Dear all, I am new to renotalk here and I would like to share my reno journey with everyone here. Hopefully it can be of help to you guys as much as I have benefited from fellow generous bloggers who have shared their wonderful experience and ideas. We gotten our keys in Sept and our renovation has "unofficially" started I will share what I mean later. The sourcing of IDs/contractors was definitely a gruelling experience for us as we really not do know what we wanted initially. After research on magazines, forums, we came out with a list of things we do not like to have in our house. 1) No false ceiling 2) No typical feature wall / tv console From there, we kinda know we didn prefer e modern concept theme and finally we realised we were inclined more towards e scandi theme. We like woods, naturals and more whites in the house. In total we met 7 IDs and 1 contractor and I shall share my experience with each of them. Ch** Interior - this is is first ID we met. Without having much ideas, e ID simply propose a typical layout and gave us a quotation based on e layout. The experience wasn't that pleasant as I do not feel the sincerity that e ID really want to do our biz. - Out North^^^^ Interior - Walking along the stretch of IDs, we went in. Definitely e ID we met was much better than e above. He shared with us e things to do and not to do. Unfortunately, we didn have much chemistry with him and during the conversation we felt there were communication issues. - Out H^^^ Concept - I would say we spent e most time with this ID. He listens to us and I could feel he knows what we are looking at. Capturing what we dislike, he will also helps us think of ideas to propose to us. He will also tells us on items that can help to save our money - Shortlisted We*ken - I guess she is quite popular in her company. We were alittle disappointed as it took her quite awhile to captured what we want. - Out Rhi** Interior - We visited him with high expectations as my friend who is doing her renovation shortlisted him to be her top 2 and she has high raves abt him. First meeting was very impressive as he could quickly capture the concept we wanted and even proposed ideas for us ie: wooden beams instead of e usual false ceiling. The 2nd meeting immediately made me changed my mind. I dunno if he has forgotten what we shared in e first meeting and he proposed to us doing false ceiling and completely forgotten abt the wooden beams he wanted to do for us. We felt that we couldn trust him and he is out from our shortlist. - Out Pl*s Interior - Also recommended by e same fren and eventually my fren chose him to be e ID. I was very attracted to his passion for design and his enthusiasm in his work. During e first meeting, he asked alot of questions to ensure he knew what we were looking for. Upon leaving, he assures us he will come out with something interesting and propose a unique layout for e kitchen. We were very excited abt meeting with him again. 2nd meeting really drew us closer to signing on e dotted line to confirm him. He prepared a flipboard with images that he researched that could be e possible ideas we like and adopt. Indeed it was very close to what we like and e meetings went on smooth. – Shortlisted Top 2 Lastly we met a contractor Mr K who is also very popular in here – I must say he looks cold but is quite funny at times. The communication and chemistry was good as the concepts we were looking for were very close to what he has done for some bloggers here. And finally we made our decision and Mr K will be helping us with e renovation. I guess from the shopping of IDs/contractors, one of e areas is the communication and chemistry. Do they listen and remember our needs or just proposing for the sake of proposing. Most importantly to me we must feel comfortable working with theme. To me it comes from trust, ease of communication and chemistry Shall post up more pics in e nxt post