The Sky Parlour - An Executive Maisonette Journey

[ricepapergirl 21]

Oh wow timotan really? Is it the exact same layout?? I would have thought HDB would forbid building over the void, especially the much larger void that the L-shaped staircase EM units have. I was talking to an ID who also mentioned he did something creative with the void area for another client but when I double-checked with him on my specific unit he realized that the void area he was talking about was smaller and narrower than our first gen EMs, so he said it couldn't be done for my unit.

Still, really interesting to hear! Maybe I'll explore with our ID.

[Reiki 0]

now need to hunt for aircon quotation... anyone has any good aircon man to recommend?

Hi twinklecloud,

The aircond company that fixed my place has been with me since day one. I am not sure of their pricing but I must say that there workmanship and after-sales service are superb. They have always been very responsive.

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/13602-the-reiki-sanctuary/?p=718598- When this happened, they were very concerned and assisted all the way to resolve it. Thankfully, up to today, the problem is not resurfacing.

PM me if you are interested to call him for quotations.

[twinklecloud 2]

Hi twinklecloud,

The aircond company that fixed my place has been with me since day one. I am not sure of their pricing but I must say that there workmanship and after-sales service are superb. They have always been very responsive.

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/13602-the-reiki-sanctuary/?p=718598- When this happened, they were very concerned and assisted all the way to resolve it. Thankfully, up to today, the problem is not resurfacing.

PM me if you are interested to call him for quotations.

hi Reiki, i tried to pm but couldnt get thru.. do mind sharing with me the aircon contact pls?thank you!

[Reiki 0]

hi Reiki, i tried to pm but couldnt get thru.. do mind sharing with me the aircon contact pls?thank you!

I have PMed you twinklecloud. Hope you get a good price.

[twinklecloud 2]

I have PMed you twinklecloud. Hope you get a good price.

thanks Reiki!

[twinklecloud 2]

ID selection

Dear all

Here is an update to our renovation status. We have finally decided on an ID. Yeah. Just to give you a rough idea, we have spoken to and seen the designs from the following company, arranged in alphabetical order.

• A and R Construction and Engineering
• Butterpaperstudios
• D’Initial Concept
• Design 4 Space
• Designer Guy
• Fotobox
• Infinitum
• (*****) - for some reasons this ID name gets censored after we write its name down. We shall leave it as censored.
• Reno Guyz
• Rezt N Relax
• Sky Creation
• Three D Conceptwerkz
• Urban Atelier

We finally awarded the project to Mr A from Designer Guy. The reason is that he is diligent, responsive and flexible on our ideas. And most importantly, he is very patient and listens to what we want and tries to accommodate us. We met up with him at least 7 to 8 times and he has given us at least 6 quotations before we finally sign the contract with him. Of course, the main reason is that he can give us what we want and price it within our budget.

Here are some personal reflections on our OTHER IDs that we have met. We shall not state their names specifically

ID “1” is the first one that we met. We were introduced to them by a friend who had wonderful experience working with them. With that as a living testimonial, how bad can they be? Turns out that they are indeed pretty good bunch in terms of creativity, but really expensive. After the first meeting and getting all our requirements in, the creative ID went ahead and design a superb living space for our maisonette, but that design will cost us well above $160k. So, they actually draw out a plan B, a mediocre layout (which I can do myself), and this one is still out of our budget. After we meet up for the second time, and realising that to have our dream house, we have to increase our budget, otherwise we will just have to settle for a so-so house. Honestly, I get the feeling that they “see us no up”. The conversations goes something like “But we want it to be like this” and they go “Can, but it will cost you”. We left the place feeling shocked and betrayed. Our next few text messages is just them asking us to confirm our budget and they will try to get something decent out of it. In my opinion, an ID should try their best to have their client’s dream house and try to work out the problem to decrease the cost. So we gave up on ID “1”.

ID “2” is actually quite accommodating. We went to a showroom and spoke to a rather junior ID. She was quite hopeless and didn’t know the difference between an EA and an EM. But she did refer our case to her senior ID who had experience dealing with EM before. So we meet up this senior and he looks rather green as well. But he did have some reasonable designs, but we were not WOWed by him. He did try to work within our budget (but still failed, though not as miserably as ID 1). So we put his plans on the shelf and continued to look around.

We shall not mention the IDs who were uneventful. This is afterall a juicy gossip session about IDs, no?

ID “3” is Mr A from Designer Guy. He met up with us showing us a completed EM with some impressive features (and the owner is still happy enough to let him bring strangers to his place after 2 years post handing over!). We thought that completed project was pretty unique but unfortunately that EM is a slightly different layout from ours. So Mr A worked with us closely, and he did mention “If you can conceive it, we can build it, just a matter of how”. We pretty much show him pictures downloaded from the internet and he say he can fabricate it after putting a bit of thought. He managed to come up with a layout design after 2 days, and that did WOW us a little bit. But I was pretty fickle minded and changed my mind about many aspects of the layout plan, at a certain point I even revamp the whole plan and changed pretty much everything he drew. And after realising some more issues with the new design, we went back to something almost similar to his original design in the end. And most of all, he did it within our budget, and have no qualms if we hire our own contractors for certain aspects of the job like windows, doors, air-con, electricians. The rapport and chemistry with him is the best among all the IDs.

ID “4” is actually a designer friend. We were initially hesitant to engage a friend, for fear of losing the friendship should this project not sail as smoothly as we intended. But she did reassure us that “no harm is hearing them out”, so we met up with her team and heard them out. They are actually quite a creative bunch, but they were pretty obsessed with one thing : the height of the house. Their opinion is that an EM is pretty unique and there are many part of the house that extends two floors. If we can make use of it and design something spanning the two floors, we can make it visually stunning and unique that only EMs can achieve. We were somewhat impressed with their design, but only have issues with 1. The practicality of a certain design plan that they seem to come up with to solve a certain air-con problem, 2. Their (lack of) responsiveness when we message them our queries. 3 Their price. So we put their plans on a shelf too.

ID “5” is actually a pretty cheerful bunch. They had a pretty impressive project, one which had been described in one of the other T-blog here. So we contacted them and get them to design a layout. One thing we admire them is their energy level and cheerfulness. And the team of 2 designers were always joking and making fun of each other. Professionally their design were OKAY, pretty acceptable if we actually go down to doing it. Not as jaw-dropping as the other project, but that other design wouldn't have met our needs anyway. However, their pricing was still a bit out of our range, despite us cutting down on many aspects. Even so, they continued to serve us till we finally turn them down rather recently. I will still recommend them for their creativity, and it was really a pleasure to work with them too. So the only reason is our budget actually, and its no fault of theirs.

ID “6” is a company that we walked past many times during the many Expo fairs that we had been to, and my husband had always avoided them because they cannot even spell their company name correctly. If someone cannot spell their names properly, my husband has serious doubts they can draw a good picture. Anyway one fine fair day I decided to speak to one of their designer. We were in a hurry actually, and my husband still has his doubts. So we sat down, I listed down my criteria for the design, our budget, and a copy of our floorplan, and ask him to get back to us when done. So he did, but now he has backup. Turns out that he is pretty junior too, and he consulted the help of his senior. When we meet up with them the second time, this senior, aiyoh wah, for a lack of a better word, behaves like a chow ah beng. He spoke big big and make big claims, and my husband can smell his cigarette breath. He claims to have a good reputation in designing EMs, but a quick google of his name revealed quite a few “concerns” from his ex-clients. We thought we should just leave those who cannot spell not to deal with our project.

The last ID we will talk about here, lets call them ID “7”, is also a very creative bunch. We also met them in an Expo fair, and same as the above, we sat down, listed our criteria, our budget and our floorplan. They gotten back to us within half a week, and this one actually is pretty good! They had very good ideas and is able to relay to us and impress upon us how good it is. On top of that, they were also very accommodating, and willing to let us cut down and outsource many aspect of the project to cheaper alternatives. But in the end, being part of a big company, they are still limited in their resource cutting ability, and the final pricing is still out of our budget. Nonetheless, they are also very pleasant to work with, and we will still recommend them to anyone who is interested in meeting.

So here it is, after meeting 13 IDs, and slightly comprehensive reviews on 7 (the rest, as I said, were uneventful), we have decided on Designer Guy, whose logo looks suspiciously like Dolce and Gabanna.

We had started hacking works, and will update later as the project gets along.

Cheers!

Here is the original Floor Plan

Here is the final floorplan

Thank you for reading this! Cheers!

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/72503-the-sky-parlour-an-executive-maisonette-journey/page-5#entry917017

Edited December 13, 2015 by twinklecloud

[twinklecloud 2]

DAY 1 - 10/12/15

Hacking has officially commenced.. downstairs all hacked.

Edited December 11, 2015 by twinklecloud

[twinklecloud 2]

Day 2

Edited December 11, 2015 by twinklecloud

[ricepapergirl 21]

Wow I was away for a week and so much has happened. That layout! OMG wow! Love how you changed the layout of the toilet downstairs, super creative! What are you leaving the "ex" dining room area empty for?

Really loving that redesigned layout and definitely interested in your recommendations for IDs as well! Will PM you!

[twinklecloud 2]

Wow I was away for a week and so much has happened. That layout! OMG wow! Love how you changed the layout of the toilet downstairs, super creative! What are you leaving the "ex" dining room area empty for?

Really loving that redesigned layout and definitely interested in your recommendations for IDs as well! Will PM you!

Thank u for your kind words. We went thru a lot and took quite sometime before we got this layout. We changed A lot of structure and two items still pending approval.

I do hope things can turn out the way we want it!

The existing dining we still haven't make up our mind... Will slowly explore a few options. Hehe...got your PMed.

Edited December 14, 2015 by twinklecloud

[ricepapergirl 21]

Just a question, did you need to get clearance to change the bottom kitchen and kitchen toilet configuration that way? (Can you tell I'm going wild thinking of possibilities for layout on the 1st floor?!)

And also, does that mean your MBR extends past the railing at the Void?

[twinklecloud 2]

Just a question, did you need to get clearance to change the bottom kitchen and kitchen toilet configuration that way? (Can you tell I'm going wild thinking of possibilities for layout on the 1st floor?!)

And also, does that mean your MBR extends past the railing at the Void?

just try and get approval.. the downstairs toilet and the master toilet upstairs are not approved by hdb yet. waiting for my ID to work magic with the Hdb. hehe..

wow.. i do look forward to read your tblog soon!

nope. my mbr stop right there.=)

[nextstep 3]

1st congratulation that your selection of your ID

Wish all smooth smooth ya.

But Wow! 13 Designer, that is a significant numbers of ID, but for your house I am sure all worth it.

For me I find that each time after meeting with ID, I will feel very tired. I think exchanging idea with ID is very energy draining process.

[twinklecloud 2]

1st congratulation that your selection of your ID

Wish all smooth smooth ya.

But Wow! 13 Designer, that is a significant numbers of ID, but for your house I am sure all worth it.

For me I find that each time after meeting with ID, I will feel very tired. I think exchanging idea with ID is very energy draining process.

thank u nextstep. It wasnt easy.. it's extremely tiring.. reading all the quotation and getting the design we want and talking to so many ppl...phew! glad it's done.. now it's another tiring process again.. the shopping and getting the right item to fit into the house!

your house progressing very well!

[twinklecloud 2]

Day 7

Hacking completed. Still pending approval of the two toilet walls...

Edited December 19, 2015 by twinklecloud