Kai Men Part 1

Since this is our first home, we have no idea what to do when we first enter. I asked my parents and they say nothing to do - "just go in and check the house condition". Hmm, so we googled and seek advice/reference :)

Credits to:

Kai Men thread discussion on Renotalk.com

Geomancy.net

Uncle from the neighbourhood shop selling the praying materials

We read through and customize or rather simplify accordingly. So this is what we did:

1) Open door, call out "Ping An Fa Cai" and roll the pineapple into the house

2) Set up the fruits and prayer materials

3) Light the incense sticks and pray to four corners of the house

4) Burn the materials

5) Throw the rice plus salt at all corners of the house.

We left the windows open and return few days later to clear off. Left the basket of fruits below the tree at Level 1. We felt guilty as it was sort of throwing our waste at public area but we had no choice (was advised to leave 'em there).

According to uncle from the praying materials shop, we need to do part 2 after renovation is completed, before shifting in.

Alrighty, all the best to our new home! :)

ID/Contractor Selection

Both of us are busy (as expected) with everything else but the house renovation. After our holiday in February, we did meet up with some IDs or received some quotations from others. I am really tired of meeting anymore ID/contractors because I really think it's a tedious process (and time consuming-on average 1-1.5hours discussion). Here are the 3 we shortlisted based on budget/emotional constraints:

1. Impress 21 

Pricing is reasonable and recommended by many in the forums. So the partner is inclined to sign with him. We went to the office to meet Henry (the boss). He's kind of a quiet man and I find it difficult to communicate with him. Whenever we mention say we are considering certain features he'll brush it off saying "don't need la, waste money".

2. Sky Creation 

Pricing is approximately 20-30% higher than the other two. However, we were really impressed by their renovation musee @ Ubi. They showcase different types of cabinets, kitchen cabinet, toilet, wardrobe etc etc. The designer that attended to us was pretty knowledgeable and able to provide a lot of feedback but she has her own tough mindset on what's nice and what's not. Initially, I wanted to nego price to consider signing but by the time I wanted to do so we kind of decided to use the third ID/contractor.

3. Space Creation

Quote is reasonable and he was willing to match our budget. However, our concern is that this firm is pretty small (we believe so). After researching around we were unable to tell if the reviews are good or not. However, my heart somehow tells me to choose this and I persuaded the partner to just do it. We negotiated and signed up within a week. The partner kind of wanted Impress21 more than this but I reasoned out that I couldn't really communicate with Henry. 

Just to note on some relatively "busy/lazy" firms who never even bothered to come back to us with quotations despite us reminding the designers for it (because we really want to consider them):

Koong Ye Renovation (we asked for quote in January, designer called in March to ask if we still need the quote----no, we've already selected and signed~duh)

Outlook Interior (we asked for quote end of January and we were really keen to consider them butttt I had to text/call to reminder for quote and she responded saying her computer is down. Ok, fine we'll wait.....no news....no nothing)

So moving forward, we can't wait for the renovation works to begin soon.