Memoirs Of A Princess And Her Geek

[princessandhergeek 1]

Hihi,

I am also from Daimai Grove. Welcome in..

hihi liawzen!

ooo which part of damai? did you go for the welcome party the past saturday? =D

[princessandhergeek 1]

warping only occurs for wood material like laminate.... should not happen for tiles. For tiles, it would be popping if the cement are not done properly.

They say tiles would warp if the tiles are not manufactured correctly, that means, at factory, they are not straight. So it seem like a bit of U-shaped..... and if tiler skill is not good, then the putting on cement are uneven, then you will have uneven tiles, not warp tiles. the bigger piece, the easier for it to be uneven (one side more cement, another side less cement).

checking of hollow tiles, you can buy the tool from hardware shop or use coins or for floor tiles, be like me. Wear high heels and walk around, you will hear the difference if there is hollow tiles.

checking of unevenness, then you just have to check the corners.... the 1 piece connecting to 3 other pieces are even when you feel with your hands.

ooo! thanks so much may for the advice! the heels are actually a very good suggestion - beats having to crawl around the floor and use the coins to knock on the floor.. that'd be scary.. i din noe that there is a difference between warping and uneven-ness >.< thanks for clarifyin!

the floors are up, but it is covered so i cant do much checking as well... =(

Edited July 9, 2012 by princessandhergeek

[princessandhergeek 1]

Some tips to share:

I'm obsessed with having a functional kitchen, so height of the worktop is a very important factor as well.. here are some images with tips to help you select your perfect height for a worktop! (a height that suits you the best =D)

in the end, although I'm obsessed with having a functional kitchen, I decided not to do the raised sink, lowered hob and suitable worktop as the kitchen is small and will cause the look of the whole kitchen to be realllly weird (advised by Roy, agreed by both me n my hubby) (3 heights in a small kitchen??) the ideal situation is to have my worktop at 90cm, hob at 85cm, and sink at 95cm.. but i think i'm gonna go with 90cm for everything =P (not decided yet, will think about it more)

have fun in selecting your perfect height!

=D

[princessandhergeek 1]

Other food for thought (also for kitchen)

Plan your kitchen (and decide where you want to put all your items) in advance so as to suit your need and to create a good workflow in the kitchen

The kitchen can be generally split into 5 zones (according to Blum and Hettich), and here is the breakdown:

Taken from the website of Blum:

Consumables - Food

Non-consumables - Plates, bowls, glasses, drink mixers, napkins, place mats, plastic containers and their lids, odds and ends, etc.

Cleaning - Dishwasher detergent, trash bags, scrubbers, sponges, cleaning agents, towels, trash can, recycling containers, etc.

Preparation - Spatula, electric mixer and attachments, mixing bowls, strainer, food processor and attachments, cutting boards, knives, etc.

Cooking - Baking/cooking utensils, cake decorating items, cookie sheets, cooling racks, baking dishes, baking tins, etc.

Taken from the website of Hettich:

Food Storage

Food Preparation

Pots and Pans

Cleaning Agents and Waste

China and Cutlery

Generally I think they can be 'forced' into the same category..

consumables = food storage

non-consumables = china and cutlery

cleaning = cleaning agents and waste

preparation = food preparation

cooking = pots and pans

as for me, I think it's easier to use Blum's guidelines - it's more inclusive.. although truth be told, I'm using the Hettich diagram and the above guideline of "Blum=Hettich" to help to plan my kitchen.. no hard and fast rule.. so I won't be killing myself to fit all the items perfectly =D wish me luck!

[liawzen 0]

hi sorry for the late reply, no i'm not there as was on business trip. Just back to Singapore. I am staying 613 facing the school.. Yrs also ?

hihi liawzen!

ooo which part of damai? did you go for the welcome party the past saturday? =D

[steadfast 0]

Hi!

i see that you hacked the kitchen l-shape wall and wall between the bedrooms as well? when your contractor/id submitted the permit for hacking, was there any further requirements for a PE (Professional Engineer) ?

[princessandhergeek 1]

hi sorry for the late reply, no i'm not there as was on business trip. Just back to Singapore. I am staying 613 facing the school.. Yrs also ?

oops paiseh for the late reply! first there was the error with the website (they didn't allow me to log in saying that it was a webby with malware or smthing lidat) and then my hubby n I went overseas haha.. am still overseas actually.. just came in to check if renotalk is still alive lol.. nope i'm staying at 612 =) facing the lrt hehee.. have u been staying there for a long time?

Hi!

i see that you hacked the kitchen l-shape wall and wall between the bedrooms as well? when your contractor/id submitted the permit for hacking, was there any further requirements for a PE (Professional Engineer) ?

Hi steadfast! paiseh for the late reply! as I was saying, there was the stupid error with the malware on the webby and den my hubby n i went overseas =D am still overseas so my reply will be a bit tardy >.< n yup! Roy submitted the permits - for hacking - definitely need PE endorsement - the layman explanation would be that you need someone to shoulder the blame if anything goes wrong after the hacking of the walls (touch wood).. but this is pretty standard procedure, so most contractors/ IDs can and probably will handle it properly =) we are lucky too actually, Roy just told us straight not to worry our heads about this - he took over the cement screeding (since our floor was bare) after we initiated the paperwork with HDB and the PE endorsements (we didn't do anything for this, he did everything on his own), so I can't really advise you who to look for or what to do next... but it's impt to have it! better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it... =D

cheers!

princessandhergeek on vacation

[liawzen 0]

Hi,

No, just moved in 5-6 months ago. Now still doing minor renovation.

oops paiseh for the late reply! first there was the error with the website (they didn't allow me to log in saying that it was a webby with malware or smthing lidat) and then my hubby n I went overseas haha.. am still overseas actually.. just came in to check if renotalk is still alive lol.. nope i'm staying at 612 =) facing the lrt hehee.. have u been staying there for a long time?

[riachan 0]

Hi! If you don't mind, could you share with me the contact for Roy? Thanks a lot!

[Rover 0]

How much u paid for the PE?

[princessandhergeek 1]

How much u paid for the PE?

Hi Rover, not too sure as the cost is not yet transferred to us.. but I've read that a PE endorsement would cost around SGD450? Sorry couldn't be of more help! Wonder if they will give you a cert for the PE anot.. anyone noes??

hahahaha

[princessandhergeek 1]

Hi! If you don't mind, could you share with me the contact for Roy? Thanks a lot!

Hi Ria!

PM'ed u! hope all goes well for your reno =D

[princessandhergeek 1]

Anyway, we're finally back and have rested enough! (People always say you need a holiday to recover from a holiday - can't tell you how true this is)

Excited to get started on the reno again hahaha..

while we were away on the holiday, we requested for Roy to stop work as we din want the carpentry to go up when we were not in Sg.. so only some minor touch ups were done.. plus the floor laminates went up!!

pictures to follow up soon! (courtesy of my darling geek haha)

so far we've had a discussion.. to talk about the kitchen and the living room as well as to decide on the colours.. again, images to follow soon~~

now we are still waiting for the next meetup to talk about the remaining items (still a lot to discuss~) and the process is taking a longer time as Roy is really quite busy.. plus i guess we have ourselves to blame too (cant decide on a lot of things - e.g. laminate colour and so on..) seems like the more pictures we see of houses, the more ideas we have, the worst it is.. in the end me n my hubby are like "ooh this is nice, and ooh that is nice" on almost every picture that we see.. i think i torture him too much by making him sit through all the pictures to gain inspiration lol.. sorry hubby!

so now we're waiting.. and in the meantime looking around.. as mentioned, we think everything is nice so it takes a longer time for us to come to a decisions.. and thumbs up to Roy for being patient with us (we kept changing our choice >.<)..

anyway.. now our main headache is the lighting color.. to a lot of people this is very straightforward.. choose the one you like.. but for us.. hmm.. i like warm in the whole house.. if i had my way, it'd be warm all the way.. but for practical reasons pointed out by Roy and our colleagues, we gotta have white in the kitchen n study.. but my eyes (being too sensitive) hurt in daylight, so Roy suggested a mixture of cool white and warm white in the house (with cool white being the main colour for living and kitchen).. sounds like a perfect solution? but there comes the problem.. its a personal preference.. but a) as mentioned, i prefer warm white b) i prefer the living area (and kitchen since it's half glass), to be of one colour when i turn on all the lights..

so i say this is a headache.. still trying to think of a solution.. went to do research on lights and colours of the lights.. it is suggested that warm lights be used of areas of relaxation (e.g. living area), and white lights be used for areas of work (e.g. study and kitchen) - which means - how to achieve same colour for kitchen n living??? and plus, we want to buy tracklights for the kitchen.. and the one we want to buy only comes in warm or white.. rawrr.. oh well.. this just means more brainstorming needs to be done hahahaha....

just to share some of our findings during the search for lights:

tracklights with LED: brightness depends on presence of reflector and the number of watts of LED. higher the watts, the brighter it is. However, LED tends to have a spotlight effect. how 'spotlighty' a tracklight can be depends on the degree - at 26 degree, it functions like a spotlight, whereas at 35 degrees, the light is more spread and can serve better as a room lighting.

We're going to take a risk and use a 8W 35degree tracklight (4-5 tracklights on the track) to light the whole kitchen.. hopefully it's enough.. (this kitchen has to be functional as we'll be using it fairly often o.o) any advice on what we can do/ buy?

[Rover 0]

Hi Rover, not too sure as the cost is not yet transferred to us.. but I've read that a PE endorsement would cost around SGD450? Sorry couldn't be of more help! Wonder if they will give you a cert for the PE anot.. anyone noes??

hahahaha

No prob. Will check wif Roy (gonna sign up wif him soon). Reno hope to start in end Nov.

[princessandhergeek 1]

No prob. Will check wif Roy (gonna sign up wif him soon). Reno hope to start in end Nov.

Ooo! excited for u =D did u view any units on Roy's hand? =D will u be starting a t-blog? congrats on starting ur reno soon!!

Edited September 3, 2012 by princessandhergeek