gidler

Went up to my unit on day 1 of reno work, and found my place in big mess. Looks like a warzone with all the debris.. hee.. Pardon the pic quality as its taken from my mobile phone.. Here's a picture of the living room just to illustrate how messy it is Sames goes for the dinning area My master bathroom was stripped totally bare PS: Notice the sunk in area on the wall of my toilet.. We are going to use it as shelving area to place toiletries and shower stuff. Save me some cost in buying toilet accessories.. The kitchen wall is hacked away to make way for both a wet and dry kitchen. We are also relocating the common toilet door to the walkway for easier entry. If you notice, on the far right, the sliding door for study room is also removed to make way for glass panels and door Here's another look at the living room and balcony after hacking and in the midst of clearing the debris We are still waiting for HDB approval to hack away the ugly horizontal beam that divides the living and balcony area.

Paiseh, still experimenting with the photobucket website.. try doing a refresh, the pictures will be shown..

Pardon my mistake, I've modified the post..

Here are some photos of the unit when we took over.. Living Room + Study Room View (the identity of the innocent has been protected.. ) Walk way to kitchen (left) and bedrooms (right) Bedroom 3 Common Toilet Kitchen Guess what's the current state of the unit now when hacking has started..

Hi, I've benefitted a great deal from this forum, so I figure its time I give something back by blogging my reno process.. Due to "expanded" family tree, our current 3-rm flat proves to be a big challenge to house 3 little ones. Our home hunting started since last year and we finally found a suitable unit (read - Cheap and Spacious) that we really like in Tampines. We completed the transaction in Feb this year, and only took over the unit in May as the owner requested to stay for additional 3 months while waiting for their new flat to be ready. Here's the floor plan of my unit with 149sqm of space: We spent close to 2.5 months hunting for ID using the recommendation on this forum, and finally decided to choose *****. The renovation started on 15th May 2008 and it's a major overhaul for the unit that's going to last till 15th July 2008. I will post more pics of the progress soon.

Hi Tofler, Welcome to Tampines. My EA resale is not too far away from you and we are starting reno 15th May. What a coincidence that we are going for Modern Contemporary also. It will be interesting to see how things turn out in your unit. May I know which ID firm did you engage? Maybe we can exchange design idea and pointers.. GIdler

Geez, This thread is getting my full attention as TIP is also one of my final shortlisted ID. They do appear quite professional and I thought by paying a premium should at least guaranteed me a worry free reno. Judging from Chris experience, I think I should re-evaluate them. GIdler

Mine's an EA. Need all the space I can get while "capitalizing" on government's baby bonus..

I'm practically revamping the whole flat. My instruction to all the IDs were simple, treat the floor plan as a blank drawing board and let their creativity flow. My tentative budget is about $70K. I can PM you my experience with some of the good IDs for your reference. GIdler

No decision made yet on the ID, but definitely towards the end of the search. Will make a final call probably mid this month. How about yourself? GIdler

Haiz, seems like I'm not the only one. With just 2 phone calls and no meeting, I've decided to drop him from my consideration. Not comfortable with his "overly" confidence tone and attitude. Trust me, I've seen and spoke to better IDs whom are more humble, so don't despair.

Hi Mr Chong, Thanks heaps for your advice. Really appreciate it. Will bear in mind your words and inform my contractor to only work on kitchen and living room/balcony at the very last stage. Cheers, GIdler

Hi Mr Chong, Thanks for the reply. We just bought the unit and will be renovating the whole house. Could you kindly elaborate what do you meant by avoiding the North and South? Pardon my ignorance. GIdler

Dear Mr Chong, Attached is my floor plan together with my family DOB Male: 25/08/1973 Female: 04/10/1976 Male: 06/06/2002 Male: 30/09/2005 Male: 19/10/2007 Our intention is to have an open kitchen (kitchen walls and store room will be hacked). I know there are too many dynamics involved and difficult to comment amidst your tight schedule. Instead, is it possible to let me know what are the things that I should not be doing at all cost? Appreciate your time and effort. Cheers, Gidler

This is a statement that I agree totally. Judging from the feedback, I guess I need to lower my expectation on ID. Then again, I think they will have to work harder for their part of the money.. haha.. GIdler

Dear all, Thanks heaps for the comment and reply. Geez, to talk to > 10 IDs sounds like tremendous amount of patience and effort.. Will be almost mission impossible for me with 3 kids tagging along I guess I will continue with the search and hopefully find one that "behaves" the correct way.. Will share with everyone my experience and eventually the end result in a blog.. Cheers, GIdler

First of all, I'm a newbie here. Thanks to everyone, I've gotten valuable information from this forum while hunting for ID to do up my new home. Recently, I met up with one of the shortlisted ID from a reputable company. Although its a short 1 hour meeting, it makes me wonder what exactly is their value add to my renovation. During the first meeting, I will expect the ID to do a profile of my family, to talk to us and understand our lifestyle, habits and likes/dislikes. At the very least, he/she should show us some ID works and listen to our comments, thereby creating a mental of design/theme/colors/mood that appeal to us. On the contrary, the ID simply ask standard questions such as "What do you ntend to do with the master bedroom?", "Do you want a feature wall?", "Do you want a wet/dry kitchen?". Shouldn't he be the one whom do all the design rather than asking me back the questions? Worst of all, he is doing a salesman job of explaining how good is their laminate floor and how innovative is their drawer system in kitchen cabinet. I wonder, when he was told that we wanted a "comfortable and cozy" living room, does he really know our definition of "comfortable and cozy". If not, how on earth is he going to come up with the quotation? Or am I simply going to get a run of the mill standard package that everyone is getting from classified ads. The reason I'm posting this is to hear from everyone your experience and expectation in dealing with ID. Am I the only odd ball here with unreasonable expectations or simply bad luck for my first encounter? Really makes me wonder should I even continue to the second shortlisted ID. Lastly, wanted to wish everyone a Merry X'mas and Happy New Year ahead. Cheers, Gidler