Mr And Mrs Lee's Happy Home In The Making...

[Harriette 42]

Nice drawings. Lots of interesting colours and contrasts. Show more pics!

[Vct 30]

Gd choice on the grey/green kitchen, mine is white/pink..

[Takaishi 44]

hmmm your reno cost should be about 4xxxx?

[guojiawen 101]

Congrats on key collection & nice 3Ds. Now the renovation can start full force!

Ps. The baron set at royal fanco is really a steal, glad you got it too

[mrslee07 21]

hmmm your reno cost should be about 4xxxx?

slightly below actually

[mrslee07 21]

Congrats on key collection & nice 3Ds. Now the renovation can start full force!

Ps. The baron set at royal fanco is really a steal, glad you got it too

Yes it is!! Thanks for your recommendation man, all thanks to you really!

[guojiawen 101]

Yes it is!! Thanks for your recommendation man, all thanks to you really!

No problem at all. This forum is meant for sharing info afterall

Just glad that my reviews were helpful!

[heebee 0]

Any floor plan of the house

[mrslee07 21]

Some updates again. Someone asked for our floor plan, so here it is.

Hubby and I headed to JB yesterday for a day trip to check out some of the recommended lighting shops mentioned by other kind forummers. So we went to Tampo Lighting Centre first to check out downlights. Indeed they have very cheap downlights at RM45-48 (4inch, 12W, 3colour LED square downlights). Their T5 lights which we needed to get for cove lighting also seemed quite cheap at RM15-18 depending on the length. Unfortunately, the initial model of downlights which we wanted to get at Tampoi was out of stock and we were told to come back again over the weekend. So we decided to just get the T5 lights from them first.

We then went next door to check out Star World Lighting... they were selling some made-in-malaysia downlights for RM42 which we initially were keen to get. However, upon closer inspection I realised that the quality was really lousy! The downlights had painted exteriors (white colour) and the paint job was horrible. So it was a no-go. We felt bad because we decided not to proceed with the purchase after inspecting some 10 downlights one by one... so decided to buy some squarish ceiling lights for service yard/toilets/bomb shelter from them. Quite cheap at RM58-68 per light so we decided to buy it.

We then checked out Yako Lighting Centre but their downlights were so expensive! RM68... and made in china type. So we left and went to check out Best Light Electrical. However, on the way there we got lost and just couldn't seem to locate the shop lot on GPS... in the end we stumbled upon another small light shop Project Electricial at 65 & 67 Jalan Rosmerah 2/2 Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru

This place was such a wonderful discovery for us! The lady boss Ms Leena Chen is a really warm and friendly lady, with absolutely no hard selling. Her downlights (same as the ones sold at Tampoi) were offered the cheapest at RM38 per downlight. Her T5 lights were also selling slightly cheaper... but too bad hubby and I already bought from Tampoi. They have a nice variety of ceiling and pendant lights too and more designs to come... i couldn't make up my mind about which pendant light i liked (for dining area) so didn't commit to a purchase. Ms Leena told me not to rush into it if I have yet to spot 'THE ONE' and will whatsapp me new designs when they arrive.

This is the downlight which we bought. Really happy with it - and at such a price, it's too good a deal to pass up on.

Initially hubby and I were thinking if the price difference isn't a lot in JB and Singapore, we will just buy in Singapore... but this is easily more than 50% in cost savings... so we decided to just do it! It's made in taiwan... which is similar to many downlights sold in Singapore too. So hubby and I decided to take the leap of faith and buy it. Ms Leena also gave us 1year warranty on all the downlights.

We strongly recommend this small shop to people who are considering heading to JB for lights-shopping!

If you are keen to buy better brands (but only 1 light colour, not 3 colour option) like Samsung and LG, this shop sells them too. So do check them out in JB for your lighting needs!

[blurvision89 0]

Thanks VincentWangZx! Saw on your tblog, Your place is starting to come together nicely... cool!

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Ok, here's the post on our ID-hunting experience.

So we spent 5 months in total to look around and meet with different IDs.... the whole experience was really tiring - but fun to a certain extent. Somehow it was quite interesting to be sitting as a customer and have all these ID try to pitch for business to me and hubby. Lol...

1. The first ID we met. Can't remember his name... I think he contacted hubby via a forum (or was it renotalk here itself?) when hubby posted to get quotes from ID. Talked all about how interior design is about 'feel'.... and yadah yadah...

2. Second ID... is currently a ID from a pretty well-known ID firm in renotalk. SXXXXX Design Due to his sensitive situation right now I shall not name him publicly (but feel free to PM me if you would like to know) I quite like him from the start because also of the positive reviews about him here. He was in the midst of branching out on his own and wanted to sign us up with his own newly set up firm instead of under the current ID firm which he is working at. Sigh, big mistake. We found out that his new ID firm is not HDB approved... and felt this whole working on the side while still an actively employed ID at another interior firm too dodgy and complicating for us. Despite meeting him several times, and liking his humble disposition (and reasonable price quotes)... we decided not to take the risk and dropped him recently. He was the first few ID we met, and the last 2 in the running. I felt bad towards him in a way... but it just doesn't feel right so no choice, went with our gut.

3. Third ID - CXXX Interior

This ID actually recently jump ship from Weiken.XXX to CXXX Interior, and was recommended to hubby by his friend. He does have an eye for design and came across more like a designer as compared to the rest of the IDs i meet (that is good)... but his pricing was really expensive. Easily $10k more than the ID i chose. I guess choosing an ID from a big company has its price tag.... and we were not keen to pay that price tag, unfortunately. So we had to drop him recently too.

4. Fourth ID - Inspire by Dtrenzo

Had a good impression of this ID right from the start, maybe because he was extremely confident and open when talking to us. No hard-selling and able to give advise from a design and practical point of view. Talked alot about having a 2-way relationship with his clients on give and take, and trusting each other. Went to their showflat and were quite happy to see their works, although hubby did point out some areas of improvements on the painting works.

5. RenoXXX Nick - met him upon recommendation by Forummers here... unfortunately felt that we were not on the same wavelength as him and were not comfortable to proceed further, despite his relatively reasonable quote.

6. AbsolXXX Interior - again another up and coming ID firm, with a lot of buzz on facebook and forums. Felt that the ID assigned to us was too junior with little experience... and a little too presumptuous in some of his thoughts and ideas. Hubby dropped them when they made us wait 2 hours for our appointment without being more sensitive or apologetic about having made us waste our precious weekend waiting around 2 hours for them.

7. mX design - again a recommendation by hubby's friend. A female ID this time. She was very detailed and we could tell that she would have been a very meticulous ID whom we can trust. However, her pricing was also on the high side and she didn't follow up as closely despite us mentioning that we were collecting keys soon, which was quite strange.

8. UniXXX Creative - recommended by my sis (although she didn't choose them in the end) for cheap pricing.

Hubby contacted the lady ID and was put off by the way she communicated with him, made him felt like he was having a major communication breakdown with her even on simple things like when to meet etc. She gave us an estimated price quote (which was super cheap) but hubby detected that she left out on kitchen carpentry works totally. Felt that it was too much of a hassle to meet her to describe what we wanted... and also by then we had more or less decided to take the plunge and sign up with ID number 4...

And apparently, by 1st Apr 2014 this year, all home owners need to sign a declaration before reno works begin that your contractor/ID is HDB registered, otherwise the home owners and the non-HDB registered company will face penalty charges! And on HDB website there is now a link to check if your contractor or ID is indeed HDB registered as well. So... probably best to play safe and sign up with HDB approved IDs and contractors from now on guys!

Hi! May i know who is the 2nd ID you had meet from s***** design? Thanks! =)

[mrslee07 21]

More updates!!

So we submitted our HDB defects list previously and the first round of defects has been rectified and signed off. However, hubby and I noticed some other defects and had to submit a second one. HDB also anyhowly rectified some of the earlier things... some can close one eye, but there's just some that cannot be accepted!

HDB contractors has now successfully destroyed my electrical-media-box cabinet that came with the house. There were some scratches and dents which we told them to rectify the first time, and the contractor basically just did a lousy patch work and painted over a certain part of the white laminate. And now I can so visibly see 2 shades of white on my white cabinet door. Annoyed to the max! Gonna make sure they rectify that properly!

In other news, hubby and I have been busy busy shopping around for more items for the house... and lo and behold we got 'poisoned' into buying a Boston Acoustics soundbar with subwoofer set when we visited Tampines Courts Megastore. But it was too good a deal to miss out on. The promo price was $299 for that weekend... but we paid less than the advertised price for it because the salesperson know us well from previously. Thank our lucky stars! Our intention to look see look see for a soundbar for the MBR turned out to be a purchase eventually. Haha. But we're super pleased with the purchase, considering Boston Acoustics is a much better audio brand compared to the off-the-shelf electrical brands out there. Yippee yayy!! So our new place will all be powered by Boston Acoustics speakers (for living room) and soundbar (MBR) and subwoofers... lol.

We have also been sourcing around for curtains and grilles. Tay Boon Huat renovate contractors are different from TBT works. Just in case people get confused out there ok! We got an extremely competitive and good pricing for horizontal aluminium Grilles from Tay Boon Huat renovate contractors and will likely go with them unless the other part we are seeing this Saturday can give a better price... i doubt it though. TBT Works gave a slightly higher quote than Tay Boon Huat renovate contractors so won't go with them.

For curtains, we've decided to do Black out day/night curtains for Living room and black out roman blinds for MBR. As for the other 2 common rooms, we will just do simple roller blinds. We approached Vincent (of Garvin Marting Services) who gave us a pretty good pricing so we also signed up with him. We're quite 'chop chop' that way... heehee.

Will be meeting our ID again tomorrow to discuss again on some works etc... another long discussion tomorrow.

Can't wait to fully rectify all defects on our place and get the reno going!

[mrlee08 3]

Popped by yesterday to meet a vendor and was pleasantly surprised that almost 80% of the defects from the 2nd list has been rectified.

Even some that wasn't too specific (but we did stick masking tapes) was rectified.

Hopefully can get sign off everything by next week and we can start reno! haha

[janicecwl 1]

Some updates again. Someone asked for our floor plan, so here it is.

Hubby and I headed to JB yesterday for a day trip to check out some of the recommended lighting shops mentioned by other kind forummers. So we went to Tampo Lighting Centre first to check out downlights. Indeed they have very cheap downlights at RM45-48 (4inch, 12W, 3colour LED square downlights). Their T5 lights which we needed to get for cove lighting also seemed quite cheap at RM15-18 depending on the length. Unfortunately, the initial model of downlights which we wanted to get at Tampoi was out of stock and we were told to come back again over the weekend. So we decided to just get the T5 lights from them first.

We then went next door to check out Star World Lighting... they were selling some made-in-malaysia downlights for RM42 which we initially were keen to get. However, upon closer inspection I realised that the quality was really lousy! The downlights had painted exteriors (white colour) and the paint job was horrible. So it was a no-go. We felt bad because we decided not to proceed with the purchase after inspecting some 10 downlights one by one... so decided to buy some squarish ceiling lights for service yard/toilets/bomb shelter from them. Quite cheap at RM58-68 per light so we decided to buy it.

We then checked out Yako Lighting Centre but their downlights were so expensive! RM68... and made in china type. So we left and went to check out Best Light Electrical. However, on the way there we got lost and just couldn't seem to locate the shop lot on GPS... in the end we stumbled upon another small light shop Project Electricial at 65 & 67 Jalan Rosmerah 2/2 Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru

This place was such a wonderful discovery for us! The lady boss Ms Leena Chen is a really warm and friendly lady, with absolutely no hard selling. Her downlights (same as the ones sold at Tampoi) were offered the cheapest at RM38 per downlight. Her T5 lights were also selling slightly cheaper... but too bad hubby and I already bought from Tampoi. They have a nice variety of ceiling and pendant lights too and more designs to come... i couldn't make up my mind about which pendant light i liked (for dining area) so didn't commit to a purchase. Ms Leena told me not to rush into it if I have yet to spot 'THE ONE' and will whatsapp me new designs when they arrive.

This is the downlight which we bought. Really happy with it - and at such a price, it's too good a deal to pass up on.

Initially hubby and I were thinking if the price difference isn't a lot in JB and Singapore, we will just buy in Singapore... but this is easily more than 50% in cost savings... so we decided to just do it! It's made in taiwan... which is similar to many downlights sold in Singapore too. So hubby and I decided to take the leap of faith and buy it. Ms Leena also gave us 1year warranty on all the downlights.

We strongly recommend this small shop to people who are considering heading to JB for lights-shopping!

If you are keen to buy better brands (but only 1 light colour, not 3 colour option) like Samsung and LG, this shop sells them too. So do check them out in JB for your lighting needs!

Wow..this downlights really cheap. i saw the similar one in balestier, selling at $49 each...

Did u pay GST when carry it to Sg?

[Ks Toh 74]

Wow..this downlights really cheap. i saw the similar one in balestier, selling at $49 each...

Did u pay GST when carry it to Sg?

I installed this type of LED down lights (with transparent border) throughout my entire house. After installation, and when I need to change some of them, i noticed a big problem. Just so that you know.

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/62505-top-kew-drive/?p=828197

[mrlee08 3]

Can any kind souls out there help/ have a step by step guide on the cheapest way to buy from tb?

My mandarin fail.. lol

Do I place the orders and pay for them in TB and put the shipping address as my own address and choose a forwarder function?

or

Do I place the orders and pay for them in TB and put the shipping address as the forwarded's warehouse/address?

the last option is to get forwarder to buy on my behalf but I understand that has extra charges.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!