It has been a year since I started my renovation journey. Dont know heng or sway. I am not the "pantang" type and started my renovation in the Hungry Ghost month.
Hacking of walls and floors began in Aug 2018. Tiling did not start till end October 2018. I am not in a hurry but I felt that the contractor (a company which I shall not name) did not value me as a customer. As I kept seeing them complete everyone's project but not mine. My initial timeline was end Nov 2018 in time for xmas celebration. Then Nov came and went and no carpentry work started. Attempts to see the designer were meet with tardy response. Xmas came and went and no work started and I told them could you at least get it ready by CNY 2019 (5 Feb 2019). By the end of the first week of Jan 2019, no work started. Upon checking with the contractor, they promised me that work will start in mid January and finish in time for CNY. I wonder why i should be at the tail end of the queue especially since I started in Aug 2018 and that period is when the better skilled Malaysian carpenters go home for CNY. Despite the good relationship I had with them and the great work they did previously, I decided to take the hard decision and give the carpentry work to someone else.
In my hopeless despair and an entire sleepless night, I found a review that I like that https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:EB6ZuzlHlF4J:https://dayre.me/jojobeans/kXYYuDN8b0+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg and decided to call Uncle See from Jia Aik Furniture.
Uncle See doesnt usually take on projects before CNY as he felt that (1) he does not like to do a rush job (2) he does not want to disappoint customers if he cannot finish in time for CNY. I remember the first conversation I had with him. He said if you call me one week earlier I would definitely finish by CNY. You would think that an unscrupulous contractor would jack up the price due to the timing and the urgency of the work. Uncle See gave me a fair quote that was only slightly more expensive (10-20%) than the first contractor and he said he will give me blum fitting and hinges for not just the kitchen but all the carpentry including the wardrobes in my room. He did explain that he could not complete all 3 bedrooms and kitchen and tv console in time for CNY and requested me to prioritise. Since it is CNY he recommend I get the kitchen and TV set up so that I can host guests and gathering over CNY. I agreed and ask him to get the master wardrobe up as well.
So work began at his factory in earnest in the 2nd Week of January and within a week he came to do installation. In the 3rd week of January, the work schedule was like that:
Day 1: Skeleton of Kitchen Cabinets went up.
Day 2: Skeleton of TV Console went up / Kitchen doors and drawers complete/
Day 3: Measurements for iquartz top for kitchen taken / Shoe Cabinet doors went up/
Day 4 and 5: Kitchen touch up / Tv console touch up / Master Bedroom wardrobe complete
In the last week of January, work stopped for the workers and the only thing that went up was the installation of Eubiq and iquartz top. I had to wait till after cny for the glass backsplash installation. In this last week just before CNY, I had to settle the accounts with the first contractor and due to the long project, there were some accounting discrepancy. So I invited the first contractor to my house literally to count tiles and toilet doors for accounting purposes so that I dont owe them any more money and be "sway" the whole year. They were surprised and speechless at the quality and speed of the carpentry work, given that they were unable to do anything since Nov 2019.
After CNY work began and the remaining 2 bedrooms wardrobe were completed in a single day.
----------------
The reason why I am doing this review is that Uncle See continued to be helpful even long after the project is finished. When my tenant wanted to install a Singtel Mio TV box to watch EPL among other things and I had starhub internet, the open net people discovered that one of the optic fibre hidden in the TV console was broken. I was surprised as I paid the electrician to rewire the entire house including the openet and paid $220 for it.
I contacted the electrician and he wanted to take the short cut of putting ugly trunking all over to fix the problem. It was uncle see who came to the rescue and dismantled part of the shoe cabinet and so the ugly trunking was minimise and hidden under the floating tv console.
Of course transportation and labour was paid to uncle see, but it was not an exorbitant amount and the after sales service was excellent. Other than the ugly trunking below the tv console and just above the skirting, nothing else seemed different. Although the fault is the electrician's entirely, uncle See remained professional and helpful. Not once did he argue with the electrician.
I will put up the photos and tell you what I like in the next few posts.
