5RM Resale: Let there be light

[Ando Tadao 8]

On 14/02/2018 at 12:33 PM, DelightOpto said:

Check out delight for lighting supplies.. they have lowest prices so far and almost all brands MEGAMAN, SORAA, PHILIPS, OSRAM... Their support is excellent. 

Thanks. I do have a few more lights to buy. Will wait for the final lighting effect before making my decision.

On 14/02/2018 at 6:49 PM, EastHomer88 said:

Really great ideas! Looking forward to the rest of the execution. 

Thanks for the compliment. 

[Ando Tadao 8]

Happy CNY to all.

The bathrooms are now complete!

 

[Ando Tadao 8]

Season greetings! The notorious 4th-day of CNY is here!

Giving final touches to the study+living room!

 

[Clarence Lye 10]

looking very nice, spacious and minimalist-scandi looking. love it. 

and also the 3D very realistic and your outcome is almost identical. 

Edited February 19, 2018 by Clarence Lye

[Ando Tadao 8]

On 14/02/2018 at 12:24 AM, monobyte said:

very clean and minimalist design!

noticed that you added more light points without exposing the wire trunking.

is it done via false ceiling? will like achieve the same clean look

Thanks. 

And sorry for the late reply, for some reason I missed to see your post.

I did not have false ceiling but chose to conceal all my lighting and fan points, the price is 45 per lighting point.

1 hour ago, Clarence Lye said:

looking very nice, spacious and minimalist-scandi looking. love it. 

and also the 3D very realistic and your outcome is almost identical. 

Thanks. Was hoping to recreate the original design intent. Finding the right furnitures was (and still is) a pain though. 

[Ando Tadao 8]

Alles klar!

All renovation work done (ok, except gate & door & curtain & groutshield...)

LET THERE BE LIGHT!

MBR

[Ando Tadao 8]

Guestroom

 

[Ando Tadao 8]

Study & Living

 

 

[Ando Tadao 8]

Kitchen (still messy)

 

[Ando Tadao 8]

Cleaned and ready to roll!

わたしのウチにはなんにもない。

 

[opila 2]

On 2/10/2018 at 2:53 PM, Ando Tadao said:

ID/Contractor search
We have selected Celine from H2O, before I present to you the final verdict, let's first talk about a few other things.
(Teaser: in conclusion we are rather satisfied with the decision.)
 

I am glad to hear that you are satisfied with the decision as I have appointed H2O as my contractor as well.

I have met Celine once when she tagged along with Kevin during one of the site measurements. She is indeed very quiet and soft-spoken. Did you liaise with her directly throughout your whole renovation? I have the impression that she is helping Kevin with the paperwork only as she was the one who replied to all the emails and preparation of quotations. 

Your renovation is coming to an end whereas mine will be starting next Monday. Hopefully all goes well! 

[Ando Tadao 8]

Fixing a small part at a time.

 

 

[Ando Tadao 8]

2 hours ago, opila said:

I am glad to hear that you are satisfied with the decision as I have appointed H2O as my contractor as well.

I have met Celine once when she tagged along with Kevin during one of the site measurements. She is indeed very quiet and soft-spoken. Did you liaise with her directly throughout your whole renovation? I have the impression that she is helping Kevin with the paperwork only as she was the one who replied to all the emails and preparation of quotations. 

Your renovation is coming to an end whereas mine will be starting next Monday. Hopefully all goes well! 

Ya she was (and still is) my project manager. She’s definitely inexperience but she is honest and considerate. I will have a dedicated review session for both H2O and Celine soon. 

H2O pricing might be on the high side but they are definitely using better materials. I just had my TV mounted today and the TV mount vendor has nothing but praises to the quality and reliability of my TV feature wall.

Last but not least, happy new year and best of luck with your renovation!

Edited February 28, 2018 by Ando Tadao

[Ando Tadao 8]

REVIEW (1) - H2O

Since I have my last rectification done yesterday and will proceed with the last payment this Saturday, it is now time to do the REVIEW you (might) have been waiting for.

I will first give my review on H2O as a whole, before putting down my verdict for Celine as my ID cum PM. 

Operating Mode:
H2O on surface is a small company, with Mr. K the boss running the shows, and 2 assistants cum ID supporting him. They operate in small scale (hence no GST), works with regular sub-cons (electricians, plumbers, tilers) and a collaborating carpentry workshop in Malaysia. Other than the hacking and cleaning staffs, all the sub-cons I encountered so far is either local or Malaysian.

Cost:
Their quotation is definitely on the high side, of all the 4 quotations I have received, TMS was the most expensive (contributed by 16 dollars psf tiling work), followed by G&L/H2O, while the cheapest being CX (to think CX is generally considered expensive as a contractor). I could not comment on TMS and G&L, but after the project, I found their quotation reasonable; the high eletrical quotation probably has the most thread counts in this forum, but it was quoted with concealed lines by default. Some other contractors might quote lower price but those are exposed trunking. So you need to set your expectation right. Of course you could also engage your own electrician (e.g. the famous Mr. Sim), since the electrician works pretty much independently. 
Also, other than the default Blum accessories and internal color PVC, most of the works are again default with better materials and options, it was not penned on the contract but you will notice the difference when you compare, e.g. free exchange of shelter exhaust, broader tile selections, stainless steel door stoppers, tiles joint is 45deg instead of PVC edge, step down shower zone instead of curb, 20mm thick plywood carpentry doors, 45deg joining of KompactTop, etc.
Another interesting fact was that some of the sub-contracted work from H2O is actually cheaper than engaging them myself, e.g. the windows for kitchen and bathrooms, I approached GL initially, the nice couple gave me good quote but unfortunately they do not repair existing windows and glass, so I resorted to H2O's sub-con, turned out the cost was somewhat similar and they repaired my exisiting windows as well.

 

Quality:
My view could be biased as my field of work is precision and quality related, so I have very high (or unrealistic) expections towards workmanship, material selection and texture. 
However, I am at the same time not too bothered by minor impefections like tile evenness, blemishes, hairline cracks, etc. That makes me strict on inspection but lenient on rectification work (yes, I know right?).
In conclusion, the workmanship (tiling, plumbing, electrical and carpentry) is "ACCEPTABLE" (7/10?) to me. Saying just acceptable is probably unfair to H2O as I am judging based on the evenness of the grout lines, parallelism of the walls, perpendicularity, flatness, smoothness of tile edges after cut, etc. While 1-2mm is normally invisible to most, 0.5mm variance is already an eyesore to me. 
So take my verdict with a (large) pinch of salt, I'd rather show a few close up photos later to present the workmanship for your own judgement.

 

Delivery:
I can't comment much on this, since I actually did not mind the speed of work. In fact I asked them to slow down several times (lol) for the sake of quality.
Anyway, the first estimation was 10 weeks and it took around 12 weeks till first handover, and the rectification works took another 3 days in the span of 2 weeks.

 

 

*Add: I just had my TV mounted yesterday and the TV mount vendor has nothing but praises to the quality and reliability of my TV feature wall; he mentioned that the plywood used were extra thick and the reinforcements were huge even they were not visible from outside.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Ando Tadao

[Ando Tadao 8]

REVIEW(2) - Celine

Now let's talk about Celine, the ID/PM who handled my renovation. 

As mentioned earlier, our first encounter wasn't the most ideal, and we almost dropped her, but her efficiency and sincerity changed our mind so we ended up putting our faith (and house) in her hands. 
Celine is young, 3 years in the industry with Interior Design background; she is definitely inexperience (for us being her first solo project).
"Everyone has to start somewhere", I am a firm believer of this quote, from my favourite author Murakami Haruki. So we took the gamble, and she didn't fail us. 
Sure there were hiccups during the renovation, mistakes were made but was quickly resolved. Celine is pretty honest, she doesn't hide things from us and we can tell that she sincerely wanted to produce a nice house. 

Another important factor that made us sign with Celine is we know there is Mr. K to rely on if all things failed. True enough she was always consulting Mr. K, in fact during the first discussion with tiler Mr. K showed up and gave valuable advises. 
So we got the best of both worlds, a 100% dedicated PM with an experience boss in the background. Now she has finally completed her first project and (supposingly) learned from all the mistakes, I hope she is better equipped for the upcoming task. 
 

Edited March 2, 2018 by Ando Tadao