Our First Home

[bykaraanne 30]

I have the same iRobot

I snagged it for $100 from someone hha!

Always like seeing people update houses after moving in

[jobb 0]

Hola, nice blog there! However, seems like the ID and contractor didn't have good communication which ended up in so many issues. I would have exploded if it was me, kudos for being so patient with him.

I guess that is the problem with IDs and they tend to sub-contract the manual aka dirty work to their contractors while they project manage resulting in so much issues. Some of them can design and 3D well without taking note of the minor details but still charge a design fee (hope they didn't for your case). Nonetheless, great to see your house is up and coming!

Thanks panjangowner! We had to be patient as we didn't want to sour relationships while our renovation was still ongoing...although my fiance did explode a few times I think majority of the issues which cropped up happened when we outsourced work to other contractors and my ID probably did not foresee the consequences of certain work done i.e. the running of aircon pipes blocking the gas pipe. Nonetheless, we were happy that he was responsible enough to admit his mistake and try to proactively find solutions for us. Eventually, our VO came up to an additional $2K and this includes electrical so we thought it was actually reasonable. Another thing we were pleased with was his willingness to come back and rectify/touch up any areas which were not up to my expectations, no matter how minor even after we had made full payment. And yep, we weren't charged a separate design fee although I think the cost must have been factored into the final price somehow

By the way, congratulations on getting your new place and all the best on your renovation journey!

I have the same iRobot

I snagged it for $100 from someone hha!

Always like seeing people update houses after moving in

That's such a steal! This iRobot is really useful especially if you have pets who keep shedding fur...

[andrewlow78 0]

Looking lovely so far! Any review on your mattress yet? Was thinking about getting one Sealy too but was not convinced on their titanium springs since titanium is super expensive… Which model did you get? J

[jobb 0]

Looking lovely so far! Any review on your mattress yet? Was thinking about getting one Sealy too but was not convinced on their titanium springs since titanium is super expensive… Which model did you get? J

Hello! Thanks for dropping by our T-blog I think the Sealy mattress was one of our best buys! It's too comfortable and I have difficulty getting up which is bad...coz I have been reaching my workplace late since we moved in

We got the prestige - hotel collection but it's best to go down and try the mattresses yourselves coz everyone has different preferences...the sales person should be able to advise you further on that

[yakult 3]

Hello! Thanks for dropping by our T-blog I think the Sealy mattress was one of our best buys! It's too comfortable and I have difficulty getting up which is bad...coz I have been reaching my workplace late since we moved in

We got the prestige - hotel collection but it's best to go down and try the mattresses yourselves coz everyone has different preferences...the sales person should be able to advise you further on that

Sealy is awesome! Really made waking up very very difficult when paired with a super comfy bedsheet & quilt cover

[lifeissimple 3]

u guys made my day! hahhaa...at least i din made a wrong choice of choosing sealy too!

I got the hotel collection too! yippeee!

[jobb 0]

It's been a long journey but as of now, all outstanding renovation items have been settled. The last thing which got rectified was our study table...

We started using our study table properly for the first time 2 weeks after moving in. One day, while using the desktop, my fiance accidentally hit the edge of the table and a piece of the laminate chipped off

On closer inspection, we realized the edge of the table was not sealed with ABS trimming, thus making it super uncomfortable to rest our arms against and making the edge really vulnerable to chipping. We immediately messaged our ID who promptly promised to send his carpenter down to take a look. We only managed to arrange for them to come down last Saturday as we were super busy last week with first week of work/school and wedding preparations...When the carpenters came down, they decided to replace the whole laminate and add on the ABS trimming for us.

This was the end result after hours of hard work. I wasn't at home when the carpenters came over and so, my fiance had to clean the room by himself after the work was done. He said it was super dirty and dusty...so thanks BB

First thing I noticed when I came home was that the laminate used for the front profile of the table edge had been changed! It is the same as the internal ones used for the drawers so I was happy to accept that...my fiance didn't even noticed the difference

Comparison of before and after rectification photos...the table is so much more comfortable to use now...made us wonder why the carpenters didn't put it on in the first place... Nonetheless, we're just glad it was fixed and with little fuss from our ID or the carpenters. Must really commend our ID for being so efficient in addressing our complaint even though he handed the house over weeks ago...

And so, that sums up our renovation journey...(for now)

Edited January 12, 2016 by jobb

[jobb 0]

It's been so long since we updated and we just noticed that the photos which were uploaded onto the renotalk gallery are all gone now...  Can't really remember what we had posted in the first place so guess we have no choice but to leave it as such.

Anyway, the main purpose of revisiting our blog is to close this renovation chapter as all the rectification works have been completed for now. Since our last post, we had some hiccups in the post-renovation period which ultimately took more than 2 months to resolve...

It started with me trying out the built in oven while cooking dinner one evening and after a few minutes of switching on the oven, I experienced a blackout. My built in oven which had been passed down by the previous owner was faulty and we decided to replace it with a table top oven. We had already anticipated something like this might happen given that the built in oven was old and hadn't been used for a long time and so, during renovation, specifically told our ID that we do not want to fix the built in oven into the kitchen cabinet in case we need to replace it with a table top oven. We had expected him to design the cubicle similar to the one which houses our microwave oven and so, it was a shock when we removed the built in oven and found this instead:

We didn't even have a socket even though it was specified in our contract and the interior was totally bare. When we flagged this up to our ID, we spoke to his supervisor initially as he was out of town for the week. What ensued was a shouting match as the boss tried to insinuate that it was our fault for the miscommunication which resulted in the wrong design while we were adamant that we were not going to pay extra to fix a problem when we thought we had already made clear our design intentions regarding the space for the oven. Luckily, our ID returned to Singapore the following week and promptly promised to settle this issue for us. He arranged for the carpenter to come down to our house to take measurements of the space and ordered the laminate to be used to cover the interior of the cubicle. However, other hiccups popped up along the way as the original laminate we chose for our kitchen cabinets are no longer in production and we had to choose another laminate which is similar to our original ones. Finally, after the carpenters finished fixing the new laminates, we had to wait for the electrician to come down to fix the socket for us. All in all, the whole process took almost 3 months but the end result was pretty much to our satisfaction.

We are pretty grateful to our ID for settling this for us without additional cost and we have to commend him for arranging his worker to come over and help replace a leaking bidet hose without any fuss.

It has been almost 6 months since we've moved in and the carpentry has been holding up well so far. All in all, even though our renovation costs were slightly over what our initial budget was, we have no regrets going with our ID and we're thankful that we have a fully functioning house despite this being our first renovation attempt.

[Butterflious 2]

Hi, can I have your ID's contact please? Thanks

[jobb 0]

58 minutes ago, Butterflious said:

Hi, can I have your ID's contact please? Thanks

PMed you!