}[ No Money Still Wanna Do Reno ]{

[ayazumi 0]

Why don't consider paint the beams with darker tones? At least there is a color contrast. Otherwise it looks a bit boring

[Tinkerbelle 0]

Don't ever engage Creations From The Heart, gave my friend horror for his home renovation, dont keep his words , misled his customer with "no problem" all the time, use China and Blanga workers with substandard service. Heard the ID Daniel make promises that he will not keep, thereafter send post project invoices and lawyer to subdue the customers into paying him for excesses the customer was told " all in quotation leow" and use " I will sue" if you don't send payments after he whacks the who he whacks the whole she down. He will then revise the sales contract send to lawyer to collect the excess on the pretext that the customer asked fir the extras during reno without proofs of change. If customer still don't pay he threaten to sue and use aggressiveness to subdue the poor customer into submission to his demands. 

I visited my poor friends newly renovated home of 6 months,  the kitchen cabinet paint already peeled off, the door hinges already come off, patches of wood laminated the interior of the cabinet to cover up mistakes done by carpenter. Waahhh...you couldn't believe the tiles on the floor !!! The tiles are uneven throughout the house, poor thing spent more than 10K for tiles , the edges & joints of the tiles cut your sole wherever I walk, I beg to wear the house slipper , so uncomfortable. Gosh , the paint job is one kind, cracking leow. Then their 15k wardrobes, fren said made of solid wood. Piang, he dun even know he ken a taken for a ride, wat solid wood, kekeke ...when u open the doors it wobbles as the wood is so thin , more like wood panels . I have solid solid wood used for my own home cabinets, I could tell the difference immediately. His one , no need karate can split the cupboard into half. If he is lucky , he can use them for 5 yrs then run to the nearest IKEA to get them replaced. Poor thing.

Then I asked him what happened to his beautiful door knobs, heard cost them $300 bucks per pair. The contractor workers spoil them during their work n the ID refused to replaced it as he claim owners fault buying such " fragile" items n he cannot be onsite to manage his workers all the time to take care of the owners installations.  Waahh attitude la!!

Then there is this cabinet without knobs, ask my fren why so special , how to open them. Fren is now a bit frust as ask too many questions ( can't help myself as I looking for an ID to Reno my new hme also mah. Apparently the cabinet was put up without pre agreed design , let alone quotation. So I ask then wat does the ID know wat to do. He says before even the Reno 50%  complete, the ID say just move in his barang barang as my fren old house already completed sales n had to surrender old hme to buyer  n the Reno was delayed for at least 2 months, he got no choice. So he happily arranged for movers when ID kept assuring my poor fren  " no problem one everyone does this way"  when sell n move to another hme. So my fren guessed, his carpenter took the liberty to measure up the cabinet to fit his children's tables sizes without knowing what transpired between the owner and the ID. So my fren one  day go chck progress, allo how come cabinet fixed !! Too late leow CHina carpenter said not his fault, ID vaguely mentioned something n he guessed tats wat he suppose to do. Then fren said to ID , whose going to pay for the mistake, ID says never mind la, mistake done leow, he absorb else he have to pay the carpenter to take it away also, no point la,  So fren relented guess wat, he showed me t post project invoice , the ID included this to make my fren pay wor like as if my fren agreed to pay for ID carpenters mistake. 

Then I ask friend why so bad luck, he should back out n stop the Iad from continuing his nonsense. he says no choice after you sign sales contract you want to honor it wat else looks bad on him to break contract . You guessed, so many horror horror stories tat contractor ditch projects n leaving behind the mess . So fren say bite the teeth n continue with the suffering. 

Then the electrical wiring like some amateur work, not ONI tat , my fren says he just found out whole hse not earthed !!! Seow leow, how these electrician get licence to do such job !! No wonder got hse going up in flames without the owners realizing the underlying issues. PUB should have done the checks rite before a project wraps up to ensure renovators do the rite thing . How would one know about electrical stuff ??. hope my fren don't get barbecued apparently he found out the problem when his electrical kettle power point got burnt but the house electric box never trip to safeguard the house . Luckily the maid smart,  put out the fire with bath towels and not water !!

His woes did not end there. There's the cornices, like some heavy duty art gallery. Ask him why so excessive ?? He start scratching his head at this juncture he says also dunno, ID says nice  & already in quotation , no point revising . So fren relented again as he dun want to mess around with sales contract n ID says he already 30 +++ years in the reno business he knows better, wah win leow my fren meek by nature succumbed again:( 

Then he showed me the post reno invoice, waahhh. 3 times longer than original sales contract . I ask why ask for so many items, he angry leow, saying the ID post project Put into the invoice even for all the mistakes the ID subcontractors did n start charging for labor like installation of taps , choked water drainage in then kitchen  which his subcontractor had to retify when my friend WHOLE kitchen  flooded whenever their washing machine run. Apparently ID says its not his standard support wor after owner move in. Got like tat meh?? Waahhh friend can sue him also for purposely choke his drainage so owner can be bullied to pay n pay to solve the drainage choked by Reno debris left behind by his workers rite ?

Fren show more items on invoice, got electrical items also !!! Ask him why ?? He says he was misled by ID that these are house warming gifts to owner for the late delivery and to sooth my fuming friend when his furnitures we scratched , cracked and stand fans broken by his subcontractors using them fir their pleasure when my fren have not move in yet. So ID post project, ID says they were ordered by my friend. Waahhh win again !!!

So the whole thing is, he will use post project tactic to blackmail owners to pay whilst during Reno say all inclusive already in contract or put under guise as gifts to owner. My friend reminded me of Readers Digest tactic years ago, where they send the mags unsolicited but put under as if the recipient had the choice to return if they dun , they take it that customer kept them to indicate that they  purchase them n dun wan to pay, they wld then send warning letters to take " legal action" , aggressive but unethical .

So ID now revised the whole sales contract items   n change items like suppose to be wood but delivered plastic n give my friend some discount as if my friend wanted plastic material in the first place.  Ask lawyer to collect his "rightful debt" from my poor . There is such thing as customer rights under Singapore law, renovator will learn not to bully customers also. If my friend  Had been more aggressive he wld have stopped the aggression from the beginning. Apparently ID sent him to Jurong to pick tiles on his own , wahhhh I thoth ID will take us round Singapore to pick with customers . He really make my friend work !! 

Then he showed me the scraps of hand drawn designs, cannot make it la this ID, whatever happened to Autocad ?? He got only high school standard drawings!! My fren bad and horrendous experience with Reno will be the last he says, thanks to Creations From The Heart !!!

Wahhh...thank goodness I get to know this first else ken a sai !!!

 

[zxoliver 0]

Into 4th week.. Soon to be completed. Yet haven't been able to see my faux sky light up as Alan still find solution for installation. It's not that difficult to install... There was something he overlooked and we asked him to fix from this current state of the false ceiling, I bet that's why it is difficult now.

Here are updated photos as of last weekend.

Well. We are grateful for the super speed. There are just many small mistakes due to mis-communication, not with us. But within his men. So we could not feel this is a pleasant journey.. Certain mistakes we have to live with it, cannot be fixed at all, like my husband's toy display area. But there are mistakes we have to ask for rectification. Alan assured those will be done soon..

Tomorrow we will move-in, due to certain circumstance. We have not signed up for Internet at this new flat yet so probably will have to leave this blog for a while..

Reno is not done completely. Tmr solid surface countertop will come.

could you mind send me yr quote, i am doing my reno soon and maybe i will use Alan... want to compare the price.. thanks zxoliver99986@hotmail.com thanks

[lancified 3]

Hi,

Just to advise a little on the KDK fan gap, by right it will not cause wobbling. The cone shape cover is just a cover for the ugly screws, mounting bracket and rod on the ceiling. Even without the cone cover, the fan should not wobble.

For your case, the wobbling should be caused by 2 things:

1) too close the to beams. Blade fans "cut" through the air in 2 directions, down and up. This way, air will be pushed downwards. However, air that is on top of the blade, will be pushed upwards. When air hits the beam, it rebounds back and clashes with the upcoming air, which causes a mini turbulence and that forces the blade which is there to wobble. This shakes the middle pole and causes every other thing to wobble.

2) Weak mounting points. If you undo the cone cover, u can examine the mounting bracket and screw points. Use your hand to touch the screws to make sure that they are tight, and hold the bracket with both hands and try to shake it. The bracket SHOULD NOT move at all. If it does move, u have 2 choices - Use a shorter but similar diameter screw to replace the current screws, or deepen the screw hole by drilling higher so that the screw can be screwed all the way in. The bracket should be not moving once done. Also check on the rubber/metal U-shape holder than holds the centre rod of the ceiling fan. The metal should not have cracks and the rubber should not be torn. This rubber is to absorb small movements of the fan due to external forces such as wind. If this rubber has perish or torn, the fan will vibrate vigorously.

The design of the fan makes a huge difference too. I don't understand the hype about KDK. When i look at the internal mechanics of the fan, it was built for performance. The motor powers the blades and also the centre rod, which explains why the cone cover is so big. This in turn gives excellent speed. The blades are angled more so that they cut steeper in air which explain why KDK fans produce stronger wind and has a further reach. However, these advantages have their disadvantages too. There are too many movable parts such as the blades, motor, rod. More movement = more vibration. Look at those KDK fans in coffee shops, the whole fan is swaying round and round at maximum speed. Also, there is only 1 safety catch. If the fan breaks apart, it will fall as the only safety catch is attached to the motor/rod only.

For myself, I choose Elmark due to the low noise levels and additional safety mechanisms. If the motor/blade falls, it will be captured by the lower safety cover. If the rod falls, the default safety catch will hold it. The fan is metal, which is harder and have less flex at high speed = lesser vibrations. The blade angles are also adjusted to cut lesser air. This translate to lesser wind speed with lesser wind reach, but even at max speed, the fan is rock stable. The motor powers the blades ONLY so even in operation, u can put your hands at the bottom safety cover or the centre rod as they dont move at all.

I find this very important cause I always got burn/cut by my old KDK fan when I was a child staying with my parents. Everytime I yawn and stretch my arms, I will need the first aid box. So for my new place, I dont want my future kids to have cuts all over too.

Well, KDK is definitely excellent in durability. My old KDK fan lasted for more than 15 years, and we only clean it once a year. It will wobble, but it will continue to work

[junkang2004 0]

Hihi.. Hope your Reno is fully completed by now.. Spend almost an hour reading the post.. =)

[deviansyh 0]

ur blog shares some really creative ideas.. my floorplan and yours is totally identical.. juz tat my missus dun wan any hacking..

no worry.. will be smooth sailing for u..

[shaunling 5]

Hands up if you've ever felt the "no money still wanna do reno" struggle! 😂 It's like, you finally get your keys, you're buzzing with ideas, but then you look at your bank account and... 😩 We've all been there, right?

Especially in Singapore, where everything is already so expensive, trying to make your new BTO or resale flat feel like home can feel impossible sometimes. But hey, we're Singaporeans, we're resourceful! 💪

So, let's get real. This thread is for all of us who are trying to make reno magic happen without emptying our wallets. Let's share our war stories, budget hacks, and DIY triumphs (and fails – we learn from those too!).