Ceestar

Your kitchen color scheme (white cabinet top, wood grain bottom, black glass backsplash and black countertop) is exactly the same as mine! I even got a black tempered glass hob..haha. Do you find that the black countertop + black glass backsplash made the kitchen appear to be smaller? Though I still love it but if given a 2nd chance, I would opt for a white glass backsplash instead. Love your black frame kitchen door!

Cheap and good = recommend Philips Fidelio HTL9100 It has detachable bluetooth speakers for you to place around and gives you true surround sound effect as compared to other soundbars that relies on the sound bounching off surfaces to give you the surround effect Expensive but good = recommend SONOS soundbar The soundbar itself, without the seperately purchase subwoofer, is already awesome. But its expensive.

Hi, PM Sent. Hi, Study Table - It seemed that the study table is no longer on sale. Anyway, I don't recommend it as the quality is so so and the assembly was quite tedious without any instruction. Have to refer to the sub par video guide on its sales page. Nevertheless, I have provided you an alternate link with almost the same design from the same seller. Computer chair Dining ware set 1 Dining ware set 2

Hi iSoh, Here you go. Dining light Dining table Washroom light

Like many of renotalkers here, we also bought many stuffs for the new house from online platforms such as Taobao, Aliexpress and Amazon. The savings are really worth it! Here, I will just share the stuffs that we bought. Gosh, it was only when I'm compiling the item list that I realized we actually bought so much!

All PMs sent!

Here, I would like to side track a bit from my renovation journey and just share something that might be of interest to some (dependent on your beliefs). But have to put disclaimer first. What I am going to relate is purely our own personal experiences. I'm not trying to do any sales talk, advertising or advocating anything. So, we were really down in morale after being scammed of our hard earned money. We couldn't stopped cursing our bad luck for meeting such a black sheep scammer ID. After engaging Nic's help on completing the renovation, it so happen that Nic has a very good buddy, Nelson who is a Taoist Priest who offers services such as fengshui consultation, fortune telling, rituals etc. Nic suggested to us to seek out Nelson to see if he can help to improve our luck. To be honest, we are not those very superstitious people but we went along with Nic's suggestion cos we were saw no harm in doing so and also partly out of our curiosity. So on a particular afternoon, we paid Nelson a visit. With the use of a gold deck cards, Nelson read and foretold our fortunes. I would say that some of the things foretold were pretty accurate. We also got Nelson to come to our unit for "Geomancy Site Survey" and perform some rituals which involves Nelson walking around the unit, ringing a handheld bell while chanting some incantations. Ok, so here's the part where its up to one to believe or not. A week after this "sell ice-cream" session (Nic's nicknamed it cos its like those ice-cream sellers ringing the bell and attracting customers *LOL*), our unit number actually came out exact in the 4d consolation price! A few weeks later, the same set of numbers came out exact yet again in the consolation price! Mysterious and intriguing right?! But hahaha, in any case, just to let you know, for both occasions, we didn't strike as we forgot to buy, LOL. We got a earful from Nic for missing it but it was an interesting experience. To be honest, we did feel that our luck turned better and we are more at ease and peace in our mind. Also, a lot of uncles and aunties actually queue up to seek Nelson for lottery numbers and fortune telling due to his excellent "track records". Ultimately, it is still up to individual beliefs. So thats the end of our mysterious encounter with Nelson. Back to our renovation, all our carpentry was up within 2 weeks! For the first time in a long while, we smiled like kids getting new toys as we check out our unit! That feeling is really awesome!

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere apologies to Nic's customers who were affected by this sweet gesture (See below pic) to us from him. Yup thats right. We didn't make any special request but Nic really gave us a pleasant surprise by offering to let us "Cut Queue" for the carpentry works so we can end this renovation ordeal ASAP and move on. Seriously, we were really touched by his kind gesture. Again, I really need to apologize to those whose renovation progress at that time were somewhat slowed down because of us . So, during the laminate selection, our initial intention was to follow the original selection. All was fine till it came to the kitchen where he was dropping hints that the color scheme is way off with the rest of the house. We didn't pick up the signals initially and was insistent on the original design. Then it came, that trademark rolleyes action! *He does this subconsciously whenever he had a different opinion* And in accordance to his "honest and straight" character, Nic literally spelt out that the original color scheme is ugly and totally out of sync, if we insist on it, don't regret later. Well, some homeowners may not appreciate such strong choice of words and would probably be upset about this "Kuai lan" contractor *LOL* but it was precisely such frank feedback that will jolt you to take a step back and re-evaluate the decision. We did exactly that and eventually followed Nic's alternate suggested color scheme. No surprise, he nailed it dead right. From then onwards, we would always sought his opinion first on all matters that requires design/color selection decision. Infact, just a few days ago, we still consulted him for his advice on a particular bedsheet that we want to buy. Guess what was his reply? Just 2 simple words - AUNTIE DESIGN!!

Hi ruili1980, Thanks for your kind words. Have PMed you the contact!

Thanks for the good words and wishes. You got an interesting renovation project! Looking forward to your updates! Wishing you a smooth and enjoyable renovation journey!

Staring at the empty and little done unit really make us sick. Where we used to look forward visiting the unit and checking out the renovation progress, now it became a dread to even step into the unit. The place just feel so cold, so solemn and so dead. But renovation still needs to carry on and we just want to get it done and be over with. And so the 2nd tale of my renovation journey begins. We clearly do not need a new ID now as we already have the designs and drawings. So we started to reach out to recommended contractors in Renotalk to take up the job. Nicholas of Renoguyz was one of the few that we reached out for. The meetup with him at the unit was an interesting one. And true to the various legends in Renotalk, Nic was every bit of the odd-ball contractor that many have described. Shorts/Bermudas - Checked Sandals/Slippers - Checked Faded T-shirt - Checked Sleepy and droopy face- Checked Seriously, if you are one that judge by first impression, Nic would have flunk every possible aspects! For us, we already kinda expected it as we had read some of the reviews on him in Renotalk. After a brief recounting of our mishap to him, we got down to business. Nic whipped out his measuring tape, paper and pen and started measuring and noting down the measurement of the various carpentry works in our original design. Next came his Iphone calculator, press press press and tada! The quotation for the job was laid out infront of us! We were really impressed as this was the first time we encountered instant quotation. Knowing our plight, Nic also gave his opinion to do away several items to help us save money. He also encouraged us to go direct to material/service suppliers or join group buys to save more money. That night, we evaluated Nic's quotation which was fair. We liked his frankness in speaking out what he thinks. Despite his blurred outlook, he knew what he was doing and talking. In the next few days, we called and confirmed Nic to help us finish the renovation of our unit.

That very night felt like an eternity. We couldn't sleep. We don't know what to do. We don't know what we can do. So we were scammed of our hard earned reno money, but what can we do? File police report? CASE? Small Claim Tribunal? Well, all I can say is that we been there and done that and I can firmly tell you the bad news is none of these nearly helps! 1) Police Report - The first thing we did the next day was to head down to the nearest NPC to file a police report against the rogue ID Ben. However, from the on-start, the officer made his point crystal clear. Unless we have concrete evidence to prove that Ben has clear intention to cheat, they won't be able to bring criminal charges to him. In other words, this is just a breach of contract and will be classify as civil lawsuit with which we need to engage our own lawyers to pursue the matter through civil laws. 2) CASE - Useless, called them and they just push me to Small Claims Tribunal 3) Small Claims Tribunal (SCT) - So we went to SCT and file a claim. At SCT, the officer gave a brief explanation on the terms and conditions for making a claim. Frankly speaking, unless the case is a dispute with the other party still in business or contactable, there is still a glimmer of hope to getting some portion of the money back. For our case where Ben has essentially went into hiding and declaring bankrupt, there is little to nothing that SCT can help. For e.g, to claim more than 10K but capped at 20K, you gotta get the other party's approval. Seriously, if we can get the other party to agree, I wouldn't need to go SCT isn't it?? And even if the claim is less than 10K, the claimant need to personally hand the consultation order to the other party else SCT won't acknowledge and will just keep adjourning the consultation dates. And if if if you do get the wining decision but the other party has nothing to his name, you still get nothing. So. as you can see, we are pretty much screwed and I have to say that the ordeal has really opened up our eyes to lots of glaring loopholes in the system for scammers to take advantage. Needless to say, we pretty much lost our faith in the system. Mistake and learning point 4 : Actually, this is just a personal opinion. Don't get your hopes too high to recover scammed money. The chances are near to zero for well planned and executed scam ploys.

So after his 1 week "off", first thing he text us is " Hi XXX, can you transfer the 3rd payment for carpentry material" Seriously!? Asking for payment again!? By now, we are already very pissed off and immediately arranged for a sit down talk face to face to sort out the situation. In the meeting, made known our displeasure. Also demanded a progress chart as well as a detailed carpentry measurement drawings. Till then, no 3rd payment from us. Well, Mr professional time-delay Ben then took another freaking 2 weeks just to produce a simple project gantt chart and a further 2 weeks for the carpentry drawings. So Lo and behold, another 1 month flew by. With the project gantt chart, we were hoping to use it to keep the renovation on track but well, no surprises, it was all just for show! None of the stated activities such as painting, shower kerbs etc took place at all. Again we hounded Ben for an explanation. This is what he had to say. "oh..the gantt chart is just a guideline. While we wait for carpentry to be done up at workshop, these small small jobs can be done and completed without problem" "My tiler is rushing for another job cos need to handover before this date" "You have not make the 3rd payment. My carpenter need the money to buy material. You don't pay, he is not going to start work" Perhaps again needed to get back our trust on him, after some lambasting from us, Ben started to arrange for the bases and kerbs as well as first coat painting to be done. At this point of time, even while we were furious about the whole thing, the "delay delay delay" tactic is working its magic on our minds. No matter how reluctant we are, we are already mentally drained and eventually we gave in to his repeated request for the 3rd payment...... And so, we were told that the carpentry will need at least 2-3 weeks for fabrication. 2.5 weeks went past. In the middle of the night, receive a text msg from Ben that he needed to update me on the renovation and requested to meet up the next morning. In that meeting, Ben again dropped a big bombshell. Apparently, he claimed that there was an unfortunate miscommunication between him and his carpenter and carpentry fabrication had not started at all!! Wow, amazing right!? Then Mr Oscar award winning actor Ben started to spin a super duper tale that he is currently going through a rough patch with his wife and she is threatening to do a divorce with him. He tried to justify the "miscom" mistake to this matter as he could not concentrate blah blah blah blah. He promised to get the renovation back on track and ask for a week to settle his personal problem. He volunteered to rewrite the contract with a new handover date and add in a clause of daily compensation for each day delay. Well, all this are just plain bullsh*ting cos a week later, we received the text message that was shown in the first post of this blog. Mistake and learning point 3 : Always request a renovation progress chart before renovation starts. Add in a delay compensation clause to it. For carpentry payment, advisable to do it on progressive payment. Only when the piece of carpentry is up, then pay for that. While it is perfectly normal to feel frustrated and stressed by repeated delays, try your best not to cave in to the pressure.

Thanks ZzzMonster. My current contractor is like god-send to save my shattered world !