Project

[Evi 0]

Hi All,

Just a quick intro to my experience for my home reno which is on going.

I have been reading up on the home reno once my partner and I finally decide that we have saved enough to fulfil our idea reno.

We actually got the key to our home all the way back in February, but because of circumstances we held back doing up the place.

When it came down to our selection of ID, thinking back I felt we never did enough research, should have started earlier.

We basically went through these ID.

1) D*sig*R*B*rt*

This company was a friend's husband, great experience they were engaging, practical and also creative.

They had good space planning and practical advise. (some of the present space planning was from this discussion with them)

The main reason that we decided to drop them was all down to cost, if not for the cost they would have been my preferred choice.

2) Freelancer

This was a former school mate, since she majored in interior design and was a pretty close friend we decided to seek her for our ID.

After a few meeting with her, my partner felt that her designs were not really what we are looking for, and she was a pretty insistence on some of her design. No matter what we did incorporate an idea from her previous work.

3) Thr**DCo*c*ptw*rk*

We saw their site and love some of their portfolio but We made an enquiry and they took forever to reply.

When they finally did reply we have already selected our designer.

4) Proj**tF*l*

Again we saw their website and they seem to have the looks that we were looking for for our reno, all in all they seem pretty uppity when we spoken to them on our budget, they did say they will arrange another meeting with us to show us they draft drawing, that was back in July - August haven't hear from then since. *shrug* owell......

5) Archit*l*gy

This just happens to be near my present home and we drop by to take a look at their furniture, somehow in the store I bum into an acquaintance who happens to be the part owner of the place. So that conversation led to us taking a look at their portfolio, what turned us of was that he mention that they do not take any job that is less than 60grand.......without furnishing and fixtures.

6) Mr K

We manage to get his contact from theitsybits (Thanks a lot)

Over all we would have engage him but we were insecure with our own ability to design the space, especially lighting plan.

Presently looking back, I would have totally went with him just on project management alone. sigh~

7) This is the person that we engage.

He is our ex lecturer from our school, although he was our photography lecturer he now also freelances as a interior designer, this is on top of his other many facets. Part of the reason that we decide to take him was that that he was able to meet our price point with some extra things included. Problem now is that he has so things on his plate that our home reno seems like the smallest project and he travels quite often so its difficult to get hold of him.

Anyways through the whole process I took a lot of inspiration, leads and advise from this forum.

[Evi 0]

Here is the layout and the proposed layout.

[Evi 0]

Here are some picture of the house in its original state, but I guess there are enough breezer here that the community is pretty familiar with it.

[Evi 0]

The Problem started the moment we met our designer to pass him the cheque for the downpayment.

He had to travel for work over the week and he failed to mention that to us.

We waited till the end of the week to enquire about when we will be able to see the layout and detail drawings.

Only then we found out that he was overseas.....

That was just the tip of the Iceberg.

Over the whole process there was a lot of miscommunication and misinterpretations.

Either between him and his main contractor or him and us.

We took 1 month plus just to hack the whole house.

The first time was due to him not giving the contractor the latest floor plan.

The contractor end up hacking a wrong wall.

In the end we just left that wall there and decide that we are going to build a shelf over the wall that was hacked

Second time it was due to vague instructions.

We wanted to have a Glass panel on the second room the create a store front feel and to open up the space.

In the end we end up with what was sort of a second door..... here is a picture of what we sort of inspired to do, and what was the result of miscommunication.

It was due to the his instruction that the end point had to meet the actual window in the room.

The third time that we had to hack was when we finally met up with the main contractor and did a walk through on site.

We asked the question when will the kitchen tile be changed to match the ones in the living room.

He said it was not mentioned to him.

By this time it was about almost 5 weeks since we gave the cheque.

[RemyLebeau 0]

omg, i totally feel your pain. I hope things will go smoothly for u. Btw how much did you give to ur ex-lecturer? Lets say if the deposit was a small amt i would rather forgo it and look for others instead and work doubly hard to recover the lost amount. Since its the start there's few errors already.

[Evi 0]

When we pass the cheque to him, we thought by now we were safe to make purchase for the home.

How wrong were we.

The first thing that we purchased for the house was the Sofa, initially we wanted to have our house have the mid modern century look with a touch of quirky.

But the moment I decided on the sofa we knew that it was not going that direction anymore.

When we bought this piece it was the last piece and on a discount, I think that was why it feels a bit impulsive now and also a pain.

When we purchase this piece the Mrs was pretty put off by the staff, so that got off to a rough relation with the store.

Because it was a last piece and at that point they were selling it on a discount to create more space for new stock, they were not keen to hold it too long for us.

We asked that they hold the piece till end November. As we were told that the reno should have tailed off by then

Now its December and the reno is still at a snails pace.

They started calling us to enquire when will we be taking the piece from the start of November.

With all the problems that we were facing on the Reno end this just compounds all the problem.

In the end we decide to send the piece over to my present place to hold on to it till the reno end is ready, we just have to fork out unnecessary money to get it move to the home when its ready.

We also purchase this table from them, expected date was suppose to be in December but now it is also on the way to my present home.

[Evi 0]

omg, i totally feel your pain. I hope things will go smoothly for u. Btw how much did you give to ur ex-lecturer? Lets say if the deposit was a small amt i would rather forgo it and look for others instead and work doubly hard to recover the lost amount. Since its the start there's few errors already.

The Deposit was 50%.........

[RemyLebeau 0]

Ouch...is he still contactable? If i'm you i sure go gila liao..

[Evi 0]

The whole shopping experience was not all bad, I had great shopping experience with the two following stores.

Purchase from the first store.

I Initially bought the Joker picture form the series from www.esty.com from the artist, but the artwork came slightly crushed, so when i saw that they carry more from the series I went ahead to purchase more.

Purchase from the second store.

[Evi 0]

Ouch...is he still contactable? If i'm you i sure go gila liao..

At this point, we have decided to just go straight a head and contact the Main Contractor, and do most of the communication there.

I must say it is almost as if we are managing the project ourselves.

We were very meticulous in planning, we even when ahead to do a setup and timeline schedule on our own and also another one to keep track of all the purchase, invoice numbers, size dimensions etc etc.....

In the end it all came to nothing as this was all not passed down to the Main contractor.

Now presently we are screaming at the main con too, as he also seem to have the same problem as my designer....

He too also have other major project on hand, so the time put aside for this project is more or less minimum.

I think it boils down to us never giving them a firm deadline.

[RemyLebeau 0]

Icic, mine is almost like urs, everyday during lunch time i go visit to see what works had been done. i have to ask ID what had been done this week than he will say it out or else i guess he will just keep quiet and proceed with the work.. Sigh!!!! Reno works is such a tiring thing to do.

[hagenuk88 0]

The whole shopping experience was not all bad, I had great shopping experience with the two following stores.

Purchase from the first store.

I Initially bought the Joker picture form the series from www.esty.com from the artist, but the artwork came slightly crushed, so when i saw that they carry more from the series I went ahead to purchase more.

Purchase from the second store.

Hi! Very nice pieces of furniture. Can you PM me the first and second shop names?

[angmoh 0]

awww.. that's hurt.. what an irresponsible ID..

my 2 cents, always go for the ID that is recommended by friend. It is not easy to be an ID. alot of coordination works required, and alot of details need to take care off. I'm fortunate that my ID so far does the job pretty well.

anyway u have nice purchases for your furniture !

[ultimax 2]

Sorry to see you're going through all this. It really sucks that you're getting this kind of #@!@ service eventhough you've parted with quite a lot of money already. I don't know of any other industry where this happens! It's so easy for the ID to makan their clients.

Without knowing all your details, I am a bit worried about how things will be as work progresses. Because if they're already like this at the start, it could be worse when the actual construction begins. Hacking is quite straightforward compared to the coordination needed for the actual building. A lot of things must be done in proper sequence. And at the end, when you point out things that need to be rectified, they may boh hiew you. They also know you have your own timeline to move in, so eventually you may get tired of pushing them. They can wait because they are occupied with other projects, but can you?

You say the ID and contractor have bigger projects. This is scary because I find in this industry, money talks. Big projects = big priority. Small project = .....

I mean one of the ID firms you consulted already pointed this out in your face - "we don't do contracts below $60K." Not saying there's anything fundamentally wrong with focusing on money, but that's the attitude in the industry I feel which sometimes causes professionalism to be sacraficed.

Perhaps you can share what the terms of your contract with the ID/contractor are. See if there's a legal way out of this mess.

Maybe you should really just dump them and start afresh. Since you're already doing a lot of the project management yourself, maybe you should switch contractors and DIY liao. You also seem like you know what you want.

All the best!

[Whitewonderland 0]

Hi,

Can pm the both name of the furniture shop? Love your dining table.