The bits and pieces...

Are finally coming together... Nearing the end now (almost!)...

Still pending some minor rectifications (tall cabinet in kitchen missing an additional shelf I asked for, storage cabinet also missing one more wall shelf) but most of it has been completed. The ID has also helped to have our Japanese shoji doors put in last Saturday and they look absolutely brilliant (to me). I know I'm biased tho. Haha! :P So much love. :)

He was really worried about the installation (quote “弄坏了 我赔不了给你啊”) and cuz I was busy that entire day, he was onsite personally to supervise. Called me up several times during the process to check and confirm on what to do (plus take a photo of that nick on the door panel sustained from shipping lol). Luckily, I've learnt to mark everything up with masking paper notes so it was easy even without me being around.

True enough, the height was short by 1-2cm (just like what I measured the other night) but he got his people to fill the gap between the top track and the pillar ceiling with excess pieces of wood from the tracks. They don't look the greatest but I think I can bear that minor imperfection. His suggestion was to use some kinda industrial glue to seal it up - I'm still trying to find out what that is exactly! Another diy project to add to my growing list.

Also, there are gaps between both doors and their respective sides of the walls due to the parquet skirting (which I was mentally prepared for). It's more pronounced on the left side tho - that particular wall is not completely straight so the gap actually widens towards the top... Oh well. I guess I'm gonna have to live with it. At least until I think of a way to fix it!

I was actually hoping to get the painters in this week for touch-ups but they're not available until next Friday, unfortunately. Mr Leong (the boss) actually complained that he didn't earn from my job and sounded none too happy when I called him up on Monday afternoon about it. He said his worker had told him that the painting was done (that was not the case - he actually didn't finish in time and told me to call them back again for touch-ups when the carpentry is in). Partly my fault for not confirming that with Mr Leong back then when his worker said that to me and checking on the caveat (if any). Anyways, he mentioned that he would let me know after arranging a time but when he didn't respond to my sms last night or call me back by this evening, I decided to give him a call again. He then told me it'll have to be next Friday but not before he voiced his displeasure (again) and I parroted what his worker told me previously (again too).

Obviously, I mentioned this to the bf, the bf then told his mum (since Mr Leong is a personal friend of hers and came highly recommended by her) so she gave Mr Leong a call to speak to him and understand the situation. Which was when he explained to her that it was cuz I've held up the touch-up process too long (usually, they allow up to a month max but I took a few months to get back to them). 'Luckily' for me, this was a recommendation so it got sorted out semi-peacefully in the end. I got told off by the bf's mum for holding him up and had to call him back up again to apologise and offer some monetary compensation if the retouching proves to be too much work. :( The bf had to get a word in at me too, which I'm not very happy about since he should have forewarned me about this! (This is, after all, my first-ever renovation and he's already been thru 2!) So the bf will be footing the extra bill for painting cuz the gf will be almost bankrupt after handing over the final 5% cheque (2k thereabouts) to the ID early next week. :P

What's left for now...

1) Painting touch-ups
2) Minor rectifications (ID)
3) Citygas switch on (ID)
4) Final general cleaning (ID)
5) And nothing in the bank (Bailey's Mummy) ($_$)

和風万歳 desu!

My first-ever order from Taobao is finally here! WOOT! :D :D :D

I opted for the 6:30 to 10:30 pm delivery slot, but I actually got a notification sms from 65daigou in the early parts of the evening with a more accurate estimate that my order would arrive between 8:49 - 10:09. (Don't ask me why the odd minutes - I have absolutely no clue why either lol.) They were pretty spot-on with their estimate too. I got to our place at 8:40 and there was actually a delivery guy with a giant package waiting for the lift. When I asked him if he was delivering to the 10th floor (where we're on) and he said yes, I told him the delivery was probably for me haha. What great timing. :P

Despite the multiple layers of carton packaging used by the seller which took me a good 20 minutes to unwrap, 1 out of the 3 pieces still sustained slight damage (a minor chip at the top corner). Oh well~ Gonna figure out a way to fix it eventually but I guess I can live with it for now... I mean, what else can I do right!?

Lined them up against the wall for a 'test run' and they'll look something like this once up!

Very pleased with how it looks and can't wait for it to go up! :) Going to need the ID's help (or rather, the ID's subcons') to saw the top and bottom tracks to the correct size. Did a quick measure and it seems like the height could be shorter than what I need by 1-2cm. Not sure if it's my fault or the seller's - I'll have to track back the dimensions I gave them when I placed the order... Hopefully it's just my measurement earlier that's inaccurate cuz they were leaning against the wall and not completely vertical. Crossing my fingers and toes!

Conclusion: Both 65daigou and Taobao have served me relatively well this first time. It has been a slightly bumpy ride but no regrets as yet! So yes, I may very well make another purchase if I ever spot something on Taobao that I can't find anywhere else.

Long (diy) weekend...

Over-estimated myself and under-estimated the amount of work involved for the diy project I took up this holiday weekend lol. Had a flash of inspiration while surfing on Pinterest the other day and decided to order myself some wall stickers from Qoo10 which I used to makeover the bedroom door. $30+ for a new look, which is only 10-15% the cost of a new door. Will make do with it until the bank account recover from the renovation, haha. :P

 

Here's the before and after of our bedroom veneer door. Quite happy with how it turned out. Even the mom thinks it's nice - she actually asked if we can do it for her place (3 bedroom doors! Just kill me!).

Diy is actually highly therapeutic but boy, it's a whole new ball game when it takes such long hours lol. It's so much work trying to remove the backing paper, paste the sticker onto the surface and making sure there are no air bubbles beneath it! And all done by me, myself and I too! Unfortunately, I couldn't completely eradicate the air bubbles no matter how much I tried, but it's not too obvious (thankfully) cuz of the random wood print and texture of the wall sticker. Matt surfaces hide flaws a lot better than glossy surfaces do. :)

Managed to clean up the insides of the platform bed and the kitchen cabinets with my Mom's help today. Still pending windows cleaning which I'm totally not looking forward to... They're simply CAKED with dust and grime. It's gonna take a lot of hard scrubbing.

Electricians were over at our place this week, installing the doorbell and fixing the ugly trunking for one of the bedside lamps. (Perhaps I've picked on their work once too often, the electricians actually knew to send me photos before leaving to make sure I approve of what they'd done lol.) Partition guys have also finished up the pelmet above the sliding glass doors, outside the kitchen. Gonna check with the ID tomorrow on whether it's ok for me to arrange for the painters to come back this coming week for retouching.

Changed the date with 65daigou to deliver my sliding doors on Wednesday night instead, just in case the carpenters decide to come back this coming week (so they can help with the door installation, fingers crossed).

Also got a call from Grafunkt this afternoon - my beautiful TV console has arrived! Need to find time to head to the Millenia Tower showroom to see if there's anything else I want and whether I can hit the $2.1k mark for free delivery. Otherwise, delivery is $85 which I think is an absolute rip-off. Haha.

So many things to keep in mind and settle!

Old windows are bloodsuckers

ID called me up this afternoon with a status update after the aluminium guys came by.

Keyword: CMI.

Really cannot make it... The windows and door (also my poor heart at hearing the cost lol) are goners. All the hinges on the front metal gate (2 sets) and 4 of our top casement windows (3 in the bedroom, 1 in the foyer) have gone to hell and need replacements. In fact, according to his subcon, most of the window hinges are close to their ends and he recommends a complete change! But my ID knows I've gone way beyond my budget for this renovation and have asked them to only replace the ones that are truly spoilt, while servicing (oiling out) the rest for now.

Damage: $80 per window hinge & $70 per set of door hinge (upper and lower)

That's half a grand (almost) strolling out the door... Also half of our fridge. It's starting to look like Bailey and I may have to live without a fridge for the first month of moving in. And beg for food while we are at it, hahaha.

Useful tip from ID: To maintain the lifespan of your hinges, spray it regularly with WD40 to prevent rust.

Another step towards our Japanese-themed home... :)

Our Japanese shoji doors have finally arrived at the 65daigou warehouse in Guangzhou yesterday! YAY! :D This is for the doorway between the foyer and the living room, so I can carve out a proper, enclosed cat corner for when I foster cats, like I've done in the past.

What a nightmare it has been, coordinating the logistics of this thing. I opted to place the order myself initially cuz there were way too many options to choose from to custom-make these doors. I had to choose the number of tracks, the number of panels, the pattern of the wooden frame, the pattern on the shoji paper etc. It just seemed like too much information to convey so I spoke to the seller myself to get the details of the order ironed out, made payment via credit card and figured that that would be it (just sit back to wait for the items to arrive at the warehouse in a bit). Boy, I was SO off the mark...

I got a shipping notification via the Taobao app on June 27th and when I checked, it has already arrived in Guangzhou for 3 days, with a daily 提货通知：短信 通知失败 since June 24th! I was baffled - this was my 1st Taobao order after all - so I assumed it would all sort out by itself since I have already put in the 'Ship For Me' order the very next day after I got the notification.

After 3 days and no updates, I decided to drop 65daigou an enquiry on July 1st. 2 days later, they replied that they have no idea why it hasn't been delivered yet and advised that I should get the seller to have the item delivered to their warehouse. So back on Taobao I go, to chat to the seller and to ask her to get the local delivery company to deliver to the warehouse. The next day, 65daigou dropped me another note that the local delivery company that the seller used practises self-collection which they don't do. Which is all well and good since I've already asked the seller to get them to deliver. Ok great, no more problems, the total amount I've paid should include delivery right? ...WRONG!

On July 8th, when I checked the delivery status in the morning and it said 派送中 - I was over the moon. YAY, it's almost there! ...I thought. But in the afternoon when I checked again - the latest update said 派送失败（原因：付款问题（客户））BLOODY HELL. That was when I came to the realisation that I've just made the biggest, dumbest mistake of all, which was to assume that the price is inclusive of door-to-door shipping. I blame it on all the Chinese on the product page - it boggled my mind good. I even asked a friend to pore through the item page for me after that - there was absolutely no mention of the shipping / delivery methods on it. I should have asked the seller, instead of assuming! DOH! (Cue smack forehead lol) So back to 65daigou I go... They checked with the delivery company and were told that the seller opted for collection of delivery charges upon delivery. 65daigou's usual practice was to refuse anything that requires payment (which was what happened with my 1st delivery) but they agreed to pay the shipping charges first, if I could just let them know the exact amount.

Morning of July 9th had me speaking to the seller to get her to check the total amount to pay for delivery (inclusive of the 1st failed delivery, grr). She replied to me that night to say it was 198 RMB but I didn't see it till 10:30 the next morning. She also left a message earlier that morning with her mobile number to say that delivery mode cannot be changed after 11:30am! That set me in panic mode, so I quickly made a call to her (international call charges, gah!) to find out the details. That was when she told me to just pay her the delivery fees and she'd pay the delivery company on my behalf.

That set off another round of confusion cuz I wasn't sure how to pay her. She then told me to just order any item on her listing and she would change the price for me, just like the previous order for my doors. After 20 minutes of figuring out how to pay via the Taobao mobile app, I finally got the case settled. It was going to be delivered that very day. And all this while I was on the way to work! What madness, lol. Needless to say, I was checking delivery status on the app every other hour the whole of Friday. It finally got updated late that night with a 正常签收.

HIP HIP HOORAY! :D

Damage (till date): 1749 (doors/tracks) + 198 (2 x delivery) RMB ($450 ish)
Shipping @ volumetric weight of 42kg (sea) + 7% GST (for items above $400): $155 ish

If I'd gone with the 'Buy For Me' option - the agent fee would have only been 140 RMB (8% of item cost) and a lot less hassle. I wonder if I should try that for my next purchase haha.

In any case, what I've paid is still a lot cheaper than what I was quoted locally (2-3k range) for similar-looking wooden doors and this being the real deal. Provided the dimensions of the delivered product are accurate, of course.

A $600 gamble... (I have terrible luck tho.) Hope all that trouble will be worth it. :P

ID WWII + a little bit more

Dropped by our place on Tuesday night after work and the storage platform in our bedroom is almost completed! At first glance, I was ecstatic - I absolutely loved the look of that laminate (so much better than what I chose for the kitchen, haha) and it was exactly as what I'd visualised when I was designing it...

...until I spotted this on closer inspection. This would be what I consider a major defect in my eyes. >:( The vertical line for the front row near the steps is seriously misaligned! Can't believe the carpenters are still giving me such shoddy work after all the fuss I threw up with the bathroom and foyer cabinets.

So I sent the ID a WhatsApp message on Wednesday morning with the above photos and asked him what his thoughts were. He called me back almost immediately (the one good thing with him is that he's very very prompt with his responses) to ask me what the problem was. When I told him the issue, he didn't seemed to get it. Once again, the old and much-abused excuse that they've done everything based on the dimensions or drawings that I've given. He started ranting that they just can't please me - the exact quote would be:

"We don't follow your dimensions, you say wrong.
Now we follow your dimensions, you still say wrong."

MY POINT WAS... I'm not fussing about the dimensions now! I'm talking about the alignment and I'm 100% certain that NOBODY told me that it would not be. My drawings definitely have straight lines. So I sat thru his rant and then ended the call by telling him that I will send him an illustration of what I meant via email, which looked like this (forgive the low res version of the original platform drawing - I did this in a hurry in the office with limited resources at hand): 

Did I also mention that he asked me to get the bf give him a call? When the bf called him up at lunch, he complained to told the bf that this was the first time he has had a client like me (read: I was the most difficult and/or fussy client he has ever had to date). And then repeated the same set of excuses he gave me in the morning about everything being done per agreed dimensions etc. The bf told him straight-up to show us the black and white, and not what he/she/they said. So the ID had no choice but to agree to check on this and get back to us. I didn't get off completely scot-free tho - was told off by the bf for not having black and white communications with the ID. X[

After sharing my frustrations with a couple of my friends, we all agreed that it was the carpenters performing below par in this case, cuz misalignment should be something the professionals should be watching out for. If there was going to be any possible pitfalls, these purported experts should be the ones to highlight to the homeowner so that we can all align on how to resolve the issue.

Of course, this is just our opinion but it is still up in the air as to whether it will be fixed. It's all going to boil down to the integrity of the carpenters - whether they'll admit their mistake (or not). Or the relationship of the ID with his subcons - if he can cajole them into fixing it. It looks like a lot of work if they were to do it tho, so I do not have high hopes. In the meantime, I'm going to try to figure out how to cover up this defect if they don't...

In happier news, Rany from Doctor Doors followed through with his promise to resolve my bathroom door issue! His guys came over to switch out the entire vertical strip of aluminium and printing defect no more, YAY! :D Kudos to the folks at Doctor Doors! Glad I decided to give them another chance by getting my other bathroom door replaced by them too. It's not the cheapest bifold door out there but good customer service is worth a whole lot more. :)

'Happy' Labour Day

Spent the entire Labour Day weekend painting and cleaning over at our new place. That's 3 full days of hard labour. After each day, I can clearly feel every single bit of my age - the old body felt battered, like it has gone thru a crazy hardcore workout. Is that what all my weekends will be like once we move in!?

Results from this weekend:

1) Sanitary ware delivered by Heritage Bathroom

2) Bathroom bi-fold door installed by Doctor Doors

Slight imperfection (printing issue) on my bathroom bi-fold door, right smack in the center fold at eye level. Pointed it out to the door installer after the installation was done but he said this was unavoidable. Struggled with whether or not to complain back to the Doctor Doors office about this defect but eventually resigned myself to fate. Will look for wood grain wall stickers or something similar at Daiso to cover it. Sad...

3) Painting by me, myself and I, with the help of a good friend whom I'm very grateful to have - we finished 1 main door frame, 2 bedroom door frames and 1 fat water pipe in the kitchen, with matt white paint from Nam Tai Choon. Met the helpful Auntie again, who gave me tips on what I need and what to do before I start actual painting.

Price: Nippon Bodelac @ $18 / 1L (total damage: $30+ with paint and accessories etc.)

4) Clean up - we cleared out the u-channels where the glass panels will be placed into (the ID told me glass will be going in tomorrow). Also gave the bathroom a light scrubbing to prep for sanitary ware installation.
5) Sanitary ware mark-ups in the bathroom - to indicate exact placement in the bathroom.

 

There were a lot more mark-ups than this but I was too exhausted from all the work that I forgot to take photos of them all, haha. Told my ID that I'll go down there tomorrow when the plumbers are there for installation to go through with them personally, for fear that my mark-ups aren't concise enough. After all, we did work on them close to 9pm in the dark (with the aid of a mobile phone torchlight, lol).

Good thing I'll be on leave tomorrow! 我的劳动节还真劳累啊！

Painting Blue(s) - Happily Ever After

Painting was scheduled to start last Friday and I had to work, so I rushed down to our place after work on Thursday night to leave instructions for the painters so they knew where to paint what. Nasty business it was, considering the sheer amount of dust in the place and no electricity. 

I was going to write notes on the masking tape that the workers tended to leave strewn around the house and then paste it wherever I wanted work done... Plus I also had to write in Chinese, mind you (the bf's mum said so) and boy, was I glad that I had my phone with me to figure out some the words that I didn't know how to write - 拆除，磨平，补洞. Yes, I know how to write them now. :P 

Unfortunately, it was just not my day that night...

1) I had a hard time finding anything in the dark. Found the one and only roll of masking tape after a good 15 mins of serious searching and there wasn't much left as it is. 

2) 2/3 into the writing, I ran out of masking tape (oh well, it was just a matter of time). I then started salvaging bits of used tape by tearing short bits from longer ones that were already on doors and walls etc. Funny when I think about it now, but it certainly wasn't at that point in time. Hungry, sweaty and dusty girl that I was. 

3) I had to decide how to divide and paint the walls of my bedroom that very moment. I kid you not when I tell you that I stood in my pitch dark bedroom (with a miserable torch light from my phone) staring at the walls and thinking. After finally settling on a solution, I drew it out on a piece of paper instead, since it would need way too much masking tape then I could scrimp to explain everything, haha. 

This was what I ended up with (note the miserable strips of masking tape I stole from elsewhere lol). I stuck it on the bedroom door.

4) The door connecting the bedroom to the bathroom was dismantled before wet works started and left leaning on one of the bedroom walls where there were nails and stuff on the wall that I wanted removed. I tried to move it but it didn't seemed to want to budge so I figured I would slowly lower it and leave it lying on the ground instead. UNFORTUNATELY! I underestimated its weight and it came crashing down midways and landed on my right toe, scraping my left knee in the process.

Hello, you gloriously black toe nail, you!

I was in so much pain, I couldn't speak nor move for a good 20 mins, simply taking deep calming breaths. For all I know, I may very well have inhaled an entire lifetime's worth of dust that very night, haha. The pain kept me up that night - I could barely sleep. And put me out of commission for the next few days after that. Thankfully, no fracture.

With my toe injured, I was excused from work and free to oversee my painting on Friday so I hobbled my way there the next morning after seeing the doctor (who was useless and just directed me to A&E). I went through all my written notes with Ah Leong and asked him to let me know should there not be enough paint. I wasn't expecting him to but when I dropped by the next day to check on the painting and pay (he and his worker couldn't finish on Friday so his worker came back on Saturday to continue), his worker told me I needed to get another 10L of white. I limped-hobbled to take a bus to what I thought was the nearest paint shop 2 stops away.

Nam Tai Choon Trading @ Blk 966 Jurong West St 93 #01-215

They didn't have Odour~less Easywash, only Odour~less Premium All-in-One and Easywash. I learnt from the nice Auntie that Odour~less Easywash is only available in Home-Fix, Selffix or shops where they have colour machines to mix the colours. Premium All-in-One and Easywash are ready colours that you can buy off the shelves. Less colour choices obviously, but if you're looking for simple colours like plain white etc, then Easywash would be the cheapest out of the premium range.

Price: Nippon Easywash @ $70 / 5L, Nippon Odour~less Premium All-in-One @ $77 / 5L

I opted for Easywash since I'm trying to keep the costs down. It's not odourless but since we're not moving in right away, the smell wouldn't really matter to us anyway. Afterwards, I made my way back to our place somehow, with pauses every 20-30 steps cuz my fingers were in pain from carrying 5L in each hand and my toe too. (I found out much later that there were probably quite a few stores/companies selling Odour~less Easywash at Pioneer Centre, just diagonally across from our new place, doh! My only explanation - you lose more braincells than you realise when you're in pain lol.) The journey sure wasn't easy but it was all worth it, after seeing my visualised colours realised. :)

Living Room (external walls of kitchen) - Clamshell 3161

Bedroom - Solitude 5035

Really happy with my choice of colours and how they turned out. They are very close to what was printed on the paint catalogue and no detectable smell from Easywash a week after painting. Big thumbs up for Nippon Paint!