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in 2013, i purchased a small 2 bedder condo apartment around 650 square feet, and it was ready to move in 2016. So began the shopping for decor materials, furniture and of course to short list ID to do a simple renovation. Condos usually have kitchens, aircon and electrical already installed and I didnt want to do major hacking. My plan was to do up carpentry and some additional electrical points. New condos are small, and i really needed a lot of storage for both our stuff, and also the kitchen needed additional storage as well. Shortlisting ID is a tiring process, let me tell you. First, i have to do online search on renotalk and facebook, to find nice design from ID and go meet them. Then the games begin! I met up with 5 ID, 1 from IMM, 2 "well known" featured on magazines, and 2 from those expo shows. The initial sketch they provided was never exciting, and we were really disappointed from the 2 "famous" ones. Maybe our budget of 20k was not interesting for them! They will always ask what your budget is, and eventually the quotation will land at that figure or more. They will give a generic design, then you have to describe what you like to them, or show them a picture and they will adapt. Or they will rehash all their previous design, old trick looks fresh to new customer haha. One ID even wanted to charge additional 2k for design fee. So we figured, whats the point of engaging an ID if I end up providing all the design input. Then I started looking for a contractor instead. I only met up with our contractor, after comparing 3 quotes. He had some mixed reviews on renotalk, but in the end i used him. To be frank, I really didnt know if it would work out fine or not, and even if I met 5 contractors, all would all be risky. But that guy seem ok and I decided to give a try. The best part is that using a contracted means significant savings compared to using an ID! The contractor's team were quite good I must say. The carpenter was very detailed and slow and meticulous...it was hilarious discussing the design with him. I specifically wanted a home theatre in our tiny apartment and this was achieved! The electrician was a "silent killer"...looked unfriendly but helpful and very accommodating. All in all, the entire experience was fuss free and we are pleasantly surprised. We are sharing our home photos and we also hope that your home reno experience will be as pleasant!

personally understand the agony of finding a good responsive & responsible renovation contractor. Since I have found a good one so I was thinking to share it here for anyone looking for a reliable contractor. They were very responsive & even took the extra effort to help me managed my aircon guy who was fixing up the new aircon when I got tied up at work. I recommended them to my brother & friend. Have a look at the photos below to see what final outcome. My Living Room My Walkway My Wardrobe cum Partition Master bedroom Toilet Bro's Master bedroom Master bedroom Toilet Common Toilet Bro's Living Room

Hello Everyone! Our renovations are coming to an end soon and I guess we are ready to share our experiences! I had been a silent reader of Renotalk T-blog for the longest time since we started balloting for BTO. We had been pretty unlucky that all the queue numbers we have are mostly out of the available units which means that by the time we can choose the units it's always left with low floors! Finally in year 2010, we got a queue number which is within the available units and finally get to choose a mid-floor unit! No fish prawn also good right? If we keep on balloting we will be donating endless $10 to HDB! I hope my humble blog can help someone during their renovation journey. Here's our floor plan to kick start my T-blog! Mood Board As the title of my blog suggests, I am looking at neutral colors for my crib so that I can add on colors on the decoration later on. These are the ideas I have in mind before the hunting of IDs/contractors

Cant wait

Please think of a proper and unrelated name before attempting to self promote. At least it will make it more convincing.

Hey pinnpinn! Good for you & hurray for Scandinavia theme!! And you are also like me initially-skeptical type of person.. Hehehe since you mention about the young designer guy who impressed you and your hubby, I wanna share with everyone that #CalvinTan ever mentioned to my good friend, Mr Muscle, during one of their talkcock whatsapp sessions that #PoshHome is quite a new company and they only hire senior interior designers with proven track records and good portfolio.. I think even the so-called younger guys are quite senior & experienced in this field.. For example #CalvinTan looks like a youngster himself, but he already has 14 years experience liao... And also remember that I ever mentioned about this other experienced designer, called #Robin (Not #Richard as previously mentioned haha I am bad with names.. Will edit earlier posts when I have time) who impressed me with his detailed workmanship execution when I went for the One Shenton Way site visit Nice friendly guy too who definitely knows his designs & space-saving concepts.. Dont think I mentioned before but I still remember when I first met this #Robin, I felt a bit threatened because he got this beady eyes, though no tattoo.. But he got this look and aura... HahahaHahaha..Sorry I am a bit of a scaredy cat. But generally as time went along and he patiently explained and showed us the works that #PoshHome did for the home owner, then I realized that he is quite approachable one. hahahaha note to self: dont anyhow judge people by their appearance ok. Hehehe... I managed to learn quite a few new things from #Robin as well.. on economic use of space & designing the house in such a way that EVEN when the owners are living in it, it still looks like a showroom. He shared with me that many designers out there will not take your ironing board, your ventilation (always expect you to turn on air-con the whole day like hotel meh?) etc. into consideration during the designing stage. As such many times when the house is unused in the beginning, it looks very pretty but give it a few weeks, clutter starts to take over Mainly because the principle designer didnt factor in the lifestyle & habits of the home owners from the start. Anyway this #Robin seems to be even more senior than #CalvinTan I heard that #Robin only takes on decent sized jobs & his work quality is steady.. Anyway, since Im on the topic of #PoshHome designers, just want to point out something that I have already mentioned to a couple of the more friendly people whom I have been continuing to converse on the private messaging function, I think #PoshHomes method of hiring only senior designers is actually good for all renovation seekers like us.. Because I think that this way you are assured of a good level of service regardless of which designer stands-in temporarily for your main designer. (Sorry for the long post but I feel I need to advise this to new reno-seekers & renotalkers, especially so ever since my bad experience with this other ID that I mentioned in one of my first few posts. Somemore I paid 1k deposit liao. Now want to get back also so difficult. Sian. Really regret to the max. I told CFO that we should just treat it as paying school fees for a life lesson.. ) Continued; And why I say its good for renovation seekers like us, is because I actually understand and expect that at some point, the main designer you engage will delegate certain tasks to other designers /contractors. But not to people who are too junior what right? Well what happened to my wife and I, was that a less experienced designer was allocated to us suddenly out of nowhere from the 2nd meet up onwards, and I definitely didnt feel that I got my worth out of the extra $$$ that I am paying for an interior design service. He was very very very quiet throughout the whole time & just taking in what my wife and I had to say. If thats the case, I might as well go for a main contractor right Oh well.. sigh. In the end, didnt go ahead with this particular ID company disappointingly. And paid school fees for a life lesson. So this is another level of quality assurance from #PoshHome that I really appreciate having. Thumbs up to them. Annndddddd aiyah okok in case I do get flamed by other renotalkers, I know that this is bad for newcomers who are looking to make a career/name for themselves in this industry. *shrug* That being said, I am sure there are young IDs out there who are good at their jobs. I just havent met them yet. =x *oops hehe* Wahahahahahaha