harocarlos 14 Report post Posted April 4, 2014 Hello! I've been loitering in the forum for about 2 years now and its time for me to share my renovation process and document my first home renovation journey.Firstly, this is a Premium BTO named Compassvale Ancilla launch in March 2011. Fast forward exactly 3 years later and we've collected the keys to our first home on 5th March 2014. It was a long but fruitful wait. The main contractor's workmanship is commendable. We had only several minor defects and it was all rectified to our satisfaction. As usual, I shall start off with the original floor plan and some photos of the flat. Pls ignore the masking tapes and some uneven colors on the walls, some of the photos were snapped during defect rectification, lol.The living room view from the entranceThe living room view from the window Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harocarlos 14 Report post Posted April 4, 2014 The kitchen & service yardThe corridor to rooms. Yes, we opted-in for doors as we wanted to maximise CPF on the necessities then.The MBR toilet. Common toilet is identical except the sink.One of the common bedrooms. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harocarlos 14 Report post Posted April 4, 2014 (edited) During the long wait, I've been playing around with floorplanner.com to plan our desired layout for the flat. As the master bedroom was really small, one of wifey's "must-have" is a wardrobe length of at least 3m. On the other hand, my "must-have" is a long study table. Therefore, we have to sacrifice one of the bedroom which is fine with us as it is only the two of us who will be living in the flat till we have kids in future.In total, we've revised the layout 18 times. I will share some of the them here: Edited April 4, 2014 by harocarlos 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harocarlos 14 Report post Posted April 4, 2014 (edited) Finally, we arrived at this layout after multiple revisions made due to constraints/costs/practicality/etc. and after meeting several IDs. Which also brings me to the next post on IDs selection. Edited April 4, 2014 by harocarlos Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harocarlos 14 Report post Posted April 4, 2014 (edited) We began our ID hunt by tabulating a list of IDs/contractors that had a good name through research in renotalk, other reno forums, and recommendations over the years. There were almost 30 of them in total. As we had a very tight budget to stick to, cost was a major factor in the ID/contractor decision process and thus my first elimination method was to send all the shortlisted IDs/contractors an email to request for quotations with a similar floorplan as drawn with floorplanner.com, some photos of desired "feel" and a detailed breakdown of the items to include in the quotation.Many of them acknowledge the email, but only about half of them replied with a quotation for us to evaluate. Some of them insisted on meeting up before coming up with a quotation which I declined casually as I do not wish to waste time. Others simply forgot or did not reply with a quotation at all thus are eliminated easily. In the end, I only shortlisted those whose quotation can fall within my budget based on their schedule of rates. Since there are so many of them. I will only write about the few that we met up.1. The all famous Mr K of H2O interiorMr K was the only one whom we were willing to meet without any advance quotation as he had a really good reputation in renotalk. The meeting with him was the fastest. Only 30mins and he was rather quiet. He was merely taking down my requirements and clarifying abit and thats it. We understand that he is a contractor thus won't give as much comments as ID but it was really awkward. I felt that there was a communication problem as my mandarin was pretty poor and he was more of a mandarin speaking/writing person. His SMSes are in mandarin and I have difficulty reading some of the words. Lol, so no choice. His first quote came just afew days after our meeting but missed afew items and price was comparable with some of the ID's price. dropped.2. NW Interior - KeithKeith was also mandarin speaking, but we can communicate better as he can still speak and write in english. The rates really surprised us, we did not expect such a well-known big firm in the industry to be able to give such competitive quotes. Keith's service was very good and seemed to have a very good attitude. He followed up with us well and we met him 2-3 times in total. However, because the company has to charge GST, the price was pushed up above budget and thus dropped.3. Absolook Design - RayRay was a young chap, very prompt and quick. He made adjustments to the quotation on the spot during our meeting and could really click with us. However, all of his portfolio did not give us the right direction and thus we were not so keen on engaging him due to lack of experience. dropped.4. DesignProfession - AndyRecommended by my elder sis. Very small firm and office at Toa Payoh. Only the size of a bedroom. However, Andy gave us the best feel amongst all the other IDs. He followed up very promptly and we went through 5 rounds of quotation revision in total. Met him afew times and also requested for a site visit of his completed/on-going project. End up, he brought us to an on-going child-care centre which was a let down to us, thus dropped sadly.5. 9creation - AndyPrice was the lowest and his showroom was beautiful! It had the right feel of how we wanted our flat to be like. We could communicate very well and was very much impressed. However, could not find much feedback on this firm so were slightly doubtful. We would have engaged him if we did not meet the following ID.6. Butterpaperstudio (BPS) - Jay & VelleI will refer to them as BPS from now on since their name is rather long. They are a young couple who are doing ID freelance. Came across them from vanessa's t-blog @ http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/58122-our-new-home-executive-maisonette/ Fell in love with one of their completed 4rm BTO project with almost identical layout as what we wanted and feel, thus decided to engage them even though price was estimated at just our budget. Edited April 5, 2014 by harocarlos Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mavicaste 58 Report post Posted April 4, 2014 Hi harocarlos, all the best for your renovation although its a little pity you weren't able to work with Andy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Harriette 42 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 Hi Harocarlos, Congrats for getting your keys and starting your Reno. We have the same IDs. Who is your contractor? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Songz 132 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 Welcome to RT Just a precaution that some others taught me, prepare 10% of additional for the Reno. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harocarlos 14 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) Hi mavicaste, haha.. ya a little pity.. we got to Andy through your recommendation.. but BPS won slightly because they had completed a renovation similar to what we loved..Hi Harriette, hi..yes, did see your updates on their blog..i think ur contractor is boon? mine's wiliam..so far so good..but still much too early to rate them..Hi Songz, wah 10% is quite a sum...but noted... Edited April 5, 2014 by harocarlos Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harocarlos 14 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) BTW, BPS's recently completed work which pushed me to engage them can be found @ http://butterpaperstudio.blogspot.sg/search/label/yishun3D drawings! yes, they are not as realistic as most ID firms, but it does give a better visual. BPS drew these using google sketch, something which you could try out for free yourself. I did try it myself but could not achieve as much details. lolWill will be using Kompacplus for kitchen worktop and the bar countertopOnly the bed head and the side tables are customised carpentry as one. The bed frame will be reusing my current storage bed frame in black. Edited April 5, 2014 by harocarlos Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harocarlos 14 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) Works began officially on 4th April 2014. Hacking was completed in a day.The MBR entrance hacked. Door frame and door was saved to be reused. The wall directly infront of the MBR toilet (on the left of the photo) was hacked too, but I didn't snap photos of the completed work. Edited April 5, 2014 by harocarlos Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mishmash 7 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 Hi,Hope your renovation go smoothly. Looking forward to your updates! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OceanEleven 203 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 Welcome to RT. What is the floor area? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bigeyes76 1 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 BTW, BPS's recently completed work which pushed me to engage them can be found @ http://butterpaperstudio.blogspot.sg/search/label/yishun3D drawings! yes, they are not as realistic as most ID firms, but it does give a better visual. BPS drew these using google sketch, something which you could try out for free yourself. I did try it myself but could not achieve as much details. lolWill will be using Kompacplus for kitchen worktop and the bar countertopOnly the bed head and the side tables are customised carpentry as one. The bed frame will be reusing my current storage bed frame in black.Hi Harocarlos,Do you mind PM me your total Reno cost? The 3D drawings look fantastic Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
