One of the reasons why I bought the unit was because the kitchen can be enclosed and it comes with a window for ventilation. In my past couple of visits, and even during the Sept visit, I didn’t detect much wrong with the kitchen. Cabinets looked fine, appliances I happily assumed to be fine. I definitely didn’t envisage needing to spend some effort here. 

Issue number one was when I opened up the fridge. The magnetic strip holding the door i.e. the gasket (new term learnt!) looked moldy and dirty AF. The fridge itself too although that might have been because it had been switched off for a couple of months by this point. And as if these are not a big enough turn off, the back wall of the fridge was very badly scratched, inflicted by a knife presumably hacking off ice build up. Did a quick check at the iCondo app and found a fair number of residents complaining and eventually replacing their fridge. 

So I did have my mind set at replacing it too - though the complication is that it’s a built in fridge which is expensive (in the range of 3-4k) and for no good reason too considering it’s smaller capacity. And because I am not removing any carpentry, any new fridge I buy had to fit into the existing space, which limits my choices to very few models because the space is narrow. And on top of that, the sales guys at Harvey Norman/Gain City all tell me that it’s not the best idea because of how ventilation works for free standing fridges vs built in fridges, although all residents who made the change didn’t have any issues with it. 

Got the fridge guy recommended by the residents to come down to check, which was a bit of a nightmare on its own coz dude is quite irresponsive, and when he did come down and check he told me he couldn’t really assess it (coz I switched off the fridge after verifying that it’s working). He did manage to give me a tip about cleaning the gasket though so that’s one issue resolved, but created another issue - he accidentally knocked into one of the side racks which fell and broke sigh. So dude told me he had replacement part and will bring another one over. He eventually became so unresponsive with various excuses like his mom in hospital (why do people use this reason so often?) and he himself also hospitalized. Sorry to say but I cannot be bothered to show any form of empathy by this point. 

When he eventually brought the rack over I didn’t bother getting him to check the fridge further (he didn’t offer either, just stood at the door and went “so everything is ok right?”) and decided to just live with the fridge for now and see what happens. Partly coz I didn’t want to have another thing to stress over at that point. 

Issue number two was the cooker hob. I definitely wasn’t planning to change it, but day one when I switched it on, it beeped, but subsequently became irresponsive. Called the supplier, they immediately said this model is discontinued and there are no more spare parts. After insisting they eventually agreed to send someone down to check (because I really thought it is just a dislodged wiring or something). The uncle that came down said couldn’t be fixed on the spot, and took it away to check, and eventually concluded that it’s a motherboard failure (apparently it can happen if you don’t switch it on for a few months wth?). 

So had to get a new one. The company had the cheek to charge me service fee which I flatly refused to pay because what sort of service have they done and they didn’t charge me in the end. Wah if I hadn’t voiced out I would have paid for nothing - they have some nerve. 

So went back to Harvey to look for a hob. And discovered that the one I have been using all this while at my current place was never a induction hob but a ceramic hob (i.e there’s a heating element that heats up over the ceramic top). Induction hob requires specific cooking equipment that can conduct the electromagnetic waves which as it turns out, most of my current cooking pots and pans can anyway. Eventually got convinced by the sales person to get the induction one coz the ceramic model I wanted is out of stock, and apparently ceramic hobs are to be phased out soon too and eventually I’ll have problems getting parts for it too if I needed to repair. So managed to cut a deal to get the price of the induction hob model below $1k (by giving up some freebies which I didn’t really need). Didn’t want to wait for the ceramic model coz no timeline for shipment and I needed to 开炉 lol. Installation was uneventful other than the fact that they blew past their timeslot and I had to call Harvey to chase because I have other places to be.

(I didnt take a photo of the new hob though, reckoned there's nothing too interesting about it).

There’s a tinge of regret for not getting a gas hob instead because I didn’t know I could. Apparently even for units where ceramic/induction hobs were initially supplied by developer, there’s still gas pipes provided, just that they are sealed - which the gas technician who came to activate my gas supply for heater verified. If you ever want to change to a gas hob it’s always an option, just needed to activate it. Ah well. 

Hood, oven, microwave were working fine but microwave does look a bit old, with some stains in between the glass layers (how on earth did those happen). Half heartedly texted the appliance supplier on replacement door but it costs like $150 and it isn’t a good price just for aesthetic reasons so..live with it.

Otherwise, cabinets were a bit old with some rusty hinges and some laminates had torn off at obscure corners but decided to just do some DIY work to improve those. (Update: not done yet. Guess I am living with it lol.) And cleaners told me there may be roach problem coz they found some dead and alive ones when cleaning, and advised me to set up roach poison and get rid of them first before shifting in any food products - which I duly followed, but didn’t see any trace of them eventually except one occasion (and that was before my roach poison was placed) so I suppose all is good? Might have something to do with the fact that the refuse chute is here, so I am hoping the frequent fuming will help. 

So still monitoring the fridge for abnormalities - well the mega ice block at the back had formed, just waiting to see if it will cause issues. Till then I suppose.

(Update: one month in, the ice build up at the back wall is thickkkk. One defrosting operation and I can see why the previous owner resorted to using knife, only I was much more careful with it. Managed to find a setting to turn off the fan inside the fridge which may have been the reason why it was so cold to begin with, but let’s monitor again).