camoteq

those are the previous owners' kids masked them out with Photosh*p Colored Pencil filter

Karen wanted an open concept kitchen as well, but it wasn't really workable -- the kitchen area is really small! During the waiting period between the 1st and 2nd appointments, we went to look for an ID firm (and we also discovered Renotalk during this time). We went to a couple of big names, plus quite a number of recommended reno firms both in this forum and from friends. They weren't quite satisfactory, for one or more of the following reasons: 1. quote had a lot of missing items, which we were afraid will reappear as a hidden cost later; 2. quote had a 'package', which the ID wasn't willing to breakdown into a detailed list; 3. price suspiciously too low (again, the fear of hidden costs); 4. some designs, which were quite weird, like this idea for the living room -- an island: The green line is where you were supposed to walk to get to the bedrooms Once, while talking to a friend, he mentioned another friend (Sean) who recently had a housewarming (I wasn't invited ). He said that the house was done very nicely, so I took a peek at Sean's facebook -- luckily his housewarming pics were there. Convinced, I asked Sean for the ID's (Alex) number. I remember our first call very clearly. Alex's first line was: "There are two types of customers -- one, where you design and I just execute and coordinate the contractors for you; two - where you allow me to design, based on your general theme." Whoa, Matrix moment -- Blue or red pill? Having only a vague idea of design, of course we took the red pill second option. The quote (one week after meeting the ID) was very detailed, and after filtering out the 'Optional Items' which we could live without, we arrived at a semi-final list of work items + price. Next step: First-day briefing on the first day of reno. Some pics of the original house: Common Bath Masters' (w/ Karen) Living Room Small Kitchen More to come!

Hi Everyone, Our renovation is just about completed, the ID will hand over the house by this week My wife Karen originally wanted me to post the blog while the reno was being done, but initially I didn't have the time, and on the times I tried, I couldn't connect to the site Anyway, we started scouting for a house last June -- we were originally looking at Tampines / Pasir Ris because we have been living in the East ever since we came here to Singapore, plus the kids are studying in the East as well. After a lot of failed viewings, we sort of went outside the box and asked the agent to look for properties exclusively in Bedok Reservoir View (actually my brother was renting a place there and his place made a great impression on us, though we didn't consider it at first while we were searching). After several viewings and no positive results, we were losing hope. But then the agent called us and said one of the owners is asking us to reconsider. To make the long story short, we decided to grab his offer. We did the Option to Purchase on Karen's birthday HDB appointments came and went, and finally we were handed the keys to our new house on the 27th of November. The house layout: More to come!