Noodler 0 Report post Posted December 30, 2014 (edited) Hi everyone!We've been reading quite a few blogs on this forum and it has helped us quite abit. We were quite overwhelmed with the information here but nevertheless, very thankful that such blogs exists. ^_^We recently got our keys (after 3 longgg years) and we decided we would try to keep track of our progress as we make the house a home. Here's our layout;;A typical 4-room layout. Here's to a journey of discovery! Edited December 30, 2014 by Noodler Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodler 0 Report post Posted December 30, 2014 We're very inspired by many beautiful homes here! We do not have a particular theme that we like to stick strongly to so I guess what we do have is a (hopefully) cohesive design with particular design features that we love from different themes. So far, we discovered that we gravitate towards the warm wood tones/texture, matt white surfaces, black focus points, plushy sofas and cushions, some elements of colour in the form of the Legos we collect, a little nostalgia in the accessories...Here are a few inspiration we've collected;;(Actually I wasn't too excited because it feels almost daunting - more jialat than planning the wedding - but now, writing this down makes the whole experience feel a little more real! ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chiffon 1 Report post Posted January 12, 2015 I'm a newbie too. Getting keys in 10 days' time & haven't done anything yet. No idea where to start. I know how daunting it feels.. Hope yours goes great! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnB 15 Report post Posted January 12, 2015 We're very inspired by many beautiful homes here! We do not have a particular theme that we like to stick strongly to so I guess what we do have is a (hopefully) cohesive design with particular design features that we love from different themes. So far, we discovered that we gravitate towards the warm wood tones/texture, matt white surfaces, black focus points, plushy sofas and cushions, some elements of colour in the form of the Legos we collect, a little nostalgia in the accessories...Sounds good! The inspiration pics look good too. Looking forward to your posts and updates!Good luck, Noodler. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodler 0 Report post Posted March 10, 2015 (edited) Thank you chiffon & JohnB! chiffon > if you don't have a need to move in quickly, i think can slowly take your time but set a date that die-die must shift in by. else we will procastinate forever! (that is kinda happening to us now lol) Edited March 10, 2015 by Noodler Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodler 0 Report post Posted March 10, 2015 (edited) It's been awhile (yes, that's how much we procastinate!).Contractor or ID?We didn't want to engage an ID because we felt it might be abit expensive for what we wanted and were afraid we might be swayed into paying more for things we never wanted. Besides, with many inspiration and images from the net, i think we can sort of get away with showing those to the contractor and have them do it for us.The only issue with deciding on a contractor was that your vision of your home must be very very very clear. We must really know what we want and stick to it. Unfortunately, we had a semi-clear idea of what we wanted (no false ceiling, clean lines in the home, kompacplus top, etc) and we are learning to compromise what we want in our heads with what can be done in reality (within budget!). Often times, we realise that what we wanted could not be done because of $$$ or simply because the HDB layout was not suitable. But more of that in future posts...Which Contractor?Mr K - We wanted Mr K, because he is highly recommended in this forum. We met up with him at Bedok - he's a very straight-to-the-point kinda guy. He will probably give you inputs based on his practical experience but I would feel that 85% of the design has to come from the homeowners themselves. We received his quote and sadly, we had to drop him because his prices were like those of an ID firm.D from Focus Point - He was recommended to us by a relative who had used his services for 2 homes. Overall vibe was that he was okay to do almost everything we wanted at a relatively low price. However, he didn't know what Kompacplus was and encouraged us to use postform instead. He also had no opinions on our design when we asked and we felt like it is abit overpromising. His quote is competitive but we dropped him because he was abit too eager to please and weren't quite confident in his ability. I have to state though; when we visited my relative's place, the workmanship was decent. R from Z L - We saw ZL's work in some of the blogs here and were encouraged by the fact that they use locals or malaysian workers. This is quite important to us because when HDB did the rectifications for our defects, one of the workers (from China) actually made the defect worse even when we were around. Quote-wise, his prices are very slightly above the contractor quotes but R did say that we are also paying for labour costs (locals and malaysians tend to cost more). However, when we broke it down and compared item by item, the prices were actually okay.By this point, we were suffering from contractor fatigue so eventually we chose R from ZL. He was accommodating to our time, even opening the office during his CNY break to meet with us. (thumbsup for that!) We were also abit undecided on certain points so we kept changing our minds but he was also very accommodating. Hopefully things will turn out well! Edited March 24, 2015 by Noodler Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matchalatte 16 Report post Posted March 11, 2015 love your home! looks like those beautiful ones i saw from airbnb website Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodler 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2015 love your home! looks like those beautiful ones i saw from airbnb website hi matchalatte!haha, i wish those were images of my home. it's taken from the internet as inspiration! ^_^ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodler 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2015 We finally sorted out some of the major purchases (after alot of deliberation...)! yay! Kitchen StuffStove from Heritage GallerySink from Heritage GallerySamsung Fridge from Harvey NormanService YardWashing Machine from Harvey NormanLiving RoomSamsung TV from Harvey NormanAlso finally confirmed our air-conditioning from a vendor contact we found on this forum - Mitsubishi Starmex System 3 for the 3 bedrooms and Crestar Skylite fans from Crestar directly (living room + 3 bdrooms).PricesWe went to several places and compared the prices for each individual item - Gain City (not the cheapest but they had some promo going on, spend over $7000 and get a certain amount of vouchers back), Best Denki (cheaper than Gain City but can fight with Harvey Norman), Harvey Norman, Courts, and Goh Ah Bee (cheapest of all but must pay in cash).We decided to go with Harvey Norman Millenia because they are able to match the pricing of Goh Ah Bee and right now, if you use certain CCs to pay, you get the first month of installment "waived" (Maybank has no limit, HSBC $100 limit, Citibank $80 limit). What's Next...We still have to decide on the lights... so many nice but expensive choices! Also, we should be meeting with our contractor this week to pick out the laminates and other decisions! very happy that things are finally moving forward! Btw, has anyone here done the cement sink support in the kitchen? We were deciding between having the cement base with Kompacplus top or just the carpentry work.. The cement base won because it has been done that way in my parents' place and it's still okay. The only gripe we have with just the carpentry is that water may leak and affect the carpentry if not done well. hope we made the right choice Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
simple13 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2015 I used cement sink support for both my sink n stove support for my recently finished reno.Stove support is fully tiled whole sink is topped off with Quartz top.haha, too lazy to start a thread as I find renovaton very very tiring Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gim Li 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2015 hi can you pm your contractor contact for J from ZL?many thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FATFROG 4 Report post Posted March 23, 2015 Avoid hanging bicycles on the wall. It has been a tad too cheesy as everyone is doing it for the sake of contradicting aethestics. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodler 0 Report post Posted March 24, 2015 hi can you pm your contractor contact for J from ZL?many thanksHi Gim Li,PM-ed! Btw, it's actually R. J is the boss. Haha. I got confused. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodler 0 Report post Posted March 24, 2015 Avoid hanging bicycles on the wall. It has been a tad too cheesy as everyone is doing it for the sake of contradicting aethestics.Ahh, noted! We weren't planning on doing it though it looks nice... Now our problem is where to put it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodler 0 Report post Posted March 24, 2015 I used cement sink support for both my sink n stove support for my recently finished reno.Stove support is fully tiled whole sink is topped off with Quartz top.haha, too lazy to start a thread as I find renovaton very very tiring Haha, i know! It's tiring for us, especially the decision making. thank you for your comment! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
