stormcontrol

Eh? What do you mean by close view not very good? The installation was not done nicely you mean? Btw, was your toilet window originally lourvre type or casement type? Uncle tell me to just buy the fan and he will install but never give me advice what model to buy, hence asking so many questions of you =p

Gap? What is the interface between the marble and the overlaid laminate flooring like? Is there a sharp drop which you could trip over or stub a toe? Cause my parent's place is exactly the same situation but we(or at least they) solved it by building something sort of like a bump (like a speed bump on the road but more angular) covered by the laminate at the interface. I don't know if that's standard lah, so share share with you just in case it's not.

can share the brand/model of the tower fan? me looking for 1 also =p

you got try to ask around neighbourhood electronics shops? sometimes can get it much cheaper from them. but must do more legwork lah.. =)

Hello asugama! Glad to see your house turned out so beautifully. Love the dark theme to the study desk especially. And the kitchen really looks quite nice. I was having trouble envisioning the finished look when you posted up those in-progress photos, but the end result really very nice. Question ah, your bathroom ventilation fan is installed for you by uncle is it? What model are you using? 20AUH? And where did you buy it from? Is it mounted on glass or perspex? Looking to buy 2 of those for my house and uncle promised to fix up for me, but confused over the choices for kdk ventilation fans ah...

reading all these posts, maybe i should turn over the reno supervision to my wife. So that we can get preferential treatment from the uncles. lolx!!!!

i thought only 1 day to rest?? Cz my tiler allow me to step on those tiles which he has laid for more than 1 day. Yep, i'll post up pics once i'm satisfied with the tiles =p

@ivy: with you? haha i thought familyof4 was the one holding on to a large number of it. =p. I try to chase uncle for it today. if not i get from you. i'll PM you my hp number if it comes to that =p. Dunno who's going to be my carpenter leh. Sigh, first issue with uncle. The grouting for my woody floor in bedrooms is super ugly. white with streaks of chocolate. ewww.... Going to see what uncle can do about that. Recently reno really starting to drag feet le. time to chase uncle! =p @hibernate: you also stay in TPY?

Are you going to on both types of lights at the same time? if so, better be the same colour temperature. Actually, from an aesthetic point of view, best if all the lights in the house are the same colour temperature so there's isn't any "abrupt" feeling. Have you seen some shops where they mix both cool lighting and warm lighting? IMHO, absolutely hideous >_<" In the end light temperature affects mood. Cooler light (nearer to daylight) is good for colour but bad for skin tones. Don't you think all your facial flaws (ppimples/wrinkles) are especially obvious under daylight? Warmer light is the reverse, which explains why it's usually used for a romantic/cosy setting. However, warm light is bad for colours as the true shades are altered due to the temperature of the light. The best tradeoff is to get a light in the in-between temperature ranges (between incandascent 2700Kelvin and daylight 6500kelvin) so that its ok for skin tones and also ok for colours. But that kind of temperature of light abit hard to find in sg. It seems local consumers very extreme, either 6500 cool light or 2700 warm =p Personally i feel that the best choice for light temperature is the one they use in shopping centres. It looks like cool daylight but has a little bit of warmth/yellow in it. Brightness, or light intensity is totally independent of the colour of light you choose though. All depends on the wattage, lumens per watt etc. How much brightness you need depends on how much concentration you need for the task you want to perform under that lighting. Downlights (if only placed in strategic areas and not peppered around the ceiling as main source of lighting) creates shadows and islands of activity. It focuses peoples' attention on areas and objects. Using downlights in this manner adds drama to the room but can be a little fatiguin for the eyes. Covelights on the other hand provide ambient lighting (not ambience. they mean different things!). In other words, cove lights provides general illumination and softens shadows. It softens details and makes things in the room blander. So you might want to consider mixing the two types of lighting together. Downlight for drama and excitement, and cove lights to soften the harshness and increase general illuminance. But if using both, again don't mix temperatures! Oh yah, 1 last thing. How hot the light is is also independent on the colour temperature. It all boils down to what type of luminaire are you using. Hottest is incandescent bulb (thomas edison type filament bulb), 2nd is halogen (standard downlight bulbs), 3rd flourescent, 4th LED. Refer to this thread if you need more technical information about lights: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17171

try hafele. checkout their 2009 catalogue under home improvement fittings

eh, my situation exactly like yours but i solve differently. Cz my floor area is small (whole flat only 75sqm) i may just use a 9k+18k+18k btu configuration for the aircon at my place. In other word put a 18k btu aircon on a wall in my mbr whereby it is in a "middle" position where i can "aim" both the study area and the sleeping area (just need to adjust the direction whereever i need it). I calculated that i need only 11k to cool both sleeping and study area but the aircon company calculate that i may need 15k, so i'm still deliberating whether to just settle for 12k unit or listen to advice and go for 18k (nothing in between for mitsubishi electric). Think i need to go back and recheck my calculations... Maybe you can check whether it's possible for you to just use one fancoil that can cool the entire study+sleeping area so you don't need to have this headache?

No wonder my tiling team suddenly lose half the manpower lah. Progress slow down =p They are as uncle describe lor, slow but good. My tiles are laid quite well. Even, and straight (to me). The tiles are also well cut and the grouting job so far is good. But it's true, they take their time. But ok lah, most of the comments i have been receiving from people here on my tblog seem to indicate that progress is actually at a good pace =p All tiles and skirting are up as of today. and the new doorframe is up as well. all the holes leftover from the hacking have also been patched up. From what i can see, only things left are grouting in both my bedrooms and then cleaning up and we can move on to the next stage liaoz. One thing though, uncle promised to pass me the catalogues two days ago but still haven't turn up. Supposed to speak to carpenter tommorrow/today also, but uncle never call to set appointment. Never mind, i'll chase him tommorrow/today =p Btw, who's holding on to the majority of the catalogues ah? Last i heard was familyof4, but i also hear that she's passing it around. If you guys are done with them maybe I can get the catalogues direct from you guys instead of troubling uncle =) Oh yar, finally settle aircon too. Signed with Hong Tar, coming on the 17th to run the piping. gotta remind uncle to be around too cz i've not much ideas about that one... >_<"

Can PM me the contact for the guy who install your fan? Do you know if he can install KDK fan? My contractor quote me $60 for fan installation. Btw, with regards to your questions about shadows, are you using cove lights near your ceiling fan? If using downlights or lighting kit on the fan should be no problem 1.

Updates! Updates! The hacking of MBR/bedroom2 walls as wel as removal of door frames is done. The banglah worker who did the hacking yesterday is really efficient sia: Now because of the wall being removed i have a dangling switch and wires encased in a steel bracket hanging from the ceiling. haha. And now new door frame is going up! But hit a snag, there is a lighting point right above where my new door frame is going to go so had to contact Uncle and tell him to get his electrician here to move the wires before they can continue building the door frame. Also another funny thing, if you look carefully at the above picture ah, the hacker forgot to remove that part of the wall that was above my MBR's original door frame! Uncle came down and stared at it for quite awhile before sighing and calling someone to bring a drill down to come and remove it. =p Guest bedroom tiling also done: Sui or not? =p and with the tiling, the guest bedroom does look slightly bigger! Lastly some pictures to share: View from my living room windows The directions/dimensions/layouts i stuck all over my kitchen so that they can do the works properly =p With 75% of the tiling complete, uncle tell me he will drop the laminate/solid surface/paint catalogues in my HSS tomorrow and try to get his carpenter down to meet me on saturday! He hopes to clean up the house by end of this week and start wiring works on monday and carpentry right after! keeping my fingers crossed now! So glad that so far i haven't really need to chase uncle. Must thank pinkpetter on her advice on how to handle uncle. Call n call n call to remind. hahaha =p

Alternative can try acetone. Can get from paint shops (but note that it's a controlled item, ie may need IC to buy). Tried by MaCe on homo tiles without any damage. Use with care though, as it is a superb paint remover and destroyer of plastic/rubber >_<" Uncle told me today that the tiling team he gave me for my place is the slowest group he has. Tile my 75sqm place only hall and 3 bedrooms can take slightly more than a week. But their track record is good, never give him headache. I guess the phrase uncle was using is really true in this case 慢工出细货

you've never seen uncle f people ah aubrey? haha, then i must have all the luck. Cz when i'm with him there will always be at least 1 phone conversation when he's f-ing someone. it's just a matter of how hard he's f-ing. hahaha =p But good lah, uncle never really blood boil when he's f-ing. Can see that at least he doesn't let it get to him. (at least i think so). Blood boil too much also bad for his health =p

Glad to hear that you've finally selected who to do up your house sohck! Now the reno proper can begin! jia you jia you jia you!! =)

looking at panasonic sc-pt865. It's the 2008 model which they are clearing out now. The 2009 model is sc-pt875. Not much diff in terms of specs between this two. Was recommended to me by a guy on hardwarezone forum who is currently using it. Review is here Correct. The guy from HWZ told me he got for 599 only because he bundled it with his TV which is the newest model panasonic panel. So i'm looking to do something like him lor. Try to package together with my tv which i need to buy anyway.

WIW? not exactly lah. The dust will kill me and there still isn't enough space for what i feel is a proper walk-in wardrobe with an island in the middle for accessories, an entire wall of shoes, an entire wall of bags etc The plan is to build a wardrobe and study area into the combined bedroom 2. A u-shaped setup. On 1 long side of the wall, a 9ft long wardrobe with sliding doors. The short side will have a study desk plus shelving. and the last long side of the wall facing the wardrobe will be an entire stretch of mirrors like in ballet studio like that.

For those getting air-con systems, I cannot stress any further the importance of referring to NEA's Database of Registered Goods for Air-cons. Energy & directly $ conservation is of utmost importance. Do some simple sums comparing the incremental cost of an inverter air-con system over a non-inverter one. Weigh that incremental cost against the number of years required to accumulate the equivalent $ amount from the incremental monthly savings gained from the electricity consumption by an inverter system over a non-inverter one. Yup I did. Tried to source from gain city CCK. They don't have the cooling capacity i needed. Salesman also not very good. Abit unprofessional, didn't even bother to calculate the cooling capacity i needed and kept on pushing to me their promotion package. 3x9k btu. Undersized for my needs lah... =s Actually wanted to get non-inverter as the cost savings for inverter for me is not very big as i don't on air-con that often. However realised that the only way i can get the cooling capacity i needed from non-inverter i would need to get system 2+1. The cost of inverter system 3 and non-inverter system 2+1 in the end mostly balanced out. Moreover most (not all. Carrier can but super **** expensive) of the 2+1 systems i checked out i can't even on both bedroom aircons at full power... =S. So will get inverter system 3 lor, only $100 or so more and can save elecricity plus on two bedrooms at one time. just wanted to ask but does lower quote means lousier workmanship? *confused* I think should be abit fragile bah. The showroom model in allbest was damaged when i went there to get a quote. the uncle say customers keep on playing with the directional thing and broke it... >_<". But i think it depends on the person touching the aircon also right? If you don't know what you're doing and anyhow like this and like that, then unless your air con is child-proof or what, something is going to spoil right. I'm not sure about National Cool but i like natural cool. Approached them because i heard quite a number of my neighbours having good experience with them. However, they are very very slow to respond to calls and email. Best course of action is to go there in person. The sales rep sat down with me for 3 hours going over many many different possible aircon configurations for my home and in the end when i never commit to buy from him on the spot he also not black face. Tell me to think about and let him know if i do want to get from natural cool. =)

yup. Wall separating my MBR from bedroom 2. Combining these two rooms together. So the tiling for these two rooms and the little bit of hallway leading up to these two rooms not done yet lor. rest of the house tiling nearly complete le. But i think the tiling works will stall for awhile after the hacking complete cz they need to build a new doorframe/doorway to my new and bigger MBR!

Posting up to share my quotation for Mitsubishi Electric System 3 Invertor. 9k+12k+18k Natural Cool: $3340 inclusive of all the piping i need, 1/2" Armaflex class 0 Coolserve: $3145.8 inclusive of 1 roll of piping, 3/8" Armaflex class 1 Hong Tar: $3030 inclusive of 1 roll of piping, 1/2" Thermaflex class 0 Allbest: $3157 inclusive of 1 roll of piping, 3/8" Totaline (forgot to ask class) All pricing inclusive of gst and 2 trip installation and G23 copper piping. Of them all coolserve even offered me FOC site survey to discuss with me piping and aircon placement first before i decide to buy from them anot. Disclaimer, above pricing/offers have expired/expiring soon so not a very good basis of comparison for future buyers. Any comments are welcome as I haven't decided yet, although hong tar's offer is really tempting.

Why i didn't get from them is because after asking around some of those places, i realised that their multi-split systems are fixed systems. for example, for mitsubishi electric system 3 aircon, they only have combination of 3x 9k btu fancoils system. It's alright if you are going to use them only in the bedrooms of a standard configuration hdb flat. But it's not ok when your configuration is unique. For example, my MBR calls for minimum 12k btu in cooling capacity and courts, carrefour, fairprice extra even gain city(cck, i didn't check the imm branch) don't carry that fancoil. My hall calls for 18k btu, so that's even harder to get! Furthermore, some of the salesperson in these shops can be quite unscrupulous (or rather, ignorant about air conditioning), they won't bother to check your floor plan/cooling needs before recommending to you a pathetically undersized unit that's under promotion/sales!

i don't like four star leh. my wife's previous two mattress from four star. the coils give out quite fast. plus i always have trouble waking up from them. Never really experienced the restful sleep (wake up refreshed) i get from my neighbourhood shop bought brandless mattress =p But disclaimer ah, this is my personal experience. 1 man's meat is another poison. My wife actually quite like her four star mattress! =)

i'm aiming for wireless rear speakers so that i won't have all this wiring problems! =)