inthechouse

Yah lor. Why cannot just explain? Hope he's not being sexist. Anyway, contractors are not the best people to email or Whatsapp with. At work were are so used to communicating everything in black and white. I realized that it's not the best to convey or discuss anything via text. If you must, do try and phrase it very, very simply. These days, we always throw in a disclaimer, such as, Hi, just checking only/ Hi, just asking only/ Hi, just informing you only. It works better than before. At least he has stopped being super defensive. We can't change or control external factors but we can change ourselves. So we adjust our language and most importantly, our expectations. By the latter I mean expectations of how and when the other party replies (eg: short, standoffish replies sent hours or half a day later vs the generally well-worded prompt replies we are used to at work), NOT of how we want our renovation/flat to be completed. This we should never shortchange ourselves. Anyway, lucky you have a patient and competent chief designer hubby! For us, we're all very, very green. We've learnt many things the hard way. Sometimes, the stress and frustrations got to us big time too. But moving forward, we have to take this as a learning experience. I swear I will make better decisions the next time round (strike Toto tonight then buy condo? LOL!)! Assuming no hiccups with the minimal carpentry we've ordered, and the necessary touch-ups, most of the present grief comes from the furniture shopping. Pretty disappointed with the service of a few companies. Still deciding if I wanna write about it here. Afterall, it's a reno blog. Kinda tired too.

my contractor said "no need to paint" too. then when i met the painters, they said the same thing. i just insisted till the end. as someone told me before: "nobody wants to do extra work."

mellenur, you're talking about the stainless steel pipes yeah? we have it painted in the bedrooms (yes, they run across) and kept them as it is in the bathrooms. i don't see why you can't paint it if you really want to. peel off then paint again lor. same with everything else. that sponge is magical! but beware not to let children or pets come into contact with it. friends have warned me that it is highly toxic. not sure if it's true but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Thanks for sharing. Could you please PM me the online shop's URL?

Thank you. Can't wait for this to be over.

Good morning. Here are the pix snapped yesterday evening. The reason I visited the site was because I found out that the doors were painted. Alan also said some plastering work was done (touch-up) but I believe they had left out the storeroom walls. 1) The doors. *shakes head* Sent Alan these pix and he said they were not done yet. Hmm but I thought the painters said last Saturday that they would come down 1 last time? Anyway, Alan asked me to meet him and the painters onsite "once and for all" to touch up whatever I want. H.O.O.R.A.Y. Btw, this really irked me. Why didn't they change this thingy?? Paid 40K to overhaul the entire flat and I would prefer not to have to live with this ancient thing. Asked Alan about it and he said they will "try" because "it may not fit". Maybe I have to visit some old skool hardware stores and try my luck there. 2) Floors. After the chemical wash, I asked Alan if there would be another. He said no. But his quoted clearly stated 2. Nevermind. Yesterday, I spotted cigarette ash strewn all over the living room floor. Someone also took a shower in the common bathroom (bar of soap spotted) and left wet shoe prints all over the kitchen floor. Look, it's fine if you have to pee/poop/shower, but please don't make a mess of the place. So I sent Alan these pix and he said they will do another wash. I am not sure what Alan can do about this but his workers have been littering right outside my flat big time. Found so many cigarette butts and I had to pick them up and throw them into the bin. Feel a bit embarrassed towards the kindly neighbour next door.

I think some of his sub-cons have really let him down. Sometimes we do wish we had engaged another main con instead. Nevertheless, he has been moving things quite fast after the CNY PH. And he's also agreeable to rectifying stuff - albeit after a lot of self-supervision for us and some tactful nudging or coaxing, depends on what you wanna call it.

The popular contractors seem to be very busy because they have taken on too many jobs than they can handle on their own. So with them, you don't have to be afraid of being conned (like having someone run off with your money), but you end up having to be very hands on and, dare I say, neglected.

Thanks so much, Songz. Updates and photos to come.

Similar issue with my contractor's quote. His carpenter said he's isn't aware of the 4 x FOC Blum hinges, and my contractor doesn't seem to have communicated this to the carpenter, despite my urgings. Gotta wait and see. So yep, I think all we can do is to check and insist.

Updates: - FINALLY... gate installation confirmed for Friday. Will be sad to part with the existing retro-like gate but oh well... - Doors will be painted for real today. They just laid the foundation on Sat while waiting for the locks to be changed. It will be the same paint team again. And I really don't fancy their attitude and workmanship. If you're planning to use Alan, please check if you can request for a different team. Please do. - Some issue/confusion with the sliding door between my 2 bedrooms. What was agreed and signed for in the quotation was a laminated ply wood door. Yesterday, Alan texted to say that he will be installing a classic door. I asked why and how much does it cost. Then there was no reply for a long time. In the evening, I asked him again and he still did not address my query. To give him the benefit of the doubt, he could be checking it out with his suppliers. This morning, I asked again, and he said he had already placed an order for a classic door. In his haste to get things done, no attention is paid to details. It appears that he IS willing to change the order, but he's just not keen to answer my queries on how much which door costs and what's typicaly required for that door (paint? varnish?). Since we're not door experts, we'll just have to anyhow whack. Again. We're close to the last hurdle so we shall just persevere. May the force be with us.

Updates: - Met with Ah Gui the carpenter to finalize the cabinetry. This was at a very short notice. He rang me at 11am and I said I would meet him onsite at 12.30pm. - Laminates finalized (Lamitak). We didn't have time to visit the factory at Sungei Kadut so we just whack. Anyway, it's mostly basic, staple options. Nothing fancy. - Ran into the workers who had moments ago installed the main door lock and replaced the bedroom door levers (all Yale). The supervisor was puffing away and, unfortunately for him, he blew out smoke while he was exiting the main door just as I was entering. He looked a little stunned. And I just told him to refrain from smoking in the flat. Anyway, they may not return. And the higher power only knows how many people have smoked in the flat during the course of the reno. - Iron gate will be installed early next week, after which Alan will get the tilers to lay the first tile (or last) and touch up all the grouting. Hope the electricians will come by end of next week to hook everything up... and then we're all set! Fingers crossed!

Well I can't remember what he said exactly, but I should probably compile a book of all the strange excuses and weird reasonings thrown at us thus far. It may be quite entertaining in future.

Almost forgot to update about the aircon. The Gain City guys came on Saturday and fixed the leak in less than 5 minutes. The cause? See photo below. Glad it was an installation problem rather than anything else.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE... Here are some of the stuff delivered yesterday. Reflections: It's less than 3 weeks to our move-in date. Alan seems pretty confident that there will be no delay. In our last Whatsapp exchange, he said "Cabinets are in progress". He seems milder during/after CNY, so it's a lil easier requesting for checks/rectification. Pity, his paint supervisor could use some chilling out too. Before you sign on with your contractor, do try to do as much research as you can, then take some time to determine if he/she and his/her workers are the kind of people/project managers/workers you would like to work with for the next 1-2 months.

Good Sunday afternoon to everyone. Here are the pix as promised. If you've missed my previous post which details the issues, please scroll back to Pg 6. 1) Wall paint Here's the room in question. Forgot to mention the serious miscomm between Alan, the paint supervisor and the workers. It was clear all along between Alan and us that the bedroom door frames will not be painted. Yesterday, we saw that the workers started painting one of it. We then bolted in and requested politely for them to stop. The workers insisted they were told to paint them. The supervisor had already left. So we had to call Alan. The supervisor returned and told the workers to clean off the paint with thinner or something, which they did, then proceeded to SHAVE DOWN some of the wood in order to finish off the job. Sigh. Anyway, here's the peeled off bits. Can you also see the water marks? They were probably leftovers from the washing before CNY. We dare not clean the marks anyway. As the supervisor put it rudely: "What paint do you think this is?? Washable paint ah? IT'S NOT OK??" Well, so it's our fault for not selecting Nippon Easy Wash for all walls. We are truly sorry we liked this colour from Dulux's 2014 selection. Please forgive us. P.S: Does this look like 3 layers of paint to you? 2) Skirting The nicest man of the lot yesterday. Please note that with Alan's workers, you must tell them what you want and how you want it. There's no point telling Alan alone, when he's hardly onsite. Also, if you don't have your eyes on the work, they may just do it the "standard" (using the term loosely) way then pack up and leave. So, bring a stool and get down and dirty. This gentleman was rather accommodating to our requests, while the rest were simply.... (fill in your own adjective). This is how it looks after we DIY-ed. Was too bumped and missed out on snapping the crappy parts. Will probably do so when we return to continue scraping on our own. 3) Storeroom wall Does this look acceptable to you? We asked the painting team about this and they said they did not have light the first time they came so they just painted over everything. It's probably not their fault, because the plastering was not done properly after the pipes were changed. And obviously nobody noticed/cared. So we sent these pix to Alan and he said he would look into it. Fingers crossed yet again. What was the rush? They had plenty of time to do everything. Our reno started on 6 Dec and we were not rushing to move in before CNY.

Thanks. Will ask Alan to do it later on. The painters came by today and we were all surprised to see one another there. I wasn't expecting them, and they weren't expecting us to be sittin' there all day watching them repaint the walls. I think Alan asked them to come because I told him about the visible pencil markings and about the dark-coloured wall peeling off easily. Well, we were there to receive several deliveries. The painters (I'm guessing they are Bangladeshis) came with their Chinese supervisor - a youngish Chinese chap who seemed nice the first time I met him, but turned nasty today when I told him about the shoddy paint work in certain areas. And of course, Alan wasn't there to diffuse anything so it was basically us against the Ah Beng. I'm not keen on arguing with him as it reqiuires too much effort. After he left, we had a better time discussing things with the Bangladeshis, who were somewhat defensive too, though never rude. They all simply blamed us for having stuck a small piece of non-sticky (lousy) masking tape on the wall, while to us, we didn't see how doing that would make THREE layers of paint (as they claimed to have painted) peel off all at once. If we hadn't had done that, we wouldn't have known how crappy the paint was. It was supposed to be Dulux's new colour of the year?? A relative suggested that they may have diluted the paint, but whatever. Then came the issue of the fugly skirting all round. The painters blamed the tiling team for uneven cement, but upon uber close inspection, some of the protruding bumps were coagulated paint blobs too. So it's not 100% a cement issue, although I must say, as I have said before, that the tiling team did a crappy job with the skirting all round. After some negotiation, the painters were willing to scrape off some of the blobs and repaint the skirting. But because there was so much to do, we all got down on all fours and did it ourselves. EVERYBODY was scraping. And when they repainted the skirting, I wish they had used a thinner brush, because the fat brush had accumulated so much paint it resulted in blobs appearing all over again. Btw, the storeroom walls are patchy. Don't think they could do much abt it coz it requires plastering. Whoever who whacked around the wall in order to change the water pipes did not plaster it back properly. And when the painters first came to paint the walls, they just happily painted over the uneven patches. Great. Then the painters left and said they will be coming down just "1 last time" to touch up. Sorry, bros, I think you may need to come back more than once. Pix to come. P.S: Some friends here have posted about Alan's workers not painting the top of the doors. I asked them to do so today and they said it's a hollow door so if you paint the top, the paint will seep in and cause the door to die or whatever the heck he was saying.

Hi saintinity, it could very well be. Thanks for the info. I will request for it.

Thanks, Songz. Those are our dining lights - from Ikea. Btw, see the gaps between the electrical cable trunking and the wall? Does anyone know if it's possible to have the gaps sealed up by whatever? Just wanna arm ourselves with some knowledge before speaking to Alan about it. This is something we've learnt that we must do.

Hi mellenur! Well, we'd love to visit the Lamitak factory but we don't drive, so it's pretty tough getting to Sungei Kadut from where we are (the Northeast). Sigh. But wow, just took a look at Admira's website and boy does Ogon Oak look good! Shall ask Alan if he has the catalogue. Thanks! Regarding Legrand, yes it seems really easy to toggle on and off - and I like that! But it's really unacceptable that they misaligned the cover and the box... Will be meeting one more laundry rack supplier tomorrow before making a decision. Will PM you thereafter. As for my targeted completion date for carpentry, that's just us being optimistic. Might be a good idea to factor in hiccups and delays. But we really don't have time! We have to move in by end of the month, or it's off to Changi Beach with a tent in tow.

Looks and sounds good. All the best!

Hi and welcome. Think you made the right decision. And it's good that you have highlighted how unrealistic some proposed 3D drawings can be.

My reno is paused for CNY too. Agree that one should avoid year-end reno at all costs, if one can help it.

Hi AnnieOoi, welcome. From what I know, JTC bought several balance flats in different neighbourhood during the 90s and rented them out to the corporation's foreign staff - many whom were white-collared workers. Tenants were not allowed to modify the flat in any way though, hence the lack of reno and maybe even aircon. JTC conducted regular checks during which they would also ensure the pipes are working and the windows don't fall off, etc. Several years ago, when the demand for these rental flats dipped, JTC began selling them in the open market batch by batch.

Thoughts: - There seems to be some businesses which are not very keen on doing business. It's like you have to "beg" them for their time and interest. At the end of the day, it could be worthwhile paying a lil extra for good/better service. If you can afford the difference, I say skip the dodgy and/or uninterested vendors, and give your business to whomever with the most enthusiasm and respect-cum-courtesy. #justsayin