hi all, sorry for the late reply. was away on ICT.
basically, we found sharon pretty friendly. she didn't give any indication that they are busy during this period.
they are above average in terms of price. 5 rm resale quotation was abt 55k, not counting a fair bit of carpentry which would have brought the figure up to about 60k. i don't have the quotation with me now though, sorry.
design wise, sharon was able to get back to us pretty quickly (fastest among the others we went to in fact) with several perspective drawings. she was also hardworking enough to make a trip down to the flat for a look see. many other firms we went to have a "sign first see later" attitude, so her enthusiasm scored points.
what worried me more was the lack of references from forums etc. other than designs found in magazines, i couldn't find any mention of them online. they didn't have any recently completed projects for us to visit as well. all in all, gave me the impression that they are a very young firm although the owners may be very experienced. not too sure how this will translate to quality of work done. hopefully, some other homeowner will post their experience here.