So had to engage another electrician, and needed contacts so went to the chatterbox in iCondo app (i.e the estate community app) to look for one. One resident posted a recommendation and swore by it, claiming reasonable rates and responsible work when she needed to rewire her entire house and clean up renovation woes, so I tried too. But dude was super unresponsive sigh and I had to chase a few times and finally in view of time constraints I dropped him. Not like he was super keen on the job anyway. 

Similar story with another guy from the iCondo app - this guy came for fridge advice actually but as we chatted about the follow up for the fridge he told me he had renovation works next week blah blah, so I got him to take a look at my electrical works too. He walked me through what needs to be done and will get back to me on a quote - though he never did after a few chasers and I was running out of time. So dropped him too. 

Half heartedly asked handyman but he doesn’t do concealed electrical works. 

So it’s off to Carousell for backup. Didn’t search too hard (again) and texted a guy half heartedly (listing was pretty recent and reviews were few but positive). What won me over initially was the very quick response. Quote sounded quite high actually but I reasoned that it was an economies of scale issue - for instance, hacking and patching will probably cost similar amounts if I had done whole house rewiring because it is a lump sum that can be spread out. I found out eventually that part of the reason is probably because he didn’t do plastering much so he engaged a plaster guy to come and finish up that part, so that cost is probably passed on to me. 

Anyway, I didn’t have the heart (or time) to look for another guy so I confirmed him in the end, arranged a date and applied for my permit accordingly. I briefly described it to the condo management the extent of works (was thinking they’ll be sticky with hacking ceilings at least) and to my surprise they just said noted and pls proceed. Uh, okay if you say so. Electrician later told me while hacking the ceiling they found the rebar and decided against hacking too deep so there’s a small bit of wiring which they left exposed - okayyyy that wasn’t very comforting. But I didn’t hear of any complains from my upstairs neighbour (there’s definitely someone staying there) so I suppose..all’s good? 

I do feel shortchanged by this guy a bit. Coz it turns out the quote does not include the actual fan installation - his excuse for me was that he didn’t have good experience installing KDK fans in particular, the last time he did there was persistent noise from the fan that he eventually had to get someone else to help resolve. I asked to knock $50 off the final amount, reasoning that he had quoted me this amount with the understanding that I wanted to install fan and I had asked him if it’s all in. But then again, no black and white and he insisted he can't reduce the price oh well. My fault for not persisting with a black and white breakdown (which I had wanted but he didn’t give). 

And they were messy AF. Yea it is expected to be dusty everywhere coz after all there’s hacking involved. But they should have at least laid drop sheets on the floor before starting. Heartache when I came to check and saw all the dust on the floor (which is ok) and spots of plaster littered all over my brand new flooring sigh. It can be removed but they didn’t bother with it, so I was the one doing it (coz I don’t want to wait till my cleaning session, god knows what will happen to the plaster spots if I waited till then). 

And then there was the issue with the switch. I am not too particular about the brand to be honest - that can wait till the time I do a complete makeover of my next place. He brought two brands over, one Schneider (which, coincidentally, is the brand of switch for the rest of the house) and a cheap brandless one, and obviously I went for the former. But this particular switch had indicator panels and one of the three gang had dropped off (“I don’t know where it is, it was like that when I took it out of the packaging”) and he still went ahead to install it. In the end got him to come back and replaced it with the cheapo one (“l don’t have any other” wowww really). Felt like maybe I should have bought the switch myself but like I said, wasn’t too particular about it to begin with, just that I didn’t like being made a fool of. 

Works done within the day itself, but plastering works were not finished coz the plaster man could only come the next day, and dude finished up in a rush - I discovered some unevenness only when it is painted over and got painter to help smoothen it in the end. It was only the third day when electrician came down to replace the switch and collect back his equipment (he left his ladder behind, amongst other things) and a brainwave came over me - stole a bowl’s worth of plaster from him HAHAHA. Cheap thrill lol but it does allow me to do a bit of minor works on my own, hey after observing how the handyman does it honestly it’s not difficult. And I ended up patching up another hole on my own (decided to remove this hook thing next to my main door which I couldn’t find a reason to keep and i couldn’t get the rust fully off). 

Thought that was the end of it. In fact I had to come back and add in this part because…this turned out to be a nightmare. 

Handyman came to install ceiling fan for me. Wiring and fan point done, this should be a simple job. When it’s done, we switched it on and…nothing happened. With the din outside (coz aircon guys were doing servicing at the same time) we didn’t hear it but the whole house tripped the moment the switch was on - it was only after half a minute later when I noticed the ceiling fan in the living stopped and deduced it. Handyman brought up a test bulb to try and see if it’s a problem with the fan or the wiring, and even a test bulb tripped the whole house immediately. So we know the culprit, and handyman deduced it could be wrong connection or just some wirings touched each other. Problem is everything is concealed so nobody can be sure which part went wrong, so the original electrician needed to come down to check. Potentially (actually, very likely) rehacking and rewiring AND replastering and repainting the affected areas FML. With one week to go till my furniture comes in.

I panicked definitely and for a while I couldn’t process ongoing conversation with the handyman, who offered to help if the electrician is not doing it (which wouldn’t be ideal coz I am so not paying extra for someone else’s mistake sigh). Called electrician and he agreed to come down to check on Monday, so left it at that but mood definitely took a sharp nosedive and I couldn’t even bear to stay at the place for long - postponed my plans for further miscellaneous house improvement works like derusting. Even the aircon guy who came to clean the aircon of my rented place two weeks later also remembered what happened at the new place and asked me about it lol (I think he maybe recalled how forlorn I looked).

Anyway, Monday came, and the pair came to check although it seemed like they snuck out from somewhere to attend to this in the middle of another ongoing job. Couldn’t identify the problem in the first instance, made more mess including being very rough when opening up the face plate of the power socket which they had tapped power from and chipping my newly painted wall. Come to think of it I don’t know why I was so patient with them (I think I was more rude with the painter and they didnt even screw up as much), I think partly because I knew the painter was coming to touch up anyway and this can be fixed. But still that doesn’t give them the license to damage things and be so nonchalant about it. 

So I think he knew where he screwed up but he didn’t have time to fix it on that day itself (coz I suppose he had to rush back to his other site) so he arranged to come back the next day. And came in with a game plan raring to go, pulled some stunts and got the fan to work. He explained what went wrong and basically told me there are two issues combined that caused the trip - one had to do with the connection of the neutral wires and the other had to do with the earthing of the fan unit itself. I cannot remember the story now (and EE was always one of the weakest Physics topic for me) but he concluded that he had done his part and absolved himself, asking me to get the fan unit changed if I can. Handyman told me the story is bullshit and I tend to agree too as an afterthought - I eventually concluded that the earth wire was damaged in the plastering process because if dude’s story is true, it would have tripped when he did his own testing the day the works were completed but he claimed that everything was alright then. But I’m not digging it out again, replaster and repainting it given time constraints, and handyman suggested that it’s ok to live with it too. 

I did wonder how long this issue will weigh on my mind given that I’ll stare at it every night - but apparently not very long. 

So next time? Definitely not this guy. He’s lucky to get away with this shit to begin with. Another lesson learnt. Guess it would be whoever the ID engage.