So we've finally signed on the dotted line :D

To formally engage our renovation contractors, of course! Saliheen and I are so happy and so relieved to finally get the party renovation started! Our renovation is due to start this Thursday and I'll be dropping by our unit this Saturday to check that work has started and to receive delivery of our kitchen sink, kitchen tap and bathroom accessories. 

Went to our contractors' office yesterday to finalize the quote and sign the agreement, and ended up spending a solid two hours choosing materials and tiles for our new home. Very penat and pening but very fun and exciting as well!

Oh, and an update on the cement screeding problem with HDB? We fretted over it for a week or two but decided that enough was enough. Our contractors gave us a reasonable price for cement screeding so we decided to bite the bullet and cancel our free cement screed application with HDB.

Tapi reasonable macam mana pun, we could have beli a sofa and coffee table with that same amount of money okay! But issokey lah, we can make do without those two for the first few months. Siapa nak datang visit kena duduk kat lantai! Ala ala kedai sheesha kat Arab Street gitu. Hur hur.

This is also the main reason why we can commence renovation already lah. If we wait for HDB, my house sampai tumbuh lalang tumbuh cendawan kat dalam pun tak akan settle settle agaknya.

Cement Screed Heartache

I tengah stress tonggeng pasal rumah I hari ni so I nak luahkan perasaan jap.

It all started when a friend turned neighbour texted me about two weeks back, asking whether we had issues with our cement screeding works with HDB.

Cheerfully told her we applied for it on 26 September 2014 (Friday) and was told it'll take about 3 weeks so the cement screed for our unit should be done by 17 October 2014 (Friday), which is today lah sepatutnye.

She then unleashed her fury about HDB causing delays to her cement screed works despite their many promises to get it settled in time for her renovation timeline! Lemah tau jantung I dengar dia raging mad sebegitu!

This whole cement screeding issue worried me so much sampai I Googled it, you know! And true enough lah, so many complaints and bad stories pasal HDB's free cement screed service!!! You can read some here and here or Google for various blogs yang complain pasal this long ongoing issue.

When we mentioned this to our other friends yang tau pasal benda ni, they also told us that it is better to fork out money than go through the sakit hati process of getting HDB contractors to do their goddamn job properly.

HAIZ.

We went to our unit mid this week to see if any work has been done but unsurprisingly, the unit looks the same as it did three weeks ago. To be fair, the form stated that the cement screed works will be done within "3 to 4 weeks from date of application" so we tried to pujuk diri and thought maybe HDB will get it done by the following week?

Oh, we were so naive. So, so naive.

Just this morning, after another exchange of texts with my friend, I decided to contact the HDB officer-in-charge... and was told that there is a queue of 20 pending cement screed cases in front of us and some are due from 2 months back wtf. The officer told me she couldn't even tell me an estimated time frame (e.g. another 4 more weeks), much less a specific date.

So just because HDB is incompetent and cannot meet the timeline that they promised, I have to duduk diam diam and just... wait? Without knowing how long they will take? 2 months? 3 months? 10 bloody years?

HAIZ.

Banyak punya nak tunggu lagi satu minggu eh. Kirim salam bantal busuk sua.

So now we are left with two possible options:

Option #1

1. Wait indefinitely for HDB to do our cement screed works (which means we won't know when we can start renovation and when we can move in)

2. Risk heartache if HDB does a lousy job and we need to wait somemore for them to rectify (as seen from complaints made in various forums and blogs)

3. But we get to save a thousand odd dollars since this service is provided free-of-charge by HDB; OR

Option #2

1. Cancel our free cement screed application with HDB

2. Pay about S$1K plus to our contractors to do the cement screed works

3. But at least, we can get a guaranteed date of completion and be assured that our contractors will do a good job, insya Allah.

I'm just trying to keep my anxiety at bay now by reminding myself that we're meeting our appointed contractor onsite tomorrow, which means kita boleh tanya sekali how much he charges for cement screed works. 

We've already decided that if he can give us a reasonable quote, we might jump ship and save ourselves heartache from dealing with our nasty and irresponsible HDB officer. But anything more than that, we'll just stick with HDB, tunggu sampai berbulu and... makan hati, I guess. Haha.

I still can't believe this is happening lah! Kita adalah happy happy kita managed to get free cement screed from HDB. Especially since we changed our key collection date to 26 September 2014 by chance and qualified for the free service - HDB stopped their free cement screed service as of 1 October 2014, you see! So homeowners yang collect keys from 1 October 2014 tak dapat this free service. 

But now it seems like dapat free service pun tak guna, if HDB is going to play games with our hearts and minds macam gini. Kasi free service tapi comes with free heartache sekali. Boleh ke gitu.