SGK

Can you PM me the contact of the ID and his company? Thank you very much in advance.

Sorry to hear about your ordeals. Your contractor is sounding very much like the 'Ah Soon' who turned from a popular contractor into a con-man. In the case of Ah Soon, he also kept asking his clients to pay him more so that the works could move on. In the end, he ran away with all the money and many people suffered. So I will advise that you don't pay him anymore until he has delivered his work. Who knows, your contractor might have squandered all your earlier payments in casinos. Not sure how much you have lost, but with your high qualifications you will be able to recoup the losses over a short period of time. So don't be too upset about it.

bepgof, it is quite mean of you to deride nat0206 instead of saying something more constructive. Don't over-estimate your own wisdom. Looking at your accounts of your experience with SPF, I can tell that you are not that smart yourself.

If i am not wrong, you can still apply for a second air con system from HDB. They will approve as long as not too many other units of your block have a second system and the overall electrical load does not exceed what the main cables can take. For my case, I would really like to have more air cons, but I only found out from my ID that I could have applied to HDB for permission after the renovation process was completed.

Mine is at Tampines. You can click access my t-blog thru my signature at the end of my post.

Hi hock, chanced upon your blog. Your floorplan is quite similar to mine. Congrats on getting your new flat, and happy reno.

I like your WIW. Is the chest of drawers necessary? It seems to take up a lot of space. Maybe you can construct a smaller one at the MBR wall between the bedside table and the door to the WIW. This will make the WIW very comfortable. Contrary to other bloggers, I would like to have a larger study. My wife and I spent a lot of time in the study. So two seats is necessary. Anyway, happy reno.

no problem with the workmanship. Everything is still in good condition.

Nice 3-D drawings! But I am not sure why you want to add an extra wall just outside your store room, or are you extending the store room? Also the shoes cabinet may be a little small in my opinion. Maybe you can consider changing the 'vertical' wooden beams nearer to the wall to storage space as well? I am one who always worry about insufficient storgae space .

Can't remember the exact name of my paint. All I can remember is some kind of white. White makes the whole place looks clean, at least for now. But it won't be suitable if you have small kids at home. For the clock, I get from hourstyle.com. Tell them in your email that you are from renotalk and they will give 10% discount. The clocks come in 3 sizes and mine is medium size (36.5cm by 36.5cm) and costs $75 before discount. The clock has been working very well since it is put up.

I got it from best denki I think. The brand is TDK, size 12 inch (very rare, most wall mounted fans are 16 inch), and cost is $107. We saw some much cheaper ones earlier and we thought there was no urgency to buy. But when we needed to buy it for the workers to install, all the cheap ones were sold out and we had no choice but to go for this rather expensive model.

Hi Webbit, are you referring to Zen Tradition Living Pte. Ltd? I found from the internet that they have a branch at IMM. Will go there to take a look one of these days. The low Japanese table was meant for my balcony because I thought it will be a good, cosy spot for board games. But I am not sure where to put my existing balcony tables and chairs after that. They are still very new.... Never thought I would get a reply after the long silence. Thanks to everyone who responded. April_luv, I think the website is not working anymore. Eurypylus, I am clumsy with my hands, so your suggestion is quite beyond me .

Hi, my original floorplan is 90% similar to yours, except that I am luckier and do not have any slanted walls. I reconfigured my house quite a bit during the reno so now the house looks quite different. If you haven't firmed up what to do with your house, you can take a look at mine for reference. All the best for your reno .

Hi Kennedy, It is good that you have come forward to give everyone a full picture of what has happened. As we appreciate Peter’s and your dedicated service in renovating our house, my wife and I thought that we should put up this post to vouch for your professionalism and good service. I have probably told you through an email that the delivery men from McDonald, Hoi Kee flower shop (where we bought our artificial tree), and Fossil Collections (where we bought our water feature) were all very impressed by the design of the house. The list has since extended to include all our family members, friends and colleagues who visited our house and some of them have even asked for your contact number because they are planning to move house next year. (And the ex-owners of the house too, who were completely amazed by the transformation you have given to the house when they came back to collect their letters). When we look back at our renovation experience, we are really thankful for your sincerity and your effort in ensuring that everything turns out well. We are particularly impressed by Peter’s and your resourcefulness in coming up with solutions when we encountered unforeseen problems. The raised floor of the dry kitchen and the display cabinet outside the common bathrooms have more than served their function of concealing ugly pipes – they have greatly enhanced the design of the house. We also want to thank you and your workers for the good ‘after sale’ service. Michael and his colleague came twice to help us pull the TV cables through the feature wall, spending more than two hours in the second trip. We feel quite bad about it because the second trip would not have been necessary had we gotten the correct cables at the start. When we read about the complaints posted by your customer, we found it difficult to believe and my wife urged me to put up a post to share about our pleasant experience. We thought that the complaints on the pricing would appear seriously flawed even to someone who does not know either party because anyone renovating a house will only sign a contract when he/she has compared prices between different companies and is happy with the selected one. We felt sorry for Peter and you to have such a bad experience. But we want you to know that there are customers like us who really appreciate you and respect your professionalism. Hope you have gotten over the whole saga and moved forward. $13000 is really a huge, huge, huge discount! If we engage you to renovate our house again next time, will you give us a $5000 discount? (Just joking ).

From my experience with them, you must hold back as much payment as possible. They are likely to use tactics like " we have placed at deposit to order your furniture, hence we need you to make your payment first.' Once you have made most of your payment, their attitude will become worse. So pay only when you have received all the items and you are happy with the quality. Hope you get all your furniture eventually and no more hiccups.

They actually threatened to take legal actions??? We are all writing about our true experience! I am surprised that the moderators or the administators succumb to their pressure so easily. This forum will lose its credibility if we cannot report on the poor service of those shops that pressurises the administrators.

Hi Jon, actually I think I am the one who started the thread for Living Vision after my very unpleasant with them, especially the salesperson Johnny . I was quite surprised that the thread was deleted a few weeks later while other threads that report on the poor service of other shops were left untouched. I am curious over why it was deleted because we are just sharing our true experience with the shop and not badmouthing them. I am really sad to see that there are more victims now and like what you say, the thread could have served as a warning to those who intended to buy their furnitures from the shop had it not been deleted. To those of you who have not read about my experience with them earlier, here it is: I would like to report on my very unpleasant experience with this furniture shop Living Vision located at Balestier Point. I bought most of my furniture from the shop last year even though I am only moving to my new house in mid April this year. As we bought many items (bed, bed side tables, sofa, coffee table, dining set, bar stools) from them, the final price came in the form of an overall figure ($6888). At that point they claimed that their products are superior to established shops such as Cellini and their pricing is very competitive because they are wholesaler. We believed them (what a mistake) and signed on the dotted line. Three weeks before shifting house in April, the salesperson Johnny Chua called and told me that the bar stools I have paid for is no longer in production and wanted me to choose another design from a list of photos that he emailed me. My wife and I were accommodating enough to take his offer w/o questioning if the prices are comparable. But just one day before our move, he called again and advised us to re-choose the bar stools because he felt that what we have chosen don’t match the design of our house. It was only when we insisted that we are ok with the design and would rather get the bar stools early rather than re-choosing again that he admitted that the second design that we have picked earlier was also unavailable. This shows how poor their service is: They should have checked that the list of stools he emailed me are all available before sending them to me. What is most annoying is that he said I have to wait for another 2 to 3 weeks to get my stools. So I have to shift in to my new house without the bar stools. And that's just the beginning of the nightmare!! On the day of our moving house, I received a call from a lady who is a worker of the factory that manufactures the bed I ordered from Living Vision, telling me that my bed cannot be delivered on that day because the irresponsible Johnny Chua did not inform her of the date of delivery beforehand . So the bed frame was not available. I called up the boss Steven immediately to clarify and then I was told (to my horror) that other furnitures - Dining Table and chairs, coffee table, bed side tables etc will also not be delivered because Johnny Chua did not inform all the factories that we need the furnitures on 17 April (even though we have told him over phone a few times that we wanted the furniture to be delivered on that day). It was only after much heated conversation over the phone that Steven agreed to try his best to get at least some of the furniture delivered and loaned us a temporary bed frame to use for a week first. In the end, we are still short of the dining table and the bed frame, and of course the bar stools. After the items arrive one at a time, we found that the workmanship of the coffee table was very poor and in wrong colour. The table has eight small drawers and they all look slanted when closed. However, we were already so tired of calling them that we decided to just accept it. And every time I called up to ask when the bar stools will be delivered to us, the answer is always 3 weeks from now. We were then holding back only $200 for the final payment and cunning as they are, they said the bar stools cost only $150 each rather than the initial $200+ each before we bought them. Hence, even if we were to cancel the order for the bar stools then, they will only refund (I bet they won't agree to refund anyway) $300. So we were left stranded. We have to wait indefinitely for the bar stools to arrive, and we do not know what kind of cheap design we are going to get eventually. The bar stools finally arrived on 16 May, one month later than what they have promised. Another annoying experience is when I voiced my unhappiness and disappointment with their service, Johnny Chua made no attempt to apologise! He just said 'ok'. Basically he thinks that since we have almost made full payment, there is nothing we can do but to endure all their nonsense.

I think many ID firms offer those standard packages for overhaul of kitchen and toilets and do not give a detailed breakdown. But for 'non-standard' items such as carpentries, false ceilings and erecting new walls, the quotation will be itemised. I think as long as you compare the prices across a few IDs then you are not likely to be paying excessively. You will certainly save a lot if you get all the contractors for different jobs and do the coordination yourself. But you will need to invest a lot of time and if there are any damages to your house, every contractor will push the blame to others.

Really sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience because my reno experience with them was very much the opposite. Maybe you should have clarified the price for those items that you think are too expensive before you signed the contract. That's what most people will do. I suppose you have gotten quotations from other ID firms as well? If so, making a comparison on the pricing for the same item between different IDs will be a good and simple strategy to ensure you are not overcharged. Since you have collected all the evidences of their poor service, why not post them here so that there won't be further victims? Regarding the 2 different pricings for identical items, please show us the scanned copy of your quotation. I agree with you that in my renovation 'All measurements on quotations were ROUNDED UP', but that was because the quotation was given based on the floorplan which tends to be larger than the actual size of the house. Anyway I was ok with it because Kennedy gave me my study room T-shaped table for free, and the cost of it is certainly higher than the additional cost of my other carpentries due to the rounded up measurements.

Among the 4 I will choose 'all white'. You may want to take a look at supersimon's kitchen pics in his t-blog (think it's in the 3rd page)- glossy white with some red, very nice. I followed his colour scheme.

I have looking around the furniture shops for a low Japanese table to be placed at my balcony but can't seem to find any. Does anyone know where I can find them in Singapore?

I thought this shop is notorious for poor service and high price? See this link. Furthermore, if you take a look at this one you will find that 'beijiguang' and 'huang' have switched roles among themselves: advice seeker beocmes advice giver and vice versa. It seems that they are phantom members advertising their own shop. This is rather dishonest in my opinion.

Hi Robin, after taking a closer look at the amount of carpentry work you are doing, I actually think that the quote is quite low, especially your ID will also be supplying air-con, lights, sanitary wares etc which will cost more than $7k. My reno cost + the above 3 items also add up to about $76k. But of course the comparison is only reliable if I know the dimensions of your carpentry works.

It is hard to say if the quote is reasonable. Are you able to tell us the size of the carpentry work? It is easier to tell whether the quote is high or low by looking at the cost for every foot of cabinet constructed (per foot run). Yes, I notice that the quote includes supplying the lights, sanitary wares and electrical applicances. I think it might be cheaper to get these items yourself. Maybe you can ask your ID to give a breakdown of the cost of these items and go the respective shops to make a comparison.

I think it is quite ok. My ID quoted > $5000 for installing grilles to all the windows and changing the windows of the kitchen, balcony, dining room and 2 toilets (i.e. not changing the windows of the the 3 bedrooms). Maybe get a few more quotes to compare.