armani

yup... HDB's tiles are layed crooked and the black lines are really an eyesore. I asked my contractor before but he said the grout is too shallow so need to cut it deeper in order to replace with white cement else the white cement will drop off. Wonder how much would that cost... anyone can help and give advise?

if i were you, i will get non-inverter type becoz not all the air-con are on everynite. inverter works in such a way whereby it could reduce energy comsumption by lowering electrictiy used and fan coil turns at slower speed. as for non-inverter, it's either on or off. nothing in between(lower current drawn). And given the price for inverter is more exp, if u're not turning on all the aircon everynite then the additional cost to spend on inverter system cannot be recover back in maybe 5yrs time. Ppl get inverter system becoz it saves electricity over a period of few yrs and thus to say they get back the additional money they spend on inverters. as for non-inverters, it depends on what brand u're getting and how u wan them to be arrange becoz most brand has two compressor and some has one only. best is to ask the salesman how inverters and non-inverters work. becoz from my understanding, money is saved on a long run when u use inverters with more rooms usage. for non-inverters, they are not as cost effective as they either turn on or off but never in between. the most expensive part is when the compressor start-up, it draws a lot of current and thus our bill go up becoz of that few second of high power when it startup so always set the temperature higher becoz it'll cut down the number of times the aircon compressor has to startup once the thermostat's drop beyond the threshold. eg. is 16degrees celsius obtainable throughout the whole nite? likely no or mabe onli for a short while so compressor has to work to 16degrees and off then after half an hour, startup again. imagine how much u';; actually spend. but for comfortable constant temperature, inverter is the best becoz it's on all the time. adjust the temperature by turning on compressor maybe at 50% power or less to maintain the temperature w/o turninng itself off. hope this will help you understand aircon better. so conclusion is.... get a non-inverter unless you have all the rooms with aircon on everynite.

red apple? or maybe try furniture mall at beach road. tons of furnishing shops there

maybe try using artificial plant's branches, figs, plastic hand moulds, used cosmetic foundation box, pencil box or etc. but in actual fact, if u have a customer that enjoys getting tons of ideas from you and decide which to choose then you gonna have a hard time cracking your head becoz ur client will never get enough of innovative ideas. so stick to the traditional methods is the most practical i guess.

one thing to note. some kinds of paints are difficult to touch up. esp if u are mixing special colors. never never mix color yourself becoz u will almost never get back the same color that you wan. for ceiling, use matex emulsion paint. very easy to touch up becoz no matter how many layers u touch-up, the color is still quite constant. i did my painting myself and frankly speaking, touching up is the most difficult and frustrating thing to do. muz protect ur window grille properly becoz it's kinda difficult to clean the paints off. For tile skirting that accidently got painted, need not to be too afraid becoz very easy to scrape off. (oops... not so sure bout parquet but marble should be easy.) try to have as little touch up(paint as perfect as possible) as possible becoz paint color might not be constant after it has dried for a few days. this is my personal experience. my bedroom's painting has different tones. :'( so far my contractor has told me that ICI's supreme all-in-one is quite difficult to touch-up due to different tones. pentalite quite easy. Wash and wear series also quite easy. anyway, i'll be at my new hse on saturday to wait for my washing machine, fridge, tv console to come and also my ceiling fan to be installed. gonna be there from 2pm to at least 5pm. Sianz.... one full day, full of waiting.

mmm.... i think your ID could actually advise you on the steps to take for reno. the biggest problem now is how to protect your parquet during painting. i would suggest that you get the entire floor covered with canvas or plastic sheets. becoz sole can get "painted" very easily so best to cover the entire floor. just make sure communicate calmly with ur hubby lor. don't get too agitated. man tends to be a bit more prideful so don't "suan" him too much also. hehe... sometimes i also make mistakes during reno but glad it's over now. but next thing is all the furnishing and kitchen accesories. ahhh..... headache. gonna hv some "pointers" with wife she wanna put a display cabinet of her plush toys in the living room. IMO, not very appropriate

the heater easy to operate la. the knob is just temperature setting onli. other than that there's not much of other stuffs. the more clockwise = hotter water in storage heater yup... same as jule's reply. hacking of wall to conceal wire is not allowed (but my contractor hacked as i wanted it to be shifted. shhh....) and aircon piping and drainage: hide them in the false ceiling. btw, after some thoughts, if u're hacking short distance(up to 50cm horizontally or vertically) of the wall to hide cables, hbd likely won't know becoz it's be covered by ur lights and ceiling fan. becoz the existing light points layout is approximate too.

i'm using ariston 30Litres storagr heater. if ur storage heater is permanently on then no waiting time. but it consumes quite a lot of electricity in this way. so better to keep it off and on it bout 20min before shower. 2x instant water works in such a way whereby the instant water heaters are connected in a serial mode. first instant water heater will have cold water inlet and then it's outlet will be connected to 2nd instant water heater's inlet. Thus since the 1st water heater has heated up the water then 2nd water heater heats it up further. but i find not cost effective. a storage heater cost 200++ 2 instant water heater can easily cost you 300++ not worth it.

I'm currently using storage tank heater. good enough for rain shower but instant water heater cannot becoz the water wouldn't be warm enough. as for citygas heater, i'm not so sure.

i just went to suam lum. it's open... those lightings they have are not those wall mounted type. it's more of those table lamp and floor lamp. something like those wooden rectangular cube with lights shining through the drawing outside. but there's one particular shop in suam lum selling sort of designer light below. ikea light the difference is that it comes in all kind of shapes, size and colors. really really tempted to buy but baggage too heavy so didn't buy. a small one cost bout 10SGD only.

if you are looking for winnie the pooh, snoopy, doraemon etc type of clocks, you can go to chinatown. it's actually opposite white orchid hotel. a little bit hard to find but just spend enough time to walk around and u be able to find. it's not along main road so u need to walk into those small lanes>pass by shoes wholesalers>accessories like earring etc. i know of 3 such shops there. namely: Ok Station, My city and bebear. the stuffs there are dirt cheap. and if u're buying 3 items, they will give u wholesale price. eg. 1piece is 100baht and if you buy 3 then it's be 75baht each. located at chinatown. deco stuffs, you can try platinum fashion mall 5th floor. there's one shop selling handpainted signages(eg. toilet, my room, welcome) and also kitchen towel holders. located at pratunam area another place is MBK centre 5th floor i think. there are quite a few shops selling some furnishing etc. located at pratunam area. another place to try is suam lum night market. lots of stuffs there but muz at least slash the price by 60% then slowly let the owner bring up the price else sure get chopped. they have very nice lights, handmade carpets etc there. you can refer to my webpage to see the stuffs that i bought.

i just came back from bangkok. bought a huge pooh bear clock for less than 10SGD and a few others stuffs. oops... too much side-track. thanks a lot. seems like the feature walls quite cheap. i'll be doing my HSS and perhaps the two walls near HSS. shall be going to new hse to look see on saturday. i guess reno shd be completed. shall do an inspection then can takeover.

i already have a design in mind but just lack the resources to get it done. basically just do up a mirror onli lor. but from wat i know it can easily cost almost 1k just to do that. do u guys think it's possible to get in done ard 500?

thanks for all the input. shall take all your advises into consideration. but won't be buying my bed and bedframe so soon. likely next year or in dec

nice coffee table. how much is the taxes for importing into singapore

try far east florist or goodwood at thomson area

i've got a question to ask, is there any way to get a company to do the feature wall for that ugly HSS door without going thru a ID. becoz i just wanna get a feature wall to conceal that ugly HSS door. Can anyone help? or is there a possiblity of DIY

Hi surge, i haven done any racks yet. can't help you on this. but dono id it cheaper to DIY. it's quite easy to do. just need to take some measurements and buy some L-shaped bracket with bolt and nuts. but if the price is less than 50bucks difference then it would be better to engage a contractor

found the thread in hdb's sites. haiz.... such a diplomatic way of putting the message across to home owners. hope i do kanna when i'm bout to sell my flat. else sure lose money. hdb guideline on electrical works

i've pm u already. you can call up my contractor to see if he suitable or refer to my multiply webpage

my tiler also did not soak prior to laying of the tile too. i guess there's no need to soak for homogenous tiles

huh.... really cannot hack grooves in wall on conceal wires meh? i thought already can liao since hdb by default hide those water pipes mah. and oso the default wiring point they have given are oso hidden mah. NO LOGIC! why hdb can hide wire and we can't?

thanks lot for ur advise. really didn't thot of the centre piece issue. thanks so much for ur input. maybe i shd buy from elsewhere.

my contractor hacked a groove in the wall and put the wire inside. so it's kinda conceal leh.

btw, do u guys here find that the doors are somehow noisy when u close them? anyone put dampers betwwen the dorr frame and door? i'm thinking of putting them but the problem is that don exactly know which is the exact place on the door frame to put so that it closes quietly.