Mr & Mrs Johnb's Little New Home

[JohnB 15]

This house plan is very tasteful and unlike many wannabes, able to exude the coziness and warmth even in an industrial minimalist appeal. Particular impressed to hear that it is owner design. Congrats and hope everything is well and on the way.

Thank you, FATFROG! So kind of you. Your post has brought a bright spot to my day.

[JohnB 15]

Caesarstone Quartz Surfaces

Speaking of countertops, we saw these at Hafary:

Hafary Service

Some time near the end of December (or thereabouts, I think), we were shopping for furniture and thought it might help to have a sample of our tile for reference when assessing and matching colours/textures.

We popped into Hafary Eunos. The lady who served us, Woo Kexin, enthusiastically bagged up the sample for us and ensured that we had everything we needed before we left. We were pleasantly surprised by and appreciated the solicitous service.

[FATFROG 4]

You guys may want to spend some time at soon bee huat Pte ltd (not the most appealing name) across a couple of streets from hafary. Nowhere as atas but I find some tiles aesthetically nicer there. Go for a second opinion (and likely cheaper).

[alexng0104 0]

Wow, very good reno planning.

Just to check do you have any warping issue on the rectangular tiles? My current house is using the rectangular tiles, can feel and see the tiles warping obviously. I like the natural look especially when natural sun light shine on the floor, but my wife doesn't like it and always complaining the floor not flat...

I will start my renovation work for my new house on Apr. Now looking for the ideas from RT. Really impressed on your house planning and glad you have a good ID. I had very bad experience before, so now I have to start doing my own homework. The pandomo looks great, may consider it for my new house if within my budget.

Cheers!

[elyse18 1]

Hi JohnB, may i have kelvin's contact for the door closer pls? The PM can't go through, don't know why. Thank you!

[CountryGlow 10]

Hi Mrs JohnB!

Happy CNY!

Can u share with me Kelvin's contact for the main door link as well?

Thanks much & happy holidays!

[DaddyWinter 10]

Hello people, you can look for kelvin here at his FB page, it is easier also..

https://www.facebook.com/uniarmsg?fref=ts

[Pomme 2]

Hi Pomme. I like the look and effect of Pandomo too! Would that we could afford it.

$7,316, I think, for our living/dining room + two bedrooms + hallway. I think the sum covers preparation (levelling and such) as well as installation. $7,316 comes from $4,416 + $2,900 (Keith told us we would have to add about $2,900 (ballpark figure) to the flooring rates in our quotation at that time). That is if my memory serves! Don't take my word for it.

Are you thinking of getting back the concrete/cement look for the flooring in your next new home? I popped into your blog just now. Your current home looks nice. I especially like the LED light effect in your patio; it looks pretty cool.

Hi Mr & Mrs JohnB,

Happy Chinese New Year!

Sorry was super busy lately and was really late to check the reply.

We love cleanline design as in minimalist or sleek industrial style of design. The next home will be a mix of everything as in : pandoma or cement + tiles + laminate flooring for different area.

If the pandoma price is not too 'scary', we would love to have it for our kitchen to the dining section and pair up with either cement/natural stones lookalike seamless tile or dark wood grain seamless tiles. All depend our final layout in the later part. In fact, without the actual dimension of the floor plan it's kinda of hard to decide now. And I need to get back to my dawing board too for planning the interior decor.

Anyway, I still have 6 years to plan for everything including the design.

So have you decide the countertop??

LG Hi-macs new series looks cool, and quartz top was in my consideration list too....hahahaha

How about Kompacplus top? I quite like the sleek seamless design featured in their website.

Have fun on your renovation and hope everything all smoothly.

[JohnB 15]

I am sad and cannot help but cry. The situation seems hopeless now. Even the carpentry is riddled with workmanship problems. My husband visited the house today and was appalled.

Our renovation has been plagued by poor workmanship, sadly. It has been a trying and draining period for us. Customer service from Keith is good and he is a very nice person. But the workmanship is near deplorable, unfortunately. Be it painting, tiling, the sink-and-stove concrete support, service yard windows, bathroom box-up acrylic, etc. And now, the cabinets too. What do we do now?

[Brian Huang 4]

Hi JohnB, I chanced upon your t-blog and enjoyed reading about your ideas. I have been through a full renovation recently myself and I can totally understand all the ups and downs that accompanies it - most of the time we can't even foresee the problem till it actually happens! Personally my own list of challenges included un-level flooring from topping up of kitchen with lightweight cement, poor laying of sliding door tracks, mis-drilling of cabinets, electrical installation errors, unequal lengths of sliding door pieces, etc.. the list goes on and on...

But the saving grace would be at least a responsible contractor/ID who can help to solve the problems. I can say that although I met many challenges, at least my contractor did not even turn away any of my complaint calls or messages and we would eventually work something out together e.g. they installed my bedroom cabinet handles too low even though I marked the height so in the end I had to purchase another set of recessed handles to cover the wrongly drilled holes, otherwise it would have cost >S$800 to replace the full sized doors, which my contractor offered to split the cost with me but I did not want to go down that route in any case... In the end the recessed handles cost $40 for 4 pieces and it was re-installed by the carpenters at no additional charge - only thing is that I have to leave with some small circular stickers covering the inside holes that cannot be cut away. All the mis-installation works were also subsequently rectified after several visits...

Anyway, long story short, just wanna give you some encouragement and my 2 cents advice:

1. Try to supervise all the major installation works so that you can rectify and prevent any errors on the spot - they have no excuses later on such as "already done what you want me to do" blar blar...

2. Communicate with contractor/ID closely and mark all your instructions on masking tape on the item to make sure they are reminded e.g. drilling positions/ electrical socket positions

3. If you discover any problems, do not be angry (you will naturally be but cool down because being angry doesn't help) - what I did was to take photos of all the defects and compile them into a word document and put down all the remarks e.g. identified error and proposed rectification works to be submitted to contractor/ID for rectification works

4. Last but not least, the responsibility to rectify all the problems should mostly be with your contractor/ID (they are paid professionals) and do not stress yourself out over these problems as they definitely can be rectified somehow or another (usually $$ solves all problems but you should not be topping up $$ if it's not your problem)

5. Insist that all reno works should be performed as agreed in your quotation/ contract, otherwise they can not expect full payment from you

Hope my 2 cents' worth helps and all the best to your reno! I am sure everything will turn out fine!

[elyse18 1]

hi mrs johnb, oh no.. I was just about to ask you for updates and saw your latest post. i'm considering to use Van Hus as my ID and now reading this... Did you try to speak to the boss?

[Yolo 1]

Oh my, can u provide some photos on the painting/tiling/carpentry/etc to show the workmanship?

I believe u have made almost 90% payment? Maybe u demand them redo and hold the rest of the payment till they rectify?

[elyse18 1]

I see you started your renovation in january? And it is coming to end-March already. Was it delayed because of Chinese new year? And why did your husband only go check today? Such a long lapse from january until now. I feel your pain though i have yet to start reno. So afraid to start.

[jez2014 16]

Hello JohnB,

Oh no! We've been reading your t-blog for awhile now, very sorry to hear what's happened. You should definitely withhold payment until they rectify everything. From what you've said I gather Keith is still working with you to sort things out - so it's not all a lost cause. Make sure they fix it up!

You may also wish to start taking photographs of unsatisfactory work (I would do so if in your shoes) - because if the proverbial dung hits the fence, yoy may need to consider going to CASE and photo evidence would be crucial?

[matchalatte 16]

hi! i applied for a 3 room BTO as well and will be collecting my keys next year. you have excellent taste, and your mood board looks wonderful. i like the raw look too but do you think it will be a challenge to stick to the minimalist look? like im always worried about clutter like shampoo bottles and dishwashing liquid bottle at the sink etc. do you intend to hide them?

oh and sorry to hear about the lousy workmanship! did you visit other projects done by the same company? i hope your problem will be settled soon. will be following your thread!

Edited March 26, 2015 by matchalatte