Pre-Renovation Review

Hey hey what's up people?! I am finally back to blogging. Being really busy with work and renovation preparation work these few month. Most importantly recently I went to the temple and asked for divine guidance and the "qian" that Guan Yin Ma gave is to ask me to keep my mouth shut.. to shut lup leh dey.. must "忍". Hahaha so I tarik abit la don't anyhow write lo. 

These  few months I've received a few email from some of my readers asking me for review on my ID. At first I'm thinking how come they will read my blog one ah? I only share with my friends and the community in my EC leh. Then I realized thanks to "Google Search" la.. hahaha you see.. 

Mai siao siao.. When people google for "summit design studio review" my blog is the fourth result to appear ok! The first and second is their website *Paid* and the third one is the Renotalk forum about them *Another Paid* and the fourth is my blog hahhaha... No wonder got abit of traffic and email la.. Still thinking in the sea of web who will be bother or able to read my blog sia.. Anyway that's not the point la, the point is SDS better do a good job for my home if not... if not... Guan Yin Ma better ask me to shut lup again.

Ok la enough introduction. Back to the main topic "Pre-Renovation Review". I'm not paid by SDS to write this review, in fact I paid them to do my house ok! So I'm going to write this review as truthful and candid as possible according to my personal experiences with them so far. The hard truth often kicks in after you signed for anything so here you go. Below I'll break down into a list of issues commonly bring up by some of the reader review I've gathered and input my personal experiences.

1) Slow Respond

Personally, my ID never fail to respond to me. Be it SMS/Whatsapp/Email. No matter how busy he is or whether he is overseas or in town. He is quite responsive. However, every time after our meetup he will take 2-3 weeks to get back to us. I'm not quite sure if this quantify as slow respond but I'll take it as he's prioritizing the importance of his works since ours is just design work.

2) Bad Quality Design

Their design is quite bad. For this I'll have to agree and disagree. 

Agree. Their design is so bad that the master room drawing look like hospital bed and they are still using 1990s wallpaper floral design. Their design is so not up to my standard that I've to research and come up with the entire design myself.   

Disagree. You pay peanuts you get monkeys. This is what I can say. Design fee is indicated as FOC. What do you expect. There's no free lunch in the world man. I believe firm charge this Design Fee for a reason. Quality is something very subjective. My standard and your standard might be different. I not scare to tell you la my friend.. I have a concept of a St. Regis Hotel but budget of Fragrance Hotel. If my ID couldn't achieve it I don't think it's fair to categorize him as a bad ID but if he could achieve it.. Then he is an excellent ID and most likely is able to set up his own firm. So let's wait and see.  

3) Playing the Blame game.

Bad design. It's 3D Drafter fault. Remember the hospital bed design I mentioned earlier. This is it.

My theme is "Modern Tropical Resort" leh brudder.. Yes "Resort" got plants..flowers and all but you give me this grey flower wallpaper for what sia... It's super ugly and to top it off.. the master bed is so neatly tucked in that it really look like hospital bed la.. When I first see this drawing I'm so angry that my fist almost went through my computer screen. When questioned, I was told it's the drafter idea. He think this does not match my theme and disapprove this design too...

I was like...

Then why still dare to email me?!?! After a couples of love letters, meeting, clarifications, things are back on track again. 

So you may asked. So is SDS recommended? Do I have any regret engaging them? After whining and complaining with friends and relatives that are also in this line "Renovation". I've learnt a few things. Engaging an ID is not a one time transaction. It's all about building relationship. Something like Falling in Love baby. You engage him/her based on chemistry tio bo? He/She must have done something right to impress you in the first place. You felt comfortable talking with that individual. You trust that together you can build your dream home. You parted with your hard earned money for that individual *deposit* just like how you part with your money to buy that stupid diamond ring. Once the deal is signed, that's it.. KNN lai liao loh.. all the LJ pattern all come out. Pattern more then badminton. But my friend, not all is loss if you are willing to treat one another with respect, as a normal human being and COMMUNICATE. Communication is very important. If there's something I've learnt, sometime face to face interaction is still much better then email or whatsapp. Manage your thoughts, iron out your expectation clearly. Don't be afraid to voice out your concern. If communicate still does not work out, then I'm sorry my friend. Probably you've made a wrong judgement and trusted the wrong person in the first place.

So far, things are on track for my project. I believe we are getting closer to my concept of an ideal dream home. Remember, it's your home. You are staying in it not the ID. Nothing wrong to put in a little more effort into it especially if you are really tied on budget. Engaging a reputable firm will eliminate all the above problem?! Think again.. The safest bet of all is still to personally witness someone recently renovated home and get them to share their experiences with you. The rest of the review/marketing platform are mostly rubbish.