13 nov 08

my id called me today to ask me to be present the whole day tomorrow to supervise the work to make sure it's to my liking. i was like 'the whole day?'
which made him go on about how i had 'so many thing to add on to the defect list'. he refused to listen to me when i said that alot of the additions were due to his workers doing bad patch ups, and went on a tirade of how he's tried but we're hard to please & that he's very busy & got other things to do, not only my hse.

i raised my voice at him to tell him to let me speak (coz i couldn't get a word in sideways with him going on about how he doesnt want to listen to what went wrong) & he just raised it back at me even louder! i couldn't take it anymore, and honestly, for one of the few times in my life (and i can count on one hand how many times that's happened), i just exploded & started shouting at him that he was being extremely rude to me and that he should not be shouting at me and not allowing me to speak at all.

almost everyone i know have NEVER heard me shout. (you know right gals?) that's how angry i was loh!

so yeah. we pretty much had a shouting match for a while. (during which i told him i'd go down to his office to complain to his boss at his office about his bad attitude, and that he's made this renovation experience an unhappy one for me. and that i have NEVER had anyone shouting at me like that.)

anyways, to cut a long story short, he finally 'sort of' extended an olive branch by reprasing what he said last ('i dont mean that i want you to do my job, but i just think that if you are there than the defects can be corrected there & you wont have any more defects after that') - which i actually doubt btw being that i have heard of TONS of stories where after some time of living at a place, you find out that certain things are not working well/ plastering falls off, etc.

he also 'explained away' his shouting by saying he was 'outside' (unconfirmed, but will dubiously take that as true), and that he talks to contractors most of the time so he might raise his voice unconsiously. (might be true, but if he's as experienced an ID as he claims he is, he'd know that raising his voice BACK at a client for whatever reason is a no no.)

anyways, i have agreed to take off work & go down to my house for the whole of tomorrow to oversee the workers.

but really, i still don't understand what's so difficult.

i compiled a 5 pg list of defects (& where in each room to find them) for him & informed him promptly on only 2 or 3 other seperate occasions on additions to the defect list. (between which almost no work was done anyway!) i even tagged each defect in each room with masking tape & written instruction on the tape so it's OBVIOUS to him to know where each defect is. but i'm still accused of being unreasonable and adding to the defect list (what am i to do if i see more defects? just keep my mouth shut & live with it?!?).

honest to god i had not been so angry in a LONG LONG LONG TIME.

tha dear- do you have an idea of what can be done for this? pfft. really must make sure that i don't get bullied on this. can't stand mike's unreasonableness!!

i REALLY can't wait for this reno to be over.

Angry Day

if there's anything i've learnt from this reno episode, it's this: KEEP A DAMNED GOOD EYE ON EVERY BIT OF THEIR WORKS, AND DON'T PAY THEM TILL THEY'VE COMPLETED EVERYTHING TO YOUR SATISFACTION!!!

the workmanship we got was VERY SHODDY. so shoddy that i had a 5 PAGE DEFECT LIST that my ID is going through. The worst part is that the ID feels affronted when we put additions to the defect list & told us that the reno will not be done on time if the defect list keeps expanding!!

Here are a list of my grouses with them (ane believe me-there are MORE)

1) Our reno is already more than 3 wks late. We've were promised 6 wks, and we are currently on our 10th wk. And it's always the same thing- 'by next sat, by next sat'. I don't care WHEN it's done, I just want you to have the INTEGRITY TO DO IT WHEN YOU SAY IT WILL BE DONE!!


2) There was so much bad work that we had a 5 page defect list in our home! The ID we had actually insinuated that we were being demanding in having a 5 page defect list. (We typed out all the defects & tagged them with tape all around our hse). But come on, if there weren't so many cracked tiles, holes in grouting, cracked aircon trunking, holes in electrical casing, and stained walls, would any home owner bother to be picky?!?!? FURTHERMORE, an ID is SUPPOSED to LOOK OUT for the customer, and make sure these defects DO NOT HAPPEN! OTHERWISE WHY WOULD I WANT TO GET AN ID?!?!?!? I WOULD JUST GET A CONTRACTER SO THAT I CAN SAVE THE MONEY AND HAVE A SIMILAR AMOUNT OF HEADACHE RIGHT!??!?!?

3) I got an ANGRY call from my neighbour downstairs because apparantly the workers who clean the house just THROW DIRTY WATER OUT OF THE WINDOW- A FEW TIMES THIS MONTH!!! When my bf called the ID to tell give him an earful & tell him to make sure it doesnt happen again- he said that my bf was WRONGFULLY ACCUSING HIS WORKERS & that the water they threw out the window was CLEAN, and just quickly disconnected the line when my bf wanted to say more!!! HOW RUDE IS THAT?!?!?! AND COME OFF IT- you think i was born yesterday and think that your workers suka-suka just fill a pail of CLEAN water to THROW OUT MY WINDOW?!?!?!?!

4) Everytime we point out a defect to the ID he will say the same thing: 'if you want, i will change it for you loh'. and that is usually followed with a fake laugh. MACHAM YOU ARE DOING ME A FAVOUR?!?!? COME ON NOW- I PAID FOR IT TO BE DONE PROPERLY. IT IS NOT NORTHWEST'S FIRST DAY ON THE JOB, SO WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DEFECTS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?! FURTHERMORE, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT CORRECTING DEFECTS ARE SOMETHING YOU SHOULD BE DOING ANYWAY!!!!

5) The solid surface we chose for our vanity was the WRONG COLOUR- apparantly because '2007 colour different from 2008 colour', and my ID- the person who's supposed to be DEALING WITH ALL THESE, asked the solid surface supplier to call me. The solid surface supplier called me, and said they DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG because it was the RIGHT COLOUR CODE THAT WAS GIVEN TO THEM, and that it shouldn't matter because the COLOUR WAS ALMOST THE SAME. Again. I WAS NOT BORN YESTERDAY and I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SANDY AND **** BROWN!! After raising my voice at him, they finally decided to change the solid surface for me.

I don't know if my ID with northwest is gonna wake up his idea anytime soon but am prepared to have to be demanding to get what should be done done. am starting to do research on CASE & HDB complaints already to get to know what my options are if they give me more grief. hope you don't have the same experience that I do.

nov 7th

i think we're finally seeing the end of the tunnel!! *hopeful*

:) the ID is working through our 5 page defect list, as well as replacing our solid surface for the vanity area.

hope things will be done-- soonish!

Some Pics

ID has said that the reno should be done by next thurs.

We'll see.

Pics so far:

Wardrobe





Kitchen Cabinets

Wk 7 of renovation

bleah.

there has been no updates to this blog because our ID- NORTHWEST is causing us SOO MUCH grief.

Complaints so far
1) electical work is EXTREMELY SHODDY.
- casing on the walls have holes in them (casing cut too short & electrician can't be bothered to change)
- casing is broken at some places, but also not replaced
- casing is crooked and not flush against the edge of the walls
- wiring is just done in an extremely haphazard way! the electician put casing around half of both toilets even though all i needed was a single point going in for my lights-- so what's the point of encasing half of my toilet with wire & making it so ugly?!?!?
Extremely disapponted with the wiring work. Plus from wk 4 till now, the changes have not been rectified yet- despite repeated reminders!!!

2) Cabinets done up wrongly
So the cabinets are up, but the measurements for the kitchen cabinets were done wrongly.. so they will have to change a part of it to salvage the kitchen cabinets. sigh.

3) We wanted to change the position of one of the doors to our room, and so had to pay for a new door frame. Thing is- the new door frame was made too large for the door! so now they are gonna give us a new door. BUT Mike our ID says that when its painted, the colour might not look like our original door. ?!!?!?!?!?!?!? how can they do something like that!?!?!?!?!?!!?

4) The whole of Wk 4, there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING happening at our home. Only after we called Mike to ask what's happening that he said 'oh, coz we are busy somewhere else...' Wow. I would've been fine if the work could be completed by wk 6, but it's clearly not happened. So what gives?

and everytime i tell mike of the problems, he says he will tell the contractors. BUT NOTHING GETS DONE!!! So the wiring is still crooked, etc.

AAARRRGGGHH!!!

wk 3 of renovation!

The tiling for our living room floor, toilets & kitchen walls are now done! We're hoping that the tiling will be fully completed by end of the week, so that the rest of the work (electicals, plastering, ect) can start!

Here are some pictures of the progress thus far:

Our new casement windows:
to replace the old, slightly rusty & stiff windows that were originally in the flat. *drool* ;)


kitchen toilet:
we chose to have three strips of 'wood' looking tiles as accents. think it turned out pretty well. we're gonna ask our ID if he'd be able to do a darker grouting between each of those tiles though, so it looks abit more natural.


its all coming together! :)

Reno Commences!

We are into wk 2 of our reno now! Here are some pics of the work so far. keke

Week 1
Day 1 of reno: Hacking commences


Hacking done, debris cleared!


Week 2
Tiling in kitchen getting done


Tiling in toilet getting done