kingandbin

Ooh thanks! Sounds pretty cheap.. Will keep the company name in mind. Anyway the issue with weird stuff coming out is from their previous home which is an old landed property. Maybe that's why? Hdb should be alot better so perhaps filter cleaning is good enough

Gross right! I was imagining our aircon having the same discharge with the jelly stuff all over our shower floor, drying up slowly According to Google (our best information source!!) the aircon drainage piping can have algae or even mold growing inside due to constant moisture. This can lead to the jelly substances and even clogging! Which means our mum's aircon is overdue for servicing and some proper cleaning It's gonna be hard to convince the parents to have servicing done though. They likely want to wait till it's spoilt before fixing #auntymindset

Yeap, read online that it's possible to have such jelly discharge but if proper cleaning is done for the piping it shouldn't happen. So yes servicing is likely the key! But I've not heard of any of my family or friends doing it for their aircon though. Service cleaning of the filter yes, but not chemical cleaning for the pipes. Do you know what the aircon servicing at your rental covers (i.e. which part of the aircon is actually cleaned?) haha

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Thanks guys for sharing! The main reason we are pensive about trimming the pipe is not simply due to the area being wet, but because one of our mums feedback that their discharge pipe sometimes has jelly-like substance or even green algae-ish liquid flowing out. Somehow their pipe discharges not just water but also other odd substances too! This made us rather squirmish . But hey, if our pipe discharges just regular ol' water then definitely no second thoughts about removing it! Plus our other mom (MIL) totally downplayed the ease of washing the pipes. She was like, "No problem at all!! Just move it up. Very easy to clean one. " But @stray raised a very valid point about hair possibly being trapped below or around it! We will prolly get them to trim the pipe for us when the aircon guys come by to fix a gap we found in the trunking. Kudos to our contractor for his suggestion & to @stray @ricepapergirl @Sendo999 for your feedback as well!

OUR WEEKEND VISIT We visited again on Saturday to check on the progress and were surprised to find two workers in the house. We weren't expecting works to continue during weekends too! Anyway, we took a quick look around and left within 10min as we didn't want to disturb the workers. But from what we could see, general progress seems pretty speedy. Yesterday we popped by our new place once again - to introduce ourselves to neighbours and also to apologize for the inconvenience the reno has caused thus far. As ours is a SOBF unit, our neighbours have been living there for the past 2 years already. Surprisingly, they either said they were totally unaffected by the noise or were very understanding about the situation. Probably due to the hospital being built next door, the noise and disturbance from our reno doesn't seem significant. Yay to great neighbours! This is what we saw upon entering on Sunday... So neat and tidy! All flooring with skirting up. Here's a better representation of the living room floor's actual colour. The half wall at our entrance is almost done as well! Kitchen backsplash filled with grey grout! Trying to decide if the tone of white for the laminate chosen matches the tiles' colour. Cabinet base on one side of the kitchen. Bin requested for white tiles on the side to match the cupboards. Sink area has a tiled bottom instead of carpentry base as a prevention in case of any leaks from the kitchen sink. Our poor man's alternative to a concrete sink support which costs 8x more Cabinet base on shorter end of the kitchen. To the right we'll have the fridge, which we opted not to do up a base for. Bedrooms floors all done! Pardon the feet, Bin likes to think they help beautify photos Common toilet tiling works complete. King really likes the difference in tiles for the shower area, makes him feel as though it's an entryway to another world (like Harry Potter's platform 9 3/4) Master bathroom tiles are done as well, with the shower kerb up. Notice the aircon pipe that we got rectified (in below pic). Contractor E reckons it's more convenient to clean the shower area if we just cut the entire pipe away, leaving water to constantly trickle out from the spot where the trunking is, on the left. Not too sure whether the convenience of easy cleaning beats having a constantly wet shower area so we're still considering whether to trim the pipe! Any feedback on the maintenance from those whose piping runs like this in the shower area too?

In the end my contractor suggested using a wall mount basin and to attach the countertop below it so it won't be stressed by the weight of the basin. Which I think is quite ingenious! Hmm regardless of the height of the countertop or sink I'm sure my husband will still find a way to lean on it hahaha. Your greens are looking great! Love love how they pair up so well with your flooring and furniture. How'd you find the maintenance of the plants? And is the large branch against the wall real/alive??

TAOBAO ORDER 2 Over the past week, Bin has been busy purchasing items from Taobao while King has been busy.. gaming For this larger order, we'll be shipping through Oops.sg's DIY Re-Ship. So far we are still awaiting some purchases to reach the warehouse before we consolidate + ship to sg via sea. Apart from the below items, Bin took the chance to add on orders for some clothes here and there to be shipped over together #shunbian. We keep adding on purchases so it means that by the time we ship everything over together (which we have yet to do as some orders are still otw to the warehouse in China!), it may take another 3 weeks to arrive. Sobs. Hopefully everything adds up to at least 1 cubic meter, Oops' minimum requirement! We have no idea how much volume our ordered items take up so we'll wait and see! Update: it's 0.59cbm! Surprisingly little. And because the minimum is 1cbm, we had to pay for 1cbm worth + 7% GST. Here's what we got for Order 2: Lighting Fixtures (1) Small ceiling lamp ball for mbr entryway. What does 'lampry' mean? #engrish (2) Flat round ceiling light (King calls it the "cake light"!) (3) Hanging lamp for living room entrance (4) LED light strips in warm white (10m) for master toilet box-up and cabinet, plus extra drivers/switches (5) LED light strips in cool white (5m) for kitchen's under cabinets (6) Additional 0.5m track lights (x3) and connectors (6) Simple LED ceiling light for kitchen (7) Simple (and cheap!) LED ceiling lights for bathrooms and storeroom (1, 2, 3) Update: Not providing the link for round light (1) with gold trimming because it arrived very dented. Plus, turns out it's made entirely of somewhat soft plastic & quality is poor. But no loss as it only less costed than $2. (8) Black ceiling fan with light kit for study room (9) White ceiling fan with light kit for common bedroom Bathroom Fixtures (1) Black toiletries rack for common toilet (2) Single bar towel rack for common toilet (3) Clothes/towel hooks for common toilet (4) Toilet paper holder with cover for common toilet. Need one with a cover as the common toilet will not have any shower screen! (5) Towel rack for master toilet (6) Toilet paper holder for master toilet (7) Bidet spray for master toilet (8) 2 x Glass shelves for master toilet shower area Other Purchases (1) 2 x Laundry bags (2) Drawer pulls in gold and copper (3) Wooden furniture legs to DIY an old tv console (4) Wooden dresser. Thank you @lalashir for providing the link to this item previously! (5) Wooden bench (not including the table)

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@stray Love love the ikea butcherblock look but am concerned about maintenance too! So I decided to have kompacplus on the side of the kitchen with our sink and stove. And the other less heavy duty usage side with the ikea countertop. Hopefully there won't be any issues! But it's customized carpentry cabinets and not ikea ones @ricepapergirl Ooh didn't know ikea has laminate wood tops! Ekbacken or saljan right? Must check it out on the next trip to ikea. Glad to know that it's been holding up well so far! Your kitchen is gorgeous

TO-TILE-LY NEW LOOK Hello hello! We are back with some updates and with the to-tile-ly new look of our floors and selected walls hehe. Contractor E mentioned last weekend that screeding and tiling works will commence between Monday to Wednesday this week. In the end he sent us photos of the progress on Monday, Tuesday and today Living Room + Walkway: Wood-look tiles with matching grout, laid in a random staggered pattern. Looks more rustic than originally planned but it should still work well! Master, Study and Common Bedrooms: Grey toned wood-look tiles also in random staggered pattern, grout colour to match tiles. Grout yet to be done up in this pic. As of today the study room and common bedroom are done but have since been covered up with protective sheet, so the actual effect is still a mystery to us Kitchen: Subway tiles backsplash (yet to grout) for only 1 side of the kitchen. Common Bathroom: Shower feature wall and the ugly brown mosaic strips covered up with simple subway tiles. Floor overlaid with dark grey cement-looking tiles. E STANDS FOR: EEYER Y U SO BAD! This afternoon, we asked for updates for the master bathroom's feature wall and Contractor E sent this picture to our group chat... As you can see, he's quite good at trolling us and it's not the first time this happened already! Kings always likes to play along also hahaha. Anyway, we visited the site the night before cause Bin was super excited after receiving the pics and just had to see + touch everything in person. So we know what it looks like already Just that E didn't know. The pic below was taken at night when everything's pitch dark so please pardon the image quality! Master Bathroom: Shower feature wall overlaid with long(er) subway tiles in herringbone pattern, grouting yet to be done. As we were not shown any pics of its progress, we both gasped a little upon seeing it irl and did little happy sighs. E actually isn't aware of the exact name of this pattern and just got his workers to follow the picture we gave him haha. Very pleased with its outcome so far! * * * * Some tips for this part of masonry works of renovation, especially if you are working with a contractor. Not too sure if IDs will seek clients' opinions on these but contractors will most likely need you to direct them on the following: (1) How you want the tiles to be laid There are probably 101 ways for tiles to be laid so have in mind the design that you want. One of the most common styles we see for subway tiles is the "工" pattern. Below is just a few examples but you can google to research further. We chose to do vertical herringbone pattern while the pic below shows a diagonal herringbone pattern. The possibilities are endless! For floor tiles that are rectangular like our wood-look tiles, you'll need to decide on the direction for the tiles to go. If you stand from the main doorway of the house, for example, will you prefer for the tiles to be running horizontally or vertically from your view? Will you want the bedrooms' tiles to be laid in the same direction as the walkway and living room? Where do you want your "pattern" to cut off or end? Decisions, decisions. And for bathrooms, if long tiles are chosen for flooring, the direction it is laid can affect flow of water on the ground as well. It's best to seek your contractor's advice on this! (2) What grout colour you want Those who do cleaning often will know that the colour of the grout plays a large part, especially for areas such as bathrooms which are dirtied easily. Not only does the grout colour affect the overall maintenance, it also drastically changes the look of your space. This is specially so for mosaics, which have a lot more grout lines. Apart from regular grout you can also request for cement grouting, or even have the tiler customise the colour to match your tiles! (3) How thick you want the grout lines to be Finally, tiles generally have a suggested grout thickness based on its shape/size. For larger areas or longer tiles it's probably better to follow the contractor's lead. In our case, we indicated our preference of thinner grout lines for subway tiles so smaller spacers were used and thus the gaps between the tiles were smaller as well. This can affect the overall look too. Disclaimer: We aren't experts on tiling or masonry works so the above is just based on our personal experience! Hopefully it can help guide fellow reno newbies to make the whole experience a little less daunting!

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Yay, finally it begins! Feels shiok when there's progress right? Hoping that all goes nice and smooth as your Reno picks up speed!

TAOBAO ORDER 1 Purchased some items from TB yesterday night via Ezbuy's Prime which has $2.99 nett shipping, along with a free agent fee promo on mobile app. There's still quite a few items which couldn't fit into this shipment as not all the items we wanted to get were under Prime shipping. And some which could be shipped under Prime, had incorrect prices indicated so we didn't order them. We'll probably do another order soon through a different agent/forwarder! It was auto split into 2 parcels; Express Air and Sea Shipping, and the entire cart came up to about SGD$450. Not cheap as we choose a more expensive type of track lights which were on promotion, but by the time the agent ordered the promo was over and we had to top up the difference! Will give a review of the items and entire shopping experience after receiving the items! (1) Marble Contact Paper (2) Cordless Track Lights (total 18pcs + 6pcs free) (3) Lighting Tracks (x 4 pcs) (4) Flexible Tap for Kitchen Sink (5) Rainshower for Master Bathroom (6) Wooden Wall Clock (7) Ventilation Fan for Toilets (x 2 pcs)

WHITE . THICK . UGLY Hi guys, were you able to guess what the topic was based on the above 3 words? If you guessed aircon trunking.... TA-DAH! Congrats!!! You win at today's round of t-blog charades! This is Bin (the wifey) reporting for blogging duty. *salutes* Some background on how we split the work for our reno thus far.. I'm responsible for most of the decisions to be made for our home. The Market Researcher (for good deals ), "Interior Designer", Tao Bao expert, Finance Controller, and resident worrywart. King (the hubs) on the other hand, is in-charge of the aircon and the reno bills - we're splitting the costs of course, but my i-banking device decided to disappear for the time being. I promise this isn't a coincidence . He also helps discuss/bounce off ideas when decisions need to be made. So far this system has worked pretty well! One is more detailed and the other is more chin chai. I'd like to think we complement each other in this home reno journey Anyway, King's large project took place today as the aircon supplier he chose came down for installations. We opted for 1 trip only as our contractor said that 2 trips were not necessary for our set-up. We only had one request for the installation and it was that they allocated an experienced team to do it. My dad's colleagues had some poor feedback about this company's newer installation team so we were really hoping for everything to go smoothly In the morning, King sent these 2 photos which looked rather reasonable imo: The master toilet's ceiling/side had a beam which blocked the trunking from fitting nicely. Thus, it ran on the wall within the bedroom instead. Then later at night, I (while happily having dinner at my own home) received a series of photos of the completed aircon works. *Dun Dun Dunnnn* Upon viewing them, I felt my heart drop to my stomach Why is the discharge pipe running through the shower area into the drain trap? Won't we step onto it when showering??! Immediately called the husband who's on site to get the installer to rectify it. So. Much. Trunking. in our MBR Double layered trunking on a small portion along the walkway Why liddat! Was mentally prepared that the air con trunking will be unsightly but really, nothing prepares you seeing it actually happen to your own place It's been several hours since then so I've managed to calm myself down already. *breathes in and out* Still, I'm really thankful for King who co-ordinated everything for today! He was still very chill while there despite his wife being so gan chiong about the entire thing. Tomorrow our tiles will be delivered so we'll drop by in the evening again to check on our new place. Hopefully the tiles will be as we envisioned (and that the trunking will look less painfully obvious in person)! P.S. Sorry for the grainy pictures, King took them in complete darkness as the lights aren't up yet! UPDATE (JAN 2018): After living with the trunking for a year, I now find them totally acceptable. When they were first up, it looked very obvious but the painters will paint over them with the same wall colour so it blends in a lot better. We had a budget to stick to which didn't allow for box-ups, but it turned out fine in the end (:

Ooh lucky lucky you! There aren't direct pokestops at both my current place and workplace. *sad face* But who says one should be catching pokemon at work anyway? Haha My work does require me to travel down to Orchard area sometimes though, which I'm really happy about now!

Lovely place! Love how cosy it is at your balcony area with the wooden beams and fairy lights! Are your raya fairy lights powered by battery or socket? And if such, where/how do you turn it on? I'm reviewing my house's lighting plan at the moment and can't quite decide where the switch/battery docket of the lights should go for it to be practical for daily use. TIA!

Hihi your service yard is looking great and functional! You really made use of the nooks and crannies well (i.e. hanging the sponge srubs from glass panel. Wouldn't have thought of that!) Kitchen and fridge super well-organized with all the labels too! Seriously, good job. Haha. Love love having a glimpse of lived in homes as it gives a chance to openly kaypo about how others live! Also feeling envious of the piping placement you have in your SY For my place, there's 2 large pipes running horizontally on both sides of the SY so even a regular size washer can't fit in nicely. Sobs.

MINI UPDATE Firstly, thank you all so much for the help regarding aircon and hob/hood recommendations! *bows deeply* Was super touched by the detailed responses given! Finally decided on a 5-ticks Mitsubishi Starmex aircon system which will be installed later this week. The installation date was quite easy to arrange for and hopefully, so will the coordination of the installation on the actual day! King transferred the full amount to the company instead of the 50% deposit stated in the T&C and got nagged by Bin about being too trusting of others She was quite paranoid about the company running away *choy! touch wood* Ah yes, a little update here. Bin had second thoughts about the living room + bedrooms flooring chosen (and to think we were so proud of our "quick" decision made ). Thus off we went to the Hafary outlet @ Ubi this afternoon for a quick trip! An issue with the original tile picked is that the sample we brought home looked suspiciously glossy when it's supposed to be matte. And upon checking with Hafary staff, they confirmed that the effect may be different from the ones on display due to the tiles being from different batches! And the difference is quite apparent because of the light tones of the tile. Ended up picking some samples from same series but (1) woodier tone, and (2) greyish tone which didn't have this problem. At our new place, we checked on the progress of electrical works done and also spent a fair bit of time placing the tile samples in several areas of the new house to try and visualize the effect. It was a good idea to do this with all samples (i.e. tiles, laminates, etc) because the natural lighting in various areas of the house differs! Also picked up our requested laminate samples that Contractor E helped put in our new place for us to pick up! One of our choices was OOS and they replaced it with a blue coloured sample when the original option was white hahah Off topic but is anyone else an aspiring Pokemon Master?? We were walking back and forth in the new house trying to catch Pokemon. Hahaha. Here's a Pideotto we caught while moving between Pokestops. Life's fun when you're an adult and can justify spending time playing Pokemon Go as relaxation off work (and reno duties)!

Okay! Shall look forward to them Enjoy your new home in the meantime!

Ooh so are you planning on doing a seat ledge for your bathroom? Can't wait to see what it'll turn out like! Have you gotten the keys to your new place already? For the aircon we did seek advice from the supplier regarding the main differences in the two systems. They mentioned that for the higher energy savings one, the compressor will be noisier (prolly cause it's working harder ) and aircon likely not as cold. We decided to go for the 5 Ticks system so hopefully it all works out fine! Oven will rarely be used so it's there to satisfy sudden urges to bake, etc. As for hob + hood perhaps based on moderate usage. I.e. 4 times a week usage I'm guessing. Wah, I'm impressed that you've already purchased quite a bit of the home appliances already! So fast!

Yes it does help! We decided to go for the 5 ticks model in the end, considering the regular usage we'll get out of it. Your fridge is so drool worthy! We nicknamed the $4k+ model of it the "Mother of all Fridges" when doing our browsing hehe The husband is enamored by the vacuum compartment which he dreams of using to store durian inside! Pfft, men.

Hello @lalashir ! Do you mean the one with hexagon tiles like your home? We wanted to try using those tiles for only the shower feature wall but the sales staff at hafary advised against it. He said it won't look good If we had the budget to overlay the entire toilet then we would've picked that design! Seems like for aircon most of us just go for the popular brand. Strange that they'll say the 5ticks one is less cooling than the 2ticks model; it's like toilet bowls (or WCs) that have weaker flush if they have higher water conservation rating! Judging from all comments so far we will likely go for Bosch hob and maybe Fujioh hood. Noted on the shorter hob! We'll keep a look out for the different lengths. Kitchen counter space is so precious! Haha don't worry about the long post, I'm quite lorsor also! Sorry I can't reply in kind cause I'm currently out and replying from my mobile (and being a walking hazard lol). Thanks for the feedback & advice

Yay, another Starmex user! Do you recall approximately how much it cost you? Great to hear that it genuinely does help with lowering electrical consumption! Just did a quick google search on your hob model number and it looks really chio Will do more research on Bosch hobs. Hahaha the luncheon meat is a legit example as I love mine crispy too! Our parents' place is currently using the popular Bosch entry level oven but we never truly figured out how to set the timing properly. Still works fine though!