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I hope this information will be useful to all homeowners who wish to save cost on home renovation works. Just as any other couples, we approached a few interior designers to build our dream home. To be frank, we were quite disappointed with their proposed ideas and design. Im proud to say we were the designers for our own home but of course with the help and advice from our contractor. Since we had to keep within our budget (arrival of our baby around the same time), we decided to do the renovation with a contractor after hearing from friends that it is possible to have a wow home makeover and save significant savings too. Information on renovation ideas are also readily available online. We were very much involved during the whole process. We invested our time on phone calls and checks to ensure evrything goes as plan such as the correct colours, design and layout as discussed with our contractors. Here are some of our house's photos in progress and the outcome. Im unable to upload all the completed photos due to size. All the best in planning your dream home!

Here are the quotes from my contractor I thought the contractor quote was very reasonable and work was generally quite satisfactory except when we hit a huge roadblock with the flooring, which dragged the renovation out to 6 months. I opted for vinyl flooring since I was reassured that it is a solid option with no hollow sound or feel common with wood laminate flooring. Furthermore, It's durability, cost and resistance to water beats out wood timber which I was also considering. I also went for the more expensive Evorich vinyl tiles but please be warned that your floor screeding has to be done well for a good result. My contractor could not lay a flat floor, and there were many places that felt uneven and had the horrible hollow sound. Because Evorich vinyl tiles basically just lays on top the existing flooring, preparation is key to get a flat floor. So I told the contractor to tear up all the flooring and to patch up the trouble spots. I was around to supervise the work and it was pretty obvious that the workmanship just was not up to par. They did not seem to know what they were doing. I consulted the Evorich guys but I get the impression that they are more interested in getting me to agree to the shoddy workmanship than solving my issue. In the end, I got so frustrated and disappointed in the workmanship that I personally had to mix the cement and patch up the floor flat, with the help of a 6 foot ruler that I got from a hardware store. Yes, the contractors did not even have a ruler to help them gauge whether the floor is flat. It was quite the effort but I managed to get the floor within specification and was thankfully happy with the final results upon installation. I have heard that other companies use vinyl that is installed over some kind of foam underlay, and that will mitigate the problems of an uneven floor. Needless to say, this episode brought friction between me and my main contractor, but to his credit he did waive the fees for the screeding and give me a discount for the flooring. Judging from the effort I put in, I must say it is a fair trade. I also had the time to go supervise the work pretty often. My main con was hardly around, which was disappointing. My advice is to stick by your guns and not to accept shoddy work. Some may entice you to accept by offering you a discount but you are the one who have to live in your home for many years to come.