Love Nest @ Casa

[BoBochacha 0]

Hmmm ... empty your Inbox? Then I can PM you ?

[theitsybits 0]

I emtpty le, shd be able to pm now! =)

[baobeimamii 0]

thank you in advance!

pls PM me your collection venue/addy and I'll arrange my ah lao to collect.

hey! u can have it, but need to collect at my place..perhaps this sat or next sat?

[theitsybits 0]

they never stop amazing you right? The different laminate doors is ultimate. Die die must change. All those that you pointed out are really not acceptable.

very stressful to do renovation. I encountered a number of issues too. After seeing many nice pics of your house, I motivated to set up a blog on renotalk too. Feel free to drop by when you are less stressed. Though progress is slow, I already regretting choosing some materials

they are famous for using wrong laminates lei..i guess they might probably say the laminate was out of stock..

why is ur blog not at t-blog ar? tts y i was thinking didn't see ur blog..

thank you in advance!

pls PM me your collection venue/addy and I'll arrange my ah lao to collect.

okies pm-ed!

Edited August 28, 2012 by theitsybits

[innerlight 0]

Isn't there the lemon law you can use on this carpentry company? Please consider. It's really half-baked carpentry skills in action here.

I can feel your pain honestly.

All homeowners are using their hardearned money to finance their renovation costs which is not a peanut sum to start with.

Edited August 28, 2012 by innerlight

[minchul 0]

It seems that the carpenters generalise any soft closing mechanism under Blum!

I was so happy when my contractor said he will include Blum for me...

The carpenter also insisted that he was using Blum... turned out to be a local brand.

It's like how we tend to say scotchtape...

[theitsybits 0]

Isn't there the lemon law you can use on this carpentry company? Please consider. It's really half-baked carpentry skills in action here.

I can feel your pain honestly.

All homeowners are using their hardearned money to finance their renovation costs which is not a peanut sum to start with.

yea..i keep telling myself to let it go and move on, but as i clean the carpentry up and see all the edges, i really get upset all over again..

this ID firm is a relative's company..mil was the one who made a very big scene and insisted we use them..the last clash was horrible..i'm still traumatized..

and yet now, even with rectifications, not everything can be rectified..they use crayons to touchup the edges, but the hole is still a hole and coloring it is still visible..drawers were dropping off and after rectifications, they overlap and hit each other when open..and there are so many edges, as you clean you can see, can't get them to change everything..no choice but to close one eye..it's been 8 long weeks, and very tiring..

i'm training myself to be zen and simply keep quiet let my husband settle it..he's having high blood pressure with these people..for everyone's good, i told myself i must try to swallow these..husband is more angry than him, he says even without cleaning the carpentry he's already very angry, no need to clean to be angry.

anyway, his other customers seem to be having same problems - delays, wrong laminates used, teeth-mark designs, not having calls and sms replied, bad workmanship and wrong measurements etc..some have went to CASE..but sadly, they can easily close the company and open one with another name..it's so easy and they have done it before..i guess only god or whoever up there will give these people what they deserve.. got to believe that everything happens for a reason and what goes around comes around..

It seems that the carpenters generalise any soft closing mechanism under Blum!

I was so happy when my contractor said he will include Blum for me...

The carpenter also insisted that he was using Blum... turned out to be a local brand.

It's like how we tend to say scotchtape...

their soft-closing and drawers etc are imported from either india or china and branded by themselves..obviously can't be same standard as blum, although they insisted 'it's the same thing'..anyone can import anything and put their own brand..i can import some hinges and register a company, name it BLUME PARIS too, as long as it's not registered..

Edited August 28, 2012 by theitsybits

[and888 1]

Can get K to help you do additional minor rectifications and touch up?

for our precaution, will u share with us the company that have "destroyed" your carpentry>? :furious:

[lady081980 1]

Care to disclose ur contractor name to us? so far i read from renotalk forum is blue & bluve, millennium lifestyle etc, no need to put full name of the company, just put blxx & blxx,

can guess from there.

[theitsybits 0]

Can get K to help you do additional minor rectifications and touch up?

for our precaution, will u share with us the company that have "destroyed" your carpentry>? :furious:

it's not fair to ask K rectify ba..right from the start already agreed that it's better for him to stay out of carpentry work to avoid any conflicts..and we have not paid him the final installment after 3 months of renovation even though most of his works have been completed since end-June..things like touching up of painting and other minor details need to be settled after carpentry work is completed..i was worried that the carpenters will dirty my walls and he will have to touch-up again..

Care to disclose ur contractor name to us? so far i read from renotalk forum is blue & bluve, millennium lifestyle etc, no need to put full name of the company, just put blxx & blxx,

can guess from there.

can already guess ba, the 'only' company that does internal laminate at pvc prices in the whole of Singapore and have a 'group' of companies..company name can be changed easily or close down open another..what's important is that people do their research, read or ask around for reviews and monitor performance before even choosing IDs/contractors..no matter how horrible these companies are, there are always people who take the sales talk, freebies, big showrooms etc..and these companies will still make a profit since you pay the at least 50% upfront and that would have almost covered their cost..at the end of the day, even if you take the effort to complain to CASE, HDB, it's time-consuming the you might still have to pay the full sum eventually..

[theitsybits 0]

Day 86

Mr K has got his painter down to finish touch-up for painting and helped to fix some shelves and clocks..i think we're almost ready to hand over keys..finally..although there are still some carpentry touch-ups pending..

He sent a few pictures after they are done..

I think his photography skills have improved slightly..haha..i don't really ask him for pictures now that we've lights and I always drop over after work for one reason or another..

Here's my feature wall right in the middle of the living room..neighbors who have visited commented that my home looks like a cafe, i only lack a 'zhao pai', so i guess my signboard can come here!

My kitchen shelvings..i intend to put a small toaster on the left, together with my tins of tea etc, while the right shelf can have some fresh herbs plants with my counter-top oven below..

I like how it looks.. these were from Ikea..

And this is my MBR wall, the ledge for photo frames..

[theitsybits 0]

Day 86 - Carpentry issues

Today, the factory manager came over to look at our carpentry issues again. He was actually on time and was pretty nice. Luckily he was nice, otherwise he would have gotten it from the husband. The thing is, my carpenter and the people had pretty good attitude (apart from the relative during quotation and delays). I wouldn't say my carpenter is lazy or do not put effort in his work, but somehow the result was as such and the communication/coordination work was really poor. I wonder if it's because of different standards, that he really thinks it's acceptable? Or perhaps he was not trained enough to meet a certain standard? I was looking at my neighbor's carpentry photos, the carpentry were so neat and had no such things as splinters or rough sides even at the back when it's unseen..

Having said that, I still find their reasoning really unacceptable. And I left all the talking (almost) to the husband, otherwise I would have retorted every single thing he said..

(1) My special white internal door - he said that they used white instead of the wood-grained laminate because he suspected that the wood-grained laminate was of bad quality and might have caused the warping of the door due to the large surface area. so, to our interest, they used white internal laminate to avoid any warping issue. That cabinet door is about 1.5m x 0.5m, and it's a 18mm plywood..so he's telling me that the 0.8mm laminate is so horrible that it causes my 18mm wood to warp?! the plywood and laminate must be REALLY lousy for this to happen right? How can this sound reasonable?

(2) My top cabinet to conceal the pipes is a ugly mess with exposed plywood inside..this was mainly caused by a lack of communication of our wants to the carpenter..relative did not tell carpenter that we wanted to conceal pipes with carpentry..it was added subsequently, causing my clothes rack to be against the carpentry (rack was moved now)..they said that's why it resulted in the ugly exposed plywood everywhere..husband asked them to change, as pipes are is damp, any leaking = corroded cabinet..factory manager say if change need to add money..well, they have to settle it since it was their internal communication problem..

(3) Factory manager and director both insisted that there's no wide-angle soft-closing hinge in the whole market..we found them from Blum and my neighbor is using it for all her kitchen carpentry..we've provided them with the brochures after visiting the showroom and trying it out for ourselves last Saturday, yet no action was taken till today.. no idea when they are going to get them installed..

(4) Backsplash is still not done after many weeks..not even clear if measurements were taken..factory manager says it should be through director, but will check for us. No idea when it will come.

(5) We mentioned that the holes which were touched up looked very ugly, with obvious color tone difference..factory manager says that cannot expect touch-up to look really nice, and it can only be seen if you concentrate..i find it really obvious, and told him that they should not even use/install wood with holes in the first place!!! luckily he agreed with me..else

(6) He will get the carpenter down to touch up some gaps and edges, and do another round of thorough checking plus adjust my overlapping drawers..we told him to get it done by next Wednesday - almost a week to do rectifications. He said that it might be tight, cannot promise. BUT!! I've been doing carpentry since late-June!!!

*sigh*

Whatever it is, we have arranged all our deliveries on the 8th Sept, Saturday. I've also arranged house cleaning on Thursday. It's time to finish renovations and move on. I've spent a third of this year being stressed and really frustrated over these. Can't help but have my mil words ringing in my head constantly - 'let them do carpentry, their carpentry workmanship good. give me face, i can help you monitor. other contractor out to make money only, after you pay they don't care one...they got internal laminate, your carpentry can last you whole lifetime.' yea right..haven't use already edges gone..now with such horrible workmanship and factory manager saying the laminates are of bad quality, i can only laminates, like hinges, like many other things and even people, are of different grade and quality..

i'm gonna learn this lesson, and learn it well. no more second time!

Edited August 29, 2012 by theitsybits

[originalbread 0]

they are famous for using wrong laminates lei..i guess they might probably say the laminate was out of stock..

why is ur blog not at t-blog ar? tts y i was thinking didn't see ur blog..

I still very blur on how to set up the blog, I clicked blog and thought its the same! Anyway, already set up here.

[originalbread 0]

Day 86

Mr K has got his painter down to finish touch-up for painting and helped to fix some shelves and clocks..i think we're almost ready to hand over keys..finally..although there are still some carpentry touch-ups pending..

He sent a few pictures after they are done..

I think his photography skills have improved slightly..haha..i don't really ask him for pictures now that we've lights and I always drop over after work for one reason or another..

Here's my feature wall right in the middle of the living room..neighbors who have visited commented that my home looks like a cafe, i only lack a 'zhao pai', so i guess my signboard can come here!

My kitchen shelvings..i intend to put a small toaster on the left, together with my tins of tea etc, while the right shelf can have some fresh herbs plants with my counter-top oven below..

I like how it looks.. these were from Ikea..

And this is my MBR wall, the ledge for photo frames..

Nice kitchen shelves! The wall with the clock very nice too!

Check with you, did you manage to find some nice shelves for the bathroom to put toiletries? Recall seeing your pictures of the ledge done by Mr K but looks rather small to place the usual required toiletries.

[May_dream1 14]

you still managed to do up a very nice home.... with the special cafe-like featured wall. Its a lesson well learnt so don't dwell on it. move on, my dear!