Friday, October 29, 2010

Renovation - Kitchen Tiles

I spent about RM2800 to change the tiles for my kitchen area. The cost consist of RM1600 for tiles, and RM1200 for the workmanship, to lay tiles for 60ft area. I have been searching around for the tiles contractor, is so hard to find contractor with better price to do small area tiles change. To me, this material and labour cost is quite expensive, until now I still not sure whether I make correct decision to change the tiles colour. Below is the half finish product, hopefully overall will look better once the Kitchen Cabinet is installed...


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Renovation - Kitchen Cabinet

Recently don't have much time to spend in property investment, Sep, Oct and Nov is super busy month. Hope thing getting better in December.



Anyhow, would like to share with you my recent experience about renovation - Kitchen Cabinet.

I have deal with few Kitchen Cabinet company in past few years for my rental property, in which I usually will try to spend minimum $ for Kitchen Cabinet for rental property.

However for this new property, I will use it for own stay, therefore I decided to spend a little bit more for Kitchen Cabinet. I have visited quite a number of Kitchen Cabinet company and have different experience dealing with them. For easier elaboration, I group them as below (purely personal judgement) :
Class A - Super Luxury - Out of My Reach
Class B - Branded - Aino Kitchen, Signature Kitchen
Class C - Well Known - In Cube, Kian Classic
Class D - Freelance, Sole Proprietary Type

I have engaged Class D company few years back to build the kitchen cabinet below, it only cost me RM5-6k including Hood and Hob. Overall I am quite happy with the quality of the kitchen.



This time around, I try search for Class B and Class C company, to build Kitchen Cabinet for my own house. Overall Class B company will cost 25% or more than Class C.

However, dealing with Class C company is very tiring, as it require you to pay extra attention to all minor details, the material, the design, the measurement, the surface and etc. I am not a carpenter or ID designer, there are a lot of things that I don't know OR I don't know what should I know. So there is a risk you may see a lot of surprise when the final product is ready, as you will not be told for those thing you did not ask for.

On the other hand, dealing Class B company give me more peace of mind, in which I just need to focus on the design I want, and they will take care of the rest. I guess the main reason is this type of Class B company want to maintain their brand and standard.

However, finding a better company does not guarantee they able provide good service. I dealt with few Class B designer before, even though their company product is good, but their designer service is no really on par. In fact, some might be worse than Class C company. Therefore, it is very important you find the right company, with right people for your renovation; then this person will help and reduce your burden. Sometimes, he/she may able to give you new idea on your overall house design. And glad to say, I found mine, my right hand man in renovation after searching around for months :)