dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 26, 2010 (edited) Hi All, Welcome to our T-Blog... We are currently awaiting the arrival of our keys to our first home in Coral Spring and like all eager soon-to-be home owners, we've started to meet with Interior Designers, bugged friends who have contacts for good deals (furniture, lights, anything to do with setting up a new home) and also visited any furniture malls / shops we can think of, even though we have no idea what was going to be suitable.. We hope that by penning down our renovation footprints in this T-blog, it will help us to keep track of what we've done, our thoughts on certain shops, furniture styles etc, so we won't lose them as we continue to recce other options. At the same time, we hope our research, ideas or thoughts can be shared with everyone.. Please feel free to comment on any of our posts.. We definitely appreciate your feedback.. =) 请多多指教... First up, our premium flat 4-room floor plan... Floor Plan by dizy.weds, on Flickr Edited December 27, 2010 by dizyweds Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 26, 2010 Interior Designers (Or Not) After meeting with a number of Interior Designers, both of us have categorized them into 3 main categories.. Category 1) The real ID, ID - Designer who designs your home, propose materials, color schemes, etc and also advise you on your furniture/fixing choices.. Quotation is not very cheap, but shouldn't be crazily high as well.. Category 2) ID-Contractor - These type of ID will follow everything u want to the T... Basically u tell them all your criteria and they will draw them on your floor plan for you (I'm sure a lot of free websites offer these kind of DIY function).. Colour schemes will also be chosen by you.. Therefore, if you meet with these IDs, their quotation should be cheaper than those in Category 1.. Category 3) ID-Salesman - Basically, these are the ones who only roughly tell u your space planning, know a bit but not much... Ultimate goal is to psycho u to sign up a package with them.. If you say you wanna change any layout they will tell u,"OK, I'll go and plan, redraw then we will meet again". They will then submit the changes to their company's 'real' designer to do the stuff... Having said that, based on our experience, this category of IDs charged us horrendously high.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 26, 2010 Our Experience with Interior Designers Not sure if we are able to pinpoint the IDs by name.. So we are just gonna abbreviate their company names.. If there are those who are interested in finding out who exactly they are, can always PM us.. However, we must also clarify that having one experience with one interior designer in a particular company does not mean that you will get the same experience as us.. So please take our post with a pinch of salt, just for your information purpose.. I.H. Well, nothing much to say about them because after dropping by and having a one hour chat with one of their designers, we did not hear any news from them thereafter. Some might ask why we did not call to check/follow up.. We feel that if even in the beginning phase (when we haven't even signed on the dotted line), they do not have the initiative to follow up with us (even when they said they would), it probably means that if we were to engage him, we would have a hard time contacting him during our renovation.. R.R. A big company, but the ID we talked to belongs to Category 3 (refer to previous post). She seemed pretty inexperience and the quotation she gave us was horrendously expensive.. What made us turned off was the fact that in that horrendously expensive quotation was a TV feature wall for our MBR and the material used was gypsum board.. We asked her what that was and she said, "Oh, it's quite a flimsy material, not very good quality, that's why we are using it in the MBR, the living room will be using something of better quality." ??? So... if the quality was not good, why are you using it for our reno? And why is the quotation so high?? In the quotation, she also quoted for clearing of debris.. When we asked, why do we need to pay $500 for this? She says it's to clear the wood left over from the carpentry works done.. ??? There is completely NO hacking in our requirements.. None of the other IDs quoted us this.. So she was trying to rip us off? Do take note for those with no hacking works that this clearing of debris charge is completely NOT NECESSARY AT ALL.. A.D. We had a pretty good impression of this company.. This company belongs to Category 1.. Their past works look good and before you sign, they are willing to show you one 3D drawing of their proposed layout.. Pretty good ideas coming from the ID we spoke to.. We were very eager to find our after our first meeting, what he had in store for our home.. On the second meeting, he showed us the quotation which came up to be a little over budget but was still the lowest then. With the price and the ID belonging to Category 1, we were just one step away from signing with this ID... But then, came the third meeting... We had an idea and we were pretty set on doing it our way as we felt that his plan wasn't to our liking.. However, he wasn't very receptive to our ideas and tried to insist on his own.. This got us a little worried that if we do sign with him, along the way, when we felt we wanted certain things our way, he would not do it for us.. Ultimately, he gave in when we insisted (again and again).. But that came with a price increase and from a little over budget, it became more than a little over budget.. He also sarcastically said that that was the price for wanting our idea.. Ok, so this ID was then ON HOLD... B.D We spoke to a very friendly ID who gave us very practical ideas.. We had a good chat on the first meeting, but the problem came on our second meeting. The quotation was much lower than we had expected and we were pretty happy to see a smaller number after so many high numbers.. But words like, "I'll show you the color chart then you can choose what colour you want to match." and " Ok, so you want this here and want this here." finally showed us that he belonged to Category 2.. It wasn't a bad thing, just that we were really looking for someone to design our home and do all the necessary colour, design coordination without us having to worry about our lack of design sense.. Otherwise, there is no point in getting a "ID".. He was a very practical guy whom constantly advised us that we will someday be daddy and mummy and we need to plan for that.. So, our ideas were slowly thrown out of the quotation as they were "not practical for kids".. At the same time, the quotation numbers were getting smaller and smaller which we should be happy about but looking at our "dream home" design becoming a "no-design" home got our spirits lower as well.. We would definitely recommend him if your reno requires no design and it's just carpentry work.. Then again, contractors might be cheaper.. S.D Similar to I.H, nothing much to talk about as after the first phone call, he promise to contact us again with his proposed design a week later.. But we never heard from him again... Debbie Decor Interior Well, as you can see, we spelt out the name of this Interior Designer, which also means that we have engaged them.. Johnson was recommended to us by our good friend who engaged him about 1.5 years ago to renovate her new place in Punggol.. Our first meeting went very well.. He was a good listener who hears what we want.. He then digests them and advises us on whether it was feasible or if there was a better way in doing it.. He gave us a proposed idea for our kitchen which none of the other IDs had thought of.. We particularly liked it as it was practical and does not compromise on the design.. In fact, we feel that it gave our kitchen a much sleeker look.. He was also able to draw 3D drawings on blank paper of his proposed layout and that gave us a better visualization of what he meant.. Again, none of the other IDs we met did that.. On our second meeting, his quotation blew us away.. Not very, very cheap but lesser for more compared to the others.. We were initially worried about the quality as it could have been compromised due to the lower pricing but were soon assured by him after asking tons of questions.. We then visited our dear friend's home to have a look at the workmanship and was pleasantly happy with the condition of them even after 1.5 years.. In addition, we felt comfortable communicating with him and therefore decided to engage him.. So the excitement officially begins... 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dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Sneak(y) Peek After seeing a number of future neighbours post about their adventures of going into our block and getting sneak previews of their units, we decided to do the same over the weekend.. We met a very nice worker who brought us up to our unit to have a look.. Along the way he kept saying he would be dead if he got caught by his supervisor.. Here are the photos we managed to quicky snap (sorry for the not-so-sharp images as we couldn't turn on the flash and we were trying to quickly see and get out before we get Mr Kind into any sort of trouble..) Living Room - Pretty happy with the size, square shaped so it would be easier to design as well.. =) Kitchen Entrance - Wide Entrance, planning to put the fridge next to HHS and have a door covering HHS.. Kitchen - This is where our top/bottom cabinets will be fixed.. Common Bathroom - Not gonna do anything to this... Service Yard Entrance - Didn't dare to walk out in case someone else saw us.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 MBR - Smaller than we imagined MBR Window View - Unblocked and pretty windy! *like* Weird concave area in Common Room 1 - Getting ID to propose ideas to flush that wall up.. View of Kitchen Entrance from Outside Bedroom Entrances View from Living Room - Unlike the 3 rooms, the view here is blocked and not windy at all Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
laiwh 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Hi neighbour, happy reno hehe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yashimi 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Welcome to Renotalk.. guess we had all shifted from SK.com to here.. We got the exact same layout... but u all will definately got the keys much earlier than me..... have fun renovating.. we are only starting to start sourcing for things and should start my renoblog shortly! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Hi neighbour, happy reno hehe Hehe.. Thank you neighbour... Happr Reno-ing to all of us @ CS! =) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Welcome to Renotalk.. guess we had all shifted from SK.com to here.. We got the exact same layout... but u all will definately got the keys much earlier than me..... have fun renovating.. we are only starting to start sourcing for things and should start my renoblog shortly! Hi neighbour.. =) Cool! Hehe.. I think this layout is good.. Not much odd shapes and big kitchen entrance! Are u from 410B? Don't worry! It'll br here vv soon! =) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yashimi 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Hi neighbour.. =) Cool! Hehe.. I think this layout is good.. Not much odd shapes and big kitchen entrance! Are u from 410B? Don't worry! It'll br here vv soon! =) Yeah.. Its Julie here.... yup.. 410B loh.. the last block..... *sianz* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Yeah.. Its Julie here.... yup.. 410B loh.. the last block..... *sianz* Ooo Julie! I was trying to figure out who which nickname was.. Heh Heh.. U shld start with ur ID earlier cos it takes about a mth or so to finalize your design.. Not to mention even before you sign with an ID, u gotta speak to a few and wait for their quotes.. I think starting earlier abit wouldn't be too bad.. =D By the time you get your keys, you can start immediately and move in quickly too! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Below is the rough flat (which we drew up very amateurishly) layout after discussion with our ID.. There isn't really much to play with for layout since space is pretty limited. Please feel free to comment/feedback on our current layout.. =) Floor Plan_Edit by dizy.weds, on Flickr Ceiling works will be done in the living room, MBR and Entertainment Room (Bedroom 3) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Philips Cinema 21:9 Full HD 56" LCD TV [56PFL9954H] The first item we purchased for our new house! Kinda like the opening ceremony for our pockets to start bleeding.. Lolx.. Both of us are crazy about watching movies and this TV just blew us away when we first saw it.. The hubby loves playing games as well so this TV is absolutely perfect! It might be a tad too big for our not-so-big entertainment room, but it's really still ok, because it's actually pretty short in height (a little higher than a 42" TV) and it's just very, very wide.. Kinda hard to describe, pictures below.. =) cinema_21-9_01_lifestyle-shot-hanging-night_i1MNy_48 by dizy.weds, on Flickr 114191 by dizy.weds, on Flickr I did a screen shot of a video presentation by Philips on the Cinema TV.. The one in the middle is a 42" Philips TV and on both sides, the Cinema TV.. Philips Vs 42 by dizy.weds, on Flickr We so love our TV! I can imagine us stuck in the entertainment room day in day out! Haha.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Onkyo 5.1 Entertainment System [HT-S3300B] With sucha "cinema" TV, we decided to get an entertainment system as well.. However, we kinda know nuts in this subject so after reading some reviews and listening to the live demonstration @ the store, we decided to get this 5.1 system from Onkyo.. Being a small room and all, I think anything above 5.1 might be too much? But then again, we are not experts in this.. This is more than enough for us to enjoy our movies and games.. =) HT-S3300B by dizy.weds, on Flickr Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dizyweds 0 Report post Posted December 27, 2010 Sealy Mayfair (King Size) The wife fell in love with this mattress the moment she lay on it.. Of cos, there were more comfortable ones but at a price that was way over our head.. The plushy pillow top feels really comfy.. Can't wait to start sleeping on it! =) Sealy_Mayfair by dizy.weds, on Flickr Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
