matchalatte

hi! is your place mcpherson residency? i'm still waiting for mine (skyline II @ bukit batok). its been such a long wait indeed!!

oh man i cannot afford to allow "luck" to dictate the outcome of my renovation, i absolutely will not allow that to happen! lemme see, first of all, it was my kitchen counter height. since my relatives and family all had a height of around 80+cm for their kitchen counter, i thought that was the norm until it was my turn. mine was 70+cm and it came up to somewhere around my hips when it should have been around my waistline. even though that was back in year 2000, i still vividly remember telling the guys who installed my kitchen that it was too low and they had the cheek to say things like "if it were too high your hands would be in an awkward angle when you cook". i then told the ID, who was my aunt's church friend and she said "but this is the industrial standard". so right now, i get backache whenever i do the dishes. while it wasn't wrong of them to say that my hands would be at an awkward angle when cooking, its so much worse when doing the dishes since the sink is, well, sunken in. and the times when you have to wash the dishes is way more frequent than cooking. second thing was my window grilles. i wanted those horizontal type grilles like the lines of a foolscap paper. i did not specify the width of each grille but i only said i didn't want them too close to each other. ended up what i got was like the gap was super huge i can actually put my head through. i was too young and inexperienced then (and probably afraid of offending the ID) so i kept quiet and didn't ask if it was possible to rectify. so now i vow to never let this thing happen to me again. did you show them pictures of what you wanted or it was just like a verbal description? i think in order not to have disputes, i'll just show them pictures of what i want. better start collecting pics now lol. btw back to yr seat, i do not think its just the rounded corners that makes it so ugly. its also the joint area between the top and sides where they added a strip of that white thingy. its so dated but also expected since they're contractors so they probably haven't had much experience of those modern/sleek/european stuff. so even if u were to tell them you want a rectangular seat, they'll just put that strip of thing as if it was the natural thing to do. if it were me, i'll just tell them i want a concrete slab but most importantly, show them a d4mn pic!! lol

i had a shock when i saw the seat! it looks horrible (sorry i'm not good with words), it reminds me of those 1980s kind of "cheena" HDB flat with rounded kitchen entrance way type of frame, that or a coffee shop toilet. thats what i meant when i pm-ed u, that whether contractors will take their own initiative and make their own decisions or not! this is what i'm VERY afraid, because i've been living with people's mistakes, and i've had to live with people's mistakes for 17 years (and counting) until i collect the keys to my new flat. there's no way i'm going to live with this, i will get them to remove it! p/s : i saw yr pm, thanks so much for the long and detailed reply, i haven't had time to come on renotalk, will reply you soon!

i love your dining chairs! and the toilet feature wall is sooo nice. is it possible to share yr floorplan? yours is 4 room? or 3?

please please blog about your taobao purchases! would love to know which forwarder you chose. i've been buying from taobao for years but never on big purchases like furniture so would be great to know the procedures etc. thanks in advance!

i love your wardrobe! at a glance i didn't realize it was a roll of laminate you had there. i thought it was some futuristic tear drop design you had on your wardrobe lol. could i have mr. foo's contact pls? thanks in advance!

super love your home! could you please pm me your contractor's contacts? also, there are actually IDs who'd offer 3D drawings only? he/she did a great job!

hi! would you mind sharing more about your experience without any agent (here or PM are both fine). i'm very reluctant to engage one as well since mine's an executive flat and i'll be paying 2% which is equivalent to about 10K as a seller. on second thought, apart from them doing paper work, their job is actually to help persuade buyers to take up my flat (which is at a not very attractive location), and also to arrange for viewings etc. do you think those things are not impt and we can actually do it ourselves? i think as a seller, finding an agent is more impt than a buyer. appreciate your advice. am selling my flat next year, already applied for a BTO. thanks!

65dg charges volumetric weight, on top of that there will be a chargeable weight at the end. can add up to alot, i agree. but sometimes you have no choice, the official forwarders have got limit, 30kg, and lots of things like electronics or sensitive items cannot be shipped. so i guess most people will use 65dg as a second alternative. next time, ask the seller to pack your item in a box as small as possible. no idea if you're using their buy for me or ship for me service but if its the latter, they won't help you repack.

OMG THE VIEW! didn't know u can get such nice view in the west. my aunt stayed in teban gdns for 20 years and i used to live with her, never knew it looked like this. looking forward to your reno journey! houses done by contractors and without IDs are usually the best looking ones in my opinion!

you forgot to mention the white blinds and those black framed doors/windows for the study room lol. 9/10 people who have the typical scandi/industrial theme would use that as well. i also don't like those turquoise/yellow fabric sofas with skinny wooden legs and arm rest that people with scandi themes love. it feels like you cannot relax and sit comfortably in those. like this : then again its only the locals who adopt that kind of "look". if you google for scandi/nordic interiors, the main color is no doubt white but still very tastefully done, those angmoh ones. i'm also very sick of those local scandi theme, so sick that i longer read interior mags like i used to. then again i can understand why its so popular because our flats are so small nowadays, white is the only color that will make your house look bigger. no comments about the blum/grohe la, blum is inside cabinet so can't see anyway. if you wanna talk about kompacplus then should you also penalize people who use caesarstone for solid surfaces or lamitak for laminates? no right?

amazing, you're very lucky indeed! most bomb shelter shelves look too boring to me, they've got these holes along the sides which look like perforated lines, i really hate those. i see that taobao has bomb shelter shelvings also, did you ever consider getting from there or its better to buy here? can't wait to learn more from fellow 3 roomers like yourself and hopefully start my tblog soon. keys are taking too long

the racks are really beautiful!! are the sizes customizable else how are you able to fit them into your bomb shelter?

the fireplace is so beautiful, i already feel warm looking at it haha. love love love your home, you have very good taste!

hey girl, is your countertop marble? nowadays this kind of pattern seems very popular as a background for food pics, so i might wanna consider it lol

hi! is yours a premium flat? i see that your flooring is polished porcelain tiles and yet your room windows are 1/2 height.

hi! love the mood boards. envy envy, i applied in march 2012 and til now still havent collected keys. yours is really fast!

thanks, will make it a point NOT to engage summit design studio.

lol

i didn't know the timber flooring extends to the walkway. is it the same for every premium BTO? i thought its only for the bedrooms!

your 3 room looks huge! is it really 65sqm? mine's only 3150 for living room, 6700 in length and kitchen+yard is 3700. i probably have bigger toilets than yours but i would rather not if i have a choice

thanks for the tips! thats exactly what i plan to do, find a contractor instead of an ID. can i just check which forwarder you used for taobao? is it those 1 cubic meter container type? i'm a taobao regular shopper but i've always been using 4PX, their official forwarder since i buy non bulky stuff. i must say taobao has really nice loft/industrial type lightings. most that i see and bookmarked aren't really cheap though. can come up to a few hundred bucks for those 3 legged tripod style floor lamp. also, taobao has craft bricks. are they much cheaper compared to sg and jb?

how early will the boxes be given to us, any idea? i need to pack everything before arranging to sell my flat, therefore i cannot pack near to moving.

you like shabby chic? me too! to upload pics what i do is use tinypic or imgur, once you upload your pics there will be several image links to choose from, choose the one with [ IMG ], thats for forum boards. then just copy and paste the link here!

really? as in totally not licensed or are they licensed somewhere just not by HDB? according to this thread its an offence to engage contractors that are not licensed by HDB or something. i've shortlisted contractor J as well but i don't want to break the law. http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/8618-not-hdb-registered-reno-contractor/