Brief Update (7 Jan 2009)

I'm now officially into Phase 2 of my RT... sianz... Every Tuesday & Thursday evenings plus Sunday morning need to go back to Bedok Camp... Endure!

2 Jan 2009
The granite tiles workers came in to redo the two tiles in the living room for us. I went up to take a look in the evening. Looks more acceptable now.

5 Jan 2009
Mentioned to "C" that I've spotted some gaps between tiles in one of the bedroom. She sent the tiles workers in to rectify. I also requested "C" to send her foreman (doing our general cleaning) to drop by my parents place at 1.30pm to see the kind of standard I'm expecting the grouting to be. So he can better advise me if that standard can be achieve by doing heavier acid washing or polishing.

The foreman reached 15mins earlier and the moment he saw me, he told me that he was telling my Dad that his granite tiling is very nicely done. Worksmanship is superb. Blah blah blah... I cut the crap and ask him to tell me frankly what can be done to our unit, whether need to polish to achieve the same standard, etc... He told me don't need and he roughly know what I wanted so he will discuss with the tiles laying workers to do the best for us.

"C" SMS me around 4.30pm saying that her workers are at our place since 3pm and will try their best to rectify. She suggested that I drop by after work to check the final outcome and I did. Well, I can see that some effort were made to scrapped the excess grouting from the tiles so after discussing with Iris, we decided to accept the work.

We then arranged to do the Hand Over of the unit on Friday morning.

6 Jan 2009
My dad went to our unit to take a look. And I got him to change the lock for us too.


So that concludes the renovation stage. The next part will be washing, cleaning and bringing in the furnishing. My pockets are burnt with big holes already. -_-;;


Overall experience with "D" and "C" from Ciseern:
"D" only drop by once a week... maybe less... usually after something BIG happens.
"C" is still learning the trade... extremely new... seldom offer any suggestions... missed out measurements that I've passed to her... only good thing is she willing to ask her workers to rectify till we are satisfied.

Overall experience with Ciseern's Sub contractors:
Granite Tiles Laying: Foreman leaves most of the work to his three malaysian workers. He will appear first thing in the morning, take about 20 mins to look at the work done, gives some instructions and went off. Foreman and his wife does the skirting and rectification works needed. Worksmanship wise, they did not "choose" the nicer tiles and lay in living room and MBR resulting in different shades everywhere, quite a number of tiles are uneven, some were chipped but still layed, gap between tiles can be up to 3mm wide, grouting not cleaned up resulting in cured overflows.

Electrical Works: The husband and wife team didn't bother to ask when not sure where to place the lighting points. Do wrong never mind. To save themselve from trouble, they suggested to us to buy another light to put at the original intended location. Even dare to discard safety "clips" for our ceiling lights cos they don't know what those were for after installing the lights. Wiring casement are also done for the seek of doing. The case is not cut properly. Gaps can be seen at joints, at the sides and below the casement. The best part is can tell me already consider do very nice... other people don't even do casement for the wiring... wah... hear liao super duper hot...

Fridge, Kitchen & Washing Machine Base: Very bad worksmanship. Sharp edges, horrible grouting, cracked cement, loose tiles. Can be considered an eyesore. Must ask for touch-up 4 times, before the boss personally come down and do it. All the while, I believe they are done either by "new bird" or some unskilled worker.

Carpentry: The young boss is the best of the lot. He really spent a lot of time checking the work of his workers. They are all Malaysians. Worksmanship wise so so, if we are really picky, there are still a number of things to rectify. One thing that doesn't concern worksmanship is the quality of the laminates used. Be careful of those glossy surface laminates, the glossy layer tend to peel off very easily.

Plumbing Works: No comments yet cos haven't done any heavy washing.

Painting Works: They probably did a sealer coat follow by one more coat of actual paint only. I thought so because I tried to wipe off a stain on a wall with damp cloth. Immediately after doing so, I can see the white sealer coat beneath the paint. That's how thin the painting was done. Quite a number of uneven surface and holes are not plastered before painting. Those that I ask them to rectify, they did so selectively, and they didn't follow-up with painting over the plaster. And I saw one of them happily smoking while painting.


Ok think this is too long a post... I have more to share but I guess I better spare you all... This renovation really makes me loses lots of hair... to the extend that Iris's cousin actually commented to her mum that I'm balding badly... sob sob... but where got $ go to Yun Nam or Beijing 101... keke