When we first engaged Lydia, she was great. During the initial meet-up, she seem to understand what we are going for and provided many valuable advices and suggestions. We decided to engage her service, thinking that that will be the experience for the entire process as she seems to be very dependable.
After confirming her service, the experience went downhill quite quickly.
1) Communication
Many many times Lydia would disappear on us for many days at a time and giving reasons after reasons on what she did not reply. While we are definitely not expecting immediate response from her, the least we would expect is that she informed us that she will be away or busy for the next few days as our project was her active project at that point in time. By doing this, we would have adjusted our expectations and not disturb her during this period. Despite telling her about this many times, it still happened throughout the entire renovation process.
2) Project management
We were informed right at the beginning that she will provide a proper schedule of what will be happening on a weekly basis so that we can keep track. But even until the very end of the renovation, we did not receive any schedule despite asking for it multiple times. Even nearing the end, we were not given an estimate date or even a rough idea of when the renovation would be completing. Overall, we are also not sure if Lydia went up to monitor or review the status of the renovation.
We went into this process thinking that Lydia would help us monitor and spot any defects, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Every week we went up, we would see the same defects and it got to a point where we decided to take photos of each of the defects for her, to make her job easier. Despite doing that, a lot of the problems were still there at the end and we had to continue chasing. To add to this point, most of the defects that we have spotted, she was not aware of at first until we told her about it.
3) Worksmanship
Overall, we think that the worksmanship is sub-par at best. The tiles that our shower mixer is attached to had a giant hole and terrible cover-up after that. Paint jobs that were patchy and with large areas not painted properly or even painted in the first place. Tiles had giant gaps and holes that were not grouted. Holes in the walls that were so obvious, but somehow she still missed it.
4) Warranty
We were told that Lydia would be providing 1 year warranty. After living in the house for a few months now, we have discovered more holes in the wall and floor that were not covered. After informing her, she disappeared on us for many days again and it has been 3 weeks with no response or scheduling.
5) Attitude
We find that Lydia can be quite rude at times. We had try to ask if she can give us a date when she is available so that we can all be in the house to identify the defects during the renovation, she has never given us a date as she is busy.
To make things easier for her, we decided to use video call to do that instead. On the time and date that we have decided upon, we made our way to go down to the house and prepare for the video call but she told us she was not available. Feeling very puzzled as to why she did not inform her earlier, especially since we have already decided on the date and time.
6) Design
During the initial engagement, we have proposed many ideas that we are thinking of and her overall response was that they can all be done. But after the start of the renovation, many of the ideas that she has determined to be possible turns out to be impossible. But on this note, we can also understand that situation changes as different house might have different limitations.
Overall, I would not recommend if you are looking for a smooth renovation journey. The images attached in this review were from the end of the renovation and she has determined that this is good enough to hand over the house.
