hongwen37

Pre-Reno Photos (Master Bedroom) View from the Master Bedroom Storeroom (to be hacked) Current Study Room The Storeroom will be hacked to combine the current Master Bedroom and the Study Room, so the Master Bedroom will be 2 big rooms combined because we will be having a Walk-in Wardrobe in this big room. Inside this big room will be a WIW, a King size bed and our Study Area... All rooms will be overlayed with laminate flooring.

Pre-Reno Photos (Kitchen) Kitchen with a Little View Funny how the kitchen is a big contrast to the rest of the house because i think the previous owner renovated the kitchen alone. So, the tiles and cabinets all looked pretty modern... Even the rubbish chute looked very new and was not those old school, budging out kind. The wall was plastered!!! But, after much thought (as usual!), we decided to change the tiles for the kitchen because there were some stubborn stain on the tiles and more importantly, we did not really like the look and texture of the tiles. The cabinets will be replaced too. We prefer it to be not suspended. The right side of the wall at the Kitchen entrance will be hacked to make the entrance looks bigger, as well as make the kitchen into an "open concept" one. But, because we installed aircon in the living room, we will be doing up a glass panel and sliding glass door at the entrance to prevent the aircon from "escaping" the living room, and to retain the "open concept" feel of the kitchen... Yah.. and we did not intend to do any tiles for kitchen wall, and since the wall is already plastered, we can save a bit of plastering cost (i got quote for plastering and it can be quite expensive to plaster the whole kitchen) We will not be having any top cabinets and hood because we deduced we will not be cooking that much, so we decided to keep the kitchen as "open" as possible. Since there are no kitchen wall tiles, we will be installing a full height glass backing at the hob area for easy maintenance after we cook.

Living Room with a View Right View Central View Left View

We got the Samsung LCD TV (32" and 40") at around 1.8k... Quite reasonable i guess. Oh, so did you buy the LG TV? All those LED or borderless TVs look pretty great but too ex for us. Wait till a few years later when new technology emerge (3D TV maybe?), then maybe we can afford to change to LED borderless... haa.

Pre-Reno Photos (Living Room) Main Entrance The gate and main door is rather old school. We will be replacing them with wrought iron gate and veneer main door. Living Room All the windows in the house will be replaced with white casement windows. After much deliberation, we decided not to do any window grilles for our viewing pleasure of the surrounding. The aircon seen here is new, so it will remain. The floor tiles are those old ceramic tiles and will be replaced with homogeneous tiles. In fact, we quite like the living room because it is quite spacious and with so many panels of windows. I like my house to be filled with sunlight...

We havent bought any toilet or lighting accessories yet, ID should be bringing us to buy either this week or next... The only thing we bought were 2 LCD TVs from IT show yesterday.. haa..

Yo!! My tiling all done.. and my windows all changed to white Casement without grills.. I love it so much.. haa... Will post some photos soon...

This is my process of selecting the ID: 1) Read through the forum and shortlist the IDs (In this case, I shortlisted 7). 2) Met up with all 6 to go through the house floor plan (Space Planning), what we want to do, etc. 3) They will send the quotations based on what was discussed, usually within a week. 4) From Step 2), normally you will have an idea which are the ones whom you can click with and which ones are those you definitely wont want to work with them. For me, it was narrowed down to 2 IDs by this stage. 5) Out of these 2 IDs, further discussion + bargaining led us to confirm the One (Our selected ID is the only one who offered to view the flats first)... Points to note: 1) The higest and lowest quotes vary by around 5k. 2) Our selected ID quote is not the cheapest, but somewhere in the mid range of all the 8 ID's quote, because i believe experience, service and whether we can click with the ID are more important than the saving in cost. 3) I feel it is very important for the ID to see your house before confirming with them. Because alot of things in the quotation will change after they see your house. For eg, ID said my house ceiling height is too low to do whole false ceiling because of height regulation by HDB (so, even if i have money to spend, i cant do it). So, the only thing i can do is L Box which is cheaper in a sense. ID also went through with us the electrical stuff, the number of single switch required, double switch required, the lighting points , etc during the house visit. Electrical stuff is a source of hidden cost if it is not discussed properly beforehand. 4) Some IDs proposed very nice designs which we like alot... But of course, the price is very high too. For eg, doing platform to separate study and bedroom area, partitions etc. To work within our budget, we have to give up some of the nice design ideas or use alternatives...

ID Selection The whole ID selection process took us a month only because we did a lot of research here in this forum and shortlisted 8 IDs whom we met up with. We met up with the IDs within a span of 2 weeks, waited for all their quotations for a week plus and confirmed within a week. I know most friends here dislike meeting the IDs and having to repeat the requirements over and over again. For me, I like to meet up with IDs because I can learn alot of renovation stuff from them and also "steal" some of the ideas from them. But, as always, different IDs will tell you different things for eg, We wanted to change the toilet window to top hung windows. Some IDs said that it is ok to do it, some said HDB wont approve... Because our Master toilet is too small, some ID suggested shifting the vanity out, but some IDs said it is illegal to do so... Some ID said it is ok to drill holes through the beam but some said the beam cannot be touched at all... These were the IDs we met up with... (Please note that the reviews are of my own opinions and experiences, other forummer experiences might differ) Inner View (Wai Loong) Inner View was the first ID we met up.. In fact, we were just walking around IMM and decided to pop by one of the design companies... Just so happened that we liked their portfolio and Wai Loong happened to ask whether we needed help, that is why we sat down and talked to him. He was very patient and detailed. It took us an hour plus to go through what we wanted for our house. He was accomodating to our request too because he will try to include what we wanted or find alternative ways to include what we wanted. We felt comfortable talking to him. His quotation was reasonable and the space planning was good... Though he was not shortlisted from the forum, that chance encounter made us feel comfortable. In fact, he was 3rd on our list of 8 IDs. However, we felt that there were too little design inputs from him. More importantly, Plush Living and Ideal Design gave us a better feeling, that was why we did not engage him. Ideal Design (Shawn Goh) I read about Shawn and Kenneth from RenoTalk, so i went to their Company asking for these two IDs without making any appointment with them. Luckily, Shawn happened to be around and was free to entertain us. He has 8 years of experience in the trade. He was patient and detailed during our discussion, bringing out different materials, such as doors, laminates, etc, to show and explain to us. He had many ideas too, like having a day bed at the window area, constructing platform for the study area, etc. We felt comfortable talking to him and felt that he should be able to manage our renovation well. He was very proactive and took initiative to contact and followed up with us. However, he was a bit careless in his quotes with some items quoted without the price, and missing some items that we requested to be done. The quotation was also on the high side. Plush Living (Darren) Darren is a funny and friendly guy. He is very experienced in this field (around 20 years) but still look so passionate and energetic about his work. He is the boss of Plush Living. We liked his design from the portfolio he was working on. He spoke with an air of confidence and we felt that he will be able to manage the sub-contractors well (which i think is an important consideration when enagaging an ID). We found it easy to discuss things with him and he was accomodating to our request too. His 2D layout plan was very nice and the quotation was pretty reasonable. He was the only ID who offered to view our flat even before we signed with him. In this way, he could give a more accurate quote as well as to advise us on the renovation works. For example, after measuring the height of our ceiling, he said that we cannot do false ceiling because the height will be too low and HDB will not allow. The one major problem with Darren is that he seems to be very busy. Therefore, sometimes he will be late for appointments or even forgot about the appointment (if he never note down in his calendar).Though his quotation was not the cheapest (average pricing), we still decided to sign with him because we felt most at ease with him and his services rendered. U Home (Sam) U Home has a very nice showroom at Paya Lebar. Sam is the boss of U Home. He took time to walk us around the showroom and explained certain things to us. After that, he gave us a quotation on the spot according to what we wanted. I was surprised that he does not need to go back and calculate the length, height and area of the cabinets, windows, tiles etc before giving us the quotations. Moreover, the quotation was a bit slipshot with many items missing. His quote was also expensive. Because of all these, we did not have a good feeling about him. Baroque (Shawn Lee) We did not source for Shawn from the forum. Baroque was recommended in the forum so i went to their website to look see... Then i tried out their E-quote and that night, Shawn text me to fix an appointment. Shawn was patient and detailed and went through thoroughly our requirements for the house. He was also very hardworking and very fast in sending us the quotations and 2D layout. He was responsive and took initiatives to follow up with us. He was accomodating to our request and we felt ok talking to him. His quotation was very detailed and reasonable. Somehow, I felt that he and Wai Loong belong to the same category of people. Haa. Intra Design (Irene Sim) Intra Design has a nice showroom at Ubi. Irene was very friendly and we felt at ease talking to her. She provided some good design ideas such as using string curtain to act as partition, etc. I really like the designs from their portfolios. However, I believed many of you should know that they are one unique Company where they dont break down the cost of the quotations according to individual items, so it was very difficult to compare and calculate what to take out or not from the quotation. Also, their quotation was the highest among all of them. Summit Design (Ben) Ben is very experience in this line. He went through the materials and showed us examples of what we want, eg PD doors, dining mirror feature, etc. We found it comfortable to speak to him. He was also honest and would advise us against doing the things that are too expensive. His quote was the second lowest. However, he seemed to be pretty busy too and also, we only gotten his quote like 2 weeks after we met him. By then, we were already quite decided on Plush Living. Ideal House (Lynn) Instead of the usual Mr K from Ideal House, we decided to meet up with Lynn instead as we thought Mr K would be too busy. Lynn was also recommended by some in the forum. She was very accomodating to our request. Whenever we told her about some problems or concerns (such as the small toilets, etc), she said she will think of ways to work it out. The designs from the portfolio were pretty nice too. But she seemed to be pretty busy because she said her schedule was already quite packed till June, and also it was pretty hard to arrange an appointment with her. Also, the quotations given to us was not very detailed and according to what we wanted. Therefore, we did not engage her service though her quotation was the lowest. In term of pricing (from the cheapest to the most expensive), Ideal House > Summit Design > Inner View > Baroque D'zign > Plush Living > Ideal Design > U-Home > Intra Design In term of service, I would recommend Plush Living (Darren), Ideal Design (Shawn) and Inner View (Wai Loong). In fact, the rest of the IDs services are not too bad either (judging from the first appointment) so I would feel safe if they were doing our house too. But, I personally believe that we must select an ID whom we can click with or feel most comfortable with, therefore in my case, it would be Plush Living.

Thank Amrasenelya! I PMed you the info of my flat already... Will upload the pre-reno photos soon...

So relieved to hear positive reviews for Plush Living. I didnt get to read the horror stories because i think it was deleted? Where can i see photos of your nice house?

Yah.. We intend to hack away the kitchen entrance, the storeroom and also create an entrance from Bedroom 3 to the Common Toilet... But then, ID brought the HDB people to see and said that the entrance to the common toilet cannot be done because of a sewage ventilation pipe blocking the proposed entrance... sian.. No more semi-private bathroom for Bedroom 3.

Thank you, Samgalz & Supersimon! Yah! I think we got a good deal... and lucky i got a brother as an agent, seeing how he tried different tactics to close the deal at a lower price. I think other random agent might not even be bothered to help me negotiate... Samgalz, your first appointment is still a long way to go... really sianz (I know the feeling of waiting).. But then, you can slowly source around for IDs... We met up with only 8 IDs (as recommended by people in the forum) and settle for Plush Living after only 3 weeks of sourcing.. The forum really make our life easier, but then not everything can be believed though... Will post my experiences with the IDs next...

Hello, We are finally here! Renovation started without me even realising cos my ID was too onz... One week after i signed the contract, he already hacked all the tiles, kitchen cabinet, toilet fittings, etc... We have selected the tiles and currently waiting for the wet work to commence... The 3D design will come next week, hopefully... By the way, I have engaged Darren Lim of Plush Living to do up my house. I will post our experiences with the different IDs next time... Meanwhile, here's the floor plan of my house. Our house is a 20 years old HDB flat in Hougang. Valuation at 300k. Previous owner was asking for 10k COV but our agent (who happened to be my brother) managed to negotiate till zero. We went to view 12 houses in 2 weekends before deciding on this because it fulfilled all our criteria... We were looking for a big 4-room flat, non corridor unit, high floor and minimum cash. All the houses we went to view, were corridor units except this one, some were quite new but really small @ around 90sqm, some houses were very nice but either the valuation or the COV was too high... This house was a bit old (the tiles were still the old ceramic tiles and the doors were still those wooden doors with ventilation above), but it was big enough for us (104sqm). So, we thought with a major makeover, it should look pretty again...

Yes.. usually IDs will only provide the 3D perspective drawing after you sign up with them. But they do provide you with the layout plan (on your floor plan) even before you confirm with them. Since you are not doing much things, i feel it should be easier to coordinate different contractors yourself, unlike those who have to do the whole house which includes hacking, tiling, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc... But timing is an issue when coordinating different contractors to come install the different things at different time. All the best in your reno...