lyn2015

Just a quick update! after some discussion, my ID has managed to persuade the aluminum ppl to change the frames.. its currently 8 panels and they would be changing it to 6 panels. 4 will be too big as it would protrude from the cupboards. the only decision now is if the frames should be 2 inch or 3.5 inch.. apparently 2 inch, the hinges will cause a gap or something. think this frame shop is not very good. carpentry is almost all done, delay due to late installation of city gas.. so do remind your ID to call early. carpentry is a funny story because we had to wait a while for him as my ID told me this was his best carpenter and when we met him, he was the carpenter who did my mother's and aunty's house haha. what a small world! and so i know how much is his direct price vs my ID price :S He also noted my floor not straight half a inch difference. (note to self to just pay for screeding next time) and we spent 6 hours discussing carpentry ><. we have been busy building all our taobao stuff also.. thought it would require drilling but in the end the screw was small enough to use an electric screw driver to attach the wood to the stands. In general, quite happy with my buys. think in general, the more you pay, the better the packaging + quality. however, you cannot be particular about scratches and dents. also bought most of our stuff, the last being the fans! based on our research and also recommendation from our BTO group, A Lighting Enterprise was the cheapest (besides Malaysia). They said that its because they are family run so they cut out the 'worker's pay' in that sense. Their recommendation on fans is based on easy maintenance i.e. use their own LED lights which can be changed easily vs original lights which you have to call agent to change. If you're not comfortable with that, the fans with original LED lights is still cheaper then outside. we bought all fanco in the end. Icon for the rooms and dining, FM7000 for the living room. Left with the kitchen small fan.. i don't want to pay $450 for a Vento Fino, nor $350 for a Alpha fan. Now considering a deka fan M3 or M16. anybody tried before? ok pictures! so glad most decisions are done.

Been neglecting this space.. most of our renovation has been done except for the carpentry! Been totally indecisive over the laminate choices but this saturday will be the last time i visit the lamitak and admira warehouses. LAST TIME. Not too happy with the way the black frames have turned out as the frames are rather thick :/ Most of the taobao stuff have arrived. Mostly in good condition but i think you would need to be able to overlook small dents and some laminate peeling. ok can't wait till the process is over!

Some quick updates.. we recently met the electrician to talk about electrical points and lighting. As we intend to put ceiling fan is every room,there wasn't much lighting we could do. Some learning points for us below: - Type of TV console/height would affect the placement of the electrical points. It would be best to decide where to place the electrical points before you buy the tv console. As we had already bought ours, we may have to spend 100+ to relocate them 10cm lower. This will be the same for bedside table. - Electrician advised not to do the kill switch as that would require quite extensive rewiring. - May want to consider changing telephone points to data points - If having kitchen door, it is not advisable to put the light switch behind the door. Our light switches may have to be relocated to the "hole" in the shoe cabinet where you puts keys and all.. accessible but not visible vs visible but not accessible. - Hair dryer electrical point cannot be too low as the cord for the hair dryer may not be very long. - wanted some track/spot lights on my counter top but due to our aluminium bi-fold windows, not advisable. For now,we are looking for sanitary and fans.. any advice on fans? so many brands out there. Our ID has a tie up with Poh Joo for sanitary items. Think price is reasonable but not sure about quality..And we have to decide on storage vs instant heater. For convenience, I would rather instant as that is what I am currently using but it seems i can't hide the heater set. Are rain showers worth it if we are going to get storage? Does anybody know where to get vanity sets that are 300-400+ for our common toilet? Useful Blogs http://www.guojiawen.com/2014/06/23-bto-lights-and-electrical-planning.html http://noobhomeowner.blogspot.sg/2013/04/words-of-wisdom-from-renotalk.html Sink we are considering- $250. A similar one but more squarish (modern) is $800?? Current progress is that floor tiles are almost done and they will make good the wall this week. Ivory tiles looking good

hello, i need 6 fans for my house. can quote me the following or you have any recommendations? Vento Fino 1+2 Acorn Futuriste, 308 Acorn Futuriste, 309 Acorn Ventilateur 238 thanks!

Haha according to the sales person it's ok for the quilt.. I didn't ask about curtains. The price jump between 7-8kg is big because the motor size changes so just see how big the drum you want.

Hello can share link for vanity top and what does gang switch do? Thanks!!

so to share some of the electronics that we have bought! Summary- Goh Ah Bee and Gain City (Sungei Kadut) Samsung TV- the first thing we bought was our TV.. Husband and I are not very techie so we were quite happy to let salespeople pitch us. At first we were quite sold on LG but ended up buying a curved Samsung TV on impulse. The salesperson at courts (JEM) was very convincing that his price was the best that + we were quite tired of looking hence ended up buying. The next day we visited Gain City (sungei kadut) and their price was so much lower!! Although the listed price was only about $50 cheaper, the promoter price was more than $200 cheaper. Cut a long story short, Courts did match Gain City's Price in the end (although we had to give back our 4K HDMI cable) and they could not give us the difference x 2 because there was no white and black from Gain City. TSK. So yes. We think Gain City ( among all the big brands) is still the best plus they have 1% rebate. Paid about $2700 which comes with a free 40inch tv. Bosch Hood Hob and Oven - Through forums and my boss, we heard of this shop Goh Ah Bee so we went to take a look. The salesman Chris was quite helpful and we ended up buying three things from him (no research done :O). We asked him for package price discount but he said that Goh Ah Bee already gives the cheapest price per item and how this shop has been around longer than we were born hence the price is very good. We did not have to put a downpayment and they will collect cash/cheque upon delivery. wah. https://www.facebook.com/Goh-Ah-Bee-412003655570955/ Altogether paid about $1500 and from post purchase research, it seems quite a good deal and recommended at quite a few places. Hitachi Fridge and Electrolux Washing Machine - For these items we decided to go back to gain city to buy. They would match Goh Ah Bee's price if you pay in cash/nets so its good to do research first we wanted a freezer bottom fridge so that kinda narrowed our choices. The sales person said that Hitachi was better then Panasonic because there will not be condensation and the tempered glass was reinforced on all edges. For washing machine, i wanted t front loader because it was more water efficient and the clothes do not come out as crumpled.. but yes it was expensive! Bought a bigger load one to factor in washing bedsheets, more durable etc. Altogether paid about $2000. so yes pretty much done with electronics! last i heard we know have 2 vacuum cleaners as both my parents and my in laws bought us 1 hahha (this weekend is philips warehouse sale!) >< Now we are starting to look at Lights, Fans and bathroom stuff. Shops we went to day include Heritage Bathrooms/Lighting (recommended by my friend) and A Lighting Enterprise (recommended by my house group). They are about 1km apart so you can slowly walk and check out the stalls in between. A Lighting Enterprise was the cheapest shop so far with good sales ( she helped me write down my possible options and price and i was given a number to messageto check on price) although I would say that the shop next to her, National Electric Traders, was run by a very knowledgeable guy who we learnt alot from after we got past initial greetings. Still looking for a good vanity set for my common toilet... Not sure if we want to make the journey to JB to get these things due to safety concerns,warranty concerns, time etc...

Global as in from T-mall/Taobao? haha got my courage to buy from seeing other t-bloggers' purchases! Will share when we finally set it up.. it takes about 2 weeks to ship and we'll probably wait for our reno to be done first too.

hello i am also using brown for my kitchen cabinets.. did you consider using the Alaska maple (white) for the countertop?

so update on the situation.. $600 to hack the living and dinning and HDB has agreed to smoothen the Bedroom floorr for vinyl... Some pointers for those who are considering HDB screeding Don't try to save money by getting to do some screeding for tiles Go down and measure the level from the raw floor to the kitchen so that you can make a more informed decision when the HDB contractor calls you to tell you to top up. From neighbours, i think HDB contractor are just asking most people to top up then only will them do a good job. in other news, have been trying out the ezbuy services (previously known as daigou). They have free agent fees quite frequently and their shipping seem to cheaper then other competitors. My chinese is not that great and for a peace of mind, i use their buyforme service as they can help to inspect and check. For some purchases, will converse with taobao seller directly to understand the product then ask exbuy to purchase for me. So far I have purchased the following items and have made my first mistake. The seller selling the TV console and Coffee Table set had two different warehouses so my item was shipped to two different places which would increase my shipping costs as i cannot consolidate. In future, would need to check which warehouse to send to and if the domestic shipping would be cheaper as compared to increase international shipping. Tv Console and Coffee Table set https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=527119868099&toSite=mai Dining Table Set with Bench. https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=523197190228

hmm true think we will just get a normal hand held shower.. so i guess the following items are quite reasonable? To supply and install 30mm PVC outlet pipe for toilet= 2 x$ 50.00= $100.00 To install wash basin and tap for toilet =2 x$ 80.00= $160.00 To supply labour to install instant water heater= 2 x$ 75.00= $ 150.00 To supply labour to install toilet accessories= 2x $ 50.00= $ 100.00 To supply labour to install handspray= 2x$ 60.00 =$ 120.00 Supply labour to dismantle and re-install toilet bowl in master toilet=1x $ 120.00 Total=750

Oh hmm okay will take that into consideration.. Thanks! Yeah need to rescreed but it was already part of the fixed cost of doing their tiling. $11/sqft now there might be a possibility of having to level room floor at $2/sqft which will be $960. Sigh zzz

After waiting for 2months for HDB to screed our place, our renovation has finally started and it has already hit its first hurdle. we wanted to use tiles in the dinning and living area and our ID has just informed us that the screeding is tooo high. So now we either pay them $600 to hack away the screeding or we change to Vinyl for the whole house and Vinyl they said that cannot 100% certain that the floor will be flat. Or we can just leave with the living and dining room higher than the kitchen which is like husband's house. ( mine is step up into the kitchen).. so decisions decisions.... on another note, is it very difficult to install toilet accesories like water tank la, shower head etc .. I'm charged like $50-$80 for each item and wondering if we could do it ourselves..

so.. we are waiting for HDB to help us with our cement screeding. Last we checked, it would likely only be done in May While waiting for 2nd 3D , we visited the laminate shops to help with visualising.. If you have problem like us prob good to go unless your ID can help to narrow down for you based on your mood board. There are at least three at sungei kadut - Jennings, Lamitak and Lam Chuan. You can just walk into the show room.. and the staff were quick helpful and able to advise you on which sheet may match the colour you have in mind. You can get A4 samples and view the actual sheet itself. Some of the big sheets do not look like the samples in the catalogue so highly advisable to go down and take a look before you confirm.. Okay some of the options we are considering! like the black trimming..just thinking if shuld use black solid colour or black wood colour with the grains.. we should prob start to look for paint and tiles soon..

hi have pm-ed you