Our Love Shack - Modern Retro- Yishun 4a

[dugong6 0]

I will be moving from downtown area to north area. Still feeling a little apprehensive on the new environment. Gone will be the days of 10 mins bus ride to places like chinatown, orchard road, marina square, vivocity . . .and I will also be far away from the southern ridges. In fact feeling rather down.. ...

I will take consolation with the opportunity to re-design my newly bought resale flat! In this blog, I will only be covering the main concepts and pictorial design. As it is done by a very close relative of mine, I was not too worried with other considerations...Attach is the floorplan.

Our idea is to create more living room space, and hack a connecting door between kids room and masterbed room.

All edges will be rounded wherever possible including wall edges and cabinets

Colours will be contrast and as much as possible stick to primary colours...

For a start here is a picture of the Original Floor plan and pre-renovation condition.

Living Room 1

Living Room 2

Common Toilet

Kitchen

MBR Toilet

Masterbed Room

Bedroom_2

Bedroom_3-1

Bedroom_3-2

I will be attaching some concept drawings soon! from the ID that I have engaged....

[SGBuzz 0]

Welcome

Wow from Central to North is a bit extreme, i think you will find that North has its charms as well.

[dugong6 0]

Welcome

Wow from Central to North is a bit extreme, i think you will find that North has its charms as well.

Hi SGBuzz, thanks for your encouragement, I am definitely looking forward to life in Yishun!

As for our renovation, we had engaged an ID, and below are the drawings. Although they are not final, but it does show what are expected from a decent ID company...

ID-floorplan

The main designs are the hacked walls of the kitchen, a reduced kitchen space and a connecting door btw the children 's room and masterbed room

Living Room 1

<<The design turns out fine for the living room. it consists of a tv cabinet with glass shelves on the feature wall before the drawings are provided, I have indicate to the ID that we want a standing TV design as I dislike having a hole in the feature wall for the TV bracket..this will only give opportunities for dust and spider web to gather...>>

Living Room 2

<<I showed the ID a picture of a retro display cabinet. The picture did not show a similar replica...Although it looks nice, the rounded feeling is very much taken away due to the connecting top end with the ceiling. Would also like to share that the ID also inserted our existing furniture in the drawing which I appreciated>>

Kitchen 1

<<We discussed with the ID that the cabinets and all appliances should only be one side of the wall. The kitchen space is also reduced to create a children playarea. Offhand, I like this layout and design>>

Kitchen 2

<<a L-shaped sink area is usually used to separate wet and dry area. However, with my reduced kitchen, this design does not make aesthetic sense. if I were to place my washing machine against the window in the wet area, there should be around 1.2 m walking space btw the L-shaped sink and the washing machine. Or if I were to place my washing machine after the dustbin wall, it would not be right also. For both cases, my L-shaped sink will end up to be in the middle of my reduced kitchen which makes it aesthetically not so desirable. Therefore decided to have a counter-like sink instead and also find it unconventional and pleasing to the eyes.....>>

MBR Bathroom

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy245/c...36/master_2.jpg

<<I am happy with this Masterbed room design....back to the MBR Bathroom. Just imagine waking up in a yellow/green room (soothing to the eyes) and suddenly feeling "red-hot" in the bathroom...to me the mood and colour schemes are not right>>

Masterbed Room 2

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy245/c...36/master_1.jpg

<<I have indicated that I do not want a conventional way of installing the cabinets therefore suggested to my ID to have an L-shaped cabinet just right outside the toilet. This separate the wardrobe space and the sleeping area. However, he initially designed with a full height wardrobe making the room looks VERY small...I suggested to him to have low cabinets at the other side so that, from the MBR entrance perspective, there is minimal visual blockage.>>

Bedroom_2-1

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy245/c...y36/study_2.jpg

<<this will be my study room and storage area for both books and my childrens' toys. I like this design particularly on the part of the four big drawers at the left bottom of the drawing, these are perfect storage space for children's toys...>>

Bedroom_2-2

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy245/c...y36/study_1.jpg

<<this drawing shows a retractable table extended out, my consideration was to have 4 persons sitting in the study room for work or play...I like this design concept too.>>

Bedroom_3-1

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy245/c...6/kidsRoom_2.jpg

<<This shows the connecting sliding door to the masterbed room . I have created this to allow my toddlers to go to toilet at the shortest distance especially during their bedtime instead of walking one big round...although it may not seem necessary, but I had wanted to minimise distractions so that my toddlers can go toilet and straight to their beds...>>

Bedroom_3-2

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy245/c.../kidsRoom_1.jpg

<<nothing special about these cabinets...just that it has round edges..similar to the rest of the built-in for the design concept

Sad to say, After much deliberation, my husband and I decided to void our contract and pay the 20% basic package which amounts to around 4.7k......

Edited April 24, 2010 by dugong6

[Supersimon27 2]

Wow modern retro concept . Looking forward to yr transform

[ossify 1]

welcome to RT,

attached your floorplan here

WOW 4.7k gone for 11 3D and 1 space planning

[Angel81 1]

Welcome! Wah, that's a very big switch from central area to north.

[Supersimon27 2]

welcome to RT,

attached your floorplan here

WOW 4.7k gone for 11 3D and 1 space planning

Ya lor a bit wasted . Or many u do min with them ? Like tiling or do 1 kitchen with them ... at least can save the 4.7k?

Or the contract say die die must do 20k de?

[dugong6 0]

Ya lor a bit wasted . Or many u do min with them ? Like tiling or do 1 kitchen with them ... at least can save the 4.7k?

Or the contract say die die must do 20k de?

When I recieve their quotation for the design to be implemented...it was a good S$50K++, plus the basic package of S$24K, these totalled up to be around S$70K++....and it is not inclusive of my bathroom accessories, kitchen accessories, lightings, air con, window grilles, doors, main gate.. . ....

Can't convince myself to pay 70k for a 4 room re-sale flat..even if I take out expensive things such as the feature wall and the counter-sink design as well as the children's room cozy seat.. still totalled up to be 60k++

I asked the ID if I can get my separate contractor to do my carpentry work, he replied politely that I can but don't hold him responsible if things did not go as scheduled and he also hinted to me that i will have problems with electrical layout and I have to do lots of co-ordination work btw him and the contractor ... ...

As the total amount is far out of my budget, I decided to void the contract mainly for the following reasons:

Co-ordination problem as my ID highlighted if I get another contractor to stay within my budget

ID assumingly trained is not familiar with retro design..his initial design was alot of black.both my bathrooms and kitchen as well as study room cabinets are black..he appears to be unwilling to change the colour scheme which I think is his favourite colour. Although there are retro things that are black but majority of the design are seldom black....

Not too sure if you guys felt the same way..does the retro orange with patterns appear to be very "karaoke" like? He was so proud of this pattern that he had chosen that I didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm...

I can see that he is not familiar with retro theme as he was asking me where to get all these furniture.....I thought he is suppose to advise me? In the basic contract it says, ID to provide design and furnishing consultancy work.

He said the cooker hood design is to break away from the consistent design of the cabinets..maybe I was paranoid, I think he is trying to save on the carpentry cost in the basic package (whereby 20ft of kitchen cabinet are inclusive)

In addition, I emailed him a few bigger electrical appliances dimensions and specifically told him to accomodate them in the kitchen design layout..he did none of those. Thought and ID should be giving creative solutions for storage space?

Not too sure if it is me being too difficult. Each time I make a suggestion, he will be defensive to his design and selection which makes me uncomfortable...and in the end, I also hold back what I want.. ...

I remembered clearly that we enquired about the feature wall (before the signing of the basic package) and he casually mentioned it is inclusive anyway. However, when we ask him on the quotation for feature wall he said, "wah you don't know what you have signed in the basic package?" Although he said in a polite tone, but I felt cheated. Of course, what to do...I was the one who had signed.

I asked him about hidden costs, he said " there is no hidden costs..." but I was weary. Just imagine paying for such a high price and yet there are more hidden costs?

I went to choose the tiles in balestier, bringing my mum along (as my mum used to be a sales personnel for tiles and thus is very familiar with quality..). He was blatantly very unhappy with my mum and totally ignored her when she talks. I thought this is not tactful. He hinted to me, "this is the first time I feel so confused when choosing tiles. I always tell my customers not to bring a third party along" Although my mum may be asking too many questions, I think as a service provider, you shouldn't show displeasure so blatantly.

He brought us to ONLY ONE shop to look at bathroom and kitchen accessories. My mum quietly tells me not to commit. Fortunately, that small little shop did not have the design we want.....my mother and us continued looking around in balestier after going separate ways from the ID..and realise for one of the basin, the shop that he brought us to quoted $100 more!! I started to feel that I don't trust him..

There are other incidents where I find him very critical and too defensive of his design. Although he is always willing to accomodate, his displeasure was clearly shown. To be fair, he has been professional and friendly througout but just not tactful enough to gain my trust.

Finally, after much deliberation, I think I will be happier without him and decide to do my own renovation design instead...After reading a few posts on renotalk, think i would like to enjoy my renovation instead of making it an unhappy event! So I think 4.7k is worth these....

Till now, I have re-design my kitchen and living room. will show a general layout of the new design in my next post!

[CJREDDEVIL 0]

welcome & congrates to your new hse!

never mind about the switch from central to north, it's a matter of getting used to it and most important now you can hv the freehand to do the transformation and start anew! ( from central... ...guess you must hv made quite a sum of $$$..... .....ahhahaaaah)

Major reno huh... ...waiting your transformation pics/progress..

cheers!

[dugong6 0]

Hm...by the way, is it really okay to share the drawings online..thought it should be since I paid for them! haha

[Supersimon27 2]

Hm...by the way, is it really okay to share the drawings online..thought it should be since I paid for them! haha

Pls don't remove it ... cos I can only view it at home ... ha . I think it's alright to share ba . A lot of them doing it .

Btw, anyway to cut the 4.7 k ? As in try neg abit to maybe 10% since he really din do much to u . 20% a bit too high ... But then maybe it's the standard for ID

[dugong6 0]

Hi CJREDDEVIL...I am not too sure about having a freehand if I engaged ID! but with me cancelling the contract, I do have a freehand now! I was so restrained previously.. ...eh..oh yes yishun unit is very much affordable:)

[El Nino_Al Nito 0]

hi dugong,

i feel for fellow forumers and consumers who had to forgo any certain sum

due to whatever reasons or circumstances..

i wish there are better ways to protect us consumers..

but as i also found out from Small Claims Tribunal, a contract signed is binding as per stated in fineprint..(and we are expected to read all the small T&Cs etc)...we are expected to honour it unless we come from 3rd world country...i was like..Lol, where did that statement came from..??

Anyways, its good to know that you could see the bright side of things despite forgoing a hefty sum.

Less brooding and more grooving is better yah..

With the 3d designs on hand you can just do the necessary tweaking and hunt

for contractors instead..

good luck in your search and upcoming reno..

YNWA,

El Nino

[dugong6 0]

Hi El Nino,

Thanks! By the way, I am also an impulsive person..in fact I only went to ONE design company and took up their basic package on the very same day....so nobody to blame except for myself...

I have started shopping for my furnishing..they are mainly from

www.lightcraft.com.sg

I thought the pricing is quite reasonable and always give further discount upon confirming the selection, my main design lightings are

-artichoke lamp S$766 (think I got this at a higher price, saw one going at S$600 in IMM...but not too sure if they have the copper colour

-Lightbulb lamp S$340

the rest are cheap...below S$30s

http://www.ehongfurniture.com/

-globe/ball chair S$ 840

-tulip chair 4 sets S$550

*think there is special discount as my contractor liase directly with the boss...but of course not too sure of the quality since it is most probably a replica made in China..

Previously the cheapest I saw online is S$1400 for globe chair and S$700 for 4 sets of tulip chair

www.lorgans.com

dining lamps...reusing.. 2 x S$200 = S$400

*these are currently in place in my unit, will be shifting it to yishun.

sofa set..reusing...

dining table...reusing..

coffee table..reusing...

I am thinking of using wallpaper this time round...Check any good recommendations...offhand there is one website that I came across but it is not local..I have ventured goodrichglobal.com...and even visited their gallery, couldn't find this specific wall paper design http://www.wallpaperfromthe70s.com/product...8450cca7cfaf01a

not too sure how safe is it to go for international delivery

Edited January 12, 2010 by dugong6

[newnyew 1]

hi dugong

cool retro theme u r going for!

as for the wall paper, i would think its fine to go ahead.

i did asked for free samples from a UK wallpaper website before.

n they reach me in less than 2 weeks.

but i didnt buy from them in the end cos too ex! haha...

why dun u try painting the patterns urself?

hehe i always tell people to try painting first if cannot then cover with wallpaper!

Edited January 12, 2010 by newnyew