kiven78

welcome to Henner club dude,i see that the house well maintained at least for a move in condition,happy renovation! Btw just curious what animals they keep in the cage for living room?

hi Ossify, i can see why are you guys are doing up a cozy couple suite with minimum or no cooking therefore the shrink kitchen. I really take my hat off u even foresee ya future layout plan liaoz,btw did u do the space planning on ya own?

my personal opinions: hacking errors are tad common sights but are generally preventable and considered unacceptable by religiously strict individuals especially for my case,for your case they are the ones on losing end as they have to hack off the pre-determined area by hook or by crook, for my case its a no no scenario: like if one day touchwood due to unforeseen circumstances like severe termites infestation we have to ripped off top parquet to reveal the nightmare beneath (we could jolly well do a total hackoff for the entire floor area but after much deliberations etc termites infestation... we opt for overlay in the end.) Our space planning is pretty much like homo - cream for entire living room area and parquet overlay for all 3 bedroom area,kitchen n toilet tiles intact due to almost flawless condition.Hope you can roughly visualize our flooring plan.

lol yea i can see the 'Push factor for ya cute baby in my mind vividly,reminds me of my son kenneth 7 years back...fond memories,have since grown up to be our 'little terror' its good to exert certain pressure on contractors at precise moments,just like in fishing or kiting gota pull n release at correct intervals for success...

erm i love to oblige bro but as u can see that im currently suffering a new age symptom called 'time deficit illness',i need to upload all my pics from scratch in Flickr with 'time being the main factor.Tell u what i ll pass u my photobucket link for your kind perusal > http://s982.photobucket.com/albums/ae307/kiven78/ Hope it helps bro

well usually starting a T-blog can be a breeze for anyone under normal circumstances but i was in for a big time tight schedule period where we have to study all aspects of renovations eg color scheme,concept/theme,furnishings,and the list goes on..not forgetting im now on courses for my class 3 license and CES course

thanks for comment dude,though we may be quite pushy with Henry pertain to our completion schedule(which discerning owners wont?) but i will hand credits of 60% to Henry,35% to his workers and 5% to lady luck for godspeed.

thanks for support! btw devil i reckon u may be somehow related to 'angel' in one way or another yea?

yo bro hows things man,i was really glad n blessed to have boss aka master architect Henry to take over from former contractor kelvins with a nonchalant attitude especially our project is of high complexity and not any tom dick harry ID could handle without major cockups along the way according to henry himself.Thanks for your kind support!

hey ossi thanks for warm welcome (With all due respect to brother Henry,no offense here just plain sharing) well its just a small glitch whereby it might be partly due to erratic markings / over zealous attitude displayed by his underlings which is good.A good portion of our broken marble was accidentally hacked off (as seen below the cement exposed area),but since our actual plan is to do a overlay of parquet over the entire master bedroom + BR 3 (hacked through/combined) it aint gonna hurt us real bad though.We decided to overlook the matter as he has been extremely responsive and helpful all this while.

thanks for your kind blessings angel,i ll keep my fingers crossed for future recurrence though i really have to salute henry's professionalism thus far due to high complexity of our renovation for a 'contractor price' we paid for..

Day 1 <21 Dec 09>Reno phrase 1- Demolition work We were amazed by brother Henry's worker speed,just imagine they started off at around 11am for below demolition works delivered.Though fast but not without some hiccups,luckily mistake wasnt serious enough to cost henry his head . View from front door towards kitchen area which is now hack into open concept -minimal cook environment View of bedroom 2 door relocation hacking. View of hack through to rest room in Bedroom 2. We were amazed at their speed,though henry remarked earlier that demolition alone might take 2-3 days at least. MBR room primed for parquet overlay.

After much info mining from RenoTalk forum from kind RTers,we decided its high time we contribute our very own T-blog journey to share our ups n downs, with kind and helpful people here and also welcome any comments for improvements. We got our keys after 8 long weeks of waiting after 1st appointment on 16 December 2009. Tong kong started on 21 december 09 -11am as per fengshui master sunny's advice- no horses allowed so i was excused from the ceremony. Our original floorplan : Our new layout floorplan : Pics taken before renovation commence : Living Room - long and narrow,lucky we are not LR people =) Our kitchen - will be leaving intact due to well maintained pristine condition by previous owner. Store Room - will make way for a extended living room cum open concept kitchen.

we would like to engage Richards service,we trust that his service measure p to ya claims =)

Hommage & S and C 's furniture are of reasonable quality,for the reasonable price and top notch service,pure frankness,no bullshyt style service makes our day =)

hi NTS, below are just my own personal opinions: Question 1: I am looking for an interior designer to help me design my home but they are not willing to show me designs until I sign up. But if they don't show me their designs, how do I know they are the ones I am looking for? Pertain to your 'free design conceptual' worries i can understand,and indeed its like seeking a needle in midst of Atlantic ocean. We have been to countless ID firms during my scourge for the ultimate ID,though which most can easily draw some simple perspective drawings on the spot as we discuss on our expectations.But none other than Evan from Plush Design Pte Ltd can provide a couple of free full A3 size 3D drawings with no obligations,yes u heard it correctly FOC.We were impressed by his top notch service,advice,patient but we had to disappoint him due to $ factor,we admit its a total makeover which willturn our resale flat into a posh condo liked apartment but 50K plus is an amount we cant cough out.Special thanks also went out to Sunny to Barogue Desigz,we received fantastic service from him as well.In the end we commit ourselves to Henry of ID Note Pte Ltd as he could clearly and frankly understand and assure us of our makeover project,though $ factor they are lowest as well.Theres simply no perfect ID firm in this time and age as they too depends greatly on their sub-con - who are independent,therefore with these understandings in mind we just have to cut down chances of bad encounters by meeting up face to face with various IDs,checking online for their HDB licence,their reputation in RenoTalk and so on so forth... Question 2: Is what I have encountered so far the norm in the industry or am I plain unlucky? Not at all,during our scourge for the 'perfect' ID firm,we came across some IDs who are like 'Ai Mai Ai mai ' attitude,i mean u can feel their hack care attitude 5 mins into the discussion,they can promise the world but delivers 'shyt' not even a quotation..there are black sheeps everwhere in all industries,its up to u to identify and avoid ... Question 3: Any advice as to what I am doing wrong? Theres nothing wrong u do there as u mentioned u r green horn,there will always be 'first time' for everyone everything...what u need is a patient,understanding ID who can provide you with the most beneficial, unbias,truthful advice that will fulfill your expectation with the lowest possible costing. Question 4: I have been browsing through this forum and found some companies which seems to have garnered some good reviews. I have shortlisted some of them to visit. Can someone give me some contacts of good interior designers in these companies? Usually when you ask for such contacts,you have to be mentally prepared for certain mishaps due to their immerse popularity,things like delays,poor response and so on so forth just readup on those infamous ID threads like'Ah soon and u ll know what i mean...therefore proper communication and trustworthyness of ID is of utmost importance here,im sure u dont want any unnecessary delays on your reno..just read up more and do more homeworks,face to face interaction and leave the rest to god.

hi may,no offense but i think there might be a slight miscommunication here : from my personal opinion some personal opinions pertain to your bi-fold doors: 1> does the width of door fall under 33inch ( standrad dimension)? 2> Top hung door does cost more but im sure you have sorted it all out before actual installations,so why the big hoo har now. 3> At least they did rectify the glitches (which are common) in the end before hand over which is responsible of them. Anyway i feel happy for you since everything turns out well for u in the end =)

totally agreed,although you may keep in view of the designs then hop down to trustworthy neighborhood furniture shops e.g S&C in AMK ave 1,meng liang.. to hunt for them.For my case i save about $500 for the same piece of sofa i saw in furniture HQ.

Approved or not not an issue,didnt u read horrific true stories about his legacy? Haizz u better search for another contractor bro less its will the worst decision u made in your life to engage 'Ah Soon'....

he-ll yea this is our 2nd horrendous encounter other than blasted ACKERMAN & SMITH Pte Ltd major scam episode,really makes my blood boil whenever i see more innocent people getting cheated by these unethical/unscrupulous companies. Why not someone create a new thread titled : Blacklisted Companies - avoid them at all cost,engage at own risk? on major forums to put these cheaters on check? i mean we should prevent anymore victims from falling into their vicious trap...not that they could retrieve their $ back easy,just imagine the trouble n time (5 mths) we been through to get our deposit back from Ackerman & Smith P/L..

this aint enuff to appease my $500 deposit they scammed from us,comment loudly 'fccking cheaters' then spit on their mattress before heading off

same Shyt (INCH DESIGN PTE LTD) different name here,we were impressed by their 'tatami' styled bed during the home n decor show back in june i think,luckily my wife force deposit $500 instead of 50% brian insisted.Arrogant and extremely pushy sales tactics they employed,kinda turn us off initially,we should have known empty vessels make the most noise.To our dismay we found a much cheaper similar bed frame @ Hommage furniture which we took our time there comfortably scouring over their furniture catalogs,understanding,patient and good natured boss Eric makes our day.We ordered the platform bed from them needless to say,as brian promised us that deposit for bed frame can be change to other items in their showroom.Went down to their showroom,was served by a rather busy lady(A) definitely not the notorious janet who sport a corky hairstyle. Lady A asked us to look around on our own and call for her if in doubts,going back to work on her watever job.Their furnitures are surprisingly over-priced as compared to other furniture shops,their main reason for the price difference? 1> they are using high end material for all their furnitures - god knows if its true,no cert no nothing expect us to trust them,phui* 2> their furniture are from countries other than china - no proof as well,might as well dont mention 3> their furniture are twice as lasting compared to outside. 4> their furniture are custom made and exclusive. Insisted that we change to item/s with same value as the original piece,with their SKY HIGH PRICE in mind we will most probably forsake our deposit but not without much fanfare - Well fxxk it i will most prob play the fxxk outa them,these beaches seriously need to pay for their unethical/unscrupulous manners,will carry on till last part till the delivery reach my house ask them to fuk off,this will teach these fxxkers not to mess around with me

I think its really up to individual on whether to get your own rights as a mattress is something u gona spent 1/3 of our life on it,for us we expect nothing short of our basic requirements.Below is our true account with rogue salesman JIM Loh from ACKERMAN & SMITH PTE LTD : Beware of ACKERMAN & SMITH Pte Ltd ACKERMAN & SMITH *Below is a true personal horrific account of me and my wife we been through with ACKERMAN & SMITH at Home decor show in Expo,as such we strongly suggest that general purchases above considerably amount should do sufficient homework to avoid costly mistakes. Me and my wife went down to changi Expo not long ago in recent Home Decor show expecting to find a good deal or two for our upcoming new abode.We couldnt make up our mind even as we went through the various mattress brands.Just as we were about to leave the hall,we chanced upon a undeniably competent but otherwise the most persistent and unscrupulous con man named JIM LOH we ever encountered. He has the freaking nerve to quote us a famed Westin Stamford 'Heavenly bed' model for $2700 down from $5388,deals seem tada too attractive for anyone to turn down provided its an authentic deal.We were to foolhardy to be taken in by this nonchalent,unethical conman without doing a basic pior check with Simmons first.The actual model he sold us is Simmons 'Arlington Plush',an exclusive model to their company,we got our shock of our life when we did call the next day to do a verification with CSA- wee kiat from Simmons- that model is exclusive to Ackerman & Smith,no hotels are using that model not to mention Westins Heavenly bed. Called up Jim loh-Ackerman & Smith to clarify the matter,has the cheek to deny his initial statements like a pussy and said he only told us that its similar in certain specs during the show.Once again we call Simmons back for a further verfications,once again we were attended by wee kiat who did a check with his manager Preston Yu : Simmons Arlington Plush has no similar models with any hotels model,please double confirm fact with him again.With this information we confronted Jim loh,he argued that he got the facts right and even accused others of not having total understanding of Simmons specs - hello we got our information form a Simmons manager wos been with the company for a good 11 years.He then offered us to go down to his branch and pick another model which we did so without finding a suitable mattresses that match our requirements. Called Jim to check if we could swap our mattress to items amounting to our $400 deposit made,turned down our suggestion rudely and kup our phone.Thats the last we heard from the irresponsible conman,we decided to forward our case to small claims court tribunal instead of CASE after much considerations.I mean its not a matter of $ lost but a serious breach of customer's trust,misrepresentation/misleading case we are talking about now,we just want to prevent further similar cases from recurring again. For those who wish to learn about Ackerman & Smith legacy,feel free to search Ackerman & Smith in various forum like Renotalk and you be surprised to learn how notorious they are!

hi angel i see that you have good taste,how much and where did u get ya Getha natural latex mattress from? We tried numerous mattresses all over SG ,Getha's impressive comfort level seconds only to Sealy's Unicase series which could easily cost x 2.5 times or more for premium series. Nearly took their 100% natural latex (malaysia) w/o spring @ $2k after discount but chose Sealy Unicase Lassle series @ $3.9k after countless dilemma hours. May consider getting a Getha super single mattress - 1k for our son... Nice platform bed frame u got there =) wats ya damage if u dont mind?We committed a similar design platform bed from Hommage which happens to be S & C lady boss's brother Eric - a extremely patient,trustworthy,non pushy guy.

i really feel for those victims whos under uncle soon's mercy,any delays will cost great inconveniences especially those who are scheduled to hand over their flat by stipulated time frame causing not only monetary losses but major headaches on existing furniture relocation. Therefore as a responsible contractor/ID firm i think its only fair to either reject projects that they cant handle/complete within client's timeline or at least work out a mutual agreement on the estimated handover date which is acceptable by client's requirements. For us,we actually nearly had our contractor state in black n white on estimated date of completion-(1 month) until their boss step in to explain that they dont state date of completion to cover their S in case of freak incidents like workers sick,natural disaster(its nt even 2012 )...we did engage their service as we knew we can count on them,having warned them before hand of dire consequences(compensate our rental/delivery+whatever expenses incurred due to their incompetent) if they cant meet our dateline.