Our 2 Storey Abode

[gaku70 0]

Pet: Think you might have misunderstood. Actually we were talking about helping him with the quotes and not the project management. I fully agree with you that project management has to be done by the two new guys that is under his payroll. I don't think we can help in that aspect even if we want to.

Didn't know that uncle already has someone to help him on admin. He told me he depend on his son to do the english quote. Perhaps the person handling the admin work should do it for him rather than his son who is in the army. If that is the case, then we do not need to help him on the quotes.

I am sorry to hear that the comments you got. Don't be bother by the things that are not true. As long as your conscience is clear, you should carry on to do things that you feel right.

In my humble opinion, there are several weaknesses in his current business model. You might want to have a word with Uncle. I think many of us here are willing to offer our help if necessary and I believe with more brains, we can think of more innovative ways of improvements. Having said that, it is perfectly alright if he think it is not necessary.

By the way, think Uncle already made a few appointments on Sunday. Really want to let him rest but he told me it's alright since he already fixed the few appointments.

[gaku70 0]

familyof4: Quite surprised to see the tilers today and four of them, so progress very fast . No chance to talk to them since they told me I cannot enter because they are tiling the hall.

Understand from the conversation that they are the tilers from your place. Uncle ask one of the tiler (with spectacles) to quickly finish your tiles at the front door. Think might have to cut the bottom of your front gate. They speak hokkien very fast and some words I don't understand.

[pinkpetter 0]

u mean the new space? except therecess, all tiled. access will be done the last thing today...no one can step on it. so after the pebble wash is up, all shall call it a day!

haha the rest of the MBR toilet walls... I guess they are tiled. WAH take photo of the pebble wash leh! I wanted to do but was immediately IGNORED by my parents when I mentioned it. BLEH.

Pet: Think you might have misunderstood. Actually we were talking about helping him with the quotes and not the project management. I fully agree with you that project management has to be done by the two new guys that is under his payroll. I don't think we can help in that aspect even if we want to.

Didn't know that uncle already has someone to help him on admin. He told me he depend on his son to do the english quote. Perhaps the person handling the admin work should do it for him rather than his son who is in the army. If that is the case, then we do not need to help him on the quotes.

I am sorry to hear that the comments you got. Don't be bother by the things that are not true. As long as your conscience is clear, you should carry on to do things that you feel right.

In my humble opinion, there are several weaknesses in his current business model. You might want to have a word with Uncle. I think many of us here are willing to offer our help if necessary and I believe with more brains, we can think of more innovative ways of improvements. Having said that, it is perfectly alright if he think it is not necessary.

By the way, think Uncle already made a few appointments on Sunday. Really want to let him rest but he told me it's alright since he already fixed the few appointments.

Hi Gaku. thanks for the clarifications. I will talk to Uncle ba. Will see if can find him tomorrow to drink tea. Maybe he will come with the Uncle who's coming to my house to settle my recess... but judging from the appts he's made I guess not.

Edited May 16, 2009 by pinkpetter

[familyof4 0]

familyof4: Quite surprised to see the tilers today and four of them, so progress very fast . No chance to talk to them since they told me I cannot enter because they are tiling the hall.

Understand from the conversation that they are the tilers from your place. Uncle ask one of the tiler (with spectacles) to quickly finish your tiles at the front door. Think might have to cut the bottom of your front gate. They speak hokkien very fast and some words I don't understand.

Oh...is he quite young looking? That batch of tilers very nice I like tham and they are precise like I had mentioned before. My door frame is a little shaky, thus they need to hack the frame and re-do. So that's the little delay...but uncle says he will settle cos I already told them i let them push back the HO but I can't afford to postpone further than that day...

[familyof4 0]

haha the rest of the MBR toilet walls... I guess they are tiled. WAH take photo of the pebble wash leh! I wanted to do but was immediately IGNORED by my parents when I mentioned it. BLEH.

Pet, that space is actually tiled it is shiny tils thus the reflection from the cammy is not doing justice pebble wash flooring hor...I insisted and ignore hubby when he commented on this and that! Lolx...i very ba dao...so i just do what I want since I am the one negotiating with uncle and conveying to uncle the things i wana do

[gaku70 0]

Oh...is he quite young looking? That batch of tilers very nice I like tham and they are precise like I had mentioned before. My door frame is a little shaky, thus they need to hack the frame and re-do. So that's the little delay...but uncle says he will settle cos I already told them i let them push back the HO but I can't afford to postpone further than that day...

You are right, he is quite young looking but looks like the leader of the pack. If your door frame is corroded, it has to be changed. I guess the young looking man will settle for you on Monday.

By the way, didn't sign agreement today as planned. Uncle said not ready. But he asked me to trust him. Told him we will not let him do the reno if don't trust him.

[familyof4 0]

You are right, he is quite young looking but looks like the leader of the pack. If your door frame is corroded, it has to be changed. I guess the young looking man will settle for you on Monday.

By the way, didn't sign agreement today as planned. Uncle said not ready. But he asked me to trust him. Told him we will not let him do the reno if don't trust him.

Gaku, he is the one who tiled my kitchen and completed within a short few hours! I am not sure if its the same team...but i like that team who did mine the door frame is not corroded, but when they did the hacking, too chor lor and hacked away part of my door frame...that is why I need to re-do that.

Till now, i also have yet to sign. can u imagine? I I also made another 30% payment to uncle. But i trust him, still chasing him for my chinese quote as a ref.

Edited May 16, 2009 by familyof4

[pinkpetter 0]

Pet, that space is actually tiled it is shiny tils thus the reflection from the cammy is not doing justice pebble wash flooring hor...I insisted and ignore hubby when he commented on this and that! Lolx...i very ba dao...so i just do what I want since I am the one negotiating with uncle and conveying to uncle the things i wana do

ahhh ok. I thought so. So good.. you can override him. I only get overridden.. haha

[gaku70 0]

Gaku, he is the one who tiled my kitchen and completed within a short few hours! I am not sure if its the same team...but i like that team who did mine the door frame is not corroded, but when they did the hacking, too chor lor and hacked away part of my door frame...that is why I need to re-do that.

Till now, i also have yet to sign. can u imagine? I I also made another 30% payment to uncle. But i trust him, still chasing him for my chinese quote as a ref.

If they hacked away part of the door frame, does that mean the whole frame need to be replaced. I do not understand how to patch back the frame that is being hacked.

Didnt know you haven't sign too. Looks like we are in the same boat. I was thinking if it is possible that maybe reno completed and we have yet to sign the agreement??

Edited May 16, 2009 by gaku70

[familyof4 0]

ahhh ok. I thought so. So good.. you can override him. I only get overridden.. haha

hehe...u can override too when u become a MRS

If they hacked away part of the door frame, does that mean the whole frame need to be replaced. I do not understand how to patch back the frame that is being hacked.

Didnt know you haven't sign too. Looks like we are in the same boat. I was thinking if it is possible that maybe reno completed and we have yet to sign the agreement??

they are re-doing, not patching back. how to patch back? I hope i get to lay my hands on my quote before carpentry...maybe help me remind uncle when u see him?

[gaku70 0]

hehe...u can override too when u become a MRS

they are re-doing, not patching back. how to patch back? I hope i get to lay my hands on my quote before carpentry...maybe help me remind uncle when u see him?

ok no problem, will remind him tomorrow.

[familyof4 0]

ok no problem, will remind him tomorrow.

thanks thanks...

[growler 0]

Please forgive. My personal opinion.

I don't think we are in the position to help Uncle with the project management on a freelance FOC basis. There are a number of reasons ba...

1) One or two people working extremely close together can manage better for Uncle. Cos they would have a bird's eye view of what is going on in every house and thus can plan for Uncle's work schedule better. Also if the areas are split up, the people managing will not know exactly how many homes are there in each area.

2) If we not paid... then what happens if there's an error? If Uncle hires someone proper with a salary, he can tick off the person and the person is paid and can be held responsible for the things he/she does. However if it's us, we still have our own work and cannot be expected to give 100% accurate work and be on call every hour of the day. As it is, people are calling Uncle from 8am - 11pm++... How many of us can handle those phonecalls and emails? And if we don't, then we aren't much help to Uncle.

3) Lastly, I don't know about you all... but I enjoy my status as a homeowner, purely Uncle's customer, and not his helper. To be honest... from dec, I have been getting PMs and comments which are nasty... saying that I want to be a freeloader to help Uncle get a lot of business and get more things from him FOC. It has been very hurting but I know that I mean nothing like that so I continue. I think by helping Uncle, future renovation customers might think that helpers of Uncle get something in return or some money for recommending him. It wouldn't help for his recommendations. I guess for many people who read our very real comments now they feel that they are getting a true-r picture of Uncle's work. I doubt they will feel as secure if we become Uncle's helpers.

So it's much more beneficial to Uncle to get someone proper.

In reality... Uncle has someone working for him, doing admin and clerical work. I've spoken to her before over cheque payments. Maybe it's time Uncle widen her job scope. I'll talk to Uncle on Monday regarding this issue. I spoke to him just now and I think he's very very tired... He needs his Sunday break to freshen up.

Pinkpetter: I sympathize you. Those people who passed on nasty comments should be shot. It's very childish and they aren't really using their brains.

To get the facts right, people who ask Uncle to do their jobs have brains to think and all would have sought at least 3 quotations, if not more. For me, I sought more than 10 quotes before I zeroed down to Uncle. I must thank Pinkpetter for giving me the contact and the referral. Even if she has gotten some benefits (I know she had none), I chose Uncle because I've already evaluated him against the rest of the quotations and made the choice myself. Even if Uncle chooses to give some benefits to pinkpetter, it's his choice and it's a personal matter.

Anyway, when we deal in contracts, it is caveat emptor - buyers beware. I've been rather objective with the works so far and when Uncle delivers quality work thru his workers i'll say so. The grouses I had is more on tractability/ contactability and project management, which if Uncle improves on these aspects, I believe he will beat the rest of the IDs/ contractors hands down.

Regarding the project management part, I agree with Gaku's proposal that Uncle should front the company and do the negotiations. As well, Uncle should do regular inspection of the quality. Other than that, the collection of money, management of timeline and deployment of workers should be managed by a central pool to ensure sufficient manpower is available to meet the demands of all the projects that have different stages of completion.

[pinkpetter 0]

Hi Growler... Thanks. I'm ok after I thought it through and realise that the onus is on them when it comes to the decision-making part.

Anyway i think today is a good day to talk to Uncle about it since he's only meeting people and will not be going to any houses as the workers aren't working today...

[guy77 0]

pink: don't be discouraged. even if you get something out of it, it is uncle's gratitude to you for referring business to him. nothing's wrong with that. and your recommendation is good mah. if recommend not good or u bluffing others, then not good lah. and somemore u tell people in advance about uncle's working method and i think we should give and take regarding to this la.