A special shout out to Denise Neo of Weiken for managing the design and renovation of my 20 years old 4-rm HDB flat. It's a complete overhaul and the project spans 2.5 months owing to the scope, as I literally have the house gutted for the renovation.
I would say that what makes this project even more challenging for her and that she had performed exceedingly well is the fact that I am based overseas in the US with a 13 hours time difference. This means that there is a high level of trust needed as I am not physically in Singapore to oversee the renovation works and I have to rely on her to execute this well and on schedule and she ended up having to coordinate a lot more things on my behalf that should have been done by or taken care of by most homeowners. This also means that she has to be very good with communication given that I'm not physically there in person to communicate on the progress or feedback into the details of the renovation. She's been very responsive despite the 13 hours time difference ( which means that I'm very likely to be texting her when it's her night time or weekend).
For a project of this scope, it did not go without hiccups, but she's always been able to resolve it quickly. In addition, she's very resourceful and has a lot of different suppliers in her list that she can tap on that is able to help meet my schedule, especially when the initial countertop supplier ended up with a long lead time that would derail the handover/completion date. (My schedule is time sensitive as my boss has to approve my planned PTO and I had bought my air tickets to come back to Singapore based on the schedule she has provided).
The quality of work by her contractors has been exceptional and my friends and realtor that have came over to my place had commented on how well done the renovation is.
I highly recommend Denise if you want a reliable and professional ID that you can count on. (I think my unique situation has tested every aspects of her skills and abilities possible ?)
DesignDesign aligns with the theme I have in mind and makes use of spaces efficiently. The types of material and tiles chosen for the bathrooms and kitchen also made it easy to clean and maintain the house.
Workmanshipworkmanship of subcontractors engaged by Weiken has been of high quality. I did encounter an issue with the paint subcontractor that did a substandard touch up prior to the handover/move-in. But they had been quick to rectify the paint job for me after I raise the issue and the paint job was very well done after that. Hence am still giving top marks considering how fast and well they fix issues and I am very happy with the final paint job despite the initial snag
Customer ServiceDenise went above and beyond her usual scope and helped me a lot while I'm overseas. Extra scope like coordinating my furniture and appliances delivery for me and receiving them on my behalf as I am not in Singapore to do that. Also, in another instance of how she had gone beyond to help me, I had engaged a curtain/blinds vendor separately without going through Weiken. That curtain vendor actually drilled into my false/wall that covers my a/c trunking despite me telling them that it is a/c trunking behind that wall. As a result of him drilling into my a/c electrical cable, rectification work involves cutting open the false wall, get the a/c contractor in to replace electrical cable and plaster back the wall and repaint it. And all of these happened after the handover/move-in and Denise helped me to take care of all that. Really appreciate the service that she had rendered to me throughout this whole renovation journey
Value for MoneyPricing is listed transparently on the quote and I feel that it is reasonable going by material per ft etc. Not the cheapest but also not the most expensive. I do feel that I got a lot more value out of this because having an experienced ID will save you the problem and cost of any rectification or potential problems that amateur fails to anticipate. I can safely say that there's no surprises in the bills and any additional VOs were because I wanted additional features and not because of any additional cost as a result of rectification works. And needless to say, I need a reputable firm with professional IDs to coordinate and do everything as I literally do not have the ability to coordinate and keep an eye on this -- not to mention that during the period that I was looking to engage an ID firm, news outlet were abound with rogue contractors that ran off with people's money. Hence, in short, considering their reputation, services and pricing, it was certainly value for money