This happened 10/10/05, two days before my BIL's passing. So I didn't get around to blogging it till now.
On 10/10/05, I went home and was informed by my neighbour that while looking for some concealed water pipes, one of her contractors had managed to break through the wall into my home.
As she was renovating her common toilet, we assumed that the damage would be in my common toilet too, so we went to look. But the wall in my common toilet was fine. Not even a crack. So we went over to her place to have a look - while looking through the hole, I saw the top of some books. They had broken through to my study, behind my large Expedit bookcase, which explained why we did not see it when at my place earlier.
So I proceeded to remove stuff from the bookcase. In doing so, I discovered that there were several holes, not just one.
After clearing my Expedit bookcase, this was what I saw:
Close-up of the hole we knew about, and a buddy I discovered while clearing:
Notice the pipe?
Close-up of the three other holes I found later:
After work the next day, I came home to find that the holes were patched up on my neighbour's side, with cement and a plastic bag.
Note the wet cement and more wall on my bookcase.
The other lobangs patched.
Note that there is more crap on the shelves - they were completely clean when I was done the night before.
To the left of the previous picture
Note too, the cracks in the wall
Cracked paintwork
A close-up of the patch job on my side
A long shot of the wall after the patch job, minus the bookcase
All the stuff on my Expedit had to go somewhere...
The Expedit sure can hold a lot of stuff, huh?
I am such a pack rat.
Mess held back by the bookcase!
After the plastering:
After the first coat of paint:
Not too clear in the photo, but the paint job was patchy. The worker refused to plaster the whole wall. He didn't use primer before he painted either. Sigh
Wet spots!
Do you see the *TWO* wet spots on the wall? This was the morning after the paint job. Fortunately, it dried up on Saturday, when my neighbour's plumber changed her shower head.
Getting the contractor down to paint the second coat was a nightmare. They are finally going to come down tomorrow - 28 October 2005 - the (w)hole fisaco started on 10 October 2005.
The boss's brother happened to be around today, so I asked him to pop over to look at the wall, and to ask him when he was going to paint the second coat - I can't live in that mess anymore. First, he tried telling me that a second coat would not help - I do not care, I want that second coat nonetheless (I know I should ask him to replaster the entire wall, but 1) I'm tired, 2) I don't know how long more I've got to live like this if that were the case, 3) I'm going out of town soon.
He then tried to make it out to be that there were no holes (through the wall), and that I was trying to take advantage of his company, by making a mountain out of a molehill. I told him I would show him pictures, and he asked whether I could accept it if, after looking at the pictures, he told me that it was not his fault. What an arrogant idiot - what did he think? That 1) there were existing faults in the wall that I was trying to palm off on him, taking advantage of the fact that they were working next door? or 2) that there was damage caused by his men, but not as great as I was making them out to be? (even if they didn't break through, but were *just* cracks, I would still have insisted on rectification, if I had known about it - behind bookcase - no way I would have known about it)
I told him that after looking at the pictures, he could do nothing but admit that it was their fault. The most damning picture was the one where the pipe can be seen. He had nothing to say once he saw that. Ha!
On 10/10/05, I went home and was informed by my neighbour that while looking for some concealed water pipes, one of her contractors had managed to break through the wall into my home.
As she was renovating her common toilet, we assumed that the damage would be in my common toilet too, so we went to look. But the wall in my common toilet was fine. Not even a crack. So we went over to her place to have a look - while looking through the hole, I saw the top of some books. They had broken through to my study, behind my large Expedit bookcase, which explained why we did not see it when at my place earlier.
So I proceeded to remove stuff from the bookcase. In doing so, I discovered that there were several holes, not just one.
After clearing my Expedit bookcase, this was what I saw:
Close-up of the hole we knew about, and a buddy I discovered while clearing:
Notice the pipe?
Close-up of the three other holes I found later:
After work the next day, I came home to find that the holes were patched up on my neighbour's side, with cement and a plastic bag.
Note the wet cement and more wall on my bookcase.
The other lobangs patched.
Note that there is more crap on the shelves - they were completely clean when I was done the night before.
To the left of the previous picture
Note too, the cracks in the wall
Cracked paintwork
A close-up of the patch job on my side
A long shot of the wall after the patch job, minus the bookcase
All the stuff on my Expedit had to go somewhere...
The Expedit sure can hold a lot of stuff, huh?
I am such a pack rat.
Mess held back by the bookcase!
After the plastering:
After the first coat of paint:
Not too clear in the photo, but the paint job was patchy. The worker refused to plaster the whole wall. He didn't use primer before he painted either. Sigh
Wet spots!
Do you see the *TWO* wet spots on the wall? This was the morning after the paint job. Fortunately, it dried up on Saturday, when my neighbour's plumber changed her shower head.
Getting the contractor down to paint the second coat was a nightmare. They are finally going to come down tomorrow - 28 October 2005 - the (w)hole fisaco started on 10 October 2005.
The boss's brother happened to be around today, so I asked him to pop over to look at the wall, and to ask him when he was going to paint the second coat - I can't live in that mess anymore. First, he tried telling me that a second coat would not help - I do not care, I want that second coat nonetheless (I know I should ask him to replaster the entire wall, but 1) I'm tired, 2) I don't know how long more I've got to live like this if that were the case, 3) I'm going out of town soon.
He then tried to make it out to be that there were no holes (through the wall), and that I was trying to take advantage of his company, by making a mountain out of a molehill. I told him I would show him pictures, and he asked whether I could accept it if, after looking at the pictures, he told me that it was not his fault. What an arrogant idiot - what did he think? That 1) there were existing faults in the wall that I was trying to palm off on him, taking advantage of the fact that they were working next door? or 2) that there was damage caused by his men, but not as great as I was making them out to be? (even if they didn't break through, but were *just* cracks, I would still have insisted on rectification, if I had known about it - behind bookcase - no way I would have known about it)
I told him that after looking at the pictures, he could do nothing but admit that it was their fault. The most damning picture was the one where the pipe can be seen. He had nothing to say once he saw that. Ha!
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