mae29

Hi, countblessings Thank you for your message. Indeed, I have a good and reliable ID whom I can truly trust upon. I am busy because I am 'kay-poh' as my workplace is nearby and I can walk home during lunchtime to see the progress. My ID is taking care of coordinating, inspection and resolving all site issues and even reminding me on what to buy and so on. As for the collar for the drainage, I think the tiler ordered it himself. He is on leave today and I will ask him on Monday when he comes back to do the touch up. Here, I wish you & everyone a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! May all of you have a successful & pleasant reno journey!

Some forumers had PM me asking why I am installing additional network cable for OpenNet connectivity, and also question on brand of Cat 6 cables. Here is the close up shot of the cable installation done today: For Category 6 cable, the brand is "SYSTIMAX", made in Ireland. I got the box of cables through a friend who works in the IT department of a public listed company. I know most of house owner or even the electrician will buy the Cat 6 cables from Sim Lim Square, but my friend advised me not to buy from there as the quality is not that good.

Welcome to reno t-blog. Wish you a smooth reno journey!

Remember the mis-aligned wall tiles which tiler Ah Lim rejected mentioned in Post #131? Besides my good ID Donny, tiler Ah Lim is also a GEM! You tell me which worker is brave enough to reject his counterpart's work? If his boss saw this post, I think he will get angry and faint , and Ah Lim will get fired for alerting one super fussy owner! !! So, you will understand why I am willing to sacrifice my lunch time to walk back home daily to buy food & drink for him! My efforts is paid off as tiler Ah Lim is helping me to keep an eye on everybody's workmanship! A piece of wall tile at the common bathroom with a very very very minor chipped corner will also be replaced. I know most of you may not notice it and will just let it go, as it was all white color and nobody could have spotted it! But, sorry hor....NOT for me hor! I walk back home daily during lunchtime and one more trip in the evening daily to check the workmanship hor! Tiler Ah Lim knows exactly my expectations, and as soon as he spotted this chipped tile, he told me that he will remove it and by the time I went up this evening, this is what I saw. Flooring at the new converted Bedroom 4 is now completed by the Chief Tiler, after a 3-days stoppage due to 'fussy' owner, ME, and my ID who asked to replace the previous careless tiler. Master Bedroom flooring completed today. With the good progress, I believe the only bedroom flooring, ie. Bedroom 3, will be done by tomorrow. Stay tune with my updates....

Progress photographs: The floor trap at the mini 'garden area' with missing collar, detected by my ID. Never crossed my mind that I would lift up the floor trap and see what is missing below it. The most I would be checking is whether the water will get choked or not, without knowledge on such a thing....Thumbs Up to my ID. Electrical Installation in progress...2nd day...wires are dangling everywhere today Wires dangling in master bedroom Wires rolled up....

Hi, dexufto Congratulations on the successful completion of your house renovation! Your efforts indeed paid off and your house is really well done and beautiful!

Hi, Pig&Snake Both zodiac symbols make up the Year Pillar of the BaZi Chart. There are 4 pillars, or we called it 8-character (BaZi). Pig & Snake only make up 12.5% of the overall chart...the Earthy Branch...and there are still the Heavenly stem to consider, so nothing to fret about! Further, there are still the Month, Day & Hour pillars to examine! Wishing you a blissful marriage!

Hi, macy84 For my ID, I would give him 100% of my vote for his promptness in resolving issues which is inevitable in the course of renovation especially to my 30 year-old flat, with so many hacking and demolitions, and at a peak period with the contractors when home owners rush to complete their renovation. Most important part of my evaluation criteria is his involvement in the project from design inception to project delivery and his speedy, efficient response to site issues. This ID's firm has another project manager assigned to overseeing renovation works, but my ID is the key person who is co-ordinating the works for me. No barrier, no mis-communication and no mis-understanding. All -in - one Integrated service from him. His name is Donny, and I will PM you more information. I am hoping that he has the time to attend to any recommendations, as this period he is extensively involved in my home renovation, as you can see from my post that he visits me and conduct site inspection like 3-4 times a week personally!

Today, the contractor boss came with the Chief tiler and one assistant. The man standing in blue shirt is the Boss, and Chief tiler is laying the floor tiles inside the master bedroom. Standing outside with the Boss is an assistant. Chief Tiler at Work, seriously! ....and the assistant at work...

Yesterday was the first day of our electrical works and the electrician came with an assistant. As for masonry work, only tiler Ah Lim was alone working on the concrete base for store room and touch up work. When I thought I could relax and no need to visit them during lunch (nothing much to inspect), I had a missed call and an sms from ID, Donny. He was at my place having lunch with the electrican and asked if I am joining them, and he needs to confirm with me the electrical points. When I saw his message, it was like 45 mins later and I immediately took a cap from Jurong East where I had lunch with my colleague to meet them. Tiler Ah Lim told me that my ID had asked him to re-do the floor trap at the kitchen which is now an open space (for my garden), as the original drainage system done by JTC some 30 years ago did not come with the collar (sleeve?). I will take a picture and explain later. You see, it is not so easy to revamp an old house as you will never know what to expect in the course of renovation. I count myself luckly that my ID, Donny, who has over 10 years of experience in executing renovation works and design, can detect such a construction flaw due to his involvement in project management.

During the course of renovation, I would condemn the bad workmanship and compliment if the quality of works meets my satisfaction. As of today, the floor tiles are laid at livingRoom and dining area, and partially done at the new bedroom. Now, still waiting for the contractor to send their 'Chief' tiler to take over and lay the tiles to the rest of the flooring. As I have mentioned in earlier post, I am the type of person who is not easy to please and I am impartial when it comes to praises and reprimandation. Having said that, other than the flaws detected in earlier post done by someone else who is now bar from working at my house, I am continually impressed by tilers' meticulous attention to details, their unfailing attempt to alert me of any unforeseen circumstances in the course of renovation works to my Kitchen, Service Balcony and Toilet/Bathrooms walls and floors. The tilers, especially Ah Lim, trully deserves my praises for their fine workmanship...and these photographs speak a thousand words: Service Balcony: Near dustbin / toilet area: Wall tiles neatly and nicely done up! Good alignment & good workmanship. At the window area: Wall tiles neatly laid and well aligned at the ledge of windows. Kitchen / Dining Wall tiles also nicely done up.

Progress photographs: Base for washing machine ready today when I went up after work this evening: The electrician had came and stock up the material for installation which begins tomorrow. Noted the carton of Cat 6 cables by the side? This brand of Cat 6 cable is commonly used for office environment...better transmission & connectivity.

...continued with the 2nd revision to 3D drawings received from my ID yesterday: Most changes were made to sliding doors of wardrobes from laminate finish to frosted glass as ID did mention that full height laminate door may warp over time, say after 3 years or so, and thus gliding may not be as smooth as originally installed no matter how good the aluminium track or material used. Bedroom 3 - for feng shui reason, we removed the mirror facing the bed, and second son likes the lime green colour Bedroom 4 - for eldest son. We changed the mirror facing the bed to frosted glass door. The original brownish laminate is also changed to solid color for lasting look. To be frank, I do not fancy those woody grainy brown laminate. I prefer clear, simple plain laminate. Last but not least, this is the changes to my Master Bedroom. Besides changing the laminate door to frosted glass, ID changed the greenish blue laminate wardrobe to solid white for aesthetic reason, to blend in with the white powder coated windows and aluminium sliding mirror door at toilet. This white laminate will also blend well with any of the coloured bedsheets. As I like white colour theme, this change suits me perfectly!

Just received a call from office of my FSM. My official move-in date suitable for me & my family members is either 20 January or 01 February 2011, timing is between 11am to 1pm. Looks like I will settle for the later date. Prior to official move-in date, I will move back our barang barang stored at my sister's place on Sunday, 30 January 2011. On officially move-in date, we will just lug a bag of our new clothings, then cook something for family to eat together. This is the instruction from my FSM.

Revised 3D drawings from Donny: These revisions were received from ID on 14-Dec-2010: Living room - height of TV console raised higher Kitchen - Drawers for bottom cabinet (will be installed with Blum runners). As I have bought a huge side-by-side doors fridge, the bottom cabinet overall length is affected. I may end up with only the drawers and not those swing door cabinets near to the fridge seen in 3D drawing. Another angle seen with the store room in 2 full height aluminium frosted glass sliding doors. I don't like to see junks around, even store room also has to be 'sui sui', neat & tidy inside out! On the left side aligning with the sliding door is a full height shoe cabinet. The Stove & Sink Area, revision received from Donny yesterday. You will note there is no cooker hood as I seldom cook at home. The 2 big and deep drawers in Blum runners which I asked ID to change last week, are incorporated. The top drawer under the stove is for stoneware or porcelain pots while the bottom drawer is for Metal pots and pans, according to the productive cycle of 5 elements: Fire produce Earth, Earth produce Metal. Further, from fs perspective, the stove cannot be seen from the door entrance, hence the full height wooden panel is erected to shield its view from side door. I will be posting the rest of revised 3D drawings which Donny sent me yesterday when I have time to upload later this evening.

For Flying stars especially Star 2 (Sickness), Star 3 (Arguments/Litigations) and Star 5 (calamity/misfortune/serious accidents). You can find out where these stars reside in which sector of your house. Also watched out the sectors where Tai-Sui, Year Breaker and San-Sha resides. I guess you can google and see whole range of information on repercussions if these sectors are accidentally activated. Just 2 weeks ago, one of my classmate in Batu Bahat came to see me with her house plan. As she has liver ailments, and according to her BaZi chart, her Wood elements are seriously weaken this year, especially the first half of Geng Metal year. Worst still, she placed her stove in NW sector where stars 3&4 Woods reside (Wood represents Liver). She told me that none of the 2 masters who audited her house last year had pointed these flaws to her. Upon my advice, she seek the same master's 2nd opinion, and only when this master came to re-audit her house in person, then they concurred with what I analysed for her.

Hey, welcome to reno t-blog. Seems like you have plenty of time planning and sourcing for ID/contractors.

I went back during lunchtime and met the Project Manager Mr Lee and my ID, Donny. Both arrived at site to see the progress and work inspection. As I had insisted a certain work sequence for laying the floor tiles especially in my master bedroom, I overheard the Project Manager calling the boss of the sub-contractor to convey my instruction. Today, only 2 tilers are working at my house - excellent tiler Ah Lim and one worker who is helping out with cleaning up the place. Heard from tiler Ah Lim that their boss dare not send 'kuching kurat' tilers over to my place even those experienced tilers are also avoided unless their workmanship is Superb. I was told that good tilers will come 3 days later....and I am patiently waiting as I won't compromise quality with time. I am particularly impressed by the level of support and service provided by my ID and this ID's firm. In an era where exceptional one-to-one customer service excellence has virtually disappeared from the designing firms & renovating firms, and the horrifying bad experiences recorded by some forumers using reputable firms, I am glad that the immediate responses that my ID and his firm did by promptly acting on customers requests had compelled me to go on record with my praises for them.

A new day of the week, and I am already beginning to feel the busy atmosphere lingering around me.... When I spoke with my ID yesterday, he told me that he and his Project Manager are coming to the site this morning. So, I will definitely have to be present when they arrive...

Wow...beautiful house in good location! When is the move-in date?

For me, in the course of my study with few masters, in our case study, I have came across incidents caused by FS flaws in the homes. Like my sifu said, if you have doubts, you can always do an Acid Test.

Progress update for the week: Besides the rejected tiles mentioned above, the rest of works were progressing well. Again, my ID is worth praising for his relentless efforts in getting things resolved quickly. He had personally came over to meet me as many as 3-4 times over the last week alone, inspecting the works and attending to each of my complaints seriously. Here are the progress photographs: Windows installation in progress....installers seen here working into the late evening Windows nicely done... Kitchen Foyer - Lighter colored floor tiles laid on last Friday. Floor tiles were nicely laid by tiler Ah Lim. The Man-In-Black, ID Donny seen at site on each occassion when I complained...

Yesterday was a busy day for me. ID had informed earlier that he will be coming over in the morning. When I received his text message saying he will reach in 10 mins, I quickly stopped my tasks on hand and went home straight away. That was around 9 plus in the morning. ID had lodged my complaint to the contractor. Later I heard from tiler Ah Lim that his boss will also be coming over to attend to our complaint. Then, at lunchtime, when I thought I can skip lunchtime inspection for the day, tiler Ah Lim called me and urgently need my opinion while he was laying the floor tiles at kitchen foyer, as he is afraid that I may reject later. Due to certain restriction, and seeing he had painstakingly aligned the tiles so nicely, I asked him to proceed with the rest of tiles. At 4:30pm, tiler Ah Lim called and told me that his boss had arrived. I quickly walked back home for the 3rd time and saw only tiler Ah Lim and his boss. The other 2 tilers whom I have scolded them earlier had already left. Earlier on, I have also arranged the electrician to meet my friend who is an expert in OpenNet installation. As I have insisted on certain brand of Cat 6 cables for efficient transmission, it is better for me to get them from this friend and pass the box of Cat 6 cables to the electrician who is starting next Wednesday. This electrician did comment that I cannot expect transmission quality as that of Office IT systems when installing Cat 6 cables, but I am adamant on my choice to select only the best quality be it office or home. Yesterday also saw 2 window installers and they were still working when I left at 8 pm, after I am convinced that they are reliable. Otherwise , I would have stayed on until they finished! So, there goes my busy Friday! On my way home, ID sent me a message and asked me to let him take care of the issue. Well, you may brand me as extremely picky customer as I had an ID who gave up the $78k reno contract of my previous flat at Kim Tian as I was complaining on every single piece of work they did 16 years ago!! My current ID, Donny, is really a very patient man. Upto now, he can still 'tahan' my temper and meet my demands. In his text message, he said that my home is "his creation, his baby. If I don't feel happy, he will feel bad." Let's see how long more he can 'tahan' my stringent checks! I am the sort of person who is not easily compromised on quality. I have also told tiler that I am going to knock on every single piece of floor tiles for 'hollowness' test and if an area has more than acceptable quantity of 'hollowed' tiles, I will consider the whole area being rejected! If they insist to only hack & replace only those rejected tiles, I will personally hacked them all with hammer!!

Hi, CoffeeMan Thank you for the advice and well wishes! Everything was 'swee swee' for the 2 toilets & bathroom, which was all done up by tiler Ah Lim. Then came some other tilers and things get screwed up by one Person, the old man who is supposed to be very experienced. ID had complained to the contractor and requested to change the tilers. Now, the contractor has to reimburse my ID's firm for the wasted material (tiles, etc), re-lay the floor tiles all over again.

Specialised movers - their prices are not cheap as they factored in the carton boxes, workers/ packers and driver. What I did recently was to hire a lorry and my brother-in-law drives with the help of my grown up children. We have our own carton boxes. This method suits those who have their own driver, and want the flexibility in house moving, which like my case, stretched over 2 days for shifting out everything.