D-Day + 1094 : First Consultation with DX Interior...

Finally went for our first meeting with Edmund from DX Interior to tell him what we want so that he can give us a quotation.

DX Interior - Blk 703 Bedok Reservoir road

Just as I read from a review from a forumer at Renotalk, Edmund is friendly but will sometimes bring across his idea rather strongly, and he gave us the impression that he is insisting.

Being first time home owners, I can't help feeling this way. Anyway, it's only the first meeting to get a quote, thus there's more time research more and tell him what we want for our house. There's really quite a lot of time as Edmund mentioned that he was surprised that we contact him so early since our key collection will most probably be in April. No wonder he sounded rather cold when I contacted him the first few times. He must be thinking that since it still so early, I must be just one of those ‘browsing only’.

Actually we are almost confirming that we wanted his service due to good reviews. We are not getting ID and contractors with good reviews are a rare breed.

So when my missus retorted that we contacted him this early because we were afraid that he will be fully booked, you should have seen his face. Strike One.

Another plus point for him: he managed to convince my missus to give up on marble flooring!

Well, he did a rough estimate that our reno will cost about 30 to 40K and he promised to email us the quote by 21 Jan.

Come to think of it, it was raining when we left DX. The two days we went out to sourcing ideas for our house, it rained on both days. 水为财。Huat ah!

Next up, we decided to drop by a wedding cake shop along Joo Chiat road.

The special thing about this shop is that they do customization and their design and quality are rather good. I will follow up more on our wedding blog.

After a simple lunch, with time on hand, we decided to pay a visit to Formica Pte Ltd to check out their flooring materials and price.

Formica Pte Ltd along Sims Ave.

An air of uneasiness sets in when we stepped in. The 3 staffs inside didn't really paid us any notice. For a moment I was wondering was it their office or showroom that we stepped into.

Anyway, since they did not chase us out, it should be fine. After a brief moment of looking at their vinyl flooring, a staff finally approached us. Luckily she left us to our own discussion after we explained our intention.

The vinyl flooring is selling at S$90/pack now. And each pack consists of 24 pieces/36 sqf of "planks". Each piece measures 36 by 6 inches and 3mm thick.

They only provide material and no labour.

And she added that the place of delivery must have lift access as the packages are very heavy. Lucky that now most flats have lifts at every floor. I wonder what about those older flats? Not a very good way of doing business eh?

D-Day + 1087: woot!

Received a letter from HDB informing us that our flat will be ready by end of March. Though this news was already known a few days back when the missus checked MyHDB Page. Still woot though. Double woot!

D-Day + 1085 : The Hunt Begins.

On the 3rd day of the brand new year, we decided to go hunting for contractor and design materials. We actually wanted to get an ID to save all the coordination trouble. But after much thoughts, we could save some money by just getting a contractor.

Alright, we actually had in mind 1 contractor and would like to pay him a visit to seek some advise on how we should go about with our home decor. Also, to get a rough quote on how much budget we need to set aside for the nest. Luckily i had decided to call before going down to DX. As our hunted man is also a busy man, he requested for a appointment to be made next week instead.
Going by my shift roster, most probably it will be on the 12th. And we have yet inform Edmund.

A trip saved from travelling down to Bedok Reservoir, we proceed to our 2nd places-of-interest: Blum showroom at Ubi Ave 4. Damn the heavy rain but luckily we manage to get a cab, albeit not the type we preferred.

Arrived at Blum just right after their lunch hours.

Blum showroom @ Ubi Biz-Hub, Ubi Ave 4

The showroom decor is nice and the staff were rather friendly. Most captivating was their showcases. How we wish that we could use all of their system! We hung around to study their system for quite awhile and lucky for us that their staffs are not those hot-on-your-heels type. We slowly stroll around and could even sit down to use their showcased kitchen to discuss which system we could employ.

In the midst of our discussion, one of the staff informed us that Blum have certified a list of contractors whom were trained to install their system and she will snail mail us the lists for reference. Plus 1 to their service.

As we proceed with our own discussion, another of their staff walked by to utilise the Nespresso and he acknowledged our presence by offering us some drinks and help. Plus 2 to service.

We do our last round of inspection of their showroom, and also performed eavesdropping on a Q&A session between another customer and the staff, and finally we decided to leave and come back next time with the plan so that they can better quote us. Upon leaving, a staff at the counter bade us farewell and thanks to my 'slowness' in exiting, i managed to give her a chance to asked if I had collected any of their namecards. She offered her's and also threw in the 2010 price lists. That price list is our greatest haul of the day! We had thought that they will only quote us when we provides the properly planned floor plan as earlier we overheard some customer asking about the pricing but saw no offer of the price list to them. And now, a booklet of it just flew right into my out stretched arms. Plus 3 to their service!

Brochures and the Price List

During our 1-2 hours spent there, we met 3 of their staff and each gave a lasting impression. Thumbs up for that!

Our 3rd and last Places-of-Interest will be @ 1 Howard road where we will be sourcing for our floor/wall tiles and marble flooring.

Gallery T at 1 Howard road (Photo courtesy of Google Streetview)

Gallery T was introduced by forumer froggy at renotalk based on her good experience with them. I'm really thankful for her recommendation as we had a good first impression with them as well. The lady is friendly, and most importantly, not pushy as well. Those hot-on-our-heels type would have sent us running away. We were free to roam about the showroom without much disturbance and someone will be nearby should you have any queries. She sent us up to the 2nd floor and a Indian/Blangadeshi worker took over. Thought this time round he followed us, but he is not intrusive. Surprising he is rather knowledgeable and able to provide some ideas to the choice of tiles. I believe he understand some mandarin as well cause he answered some of our self queries when i was conversing with my missus.

They have lots of choices in their showroom and we had only been to their 1st and 2nd floor. Heard from Mr Indian/Blangadeshi there are more at level 4. But we had seen enough and will return some other days.

The tiles we have took a liking to range from S$3 to S$5/sqf. The marble we aimed for is priced at S$18/sqf (300x600) and S$21/sqf (600x600).
I'm not sure if this price is the norm as this is only our first hunt.

Will update once we have more.