Day 9 - The Wash-Up

Last Saturday, a Bangladeshi came to wash up the master bedroom bathroom.

How it looks after the wash-up:

William noticed some defects:

A broken window pane

and some spots that could not be removed.

I informed Dorothy and she said the window pane will be replaced and the spots removed.

Day 8 - Tiling of Box-Ups

 Xiao Hei and his co-worker tiled up the the box-ups today. 

They had finished clearing up the bulky pieces and cardboards when we returned from lunch.

Xiao Hei said that he would not be doing my common toilet. Another tiler would be coming.

I am a little worried that the next tiler may not be able to do the job well. Let's hope my worry is unfounded.

Day 7 - Boxing Up of Pipes

I slept at four in the morning the night before yesterday, thinking that I should have about 6 hours of sleep before the workers arrived.

At 9am, someone knocked on the door. He claimed that he was going to hack the common toilet. After some hassle, he realised that it was a mistake. Sigh.

I waited till 2.30pm before two workers came to box up the pipes. They stayed till 7pm before work was done.

According to Dorothy, these are calcium silicate boards that are more resistant to water than the ordinary partition board.

Nice Lady from Grohe Spa

I wrote a letter to Grohe to commend Lena from Grohe Spa at Marina Square.

(I don't just complain complain, okay? I give credit where it is due also, okay?)

After Irene from Heritage told me that many customers complained about the thermostat of the Grohe rainshower as ineffective, I was worried.

The next thing I did was to clear my doubt with the place I bought my product from.

So I called Grohe Spa and asked the lady who picked up the phone.

She said it was not true at all. Nobody complained to them about the thermostat.

She asked me who told me all these, and when I told her, she said that these shops were Grohe dealers who did not send their salespeople for training, so they wouldn't know what the Grohe staff knew.

I asked her if what another salesperson at Grohe IMM told me was true: the temperature of the water from the rainshower depends on the storage heater.

She said it was not true again.

She explained that the plumber needs to calibrate the thermostat so that the temperature of the water matches the temperature indicated on the thermometer.

She believed that those customers who complained did not know that they had to get the plumber to calibrate the thermostat.

She also said that if my plumber did not know how to install the rainshower, she could get their Grohe plumber to install for me. The installation cost would be $150.

I thanked her and asked for her name.

Today, when I told my plumber that the thermostat had to be calibrated. He claimed he knew how to.

However, when I told him again as he was fixing the rainshower together, he said I could calibrate it myself too! He said that he couldn't possibly come to my house to turn the thermostat for me every day!

I got a shock and called Lena again. I told her what the plumber told me, that he did not need to calibrate the thermostat, and asked if she would speak to the plumber for me. She kindly acceded and explained to the plumber how to do it.

Very nice, right?

I am impressed.

An Unhonourable Heritage

When I was buying my bathroom accessories at Heritage, the sales lady Irene had told me that Grohe Euphoria Shower System had many complaints about its thermostat.

She claimed that 50% of her customers complained that the thermostat didn't work as promised. When they turned to the indicated 38 degree celsius, it was too hot, not what 38 degree celsius was like; when they turned to something a little colder, it was too cold.

She had asked me to KIV my first Grohe set and see if it works well before buying the second set from them which was selling at $700 without GST.

It was a really good deal since I had bought my first Grohe set at close to a thousand dollars.

I told her that I would be fixing the rainshower this week and would order from them if it was good.

Unfortunately, when I called Heritage today after my rainshower was fixed, the girl over the line, Yuki, said that the promotion was over! It was no longer $700 but something close to $900 without GST.

I told her my conversation with Irene and she said that she would get back to me.

When Heritage called back, it was Irene on the phone.

She claimed that "the other day, a customer came to our shop and bought all remaining 3 Grohe set because it was so cheap". I asked her about what she had advised me ie. to wait for my rainshower to be fixed up before buying from her, but she said that I didn't put a deposit down for it and all rainshowers had been sold. "NO MORE."

I felt ... 'betrayed', honestly. I felt that she lied to me. Or perhaps, it was a case of not honouring her promise.

I am upset that she had asked me not to buy first, and yet did not bother to call me to let me know that someone was snapping them up. I think that she should have the basic decency to call her customer when she knew that I had the intention to buy the product, and yet being advised against it by the very her! I consider this bad, thoughtless service.

Will I buy from Heritage again?

You bet I won't, ever.

Day 6 - Installation of Rainshower and the Throne

Today, the plumbers came to replace the pvc pipes with stainless steel pipes.

Out of 10 contractors, 9 would tell me that my master bedroom bathroom had to have an instant heater installed as the structural beam which the pipe went through was too small to run another pipe through.

I didn't want an instant heater that I have been using all my life. I wanted a rain shower. And a Grohe rainshower at that.

And we all know that a rainshower needs a storage heater to work.

Alan was the one who said that another stainless steel pipe could go through as stainless steel pipes were slimmer than pvc pipes. And in order to achieve that, he would have to open up the L-box which the pipe was hidden. That was the main reason that I wanted to engage him, on top of the fact that he was one of the cheapest and no hidden cost. 

Although it didn't happen, I was thankful that he had given me the knowledge, as well as the courage to request for an additional stainless steel pipe to go through the thick beam.

When I told Dorothy's plumber what I wanted, he was quite sure it wouldn't work, but he kindly cautioned me that in the event that it didn't work, I would still need to pay for the making good of the L-box since they would need to open up the L-box to check if that could be done.

I was apprehensive - to destroy part of my L-box to 'try' and see if what I wanted would work, but perhaps I had confidence in Alan's suggestion, so I gave the go-ahead.

Tearing up the L-box

The plumber is cute. He asked me why I was taking pictures of them doing work and I replied that I blogged. He immediately asked me to advertise for him by turning around.

The passageway leading to my master bedroom. 

Sigh ...

The torn L-box

It was a good thing that it did work.

The L-box wasn't torn in vain.

The electricians were here too.

They were adding an extra light point for my cove lights.

Very humble and soft spoken, they would tell me what they would do and asked if I was alright with it even though I didn't have any option.

Fixing up the throne

At the end of the day ...

The plumber cautioned me against using the throne today as the glue had not dried yet. 

"It will topple," he said.

My beloved Grohe rain shower

We ran into a problem when the plumber was due to install the rainshower: Xiao Hei had created the niches too low, such that my rain shower had only two options:

1) Have the thermostat installed below the lower niche and have a low rainshower that is too low for William

2) Have the thermostat installed beside the lower niche, and have a rainshower that is too close to the side wall

It was a huge dilemma for me. 

I am particular about the aesthetic aspect of the rainshower. Everybody installs a rainshower in the centre of the wall, right? It would look awful to have it on one side. My niches would look so stupid beside it. I had meant for my niches to be above the thermostat, not beside. However, by doing that, it would be way below the recommended 1m clearance from the ground and it would be too low for William.

I know the rainshower has a swivel function. However, I really cannot suffer the look of a rain shower too close to the side wall.

I was in such great dilemma that the plumber said,"I don't install lah. Very stressful leh. If wrong, I cannot take it out leh."

In the end, the plumbers went for lunch first while I mulled over it.

I was frustrated that the tiler did not have the foresight when building a wall from scratch. The whole purpose of a wall was to install a rainshower with holders for shampoo and shower cream! What is the point of having a wall that is no good for a rainshower?

I watsapped Dorothy and told her that the rainshower could only be installed at the side and that it looked awful.

Her reply: You decide. After that, cannot change.

Guess how I felt then.

When the plumbers returned to install the rain shower, they gave me a nice surprise.

The rain shower was installed somewhat in the centre and somewhat below the lower niche!

I asked the young plumber why he told me he could not do it earlier on.

He replied that he was taking a risk that the tile would break since the area nearer to the niche could be more fragile.

And he said this,"You want 100%. I give you 100% lah!"

I like people who take pride in their work.

A Mother's Worry About Her Little Girl

Coco had her braces removed early this month.

While I am relieved for her that she no longer needs to suffer the pain of monthly braces-tightening, and happy that she is looking prettier than ever, she has been getting unwanted or unnecessary attention from boys and even an older man.

As soon as her braces were off, she was followed by a middle-aged man while she was doing street sales. Fortunately she managed to shake him off. I shared with her my experiences of being followed by a middle-aged man and a teenage boy to let her know she was not alone.

She was approached by a boy at the street sales to have her number. I thought she was sensible to say no.

However, she has been exchanging messages with a boy via sms, and apparently, the boy took notice of her at a sports event and sent her a Facebook friend request, which she accepted and eventually, gave her number away - to a boy she has never met!

I didn't like the way the messages went. They were bordering on the edge of flirting. And I think they are too young for THIS, or THAT.

I am really bothered. I am very worried that Coco would be carried away by the attention she has been drawing.

When I first started getting boys' attention, I was flattered, but felt that these boys would have done the same thing to any other girl. During my O levels year, I was even suspicious that these boys were trying to distract me from my exams and trying to eliminate me as an enemy. Of course that was not true, but it showed how much 'self-control' I had. However, no matter how self-controlled I was, I suspect that it did get in the way. It got worse when I was studying for my A levels. In short, boys' attention was never a good thing for me. So I am especially fearful and worried when I see how history is unfolding right before my eyes .

I hope Coco will be level-headed as she explores this side of teenagehood. She appears to be overwhelmed by the attention she is getting. I know she is too young to be savvy in dealing with such. I have never imagined that I would dig up my histories to offer her my two cents'. In fact, I would have forgotten about them if she is not going through the same thing. I guess there is some merit in such experiences after all, even if they didn't bear much good fruit.

They always say that you worry about a boy when he's little, and you worry about a girl when she grows up.

There is truth in that.