My Humble Abode (Without Id)

[woodyjack 0]

Hi Lucidacid,

Can you share your contractor detail, thank you.

[KenCan 1]

Hi Lucidacid,

Great themes and hard works in finding ideas and materials to furnish your first 'house'(and many of our first apartment). It is good to see blog with ideas instead of plain following the ID'S designs and let them 'determine your lifestyle '. Enjoy reading it and there are not many t-blogs hiring contractors and deciding their own designs and furnishings. Glad u have done that.

your quote seem reasonable; just to share here, I have 3 IDS that can give quotes with difference of 10k on the same design. I guess it voice down to 1. Margin (both IDS and their ID firm), 2. Workmanship, 3. Labour and 4. Others.

I have read blogs that put their IDs /contractors name in the writer's portfolio or one of the writer's post. I am curious why contractors' number are not allowed to shared in open? It reduce to read many unnecessary posts and writer like u can have more time to post more beautiful pics and informative write-up.

I am in the process to renovate my relative ' s place. Hope u can pm me J ' s contact. TIA.

[sayyar 0]

Hi Lucidacid,

May i have your contractor contact?

Thanks in advance.

[ashy 0]

Can I have the contractor's contact too? Thanks!

[ZixinTang 0]

Hi,

Can i have your contractor J&E(too famous, afraid he got no time) and contractor A details too?

Thank alot

Edited July 4, 2015 by ZixinTang

[Lucidacid 4]

Hi Lucidacid,

Great themes and hard works in finding ideas and materials to furnish your first 'house'(and many of our first apartment). It is good to see blog with ideas instead of plain following the ID'S designs and let them 'determine your lifestyle '. Enjoy reading it and there are not many t-blogs hiring contractors and deciding their own designs and furnishings. Glad u have done that.

your quote seem reasonable; just to share here, I have 3 IDS that can give quotes with difference of 10k on the same design. I guess it voice down to 1. Margin (both IDS and their ID firm), 2. Workmanship, 3. Labour and 4. Others.

I have read blogs that put their IDs /contractors name in the writer's portfolio or one of the writer's post. I am curious why contractors' number are not allowed to shared in open? It reduce to read many unnecessary posts and writer like u can have more time to post more beautiful pics and informative write-up.

I am in the process to renovate my relative ' s place. Hope u can pm me J ' s contact. TIA.

Hi KenCan!

PMed you the contacts. Whoa, a difference of 10k is a lot! Do look out for hidden costs quoted by the IDs offering you at a cheaper price. Also, check the materials provided for the carpentry and kitchen counter top!

Hope this helps!

Edited August 8, 2015 by Lucidacid

[Lucidacid 4]

Hi, can email me his contact @ sri_adan@hotmail.com?

Thank you!

Hi Lucidacid,

Can you share your contractor detail, thank you.

Hi Lucidacid,

May i have your contractor contact?

Thanks in advance.

Can I have the contractor's contact too? Thanks!

Hi,

Can i have your contractor J&E(too famous, afraid he got no time) and contractor A details too?

Thank alot

PMed you! (:

[fireaxe999 0]

Hi

May i have your contractor contact?

Thanks in advance.

[Lucidacid 4]

Hi

May i have your contractor contact?

Thanks in advance.

Done! (:

[bsxk 0]

Hi lucidacid,

May i know what ideas you have for your mbr toilet? We managed to get a peep at one of the contractor showflat and found the toilet bowl is very close to the sink. Not sure if a sink cabinet can go in.

I like ur kitchen idea. I am also going with no top cabinet at sink and hood area cause heat and water cause problem for my top cabinet in my current flat.

[Lucidacid 4]

Hi lucidacid,

May i know what ideas you have for your mbr toilet? We managed to get a peep at one of the contractor showflat and found the toilet bowl is very close to the sink. Not sure if a sink cabinet can go in.

I like ur kitchen idea. I am also going with no top cabinet at sink and hood area cause heat and water cause problem for my top cabinet in my current flat.

Oh no! Which contractor? If it's contractor J's project, it could be my flat because they were shocked when they first found out about how close the toilet bowl will be to the sink (Honestly, i think the designer of this estate who came up with such a floorplan probably didn't bring his brain along to work. ). The depth of the cabinet is affected - we are going to make it shorter, and got a counter top sink which, fortunately, fits well. (:

I think what you saw was the moodboard of what I plan to do! But it's not the actual... We are going to have a top cabinet on top of the sink because we need the other side to be clear so baking will be easier for us. A top cabinet would make it a little claustrophobic for us.

[bsxk 0]

Oh no! Which contractor? If it's contractor J's project, it could be my flat because they were shocked when they first found out about how close the toilet bowl will be to the sink (Honestly, i think the designer of this estate who came up with such a floorplan probably didn't bring his brain along to work. ). The depth of the cabinet is affected - we are going to make it shorter, and got a counter top sink which, fortunately, fits well. (:

I think what you saw was the moodboard of what I plan to do! But it's not the actual... We are going to have a top cabinet on top of the sink because we need the other side to be clear so baking will be easier for us. A top cabinet would make it a little claustrophobic for us.

Oh no no...is not your contractor. Is a contractor who said he had 20 over projects in rivergrove but we found his design a bit old fashion. My hubby noticed the reason for the toilet bowl been located so near the sink is because to ensure the veneer door can swing open without hitting the toilet bowl. Lucky for u to find the sink which we also intend to change as the hdb one looks so small.

Oops got it wrong for ur kitchen. So ur fridge will be placed opposite the sink?

[Sam Lee Poh Huat 0]

Hihi Lucidacid,

Mind sharing J&E contacts? Can you share your exp while dealing with contractors especially with your selected ones. Do they itemilise your quotation to U and how long did they took to provide ur 3D? My wife's frd share her own exp where Most wld say no prob n yes to everything but end up they over promise n under quote which swell up later with add ons. How diff is J&E when compare to ID?

[Lucidacid 4]

Oh no no...is not your contractor. Is a contractor who said he had 20 over projects in rivergrove but we found his design a bit old fashion. My hubby noticed the reason for the toilet bowl been located so near the sink is because to ensure the veneer door can swing open without hitting the toilet bowl. Lucky for u to find the sink which we also intend to change as the hdb one looks so small.

Oops got it wrong for ur kitchen. So ur fridge will be placed opposite the sink?

Hi bsxk,

Yes we did realize that too but we have been to some show flats at Fernvale Riverbow. We were surprised by how the architect or whoever supposedly to think of the layout placed so much thought into that estate.Their kitchen was long enough, unlike ours; There was a indent for a wardrobe to fit into the different rooms; Their toilets weren't placed in such an awkward position. Hehe. But yes our estate is good too of course!

You can check Hoe Kee, I just bought my sink, Grohe, at a heavily discounted price. The dimensions are just about right with the mixer placed at the side, or Heritage Gallery, which I'll be dropping by to take a look this week!

Yes... Because our fridge is gigantic and doesn't fit anywhere else in the kitchen. It's probably going to block a little of our service yard entrance. We wanted to hack it down, but it is too hefty!

[Lucidacid 4]

Hihi Lucidacid,

Mind sharing J&E contacts? Can you share your exp while dealing with contractors especially with your selected ones. Do they itemilise your quotation to U and how long did they took to provide ur 3D? My wife's frd share her own exp where Most wld say no prob n yes to everything but end up they over promise n under quote which swell up later with add ons. How diff is J&E when compare to ID?

Will be answering your questions here, in hope that people with similar questions will benefit from this...

A) Can you share your exp while dealing with contractors especially with your selected ones.

I think firstly, my husband and I decided to prioritize what mattered to us the most. So it goes in this order,

1) Value for money (At first I wanted everything to be cheap, but our relatives told us that cheap will guarantee that the quality will be compromised. Since it is a house, longevity of each item should be a concern instead of being concerned about the price only.)

2) Personal values + morals - I'm just too jaded by unscrupulous IDs and contractors. Sometimes I suspect all they see us as cash cows only. Every ID talks about different things. For example; One of the IDs, told us that iquartz was cheaper than solid top and that solid top was better. I then found out afterwards, that it's nonsense. He also said that Kompacplus was the cheapest. I went to another firm, and they told me Kompacplus is very expensive, but not worth it. The IDs whom I've met smeared each other's name, which is totally different from our personal values. We know we definitely don't want to work with people like that.

Recently, I've placed deposit with this ID to help me do my stucco brick wall effect. I know he isn't the cheapest option, but I just took his offer because I was very tired running about finding the best of everything. His price was reasonable so...

3) Quality - We've been to show flats and see how the quality is like. Like I mentioned above, the contractor whom I have engaged, has immaculate workmanship. Some of the other contractors did not have any show flats for me to visit so I wasn't too sure about them.

B) Do they itemilise your quotation to U and how long did they took to provide ur 3D?

Yes, they do itemize my quotation apart from plumbing works and electricity works, it came at a lump sum package price. Price was reasonable, so I took it. From my understanding (may not apply to all firms in Singapore), IDs will usually not quote you for this yet until they are billed by their electricians. So this is where they will slot in the hidden cost, and mark up their profit margin. My father engaged an ID for his house, and ended up paying so much more than he should if he had engaged a contractor.

It took me 1 week to receive my 3D rendering.

C) My wife's frd share her own exp where Most wld say no prob n yes to everything but end up they over promise n under quote which swell up later with add ons. How diff is J&E when compare to ID?

Whenever J&E says yes to anything, I make it a point to write it down, snapshot the paper and send it to them in the whatsapp group chat. They too, take a photo of the cheque, and contracts and share it in the whatsapp group chat. This ensures transparency. Especially so for J&E when they have 15 or more projects on hand and would probably forget about the nitty gritty details. That could be one of the reasons why I'm enjoying so many additional perks now! Free this, free that! So far, my revised quotation is lower than what it originally was. Kept asking for discount and free things on different days. Horrible me

Hope this isn't too long winded and would help you!

Edited August 3, 2015 by Lucidacid