Our Air Con Installation

Our new air cons piping was installed on on 17 Jun .The FCUs and compressor were supposed to be installed on 25 Jun but we had to postpone it as the FCU in MBR was supposed to be installed on this wall... 

Who caused this problem? Was it the electrician when he was removing the old wiring casing or was it the air con guy when he was drilling the hole where the fan coil was supposed to be installed? Anyway, we were not able to pin point the culprit and no point finding out whose fault is it, not as though the party at fault would make good... A good example is our ID himself, who isn't going to make good our bedroom doors that his guys had destroyed, which we are pretty sure about this as his contractors were the only ones who dismantled the doors when they were hacking the laminated flooring and laying of new floor tiles in the bedrooms. No one else has touched our bedroom doors! How irresponsible our ID is, right? Want to know who is our ID and the company name? Well, you're welcomed to email me at bunnybluey@yahoo(dot)com(dot)sg and I'll be glad to share more details with you!

We told our ID to get someone to repair it and we'll just pay for it, just like we're going to pay for new bedroom doors, hiaz... What exactly happened to the doors? Well, the bottom of the doors was bloated, probably soaked in some wet works or stuff as the contractors just anyhow chucked our doors. We should have taken photo of the doors when we saw them chucked in a corner of the bedrooms where hacking, cement, tiling works were done, and cautioned him that he would have to make good if our doors got spoilt but isn't he the PM whose supposed to oversee the whole renovation and prevent such thing from happening in the first place? We can only blame ourselves for trusting him too much, yes, indeed, we trusted him to give us sound advice and ensure that our renovation is in good hand, and our trust was taken for granted!

Sorry for deviating out of topic, need a venue to rant, haha... Coming back... the wall was repaired, yay!

We managed to arrange for the air cons to be installed on 9 Jul. This guy was the main installer of our FCUs and compressor that day. They are a team of 3 and this guy's brother is the boss of the installation company. They do installation mainly for the company that we bought our Starmex. Well, at least, they bother to take care of our carpentry by laying cardboard on it and also, sweep the area/room after they finished the installation, very very rare of a contractor who would clean up their mess!

Oh yay! We tested the air con in one of the bedrooms that very night, cold!!!

Now, here's to share some details. We engaged Harvest Aire to provide and install the air cons. It was recommended by a friend and she shared with me that she did not encounter any problem with the air cons after they had been installed for coming to 2 years, so it means installation wise should be fine, we pray that our installation will be fine too. Price wise, their quote was cheaper than the few air con installers you could find on Renotalk forum. Materials wise, we had requested for the better quality ones, e.g. G22 copper piping, 1/2 inch Armaflex Class '0' insulation, etc. Our experience with Harvest Aire wasn't that good in the beginning but we cleared our misunderstanding, and subsequently, we didn't really face any major issue with them. They would call the day before to reconfirm the installation and arrange timing with you, just that they may be late if you're not the first installation of the day as they may be held up at the earlier customer's house. Installation had been smooth and installers were friendly chaps. Well, at least, they were friendly to us as we bought them lunch and drinks when they came to install the piping, hee... "bribe" them to do a better job for us. :-)

Heritage Bathroom Gallery Delivery & Post Sales Service

If you haven't read my earlier post on Heritage Bathroom Gallery, please read here. This post is in a way, a continuation from the previous post. This post would focus on the delivery and post sales service provided by Sharrine/Heritage Bathroom Gallery.

Delivery
We arranged a delivery date with Sharrine. She was unable to promise that our items would be delivered within certain timing, so I called up on the day before the delivery date to confirm on the timing. Sharrine was not in but the staff who took my call told me that he would get his delivery man to call me when he's back from delivery. Later that day, the delivery man called me, so we managed to arrange a mutual timing and he delivered within the time agreed on the next day. However, not all items were delivered as the WCs were to be delivered separately and another delivery person would be delivering the Grohe Eurosmart bundle sets. We told him that we would go to the shop to make payment once we received all items. Shortly, Sharrine called us as they have concerns about payment, so I told her not all items had been delivered. She did not know about a third trip by another delivery person, so upon checking, she told us that the supplier forgot to deliver the Grohe Eurosmart bundle sets to them beforehand, so they're delivering the sets to us directly but could not confirm the timing when we asked. While she was checking on the third trip, we received the Baron WCs, which were delivered directly by Baron. We told her we could go to their shop before they close to make payment but could only do so after all items had been delivered, so we asked if her supplier could deliver the sets to them, which we'll then collect from her and make payment at the same time. Later that night, which was quite close to their shop closing time, Sharrine messaged me if we would be paying the next day, which I replied saying yes, so long the sets were ready for collection, and then she replied they were already ready. Hubby went down the next day to collect the sets and make payment.

+ points: 

1. The staff who took my call did pass the message to the delivery man.
2. The delivery man called me, arranged a timing with me and delivered within the timing agreed.
3. Sharrine/Heritage did arrange with Baron to deliver the WCs after 2pm as per my request.
4. Sharrine/Heritage was flexible enough to get their supplier to deliver the Grohe Eurosmart bundle sets to them so that we don't have to wait endlessly at home. I was sick, so was really glad that I could go and see my GP after Baron had delivered the WCs. 

- point:

1. They did not contact me when the sets were delivered to them until later that night. Well, we were not in a hurry and not worried since we had not yet paid the balance, which was far more than what the sets cost.

A little out of topic here but thought I mentioned my curiousity here... if the delivery of Baron WCs is made by Baron themselves, why is Best Toilet Bowl charging additional for delivering of sanitary wares, particularly for Baron WCs that I enquired? The WCs are so heavy that Baron has to send 2 guys to deliver them, so probably that's why Baron is delivering themselves and not the retailer's delivery guy, so does it mean that Baron is charging their retailers for delivery when the retailers are helping them to sell their products? Heritage didn't charge me any extra for delivering of sanitary wares. 

Incident #1 - within first week of installation

After our things were installed and we did an inspection, we found that 1 of the mirrors had a manufacturing defect, so hubby took a photo and sent it to Sharrine to confirm. The LED bulbs for the 2 lights that we bought for the kids' room were supposed to be white light but they turned out to be warm light. The mirror was replaced with a new one and the bulbs were exchanged to white light.

Incident #2 - within 2 weeks of installation

After about 2 weeks of using the Samaire fans, we noticed that the fans were producing some noise, which was kind of irritating. The sound for both fans was different, one seems like it has a loosen screw in the fan as it kept producing "tik tik tok tok" sound while the other has a "tsk tsk" sound. The sound was only more noticeable when the fans were on medium speed. We informed Sharrine and she helped us to call Samaire, providing our invoice to them, and Samaire contacted me shortly to arrange for an appointment to check the fans.

For both incidents, Sharrine helped us to look into our issues and did what she could. She didn't ignore us just because the purchase was already completed with payment fully made. I'm not sure if it's due to the Lemon Law but at least, she did help us and did not take 3 weeks to get back to us, unlike another contractor who did so and also did not pre-arrange an appointment at least a day beforehand, well, this shall be left for another post on another day.

Would I recommend Sharrine/Heritage? Well, conclusion is pretty obvious, isn't it? Look for Sharrine if you're going to Heritage. Other salespersons may be equally good but I can't really comment much since I don't have much dealing with them except that they helped to follow-up when Sharrine is not around and one of the guys (I don't know his name, can only recognise his face) was really nice to offer my son a drumstick, some fries and soft drink during our first visit when the staff was having their late lunch.

Heritage Bathroom Gallery @ Geylang

Heritage Bathroom Gallery, a place where we spent 4+k! Why did we choose to buy from Heritage? What did we buy? Whom did we deal with? How's our experience with them?

Why Heritage Bathroom Gallery?
I read from several forums that Heritage offers rather competitive pricing, so we decided to drop by the place and take a look. We were greeted by Sharrine, whom we felt friendly and approachable. As it was a weekday, she was able to accompany us throughout and showing or recommending products to us. They sell a wide range of products although not all products are displayed in the shop due to space constraint, so just ask them if they sell a particular product or brand. We did not purchase on the spot as we did not bring out our full shopping list. However, we were more or less decided to buy from Heritage as prior to visiting Heritage, we had visited Best Toilet Bowl at Yeley Building (same shop as KS Lighting & Electrical), Bathroom Warehouse, both Bukit Merah and Changi showrooms, and Hoe Kee at Kaki Bukit, and the experience from visiting these shops wasn't as great as compared to visiting Heritage, as shared below.

Best Toilet Bowl - We visited them as we were actually there to get a quotation for electrical rewiring works under KS Lighting & Electrical, and since they also sell a variety of products, we decided to take a look. One thing that I do not like is that they charge extra for delivering of sanitary wares even if you meet the minimum amount of purchase for free delivery. When I asked if there's any discount from the price tag, I was told that it's already the best price as their price is already quite competitive (not really, imo).

Bathroom Warehouse - I first visited Bukit Merah showroom, alone. As a lady, I don't know much about sanitary wares and toilet stuff, so I approached a guy, who happened to be the manager, for help. He's friendly and approachable, and taught me a lot of things. Some of the things that he shared, which I could still remember:

1. When buying a WC, you need to know the distance between the wall and floor trap.
2. Choosing a one-piece WC, e.g. Baron 888, is better than a two-piece WC, as it is easier to clean. 
3. If you're planning to get a Baron WC, only the 888 model is installed with Gerbreit flushing system; other models are installed with their own flushing system.
4. To maintain the shiny look of a WC, do not use any toilet washing detergent, just water will do. The shine will slowly fade off if you use detergent to wash it frequently.
5. When choosing a tap/mixer, put 2 fingers in front of the tap/mixer, which is usually the distance from the tap/mixer to the edge of the basin/sink. This is to assess if your hands would be too close to the basin/sink during washing.
6. There is no 100% stainless steel product for bathroom stuff, so stainless steel product will still rust.
7. To maintain chrome products, always rinse off any shampoo, body wash, etc so as not to let the chemicals in these products settle on the chrome.

I told hubby that it was a pleasant experience to visit Bathroom Warehouse, so he suggested that we tried the other showroom as it was supposedly to be bigger. I was really tempted to buy the Baron 888 WC with a free basin priced at $488, thinking that it's a pretty good offer. However, we only need a WC and basin package, and another WC as we do not plan to change the vanity top in MBR toilet. We asked for the price if we were to buy just the WC and were told that it would be the same even if we don't need the basin. When we probed further, the staff told us that she could only offer 2 sets of Baron bidet. Again, we only have bidet installed in common toilet, so why do we need 2 sets? Since they were not flexible with their promotion/package/pricing, we decided not to make any purchase as we believed we could always find better promotion elsewhere, especially with GSS coming then (it was back in May then). Well, luckily we didn't buy from them as the deal from Heritage was better. :-)

Hoe Kee - I don't quite like Hoe Kee as they have limited choices for WC, mainly is Roz. When I asked about Rinnai hob, the salesman tried to dissuade me from getting Rinnai and recommend another brand instead. He also kept pushing us to put a deposit if we're keen to purchase an item, unfortunately, we didn't like to be pushed in this manner.

Our Shopping List
1x Baron 888 WC with Basin as a package
1x Baron 888 WC
2x Grohe Eurosmart New Shower Bundle Set (includes basin mixer, bath mixer & shower rail set)
1x Grohe Sink Mixer 
1x Joven 35l Heater
1x Rinnai 3Si Hob
2x Toilet Accessories (paper holder, towel bar, 2-tier glass shelf & mirror)
1x Door Bell
1x Bidet
2x Samaire SA493 Fan
8x Lights
*They expanded their business to sell lights and fans as well under Heritage Lighting Gallery.

The Baron 888 WC with Basin as a package was cheaper than the offer by Bathroom Warehouse, more than $50 difference. The pricing for the Grohe Eurosmart bundle set was further reduced from Grohe's promotion price, so meaning it's cheaper than Hoe Kee's selling price. Sharrine also matched the price for Grohe sink mixer and Joven heater that I found elsewhere. There was also price reduction for items here and there. Overall, we spent ~4.2k for the above mentioned items plus some small things like pan collars and exposed brackets. It was a happy deal with Sharrine.

Our "Dealer"

Sharrine is quite popular. When we went back the second time to place order, on a weekend evening, she was serving a couple and another couple was waiting for her. Subsequently when we tried to contact her on weekends, she was often busy attending to customers, but she would follow-up with our queries, with a bit of reminders though... Nonetheless, we did get our issues resolved with her help. At least, she would look into our queries or issues, and try to help us to resolve them, so she does provide post-sales service. Well, if you're expecting immediate reply or wait endlessly for them to call you back, then it isn't going to happen. It's common with many retailers and contractors, you only get a reply after a few phone calls or messages to check with them. If you proactively check with them, the chances of getting your issues resolved are higher, of course. In the next post, I would share more about our experiences trying to get our issues resolved, stay tuned!

Would I Recommend Our Electrician? Yes!

We did rewiring of our 5 rooms flat, except for our bomb shelter aka storeroom as we cleared our stuff from the main living area and chucked them into it till no room to enter, lol! Interestingly, we learnt that the DB installed in the bomb shelter is actually connected to the main DB in our house, and the main DB is connected to the DB (not sure if it's also called DB) outside our house along the common corridor. What this means is if war really breaks out in Singapore and we have to hide in the bomb shelter, we would still not have any electricity if the block is bombed, leaving only columns of bomb shelter standing, because the main DB and/or the DB at the corridor will be gone as well, hmm... Anyway, I'm not really sure if our HDB flat bomb shelter is really that hardened if you have seen a real hardened facility.

As posted here, we have gotten our own electrician. I decided to come out with the following plan/layout to run through with our electrician as we can't really depend on our ID. Speaking about our ID, it's a long story, which we'll share it later, hiaz... Let's come back to electrical part first, so what do you think of the plan/layout that I did, not bad, right?

We spent ~3k for the whole house rewiring, not including any cost for SPSL Testing. Overall, our electrician is not too bad. He's often the first contractor to appear at our house to do his work and he's one of the punctual guys who appeared at the arranged timing, plus minus a bit of 5 to 10 minutes, which I think is reasonable as traffic on the road can be unpredictable. He also called my hubby to check if everything was okay even after we had fully paid him.

Here's his price that he quoted us for our house wiring. If you think his price is reasonable and you would like to engage him, feel free to leave a comment on this post or email me at bunnybluey@yahoo(dot)com(dot)sg. However, I cannot guarantee that he'll quote you the same price as it may also depend on the amount of work that you need him to do, e.g. if you only need him to install 1 or 2 points as some contractors may also quote transport cost on top of installation cost if it's minor work. Another disclaimer to make, I'm not sure if he would take up minor work as I know he's rather busy with several installation projects going on.

2 Gang (or what we call double gang) 13A power socket - $60

Lighting Point - $35

SCV Point - $120

Heater Point (for storage heater) - $100

Cooker Hood Point - $60

Door Bell Point - $50

Install Light - $10

Install Fan - $50

*Price is per point/light/fan.

Rinnai 3Si Hob, Another Great Buy!!!

I did some research on the Internet and many people had recommended Rinnai hobs, particularly those with the inner burners. After discussion with hubby, we decided to go for a Rinnai hob and choose a stainless steel model instead of the glass top ones, with inner burners. As a SAHM, I do cook quite a bit for my family using traditional wok (except during this period when renovation is still on-going), so we have concerns about the durability of a glass top, especially if we forget not to put any hot pot directly on the glass top. Afterall, both of us are getting old, haha... Also, the stainless one goes better with our pocket, hee...

3Si is the only stainless steel model with inner burners, at least that's what we saw on Rinnai website, so we didn't have to headache over whether to get the 2 or 3 burners. We tested to see how small the fire can go and were really impressed with it as our previous hob wasn't able to have such a small fire. The fire can go smaller than what you see on the photo, just that I took the photo with slightly bigger fire so that people can see the burning flame.

At this point of time, I cannot say if this hob or inner burner technology is good as I have not yet really started to use it. So far, we only used it to boil water as kitchen is still "down". Perhaps, I would share my review later, probably some time 6 months down the road.

We bought the hob from Heritage Bathroom Gallery with Sharrine Yeo. She wasn't able to match the lowest quote that I got for the hob, which was a $15 difference, but she gave us further discount on other items that she's able to "slash" the price. As her explanation, recommendation and service were good, we decided to just buy the hob from her. It would be easier for us to arrange delivery if we were to just buy from one party. The savings from buying from another source may not justify the time that we have to wait at home for the delivery to be made, especially the delivery was done during the renovation period that we did not stay in the house.

Hope readers who have read my blog so far have gained some knowledge on the things that I had shared regarding my renovation journey and have helped you on your renovation journey if you're currently embarking on it. Upcoming posts... just to mention a few, in no particular order as I have not yet decided what to write next - review on Heritage Bathroom Gallery, Baron WC 888, air-con installer, electrician...

Update - 16 Jul:
If you have just bought a Rinnai hob and having difficulty to turn on the flame, you can read the following tips shared by http://renovation-greencoal.blogspot.sg/2008/05/using-rinnai-inner-flame-burner-hob_6584.html.

1 - Push down the burner flame knob and gently turn anti-clockwise until you reach resistance i.e. you feel the knob cannot be turned further. That resistance signals the "end" of the knob-turn but do not let go of the knob yet, continuing to pushing it down.

2 - As you continue to push the knob down, turn a bit more anti-clockwise until you meet resistance again. At that point you then turn back the knob in a clockwise direction until you hear a "click" sound. That' a "locking" indication you've turned on the fire successfully.

My Kraus Sink, I love it!!!

If you had read my previous post, you would know that I had spree a Kraus Sink from Amazon US. It's Kraus 32 Inch 16 Gauge Undermount Single Bowl Stainless Steel Sink, KHU100-32. I managed to ship it to SG with shipping charges waived, thanks to tips shared by fellow Kraus sink owners who posted on Renotalk forum. 

The sink was installed recently, matched with a Grohe faucet. Well, I certainly love how big and deep it is! It looks gorgeous. Whether it'll be long lasting, I can't share with you now for sure, as it's been installed for barely a week. For the price that I paid, which was less than SGD450, I certainly think it's a good buy considering the quality, which you may not get similar quality at similar pricing in SG.

How to get shipping charges waived? Well, you have to write some kind of "grandmother story" to convince the CSO. For me, I had been spreeing a number of times from Amazon US since 2007, so they considered me as a valuable customer and offered me free shipping as an one time exception. Get creative and good luck to you if you're keen to get one of these sinks! 

It's been more than a month!

Oh wow, I have not been blogging for entire June about my renovation journey since my renovation works kicked start on 30 May! Well, we moved out temporary to my in-laws place to stay during the June school holidays. The internet connection there isn't that fast as compared to our house and not convenient to stay up late since it's not our home afterall.

The renovation journey has been kind of roller coaster for us... tiring, thrilling, hectic, traumatise, horror, etc... Good news is that we have moved back home on 26 June, just before school re-opens. Bad news is that the renovation isn't fully completed yet and there's been several hiccups along the way, which I would blog about the bad stuff later after I'm done deal with all the contractors that I'm not happy with, even my hubby who is easy going, mild or no temper person, would agree with me wholeheartedly!

I'll be blogging at a slower pace since renovation works hasn't completed and I'm also doing some freelance audit assignments, which will keep me busy for quite a while. Meanwhile, watch out for my updates!