Joining The Expanding Simei Neighbourhood

[junwei84 0]

不结不解不解不解不解！！！

how is it possible????

kitchen table. Sink installed. Hole cut in wood top for the kitchen sink tap.

Solid surface pple come, install SS top, cut a totally different hole for the tap thru e SS and also thru e wood?!?

Initialli wanted tap to b in centre of sink, but aft discussions w Henry, decided to put tap at e side to ensure ease of installation and any changes in e future cos not much space left at the back of e sink.

So a hole was cut at the side of the sink for the tap.

Den today Solid surface pple come, they cut a hole thru e wood centred to my sink . i reali reali tink its like idiot proof la can. 1 hole there means the tap supposed to b there?!

Dunno now how, change the whole SS top? **** scared they change will injure my beautiful industrial sink and my beautiful induction hob which they installed alr.. how how how!

不结不解不解不解不解！！！ m i really really tt sway mei. all bad tings tt can happen can happen!

I tink i can make a movie: lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events: Simei version.

[solitaire 0]

不结不解不解不解不解！！！

how is it possible????

kitchen table. Sink installed. Hole cut in wood top for the kitchen sink tap.

Solid surface pple come, install SS top, cut a totally different hole for the tap thru e SS and also thru e wood?!?

Initialli wanted tap to b in centre of sink, but aft discussions w Henry, decided to put tap at e side to ensure ease of installation and any changes in e future cos not much space left at the back of e sink.

So a hole was cut at the side of the sink for the tap.

Den today Solid surface pple come, they cut a hole thru e wood centred to my sink . i reali reali tink its like idiot proof la can. 1 hole there means the tap supposed to b there?!

Dunno now how, change the whole SS top? **** scared they change will injure my beautiful industrial sink and my beautiful induction hob which they installed alr.. how how how!

不结不解不解不解不解！！！ m i really really tt sway mei. all bad tings tt can happen can happen!

I tink i can make a movie: lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events: Simei version.

+1 day after supposedly HO date.. And still got quite abit to go.. Study table, glass works and mirrors, solid surface to change, toilet doors, acid wash, painting rectification..

Testing our patience....................

[Supersimon27 2]

ok updates.

HO didnt happen! last update fr henry is tt mon tue will do glass works. tue wed will do solid surface tops..

aniwae, carpentry is more or less done..

some peek shots..

Foyer, shoe cabinet with DIY-ed stool:

Black and white kitchen, minus my glass works:

Study:

my living room feature wall & tv console:

my original tv console was suppsoed to be half e height only, felt it look classier n more modern, but aft all e carpentry hiatus, dimensions were confirmed n conveyed over e phone, told carpenter to do me a standard ht console and he told me e doors would b quite big if did standard height. they tell me if its do from floor up, tis is e standard height of tv console. I asked him if it would look weird if its tis height n he told me it would look ok.. so i said ok.. i should hav double checked myself to make sure it was wad i envisioned..

so i ended up with tis big kinda bulky lookin ting..

was quite disappointed when i saw e final pdt and asked on e spot if can change to shorter.. but they told me bobian to change alr.. sigh..

but our parents all said it look ok la.. so ok then.. aft lookin n lookin it felt ok la. although @ a certain pt in time, e tot of juz payin for a redo tv console did x my mind.. oh well.. its mistake on my part to confirm such a dimension so ok la.. i shall live w it..

any one else feels it looks too bulky?

seriously , I feel it's beautiful . At least for me .

[Supersimon27 2]

不结不解不解不解不解！！！

how is it possible????

kitchen table. Sink installed. Hole cut in wood top for the kitchen sink tap.

Solid surface pple come, install SS top, cut a totally different hole for the tap thru e SS and also thru e wood?!?

Initialli wanted tap to b in centre of sink, but aft discussions w Henry, decided to put tap at e side to ensure ease of installation and any changes in e future cos not much space left at the back of e sink.

So a hole was cut at the side of the sink for the tap.

Den today Solid surface pple come, they cut a hole thru e wood centred to my sink . i reali reali tink its like idiot proof la can. 1 hole there means the tap supposed to b there?!

Dunno now how, change the whole SS top? **** scared they change will injure my beautiful industrial sink and my beautiful induction hob which they installed alr.. how how how!

不结不解不解不解不解！！！ m i really really tt sway mei. all bad tings tt can happen can happen!

I tink i can make a movie: lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events: Simei version.

Hob i think no problem . dun think it will damage .

Maybe U feedback this issue to henry ? see what he say . But I only afraid it will delay yr HO , as SS top need time to fabricate .

[junwei84 0]

Hob i think no problem . dun think it will damage .

Maybe U feedback this issue to henry ? see what he say . But I only afraid it will delay yr HO , as SS top need time to fabricate .

yea alr told him bout e SS, he's gg over to see tmr..

yea HO delay **** long alr la. quite bth alr though

[darkfear 0]

yea alr told him bout e SS, he's gg over to see tmr..

yea HO delay **** long alr la. quite bth alr though

bro i feel for u man, that is extremely ridiculous because now not only they need to redo the SS, I think you wouldn't want an extra hole in ur cabinet right? The extra hole might create a problem of rotting wood etc. henry is totally absolutely at fault. As main con, he is the one who suggested to put the tap at the side, so he SHOULD have the responsibility to inform the SS people? and he or some of his people should be present to make sure such a major installation be laid correctly.

it sucks that homeowners are at the mercy of such shoddy contractors.. I think BCA or HDB should have a proper set of guidelines to monitor errant behaviour like that and also to come up with a standard contract that will hold both homeowner and contractor responsible to it.

[titanax 0]

bro i feel for u man, that is extremely ridiculous because now not only they need to redo the SS, I think you wouldn't want an extra hole in ur cabinet right? The extra hole might create a problem of rotting wood etc. henry is totally absolutely at fault. As main con, he is the one who suggested to put the tap at the side, so he SHOULD have the responsibility to inform the SS people? and he or some of his people should be present to make sure such a major installation be laid correctly.

it sucks that homeowners are at the mercy of such shoddy contractors.. I think BCA or HDB should have a proper set of guidelines to monitor errant behaviour like that and also to come up with a standard contract that will hold both homeowner and contractor responsible to it.

LOST IN TRANSLATION happens to even the best of us...but in this case its like they are from different planets!

[darkfear 0]

LOST IN TRANSLATION happens to even the best of us...but in this case its like they are from different planets!

ur signature about monkeys asking for macadamias is almost apt over here..

junwei jia you man. hang in there and hope everything will be smoother

[junwei84 0]

seriously , I feel it's beautiful . At least for me .

oh din see tis, thanks!

overall i tink e house comes out quite nice la. at least for me too! haha

dun mean any disrespect to Henry or anyth, but cant help feelin y our reno cant b as smooth sailing as urs man..

im sure tt reno sure hv probs along e way but hit forehead on wall also gt limit. skull will break eventually..

gt tt nagging feelin tt he's takin too many jobs till he cant manage properly though its juz a wild wild wild guess. or mayb im juz sway

thanks la anyway!

[junwei84 0]

LOST IN TRANSLATION happens to even the best of us...but in this case its like they are from different planets!

haha agreed! maybe if there's a nxt time, i muz use plastercine make a mould of a tap n put on e hole, make a banner n write big big with arrowhead: "PLACE TAP HERE PLS"

ur signature about monkeys asking for macadamias is almost apt over here..

junwei jia you man. hang in there and hope everything will be smoother

yea man, thanks!

[solitaire 0]

yea, thanks peeps for your comments. the eventual product (not quite eventual actually) seems pretty in line to what we wanted. the classic black-white feel. Had some misses at the laminate selection for some carpentry, but will live with it la

Cant wait to see the eventual product after the rectifications. Everyday me and junwei will be asking each other when will be handover. then we will start getting paranoid why our reno process was so cmi. We had alot of discussions about "What went wrong", "How could this/these be averted" etc. We even wondered if the Dong Tu date was no gd for us! Any more problems/hiccups, think we will go crazy! haha

[titanax 0]

im sure tt reno sure hv probs along e way but hit forehead on wall also gt limit. skull will break eventually..

gt tt nagging feelin tt he's takin too many jobs till he cant manage properly though its juz a wild wild wild guess. or mayb im juz sway

i don't think its personal...its business. if my buffer is only 4 jobs per mth & i take 8, then my objective here is just to make $$ at the expense of quality. it could mean that i just want to make as much $$ within my predefined period so i can retire early - nothing wrong with this, everybody wants to retire financially independent....but at whose expense? yours?

so basically i take 8 jobs, i know 4 of them will be done well since its within my buffer & they will recommend others & through those referrals i get more jobs, so my long term goal of recurring business is covered.

how about the rest where i have delivered shoddy service? well they might not refer their friends - but it doesn't matter coz i achieved my short term goal which is a 1 time business.

so what you gona do when u sign up for a reno package? ask for the contractor's business plan? not possible right? most of the time its just blind faith and sometimes its sheer stupidity when there are documented events of failure with pictures even...

Sooo...here's to a good & hopefully clean HO so you can carry on with your life on focus your strengths on things that should really matter

Edited October 12, 2010 by titanax

[solitaire 0]

i don't think its personal...its business. if my buffer is only 4 jobs per mth & i take 8, then my objective here is just to make $$ at the expense of quality. it could mean that i just want to make as much $$ within my predefined period so i can retire early - nothing wrong with this, everybody wants to retire financially independent....but at whose expense? yours?

so basically i take 8 jobs, i know 4 of them will be done well since its within my buffer & they will recommend others & through those referrals i get more jobs, so my long term goal of recurring business is covered.

how about the rest where i have delivered shoddy service? well they might not refer their friends - but it doesn't matter coz i achieved my short term goal which is a 1 time business.

so what you gona do when u sign up for a reno package? ask for the contractor's business plan? not possible right? most of the time its just blind faith and sometimes its sheer stupidity when there are documented events of failure with pictures even...

Sooo...here's to a good & hopefully clean HO so you can carry on with your life on focus your strengths on things that should really matter

Trust and faith - tts really what we had in Henry when we decided to engage him. He seems organized in his own way, and had controls over his subcons. Of coz we have done our research in renotalk and were very impressed with the jobs he did for several of the forumers.

Now, on hindsight, I don't tink it's fair to totally discredit him for all his work. But, I believe he could have done MUCH MUCH more in terms of coordination, planning, management etc. Sometimes I feel that his answers to our questions are quite patronizing and he seems to have the tendency to overpromise, which results in an expectation gap. Now, we r just disgruntled customers and every single delay/problem just makes us more and more pek chek.

We don't want to offend anyone, especially fellow forumers who are Henry's customers. We just want to give our point of view as another customer of henry.

Edited October 12, 2010 by solitaire

[junwei84 0]

Trust and faith - tts really what we had in Henry when we decided to engage him. He seems organized in his own way, and had controls over his subcons. Of coz we have done our research in renotalk and were very impressed with the jobs he did for several of the forumers.

Now, on hindsight, I don't tink it's fair to totally discredit him for all his work. But, I believe he could have done MUCH MUCH more in terms of coordination, planning, management etc. Sometimes I feel that his answers to our questions are quite patronizing and he seems to have the tendency to overpromise, which results in an expectation gap. Now, we r just disgruntled customers and every single delay/problem just makes us more and more pek chek.

We don't want to offend anyone, especially fellow forumers who are Henry's customers. We just want to give our point of view as another customer of henry.

yea, works wise are ok la, except for e tiling at the MBR toilet. in fact e rest of e tilin works r still pretty ok.

carpentry works are pretty ok too(of cos minus e coordination part by their tou shou), quality ok la i tink. talked to some of e guys workin e carpentry at our hse a couple of times. they're pretty nice n friendly pple.

painter still hav to do touchups but till now seem relatively ok.

windows, quality nt exactly up to scratch, seems abit shoddy but stil acceptable.

Door, my main door still hav to rectify, 2nd time already, cos the top n bottom nt aligned with the door frame, initially top nt aligned, den they came n adjust den bottom not aligned.. -_-", stil yet to adjust again.

ahliang e electrician nth to say, yandao, gd, nice, on e ball, love him.

floor lamiante pple: pretty ok i guess.. any rectification henry ask dem do they do

plastering guys: pretty good, smooth walls all over

Solid surface: erm no comments

plumber: nth to complain about till now, chop chop work v fast, pipe up e whole hse in less than 1 aftnn.

i guess e main ting is coordination on Henry's part. Feels like hiccups can be avoided if he spent abit more time n effort, though i understand i cant b his only customer n he cant spend all his time on our home. but the delays are totallyl unwarranted for i feel. its like 3.5 mths already since start of reno. minus 1/2 mth for e permit application issues, its still 3 full mths!

Henry, hmm, he can b truthful to tell u tings like 'u do a 2nd reno u will realise its bobian one' but as consumers i guess we dun really wan to hear tt. credits to him tt he's upfront when sth goes wrong n he's sincere bout it. he's a frank n approachable person la i muz say.

but as alw, he has a tendency to overpromise. like HO date for example, 10/10/10 didnt happen. or he tells me tis ting will do sui sui dun worry, u know.. u tend to go ok! steady! n then get disappointed at e end of e day.

i tink my main issue overall is e delays la. granted we din set a HO date rite fr e beginning cos we werent in a rush to move but he promised us 2.5mths is e max needed for our hse and its alr 3.5 mths now.... i feel we a little bit more ctrl n coordination, these delay issues wouldn't hav occured. i remem vividly tt our tilin was delayed 1 wk and when i asked him when will start tilin, he told me he's waitin for a better grp of tilers to be freed up to do our hse. of cos i was happy to hav it delay for 1 wk for tt.. but now it seems tt its nt e usual tiler xiao hei tiler henry usuallly use for tiling tt we were waiting for. its 2 unknown fellas who Henry tells me he has fired them off aft doin our hse. so u know, its a big disappointment for us.

for some, employin a main contractor = main contractor settle everyth for dem so ur POC is only w e main contractor. i'd say Henry doesnt fall in tt category. Many times, i've conversed straight with electrician, carpenter, plumber. I'm totally fine with it. but i believe Henry could have done more to supervise e subcons to ensure no mistakes occur.

ok, long story short. He has his pros he has his cons. But at e end of e day, we become disgruntled when the delays are on gg on gg on gg on gg..................

nevertheless, a smile a day keeps all troubles away. oh ya rite, i kept tinkin we din choose a proper dong tu date, hahahaha! den mayb tts y so sway

Edited October 12, 2010 by junwei84

[solitaire 0]

yea, works wise are ok la, except for e tiling at the MBR toilet. in fact e rest of e tilin works r still pretty ok.

carpentry works are pretty ok too(of cos minus e coordination part by their tou shou), quality ok la i tink. talked to some of e guys workin e carpentry at our hse a couple of times. they're pretty nice n friendly pple.

painter still hav to do touchups but till now seem relatively ok.

windows, quality nt exactly up to scratch, seems abit shoddy but stil acceptable.

Door, my main door still hav to rectify, 2nd time already, cos the top n bottom nt aligned with the door frame, initially top nt aligned, den they came n adjust den bottom not aligned.. -_-", stil yet to adjust again.

ahliang e electrician nth to say, yandao, gd, nice, on e ball, love him.

floor lamiante pple: pretty ok i guess.. any rectification henry ask dem do they do

plastering guys: pretty good, smooth walls all over

Solid surface: erm no comments

plumber: nth to complain about till now, chop chop work v fast, pipe up e whole hse in less than 1 aftnn.

i guess e main ting is coordination on Henry's part. Feels like hiccups can be avoided if he spent abit more time n effort, though i understand i cant b his only customer n he cant spend all his time on our home. but the delays are totallyl unwarranted for i feel. its like 3.5 mths already since start of reno. minus 1/2 mth for e permit application issues, its still 3 full mths!

Henry, hmm, he can b truthful to tell u tings like 'u do a 2nd reno u will realise its bobian one' but as consumers i guess we dun really wan to hear tt. credits to him tt he's upfront when sth goes wrong n he's sincere bout it. he's a frank n approachable person la i muz say.

but as alw, he has a tendency to overpromise. like HO date for example, 10/10/10 didnt happen. or he tells me tis ting will do sui sui dun worry, u know.. u tend to go ok! steady! n then get disappointed at e end of e day.

i tink my main issue overall is e delays la. granted we din set a HO date rite fr e beginning cos we werent in a rush to move but he promised us 2.5mths is e max needed for our hse and its alr 3.5 mths now.... i feel we a little bit more ctrl n coordination, these delay issues wouldn't hav occured. i remem vividly tt our tilin was delayed 1 wk and when i asked him when will start tilin, he told me he's waitin for a better grp of tilers to be freed up to do our hse. of cos i was happy to hav it delay for 1 wk for tt.. but now it seems tt its nt e usual tiler xiao hei tiler henry usuallly use for tiling tt we were waiting for. its 2 unknown fellas who Henry tells me he has fired them off aft doin our hse. so u know, its a big disappointment for us.

for some, employin a main contractor = main contractor settle everyth for dem so ur POC is only w e main contractor. i'd say Henry doesnt fall in tt category. Many times, i've conversed straight with electrician, carpenter, plumber. I'm totally fine with it. but i believe Henry could have done more to supervise e subcons to ensure no mistakes occur.

ok, long story short. He has his pros he has his cons. But at e end of e day, we become disgruntled when the delays are on gg on gg on gg on gg..................

nevertheless, a smile a day keeps all troubles away. oh ya rite, i kept tinkin we din choose a proper dong tu date, hahahaha! den mayb tts y so sway

gd summary dear! haha

we conclude that subcons are really nice ppl and easy to talk to. We always have the mentality that 'you steady with me, i steady with u'. and then, we will hope and pray for the best that nthg coks up. haha..

okies, enuf complaints for the day.