Its almost time for us to move into our new house, yet renovation is still not fully done....
Hhhmmmm....
23rd December 2012
A day before our great move in!
Whoo-hoo!
*clap clap clap*
Its MASSIVE wrapping of furniture over at our rented flat (we like to wrap our furniture on our own, just like what we did when we moved out of our old house. Its a great bonding time for the family and also saves time on moving out day.) ........
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and MAD cleaning over here in the new house.
While the kids do the simple wiping and vacuuming of the ground, the adults were climbing around doing all the rest.
===========================================
24th December 2012 -
The GREAT move in!
YEAH!!!
We started early at 9.30am with hubby and younger son coming over to the new house first while I stayed in the rented flat with my elder child. We did not throw as much things away as compared to the time we moved into this rented flat. Thus it would be just like the previous time, 2 trips will be required.
We engaged the same movers. Reason is simple : Good service! Read my reviews on them here "Will I Still Use This Mover?"
This time he DID ask many more hands to help! *laugh*
And in less than 3 hours EVERYTHING was moved out of my rented accomodation and into my new home.
*clap clap clap*
FINALLY!!!!
WE ARE GOING TO STAY IN THESE FOUR WALLS!!!
Yeah!!!
*Super Clap Clap Clap*
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27th December 2012
No one would want to work on Christmas Day, neither would we.26th December, we were out with my in-law's plus a total of 6 kids to Legoland Malaysia.
Today, 27th December, we made full payment to our renovation contractor, but the money really did not come easy for them. As the nature of our floor tiles had deeply absorbed the dirt from the renovation work over the past 2 months.
Even the acid wash done by the cleaners could not get some parts of the dirt out of my tiles, especially the edges of every tile.
There were grey and brown patches here and there and everywhere!
UGLY!
We told our renovation contractor before they came to collect the cheque from us and our male renovation coordinator (yes, I have 2 coordinators, one female and the other, male.) came prepared with more acid and tools to SCRUB our floor tiles himself!!!
Coordinators are NOT supposed to do this.
Their job is to coordinate!
Yet he was willing to go out of his job scope to get down and dirty to do it for us.
*super hugs*
I was not there to witness it as I was at the rented flat doing last round of cleaning.
My hubby described the whole incident to me and he was so moved by his action!
All that hubby could do was to move the furniture here and there to aid our male coordinator, so that he will only need to concentrate on making my floor snowy white again.
It was HARD WORK!!!
Thank goodness my NEW furniture have not arrived yet, or else it would be a more uphill task for him to clean the floor of the WHOLE HOUSE!
Though renovation work was not fully completed, we have no hold back in giving them the balance payment.
They truly deserved it.
Anyway, we have 1 year to 'bug' them if some areas of the house needed to be attended to.
Yes, 1 year warranty for all the job they and their workers had done for us.
===================================
28th December 2012
OMG!
FINALLY MY WINDOW GRILLES ARE HERE!!!
From the beginning till the very end, we had so many issues with the window contractor!
Let me go through them one by one...
1) Colour of my window panes.
2) The material of the handles on the window
3) The measurement of the top hung
4) The 'rust' of the screws
5) The window grille design
6) Did not keep the dateline promised to us
*eyes rolled*
Simply listing this down already set my heart racing with fire.
1) Colour of my window panes
We loved the colour of our window panes of our old house. Its light green. So light that the green is obvious only when the windows are closed. We swear that we MUST use this same green tone for our new house.
There are different shades of green glass available in the market.
Even without going to a glass supplier or glass manufacturer, it is SO OBVIOUS by just looking at the housing estates around Singapore.
However, our renovation contractor only showed us one tone of green and it was definitely darker than what we want.
We asked them to check with their window contractor and that guy said there is ONLY ONE TYPE OF GREEN!
Oh come on!
Look around you for goodness sake!
There are MORE than one tone of green glass for window panes!
Don't argue with us over something that even my kids can tell that there are different shades of green window glass.
We even took a photo of two houses side by side who had different tones of green glass for their window panes and showed it to them.
We told them the address of those 2 houses and asked them to come and take a look themselves.
Yes, we went to that extend because we REALLY wanted our 'old' light green windows back and we are NOT going to settle for anything less or more.
Then the window contractor's attitude changed.
No, he was NOT convinced.
When I said his attitude changed, I meant it went the other direction.
It has become I-Do-One-Type-Of-Green-Only-So-Take-It-Or-Leave-It kind of attitude.
Hey!!!!
I am not trying to pick a fight here ok?
I am also not trying to make things difficult for you!
I am not even asking you to pick a needle from a haystack!
I am showing you that in the market, and people are ALREADY using it for their house, there ARE different tones of green glass panes!!!!
All I need you to do is to find that tone of green glass which WE WANT!
Is that too difficult for you to comprehend?
This is not rocket science you know?!
Just go source for it!
Are you too lazy to do it or too busy to do it?
Or you simply could not be bothered to do it?
I do not know.
But I am NOT going to take such shitty attitude!
So we dropped the bomb.
We went to search for our OWN window contractors.
Are we allowed to do so even though we have signed the contract?
Yes, 'cos they could NOT give us what we want.
We searched for our own GLASS supplier and window maker.
Lo and behold the glass supplier showed us 4 to 5 pieces of green glass.
ALL DIFFERENT TONES!!!!
Really feel like pulling that window maker's ear and drag him down to see these pieces of glass with his own eyes!
*humph*
There are even NAMES for each tone of green!!!!
Still say ONLY GOT ONE GREEN!
*humph*
I want to give you business to do, but you treat me like an idiot!
We told the contractor that we are willing to pay more if that tone of green cost more.
So money was not an issue here.
All I need you to do is just make a few more phone calls to different glass makers to find that light green glass for us.
Is that so difficult that you cannot do?!?!?!
I think more of UNWILLING to do.
Really do not understand what was going on in his mind.
Fine!
Renovating my new house should be a happy thing, I am NOT going to let such people affect my mood.
So we went direct to our OWN glass supplier and window maker.
We became coordinators ourselves, making sure that the window maker will take that light green glass panes from our glass supplier.
With that confirmed, no contract signed yet, we brought OUR light green glass sample down to our renovation contractor's office to do a comparison with their sample.
Let me make a special note here : our RENOVATION CONTRACTOR is NOT the one giving the problem, its the window maker!
Hey hey hey!!!!
See?!?!
Ours is lighter than theirs!
Too obvious to deny!
They called up the bad attitude window contractor and told him that we DID find that light tone of green.
I think he was dumbfounded or pissed or both at the same time.
I don't know.
Then my renovation contractor started to tell us a whole chunk of positive points of letting them do this window making business, instead of using the window maker which we managed to FIND ON OUR OWN.
We told them straight in the face, we said: "We HAD NEVER wanted to change contractor for our windows. Right from the beginning, we wanted you to do it for us. But its your window contractor that is NOT willing to go find our light green window pane. Its not possible for us to back down just because of your window contractor's unwillingness to help."
So they had a discussion again and my renovation contractor came back and told us that the 'problematic' window maker agreed to get supplies from OUR glass supplier to solve the problem once and for all.
GOOD!
Happy ending!
or that was what we thought!
*humph*
Another thing came.
2) The material of the handle on the window
Hubby had an accident in this new house before any renovation work started. He tried to close one of the windows and the handle of the window snapped and broke. As hubby's strength was forceful because the window hinges were too tight and the sudden broke-off of the handle hit his nose bridge. It bled!
We checked the handle and noticed that it was not aluminum!
Thank goodness it did not hit his eyes!
So we told the window contractor to use aluminum for the window handle, which is the same as the window in our OLD house.
Seriously,
if it was possible,
I would have disassembled the windows in my old house and brought it over!
We REALLY loved our old windows to the core!
The day my new windows came, we checked the material of the handle and it was NOT aluminum as the sound it made when its hit and the sound made by hitting the aluminum frame is so different!
We called up to ask but he insisted that it is aluminum!!!!
OMG!
How to prove leh?!?!
Only time will tell.
*scream*
We could not do anything about this but to swallow it as that.
Next,
3) The measurement of the top hung
We had top hung windows with casement windows in our old house.
The measurement of the height of the HOLE for the windows in our old house and this new house is the same.
But this window maker made the top hung windows so big, making our casement window below looked more like squares instead of tall rectangles!!!
*scream*
Should we argue over this?!
We were thinking, "What's the point?"
He had already delayed our renovation progress, if we asked him to redo, we will NEVER be able to move in before 2013 arrives.
Humph!
So we just make do with it again!
Then,
4) The 'rust' of the screws
Remember "Update 7" ?
Yes, that was another problem.
They were not willing to change the screws and hinges at first.
Then they decided to charge the foreign worker who did the acid cleaning that day.
Poor guy, I seriously do not think he earns much and he had to pay a couple of hundreds for the damage caused.
Yes, it was his mistake, but a price too high to pay?
sigh.....
5) The window grille design
Hubby did not want any grille. He finds that grille-less windows make the house look bigger and brighter.
I wanted grilles because its easier for me to rest my bamboo on when I am hanging bedsheets and comforter covers. You know, you had to lift the bamboo higher because such things are longer? So the grilles are my 'special assistants' to give me that needed lift off the ground.
Yet, to have grilles only in the kitchen also makes the whole house look imbalance.
So it was either with or without grilles.
Then we thought of DESIGNING OUR OWN GRILLES to fulfill our different wants.
Let's have grilles with few metal strips! We thought.
So that it let in more sunlight and I can hang my bedsheets!
Perfect!
Well, our renovation contractor checked with the government and there are NO restrictions on the number of horizontal metal strips that goes across the grille frame.
Whoo-hoo!!!!
Since the government has no objection to our idea, we thought this is going to be so cool!
'Cos we are going to be the ONLY ONE or THE FIRST ONE to have this unique grilles! The latter happens only if passerby-s spotted our widely-spaced grilles and wanted to copy too *laugh*,
Yeah!
But we "Yeah-ed" too soon!
*twisted mouth*
The window contractor said: "No one does that one lah!"
Hey!
What's your problem man!?!?!
I have less horizontal strips across the frame, thus you have less work to do!
So what are you complaining about huh?!?
No way am I going to give in again!
I have already given in to the size of my top hung window and my window panes being more squarish than rectangular, I am not going to hear any more of your nonsense.
Since I am NOT going against the law.
Just do it for goodness sake!!!!
And so he did.
Look at my grilles!
We loved it!!!!
My renovation contractor kindly reminded us that we have to be careful of our young kids as the saying goes, "When the head can go through the gap of the window grilles, the body can go out too."
Yes, my boys' head, even the adults' heads can go through the gap of the window grilles, but the rest of our body is in a 90degree position.
Standing in such a way will never make us fall out and through the window grille.
In order for my boys to fall THROUGH the GAP of the window grilles, their body would need to be flying straight in the air for it to go OUT and THROUGH the window grille gap in a straight line, like superman.
And that is not going to happen unless someone wants to throw them out and lifted their legs off the ground and carried their body in a complete horizontal-straight-position.
Even so, if the person really wants to throw them out, wouldn't it be easier to unlock the window grille and slide it to one side and just throw them out of the open window?
Know what I mean?
So that concern is not a concern to us at all.
'cos its just not going to happen.
But we still thank them.
Lastly,
6) Did not keep the dateline promised to us
He kept saying that he is very packed with alot of deals.
Well, every other contractors that did other parts of my house says that to us too!
Though these contractors give a later dateline, they keep their promise and finish their job before or by that dateline.
He, was different.
Delay and delay.
Whatever date that he promised, he did not keep.
Because of his rubber dateline, my window blinds contractor, which we sourced on our own, called us up and asked if we are playing a prank on him, "You all still want to do the blinds or not?!"
Of 'cos we do!
We loved to work with OLD PEOPLE!
And I really mean old.
This uncle who installs the window blinds is at least 60 years old and his partner is probably a few years younger than him.
We like to work with such old folks because they KNOW what they are doing and so long as we pay, the job is well done.
Simple, straight forward business dealing.
*Thumbs Up*
Now the window grilles are finally up after more than a month from the time they installed the window panes (unbelievable right??!! *eyes rolled*), the
Which of you have your window panes changed for more than a month before the grilles come?!?!
Is this even normal?!
I really don't know.
But my previous window makers did the window panes AND the grilles ON THE SAME DAY!
*sigh*
Enough of him.
So the uncles came after the window makers have left and went straight to work......All done in about an hour.
We were happy that the blinds are up as the evening sunlight shines right into the house, making it warmer than usual during that time of the day.
However, I noticed that the design on the window blinds were WRONG many hours after they left!!!
Alamak!
My mind must have been too busy with all the nitty gritty details that was going on inside the house, that I did not realise the circles were not overlapping!
Hubby did not even spot the difference!
Man!
*slap forehead*
The design which we chose had circles of different sizes overlapping each other randomly.
*sigh*
My carelessness, I need to pay the price.
So nope, I did not call the uncles to question them for the mistake.
I should have checked it before they start installing.
Hhhmmm......
First time getting window blinds and I was 'blinded'!
*sigh*
Actually, on this day, other things happened too but without any photographs to show.
The carpenter's workers came to change the doors of the kitchen cabinet and passed me the missing metal rods for my wardrobe to hang my clothes.
I mentioned that they forgot to bring the metal rod for my wardrobe in "Update 12".
Ohhhh!!!!
I forgot to talk about the doors of the kitchen cabinet!
Yes, there were 3 cabinet doors which needed to be changed.
Let me bring you back to the previous photos :
Can you see that the gap above the last 3 cabinet doors are wider than the rest?
Yes, these 3 doors needed to be 'taller' so that the gap would be the same as the gap above the other cabinet doors.
And this is the 'After' photo:
We were a little taken aback when we saw 5 people came just for this simple door-changing task, when ONE MAN alone could do up the carpentry work for my whole house!!!!
*scratch head*
Anyway, I am happy so long as its a job well done.
*smile*
Errrr.... this is NOT the end of my roller coaster ride with the renovation of my new house.
More heart-dropping things happened after this....
But this post has taken too much space for today.
Will do the rest on another post...... or postS.....
*wink*
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