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.