Paul & Karine Morris + Mayris
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The renovation nightmare

11/7/2017

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*I am sharing the review i had with my renovation company and pls note that i do not recommend the company at all after going through what i have been through. It has been 10 months since we shifted into my apartment. This review is based on my experience.* - PART 1 of the review as follows:-

The renovation journey for our new place started off with great anticipation as we have good communication and ideas discussion across both parties but sadly, it turn into a dreadful nightmare after we paid the 1
st deposit. The team - Smart home appeared to be confident with great ideas shared but the outcome was a total nightmare. First issue occurs after the next discussion on the requirement, we noticed the team do not record the requirements down but they reassured us that they can remember.


Thereafter, we chased numerous times for the 3D drawing to complete but were told that there is delay from the designer team. After almost 2-3 weeks later, we finally received some of the 3D drawings but there are plenty of mistake in the drawings. Amendment and re-sending of the 3D drawing takes forever again and in the end, we gave up chasing for it as there is no time to delay. They have engaged a 3rd party to draw the ID drawing and many requirement were missing from the drawing. We gave up after numerous exchange as it is very very frustrating. We wishes to have the renovation process to start in JUL since hacking permits needed time for application as well.

Told Boss J** that we are not rushing to get keys but we hope to hold our son’s birthday celebration at our place in NOV’16. They understood our intention and the work finally begins, hacking completed with some other works like electrician and switches planning.  The detailed drawing for the carpentry work is headache as it is only done after our false ceiling and partition are done up. For this delay, I can understand as some carpenters work requires the exact measurement and false ceiling are handmade sector which might have discrepancies.

One of the conversations I had with Boss J**where he boosted on the excellent wood materials – Melamine wood that they are already using in comparison to some other IDs firm where they are only at the introduction phase. Things seems still not too bad until we were told that order for the materials are placed and all we can do now is wait. Never do we expect that the wait took FOREVER. There is almost 6 weeks of EMPTY period where literally no work is done at all. The team did not even come over my place or provide initiatives to update us on the progression despite our unhappiness. We gave them the trust as they keep reassured us that the assembly is quick and things will be done by mid Nov’16.

Mid Nov’16 came by and the materials only start to arrive and to our horror, it comes in batches. First batch consist only the kitchen carpentry and nothing else was included in it. This differs from what Boss J** told us when he say shipment comes in one lot. Assembly of the kitchen carpentry ended up facing wrong colour board for the larder unit and missing drawer board from the 1st shipment. This time round, we show our unhappiness again and Boss J** said will complete all by 1st week of Dec’16. Keep explaining to us that it is shipment delay and there is nothing they can do which later on, we gave in as well.

Thinking back on the reason why I picked them is because of the strong recommendation from a friend on Boss J**’s reputation. We were told that he is responsive and responsible on the after service when she purchased items from him earlier on. Adding on, we had great renovation ideas as the main carpenter –in-charge. We have crazy ideas of putting wood laminates on ceiling and he supported our ideas while showing the confident. The actual seems to differ as the initial laminate ceiling created was bad. The joint lines were obvious and the ceiling was not balanced at all. Immediately we rejected the product and requested to redo. This matter dragged on for 2-3 weeks where the ball was thrown here and there thinking to use back the same panel to redo or to consider overlaying. Carpenter-in-charge T** told us that he even air-flown some new boards back to redo the matter and told us to wait. Till then, it is already end of Dec’16.

Next moment, the true nightmare happens. We were told by Carpenter-in-charge T** that he is having disputes with Boss J** and they are not on talking terms. Boss J** have looped in Carpenter LIM for the meet up and requested us to repeat our requirements once again. The NEW TEAM tried to reassure us that since materials are here, the assembly will be quick and by 07/JAN, the place should be ready to move in condition with some loose ends to tie.
We tried to hold our frustration as we just hope to have the matter resolved. Most importantly, we wish to shift in by Mid Jan so that we can start preparing for Chinese New Year. We have been buying electronic appliances and been storing them at Parents-in-laws place which is piling up. We stress to the NEW TEAM that we needed to shift and this drags on for 6 months which is totally UNACCEPTABLE.
​

Over the 2 weeks where NEW TEAM formed, we took the effort to head down daily so to monitor the progress and also to rectify any mistake (if needed). We even drafted the time line along with tasks needed for completion with Boss J** while he tell us by which date, what will be done. This effort by us wasn’t payoff as the progress was slow and things are not moving as per expected. Till today, we are still having a lot of pending items yet completed we are very sure that it is totally impossible to handover by 07/JAN.

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Lighting Points - Planning on Points / Switches

8/22/2016

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Took some time to use paint to illustrate by your truly~
While waiting for the hacking permit to be approved by HDB which usually takes around 2 weeks, Tim told us to meet to discuss on the lighting points and switches point. Upon knowing our requirement, he is able to start work by having the electrician to pull wires for connection. Likely this will be completed by Monday! HURRAY!

Realize that this is one of the more difficult detailing involved in House renovation. Poor planning of lighting and switches point will be affecting your daily lifestyle since we need to switch on the lights daily ya? We had to actually imagine how we would be if we are staying at our new place. Most important factor to consider will be like " where will be the first place you will head to once you reach home? " Our Answer were identical - Island!  The place where we will enter and place our bags first before doing any other things.

Scenario planning:
As we intending to make our place a "smart home" which involved items like sensor ball, touch panel switches and smart home system for controlling. First thing first, the constraint we faced is that this touch panel switch is only 1 way switch thus we are unable to do any 2 way switches if we wants to control via the system. So we decided, we will be installing sensor ball at the entrance to prefix the walkway lighting to automatically light up upon entrance. Then we will walk to to the island to place down our bags before turning to the corridor to switch on the ceiling fan, lights for our pantry as well as living room. Upon then, the entrance walkway lighting will off after several minutes (depending on setting). 

After all the chilling around living room, we will then walk to the corridor and switch on corridor light before switching off the living room and the pantry lighting. Corridor light will then be manually switch off via Smart home system application on Mobile / Tablet after we entered the bedroom. 

Sounds ideal aint it? LOL! I hope this is really coming true. :D

***Side note, we are purchasing downlights and T5 Tubes from Taobao. Will be sharing the URL links as well as the details on a separate post. For now, we need to accompany my precious boy to zzzzz.
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Our choice of colors.

8/14/2016

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A more intensive discussion over on the colors of our new place which basically runs in the color of white, black, grey and wood colors. Pretty much straight forward planning and we are very excited to see it on the 3d drawing and how our ideas materialized.

At least we managed to have a clearer picture on the design and layout after numerous discussions, we Will / Will not be doing the following:
  • ​Open-concept kitchen with island and pantry cabinets. (Bottom cabinet will be full drawer system)
  • Full expansion of the DB box to shoe cabinet with open cabinet
  • Platform bed in Bedroom 2
  • 2 x pocket door instead of Glass sliding door for the mbr and wiw entrance.
  • Covelight box with downlight for all 3 bedrooms
  • Wood laminate ceiling design for living room
  • No Full height shoe cabinet with settee (we felt too much carpentry and too little plain o' white wall) 
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Finally, Keys collection!

7/28/2016

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Totally mixed feeling we had today where we were both excited to own a new possession yet feeling SOOOOO POOR!

We decided to brave through the loan term for minimal possible years to clear off. Painful yet we know, we are moving towards a common goal. 

​More details about our Key collection day here!
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City Gas Water heater & Gas Dryer

7/24/2016

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Just nice City gas held its carnival and we decided to head down to check out the promotion. Bought the Macro MA-10FE water heater + Rinnai RD-600CG gas dryer bundle from citygas carnival. Promotion runs at discounted price with free installation and extended 6 mths warranty. 

We picked City Gas water heater for our new house after trying it in my Brother's place. The Water heater looks really sleek where it is usually installed in the Service yard. This means that there will be no need for any water storage tank / water heater device to be installed in the toilets.

Adding on, we decided to grab the City gas dryer as well after hearing the awesome feedback from Michelle on this Made in Japan Dryer. It may be more expensive than the electrical ones but long run costing is lower.
Before all these decisions on Citygas Water heater, we actually started researching online to know on the various types of water heater available in Singapore which are:
  1. Gas Heater 
  2. Storage Heater
  3. Instant Heater
Chanced upon one of the website by INTRAIX which is rather useful for referencing as well.  

To be honest, both papaTan and i felt that there aint much difference in the functionality among these heaters and that is why we picked something which we felt, looks better in comparison to the others.
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Just one additional consideration where Gas heater is of a cleaner source of energy as it produce about 60% lesser carbon than electric heater. Might be more environmental friendly to consider a gas one instead!
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My ideal Fridge - Hitachi Multidoor RF 6200S

7/22/2016

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The first time i see it, i know i want to own it. The multi-door fridge is just so sexy. Love the fact on the multiple compartment where i can fill the fridge up with tons of food. But all along, it was difficult for me to justify to PapaTan that we MUST grab this Fridge as it cost twice as much as the normal 2 door fridge by Hitachi. Aside from Hitachi, there is Panasonic which is also manufacturing the Multi-door fridge. Spoken to a couple salesperson and all suggested to buy Hitachi as they are the pioneer in the market for Multi-door and is Made in Japan.

We decided to temporarily drop the idea of this sexy fridge while we work on our financial to see if these extra cash can be allocated to buy my ideal fridge. Who knows today, papaTan said "ok, lets go buy your multi-door fridge since Audio House is having an electronic fair @ EXPO"*EXCLAIMED* .

SERIOUSLY, I WAS LIKE SOOOOO EXCITED ABOUT IT!


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Height: 1,833 mm
Width: 750 mm
Depth: 738 mm
Capacity: 479 Litres
R-F6200S 
​Made in Japan - Hitachi's Original Vacuum 
  • Net Capacity 479 Litres
  • Hitachi Original Vacuum Compartment with new Platinum Photocatalyst
  • Aero-Care Vegetable Compartment with Platinum Photocatalyst
  • Hitachi Original Frost Recycling Cooling Technology with Hybrid Defrost
  • Hitachi Original Flexible Vacuum Insulation Panel (VIP)
  • Touch Screen Controller
  • Hitachi Original Auto Drawers
  • Triple Power Deodorization
  • Scratch-Resistant Crystal Glass Doors
  • Crystal Black & Crystal White 



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It is KEY COLLECTION TIME!

7/21/2016

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During this tough period to fight against Morris Tan's HFMD, we are glad to receive this booster email that brightens us up. After waiting for almost 4 years (1 more day to be exact), we are finally going to take the keys for our home sweet home. Nothing beats this excitement when the KEYS ARE ACTUALLY READY FOR COLLECTION!
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So near YET so far

7/11/2016

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Just received news from fellow neighbors who managed to chat with the Site supervisor for my BTO project where all units are to be lock up with keys submission to HDB by TODAY!!! And yes, today!

Well, we heard that 661C which is the 2nd last block is collecting their keys during 3rd Week of JULY. We are pinning the last bit of hope that we will receive SMS by this week that keys collection will be during last week of JULY! Too many things yet settled but we do hope that keys come in by end of JUL as 3rd AUG will be the kick-start of Lunar 7th month. It was advisable not to step into new house or conduct any renovation. That will likely means 1 month time wasted as nothing could be done. (Hate this and pray hard that it is not happening to us!)

Anyway, alot of things yet settled:
1. ID / Contractor yet decided
2. Color theme yet decided
3. Fridge  (bought!)
4. Washer / Dryer
5. Ceiling fan
6. Wall mount fan
7. Defects check list not done up yet
8. New house ceremony requirement, I only know needs to bring pineapple (for now)
9. To overlay my tiles for living room and Kitchen (Or not?)
10. Gas heater models

Gosh, so little time, so much to do!

​*EXCITED&
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Bosch bundle package

6/11/2016

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Headed down to Harvey Norman's sale @ Expo for a walk and ended up buying things for our new house again. This time round we saw a good promotion from Bosch where there is a bundle promotion for the oven & microwave oven package. FOC Harvey Norman $50 in additional to the special price of $1370 which makes this bundle cost at $1320 instead. The even better deal about this package is that we are able to pay by Interest free credit card installment payment. This will allow us to stretch our overall funding to the maximum it possibly able to.

We actually wanna buy other brands like elba which will likely cost us about $1.2K from Mega discount store but papaTan felt more comfortable in buying Bosch because of its established branding and the price difference is not much. Sounds like i do need to cook and bake more often after we shift house. :)
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House visiting.

5/8/2016

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Our view from living room
Have been hearing fellow neighbors who have managed to barge into their apartment and we decided to try out on Sunday 6pm to see if its possible to get to our flat. The security on a Sunday is less strict as many of the Foreign workers are back to their dorm to rest for the day. To our surprise, we managed to sneak into our block and i told papaTan to climb up to our unit which is located at the #17 floor. (He thought i was joking when i told him to climb the stairs up)
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The whole place looks very raw. No doors and tiles yet.
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Captured while standing at the corner of where my TV will be.
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Gonna hack away this kitchen wall for open concept.
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Tiles are lying on the living room flat.
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Our kitchen
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Service yard view
To be honest, i did not really like my kitchen layout as the bomb shelter takes up space in my kitchen (near to the service yard) which means i am unable to create kitchen cabinet and worktop space on both sides. After much thoughts, we decided to hack away the wall and build an island. This is the only possibility that i could fully utilize the kitchen. If i knew of such constraints during the start of flat selection, i would have choose other units based on our awesome queue #80 but oh well, 4 years ago we are still quite noob in this area.
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Common toilet
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Master bedroom toilet
The next limitation we faced is that i am unable to build full length mirror in the toilet as there is only 1 ventilation point in the master bedroom toilet and its located right on-top of the toilet so we are only able to build a simple mirror with storage cabinet only.

Anyway, we are still discussing whether to remove the sink provided by HDB as i understand some of the basin's quality is inferior and not lasting. But there again, all these are actually paid for with our hard earned money. I guess we need some further discussion on this to finalize what to do with the bathroom. 
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The bedroom
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Master bedroom
Hoping keys will come really soon!
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