RimBlock

Define affordable and what it means to you . There are a few in Tampines at the moment. RB

Currently doing a EM (150Sq mtrs). Basic reno so no big designer features but full toilets and kitchen reno, full house plastering, full laminate flooring on non-wet areas, full painting, glass wall to make back the study room, false ceiling to hide water storage tank probably a bit more. 38.5K Electrical arnd 2k Sanitary ware 3.2K Lights and fans 1.2k so about 44.9k + furniture (which we already have) or aircon (around 2.5k for a system 3 inverter). Cost of hob and oven not included as we are bringing from our current place as per agreement with buyer. RB

Hi, The T-Blog forum is pretty good for ideas. You can see what others have done and what works and what doesn't. I am doing a reno fairly cheaply but mainly because it is a very basic one. Have a look at my reno blog to get an idea. An easy recommendation though is that carpentry is very expensive. If you can only do what you must and buy separate wardrobes etc rather than built in. Start your own reno blog and others will pop in offering suggestions and answering questions. See if you can view the apartment again and take some pictures to start you off. Post in the EM owners thread in this forum. Where about in Tampines are you staying. I am by Century Square. I knew of two other units around my set of blocks for sale and a new one recently came on the market at the 900 series of blocks. RB

Your welcome. I am an analyst by trade so I enjoy trying to resolve issues like this . i agree that if you wish to go down any of these routes then better to have a 'round 2 reno' where some fixes and additional items can be added. We are doing this as we cannot get everything we want in to a single reno both time and budget wise. Good, I would confirm the trunking though through the apartment as the first picture I replied to looked like two sets of normal trunking stuck together. Separation in a single trunking should see you fine up to 1GBit. For greater speeds it is still advised to leave 6"->12" between power and unshielded cat6 cables. I would imagine you will not see an issue, certainly at the moment and hopefully fibre will come in before too long with the new superinternet installing fibre to the door (FTTD). Fibre is far more forgiving in the laying but very fussy in the termination . Just as an aside, I was also informed that crimping Cat6 patch cables by hand you will not meet Cat6 specs and it is much better to buy machine made cables which are usually now pretty cheap. Whilst I am going to use some of the Cat6 cable and crimp it for patch cords (have a 24 port patch panel and switch) I will buy new machine made cables when I need 10Gbit speeds. All cables and sockets will be to Cat6 spec though . Interesting to see the Citygas heater. I am used to the storage heaters (boilers) which are much bigger in the UK. The small ones here look almost like instant showers . No Citygas to us in Tampines though so cannot use . RB

Hi Schutzstaffel If you copy the "image code" line in photo bucket it will embed the pictures in the posts and not just the links. Saves people having to click on the links to see the pictures. The white and orange looks great and is pretty brave . My FiL painted his old place kitchen and living room in that colour. Was nice for a week or two then just reminded us of TNT Logistics logo (my wife works there and I used too just after uni). Luckily he painted the walls white before renting the unit. The white in your design tones down the orange beautifully though. RB

How about something like this. I am sure it is not cheap but the inlet end can be in the section away from the beam and the spray section could be attached to the beam meaning its bottom section is only a couple of cm below the beam. Another option would be to build one with a galvanized / stainless steel plate, thin pipes with holes, junction mount from the main water pipe to the seperate pipes. The separate pipes could be plastic / rubber tubing or stainless steel. Another would be to modify a thin rainshower head, remove the pipe inlet on the top (saw, dremel, pipe cutter etc), fill the hole (stainless steel patch etc), make a side inlet for the water, attach mounting brackets so it can be mounted flat under the beam with the brackets attaching to either side. How about something like this (very quick visio sketch). Really depends on how far you want to go with it and how much clearance you have under the beam. RB

So we got the electrical quote. S$1600 package price for all the sockets and trunking but use existing wires. This is fine with us as the wires are new type (red/black/green&yellow). Extras are oven connection, hood connection, lan cables etc. Probably going to come to just over 2K. There are quite a few sockets around so not so bad a price for an EM. The fan for the study room is too big. Whilst the fan will fit, the amount of air it pushes around will make and glass wall and doors vibrate. We need to arrange to change from 56" to a 36" or 42" ceiling fan. Plastering is going on well in the bedrooms and stairs. Tiles are going up in the kitchen. The Town council guy has not called back about the leaking roof and whether it was fixed. Some marks are coming on the new plaster in that bedroom but plaster still fresh and wet so Henry suggest to let dry and monitor then call town council again if it gets worse. I took the morning off as per the fathers and sons government scheme for father son time to take him to his first day at secondary school. Have a parents briefing tonight at the school so will meet with my wife for dinner in Tampines and then off to the school. I am selling my 1.5TB WD Green hard drives on VR-Zone as I will get some faster ones better suited for an array. One sold, 4 more to go . A few other bits have arrived for my NAS box. New motherboard & memory. Just awaiting the graphics card and sata controllers with cables and then it will be done. Will take more progress pics on Friday which I will take off to supervise the electrician and measuring of the kitchen cabinets. RB

Hi Mae, One concern is that the utp is usually not run next to electrical cables unless there is some shielding if you wish to meet full Cat6 spcs and get 10GBit when the hardware becomes mainstream. For 1GBit you will most likely have very little problem. Depending on who you speak to, it is usually recommended to leave between 6" and 12" between the two if not shielded. For a retro / industrial look you could run them in stainless steel pipes which would provide the shielding . Second concern is bending the cables two sharply which will change the configuration of the twisted wires in the cable. The speed is gained as the two cables of a single colour (green / green & white) are used to offset each other. One contains the data and picks up interference along the way, the other picks up just the interference. When they arrive at the network equipment, it takes the interference only signal away from the data & interference signal to hopefully get only the data. For this to work best, both of the individual cables need to very closely follow the same path. Sharp turns can upset this balance as can pulling and tying the cable too tightly. If you can see the individual cables through the outer layer then they have been pulled quit hard. The curling up inside the socket in the picture seems quite tight and if you feel down the cable I bet you can feel the lumps and bumps of the inner cables very easily. A well laid cable will have texture but not strongly defined outlines of the inner cables. There should also not be bulges on the inside of the cable where it is bent. You want smooth snaking curves, not sharp ones following the walls shape. How much difference this will all make to your signal is debatable but if you want it done right then these are some of the basic rules. I have a meeting with my electrician this Friday and I suspect he will not like me much afterwards . Hope this helps. Oh and like your electrical sockets. Think we could do with some of those . RB

Don't get me wrong, I do not intend to suggest that Mr L does not know what he is doing just that after 20 years in Corporate IT globally, I am surprised at the way the wiring has been done judging by the photo you put up . Corporate environments do not usually need full Cat6 speed for most of its wiring and the installers are usually on a tight budget and timeline. It is not unusual for the cabling to be adequate rather than good. TBH, most of the time installers will put in Cat5e and use fibre where more than 100Mbit is required. As you have mentioned, it is being done as a favour by a friend of a friend so best not to be too demanding . By the time 10Gbit becomes mainstream we will all probably be moving to fibre in the home anyway . Shame, guess there is no possibility of moving the shower area . We also love our rain showers so 'feel your pain' at having to give them up. RB

Do you by any chance have a link to the two section ems shielded trunking you are using as that will also make my life so much easier rather than having to run 6->12" away from power cables if not using screened cat6 cables ?. If you are getting professional cat6 certification then that should be great. Would be very interested to see the certification report if you would be kind enough to post it up when you get it. Not starting my lan cable laying for a couple of weeks. Hardest part will be to get the installers to use the bigger trunking to eliminate any sharp bends or micro kinks. Reno is coming along well. Shame about the rain shower, can they not pipe up the main wall, across to the beam, up the beam and mount the shower head close to where the spalling concrete is marked in the diagram ?. As CoffeeMan suggested, use a water pump for extra pressure if needed but be aware they can be noisy. We are unsure of the water pressure in our unit especially as we are top floor and the water comes in to the apartment a floor below (EM). We may also need to put a pump in . RB

Oh dear... quite a bit has happened and didn't realise how quick. We have bought the toilet sanitary wares. 3.3k..... and only mainly cheap stuff. No super expensive taps or sinks. And that was after 10% discount. Buying for 3 toilets is really expensive. We also bought a Jovan 50ltr water heater as out 30ltr one runs low on hot water with two rain showers going. The 50ltr one was only S$310. We have also bought our lights and ceiling fans. 1.3k.... 3 Fans and 6 or so other lights. Again, nothing very expensive but will take pics when they arrive on 13th/14th. I will be taking Friday off (8th Jan) for the electrical work site planning as I have specific requirements for the network wiring. My network stuff has arrived. 2*300Mtrs of cat6 cable (from 3m). Wall boxes, keystone connectors, patch panel (24 socket). I have also agreed to buy a full sized 42U server cabinet . It will go in the study room where all the lan cables will terminate and I can use it to store my tools and computer spares as well to keep them out of the store room. I will also be using cat6 cable for my HDMI cable run between my amp and projector by means of a pair of HDMI -> cat6 converters. These allow short HDMI cables and long Cat6 cable runs to cover long distances as HDMI has a limit of 15mtrs and I am estimating needing between 12 and 13mtrs. Doing this way is also cheaper than a high spec (QED) 15mtr HDMI cable. I will probably have some cat6 cable left over (100->200mtrs) if someone wants to PM me and we can arrange a reasonable price but it will only be available around the end of Jan after I have finished all the patching and cable runs. This week is mainly for the tiling and plastering. Friday has lots of other things happening. I will try to remember to scan the schedule as I keep forgetting . Oh, we are sticking with the current stairs as we have a few other things we need to add on for; Hack the double laid tiles in front of the main door and rebuild concrete step. (S$300) Purchase and install new main gate. (S$500) Change bedroom doors ($200+ each) Put water heater tank above false ceiling in corridor area in front of upstairs master toilet. (S$300) RB

Love the MBR toilet. Not so easy to maintain and the light may have moisture issues as previously noted by others but it look fantastic. Think you really got your hotel look there. Better not show my wife . Projectors are a great way to transfer pictures to big wall drawings, another is to split the picture in to squares then draw the same squares but bigger on to some card and copy one square at a time. Once down you can cur out the card to make a template and then fix to the wall to colour. Remove and it should be pretty good. Simple tutorial here. I used to do this to make posters of comic heros when a teenager. OHP's were only common in schools that far back in history . RB

Sorry, came in to this a bit late. The cable looks fairly good quality for UTP cable (http://awapps.commscope.com/catalog/systimax/product_details.aspx?id=18204) although the cheaper of the range they do at this level. As you say, better than what you are likely to get in Sim Lim. Two concerns though are; Taken from www.cat6.com Whilst you should be ok for up to 1Gbps, going to 10Gbps you are likely to suffer interference. This is one of the biggest problems with getting non networking specialists running network cables. Cat6 is not just about the cable but also about the laying of the cable and termination of the plugs and sockets. Using FTP or STP will help with interference but both are a lot more expensive and need the correct faceplates / plugs for termination. Have you terminated the cables yet and if so have you asked for a cat6 certification report. Proper cat6 testers will be able to certify the cable runs and termination meets cat6 standards. If you are making the effort to get the better cable to ensure quality then should really go all the way and get it certified. I need to be there for my electricians to make sure they do not run my lan cables in the electrical trunking for this very reason. RB

I have just got two rolls for 3M Cat6 UTP for around S$130 each (FTP was over S$400 for 500Mtrs). My BiL works for a cable company and so used their contacts to source for me. Due to the lack of reasonably prices 10Gbit equipment (NIC / switches / routers) it will run at cat5 for quite a time before the equipment becomes mainstream for cat6. I do agree with Mae29 that good quality cable is important but would not pay for top tier STP cat6 cable or even FTP for a home environment. RB

The tiles have arrived We have also decided to change the sinks to something a bit more different. Common bathroom Master bedroom bathroom RB

Common toilet Ugly stairs still ugly from the top looking down So just about all the hacking was done in one day. It was a little easier as the old laminated floor would have been quite quick to remove. Taps have been saved so we can take a look and see if we wish to reuse any for now and replace later. RB

Downstairs toilet (notice the P trap for the toilet.) Master bedroom with wardrobes all gone (notice mould on aircon trunking from condensation). MBR again MBR toilet

...and let there be renovation....... Study room area just inside the door Our ugly stairs protected Living room Kitchen

Can change to what extent ? Can change to ladder, spiral etc (changing the whole shape and structure) or can change handrails and material of the steps. I am also interested as we hate the stairs we currently have RB

Then I would suggest build in stuff before change stairs else cannot get wood to build in stuff up stairs . Suspect cannot be done but would look great if it could. Maybe a curving staircase would also look nice but suspect HDB see the stairs as structural so no touchy touchy. I like the floating stairs which are just attached to the wall with no underneath support. Oh and spiral stairs also loose storage area under standard EM stairs. RB

Spiral staircase looks nice and saves space but how to get your bed and mattress upstairs . Got keys. Reno started today. RB

Only things I would mention in difference is that bedroom walldrobe built in is expensive. We bought a nice waldrobe for 1.2K and can reposition should we wish to and take it with us if we move in future. Can change the doors if we want a change. We are hacking the current laminate flooring but putting down new midrange (Malaysian) laminate rather than tiles. This will be cheaper than if laying tiles. On the other hand, our place is 150sq mtr so bigger I would imagine. Difference in price should not be so much. I was quoted by another company that 40K only do kitchen and toilets and nothing else possible. Have a chat with home success and Henry. Their number is on the website. I have mentioned to Henry he may get a call. Obviously no obligation to call him though . Just met him and passed on the second cheque (40% on start of works). I will post up the time-line if I get a chance to scan it tonight. Henry it still working on the 2K stairs challange . We also need to get all the sanitry ware and network stuff this weekend. Gonna be busy. RB

Hi May_Dream Our reno quote is currently 37K for the basics (complete new toilets x 3, kitchen, remove an lay new laminate flooring and complete replaster, painting). Glass wall and doors to partition off the utility room (wall hacked by previous owner). Little light wall hacking. Not included are sanitary ware (currently up to 2K not including showers), electrical (est around 1.5-2K as we are just re-trunking the existing wires and laying some network cables), no work to the stairs although we are investigating the options, no freebees like bamboo pole holder for the kitchen ceiling or toilet accessories (not a big deal as they are usually not so good quality free). Due to the company we booked under and the time of year we were able to go GST free so that saved a chunk of cash. Would estimate around 40-42K all in. So far we are also very happy with our ID who will not promise what he cannot deliver, will point out issues with our ideas but will also try to find work arounds. His latest task given last night..... on a 2K budget, suggestions on how to change / improve the stairs handrails (my wife hates them). To replace to our spec will be 4K+. We have been quoted 2-3K outside and Henry is happy to have the outside contractors come in and do it but cautions on safety requirements. We will have a couple of people come round to give quotes and go from there. RB

I suspect it is being driven by my MIL. MIL and wife Took my youngest to the temple to see medium at temple in Bedok when he was very young and restless. Was told mischievous ghost wants to play and not let him sleep so well. Gave charm but not work. Fed him Gripe water for wind and baby rice to help him feel full and he settled down in no time. Of course, everyone is entitled to believe in anything they want as long as it doesn't adversely affect those around them. Maybe we were just lucky the medium was wrong (or the ghost got bored). RB

The fun of a cross cultural marriage........ My wife has said she needs to pray and make offerings for the gods before we can enter the new apartment. This has to be done before 4pm or the wrong 'type' of gods may get the offerings. We only get the keys after 4:30pm so cannot go to our new place until tomorrow. Been waiting so long and now have to wait even longer.... . Oh well. On the good side, Mr Koh from the Town council will be visiting tomorrow to look at the ceiling water damage. Hopefully they can fix the leak and any reno we do will not be troubled by a leaking roof. RB