Choosing our Reno!
Before we start, here’s a disclaimer: As first time homeowners, we are in no way experts in home renovation or interior design. What we’re sharing below is a snippet of what we’ve gone through, in the hopes that it will benefit others just like us.
So about six months prior to getting our keys, our estate telegram group chat was buzzing with people talking about their encounters with IDs and renovation companies. We panicked because we had not started looking at all while there were others who had already signed packages.
We had two approaches going into this:
Qanvast had an ongoing BTO promotion, where they would link us up with up to five ID companies at no charge for a no-obligation first meeting.
We also approached companies we found on Social Media or through Family/Friends referrals.
Within a span of three weeks, we went from not meeting any IDs to meeting six.
It was pretty standard across all IDs in terms of the initial stages.
There will be a No Obligation meeting to discuss rough plans for the house
Afterwards, they’ll share their quotations, and different ID companies go about it differently. This is where the IDs differ from each other:
Some shared on the spot - so while waiting for the quote during the first meeting, we had a tour of their showroom to view their previous works
Some shared via Whatsapp after the meeting - basically, a follow up with the quotation via the same way they have been contacting you (ours was all through Whatsapp)
Some will call for a second no obligations meet up - we experienced this with 2 IDs who said they would prefer to run through the quotations over another meeting.
Once you get the quotations, you can analyse them, compare the line items and the ideas presented, reflect on the meetings with them to see how well you vibed and then, further shortlist your top 2-3.
While receiving quotations via Whatsapp allows us to take our time to go over the quotation, we really appreciated those who ran through the line items with us, be it on the spot or over another meeting. As first time homeowners, there’ll be a lot of things in the quotation that might sound new and confusing. To have someone explain everything is really, really useful.
That being said though, the ID companies that offered the second meet up instead of an on-the-spot quotation, usually brought in more ideas for us given that they had more time to explore our project further. On the spot quotation is really based on whatever discussion was had. Not a bad thing if you’re looking for a quick rough quote and are already satisfied with what has been discussed. There’s also no harm approaching your shortlisted IDs just to get a sense of their ideas and workmanship, all which will be crucial further along in the reno journey.
Coincidentally, our top two choices after all our meetings were the ones that called us for a second meet up to run through the quotation.
One of their quotes was pretty decent, the other was more premium but had more unique ideas for us. At this point, we had to choose between aesthetic, practical and premium OR focus on minimalist, simplicity and affordable.
We eventually went on to having a third meet up with both companies when we gave them our potential plans on moving out once we reached the MOP and hearing their counter proposals. Bearing in mind, we vibed with both companies, they had very different ideas which we liked and we would have been okay with either one if cost was not a factor.
Around this period as well, HDB provided a 360 degrees virtual tour of the house which basically showed our interior i.e. the space, the walls, the floorings provided etc. We studied the tour pretty closely and realised that maybe… as much as we wanted aesthetic, we should just focus on minimalism for our first home and that’s when we decided to proceed with Renobricks.
In a nutshell, that’s what we went through in order to decide on an ID. In the coming weeks, we’ll share about our encounters with each ID meet up + a feature on working with Renobricks!
See you in the next post!
P.S. If you are keen to check them out, drop your details below and we’ll link you up with them.
