A Meeting Of East And West In Tampines.

[RimBlock 0]

Hi RimBlock, can I check with you on the brand of your laminate floor used, they are beautiful. Thanks

Thanks Kobelala,

We used Supreme (mid level Malaysian material). The reason for this was that the material is sourced locally and so has better tolerances for the humid environment in Singapore.

We have a couple of dents in the flooring, one where I dropped a tool and another from an unknown source. Rather than cut out the section and replace, the people were able to fill the small dent and I now cannot see it without getting on my hands and knees. The other one still needs to be sorted out. My wife is a little concerned as it is not as tough as tiles but being used to carpet and wooden floors where I come from I find it a lot more appealing. It is also a lot softer for two kids bouncing around all over the place and a new one due in a couple of months now.

We chose Raffles Oak for downstairs and Bali Chengal for upstairs. Both are under the 'Executive' selection on the Supreme website here.

Our quote was 5.8k for up and down stairs overlaid over the existing tiles (est 430 sqft). The original laminate cost about 1k to have removed.

It does require a bit of different care so dusting using a cloth flat bottomed mop or very light mopping with a damp not wet mop and then drying with a cloth. If you are not careful, excess liquid on the laminate may penetrate the joints and cause the floor to bow along the long edges giving the wave type effect we saw when we bought the place from the previous owner. We suspect their maid mopped the floor as you would a tile floor. We use a duster like this and a mop like this. Both were bought from NTUC and made by 3m IIRC.

Cheers

RB

[mae29 2]

It does require a bit of different care so dusting using a cloth flat bottomed mop or very light mopping with a damp not wet mop and then drying with a cloth. If you are not careful, excess liquid on the laminate may penetrate the joints and cause the floor to bow along the long edges giving the wave type effect we saw when we bought the place from the previous owner. We suspect their maid mopped the floor as you would a tile floor.

I was also considering laminate flooring but gave up the thought when I saw my neighbour's laminate flooring having the problem as you described here. Their laminate floor was barely 6 months and already 'warped' and bow along the long edges. Then, at the door entrance, when it rains, the water seeps through and making the area worse. Now, they placed a piece of towel at the door gap, but I dont think this will help.

The next reason I consider is the windows - worried if my children will close the windows immediately when it rains.

Nevertheless, it is beautiful to have laminate flooring with proper care.

[mae29 2]

My older son has the chance to go to New Zealand with the school for an 8 day exchange program. We would then host a kid from New Zealand in October. Great chance for him but another 1.8k out of the account.

RB

Bro, RB

It is money worth spending!

[RimBlock 0]

I was also considering laminate flooring but gave up the thought when I saw my neighbour's laminate flooring having the problem as you described here. Their laminate floor was barely 6 months and already 'warped' and bow along the long edges. Then, at the door entrance, when it rains, the water seeps through and making the area worse. Now, they placed a piece of towel at the door gap, but I dont think this will help.

The next reason I consider is the windows - worried if my children will close the windows immediately when it rains.

Nevertheless, it is beautiful to have laminate flooring with proper care.

We suspect the previous owner also had the lower 'budget' model of flooring which just makes things worse. You can get waterproof laminate flooring and I installed this type with my father in the kitchen of the place I had in the UK. Never an issue with it. Laminate flooring is pretty big in the UK where people cannot just sand the floor boards down for natural exposed boards. The shops like Homefix here sell the packages and materials so you can install yourself. Not so surprising when d.i.y. is a national past time for a lot of people there. Not so expensive but can be a big job. There were 4 people doing our EM and they too 2 days working late in to the night (without my knowledge until the owner down stairs complained to me personally). It is one way to meet the neighbours I guess but we now chit chat in the lift and his daughter happens to be in my sons class . The main UK d.i.y. store link here. Take a look around, might be interesting for ideas or products not available in Singapore.

We also have concerns about the window being left open but more with us being out or overnight and it rains. As long as the water is not left to stand so it soaks in then it will be fine. It will not absorb like paper but more like wood so just need to put a floor cloth over any wet patches within a few mins or so and it will generally be fine. Again it also depends on the quality.

RB

[RimBlock 0]

Bro, RB

It is money worth spending!

Sure although I believe he is a bit young to understand the opportunity.

It also does not help that they have just done the Boys Brigade annual donations, we have the little one due in a couple of months with delivery expenses there and not we have just heard that the Boys Brigade camp this year will be in Taiwan.....

It is going to be hard to get back on our feet for a few months with all these costs going out.

Life of a parent is measured in part by the sacrifice for their children.

RB

[mae29 2]

It is going to be hard to get back on our feet for a few months with all these costs going out.

Bro,

You can get back on your feet for a few months, but for me it may take a few years!

Life of a parent is measured in part by the sacrifice for their children.

My exact sentiment.....I gave up the whole lot just for the sake of my 3 darlings!

[RimBlock 0]

Bro,

You can get back on your feet for a few months, but for me it may take a few years!

Yep we did that for the last 3 years with our old place and vowed not to take any loans for this one. Of course my wife does not include credit cards as loans .

RB

[Kobelala 8]

We have a couple of dents in the flooring, one where I dropped a tool and another from an unknown source. Rather than cut out the section and replace, the people were able to fill the small dent and I now cannot see it without getting on my hands and knees. The other one still needs to be sorted out. My wife is a little concerned as it is not as tough as tiles but being used to carpet and wooden floors where I come from I find it a lot more appealing. It is also a lot softer for two kids bouncing around all over the place and a new one due in a couple of months now.

We chose Raffles Oak for downstairs and Bali Chengal for upstairs. Both are under the 'Executive' selection on the Supreme website here.

Our quote was 5.8k for up and down stairs overlaid over the existing tiles (est 430 sqft). The original laminate cost about 1k to have removed.

It does require a bit of different care so dusting using a cloth flat bottomed mop or very light mopping with a damp not wet mop and then drying with a cloth. If you are not careful, excess liquid on the laminate may penetrate the joints and cause the floor to bow along the long edges giving the wave type effect we saw when we bought the place from the previous owner. We suspect their maid mopped the floor as you would a tile floor. We use a duster like this and a mop like this. Both were bought from NTUC and made by 3m IIRC.

Thanks alot for the advice and info RimBlock , they are all very helpful to me.

[mae29 2]

Yep we did that for the last 3 years with our old place and vowed not to take any loans for this one. Of course my wife does not include credit cards as loans .

RB

I am also fortunate that I do not need to take renovation loan for my $100K spent on reno + furnishing + purchases.

But need to replenish the saving$ vault which is

Edited April 6, 2011 by mae29

[RimBlock 0]

Well a little update and some more fun over the weekend.

The good......

My ID popped round (finally) and we got the network cables run through the lightbox on the stairs. I can now finish the networking upstairs but have a fair amount of trunking to do.

I managed to take my sons large 'office' desk down stairs on my own and re-arrange the study area so it is a lot nicer now. It is also easier to wire in the remaining network cables to the patch panel.

We have agreed to our ID hanging the mirrors in the upstairs bathrooms however he wants on the agreement that they will be guaranteed not to develop marks for 1 year. If marks develop then they will be replaced FOC. TBH we have been in the place for 2 months and still no bathroom mirrors upstairs.

Now for the soap opera part.......

Our lovely youngest son decided to press in the locking button on the master bedroom door knob before closing the door to keep the aircon cold in. This would not be so much of a problem if he had not thrown the door keys under the bedroom bed a few days before. For our sins we had been lazy and not crawled under the bed to retrieve them. Of course he did this around 11pm Friday night. Now to be fair, we were not there so it is possible he did not lock the door but the lock was faulty as when we tried some keys it would not open even though the set under the bed we fished out opened another rooms door.

Now I was not too worried as after he had locked out old places storeroom (where the key box was stored with all the keys) and we had to call a locksmith I had done some reading and learnt of a small hole in the neck of the handle which when depressed will release the lock. This turned out not to be the case. Whilst there was a hole, you had to turn the handle in order to see the part that may unlock the door. Of course you cannot turn the handle outside as the door is locked. The door frame in these old places are metal so pulling off the door jam was not going to happen. I had limited ability with tools as well due to the time. I cannot go drilling at midnight. So I did the only thing left to me (apart from calling a locksmith and paying large amounts at 11pm), I put a screwdriver behind the rose (the bit that is flatish and touched the door around the neck of the handle) and levered it loose so I could see behind it. After poking around with the insides of the door lock and getting nowhere (my father on the phone who used to be a locksmith), I locked a mole wrench around the neck of the door handle and literally pulled the handle off including the whole cylinder where the key goes in. A little bit of poking and the door unlocked. Now we just need a new door lock for that door but as everything is already setup, I will be able to fit it myself. The door is not damaged so that is good. The keys to all doors are now stored out of little hands range in the kitchen which does not have a lockable door .

It may not surprise some if I said this was not the first time I had to rip a door lock apart to get in to a room I am sure....

Around 1.5 years ago my youngest locked himself in my MiLs bedroom and I got a call from my wife who was there saying they couldn't get the door open. I packed some tools and rushed over. Again, I levered off the rose to allow me access to the insides of the lock and was able to click the lock open. My son, only 1 1/2 at the time was in the meantime howling for mummy as he didn't understand how to open the door. When we got in we found out he had been so upset he had been sick.

So, a year and a half later, he is now 3 and still up to his old tricks but now he makes sure he is not locked inside.... at least he has learnt .

Oh for anyone who has not seen the HiFi thread, I am selling my DVDs to raise some cash and make way for some new movies in the book shelves.

155 movies on original DVD (region 3-Singapore, region 2 - UK or one or two region 1 - US). S$5 each. Six boxsets (Lost, Supernatural, Heros, Ghost in the machine, Band of Brothers) which I am open to offers on. Pm or post interest here for a copy of the list. I will also be putting them out on vr-zone etc.

RB

Edited April 15, 2011 by RimBlock

[RimBlock 0]

Doh, forgot there is a garage sale forum here.

DVD sales put up there. Thread here.

We should have the plasterers back tomorrow to patch some missed spots and a little bit of bubbling plaster.

Our ID is also pushing for the mirrors to finally be put in tomorrow as well.

Then it is all on me doing the network cable trunking upstairs before the painters come in and after cleaning again, check around then done.

Oh the mirrors will be most welcome, or not considering what I look like first thing in the morning .

RB

[potatoes 0]

I like the deign of your gate and staircase light box. Is it wrought iron? Which vendor did you use and how much is the cost? Thanks.

Right, some more pics. Excuse the mess, unpacking with a couple of screaming kids running around and pulling toys out of everywhere.

The new front gate and door.

<img src="http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/RimBlock/Renotalk/Reno%20Progress/30-jan-2011/IMG_7077.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

View in to the living room.

<img src="http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/RimBlock/Renotalk/Reno%20Progress/30-jan-2011/IMG_7075.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Lightbox on the stairs (blue lights below).

<img src="http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/RimBlock/Renotalk/Reno%20Progress/30-jan-2011/IMG_7079.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Closer view of the lightbox.

<img src="http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/RimBlock/Renotalk/Reno%20Progress/30-jan-2011/IMG_7078.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

[potatoes 0]

Hi RB, I am going to be a new EM owner and my 1st appt with Hdb in in abt 2 weeks time. I hope to get some advice from u about renovation. I quite like your the renovation u have done recently. I will try to read the things u have written here though it's quite a bit. Thx

[RimBlock 0]

Hi RB, I am going to be a new EM owner and my 1st appt with Hdb in in abt 2 weeks time. I hope to get some advice from u about renovation. I quite like your the renovation u have done recently. I will try to read the things u have written here though it's quite a bit. Thx

Yes I can be a bit of a story teller

I have another one about cosmic balance I will put here in a minute but first on to your questions.

Thanks, the renovation is fairly basic but has been on a fairly tight budget which by all accounts is pretty cheap for a EM. Most significant is the lack of carpentry anywhere apart from the bathrooms and kitchen.

For the main gate and doors, my wife found a local company who were quite a bit cheaper than out ID quote. The doors are ok but not top quality. They are solid doors though and not hollow molded doors. I will see if she remembers who did them and let you know.

The light box for the stairs was taken from someone else TBH. It looked pretty good so we did the same. Cost around S$400 + lights. Although we like it, it still needs finishing along the top and bottom edges with some sort of finishing strip. I feel a wooden bead would look great but would be expensive. I may ask again for a quote.

Take a browse through the thread, coffee in a flask may help , and let me know if there are any things I can help with.

We just got the mirrors in today for the bathrooms so I will probably take another pic of them again.

RB

[RimBlock 0]

And so cosmic Kama strikes again.

As some of you may be aware, there is now a Sound and Vision forum which was kindly created after I requested it to try and split some questions out of a single thread dedicated to HiFi / Home Cinema.

Whilst I am not in anyway an audiophile, I do appreciate decent quality music and home theater. As you have seen, I have upgraded and bought a projector, my single best purchase since buying a computer, and am loving it. Since selling my old surround sound system and amplifier I found myself missing my subwoofer and as money is tight decided to sell my photographic equipment.

As people who have been following this thread from the beginning may remember, I used to love doing portrait photography for a hobby in the UK but since marring my wife, have found myself not really using the equipment to a point where it just felt like a waste. I therefore decided to put it up for sale and utilize the proceeds in making the home theater a bit better. A new subwoofer, a new center speaker and maybe a new power amp for the front speakers to improve the music ability.

Well after looking at EBay (UK as there was nothing really to compare on Singapore EBay) I got a rough price and put an avert in a Singapore photo website. Within 5 minutes of posting the kit was reserved for sale at the asking price for inspection and collection that night.

I was shocked, had 7 more sms/calls and began to think I had put it all up too cheap.

I finally got home, sorted everything out, got a message they were on there way when karma struck. Power cut in the apartment. Power circuits tripped outside the flat. I turned them on and bang, loud noise and burning smell from the power extension my main home computer is plugged in to. I unplugged the extension lead and tried again with no problems. Plugged the lead in again and sparks between the socket and plug and bang, no power again.

After a bit of frantic sorting, I narrowed it down to the main computer plug. I swapped leads and the power stayed on when I plugged it in ut the computer would not start. Turns out the PSU for the computer had blown.

The gentlemen came and after inspection bought the camera and equipment which gave me a nice little sum for my proposed upgrades.

After a dig around on Xtememplace, I found a center speaker. Top of the range Wharfedale speaker but the previous revision. Asking 1k, managed to get it for S$850. It is beautifully built but really pretty big.

I also went to KEC in the Adelphi and listened to some subwoofers around the 1.2k-1.3k budget. I have written up a report in the Sound and vision forum here.

So now I have a subwoofer and a new center speaker. I sold my old center speaker to another member here who was interested and so am now just looking for the power amp within budget. The ones I like are very popular and another forum member is probably / already has bought the one on sale second hand. A new one imported from the US (they do not sell via shops, internet sales only) is just over 1.1K (three channel) or 1.4K (5 channel). Both more or less on the border of the remaining cash. Gotta think about this. ALso there is a nifty device called an Antimode which will sample the sound characteristics of your room for bass and adjust the signal going to you subwoofer in order to tailor it for your room. By all accounts, the results are pretty good. A couple are available on Xtrememplace for S$400 but on contacting the distributor in Singapore, they are only S$480 new. I may get one of these but that would put the power amps out of the picture.

Choices, choices.

To be honest the home cinema is great. The music side now feels a bit lacking but is still fairly good. A power amp may correct this and improve the home cinema a bit more but there is a chance that changing the main front speakers is really the only way forward and if I did that, I would likely need to spend more than the remaining money to improve.

Photos hopefully tomorrow as I will have the flat to myself for completing the network cable trunking.

RB