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Hi Leon I have followed your entry for quite awhile. I have to say it was because of your sharing that I approached #calvintan from posh home and eventually engaged him as my id. My wife n I were pretty inexperienced in this area hence the decision to engage him was a rash and rush one which we have truly regret. I under stand that your house is still in the midst of renovation hence the assessment of #calvintan n posh home works will not be as holistic as what I am intending to share with the Reno t blog forum followers. My renovation has been "completed" for awhile now and i will be sharing my experience and assessment of it the next week or so via my own t blog. I have to say the entire experience was not as green n rosy like what you have shared and the our expectation has never been met. I hope that my share of the account would be a more accurate reflection of their work given that my renovation is completed and the quality of work and their performance can be better assessed and graded. If I have one word to describe my experience with posh home and especially #calvintan, it would be PAINFUL. I will update my t blog name when ready. Thanks you. Randomtzy

Hi Guys, My first post in Renotalk Forum! WTB and myself have been scouting around for vinyl/laminated flooring. We visited the expo couple of days ago and spoke to a couple of flooring company. Evorich qouted 5.95 psf for their high resistance /vinyl flooring and 5.50 psf for laminated flooring. I recalled reading somewhere in renotalk that they can offer contractor price at 5.00 psf for their high resistance/vinyl flooring. Tried to negotiate with the guy at expo and he is quite insistent that 5.95 psf is the contractor price already. I also spoke to wood culture for their hydro plus lamination and inova for their flooring too. Both are pretty competitive in their pricing. We like Evorich high resistance flooring but find 5.95 psf a bit steep. Is this really the market rate now for high resistance /vinyl flooring? We are green when it comes to reno and flooring so I want check around first b4 commit

Thank you for dropping by and reading my renovation blog from page 1 Just wanted to share that I've collated all the posts about my renovation journey to my personal blog. If you wish to cut through the clutter of people asking for PMs for my ID, do go direct to www.guojiawen.com and choose the tags "Dream Home / Renovation / Home Deco". Cheers! Jiawen ____________ Have been reading renovation blogs for quite sometime and found the info all really useful. Hence decided to start my own reno blog to document our reno journey Our dream home is a 5 room BTO at Woodlands Meadows. Currently awaiting for keys which should be ready by March (hopefully), since our block is the last one hanging. HDB, please release our keys soon! As my hubby & I are will be shuttling back & forth from overseas, we were pretty eager to settle our choice of ID. Have done our research since Oct 2013, shortlisted about 15 firms, asked for quotations, met with 6 IDs and further shortlisted our choice. Finally signed with our ID two days back. Overall we have good vibes and chemistry with Jason (our ID), who is working together with his brother (owner of the company). Price quoted was reasonable, Jason was really flexible in terms of our requests and after viewing a work in progress home, the workmanship was good as well. Everything is great so far. We are also really happy with the reno package! The next step is to choose the colour & overall feel of what we like and update Jason before he helps come up with our 3D designs. Am really looking forward!

Photo of Freddie Chua: Cheat Alert! Dear All, I just want to keep you informed of a dishonest & unreliable curtains & blinds contractor called Freddie Chua K H. He was a former sales representative of "Bestino Curtain Gallery" and has been fired by his ex-boss (Vivien Chen) last week. According to Vivien, he has been illegally stealing his company's materials and customers secretly for his personal gains and so the company suffered heavy losses. Vivien has since filed a police report against Freddie who runs a non-registered business with no showroom at curtaingroups.com and duped his customers into thinking it is an online platform being managed by Bestino Curtain Gallery and all profits goes into his own pocket and not to Bestino Curtain Gallery. I will also be alerting the media after liaising with Vivien early next week to reach out to more victims so that we can group together and create further awareness to more people. So far to my knowledge, in my Vacanza @ East condominium, there are 2 owners who have been duped by him. If you are looking for a curtain or blind contractor, do avoid Freddie or if you have engaged him already and also been duped into his so called 'curtaingroups' do share your sumarrisied experienced to increase awareness. If you are interested to know more about my case in detail, do send me a Private message because mind is quite complicated and lengthy that will bore many.

Hi guys i have a awesome flooring contractor from JB but they need HDB permit to work here.. How do i go abt doing this? I don't mind givin other works to the contractor who helps me out with this.. any advise?

Hi renotalkers, If anybody think leonjenna is scam then i can tell you its not....who the **** go thru so much trouble using all the big caps and icons and elaborating the details....I too engaged calvintan after seeing this tblog but ephron was the one coordinating everything and i am quite please with his attitude. So it just a clash of expectations somewhere i suppose. Hope yip can resolved the issues with poshhome soon. I have shifted in to my unit for 3 weeks alry and I still have some outstanding work not done yet, still waiting for ephron to settle them...just give and take cos sometimes it the contractor giving problem not the ID. Regards. B.

Totally agree with you Bianzi & Songz... I am very sorry to hear about bad renovation experiences especially when you think about the fact that renovation is definitely not a small expense.. I'm also at a loss because I really cannot comprehend why, given that I have such good rapport with both #CalvinTan and #Edgar!! CFO & I still maintain our relationship on a professional basis (with the exceptions of some ridiculous jokes between us hahaha) in case we have some major conflict that nessecitates this kind of approach.. I still firmly believe, (as I have posted about before too) that the chemistry between the home owner & ID is the most important factor before you engage him.. and this theory has been proved right on more than one occasion during my maiden renovation experience so far with both #CalvinTan, and the failed ID contract that CFO & I rescinded (and lost SGD1000 to the life-school-of-hard-knocks in the process).. There are times when some works is done, and you either have to trust your ID, or you don't. Making reference to another chapter in my personal tuition fee in the life-school-of-hard-knocks again; I take my own personal experience at engaging a SGD5,000 bridal videographer/photographer package that has all the gadgety stuff I LATER FOUND OUT I DON'T NEED. We later found out unfortunately, that for the basic services that CFO & I wanted (no gatecrash video editing for showing to guests etc etc), the market rate was only about SGD3,000.. It should be no surprise when I tell you that this was because we signed up with the very first bridal studio that we sat down with. To date, the carpentry is so close to completion & from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely have no problems with carpentry workmanship at all.. In fact, I have a couple of friends doing renovation right now also (same age ma..) and their respective ID/ contractor's carpentry skill is definitely worse. E.g. Think peeling laminates, deeply scratches drawers & carcass etc. Which brings me back to communication.. Or the lack of it.. As with all working relationships, communication is key. I have advised my sister & cousin recently, that it's important to have clear understanding right at the beginning on certain things.. Like what exactly will the ID do for you, and what will he not do for you.. That way you will not come to a stand-point later during your Reno journey when you are unhappy with your ID because you had the thinking "all-along" that that was his job and not yours.. Lastly, back to the earlier point made that there is no 'perfect ID' in the world, there WILL most certainly be misunderstandings.. For me what's important is the follow up of the ID, and the effort to settle the issue amicably.. Also note that when I say 'follow up of the ID', we are all assuming that it is always the failure on the ID's part... That being said, I really sincerely hope for Yip Gamtz & his wife that the renovation quickly gets fully completed soon without any further hitches... I hope my long post helps people to look at things in perspective, & to realise that my posts are really my own experiences with #CalvinTan, whom I can click with pretty well... We are all different people with different personalities, and the working dynamics from ID to ID (for us home owners) & client to client (for them) are vastly different. Thanks.. P.S. It might be my interpretation of the sentence posted by others, for which I am truly sorry about the words below... but it's not the first time & probably won't be the last time, that people have accused me & this blog of being a scam blog. It is not in my nature to intentionally offend others but I thought that it has to be said, seeing as I know who I am and what I'm doing, that it's quite clear that you do not have enough facts to be making such remarks.. I yearn to post more of my personal experiences to share and record more of my renovation/taobao-purchasing etc experiences (albeit a bit tardy.. Sorry.. ) here and to help fellow Renotalkers along the way instead of posting such depressing rantings... If I misinterpreted the sentences & this is a case of me being too sensitive, I'm really really sorry in advance..

Hi Hi Ashlee, I also saw it and liked it a lot. I asked my contractor to do the same. It is not as easy as it seems. Sharing some mistakes that we learnt along the way: 1) insist on having correctly sized tiles that will fit the width of your concrete structure to minimise tiler's effort in cutting tiles, we had tiles that were slanted and chipped as well as tiles that are unequal in size with jagged edges 2) ensure that contractor has steel bars to reinforce the cement slab, we are halfway through our reno and our cement structure cracked! not sure if steel bars were laid properly (or if they were even used!) to reinforce the cement slab and we are worried now. 3) ensure that the 'neck' of your tap is long enough to go through the cement support - we needed additional 'height' because we told contractor we wanted cement support with tiles and granite countertop, hence the tap's neck length became problematic. 4) ensure that contractor got the 'correct' countertop height - our contractor built the support about 2 cm lower than what we requested - we got him to rectify it and it became more problematic. So, get it right the first time- less headache later. 5) clarify with contractor if hollow brick tiles would be used as the supporting legs for the structure - ask him if that is sufficient to support the weight of your concrete structure, solid top, granite top etc. 6) ask him what he is doing to prevent cracks in the cement caused by expansion & contraction - is he laying a layer of fibre mesh to prevent cracks? You can read up more here: http://www.mosbybuildingarts.com/blog/answers/concrete-slab-fiber-mesh-wire-mesh-reinforcement/ We are still midway through renovations. Hope it can be all trashed out and everything will be ok. Good luck to you and hope this helps!

Can't wait to see the completed house! You made me LOL with most of your posts. Very entertaining

Hi leonjennawong, thanks! I like reading your thread as well, your blog is very entertaining and helpful! Mine is 550RMB. Here is the link. http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10137734177 So far I quite like the clock. Although there is a teeny scratch in the middle of the acrylic (from the picture you can see it's near the 25) and the flipping mechanism was a bit stuck when I first received it.

Hi Songz, thanks for your compliments. Yup, the MBR & living fancoil trunkings were U-boxed. Have left the exposed casing in bedroom 2&3 which will be partially covered with wardrobe when we've budget to do it

https://www.oops.sg/price.php 3.3 CBM is only $410.80 $5000 (goods' worth) * 7% is another $350 The remaining should be misc. Oh, btw, did you use their assisted purchase? Because that service comes with a service fee which will then incurred higher charges, it is not stated clearly how much they charged though for assisted purchase (through the web). It might be cheaper to go direct and then use Oops as a forwarder since you can liaise with the sellers at Taobao Do remember to check with Oops on the breakdown before paying, must clarify first!

Hi Do you mind sharing with me your ID contact please? I am a bit late in starting my research My email is xie.michelle@gmail.com. Thanks in advance!

Hihi Mind sharing your reno quote and breakdown? I am looking around currently. vivipugi@gmail.com Thanks!

here you go links to my tb tiles. http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=23387312724 http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=35535079277 http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=20074502326 http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=20179094953

I had engaged Denn Lim from this company in end of April for my 5 rooms flat renovation n now my house was nicely Reno. Base on my experience with him, he's a very responsible n responsive guy, through out the Reno he had been looking after the Reno closely n gave lots of patience when there's any changes or questions I had asked for. Though his price for this Reno was not the cheapest or the highest compared with some id I had met but it's in the mid range. The workmanship for carpentry works was done very well.. I'm very satisfied with the workmanship n designs he had done for my house and had lots of good compliments from all my relatives and friends on my house warming. Now, my parents also engaged him to do renovation n now the Reno was going on... I can said, this guy is good n great! Will recommend him!

Go for the simplest 45 degrees design, it is evergreen. But make sure your cornice covers your wardrobe as well.

Unlucky? What happens? U engaged him as well? Engaging him has its pros and cons. One has to take it with a pinch of salt. I learn that we cant have too much of an expectation of him in terms of quality and responsiveness of his client-management /project management service/skills. Patience is key, communication as well. If necessary, do remind him nicely and regularly, be specific of what needs to be done. He is a very busy guy handling projects so he cant always attend to our issues on the spot or promptly but he will get back to u. But do remind him again and I am sure he will follow up. He does get things fixed though not immediately due to his work circumstances. Actually he is running a one-man show and his time is stretched thinly. Bear in mind he is not a project manager or an ID who will update u on the reno process daily. If u have such thoughts, forget him and move on to a ID who acts as a site supervisor. Before I sign him up, i have the expectation of being updated regularly by my contractor. ****, no, i was so very wrong. This is the real world. We cant just sit in the office and be updated by him every half a day of the reno process. That is what u guys hv to realise before engaging a contractor. If anyone wanna use him, my advice is to have a very realistic expectation and be prepared to be very proactive in yr renovation. That means being able to know what you want and have them ready on paper, sketches and photos, and show him. Buy your things in tandem to his renovation stage so no one waits for anyone. Buy your lights and shelves and hoods and hobs. Draw a layout plan. Dont expect very detailed specs of yr cabinet or cupboard until u meet up with his carpenter at a later stage. Nothing is in blueprint, prepared for u. Anything that not done to yr specs, take a pic and send to him. He will get his man down. Dont expect him to meet you regularly on-site if you have minor problems. We all have anxiety. Learn to take it in strides, note down the issues, inform him and have him delivered, though not immediately unless it is very urgent. Dont expect immediate reply to yr SMS. Dont call unless super urgent. Give him time to digest. Check your quotations, sometimes his template will charge u the price of two items instead of one. Not deliberate but u know, he doesnt seem to enjoy tedious paperwork. Possibly a crossover from the last quote from another client. Go down to yr new place as regularly as you can, especially when the workers have started work. Wear the supervisor's hat...haha u know what I mean. Communicate yr needs to the workers. Alan's painter, electrician, tilers, carpenter, floor installer etc are quite pro and easy to talk to. They are patient, not rushed and quite prideful in their job. On site, u are able to monitor and have some control over how things u wanna them to be. I work with his electricians to carefully locate all the electrical and light points in my house, telling them how and where I want them to be and I want the lights to be switched on in sequence and in groups that make sense. They fulfill that. All in all, mine is a very hands-on approach, it tires me but hey, i am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck and good job to myself and his team.