Maximus

Thats weird ... i just used a 710W B&D drill and used the right masonry drill bit. It took me about 20-30 seconds to drill a hole of 45mm in hard concrete walls.

I got mine (galvanized) 4 rack shelf from Ikea. Rear tracks are mounted on wall. Each shelf can take 100kgs.

Continuing with the reviews .. 3. Daikin Aircons (Single non-inverter, System 2 noninverter, and System 2 inverter): I was pretty sure i wanted only Daikin or Toshiba as I regard them as the best aircon manufacturers out there. Since i had been browsing the forums for a bit, i knew that Aron and Sam from Imperial Distributors had positive reviews. Nevertheless given the promotions that Gaincity so often does, i had them come over as well to give their own quote. Gaincity folks were very helpful as well and did a good checking of the house and gave me quotes for Panasonic, Toshiba and Mitsubishi. Eventually, i went through with Aron. Transaction was very smooth and i didnt have to do any supervision at all, during installation (in fact i was not even there). There was a minor hiccup in a model number for one of the aircons on my quotation being different from what was finally installed, but this was resolved very quickly as Aron let me know that the installed model was a newer version than the one on my quotation. So all-in-all, a satisfied customer here. 4. Fujioh Hood (FX900), Electrolux Hob and Oven (3200 3 burner, 53000X): This was a maddening process trying to shop for the ideal combination. Made countless trips to HN at Millenia Walk, MegaDiscount at KLP, Courts at NEX,Tampines, Hoe Kee at IFC etc. Originally considered Bosch and Brandt. Prices were through the roof. While at HN@MW, wife saw a Electrolux hob that she fell in love with but we didnt get to see any nice hoods from them so we had to switch the brand for the hood. In terms of the Built-in oven, price-vs.-features was best for the 53000X from Electrolux. So we chose this combination finally. Asked for prices from GAB, EJ and MegaDiscount. The person at Megadiscount (Thomas) was very helpful and patient and thats always an influencing factor in my decision making. As it so happened, he was able to give me a competitive price and i went through with them. They accept credit cards as well so that was another help.

I promise, pictures will be up before the coming weekend is out !! I thought it would be helpful to provide some inputs on how my appliance shopping / installation experience was:- 1. Panasonic BY601 fridge from Everjoint: I had bought this fridge on 2nd Feb in order to get their promotion of free extended warranty for 2 years (total of 3 years). Transaction with Everjoint was smooth and so was the delivery - very efficient and impressive in their attention to detail to not scratch etc. The fridge is working great and i do think that the inverter model (freezer below) is a very strong concept. FWIW, i am a vegetarian so dont store any meats in the freezer and so do not open it that often. 2. Samsung CE117AB microwave from Goh Ah Bee: What i liked about GAB was that i gave them the order over the phone. They didnt have ready stock so they asked me to come 1 day later by which time they would have got it to their shop. Sure enough, i went over the next day and all the billing had been kept ready for me as well as the product itself too. Happy with this buy as well because of the steam function. So for people looking to buy a microwave, make a conscious choice about whether you want a rotating turntable or just a static tray (like in Panasonic's newer models). Both have their own advantages so we took the rotating turntable by choice. Thats all i have time for now, will follow up with more of these reviews (Built in oven, hobs, hoods, aircon, furniture etc).

You guys are more than welcome to discuss on this thread but it will just be a little difficult to trace this back some time later in the future .. My vanity top is Brown Galaxy Granite. I have Black Galaxy in my Kitchen and brown galaxy in the bathrooms to go with the overall balinese/resort theme. About the cutouts, its between you and your ID. I had discussed this with my ID and he had said that he would give it back to me if i wanted it. So i told him before installation that i would like the cutouts back as i plan to make a footstool/side table out of them at a later point in time, as Jaskel suggested. I will definitely post pictures very soon. I think the house has come together quite nicely, but of course i would be biased - after all, i am living here!!

Hi Sng - You sure posted this on the right thread? I dont have a Blanco sink - mine is Crizto.

i see that there is a lot of discussions around curtains ... Mr.Chew seemed to be highly recommended so i did give him a call but since he was busy he put me on to Vincent Lim from Garvin Marting. For the living room, my wife and i chose an orgenza day-curtain and a completely opaque night curtain. For the bedrooms i chose just a night curtain which was like 90% opaque or so (didnt see the need for a day curtain in the bedrooms). All colors of the curtains were keeping in line with the woody decor of the house. For my study and maid's room, i had roller blinds installed. Pics to follow sometime later. About the workmanship itself, Vincent was fantastic and of course, he is a very cheerful and helpful guy so it was good having him do up my place.

Bathrooms: Which i really love !!!! My master bathroom: The final recess storage in the shower wall is different from the 3D as we chose to split it up into several smaller boxes. To do this recess, we had to build a hollow wall over the existing solid wall. The washbasin was a top mount glass oval basin, in reality. My common bathroom: ALthough the 3D shows a topmount basin for the kitchen, we finally did the common bathroom as an undermount. Both bathrooms were fitted with Grohe/Hansgrohe products including a concealed rainshower in the master.

Living Room I think i mentioned this earlier in the thread - we wanted to give a balinese / resort feel to the home. So the colors that you see are those that would evoke the earthy feel with a play of light brown .. dark brown .. etc. For the walls though, we finally chose a lighter brown as we werent too sure about the dark brown making the place look small. So for that, you would have to wait until i upload the actual pictures of my place (if i do manage to do that).

Kitchen View 2

Finally got the time to upload some pics .. so let me get started with some 3D pics that my ID made for me which is pretty much the end product. What you see is the outcome of iterations of discussions that my wife and I had with our ID based on our wants, style preferences and practicality. Starting with the kitchen : ...

Wow .. what a last few months it has been !! My handover was done yesterday. And i shifted in yesterday as well (yet to unpack), still staying for a couple of days at my current rented place. Pics are due very soon which chart the entire reno journey. Its been a transformational experience !!!

Do ditch the hot air balloon rides at cappadocia - 150 Euros per person for a 1 hour flight. I was there sometime last year.

Also give GR Link Marketing on Jalan Besar, and Goh Ah Bee in Hougang (google them) a try. They have very competitive prices as well. If i am not wrong, the 35L Joven HE model last month at GR Link cost me around 215$-225$, not sure exactly.

I am facing the same situation in my master bathroom - the raindance handshower seems to be designed in a way to mimic the overhead rainshower so the force is not that strong. If you were to hold the raindance handshower above your head like an overhead shower, its supposed to be the same i.e. have the same force as the overhead shower itself. Not sure if i am explaining myself clearly but hope this works. Cheers Maximus