patsy_sg

uh huh!!! We just had teak flooring done for the patio... I asked hb if we could take it with us when we moved Now super tempted to redo the whole house flooring into teak... it looks sooooooo nice!

Hi Olg, yep, they're no longer allowed to even cast a shadow on the house!! We're doing a lot of the things ourselves, which was what HB wanted in the first place! Being a typical "ang moh" he grew up doing a lot of DIY with his Dad so he knows how to do things... in fact, he's repurposed a lot of old furniture, turned a door into a study table etc! So it's kinda fun... am going to be busy turning cheap Ikea curtains into a table cloth tonight! cheers Almonds, it's definitely been much better since we fired them!

Almonds.... my mistake was paying them according to the schedule they requested! There is a remaining sum (but very small) we had withheld and will be using this to pay the other contractors we have to bring in. In fact, when I wanted to withhold the 4th payment, I got a threatening SMS saying they will stop all work until this is paid! Maybe I should have allowed them to stop the work then!!!!

If you're selling (or giving them away) them please let me know!!!

Love the dividers you have, may I ask where you got them?

Hi Olg, yep, we moved in amidst the chaos coz hb (howth) needed to set up his home office. It's still not finished now cause we're doing so much other things ourselves!

Good luck with your reno!! Can't wait to see the wardrobes!!

Hi goldfisheye, lucky you then! Hi Olg, are you using CLC also?

Hi Sleek, Thanks! Was reading your blog about the mad woman! Glad for you it's all sorted now. Yeah, we're getting there. We've hired separate contractors to come and fix stuff, the plastering/painting we'll do ourselves (even I can do a better job than their people!) Just dread the dust that comes with sanding down the walls after plastering. I haven't even started ranting about the monstrosity of a master bedroom they gave us!! The dressing table looks like a voting booth!! We're going to live with it for a while then redo the space. Maybe in a years time cause I've seen enough of contractors and builders for the next while. At least the patio is coming together really nicely, and that's the one thing we decided to do ourselves!! Will try to take time over the weekend to take some early pics, haven't had time to put up the art stuff yet though.... and still looking for soft furnishings to complete the place. BTW, does anyone know a good handyman who can hang a really really heavy mirror??

Hi everyone, HB has finally posted the disaster pics of our reno in the Colours thread! You can go and see that what a harrowing experience it has been for us. We ended up repairing the crap work we got ourselves, except for the electrical where we had to hire a separate electrician. Will slowly post pictures of the house now that it's slightly better!

hey Adi... I wish..... one of these days I hope to find the energy to post of our harrowing reno experience!

Looks really nice! Congratulations on completion.

Second that, I've used them 3 years in a row. Will never go for any other mover even if there are cheaper options. Their efficiency is worth the little bit extra!!

no to mention a broken nose! my BIL has a crooked nose now after he broke it New Year's Eve walking into the glass sliding door at my mum's place. He claims it wasn't the champers...

Can you send me a pic too? patsy_sg@yahoo.com, thanks!!

Definitely a blog I'll be following! Wish now we had kept all of our books, we probably had a few thousand but had to donate them all to the charity shop because it was too expensive to ship to Singapore! And glad to find fellow Ramones fans! HB and I joke that Ï wanna be sedated"is the theme song of our relationship!

any idea where i can find a nice buffet/hutch? Been all over and can't seem to find "the one"

thanks girlfriend! we're both better, though he's still a bit weak, so me and helper had to do most of the moving ourselves. we've moved in, sleeping amidst boxes of stuff, coz not all carpentry is finished so can't unpack yet. Told hb since this is the last time I'm moving for a long time (famous last words I know), I'll unpack slowly this time.

Adi, you really go EVERYWHERE! You're the new lobang queen of RT!

hey!!!! your place is really worthy of a mag photo shoot!!! so creative!! Will deffo buy the October (scared you scold me too) issue!!

Hi, I swear by Elite movers, really really good service, honest and will go the extra mile to make sure your stuff are protected. Bit more ex than other movers but for me, worth every penny!!

Thanks, we are better. And in hindsight it was our fault for going in, knowing ful well the fumes would be bad...... The price we had to pay for wanting to "protect" our home, I guess.

I will update the situation here to make it transparent and clear (and also so I don't have to re-send the message to everyone that PM'ed me). When we signed with CLC I informed them clearly I have to move out of our old place by the 11th of July, as the new owner is taking over then. They said ok as long as I'm fine that the carpentry installation may not be finished. I said ok, will live with that. They started work on the 22nd of June, and on the 5th of July, I reminded them again I have to move in soon, and that I had a lot of stuff to bring in, their reply then was "we'll try", bit different from their first answer but I still gave them the benefit of the doubt. 10th July I went to our place, half the things that was supposed to be finished by then was not done, and we had no main doors! So I called Marcus and Jeremy up on the Saturday to ask if the main doors will be installed in time for us to move in, they said no, the main doors will only be installed on the 20th of July. I told them how they can expect us to move in (with all my things) into a house with no main door???? Their reply was, oh, didn't think of that! Their solution was to put hoarding (machiam squatters!!) and said that the sliding doors will be up on the 22nd. So I said, ok, we'll live with that and found a short term apartment to rent. By that time, my hb (who works from home) was already agitated because he has to set up his work stuff and any delay costs him money, so he came up with a chart that tracks the progress of work and told Jeremy to fill it up daily so we know exactly where we are.... so far we only got 1 update! The clincher was this week, the parquet floors were polished Tuesday afternoon, but the whole house was cleaned in the morning. We decided to go for a peak through the boards to see how the floors looked like polished... very nice. I was surprised the lights in the entire first floor was left on, but saw a note from the electrician not to turn them off cause we had fridges that were already plugged in, so the environment suffered greatly that night! But something inside me said you have to go up. So we braved the varnish fumes and went up the place, luckily we did!!! The guy who cleaned the bathrooms did not shut off the tap for the hand spray and had flooded the entire common bathroom (apparently there was a choke in the drainage)and the water was just about to overflow towards the parquet floors and down the staircase. We closed the tap and tried to take out as much water as we could, but the fumes was just too overpowering and we had to get out. I called Jeremy up who was the project manager and his first reply was "cannot be like that, you sure?" Pissed off, we just went home, with photographs as evidence in case the water does overflow to the wood floors and damages it. That night, I suffered a very serious asthma attack, and my hb has 3 grand mal epileptic fits which we think is a result of toxic fumes poisoning. He was so bad he collapsed in the bathroom and hit his head against the floor a few times before I got to him! He was passed out the whole day yesterday and only got out of bed today. Thankfully there seems to have been no permanent damage other than bruises in the back, legs and arms (he got trapped between the shower screen and wall) Marcus and Jeremy both came to see us yesterday afternoon to apologize in person, and also to update us on all that has been done. We are moving in tomorrow finally (with no kitchen) but at least the place will be semi-livable. I have no complaints about their workmanship, just think sometimes they are spread too thin and cannot balance all the jobs they have. They are responsive to text messages and calls, but just need to be more upfront when communicating with their clients. More frequent updates would have been appreciated so at least I could have made plans earlier if we had to delay our moving in. If you ask me point blank if I would hire them again, I would say yes, but only if I didn't have a tight schedule. They're good guys, not pushy, will say no if it's an expensive folly, will suggest alternatives and not likely to say do this do that just to earn more money. They just need to learn to communicate with the clients more (maybe I'm just more kancheong and a micro-manager??) I don't think all this will happen to other renovations, as ours as extensive and had a very short time frame. And I do not mean for clients who have signed with them to be scared or apprehensive, but I thought our experience had to be shared so others will know what to look out for when working with them. I have asked them for compensation on the rental, we'll see what they say. If anyone wants to come to see their work when the place is done, you're welcome to come over.

newnyew... we're all excited!!! and i think by the time you pass the lamp back to me it can officially be called an antique liao!

The Dahl at Bukhara at the Sheraton is yummy! There's a tandoori place somewhere in the city that's also very very good, patrons are mostly rich locals so it's pretty clean, just can't remember the name. Brings back memories of going to India for projects every 3 months...... So glad I don't have to do it anymore!