3D Drawing ~ 2nd draft

Our ID made the changes as per our request and below are the amended 3D drawings with some more minor changes to be made:

Actual door to the yard is white & not brown.

There should be a full height cabinet so the rubbish chute is hidden.

Master bathroom door should be in white with frosted glass.

Wooden window blind should be in white colour.

Inner shelving of bookcase should be in brown colour.
Double door in brown (same colour as parquet flooring).

3D Drawing ~ 1st draft

This is the 1st draft of the 3D drawings received from Plush...I must admit that their 3D drawings are gorgeous! They manage to conceptualize my vision and design ideas very well...even though we had to go through many rounds of meetings before they truly get what I want and produce the drawings.

Entrance, kitchen & dining room.
Dish rack above kitchen sink is missing, so they will have to add this.
I have also requested for a 3D view of the fridge area.

Master bedroom.
I requested them to change the wardrobe to a darker brown as I have an existing bed with a black head board.

Master bathroom.
Requested ID to change the bathtub tiles to match wall tiles instead of the floor tiles.

Study cum Guest room.
Bookcase and work desk to be changed to dark brown for a more manly feel.
Desk to be shifted to opposite side and sofa bed next to bookcase.

Common bathroom.
Glass shelve to be added just below the mirror (above the sink area).

Condominium apartment pictures- Before renovation

It has been a long time since I started this blog with the initial intention of documenting the whole renovation process. With all the distractions of the renovation, I did not manage to complete the blog.

For information, we selected Plush Living as our ID.

Below are the pictures of the 2 bedroom apartment we purchased before renovation.

Living room / Dining room / Kitchen

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen 

Kitchen - Sink area next to yard

Guest bedroom cum study room

Common bathroom

Master bedroom / Bathroom

I will briefly run through the process of how I make decisions before making an offer to purchase.

• I have a few basic criteria which is to have a master bathroom with separate bathtub and shower, a balcony or terrace, an open concept kitchen and last but most importantly is walking distance to MRT.

• Each time i visit a unit I am interested in, I will make a rough sketch of the floor plan (as you know most units does not have an open kitchen and some have a very small master bathroom). When I get home I will try to find a picture of the floor plan via Google images if the agent could not provide. I will then work on the floor plan to figure out if walls can hacked to make an open concept kitchen and to expand a small bathroom to accommodate a separate bath and shower. 

• Basically I will already have a vision of what I am able to do with the apartment after the first visit.

• Above is our floor plan. In yellow are all the walls that we plan to hack. Of course we cannot touch the structural walls.

• When you enter the apartment there is a very small entrance way and the kitchen is just next to it, separated by a wall. I plan to hack this wall to make an open concept kitchen incorporating a small island. This will also make the entrance way more brighter and create a better impression as you walk though the door.

• We will also remove all window grills as we do not have any young children.

• From the picture of the living room, you can see a narrow planter just outside the window. We plan to level the planter up and convert this space into a small balcony.

• In the common bedroom we plan to hack the wall to install a wood framed double glass door. This room we will convert to a study cum guest bedroom and install a custom made full height bookshelf incorporating a small wardrobe.

We plan to revamp the whole unit keeping only the existing marble flooring in the living room and parquet flooring in the bedrooms to save cost.

Interior Designer selection process

We decided to obtain quotations from maximum of 5 IDs as we do not have the luxury of time on our hands due to our busy work schedules.

The following IDs were contacted:-

Kaleido Interior
I have seen many of their featured works in magazines and unfortunately as I did not request for any particular designer, I was assigned a junior designer. After a few meet-ups, the designer simply failed to inpress us. 

Verdict: Rejected. Price was very reasonable though and one of the lowest quotation we received.

Distinct Identity
During my visits to their office, I noticed that all the staff seem young and dynamic. Again, I was assigned a junior designer, lets call her 'Y' with just 2 years experience however she is extremely knowledgeble and is able to answer all my queries. After brief discussions "Y' scheduled a date for me to come back 2 weeks later for the quotation and 3D drawing. We were surprised that she was going to do a 3D for us! When we came back, the 3D drawing turned out to be pictures from various apartments that 'Y' would like to propose to us. We did not know if we should laugh or cry. The quotation is on the high side but they seem to emphasize on the use of quality material. So in other words you get what you pay for. 'Y' resigned shortly after & we were not notified by Distinct until I called their office looking for 'Y'.

Verdict: Rejected.

Multi-Attributes
I contacted the owner of the design company as I saw her featured work in a magazine and I fell in love with it. I would like to engage Lee Lee as her design works are in line with my visions for my new home. I sent her an sms requesting for an appointment, no reply. I called her and she asked me to drop her an email with my floor plan. I did and again no reply...maybe they are too busy?

Verdict: Dropped.

Plush Living
ID Darren Lim was strongly recommended on Renotalk forum. I did a bit of research & found his work on the Park Bleu show flat featured in Lookboxliving.com. I really love the showfalt design and I sent him an email with my floor plan and set an appointment to meet up with him. His assistant met up with me on the first appointment and he was well very prepared with many ideas and a proposed quotation. Price was on the high side but hubby was really bought over by their ideas and professionalism.

Verdict: Shortlisted.

Meter Square
This was the last designer. We met up with the Design Director who is extremely talented. Upon second meeting she produced a 3D drawing incorporating all the ideas and concept I had relayed to her on our first meeting. Price is comparable to Plush.

Verdict: Shortlisted.