Keeping a Lookout for Defects

When you collected your keys, the Resident's Feedback Form would be handled over to you too. This form is used to list down all the defects within the house which is then submitted to the HDB contractor to get them rectified. This is because they should give us a house that is of perfection and not having cracks or damages here and there. Ideally, this should be completed within 7 days upon receipt of the keys, but as long as it is before the start of any renovation works, it will be valid.

So we have just submitted our list, which was compiled by our interior designer and the HDB contractor (yes, ours is so good that he helped us find defects for himself to fix yay!).

Some examples of our defects in the house that are marked out by duct tapes. This is the reason why you must always bring to your new house, so that you can easily mark them out for the contractors to identify and fix. Also, it is highly encouraged that you take a photo of every defects so that you can check back on it after they claimed that they have fixed all. There are a couple of people in forum that had negative experiences where their contractors removed the tapes without fixing the problem, hoping that it goes unnoticed, so better to be safe than sorry! The works should be completed within 14 days, so now we just wait....

Speaking of which, our ID have not gotten back to us on the 3D design too... More waits...

Awaiting our 3D Design

It has been a quiet week, mainly because it was the lunar new year period and work was at a standstill. It is progressing now, where we have just confirmed our choice of materials and colors, and is awaiting for our ID to show us the 3D images of our future home. Finally we will have our first glimpse at how our home will look like.

Meanwhile we have made more purchases, and is starting to have trouble finding places to store them before the carpentry works begin. Bought our Samsung fridge and washing machine from Courts at a low price thanks to the sponsorship of vouchers from my Mom. Signed another contract with a flooring company to overlay our house at a discounted price thanks to a recommendation from my friend. Ordered several items from Taobao today with free shipping thanks to some promotions taking place for 3 days only starting today. It's really beneficial to plan and start early so that you are able to get better prices when there are good offers for it.

We should be expecting the 3D images to be out by this week! Look forward!

The Painting is Complete

We collected our fengshui painting today and it's really a magnificent piece of art. Many kudos to the master whom hand drew this using some heat apparatus on a wood like board. Our unique way of flipping a coin to choose the design had worked well and we are awaiting to opening it and hanging it up at our home. Look forward!!

Lesson Learnt on things to bring

On the first day of entering our house, we brought alot of things to the house. ALOT. This was because of all the preparation from reading on blogs and forums on things to bring to check for defects. We brought tapes, foldable tables, fans, mats, sticks, pails, scrubs, etc so that they could aid us in searching for defects. However honestly, it has been almost a month since we opened that door, and the only checks i did was on all the power points, to which i found one defective one.

THAT'S ABOUT IT.

No, i don't mean that that is all the defects i found, but that was all we did. Why?

Because we are going to engage a professional ID, and he is definitely a better person in finding defects than we are. We could probably tell a tile is cracked or not, but anything smaller could be missed by us. And now that we are going to be opening our house to the HDB contractors to rectify some of the issues, we ended up moving everything we brought there, back to our own home to make sure nothing get taken. Jokes on us.

So the key lesson is: If you're planned on engaging an ID, don't worry too much about the guides and methods in finding the defects. Leave it to the professional to do it, or even do it together and learn along the way so that perhaps next time you could help friends who are not engaging an ID.

However, there are some items which i would still recommend you to bring...
1. Chairs - preferably old one which you are keen on throwing away. Good to rest on while waiting ID to come over to get some measurement or to discuss with you the floor plan. Alternatively, you could get a mat, which would be so much lighter to bring around.
2. Table - to eat or to put your things on. the IKEA foldable cheap $5 red table would works perfectly fine.
3. Fan - it may get stuffy at times, and you would be glad you brought one along.

And that's about it. Really. Oh, and bring some food and drinks. You will bound to get hungry and thirsty.