Our First Reno Journey

[FahmiMS 0]

Hi osiris7777,

Mind PM your shortlisted contractors contacts. In awe with your reno, very nicely done.

[hydeel 0]

Hi osiris7777,

Your reno is really well done. Could you PM your shortlisted contractors contacts.

[nanako123 0]

Hi osiris7777,

would you be able to pm or email me  crabbieong@yahoo.com.sg the contractor detail?

Thanks

[Sehn82 0]

Love it! Can you pass me the contacts of the aircon guy. Also could you pass me details of the fans bought and price? Making a trip to JB soon. Thinking of buying the lighting there as well but not too sure yet.

[WestGreen 0]

Hi osiris7777,

Could you kindly pm me the contacts for all your contractors and the quotes/costs if possible. Thanks.

[kmx1an 0]

Hi osiris7777,

May I have your contractor E and aircon contractor contact? Thanks! 

[gkc 0]

Hi there, you have a beautiful house, can you please pm me your contractor's details?

[Oink 0]

Hi osiris7777,

Could you PM your shortlisted contractors contacts. Thanks!

[JennyTan 0]

Hi, can share your contractor E contact and your reno quote? Thanks.

[dorae178 0]

Hi, can share the contact details of the 4 whom u shortlisted please? 

1) Contractor N from R*******

2) Contractor K from H*O

3) Contractor E from C* R***

4) Contractor E from D* I*******

[Mannequin 0]

On 19/10/2016 at 3:33 PM, osiris7777 said:

Contractor Selection - The choosen One

As you can see from the previous post, we have shortlisted 4 contractors.

1) Contractor N from R*******

2) Contractor K from H*O

3) Contractor E from C* R***

4) Contractor E from D* I*******

During the month of Aug, we did not meet up with any contractor. We have met up with all the ID /Contractor in the month of Jul and anyone who has gone through this stage will agreed with me that meeting different ID / Contractor and repeating the whole process again and again can be quite tiring. Wifey and I decided to give ourself a break and Aug will be our cool down period

So in Aug, we decided we should do something different. As wifey is a Taobao addict, I decided to assign her what she like to do best. Source for items that we need for our new home at Taobao. As for myself, I will be taking care of all the electrical appliances, aircon and furniture. More to that later in my next post.

Although we are not in a hurry to move in cos we are staying with my parent but we wish to spend our CNY at our new home. So we plan to decide on which contractor to use in the month of Sep in order to move in before CNY. 

2nd Appointment & Viewing of their projects

Contractor E from C* R***

We have seen their project during our 1st appointment therefore we decided to skip this and meet J at his office. J has his own carpentry at his office and that could be the reason why the workmanship of his carpentry is so good. We are not taking loan for our reno therefore we have to strictly work within our budget. The inital quote was over our budget therefore in order to stay within our budget, we have to take out certain things. One of the thing that we took out and wifey is very reluctant is the overlaying of tiles for both toilet wall and floor. Final quote was a few hundred off our budget. After a few days of consideration, we decided to sign up with them and called J but wifey can be quite stubborn sometime, insist J revise the quote (discount $350) to meet our budget since she has already compromise on the overlaying of tiles. J refuse to match our budget and in the end wifey give in because we really like their carpentry work. We tried calling J & E the next day but both of them did not pick up. We were thinking they could be busy with their projects therefore we try again the next day. Same thing, no one pick up our call and not even a return call from them. In the end we decided to drop them cos we think they are not interested to take up our project.

 

Contractor K from H*O

Met up for 2nd appointment at his office. His office is nicely done and we get to see all the different type of material and laminate. Final quote was within our budget but same thing we have to take out the tiles overlaying. K is the only contractor that give us blum for our kitchen cabinet. We went to view his project and really like his flair for design. Although final quote is within our budget, wifey still couldn't get over the fact that we can't have the toilet overlay, therefore KIV.   

 

Contractor N from R*******

We met at one of his project, workmanship for carpentry is quite good but wifey pointed out that the tiling work is not up to her expectation. Final quote was within our budget and include overlaying of tiles for both toilet. Although we could overlay the toilet and keep it within our budget, we feel that we do not have the chemistry with N to see us through the reno for the next 2 months, therefore KIV.

 

Contractor E from D* I*******                

E is the last contractor we met out of the 4. Went to one of his project at Sengkang. Good workmanship for carpentry and tiling which wifey and I are pretty impress. We decided to go to his office to discuss on the final quote. Final quote is within our budget with overlaying of toilet tiles plus we get to choose the color for all internal PVC for carpentry instead of the usual white color which we don't like. We decided to sign on the spot with E and he was taken aback by our discussion We spend close to 3 hours looking at the different material and laminate and chit chatting.

Reasons we sign with E:

1. Chemistry - Easy to communicate with, he's quite easy going and we feel he's quite honest.

2. Acceptable workmanship - Wifey and I think that his workmanship is pretty good.

3. Reasonable quote - Within our budget and willing to compromise example certain things he forget to quote but give us FOC.

4. Contactable - He set up a group chat on the day we sign up and so far he always respond to our queries within an hour our within the same day if he's busy with other projects.

5. After sales - Can't really comment on this point but heard from some t-bloggers that some of his projects that he done 1 year ago having issues, he still take ownership.

Enough of all the long-winded writing, I shall be posting more pictures on the progress of our journey. Stay tune!

 

Lastly just to clarify that our experience with all the ID / Contractor is solely our own observation. Your mileage may vary. One man's meat is another man's poison

Hi do you mind to share the initial quote and final quote? any major additions? Thank you.

[Diluted 0]

On 28/12/2016 at 10:35 PM, osiris7777 said:

Final Reno Journey

Our Reno is schedule to be completed in mid Dec but due to some small issues (not due to our contractor), therefore we have to extend 1 more week.

1st Issue

Initially we do not want to install window at our service yard cos we prefer the unblock feel without the window. One stormy night, we forgotten to close the service yard door before we left and the next day, the rain splash all the way into our kitchen. The whole kitchen floor was wet but luckily our washing machine is ok.

We were exploring other options beside window and we came across those outdoor roller blind. We gotten a few quotes from some supplier and was shock that it was pretty expensive. One supplier quoted me $2K for the outdoor roller blind and moreover HDB might not approve the installation of outdoor roller blind at the service yard.     

So without any viable options, we ask E to install sliding window

2nd Issue

I have always wanted to install white window blind for all bedrooms and living area cos I feel that white blind will be more in-line with the theme of our design. Wife prefer curtain for master room as she feel that curtain will make the room more cosy. To make life easier for myself, I decided to give in and go for curtain for the master room. 

When our curtain contractor came to do measurement for the curtain, he highlighted to us that the ledge above the window is too narrow to install double row curtain. As my wife is very persistence therefore we ask our curtain contractor what are our options if we insist on double row.

Option 1: Use 2 x slim curtain tracks but both the curtain will be very close to each other and will not look nice. Sunlight might leak in at the top edge of the curtain and visible curtain track.

Option 2: Do single row curtain. Sunlight might leak in at the top edge of the curtain and visible curtain track.

Option 3: Extend ledge wide with window pelmet. Sunlight will not leak in at the top edge of the curtain and non-visible curtain track.      

My wife were not prepared to compromise therefore we decided to go for option 3

Spoken to E about this and within a few days, the extended ledge with the window pelmet is done! Kudos to E for giving us a very good price for the additional job and arranging for the painter to come over again to touch up the paint.

 

 

Is there a reason why you didnt consider installing the curtains on the ceiling?

[Skywalker87 0]

Hi, can share the contact details of the 4 whom u shortlisted please? 

1) Contractor N from R*******

2) Contractor E from C* R***

3) Contractor E from D* I*******

Your sharing would be really really superduper helpful to me!!!!!

 

[tinglebelle 1]

Hi! Currently in the research stage so I would appreciate it if you could send me E's contact and quote as well! Thank you very much!

[Skywalker87 0]

Hello guys, I didnt receive anything from osiris7777. So if you managed to get her contacts. Can kindly pass it along to me please?