adrian_john

Rdnest, Ivy, PJ, F4, Booy, MrsPiglet, Skyblue and Angel. Thanks all for your listening, advice and empathy of the IL situation. I guess everyone shares the same problem of not having understanding and know-it-all relatives that seem to give more 'advice' than they're worth or have too much 'bird talk' (hokkien) to say. The house is only but one incident, still have to deal with flak that comes with regards to raising children and even medication and food to eat. Sometimes I know they mean well, but I guess they also got to learn to cut people abit more slack and respect our personal space. Anyways, I already told my wife, regardless of comments, we'll take only the really helpful advice/suggestions (some of which came from my FIL) and we'll do it our way. Met Yeak on Saturday, appreciate him for taking time off his own personal famly time to walk through the whole house to sort out the jobs to be done as well as offer good solutions and suggestions on some stuff we had thoughts about. The home layout is essentially settled. The only place that differs from the initial ideas and sketches is the MBR. I'm trying to find some time to do the sketch out or at least the 2D floor plan.

Heya Beany, no worries. Always glad to share. Yup, the completion is finally done yesterday and we've officially taken the keys! Over the last week we've been very busy running around trying to settle our home accessories, furniture and household appliances. I'm practically broke and heavily in debt now. While yesterday was quite happy, it was kinda marred towards the end by some sadness, frustration and alot of tiring head-cracking. - After completion at HDB Hub, my car took a small hit at the rear and my bumper got dislodged slightly. Its quite painful for me cos' my car is like my 2nd wife and its still bugging me until I send it in to the shop and get it sorted. More money down the drain. - After HDB Hub, we went down to pick my in-laws as my wife wanted to show them the place. While my dad-in-law's pretty OK and helpful with suggestions, my mum-in-law on the other hand, always quick and ready to slam my ideas and always like want things to be her way or we should do this-and-that. This is one thing that really gets me pissed off because firstly, she has never spent a single minute on the planning of the space compared to the months of research, planning and re-working that I've had to do. Secondly, she has no clue about design and rationales (To her, its nice to look, but not nice to eat) and thirdly, its MY place and I'll be the one living there and I'll do what I like. I mean suggestions is one thing and can be positive, but enforcing your thoughts on people about their own place is another. - After we were done with dinner with my in-laws, wifey and I went back to the house to go through again and figure out how to work the layout for the MBR, which is the most problematic. We used masking tape to mark out the approximate locations based on the initial plans and seriously, the whole MBR will look like a store-room! Based on that, we made the decision that we would now combine the MBR and the next room together, so in effect, the gap between both rooms will remain with perhaps a folding door so that our air-cond won't be powering 2 rooms. We will put the wardrobe (now we can have a 9ft or 10ft long one) and a small dresser in the next room, and there'll still be a space for a bed for the kids and even a small working or computer table. - The next headache is the bathroom. With the need to place a TV console, we may not be able to do the full glass toilet anymore as the console will be triangular and slot at the right angle of the corner of the wall. - We'll be meeting Yeak today to go through the changes and also gather his feedback. The wiring and socket points now are also abit off. So we'll need his advise as to their repositioning. Quite tired and drained, and coming down with a bad throat and fever and my back's aching really badly after standing around for so long the whole day. Hope today's meeting will bring about some fruitful and ideal solutions.

Simon, congrats to you and Rachel on the birth of your bundle of joy Little Simon! Welcome to the world of fatherhood and many joyful hours of interrupted sleep.

Beany, For water pressure issues, it has to do alot which the total height of your block and your unit within that block. For my block, its an eight storey block and my unit's on the 6th. When we first moved in, we noticed that the water pressure was very low, so called Town Council to see, the only thing they said we could do was adjust the valve outside the house. But even after doing so, the water pressure is hardly anything bigger. What we were told that based on 8 storeys, we're unfortunately, the first to receive water directly without a pump from the roof tank. So the 7th and 8th storeys have a pump delivering water to them. The rest rely on the vertical gravity for their water pressure. As such, people on the 2nd storey will have the highest, while peole on the 6th suffer from the worst.

Hey guys (or gals rather), Just wanted to check with you all - Wanted to ask, would turpentine/tarpin/thinner be harmful to the laminate? Cos' I thought if u use it on laminates - gloss or matt, it will leave this hazy patch? What sorta stains does the turp/tarp/thinner help to remove? Pardon my himbo-ness, just wanted to check. BTW Pet et all, wanted to ask your opinions, is it the norm to have gloss laminates go with gloss wall tiles or can it be a gloss-matt mix for either laminates and tiles?

Xherion, Your place looks really nice with a very clean and neat contemporary feel and a relaxing panoramic view. Great choice of lights too!

Everything here is money money money la. No heart or soul into it. I think now that they still play hard to get, time to go down and bang table liao.

Simon, the retro wallpaper looks great. But I was thinking, since your place has adopted a somewhat monochromatic look, perhaps you could also use the patterns but use the same monochromatic colours. I guess it'd still achieve a nice visual effect that blends with your whole home's concept, and won't be too loud. Colours are also nice though, if you like it really loud and outstanding.

Thanks for the heads up lapena! That certainlly sounds like a pretty good offer. Rather have $360 worth of Taka vouchers than a free Miele vaccum cos' I already have the latter. Will go check it out.

The wood option sofa will be about $1.9K for a 3+1+1 with a coffee table set. Actually after viewing some nice hotel-style full fabric sofas yesterday, we may also consider the full fabric set. A set comprising of a 2-seater with 2 nice wing arm chairs and an ottoman with storage will cost about $2.1K.

Time really flies. Can't believe after months of waiting, our 2nd appointment will finally be concluded by next Friday! Right now the immediate finalisation required would be the air-con vendor and in the meantime, we're rushing to confirm furniture options (e.g. sofa sets, stand-alone tables etc) so that we can choose the colours for the carpentry easily. Not sure about the wood option posted above, maybe we'll go with good full fabric sofas.... Also probably gotta meet up with Yeak to finalise some changes and get a schedule worked out. Some perspective drawings to share from Yeak - These will be for the kitchen. Layout chosen's as voted and suggested by some of you kind folks. For service balcony the cabinet layout will be subject to change, as we'll be placing both washing machine and dryer there.

Ya agree. The hollow block divider's a good way of merging traditional with contemporary!

Beany, I think since your place is under upgrading, part of the programme will include changing the whole block's letter box to the new type. So don't worry about changing it and just wait.

Hmm... since they cover fire, maybe you should set the TV on fire. And when they asked why say 'Accidental fire due to spontanous combustion attributed from embedded subconscious pent-up frustrations over warranty issue and repair fee of $1,500'. PJ, I think $1,500 can get you a pretty decent TV outside liao. But jokes aside, I guess it really goes to show that the extended warranty is just a disguised way of the companies to earn that extra $200+ to $400+ from you for their own benefit.

I think it'll be a couple of hundreds. Basically, it'll be sealing up with hollow block, plus hacking of wall and installation of door frame. The door, is either factored in your quote if you have requested for new doors, or you can use back the old door. Better let Yeak know quickly. Considering that you'll be living there for some time, I guess spending abit now to get a better layout would be a good call, cos' once your reno's over, it'll be hard to do any such changes in future.

No wonder they are to give the so-called 'extended warranty' since it covers only the most remote of incidences.

Let's just say I'm trying to enjoy the calm before the storm while I can lah. Once the tsunami comes, that's it..... so when there's some peace and quiet, I must treasure it to the max.

Rondy, U pek chek then go to PJ house and get yourself a relaxing facial and detox lor. Get rid of frown lines and freshen yourself up!

oops .. typo error! Friend rice .. Ahahahahaha ... And I was just saying this morning that human meat taste like pork .... yan lou chao fan!

Hi Aoiaoi, Welcome! Very nice place you got there! Nice bathroom and the 3D plans to transform your place really looks great. Look forward to seeing the progress.

Yah, good to give hubby some 'reinforcements'! If not the 3 crying kids trick might just work too ....

Wah Angel, you steady leh, can eat friend rice using a fork. Somehow I never got quite accustomed to eating rice with a fork. But nonetheless, if you say it'll make fried rice taste better I'll give it a shot cos' I love fried rice, and I eat it with ketchup But aside, if you all like Fried Rice, I recommend Chong Kee at MacPherson, near Jalan Wangi. The fried rice there, particularly the beef fried rice is nice.

Hope you manage to get 'em to repair the TV under warranty PJ. Yes, perhaps get your hubby to 'bang table' would be a good way of getting them to work a good solution to you. A man without his TV is an angry man!

Ahahahaha .. good one MM! Ang mors lah, always like exotic food but yet fear the unfamiliar! I guess they just do things differently. Before I bought them a proper rice-cooker, they used to boil/steam rice in the microwave. And, they eat rice with fork (instead of spoon) and knives.

Ahahaha ... Durian is not the only thing ang mors get creeped out by. Another thing I put in the fridge which freaked my Landlady out was Kaya! She says it looks like Baby Poo. But I managed to pester her husband my landlord and their little son to try, and they end up liking it despite initially having that psychological barrier of putting 'Baby Poo' into their mouth! Ahahahahahah!