Choosing Interior Designer (ID) for house renovation

Two weeks ago, I received a letter from HDB regarding the approval for my Housing Loan Eligibility (HLE). I know once I received this approval, I am rest assured that I will be getting the keys to my new flat within three months. It is because the HLE is valid for three months only. Then came the stressful part where I need to start thinking about the house renovation part and also the selection of home appliances. Frankly speaking I know nuts about house renovation in the beginning!

For a start, Renotalk forum is a good site to begin with. Do read the threads in there but exercise your due diligence when hearing recommendations and views from the forummers there. There are some “ghosts” in the forum who may give contradicting statements and opinions. You can always check their date of join and history of postings to identify a “ghost”.

Now after weeks of research and reading, I have a better understanding on the house renovation part. I hope new home owners can benefit from this post.

Which renovation company or which Interior Designer (ID) should I select? A good website to source for a company is from the following links.
HDB Listing of Registered Renovation Contractors
RADAC Listing of Accredited Renovation Contractors

From the list, I suggest looking for a company that is located near to your new home. This will provide convenience if you need to travel between the renovation company and to your new home. Then from the shortlisted firms, I suggest doing a background check of the company by using google search. You will most likely be directed to some of the local forums. Do read the comments from the veteran forummers.

After identifying a few renovation companies, then comes the next headache part that is to get quotations and pricings. I have nothing much to share on this part yet as I am still in the process of experiencing it. I suggest downloading the following guide which I extracted from Renotalk. I attach also a model agreement on home renovation prepared by CASE which can be of good reference to new home ownsers.
Renovation Tips - Readme PDF file
Model Agreement on Home Renovation - CASE

Water and energy efficient appliances

I decided to create a new sub-section under this blog. Even though this topic is nothing to do with investment but it still falls under the money management section whereby one should strive to save costs.

I am in the midst of doing my research and planning for my upcoming new house. Therefore I intend to post and share any useful information that I got as I embark on my house renovating journey.

In this post, I am sharing some of the most energy efficient appliances in the market. I believe it is worthwhile to pay slightly more to buy new appliances as long as the ongoing costs of running these appliances are cheaper. There is no point in buying cheaper appliances but consume large amount of water and electricity which may cost us more energy bills in the longer run. Furthermore certain appliances like aircon, refrigerator and washing machine are probably once in a decade kind of investments in our lives.

In helping those home seekers or owners in looking for the most energy and water efficient appliances, I have compiled a list of appliances for their reference. Now I just need everyone help to source together for any shops that offer good prices for those products that are in the list. If anyone has any thing to contribute, please do leave me a comment.

List of Energy Efficient - Aircon (Updated 25 Jan 10)
List of Water Efficient - Washing Machine (Updated 25 Jan 10)
List of Water Efficient - Showerhead (Updated 25 Jan 10)
List of Energy Efficient - Refrigerator (Updated 25 Jan 10)

Take note investment is not about making money. In my opinion, it is also about investing in quality and energy efficient machines that cost less to maintain. The cost savings in running these expensive machines may outweigh the benefits from buying cheaper machines in the beginning.