First time renovating my parents house experience

EugeneNeo · May 30, 2018

It is my first time to tasked to find ID to help to design and renovate my parent's resale flat with certain budget.

There is total 3 interior designer firm I went for consultation. I was totally clueless about renovation and the market price.
After going 3 interior designer firm to get a clearer picture and also some experience I gained and how I made final decision on which ID firm to confirm that might be useful for readers planning to get their house renovation soon.

1. Attractive Packages
There is lot of ID firm will lure you to sign their quotation with attractive package depend on your flat type. However, when the renovation starts there is where the Variation order come in, the ID will start to say this is not in the contract this will be additional that will be added into VO and bill to owners. Sometimes the VO can be amount more than the contract sum and burst your budget. While I in a consultation with this particular interior designer (let’s call it ID A) offering me packages for my parent's 4-room resale flat at a lump sum 20k. After studying the packages in detail, I found that the package provide insufficient measurements eg. kitchen cabinet 12 ft and is insufficient for a kitchen cabinet. I guess there will be a need to top up and absolutely they will increase price per foot run. This applies to kitchen top too. So, owners be careful before you sign the packages.

2. Avoid Company that are not professional
I have encountered 1 of the ID firm (let’s call it “ID B”), during the 1st appointment at the showroom I encountered 2 Ah Beng. During the 1^st appointment what turn off me most is they say they need smoking break in between which make me and my wife stunt. I lost all confidence as they don’t show professionalism in their work. Most importantly is my parent’s house I do not wish to screw it by Ah Beng.

3. Beware company that tell you that their price is the best
“ID A” did offer me the lowest price among the 3 ID firm I went. However, thanks to “ID C” I went they studied the quotation that is propose by “ID A” there is a lot of loopholes such as the material used. (For e.g. carpentry work, it is using white PVC instead of internal colour PVC with ABS trimming) Thanks to “ID C” wonderful product presentation and patiently explained to me the different materials, product comparison and samples to let me have a feel and compare. They let me understand they are using quality products that will last home owner a longer period.

4. Good service ID
“ID C” which is nearby my work place at Tai Seng, The Commerze did impressed me during the 1^st appointment with product presentation and discussion. During the 1^st appointment their ID, Daphne and Julia is very professional. They are unlike the other designer that care about design than functionality. They will take extra effort to know how the living lifestyle of the occupants in the house. Indeed, the extra details provided they came up with a very practical furniture, lighting and electrical layout that is all prepared sufficiently. We can see they put in their care and concern when they plan the layouts for us. They also counter my doubts very quickly from time to time via phone. We gave them our floor plan, but they still request to go on site to do measurement which impressed us with their professionalism and right aptitude although we haven’t confirmed with them. Therefore, we selected “ID C” and the quotation they proposed is very transparent. Every single item was explained in detail and they revised they quotation multiple times for us and response to us patiently. Therefore, we selected them.

Why I choose "ID C"
From what I know from them, they mainly focus doing referrals to ensure top notched craftsmanship and best customer service provided to their customer. They even gave us full project schedule, which we were impressed! few of my friends doing renovation for their flats not every ID does a extra project schedule to keep us on track and we were confident with Julia and Daphne.

We were very satisfy with the 3D now currently after few renderings and can't wait to transform into reality. Some ID can only allow owner to do amendments 1 or 2 times but "ID C" did not limit us how many times as they have their in-house designer doing the perspective views. We have a great time choosing laminates with Julia and Daphne as they recommend us which laminate they used before and receive good feedback.
Hacking will be starting soon next monday, will update readers when the renovation starts!