Moving into New House – All the frustrations of renovation

Getting a new house and getting it ready so that you can move in to stay, is something that everybody looks forward to. I have bought this house delivered almost 2 years ago. It was under renovation for the last 4 months as I intend to move into this new Semi-Detached unit after selling my present 2-storey linked house which I owned and stayed in the last 21 years. That’s a long time.

I had originally envisaged the renovation work to take about 2 months, for the small extension for the kitchen, new patio area with minor renovations. Renovating the house is time-consuming not to mention that a lot of money has to be thrown in and now 2 months delay. Since my last shift, it have never occur to me to bear with so many frustrations in renovating the house;


- Firstly, the quotation comparison and negotiation to finalize the award. At the end, you will still find misunderstanding, and at worst is that the contractor admitted that it is a mistake and omission. What can you do then, except to fork out the additional

- I can now safely say that the original budget that you plan for renovation work will never be enough, so my advice is that you have to plan for additional amount as buffer for variation work. There are again things that you never thought of, may cropped that you now realize requires it

- During renovation itself, a lot of things which are in good condition will now be spoilt and require replacement and rework. For example, the walls maybe perfectly all right, but at the end, may require some patching and a full new coat of paint

- Cost may creep up depending on the market condition. For small job this is no issue, but for bigger job, substantial changes in the market will result in changes as the contractor will keep asking for more money due to substantial increase in cost of material

- Delay arising from rainy days as well as conditions laid out by the developer to limit renovation work to restricted hours and non holidays days only. In my case this has seriously affected the timing without anticipating this during the planning stage

- Looking at those workers who carried out the renovation work will add further frustration. These people are just plain dumb, and only concentrate on their portion work, without regard and consideration to the others. An example is when you ask them to install a new door, they will focus on the door, but would not pay attention to scratching the new floors that you have done, by discriminately handling of their equipments. Or when you ask the electrician to put in new wiring, indiscriminate hacking which spoil the wall and ceiling..

In my case, I had been unfortunate to be hit with 2 incidents of the water pipe to the ceiling burst over a month. The incidents resulted in water flooding the entire ceiling board of the rooms upstairs, sipping down to affect all the walls and the laminated timber stripes floor. The second incident resulted in the water wetting all the bedroom and wardrobe set and damaging some of it.. As a result, the developer has to re-patch the plaster ceiling, repaint the ceiling and wall as well as re-grind the floor and repaint it. Till to-date, I am still waiting for the developer to rectify this before I start moving in.

If you are particular with the auspicious day to shift in, the delays would have frustrated you. Luckily, I am not those who will choose an auspicious date with all the pomp, hustles and bustles to shift in. So the next time you buy an new house and plan to shift in, be prepared with all the frustrations that comes with it.

Posted by
Ivan