curryfishhead

Just did my opennet fibre in my terrace house this June. Just get opennet to install the fibre connection to your TV console area. You may need to liaise with your contractor as the fibre will come in from the outside (via the telephone line pipe) and terminate it (first termination point) somewhere outside your patio area. They will then lay another cable from that termination point into your house. If you are re-doing your floor, your electrical contractor can lay a pipe with a string inside and then the floor contractor will overlay the floor tile over it. The Opennet people will then pull the fibre to your tv console area via that string and this will eliminate the ugly conduit along the wall. You will have to subscribe the telco service for internet and they will come with wireless. If you need to reach your upper floors or anywhere obscure, you can use powerline technology to transmit the internet traffic to the rooms. Alternative, you can use wireless repeaters to do it. You can check out Aztech or D-link which have products which can do it easily. You should not use LAN cables anymore because over time (5-8 years later), you will have a big issue replacing these cables. However, with these wireless technology, you can just replace these appliances. You can check out this link for a better idea. http://www.aztech.com/AztechHomePlugBrochure2012.pdf Good luck.

Hi I ever saw a very beautiful terrace house with full length glass panel doors. The owner travels a lot and uses part time maid becos most of the time, no one is in. What he did was to install a mechanised grill inside the glass panel and when he is not around, he will activate it and re-inforce the glass panel. So you can break the glass but you still cannot get it. Maybe mechanised grill is a bit way too much to consider but maybe a protective grill may be suitable. Hope this help.

Hi All I have a glass roof and the sun coming in my house made the whole place very hot. I am thinking of using some heat repellent paint and coat the under layer of the glass roof. The idea here is to block off the sunlight and also the heat. Advice needed. 1. Does this painting idea make sense? Or should I use a solar film instead? 2. Does this paint exist? Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance

Hi Madmax Just want to share with you my recent experience. I just recently hacked away the insides of a 3 storey terrace (about 2400 sqft) and below are the things that I did. Living/dining Ceramic flooring for living/dining Change main wooden door Change old sliding door to 1 panel glass door (full glass with 4 panel foldable) Kitchen Dry Kitchen cabinets and hardtop (about 4m long) Wet Kicthen cabinets (3m long) Hack floor/wall tiles Install ceramic/homogenous floor and wall tiles Granny/Maid Re-contruct Wall Partition for a Granny room Re-contruct Wall Partition for a maid room Re-contruct Wall Partition for a toilet Bedrooms Overlay laminate flooring over parquet (1500 sqft) Change toilet x 3 Walk-in wardrobes for Granny and Master bedroom Toilet New Toilet (floor to wall) x 3 Relocation of 1 toilet bowl New Stairs Railing (Full Glass) Car auto gate Piping with hot water heaters Repainting interior and exterior of house Relocation of Airconditioning and new aircon piping Features wall for Dinning & Living Painting (Interior and Exterior) New Electrical wiring and power points New Windows Panels x 6 Total Cost = $145K In essence of time, we do not want A&A and managed to get it completed in 4 months (July this year). We went to ID firms with credentials in Landed Properties experience and we found out that we did the right things because in Landed renovation, there are just too many considerations which we are not aware until the ID told us so. Oh btw, we asked for 3 ID quotes and chose the one whom we are most comfortable with. In my opinion, the price we get are pretty good. I did asked about redoing the roof/front porch and staircase, it will cost about 35K and 15K respectively. For Marble flooring, it is just top up additional 8K. Based on the scope of work you have given, I don't think the 200K budget will fit quite well, unless you got a very special price or you compromise on the materials used or worst still, your contract will compromise you with lesser materials. As fellow forumer suggested, I did the following before confirming my contractor. 1. Talk to the contractors with our requirements 2. Arrange for a onsite visit. I space them out about 30 mins and make sure they see each other before they go. They will quote more competitively when they know they got competition. 3. Get the first quote 4. Understand what is necessary and what is not necessary (aka not good for value item) 5. Finalise the items that you need 6. Get the final quote from 3 parties 7. Negotiate for a final price. You have to be careful about variation order. These will be very expensive. So, you must know what you need and minimise changes where possible. Good luck.

We shifted house recently and wanted to use them too because of the good experience from my sister who moved in January. However, their schedule are quite packed and you will have to contact them early. You can ask all the questions you want when you contact them. Cheap and good. We eventually did not use them because the day we wanted are already fully booked and we turn to Breakthrough missions. They are quite similar to helping hands as they do have some background. Prices are quite similar and services also good (wrapping, unwrapping, etc). I paid $280 for 1 trip on a 14ft lorry and they did it in 2-3 hours including wrapping up the TV, etc and unwrapping them in my new place. As for the boxes, they asked for a $2 deposit per box and upon returning, they refund back the money. We should all do our part and try to get these people back to society.

For the electrical, there is no prices but you can get a good indicative price from your ID in terms of per point cost (eg, per lighting (downlight) point, per wall point, power socket points, SCV points, Tel Point, Fibre, aircon power points (13A), stove/oven points (13A), etc). Also, some designer charge for the installation of lights (especially hanging lights and some don't). Just check it out first. Also, there may be other small things which you may require installations and you may also DIY. Eg, Safe, Door Bell, picture/portraits, etc. Just be careful because if you spell this out early, you won't be at their mercy when the renovation starts. Good luck.

The starhub internet via the TV point had a maximum bandwidth of 100mbps and the price is not competitive compared to Opennet. Opennet is fibre and will be future proof. If you have free opennet installation, you should get it done. Otherwise, you may want to install it if you need it. Hope this help.

Hi Cookcpu Thanks for your advice. There is a outlet inside the house where Singtel lays the telephone wire via underground. I called OpenNet and when they came, they laid the fibre from outside the house and came out from this same outlet. Prior to that, I had already asked my electrical contractor to lay a conduit (under my tiles) from this outlet to my TV/internet point inside the living room. The string was that to allow the Opennet people to pull the fibre into the house without disturbing my tiles. So, was happy that the job got done without disturbing the tiles... Sharing my experience and hope this may benefit future renovator who may enquire about this.

I did went to see their showroom in Keppel Road and find their furniture very nice, though a bit expensive, about 2 months ago after reading about their special promotion. My funny experience is that I am served by a lady who told me that she is part time and must call her when I am ready to buy. I thought it is a commission thing but after reading the stories here, I went to their IMM showroom and realised that the salesman there told me that they can give better discounts than other FCC shops. However, when I check on the information of the sofa which we are interested, the salesman and lady stories does not totally fully tally. As such, I don't know who to believe and decided against buying it and bought a sofa from XZQT instead. It occurred to me then that this company is extremely sales oriented and the salespersons are very much on their own to woo customers without much QC on the info about their products. Frankly, they do have very nice furniture for the 5-6K range sofa. Was very very tempted to get from them. LOL....

Hi You can go to a lot of shops depending on your budget...OM, XZQT, Lorenzo, Lush, Star Furniture, etc, etc. Most of these furniture vendors advertise on Sat in the sports sections or life section. Go check it out....

I saw the website u recommended n when I checked w e paper calendar alamac, there are just so many conflicting info, n thus this post....

There is a book by Joel Yap on fengshui (for interior) in the library. He does explain very well how to decide the facing of the house where the main gate and the main door are different. As a matter of fact, according to him, the door may not be facing of the house but the main windows is. You should go to the library and borrow his book and read through it. You will get a good idea and apply to your case.

Hi Where to get those almanac?

Hi Tricky Saw one at Cathay Building, the light shop beside melandas....they have some very nice (but expensive) lights which you may find suitable. Good luck.