Frankly speaking, I didn't know anything about house renovation in my first 1/3 life time., nor the words, such as carpentry, masonry, or corrugated board, etc..

Since bought our first HDB apartment at Sembawang, my wife and I started to choose a comparable and valuable renovation contractor or ID. We had looked through a lots of flyers and asked our seniors, and even interviewed some contractors. We had no idea how complex to locate a suitable contractor initially, and involved tons of inquiries and pricing comparisons in the end. Finally, we had shortlisted 3 IDs.

talk to the ID/contractor. make sure you are comfortable with them. somehow ur 6th sense will tell you if you can 'click' with that ID. Be wary of those who promise you sky and heaven. If it's too good a deal, it's probably best to give it a miss. I believe we need to pay for quality. Good luck in ur ID selection!

Hi,

sounds like an exciting journey for you.

I recall when we did our reno, we found it important to know what our family needed for the long and short term.

For example, we wanted more rooms for family planning (as compared to merging 2 rooms into one giant master bedroom), kitchen layout was decided my my wife who would be the primary user), no built in cabinet until the children go to school (for flexible use of space), fans in every room to save on air con cost, lotsa hidden storage space to keep the surrounding uncluttered etc...

Most ids will have their own inclinations and "more profitable items" like selling wall paper/ branded carpentary/ etc and will try to propose that first.

We collected good ideas from all the id who gave proposals and modified our own final layout. This reduced the variations you have to choose from and focus on the cost and quality.

just our 2 cents worth. Hope it helps.

if you want to see our renovation blog you are welcome to visit

http://hdbrenovation2009.blogspot.com/

good luck