chngster

Hi aSteRus Just emailed you. Hope you get a good price.

Hi blackie No problem. Can you pm the quotes when you got them too? hehe.

Hi blackie I've pm-ed you the details.

Today my window contractor came to measure my windows. I'm using my own contractor to do the windows cos it's cheaper than my ID. My ID also suggested to get my own contractor too as he also subs out to others. It's good to have such advise from ID who doesn't mind if u use another contractor. It's not like some ID/contractor who wants to earn on everything. He even said he would help co-ordinate with the windows contractor on the renovation schedule. In general windows and grilles contractor can be easily found and would usually be cheaper than contractor or ID. That is if the contractor or ID that you hire has this item as their own trade. Also usually windows and grilles doesn't affect the rest of the items that you are renovating. It's pretty much quite independent. The only thing that will affect is probably if u are tiling the walls in the kitchen or toilets. Otherwise once your hacking (if any) is done, they can pretty much start anytime. I got my window contractor from this forum. Quite reputable and despite not having a website, he does have a FB page to showcase his projects. Pricing is pretty much competitive but for reliability and workmanship, I guess paying more is fine. I even got him to do glass doors for both my toilets. I wanted to let him do my rubbish chute cover too, but he declined as he advise it's better to let my ID cover it for better interfacing. Another contractor who gives good advises and not try to earn as much as he could.

Hi Woods72 http://m.ebay.com.sg/itm?itemId=151364299616 You try to see if this link works. I doubt there's warranty. But cos it's like almost 3 times cheaper, I guess it's fine. Seller seems reputable too. eBay has a 14 day money back guarantee. Will post reviews on it once I tried. I shd get it by next week I hope.

Hi Abbytan http://list.qoo10.sg/item/IREVO-GATEMAN-SHINE-V-CARD-KEYS/416541041 This is the Gateman one. I believe its the equivalent to Yale 323 model http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-Ezon-Digital-Door-Lock-SHS-P710-Push-Pull-Two-Way-SHS-P717-for-US-EU- This is for the Samsung. Do note how your door opening is. This can be a little tricky as I was also nearly caught into it. Most of our house doors are push in from the outside. So you need to get this model that PUSHES the lever from the OUTSIDE so u can go into your house. And the inside of the house you PULL the lever from the INSIDE so you can go out of the house. Most seller sells the same model that goes the opposite way. Meaning you pull the lever out from the outside and push the lever from the inside which entirely defeats the purpose of convenience. Hope this helps.

Another milestone Bought our first items online from Ebay and Qoo10. Digital locks for our main door and gate. This will save the hassle of carrying keys and having holes in the pockets or having to serach for them thru the bag. This is the Samsung lock for the main door. Bought from ebay. Almost 4 times cheaper if you are to buy it locally. This is the Gateman lock for the iron door. Also almost 3 times cheaper. All we need is to find someone to install it for us. Something good about digital lock, 1 keycard can open all locks. Or if you don't want the keycard, then just use the PIN and remember it. You can also install pre-program PIN if you have your parents or in-laws visiting and the PIN will be erased after the visit. Good and convenient. And once the door is closed, the locks will auto locked and we don't have to worry if we had locked the door or not. Total damage, $580 for both locks. Now have to see how long delivery takes.

More photos on the shopping adventure at Hafary. Check out the hallways of tiles

Hi guys Went to Hafary at Eunos yesterday with my ID (Nick). This place is like a haven for all tiles in all kinds of material and forms. Its like a one stop shop for all kinds of flooring that you want. They also have toilet accessories and also like a cafe should you want a coffee. The coffee is free by the way. There's like hallways and hallways of floor tiles ranging from marble, to stones, to wood grain, brick wall tiles and anything you can possible thinl of. Wife and I were so amazed by the selection which also means headache from too many choices. Sometimes too many choices is not a good thing too. It was helpful that our ID was around to give advice on what we need and also the color scheme and combination. Below are the selection we have done. We didn't really need to selec much but we still took a good 2hrs. Here's what we need - Kitchen flooring - Toilet flooring - Living and bedroom flooring Kitchen Flooring We wanted to do cement screed for the kitchen floor. Wanted a nice raw feel for the kitchen. But ID advise to get cement screed looking tiles as we needed the tiles to hide some piping and wiring. Also unless if you can accept fine crack lines and uneven coloring from whoever is doing the cement screed, where the color may go horribly wrong too, if not go for the cement tiles. Toilet flooringMain consideration is that it shd be not slippery when water is poured over. We had to sneakily pour water from our water bottles on the tile and took off our shoes to feel the tiles. Esp impt as we have 2 small kids and a slippery toilet floor is the last thing we want. The flooring also complement the cement screed wall that we will be doing. Living and bedroom floorWe wanted to have a woodgrain flooring for our rooms and living. We went to see the parquet selection, way over beyond our budget of $3.20/tile. The selection was well over $8.80 per tile.We went thru the woodgrain looking tiles. Most of it was cold feeling and we thot that the cold feeling doesn't really go with the wood look and the overall feel of the house.We somehow unexpectactly came across Vinyl flooring. They are like laminates but without the hollowness. Like tiles but without the coldness. Like parquet but without the pricing. We dont have to worry about grouting as there would be no visible connection between pieces. I was told by the ID that they have to cement screed the floor and the pieces will be glued over the screeding. Pricing was easy on the pocket and the color was pleasing to us. So we took this somewhat unheard of method by faith and hope everything turns out good. We left the warehouse showroom with pieces of samples of the flooring we want given free. Overall it was a nice and exciting experience. Its like again a huge gallery of tiles and it be hard to not be able to find what you want. Unless if that piece of flooring you want is sold out which we did saw a few popular ones taken up. But the sales people say that even if its sold, they usually will have stocks coming in within the next month. So once again if you are selecting tiles, I'm sure this is a place you won't want to miss.

Hi lhheng Thanks for the advice. I'm thinking of using LED. So u think 6nos of 7W is good enough? I mean going by maths it would be 6 x 7W = 42W. That's how it's being calculated I presume haha

Pls advise if anyone knows. If I am to light up my kitchen with tracklights, would 10 nos of 7W or 12W be sufficient?

I'm setting budget of $50k $40k for actual renovation, $10 for furnitures and electronics. As of now I'm still within my budget.

We just did a site survey with my ID last weekend. Took some photos and basically its major works. This is the kitchen. Everything has to go The Master Room Toilet Common Toilet The Mster Room. The previous owner loves yellow. The common room We took a few shots of the living but it was too under expose. Plus it is also yellow anyway

Hi Daniel Contact PMed.

Hi Kimsim Mine is on 22nd. Doubt we will bump then haha. Looking forward to see your actual house, and mine too. Let's exchange pointers though i've a feeling you are more professional at it.

Hi Kimsim Mine is on 22nd. Doubt we will bump then haha. Looking forward to see your actual house, and mine too. Let's exchange pointers though i've a feeling you are more professional at it.

Hi Kimsim Just ran thru your blog. Congrats to you too. We also collecting keys in mid-sept. Maybe we will 'bump' into each other haha. I see you bought most of your stuff in JB. Any issues on warranties? When is your HDB appt?

Anyone has any reviews on a brand of water heater called AO Smith?

Hi kimsim Thanks for the input and the drawings. I will seriously discuss with my ID on this. By the way are u an ID yourself?

Haha yes thats what everyone says. but the kids are still young, chances are they will still run over and want to sleep with us. Thats why we kept it doorless. So we are not too overly concern about it. If need to change, can always do in the toilet or WIW. Thanks for the advice on the distance between the hob and sink too. This is a draft, so i guess the ID will manage that space for us too. which means we need to extend another 600mm out. not an issue for us.

cool..thanks so much. Will take note. I'm one of those few dinosaurs that is nuts over computers

Hi kimsim Yes i can't seem to expand it though. Any advise on how to do it?

Ok this is the floorplan that i drew using paintbrush. Very amateurish. Hope to send a few laughs along the way. haha here's my plan. - Hack the store-room and convert to a walk in wardrobe to be share by everyone including my 2 young kids. - Hack the dividing wall of kitchen and living room to make it into one large area. - Build a island in the middle so that the wife and kids can bake and do fun stuff in the kitchen - Combine the island with the dining to have an extended look which also function as a work station. - All the wash basin would be out of the toilet so that the bathroom will look more spacious. - All door will be sliding. Note that there are no doors between rooms so that the kids can run over if they need us or go to the toilet. - Oh and I have to hack away all existing floor and wall tiles. All these for less than 40K That kinds of summarised all that I drew. Welcome any comments or ideas if any. Overall theme, minamalist with a touch of Scandi/Jap look and definitely very open concept.

Haha seems like the upload works, just that the pic is small. Will upload a planned floorplan later. Hopefully it turns out bigger.