Jump to content
Find Professionals    Deals    Get Quotations   Portfolios

Recommended Posts

Hello!

I typed a long post the other day... but don't know how to post photo... and it's gone~ :bangwall: So shall do a summarized version here. (Thanks to sapphire89 for teaching me! :D )

First of all, thank you to all t-bloggers for sharing your reno journey/tips/experiences! Being a total reno-noob, reading t-blogs really helped! It was so much fun looking at all the beautiful & creative photos!

Our BTO Journey

My husband (then BF) & I applied for our BTO in September 2012. We were very blessed to be able to choose a nice unit despite having a queue number that exceeds the number of units available. It's our 1st application for BTO too! Finally after 3 years, we collected our keys 4 days ago! :jammin: Anyway, since I cannot do a long post now... shall end off with our floor plan:

gallery_70201_894_62594.jpg

Will try to update soon! :yamseng:

Edited by yakult
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join 46,923 satisfied homeowners who used renotalk quotation service to find interior designers. Get an estimated quotation

Hihi! Welcome! Looking forward to your updates!

Hello!

I typed a long post the other day... but don't know how to post photo... and it's gone~ :bangwall: So shall do a summarized version here. (Thanks to sapphire89 for teaching me! :D )

First of all, thank you to all t-bloggers for sharing your reno journey/tips/experiences! Being a total reno-noob, reading t-blogs really helped! It was so much fun looking at all the beautiful & creative photos!

Our BTO Journey

My husband (then BF) applied for our BTO in September 2012. We were very blessed to be able to choose a nice unit despite having a queue number that exceeds the number of units available. It's our 1st application for BTO too! Finally after 3 years, we collected our keys 4 days ago! :jammin: Anyway, since I cannot do a long post now... shall end off with our floor plan:

Will try to update soon! :yamseng:

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Research

I started my research for our house design long ago. Kiasu-ness aside, I realized it gave me some advantage for researching early, such as the change of taste. Initially, my husband & I wanted Victorian theme for our new home. However, after looking at (too) many photos on this design... we kind of changed our mind hahaha. We then started to lean towards modern contemporary with glossy laminate. My sister who is an ID was quite against the idea... and told us that matte is better. Initially, we refused to heed her advice and go with the "as long as we like it..." mentality. After a few months, we realized my sister is right! LOL. We fell in love with woody laminates - which is matte... hahaha.

Here are some places we gather our ideas from:

  • Home & Decor
  • Pinterest
  • Renotalk t-blog!
  • many ID companies who posted in FB
  • HGTV (home reno channel)

Mood-Board

Gathering ideas from the above, here are some of theme-feel we like...

(If any of the photos belong to any t-bloggers, thank you for sharing! They are gorgeous! :dribble:)

Living Room

gallery_70201_894_37444.jpg

gallery_70201_894_35020.jpg

Kitchen

gallery_70201_894_50920.jpg

Walk-in-Wardrobe

gallery_70201_894_16286.jpg

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi matchalatte!

Thank you! Yea ours is pretty fast. PCD is 1st quarter 2016... our first batch of neighbors started collecting keys in early September. So it's early by almost 2 quarters. Hope you will receive good news from HDB soon! :)

hi! love the mood boards. envy envy, i applied in march 2012 and til now still havent collected keys. yours is really fast!

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Choosing ID

We met a total of 5 IDs (I "***" their names to be fair to them, as I believe opinions are subjective).

1. C*****n - Ms A & J

They are one of the big ID companies and you can always see them at EXPO exhibition. We met one of their ID in EXPO about 3 years ago after we registered for BTO. The guy was friendly & seems knowledgeable. Their designs looked great too. We told him we will look for him when the date for our keys collection draws nearer. So the past 3 years, we are quite determine to use them. However, when we tried to contact the ID, he cannot be reached. When we went to ask the company, they said he had left the company ><

Anyway, since we shortlisted them so long ago, we decided to sit down & talk to their another ID, Ms. A, about our reno. To cut the long story short... this ID met us once to go through our wishlist & floorplan. Before she could send the quotation to us, she informed me that she is leaving the company ><" Her manager, Ms. J, then took over our case and met us to go through the quotation.

Conclusion: Not taken up. They had the most expensive quote. (But they do give you free upgrades such as all BLUM tracks & Caesarstone. Nothing is free lol)

2. S** 9 Interior - Mr L

Super direct, friendly & genuinely nice guy! He was recommended by our friend whose home was amazingly done up. We went to visit and the design definitely have WOW-factor. Mr Lam had with many years of experience working for the big companies prior to starting his own. Very very friendly & straightforward - which we like. No hidden agenda, no gimmicks. However, he is more of a Contractor-ID... meaning he can suggest some good design ideas along the way but you have to know exactly what you want right from the start. Whatever design we want, he can do it as per pictures/samples we showed him. He will come out with nice 3Ds too.

Conclusion: Sadly we do not know exactly what we want :unsure:. We only know what feel we like when we see certain photos but have no idea how to piece everything together. Hence, we need an ID to help us. For those who know what design you want, I will recommend him.

3. The D****n P******e - Mr R

Knew Mr R (the boss of the firm) through my cousin. He said they are a boutique firm. Went to see his website portfolio and they looked promising. So after 3 rounds of meeting (go through floorplan & quotation), we decided to engage them & paid him S$1.5k design fee. Unfortunately... it was a mistake :( Every time we asked him something via whatsapp, he don't reply for hours & days. He said the 3Ds will be ready in about 2-3 weeks but was delayed for weeks. No explanation was given despite us chasing for it. When he eventually sent us the 3Ds, there were missing views + they looked horrible! The designs were so-template and off-the-rack (remember we paid for design fee). It seems like he had outsource to some pre-graduate student to do the drawings. So flat & ugly! And there was 1 interesting comment he made during one of our meetings: "Now all the young couples usually give me a reno budget of S$100k." SAY WHAT??? It was like a slap in the face that our reno budget of S$40k was too little for him. If he want big fish, then don't accept our project la. Throughout the process ever since we engaged him, he made our dollars felt so tiny & unworthy for him to spend effort on. Because he looked & sounded promising initially, we wanted to use him and cut out sooo many items inside our quotation.

Conclusion: Terminated him. When we politely asked for a partial refund of the design fee, he never even bother to reply. We will totally understand it is business & be okay even if he says cannot. But no reply at all. What attitude. :no: Maybe for those with S$100k reno budget, he will be nicer? hahaha.

4. B-T** - Mr S

Recommended by my friend's neighbor. Mr S is pretty experienced. He told us many renovation problems that he encountered that sometimes cannot be foreseen.

Conclusion: Quotation price is acceptable. However, we do not have chemistry with him.

5. Avant Ga**e C******e - Mr B

Recommended by my friend's husband's ex-colleague (lol). Best attitude ID we met. Here's why:

  • Prior to the meeting, same as most IDs, Mr B emailed us and asked for our floor plans + some questions such as the theme we like, budget etc.
  • 1st Meeting: He came with a sketched-up proposal floor plan for us, together with some photos with the designs he think we will like! (based on the answers we gave him) Very impressed that he did his homework because the rest we met always came to the first meeting with empty floor plan.
  • Attitude: He is very sincere to want to do our house reno. Response time to our messages was prompt too.
  • Price: Reasonable. He will try his best to work with the budget given to him. (I heard from him that he did some young couple's home with S$18k-$20k budget because they have kids & really finances really tight... so he will try to help them the best he can.)

Conclusion: We picked him :)

Reno is starting today!​ *YAYYY* He just sent us some photos of the floor protection done and the delivered floor tiles. *excited* :sport-smiley-004: Let's pray our reno journey will be a smooth & on-schedule one! :)

Edited by yakult
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Congrats on starting today!!! Yours sooo fast!! Looking forward to the updates :)

Choosing ID

We met a total of 5 IDs (I "***" their names to be fair to them, as I believe opinions are subjective).

1. C*****n

They are one of the big ID companies and you can always see them at EXPO exhibition. We met one of their ID in EXPO about 3 years ago after we registered for BTO. The guy was friendly & seems knowledgeable. Their designs looked great too. We told him we will look for him when the date for our keys collection draws nearer. So the past 3 years, we are quite determine to use them. However, when we tried to contact the ID, he cannot be reached. When we went to ask the company, they said he had left the company ><

Anyway, since we shortlisted them so long ago, we decided to sit down & talk to their another ID about our reno. To cut the long story short... this ID met us once to go through our wishlist & floorplan. Before she could send the quotation to us, she informed me that she is leaving the company ><" Her manager then took over our case and met us to go through the quotation.

Conclusion: Not taken up. They had the most expensive quote. (But they do give you free upgrades such as all BLUM tracks & Caesarstone. Nothing is free lol)

2. S** 9 Interior

He was recommended by our friend whose home was amazingly done up. We went to visit and the design definitely have WOW-factor. This guy is the boss with many years of experience working for the big companies prior to starting his own. Very very friendly & straightforward - which we like. No hidden agenda, no gimmicks. However, he is more of a Contractor-ID... meaning he can suggest some good design ideas along the way but you have to know exactly what you want right from the start. Whatever design we want, he can do it as per pictures/samples we showed him. He will come out with nice 3Ds too.

Conclusion: Sadly we do not know exactly what we want :unsure:. We only know what feel we like when we see certain photos but have no idea how to piece everything together. Hence, we need an ID to help us. For those who know what design you want, I will recommend him.

3. The D****n P******e

Knew them through my cousin. The ID said they are a boutique firm. Went to see his website portfolio and they looked promising. So after 3 rounds of meeting (go through floorplan & quotation), we decided to engage them & paid him S$1.5k design fee. Unfortunately... it was a mistake :( Every time we asked him something via whatsapp, he don't reply for hours & days. He said the 3Ds will be ready in about 2-3 weeks but was delayed for weeks. No explanation was given despite us chasing for it. When he eventually sent us the 3Ds, there were missing views + they looked horrible! The designs were so-template and off-the-rack (remember we paid for design fee). It seems like he had outsource to some pre-graduate student to do the drawings. So flat & ugly! And there was 1 interesting comment he made during one of our meetings: "All young couples now always give me a reno budget of S$100k." SAY WHAT??? It was like a slap in the face that our reno budget of S$40k was too little for him. If he want big fish, then don't accept our project la. Throughout the process ever since we engaged him, he made our dollars felt so tiny & unworthy for him to spend effort on. Because he looked & sound promising initially, we wanted to use him and cut out sooo many items inside our quotation.

Conclusion: Terminated him. When we politely asked for a partial refund of the design fee, he never even bother to reply. We will totally understand it is business & be okay even if he says cannot. But no reply at all. What attitude. :no: Maybe for those with S$100k reno budget, he will be nicer? hahaha.

4. B-T**

Recommended by my friend's neighbor. This ID is pretty experienced. He told us many renovation problems that he encountered that sometimes cannot be foreseen.

Conclusion: Quotation price is acceptable. However, we do not have chemistry with the ID.

5. Avant Ga**e C******e

Recommended by my friend's husband's ex-colleague (lol). Best attitude ID we met. Here's why:

  • Prior to the meeting, same as most IDs, he emailed us and asked for our floor plans + some questions such as the theme we like, budget etc.
  • 1st Meeting: He came with a sketched-up proposal floor plan for us, together with some photos with the designs he think we will like! (based on the answers we gave him) Very impressed that he did his homework because the rest we met always came to the first meeting with empty floor plan.
  • Attitude: He is very sincere to want to do our house reno. Response time to our messages was prompt too.

Conclusion: We picked him :)

Reno is starting today!​ *YAYYY* He just sent us some photos of the floor protection done and the delivered floor tiles. *excited* :sport-smiley-004: Let's pray our reno journey will be a smooth & on-schedule one! :)

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This week only laying floor protection & delivering of materials to site. Hopefully they will start doing living room flooring! hehehe.

Congrats on starting today!!! Yours sooo fast!! Looking forward to the updates :)

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wah... so envy you. Your hse is so fast. Mine was a May 2012 BTO and PCD is 2Q 2016. Some of the residents from my BTO getting their keys end of the yr.. but mine still remain as Q2 2016 :curse: . No chance of having my home ready for my wedding.

Anyway my 5 room layout looks exactly like yours!!! Diff is the size of each room..some of urs is bigger..some is mine.

Do you have any pics of the empty house? .... So that I can imagine how my hse will look like in the future ;) . *waiting and waiting for HDB* :~

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This week only laying floor protection & delivering of materials to site. Hopefully they will start doing living room flooring! hehehe.

I've just noticed that your bomb shelter is in the kitchen! So good! :( mine is in the living room! Then again, at least it's not blocking that kitchen wall so that we can take it down! :D

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi djnt! I totally know how you feel... waiting for HDB to update all day everyday...until neck long long! hahaha. For the past 3 months, I was checking HDB website all the time to see was there any update. Yours is a bigger project I supposed? Ours only 3 blocks of 16 floors that's why i think it's faster. I guess should be soon for you le since your neighbors are getting keys end of the year? Jiayou jiayou!

Sorry I didn't take any photo of my empty house as we were busy checking for defects right after keys collection. hahaha. I will try to take some reno photos along the way so hopefully you can have a glimpse of it :)

Wah... so envy you. Your hse is so fast. Mine was a May 2012 BTO and PCD is 2Q 2016. Some of the residents from my BTO getting their keys end of the yr.. but mine still remain as Q2 2016 :curse: . No chance of having my home ready for my wedding.

Anyway my 5 room layout looks exactly like yours!!! Diff is the size of each room..some of urs is bigger..some is mine.

Do you have any pics of the empty house? .... So that I can imagine how my hse will look like in the future ;) . *waiting and waiting for HDB* :~

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ya i super love that "feature" that my floor plan had! I have a direct "pantry" hehehe.

I've just noticed that your bomb shelter is in the kitchen! So good! :( mine is in the living room! Then again, at least it's not blocking that kitchen wall so that we can take it down! :D

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Since I don't know how to shop from TB (too much effort needed to read chinese :wacko:), I check out Amazon instead! :lol:

I am amazed by how fast they shipped from the States. If I remember correctly, from placing orders to reaching my place only took 1 week. Packaging was great too!

gallery_70201_894_189529.jpg

gallery_70201_894_52882.jpg

It's my 1st time buying from Amazon for personal use (used them for company's purchase before), so decided to order a few items first to try it out. Ordered about USD$125 worth of items to qualify for their Free International Shipping. Here are my loots... :sport-smiley-018:

gallery_70201_894_78091.png

gallery_70201_894_70744.png

gallery_70201_894_42027.png

gallery_70201_894_38918.png

All items came in perfect condition. Simplehuman is great (thanks to all t-bloggers who shared their buys). I am super impressed with Grohe quality. Really solid! Which leads me to buy more Grohe stuff from HoeKee which is having 25% off Grohe stuff... :P

Edited by yakult
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Here are the Grohe items I bought from HoeKee...

gallery_70201_894_3557.png

Initially ordered 2 sets of this rainshower for both bathrooms. (HoeKee is having 50% off!) Very sad that I had to exchange 1 set to another brand because it cannot fit into my common bathroom due to the box-up at the shower area. =/

Bought this for MBR bathroom vanity :)

gallery_70201_894_110.gif

Edited by yakult
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×