Jump to content
Find Professionals    Deals    Get Quotations   Portfolios

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'Scandinavian'.



More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Renovation and Interior Design Forums In South East Asia
    • REVIEWS: Renovation Contractors, Interior Designers & Suppliers
    • RENOVATION PACKAGES, OFFERS & GROUP BUYS - Interior Design Packages, Kitchen Packages & Group Buy Offers & MORE!
    • DIRECT SUPPLIERS - Buy Direct, Save Cost, High Reliability
    • Reno t-Blog Chat
    • Reno t-Blog Chat - HDB BTO Interior Design and Renovation
    • Reno t-Blog Chat - HDB Resale Renovation & Interior Design
    • Reno t-Blog Chat - Condo Interior Design and Landed Renovation
    • RENOVATION WORKS
    • SINGAPORE MOVER COMPANIES
    • GREEN & SUSTAINABLE LIVING (SAVE THE EARTH MOVEMENT)
    • RENOVATION IDEAS: Interior Design Themes, Space Planning
  • LATEST DEALS, PROMOTIONS AND FRESH FINDS - Aircon, Bathroom Accessories, Lightings, Window Grille & more
  • ALL ABOUT PROPERTIES - BUY/SELL/RENT/INVESTMENT/FINANCING (For Property Developers, Banks, Agents, Investors) HDB BTO, DBSS flats , Executive Condo, Private Condo, Landed & Commercial Projects
    • Finance and Insurance
    • Housing Rules, Policies and Procedures
    • HDB New/Resale Flats, Executive Condominiums
    • HDB BTO Flat, Executive and Private Condo Development Updates
    • Landed & Condo Private Properties Renovation Discussion
    • Commercial & Industrial Properties Renovation
    • Rent/Sell Properties
    • Geomancy/Fengshui
  • RENOTALK COMMUNITY (RENOTALKERS CORNER) - HOMEOWNERS & BUSINESS OWNERS
    • Neighbourhood Networking
    • Fengshui Consultation
    • FREEBIES & CONTESTS (PLAY TO WIN)
    • Pregnancy,Parenthood and Education Matters
    • RenoTalk Outings
    • Maids & Cleaners - All About Domestic Help
    • RenoTalk Member Privileges
  • Home Automation. Smart Homes Technology
  • LIFE AFTER RENOVATION - LIVING EXPERIENCE IN YOUR HOME & OFFICES
    • Home Furnishings
    • Electronics & Electricals
    • Internet , Digital line, Bandwidth & Network
    • Sound and Vision -Home Theatre Systems & Audiophiles
    • Home Deco
    • Food Catering and Good Food In Singapore
    • Moving House: Packing, Storing, Moving To Your New House
    • Home Maintenance & Repairs
    • BUY/SELL/TRADE PRELOVED ITEMS - POST FOR FREE
    • DIY Corner
  • Family Community
  • LIFESTYLE CORNER (By RENOTALKERS) - HOMEOWNERS & BUSINESS OWNERS
    • Work life
    • Fashion, Beauty and Health
    • Hobbies and Sports
    • Wedding & Travel
    • Men Women Kopitiam Corner!

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


Website URL


Whatsapp


Messenger


Email


Skype


MSN


Interests


Instagram


Phone Number


Renovator Engaged


Mailing Address


Postal Code


Renovation Cost


I am looking for a Renovation Package


Phone Number

Found 104 results

  1. Finally bought my own flat and i'm really excited about it. Not really into any specific style, but i like something simple, clean and neat. I shall share my reno experience here. Here's my floor plan: Before renovation starts: Reno began last Friday, with the hacked wall, to turn it into an open-concept kitchen. Plastering the kitchen and hacked walls To be continued......
  2. Hi everyone. We received our keys to the flat in end March this year. after meeting a couple of IDs, we confirmed one in April and started renovation work in the first week of June! Both of us like wood, and we like textures. Along with the fact that we are beach lovers, we thus wanted a "resort" theme for our house. Woody, white, beige, clean, spacious looking, etc. Just imagine a villa in Phuket or a resort in Maldives. i know it doesnt tally with the topic title.. but read on =) Our brief to the IDs: Platform bed Built-in TV console Huge shoe cabinet with design cover-up bomb shelter overlay tiles for both toilets replace HDB given toilet bowls, sinks, shower heads etc. No walk in wardrobe (too dusty and takes up 1 room) vanity dressing table in the master bedroom and the usuals carpentry wardrobe in master bedroom and bedroom 2, toilet vanity cabinets. etc And the theme must be uniform throughout the house Review of the IDs: I screened the names of the IDs and companies (except for my ID) because I believe different people might have different experiences with them. Anyway one bad ID does not make the whole company bad. My best advice is to look for IDs that have experience doing the theme(s) you like. The first ID I contacted was actually the company that did Xiaxue's renovation. I cannot remember the company's name now, but you can easily google it. This ID wasnt the one who did XX's house anyway. The ID Wi***e wasn't very creative, and the ideas she gave are the standard stuff. She's the template kind of person, either lazy or can't be bothered. anyway even though the quotation was pretty close to what we eventually signed but it's just the lack of confidence that she will do a wow job for us that led us to strike her off the list. We then met with R*x from Fuse Concept, whom we signed with eventually. On the first meeting he showed us a house that he did which wasnt what we had wanted. He showed his creativity and sincerity early, and we really appreciated that he took pride in his ideas and dared to think out of the box (what we call "think like an ID and not act like a contractor"). The extraordinary part was that he unearthed what we truly liked. Because we like wood and textures, we always assumed we wanted a resort theme. however he had the foresight and proposed so many 'new' ideas to us that we fell in love with, at the same time, still maintaining the wood, textures and things we wanted to build. along the way while reading lots of Square Room and Home Decor magazines, we realised that resort theme just would not be achievable to the standards we think we want (no spacious hdb, no high ceilings, no sea, no balcony...). R*x tried his best not to recycle the ideas and materials (even tho sometimes we insist at what he thinks is common. I always tell him it's common to him cuz he is an ID but to me, it's new and innovative hahaha). Most importantly, he used our budget very well. We managed to do alot of things + capentry with the limited budget we had. Third on the list that we met was Da**el from Id*** H**se. Well we met up with him because he did the renovation for our parents' current house (2 toilets and 1 room). He was around our age, and thus quite easy to talk to. he has some interesting ideas here and there but needs to be pushed/encouraged to explore further. However having worked with him before, we knew that he was 'bullied' by his contractors sometimes because of his youth and minimal experience and that means as customers we may get pushed back in terms of schedule or workmanship because he cannot win them over. the good thing about him is that he's upfront about practicalities and feasabilities of designs. he would not hide the facts from you but helps you understand the pros and cons to make informed decisions. He quoted us around 30k from the first round but alot of things we wanted were not included or were compromised. We then reminded him we still have budget to play with, so pushed him to rethink his proposal and quotation. however due to unknown reasons he took a long time to come back with the revised quote, and by the time we signed with our ID he still hasn't come back to us, so naturally we dropped him. any vendors who take too long to get back to you without any updates is a bad sign in our opinion. at least a "sorry i have been busy, i will come back to you by xx xx" is better than radio silence. Then there was this OMG and still laughable story about the 4th ID from Me**r Squ**e. His name is Ja***. For all the IDs above, the first meeting took at least 2 hours to go through our requirements in detail. however Ja*** was done with us in 20 minutes. he asked very little specific questions in terms of measurements, said he was very concerned about social media because nowadays (facebook, forums etc) have alot of influence (on consumers). Even though we could not really click with him, we gave him another chance to present his quotation cuz who knows maybe he can come up with something good. He proposed (or kind of insisted) that we should hack the wall between the kitchen and service yard because it will extend the kitchen and that we should do a open concept kitchen even though we did not want to. Plus he told us that our budget was more than enough!! At the second meeting, Ja***'s quotation came up to a good 10k more than the budget we gave him and which he claimed was more than enough. He seemed to have forgotten what he claimed.. okay nevermind. his ideas were mediocre (honestly can't rmb much of what he proposed), but he wasn't well prepared. Whatever sketches or layout proposals he showed us at the second meeting was what other IDs drew on the spot during our first meetings with them. and the killer sentence was when he proposed that we have shower curtains instead for our toilets because they are so small........ followed by laughter. thereafter, he also changed his mind and said he now proposes not to hack the wall between kitchen and service yard (errr... you proposed and then you killed it without good reasons or explanation to your client). when we asked him if a PE endorsement is required to hack walls, he wasnt sure... He then tried to arrange a third session with us but inside us we knew we were saying goodbye to him. we were not comfortable with his working style, nor his personality. totally zero chemistry. The other innovative ID we met was Ke*** from Spa** Se**e Stu***. He is actually an ID whom we admire very much as his works are unique and daring. He did not give template solutions and he is also a furniture maker. There were many things that he DIY for his clients, like buying table legs from Ikea and customizing the table top. He gave us unconventional and unheard of ideas, like building ceiling beams, wall pipes that act as bookshelves, and leaning walls and surprisingly his quotation was not that expensive. It was a very difficult choice to choose between his creativity and R*x's. The reason we chose R*x over him was because we clicked better with R*x. Chemistry matters to us because afterall it is a long period of working relationship and we wanted to be sure we chose someone whom we could feel comfortable with, in terms of discussing and rejecting ideas. Ke*** was extremely professional and so serious such that the discussion felt a bit uptight and we were worried we may not be able to communicate our ideas to him during the process. However we would recommend him if you like loft and industrial designs, which seems to be his expertise. Lastly we met up with J**n from The 80s S***o. She was open and easy to talk to, and was also someone who takes her job seriously with 8 years experience in the industry. Honestly I like their designs very much. They have this knick knack ability to use simple ideas or materials that you don't usually associate with home decor, to demarcate an area or transform the space. However her quotation was the most expensive at around 55k-60k. Comparing the various quotes, their carpentry costs were like at least 10% higher than the other companies. Because we have alot of carpentry requirements, we were not willing to settle. However meeting up wtih J**n actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise even though we did not work together. She gave us a brilliant suggestion to enlarge the master bedroom, which we later explored with our chosen ID. We're thankful for her help unknowingly. Sorry for the lengthy intro/review. I am uploading the pictures... Edit: here's our floorplan so you can see the overall layout.
  3. Hello! It's been really interesting reading everyone's journey in renovating their homes. Thank you for sharing all your stories and tips! Now it's our turn, as we have to move to a bigger place. With four young kids, our current home is just too small! We've had our taste in renovating our current HDB, and learnt many lessons along the way. For the new place, we hope to use those lessons, plus be more daring with our use of pattern and colour. Right now, our home is quite a mish-mash of scandinavian and country, with some vintage thrown in, and we're hoping to bring that combination over to the new home too. It's a bit crazy, but I think it's a happy mix, and suits a family with young children. Today we met with the ID that we finally shortlisted, and discussed the quotation. Will share more about him if we find his services good! Anyway, for the kitchen, we're hoping to have a cheery yellow backsplash like in our current place, and pops of colour: (More details in this post on our kitchen) For the dining, we're just planning to shift over the long table and these "vintage" posters. But I hope to change the pendant lights. Perhaps to the cage-like ones, for a change? (Anyone has recommendations to where to get these at an affordable price?) (More details in this post about our dining room.) Ok, that's all for now. We'll be tile-hunting and scouting for sanitaryware next!
  4. We have been homeless for the past three years after selling our then just MOP HDB Flat in 2013. We waited so long for our new home to be ready. THREE years and TWO babies later, we are finally on the last lap of getting our keys! We are in the midst of obtaining TOP, with BCA just rectifying a recent gas pipe problem at one of the stacks. I have really awesome neighbours! We have not even stay together yet but we already met each other and build positive rapport! Cannot wait for the Kampung Spirit to be reunited in a few months time! I have been wanting to start a tBlog since forever but decided against sharing too early as the initial TOP was stated somewhere in the 3rd quarter of 2016. Anyway, let me share our journey of purchasing our new home. We didn't plan on getting a house in the Northern part of Singapore when we sold our new place. But i guess fate works in mysterious ways. A friend's friend (whom is a property agent) called us a couple of times to share with us about a new development but we weren't too keen on it as i (the mrs) prefer to get a resale somewhere at Hillview area. I don't know what made me decided to give this showflat a try. So yeah, off we went. With not much of an interest or expectation. We met with the agent. Let`s call him EF. We must have had an affinity with him that we were totally sold when he showed us the showflat, patiently explaining to us the pros and cons, the future development around and most important of all, the price was within our budget. Not to mention, the developer is a reputable one. So yes, we took a queue number and our hopes were dampened when we got our queue number at a whooping 700plus!! Whaaaat?! We still shortlisted a few units which we like or think we could afford.
  5. Our 5 rm BTO is now already undergoing renovation. Tiling works and wiring are in progress. Pardon me but let me do some back dating work here. Renovation is really more hectic than we though it would be! We'll let the pictures do the talking. Here is our floor plan. Very typical 5-rm floor plan. Had thought of hacking the wall between bedroom 3 and living room so as to make a, very popular now, semi-enclosed study room complete with glass doors and black frame. This would very much fit into the modern scandi feel. But then did away with it after consultation with our feng shui master. Decided to do away with the wall between our master and bedroom 2 instead! [bEFORE] [AFTER] Much space and light after. Didn't know how much space was the wall hiding! Since I am in the mood of hacking, why not just remove the hideous white plastic box with mesh-like PVC material covering the drainage in the master toilet. Somebody may like it, somebody don't. This was an inital idea that alarmed our ID a bit but then was accepted cause it fitted our design! Alright the picture doesnt do it justice. But trust us, it's a lot bigger with the damned box removed. The black stuff is preparation work for our overlay~~ That's the update for another time..
  6. After reading through some of the posts here, my partner and I have decided to add in our experience too. Just a little background, I am in my mid 20s while my fiancee is in her early 20s so we have a tight budget to get our family life started. Not gonna be easy but it would be an enjoyable journey! How It All Started Early 2015, we applied for the sale of balance flats in Choa Chu Kang/Bukit Panjang and the number was pretty crappy so we scrapped the idea of trying for BTO/Balance of Sales since the units are smaller and lesser grants. Factoring in our CPF and savings, we decided to hit the nail and go for resale flats instead since the market is somewhat bottoming now. Flat viewing started around Sept/Oct 2015 and we have already decided on the location which was Bukit Panjang. Simply went to PropertyGuru and shortlisted a few units, arranged with the agent for a viewing and off we went. Yes, plenty of our friends were wondering where on earth is Bukit Panjang but having stayed in Bukit Panjang for 10 over years, it is actually a very convenient location with the upcoming Downtown Line and buses. 20 minutes to Orchard via 972 or 190, seriously?! House Hunting Our fruitful yet tiring house hunting journey took us about 2 months. We started off by viewing flats randomly within the area and realised it was leading us nowhere as none of the units was to our liking. We then decided to view 2 to 3 units per area and once the units were not to our liking, we eliminated that area out of our choices as the units within that area were usually within the same batch so layout and design wise would be similar. We had a few requirements: 1) Corner Unit (For privacy) 2) High Floor (Feels good to be up there ) 3) Squarish layout (Easy to manage in terms of design) 4) Bright and airy (Good for health to have ample natural light! ) Simple requirements yet it was a nightmare just trying to find the right unit. Finally, we found one to our liking but the owner was reluctant to sell at our price and the agent told us that the house was previously sold at $465k but the buyer screwed up so the deal didn't go through. Considering how bad the market condition was, we decided to go ahead and offer a price of $435k which kinda shocked the seller I guess. The agent told us that he could try for $460k but we had no interest in paying over the market for the unit considering there was quite a bit of renovation to be done. Credits to my fiancee for being firm by telling the agent that we would settle for $450k, take it or leave it. To cut the story short, we finally settled for $450k and valuation came about to $450k so there was no COV on our part either. Gotta give the credit to my fiancee as I was pretty alright with paying $460k which was $10k more but we really liked the unit and the house hunting was really tiring. I just wanted to get it over and done with! DIY Procedures We decided that it was pointless to engage an agent since he will just be doing the paperwork for us when we could do it ourselves which saved us at least a few thousand since buyer's agent usually go for 1% of the selling price as commission! Seriously, pay them $4k plus just to do paperwork for us? Nah! Signed the OTP and exercised it with a total of $5k as deposit. First appointment scheduled in Feb 2016 and keys collection in March 2016. We decided to take up all the grants available to us which summed up to $50k from HDB and ROM was not an issue since we would be solemnized before our second appointment. The procedures are pretty simple as it is all documented in the HDB website, I spent about an hour digesting the website and we were good to go. The seller's agent even told us not to bother with engaging an agent to save on the fees and we could approach him if we needed help, just that he could not represent both sides. Well, if we screwed up and the deal falls through, he will be on the losing end too. Feel free to call up HDB if you are unsure of certain things and they are pretty helpful I would say. Tadah! Here is the floorplan of our house. The house has minimal renovation except for wall cornice and floor skirting since it was the first owner. Flat is about 18 years old so a major renovation was in the plans with a budget of $30k and another $5k odd for furnishings & furnitures. Original Floorplan Modified Floorplan (After hacking of walls)
  7. Just received our keys this month to our 4rm BTO Standard flat @ Fernvale... YAY! After being a silent reader here for the past 4 months, I am so happy to be able to start my own t-blog. Hehehe. We talked to a few contractors and IDs before finalising on a guy who really impressed us with his responsiveness, his professionalism, and of course, the good reviews from RT! Hope he lives up to it! Although our budget for renovation is only $13K, we do hope to create our dream home according to our fave theme - Scandinavian! Here is our floor plan, will share more ideas in next post!
  8. Hello everyone~ After 3 long years, been through times living with both of ours parents, renting apartment overseas, Hubby and I finally bought our first home in Singapore! We've decided to go for resale instead of BTO because we do not wanna wait any longer, and we're very particular about location. Prefer walking distance to the MRT, have good variety of eateries, supermarkets etc.. And we're really happy and lucky that we manage to get one within our budget.. Here I will share my reno journey with you.. ID HUNTING Like many homeowners, we went through the tiring ID hunting process as well.. Especially when the cost of renovation works for resale flat seems to be higher than BTO, we want to ensure we don't bomb too much money into it. After all what we really want is just a cozy home, not a showroom. We asked around for friends and relative recommendation, before arranging for them to meet up and discuss the details, then follow by waiting for quotations and layout drawings (some didn't provide eventhough we specifically asked for it). ------------------------------------------- Initially we loved the 1st ID we met, Mr C. He is highly recommended by one of our good friend.. A honest looking man, not those sales man type. We saw his work in real life at our friend's place and its really good.. He gives us a lot of ideas during the meet up, hand draw really well, provided us with some knowledge.. but once his quotation is out, we were really disappointed because he is too expensive (GST company). So no choice but had to drop him. -------------------------------------------- Mr I. Very slow respond. Met up with him and he keep picking up calls in between our discussion. Quotation take forever to send us, no drawing. Price wise.. consider reasonable. But very turn off with the slow and bo chup attitude, so immediately out from my list. ------------------------------------------- Mr Z. He have some difficulty in trying to understand the concept I want for our house during the discussion. No ideas were generated at all during the meet up, he is basically just listening to what we want. His company is relatively new.. But he seems really passionate about his job, fast respond through whatsapp, and he also promise us he will give us a very good price. I asked him to give a rough figure on our renovation works, he said 30k. Turn out his quotation is alot more than the 30k he mentioned, but still is the lowest among the rest. So we continue with the details, but we later on found out that he missed out quite a number of details and then ended up adding a lot of money. He wasn't very apologetic about it too, we were quite sian with the keep-increasing-final-price. But he keep insisting that his price is very reasonable, and keep guilt trip us telling us he had to "bare" some of our cost as his contractor is charging him but he did not charge to us. -.-" Then there were also some miscommunication later on when we try to suggest some ideas to help save cost, he not only did not help, he also just turn my idea down and tell me that he had NEVER seen others do it like that before. I was quite affected, cos I thought the reasons we hire a ID is so that they can "customize" base on individual client's need? Many times I feel he just brush my questions off without actually answering the question. I can feel his eagerness to get our "sales" at that point.. but no.. I know I needed someone who can "solve my problems" and not one who just avoid them. So even though we went through so much time to "correct" his quotation, clarify details and take measurement already, we decided to hold him and continue searching..and eventually we did not sign him in the end. ---------------------------------------------------- We emailed a few other IDs after that to get quotation (without meeting up yet), and nothing really stands out.. so we went back to Dennis, who we feel is consider one of the best so far for us in terms of communication.. which we feel is the most important criteria in selecting a ID..especially for your 1st renovation. --------------------------------------------------- Dennis was introduced by my Husband's colleague. We approached him 1 day before CNY by email (at that time we were leaning towards Mr Z and did not really give him a fair chance). He asked us to send him our requirements details through email and say that he will send us his quotation asap. We were expecting to wait until after CNY for his quotation, and also expected to have a lot of missing details in his quotation since he is the only one who did not meet up with us for discussion..even those that meet up with us also miss out certain things on their quotation.. But not only he send us a very comprehensive quotation on the following day, he also send us a layout drawing to ensure his understanding of the requirements tally with ours. We were impressed by his prompt action and response, and his good understanding of what we want. But we were too blind folded by Mr Z at that time that we rejected his offer at first.. He gracefully wish us good luck on our renovation. After we decided that Mr Z may not be the best ID for us, we went back to Dennis and ask him out for discussion. Told him we want to give him a fair chance before making the final decision.. We invited him up to the house to take detailed measurements, and requested him to give us a more accurate quotation after that. He provided us with a number of cost-saving ideas (on his own without me asking) on site, telling us what can/cannot be done. He is also frank in telling me what are the additional cost going to be incurred which he cannot quote me yet as it depends on how much work needed to be done (electric works, boxing up of pipes, installation of gas pipe, connection of gas stove which will be reflected in PUB bill). And he again send his revised quotation to us in the next 2 days or so, and then patiently amended the quotation again and again as per our request because we are very "kiasi" want every details to be written black and white lol.. We went down to his show room to view samples, and eventually after tons of questions, we decided to sign the contract with him.. Both hubby and me feel very comfortable with him, as he always answer our (sometimes stupid) questions professionally. He also help to give suggestion when I cannot decide and then tell me why he suggest this and that (which often are quite convincing and reasonable). There are also times when we have different opinions, but he is also respectful enough to accept my point of view and doesn't make me feel bad about it. Fingers cross everything will work out well in the end...
  9. 8/10 condition This dining table and bench was bought almost 2 years ago.However, please note that it is very lightly used as we usually eat with our kids at our coffee table. The only issue would be the minor scratches on the sides of the bench but very minimal. The table was bought at 690 and the Bench was bought at 300 excluding GST and Delivery, hence in total it cost us $1100.We are now letting this go at $500 but this is negotiable (reasonably) Whatsapp 86608402 Full set as shown except for flowerpot Slight minor scratches IKEA Chairs worth $75 each to compensate for the scratches
  10. 3 years ago, we managed to get a BTO flat in a mature estate. After a long wait, our flat is finally ready and we collected the keys recently. To start off, here's our 4-room flat floor plan. After receiving our house keys, we excitedly went to our flat the next day to check it out. We did a flat inspection and thankfully the built quality was acceptable apart from a couple of small defects. Here's some photos of our small place, pardon the poor quality taken by my phone. Main entrance (with the pineapple rolling in) Living room: Passageway: Kitchen: Master Bedroom:Forgot to take photo Master Bedroom Toilet: Bedroom 2: Bedroom 3: Common Toilet:
  11. Finally starting a T-Blog here with my free time! This post is over-due because I collected my keys 6 months ago, our first house at Anchorvale (5 Room) after getting married in May last year. The bare, clean and white area that we spammed lots of pictures before the commencement of all the renovation works. My fav part was the huge living room which made up for the tiny rooms.
  12. After reading so many posts on Reno t-Blog, I've decided to also post my journey of how me and my wife begin creating our Punggol Scandi Home! Our new house is at Punggol Waterway! But we've yet to get our keys. I'd like to share my floor plan of my 5-rm BTO flat below. Next, I'll be sharing the theme of my home!
  13. First of all, I would like to start by making a small introduction before going into our renovation details. We had just bought a 36 years old 3NG resale flat in Telok Blangah Drive. The flat was mostly in original condition, which was what we were looking for all the while. Besides, it was also due to the nice and quiet ambient, and amenities nearby. After the First Appointment with HDB, me and my wife discussed who shall we approach for our renovation. This is when we spend a lot of time reading reviews here and there, but there are too many ID companies with mix comments, which make us lost and confused. One of our friend had gave us a contact of her ID that previously renovated her flat, and this is where the whole story begins. After making an appointment with him, we met him on one Saturday afternoon. With the floor plan, we share with him how we wish our new home to be like. He understood clearly what we wanted and gave us the confidence that he could make it come through, our dream home. We trusted him, and that is why we did not approach any other IDs. Till now, our renovation had been started about a month, and definitely we had selected the right person to do it. He is our transformer, transforming a 36 years old flat to a condo-like 3 room flat. What else could I say? We couldn't be any luckier. PS: I've shifted my blog here instead from Community Blog as I think here is more appropriate for blogging our renovation details.
  14. Like most of us here, we were being introduced to Renotalk T-Blog when we got our own flat. Waited for 3 years, we finally collected our keys.... and stepped into the cement floor of our house. No, it's not a home yet, but it's our house! Yay!! Here's our typical 4-room floorplan. and again, like most of us here, we read up a lot in renotalk, and got to know about Mr K, The Contractor. The Hojichas think it's a waste of money to hire an ID since we have our own designs already.. so we decided to go with Contractors. Back in Mid-November, we collected our keys and quickly made appointment to meet up with Mr K, so excited about it... he was pretty tied-up and busy rushing projects before CNY, so the Hojichas decided to start our reno only after CNY.. Of course, in order to work with Mr K, we took it reallllyyy slow.. some of our neighbours already moved in! In the meantime, we met some others (e.g. The80sStudio, and some other contractors) and received many quotes as well. The strange thing is, the quotes all came back around the same price. How to pick?? So we are stuck.... * fast forward * anyways.... in d end, we signed with Mr K. I still believe if he wants to do things fast, he can be super fast, coz due to permit issued dates pressure 3 walls were hacked within a day, but now we are kinda stuck with the next problem, the electric works! Here comes the lil' story... sorry if it's a bit too lengthy and wordy.. The amount of electric works we required was first quoted to us as $2100. But we find it a bit expensive, and requested to see it in breakdown by points... so he replaced the $2100 with points unit price.. and we signed on that, coz when we calculated on our own, it's below $2100. Then after all the hacking of walls, it's time to work on electricity, so K brought his electrician up to our place to see, and this time, his electrician came back with a $3200 quote. >_< It's only now then we know, shifting concealed switches/points/fan points are separate charges, not in the breakdown K provided us with...... and installation of hanging lights Vs. normal lights have different price tags too! Mr K told me that if we are not ok with this quote, it's ok, we can find our own electrician....... so now we are in the midst of requesting for quotes from other electricians for comparison. Renotalkers, if you have any good recommendations, pls intro to us. Thank you very much. Story to be continued..... wish us good luck!
  15. Hi guys!! I've been stalking renotalk for over 4 years omg! Decided to start a t-blog to share my experiences so far My husband and I balloted for our Punggolian home like 4 years ago! And we've finally gotten our key collection date! We'll be collecting our keys on 15th June after a freaking long wait! Am glad to see some fellow Punggolians threads here too! Hello future neighbours! *waves* Actually last week, I wrote a post on my blog about things to prepare when searching for an Interior Designer! Basically the main gist was, we learnt the hard way about going in blind. It is best to have kinda of an idea of what you want. And after a couple of meetings, we finally decided on what we wanted. Woohoo! This is our floorplan! #nadskaihome is a 4 room Premium BTO. Unfortunately for us, our kitchen is tiny! Even if we decide to hack that tiny little wall there, it isn't going to help much! Honestly, when we compare our floorplan to others, I find that we have very little unusable space. Oh well, we'll just have to make the best of what we have! For some reason, our project is extremely green! It's like our contractor Sun Huan is OBSESSED with green. The outside is green. The lifts are green. There are many ugly mosaics in the house. many ugly green bits to be covered. Will be taking pics when we collect our keys and will share pics of the royal greenness. More updates coming soon!
  16. we have gotten our 4 rms BTO flat at greenleaf tampines. It has been in the news a while back for its poor workmanship and tons of defects so we were kinda sketical during key collection day on 2nd dec. haha lucky for us, the defects are pretty minimal and they are implementing this tour thingy where the BSC contractor will walk the house with you to write down the defects so you dun have to write down yourself. so it is kinda a good thing. the skirtings were a shade of dark brown and pretty hideous and we r considering whether to hack it or paint it over. the flooring were a off white shade of yellow and the brown skirting make it even more obvious. the kitchen flooring and walls were also a yellowish tint.. duno y hdb uses this kind of ugly tiles.. cheap perhaps? 2 months prior to the key collection date, i start to stalk renotalk and etc and try to come out with a design that i like. i like things simple and thus was fancinated by the japanese minimalist and scandanavian look. I want to keep the whole house to a 60 percent white, 30 percent wood and 10 percent black color combi and maybe a bright color funiture to pop the colors in the living room i am a 3D artist by profession so i spent countless night trying to find the right funitures and look. i intend to find a contractor instead of an ID since i have the design. hopefully it will be cheaper since i am on a budget as well. i came up with the following concept. now while the BSC is fixing up the defects, we am finding a contracter. trying not to rush and find a lousy one , espcially after seeing so many horror stories on disaster renovation on renotalk and fb. hope u like it =)
  17. Hi guys! A and I have been reading up alot of renotalk during the past few months as we are finally settling down and starting our renovation journey. We purchased a 5 room resale flat and got our keys back in January 2015. Like many couples, we started to source for good Interior Designers or contractors (Mr. K) that have been recommended by people on forums. I believe we met about 8-10 firms and have about 15 quotations from different companies and individuals. The highly recommended ones and big names interior designers seem to be either 1. too expensiveor 2. too busy... Some interior designers which were quite "bo chup" and for which we have to chase for the quotation were dropped immediately. We started to branch out and get different quotations from reno websites. On the other hand, the unheard ones can be quite enthusiastic and at the lower range. However, we did not want to compromise on the quality of materials by going for the cheapest quotations. After months of deliberating, we have finally settled on a small interior design firm. Why did we choose this company? Indeed it is a leap of faith because we could not find any reviews on this company on the internet ! 1. their sincerity (P & B) in assuring us that they want to do a good job 2. quote is reasonable to us comparing to other interior designers and contractors (yes definitely more expensive than contractors.. at least $5k maybe? But I guess we are paying extra for the project management service..) 3. comfortable factor / does not mind spending hours with us thrashing out the details and revising the quotation multiple times 3. our quotation is 8 pages long haha! details are important! (Most contractors only gave us a 2 pager quotation) 4. some freebies... On hindsight... - ensure that you are comfortable with the payment terms (check what is the "market rate") This is our floor plan : Some inspirations: What the hubby wants:
  18. BRAND NEW "Heather" storage seat - $690 1. Imported waterproof Sunbrella fabric (from Glen Raven Mills USA) used to make the high density cushion. 2. Current finish is raw, but can be varnished also. It's a personal preference so we let our customer decide if they want varnish or not. 3. Very solid, sturdy and heavy frame >10kg. 4. Seat cover can be removed to reveal spacious storage beneath. Can seat 1 or 2 people. 5. Cash & Carry or $50 delivery within Singapore. 6. Fresh from the oven! Only 1 of a kind in the world. Made to order, not factory made! BRAND NEW "Caspian" lounger - $750 1. Imported waterproof Sunbrella fabric (from Glen Raven Mills USA) used to make the high density cushion. 2. Current finish is raw, but can be varnished also. We don't advise varnish though, because it looks better without. 3. Very solid, sturdy frame with a low centre of gravity. Can seat 3-4people. 4. Can join 2 together to make a pool lounger or to lie down for reading a book. 5. Cash & Carry or $50 delivery within Singapore. 6. Fresh from the oven! Only 1 of a kind in the world. Made to order, not factory made! Please PM to buy/ view. Thanks!
  19. Being a silent reader (on and off) since 2011, when we first applied for our BTO, I guess it's time for me to make some worthy (I hope) contributions to this community! Having heard of how difficult it was for couples to apply for a BTO flat, we are indeed thankful to be able to secure a mid-level unit on our first try, given that our queue number has exceeded the total no. of units! Well, maybe I should thank those people who applied, but given up their chance. Fast forward to 4 years later in 2015, we finally collected the keys to our first nest in Jan' 2015. We didn't carry out rituals like rolling pineapple, sprinkling of salt in 4 corners or screaming "Huat ah, Huat ah" etc.. Instead, we were snapping away! Having seen my sister's BTO flat, I wasn't expecting much, but it came as a pleasant surprise that it's slightly bigger than what I expected! Hehe! Starting off with a mandatory picture, the Floor plan! In my opinion, it's a rather standard one in these days BTO. Upon entering, this is the view that greeted us.. Living Room. It's pretty Long-ish & square-rish. Up next is the Corridor, leading up to the bedrooms & bomb shelter (double up as storeroom). Okay, that's another standard thing. Realized that I do not have any pictures of the rooms. Actually all of these pictures are taken by the husband, and he said something like, there isn't a need to take as all the rooms looks the same! Hahah! We forgotten about the kitchen too! But I managed to find a saved pic of the kitchen in my gallery. I think it was my neighbour's, which I chanced upon in my project's facebook group. So, the credit of this picture is to him/ her! Being someone who enjoys cooking & baking, this kitchen came as a big disappointment! It's so tiny!! I think this would be a nightmare to people coming from my mums generation, their kitchen is easily 3x of this size? After looking around, we proceed to spend the next hour or so checking defects, but we were quite tired out by the bending up and down in such a warm weather.. All we wanted was a chilling can of drink! So we decided to call it a day, we shall come back another day to continue with the defect checking! Hiak Hiak Hiak!
  20. Hi everyone out there! Just wondering if anyone is willing to share their experience if they had renovated their house based on the 'Scandustrial' (Scandinavian/Industrial) theme. Also if you had used an ID, how did it go in that aspect as well? Hopefully everyone gets to exchange tips on where to get all those beautiful lights and furniture according to these themes as well! Cheers P/s I hope someone got the pun hehe.
  21. Updated on showflat details! Remember to indicate which day are you going! ----- This blog shall serve as a frank testimonial of the ID chosen, the renovation we are going to embark and the selection process for your information. I believe blogs like these are valuable information for everybody seeking to do their renovation! We started our selection of IDs around May 2014 and received our keys only recently. This is our first home and we are extremely excited to get the renovation works going. The selection process was tedious fished out quite a fair bit of IDs and contractors (both famous and not so famous) and i shall list them accordingly Selection of IDs OM** L*****- Provided only a rough quote and insisted we should only talk to them upon receiving keys. Rough quote given was a mass template email sent to whoever requested for it. Wei***.com - Emailed them but received no reply Zi**** A******* - Was the first to provide us with detailed quotations. Price was on the upside as their design were great judging from their portfolios Re*** - Quite popular in 2014 as some renotalk users used his services. We were particularly impressed with the way he gave a layout sketch on the floorplan and offered a detailed quotation. Price is affordable. From portfolio, appears to be just a renovator and layout planner and design to be handled by the users. Quote was within our budget Tho* S******** D***** - The first ID which we met in real life. Joy has a pleasant personality and ain't your typical senior looking renovator. Though the company focuses on modern designs, we felt good communication vibes with Joy and she assured us our renovation will be within budget and still, achieve the scandinavian design we yearned. The 80** S***** - This is one of the up and coming companies in Singapore. Thats how they described to me. I was particularly impressed with the design portfolio. The quote was designed in such a way they would try and fit in stuff within the quote. Realised some items were way overpriced, wardrobe and craftstone wall in particular. But we could understand as there's a "design element" to it which has to be factored into the cost. Upon revision of quotes, we realised there's some tension within the discussion and pulled the plug. I suppose if you have a big budget, this entity would be a great great choice! Custom****** - Emailed but he was busy. Said he would get back but heard nothing from him. Preliminary quote was given. Pretty popular in renotalk Posh**** - After seeing Leon and Jenna's blog, i thought i should check them for a quote. Emailed, said would get back with a quote. Never got back despite insisting our budget is still all right. I suppose if you have a bigger budget, you could achieve like what was describe in the other tblog, which was really impressive! Renovator from friend (Decobuilders): We were about to confirm the deal when he told me he was removed from his position as there's some restructuring in the company. Quote provided was lowest of all and i thought having a friend to work out the renovation would be extremely beneficial. Didn't work out though. ----- Our choice was Joy from Thom Signature Design. We were pretty impressed with the way the company carried themselves on social media. They seemed pretty subtle with referrals from within. Joy was the first ID we met and our discussions came through a long way and we could see the patience in her. From our preliminary "don't know what we want" till "know what we want" and "change what we want", she was ever-patient in revising our quotes and all. We signed on a preliminary quote of 22k which is to be revised as we do not need the craft-stone wall anymore along with other stuff. We are determined to keep the overall renovation at 25k including electrical. Joy is aware of that and she's also witnessing this blog as we progresses. Would like to make a disclaimer that i would not be sharing the quotation for individual items and also for the entire segment of it till the renovation is fully completed. Even so i would only provide a rough guide on the items we do from the overall renovation cost ----- The house will be white everywhere, with pastel items making up the furnishing. Maybe some walls would be tinged with tiffany green, else it'll be all white. Just in case anyone of you wish to get a quote from Joy, can let her know Takaishi/Eugene recommended! 3D updated. Have to admit it ain't as tok kong as the rest of the drafters but doesn't matter. Our highlight is the furnishing
  22. I have been a follower of this wonderful forum for a long time, a quick check on my profile shows that I am a member since 2004! That was when I am renovating the current place that I am staying. Time flies and it has been 10 years, and it’s time for a mid-life upgrade. There are several challenges, thus I named the blog “Hopefully” as I am not sure if I will succeed. I will be hiring a contractor, thus I will be the “designer”. Challenges: Budget. After long discussion with CFO, the budget was set at $20k. With an upgrade to a system 4 air-con a cardinal requirement, effective balance is only 16k. Coordination. As we will be staying in for the renovation, extra effort will be required for the coordination to minimize disruption and stress to the residents (wife, 3 schooling kids, helper) Theme. After browsing through the tons of information in the t-blogs, I must say that I like the “Scandinavian” look. The challenge for me is how I can achieve this without making major changes to existing infra and within budget.Scope of Work L-Box & Plastering for 3 bedrooms Vanishing of Parquet for 3 Bedrooms Glass Partition to create new study room Laminate floor for Study Sliding door for Balcony Lay wood decking for Balcony (6m x 1.5m) Brick tile for TV wall Shoe Cabinet Cabinet for Master Toilet New System 4 Aircon Retrofit Oven and additional Kitchen Cabinets New WardrobeThe following is my floor plan just to get the ball rolling. It’s a 5A unit @ 136sqm. I had made some changes to the layout during the last reno by hacking away half the store room to create a new entrance to the kitchen.
  23. Ero/S Chairs By Philippe Starck I have 8 chairs for sale. The Ero/S chairs are original pieces from Kartell, and designed by Philippe Starck- the highly celebrated French designer. Although the chrome legs have gone slightly rusty (chrome does need some maintenance to keep it shiny), they can be polished with Brasso to restore the shine. The Polycarbonate seat is in good condition. To note: out of the 8 pieces, 2 pieces have lost their rubber sealant. The chair is highly ergonomic and comfortable. The organic egg-shape and 'Eiffel tower' wire leg is a classic mid-century design. Timeless and and versatile as either dining chairs, lounge chairs, or study chairs. Kartell in the US is selling it for USD$580 (see link here). In the UK, it is selling at £390. I mainly use it as my dining chairs. However, we are changing the look of our house, and are getting some newer chairs to replace it. Want to clear it! So I'm selling it at a very low price. Grab before gone! Selling price: $120 each Dimensions: W62 x D70 x H79 Contact: Chris - 9005-6689 Pictures of the chairs: Styling pictures:
  24. Hi everyone, Have been around for quite awhile and reading up other t-blog, decided to start my own t-blog to share my reno journey. Will be collecting our keys real soon and have been looking around for IDs and Contractors for our renovation. Here is our floor plan : 4-room BTO 92sqm We have received various quotation and calls from the form field in icompare, i would say, the minute i submit the form, i received countless of calls, *approx. 10-20. The calls i received to arrange for a meet up to discuss further is really overwhelming. Initially tried to arrange each of them however, after the 2nd - 3rd day of continuous phonecalls, my meeting schedule with ID have stretch to 2 weeks and almost 3rd week, meeting each one of them every day afterwork. After the 4th Day i asked them to call again to reschedule as it is too overwhelming. Long Story cut short : Here are some of the countless IDs and 1 Contractor i have met up : We started looking around on 18 June. 1 ) A&D Group : They were the first ID which we have meet up and were served by Pamela however till now we have yet to receive a reply. We were looking forward to their quote and their proposal as they are the first ID that we approached but we were rather disappointed. 2) The second one we met was an ID which i failed to recall his company's name, anyway he did not revert as well. 3) Voila Design : They were just recently established for a year but according to the director, he have tons of experience in this industry and was sharing his previous experiences and why he left to set up his own ID firm. Jasper was the ID but Jason who was the in-charge for overall design was the mostly engaging our conversation. Jason seems quite an experience and gave us a few constructive advices on our renovation ideas. My hubby was kind of shortlisting and we were anticipating to his proposal which mentioned he will revert after a week, however after a week we hear nothing from him and assume that he will not get back. Surprisingly, Jazper texted us 3 weeks later to inform us of the ready proposal but our hearts were already directed elsewhere. 4) I was greedy at this point of time and wanted to meet 3 ID at this point of time on 1 evening after countless of calls, eventually i arrange to meet up with 1 and cancelled the other 2. 3D Innovations : We did some "basic" research and thus decided to meet up with them as we could not find much information on the other 2 ID. We were supposed to meet Sam however, due to his unavailability we were directed to his colleague, Jimmy *after all the decision we made to meet with him against 2 other ID firm* Nevertheless, Jimmy, whom we met up was very experience as well, we explained our criteria and what kind of theme and direction we are looking at, he gave good advices, we went in depth into the conversation and found out that he was from a contractor's background and he have been in this industry since really young and from the technical hands-on till becoming an ID. Thus it explains his knowledge in the details of renovation. We also decided to go for concrete kitchen after we met up with him and mentally my hubby was shortlisting him. He was nice to drove us back too, he was initiating to pick us up at paya lebar mrt initially, but i decline as was quite paiseh. Anyway, Jimmy did promised us that he will do our renovation nicely making sure everything goes smoothly as he was hoping we would engage him and share our experiences with others. Anyway, we went home and did a through research and realised that there were some really bad and nasty feedback about the ID firm but my hubby was still quite insistent on trusting him and will decide after the proposal. At that point of time i already give up having them shortlisted. But overall it was a great experience with Jimmy and he revert back about a week later after we met up. 5) K Contractor : He was the first which i have tried to arranged for a meeting but his schedule was queued all the way till a week later, subsequently we had to arranged 2nd and 3rd meeting 2 weeks in advance. I have saw various renovations done by him and was initially inspired after looking at theitsybits Casa t-blog as her floor plan is very much similar and really love her renovation done by K, *except for the kitchen cabinets, separately done by someone else. During the first meeting i have forgotten that i have personally get in touch with him to arrange for a meeting, thinking that i have submitted my floor plan to icompare and he will have my floor plan thus it was really embarrassing that i have forgotten my floorplan in hardcopy and we could only use my ipad to show him the floor plan, he was patience and look through the floor plan through my ipad and we were having our initial discussion. Everything went well and he said to revert us with a quotation after a week, however shorty after 3 days we were really amazed by the speed of light he is working. I was pushing my hubby to lean towards having K to do the renovation for us from the start after all the reviews and feedback I saw. Hubby was initially not convince but after the first meet up he did his own research and was convince that having a responsible contractor is really important. I would say K is prompt, early for meeting, fast hand fast leg too. He is friendly and was really helpful in our subsequent meetings when we discuss on details about tiling and construction works. 6) S2 Design : We met up with Andy and he was nice to meet up at our convenience, we thought the meeting will take about an hour or two after multiple times meeting with IDs, however our meeting with him lasted for 20mins - 30mins, we were striking him off our list. After a short 20 - 30mins meeting we presume he will not have much idea what we are looking for and he do not really question the feasibility to do certain renovations or propose if there could be better ways to go around it and was okay with all the propose that we wanted. Which was quite different from the previous ID which we met, some of those ID we met gave us some verbal proposal as to whether it will be feasible or not but Andy was okay with all of it. End of the meeting, will get in touch with you on the proposal. However, after 2 weeks we were surprise that he have got in touch with us as he has come out with the proposal, drawings and 3D drawings!! My hubby din't really want to meet up anymore ID after so many rounds and was explaining to him that we have been looking at other ID but he was really sincere and asked to meet up to at least explain the drawings and 3D drawings that he has done. He provided us with 1 3D drawings and 2 other layout plans. Andy was really nice that we decided that we could have him to provide us a quotation for the round of shortlisting. I would say that Andy is pretty new and fresh in the ID industry but he is really nice and sincere, he is really good with his 3D drawings and ideas though we are not too sure with his co-ordinating skills during the renovation, he was sincere to even bring us to their current project to view but we were in a rush and could not arrange it on the same date. We are still awaiting for his quotation though. 7) ZQ Studio : We met up with Spencer who was the ID and we go through the same process on explaining the direction we are looking at and the meeting ended quite quickly, about a week later he got back with us but by then we were really tire out by meeting up with so many IDs. Lastly, we met up with 8) Evorich : They deals with Laminated Flooring, Vinyl Flooring and High Resistant Flooring (HERF or layman terms PVC) Previously have heard about their 100% waterproof Vinyl Flooring and High Resistant Flooring(HERF), apparently to them, both are different. To us we find that both are the same or similiar. High Resistant Flooring (HERF) are of same or similiar as Vinyl as the findings i have found. 100% waterproof are important for us as we have 2 dogs and will really do not want to spoil our flooring with our furkid's accidental pee, both of us like the looks of the wood-like flooring. Initially we were looking towards wood tiles which are tiles with wood grains looks. The difference is tiles are cooler to walk onto. On our first meeting we met up with Johnson from Evorich and he explain on the differences with Laminated Flooring, Vinyl Flooring, High Resistant Flooring (HERF) and Engineered Wood Floorings. He went though with us on the waterproofing of High Resistant Flooring(HERF) and that he himself have done huge amount of experiment on his own High Resistant Flooring(HERF) and even having tissue beneath the High Resistant Flooring(HERF) and water on top of it overnight and water is unable to sip through, I would say they are the few which would promised that their High Resistant Flooring(HERF) 100% waterproof as it is a huge statement to make if it is unable to do so. Initially hubby did alot of research on Evorich and was keen on having their High Resistant Flooring(HERF) but i was hesitant as i have yet to do my own research. The feel of High Resistant Flooring(HERF) does feels good and different and it is slightly cheaper (ranging about $6-$.650) or about the same price to having wood tiles, it can comes without skirting and Johnson mentioned that the High Resistant Flooring(HERF) could follow us when we move as it on clip system(**this point not too convincing though, once we move out we presume to be moving bigger house and would need to purchase more but provided the colour will still be available) I have read up that there will be some side effects on High Resistant Flooring(HERF), *want to make sure we will be okay with the side effects and deduce if its a huge or minor issue for us. e.g : high possibility of uneven laying as free cement screed by HDB will not be as perfect to having 100% or 80% levelling, thus affecting the outlook to form a wave on the laying of High Resistant Flooring(HERF). So far he mentioned that the possibility of having a huge wave of uneven tiles will be really rare, he show us in his showroom on the worst we could expect from the wave but it seems not a huge issue for us. His advice was to possibility try own best to advice the person laying the cement screed to have it as level as possible by nicely advice them to spend more effort and time. One more issue which we were concern was that mold will gather under the flooring which he promised if such issues occurs it will be a issue of product defect and will be covered by warranty which he mentioned a life-time warranty. Thus further explaining that if mold were to gather underneath, it means that the clip could not do a proper job on preventing it to be waterproof or it could be possible that the High Resistant Flooring(HERF) were laid before the cement screed were fully dry as High Resistant Flooring(HERF) would require fully dry cement screed to lay on. We were convince that most of our concerns are covered but was quite hesitant when we had to make decision on the spot to lock in the price we wanted. But eventually did when Johnson was nice enough to provide us with an additional clause to have a 14 days money back guarantee thus providing me more time to find out more on High Resistant Flooring(HERF). After doing a throughly research and have some reviews from U.S which they lay their own High Resistant Flooring(HERF) that it does occur before that odour coming out from the High Resistant Flooring(HERF) but we were promised that High Resistant Flooring(HERF) will be odourless and if such issues occurs it will be covered. Cracks will also be covered by evorich but we are also quite concern with the levelling of the cement screed. Eventually, we decided on rooms with High Resistant Flooring(HERF) and living room with Wood Tiles. **Engaging Mr. K for our rennovation
×