RimBlock

Well we have good and bad news... CPF monies are in from our sale but have to wait until 27th until the second appointment. Our agent wanted to be careful to make sure all CPF moies were back and then Christmas holiday so 27th was the earliest. Adding to that, if we only get the keys on 27th then we have 3 days for reno permit application and new year, the reno can only start at the beginning of Jan and with CNY coming and workers going to their home countries, it may only give a couple of weeks for the reno works. We have asked the current owners if we can apply under their name and sign the indemnity agreement as long as work does not start until after the second appointment. We are waiting to hear back. Finance is ok at the moment. I went and saw the sinks etc at the place I was taken to by Henry but I am not convinced they are cheap. Will check out some other places this weekend. Need to speak with PUB about taking over the water and electric for the new place on the 27th. Still the clock is ticking slowly.... RB

Why not spend another $200 or so plus fitting and get it changed. No point living with it if it is causing so much hardship. I in my wisdom got a normal Baron toilet in the common toilet and as I am an English guy, though I would get a slightly bigger baron toilet for the master bathroom, you know, to fit my err slightly bigger butt. The common toilet one is great, size is fine for me, flushes one flush very good. Slightly bigger model in the master toilet needs at least two flushes, fits fine but the 'designer' toilet seats my wife likes (you know the clear ones with sea shells and the like) will not fit it so she is quite disappointed. This time we will go for a couple of standard Baron $200 toilets. Found a one piece toilet for $280 with soft close lid and seat but seat shape not matching the 'designer' seats and my youngest (almost 3) gets frustrated with the soft close and tries to push it down faster which will break it in the end . Be careful when estimating your storage water heater capacity. The sales man kept on finding it amazing that I would want over a 40 litre storage heater for two rain showers. This was until he asked if I keep the water running all the way through the shower. Yes, of course I do. It is standard in my original country. As long as people are not silly in other areas with water (washing their cars with a hosepipe etc) then it really should have very little affect. Our PUB bill shows our water usage to be on or below the average for our unit size and we have 4 people in a 3 room. Once the sales person knew how we used the shower he agreed and recommended a bigger size storage tank . People assume you use stuff the same as them until you tell them different. RB

Hi Ecokc, Thanks, I am glad it is of interest of some people otherwise it is a bit pointless me making the effort. Do you have a t-blog or pictures as I really would love to see what these very expensive renos come out like and wonder at what we could have done at a latter date maybe . Cheers RB

Henry called and we have arranged to meet tomorrow to sort out colours. We will also be hopefully meeting on Sunday to look at sinks etc. RB

A bit more on the network and NAS box I am building for all you geeks out there like me . Home Server OS: Linux (CentOS 5.5) Duties: NAS (SAMBA), DNS, DHCP, Local web server. Processor: C2D E6500 MBoard: MSI P45-C51 Mem: 2x2GB DDR2 (4GB total) HDD: Motherboard SATA - - - - 320GB (Boot) - - - - 400GB (Upload) - - - - - -1TB (Backup) - - - -Dell Perc6ir Raid controller - - - - -5.6TB (Storage array - raid5 - 5x1.5TB WD cavar green) Network: 2xIntel GT 1000/Pro NIC HDD mounting: Icydock 5 bay hotswap internal cage. Running the array in software was giving quite slow results for transfers so I am now awaiting a 2nd hand PERC6 to be delivered. Hopefully this will be the last bit of hardware I buy for it for a while. I may also add 1 more drive to the array and go raid10. A friend at work has given me a contact for getting my network switch (around S$450 + import TAX + delivery from the US). Hopefully if they can quote 550->650 then I will buy local. Shops are selling for over S$700. Ok, enough geeky stuff....... We are all very excited (the whole family). Only 2-3 weeks to go for the 2nd appointment to buy. Still need to choose white goods. We have agreed to purchase mid range (cheap but not dirt cheap) sinks / toilets etc, get the same Sims shower we already have with a larger than usual raid shower head and get basic taps. The taps I can replace at a later date. Electrical work will be a minimum with us using extension leads rather than wall sockets. We will swap to more all sockets at a later date. We also need to choose wall colours. I have no idea TBH so we need to sit down with Henry again and discuss. Oh and my wife has got over most of her morning sickness. On to the 4th month now. Looks like it will be another boy although not 100% at this point. What with my Brother-in-laws two boys so far, I think we are trying to build up our own Singapore Armed Forces Family Brigade . RB

Thanks Sally. Where abouts in Tamp are you ? You have a link to a blog or an item list on what you are having done. It is always good to compare, helps with new ideas. We are trying to keep strictly to the 37K + white goods (sinks, toilets, taps, showers) and electrical work. It will be hard to keep it below 40K. Stepping up from a 3A to a EM is very tight budget wise for us so the projector is being put on hold but the network is going ahead . I am just building the media server now and it should be powerful to take just about anything we throw at it for a few years to come. Amazon and borderlinks (Citibank) must be very happy with me at the moment but it is so much cheaper than buying local. RB

Thanks Shu. RB

A quick update, We are completing our second appointment to sell today finally. Network diagram has changed slightly (see below). My Brother-in-law also works for a cable company so I should be able to get the cables and sockets at discounted rates . After spending 3 weeks with my parents back in the UK I am finally back in the UK. I also had fun trying to fix their telephone wiring as some DIYer had made a complete mess of the wiring. Now I have a good working knowledge of telephone wiring so I may do those myself as well . New network layout. RB

First appointment to buy went fine as did the appointment with the lawyer (private bank loan so private lawyer). Second appointment to sell is two days after our return from the UK. My wife had her second scan yesterday and we have a heartbeat so things are going fine for the new one. My network plans have ..... grown . This is where we are at for the design stage. To purchase the bits I have not already got I am looking at between 1k & 1.5k. No install charges as I will be doing the work myself. Something to look forwards to on my return from the UK. Just have to try to resist the temptation to buy the switch in the UK and hide it from the wife in the luggage RB

After doing a bit more investigating I will probably run cat6 cable and terminate at cat5e sockets due to the cost difference between cat5e and cat6 at the moment. I can then change to cat6 sockets when 10Gbit network cards and switches become a more reasonable price. I am also looking at building a NAS box from an old PC rather than using my DLink 323 and then getting another couple of network cards and bonding them to give multiple Gbps output to the switch. A 16 port switch to 4 nics on the NAS and the other 12 split between the study, 3 bedrooms, living room and kitchen. I really have to get this all down on 'paper' RB

Np and thanks for the link. As for calling them up, I still find Singlish a bit of a challenge especially with no body language to help like over the phone lah . May just have to give it a go though. RB

Touch dimmer Remote control for the touch lights allowing you to set 'scenes' so it can control multiple sets of lights. Not cheap but very nice. With a bit of imagination, false wall and cash, the need for surface mount can also be removed. RB

Some more light switches I quite like. Catry ranges; Normal rocker switches and sockets Touch sensitive glass fronted light switches

Future proofing is certainly what I am doing it for. What with Cat6 certified (hence the price premium of the cable, sockets etc) currently up to 10Gbit it means I am all up and ready for the new fibre networking and the heavy bandwidth availability they will be bringing. Cat5e also depends on the quality of the cable, equipment and the installation. One point of note for installation is to try not to run the data cables with power cables..... how many people have their network cables in their power cable trunking for their sockets or lights ? I know the electrician who put in a cable for me for my last reno just put it the power trunking . I may also put a groove behind the laminate flooring skirting to run the cables there (data) rather than have more trunking on the wall. It will also make the cable runs shorter. I can do it with a router myself if needed. I already have a DLink-323 NAS (great bit of kit) so I can just share the media out and have the local media players play it. No transcoding needed on the NAS. I also have a virtulization box which I could always host freeNas/mythTV/XMBC etc on if I wanted to go that way in the future. Have had a browse through the catalogue on the site and there are some interesting bits there. Any idea of prices for the networking stuff etc. Thanks RB

Glad to be able to bring a smile . Thanks for the kind words. Much more and I may just have to tell about my trip to Prague (from the UK) with some work colleagues resulting in one guy being blind drunk about the open a hotel room door only to release he was in the wrong hotel and didn't speak Czech. Just of note, we are talking happy and respectful if a bit silly kind of drunk not noisy violent drunk And for my next story...... Beware Singtel engineers, or subcontractors at least. We signed up for MIO TV when it first came out and last year decided to get a second box so we had one for the living room and one for the master bedroom. After a short while the second box kept freezing so we called an engineer to come and have a look. The freezing only occurs on the HD channels and on some VOD programs. It seemed like a classic case of the MIO TV box failing or a bandwidth issue with the telephone line. The engineer came and checked the cables and proclaimed it was an issue with the line outside our apartment and went away, did some tweeking and then it was all better. THis lasted for around 2 months until it started up again with the hanging. We called again for another engineer and this time 3 turned up together. They tested the internal cables and proclaimed the problem was outside of our apartment. They then disappeared to check the local distribution box. An hour later they called back. Nothing wrong there either so they cannot fix it and we cannot watch the HD channels . Err, no. That's not right... 8| Today I called Singtel back again, complained again and they are going to send a Singtel (not contractor) linesman to resolve the problem. Oh and the best bit.... weekends fully booked and they only work until 6pm. Half days leave tomorrow... On a design front, We have asked to change the laminate for the master bathroom cabinet as we both feel it doesn't fit. I am considering laying my own cat6 network cabling. I have not got a quote per socket yet but can get the cable for around S$200 for 100mtrs (will do the kitchen, three upstairs bedrooms and the living room with spare I believe). The cable is belden for those who wanted to know. A double socket front is around S$25, the surface mount back is around S$3 dollars and a patch panel for around S$80. Prices come down a bit with bulk buying so I may see if any one else is interested. Cat 5e stuff is also significantly cheaper; patch panel (24port) - S$75 (5+ S$70) Cable belden (100Mtr) cat 5e - S$75 Wall socket cat5e - S$6 Sales are from a locally base international company (I used to use them in the UK) and orders are online. If people can get the stuff cheaper elsewhere for the same quality then please let me know. I very much dislike places like SimLim unless I know what I want and where to get it from. These are not bought from SimLim. If people would like to purchase some stuff with me then let me know and we can do a bulk buy and maybe get a little cheaper. I may even consider doing some network wiring for others. PM me to discuss if interested. As I am also going back to the UK I may be arranging to get some light switches, 3 pin sockets, dimmers etc in various finishes (stainless steel, mocha, white chocolate, white, gloss black, matt black, chrome and my favorite... black nickel - see below). I really love those. If anyone is interested I will see if I can get a list with pictures and some prices together of the different styles and finishes and maybe we can save together. Remember though that the box behind if it is surface mounted will still be white unless you spray paint it with car spray. If you live in a condo then you could recess in the walls so only the faceplate is seen. I will also put up my network diagram maybe tomorrow for my home plans with a central movie store (NAS) streaming to each bedroom, the living room and maybe the kitchen as well. Right, midnight has come and gone. Off to sleep RB

Personally I hate viewing the thumbnails then having to click on the image and get taken to image shack with slow loading and adverts. I therefore vote for keeping the pics here rather than just thumbnails. You may want to resize them a bit before uploading though. I use Microsoft office picture manager to do mine in batches. If you have windows 7 then you could give this a go. If you are using Windows XP then you could try the original Microsoft image resizer powertoy here. Both should let you just select your images, [right CLICK] and choose resize from the menu. You just need to choose the size you want after that. I would go for either 800x600 or 1024x768 for a reasonable amount of detail with a fairly small file size. It also means the files will be quicker to upload for you too. RB

Not sure what you are planning to do with those bedroom connections but Singtel (Starhub and M1 probably too) are offering up to 200Mbit on a single connection, up to 1Gbit for businesses. As HD t.v. (eg MIO t.v.) only needs 21MBit per channel, a single connection should be able to service a t.v. watching a HD channel in each room you are likely to watch from and internet. It seems that Singtel has decided on using coax cable for internal home routing or you can just use standard cat5e/cat6 network cables. The Singtel offering is called exstream. Give it a google for more info. The future could be looking quite interesting (video chat on the TV etc) . Looks like I need to factor in running cat6 cables in my renovation. RB

My wife is suffering from morning sickness all day at the moment. Hopefully it will get better soon as it did with our youngest. My older son now has HFM . She should still have time to recover before the UK flights at the end of the month. Just going over our budget, it seems HDB believe we need to repay a bit more CPF from the sale of our current apartment than was budgeted for. Around 20k more . As we are on a minimal reno budget, as you can imagine, the news was not welcome. Luckily we have some cash set aside and so can manage, just. On the good side, we get to borrow less from the bank as the CPF will make the 15% deposit without a cash top-up. My projector will have to wait until bonus time around March. The first appointment went great for selling. Every thing quick and smoothly. We asked the lady if she could also do our buying appointments. Although she informed us that they should not really pick which appointments to take she would check..... unfortunately she is not working that day and we cannot change the day due to very tight deadlines . Our thanks to her for trying though. We had our first appointment as the first appointment in the day on Saturday so it was peaceful and only lasted around 30 minutes. This weekend is our first appointment to buy. Hopefully it will be just as peaceful as it is also very early morning. We also need to visit the lawyers after the HDB on the same day. RB On our next episode..... How will the First appointment to buy go... Will the older son recover from HFM in time... Will Mrs Rimblock be able to pack all her holiday cloaths in just one car sized luggage bag. Tune in next time for more fun on the RimBlock Rollercoaster

We have had our first appointment to sell and now have our first appointment to buy this weekend. Second appointments will be after our return from the UK in late Nov. Keys for the new place early -> mid Dec I believe. I am sure the UK trip will make the time go fast so that is good. Oh and those kitchen tiles look interesting. Will be nice to see what they look like when completed RB

Congrats One irritating lady out (can afford a maid but cannot afford movers). One group of workers in for hacking. Win-win Getting itchy feet to get in to my new place what with you and freshpoison77 both getting your EM keys already . RB

If you want to fix the bedroom door then you need to either shorten the distance between the latch and the strike plate as the latch is only just extending in to the strike plate to hold the door closed. To fix it the correct way follow this guide. To just do a quick fix if the distance is not too great, unscrew the strike plate and draw the shape on some card. cut the shape out and put it where the strike plate was on the door frame. Put the strike plate on top of the card matching the holes. Put the screws back in. This will pack out the strike plate so the distance is not so big and the latch will fit in a little more securely. Note, to much card and you will need longer screws. If the screw holes are warn and the screws do not grip then you may need to use some 'no more nails' or other glue in the hole before putting the screws in. To help prevent banging noises on doors you can use draft excluder. Just get a small strip and cut in to one inch blocks. Put at the top and bottom of the door frame on the opposite side to the door hinges where the door connects when closed. This should limit the slamming noise of the door. Putting at the top and bottom of the door will still allow the door to flex slightly in the middle if it is a tight fit with the latch. You may need to adjust the position of the strips depending on the tightness of the door in the frame and if the door or frame is slightly warped. This can be very effective in preventing your wife, husband or kids slamming doors when they are upset . To help alleviate the issue with air pressure pushing open the toilet door you need to have somewhere for the air to escape to. One way is to take the bedroom door off and shave a gap off the bottom so it is not quite so tight filling the to floor then rehang the door. The gap should be more or less invisible but it give the air somewhere to escape to. Vents above the doors like in the old apartments also fix the issue as the air can escape. There are other ways but they are a bit more extreme. Good news is that if you are getting this then you can be fairly sure you have a good seal on your room and minimal aircon cool air is escaping when your aircon is running. Oh and we have the same issue. We just open the doors slowly and if we were not moving in a couple of months, I would probably just pack out the strike plate. RB

You have no idea . Last week was hectic and stressful to say the least. Saturday night my little one was sick every half hour from 2:30am until 8am. After the initial time, all he had was water which he just kept bringing back up. Believing it to just be some bad food we monitored throughout the night which meant we got a couple of hours sleep before deciding to get him checked out at KKH just to be on the safe side. After about 30 minutes in KKH (including him being sick in the taxi but we had plastic bags ready so no problem), he perked up. He had not yet seen the doctor. After he found the robot cars that take the big trollys around he was almost back to normal and kept on trying to get us to take him to follow them. The little trains that run on the ceiling he also likes but not quite so much. He got seen by the doctor, got some glucose drink which he had to have every 15 minutes and be monitored for an hour and then we could go home. As you can guess. The hour was spent watching the robots and even seeing them go in the lifts and go up and down floors. Son Saturday night he was sick again but not until 5am. Since then he has reverted back to his usual noisy self . My wife noticed she was bleeding on Monday morning just before going to work so we both jumped in a taxi and straight to KKH both worried for the new baby. She was admitted for 2 days. My older one was at school on Monday and the youngest was at grandmas who is only 5 minutes away from our block. I got a call at work on Monday afternoon from my brother-in-law telling me that his son (who my mother-in-law also looks after has HFM and will be staying home. Bearing in mind that we are flying to the UK in two weeks for our holiday with my family we can not risk the kids getting it. Tuesday and Wednesday I took childcare leave and looked after both the kids (the older one was sitting his PSLE exams that week). Both kids were pretty good TBH so I could also get some housework done. We collected my wife on Wednesday and she has hospitalization leave until Tuesday. Thursday I was back to work and got a call telling me that she cannot cope with the kids especially as she was not suffering pretty bad morning sickness which was lasting all day. Friday I took off again fro childcare leave and it was far more of a challenge what with my wife 'requesting' I do many things when she wanted them done and the little one playing up now mummy was home. The weekend has also been quite hard work mainly looking after the kids. Went to Bedok Res today so the kids could play football and my wife could rest. A good time was had by all. Now for the good news. We got our 3d back today. Kitchen 1 Kitchen 2 Common upstairs bathroom Master bathroom The only one we need to discuss with Henry is the Mast bathroom toilet. We are both not so sure on the teak laminate front to the cabinet under the sink. We will have to see what other options we can come up with. For the feature area in the common bathroom, the wall is made up of strips of 'stone' at different depths each about an inch high. It is like little ledges. For the feature area in the master bedroom it is like little cubes all coming out at different depths so again there is the textured effect. Our concern over keeping them clean I think will be unfounded as we can just spray them over when cleaning the bathroom. Other than a detail on the master bathroom, I think we are both pretty happy with the results. These are the only ones we will have as there is no carpentry in any of the other rooms. RB

We got one from Homefix to try and get rid of the ants. I took it home and turned it on and put it in front of the ants who then came over to take a look. For ants it seems not to work at all. I have seen very few cockroaches around recently though so maybe it is keeping them away. Hard to be sure though. RB

Hi, Would also be interested in knowing the price for a RXV667 and for a RXV767. Also, any trade in value for a RXV365 Would like to know an "all in" package price for the following; Panasonic AE4000U projector Ceiling mount bracket HDMI cable (approx 11-12 meter) 110" manual screen Either the RXV667 or the RXV767 inc any trade-in for the RXV365 (around 2 years old light use no visible marks). PM if you would prefer. Thanks. RB

Cool, if you are happy with them then why change. So the other options still there if you dislike the tiles would be to overlay tiles you like (no hacking) or to have your ID remove the cabinets and re-tile and then rehang the cabinets. It is not as easy fro the ID and contractors as smashing the kitchen apart but it can be do and should not be too difficult. Depends how much you hate the tiles and if you have a little extra budget for the ID to do this for you. RB