Memoirs Of A Princess And Her Geek

[princessandhergeek 1]

Hi fellow forumers!

This blog is specially created to track the renovation progress of our first home - we've been actively scouring the forums for advice and have benefited a lot from fellow forumers, so we hope to be able to contribute back in the same way by sharing with everyone our experiences =)

A bit of fun fact before the actual blogging starts:

We decided to call ourselves 'princessandhergeek' because of how it defines us - princess is the hebrew translation of my name (and also because the idea of being a princess is really appealing to a woman who still has girlish daydreams occasionally), and my husband is a true blue computer geek (in a very cute and smart way - haha). He is my geek and my knight in shining armor *wink*. We are newlyweds in our mid - late 20s (thus explaining why I seem to be so hyper).

In Memoirs of a Princess and her Geek, we will be touching on mostly everything house related - from purchasing of the house to renovations to house purchases =) and you'll get to read (perhaps) how a princess and a geek will work together to build a house suitable for them both. NOTE: This princess here does not want to have a castle in the sky decorated with rainbows and diamonds, so you do not have to worry about reading fluff =P

With that, I shall conclude the introduction to our 'Memoirs of a Princess and her Geek' and start the blogging of our house purchase, renovations and more!

The princess and her geek,

TS Yip

[thedottyness 0]

Lol! Welcome to reno talk! Nice intro.

[May_dream1 14]

Welcome to RT!! Interesting start to your tblog! Keep it coming....

[casa 0]

Welcome aboard to RT

Hope to c your reno pics soon

[sarafie 0]

decided to delete post =D

Edited July 3, 2012 by sarafie

[sarafie 0]

error!!

Edited July 3, 2012 by sarafie

[princessandhergeek 1]

=D thanks for the comments!

I'm excited to keep on typing replies, but I'm limited by my capability - I was waiting for my geek knight in shining armor to come home and help me with the setting up of the multiply/ flickr account so that I can start posting pictures =D

For a start, we actually got our house from the 2010 Sale of Balance Flats Exercise (Yes, not a typo – we have been delaying the start of the renovation since we collected the keys in June 2011). The flat we chose is from the Damai Grove Project in Punggol, 10 mins walk from the Punggol MRT and 3 mins walk to the Damai LRT. Our Queue number was 23x out of 5xx 4rm units (vague numbers – this is purely an assumption as it took place soooo long ago..) and we ended up picking up the low level units in Damai over the high floors in Breeze as we wanted something within walking distance to the MRT (but this means we sacrificed the view.. which still makes me a little sad thinking about it at times)

Being first time house owners, there are a lot of things that we didn’t think to note when choosing a house – it’s not just the east/ west facing that is important – for lower level houses – you need to note where the rubbish chute is/ if there are street lights and if your service yard is facing the road/ sun/ other people's service yards. We might not have made the best choice at that time, but at least now we know better =D and then again - We're considered blessed to have been able to get a house on the second try >.< so we're counting our blessings! =D

Anyway, here is the floorplan of the house we chose (dimensions are distorted - sorry!):

It was after the taking of keys in June 2011 that my geek and I suddenly realised that we do not have enough time anymore - we have not started preparing much for our wedding in October 2011, and we were the type who wanted everything to go well (as much as possible anyway) - which was the main reason why we decided to postpone the renovations of the house till after the wedding (and honeymoon). After much forum reading and talking to friends and colleagues, we realised that getting the RIGHT contractor/ ID was the first most important step in a house renovation, so we decided to make sure we got the right person who will be able to get the job done well and whom we are comfortable with. Unfortunately, we took our own sweet time in finding the right contractor/ID.

While finding the right person, we also did our own space planning (we had like 10 different types of layout in the beginning - no kidding - I was obsessed with getting a layout i was happy with (a wet and dry kitchen - had to scrap it in the end due to lack of space)).

The whole contractor/ ID searching process was grueling - but as my geek likes to say, wedding planning and house renovation are projects that bring us closer together as we have to learn to work together and compromise =D

In order to get the right contractor/ID, my geek and I (again taking our own sweet time) went around asking for recommendations and contacts from our colleagues, family members, renotalk forumers, punggol org forumers, damai grove forumers. Some forumers even allowed us to visit their homes =D Really appreciate the generosity of fellow punggolians and forumers in hosting us at their houses and enduring the multiple questions thrown at them online as well as face-to-face =D

We ended up speaking to 20 plus companies (again - an estimate), these companies include the bigger players (Weiken, Chew Interior, Classic Design, Meng Design (don't know if these guys are considered big - but they are starting to have adverts on the tv so...)), the regular trade show goers (Cissern, Rezt and Relax, Y-axis, Unimax Creative), others we found online through forums or posts (Baroque, 9 Degree Design, IR Design, ID Note), recommendations from colleagues and family (Jade Land Design and Renovation, XXX company (my mum's contact - not sure name of company)). Our friends were also undergoing the whole ID searching process (or still waiting for their flat) so they were unable to advise much. And we also spoke to many of the companies at IMM..

After contacting the different contractors/ IDs and looking at their initial quotes and proposed floorplan (only those who bothered to take action after the discussion), we shortlisted a few contractors/ID:

Bxxx from Jade Land Design and Renovation

Kxxxx from Chew Interior

Jxxxx from Weiken

Txxx from ID Note

Kxx from Meng Design

Gxxxxx from 9 Degree Design

Rxx from IR Design

We had a lengthy discussion with some of these designers/ contractors, and were impressed by them.. but as my hubby and I were discussing about their strengths/ weaknesses and who to choose, we came across this website that advised us on what type of designers and contractors to be aware of - e.g. beware of contractors/ designers who promised you the sky, who talk bad about other customers in front of you and so on..of cox, price was definitely a factor to note..

The renovations we wanted for the house included hacking of bedroom walls, kitchen wall and so on, so the price will make out to be quite steep.. and also because we took our sweet time, we had a contractor revise his quote and increased it by more than $10,000 - was inflation really that bad? o.o

Some weird incidents that we encountered -

Designer badmouthing other customers in front of us (the potential customers) which makes us wonder if he will do that to us eventually.

Same designer offering to knock off more than 10,000 from his quoted price as long as we be his customers on the side (no records) (eventually he told us to follow him to his new company and be his first customer).

Designer promising the sky, but ended up saying things that defame himself (that he is notorious)

Designer trying to force a layout on us that we didn't like

In the end we didn't dare to take up the above designer/s as we were worried that the renovation experience would turn out bad..we were very tempted though - sgd10,000! that's a lot of money o.o but weighing the consequences (possibility of losing the money (if we were to be customers on the side without records of us existing) and getting scolded vulgarities in the course of the renovation (something which he was doing really often)), we decided to forgo that designer..(plus the workmanship we visited was not good, and half the time he was scolding the customer behind their back o.o)

--> disclaimer: please do not flame me! just sharing experiences here.... >.< maybe to someone else this is normal.. but for me it was a scary experience o.o >.<

In any case, I should clarify that the above was just a one-off case. The other designers/ contractors that we met/ shortlisted were very sincere and good hearted people, and they really tried to listen to your needs. We were pretty impressed with some of them, but had to strike them off the list due to budget constraints or poor workmanship or not having enough faith in them..after all that drama rama, we thought that this was the end, our house will never get renovated..

that was when we decided to try an old contact that we got from the forums here at renotalk - Rxx from IR design. We had written his name and contact down since 2011, but only contacted him this year..Forums said that he's a good chap who works for your benefit and to your satisfaction, just that sometimes he responds slowly and doesn't follow up with quotes.. but we were thinking, one more option is a wise choice, so we decided to ring him up and arrange for a meeting..

that first meeting, we felt comfortable talking to him.. (a bit of background on my geek - he knows only 2.3 languages - english, computer and 0.3 mandarin - which means he finds it difficult to communicate with some designers/ contractors who insisted on talking in perfect Chinese even after we requested for singlish haha). but Rxx was really nice, my husband found it easy and comfortable to communicate with him even though they weren't exactly speaking in English all the time. After that first meeting, our evaluation of Rxx was that he was sincere, easy to talk to, experienced, can man his people well, humble man. We left that day wondering if the quote would come soon or if we would accidentally be ignored.. but the quote came after 2 days! He later explained to us that he knows he needs to pick up his speed, and is currently doing so, but because he is a one-man show in his company, that is why sometimes he has to choose his customers - and he normally chooses those who were recommended to him rather than the walk ins.. we were attracted to the fact that because he is a one-man show, there is no danger of us being shifted to the next designer in the company (which happened to us at ID Note)..

Anyway, for our next meeting, he brought us to a customer house. Unlike our previous experiences where the designer did all the talking, his customer (a lovely husband and wife couple) did most of the talking after Rxx was done with the initial introductions. Rxx looked embarrassed while they were singing his praises haha..but they did warn that he was a busy busy guy o.o We were impressed by the workmanship as well as how he managed his customers.. and after more forum reading, further discussions and some quote revisions, we decided to go with him! We wanted the job to be done right and well by a person like him who (according to forumers) is responsive to correcting mistakes promptly. Fortunately, time wasn't much of an issue (we didn't have to move in by X date so...)

[sccy2 0]

Hi, welcome to RT and Punggol community !! So which part of Punggol you from?

[jshome 1]

Welcome to tblog and all the best n your renovation.

Just a note, although you are not in a hurry to move in, it is still better to give them a reasonable timeline. In our 1st home, we also give them ample time to complete, telling them you can do slowly but give me quality work!! I was so wrong... They really take their time, mine was not a priority, got free worker then come and do abit, the whole renovation took us 6mths! Its very tiring for us because the trip going up and down and seeing nothing was done, bought electronics, furniture and dunno when can deliver and etc etc... Just very tiring lah!

[princessandhergeek 1]

Hi, welcome to RT and Punggol community !! So which part of Punggol you from?

hi sccy!

thanks~ from Damai Grove haha.. the one in between Treelodge and Punggol Breeze =D what about you?

[princessandhergeek 1]

Welcome to tblog and all the best n your renovation.

Just a note, although you are not in a hurry to move in, it is still better to give them a reasonable timeline. In our 1st home, we also give them ample time to complete, telling them you can do slowly but give me quality work!! I was so wrong... They really take their time, mine was not a priority, got free worker then come and do abit, the whole renovation took us 6mths! Its very tiring for us because the trip going up and down and seeing nothing was done, bought electronics, furniture and dunno when can deliver and etc etc... Just very tiring lah!

omg.. 6 months is a really really long time..... thanks for the advice! okok will go take note of it.. got to go plan a date >.< do you think september will be a good time to have everything completed? o.o a bit scared of moving in o.o the thought of moving my junk stuff from parents' place to our new home is daunting but excited to have our new house soon~~~~~ hahahahaha

Edited July 3, 2012 by princessandhergeek

[princessandhergeek 1]

In the end, after multiple rounds of discussions (and with my geek knocking some sense into me - i was reallllly stubborn), I finally dropped the idea of a wet and dry kitchen and this is the final layout that we will be having~!

Final Layout:

when my hubby found out I wanted to post, he decided to do a zone representation of the img above (see below), insisting that this will help people to understand - sooooo cute!!hahaha

Final Layout by zone:

So sweet right? more pictures coming up! =D

P.S.: we are planning to make the guest room into a music room =D

[sccy2 0]

hi sccy!

thanks~ from Damai Grove haha.. the one in between Treelodge and Punggol Breeze =D what about you?

hihi..

I think I roughly know where is it..600+ right?

Mine is @ Punggol Sapphire (near to the Punggol haunted house..hehe)

[princessandhergeek 1]

hihi..

I think I roughly know where is it..600+ right?

Mine is @ Punggol Sapphire (near to the Punggol haunted house..hehe)

ooo! sapphire is nice! we were eyeing sapphire during the sobf 2010, but it was all snapped up before it was our turn to select a flat - congrats though! hehehe.. ya i heard about the matilda house duno if it is really haunted....

[princessandhergeek 1]

My hubby did some scribblings based on discussions with Roy from IR =D (yup he's our guy!)

Really excited to see everything start to fall in place!

Edited September 3, 2012 by princessandhergeek