ayazumi

Yes, not worth buying from outside. The cheapest bird cage we can find in our house area is $28. There are many bird shops in Serangoon North, don't need to afraid cannot find bird cage.

I separate my laundry - bedsheet set + 2 towels 1 wash; thin mattress protector + quilt cover 1 wash; I send my quilt to laundry shop to wash. My quilt is very thick, and I can't put it to wash in a 8kg top load washer. I don't think it can even fit in a same 8kg front load washer.

Hi piknik. Yes, we are doing bird cage pendant light. We bought two cages. Haven't start DIY yet, Hubby intends to do it tomorrow. Wish him luck.

It seems like you seldom do housework at home until you have a place of your own. A1: I washed queen size mattress set + 2 single blankets + 2 towels with current 8kg top load washer, no problem with that. Front load washer needs more space to "flip" the clothes, so you may want to separate bedsheets and towels, unless the towels you are using are very thin materials. Previously my parents owned a front load washer but machine broke down not long later after we purchased. Maybe we squeezed too many clothes in the machine, it could not take the load. A2: I realised that too for front load washer, the washer don't fill the water to the maximum, but based on your description, this is not usual. I seem water splashing on the glass panel while washing. A3: My old front load washer never vibrate until out of place before.

EVERYDAY IS SUNDAY SHOPPING Coming soon.... our DIY project

DAY TWENTY-THREE Just when I started to praise the plumbers, we found minor defects due to the installation of the shower mixers this morning (got sunlight, easy to spot mistakes). In Common toilet - On the right, water leakage from pipe joint. Maybe the plumber didn't tighten the joint tight enough. On the left, there is a small chip off of the wall tile. Though it's minor, but I don't really like it. The tiles are dark brown, but the chip is white color. Color contrast too obvious for my eyes. In MBR toilet - Hubby found a "lobang" behind the shower mixer wall bracket. The tile is okay, but it is best that they do something to cover that hole (not with silicon please!). Water may seep in the hole, and might become an ant's nest sooner or later. So far, no tile crack is found. So far so good, except the two minor defects.

Thanks potatoes. Almost everyday we are talking about this - When will the renovation complete so that we have a new nest of our own.

You're welcome! We learnt this information, so we share the info with all.

We found this leaflet outside our house gate $59 for Fanco-look-alike ceiling fan from Bright House Lighting @ No 61 Kaki Bukit Ave 1 Shun Li Ind Park. Sorry XTR, you know this too late

From outside look into the common toilet. The storage heater is placed near the door instead of the wc. Probably to minimize the number of pipes running in the common toilet, and if place storage heater above wc, someone may hit the storage heater. We bought the 30ltr storage heater, so you can imagine how big it is. View of MBR toilet. This round basin is shorter by 0.5mm depth, so we have more space between wc and basin. I like the comfortable space. And of course, this basin now looks nicer than the square expensive basin. Rainshower in MBR only. Now we realised, luckily the above pipe was at the side. Otherwise the rainshower has to shift to the right, or can't even install rainshower. We just can't stop our itchy hand; we play the rainshower! Haha! Finally we have water at home! It's a blessing!

Now we see the new items installed in the toilets. We realised the plumbers have installed the wrong basins in both toilet. The square basin depth is more by 0.5mm than the round basin. The square basin should be installed in MBR toilet, not the round basin. However, both Hubby and my mum convinced me that the nicer sink should put in common toilet so that it look more presentable for guests. After looking at the round basin, I quite like the round basin because the depth is shorter, and I have more standing space in between WC and basin. Should have bought two round basin, instead of different basins. Now the space between the basin and wc become narrower. Regret not getting the round basin. I hope our guests will not find it too squeezy The square basin costs $80, but has "defect"! Close up: This definitely got nothing to do with the toilet wall tiles. The toilet wall tiles should be straight, but the basin was not mould properly! The whole basin is out of shape! The plumber has to use more transparent silicon to apply on the right side corner of the sink. Looks really horrible! We have contacted our contractor to inform plumber to apply white silicon instead. I feel like throwing this basin away. The round basin costs only $45, but it looks nicer than the expensive basin. Never buy this sink from Hoe Kee.

Continue piping works: In Common toilet. The plumber actually think of laying the pipes to the storage heater, then run the pipes above the door entrance, then to the mixer. From outside, we cannot see the pipes until we enter into the toilet. Close up. See how nice they bend the pipes. These people are really good at doing plumbing work, but never good in doing plastering work Luckily it is outside our house, not inside our house. The reason why we chose Ariston new model storage heater. Now you see that the pipes go underneath the storage heater, not at the side of the storage heater. Old model Ariston storage heater pipes all need to go through the side way. In future if Ariston old model breaks down, you want to change to another brand of storage heater also cannot. Why? Because all new brands storage heater piping all go underneath the tank, not the side of the tank. You need to go back and find old model Ariston tank to replace your spoilt tank. What if one day Ariston stops producing all the old models? You will have problem to find storage heaters that can use side pipes.

We saw a number of home owners have issue with the bending of stainless steel pipes in their homes. Sometimes the bending work can be very horrible until immediate rectification needs to be done with the pipings. We are lucky that we have good skilled plumbers assigned to do the piping works for our home. I am totally impressed with their worksmanship. We also saw some forumers complained about Lucky Khoon's after-sales services are bad, but I can't help it, but to praise them for their work. The reason is, the plumbers assigned to our home today are from Lucky Khoon! They are wearing their uniforms, so I believe Defong outsources their plumbing works to Lucky Khoon. I'm glad Defong has found got a good batch of plumbers from Lucky Khoon. These are the piping works that are installed today: Pipes to link to kitchen sink and toilets? Pipe to link to washer? Corner bend at left corner above kitchen window

Let's continue the plastering works Study room plastering work has completed. Uncle applied a layer of water to smoothier the plaster surface. The wall is still very wet, can see the water mark color. Arts room plastering work has completed too. The workers shift their barang barang to this room, so we can't check the floor tiles in this room. We may ask them to shift the barang barang to study room since no hollow tiles were found. Tomorrow the plaster men will do the plastering work for the living room walls and ceiling. This should be quite easy for them and can complete quite fast. The troublesome thing is the ceiling. Normally plastering work for ceiling will take quite long.

END OF DAY TWENTY-TWO Early this morning, we have discussed much in our earlier posts about the sore-eye gap alignment issue of that piece of wall, which was previously the MBR old doorway, was not aligned with the kitchen wall tiles. This afternoon, contractor arranged worker to do up gypsum board to cover the gap. I shall show case the end result using gypsum boards, and TADAH! Nothing can makes me happier than this The floor skirting is not done yet as this work will be pushed to near final stage when we rectified the floor tiles, then the tilers will come in to do the rectification + new floor skirting for that piece of wall. So far, Hubby has rectified the study room and found no hollow tiles. He uses one-dollar coin to lightly knock the tiles to hear if there is hollow sound. You must be wondering why by using one-dollar coin, we can check hollow tiles? Hubby proved this to me. There was a hollow tile in the living room. When he lightly dropped the one-dollar coin on the hollow tile, the sound was different from solid to hollow tiles. Therefore, I am convinced one-dollar coin actually works!

How are you going to spray the other side of the windows, outside the kitchen and MBR?

Luckily you are not spraying red. Or else people will think you are ah long

Great news! We were surprised by the quick rectification. Our contractor made it HAPPEN! The spirit of "today-feedback, today-do" is excellent! They install the gypsum boards this afternoon and work is completed! The gap is fully flushed to the gypsum board, leaving no gap at all. Hubby SMS me say the problem is fixed, I immediately rush to the house to take a look. I haven't taken the picture yet because there are 6 hunks working in the house, so I don't want to obstruct their work, but I managed to take a quick glance at that wall, and I can't see the gap at all. I can't differentiate which is wall tile, which is gypsum board. Both look so white. Our (actually mine) main sore eye is completely gone. Wait till hubby comes home then take some pictures.

Hope your bill will not increase much. Today I saw my plumber bending the stainless steel pipe almost 90 degrees. It looks like an easy job for him, but I hope I don't see those kind of ugly bends too. Wait until they leave the house then I go spot check

Thank you for being our first fan.

Yesterday we had this conversation.... Hubby: I have uploaded the photos, please update the blog ME: I don't want to update everyday. Skip one day ok? Anyways also not much things to update. Everyday update, the people who read it also feel bored of the same progress. Hubby: No, you must update the blog daily. You can update tomorrow when you are taking break from your study revision. Take your time. (Meaning: You die die must update, that's it)

You should change. Won't regret

Got other colors?

DAY TWENTY-TWO I am on leave today, supposed to stay home study for final exam, in the end have to go to the house to receive our Blanco sink (luckily I was on leave too). However, I was late to receive the delivery too. The delivery man was earlier than me, and placed the sink in our living hall. It turns out to be a little dull grey. Quite different from the one that we saw in Hoe Kee showroom. I was expecting it to be reddish grey. Maybe the sink is still in the box, so it looks dark. I hope it will turn out better than this. Today we have three plumbers are assigned to do the plumbing work, and three workers doing the plastering work. The Arts room is almost completed, and two workers are currently working on the study room. High chance that they may complete the plastering work today. While the three plumbers are running the stainless stain pipings and installing the wc and basins. Was discussing with contractor about the gap alignment issue. Plastering is confirmed the worst solution because the thicker the plaster work is, the more it will crack sooner or later. Cement is not possible too because cement will glide from the wall. So the best solution is still the gypsum board. Was assured that by leaning on gypsum board will not dent the board, but if you hit the wall with something sharp or heavy, then the gypsum board will chip off. There's always pros and cons for anything. Shall update later again... Stay tune!

Valerie is right. We weighed the pros and cons. If we really want to full flush the gap to that wall, the possibility is gypsum board, leaving no gaps at all. We have to consider the factor that there is floor skirting. If apply cement to that wall, and we align the skirting to the kitchen tiles, the cement wall (above skirting) may not be able to full flush the gap. Unless the skirting align with the cement wall above, but this may require alot of skills. But we foresee that the skirting may end up protruding out a little. XTR was right about the gypsum board substainability - can it hold our weight if we lean against that wall? We have not really thought of this, and we may actually lean on it. We were quoted $80 per gypsum board. For that wall dimension, it requires 2 gypsum boards. To apply cement wall may be FOC, but contractor cannot confirm with us yet. So we can't compare the price now, but I doubt cement screeding is FOC..... We don't opt for full gypsum board coverage because we need to mop the floor, and wet floor may damage the gypsum board. The best alternative is apply cement at bottom and put skirting. Above skirting is gypsum board.