BlurRhino 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2010 Dong! Dong! Dong! After learning so much here at renotalk and reading the threads from friendly folks like fifteenmay, froggy, bearlyn and etc, finally its time for me to contribute back to the forum by penning down my reno experience! Although i cannot articulate as well as neomesis or titanax/lachesis, i hope u all will have no problems understanding my very local english! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
reglxt 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2010 Congrats to your reno! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
froggy 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2010 Dong! Dong! Dong! After learning so much here at renotalk and reading the threads from friendly folks like fifteenmay, froggy, bearlyn and etc, finally its time for me to contribute back to the forum by penning down my reno experience! Although i cannot articulate as well as neomesis or titanax/lachesis, i hope u all will have no problems understanding my very local english! hey, rhino! congrats! Looking forward to reading on yr reno! Ha ha , my reno already over but I still very kaypo, everyday log in ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
floppy 4 Report post Posted November 7, 2010 Happy reno-ing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jiaple 1 Report post Posted November 7, 2010 Welcome to T blog... Looking forward to more updates! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlurRhino 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2010 ID Story Start researching on the IDs a few months back, and its such an enriching experience that at one point my other half is considering whether she should do a career switch to become a ID too! lolz.. I plead her to just dump the idea, of course. Its really an eye-opener as different IDs with different set of specialties, will advise us pitfalls that no other IDs will address, hence its always a learning experience for us during every meetups with the IDs. Have bad experience with some but also build up friendship with a few too, thus its a heart-wrentching thing when i have to informed them that i am not going with them for our reno.. Thus i shall give them some publicity here in my thread, but please note that my experience with them is solely based on my discussions with them during my ID hunting stage. Ted from OrangeCube - Senior designer over at orangecube, and this show in the layout planning he have for us. Creative and into details in his planning, i feel most comfortable with him as he is also very responsive and on the ball.. We shortlisted him in our final considerations but unfortunately he is more expensive than the ID we chosen (Not so much now, as we realise our current ID quotation is not very accurate but this is another story). James from Summit design - he is slow to warm-up but very friendly once he knows you better. Cheapest quote and i not joking when i actually start to worry for him and have to confirm with him is the figure really this low for the items he state in the quotation. haha! not the strongest in the design dept but if you already have a gd idea of what you want for your new house, try him rather than going to the contractors as i think his quote is very competitive even when you compared against the contractors. Elcy from 2Forms - recommended by my friend as they did a good job for them. 2forms are more like a design house so the cost will work against them, but their selling point is their designs and Elcy is really friendly and will make you feel at ease. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlurRhino 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2010 (edited) ID selected IBridge Rhiss.. Not too sure whether i should mention the name of the ID, since along the way after we signed up its really a hits and misses experience.. I shall name him Red Audi at the moment, coz for the people whose reno are done by him before will know.. hehe.. Although he is around our age, but can see he is really very experienced and he put in a very strong sales pitch in our first meet-up, and my other half was already sold in the first meet-up.. haha! The planned layout he had for us is also unique and different from what other IDs had proposed, which we instantly liked. He is also very confident and can articulate well his design concepts to us. Worksmanship and materials wise, we are also convinced he will be using the best so after much consideration, we decide to go with him for our reno. Some peeves we have of him.. maybe he really too busy so sometimes he will miss out details that we have told him before, especially in the preparation of the quotation.. One biggest mistake he made is in the measurement of the kitchen cabinets, hence causing a huge difference in the range of more than 3k in the final contract we are to sign. Naturally we are very unhappy but since he already admit that its his mistake and is willing to bear part of the cost by absorbing half of the GST in our contract, we let it go. There are also some items which i thnk is not correctly priced but i shall not mentioned here since i have yet to discuss with him on this.. I still maintain the level of trust i have for him in terms of integrity, just think he need to apply more due diligence when preparing materials for clients' considerations so as to avoid misunderstandings. My colleague who is using Red Audi for his condo renovation, is also happy with Red Audi so far, so i maybe the only one in his clientele that is so suay to kena him making errors.. shrugz.. To be fair to Red Audi, I shall reserve my judgements of him till the end of my reno. If he does a good job, i am more than willing to advertise for him over here in renotalk as we actually treat him more like a friend than an engaged service provider.. just hope he will reciprocate.. hmmm.. Edited on 08Feb11, end of our renovation: Strongly recommending Freddy, a.k.a Red Audi in my blog. Refer to my concluding comments on post 198. Edited February 7, 2011 by BlurRhino Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlurRhino 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2010 Thanks All for the support!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leechaorui 2 Report post Posted November 8, 2010 Wish you a smooth reno journey. Cheers! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fifteenmay 40 Report post Posted November 8, 2010 Dong! Dong! Dong! After learning so much here at renotalk and reading the threads from friendly folks like fifteenmay, froggy, bearlyn and etc, finally its time for me to contribute back to the forum by penning down my reno experience! Although i cannot articulate as well as neomesis or titanax/lachesis, i hope u all will have no problems understanding my very local english! Welcome! Looking forward to reading your blog! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlurRhino 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2010 Key Collection date... Our key collection date is scheduled on 15Oct10, exactly 5 years after we got together.. talking about concidence.. hehe.. Thanks to all the information been shared on the forums, i did called in advance and confirm that we will need to submit our appeal in advance as we will only get married next year.. Initially very worried that our key collection might get delayed, as the hdb officer in charge mentioned that our marriage date is really very far away and he might have difficulty getting the approvals.. Luckily everything went fine and we got our keys on the meaningful day. hdb really very atas nowadys, the file and key pouch they gave us is actually quite good.. my sis was commenting last time they only get an envelope with a bunch of keys lor.. hehe.. and i must commend on the service of the hdb staff, despite what many people say, i think most are quite good and patient.. After we got the keys, a sudden realisation also set in... we are house owners now! yeah! for someone who have never moved house in his life, this is really uber exciting for me! hehe.. Anyway armed with our keys, we slowly shake our way to our new home... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
floppy 4 Report post Posted November 8, 2010 congrats. i got the same pouch for treelodge also. guess new home owners will have the key pouches from hdb... the $10 collected have all been put to good use Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlurRhino 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2010 At our new home... After opening the door with trembling hands, and me fumbling with the big ong lai so that i can have a good grip and roll it in perfectly, my other half exclaimed "wah zhen de hen xiao leh!" (wah really very small!) Indeed it was very, very small.. Although i was mentally prepared that its going to be really small, but to my dismay, its smaller than i imagined. I absolutely cannot imagine how my ID's designs are going to fit in such a small area.. but then again, this is the reason why i hire an ID for, let him headache and not me! View from the location of where my sofa will be placed, the wall on the right will be hacked off for a open concept kitchen as i prefer a bright and airy living area. My "long" passageway.. ID proposed doing something differently for this BUT he didn do a 3D for this so hard for me to explain too.. so keep reading my blog to see how it turn out in the end! hehe.. We absolutely hate the yellow wall tiles in between so beside using glass backing, we are going to it away! My other half was delighted with our toilets, as it exceeds our expectation.. the wall tiles are actually quite nice lo so can save some monies here! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlurRhino 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2010 guess new home owners will have the key pouches from hdb... the $10 collected have all been put to good use haha initially i only thought maybe only treetop has since its a premium project but really didn expect this is for all house owners.. yup agree the 10 bucks paid is worth it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kerio 2 Report post Posted November 9, 2010 Congrats Rhino!! Finally your turn liao! A quick tip if you're considering a rainshower - we went by to buy the shower head on Deepavali and our ID updated us that we can't fit a rain shower inside because of the casing concealing the pipes Good luck for your reno, and do get a clean 3D design and quotation from your ID! We're having some problems with our design and pricing because these were not finalised prior to reno commencement >.< Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
