Suddenly realised that today is 24 Oct.
One more month!
So scary and yet a little nervous and excited at the same time.
Scary coz we still have so many things to prepare. Haven't finish sending out some invitation cards! Haven't planned seating arrangement, music and powerpoint slide show for the dinner. Haven't settled parents' clothes. Haven't settled house matters. Haven't haven't haven't.
Nervous coz my status will soon be changed from single to married. My thoughts and actions will no longer just affect myself. People will assume married women are more matured and 'homely'. Have to spend money wisely.
Excited coz... this is it. This is finally it. The day that I have been looking forward to is just one month away.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The House
Sorry la. Couldn't think of a better title. Anyway renovation works are FINALLY done. Hopefully, (cross fingers and pray hard) I DO NOT see the uncle and his workers AGAIN.
Never ever in my life have I come across SIMPLE renovation works for a tiny weeny 3-room flat that lasted for almost one and a half months!
We got our house keys on 16 August, and started scouting around for the best reno deal immediately. After comparing prices, we settled on this friendly but blur uncle's reno quote coz he seemed the most honest and offered us the best value for money. His team of workers started work on 11 Sept. They finally finished everything YESTERDAY.
At first, things seemed to be going very well. We were very impressed with the worker's skill at plastering and smoothening out the horrendous walls. Imagine a pot-marked, pimple scarred face transforming into radiant and flawless complexion - the walls were SOOOO old that we could see the outline of each and every brick at first!
Then the mistakes started.
1. Forgot to plaster part of the kitchen walls
2. Used the wrong tiles for the kitchen wall. They put up bathroom tiles instead - poor contractor had to pry out the almost dried with cement tiles at 9pm in darkness, with his girlfriend holding onto a torch light for him. Poor GF too.
3. Plaster cracked.
4. Installed poor quality door knobs that took 5 minutes to insert and turn the key to open the door.
5. Painted the main and bedroom doors WHITE.
6. Chipped the toilet bowl and bathroom floor.
7. Cracked the toilet door and door frame and tried to hide the evidence by plastering up the holes. But they quite silly - the door is light beige while the plaster is white. So obvious to spot.
8. Installed the water heater inlet and outlet the opposite way. I discovered it when I had to bathe in cold water.
9. Drilled the washing machine water inlet and outlet too far from our original planned positions. So now we have no choice but to shift the machine to the 2 holes in the wall. The inlet and outlet were leaking at first, but thankfully they have since rectified the problem.
10. Burnt 3 holes and chipped a chunk off the laminated flooring in the living room.
11. The bathroom sink kept giving out brown water. Finally discovered that the joint in the pipe was rusty. Wonder if they were re-using an old rusty piece?
12. Kitchen tap produced horrible smelling water. Like lots of minerals, sediments and some glue/chemicals were added to it.
13. When drilling the living room wall to install the TV brackets, the opposite side (which is the study room wall) fell out! Dunno to laugh or cry when you see your wall fall out.
14. Cracked the kitchen lights.
15. Smashed the bathroom mirror.
16. The worst problem: Kitchen cabinet.
Ever seen people install the cabinet 3 times? We did. Before the cabinet was put up, Elisha specifically asked the contractor if we had to call the CityGas people to come install the gas pipes first (Pipes usually run behind the kitchen cabinets). They said no need and proceeded to put in the beautiful cabinets. Then the CityGas people said, sorry must remove cabinet, if not, how to expect us to put the pipes behind??!! So they had to remove the entire bottom cabinet, wait for the gas pipes to be done, then put everything back again. Nevermind.
When we opened the top cabinets, we were puzzled as to why they boxed up the entire top shelves, such that the shelves are useless and have no space to put things. They said, to block up the HUGE water pipes. And we asked, what water pipes?? We even had to search for old photos showing the original condition of the kitchen to prove that there are NO huge pipes to hide. So they re-did the top cabinets.
Sigh. Now you can imagine our stress and headache over the renovation. We kept complaining over this and that problem that we were kinda paiseh after awhile.
Will I recommend this contractor to you? Well, if you are on a budget, and have ALOT of time to do and re-do things, maybe i will.
Never ever in my life have I come across SIMPLE renovation works for a tiny weeny 3-room flat that lasted for almost one and a half months!
We got our house keys on 16 August, and started scouting around for the best reno deal immediately. After comparing prices, we settled on this friendly but blur uncle's reno quote coz he seemed the most honest and offered us the best value for money. His team of workers started work on 11 Sept. They finally finished everything YESTERDAY.
At first, things seemed to be going very well. We were very impressed with the worker's skill at plastering and smoothening out the horrendous walls. Imagine a pot-marked, pimple scarred face transforming into radiant and flawless complexion - the walls were SOOOO old that we could see the outline of each and every brick at first!
Then the mistakes started.
1. Forgot to plaster part of the kitchen walls
2. Used the wrong tiles for the kitchen wall. They put up bathroom tiles instead - poor contractor had to pry out the almost dried with cement tiles at 9pm in darkness, with his girlfriend holding onto a torch light for him. Poor GF too.
3. Plaster cracked.
4. Installed poor quality door knobs that took 5 minutes to insert and turn the key to open the door.
5. Painted the main and bedroom doors WHITE.
6. Chipped the toilet bowl and bathroom floor.
7. Cracked the toilet door and door frame and tried to hide the evidence by plastering up the holes. But they quite silly - the door is light beige while the plaster is white. So obvious to spot.
8. Installed the water heater inlet and outlet the opposite way. I discovered it when I had to bathe in cold water.
9. Drilled the washing machine water inlet and outlet too far from our original planned positions. So now we have no choice but to shift the machine to the 2 holes in the wall. The inlet and outlet were leaking at first, but thankfully they have since rectified the problem.
10. Burnt 3 holes and chipped a chunk off the laminated flooring in the living room.
11. The bathroom sink kept giving out brown water. Finally discovered that the joint in the pipe was rusty. Wonder if they were re-using an old rusty piece?
12. Kitchen tap produced horrible smelling water. Like lots of minerals, sediments and some glue/chemicals were added to it.
13. When drilling the living room wall to install the TV brackets, the opposite side (which is the study room wall) fell out! Dunno to laugh or cry when you see your wall fall out.
14. Cracked the kitchen lights.
15. Smashed the bathroom mirror.
16. The worst problem: Kitchen cabinet.
Ever seen people install the cabinet 3 times? We did. Before the cabinet was put up, Elisha specifically asked the contractor if we had to call the CityGas people to come install the gas pipes first (Pipes usually run behind the kitchen cabinets). They said no need and proceeded to put in the beautiful cabinets. Then the CityGas people said, sorry must remove cabinet, if not, how to expect us to put the pipes behind??!! So they had to remove the entire bottom cabinet, wait for the gas pipes to be done, then put everything back again. Nevermind.
When we opened the top cabinets, we were puzzled as to why they boxed up the entire top shelves, such that the shelves are useless and have no space to put things. They said, to block up the HUGE water pipes. And we asked, what water pipes?? We even had to search for old photos showing the original condition of the kitchen to prove that there are NO huge pipes to hide. So they re-did the top cabinets.
Sigh. Now you can imagine our stress and headache over the renovation. We kept complaining over this and that problem that we were kinda paiseh after awhile.
Will I recommend this contractor to you? Well, if you are on a budget, and have ALOT of time to do and re-do things, maybe i will.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Going Down Under...
... Melbourne and Adelaide that is! What were you thinking?? Hee.
Yep, our honeymoon plans are only half done, but we are going away for THREE weeks! From the 1st Dec to the 22nd Dec. We are not crazy, is just that when we were buying the tickets at the NATAS Fair some 3 weeks back, there were almost no return tickets. The earliest date is the 22nd of Dec and we even have to travel from Mebourne to Adelaide to get home. We are gonna see ALOT of Singaporeans on our trip.
In the process of booking hotel rooms and car rental... and planning the route and activites. Australia is really a friendly self-drive, self-plan holiday destination! They have plenty of updated websites and brochures for our easy reference. Just hope that what we see online is as beautiful as what we get over there! Looking through things to do in Melbourne and Adelaide, realise that we are gonna do ALOT of wine tasting. Hehehe.. Our fave activity!
Yep, our honeymoon plans are only half done, but we are going away for THREE weeks! From the 1st Dec to the 22nd Dec. We are not crazy, is just that when we were buying the tickets at the NATAS Fair some 3 weeks back, there were almost no return tickets. The earliest date is the 22nd of Dec and we even have to travel from Mebourne to Adelaide to get home. We are gonna see ALOT of Singaporeans on our trip.
In the process of booking hotel rooms and car rental... and planning the route and activites. Australia is really a friendly self-drive, self-plan holiday destination! They have plenty of updated websites and brochures for our easy reference. Just hope that what we see online is as beautiful as what we get over there! Looking through things to do in Melbourne and Adelaide, realise that we are gonna do ALOT of wine tasting. Hehehe.. Our fave activity!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
