Hi everyone I'm pretty much a newbie and quite inspired to start a blog after reading so many. So just want to blog down my journey and maybe see if I can start a writing career. Hehe Just a side note on my housing. I sold my 4-room HDB at Telok Blangah and bought a 3-room HDB at Clementi. Total downgrade but also toal debt-free. Fully paid off my 3-room with no loan. Future planning, I can still buy another house 5yrs later with 80% loan. Sold and bought my house with NO AGENTS at all. So that saved me almost 10K in commission. So for those who want to save more for your renovations, make an effort and do it yourself. Its not really that hard actually. All the processes are in the HDB website. Next up, collecting keys on the 22nd of Sept. Coincides with wife bday so that is like the most expensive bday present ever for her haha. Have looked into a few IDs and started comparing quotes. Will share my experience below. I did not contact like many as some of the people here did. I only got into contact with 4. Miss Karen.G - My former id/contractor who did my previous house and had first priority. She started her own company 2-3yrs back and is basically a 1 woman show. Her schedule was full so she can't help to quote and help with our project. However we were relieved she turned it down cos she was quite pricey but definitely no complain on delivery and workmanship. Hence the slight premium in price. Easily 20% higher. Plus she was featured in renovation and lifestyle magazines many times. So in a way, we can save on that premium haha. Mr Nick.P - happen to chance upon his blogpage on his projects. He did a 3-room which had a similar concept that we wanted. So emailed him and asked for a meeting. He called in the morning the next day and within that same afternoon he managed to squeeze out a time to meet me at Lavender. Nice young humble chap, and I think he also started this new company with his partner. Later did I find out that he is actually the chief designer. Went thru what we wanted and asked for a quote. Very quiet throughout the meeting and you be wondering if he was even listening or understand. But I must say his free hand drawing is very good. chatted for an hr plus, and he said he will contact me 1 week later and even fixed a date that he will call me back. Not much of a first impression but nice enough chap. Mr Vicent.G - Recommended by a friend who also did her 3-room flat in Commonwealth. Nice design and i must say pretty good workmanship. Went up to his office, pretty cramp to squeeze in 3 person located at Chinatown. All kinds of reno and lifestyle books in the office. Also another young man with one look you can tell his the arty farty kind of person. His more into design and lifestyle planning for your house. And base on my fren's house quotes, he is not cheap either. Nevertheless still checked him out and see what he can offer. Great listener, and gave his full attention. Siad he will go thru the floor plan and give us a quote and some ideas within a week. Mr Andy - Saw his name on one of the blog here about his pricing and workmanship. He is purely contractor and not an ID. But after meeting him, never felt any spark or chemistry and the whole thing ended within 30mins. He shot down quite a few ideas saying HDB won't approve and stuff. But still promise to deliver his quote in a week. So a week has passed. Nick called on the promised date. Brought his assistant along. Came with a quote and even a layout planing of the house. Despite me thinking that he wasn't listening at all, he actually drew out all the details that I wanted on the layout plan. And this time he impressed me with his drawing again. He drew a cabinet upside down so that he can show me as he was sitting across the table. Reasonable quote as well as it exceeded slight out of my budget by a few thousand. By the way my budget was 35K and I really have many things to do. However he charges GST as well, so that sets it back to another 2-3k. Nick later also informed that he has his own carpentry. thats why he can give a better rate in terms of carpentry. The rest of the trade like window and grilles and aircon, he recommened we get our own contacts as it can be cheaper but he will still help to co-ordinate. Cos if we use his contact, he will mark up a profit too and make the quote higher. So I guess thats another point for honesty. Vincent sent an email saying he operates different from other IDs. He's into project managment meaning he will design the house and send his design to his various contractor and get the best quote. So i figured that's just a nice way of saying, 'Thanks for giving me the chance to quote, but I dont think I want to do your project.' haha Andy also sent in his quote. Quite compeitive with Nick. Some items he is cheap and certain items Nick is cheap. But then still no chemistry and I've always felt he's some cold Frankenstein. He may be good in his workmanship, but will have totally no or zero ID input. Another week passed We decided to go with Nick after seeing a project that he has done. My wife and I agreed that his workmanship is not as good as the previous ID we had for our old house. But it wasn't that bad. Afterall that unit was handed over almost 6 months ago. So it could be the home owner so we gave him the benefit of the doubt. Plus he has been very prompt in his replies and queries that we have and he gave pretty good advice in terms of functionalites and design. He also arranged a banker for us should we want to get a reno loan which we did. So let's hope all things goes well.
