Our Home At Tampines

[SGK 0]

Hi SGK,

Found out from your t-Blog that you have brought some of your furniture from Living Vision.

I have also just sign up with them for a piece of furniture.

Not sure if they are good but anyway me and my wife just go ahead to get it.

Did your furniture arrive on time? And how is the finishing?

BTW you house looks great

Good luck.

My experience with Living Vision can be described as disappointing and frustrating - and it begins with the saleperson - Johnny Chua (I hope I remember his name correctly). Three weeks before my move, he called and told me that the bar stools I have paid for is no longer in production and wanted me to choose another design from a list of photos that he emailed me. My wife and I were accommodating enough to take his offer w/o questioning if the prices are comparable. But just last Friday, the day before our move, he called and told me that the second design that I have picked is also unavailable. I was naturally unhappy about this because he should have checked that the list of stools he emailed me are all available before sending them to me. What is most annoying is that he said I have to wait for another 2 to 3 weeks to get my stools. So I have to shift in to my new house without the bar stools.

And that's just the beginning of the nightmare!! On Saturday, the day of our moving house, I received a call from a lady who is a worker of the factory that manufactures the bed I ordered from Living Vision, telling me that my bed cannot be delivered on Saturday because the irrepsonsible John did not inform her of the date of delivery beforehand . So the bed frame was not available. I called up the boss Steven immediately to clarify and then I was told (to my horror) that other furnitures - Dining Table and chairs, coffee table, bed side tables etc will also not be delivered because John did not inform all the factories that we need the furnitures on 17 April (even though we have told him over phone a few times that we want the furniture to be delivered on that day) . Can you imagine how high my blood pressure was at that time? After much heated conversation over the phone, Steven agreed to try his best to get at least some of the furniture delivered and loaned us a temporary bed frame to use for a week first. In the end, we are still short of the dining table and the bed frame, and of course the bar stools that will take another 2 weeks to arrive. (update on 29 April: they say it will only arrive in mid May )

I think their service attitude is really terrible after they have collected your money. And can you imagine that the Johnny Chua still have the cheek to tell me his service is much better than that provided by Novena (another unreliable furniture shop) a few days ago. Have you made all the payments? If not, please hold back at least 50% in case he messed up the delivery again. I am glad that I have insisted on holding back $1000 until all the items are delivered, otherwsie I will be at their mercy now.

Edited April 29, 2010 by SGK

[SGK 0]

On a happier note, i have managed to set up my study and living room. The only problem is that my desktop computer does not have a wireless network card and is unable to access internet. So I am currently using my netbook for internet surfing. Here are some pictures that I have taken last night:

Study View 1:

Study View 2:

Study View 3:

The pebbles at the tree area is insufficient but our ID is giving us more pebbels for 'free'. This afternoon, my wife and I went to buy the pebbles and we were in this unusual situation of calling our ID to check if he is ok with the cost of the pebbles that we are buying whence it has always been him checking with us if we are ok with the cost of certain additional renovation items.

Edited April 21, 2010 by SGK

[SGK 0]

This is the balcony:

I still feel that the balcony will look better and more cosy with a low table and some cushions rather than the current lounge tables and chairs.

And here is living room under the illumination of 3 different group of lights:

Cove Light (White), which provides the most illumination:

Down Light (Warm White):

Main Light (Halogen):

[coldflamez 0]

hey SGK, glad to see that your house has turned out nicely! Like the concept of the tree in your glass study room very much.

For the balcony, i agree that a japanese style low table will look good. could be a good place to gather around and play board games too, haha...

[gimz63251073 0]

nice open concept for the study room... must hide the messy wires ya? haha...

whats the intended use for the dry kitchen? was that originally the dining area?

[SGK 0]

hey SGK, glad to see that your house has turned out nicely! Like the concept of the tree in your glass study room very much.

For the balcony, i agree that a japanese style low table will look good. could be a good place to gather around and play board games too, haha...

Thanks, we like the tree very much too and we copied it from some pictures that we found on the internet when we were looking for design ideas. And for the balcony, I was also thinking that it is a good cosy corner for board games. The only problem is that the living room area is not air-conditioned so the comfort level will not be 100%. We only found out from our ID after the renovation is completed that we could have applied for HDB's permission to install extra compressor and air-conditioned the living room and the dining room .

[SGK 0]

nice open concept for the study room... must hide the messy wires ya? haha...

whats the intended use for the dry kitchen? was that originally the dining area?

Ha, yes the wires need to be tidier. Will do something about them when I have finished unpacking (another 28 boxes to go ). The dry kitchen was actually part of the original kitchen. The original design proposed by my ID was to hack the kitchen walls and build a open kitchen. We like his idea of open kitchen but thought that it will be difficult to clean the house when we do cooking. Hence, I propose dividing the original kitchen into a wet kitchen (for cooking), a dry kitchen (for simple cooking like microwave) and an extra storeroom/maid's room.

[SGK 0]

My dining table and chairs just arrived. I was a bit worried initially that the table may be too long for the room but now it looks like a nice fit:

[SGK 0]

Final Posts of Reno Pics for My House

Last night My wife and I finally finished unpacking all our boxes and this afternoon we solved our bedframe problem by unscrewing out the gigantic bedhead and to our relief the remaining three sides of the bed frame stay very much intact and now our bed fits in nicely to our master bedroom. This means that we need not waste money buying another bedframe . With this we have more or less come to the end of our renovation journey and for the first time since we shifted in two weeks ago, we felt that we can really sit down and enjoy our home. Looking back, I will say overall we have a very enjoyable renovation experience which started last October when we 'blur blur' went to an interior design exhibition in Expo to look for renovation ideas. We spoke to several IDs there but ended up engaging Kennedy of Earnest Interiors to take charge of our renovation. The wait to start our renovation was really long because at the time we confirmed our ID we have yet to go for our first HDB appointment.

Renovation finally started 3 days before CNY and after a short break during the CNY period, it went full-steam. While we encounter some unforeseen problems along the way, we are glad that our ID is able to solve all the problems for us. In some cases, the solution to the problems become a new design attraction to the house (though they don't come free). For example, the display cabinet outside the common bathroom and the raised flooring of the dry kitchen are all constructed to conceal ugly pipes. We are really happy with the overall outcome and a lot of credit must go to my ID

As a closure to this journey, I will like to post some pics to record the transformation that the house has undergone. Starting from the study:

Before Renovation:

3D Visualisation:

Final Product:

Edited May 1, 2010 by SGK

[Mickey M 0]

I like the study room.

[SGK 0]

Living Room:

Before Renovation:

3D Visualisation:

Final Product:

[SGK 0]

Dining Room:

Before Renovation:

3D Visualisation:

Final Product:

[SGK 0]

Kitchen:

Before Renovation:

3D Visualisation:

Final Product:

[SGK 0]

Master Bedroom:

Before Renovation:

3D Visualisation:

Final Product:

[SGK 0]

MBR Bathroom:

Before Renovation:

3D Visualisation:

Final Product:

Edited May 3, 2010 by SGK