greglhc
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Everything posted by greglhc
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For people who are looking for budget sofas - ikea is the way to go - esp mid-century/scandinavian designs But of course we want something unique and special, with minimial inconvenience and effort to customize We also don't want people to recognize that it's from ikea Some ideas to share: 1. Change the legs. Site here. They create legs specifically to fit ikea furniture 2. Change the fabric. Site here. All customized to fit ikea dimensions Yup that is an ikea sofa with a bold, repeating bird print heh- 643 replies
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Quartz is least scratch-able. Also good that almost non-porous. Get a dark colour if worried about staining though.
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Most surfaces will scratch, just depends on how obvious I guess. Looks like it's granite or compressed marble for u then. Hope u managed to find a contractor that meets ur needs soon. U will be hooked on Reno!
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I like concrete walls actually! My contractors subcon does a good job. I just dunno if he can create those rectangles with the design properly. Proportion is very important to me. Heh
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yay for taobao purchases! I noticed the noguchi coffee table heh
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If you hear someone yelling at you "mishmish!" that would probably be me then lol
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Hey Sarah, this is a good question - a question that I had to deliberate over too Carpentry was out for definitely out for me - I wanted both the look and feel of concrete and in this respect, carpentry has limitations Firstly, because there is a interface between the door surface and the trimmings, you may be able to see some of the wood through that. If you want the edge to look completely like the surface concrete laminate - it is possible too, but this is additional cost Secondly, the surface of such carpentry tends to be smooth and not so textured because it is a laminate. Having said that, there are some concrete laminates, especially those by Lamitak which are really realistic in terms of look and texture. However, it repeats because the laminate is 8' x 4' only. My wall is much larger than that and will require a few repeats. Finally, carpentry will take up more space in terms of depth if you decide to make cabinets out of it. Usually 60cm deep from the wall i.e. eat into my limited living room space. What about just concrete screed and then implement the design? Very possible and this would be the cheapest option. However my contractor not confident as he has not done it before. And using the fibreglass wall panel, I can conceal wiring. Thats why I justify the cost of $2800.
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All the best in your reno! Hacking is the one of the best parts - the place will be at its most spacious and open heh
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Thanks Berlinbear! Appreciate the positive comments Hello mishmish! Yes it'll be nice to bump into each other though I wonder if we will even recognize each other haha Have u moved in already?
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Yeah I really like the look of these panels. Made of fibreglass and managed to get a feel of the real thing at The Home Show. The feel is pretty solid, not so hollow if you get my drift. Comes in 3.3m x 1.3m panels. The original product is called msdpanels. Cost is S$2800 for 2 panels. Their website has a large variety of wall panels, including nice wood ones and even false beams.
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Concrete appearance wall panel for living room. Help to hide cables from TV and AV equipment also Unfortunately will arrive only in end Sept/early Oct so gotta be patient
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Haha. I nearly went for this actually. The sales guy quoted me a good price too. I think our tastes/theme is very similar!
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Bought a mattress at the Expo a couple of weeks back There were dozens and dozens of mattresses to try and eventually got really confused with the brands Nonetheless my requirement was that mattress must be super firm - used to it all my life So went to King Koil and found a suitable ICA approved one I was a bit curious how King Koil mattress compared to other brands Specifically Magic Koil since I found one reasonably priced one there "Auntie ah - King Koil 跟 Magic Koil 什么差别?" The auntie's response is classic: "Prrlease la Magic Koil! 你跟 Magic Koil compare 那里可以! 你跟 Simmons compare then same la!" She was so cheesed off The simmons mattress was indeed very good. The sales auntie there even claimed that Goh Chok Tong uses Simmons But the price is more than double so kuai kuai went back King Koil
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Thanks! I hope so too. Planning to buy this bedframe - gunmetal colour. Really like the colour and also the ledge at the headboard area
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My first furniture purchase - the 3 seater sofa from mountain teak. I actually viewed it last weekend and really wanted to get it but resisted because don't want buyer's regret. However, I couldn't get it out of my head and after viewing many other sofas, I knew I had to go back to my love at first sight Really love the wood arm-rest panels and the gun-metal legs. Also the firmness of the cushions.
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Some updates Toilet tiling completed - level up! Yup some of the toilet walls will be concrete plaster only Flooring selected - HERF from Evorich Kitchen cabinet laminates and countertop - decided to have a wood-looking countertop to soften the "hardness" of the industrial theme Wardrobe laminates - really like this wood laminate paired with the grey-ish one
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Ah ok I was referring to the price of four 28" black legs - shipping was quoted at US$99. Shipping takes 4-7 days. Excludes time to fabricate. My quote is from hairpinlegsforless.com
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I've been trying to search for hairpin legs on tb too! Might resort to just buying from US. It's nearly S$300 for 4 legs including shipping though.
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Choosing a contractor: my experience I contacted a total of 5 contractors about 2 months before getting the key 1. first contractor I chanced upon his company on renotalk - no t-blogs named this contractor. 2. two contractors were through reading t-blogs on renotalk - the owners openly recommended these contractors 3. the remaining were through friends First I contact them via phone - speak to them - see whether can communicate Then described the reno work briefly. Then sent floor plan with scope of work via email. The floor plan and scope of work should be the same for every contractor you send to. This will help you to compare the quotation across all of them. My considerations were 1. Relatively lean budget I was very upfront about stating that I wanted to keep costs low. To me that meant no fancy designs. I wanted a clean and updated space so I can furnish and decorate. One way to keep costs low is have as little work as possible e.g. minimize cabinetry and false ceilings. For instance no TV feature wall, no false ceiling in living room, no shoe cabinets, no fancy pole system wardrobe, no walk-in wardrobe (WIW). I managed to see quite a few budgets from reno-talkers and if you look closely cabinetry/feature walls are one of the big ticket items. Minimizing these items means these savings can be used to buy nice furniture/decor that can create the look you desire. Also, no unnecessary hacking. Initially my plan was to hack the flooring of the living room/kitchen/bedroom and re-tile. However after speaking to one of the contractors, the floor is already flat! Why hack, just overlay instead! Moreover when they hack flooring, must re-do concrete screed and this may not be as smooth and flat. More hacking means more costs i.e. one more day of x number of banglas to hack floor, clear hubris, extra haulage costs. All these costs add up and also extra time needed! Once I told them about my lean budget, immediately 2 contractors didn't bother to give me quotation anymore despite me sending floor plan and scope of work. That's good cos both parties dont waste time. I also would not bother following up. If they dont want your business, they dont want your business. 2. Able to start work on my reno once I get the key Ask them directly whether the time frame you anticipate your reno to start and end is feasible for them. No point getting quotation then realise the contractor got too many projects and yours have to wait. If they are unable to commit resource to your reno project, confirm double confirm delay one. Also if after speaking with contractor and their next available follow-up appointment is like 2-3 weeks away, I immediately did not bother to follow-up. This guy likely very stretched among many projects and you will have to "fight" for his time and attention. 3. Experienced - must be able to tell me if my suggestion is not practical and offer alternatives I think this one is quite intuitive. Very hard to assess and based on feel. I feel more comfortable when I describe my idea and the contractor immediately told me what his concerns were. Those that just say ok without much questions made me uncomfortable. Surely miss things out in the quotation and you will have lots of VO (variation order) later. This happened to me - I planned to hack the wall and one contractor just quote me for hacking and erecting a new wall. But missed out the costs of making good the hacked area. This involved getting a new false ceiling in kitchen i.e. few hundred bucks! So his quote was missing some vital components. 4. His network of sub-contractors A good contractor is an excellent project manager and has good sub-cons that he engages i.e. tiling/wet works, demolitions/hacking, electrician, plumbing. Always ask where his sub-cons are from - Malaysia? China? Generally Malaysians will be better especially tiling. Demolitions/hacking - Bangla can already but usually have a Chinese supervisor. And another good question to ask is whether the sub-cons he usually engages will be doing your reno also. No point if he has good sub-cons but they are tied up in another project! You can view workmanship of his sub-cons by visiting his completed projects. If the workmanship is satisfactory - ask whether the same sub-cons will be used for your project. Also when you view the project, take note of all the small details like how the air-con trunking/piping is hidden. See whether you can tell or not. If you cant tell, good! Heh I was very fortunate to visit a reno-talkers EM and was very very impressed with the workmanship! Plus the contractor did it within a very lean budget and completed project AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. So rare that reno complete ahead of schedule lor! The owner was extremely grateful to the contractor and I could tell the contractor had a lot of pride in his work. Definitely very reassuring and made me confident to sign the quotation.
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This one I will leave to the end cos reno not completed If satisfactory, will recommend him openly So far though, he has given me a lot of confidence! Are u looking for contractor now?
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you are welcome! sounds like u got a good price too!
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Thanks oldskool! I also look forward to your place. the 3D renderings look good Absolutely. I intend to share as much as possible about what I learnt from reno. Stay tuned!
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ID vs contractor I think most reno-talkers struggle with this question. A considerable number of people no doubt spend ALOT of time meeting IDs and contractors. After reviewing a lot of experiences and accounts from reno-talkers, it's well known that ID is more expensive than contractor Economically, they must charge more than contractor since they are the additional project managers and designers and afterall must engage a contractor to do the work Some conservative estimates point to IDs charging about 30% mark-up from contractor based on these services. This is probably the accepted median It is not surprising if the mark-up is higher especially if the ID firm is big. They have bigger advertising budgets for TV/print/internet, bigger shopfronts and bigger exhibition booths i.e. bigger mark-ups, probably 50% upwards of contractor price. Also, all the big bosses in the ID firm who don't do projects and generate business need to be paid fat salaries Nonetheless, there are some contractors who are trying to go up the value chain and have ID services as well. No doubt they will charge ID type prices. I met a contractor like this. You know this immediately once the contractor offers 3D drawings, throws in freebies, has an in-house designer etc - all ID-like characteristics. Conversely, there are ID firms which are just starting out and growing their business. They tend to have lower margins in order to get volume and grow their portfolio. These will be cheaper and may be somewhat comparable to an average contractor pricing. However, they still need to pay a contractor to carry out all the reno so how do they manage to get comparable contractor pricing. There will probably be less people working on the wet works, tiling, demolitions, erecting walls, carpentry etc. Project may face delays because there is inadequate manpower to get the job done. Moreover, once everything completed, they won't entertain many rectification works. For me, it was a relatively simple decision. I wanted as cheap a reno to achieve the desired look/feel. Although I'm not a designer and have zero experience in reno, I knew the look that I wanted to achieve. There are very few IDs which can do industrial designs, simply because they turn to "standard" designs. This is to save effort and resource for them since they have done many projects in a certain look/feel. These are mostly modern contemporary. Having said that, choosing a contractor meant I needed to do ALOT more research on my own. I started to gather a lot of info about reno, the process, the materials and the rough pricing. To the point where people in the industry think I'm a contractor! If there are reno-talkers out there in a similar situation, I hope this will help you eliminate wasting time with meeting too many IDs and contractors.
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Let the hacking begin! View of kitchen View of living room floor. Currently marble but will be overlay with HERF from Evorich Goodbye wall! Its been nice knowing you Bathroom hacked to bits So much debris from hacking! (Means more cost for haulage) After the bedroom wall was hacked, I was very very tempted to not erect a new one and keep it as a studio But there is some economic concern, so went ahead to erect the new wall
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ProjectH: thanks! zihui: I really admire your budget for an EM! Many people will be super envious if you can pull it off drunkenchivas: I learnt a lot from your blog. Hope you get to enjoy the sexy tb sink. I bought the same one
