Initial plan was also to not change it (seeing a trend here too). I don’t know if it’s a guy thing coz those who were advising me to change are all ladies lol. But I genuinely thought at first, that if it’s not broken, no permanent stains or anything (unlike my current one) then I don’t have to change it? Yeah yeah hygiene but I can always change just the seat and cover mah. 

But ever since I revised my budget up (thank you MAC) then I was like, eh, might as well. And when I eventually got my keys and double checked, the common bath WC was in a much worse condition than I remember (though I suppose I can still just change the seat la) so the decision was kinda justified. 

Some recommendations from the only telegram group I have been following religiously, which is this shop called Hoe Kee. Unfortunately they only seem to carry a very limited number of brands, one of which is their in house brand which is budget friendly and looks decent enough. Can’t say the same about their staff, visited IMM branch twice (ignored twice) and their showroom once (only coz it was near my furniture place), ignored until I called someone over because I really had questions. Even then not very keen and give off the vibe that they can do without you. Whatever, I was gonna buy online anyway (coz I can’t get my 4x miles from offline shopping like this).

But I spent a couple of nights just reading up on toilet bowl installation lol. The differences between S-trap and P-trap, and deducing that mine should be a S-trap. Then when 10.10 came I ended up not buying from HK in the end - my intention was initially to get a better one (American standard) for my master toilet and a cheaper (the in house one) for the common bath, but came across Rigel which is cheaper overall and gave me better discounts hahah. And Rigel is definitely a well known brand too so even though I didn’t visit any showrooms with Rigel, went for it in the end. After another million questions to the poor CSO behind the live chat who had to work on Sunday. 

Who was very nice and helped to take a look at the photo of toilet bowl I have and told me it won’t be conclusive (whether it’s P or S) coz of the design which is flushed to the wall. But having done my research I found that P-trap WCs can be used for S-trap configurations with a few additional connectors, while the reverse doesn’t work so the safer bet is to buy the P-trap versions. The installation cost is also more pricey ($40 extra for each unit) zzz but overall I still save about $100 as compared to HK la. So add to cart and off we go. 

Post-buying, arranged for delivery date (lumped it on the same day as vinyl assessment date) but a separate installation date on a weekend because I initially had lots of plans for the delivery date - 11.11 lol and I was planning to do a lot of shopping and assessments, but plans change along the way and eventually I don’t have much to do on that day oh well. So just took half day off. 

Though after I got my keys and went in to check again - the common bath was definitely a S trap so I deduced that the master bathroom should be S too (I really don’t think they will do two types within one house?) so I texted the CSO in-app again and asked to switch, which they obliged swiftly. Eventually there’s more communications to confirm timings for delivery and installation which was pretty smooth too. 

Delivery was uneventful, installation was more happening. Firstly they were a bit late, which ate into my schedule for the day. They also took longer with the installation than I expect. Biggest problem was the master bathroom toilet. Design of the WC somehow obstructed the pan collar a bit, and end result is the WC cannot be flushed all the way with the wall - plumber initially suggested I should change model, but I asked him to try out to see how far the gap will be, and thankfully it’s just a 1.5” gap which wasn’t too bad, so I decided to just go ahead with it. Was gonna find something to cover up the gap but in the end it looked like something I can live with so that’s not happening. 

The common bath, after removing the previous WC they had to dig out a bit of the grouting behind the wall and he told me to DIY. Theory is similar to plastering actually so I guess it’s not to difficult, issue is finding the color grout (which is why he couldn’t do it in the first place, coz he didn’t have the right color with him). Eventually bought it off Lazada and DIY, looks passable hahah. 

Thankful for very good CSO which just made the whole experience better. There’s a bit of mix up with payment for the plumber tho. Pretty sure I was supposed to pay the plumber myself, but he didn’t take payment coz he said Rigel didn’t tell him he needed to so asked me to settle with Rigel. But Rigel didn’t approach me either, so it’s FOC so far - but if this goes on I intend to be honest and ask Rigel for the plumber’s contact to pay him, coz people are out there trying to make a living and I shouldn’t be profiting off this mix up leh (unless Rigel is actually paying him without collecting from me, which doesn’t seem likely). And I actually vibed with this guy too so next time if I have plumbing issues maybe he’s a guy I can go to. So i am hoping he tries to collect payment from Rigel, fails, and either of them come to me, so that I can get this dude’s contact too lol. (Update: still waiting for this to happen, and I fear that dude has forgotten to collect pay for his hard work sigh).