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giraffine
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Joined: Mar 13, 2003
Posts: 387
Location: Office, Home, School, on way
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 Posted:
Sep 15, 2003 - 11:05 AM |
 
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| Post subject: Decorating a Home in Shanghai |
Decorating a Home in Shanghai
By Sam Crispin
In recent months I have sold houses or apartments to a German, a Frenchman, a Belgian and an Englishman. This may sound like the beginning of a joke, but decorating a newly bought home in Shanghai is no joke. It is an emotionally charged and highly frustrating process. A few tips are given in the following few paragraphs.
Get a local wife / husband who can manage the contractor.
Keep a sense of humour. When a worker hammers a nail through the water pipe he installed the day before try not to let it get you too upset. The contractor will fix it. On the other hand, if you find they have put the bathroom tiles on upside down, by all means feel free to let rip.
Take a ‘hands on’ approach. A friend of mine sent me an SMS message saying he was on the back of an open truck crossing the Lupu Bridge having been to pick up materials. If you have the time go on site every day do so. Pay particular attention to hot water systems, air conditioning and wiring.
Get your contractor to give you a ‘proper’ quotation. What I call a ‘proper’ quotation is a list of materials and labour at cost price with a reasonable profit added at the end. In this way you negotiate on the cost of the inputs and the profit separately and the inevitable variations to what has been agreed can be easily calculated.
Manage your own procurement. Buy all the materials yourself, or at least the high value ones. Believe it or not, your friendly contractor may try to make a bit extra on the side.
Keep a good supply of cigarettes and drinks with you. If you are decorating a house on a compound you will get frequent visits from the property management staff wanting to poke around and find out what you are up to. Keep them on side by plying them with smokes and drinks. Take this one further and visit the management office in advance for a chat with a box of chocolates and tea, the staff are probably bored and will be willing to help if approached in this way.
Get a full set of drawings. Your contractor should give you drawings of electrical wiring and pipes as well as the full work schedule. When further work is needed to the house at a later date you will need to know where the pipes and wires are.
Control payment. Withhold the last 5 or 10% of payment until 2 or 3 months after completion. If any remedial work needs to be done after you move in this gives your contractor the incentive needed to make him do it, if they do not come back to do the work you have cash in hand to pay someone else to.
Shanghai is likely to make basic decoration a requirement of all new properties from 2005. This will come as a welcome relief to most buyers except those with a penchant for riding across bridges on the back of open trucks.
Sam Crispin has 10 years of property agency experience in Shanghai and runs his own property consultancy business. |
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各驛停車 Sojourner 散歩達人 Flaneur |
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Michael
Moderator
Joined: Mar 22, 2002
Posts: 5288
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Sep 15, 2003 - 06:18 PM |
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| Post subject: Decorating a Home in Shanghai |
So giraffine,
Great article.. Thanks for posting it.. do you have his email or web site? |
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Life is make believe, make it up and then believe it. |
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giraffine
Raver
Joined: Mar 13, 2003
Posts: 387
Location: Office, Home, School, on way
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Sep 15, 2003 - 10:05 PM |
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| Post subject: Decorating a Home in Shanghai |
Shanghai Retail Sales and Cheesy Snaps - the Sunday Column
Shanghai (27/7/2003)
By Sam Crispin
Shanghai retail sales growth of 8.8% year on year for the first half of 2003. The retail market registered not so much as a blip from the various external factors that might have been expected to slow things down.
My household made a significant contribution to this growth, not only did we move house with all the extra purchases such a move, we also paid a visit to one of Shanghai’s slickest retail operations. The wedding photo studio. The vast premises on the prime strip of Huaihai Road had long been a warning that this could never be a cheap experience but more than 12 months after the joyous event, my wife persuaded me that wedding photographs were in order. With a special ‘post Sars?offer of ‘only?Rmb3,000 how could I possibly refuse?
My estate agents instinct that all was not what it seemed were proved right after a few minutes. All make up, except lip gloss, is included. Lip gloss costs Rmb300 extra, of course. And how can one possibly expect ones beloved to look her stunning best for the photos of a lifetime without lip gloss? Happily a lunch box was included in the price so that was Rmb5 clawed back. Just munch through another 600 of those to break even...
8 hours later, 5 changes of dress for the missus, 3 for me, 129 clicks later and we were done. ‘Come back on Saturday to see the photos?said the beaming photographer, mouthing the menacing words ‘and don’t forget to bring your wallet?under his musty breath.
The ordeal of taking a whole day out of a packed schedule to pose and be flashed at was nothing compared to the painful process of reviewing the photographs. In England ‘Cheesy Snaps?are a tasty snackette to accompany a few pints of beer before heading off for a curry after closing time. The album of cheesy snaps already collecting dust in our Shanghai living room are a far more sophisticated product.
The special Rmb3,000 deal, it turns out is for the pleasure of being dressed up in an oversized white tuxedo and photographed in a series of weird and wonderful poses against backgrounds that include courting doves flying out of a sky blue canvass. It does kindly include a few prints bound in an album, an enlargement or two and a delightfully awful key ring bearing our image. As soon as you want copies of the other 110 prints that aren’t included the price soars to Rmb250 each to put them in the album or Rmb60 for a simple print. This is where the knife really starts to twist. After all, as a loving and dedicated husband how can you possibly refuse a copy of every single image of the blemish free smile of your beloved (being a whole 14 months after attaining matrimonial bliss I was bound to have to make up for my tardiness). To deny a single print would be as cruel as removing the chuckle from the laughing Buddha.
In the end we walked out a total of Rmb9,000 lighter. We did quite well to leave 20% of the photos in the sweaty palm of the photographer with the musty breath. He managed a hurt look for each reject but seemed quite content with his afternoon’s work. We resisted the sales pitch for the Louis Vuittonesque album and of course the essential matching case, which of course are essential for keeping the dust from settling directly on the album itself.
All in all I can only salute the operators. A slick operation, carefully targeted at customers ready to be fleeced for the chance to be Prince and Princess for a day. True love is forever captured on film and accompanied by such delicate poetry as ’our love is stronger than Paris by the sea in the Spring of our rose garden.?
So when retail sales growth in England pale in significance to the figures churned out by Shanghai quarter after quarter, year after year, you know it is because there is just not enough value added in English Cheesy Snaps. My one regret: I left behind the one of me dressed as an evangelical preacher surrounded by doves, it was a peach.
Sam Crispin has 10 years of property experience in Shanghai and runs his own consultancy business. samcrispin@sipin.net
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各驛停車 Sojourner 散歩達人 Flaneur |
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yu888
Board Deity
Joined: Jan 25, 2003
Posts: 18037
Location: ZhongShanParkArea SH
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Sep 16, 2003 - 03:12 PM |
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| Post subject: Decorating a Home in Shanghai |
great posts, especially relevant for me since I will be working in managing a second home interior project starting soon, The firstt one I ad to only deal with the aftermath, which taught me that I need to be there A LOT to keep an eye on thiings. They are not gonna be happy with the NoSmoking on the premise rule at ths site, but thats why they are getting extra money... can you tell i am looking forward to this experience? :casstet: |
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Thoughts & updates about Shanghai On my Blog for more details:Random Thoughts about Living in Shanghai...and more |
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Slowbiker
Reacher
Joined: Oct 09, 2002
Posts: 285
Location: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, London,
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Sep 16, 2003 - 09:34 PM |
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| Post subject: Decorating a Home in Shanghai |
YU888
Although western DIY approach favors the personal -on-site feeling. But, I have been in construction long enough to say that an reliable decoractor who knows what to use / how much water proofing and which tile adhesive, insulation to condensation pipes etc does has its worth.
yes, ED, you've guessed - before I made aliving out of crashing motorbikes, I was a builder for a fairly long time.
Getting the tiles up-side-down is only ignorant/careless but getting the wrong tile adhesive to the incorectly matched plaster surface is fairly fatal; cause it don't show up for maybe a few months! after you've moved in and paid the decorator. |
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wenlee
Seeker
Joined: Apr 19, 2003
Posts: 63
Location: Pudong, Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Dec 11, 2003 - 11:19 AM |
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Hi there,
Does anyone know of a good and reliable decorator? Need some recommendations...
Thanks! |
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Slowbiker
Reacher
Joined: Oct 09, 2002
Posts: 285
Location: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, London,
Status: Offline
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Feb 11, 2004 - 04:24 PM |
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ARTLINK DESIGN ASSOCIATES
Best interior design & decorator for office / commercial space. |
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wenlee
Seeker
Joined: Apr 19, 2003
Posts: 63
Location: Pudong, Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Feb 12, 2004 - 01:11 PM |
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dreamelectronics
Talker
Joined: May 12, 2003
Posts: 90
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Feb 18, 2004 - 11:06 AM |
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| Post subject: consider digital satellite tv... |
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