gantan88

有你的。 haha. I need an oven though but have no place for it, didnt built the tall unit either. At most can only buy a microwave oven...

You use oven a lot, electricity goes up, cos electricity is more expansive than gas. Sorry my bad, talking about elect bills again.

I am also toying on the idea of doing away with the hood. The hood in my previous place is also a white elephant. Collect dust only. But without it, the steam or smoke will impact your cabinet directly. So i thought maybe we can put a stainless steel backing on the underside of the cabinet, directly above where the hob is. Just like the one we usually have on the wall. If dirty, just wipe, should be easy, not ugly also because hardly visible.

Hi annjoy, drop by to say hi, yr house layout very squarish, nice to work with. Kudos to you for talking to 15 ID companies. Will be reading yr blog.

So who is going to hack the wooden arch for you? Or you have plan to re-use it?

He shoot me an sms says he already bought all the materials for plastering and he has informed me that plastering will be done this week (which he did not). Make me very furious. Furious not because of the plastering matter but of the kind of service that i am getting from an ID firm. I guess i shall give my comment at the end of the renovation. Plastering wise i already told him to go ahead since he claimed he has bought the materials. I dun want to keep harping on this matter anymore. No point le. I will see what they proposed during the lighting installation stage. I have an empty wall ready to put a mirror. When you say tube light, do you mean those normal flourescent tube? How to implement to have tube light inside false ceiling? Now i only have L-Box and a short length of false ceiling to place the cove lights. Actually I have thought of using Blum for the dish drainer flip-up door only. It may not be Blum, as long as there is a hydraulic arm to hold the door up while we put in the plates. If not, i will have to use one hand to hold the door and use only one hand to manage the plates. For normal cabinet doors and drawers, i think i am fine with just normal hinges as per my past 2 houses. Not a big issue without the delayed-movement feature for the doors. It is a good-to-have for me... If contractor dun do this then i dun think i will DIY also... I believe using mirror in the cloves does help a bit but not much, not worth the effort to DIY. Cos after all the light will still hit the ceiling first before reflecting downwards...

Serious, there is quite fair bit of hacking work. HDB still approved. But what happen to the brown doorway frame? It is like... hacked halfway?

Guys and girls... I have a question on main entrance door grilles. I like to do those single piece grille. But if you open it, it will protrude out further into the corridor. Contractor told me currently there isn't any regulation on this. Will there be any issue for doing 1 piece grille? The normal grilles are 2 leaves kind,,, Thanks...

Yeah... usually there will be no end to this.. but i think there is a reason for a consumer to probe further on what he is getting for the price that he is paying if the price is not the market norm... Plastering is the last few things to be done, think i still have somemore time to find out more. :-)

After seeing what you wrote, i got the urge to tell my contractors to remove all downlights and revert back to using hamburger light. But aesthetically it is nicer with downlight lo :-p Thanks man. I thinking i need to drill my Contractor further and get him to feed more info on lighting. Seriously they are not too forthcoming... I am still thinking whether to use Blum for my Kitchen cabinet... Blum can be installed seperately after all carpentry works are done right? The tubes will be siting in the cloves, are the mirrors useful? Unless the mirrors are on the ceiling....

Buttergingerzz, is there any pic to show your dining area? Thought the ideal positioning of the light and mirror is opposite each other....

Ok... i have clarified with my Contractor and this is what he told me: Normal Situation: where people do wall tiles for kitchen: "Whole house" plastering (actually is exclude kitchen walls because got tiles) - $1,300 to $2,000 for 3/4/5 rooms. For this price range, it excludes cornering or capping (i dunno what this is seriously). When people do not do tiles for kitchen walls, they will do plastering, and plastering for kitchen is the most expensive because they use both cement and plastering compound. Kitchen alone already ~ $600. Plus living room room and 2 bedrooms (all come with cornering /cappings) total is $1600. So a simple breakdown of the cost will be: Kitchen ~$600 Master bedroom ~ $500 Bedroom 2 ~ $500 Living room haven't include yet. Wah!

I think it is useful to try to calculate the power consumption for whole house to avoid bill shock and of the first month after you move in haha.... Asked my I.D to incorporate mirrors with lighting into the design to achieve more efficient energy consumption but he keeps no need... Anyway my clove light at the dining area is perpendicular to the wall (which i can place mirrors), so i dunno if this orientation can reflect light also....

I guess i will try to use less downlights, less consumption and also longer lifespan I think a starter is less than $1, a ballast about $20, and i dun change it everyday.... so.... What a way to convince myself :-p Post more pics on yr blog ok!

Frankly i really 五体头地。You survey and calculation even more extensive than me. I have yet to calculate the energy consumption of the whole house. Thanks for reminding me on the replacement cost... but i am very much an aesthetically inclined person... so.... i will try my best to close both eyes to the replacement cost of the downlights :-p By the way, T5 and T8 comes in how many watts? 13 and 18W also?

Yes, in fact i have already told him that unless he can lower the cost, if not i will exclude the work dur to budget constraint. I have already excluded all the carpentry works, except the kitchen cabinet. :-p and he says he got a shock Actually have you ever do a rough calculation on the electricity bills if you use the fluroscent tubes, hamburger lights or downlights? I did. E.g for living room: Switch on 2 x Hamburger light = 2x32W = 64W. Switch on for 5 hours daily cost about $2 plus a month. Switch on 6 x downlights (2 x 13W plc each) = 6x2x13= 156W. Switch on for 5 hours daily = $5 plus per month For that additional $2 plus per month, you get a modern looking living room, worth it? Unless your dressed up flourescent tube is really part of your house theme, then it is another story la :-)

I think aesthetically you can at least use those normal ceiling light aka hamburger light? There are very nice ones around too... ? Instead of fluorescent tubes... Haiz, i brought this up to my contractor and he says that his plastering takes care of all the corners and stuff.. very chim, dunno what they talking abt... maybe i jus find another contractor to do plastering and follow by painting. White teak is goo actually because it brighten up the whole room. Even in the dark, you can still see the flooring. :-)

Huh? so u didn't even use clove lights? You just mount the flourescent tubes on ceiling? My Contractor keeps telling me that clove lighting alone cane NEVER brighten up the room sufficiently... So i think mine much more expensive? If i plaster the living room also, i think almost $2k.... I chose Sumatra (Pergo Family), White Teak (Robina) and Plateau Oak (Robina). Sumatra seems very common colour and pattern. White teak worried about maintenance. Plateau Oak is too dark, nice to look at if contrast with wall colour, but practicality, it makes the whole room quite dark. Haha... hard to decide... I think in terms of the water test, Robina is better, but the locking system of Pergo seems better and tighter.

Hi Catseye2004sg, Yr renovation starts almost the same time as me but progress is so so so much faster! I thought mine is already very fast liao.... Anyway, i saw your pic on the kitchen window (i hope i get it right). Is the window pane custom made to be slightly bigger per piece? So altogether there are only 3 of them (usual HDB kitchen has 4 window panes). Thanks

Fyi, i visited Floor Option Pte Ltd for my Laminate Flooring for bedrooms. Can't decide the colours on the spot so i asked for 3 samples to take back home to consider. Got both Robina and Pergo brand. So i took the chance to do the water test. I think Bro Ossify has did it before. Anyway, i soak (not the whole piece, only 1 side of the sample piece) both in water (about 2cm deep) for almost 18 hours. Result: Robina - After a minute of staring at it, i would say there is no swelling at all. Pergo - Slight swelling, but need to look carefully. If it is placed on the floor and you are walking on it, it is not noticable. I think the German Vacumat technology for Robina is effective.

Ya man... But these few days there are no workers on site, work has stopped. I think the workers are like nightclub 小姐, they need to rush from places to places.... :-p I called the sales rep and he told me the site coordinator has taken emergency leaves to settle personal matters... Hope the house can be handed over to me on time.

Ic... I used to stay in a 3 room last time and it is basin above sink too... so this time go for a change to do L shape... but now rubbish chute exposed, do must be more particular abt cleanliness

Thanks man... in anyway, i think mine is more expensive because my living room not included yet... already $1600... But i guess every quotation is different, my plastering may be more expensive, but other works may be cheaper... Dunno le... sometimes i compare too much also headache, as not as the Contractor chop the carrot not too big piece, maybe just close one eye sometimes... Most impt is workmanship is ok...

My hacking for kitchen floor and wall total is $500. I suppose this does not include cement screeding? The cement screed portion of work is not actually explicitly stated anywhere in the quote. So i think it is included inside the $1600 lo... Is wondering how come plastering also so expensive? Is it very tedious and labour intensive?

Ya lo... no wall tiles... save cost and more modern... hahaha...