the start of the search..for the ID/Contractor

Actually, hubby and I got this topic HOT in the start of the year as we thought that we might collect our house keys in April. Then we were both 'turned off' over an issues. Recently, the 'heat' was back as we received the letter from HDB abt home loan and we got some advices from our loved ones so we decided to renovate after lunar 7th month.

Contractor or ID? I've been very punctual as in i never fail to log in to Renotalk/Sengkang forum everyday. Actually, certain contractors charge higher than ID, surprsingly (what i have read from Renotalk). An ID should do coordinator job and ensure their contractors did a great job for electrician, carpentary etc. But if you engage a contractor, then you will need to be the coordinator and inspector. My father-in-law fits into this job so which means I can hire contractor. Most of my neighbours are getting ID and RT's contractor - Ah Soon is very popular.

In Jan, we have Evonne's ID to quote and she claimed it's the cheapest, which came to be about 15k. Hubby's cousin contractor frd quoted us 13k inclusive of air con. In this case, the contractor won, however, he wanted to do actual measurements first then he will give us the detailed quote. Thus, without a contractor detailed quote, i can't do the comparisions.

We visited NorthWest interior 2 weeks ago, we have not got the quote yet. The ID was Mike, which gave us a good impression during the meet-up. He was those 'help u save $' ID and gave us lots of ideas. This morning, I just realised in RT, there was a forummer who commented that Mike was terrible ID. This SHOCKS me!! Looks like i have to give up him..

Then last weekend we went U-home and Ideal house.
U-home: The Lady ID was Joel. All I can say is this ID firm is for rich people, cos the price that spoke out of her GOLD MOUTH was 25k to 30k(see the diff, almost 10-15k). But I believe if i have that budget for reno, my house will be those "WOW' factors featured in reno magazine.

Ideal house: The firm was crowded and all IDs were busy except for one cute guy (cute = boyish and plump, like a little kid) served us. We told him roughly what we wanted and he is good n giving ideas, and he told us estimated will be around 10+k, which was our budget.

So you can tell which are those who are sincere one right? IF you seen my house, you know there's nothing much that they are doing - no hacking,flooring & concealed wiring done etc.

Hubby called Ah Soon but because his fax machine is 'down' so I am not able to send his my floorplan and he was gng for holiday and promised to call hubby tomorrow. He is so popular that he got a fan club in Facebook. Then this morning, I just came across some negative comments abt Ah Soon (always fly 'aeroplane', have many projects and thus might not be able to hand on time etc).

I sudden thought, be it ID or contractor, everyones make mistakes. Even myself. Maybe it just the one time that he/she made the error, but aren't we going chance for them to amend it? and just forever condemn? anyway, it still months to my perfect renovation date so i still go round and decide.