3-Room HDB BTO House Renovation Part 1. Meeting Up with the Interior Designer

So I am going to blog about which Interior Designer (ID) that me & hubs chose and the costs incurred and roughly what to expect. Give and take.

First & foremost, there's an update of policy by HDB regarding the cement screed for new homes. You may read it here: Pre-Packed Cement Screed will incur higher costs.

So what you can expect is an additional cost of up to $3000 if you're planning to renovate your apartment which, suck. $3000 is still money to most of us including me. I can buy additional furniture/appliances for the house with $3000!

So I eyed Rezt & Relax ID ever since I saw their TV Ad way back in 2014 so naturally, when I know it's time to get an ID, we then went to their showroom at Expo held in August/October 2014 to get a free consultation. There, we met Janice, our ID.

**EDITED**

Basically she went through with us what we have in mind and advised us what is possible and what is not and well, after hours of discussion (lucky Rayna napped for awhile) we decided to settle the kitchen. They had this package just for the Expo event whereby the kitchen reno is at $6888 inclusive of hob & hood and 3 types of surface. Their carpentry are all Lifetime Warranty and it's from Blum. We added a tall larder unit and wish to extend  the kitchen all the way to the service yard so yes we will hack the service yard door. So with addition carpentry works, it totals up to $9000+. So that's how much our kitchen costs.****

So we had another meet up with Janice in April. We decided we will engage Rezt & Relax and her to design our home. By this time, I changed my mind so much and got all fickle-minded on the theme and in the end, decided on Scandinavian theme. It's going to be mostly plain/neutral coloured walls but I (yes, furniture & outlook decisions are mine to play with as hubs wants me to be happy) choose the furniture to be colourful. 

I'll describe in details.

OK there's the legend. So with those carpentry works and hacking and all costs around $8330.  The next heavy cost is our HERF flooring which includes the living room and the bedrooms total up to $3195. 

Their Misc Works includes Nippon paint and painting the whole house unlimited colours of $1500, supply & lay haulage, general cleaning, protecting totals up to $2090. 

Professional Services includes everything you need advice and help from a profession ID just like how a professions Wedding planner would be, plan from A ro Z and doing site management costs $1500. The rest of the costs are all those nitty gritty stuffs and small builts like cupboard for the toilet, shower screen, tiling, doors for kitchen etc. & of course, at last the stupid Cement screed as mentioned above costing me $3000.

Total costs quoted is $26,800 + my prepaid kitchen of $9000+ = ~$36,000. Not inclusive of plumbing, electrical works, lightings, Air-con, window grilles & furniture yet. So, with that price and possible add-on (if any) and if I were to count in everything furniture etc, we would expect to spend on the house around $60,000. *whistles* So what I hope is to find good deals of the furniture to lower the cost. 

Initially, we plan for a storage platform for the bed in the master bedroom but the price is like $2000+ for that so we removed it and also a full length dark and clear mirror which cost around $2000+ as well and its removed temporarily till I can find a nice replacement (wallpaper/painting) if not, will add that in again. Another thing we removed was the false ceiling. I FREAKING LOVE FALSE CEILING!

(By: Rezt & Relax)

AWESOME LOOKING RIGHT?

But, it cost around $2000+ for our house just the living area alone and we asked for an alternative and was advised to try thread/tread lights  (I am not even sure if this is the correct term):

(By: Rezt & Relax)

See those spotlight looking thing on a bar above the sofa? Yeap those kind.

As you can see the effect is so different from false ceilings. We will see our 3D proposal and decide what to change and what to cancel out (if any).

So Scandinavian theme is like this roughly whereby it's simple and I think mostly practical for a small apartment:

There's lots more if u Google them. All pictures are found on Google.

I still yet to receive my 3D images so I am trying to be as patient because good things don't come very fast so I am putting faith in my ID.

Review of my ID Janice for Phase 1.

- She is really patient and professional. We wanted lots of things or more like, unable to decide on many things so she will give us her advice and recommendations and plan step by step.

- Honest. She is honest when something cannot be done, she will say so. 

- Very personal in a way whereby, in the months that me & hubs were deciding on the house reno issues, from Aug/Oct 2014 till April 2015 of our meet up, she kept in touch with me with sufficient space. She did not keep msging/calling me incessantly and was not pushy for sales/business in a way.

So far so good, & I shall hope it goes on that way with her.

Rezt & Relax, is definitely not the cheapest in the market neither I can say, the most expensive. But I like them cause their designs are simple & practical (they do impractical designs to cater to your needs of course) and still look good.

This is the end of my House Reno Part 1. Part 2 will be around September (hopefully) when we get our keys.

Till then!

Love,

iNa