Which meant we have about 3 months for Phase II of plan Cozy Home, the Renovation.
Of course, we had researched a little about renovation as renovation cost is a big factor in our affordability to purchase a Resale unit. We flipped through some renovation magazine and scrolled through Renotalk.com, but did not had any definite ideas as we did not even know what kind of flat we will be buying. So we had a herculean task awaiting us as we endeavor to find our ideal renovation for our home.
Before we talk about any design or renovation, we first have to search for a professional in this industry whose reputation, design and price we can accept. Before purchasing our flat, we had collected many renovation price packages flyers from interior design firms, from these and our research from the internet, we realize that renovating a resale flat will cost more than renovating a new flat. This is mostly due to the extra demolishing of the current renovation and the replacement of items some as water pipes, re-waterproofing the kitchens and toilets and re-tiling the whole unit.
We started looking for a interior designer with an initial budget of about 30,000. We sent out about 5 requests for quotation to 5 interior design firms which we shortlisted from recommendations from Renotalk.com. That was a bad mistake, as we thought these firms will all just reply with a standard quotation for a 3 room resale flat with which we can do comparisons and use as a baseline for further customization of our renovation.
What happened was that 2 of those requests sunk into the deep web ocean and were never heard from again, and my phone and email started to be bombarded by interior designers from the other 3 firms. They all wanted to meet and understand more before they are willing to give any quotations. The problem we had with this was that we only have the weekends available to meet with these designers, and it was a nightmare trying to arrange a appointment on the weekend with them. Another mistake we made was that, on Renotalk, most recommendation was actually for a particular ID from that company and thinking that we are only just requesting for a quotation and that we can choose our ID later we did not direct our request to that ID. So, when we met with the 2 IDs we managed to arrange appointments for, they are not the IDs we wanted.
The first ID did try to make an effort to keep close to our budget and the quotation, although we were quite unhappy with it at that point of time, was actually quite reasonable. We did not contact him again after the first meeting as we felt that he is actually not that interested, perhaps due to our tight budget and size of our flat. The second ID showed much more enthusiasm and had much better designs and ideas, but was too pricey for us.
It was at this point of time, the 3rd ID replied. This ID had the most recommendations from Renotalk and we liked his work the most, but he is a one man show and although he have a squeaking clean reputation, we were still a little hesitant about even requesting a quotation from him. Yet, from very first meeting, he convinced us of his professionalism and passion.
And so, we found our Interior Designer.