Hi All,
Recently concluded my renovation in my first home with Alvin. Overall quite pleased with the results. Will like to share our experience here.
How we found Alvin:
We really wanted real wood instead of laminates as we felt it has a more organic feel. After seeing flat_bahru on instagram, and hearing that they only spent 50K on their resale reno, we were asked for their ID's contact. Turns out to be Alvin behind the wood and he also saved their renovation after a botched job with their previous. This is a good first impression.
1. Customer Experience (4 / 5)
Many IDs/contractors ghosted us (out of 5 to 6 we met, only 3 gave us quotes). Overall, I will say Alvin was one of the most attentive among them, and did not try to smoke us, and also met up with us a few times to discuss our needs despite the pandemic caused delays. He also didn't collect any deposit until we had our keys and asked him to come in to look at the place. Throughout the engagement, even though we had no renderings of the space, there were frequent communications and 2D drawings. As he is a 1 man show working with his long time contractor contacts, sometimes there were some miscomms like timing of when we need some things to come in. However, he has always tried to extend goodwill e.g. we didn't get heads up on when the electrical guy is coming and did not manage to buy the light for my vanity in time. He bought the light on our behalf after we expressed that we could not make the time. Overall, while I would not say he is the most active in updating us on key timelines and milestones, I could tell that he has planned the workflow and it isn't with ill intent that timing wise there are some misses. Advice for working with him is to check in regularly for key timelines for you to arrange your furnishings / lights / accessories / appliances to come in just to make sure everything goes to plan. But overall, no novice mistakes like misplanned timelines or ridiculous delays. We moved in first week of Dec, after reno ended on time end of Nov as promised.
2. Skill & Expertise (4.5 / 5)
We met quite a few IDs even contractors on top of Alvin but most of them did not know how to achieve the wood effect and tried to push us to laminates, or recommended wood veneers which from our experience in our parents' home, had a tendency to peel over time. Those who quoted were giving us rates high 30K to 40K even though our BTO came with floors and toilets. We went with Alvin because he showed good understanding of what is doable and what is not. And the fact is, the wood effect came out beautiful and as expected. From our understanding, he is the only one in the market now able to do this treatment. On top of this, space planning wise, Alvin also gave us a lot of advice and helped us accomplish our dream of the giant kitchen island. He even relocated our power points that was on our kitchen backsplash that HDB placed in the middle of nowhere that made no usage or aesthetic sense, on his own volition. Except for some minor design choices he made, like we personally felt our scones were a little high, and the aircon condensation going into a pipe that leads straight into the common bathroom shower area rather conspiciously, we are happy with most of his suggestions and choices. Honestly, between 3D rendering and having a good eye for design (space planning, not just styling), I prefer design sense and Alvin is definitely your go to guy.
3. Value (5 / 5)
We spent ~25K excluding Aircon (which we also took from Alvin at about 3.5k) and appliances for our renovation. This is for the kitchen, painting, the custom TV console, master wardrobe, lighting, and simple installations in our toilets (changing 1 toilet bowl and installing vanity area for master bedroom, plus glass shower area). For the scope of the works, it seems not very cheap but bear in mind, the wood work is unique and for that work, it is very value for money. Alvin provided the cheapest quote with very limited post reno add on charges (within the 25K mentioned). Despite shortages and general inflation from the pandemic, Alvin had held his pricing and we are thankful. We also did not have to worry much about the worksmanship compared to some really crazy things we have seen from our neighbours' situation so that peace of mind is worth every dollar.
Overall, this had been a great experience. Sharing a few photos of our place here
