Selamat Hari Reno

Thursday 25th October 2007

Ten contractors. Five designers. Eight quotations. A zillion home and decor magazines.

And counting.

Raya roundings have been reduced only to open-house invites, so we can be sure how many houses we're going to in one day. With a definite figure of housecalls in mind, we can operate on a plan and divide the day effectively between Raya and renovation. Cold-calling at friends' and other relatives' houses are currently out of the question because that would mean hours wasted chasing after who's home and who's not ("Nek Jah nak keluar lagi sekejap? Bila? Dalam lima minit? Nanti ah..tunggu kejap lah! Kita on the way, skarang kat Jurong West, dah nak dekat ni! Nek Jah punya rumah Tampines Street 45 kan?") just so we don't end up ringing the doorbell of a house void of its occupants, who are out and about on their own Raya visits.

Nonetheless, as guilt-ridden and almost anti-social as we are currently , we do hope that, InsyaAllah, we'll be able to make it up once our place is ready, good and proper. With our own open-house invites and all, as well as vigorous visitings of those people and places we missed this Raya, we promise! However, don't expect that to be happening anytime soon though. At the rate we're going, our house is probably going to clean out the last sweep of renovation debris only by the end of next Raya.

But Azim and I still dare to hope. :)

One thing's for sure, we're NOT taking on the services of an interior design company. Apart from their quotations so far throwing our budget awry, their professional "interior designers" are a waste of money and a downright damper on our own creativity and taste. One guy from a very popular ID company actually said, "The difference from us interior designers and those renovation contractors is that with them, you tell them to do anything, they will do. With us, we do what we think you should do." And he proceeded to tell us exactly what we can and cannot do. Ooohhh....begitu eh rupanya! In short, my home will be done up to your ideas lah, not mine! And I thought I had it covered when I figured out the difference between an interior designer and a renovation contractor was the absence or presence of fungus under the toenail.

Another dude from another very popular one ("We're the biggest in Singapore, even bigger than C***, you know!") gave us a look of incredulity when we showed more interest for tempered glass than laminated wood for one of our fixtures and said, "Aiyaah..with HDB flat only...you shouldn't spend so much, you know! Take laminated wood can already!". At first swayed by his reasoning, we relented, chose laminated wood, gave him a rough idea of our budget and expectations and waited for his quotation. When it arrived a few days later, his words would have been sound advice if his estimated total was less than the quotations from those renovation contractors. In stark comparison, their estimated numbers were a lot lesser. With tempered glass. And HDB flat, posh condo or attap house, whatever, if I want tempered glass, I'll take tempered glass. If I want wood, I'll take wood. Don't try and shove wood down my throat and try to charge me for your shoving service.

And I thought (from all those mat-salleh interior decor shows I've watched all my life), interior designers are supposed to get to know their clients wants and needs first before offering professional advice, suggestions and opinions, which are then up to the clients to accept, reject or discuss and compromise. Not do an immediate once-over, judge and dictate based on their own ideas within the first five minutes of meeting. That would have made Hitler an excellent home interiors professional then! Anyway, we've actually never really fancied the idea of an ID company's services but since a designer for home style is all the rage now, we thought we'd give it a try. Eventually, we only managed to convince ourselves further that we don't need one. So that bit's decided. We'd take Phua Chu Kang over __[insert favourite interior design company name here]__ any day, thanks!

Now, with all the harping I've made on the bane that is the interior designer and our unanimous decision on NOT requiring the services of one, do you think Azim and I are a lot closer to deciding on our renovation contractor now?

No. Because at time of post, I think we're still expecting two other guys to come by, do a site inspection and give their quotations. It also doesn't help that we keep changing our minds on whether we want a kitchen island or a parallel kitchen counter, to hack our master bedroom wall all the way or half-way, to have a walk-in wardrobe or a regular wardrobe and many other life-altering decisions.

*sigh*

I retract. Forget next Raya, make it next decade. Expect an open-house invite from us in 2017.