Hi, just wanna share my personal experience.
When I renovated my house exactly a year ago, I hired an interior designer (they do strictly designing, not contractor job) and a seperate contractor. I paid several thousands for my interior designer who very unfortunately did a BAD job (I forfeited his last payment in the end) but my post is not about that so I wont go into details.
But very thankfully I found an excellent contractor (thank goodness! If my contractor also screw up then I think I would really be inconsolable!) who not only gave me a reasonable quote (I compared his quote to 8 other contractor's and his was one of the most reasonable and detailed) but also did an overall good job for my house. He is extremely hardworking and hands-on, he personally checked all the work almost daily and would willingly redo any imperfections I pointed out, regardless of how small or insignificant they might be (I was quite particular hehe). Not only that, when my incompetent ID measured some of my carpentry wrongly and the item has been made and cant fit well, my contractor did me a huge favour by sending it back to his carpenter to rush out the right measurements without even charging me an extra cent (we paid in cash and he knew our budget was v tight). And all throughout the reno works, whenever we request for new things to be added, he gave us extremely reasonable prices considering that he could have charge more since partial payment has been made to him.
And the reason I feel compelled to come here to post about this is because just last week (bear in mind that my reno was actually completed almost a year ago), I called him because my bathroom sliding door was slanting a little and he popped by the very NEXT day to fix it for me on his own! And when he saw that my sink area (I'm not sure wat u call that, but its the white sealing part ard the edges) had some mildew mould spots that cant be removed, he actually offered to come by this week (he had a project nearby my place, hence convenient for him) to redo the sealing! And when he was here, he went around my kitchen cabinets to tighten screws and helped me to glue back a small broken (no thanks to my PT cleaner)piece of my veneer cabinet door. Tell me, is this not service that makes me feel compelled to post back here??
Anyway, I need to clarify this- I am in NO way related to him or his company and the only reason I am recommending him is because I feel that its so rare to find such a genuinely nice and responsible contractor who actually takes real pride in his work and not just $$$-faced. If anyone is skeptical, feel free to click on my profile and check up on my past 5000+ posts to know that I am just a sahm who is simply giving due credit to someone who deserves it.
Oh BTW, he actually is a ID as well, he is as as familiar with computer and all techie stuff, but he willingly draws out detailed drawings for customers by hand. He showed me some of his latest works on digicam last week when he came and I only felt regretful that I paid extra to hire an extra ID when he could have done a much better job. From the pictures on his digicam, his design is comtemporary and really unique and classy, similar to the pictures you find on ID magazines.
Dont take my word for it. Give him a call and ask for a quote and some pictures to view (he is not pushy at all, I cant stand pushy people). His name is Andy and hp no is 90010206. Tell him that you are recommended by Chris.
BTW, I might not be checking back here, so if anyone needs further questions answered, please PM me.