The last four quotations I have - including Ah Soon's - prices are quite close. Two of them are IDs and the other two are contractors. Seems that IDs could also match the price of contractors!

they probably feel the heat from contractors as most people renovating nowadays have an idea of what they want...and contractors have also been exposed to alot of new ideas and carry it out at a cheaper price....

Hah, the baroque guy can rush to your place within 20 mins upon receiving your phone call, & produced a quotation within 3 hrs?!

I find it sceptical... does it mean that this company has no biz to do, sitting in the office waiting for customers??

Hmmm, if an ID can match the price of contractor, no harm to go to him since he should be able to produce 3D diagrams with design concept.

Good luck in your choice

Nice topic

I am very interesting read all your post

Hah, the baroque guy can rush to your place within 20 mins upon receiving your phone call, & produced a quotation within 3 hrs?!

I find it sceptical... does it mean that this company has no biz to do, sitting in the office waiting for customers??

Hmmm, if an ID can match the price of contractor, no harm to go to him since he should be able to produce 3D diagrams with design concept.

Good luck in your choice

Of course we will be checking the workmanship of Baroque, just like what we requested from each of the IDs / contractors who quoted us.

The ID we spoke to sound very knowledgeable, friendly and non-pushy.

I do not know if he has other deals that he is working on; on the contrary I am not too comfortable with IDs / contractors who have too much on the plate they do not have time to manage your projects, and you have to do it yourself!

Nice topic

I am very interesting read all your post

Thank you for your support :-)

Forecast of what is coming:

Getting the keys on 2 Jun, so photos of existing place should be up by 3rd or 4th

Decision of who to go with by 7 Jun

Hopefully can start work by week of 8 Jun, photos of progress will be posted when reno starts

Thank you for your support :-)

Forecast of what is coming:

Getting the keys on 2 Jun, so photos of existing place should be up by 3rd or 4th

Decision of who to go with by 7 Jun

Hopefully can start work by week of 8 Jun, photos of progress will be posted when reno starts

good luck!! looking forward to your pictures and the "Chosen" one

sohck, it's been a while.

I hope you get the right one, a smooth sailing reno.

sohck, it's been a while.

I hope you get the right one, a smooth sailing reno.

Thanks lawry.

Have you settled your reno with Weiken? Lost track of your blog after it was moved and am concern on the progress.

Do update us of what happened.

Just went to do an inspection of the flat before the handover on Tuesday. Got a chance to look at many things that we didn't notice during the last two visits:

- Condition of marble floor is still quite good. Maybe we will just polish it instead of replacing it with homogeneous tiles or overlaying with laminate (save about $3,000)

- Windows are still in good condition, but really dirty. And they look like they are tinted somehow. Thinking of putting 3M Solar Film to cut down on the glare and RV.

- Window grilles are also in good condition. Maybe just to please my mother, will keep them instead of hacking them.

- No rain shower in the bathroom. As we have bought two rain shower hot cold mixers, we will need to check the water pressure on Tuesday or Wednesday to determine if we need a storage heater.

- We have two funny corners in mater bedroom and bedroom 3. Maybe we will construct our built-in cabinets in those locations instead of building individual cabinets there.

- Most headache, maybe not be able to construct the platform at the balcony. According to an ID, the minimum wall height between the platform and the window has to be one metre. Didn't bring a measuring tape with me but agar agar the length now (without the balcony) is only about a metre. Need to speak with ID on what to do.

- Lots of cable running everywhere. Wife is thinking of construction a thin false ceiling just to hide those cables. But according to an ID, the minimum height of the false ceiling is 5-inches. That will make my house look even smaller.

Will be inviting all the shortlisted IDs/contractors to my house next week to discuss how they can help us with our concerns. Since the pricing are all within 5% difference, the one with the best solution will get our business.

Not sure if we could get Ah Soon on site?

Of course we will be checking the workmanship of Baroque, just like what we requested from each of the IDs / contractors who quoted us.

The ID we spoke to sound very knowledgeable, friendly and non-pushy.

I do not know if he has other deals that he is working on; on the contrary I am not too comfortable with IDs / contractors who have too much on the plate they do not have time to manage your projects, and you have to do it yourself!

Checked out the workmanship of Baroque this afternoon. It is a 4rm flat at Queenstown area. Worked done include parque flooring whole house except kitchen, cabinets are kitchen, room and living (shoe rack cum storage) and both bathrooms. We can see a design theme in this house, with a common theme found. The bathrooms are very well done too. Workmanship for cabinets are also very good.

So we have shortlisted Baroque for our reno.

Getting my keys tomorrow.

Finally the big day is here....

Strange. Ah Soon called last night, asking us when he can drop by our new place....

Congrads, collecting keys today rite?

Doing all the ceremonies of opening door like rolling pineapple?

Wah, not bad leh, Ah Soon still remembers you. I suppose you will invite him to your new place to quote?

Congrads, collecting keys today rite?

Doing all the ceremonies of opening door like rolling pineapple?

Wah, not bad leh, Ah Soon still remembers you. I suppose you will invite him to your new place to quote?

Yes, appointment at HDB at 3.30pm today, but no sure if the seller will be on time. During our first appointment, the seller wanted the appointment later - the HDB guy asked her to come anytime she likes, as long as it is before 5pm (?). So getting the lawyer to liase with her and we will collect the keys from the lawyer end of day.

Rolling pineapple? I did that when I first bought my current condo 10 years back, forgot to bring the pineapple back after the ceremony and the acid from the rotting pineapple actually damage the marble flooring. Fortunately the developer polished my marble back to shine without charge.

Yes, we are honoured Ah Soon called us so we will be inviting him to our place. But at this stage we are still not sure if we will give him the business. The other two IDs that we shortlisted are only slightly more expensive (5%), one other contractor's quote is slightly cheaper than Ah Soon's, and we can't foresee ourselves spending 20 hours a week monitoring the progress of the reno.

Yes, appointment at HDB at 3.30pm today, but no sure if the seller will be on time. During our first appointment, the seller wanted the appointment later - the HDB guy asked her to come anytime she likes, as long as it is before 5pm (?). So getting the lawyer to liase with her and we will collect the keys from the lawyer end of day.

Rolling pineapple? I did that when I first bought my current condo 10 years back, forgot to bring the pineapple back after the ceremony and the acid from the rotting pineapple actually damage the marble flooring. Fortunately the developer polished my marble back to shine without charge.

Yes, we are honoured Ah Soon called us so we will be inviting him to our place. But at this stage we are still not sure if we will give him the business. The other two IDs that we shortlisted are only slightly more expensive (5%), one other contractor's quote is slightly cheaper than Ah Soon's, and we can't foresee ourselves spending 20 hours a week monitoring the progress of the reno.

someone managed to beat ah soon's price? that's incredible...i find his is the lowest (at least in my search for the id/contractor)