After taking a week to put together our desired build list and project scope, we finally began with visitations to Interior Designer companies over the weekend. We covered several companies over the two days. We’re not experienced clients in this sort of thing of course, with the only other recent renovation experience being our current home at The Rivervale. Nonetheless, here are some random observations based on our contact experiences so far.
The several renovation portals and discussion sites that offer quotation broadcasts are useful as a start-point, but in itself can’t do much beyond establishing an initial and first line of communication with more than a few ID companies. Firstly, not all ID companies in the broadcast replied; and secondly, those that did almost invariably asked to meet right away rather than communicate over email. My preference was to obtain ballpark quotations from IDs through email first to check on their timeliness on replies, the overall package, and also a general feel to who we might be working with. The IDs were all amendable to my preference to not meet immediately, though the disadvantage of this is that several ID companies who’ve reverted with their ballpark quotations occasionally missed out or misunderstood our requirements (that’s probably as much my fault too).
It’s a bad idea to accept at face-value the stated weekend opening hours for companies. Two companies that purported to open at 1000 hrs on weekends did not, with one only ready to receive prospective clients at 1245 hrs. Calling ahead and making appointments is highly recommended for weekend visitations, even for those companies that state opening hours.
Our first meetings were quite variable in time-spent, and also on how chatty or interested is the assigned Designer that you link up with. One assigned Designer spent more than 90 minutes with us at the first meeting, another just 20 minutes, and yet another just over 30 minutes.
The more Designers you meet and discuss in person, the more you become quickly certain of what you’re need and want. By the time we met the third Designer, we were far clearer with our project scope than when at the first meeting. This didn’t include discussions on materials, actual designs and colors though – but certainly for the items we wanted in the new place.
Many members at renovation portals all attest to the importance of being able to connect and communicate well with the Designer you choose. That said, as important as that will be for us, it can be hard to be certain whether someone who speaks well and exudes confidence isn’t just making a well-honed sales pitch. Ling values a lot on experience, and looks favorably at Designers who have long years of experience in the business.
And finally, it was not easy to visit ID companies with up to two children in tow! Hannah took it mostly quite well when there were distractions for her, but Peter was more variable when he did accompany us.
That’s it for this post. I’ll do up something on our projected budget later.=)
Actually, Peter was considerably very cooperative throughout as he didn’t really cry given that we overlooked bringing backup milk powder along on our visits to ID companies. I must remember to do it in the future. Poor fella must be quite hungry.