We engaged Jade from Local Inn.terior for the renovation works of our place back in somewhere around March / April 2016. They have done a wonderful job from design to the quality of workmanship. They may not be the lowest in terms of cost but for the outcome and quality of workmanship, it is worth every single penny.

I have heard from many of my friends how dissatisfied they were with their ID and their quality of workmanship. We are lucky that we did not land ourselves into such misery. I would like to share some of our thoughts regarding selection of ID contractors and how I ended up selecting Local Inn.terior for our renovation works.

Last year, when we finally got the keys to our new place in Feb 2016, we started sourcing for ID contractors for the reno works of our new nest. I have gotten 4 ID to quote for the reno works.

Every contractor / ID will tell you how good they are and how competitive their price can be. Most will promise you the world to persuade you in signing with them. However, there are certain things like material used, quality of workmanship, design of finished goods, etc… are something that you WOULD NOT realise until the end of the reno works. By then, you would have already made at least 80-90% payment to them and the only resolution is to force them to rectify, rectify and rectify as that is most likely the most that you could do. Then as time gets closer to your moving-in date, you will be stuck in a dilemma whether to continue rectification works or force yourself to lower your expectations and move in.

No, you may not be able to know how good is your contractor before you engage them. But there is ONE thing that you can be certain of and it’s the way their quotation is structured and being presented. This is very important because end of the day, this will be the only binding documents between you and your ID. During the course of our selection, other ID gave us a very brief quotation with every item are single lined description together with the cost at the side (Quotation make up to only 2-3 pages).

What I received from Jade (Local Inn.terior) is an 8 – 9 pages’ quotation with every item described in very detail manner. Each item consisting 2-3 lines of description with every possible detail stated very clearly. Bottom figure is NOT the most important thing to focus on during selection but the description of every line items from top to bottom. You want to ensure that the cost for every item are properly quoted according to your design and requirements. You do not want your ID charging you cost for various additional works throughout the course of your reno works.

Finally, after few rounds of negotiations we were able to bring the cost down to our budget and were able to close the deal just $2-3k higher than the lowest bid.

End of the day, would you rather pay $5 for goods that are worth $1 OR pay $10 for goods that are worth $11?

I would strongly recommend Local Inn.terior as they are very professional and attentive when dealing with customers. As for Jade, she has very good sense for colours and design. During the course of our reno works, she is very meticulous with the quality of workmanship and is very attentive to our requirements and our timeline.

I feel it’s NOT how low is your renovation cost but how you can maximize value from the cost you are about to pay. Bear in mind you will be living in this home for at least the next 5 years and you do not want to spend your time in this home blaming your ID or blaming yourself for selecting the wrong ID for the next 5 years.