sumobear

Hi FSP, Sad to inform you that you may have been ketok-ed and I am also one of the victims of similar case. I had contracted the HQ of ICI Dulux about my contractor's bogus paint and they have given me a very detailed explaination on their paint. Customised paint color will be $10-$20 more expenisve than the colours that you can easily get off shelves and if you want special treatments like Wash & Wear or others, it will be another $20 or more.

Went shopping for paint yesterday at the newly opened Giant Supermarket at Tampines, it was our 1st time going to that supermarket even though we have been going to IKEA frequently to do research and shopping. We were expecting to see a shop but when we are there we are surprised to see a small booth with some machineries at a corner of the supermarket, and I started to have some doubts whether they are able to customised the kind of paint that I want. Upon presenting the paint colour code to the sales rep, he entered the code to the system and the machine will automatically inject some color pigments to a bucket of white paint and after that he will place the bucket in a shaking machine to mix the paint. I am totally impressed by the advanced technology of the paint industry, salute to the technology engineer. When we bring the paints back to site, I went through another round of inspection on the pirated paints and realised that the painter also used a cheap paint for the Pink in my master bedroom. Initially I thought that the pirated paint are only the customised colours but never expect the colour direct of the common paint brochure has also been pirated. I never request for a change of the pink paint and I am thinking whether I should. Mrs SumoBear told me to let it go because the colour is very close to what we want but I am still hesitating whether to change because of the quality paint. Any advices anyone?

Hi, May I have the contact too?

Erm...I do not think that there is anything romantic about it but I am very sure that it is happiness that I believe in and want to pursue with my wife. Haha...I am not a novel writer that can melt my wife's heart like M&Ms but she is constantly reading the blog entries.

My renovation budget has gotten tighter ever since we decide to abandon our cement flooring and go for tiled flooring...another few Ks from our pockets. So just have to live with it and reshuffle our fundings. Supposed to have a funding for home decoration like buying textiles, printing wall mural and making stretcher frames for my prints but now I have to reconsider.

Time has passed so fast that we have already reached the 1st quarter of 2007 and our wedding is just another 7 months away. We have so many things like our home, wedding photo shoot and wedding preparation waiting to be completed in this year, and very soon everytime will be over and we have to start to live together as husband and wife, build our family, bring our kids out for a stroll. All this thoughts really make me feel very happy and will brings me a smile on my face. It is a Love Odyssey that I am looking forward to.

Hi Ben3555, Thanks for the encouragement. Yes we will press on till the end.

Hi Vermilion, I was browsing through your blog entries and realised that we have many common problems to home renovation and on top of that, I am also a graphic designer...so I decided to go direct to a contractor to skip the ID because ID just know how to give you special effect drawings which is hard to achieve some times and most of the time they are just following your instruction to draft the design. I also did alot of research, planning and drawings for my contractor but in the end he also never follow my instruction. But thank god that my kitchen is 90% close to my drawings and colour scheme Will be looking forward to see a designer's home just like visiting different funky design agency....hehe Good lucky and all the best!!

Hi AppleFreak, ohhh...you called that an apron-front sink? I called it the lab sink because I remember seeing such sink in the chemistry lab during my secondary school days. It is a tough sink. Do not understand why the sink has anything got to do with your mum's hand.

The sink is ceramic...it is the old skool kopi shop sink. I realised that many people has neglected this beautiful sink as time pass so I thought of bring it back to life. I love the simplicity and elegance of this sink.

The pirated paint and damage cement floor.... :S Something to cheer me up a little will be my kitchen...really hope that my kitchen will not be harmed when the hacking work starts. Did the design and colour combination by ourselves, we are very happy and proud of it. I love the lab sink alot but my contractor did not follow my instructions to mount the sink...remind him over and over again but in the end still wrong. Then realised that my sink support's lamination has been chipped off and it is really an eye sore... In this whole renovation, I have already issued 2 red cards to my contractor through the consolidation of yellow cards. Our drive for renovation seem to have slacken and feeling very exhausted with it already. But really thanks to all the support and blessing from our blog's readers

Hi Mist... The possible reason why the cement floor failed could be due to the contractor's poor judgement of cement overlaying existing tiles and his worker did not do a proper single spread of cement and ended up having ugly patches because of digging and patching. On top of that, this is the 1st time that my contractor do cement screed and he never expect to have so much problem. I am doing a 100% hacking...meaning getting rid of the cement screed and the old tiles that are buried below. Tile laying is not a problem because he has laid tiles in my kitchen and toilets. I am looking forward to the completion of renovation so I can go shopping for home accessories and start my DIYs

I wish I could have 4D number....but I think so far my sixth sense has never give me a directly hint of where to get money. And anyway I do not pursue this kind of money. Thanks for the encouragement...I simply feel good with this new home and it is like what I say it is alive and able to "communicate" with me.

My contractor and I had come to a conclusion yesterday night after a heated discussion. I have decided to continue the renovation with the current company to avoid the complication of signing of termination and handling over letters. So there is a twist to my renovation, my cement floor will be gone and will be replaced by tiles. Very worried that my completed walls and fixtures will be damaged but he have verbally ensured me that he will do all the necessary precaution before the hacking and tiling work start. Now I have to reshuffle my fundings between home renovation and wedding to pay off for the tiled floor. As mentioned in one of my blog entries about my sixth sense giving me some pre-warning of my wrongly fixed bathroom, my sixth sense seem to have worked again recently. On Tuesday night, I had a feeling that my floor is rejecting the cement floor and should I abandon the plan of cement floor and go for the conventional tiled flooring. Then on wednesday morning when I met my contractor, I was told that he has completed an acid wash to the flooring and caused the whole floor to crack even deeper and almost beyond repair. I am really upset to know that and after a discussion with my wife, we decided to abandon the cement floor and go for floor tiles. Thanks god that my contractor has admitted his fault and never ask me to pay a single cent for the flooring. Do not know if the things that are happening are just coincidences or what...kind of spooky. My home is like alive and able to communicate with me.

The situation of my home renovation seem to have changed and it is getting more complicated. My appointed contractor is leaving for another company this week and due to the complication of the renovation, he is suggesting to me that I can consider to terminate the renovation work with his current company and continue with his next company. With that kind of arrangement, he say he will try to arrange someone cheaper to do my flooring because his current company does not allow him to lower the price to compensate my flooring. OOOOHHHHH....my gosh! What am I writing????? Does anyone knows what am I writing? Its so complicated....................

Thought of that but I think I am going to stick with his company because I do not wish to release the last payment to him. I want to hold him responsible for everything. Actual fact is that I do not have any loss for the flooring because I am not required to pay for the damaged cement floor. I just need to top up some more $$$ to get my floor tiled and it will definately be alot more durable than cement floor. I am really disappointed with my contractor who is initially someone that I am happy working with.

Well...I am currently digging my contractor's grave, made so many mistake towards the end and still trying to tell lie and hope he can cover things up. He had re-quoted my re-flooring meaning that there are hacking and tiling to be done. After studying the quotation, realised that his price is kind of fishy and he tried to explain things to me which I find it hard to believe because it is like a "cry wolf" situation.

Its time to say BYE BYE to my cement floor....initially I thought my home is going to be completed by this friday but unfortunately or should it be lucky that my cement flooring has failed. My contractor has failed his job in doing my cement floor, there are so many ugly patches every where because of retouching and he tried to grind and do acid wash. In the end what I got is a floor with spider web crack lines every where which is no longer acceptable. My trust and confidence level in him has dropped ever since the paint issue and so I can no longer allow him to continue to mend floor. What I am planning to do now is to get him to hack everything out and do normal tiling for the floor. So it is price negotiating again.... Looking at the bright side that everything bad happens before I pay and moved in. I am fated not to have cement floor...sigh

I had emailed ICI Dulux Paint Head Office yesterday night and someone called to clear my queries this morning. I am really pissed with my contractor once after hearing the explaination from the ICI's staff because She told me that all ICI Dulux Authorised shop will canned their paint into ICI paint can only and color accuracy is 99%. What my contractor given me is his self-claimed "ICI paint" in Jotun can. The ICI's staff has also told me that Jotun paint is 20% cheaper than ICI paint so I have to be careful with what I am paying for. I smsed all the information from the ICI's staff to my contractor and he called me back immediately to explain things and honestly told me that it is really Jotun Paint inside the can and he will rectify the problem for me ASAP. Probably bring me to buy the paint. Still quite pissed that he is trying to get his way through the whole matter.

Does that means I have to somehow accept what I am given? I feel like I have requested for a better grade of paint and paid extra but in the end I not given the best result. Sigh...stood at my empty home and stare hard at the wall...thinking if the colour is ok...

Something is troubling me and I am not sure what to do. My contractor's proposed handover date is this coming friday but there are something which I am not sure if I should accept. My paint colour is wrong in the sense that it is lighter than what I have chosen. I have selected a ICI customised color paint but when the painter came, they brought the paint in Jotun containers and claimed that they are ICI but just in Jotun container. I am having doubt in them. What should I do? Should I press my contactor for the right colour? Sigh...

I feel kind of cheated but I am also not 100% sure about it because he kept trying very hard to convince me that it is just ICI paint butthey use Jotun container to can it. I felt that he has broken the trust that we have built and we are almost towards the end of renovation. I did consulted my friend who has some experiences with paint and he told me that the paint colour chosen from paint chart should not have so much difference even if it is customised.

Something is troubling me and I am not sure what to do. My contractor's proposed handover date is this coming friday but there are something which I am not sure if I should accept. My paint colour is wrong in the sense that it is lighter than what I have chosen. I have selected a ICI customised color paint but when the painter came, they brought the paint in Jotun containers and claimed that they are ICI but just in Jotun container. I am having doubt in them. What should I do? Should I press my contactor for the right colour? Sigh...

Hi, Just found a bamboo shop today at Jalan Besar... George Bamboo Chick Centre N0. 120 Jalan Besar Very near to the open Flea Market area... try ur luck there but I am not sure about their quality.

Hi Air, Pink is one of my wife's and my favourite colour and I am also inspired by the pink envelopes for chinese new year and wedding invitation cards. Generally the overall colour scheme for my home belongs to the pastel range. For the design and thoughts of the home, we are inspired by homes of bohemains and western countries...probably I can relate that kind of style as "Eclectic" that allows me to "rojak" different styles.