The flat is still under rectification...

So sianz....

Our technical Officer is really a kind man.

We told him our gripes with the horrible tiling works by the dreaded HDB...

He relented and agreed to retile the flooring for us.

Hacking was completed on last Saturday.

We went down to choose the tiles and opt for the plain beige ones...

I was half hoping he would let us choose black tiles! *hhahahah* Crazy Diva...

Btw..do you know that 450X450 homo tiles are no longer in production.

He has to give us the 600X600 ones...

Fridge, Washing Machine & Dryer

I wanted a cool sleek design for our kitchen.

Coz I believe glass, silver and black grossy cabinets make a wonderful combination.

Since the fridge, washing machine & dryer will be sitting side by side together...all of them should be in the same color.

I found a wonderful silver fridge (Samsung or LG..I think), plus another silver washing machine to match with (I forgot the brand).

However the silver dryer is pretty evasive..until the salesman dropped the bomb.

Dryers doesn't come in Silver.


So back to square one. We have to comb high and low for white fridge..

Finally, we ordered the LG GR B197 DVCA  double door (in white) at an "incredible" price of $899 (which I found out its going for $870 elsewhere if I had looked hard enough...)
Double door at less then $1k? You bet! Coz LG is discontinuing this model real soon.

As for the washing machine and dryer, we are going to get the Elba or the Fisher Payker range. Exactly which model...still in the works.

In the meantime...some useful links relating to washing machines.

http://www.epinions.com/content_1057529988
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washing_machine

Hood, Hob & Sink

We shortlisted the following brands:

Rhyxon
Bellari 
Mayer 
Cuizino
Teka 

Mayer & Teka are out. Their basic range is still far too expensive. A hood extraction rate of around 600-650m3/hr can easily cost us $600 as compared to 800m3/hr for Cuizino and Bellari. I think we are paying more for the branding and design.

Cuizino and Bellari has a more reasonable price. Bellari has a promo package of $799 for Hood, hob and sink. Further enquires revealed that they are clearing the old stock (design of 8 years) and hence the discount. Hood extraction rate of 800m3/hr is enough for a small kitchen like ours.

We never made it to the Rhyxon showroom.

Being price conscious...we finally settled for Bellari.

We want BIG BIG sofa..

Comfortable and biggie enuff for our guests and lazying around.

So we shopped around in Park Mall and later...at the Furniture mall.

Only ONE caught our eye and fit in our budget.

Introducing...

Cellini.

The salesman quoted us 5% discount for the sofa that we eyed on. The price is still too steep and we went back to reconsider the price.

A week later, a 20% discount was given for all the sofa range.

Heng arh...

In the end we got the following...
http://www.cellini.com.sg/product_sofa_7_content.htm
http://www.cellini.com.sg/product_bed4.htm
http://www.cellini.com.sg/product_consoles_12_content.htm
at a cool price of $2k.

Moral of the story?

It pays to be patient.

GPlan won the bid.

Actually, we were deliberating between Khoon Wah from Senz and Kevin from GPlan...

Khoon Wah even proposed to slash the price further at the last minute...

However, my hubby is more comfortable with Kevin...in addition, I also feel that with his entensive network of clients praising his services..he is a much more reliable choice. Furthermore, judging from the quality of flats which Kevin has done up...we have more confidence in him.

The Sketch...

Stupid bravenet doesn't all hot linking to images!

I am so disappointed.

Mostly because there are a lot of structural beams running across our ceilings! We are talking about big fat beams lei!

They made the ceiling looks lower....

To top it off...the kitchen is very small...and due to those freaking beams...I cannot have my curtains done at the living room and ceiling to floor glass fittings for our already-so-tinnie kitchen!

Anyway...here is the checklist to refer to during the inspection of defects for new flats....

Spacious

GPlan

Sevices: 7.5/10
Pricing: 8.5/10
Workmanship: 7/10
Interior Design: 7.5/10

GPlan is generating quite a buzz in renotalk and therefore I decided to give it a try after much contemplation. I managed to get Kevin's contact and oh my, he seems to be more kang jiong then me in meeting up.  He is very friendly and is kind enough to volunteer showing us his recently completed flats for us to inspect the workmanship of his carpentry works.

We met up with him yesterday night and the outcome is totally unexpected.

 The Good

 He was quite punctual.
 He volunteered to show us his recent projects without us asking for it.
 He is quite friendly and straightforward. No need to beat around the bush...
 He is quite responsible and makes sure he doesn't 'forget' about us and follows up faithfully.
 The 3 room flat he showed us was quite impressively done.
 He was willing to show us more projects prior to our 1st discussion.
 No hard selling.
 He explained what his company has to offer and head straight to the 2d space planning.
 Our floorplan is pretty odd. Nevertheless, we managed to finally come up with the open kitchen concept to make our dining area look bigger.
 We managed to incorporate the kitchen into the layout of our odd kitchen. Its something unexpected too!
 He is generous and easy to discuss with. Throws in some stuff for free!
 He knows our tight budget and tries to keep within our budget! Kudos for him in talking us out in getting those stuff he deemed unnecessary and waste of $.
 We feel that we finally gotten something we wanted at quite an affordable cost.

 The Bad

 His office is sooo far away lar.
 Some regulars of the forum said his electrican too ex? Still to be verified
 He has too many customers....kinda of hard to set an appointment with him.

Overall
 Got potential lei!
We were pretty hyped after the 2 hour odd discussion with him.