Our Tiny Nest At Punggol

[NingNing 28]

Hi all, have been reading renotalk for years but hardly ever made much of a sound except to ask questions.

We balloted for our flat in 2010 and patiently waited for our keys. We FINALLY got our keys on the 5th of feb and straight away rush down to open the door. I am very pantang so hubby has to tahan the later change of key collection at Punggol Parcvista. With our frens, we went down to punggol to check out the place. after rolling our pineapple and screaming HUAT AH! at the top of our voices, we stepped in.

Its small.. but its our home!!

Our flat :

We actually wanted to start our reno immediately as soon as possible but our ID just came back from his new yr holiday. What to do? people need to go home.. brain understand but my excitment can get the better of me. I thought he will delay abit longer but he was all rearing to go. the minute he stepped back into singapore, he gave me a call to ask me if he can go to my flat to check the defects. He knows my pattern after liasing with me, that he knows how fussy i am, so he knew it was best tat he went down to check for me if not anything happen, ill have his head!! (lucky i carry the padlock key with me everywhere i go now, if not have to rush home to get it)

So yesterday was the billionth time we went down to our flat but this time, it was with our ID to check the defects. and omg.. the number of defects he pointed out was crazy.


End up, BSC has to replaster EVERY　SINGLE ROOM! even the CEILING. all the walls were uneven, the ceiling had a very obvious uneveness in it ( the middle portion was slopped upwards at a sharp angle then down again..like they ran out of plaster halfway and left the job, probably praying hard i didnt mind). the worst part was my toilet ceiling, in a corner, the brick wall was exposed and cracked. lucky my ID very xi xin and spotted it if not i will never have spotted it because it was hidden behind the pipes! Lucky he suggested to come and check.. because all the time we went up there, we never notice all these things.. i guess... new owners syndrome. blind to all our flat's faults. and these are just SOME of the defects. if i list down all, never ending.

although my flat is so humid and hot, he still climb here climb there, stretch here stretch there.. btw.. if you looking for ID remember to find a tall one. our ID is much taller than me and my hubby and he was able to touch the top of the door ways to feel the walls. by the time we were finished, it was quite late, but he still stuck it out with us for more than 2-3 hours to go through the entire house for defects several times and run through what will and can be done. thats what i call good service!

while BSC is doing the defects, my ID is going to resend me the amended 3d drawings from our discussion yesterday. so we are now "patiently" waiting for them, trying to keep my crazy down and not calling him everyday to see if its done!

*patiently waiting..........*

Edited March 7, 2014 by NingNing

[Sappyd 8]

Not many 3rm bto here in renotalk. Hope u post ur reno till the end of ur reno journey. I will be getting my keys prolly this july. Looking forward to ur updates since we have almost the same layout except ur kitchen and bedrooms are bigger than mine. And my living is bigger than urs.

Btw.. Which id did u engage?

[AnnieOoi 0]

All the best for your upcoming reno NingNing!!

[Songz 132]

Great ID you got there.

Wish you the best in your Reno ^^

[mavicaste 58]

All the best for your renovation.

Parcvista is one of my favorite BTO in Punggol and those facing the town parks have great unobstructed view.

If I remember correctly, the BTO should be from mid 2011 instead of 2010. The progress for the BTO is really fast, unlike mine.

[NingNing 28]

Not many 3rm bto here in renotalk. Hope u post ur reno till the end of ur reno journey. I will be getting my keys prolly this july. Looking forward to ur updates since we have almost the same layout except ur kitchen and bedrooms are bigger than mine. And my living is bigger than urs.

Btw.. Which id did u engage?

ya.. i realized that not many 3 rooms in this blog when i was doing my research. so i decided to TRY to blog so that in future others can use this info. and congrats on ur keys!! its an exciting feeling when u get keys!

haha.. my house is going to be VERY cramped thats for sure!! my living room is super TINY! I pm u my id name.

All the best for your upcoming reno NingNing!!

THANKS! =DD

Great ID you got there.

Wish you the best in your Reno ^^

=D hopefully he wil continue staying great!

All the best for your renovation.

Parcvista is one of my favorite BTO in Punggol and those facing the town parks have great unobstructed view.

If I remember correctly, the BTO should be from mid 2011 instead of 2010. The progress for the BTO is really fast, unlike mine.

oh its 2011?! haha my stupid brain keeps telling me 2010.. then like tt its fast! we actually balloted 7 times before we got parcvista. originally got WW2.. but the price was so much different for a flat across the road. so we gave it up and then parcvista came up. faster ballot liao! mai tu liao!

[NingNing 28]

our ID selection process

Selecting ID to me was at first a very exciting task. then it got more and more tedious. Because Im in account management, I have the opportunity to run around to meet IDs during office hours, in between meetings of course!

Anyway, i think I met up to close to 20 IDs and contractors. seriously an overkill. It was my job to find the ID and once i selected a few, my hubby will join in the discussion. I was finding IDs while preparing for my wedding which was in nov and planning for one of a national event in oct. omg... NEVER DO THIS! i nearly tore out all my hair.

I started my ID journey in July because we heard news that our keys will be given in Dec. I'm the fussy kan chiong type of person and dont want to be caught unprepared and with my pants down. SO! here we go!! We did our ID searching in 2 batches. in July - Aug and in Dec. I submitted my floor plan to places like renotalk and other websites and the contacts just start to pour in. I set my budget at 15K. my actual is at 21K but i want to weed out the real and fake IDs. Those tt can do my hse in 15K, i will read their quotation like a crazy person for any hidden cost. and plus, i wanted a buffer in case i wanted to add on stuff later.

We did our homework by scouring renotalk and other sites for reviews of ID that we met. The top 3 IDs that we liked, had very little to no reviews. So we trusted our gut insticts and advise from family and friends.

These were the outstanding ones that I remember out of the few that I went. The rest that i met, either after first meeting they never got back to me or i didnt leave an impression.

July - Aug IDs

Lionel from Absolook (dropped)

Lionel was the very first ID i met. In fact, his company was the reason i started my frenzy in finding IDs. His company contacted me through fb. He came down to my place very late at night to go through his standard package for me. hubby and me had good vibes from this guy as we felt that we could click.

But after awhile, when comparing his quotes and getting abit wiser from meeting more IDs, i realize that there might be some hidden costs here and there. and also, he was supposed to provide me with a revised quotation which he did not. so we dropped him. I guess my budget too small.

D'Trenzo Inspire(dropped)

OMG this company left a bad taste in my mouth. Their organisation skills are very poor. I have nothing against the ID but i seriously dont like his manager. Firstly, when they contacted me, the manager contacted me. After that, another guy from the same company contacted me. Both didnt seem to have communication with each other and both asked me to submit floor plan. when i pointed out that they both were contacting me, the manager first told me to ignore the other guy. Since the manager contacted me first i tot "heck. okie lor..."

end up i was very rudely called and after a few verification of the situation, he handed me off to the other ID in a bo chup and rather rude sms. . LOL

I met the ID. The first impression he gave me was not good. He took out the WRONG floor plan. When the right plan was taken out, he wasnt listening to my requirements or what i wanted. he just kept on telling me what is good and what others did.. etc. by the time he drew out a draft, half the things i wanted, was not inside. i dont like wasting my TIME.

Lastly, He didnt drive. now..... im not against ppl who dont drive, ****, i dont even drive. But i worried that if i gave him my project, he may not visit my site as often as others with cars will.

I dropped him immediately after i met him.

Rest and Relax (dropped LIKE A HOT POTATO)

Met at expo. er... again, another ID who doesnt listen and further more INSULT me. say that my budget so low, how to do nice. told me minimum is 40K. ARE U CRAZY?! i 3 room flat lei! i MUST have bought a 3 ROOM BTO because I dont have tt big a spending power right?! THINK!

And the worse part is that every ID so far had allowed us to take back their standard quotation or draft quotation. She didnt allow me to. Even tried hard selling me to sign up now, put deposit for designer drawing.

Faith interior (dropped)

Nice boy i met. abit too young. he's actually my age. but when i asked him how long he worked in this industry and in the company etc, i can see him skirting the question. that made alarm bells ring in my head. so nope!

Famous Mr K(dropped)

M K... we dropped him because his quotation was nearly the same as one of the more expensive designers that we talked to... but without design. and he spoke in chinese which i felt was hard to communicate. but he was a nice man.

Maurice from 3d innovation(shortlisted)

We had super alot of "great" ideas and wanted to incorporate every single one of them, like hidden doors and 80x80 homo tiles. But instead of laughing at us or telling us no, Maurice would thoughtfully look at us then explain why it was great but not practical. He used himself as an example and put himself in our shoes and tried to understand why we wanted what we wanted.

He has sort of the ah beng uncle look. I guess my hubby being quite.. "ah beng" had abit more click ability with him. He was easy to talk and laugh with. never felt embarressed about our low budget with him. in fact, he asked us one important question that no one asked. "how long u intend to stay". AH! the golden question! we didnt intend to stay in our flat long because my hubby is the only child and his parents are old. we plan to move back into his parents home if they needed us.

He advised not to go crazy and do too lavish a reno. stick to our budget so we can have left overs for our furniture. Do a simple reno.

My hubby liked him very much. He was in our top 3. Ended up dropping out of the race because we wanted to shortlist only 2.

Allen Nah from Thom Signature( Top 2)

Allen was someone who was in the top 2. I gave a review about him somewhere else. Allen left a deep impression in my mind. No hard selling. He was actually recommended by a very close friend and future neighbor. Again, another Ah beng which my hubby could super relate to, since he was about the same age.

But dont let the ah beng look fool u. This guy was good at what he did. He carefully listen to my requirements then finally dug out from me, what i really needed. He was the first ID to point out a design flaw that I never realized with my L shape cabinet. He solved it by thinking out of an idea to help me reduce space wastage in the dead corner which i felt was very cool and futuristic. My hubby was originally very adamant about signing with Allen. The price, the clickability and also Allen's sincerity. During our meetings, allen will answer calls and the way he handled situation with his workers impressed us, calm and direct which i feel will be good during reno. but I was afraid that Allen will not be able to match up with My ID's designing skills.

He was very much in the running that so much so, one week we were about to sign, we were still considering Allen. But our ID gave us too good an offer that we couldnt resist.

Johnny formerly from Plush Living (releasing his name now as I reciving many PM for his name)

I met my ID the same day as I met Maurice. My ID from the first time he called, he was very PR. He did my ex colleague's flat before. so the first thing he did was facebook me! haha talk about smart. We had a very nice chat and he got me to come down to his office. I am the type of person who wants ppl to come to me, not i go to them. But there was something about him that made me go to him.

Anyway, met him at his office. He showed me several works that he did and the first thing tt came to my mind was " i LIKE!". I gave him a problem of not having enough space for a table and he on the spot drew me a design of a hidden table. Now, this is not the first time i heard of it, so its no big deal. but what impressed me was how he solved the problem i had. A hidden table is great, but the problem with it is the hinges. My hubby is in the furniture line and he highlighted to me before that hinges after awhile, will wear and tear and become misaligned. My ID solved it by using simple methods which i loved. I cant disclose the method because its his idea. not nice to share out here.

This hidden table idea and solution was one of the reasons i have confident in him that he will be able to solve functionality problems in our design plus, his design was pretty strong. He listened to every idea i had, gave suggestions and counter idea.

He was from a "big" company and was an assistant manager. He was the only one who followed up with me from July till the day we signed which was in Dec. Talk about perseverance. Throughout our search, he was always giving me advise and insider information without even knowing if we will sign. I did my homework by talking to my ex colleague and her process with him. Had pretty good reviews on his attentiveness to detail and responsibility.

I wanted to sign with him, but his offer was quite over budget. And hubby was very keen on another ID Allen, and will only give me the go-ahead if his quote was nearer to our budget. I explained to my id that another ID was giving us a better price for the same items. And that my budget is burst if i sign with him. I really didnt want him to waste his efforts of following up with me for so long. So he went back to his management, talked to them, and gave me a new quotation. The new quotation was brought nearer to my budget. Signed with him because he put in much effort for us to talk to his new boss.

*By the time we wanted to sign with him, it seemed that his original company （Plush Living) had merged with another company. =( i didnt like the new company at all, it had a reputation!! And some items he could originally give us at his old company, couldnt be honored in this new one. but i wanted the ID so bo bian. just pray hard no cock ups.

We finally put our deposit in on Jan.

Edited February 16, 2014 by NingNing

[mavicaste 58]

our ID selection process

Selecting ID to me was at first a very exciting task. then it got more and more tedious. Because Im in account management, I have the opportunity to run around to meet IDs during office hours, in between meetings of course!

Anyway, i think I met up to close to 20 IDs and contractors. seriously an overkill. It was my job to find the ID and once i selected a few, my hubby will join in the discussion. I was finding IDs while preparing for my wedding which was in nov and planning for one of a national event in oct. omg... NEVER DO THIS! i nearly tore out all my hair.

I started my ID journey in July because we heard news that our keys will be given in Dec. I'm the fussy kan chiong type of person and dont want to be caught unprepared and with my pants down. SO! here we go!! We did our ID searching in 2 batches. in July - Aug and in Dec. I submitted my floor plan to places like renotalk and other websites and the contacts just start to pour in. I set my budget at 15K. my actual is at 21K but i want to weed out the real and fake IDs. Those tt can do my hse in 15K, i will read their quotation like a crazy person for any hidden cost. and plus, i wanted a buffer in case i wanted to add on stuff later.

We did our homework by scouring renotalk and other sites for reviews of ID that we met. The top 3 IDs that we liked, had very little to no reviews. So we trusted our gut insticts and advise from family and friends.

These were the outstanding ones that I remember out of the few that I went. The rest that i met, either after first meeting they never got back to me or i didnt leave an impression.

July - Aug IDs

Lionel from Absolook (dropped)

Lionel was the very first ID i met. In fact, his company was the reason i started my frenzy in finding IDs. His company contacted me through fb. He came down to my place very late at night to go through his standard package for me. hubby and me had good vibes from this guy as we felt that we could click.

But after awhile, when comparing his quotes and getting abit wiser from meeting more IDs, i realize that there might be some hidden costs here and there. and also, he was supposed to provide me with a revised quotation which he did not. so we dropped him. I guess my budget too small.

D'Trenzo Inspire(dropped)

OMG this company left a bad taste in my mouth. Their organisation skills are very poor. I have nothing against the ID but i seriously dont like his manager. Firstly, when they contacted me, the manager contacted me. After that, another guy from the same company contacted me. Both didnt seem to have communication with each other and both asked me to submit floor plan. when i pointed out that they both were contacting me, the manager first told me to ignore the other guy. Since the manager contacted me first i tot "heck. okie lor..."

end up i was very rudely called and after a few verification of the situation, he handed me off to the other ID in a bo chup and rather rude sms. . LOL

I met the ID. The first impression he gave me was not good. He took out the WRONG floor plan. When the right plan was taken out, he wasnt listening to my requirements or what i wanted. he just kept on telling me what is good and what others did.. etc. by the time he drew out a draft, half the things i wanted, was not inside. i dont like wasting my TIME.

Lastly, He didnt drive. now..... im not against ppl who dont drive, ****, i dont even drive. But i worried that if i gave him my project, he may not visit my site as often as others with cars will.

I dropped him immediately after i met him.

Rest and Relax (dropped LIKE A HOT POTATO)

Met at expo. er... again, another ID who doesnt listen and further more INSULT me. say that my budget so low, how to do nice. told me minimum is 40K. ARE U CRAZY?! i 3 room flat lei! i MUST have bought a 3 ROOM BTO because I dont have tt big a spending power right?! THINK!

And the worse part is that every ID so far had allowed us to take back their standard quotation or draft quotation. She didnt allow me to. Even tried hard selling me to sign up now, put deposit for designer drawing.

Faith interior (dropped)

Nice boy i met. abit too young. he's actually my age. but when i asked him how long he worked in this industry and in the company etc, i can see him skirting the question. that made alarm bells ring in my head. so nope!

Famous Mr K(dropped)

M K... we dropped him because his quotation was nearly the same as one of the more expensive designers that we talked to... but without design. and he spoke in chinese which i felt was hard to communicate. but he was a nice man.

Maurice from 3d innovation(shortlisted)

We had super alot of "great" ideas and wanted to incorporate every single one of them, like hidden doors and 80x80 homo tiles. But instead of laughing at us or telling us no, Maurice would thoughtfully look at us then explain why it was great but not practical. He used himself as an example and put himself in our shoes and tried to understand why we wanted what we wanted.

He has sort of the ah beng uncle look. I guess my hubby being quite.. "ah beng" had abit more click ability with him. He was easy to talk and laugh with. never felt embarressed about our low budget with him. in fact, he asked us one important question that no one asked. "how long u intend to stay". AH! the golden question! we didnt intend to stay in our flat long because my hubby is the only child and his parents are old. we plan to move back into his parents home if they needed us.

He advised not to go crazy and do too lavish a reno. stick to our budget so we can have left overs for our furniture. Do a simple reno.

My hubby liked him very much. He was in our top 3. Ended up dropping out of the race because we wanted to shortlist only 2.

Allen Nah from Thom Signature( Top 2)

Allen was someone who was in the top 2. I gave a review about him somewhere else. Allen left a deep impression in my mind. No hard selling. He was actually recommended by a very close friend and future neighbor. Again, another Ah beng which my hubby could super relate to, since he was about the same age.

But dont let the ah beng look fool u. This guy was good at what he did. He carefully listen to my requirements then finally dug out from me, what i really needed. He was the first ID to point out a design flaw that I never realized with my L shape cabinet. He solved it by thinking out of an idea to help me reduce space wastage in the dead corner which i felt was very cool and futuristic. My hubby was originally very adamant about signing with Allen. The price, the clickability and also Allen's sincerity. During our meetings, allen will answer calls and the way he handled situation with his workers impressed us, calm and direct which i feel will be good during reno. but I was afraid that Allen will not be able to match up with My ID's designing skills.

He was very much in the running that so much so, one week we were about to sign, we were still considering Allen. But our ID gave us too good an offer that we couldnt resist.

My ID

I met my ID the same day as I met Maurice. My ID from the first time he called, he was very PR. He did my ex colleague's flat before. so the first thing he did was facebook me! haha talk about smart. We had a very nice chat and he got me to come down to his office. I am the type of person who wants ppl to come to me, not i go to them. But there was something about him that made me go to him.

Anyway, met him at his office. He showed me several works that he did and the first thing tt came to my mind was " i LIKE!". I gave him a problem of not having enough space for a table and he on the spot drew me a design of a hidden table. Now, this is not the first time i heard of it, so its no big deal. but what impressed me was how he solved the problem i had. A hidden table is great, but the problem with it is the hinges. My hubby is in the furniture line and he highlighted to me before that hinges after awhile, will wear and tear and become misaligned. My ID solved it by using simple methods which i loved. I cant disclose the method because its his idea. not nice to share out here.

This hidden table idea and solution was one of the reasons i have confident in him that he will be able to solve functionality problems in our design plus, his design was pretty strong. He listened to every idea i had, gave suggestions and counter idea.

He was from a "big" company and was an assistant manager. He was the only one who followed up with me from July till the day we signed which was in Dec. Talk about perseverance. Throughout our search, he was always giving me advise and insider information without even knowing if we will sign. I did my homework by talking to my ex colleague and her process with him. Had pretty good reviews on his attentiveness to detail and responsibility.

I wanted to sign with him, but his offer was quite over budget. And hubby was very keen on another ID Allen, and will only give me the go-ahead if his quote was nearer to our budget. I explained to my id that another ID was giving us a better price for the same items. And that my budget is burst if i sign with him. I really didnt want him to waste his efforts of following up with me for so long. So he went back to his management, talked to them, and gave me a new quotation. The new quotation was brought nearer to my budget. Signed with him because he put in much effort for us to talk to his new boss.

*By the time we wanted to sign with him, it seemed that his original company had merged with another company. =( i didnt like the new company at all, it had a reputation!! And some items he could originally give us at his old company, couldnt be honored in this new one. but i wanted the ID so bo bian. just pray hard no cock ups.

We finally put our deposit in on Jan.

Thanks for the sharing!

For the others who have yet to find their renovation firm, think its very important to note not to place any deposit for any drawings or whatnots without a actual detailed quotation. Some of the unfortunate forumers have shared their experience of doing so and ended up forfeiting their deposit as the quotations turned out with sky high prices despite all the initial assurance that it will fall within a certain range.

[Takaishi 44]

can i check with you what is 'My ID''s facebook? lol

[NingNing 28]

can i check with you what is 'My ID''s facebook? lol

LOL he never added me in fb.. but he did go into Facebook to look at me and find out more things about me like who were my friends and if he done any of their jobs before. abit creepy but i do it to do my homework on my clients too before i meet them.

Thanks for the sharing!

For the others who have yet to find their renovation firm, think its very important to note not to place any deposit for any drawings or whatnots without a actual detailed quotation. Some of the unfortunate forumers have shared their experience of doing so and ended up forfeiting their deposit as the quotations turned out with sky high prices despite all the initial assurance that it will fall within a certain range.

YES! some IDs are crazy enough to ask for deposit first then do drawing. later kana trapped also cannot run. read too much horror stories to be a carrot for them to chop!

My ID yesterday fast hand fast leg, already sent me a preview of what my amended living room will look like. later will post it up when im free. He very smart. i think he know i getting impatient from all the wait during cny.

[guojiawen 101]

LOL he never added me in fb.. but he did go into Facebook to look at me and find out more things about me like who were my friends and if he done any of their jobs before. abit creepy but i do it to do my homework on my clients too before i meet them.

YES! some IDs are crazy enough to ask for deposit first then do drawing. later kana trapped also cannot run. read too much horror stories to be a carrot for them to chop!

My ID yesterday fast hand fast leg, already sent me a preview of what my amended living room will look like. later will post it up when im free. He very smart. i think he know i getting impatient from all the wait during cny.

Eh, it's ok to pay deposit as long as the detailed quotation is out right? Coz I signed mine before drawings but with detailed quotation..

[kindaichi24 2]

hello ningning. care to share ur quotation and ur id? im waiting for my 3 room bto also. pm me ok. lookin forward to ur renovation pics! =D

[mavicaste 58]

Eh, it's ok to pay deposit as long as the detailed quotation is out right? Coz I signed mine before drawings but with detailed quotation..

The ones I am referring to are those who hardsell for prospective customers to place a deposit so they can start churning out 3D drawings without any written quotation at all. These people are no different from those electronic shops in Sim Lim Square that scam their customers.

[ZzzMonster 7]

Hi NingNing, thanks for sharing your ID search process. I find your reviews useful. May i know who your ID is and his contact?

Thanks.

[guojiawen 101]

The ones I am referring to are those who hardsell for prospective customers to place a deposit so they can start churning out 3D drawings without any written quotation at all. These people are no different from those electronic shops in Sim Lim Square that scam their customers.

Yup those i totally agree..