The Best Journey Always Leads Us Home

[january 0]

Hi Ely1...

you're really funny. You bought floor traps from eBay... but I guess why not right, esp if they look nice.

Happy Reno

[Ely1 0]

Hi Ely1...

you're really funny. You bought floor traps from eBay... but I guess why not right, esp if they look nice.

Happy Reno

LOL, why is it funny! I've bought stranger things...

All my workout gear are from eBay - you get the best prices for the really good stuff you can't find here, like Under Armour, Moving Comfort, Champion, Craft, etc. Even my ROM dress was bought online!

I know I should be hunting for furniture and all the other important stuff, but I'm so excited about my cat coming that..

Well, more pet madness from eBay:

This would look GORGEOUS on my blue cat. Bling it on!

Okay, the stuff NOT from eBay/Amazon/online:

- electricial appliances like washer, dryer, fridge, TVs, media player, blu-ray player, printer, oven, hob, hood, wine chiller, shower fixtures, heaters, vacuum cleaners, aircons

- bed & frame

- Home theatre system (though entire blu-ray collection is online)

Stuff from eBay/Amazon/online:

- All pet stuff: dog bed, cat litter box/wash stand, cat scratcher, pet igloo bed

- Kitchen faucet and 6x steel traps

- customised decals

- Art pieces

- outdoor furniture

- mirror

Stuff I need: (in order to remain focused)

- Ventilator fans

- Kitchen sinks and 1 faucet

- Bathroom hardware:- toilets, sinks, tap mixers, railings, shelving

- Living room and bedroom furniture

- All lightings

- Switches

- Curtains & rugs

- Wallpaper

- iPod dock for walk-in-wardrobe & bathroom

- Crockery & cutlery

- Coffee drip machine

- Microwave

- Water feature

- Digital lock

- Ceiling fans x2

Have decided to have two Joven heaters instead, one for each bathroom - a 50l for the master, and a 25l for the guest bathroom. Not sure if 50l is overkill or not, but the husband initially wanted the 68l! Bigger isn't always better, honey. We anticipate long bathtimes under the oversized rain shower. *grin*

[RimBlock 0]

It's simply a consignment merchant linked with Citibank, if not, use vPost, which provides the same service - giving you individual US/UK/JP addresses to make purchases online which does not normally allow international transactions/delivery. Very, very handy. You can check both of them out online - registering is free, save for Borderlinx which requires a Citibank credit card.

Hi Ely, just reading through and have not read past this part so if these points have been covered then no harm in repeating .

Borderlinx I think, does not care what card you use to buy the products but you have to charge the delivery to your citibank credit card. I mistakenly used another credit card to buy some stuff and paid for delivery via borderlinx as usual with the Citibank card and there were no issues .

As for HTS, you're best to seek the advice on the very popular 3K HTS budget thread in the Electronics directory of this forum. Got a lot of useful input from there, and went down to Aldephi to check them out for myself. Got floorstanding speakers in the end, and upgraded to a Onkyo 93 receiver due to the NTSC restrictions. I have several media players, but will use the AC Ryan as the main one, wirelessly, as a NAS that allows external HDDs. Will run a DLNA program on my laptop like Nero Media Home or TVersity to sync everything so hopefully it won't be too complicated. I want to stream music, videos seamlessly throughout, and will have dedicated iPod docks in my bathroom/walk-in-wardrobe because my singing should seriously be only be contained in the shower.

I have an AC Ryan HD Mini and am selling it as the chipset is used for decoding the video and network duties. For movies up to around 8GB in size this is not a concern but if you are ripping blurays straight to a NAS like I am then it will drop and skip frames quite badly. I am using my WD Live HD TVs (have two) and they work fine. I understand the newer AC Ryans (i.e. the mini2) use the newer realtek chipset and so this problem may not be an issue but do not have one so cannot confirm. The AC Ryan menus can be setup to look very nice though.

The other point would be that a wireless connection will be fine for DVD and HD 720p material but will probably struggle with 1080p stuff. I tried with my WD using a netgear dual band wireless dongle and dual band router and even using the 5Ghz band solely for media streaming I was still getting dropped frames.

I am ripping my BluRay movies to my NAS without conversion so they are the m2ts files coming in at 19GB->40GB (Avatar). Quicker to rip, I have a fair amount of space although running low now and it saves ripping again if a better compression format which is fully supported by media players appears.

Details of my setup inc network diagram are in my T-Blog if you want more info.

RB

[RimBlock 0]

Have decided to have two Joven heaters instead, one for each bathroom - a 50l for the master, and a 25l for the guest bathroom. Not sure if 50l is overkill or not, but the husband initially wanted the 68l! Bigger isn't always better, honey. We anticipate long bathtimes under the oversized rain shower. *grin*

Huh, a 50l and a 25l. I know your plan. He upset you too much you block the drain and door for the shower and drown him in hot water . 50l is usually recommended for a bath.

We are using the Jovan 50l for two large rain showers. Unless you are going to be spending the best part of an hour with the water running then it should be fine.

Also remember it will take longer to heat a larger amount of water. Also I find you just need to turn a little on the hot tab and full on the cold to get nice hot water rather than turning the hot full on. The hot water lasts much better that way.

RB

[EmptyDivided 0]

Huh, a 50l and a 25l. I know your plan. He upset you too much you block the drain and door for the shower and drown him in hot water . 50l is usually recommended for a bath.

We are using the Jovan 50l for two large rain showers. Unless you are going to be spending the best part of an hour with the water running then it should be fine.

Also remember it will take longer to heat a larger amount of water. Also I find you just need to turn a little on the hot tab and full on the cold to get nice hot water rather than turning the hot full on. The hot water lasts much better that way.

RB

Sometimes it is wiser to buy the bigger unit now. When you have realized the hot water is insufficient (wife shrieking and cursing), it will cost even more to replace.

50l is a safe choice.

[RimBlock 0]

Sometimes it is wiser to buy the bigger unit now. When you have realized the hot water is insufficient (wife shrieking and cursing), it will cost even more to replace.

50l is a safe choice.

Yep, it is the 50l and a 25l that seemed a bit of overkill .

RB

[Ely1 0]

Yep, it is the 50l and a 25l that seemed a bit of overkill .

RB

Especially when the 25l is reserved for the dog and cat, and the monthly new foster... To top it off, we have THREE sinks in the kitchen. Seriously. Who would be washing so much?! One in the wet kitchen, one in the dry kitchen, one linen sink.

I think excessive seems to be the prevailing constant in our home renovations.

-Ely

[Ely1 0]

I have an AC Ryan HD Mini and am selling it as the chipset is used for decoding the video and network duties. For movies up to around 8GB in size this is not a concern but if you are ripping blurays straight to a NAS like I am then it will drop and skip frames quite badly. I am using my WD Live HD TVs (have two) and they work fine. I understand the newer AC Ryans (i.e. the mini2) use the newer realtek chipset and so this problem may not be an issue but do not have one so cannot confirm. The AC Ryan menus can be setup to look very nice though.

The other point would be that a wireless connection will be fine for DVD and HD 720p material but will probably struggle with 1080p stuff. I tried with my WD using a netgear dual band wireless dongle and dual band router and even using the 5Ghz band solely for media streaming I was still getting dropped frames.

I am ripping my BluRay movies to my NAS without conversion so they are the m2ts files coming in at 19GB->40GB (Avatar). Quicker to rip, I have a fair amount of space although running low now and it saves ripping again if a better compression format which is fully supported by media players appears.

Details of my setup inc network diagram are in my T-Blog if you want more info.

RB

I'm getting the "GOOD TO HAVE" movies in m2ts format which will be stored on the NAS, wired to the receiver. Hopefully the frames won't drop that way.

-Ely

[RimBlock 0]

I'm getting the "GOOD TO HAVE" movies in m2ts format which will be stored on the NAS, wired to the receiver. Hopefully the frames won't drop that way.

-Ely

Should be fine but just take a while to copy to the 'NAS'. I had no problems with the ACR playing from an attached hard drive.

RB

[Ely1 0]

Square steel traps arrived today, so that's pretty quick. No word yet from FotoFaucet...

[May_dream1 14]

Square steel traps arrived today, so that's pretty quick. No word yet from FotoFaucet...

That's good!! I still haven't buy mine.

[Wenx 0]

Gah! Finally succumbed and bought a pet bed for the bedroom:

How precious is it?!

Wow this is nice... may i know where did you get this? is it ex?

[ne0mesis 0]

took some time to read and catch up and boy am i so enlightened and elated at the same time after reading up your tblog!

cause HTS, online shopping, art pieces are all areas that i'm looking into now for my house!

totally rewarding spending the past 1 hour reading up!

that's 3 exclamation nw, I'm really hyper. haha

but i must say, yr unit is one of its kind!

the original pics depict red bricks on the building facade and greeneries which exudes such vintage and rustic mood to it (really hope you are keeping the brick walls and not tiling over it). and boasting a staggering 1,527sqft - the balcony itself is enough to host a small gathering and the kitchen befitting to run a reality tv cooking series inside!

though i must say the agreement with your id is quite unconventional but i suppose all is good and underway. jus gotta watch out for any hidden or exploding charges to the reno cost in the end.

for landscape wise, giraffe is running a big fine zoo so that should be of good reference (last heard, she is not killing any more plants, so that's a relief).

living room tiles seems a good match to the balcony tiles and compliments the brick walls i feel.

think my wife (with all due respect, is a better color palette person than me) would comment it as more earth tone?

btw, i got the elkay equal double bowl undermount sink. if you do parties and gatherings, i feel it was not big enough as not many pots can go in at one time for a wash.

let me know if are still getting the elkay sink.. there are some donts that you should take note of.

my HTS research goes as far as to consider Onkyo which many commented is a good entry for HTS (considering my small entertainment rm, i was toying with the idea of jus a sound bar and sub only). but reading up here, guess i can take the research further and decide again. very keen on a short throw projection in the room too.

my online purchases have only so far to serve my wife's penchant for her bags and it was really awfully cheap. and it was only because of the card promo on shipping with comgateway that i decided to try online purchase. from there, i did make some cheap deals from OXO and Polder (dish drainer, but already spotted some rust).

THE PAINTINGS! am so so gonna poison my wife to get it. my house prides on grey, white and stainless steel stuff and one of the paintings can sure go on to the white wall. perfecto!

can't wait to see your unit's transformation.

trust me, am gonna be a stalker to your tblog. ha!

Edited March 16, 2011 by ne0mesis

[RimBlock 0]

Speaking of plants, that has just reminded me.

As you are over east IIRC, the gardening centre at Tanah Merah has water features / walls if you walk to the end past the soils. You may want to take a look.

Be aware though that they close around 6pm on week days.

RB

[Ely1 0]

Wow this is nice... may i know where did you get this? is it ex?

Hi Wenx,

It's 20"x20"x16" and would actually cost more should I engage Borderlinx to ship it, so went with direct shipping, bringing the cost to US$59.99 +US$70 shipping. A little expensive I'd admit, but pet beds here are all so ridiculously priced anyway and nowhere as nice. You can get it here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Petmate-Nap-Luxury-Pet...=item53e40fb432

-Ely