City Living

[sohck 0]

Went to SP Services on Wednesday to apply for water and electricity. The process was quite fast, about 5 minutes, but the customer service officer was quite chatty, spent at least 30 minutes chatting about our kids!

Pity those people waiting behind, but thought it is quite rude to go off when she was speaking.

[sohck 0]

Took annual leave today. Going to Toh Guan to pick my tiles later.

[Jjel123 0]

Hey Sohck,

Ur designs are very nice!

[sohck 0]

Hey Sohck,

Ur designs are very nice!

Thank you!

[Jjel123 0]

Sohck,

I heard that u r going to buy the Sharp Water Oven. Is it good? And u bought the Sharp Fridge with the cold water and Ice Crusher thingy+washing machine. Tell me if it is good.

[beany0811 1]

I have gotten quite a few hand-drawn diagrams, but not sure if I should post it here.

My ID will also be supplying some 3D diagrams (not many, maybe just two for the bedroom and console) so that we can visualize the colour combination.

hello, sohck, our pt block resale @ bishan has almost the same layout as yours. having a headache on how to do up the place, esp the long and narrow kitchen - wanna get rid of the narrow space, but limited by the beams around the house. the previous owners also hacked down the storeroom

our ID came up with a layout tt we really liked, but realised it could be flawed cos of all the beams running around the house.

could you pm me ur ID's proposed diagrams, so we could maybe have some ideas on how to work with the space in the house, esp with those beams?

thanks!

[sohck 0]

hello, sohck, our pt block resale @ bishan has almost the same layout as yours. having a headache on how to do up the place, esp the long and narrow kitchen - wanna get rid of the narrow space, but limited by the beams around the house. the previous owners also hacked down the storeroom

our ID came up with a layout tt we really liked, but realised it could be flawed cos of all the beams running around the house.

could you pm me ur ID's proposed diagrams, so we could maybe have some ideas on how to work with the space in the house, esp with those beams?

thanks!

I don't think my ID has given me a proposed floor plan, but I will just ask him if he has one. It may not help even if you have my floor plan, as it does not show the beam and pipes.

Is your floor plan the same as mine? One of the IDs brought us to a flat at Sin Ming that has exactly the same layout and orientation as ours, and it really helped us a lot. We realized that many ideas we initially had had to be given up because of the beams and columns, for example:

- location of fridge has to be changed because of the beam at the kitchen;

- book cabinet has to changed from a 2.4m to 2m because of the beam at bedroom 2;

- because of the two huge pipes in the common toilet, we have to relocate the door and change to a mini-water basin, as well as change the swing door shower screen to a sliding door one;

- abandon the idea of L-box and false ceiling because of the low ceiling;

You may need to make another trip to the house you are buying and note the height of the ceiling, location of all the beams and pipes to better plan for your reno.

[sohck 0]

Yesterday my ID went to my house and pasted the HDB Renovation Permit on the wall with masking tape.

I took the trouble to verify that they are a HDB Registered Renovation Contractor. Phew, don't want to have unnecessary trouble later on.

Supreme also came back to measure the dimension of the three rooms. He was disappointed after hearing that I am not going to lay laminate over living, dining and balcony. The price has gone up 5% because of that - I did not argue with him over the increased price as I can see that he is very sad his deal has dropped from $7000+ to $2000+.

Hacking will start this Thursday. I will find some time to drop by to snap some pictures.

[sohck 0]

Sohck,

I heard that u r going to buy the Sharp Water Oven. Is it good? And u bought the Sharp Fridge with the cold water and Ice Crusher thingy+washing machine. Tell me if it is good.

My wife and I went down to Best Denki at Great World City to snap up what we think is the last [few] units of the Sharp AX700 display set. Since last week, we have been going around Singapore looking for the Ax700, but to no avil. The unit has been replaced with the China-made (some say made in Thailand) newer model that has microwave built-in, larger capacity but requires lower watts to run.

The advantage of water ovens is that it uses overheated steam (more than 300 degrees celsius) to cook food - as a result, the cooked food has less fat and is thus healthier. We have long given up microwave oven and mainly use our grill to cook. The grill will be replaced with this water oven when we shift to our new house sometime late July / early August.

One thing to note: The Malay sales person at Best Denki Great World City was really customer-oriented. Not only she helped us with wrapping the set (since display set has no box), she took the pain to help us move the oven to the car park. Unfortunately I have forgotten to ask for her name but I must say she is one of the best sales persons I have seen in a long time.

[sohck 0]

take note of the level different between bedroom and the living ,as one is with lamination,and the other is not.

Yes, thanks for the reminder.

The gap is already existing, as the previous owner has overlay the tiles in the bedrooms with laminate and the living area is marble.

Will have to be careful going in the bedrooms and have to live with it....

[stormcontrol 0]

Yes, thanks for the reminder.

The gap is already existing, as the previous owner has overlay the tiles in the bedrooms with laminate and the living area is marble.

Will have to be careful going in the bedrooms and have to live with it....

Gap? What is the interface between the marble and the overlaid laminate flooring like? Is there a sharp drop which you could trip over or stub a toe? Cause my parent's place is exactly the same situation but we(or at least they) solved it by building something sort of like a bump (like a speed bump on the road but more angular) covered by the laminate at the interface. I don't know if that's standard lah, so share share with you just in case it's not.

[beany0811 1]

I don't think my ID has given me a proposed floor plan, but I will just ask him if he has one. It may not help even if you have my floor plan, as it does not show the beam and pipes.

Is your floor plan the same as mine? One of the IDs brought us to a flat at Sin Ming that has exactly the same layout and orientation as ours, and it really helped us a lot. We realized that many ideas we initially had had to be given up because of the beams and columns, for example:

- location of fridge has to be changed because of the beam at the kitchen;

- book cabinet has to changed from a 2.4m to 2m because of the beam at bedroom 2;

- because of the two huge pipes in the common toilet, we have to relocate the door and change to a mini-water basin, as well as change the swing door shower screen to a sliding door one;

- abandon the idea of L-box and false ceiling because of the low ceiling;

You may need to make another trip to the house you are buying and note the height of the ceiling, location of all the beams and pipes to better plan for your reno.

hi sohck, i can understand your pain on the beams. we have the same problem

our layout is 90% similar to yours. except that our's is a 5rm point block in Bishan. so our living and dining area is slightly longer than yours. the layout the designer gave us is very appealing, but the beams spoil it. so we're very upset about it.

[sohck 0]

Gap? What is the interface between the marble and the overlaid laminate flooring like? Is there a sharp drop which you could trip over or stub a toe? Cause my parent's place is exactly the same situation but we(or at least they) solved it by building something sort of like a bump (like a speed bump on the road but more angular) covered by the laminate at the interface. I don't know if that's standard lah, so share share with you just in case it's not.

Thanks stormcontrol for reminding me. The existing house owner also has something like a speed bump, that sort of make the gap more gradual.

I will call the ID tomorrow to ask him to build one that is similar.

[sohck 0]

Laminate chosen for master bedroom.

And this is how it should look with white-ish wall.

Edited June 18, 2009 by sohck

[sohck 0]

Laminate for bedrooms 2 and 3

Edited June 18, 2009 by sohck