Happily Ever After? - Part 5

Renovation
After the flat, now what? To many it is the long process of decorating the love nest. Few couples will try to DIY to buy off the shelves, some are lucky to have relatives who are contractors who decide to earn just a little just charging below the market rate, but many are not so fortunate, they had to go to those interior designer firms.

How to look for those so-called interior designer firms which majority in this market are renovation contractors who just hired 1-2 interior designer then they package themselves as design firm? First is by those furniture events, if you went to those furniture events held at Singapore expo, most of the company there deal with renovation. These firms come with free consulting, you gave them your flor plan, they will sketched out a rough plan of what to be placed at where. To achieve the showroom effect which are often no so practical, comes with a hefty price tag, not forgetting hefty electrical bills as well.

If one like what was presented, they will ask for a detailed drawing, tat is when all the cost comes in. Detailed drawing do not come cheap, each drawing can be around $100 - $500 per piece. Per piece refers to PER ROOM. So the interior designer normally ask you to sign for a renovation package. For $xxxxx amount, it includes the drawings, the customised fittings, flooring, some will throw in lightings, air con and stuff as well. But so far, lightings, windows grilles are some additional charges that is to be added to the $xxxxx amount.

How can one afford this $xxxxx amount, some will empty what left of their bank account, others may take renovation loan from the bank. The interior designer firms are also very keen to assist by doing all the supporting paperworks hoping that the good service provided may result in upgrading the package to $yyyyy since you are already taking a loan.

Maximum loan I saw from OCBC website is $30000 or 6 times the monthly salary. Interest rate is a minimum 5.38% and interest is charge monthly, with maximum repayment period of 5 years.

So in all after the wedding, the renovation process will drain the bank accounts or make one in debt.