jdmummy

Highly recommend Brilliant Source too. We bought most our lights from them. The lights are very reasonably priced -$68 for a set of 3 aluminium hanging dining lights! The boss is friendly and patient and he helped us to install some lights we bought from ikea . He even went the extra mile. We had a really old hanging light that was passed down from hubby's grandma and he helped us respray the rusting metal bits and rewire it. We offerred to pay him for all these extras that he did for us but he refused to accept and even gave us free spare bulbs. I told myself I really had to post online and so that more people can benefit and also to thank him.

After seeing the many recommendations online for summit I engaged SDS as my id. Here’s my experience with them so far. The good and not so good. My ID is indeed a patient and friendly id as many has mentioned before. He is not pushy and will try to help you think up ways to save $ which we really appreciated. He will respond to messages at night even if hubby messages him (I have asked hubby not to but hubby says if he does it the next day he might forget). We were quite hands off in that we didn’t visit the site very often during the renovation. The initial phase of the renovation was quite smooth. Hacking commenced very soon after we signed. The tiling work was neat and the concrete screeding on the kitchen wall was smooth and even. We thought we had it good till 3 quarters way into the renovation. He was still as affable as ever but he seemed to be really overstretched. We arranged to meet him twice at our new place and the first time he was half hr late. The second time he was one hr late. He told us the handover would be on 13 Jul 2011 when we were selecting the tiles but when we tried to confirm the handover date towards the end he forgot about what he committed. We could only allow a slight delay as we needed to move out of the rental and we moved in on the 21st. In the end we had to forgo the touch up regrouting after chemical wash as our furniture had to be moved in. The real nightmare was their hardware supplier and plumbing contractor Lucky Khoon. We bought all our toilet supplies from Lucky Khoon as well the hob and hood on his recommendation. I would prefer to buy from elsewhere as the range at Lucky Khoon was quite limited but he said that they were his supplier and if for any reason we need to exchange then they would honour. So we took his advice and bought from Lucky Khoon as we didn’t want any unnecessary hassle. We bought a hansgrohe tap and mixer set and storage heater to be used in the master toilet immediately after we signed the contract. He was the one who suggested that the storage heater be placed in the common toilet for asthetic reasons and to run the piping into the master bathroom. We agreed. They had a big group of plumbers and they would send them in teams of 2s or 3s at a time. There is very little accountability as each team just complete part of the work and the next team carried on. The piping was put in placed by a team when I wasn’t around. Then the next team came along and realised the previous team just ran cold water piping only. So the next team of plumbers came, realised that the hole in the wall is already there, and ask me if the mixer can be installed to the left instead of in the middle of the shower stall wall. I was really pissed cause we bought everything from them way before any piping was ran and if only they had just looked at the order before running the piping then it could have been avoided. So I told them to it is not ok with me that they install it like that and referred the matter back to him. He got them to redo the piping, and the tiler had to come and replaced that piece of tile because the hole was drilled incorrectly. When finally the tile has set, the next group of plumber came to install the mixer. Somehow the soldering wasn’t done properly and the mixer was gushing water that night. We had to off the water supply and they came to rectify next day. Was kinda about to throw up blood but we told ourselves it was a minor hiccup. Boy were we wrong. The electrician came to connect electricity to the heater and that’s when we realised they have installed the piping wrongly again. The hot and cold piping were reversed and when we twisted the mixer to cold, hot water came out and vice versa. Had to call him again. In the midst of all this, we realised that there was a bad sewage smell in the toilet periodically but especially in the morning. Little do I know about plumbing so when the plumber was here I asked him. He checked the back of the toilet bowl and said it was holes at the grouting where the toilet seat. He regrouted but the bad smell persisted. We told him again, regrouted again. Bad smell still persisted. It has been two weeks and 3 regrouts later and the smell is still coming from the toilet bowl despite bleaching and washing. Googled and realised that most of the time there is a seal inside where the toilet meets the piping and if it is not done properly then sewage smells can escape. Finally we couldn’t take it and told him he really have to settle it. He admitted that it could be a seal issue and the plumber will come again. So he’s coming later today and probably have to take out the whole toilet bowl to change the seal and I am really not thrilled about the mess but I have no choice. I am just so sick of seeing the plumbers come and go and having to clean the mess after they are done. Lucky Khoon also installed our hob and hood and guess what.. problems again. The EF hob that we bought, the gas outlets was wrong and the burner that was supposed to be for simmering had too much gas burning. Hubby got a shock when City gas came to connect the gas and when they tested, that burner for simmering was shooting flames. EF guy came, changed something and the burner was ok. But he told hubby that the hood installed like that the suction will have problems. Ours is a chimney hood but the kitchen has a beam near the ceiling and so Lucky Khoon cut away part off the metal covering to accommodate the beam and half of the holes for the air to come out off is also cut away. The EF guy was like air cannot come out so how can air go in. Told him and he talked to Lucky Khoon about it. Lucky Khoon got EF to call hubby and both EF and hubby agreed that Lucky Khoon should fix it cuz it’s an installation problem and not a hardware issue. So still pending their follow up but from our experiences so far we don’t have high hopes. I feedbacked to him about Lucky Khoon and he was like you guys didn’t get it so bad. Told us they sold another client of his heaters despite knowing it’s out of stock and delivery is after their handover date. I was like… That’s bad service but worse meh? Seems like there is nothing much he can do except keep telling them to follow up. I am just so sick of all these messaging and calling and Lucky Khoon people trooping in and out of my house and the smelly toilet.