Our Dream Home @ Woodlands Meadow

[Phoebetanggy 0]

Sounds awesome, could you pass me the contact too?

[guojiawen 101]

Sounds awesome, could you pass me the contact too?

Hi Phoebe,

Can you PM me your email address? Thanks

[EthanDad 2]

Mailbox full..

[guojiawen 101]

Mailbox full..

Hey there, just deleted the conversations in my mailbox..

[guojiawen 101]

Spent my Sunday sleeping around Centrepoint - Bed shopping!

Had already went to Woodlands Courts previously to try out Sealy and IMM to try out Serta & Simmons. Mum was with me during that trip and after lying on various higher end ones, she could only say... it is really yi fen qian yi fen huo (meaning we get what we pay for). Haha.

As hubby prefers firm mattress as he has back problems while I prefer something cushier, we tried out the medium firm mattresses. Too bad for me as plush mattresses can be soooo comfy!

Our budget is set at $5k as we felt that it is an important investment to get good rest and to support our back. Since it is already pretty high, we are not prepared to burst it unless something really really really good comes up.

Our Causeway Point Courts trip

Met the Sealy salesman once we walked to the bedding section and he shared a lot on the +ve points of a Sealy mattress. Like their double tempered interlinked spring coils, silver ion mattress top, comfort of the mattress and so on... But one thing that struck me (hubby didn't notice) was that he kept insisting that the most expensive bed was the best selling model Elixir - $6,999. It was indeed comfy, but i think due to the price, it was already a huge turn off.... We did try a few others, but did not like the beds. So we left without any shortlisted ones.

Our IMM trip

Heading into Simmons, we met the sales lady who is nice, but offered no explanation whatsoever. Even when I asked questions like which should we try, what are the better ones, whats the difference between the 3Ss, she did not really explain. But one thing she told us which I can resonate with - buying mattress really depends on our own comfort level. Have to test before we know. She's also more Chinese speaking (sounds like PRC), and our Chinese are not v good, so we had difficulty understanding her explanation too.

They had more than 10 mattresses in their showroom though so we were not prepared to lie on every single one of it. So after just walking around and looking at the beds (not trying yet), she finally asked what firmness we prefer and then pointed us to two beds. We were not really impressed by either though.. As they were also phasing out their existing stocks of Advanced Backcare S3000, we felt it was pretty much sales talk to sell that piece, saying how good it is, how worth it is etc. King Sized S3000 with bed frame after discount was going at $5.2k. She added that Simmons didn't have other models within our requirements and budget. O.o. Guess to her we are small time buyers~

I think the saleslady was stunned when hubby told her towards the end, if there's no more stocks when we finally decide to buy, then it's okay, no fate to buy that bed. Needless to say, we left the place without buying since we were not really WOWed by the bed. I then spent time to google for reviews while my mum went around looking for lights and ceiling fans for her own home. Based on what i googled, people bought the mattress without bed frame at around the same price as the current one on offer. So the so called "phasing out sales" was probably just buy the bed and get a free bed frame while stocks last.

Simmons best selling point is that their mattress or using pocketed spring and when one person shift on one end of the bed, the other person cannot feel it - for those who recall, they had the bowling ball ad in the pass where they drop it on the bed and the pins remain standing. After some discussion, we decided that we are both heavy sleepers and won't get affected by each other's shifting on the bed. So... in the end, we decided that Simmons is well beyond our budget, doesn't really match what we want and struck the brand out of our list.

The next shop we tried was Serta - they have the most models of beds in IMM (more than 10) and after going to the branch in Centrepoint today with about 6 beds on display, we were lucky to have went to the IMM boutique beforehand. I guess it could be that many couples go in without intention of buying, so the salesman at IMM was pretty cool and didn't attend to us at the beginning. He just told us to try the ones around the front of the shop. Hubby & I didn't like those beds and asked whether there's others. Only then did he really started attending to us and he brought us inside to try the hotel series. There's one that is super comfy but cost like $8k. Nice to try on, not so nice on our pocket. So we moved on to other beds..

Two of the best sellers he recommended was the Diamond Suite and the Sophistication. After lying down on both, we preferred the Sophistication (soft enough for me yet firm enough for hubby) and enquired on the price and any freebies he could throw in. The end package looked pretty reasonable at $4.2k including bed frame, two pillows, one mattress protector, bed end bench and one Serta sheep. Further negotiation was met with a - I can't do much or I won't get to earn, or I may even need to eat into my own pay - so that was the best he could offer.

Sophistication was the best bed for both of us so far, but we still went off without buying - so I can do more research by googling lol. Apparently, the freebies were much more around 2008. I saw pple sharing on forums that they manage to get 2 normal pillows, 2 latex pillows (hubby love their latex pillow btw, but it now costs $99 each!), 2 mattress protector, 2 sheeps.... you get the drift. I think their HQ clamp down harder on freebies coz we tried again at the Centrepoint outlet but definitely didn't luck out. At the end of our IMM scouting, our mind was pretty much on Sophistication unless something better comes along.

___________

Saw the Robinsons clearance / moving out sale in the newspaper on Friday, and decided to try our luck at Centrepoint today. Again, we met with a Sealy salesperson. He was different from the rest we met though. The first question he asked was - do any one of you have back problem. Coz the recommendation will depend hugely on that. So since hubby was the one with back problems, he got the privilege of trying out the recommended beds and see which is best for him. Though the sales person did say... usually the wife get to choose lol.

The two beds hubby "shortlisted" after trying on was the posturepedic unicased prestige series - Bliss & Pegasus. Robinson is having their promotion of buying a King bed at Queens price plus a nominal $8 extra and on top of that, OCBC Robinsons card had 5% cash rebate too. So after calculating, Bliss works out to $3911 for King w/o bed frame (not including the 5% credit card rebates). We did not ask for Pegasus as the display plate wrote about $6k (I did not try on that too... no point since we cannot afford!)

I loved the feel of the Bliss but we were undecided between this or the Sophistication. So we left to deliberate.

I do agree with some people that buying bed goes along the line of... you will know it when you find it. Haha. We headed out to the Serta outlet in Centrepoint after that and re-tried on Sophistication. Since we laid on both for at least 10 mins, my body told me... Bliss won

We headed back to Gary, the Sealy sales person from Robinsons and purchased our King mattress for the price of Queen at $3911 - KIV the bed frame for $700 if we decide to get it in the future. There's also this price match guarantee. So if price goes up on this model in the future, we will still pay this price. But if price drops due to any other promotion, we will get the price matched to the lower price. All these, plus our 5% rebate on our OCBC Robinsons card. I certainly felt that its a great deal (though further googling seems to say otherwise =x)

So... we have our bed purchased today!

[guojiawen 101]

Just to add on to the bed shopping post (it was getting longgg...)

I read online that pillow tops (for the more exp models) have the tendency to flatten over time and conform to our body shape, resulting in lack of support and backaches. Not all brands allow one for one exchange if that happens. Although ours is not pillow top (it's euro top), the exchange policy is one of the reason we chose Sealy as well as they provide one for one exchange within 10 years of purchase if the top sags beyond 3cm. On site assessment is free too.

Of course, we will rather not have to use that exchange. But that at least gives us some assurance.. Saw a forumer lamenting about Serta as they got to top up to change to another bed even though their bed was under warrenty.. (Sealy is under guarantee!). But then again, forum also says that Sealy has poor after sales service.. So we can't have the best of all the worlds i guess.

[rxgn 2]

good day, mind sharing your detailed quotation?

[shockwave 5]

Hello Neighbour!!

Hope you have a smooth journey throughout renovation process.

[guojiawen 101]

good day, mind sharing your detailed quotation?

Hello, can you PM me your email? Thx

[guojiawen 101]

Hello Neighbour!!

Hope you have a smooth journey throughout renovation process.

Hello fellow neighbour!!

Thank you! Hope your reno is also smooth sailing and we all have a lovely home in a few months time

[Takaishi 44]

ahhhhh we opt for e flooring as well, nice to see e pics!

[Alicetancc 0]

Hi guojiawen,

I'm Alice Tan. I just got my new hdb key at Blk 782B, can I have ur contractor phone number due to I saw your quotation with reasonable price. Pls... Thanks

My email: alicetancc@yahoo.com

[guojiawen 101]

ahhhhh we opt for e flooring as well, nice to see e pics!

haha, which project are you from? i think different projects have different finishings.. premium flats have timber flooring in the rooms, mine is all cream ceramic tiles with timber skirting.

[guojiawen 101]

Hi guojiawen,

I'm Alice Tan. I just got my new hdb key at Blk 782B, can I have ur contractor phone number due to I saw your quotation with reasonable price. Pls... Thanks

My email: alicetancc@yahoo.com

Hello fellow neighbour,

Have sent you

[guojiawen 101]

Consolidated in post #64

Edited February 12, 2014 by guojiawen