Commonly Asked Questions Regarding HDB BTO Renovation

First post of December and it shall be a meaningful one!

I've decided to do up a blog post on commonly asked questions from many to me regarding my house. 

And I reckoned I should really document it down after repeating it N times to many different people.

Hopefully it will be useful for everyone who's getting their keys really soon :) 

Disclaimer: All that I've written is based on my personal experience and not through sponsorship or any special deals. 

1) Where and when to start looking for ID/contractors? Difference between ID and contractors. 

Derp and I started looking for ID/contractors 3 to 4 months prior to our estimated key collection date. There are hardworking couples out there who started more than a year before their key collection date. It's never too early to start planning for your house likewise for your wedding too.

Before Derp and I went down, we roughly have a idea what we want. It isn't that difficult to know what you want base on the floor plan given to you. Let me give you a simple example, the tv points in the hdb flat are already fixed. You can roughly know where you should be placing your tv console and etc. Unless you wish to spend extra money to relocate the tv point and that will be a different story. (You will get the layout of the different sockets in the house/points for tv/telephone and lights when you entered your house. It's at the circuit breaker box.)

Sit down with your partner, look at the floor plan and discuss it first. Roughly what are the stuffs you want in your living room, bedrooms and kitchen. Houses these days are really small so things are getting more and more standard.  

Having said so much, coming up with a theme is important. We decided on Modern Scandinavian. Basically, more than 80% Scandinavian and a little of the modern aspect in some parts of the house.

We started by walking around home fairs at expo. Expos have lots of home/reno fair whole year round after CNY. So do keep a look out. Even if you missed one, next month or so, there will bound to have another one. That's where all the id/contractor company set up their booth and you can have a good chat with them. 

Treat it as though you are going to a career fair in your schooling days. Those good old days, I printed out many copies of my resume and hand it over to various companies at a career fair. 

Likewise at home/reno fair, I printed out many copies of my floor plan and 'distribute' to potential ID company. 

They will likely sit down with you at the expo fair and roughly draw out how they can design the home for you (for example where your dining table should be and etc). If you have any special request (for example a walk in wadrobe), let them know and get a rough idea of how they can design for you.

After they have done with the rough sketch, if you are alright with their 'idea'. You can go ahead and leave your email with them and they will likely email you the quotation in a few days time. 

I collected 3 quotations in total because we were really tired by then especially after talking to 3 IDs. This is as good as choosing you ideal bridal studio can? As tiring as that.

This is the floorplan which Derp have come up with at the very beginning. We send this to our ID and asked her to follow up.

Why did we choose ID and not contractor? 

We hired a really junior ID to give us a rough idea how the house will look like. Most of the time she's working to our instructions(which both Derp and I prefer instead of one who keeps overwriting our decision) 

I know there's contractors out there who double up as ID. Basically, they do a rough sketch on a blank piece of paper for you. For example how your wardrobe will be like and if everything okay, then they will go ahead and do it. But some don't even provide sketch as far as I know. 

Derp and I much preferred someone to provide 3d drawing because we will like to see if the laminates we have chose matches on a whole. And the price difference between a junior ID and contractor isn't that much as far as we know.

The 3d image of our living room. 

In actual fact, our TV feature wall is not located on that piece of wall. The 3d was done this way to give us a better idea. Our TV feature wall is actually on the opposite wall in real life.

Anywya, I've heard too much horror stories of contractors so we try not to look for them. Lazy go into details here, you can email me about it then if you wish to know. 

My ID is the one who come up with a timeline and daily schedule of reno works to be done. 

Example of a timeline given by my ID

We hired our own electrician, and also air con supplier. Hence there's much liasing to be done. I need someone there(usually my Id/her workers) to open the door for my electrician/aircon installer. 

My electricity wires have to be pulled out first before the cupboards go in and etc. All the points(any additional power supply socket, what kind of lightnings to be at which place) have to be discussed before hand and not forgetting aircon piping! If I were to go into details about it, it's a super long list. 

Those were my most stressful days with never ending phone calls throughout the day, and lunch time were often spend at the new place discussing how things should be done with the various people. If I want till after work, they will all be gone. 

If anything suddenly goes wrong, my ID will be the first to know and I get her to settle it because we are all at work. She's like our nanny in short, there's once my ikea delivery came in the middle of a weekday so she's the one there to collect for us.

Our ID also provided us with the detailed design of our carpentry, which means the exact measurements of each compartment and the laminate which we have chose for that particular carpentry works.

This was presented to our carpenter and all of us sat down to discuss/finalize before the carpenters start work. 

2) Duration of renovation 

A typical flat with floors/toilet done up by hdb shouldn't take too long but that's provided if you don't have any hacking to do. It will take usually around 2 months. Mine took nearly 3 after rectifying all the small details that wasn't done properly by my renovator.

There were days whereby no much works are being done because it's more doing the small stuff (example fixing up a glass backing in the kitchen). There's also a 3-4 day gap to let the paint dry overnight before they proceed with the rest of the reno works. 

3) Costs of renovation 

When people asked me 'so how much does your renovation costs', and after I tell them I get all sorts of answers.  

The most common one is  'got include furniture or electronics all this anot huh?' 

My total reno costs come up to $30,000 and seriously I don't see how electronics products/aircon and etc can be considered into the reno cost. When you are free with your partner, you should go courts/harvey norman to keep yourselves updated with prices of things these days.

Let me give you a quick and brief breakdown 

Aircon - $3000 for system 3 (if you intend to put aircon at living room, it will be $4000) 

Tv - Easily $2000 or more depending on the size of the tv/brand/smart or not smart 

Fridge, washing machine - Another $2000 or more. 

In short, please prepare another $20,000 for electronics and stuff like sofa and dining table! It's really subjective because to some, spending 2K for a sofa is alright but not for some. The price of all these has a very wide range. They are usually counted in thousands and not hundreds.

How can my renovation costs be 10k only (after minus-ing 20K electronics and furniture)? Unless I'm staying in a condo/ executive condo which already comes with lots of stuff. In that case, my renovation cost can be lower. So start saving up people!

I've also came to realize there's never enough money for renovation (unless you are really rich). It's best to have spare cash rather than save just nice for it. Our total renovation costs were few k more than what we had budget it to be. Some hidden costs and there are things you bound to have missed out while negotiating the initial package/price. 

We had some additional stuff which were not in the quotation because we do not want to regret. Sometimes the lack of somethings really make the 'feel' of the house really different, After all, it's your first house, There will bound to be mistakes made for overlooking small details. You end up paying more is inevitable.

Btw, build in carpentries are the most expensive part of the renovation. Unless you are making do with off shelves carpentry from shops, if not be prepared to pour money for it.

Costs of renovation is very subjective because to some, setting aside 50K is normal but for some perhaps 20K. Set a budget which is comfortable for both of you, sit down discuss it through and opt things that are unnecessarily out of the quotation if it's really no choice. You can always do it in the near future after you have save enough.

We didn't do up our service yard windows and also grills because our intention was to wait till our little ones to be out first. That probably save ourselves another 1-2K.

4) Quality of renovation 

Many a time, the second biggest worry of renovation is the quality of it other than the costs of renovation being the top most factor.

Quality this word is very subjective. You may start reading up forums but my advise to you is to stay neutral.

For my case, I can't really find any comments (be it good or bad) regarding the ID company I engaged to do my house. Sometimes I do think no comments means either they are really new or they did a above average job to satisfy their client so no one are complaining about them.

I bought my sofa and dining table way before my renovation started and I even pay FULL for it. I didn't even think of what if things screw up(delivering the wrong color) or things I ordered will never get delivered to me. I went to read up forum and I see really bad comments regarding the company I bought the sofa and dining table from. Those comments were things like goods getting delayed and a need to hurry them to have your stuff delivered.

Derp and I were worried but we can't do much except to pray for the best. They told us to contact them at least 2 months in advance to arrange for delivery because they had to ship it over from overseas(can't remember what country).

We did that and weeks prior to the delivery date, I still feel very paranoid. I asked Derp to call up the company to confirm the delivery again. They replied that they will only contact us the day before the scheduled delivery date. We did receive a call and they gave us a timing to be at home to wait for them.

On the day of delivery, I can only cross my fingers and wait. Indeed they came on time, everything was what I wanted and nothing went wrong with the orders. Colour and design of the sofa and dining table is as promised by the sales person. They aren't that bad as what people have wrote about them on forum! I suspect there might be mis-communication between them, or the buyer may have forgot about the 2 months in advance terms and condition.

My point is, stay neutral! If you are so easily sway by other people comments, the whole renovation process will be really tiring and stressful for you.

Another tip for new homeowners is to visit any on-going or completed project that is done by the ID/Contractor. You can check out their workmanship and hey if there's completed project for your to view, it will means the rapport between the homeowner and ID/Contractor is good right? Do ask if they have other ongoing projects while handling yours, if there is any, do question them how often they will come up to your place and how will they handle the various projects at the same time.

4) Stay calm and keep a cool head 

Renovation is not as simple as paying the money and everything is done perfectly for you. 

Throughout this period of time, I'm thankful to have friends/coli who are going through the same process as me. They are the ones who truly understand how I feel and we are on the same side as a client. So at times, you just need a listening ear and after that you'll feel better. 

And I have friends who are doing their renovation now who will on and off tell me their complains. I believe it's a normal process and I will do my best to be the listening ear. I haven't see one who don't have complains about their renovation before. Unless they are angel! It's normal to feel unhappy because it's never easy to manage humans. 

You will not want to destroy the bridge between you and the contractors/ID hence I can only say work things out in the right way. Don't ever be nasty to them because you never know what kind of nasty stuff they might do to your house! I strongly believe if you are kind to them, they'll be kind to you too :) 

Stay calm and enjoy the renovation process. The sense of satisfaction after that is really great especially when you start hearing people praising how nicely done up your house is. 

It's a period of time whereby you will learn things not being taught in school or by your parents. Everything is through your personal experience!   

"It won't be easy, but it'll be worth it"

For other entries that I've written before regarding my house, the links are all below or you can click on the HDB label under Labels on the right hand column.

My New Flat: Getting the keys
My New Flat: Checking the Defects and Having them Rectified
My New Flat: Starting the Renovation
Renovation Week 1
Renovation Week 2
Renovation Week 2
Renovation Week 4