My Love Nest In Sengkang

[cocobliss 1]

Hi all, although I have not received news of when my keys can be collected, however i am already excited about its completion! for one, they are already starting to install the watertank for my block, but there are other blocks which are only around 50% done stacking.. how long more you think it will take to complete?

Nevertheless, the optimistic me hopes it will be by end-2014, but ideally 1st quarter of 2015.. hopefully it won't go past mid-2015!

I decided to start this and hopefully upkeep this. we are just at the very infancy stage of designing our house. in fact you could say even our "infant" is not born! I am now trying to read up on jargons, deciding on ID/contractor, and of cos shortlisting them.

it's really been an eye-opener. everything is new to me, i don't even know if i know where to start. hence i decided to start early. get myself into the world of renovation so that at least i know what i am talking when i meet with the IDs.

that's all for now. any feedback is appreciated

[cocobliss 1]

my floor plan to start off..

[Songz 132]

Welcome to RT.

Wish you a smooth Reno ^^

[cocobliss 1]

me again. am deciding between ID and contractor. initially i thought i could do without ID. cos my E (wife-to-be) is a very creative and aesthetically inclined person (at least more so than me). so i thought i'd leave the design entirely to her, while i become the practical CFO.

however after reading renotalk, i am starting to worry that it is not as easy as it seemed. i thought i could just produce the design, and then instruct the contractor on what to do. but it seems that there are the materials to consider, type of paint, flooring, lighting.. just so many!

while i am still undecided, my plan would be to go to well known enclaves like paya lebar, defu, jalan besar, expos, and talk to IDs/contractors and shortlisting before deciding.

from what i have gathered from renotalk, the below are pretty decent.

3D innovations Jimmy Tan

Defong Kevin

Plush Living Johnny

Three-d Concept Werke

Imposed Design

K*l**d* spamming ID firm Interior

Meter Square

IntraDesign Dave

ImageCreativeDesign James

PoshHome CalvinTan

i think for me responsiveness is very important. cannot stand people being mia. my experience with my bridal boutique. the boss can promise us everything. when it came to servicing, she mia. then now her staff is doing the work. at least her staff is a tad more responsive.

how i am sourcing is also from those renovation portals where you fill up details and then IDs will start calling you. not very responsive though.. maybe my date is still far away; or my info is not adequate..

i hope to update as i go along, from meeting IDs/con to going for expo shows =)

Edited February 4, 2014 by cocobliss

[cocobliss 1]

Welcome to RT.

Wish you a smooth Reno ^^

Thank you!

[cocobliss 1]

another concern of course would be buying furnishings and furnitures. initially i thought i could buy all from a single vendor eg. star furniture. but it seems to be everyone buys everything from everywhere. the scouting must be really tedious! a part of me may be too lazy to go to that extend, however the amount saved i believe would be substantial.

another popular source is taobao. however i am still undecided about it. concerns of cos quality and shipping. and it doesn't beat being able to feel the product yourself.. hmm..

IKEA. an obvious choice, however am concerned about the quality too. as the staff are not affliated to the coy, they may not do their best? quality is another concern. i have some cheap ikea furniture which is filmsy and gets mouldy easily. you get what you pay for. am unsure about those more expensive products though.

[guojiawen 101]

Hi there, we have really similar floor plan!

Looking forward to seeing your ideas

[Songz 132]

another concern of course would be buying furnishings and furnitures. initially i thought i could buy all from a single vendor eg. star furniture. but it seems to be everyone buys everything from everywhere. the scouting must be really tedious! a part of me may be too lazy to go to that extend, however the amount saved i believe would be substantial.

another popular source is taobao. however i am still undecided about it. concerns of cos quality and shipping. and it doesn't beat being able to feel the product yourself.. hmm..

IKEA. an obvious choice, however am concerned about the quality too. as the staff are not affliated to the coy, they may not do their best? quality is another concern. i have some cheap ikea furniture which is filmsy and gets mouldy easily. you get what you pay for. am unsure about those more expensive products though.

Got to agree that even the furniture will be very taxing.

Quality and worksmanship is another factor, I will suggest you go to those areas like Sungei Kadut and Ubi to take a look but check them out first online before you purchase, think there are some really bad service and quality which a lot have complain.

Hope this helps

[cocobliss 1]

Got to agree that even the furniture will be very taxing.

Quality and worksmanship is another factor, I will suggest you go to those areas like Sungei Kadut and Ubi to take a look but check them out first online before you purchase, think there are some really bad service and quality which a lot have complain.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the tip!!

[cocobliss 1]

a short update.. as mentioned, i am looking for IDs now. What i did was look through renotalk and also registered myself through several portals (where you send 1 request and 10 IDs call you back. haha..)

from those shortlisted from renotalk, and those who replied me, i gave their portfolio to E for the first layer of filter: see their design nice or not. so if E doesn't like, out. Like, 2nd round.

Afterwhich, i will look through renotalk again for those E passed, and then filter out those which has generally negative reviews.

Finally, will meet up with them. E will look through their portfolio again, while i will observe their vibe. i am a sucker for service, so even if the designs are good, but the ID doesn't give me a good feeling, out. i mean, you really wanna be careful if you are paying $30,000!

Hopefully i can share a list of the shortlised IDs soon

[guojiawen 101]

a short update.. as mentioned, i am looking for IDs now. What i did was look through renotalk and also registered myself through several portals (where you send 1 request and 10 IDs call you back. haha..)

from those shortlisted from renotalk, and those who replied me, i gave their portfolio to E for the first layer of filter: see their design nice or not. so if E doesn't like, out. Like, 2nd round.

Afterwhich, i will look through renotalk again for those E passed, and then filter out those which has generally negative reviews.

Finally, will meet up with them. E will look through their portfolio again, while i will observe their vibe. i am a sucker for service, so even if the designs are good, but the ID doesn't give me a good feeling, out. i mean, you really wanna be careful if you are paying $30,000!

Hopefully i can share a list of the shortlised IDs soon

Totally agree that the vibes must be right and must be able to "click" with the ID. Else will be really tough down the road..

Jiayou for your search for the ideal ID!

[cocobliss 1]

Went to the modern living fair at expo. only my second time checking out such fairs. realised crowd is not big, and it spans over 1 week, unlike those IT and travel fairs.

So today's agenda was to mainly check out furnitures, bed, and IDs. as you all would know, we are not what they would term "serious buyers".

here's what we found out:

the first ID we spoke to was so painful. mainly he talked sooooo slowly... stuttering... it was just painful. I somehow had the feeling that many IDs are not local. however, i am not against them. but if i cannot talk to them properly, i cannot hire them. we couldn't wait to move on.

What i look for in ID. prefer a "older" one, as i would assume they have more experiences, bigger portfolio. most IDs were pretty young. which made me wonder how many works have they done. while they would always show me company brochures and catalogues, i would always request to see THEIR own works. of course they won't have it with them. so if we decide to go a step further, i will definitely request that. i would even request to view actual works of their flats.

to summarise, those that impressed us:

plushk***n (supposedly is ID)

postu***e (mattress)

Fuse***t (ID)

nov***a (furniture)

magi***l (near our area so we already knew of this company)

if u really want to know:

Skyc*** (the really painful conversation)

also went to sim siang choon nearby. let's just say it's out of our league.

my very preliminary budgeting:

total $30,000 (including kitchen)

kitchen $8,000

found out that a decent storage queen bed frame with back board (mattress included) should cost around $1200.

what do you all think?

I'm starting a list of "cluster areas" where you can go and find several IDs/furniture/furnishing shops. anyone wanna add to the list?

908 upper thomson road

10 toh guan road

301 upper thomson road

62 sungei kadut loop

51 kaki bukit industrial terrace (kaki bukit rd 3)

288 balestier road

51 sims avenue

246 macpherson road

479 sims avenue

51 ubi avenue 1

63 hillview avenue

33 ubi ave 3

44 kallang place

[Tazzer 1]

Try not to get new & inexperience ID (even they tell u they have snr ID follow them) or else u will have nightmare like me bcos a lot of things won't get it right on the first time. I have supervise the whole reno and they are hardly there.
Make sure u hold at less 20% of the payment till the end and pay the last 10% after 1 month after handover.

[cocobliss 1]

Not much updates as of late. Been looking at other aspects of our wedding.

I am looking at 2 quotations i received from IDs and they only quote me $10k +?? While im still trying to learn the terms, this sounds too cheap and definitely exclude lots of other essentials, or even hidden cost? One even offered a free led tv..

[guojiawen 101]

Not much updates as of late. Been looking at other aspects of our wedding.

I am looking at 2 quotations i received from IDs and they only quote me $10k +?? While im still trying to learn the terms, this sounds too cheap and definitely exclude lots of other essentials, or even hidden cost? One even offered a free led tv..

Hi there, just sharing from my experience, the $10k+ could be their most basic package?

E.g most basic packages offer 20ft kitchen cabinet but we actually need 40ft for top and bottom cabinets on both sides of the kitchen.. Table top could be the basic solid surface and requires top up etc..

Maybe can ask around for fellow bloggers quotation to have a rough gauge of required items so nothing is missed out

Hope this helps!