15 Shades of Grey - 4 RM BTO @ Woodlands Glen

[Clarence Lye 10]

Dear Readers,

Fairly new to RenoTalk as I merely just read and see pictures of other's T-Blogs, therefore decided to also share mine journey with everyone.
Had friends and family whom encountered contractors/ID that ran away, ended up their money was cheated.
Therefore, we were very careful in selecting our ID by ensuring that they are accredited with CaseTrust/RCMA. This is to prevent our money from dissapearing after hearing all those bad experiences...

We wanted a home to display our Lego collection, as well as a cozy home to look forward to coming back everyday after work.
As I do some baking as my hobby, i will need an open kitchen concept with lots of space to do my stuffs.

Here are some details of my home:

Location: Woodlands
Type of Unit: HDB 4 Room
Floor Size: 93m²
Theme: Modern + Contemporary + Scandinavian + 15 Shades of Grey (not 50..)
 

Floor Plan:



HDB's Proposed Layout:

 

Our Layout:

Original's HDB layout is definitely not the layout i'm looking at as I have quite a number of Lego sets to display.
These are some of the pictures/feels that I like when i first sourced for ideas/design/layout

Moodboard

 

Like all of you, selection of ID is the great headache of all.
We were all hyped out and too excited, therefore started looking for ID as early as 2015-2016 after we booked our flat with HDB.
FYI, our home is only going to be ready 2Q 2017. 


ID Selection

1) 3D I****** D****** - Strike Off
Been hearing and seeing aloton them via Radio / Tv (RenoAid) as they are getting popular. Been to their showroom, didn't like the vibes of the company as the ID forgotten my appointment with them. Didn't bother to follow up after that, as they seems "too popular" or busy. 

2) W**ken - Strike Off
Visited them for fun at Tampines, didn't have much interesting ideas from them.
Therefore decided to just drop them, as they are unable to think of anything out of the norm as all the proposed design/layout is what i found online. 

3) Ciss**n Interior Design - Strike Off
Also another ID that is frequently found at expo shows, quite like the home they did up for local celebrity - Judy, which was displayed at the showroom.
Person we spoke to was very aggressive and pushy, therefore got quite turn off as during the point of time we were just looking out and finding out prices only. 

4) i-Ch*pter - Strike Off
Happen to chance upon them at one Star Living Furniture event, the ID we spoke to was quite knowledgeable and has lots of great, creative ideas.
If you are looking for great ideas, you can look for him. We didn't select him because the company only offer 1 year warranty and the package is not enticing enough, furthermore hekeep calling me the wrong name ever since day 1. 

5) Sk* Cr****** / Mus*e - Strike Off
For those that visited the Musee Interior Design Resource Library would definitely come know them, as they are partners with Musee.
It's an eye opener for a newbie like me to know about all about renovation and planning for my home, for those wanting to gain some knowledge can go visit them. We didn't eventually chose them because we felt that they want a share in every bit of every business, which makes them too "messy" and not specializing in what they are supposing to do. 

6) U**** ID - Strike Off
As the raves of the famous K** and Sa***** goes, we decided to also make an appointment with them to find out how good they are. On the 2nd meetup, you can tell that they are very sincere and serious in getting your business. They even do up a mood board and 3D for you to visualize, idont think i have come across any other ID that does this so far. Pretty amaze by what they can do to make you feel pressured. Their ideas are so-so in my opinion, quotation was super over-priced for the amount of work done. Furthermore, every hinges/drawer track provided were not even Excel or Blum. Didn't proceed with them as they only willing to offer 1 year warranty for that overprice quotation. 

7) Rezt and Relax - [Selected]
Always noticed their expo exhibition, visited them and quite like the vibes of their showroom/style.
Made appointment with senior designer JJ and after a few meetup, we feel that the price is slightly on the high side. However, we were made to believe that it was because of the lifetime warranty. 
We decided to go with them as they are the only ID that offers lifetime warranty and is also backed by CaseTrust

8) Abs*l**k I******* D*****
Saw alot of Facebook ads on this company, made appointment with them to just kaypoh kaypoh.
The ideas and quotation were quite reasonable, we even manage to negotiate to a 5 years warranty coverage and free upgrade to blum for everything. The quotation were within our budget and best of all, it includes hacking of the 2nd Bedroom to cater my walk in wardrobe!  
However, we eventually didn't proceed with them because we have signed with R&R. 

 

Appliance/Equipment List:

[Fridge, Aircon, Washing Machine, Heater, Basin]
- Fridge: LG Door-in-Door Refrigerator 601L GS-J6011SB
- AirCon: LG Artcool System 4 Mitsubishi Starmex System 4 5Ticks
- Washer/Dryer: 12/8kg Inverter Direct Drive 6 Motion Front Loader WD1628RDS
- Joven5035L Green Storage Heater: JH5035HE
- Kitchen Basin: Blanco Metra 9 + Mida Sink MIxer

[Hob, Hood, Oven, Microwave]
- Hob/Hood: Brandt AT1490X + TG308XC1 + TI1000B package
- Oven: Brandt 60cm Built-in Pyrolytic Oven FP1067XS
- Microwave: Brandt 900w Built-in Microwave ME1030X

i'm abit OCD and like things to be consistent, clean and neat.
Therefore it has to be of the same brand/series... 

[Bathroom]
- Rain Shower: Grohe Cosmopolitan 200 (Common) + Grohe Euphoria 180 (Master)
- Basin Taps: Krisroz 43011C (Common) + Krizros KS35001 High Body (Master)
- Toilet Bowl: American Standard AMS 2307 Acacia E Vortex
- Bidet Spray: TBA
- Accessories: TBA

list to be updated, still looking around. Should be getting Grohe Rainshower and other stuffs... any recommendation?

[Misc]
- Eubiq Powertrack System
- Evorich Flooring
- Accessories: TBA
- Deco Items: TBA


Can you believe that we actually place deposit for Evorich Flooring back in early 2016, even way before anything else.
We quite like the flexibility of Eubiq in the house (especially the kitchen), therefore we also went ahead to purchase the powertrack system and manage to negotiate a good deal to get additional stuffs.

In the next post, will be posting details of the discussion of my 3D and pictures will be attached.

 

Edited October 10, 2017 by Clarence Lye
(=

[Clarence Lye 10]

This is the initial plan of our house and what we need:

- display area to put my legossss
- concealed bomb shelter
- open kitchen concept with fridge/microwave along the walkway to the room
- study table in Bedroom 2
- shower screen for common toilet & MBR toilet
- platform bed for king size bed
- walk-in wardrobe for MBR
- full width mirror for MBR toilet
- vanity cabinet for MBR toilet
- overlay wall+floor tiles for MBR toilet

Below are the 3D received from JJ:

 

[3D Layout #1]

 

We felt that the "dining table" was cheating our money and we didn't like the "drop down" height feel.
It looks like just a plank of wood and it cost as much as the kitchen bottom cabinet, therefore we asked to match the height of the bottom cabinet and also add in a cultery drawer.

Things we didnt like:
- Living Display / TV Console: didn't incorporated our lego idea into the whole design
- Common Toilet: didnt ask for top cabinet on top of toilet bowl and it don't make sense to put it on top of the toilet bowl. I'm bound to hit my head on it.
- MBR: we didn't like the feel of wardrobe layout and TV feature wall
- MBR Toilet: we only wanted a full width mirror without any cabinet, but was given with cabinet.
- Colour Tones: both wife and me agrees that the colour tone is too light and don't suit what we like > shades of gray, woody.

 

Conclusion: The colour scheme seems to be a "template" that R&R uses for their clients, just change abit of the laminates and layout and they present it to me. If you noticed, their 3D image have very similar feel colour tone/scheme. 

 

Edited April 4, 2017 by Clarence Lye

[Clarence Lye 10]

We arranged to meet up with JJ to amend the details and colour tone.

#1 Amendments:
- change colour scheme/tone
- change to black mirror for bomb shelter
- added cutlery "pull out drawer" for the dining table
- requested for re-designing of the TV Console/Display area
- remove top cabinet for common toilet (previously was on top of the toilet bowl)
- shift the wardrobe to a L shape layout
- amend study table to house a tv console/feature wall

 

Again.. whatever we discussed during the meetup wasn't fully "absorbed"

Errors #1 found:
- Overlaying of my MBR toilet tiles are omitted
- Display cabinet @ Living still not able to display our lego despite telling JJ multiple times the dimension and number of lego we want to display 

the displaying of our Lego are a main concern, as we want to display these Legos below, therefore definitely need to factor in the space (height, width) and also designs:

 

 

This is the biggest headache, the Lego Modular series. They need to be displayed side-by-side to create the "shophouse" / Street feel. It's because of this sets, We need fresh, creative ideas from our ID. If we can do it ourself, we would have looked for contractors on our own.

 

There are more Legos, but we try our best to only display the bigger sets... 

 

 

Had no choice, but to schedule another meeting with JJ to discuss on what we want again..

#2 Amendments
- re-design display cabinet to display Lego (AGAIN..)
- colour scheme too dark and plain for our liking
- swop the fridge and oven position as i prefer the fridge to be outside
- re-arrange the MBR wardrobe layout
- added bay window bay area - due to space constrain, will be using 3 seater sofa + window bay
- amend the study table to be parallel to the window instead

our 3D came out as below:

 

 

Error #2 found:
- not sure why my black mirror bomb shelter became chrome (i didn't mention i wanted chrome at all...)
- Colour theme seems to be back to the #1 3D design, which is not what we wanted
- display cabinet still not getting the feel we wanted, therefore have to re-design again. This layout is just too boxy and "standard"

not that we are demanding... but if we are paying money to get interior designer to do up the design, especially for the Lego displays..can't they do something better? This isn't any designer worthy kind of work..

 

No choice. Had to schedule another meeting to discuss this again.   

 

Edited April 5, 2017 by Clarence Lye

[Clarence Lye 10]

It was during the period of Expo Furniture Fair where different IDs exhibit there, we went down to listen to the R&R talk on renovation and chance upon another senior designer - Danielle

 

My wife quite like her style and choice of colours, therefore we spoke quite abit to her and understand more about the whole renovation process and about our frustration of us not getting what we want.

 

Post-meetup with JJ few weeks later, we discussed on #3 Amendments:
- hacking the wall between the kitchen and service yard to make the kitchen look bigger
- adding a tall larder for laundry and to conceal the pipings at service yard
- also discussed on how to improve the display area for the Lego.

As the remaining bits and pieces are still okay, our main frustration is still the living area..

Here are the results:

at least this is better than all the previous design, but then again - we have to emphasize again that the Lego sets will not fit into the planned space that JJ shown us in the 3D given their dimension of each set.

Therefore, wife and me decided that we had enough of all these discussion since JJ shows no initiative to follow up and provide better design of displaying the sets. We think that is going no where and decided to change our ID to Danielle (whom we previously met at one of the show) instead.

Our personal feedback on JJ is that he always re-use ideas/design from his previous project (if you look at his past works).
I believe not just him, many other IDs as well. They always recycle their design and just amend the colours to satisfy their clients, but it just don't work for me.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Clarence Lye

[Clarence Lye 10]

After meeting up and discussing with Danielle, we just told her that we want this kind of feel in our living:

I had also requested for my platform bed and wardrobe to be amended to this kind:

 

#4 Amendments:
- change platform bed style
- change wardrobe layout and design
- remove the bottom cabinet that extends out to the living (which also acts as the dining table)
- removed study table in Bedroom 2
 

Danielle asked if we like something like this and if we fine to go ahead with these colour samples:

We are okay with the design, but the wood grains are too light to our liking. 

Therefore, few weeks later she provided us the draft of the design and asked for our opinion.
(finally we can see that there is some work being done properly when you meet an ID that really do their job.)

Our feedback to her that we prefer something like these kind of shades of gray (not 50 shades of gray thou) and to mix the colour as per our preference but was told that it would be too dark. 

 

and the updated 3D pics of the changes as follow: 

 

The pictures are starting to look more like what we wanted. 

Living: we can finally visualize how our Lego display will look like
Kitchen: we got the cafe-ish kind of feel with the chalkboard wall
Bedroom: TV feature wall has improved as compared to previous design, and we like our platform + walk in wardrobe feel now. (there will be panel door to cover the wardrobe area, similiar to this design below)

 

 

By the way, i have yet to collect my keys (estimated 2Q 2017).
The next phase of discussion can only happen after key collection.
Meanwhile, will source for items at taobao. (any recommendation on what to get for the home???)


till then.. 

Edited April 5, 2017 by Clarence Lye

[Clarence Lye 10]

Taobao Loot #1 - https://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/77721-contemporary-scandinavian-4-rm-woodlands-glen/?page=7&tab=comments#comment-960375

 

Edited September 11, 2017 by Clarence Lye

[Clarence Lye 10]

reserved (6)

[Clarence Lye 10]

reserved (7)

[sunnyscandi 1]

i'm sorry but I think the previous ID design look much better.

[Tewi 0]

I prefer the new designs, looking forward to seeing them come to life! The previous ones were not bad but look pretty generic. I had a similar idea for the MBR (like you, doing research 2 years in advance) so I'm interested to see how that turns out.

All the best with your reno process!

[Zincman81 5]

Hi bro Clarence,my fellow woodlands Glen neighbour.still waiting anxiously for our key collection.nice designs for your bedroom.

[fifteenmay 40]

On 4/5/2017 at 0:13 AM, Clarence Lye said:

After meeting up and discussing with Danielle, we just told her that we want this kind of feel in our living:

I had also requested for my platform bed and wardrobe to be amended to this kind:

 

#4 Amendments:
- change platform bed style
- change wardrobe layout and design
- remove the bottom cabinet that extends out to the living (which also acts as the dining table)
- removed study table in Bedroom 2
 

Danielle asked if we like something like this and if we fine to go ahead with these colour samples:

We are okay with the design, but the wood grains are too light to our liking. 

Therefore, few weeks later she provided us the draft of the design and asked for our opinion.
(finally we can see that there is some work being done properly when you meet an ID that really do their job.)

Our feedback to her that we prefer something like these kind of shades of gray (not 50 shades of gray thou) and to mix the colour as per our preference but was told that it would be too dark. 

 

and the updated 3D pics of the changes as follow: 

 

The pictures are starting to look more like what we wanted. 

Living: we can finally visualize how our Lego display will look like
Kitchen: we got the cafe-ish kind of feel with the chalkboard wall
Bedroom: TV feature wall has improved as compared to previous design, and we like our platform + walk in wardrobe feel now. (there will be panel door to cover the wardrobe area, similiar to this design below)

 

 

By the way, i have yet to collect my keys (estimated 2Q 2017).
The next phase of discussion can only happen after key collection.
Meanwhile, will source for items at taobao. (any recommendation on what to get for the home???)


till then.. 

glad that your 3d is getting nearer to your vision! btw, how many times can your 3d be amended?

[d3n 14]

come in to support!

btw... i notice u did alot of platform bed... may not be future proof if u are planning for kids or going to have kids.

[Hwmook 2]

6 hours ago, Shashine17 said:

Hi. I'm about to engage R&R as my ID for my new resale flat. Is R&R pricey?

Yes, they quote me like 30% more than the final ID i used. 

[d3n 14]

9 hours ago, Hwmook said:

Yes, they quote me like 30% more than the final ID i used. 

wah u here also lol