Smart Woody 5RM BTO @ Canberra

[clong 1]

Hi Ecnalx,

Can share your contractor details pls?

Thanks

[Ecnalx 4]

11 hours ago, clong said:

Hi Ecnalx,

Can share your contractor details pls?

Thanks

PM-ed

[izong 4]

wow very colorful walls, love the strong contrast u are creating! Can wait to see the rest of the update!

BTW u have any experience with those electric/remote control switches and lighting from China. No sure how it will go with the Smart Home system.   

[redlaker 0]

Great job!

Can share the contractor contact please?

Thanks!

[Ecnalx 4]

7 hours ago, izong said:

wow very colorful walls, love the strong contrast u are creating! Can wait to see the rest of the update!

BTW u have any experience with those electric/remote control switches and lighting from China. No sure how it will go with the Smart Home system.   

There are some standards for controlling for smart home devices; either Zigbee and Z-wave. The "bridge/hub" must be compatible with your China bought devices. I don't have experience in these China stuff, so I would advise you to check with your ID or a smart home consultant. 

4 hours ago, redlaker said:

Great job!

Can share the contractor contact please?

Thanks!

PM-ed. 

 

[JennyTan 0]

Hi, can share your contractor's contact? Thanks.

[Ecnalx 4]

38 minutes ago, JennyTan said:

Hi, can share your contractor's contact? Thanks.

PM-ed. 

[matchalatte 16]

On 6/4/2017 at 9:08 PM, Ecnalx said:

Contractor vs ID

The search for the One is a simple task for us. We wanted to have full control of how the home should look, feel and function, and therefore we went for a Contractor. Various Contractors were considered, but we filtered them down and shortlisted the below 3.

N** from R*******

One of the famous Contractors used by Renotalkers. Got his contact from one of the bros here. Sent him our requirements and asked for a quotation. Reply was fast but the quote was too expensive for our liking. Therefore, we decided not to engage his service.

 

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

Another well-known Contractor. Similarly, sent him our requirements and asked for a quotation. Reply was slow (and only thru Whatsapp instead of email), and needs chasing from me before he responded. He did not provide a quotation via email based on the requirements that we prepared. Instead, he suggested to meet him at his office. Went down to meet him and discuss the renovation requirements. E***** said that he will prepare the quotation and send it to us. To test him, I did not send any chasers and waited for his quotation. It has been more than 3 months and not a single email/whatsapp/call. He may be too busy with his other projects. As we think that it is important for our contractor to be pro-active instead of reactive, we decided not to engage his service.

 

PTL from M*** S*** C*********** (ACCEPTED)

Got to know of this Contractor via a close relative who also engaged his service. Not very famous on Renotalk but has a facebook page that allows me to view his projects. Similarly, decided to send our requirements and asked for a quotation. Reply was fast (no chasers required) and quote was lower than N**. Decided to arrange for a meeting to discuss the renovation details. PTL looks young but he has many years of experience. He is also the "boss" of the company which I feel secure and is able to clique well (maybe due to same age). A separate check from HDB (https://www20.hdb.gov.sg/bn25/isos118p.nsf/List by Company?OpenView&Start=1&Count=15&RestrictToCategory=M) revealed that M*** S*** C*********** is a Registered Renovation Contractor since 1981 and had no Infringement History in past 24 months. Finally decided that he is the One.

 

im surprised to read that you feel N from R (we should be talking about the same guy) is expensive. i actually think his quote was really reasonable and thats after speaking to 20 contractors and 6 IDs lol. what was expensive if i may ask? was it the carpentry or everything? 

[Ecnalx 4]

3 hours ago, matchalatte said:

im surprised to read that you feel N from R (we should be talking about the same guy) is expensive. i actually think his quote was really reasonable and thats after speaking to 20 contractors and 6 IDs lol. what was expensive if i may ask? was it the carpentry or everything? 

Hi. I compared the quote from N against the quote from my current contractor. Mainly it's the carpentry that is more exp. You can try asking for a quote from my current contractor and do a comparison. 

[bovi 0]

Thanks for sharing your journey.

interested to know more about which door/system you have chosen for your hybrid kitchen/dining wall. is your contractor going to do it or a door company? thanks!

[Ecnalx 4]

12 hours ago, bovi said:

Thanks for sharing your journey.

interested to know more about which door/system you have chosen for your hybrid kitchen/dining wall. is your contractor going to do it or a door company? thanks!

Hi

The entire kitchen will be covered by 4 glass panels of doors. They will be made of aluminium, so that they can be light enough to be top hung.

Looking into the kitchen, the 2 panels on the left will be a foldable door. The most right panel will be a fixed door, and the 2nd panel from the right will be a sliding door (together with the most right panel). It is quite hard to illustrate, and will be easier if I just upload the pictures when installation is done next week.

We relay the requirements to my contractor and he will be settling the measurement, procurement and installation.

[redsand 0]

Hi, could you send me details of your contractor and those unselected contractors as well?

Thanks!

[Ecnalx 4]

5 hours ago, redsand said:

Hi, could you send me details of your contractor and those unselected contractors as well?

Thanks!

PM-ed.

[xjchew 0]

Very interesting tBlog as me and my wife are getting our keys soon and our floor plan is 99% the same as yours. Also a techie person here, will probably be setting up 2 ceiling locations for access points. Will be very interested in hearing how your Google Wifi placement performs, as for the configuration app, are you going to be using a iOS device to configure that? I assume you will be downloading the app using a US Apple ID?

Before going into all the tech stuff, as we are most like going to do a open study just like yours, and the whole living area is quite spacious, is it okay to post your aircon installation locations and the BTU for each indoor unit? Thanks a lot! Do let us know how well the aircon is cooling the place down too, as I am most likely going to psycho my wife to go for the 2 ticks even though it sucks more energy (on paper, anyway).

[Ecnalx 4]

2 hours ago, xjchew said:

Very interesting tBlog as me and my wife are getting our keys soon and our floor plan is 99% the same as yours. Also a techie person here, will probably be setting up 2 ceiling locations for access points. Will be very interested in hearing how your Google Wifi placement performs, as for the configuration app, are you going to be using a iOS device to configure that? I assume you will be downloading the app using a US Apple ID?

Before going into all the tech stuff, as we are most like going to do a open study just like yours, and the whole living area is quite spacious, is it okay to post your aircon installation locations and the BTU for each indoor unit? Thanks a lot! Do let us know how well the aircon is cooling the place down too, as I am most likely going to psycho my wife to go for the 2 ticks even though it sucks more energy (on paper, anyway).

Hi

I ordered a 3 pack Google Wifi from Amazon some weeks back. Initially I was going to install all 3 in my new home; 1st node at DBbox, 2nd node at TV console and 3rd node at MBR. However, recently I tried installing the 1st node, and to my surprise, the wifi signal was strong at full bars even at my MBR. Maybe it is due to not much wifi signals from neighbours yet. I will test it out again after I have moved in. 

To set up the Google wifi, you only need to log in using your Google account at the Google wifi app (available in both ios and Android). I used my usual Google account and it worked well. Don't have to set up a US account. 

My aircon models are:

Compressor - MXY4A28

Living room - MSYGE24 (should be 22k btu) 

3 bedrooms - MSYGE10 (should be 9k btu) 

Locations of aircons in bedrooms are pretty standard. We installed our living aircon at the wall beside dining area. Have yet to tried out the coolness as we have not moved in yet.