

For Asian cooking, definitely need a door... even with the most powerful chimney, I think the smell and oil will still get into your furnitures.

I agree it is really depending on personal lifestyle. Do you hang most of your clothes? Or are they mostly folded? For our case, since we intend to hang most of our clothes, we planned more room for hanging clothes with just a couple of shelves. But it will be good to have 2-3 drawers to keep more intimate clothings, esp. if it is going to be WIW. The top shelves could be made wider for easy storage of large bedding accessories e.g. comforter set etc. Have 1-2 small drawers with locksets to keep precious items.

I will not advise you to do that... bad "qi" for the bedroom in terms of FS.

I ordered two instant water heaters from a shop at $268 each. It is a malaysian brand - Centon - which I have not heard of in my entire lifetime. The sales mentioned the model i am taking has a large valve/inlet (?) and thus water pressure will be stronger... For the amount of money, feel kind of regret for the purchase... Thinking to changing to 707 brand. Anyone has experience in using this brand? Is it good?

hiaz... so many kinds of mattresses under so many brands... the more i read, the more confused i became. Just one brand can have so many series and each series has so many models. Brand aside, can any kind soul out there provide me a simple guideline on mattress selection in terms of material (latex, cotton, cashmere - any difference?), thickness (the thicker the better?) and etc?

Check the serial number printed on the box against the fridge? Some stores may just put the display set into another empty box of the same model.

*headache* I also order a Samsung 40" LCD TV. Didn't realise that crystal clear image doesn't come easy. Hopefully everything will turn out well.

But I thought I seen it somewhere that mircowave technology actually involve breaking up some cells (?) within the food to cook it fast. So the food which you consume at the end of the day may not be healthy. I would suggest to get a convection oven (baking/grilling) plus a steamer/steam oven (reheat/steaming).

It will also depend on the colour scheme of your carpentry work. Most of our capentry and furniture will be in darker brown tone, thus we opt for a ligher shade of brown (Morning Dew) for most of our living and common bedrooms. Our walkway to the bedroom is painted a darker shade of brown (sand blast) for contrast and to create a cozy feel at the walkway. Kitchen wall is painted greyish tone since my kitchen cabinet is metallic grey and black with black galaxy top. The blackish tone ties in with the adjoining dining area where we planned to have a black tempered glass dining table placing against a black tinted mirror. Planning to add a bit of red to the dining area by having 2 red dining chairs (paired with 2 black chairs) and a red hanging light. The MBR is a place for resting. So we have chosen a medium earth colour (Monsoon River). My HB prefers to let the furniture/carpentry stands out, thus he goes for minimal number of colours (mainly brown and grey). Not sure how it will look but my ID said he will show us the effect by colouring all the 3D drawings with our chosen laminates and paints. Can still change if we dun like it.

Do built-in cabinets to maximise the available storage space. Houses are so small these days, can't afford to waste space here and there. Kitchen cabinets, built-in wardrobe and shoe cabinets are a must for my place. In addition, odd corners could be put to better use by installing built-in feature. For example, in our MBR we had a odd triangle corner near the window. We planned to have a cosy corner with a built-in seatee (cum storage cabinet). But still, for rooms which are likely to convert to some other uses, I think ready made furniture will provide more flexibility. We will be using all ready made furniture for our study since in years to come we will probably have to convert it to kids' room.

I will not be boxing up or making top cabinet to house my chimney hood. I prefer to expose the stainless steel hood. It looks less cluttered. But I quite like the idea of having a simple ledge above the hood.

My resale flat comes with an ugly kerb of about 7-8cm to separate the kitchen from the dining. In the end we asked our contractor to hack it off since we see it more as a tripping hazard. And somehow, it looks neater and nicer without the kerb. But, in future, we would have to use mop instead of splashing water to wash the kitchen.

Can use frosted sticker with motif design to paste on the outside of the door. I am thinking of doing that to the glass panel separating my kitchen and dining area. Think can buy from DIY shop and ask your contractor to help you paste lar.

These days shoes are not cheap, to simply put it outside the house is unthinkable. Unless you dun mind to use the storeroom to store all the shoes, it would be best to have a shoe cabinet inside the house. I've planned a 5ft full height shoe cabinet for my new place but due to FS reason, the shelves above my height would have to be used to store other things.

Irene from IntraDesign is also one of our three final shortlisted ID. Personally I quite like her and her company. The design and quality of materials they offer are quite good. But too bad, my HB doesn't quite "click" with her style. So end up we give our reno project to another company.

Talked to one of their staff in the office about my renovation around Apr/May. Left a lofty and laid-back impression on me. The staff promised a quotation in 2 weeks time. To date, no news from them. I also dun bother to call up since if they can't even provide a quotation, I dun think I would want to let them do my renovation. Have engaged another ID firm instead.

Visually i would think full-height wall tile would look more complete. Tiling up to 2.4m with the topmost finished with paints seems to look a bit dated. Unless the designer has some nice plan to make it look nice.

I am also in a dilemma. Not sure whether to get leather of fabric sofa. Initially like the cosy feel of fabric sofa but was converted to a leather sofa fan after visiting Mondi gallery. Leather sofa somehow look very posh and sleek. But lately, my HB indicates he prefers fabric sofa. Also troubled over the size of the sofa. Prefer a large L-shaped sofa which we could laze around in comfort. The one I have in mind is about 2.8m (length) but the size of the living room seems to be able to take only up to 2.5m if it is to look good and spacious. Should i go for the look? or should i go for the comfort?

Didn't realise we could sell the grille! Our resale flat actually comes with a wrought iron window grille for the full height window at the living room. We just asked our contractor to remove it and dispose off!! That must be worth quite a lot. Such a waste...