Mickey M

Will try to upload some renovation pics soon. Schedule abit delay because unable to install air con this week. Gain City is only able to provide a slot on the 11 Nov. Anyway, I am in no rush. But if the house can be ready by Christmas, wifey and I will be very happy. Had a gd talk and discussion with ID last weekend. Was a very fruitful one. Everyone is happy. Last Sun we had to make many decisions on site also. Also saw a rough drawing for the kitchen are and dining table. And wifey is pretty happy cos the new dining table is what she prefer compare to the initial one. Sharp edge treatment applied to table! Design pretty much like those european kitchen designs. And the design finishes with ID's trademark, a rounded edge follow by a slant to the ground - err, my description not very clear maybe, ha. Maybe the pics will help. I also love the table... because it looks like a casino table to me! Haha. View 1 View 2 The amendments to the designs are indeed better. Only bad point is we have to change the tiles in the round living room. And might not really be a bad thing cos wifey initially wanted to change but limited budget. Manage to cut some cost to change the floor tiles now. ID suggest quartz ($40+ for the cheaper ones, $80+ for the gd ones!). Wifey happy but pocket not happy. Haven't decide, will see how. But high chance not using. Sun also went Soon Bee Huat to select a new tile for our 'outdoor garden'. Initial selected one out of stock at Hafary. Want to mention something also. The tiles for this area... ID gave it to us FREE! And we also saw a tile (very shimmering) which is quite nice if we are not using quartz. That's all for now!

Congrats!

We can chip in and help with the cleaning. I think if we have 10 or 20 ppl, I think can finish cleaning up swiftly.

don't fight! lol.

Okay! Hahahaha. Let me make another guess. Gas leaking????? Hee.

For the past 2 years I don't have tv at my flat butthey still send me the bills. I didn't pay up and they keep on calling and reminding. I tell them my place don't have electricity so how to watch tv. Most give up but there was one guy who say maybe I use portable tv! Then I asked portable tv must pay tv license fee la. Then he hang up. =.= If I am not bz, I sure complain.

Hey hey Rainbowgal! Congrats on finalising your chosen tiles. Like to share some info on space concepts with you. Hope you don't mind. I looked at your selections and see that you mention you will also be using white floor tiles for your toilets. Cos I see part of your wall tiles will be white too and I don't know how white your floor tiles will be, do bear in mind when the wall tiles and the floor tiles are almost the same colour, the ceiling (should be white also) will look lower cos of the lack of contrast between space and height (in this case, between the floor, wall, ceiling). But you also have black tiles and mosaics! So if the laying is done rite, it should eliminate this issue. So maybe what you can do is after the hardworking workers finished laying of the wall tiles, try to put the white floor tiles and see whether you feel okie with it.

I hope... not leaking...

Carrier. Met up with ID today. Long day...

Yup yup.

Hey bro. Cos my room furthest away from the MBR, I installed a casement aircon in my room at my parents' place. It is pretty noisy now - maybe air con 'old' liao, 6-7 yrs old. Servicing doesn't help. But it still cools the room pretty well. The other rooms use split units. They are still as 'silent' as before. So my personal experience is for long run, compressor air con is still better.

hmm. just curious, did u all ever ask Jason why he do not like Hafary?

I choose 2! Look like snow flakes, I like!

Hi All, Need some advice here. After reading up, still not very sure. 1. How do u define good tiling work? 2. May I know for the grout lines between tiles, is it suppose to be fill up with sealant or white cement or? 3. So eventually, between tiles and grout lines, how should it be like? Best if can provide pic! Thanks thanks. Appreciate it.

Ha. No la, I just typed what my brain was thinking at that moment. Haha. We see what his reason is first before deciding. Off work! Finally.

Generally, everyone can be creative. But to be creative and yet be able to bring this "creativity" to life, not many can achieve this. For this, I have to credit Loyd. Cos we really been to many ID firms and to them, curves, circular and round shaped are designs which they avoid, reason is always hard to do and space planning is tougher as there will space wastage. The worst part is we tell them what we want, but they still give us the typical designs. The part which we don't like the most is these IDs don't listen to what we want. I don't know, probably most IDs graduated from the same institution, meaning they probably learnt the same kind of design concepts. If we want something different, they can't show it to us. Looking at Loyd's portfolio, we knew he could come up something we will like because his strengths lie in his 'treatment' of sharp edges. We saw what we like at his design house. So, we waited 3 wks for his design and 3 wks for the quotation. I think for many, they would not have waited for that long.. I want to avoid having sharp edges as much as I can. Cos my wifey tends to 'knock here knock there'. To knock against sharp edge is definitely more painful. When u have young children at hm, round edges are also safer for them. And both of us love round shaped and curvy stuffs! Just like men are attracted to curvy women and curvy cars. And that includes me. Ha. Shouldn't the hm be more curvy too? The man will have one more curvy item to his curvy list - woman, car, hp, tv etc.... and hm! Hee. We are also 'kids'. Kids like round stuffs, especially cushy and rounded soft toys, so gd to hug! Ha. Anyway, there is a price to "creativity" and I believe "creativity" should be rewarded. If not, "creativity" will die off. They will die of hunger.

haha. i know what u mean la. typing more words make me feel better. must focus on work now if not really don't know what time i can go back.

Usually for interior design firms, they always quote the ID fee as FOC, included in the cost. My one really have to pay. I am not saying he is no gd, he is nice and so forth, probably becos same age as me, easier to talk. He probably have some tricks up in his sleeves but he never share with us yet due to his busy schedule. But he really should tell us in advance. Price wise, he actually gave us a discount so that it is closer to the budget which we gave him. i asked around and ppl say he is exp. but as u said, we pay a higher price, we should get better treatment. talking abt price again, ***** is more exp than him but Arlene (working for *****) is a nice lady too - getting out of topic. Haha.

are IDs and contractors all like that? we must unite and regulate things - sound like i want to form a reno statutory board. lol.

Thanks Rasp. I am quite easy-going but my wife will really be pissed off. If she is pissed off, then finance will be locked and I can't pay him. I told him before that my wife's approval is more impt than mine. He better please her more than me. Haha.

how are u today, coffee bro? i really typed alot of words in a matter of mins. lol. actually what he did might be really for the better of it - like Incident 3. But what if we don't like. In designs, more than often, it is a matter of preference. U just can't do what u like and without our approvals. we have told him previously that we are not rushing for it to be done. We waited for the economy to recover, obviously we can wait abit longer for it to be done. And he cannot don't ask because we are slow in decision making. the matter of fact is, if u don't ask, we will be pissed. The living room is still round for sure but it is suppose to have 2 entrances/exits if u see the floorplan. But I see one entrance/exit in the physical state. He haven't give me a gd reason yet. Tonight I am going again, will take some new pics and upload.

After almost 2 weeks of renovation, I finally understand why it is important to keep a close tab on the progress of the renovation. Despite reading so many t-Blogs, I brush off the idea of going to the house daily to keep track of the renovation progress although my wife would love to. Frankly, my working hrs do not allow me to do so but I have to change my mindset now. Actually, things are progressing fine. But I am not very happy with my ID. In general, he made some changes without consulting us and that is a super no no. He might have his reasons but final decisions should be made by us and not him. Some examples: 1st incident: New kitchen tiles were overlay. Previously, it was decided that old tiles to be hacked follow by laying of new tiles. After looking at the flat, he feel that we can save some cost by overlaying becos the current kitchen area is not very huge. - My thought - We am fine with it. But shouldn't we be informed beforehand? We should have set things straight from here but we didn't because we like to believe that he is making decision in our point of view. 2nd incident: The kitchen tiles are not the same. If you see my tile selections, we chose the tile with many deep texture lines as the kitchen tiles. Some tile lines run diagonally. When I went to check on Wed, the kitchen floor was already done. The 'best' part is the lines are all running in different direction. For this, I admit we have to bear some responsibility here. We did not inspect the tiles when it was delivered. I know many inspect themselves but we put my trust on the ID to do that. Moreover, he used this particular tile design for his new design house. So he should know whether they are any issue with the tiles in the first place. We were also not there when the tiles were lay. As an ID, I believe this is part of his responsibility.duty to help us to check on all this. But we have to bear some responsility I guess. - I am easy-going but obviously my wifey is not happy abt it. Looking at it again, I am not so sure I can accept. Solution - Sunday when we meet him. 3rd incident: ID 'did' something to differentiate between the kitchen and living area. Again, this is more abt not telling us in advance and whether we like the idea or not. If I had said in the beginning that u can go ahead and do whatever u want, then if something end up not to ur likings, it is our fault. 4th incident: This concerns the round living room and again, not informing us the changes and whether we like it or not. Pardon me but I seriously don't think the practice is to build something and when the owners inspect on site and found something they don't like and not in the initial design, dismantle and redo it. Sunday will be meeting ID. I guess I have to highlight to him clearly that we don't like his 'auto-pilot' style. In any case, regardless it is for the better of things, we need to be kept inform of such amendments/issues. Pardon my English. Cos I am typing this in the midst of an meeting to kill time. To end, for all reno mates who haven't start their reno, please check on their reno progress everyday. U really can't trust anyone better than urself and ur love ones.

Hi Vader. usually ppl will choose the 150x600, look more like plank or wooden strip. The one at Hafary for example cost more than $7 psf. If u see my previous post here, then u will know how much I paid for mine at Soon Bee Huat.

We also prefer the cream matt one. That is the very first tile ID showed us at Hafary which he feels can fix into our theme better. Actually we like it the moment we saw it cos it is cream color! Ha. We chose the white shiny tile for common toilet and kitchen not because we super love it but feels white tiles can make the kitchen appears brighter. Initially ID also show us a tile which is nice (matt surface cum shiny round metal dots on the tile) but didn't pick becos I think the tiles will make the kitchen looks darker. Moreover, I have a blue hob. I am not very confident the colour will match. That tile design is full of character, suitable for those who prefer a dark-theme kitchen. I think the cost is more or less the same base on the few quotations I have from different IDs. I don't know how the whole house will end up, really keeping fingers cross. So far feel that ID abit too auto pilot, never inform us of any (slight) changes to the design. Really have to highlight to him on this.

See my blog. I chose one such tile for my home. It is creamic tile if I am not wrong. I was 'in time' to order mine from Soon Bee Huat. But stock was running low then. It is the cheapest among the tiling shops I been. The price really varies. For example, U will be shock that the price at Hafary is 1 time more exp than at Soon Bee Huat. But I don't know what the different though. They look and feel exactly the same to me. My ID said both are made of ceramic also. Try going to both shops and see for yourself.