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Dear All, Bought an interterrace house last year. As newbies to the rebuilding process, we are feeling our way through the unknowns and challenges. At every cross road of choice, trying to make "sound" decision and move a step at a time forward through this expensive and lengthy journey. 😁😁. Intend to share our experiences here in this forum, will find time to update as regular as I can. So here goes... Decision No. 1 : Rebuild or A&A It was a rather old 2 stories house, build in 1986. Although the ex-owner had maintained it well but the build-up area was just 2000+sqft, layout and design were pretty old fashion. Upon closer inspection also found signs of water stains on wall line, terminate treatment holes on the floor and cracks. Original plan was to do A&A, but soon we decided to change plan from A&A to rebuild 😅. Another reason was to make sure we maximise the economic potential of the land so that when needed we can sell the house at a higher possible price in future. Decision No. 2 : Architect or Design&Build Contractor Explored both rebuilding paths. Finally decided to go with D&B contractor for the following reasons: a. Price : On top of all the costs required to build a house, was told to pay 10 to 15% more for the architect fee... Money not enough. 😅 b. Waiting time : Visited quite a handful of houses done by both 3x Architects and 3x D&B Contractors. Although we liked the design from one of the Architects, the waiting time was very long for him to complete the design before tender, up to 6 months wait... Time too long. 😅 c. Tender process : All architects we engaged indicate that they would invite the contractors that they have worked with to come for the tender, or we could invite our contractor to bid... but we are newbies, no idea about contractors. Need to interview the participating contractors, see more houses to check for quality and workmanship.... but again, we are newbies, no idea how to differentiate between good and bad contractors. If don't like any contractor, need to start all over again. The whole tender process too troublesome for us 😅 Finally selected one of the 3 contractors whom we felt most comfortable with and has provided an acceptable balance between price vs design & service provided. Since then we have completed topo survey, soil test, and successfully obtained the demo permit and approval for the layout and structural plans from BCA/URA. Actual building work can finally start. 😁 ... that's all for now... Next update... will share our Decision No 3 : D&B contractor selection; Decision No 4 : PE selection; Decision No 5 : Lift or no lift?