Level Thr3e

[leitmotiv 0]

Hi everyone,

After house-hunting for almost half a year (no thanks to the appreciating COV), we finally found our ideal unit in CCK!

This is a 10-year old 4-room flat and here is the floorplan.

Will provide updates on our renovation journey. Watch this space!

[froggy 0]

Hi everyone,

After house-hunting for almost half a year (no thanks to the appreciating COV), we finally found our ideal unit in CCK!

This is a 10-year old 4-room flat and here is the floorplan.

Will provide updates on our renovation journey. Watch this space!

welcome! wow, you got a very long passage to the kitchen!

[leitmotiv 0]

Our first foray in the sea of ID began at Expo. Subsequently we talked to a few others (recommended on RT) as well as friends. Below is a summary of our experience.

1. Ciseern (@ Expo) - Talked to Annie. She is very experienced and forthcoming. She came up with a design layout & quotation during the follow-up session (a week later). In addition, she also helped us visualise with her perspective sketches. Overall, we have a pleasant session. However, we thought they were a bit gimmicky (many freebies).

2. Fuse Concept (@ Expo) - Seah Fern was the next we talked to. She had good design ideas which she willingly elaborated to us. We felt that she was frank and open. We almost wanted to confirm with her but the price was way beyond our budget.

3. Imposed Design - Happened to chance upon this while having dinner and took the chance to talk to them. Our impression is that they are more contractor than ID, as they merely took our ideas than proposed. Moreover, felt that the quotation was not detailed and more cost will surface.

4. **spammer** - We chanced upon this company in RT, decided to talk to him. He throws out a lot of design ideas and was able to do perspective sketches to help us visualize. We also viewed a unit done by him. The workmanship and design was good. However, from our conversation with the owner, the workmanship was from his former company. This became our concern and the company was fairly new. We did not want to be guinea pigs.

5. Plush Conceptz - Our first meeting went well. He showed us photos and his past projects. Generally, we like his work and we were able to communicate well with him. During the 2nd meeting, he showed us the quotation which was very brief and layout drawing which had some errors. Thus we felt that he was quite slipshod. Moreover, when we went to the weblink (listed on his quotation), it could not be found.

6. CLC (Leslie and Jeremy) - We got to know the company through RT. I was quite impressed when I saw his website as it listed the team composition (from designer to the tiler, hacker, etc). In the first meeting, he showed us some of his work and we liked it. Additionally, he was also able to suggest/explain ideas which is what we look for in an ID. Pricewise, his was not the lowest but the package was good. It comes with colored interior PVC and soft-closure for all cabinets. Next is workmanship. We viewed one of his completed project last Fri and were generally satisfied.

There were a few more that we contacted, but they were either slow or unresponsive.

Fast forward to today. We signed the contract after clearing the queries we raised on Friday. Right away, we did tile selection. In fact, we signed the contract at the tile shop. Haha, the rush is to actually start before the 7th month!

[leitmotiv 0]

welcome! wow, you got a very long passage to the kitchen!

Thanks for the welcome! Yes it's quite a long passage, but we like it cos it clearly separates kitchen from living area.

Btw not sure why 1 of the ID firms we reviewed came out as 'spammer', probably blacklisted on the forum? Gosh, so glad we didn't go with that firm...

[matashi 1]

hi congrats to your new home! the living room no windows de?

[lachesis 0]

Hi there, welcome to RT

Grats on selecting your ID - the biggest and usually most difficult decision in the reno process. Wishing you a smooth reno journey!

btw, are you a Wagner fan?

[leitmotiv 0]

hi congrats to your new home! the living room no windows de?

Thanks! There is a line of windows, but will be closer to dining area. Actually kitchen has no direct windows too, except at service yard. Hope it won't be too dark!

[leitmotiv 0]

Hi there, welcome to RT

Grats on selecting your ID - the biggest and usually most difficult decision in the reno process. Wishing you a smooth reno journey!

btw, are you a Wagner fan?

Thanks! Hope it will be smooth too. It was really really tiring to look for an ID, so glad it's over.

Not really a Wagner fan, just like the sound of that word

[matashi 1]

Thanks! There is a line of windows, but will be closer to dining area. Actually kitchen has no direct windows too, except at service yard. Hope it won't be too dark!

oic, maybe u can wait for my kitchen to be ready.

cos my kitchen also no direct windows and somemore i do wall and floor tiles in black. using white cabinets. i hope wun be too dark also. haha

[leitmotiv 0]

oic, maybe u can wait for my kitchen to be ready.

cos my kitchen also no direct windows and somemore i do wall and floor tiles in black. using white cabinets. i hope wun be too dark also. haha

Sure, I'll be following your t-blog to check out your kitchen when it's ready. I've seen an entirely black kitchen - cabinets, solid top, glass backing, wall and floor tiles all black, still looked great and not too dark when the lights are on. It's an open-concept kitchen with light from the living area, though also no direct windows.

[leitmotiv 0]

Experience with tile selection:

We went to Soon Bee Huat to select tiles. Since we reached before our ID, we went to the level 2 showroom to check out the different looks. However, it was a little disappointing that the actual tiles within our price range is quite limited. Our living+dining+bedrooms is up to $3, kitchen+bathroom up to $2.50 only. We managed to find a living room floor tile that we really liked, though there's a chance it will not have enough stock. Keeping our fingers crossed!

Tile selection was quite fast, we were done with selection in about 45 minutes. There really isn't much to choose, just 4 types of tiles actually.

We still have no clear idea of what we want our home to look like, so we kept to very safe and basic choices for the colour and texture. It's quite exciting to choose tiles cos it feels like reno is really starting, finally, after the painstaking process of repeating what we want to different IDs and comparing quotations. Now we are waiting for the 3d drawings to come out next week.

Edited July 11, 2010 by leitmotiv

[samgalz 2]

gratz, another CLCer in RT...hahaha... hope u hv a great reno journey.

[pinktini 0]

welcome to RT!

a bit curious.. noticed ur MBR has a small little room space with a door opening, what's that?

[leitmotiv 0]

@ Samgalz: I know angteko and lucia have a T-blog and i actually viewed angteko's unit if i am not wrong. I think boon lay, K20, red_bull79, enovy10 are also CLCers too, but i cant find their T-blogs.

@pinktini: I dunno lei. It is just a short walkway into the MBR. Left is toilet, straight ahead a window, right the MBR. It feels like wasted space.

[leitmotiv 0]

Here are some pictures that we managed to take before 2nd Appt.

Walkway to kitchen

Edited July 12, 2010 by leitmotiv