K's Reno Journey

[Kerio 2]

The last picture is from our neighbour's house!

Yup, our apartment is a 4-room; with all the carpentry in, it looks a lot smaller. Now we're considering if the feature wall for the bomb shelter, for instance, is too big and bulky. The daybed is also larger than we visualized, though that's not necessarily a bad thing

[BlurRhino 0]

Awesome!! think when my carpentry start, i really should find some time to go back take a look, i think its really interesting to see them build things up!

Anyway i thought hood is normally open view, you meant it you want it hidden?

[Kerio 2]

Oh ya, we smsed the ID and she called us to clarify that the laminate I saw is actually concave.. So it's the back of the cupboard. In other words, the hood will be open view, as previously planned

[froggy 0]

congrats, kerio.

the carpentry stage is always the one when we can see lots of things happening in the house!

[Kerio 2]

congrats, kerio.

the carpentry stage is always the one when we can see lots of things happening in the house!

Thanks froggy! Yeah, I think after seeing the house empty for so long, it's really nice to go by and see a hive of activity.

Plus, it's nice to finally see the house we designed and color co-ordinated take shape!

[porkypork 0]

Wow... you have a lot of carpentary stuffs....

and you manage to do a WIW in the master bedroom?... cool....

[Kerio 2]

Wow... you have a lot of carpentary stuffs....

and you manage to do a WIW in the master bedroom?... cool....

Nice right, hurhurhurhur :3

Got a call this morning from someone who claimed to be the Director of ArtXend. Initial impression seems to be that he was shielding the ID and trying to dismiss our concerns (e.g. "Oh, only delays lah," and "oh, only minor problems lah").

For safety's sake, we're still going to send out that email to Kelvin (the Director) by the end of the weekend, though I won't be cc-ing CASE first. Give chance ma.

Also, I just went down during lunch, and:

- Ceiling for air con not rectified; cove lighting area not rectified

- The missing lights and malfunctioning lights are still not working (noted on the 27 Nov)

- Hacked wall still not replastered

- Laminate flooring still not rectified

Our air-con will be installed on the 9th, so if the ceiling is not fixed then, they won't be able to install it. They've already laid the carpentry over a part of the floor laminates, so I couldn't see if it was rectified. But if the guest room is anything to go by, my guess is that they covered the stains on the laminate with the carpentry, since the guest room's laminate is still not rectified.

While writing the email, I managed to compile an interesting timeline:

- Ceiling rectification: 27 to 28 Nov, then 30 Nov, and no news now.

- Laminates: installed on 4 Nov, damaged and should have been rectified on 30 Nov, but apparently not.

- Painting: 15 - 19 Nov as told by ID, but in actual fact was 20 - 25/26 Nov.

- Electrician: Rectification of errors supposed to be 24 Nov, but not done up till now.

- Air-con installation date: 22 Nov, 3 Dec, and of course now, 9 Dec.

- Guest room (storage): 26 Nov, 3 Dec, and now no news.

- Handover: 4 to 11 Nov, 22 to 26 Nov, and now 10 Dec - that's more than a month in delays.

On the other hand, carpentry's going up very quickly, and the carpenters are super efficient!

[Kerio 2]

Updates!

Swung by the house this afternoon to check out progress and see if rectifications had been made. When we went by:

- Ceiling cove lighting L-Box area dented, scratched and holey - not rectified.

- The missing lights and malfunctioning lights are still not working

- Hacked wall replastered, looks better now.

- Laminate flooring still not rectified

The workers were working on the ceiling for the air-conditioning units coming in on Thursday.

We heard from the ID thereafter that there was some problem with the rectifications as the air con trunking was in the way, and that she would be liaising with Aron separately. Hopefully, everything will be done by Wednesday.

Mirrors are up.

Overall Progress is also good, though it seems like it'd require quite a feat to get laminates rectified (there were some clear scratches on our guest room laminates when we went by, presumably from the carpentry).

Some minor carpentry issues need to be fixed, like some unevenness in the work, the bombshelter feature wall tic-tac system is tiny and not powerful enough to open the door. We also recall asking for handles for the kitchen doors (since I've always thought that the flat type with a slight angle on the top edge of the drawer is hard to open when your hands are full), but the drawers are handle-less. Wife is ok with it, so we're not going to raise this issue up in case it delays work even further.

When we left, the glass worker was coming in to measure glass again (he mentioned he had gone by on Friday for measurements). We asked how long it'd take to fabricate glass, and he told us "a week", which means it's possible glass would come in on Thursday (hopefully) or Friday (mad busy but it's better than Monday).

ID also mentioned the plastering and rectifications would all be done on Monday, which would be fantastic, if everything really comes into place on Monday. We also hope she means the coming Monday and not the next Monday.

Since Ikea charges $5 per trolley per day if we store items at their place longer than 6 days, we had to go down only today to get our furniture. Unfortunately, we missed the very popular item and had to settle for a more expensive sofa-bed for the living room ($1,365 instead of $1,195). Total cost of furnitures bought today amounted to almost $5k, including installation! 4 trolleys full of goodies!

Looking forward to moving in on Friday! All the installations will be coming in then: furniture, electronics, all our barang barang. So when I go by in the morning (with the movers and our barang barang), it'll be a mad rush to clean up before the furniture is installed; thereafter it'll be another mad rush to oversee electronics installation and mattress delivery, completed with a final cleaning after all that and some unpacking over the weekend! Looking forward to unpacking and seeing our house take shape!

Edited December 5, 2010 by Kerio

[Kerio 2]

Spent the whole day packing for Friday's moving, shag ah.

Wife Emailed ID this morning to confirm that chemical wash would be completed by thursday for shifting in to officially start on Friday. We raised this to the ID last week and she informed us she would let us move in our items first and wait for glass to be done (see posts above). Apparently reminding her about it this morning was a good thing, because her email sounded as if she was taken off-guard by it. ID told us there would still be work going on (we hope it's just glass works as agreed previously) on Friday, so she could do cleaning first so we could move in, and that she could do cleaning again after that.

Although a lot of action has been going on in the past week, it's been (expectedly) too short to do all the outstanding things. In addition to the rectifications to the ceilings, there's still plumbing, electric works, finishin up on carpentry, rectification of laminates, glassworks, carpentry arectification, cleaning, and not forgetting 1 coat of paint after plaster rectifications and one before air con can go up.

That's a LOT to do in a week.

Now watching Renovaid, seeing how the ID got the apartment done in 2 weeks just makes me feel even more livid.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Kerio

[BlurRhino 0]

.....Although a lot of action has been going on in the past week, it's been (expectedly) too short to do all the outstanding things. In addition to the rectifications to the ceilings, there's still plumbing, electric works, finishin up on carpentry, rectification of laminates, glassworks, carpentry arectification, cleaning, and not forgetting 1 coat of paint after plaster rectifications and one before air con can go up....

You really physically moving in this friday onwards? hmm.. frankly speaking i dun think all can be completed within a week, maybe you want to tell your ID to prioritise and get basic things up first like plumbing and electrical works? So that at least its fit for staying when you moved on friday.. hmmm..

[floppy 4]

You really physically moving in this friday onwards? hmm.. frankly speaking i dun think all can be completed within a week, maybe you want to tell your ID to prioritise and get basic things up first like plumbing and electrical works? So that at least its fit for staying when you moved on friday.. hmmm..

if i'm not wrong, acid wash must be completed before some of the tasks/items like plumbing can start work. otherwise, the fumes will destroy your chrome faster than you expected.

[Kerio 2]

You really physically moving in this friday onwards? hmm.. frankly speaking i dun think all can be completed within a week, maybe you want to tell your ID to prioritise and get basic things up first like plumbing and electrical works? So that at least its fit for staying when you moved on friday.. hmmm..

Ya, wife was suggesting postponing to Saturday (so she could help with the installation items as she was unable to get leave for Friday, so it's just me running around on the day), but I was adamant about Friday because:

1) judging by the way our ID has been working, one postponement will lead to more postponements. Recall the initial promise for handover was SIX WEEKS. It's been TEN WEEKS so far and the end is only barely in sight. If we give her the go ahead to delay some more, we'll be moving in on Christmas. 2011.

2) all the deliveries have been postponed one too many times. Even if the electronics shop, movers and Serta don't dulan, I also dulan already. In fact, I'm dam bloody dulan. Also, ikea charges $5 per trolley per day past 6 days storage, so pushing it to Sat will incur a $20 fee. NO. By this Thursday, the aircon will be up, so the electrical works and ceiling rectification and 2 coats of paint BETTER BE UP or it's straight to CASE, no passing boss, no negotiations, no payments until they bloody settle everything PROPERLY.

I will be keeping a very close watch on them in the next 3 days.

[BlurRhino 0]

if i'm not wrong, acid wash must be completed before some of the tasks/items like plumbing can start work. otherwise, the fumes will destroy your chrome faster than you expected.

Really?? i didn know this.. i always thought acid wash is the last of the last thing to do in reno... hmmm..

Ya, wife was suggesting postponing to Saturday (so she could help with the installation items as she was unable to get leave for Friday, so it's just me running around on the day), but I was adamant about Friday because:

1) judging by the way our ID has been working, one postponement will lead to more postponements. Recall the initial promise for handover was SIX WEEKS. It's been TEN WEEKS so far and the end is only barely in sight. If we give her the go ahead to delay some more, we'll be moving in on Christmas. 2011.

2) all the deliveries have been postponed one too many times. Even if the electronics shop, movers and Serta don't dulan, I also dulan already. In fact, I'm dam bloody dulan. Also, ikea charges $5 per trolley per day past 6 days storage, so pushing it to Sat will incur a $20 fee. NO. By this Thursday, the aircon will be up, so the electrical works and ceiling rectification and 2 coats of paint BETTER BE UP or it's straight to CASE, no passing boss, no negotiations, no payments until they bloody settle everything PROPERLY.

I will be keeping a very close watch on them in the next 3 days.

geeez.. gotta agree with your reasoning.. think this week will be very xiong for you lo.. jiayou!!

[cleong 1]

Ya, wife was suggesting postponing to Saturday (so she could help with the installation items as she was unable to get leave for Friday, so it's just me running around on the day), but I was adamant about Friday because:

1) judging by the way our ID has been working, one postponement will lead to more postponements. Recall the initial promise for handover was SIX WEEKS. It's been TEN WEEKS so far and the end is only barely in sight. If we give her the go ahead to delay some more, we'll be moving in on Christmas. 2011.

2) all the deliveries have been postponed one too many times. Even if the electronics shop, movers and Serta don't dulan, I also dulan already. In fact, I'm dam bloody dulan. Also, ikea charges $5 per trolley per day past 6 days storage, so pushing it to Sat will incur a $20 fee. NO. By this Thursday, the aircon will be up, so the electrical works and ceiling rectification and 2 coats of paint BETTER BE UP or it's straight to CASE, no passing boss, no negotiations, no payments until they bloody settle everything PROPERLY.

I will be keeping a very close watch on them in the next 3 days.

My friend, I am a fellow sufferer just like you. I don't have an ID, but I have a coordinator. My renovation is actually simple, no fancy deco or feature walls etc.

My renovation started in mid-September 2010 and is ongoing till now. I can only *hope* that it completes by mid-December. Even so, it would be 12 weeks, double of the original 6 weeks promised to me. Even the fact that I had told them I was getting married in mid-November wasn't enough motivation for them to not ruin it for us (to move in after our wedding).

I had already picked up on the slow work progress in mid-October, when I found on several occasions no one working at our place. They assured me it'd be done by early November, so I began demanding a work schedule and setting them incremental deadlines (which don't work by the way). I found that at this point of time, when so many HDB flats are changing hands, the contractors have more jobs than they can handle. Since our renovation contracts don't have an LD (liquidated damages) clause, its hard to obtain financial motivation for contractors to finish the job quickly. Tie the customer down, and take your time to finish the job.

The sh!t part is that if you insist on pushing ahead with your other plans (such as deliveries and installation of other stuff) you'll just cock up the whole process and make things worse. Things would get paint splattered, damaged, stepped upon, scratched, dropped, you name it.

They will always come up with excuses - handphone no battery, no stock of tiles, worker fall ill, worker quit, family member died got to attend funeral, got pulled to other project, etc etc etc. You'll hear them all.

As my flat was a resale unit, I required extensive hacking of old floor tiles. Can you believe it took three extensions of HDB hacking permits spanning two weeks to get it done? Admittedly it was an executive maisonette, but I only hacked the kitchen, toilets, and balcony floors as well as realigned the kitchen entrance.

Going down daily to check was no use either. I've seldom felt as helpless as this, watching the contractor deploy one or two workers a day to lay tiles, or poke around with a paintbrush. My coordinator could only keep telling me "I will check" when I complained to him about slow progress, lack of labour committment, etc. He didn't do much coordinating as far as I could see, because he couldn't control his resources. In the beginning of November it was so bad my coordinator would not answer my calls or text messages. I had to reach him through a third party.

Like you, I was suddenly told to get my airconditioning sorted out. This, after I told the coordinator beforehand to give me early notice, and was assured it would be early enough.

They had crap workers too - one notable incident had them laying out all the bits and pieces for three toilets on the floor (while painting and plastering etc was going on) only to discover that they needed to buy the connecting pipe to the floor trap. I pointed out that the toilet has so many small bits and pieces and you leave it out for people to kick around and later tell me parts were missing from the package? Then as the klutz was packing the stuff up, he dropped a spanner onto the cistern lid, breaking the corner off, right in front of me! I was so livid all I could tell the coordinator was "Change it".

Then they first managed to break the Open Net socket box, then later completed the destruction by chopping the fibre optic cable where it entered my flat. Final paint finishing is delayed because Open Net's earliest installation date is first week December and the trunking needed to be covered before final finishing can be done.

I've f*cked them upsidedown when things got really bad, but things didn't change. They still work at the same pace and committment as before. Now I only look upon them with disappointment and disdain. Today I just discovered one of my shower head handles was scratched. Thankfully its not the Grohe one, else I would have more ammo to shoot them with again.

The only saving grace is that workmanship was generally decent for the tiling (even gaps), carpentry (good workmanship), and windows (save for one bad worker from the window sub-con who was careless with my frames). Defects I pointed out were rectified fairly quickly.

The upshot of all this is that at this stage, I've held back on making many of my intended purchases as the house simply isn't ready to receive them.

Good luck with it, its a learning experience and you'll be smarter the next time.

[Kerio 2]

if i'm not wrong, acid wash must be completed before some of the tasks/items like plumbing can start work. otherwise, the fumes will destroy your chrome faster than you expected.

Meh, I didn't know that either!! Well, the upside is that all the nice silver kitchen cabinet handles have been magically de-selected, and now I have cabinets I need to open with claws. Also, I don't forsee the chrome stand for my bar counter/dining area will be up anytime this week, so no fear. It is highly likely I'll just tell their workers to not do the final cleaning (after this week's), because I'm pretty sure wife and I will be able to do a better job.

My friend, I am a fellow sufferer just like you. I don't have an ID, but I have a coordinator. My renovation is actually simple, no fancy deco or feature walls etc...

Good luck with it, its a learning experience and you'll be smarter the next time.

Haha.. After reading your experience, I suddenly have this impression that all bad IDs are the same pattern. Work cannot work properly. Cannot manage time, over-commit, under-deliver; full of excuses and simply no sense of integrity.

Mine doesn't even have very good quality of work, huh.

The part about moving in first and things getting damaged is good advice, though part of why I do it is because:

1) the workers don't lay floor protection when they're working (particularly when painting), anyway; so I might as well be around to stare at them like a malicious spirit when they're painting. I'm under the impression their painters are imbeciles, right down to the very last man. And like all village fools, one needs to constantly supervise them in case they fall into the village well or decide to do a Picasso with my furniture.

2) since they cannot be trusted with their time management, let me do it for them. I might need to ask for a few hours leave here and there, but at least when the ID says "Friday glass will be up", I'll demand to know the exact time since I will NEED to be at home to unlock the door and oversee the Rno.

If they're not in on Friday, wife and I will execute Plan C. We're keeping Plan C close to our hearts for now, but let's just say their company will become quite famous overnight.

I think what we need is to make renotalk more popular so that potential home customers can take a closer look at all the experiences we're sharing so they can make a more informed decision when choosing their IDs.

The alternative is a "Renogowhere", like the hungrygowhere site.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Kerio