hawthorne

Used to do staining for a small wooden plank before. Its not difficult, but it is quite tedious. I bought those wood stains (think the carpenter uncle calls it selak or something). It is a liquid that comes in those glass bottle. bascially use a brush and "paint" the piece. Then wait for it to dry. After that, use a medium grade sand paper to said it down till smooth. Use a damp cloth and clean up the debris from sanding. Then repeat the process of painting and sanding. Slowly move from medium grade sandpaper to a fine grade sandpaper. Once u r happy with the smoothness and evenness, apply furniture polish or wax. I myself used pedge last time. can buy from major DIY shop or supermarket. Polish it till shine.

dun really understand what you mean, a photo/pic will be helpful

Water heaters draws a high power. The concept is quite straight forward, but if you DIY, u run the risk of overloading parts of your internal circuits. Its better to seek professional help, unless you know how to check for those. Replacing an old one maybe can DIY cos all the old wiring has already been laid. My storage heater is wired to a 20Amp isolator

you balcony looks very nice as it is. why do you want to cover it up? you can complete the look by adding just some additional "landscaping" like decorations, plants, water feature. I have a partial decking from chengai wood to cover my planter box. when it rains, the brown stained from the wood will kena the surrounding area. You just need to be prepared that once you cover, you may need to cover for good and cannot change your mind to remove the decking after a few years. unlesee you are prepared to re do the floor.. just my 2 cents

For sofa, I bought my 3 seater full leather from Species (Furniture Mall, beach road) after visiting various places. reason is they do customisation (length/ colour) and they are well within my budget and quite comfortable. Just went to buy an ottoman from them again. So far no complaints, quite happy with it

mine is close to 2K

Ya.. but install partially is a bit like not here not there. If really want when will cover most of the walls. that is why I decided not to do it eventually.

I engaged Inside Living for my reno as well, after a friend recommended them. They finished my unit a few months back. Highly recommended!! :good: PM me if you want to know more

bought most from IKEA during their last Kitchen sale. Think the upcoming X'mas sale also got some good bargain else from BHG and Isetan when there are sales as well.

bought a dining table + 4 chairs from them. The table that arrived got some black spots on the glass. as I'm too lazy pursue, so I just live with it. some things can be improved. e.g. the rubber stumps that came with the chair and table are worn out, and they made black marks on my floor. Have to go and buy and change myself.

chucked in a corner in a spare room. Initially wanted to buy those ironing board holders from IKEA, but too lazy..

I think its Simmons beautyrest series. cost abt 3K 2 years ago from courts.

initially want to get this as well.. but a bit too ex

The aunty who makes my curtains also makes these covers. PM me if you want her contact.

1) any recommendation on where to get aircon? we are likely to get system 3 for our house (just for the bedrooms). Y not get aircon system for your room plus living room? Cos you can get your ID to help you design the carpentry such that it hides most of those ugly big trunking. If you decide to get it later then cannot hide liao. I got mine from Twincity. They are recommended by my ID. maybe u can ask your ID. he/she may have good deals with some aircon vendors. I have 2 compressors. a system 3 for bedrooms and a high BTU system 1 for living. 2) any recommendation on where to get the bathroom accessories? thinking to get rainshower for MBR toilet. if so, is it necessary to get the storage heater kind? Got most of my from Hoe Kee. I vote for storage heater. Last time i using instant heaters, the water becomes cold after a few mins of showering. If your family members shower before you, the hot water gets used up and u need to wait for the new batch to be reheated. My current storage heater hot water can last for close to 24hrs for 3 persons to use after just switching it on for 10 mins

I'm using Simmons. bought from courts 2 yrs back. still very good. according to the salesperson, quite a number of hotels in SG uses Simmons mattress. he even have a brochure stating which hotel uses which

Both are appliances that are designed to be built into your kitchen cabinets. You need to get your carpenter to cut a hole of precise measurement to house this oven Build-in ovens are those normal ovens for baking. Build-in Microwaves are... erm. normal microwave ovens. Bascially they are what they are called, just they do not have those external nice metal casing as they are meant to be hidden. There are another type called conventional microwave. They combined the features of both a normal oven and a normal microwave. So you got a 2 in 1 device. You can also take advantage of both features together to get the 'brown' effect at microwave cooking speed

Hi, I am using the Logitech Z5500 5.1 speaker system for my sound system, spent about a little less than $600 on it. I think the sound quality is reasonable for the price. Powerful bass. A number of shops in Sim Lim Square carries this set. You can do a google search on this product and you may be surprised how popular it is used as a HTS. However, did not use the stock speaker cables. I asked the electrician 'pull' through the walls using higher quality cables instead. This is so next time I upgrade, I no not need to change the cables.

I've used vinegar as well, but my wife does not like the smell. Now is using Mr Muscle and glass cleaners

I myself got a whole bunch of friends and family members to go around and hunt for defects for me. Cos the with more eyes, it is easier to really do a thorough check, then with just u and ur spouse looking around. Mine was more mah fan as the flooring, basic carpentry, washroom has already been done up by the developer. so more things to check. one thing to consider is how fussy u want to be when looking for defects. Cos if too fussy, the developer will take a long time to rectify, in the end, you will hold up your reno and shifting plans Too chim chai, then you have to live them them... so need to compromise I remember my current hse, too the developer 2 months plus to rectify. In the end, still got some minor stuffs not rectified or not rectified to my satisfaction. In the end, I feel just let it go, with the "it will become like that sooner or later" mentality. BTW, it is recommended to rectify the defects before getting your ID in. This is to avoid complications such as pushing of blames. I personally have got the developer to rectify some last min defects after the ID has finished work without much problems. but best to avoid if u can

ya. full HD is an overkill. HD ready is good enuf if you watch free-to-air tv. Unless you subscribe to paid tv channels, there is little reason to pay the extra for features that you cannot use in the near future. A full 40 inch tv from a mainstream brand can easily hit $1500 or more. A HD ready is almost 1/2 that price. One hint is you get the salesperson to wire the TV you are interested in to an antenna and test out the quality on the free-to-air channels. Do not judge the TV just based on those Blu-ray or HD content the shop normally plays. Cos chances are, you will be watching free-to-air TV most of the time, anot not blu-ray videos.

I used to paint my room dark red on one wall and light lavender on the rest of the wall One feedback is that white patches appear on the red walls every few months. I dunno what those patches are. Just needto wipe them with a damp cloth when they appear. After a while I becomes sian of the colour liao. After that, I tried to repaint with a lighter colour. But quite difficult to cover the red wall. Applied about 2 coats of primer after that several coats of the paint before the red colour becomes completely covered. I wun recommend red in bedroom. Cos bedroom is a place to relax. opt for those in the green/blue family as they have the forest/garden feel. For other walls in the house, think you can go ahead and be bold with colours

do you intend to deploy this long term? A multimeter with a tong tester may be sufficient if u intend to measure the current drawn once in a while. PM me if u want more info on how to use it

yup. all your devices must be N enabled

ya. cos ISPs block certain ports in your internet access, causing some services to fail to work when accessed from external networks through the internet. What work within your own LAN may not work externally. U need to know the workarounds to get it working. The singtel service i was talking about is http://home.singtel.com/consumer/products/...am_overview.asp seems to be the easiest to set up.