ID Hunting Round II

It has been some time since we embarked on our ID searching.. Today we made our way down to Woodlands to check out E-hian’s (bear’s friend) ID firm – Meng’s Design.

There was a mini show room so we went around exploring the designs which all seem the same to me each time a visit a new showroom. I guess to me, as long as the deco and things are 1) durable, 2) reasonably priced, 3) not an eyesore, 4) not a white elephant, I am fine with it. Hoho, so easy going right ^_^

I guessed we both are pretty well trained in the first session with new IDs. Rule of thumb: Go straight into our needs + budget and let them propose their ideas. This will be followed by a hands shake (firm or weak, depending on their sincerity, some don’t even bother to look @ me and treat me as invisible) and “Yes, we will get back to you once the design is ready in about a week’s time.”

Ya, so this goes the same for Meng’s Design. Normal loh..

House Visiting

Dear has made arrangements to visit Meiyee’s (Da Jie) and Karen’s house today. So I woke up early morning to do some marking before the house visiting. I was rather thrilled, as usual, and coz I was very motivated, I was quite efficient! =D

Finished one class before I headed down to meet Dear, but it was already raining cat and dogs at 10am! Nonetheless, it didn’t spoil our mood, went for a cup of tea, while waiting for the rain to subside.

Tada ~ Her minimalist theme.. cool yeah ^-^
In great details, she showed us around the lovely house, explaining to us the various highlights and answering to our never-ending queries. =) Spent about 3 hours exploring every single corner of her house like an excited child, exclaiming to the ‘secret hidden chambers’!

Around noon time, we bought some food over to Karen’s house and started our 2nd round of house visiting. Too bad she was not feeling well, otherwise we could have enjoyed a yummilicious home cooked meal! Nonetheless we still managed to enjoyed some mouth-watering apple crumble topped with ice-cream. Ummmm~

Hers house is more of the cozy type with a different colour for each room! So lively and interesting! =D

Soon, it was about 3 and time for us to go. We planned to go Expo for the Home Décor Fair to check out the ID firms. So Dear headed down to Simei for tuition while I went White Sands to do my marking while waiting for him. So sad right, but was quite an experience to mark outside. Other than the freezing air con, I was rather efficient!

Headed down to Expo around 7+pm and wanted to grab a quick bite before we start our hunt for ID, but the food junction was crowded and we only had about one hour left, so we gave up our dinner and went straight to Unimax. The manager came to serve us, but upon hearing that we wont be getting our keys so early, he suddenly turned from professional to nonchalant about our business deal and did not show any keenness any further. Super turned off by his attitude.

So off we went to another ID firm, Baroque. A middle aged lady came over and served us. She wasn’t very able to express her ideas very well and initially I was quite skeptical about her expertise and kept nudging bear. (Quite mean of me right, gulp.. but if I want to find a responsible ID to do a great job for our future house, he/she must be able to win my trust right.. at least the ability to communicate comfortably with.. period~) However, to our surprise, she started sketching 3D pictures for us to visualize her ideas and wow, I must say its real impressive. Coz our living room is VERY big, and all the IDs we went to only proposed the same concept which is to do a normal feature wall at the side but the rest of the living area will not be utilized. But she suggested extending the featured wall out into the main living area so that the furniture arrangement will not be cramped to the balcony area. She went on recommending about the size of the shoe rack which suits our preference for practicality. =D

However, at the end, we still did not sign with her immediately coz she was rather pushy and we do have a lot of time to shop around. But we were definitely thrilled with her idea of the extended featured wall and decided to request that to our upcoming IDs.

Imagine just visiting 2 IDs already took us one plus hour and we were both mentally drained and physically famished. So off we made our way home to a hearty dinner/supper at S11. Yes, exciting but tiring..

ID Hunting Round I

Today is our first venture in search of ID for our little love nest! So far, I have been the one actively researching coz I am the more enthusiastic one! But it’s okie, I am sure I will be able to spread my eagerness to the significant other, sooner or later!

So on my part, I have been surfing online and searching forums like renovation forums and blogs and to my luck, I chanced upon this: http://carine-olivia.com/lovenest/ They have got exactly the same type of EA as ours in Sembawang! And lotsa detailed research done, so I can really save time and do focused analyzing value-adding to the available information! So proud of myself, giggle~

Wanted to do some marking, but promised my parents to go brunch with them and on our delightful trip, I bought a little measuring tape for our convenience to measure anywhere and anytime if we chance upon our desired household items!

Met Dear after his tuition at around 1pm and we made our way to IMM. We settled down at a cosy little corner of Mac to discuss what we really want for the house, and showed him the tips that I found online. Took some time to visualize what we need roughly and things that we want. Oh well, basic necessities first! =D

There were a lot of ID companies on the 3rd floor and we really didn’t know which one to go to. I didn’t bring along my compiled list of black listed and recommended companies. >o< hiak~

Our first stop was at this XYZ. The uncle looks bengish to me. And since we didn’t know what to propose, he put forward quite a few ideas to us, with precise measurements using his ruler! Such a nitty-gritty person! Precision is good though, at least we roughly know the measurements especially each cm and inch counts! Took an hour to go through our renovation requirements for the living/dinning room, kitchen, study room and most importantly the master bedroom! He seems a bit aloof and hard to connect with so we treated it as gaining experience; anyway we have lots of time to play with!

We then went to Stiles, our second try to browse at their portfolio at the entrance when a plump man attended to us. We settled down, but as we go through the floor plan, he didn’t really go into the details of our renovation needs and we seemed to be feeding him with more information then he should be giving to us! Oh man, we then realized that he isn’t the ID but just the project manager! So he told us his man wasn’t around so he will send us the quotation again within the following week. Yup, but we didn’t left the shop empty handed! We took away some basic knowledge of the kind of wood they use, the superior tiles vs the lower quality surfaces, etc. Dear was more interested than I was. Guess man are the more technical creatures, I just want a nice outlook that is worth the $$$!

By then it was already 7+ and we were famished! So we went to our favourite restaurant Wan-Chai tea house to enjoy the mouth-watering dishes before we headed to City Design, the shop that attracted lots of customers! Looks good right, read on ;p

The first impression the ID gave us was a very practical person, coz he laid out the promotional packages and detailed quotation right on the spot. Being young, he also earned our confidence of a trendy and creative designer. And the freebies and competitive prices indeed knocked us over. We sat there for almost 2 hours listening attentively to his unbelievable promises and amazing claims. We nearly signed the package at the moment of impulse until I heard the absorption of the GST plus full refund if we decide to cancel the project. Where on earth are there such good deals? And this being our 3rd attempt, are we rushing into the decision? After all it’s a twenty thousand worth of money!

So we tried means to get access to the Internet to try to check forum reviews of this company and to our utter horror, City Design is one of the blacklisted companies! Attractive promotions but bad services. Workmanship was unknown but we would not want to take the risk either way!
So I politely rejected the deal saying that it is a major decision; me and Dear need time to discuss. Phew, or else I will regret for life plus imminent scolding from lots of people!!! =P
By the time we left IMM, it was already 10+ and we were both dead beat after a long day of searching. We reconciled that we need to do more homework on the various companies and discuss what are the needs and wants for the both of us. Nonetheless, it was a fruitful trip, I learnt the basics of renovation and definitely know what to look out for on our next attempt.