I engaged ID named Cha**y from Starry Homestead last year. It was the most terrible experience.
Renovation started off ok, but when workmanship was not up to standard, touch-ups were not properly done as she would simply send workers up without telling them specifically what to do. Kitchen cabinet laminates were badly trimmed, with lots of sharp and uneven edges. Her partner Al**n said this was NOT part of workmanship. Wow! After multiple touch-up sessions where the badly done areas not rectified or some made even worse, she went all "Ah-Lian" style, said "What's the problem now? Your whole cabinet door drop off is it?". He kept either saying "old HDB is like that one" or "man-made work no 100%! don't be so picky", "you must give us time to rectify the areas". Renovation period was delayed from 2 months to 4 months. Painting job was uneven, cement screed was not smooth, holes were not patched properly, old useless hooks were not removed.
Even though ID said herself was "experienced" having worked 5-6 years, she was not organised and would often mix up my project with others and gave strange suggestions. Electrical plan had lots of mistakes even though we went through every single power and light point on site. Changes to the renovation schedule was never informed, even though I asked her a few times to inform me in case I needed to send deliveries up assuming there were people there.
Consulted her on the weight and size of the wash basin before I purchased it, but when she later thought it might be too big, told me to buy another one and keep the current one for "next time". Said it was because the floor plan and the actual bathroom size is different, but I only confirmed the basin size with her 1 month after renovation started and AFTER all the bathroom tiling work was done!
Finally had enough and called the company to change to another Senior ID Em**y. Changed the damaged vinyl flooring (deep scratches because floor protection was not laid as promised, tried to blame it on us damaging floor when we moved furniture), re-do some of the cabinet laminates.
Company agreed to do up the rest of the kitchen cabinets after my HIP in Dec. ID Em**y gave lots of excuses to push the work to after CNY, and in the end, did not reply my messages on the final quotation.
Had to hire another company to finish off my kitchen cabinets. Even though I paid Starry Homestead for all the electrical works including the kitchen ones, now had to spend another few hundred dollars to hire another electrician to fix the power points.
Engaging Starry Homestead for my first home renovation was a big mistake. We end up doing a lot of DIY to fix up the place properly. Maybe this is normal. Maybe I was just unlucky to have met some irresponsible IDs. Should have known better when the ID kept bad-mouthing other companies, and the fact that there were no reviews about her that her own words could not be trusted.
I too had read some good reviews and thought they could be trusted. Sharing my own experience here and hoping the same thing won't happen to you. All the best!
