CHAPTER TWO

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CHAPTER TWO - PRE-RENOVATION PREPARATION

Yes, you will be asking what are pre-renovation preparation ? This is likely only to be found in the NEW HYBRID RENOVATION FLOW MANAGEMENT .

In this page, we will explain in depth the who, what, where, when, why, how about pre-renovation preparation. After several rounds of brainstorming, we concluded that this will be the simplest and clearest method of explaination.

To start off, we begin to review the flow systems again.

NEW hybrid flow 1
owner --> pre-reno consultant --> renovation contractor --> permits application --> renovation --> final inspection /hand over --> move in.

NEW hybrid flow 2
owner --> pre-reno consultant --> interior designer --> renovation contractor --> permits application --> renovation --> final inspection --> interior decoration/hand over --> move in.

WHO a.k.a. the pre-renovation consultant

Lets examine the flow systems to find out why the WHO is important.

Without explaination, anyone will think that it is a matter of fact that flow system 1 is of lesser stages and thus, indicating a shorter time frame towards end of renovation.

WRONG !

in simple daily lives, many of us are too pre-occupied with our kids and work in the offices/businesses. We never really know much about home renovation except for the known procedure to speak to a home renovator.

This is the FIRST STEP many many people had taken before. However. the same people who taken this step started to spend lots of time later to do research and organising meetings with their renovation contractors to amend the works.

You might be asking, why must they do that ? its very simple. Lets examine the the roles of Renovation contractors and interior designers and pre-renovation consultants, 3 different occupation .

Contractors are often given tight schedule to finish up as many projects as they can within a work year so that their company makes money and in turn, they can cut a big commission on your project. So, when given the authority to run the project management, their focus is on short time turn-around, fast results. They are in fact doing a great job because they are not given direct instructions on how to do the job, but yet they can still finish it their way. Time is saved and project delivered faster. However, owners might sometimes faced with the need of making impromptu decisions when contractors discover on-site problems.

Usually, from 1st meeting to handing over meeting, the time frame for engaging a contractor service to finish the renovation is not more than 4weeks - 8weeks.

Interior designers as their title described, focus on the design of the home renovation. When you engage an interior designer, you jolly handed over the responsibility of making your future home into a reality from scratch. He is supposed to listen to you, hold meetings with you, come out with proposals and design solutions agreed by you before he aliases with the renovation contractor. In this engagement, the renovation contractor takes instructions from the interior designers. He is supposed to build the renovation in accordance to the interior drawings that the designers churned out for him. With a specific list of instructions set out, the contractor will need lesser time to resolve on-site problems which should have been foreseen by the interior designer. So, in this way, owners need not face with handling impromptu decision making. This task will be presented to the scope of the interior designer, with the owners' approval. However, the time frame needed for engaging an interior designer to manage the renovation is longer. Something between 6weeks - 12weeks. The advantages for such engagement lies in the design quality control and the living experiences upon move in. Also, with a third party involved in the home renovation, the owner does not need to spend as much time to overlook the overall construction during the renovation. He also saves time on holding meetings with the contractors. Most importantly, interior designers are often handling less than 3 projects at a go, thus giving the owner a higher level assurance of care and attention. This type of relationship is easier for owner to handle.

Pre-renovation consultant is almost unheard of at the moment in the industry. However, at everylinetellsastory interiors, we are the pioneer of such service. WE believe in sharing our professional knowledge with our clients. In renovation, the tough part of it all is not those construction problems. IT IS THE SMOOTHNESS OF THE RELATIONSHIP all parties involved in that make a construction problem tough. By understanding the root of all problems, our company designed a pre-renovation consultancy programme where we meet up with new owners to educate and share with them our knowledges and experiences. We also prepare the owners mentally on the approach towards a home renovation. Expecting the unexpected and also advising the new home owners good tips and tricks on designing their DREAM HOME. Thereafter, we will also talk about the roles they should play during a renovation. This is pretty much a programme very similar to any parents who go for pre-pregnancy talks.

Now that we know the WHO in the pre-renovation preparation, lets move on to the WHAT.

WHAT DOES THE PRE-RENOVATION CONSULTANT DO ?

Probably many people might ask, aint the contractors or the interior designers suppose to advise or guide the home owners DURING the renovation period ? the answer is YES, they should. but at times, the situation does not allow. So, similarly, the contractors and interior designers often turn around asking back the same question

AINT THE HOME OWNERS SUPPOSE TO RESEARCH ON BASICS OF HOME RENOVATION ? why are they expecting the SKY quality ?

When this happens in a renovation, disagreement and unhappiness emerged. Suddenly, the home owners felt betrayed. Their DREAM HOUSE is becoming a house that they do not want to move into. Their DREAM HOUSE is destroyed. So, to fix it, these home owners spent more money and time to AMEND the renovation works even if it meant a total re-construction on parts of the works.

Now that we know WHAT in the pre-renovation preparation, lets move on to the WHERE.

WHERE IS THE PRE-RENOVATION CONSULTANT ?

Many a times, the role of a pre-renovation consultant can falls into the responsibility of an interior designer. However, due to the nature of an interior designer's scope of work, he does not usually have enough time to educate the curious home owners.

From many years of architecture and interior related works, our founder decided to take on this very special responsibility to incorporate into our company's professional services. By seperating the pre-renovation consultancy service from the interior design service, every home owners can now BEGIN to understand their home renovation better without any obligation to take on our interior design renovation services.

Our pre-renovation consultant will reply to your email or call-in in no more than 48hours and arrange with you on the most convenient meeting point of your preference upon FULL PAYMENT of $100 programme fees. Also, he will advise you on the materials to bring and the time allocation you should set aside for an in-depth presentation. At the end of the day, you will received some very useful renovation checklist and educative information. You will be a better equipped with knowledge all new home owners can look foward to your DREAM HOME renovation.

Now that we know WHERE in the pre-renovation preparation, lets move on to the WHEN.

WHEN IS THE PRE-RENOVATION CONSULTANCY ?

Time, is always the most important element DURING the renovation period. As the saying goes, TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN. indeed, this is a matter of fact in the commercial industry. Every minute counts. So, no matter how close your relationship you have with your interior designer or contractor, they cannot be waiting for you to make a decision when a problem arises. They need a prompt decision. YOU are the home owner and your call is the final call. If you decided to allow the interior designer to make the call for you, then you must really be coming in the same intention.

So, since time is definitely rushing during the renovation period, when is it not ? Its very simple. By allowing for longer flow management period, you get to put in more time to the earlier stages.
You can spend more time with the interior designer and hope that he has the same time as you.
Or believe in giving more time to your renovation contractor and trust that he finishes your job in 3 months time with good quality work.

Or spend some time with PRE-RENOVATION CONSULTANT to identify the grey areas you have about renovation. Thus, making you a better and faster decision maker later during the renovation ? You decide.

Now that we also talked about WHEN in the pre-renovation preparation, lets move on to the WHY.

WHY IS THERE THE NEED FOR PRE-RENOVATION CONSULTANCY ?

In any case that some of our readers might not yet understand the importance and why home owners need to attend pre-renovation consultancy, I shall once again quote the example of a new pair of parents-to-be attending pre-parenthood seminar.

Home renovation for the first time is pretty much very similar to the same anxiety we have for our 1st baby delivery. Such anxiety changes our lives. We begin to cater time to see designer furnitures, attend renovation exhibitions, talk to different contractors and for some of us, we already started buying electronics and even those chrome tapwares with the famous brands.

So, with so much cash that we need to throw into, WHY SHOULD WE TAKE RENOVATION LIGHTLY ?

Before you start getting to anxious to finish your renovation in 2 weeks, speak to us first. Talk to us and you will know why getting the basics of a home renovation right is of such priority to us.

HOW IS THE PRE-RENOVATION CONSULTANCY LIKE ?

In brief, everylinetellsastory interiors offers this 2hrs special programme at only a small sum of S$100 per part.

Our pre-renovation consultancy programmes come in 2 parts - basic and advance.
Each part is structured towards your dream home design and renovation.
In the BASIC programme, you will get to understand more about the fundamental of the project management and renovation terms and involvments. Also, we will touch on the authority guidelines.
In the ADVANCE programme, you will get to apply your previous understanding on renovation basics onto your projected home and explore towards designing your home spacial layouts and other building plans.


read more in our next chapter
read also in our previous chapter

Please click on the following links to read on our 2 pre-renovation programmes.
read more on BASIC
read more on ADVANCE