The renovation works have started. The cabling works were done, which we understood from the ID that it was done in a single day. The workers were working on the ceiling. We are not experts with the actual renovation work, but it seems to have moved on pretty well. Painting works will be next and then the lights will go up.
We went to several shops to look at the lightings. Looking up at the varied designs and price tags, literally, got our heads spinning after a while. And looking at the curtain designs were really not easy when they were in small sample pieces.
A word of advice, never accept and pay any deposits on your first visit to a shop. We went to a curtain maker that was recommended by our ID. In the shop, we were shown some design patches, which was really difficult for us to imagine how the actual full curtain will look like based on the patches. After a long deliberation, we eventually picked the designs, together with our waterproof roller blinds for the balconies. We were quoted, haggled and re-quoted, but we didn't find the prices appealing, so we told the shop that it was not within our budget and we will go home to rework our budget before deciding. Strangely, even when we said we will decide later, the shop still issued a tax invoice to us. Perhaps, he was hoping that we will pay a deposit?
On the same day, we went to look for lightings and the lightings shop (Again, recommended by our ID) also has a curtain shop just next door. We decided to look at the curtain designs here as well and found the same designs that were offered by the earlier shop. This shop was much better stocked than the other and they have larger samples to look at, so it was much easier to imagine how the full curtains will look like. We took close to 90% of the same designs and 10% of a higher quality than our selection from the other shop. We were pleasantly surprised that the quote was 1K cheaper than the previous one. Anyway, we went home happy that we didn't accept the earlier one. We only wondered why didn't our ID recommend this shop to us, which is the same owner with the lightings shop that he recommended.
