blueeeeie

Stiles Hub pte ltd

Its been a busy busy week for us as we began moving into our new place.. All the works in the house has been completed (save for some defects here and there which my contractor has promised to fix) and my husband and I have obsessively cleaned the place from top to bottom.. Seriously.. I think I actually lost a little bit of weight from the morning till night cleaning! Anyway, not all my furniture has arrived yet.. but here's a sneak peak of what our place looks like.. For those who are interested.. the stickers are from Blik..

So far so good.. I've used it on my gate for more than 2 weeks now.. no issues here I think its important that the lock doesn't get wet from rain water.. if the gate at your place gets splashed alot (from rain or washing) then I don't think its a suitable home for that lock.. This lock is meant to be an indoor lock..

Hi Kengwee, You can give a ring to my contractor Dennis to request for a quote.. he's really friendly and will provide it to you asap with no strings attached.. His number is located in my signature..

Thanks thanks.. my hubby really made a good choice in selecting this mosaic.. had to go to a couple of places before he finally found what he was looking for..

Yeah.. make sure that you let your ID know that you don't want too much exposed trunking.. so he should be able to work with the air con guys on how to run the trunking and installation.. Don't depend on the air con installers to guide you.. they tend to run the trunking where its more convenient for them..

Ok.. here's what the air con guy told me.. There are 3 points of failure in the air con trunking: 1) Piping for the coolant 2) Piping for the water/condensate 3) Electrical Piping for coolant - The usual problems that can occur with that pipe is leakages.. The aircon guys told me that the piping in the trunking are welded together so its continuous.. and there is only 1 manual connection (where the guys connect the coolant main pipe to the pipe coming from the air con with a nut) which is accessible near the aircon (if there is exposed trunking) or behind the unit itself (if there is no trunking nearby).. That manual connection is the usual suspect for any leakages especially if your air con is newly installed. I know this because I just had my air con system repaired cos the manual connection for one of my air cons was loose and coolant had leaked out.. This was what the air con guy explained. The other problem with the coolant piping is water condensing on the pipe itself (they also call that sweating) which will cause water to drip through the trunking and show up as leakages.. So that is why the air con ppl ask you to upgrade your insulation. The thicker it is, the more protection you can get from the sweating problem.. So if you have proper insulation, you shouldn't suffer from leaks at least for the first couple of years.. unless you're unlucky and you got some defective insulation.. but then that is really unforeseen circumstances.. Again.. this was explained by both the air con salesman and the air con guy Piping for water/condensate - Points of failure for this is if the water doesn't flow through properly and clogs the pipes.. collection of water at clogged point may cause leakages.. Prevention for this is through regular maintenance where the servicing ppl will flush your pipes for you and ensure its clear as well as proper installation.. the air con ppl will install your pipes at a slight gradient so the water will flow to the exit point.. Explained by air con guy.. Electrical - This one is heng suay liao.. if you had a good electrician during your reno, all your wiring should have been installed properly with no wire exposed.. if so.. then points of failure would be if rodents got in and started chewing on your wires and shorting your air con.. but then if it happens for your air con, it could also happen anywhere else in your house.. then you would also need to tear open your wall to get it fixed.. If the wiring wasn't installed properly.. then u can go after your contractor to get them to redo the damaged wiring and wall for you! All in all, if everything goes well with proper maintenance and all that, you shouldn't need to tear out the trunking and insulation.. but after 5 to 10 years, its hard to say.. Its like buying a new car.. if u didn't get a defective car.. when the car is brand new you won't need to send it for major repairs and all that.. the cars run great with just light maintenance... but then after the car runs past a certain mileage.. components start failing because of wear and tear.. Btw.. all this was explained to me by the air con ppl so if I'm wrong anywhere, please forgive me.. this is only a sharing of what I've learnt

Digital lock from Interlock.. promo price of 599.. Dialspeed lock was purchased from Amazon.. bought it for 30 over usd.. but now they are having a discount.. Shipping was free but only for US addresses.. so I shipped it to my vpost account and had it shipped back to SG with my US purchases.. http://www.amazon.com/Master-Lock-Dialspeed-Electronic-Combination/dp/B009THBSUG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368942117&sr=8-2&keywords=dialspeed+masterlock

Sure.. actually all the credit for the cleverly hidden trunking goes to my contractor.. He directed the gain city guys to install the trunking in the most unobtrusive way possible. First off, my condenser sits outside a window in the master bedroom, the trunking coming in from the condenser outside is hidden behind my wardrobe.. refer to top left picture in the grid. So once the trunking passes through the wardrobe, it splits 2 ways.. 1 going into the master, the other going outside to connect the rest of the air cons..The one going into the master travels along a beam into my toilet.. ref top right pic in the grid. Once it goes into the toilet, the trunking has been tiled over so you don't even notice the trunking at all unless you look for it.. ref bottom left picture And then the pipe for the condensation travels down to my shower area and drips out into the floor trap.. all hidden under my tiles.. ref bottom right picture Here's a pic of the master bedroom aircon.. no trunking or piping visible.. Now here's a tour of the trunking for the rest of the house.. The trunking will come out from the master and travels above the doors of all the rooms.. my contractor did a box up of the trunking so its totally hidden away.. ref top left picture of grid.. The piping for the condensation also travels along the same path but it crosses over into the common toilet.. there's a little bit of the piping trunk visible here.. ref top right picture of grid.. Then of course its the same setup in the common toilet as the master toilet. The piping is hidden under the tiles and moves all the way to the shower area and near the floor trap.. And that is how all my trunking and pipes are hidden away!

Door We decided that we wanted to have a keyless entry solution for our house.. so we installed the samsung keyless door lock for our front door yesterday.. The SH6020 model has anti mischief, burglar alarm and fire detection alarm, keypad and card entry as well as master key override. And since we didn't want to carry keys, I managed to source for a super cool combination lock for my gate! Introducing.. the DialSpeed lock by Masterlock! Cool huh?

Thanks greg.. its a stressful yet exciting process.. loved every minute of it! Best of luck for yours.. be sure to update your blog often heh

If you haven't installed your sink, why not ask them to exchange the sink with one that has a hole for the tap on it? Then at least you won't have the same problem as me.. I'm still sourcing for a black tap aerator.. if I cannot find it then prob will have to paint it black..

My sink's dimension is 590 x 450 x 225mm The counter top depth is 600mm We didn't take into account that the carpenter had added a backing to the cupboard under the sink. So that took up some space.. The tap is standard.. bought it from Ikea..

Furnishings Here's a closer look at my big study cupboard.. My concealed computer table! I requested for this so that I could hide away the computer when its not in use.. Now for my regrets.. I bought a rectangular stainless steel undermount sink for my kitchen which looks great by the way.. but because I got the version that doesn't have a tap hole together with it.. when I mounted the sink on my counter top, there wasn't enough space to install the tap in the usual position of above the sink near the wall.. in the end, we had to install the tap at the corner of the sink.. The tap had to be installed some distance away from the sink so the spout was positioned very near the edge of the sink too and the water flow was too close to the edge resulting in a lot of splashing onto my counter.. In the end, it was either I replace the tap, or find a way to redirect the water flow.. Here's the result.. Do you think it looks ok? Anyone has a better alternative?

Furnishings My sofa from Lush was due to arrive today.. but unfortunately they found some defects on my sofa prior to delivery so it failed quality checks.. Now its been held back for 2 weeks.. So Lush offered us a loaner sofa for free.. just so we have something to sit on after we move in.. and they would swap out the loaner sofa for us once our sofa is ready to be delivered.. Oh well... its not the nicest but its functional My fridge and washing machine is in place.. I also asked my contractor to create a little extra tap with a spray gun in my service yard for hand washing stuff.. Can even use it to wash the service yard.. hahaha I've also put up an ikea shelving over the space allocated for my bed in the master bedroom.. Good place to put any art works or photographs And I got this really nice Umbra wall hook from Amazon. I liked that I can hide away the hooks if there are no clothes to hang.. Fixed another one behind my master toilet door too.. More shopping to be done!

Oh I kept the original kitchen flooring from HDB.. we decided not to change it to save money since it didn't totally clash with what we were intending to do in the overall look.. You can see the kitchen flooring in the first couple of pics I posted

Hahah.. we started at the end of Feb and its now already 2 weeks into May.. its been quite a while already.. i've waited till my neck is as long as a giraffe

Hi mishmish, Thanks!! Stainless steel is really nice too.. provides your kitchen with a modern professional kitchen look.. you can pretend you're one of those chefs from the cooking competitions.. heehee If you still have time to decide on the look for your kitchen.. its still not too late to opt for the tile..

The renovation for our place has officially completed! Now all that's left is to do is rectify defects, cleaning and move in the furniture.. Some pics from the latest visit to the house Wide angle view of dining area Kitchen completed Common bathroom complete with tap

Hi Sherting, The partitions near my front entrance and in my kitchen are made of plasterboard (drywall).. Its the same kind of partitions they usually put up in offices The partitions can't get wet (i.e. during mopping and floor washing) so if you do put up drywall in ur house, be sure to put up the floor skirting as well..

The solid top brand we used was Staron.. its a more expensive range and we chose it because it had the colors my husband wanted.. Our common toilet uses the Fog color solid top (gives a light grey color) which is the same as our kitchen's and our master uses Metallic yukon (white with some reflective flakes in it)

Study We've finally purchased a study table thats of the right size and price for our study room.. The idea was to have the table placed under the rectangle light in the middle of the room so it couldn't be too big otherwise we would have trouble moving around the room and it couldn't be too small otherwise if the 2 of us decide to use the room at the same time there wouldn't be space.. Originally intended to get a tulip table from Comfort with a custom sized table top but the price of that turned out to be 600 bucks! It was even more expensive than our dining table.. So in the end, we picked this Kerby table.. color and size was just right.. price tag of 350 was just right too! Now that we've managed to save some money from the table.. I can redirect that into my SAYL chair.. eh heh heh heh

Kitchens (almost complete!) With the solid top up, the overlaying of the wall tiles had started.. one side of the kitchen is done and now we're just left with the other side.. I'm so glad I chose the spot design for the under cabinet lighting.. can almost hear the shing! shing! of the light bouncing off the tile.. Oh and previously we had used a 20W light bulb to light our counter area.. but that turned out to be too blindingly bright.. so I managed to convince the hubs to buy the 5W NUD bulbs that I had been secretly eyeing but he said we had no use for.. *cue the last laugh*... WAHAHAHAHHAHAAH Now I can admire my light both on and off.. Toilets (almost done) Toilets are almost in a finished state too... all that's left is to install the taps.. here's my cute robot looking tap for the common toilet.. It's so android-y! Me likes.. Master toilet's tap is missing from the picture at the moment.. but the solid top is looking mighty fine! Now if only my plumber can hurry up and fix my toilet flushing soon.. its driving me nuts that everytime we flush the master toilet, the water just keeps running!

I didn't opt for flooring, so didn't have any hacking there.. Toilets can't hack because there is a 3 year warranty in place.. if you hack then warranty is voided.. so can only overlay As for kitchens, basically the contractor just said can overlay so that's what we did..no hacking required.. saved us money that we could direct elsewhere.. hee I know about the "hack" mentality.. I hacked up the wall in one of the bedrooms to open up the space in the house just so I won't feel so claustraphobic!! no one likes the enclosed spaces of the HDB flat if they can help it.. bleargh!

Yeah.. can't hack so just cover.. anything to hide that ridiculous beige line running across the kitchen.. Besides.. cover cheaper than hack!