diy Top @Kew Drive

[Ks Toh 74]

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Added another plant yesterday. Went to Far East Flora @Queensway and bought a Philodendron 'Imperial Green' (Common Name: Luck Pair Plant) in a Lechuza AIO Cubico Cottage 30 (White) Pot. According to some posters there, this is one of the plants that can clean the air, to beat the haze. No idea true or not. I guess all plants can help to clean the air to a certain extent.

Will report back whether this thing works.

P.S. One year later, this plant is still growing well! And in fact, now I have figured out how to DIY this thing. See my post later here.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Ks Toh

[Ks Toh 74]

They were selling these ready planted ones for $189 each. Rather expensive. I then saw that I could buy the different items separately at a cheaper price. I bought the plant at $25. The All in One set was selling at 50%, at $79.95. Together with some Hydroton at $5.90, and some discounts, I paid only $107.76. I saved $81 through DIY.

But when I went back to my car, I found this:

So irritating. Parking at most nurseries is free within the nursery itself. But for this nursery, the car park is a URA car park. I forgot about it.

Edited May 26, 2014 by kstoh

[greglhc 30]

Can appeal the fine! if the first appeal is rejected, re-appeal

[Ks Toh 74]

Can appeal the fine! if the first appeal is rejected, re-appeal

What good excuse can I possibly give?

[greglhc 30]

What good excuse can I possibly give?

I would say

1. That you were parked for a brief period of time eg 15 minutes.

2. The reason was that you had a very sudden onset of diarrhea and needed to use the restroom urgently

3. Be apologetic

I've gotten away using that excuse before. It saved me 70 bucks. Worth a shot. Heh. If re appeal, it goes to another officer who may be more compassionate so don't give up on the first rejection. Gd luck!

Edit: if you had a kid, might be worth saying that ur kid was the one who had the diarrhea urge. Heh

Edited May 26, 2014 by greglhc

[BunBun 5]

I go and check the ORP for the Kangen water then. But it kind of works in a sense?

For eg, I'm told that the Kangen water has alot of health benefits and there are many testimonials from patients etc. Normally, I am inclined to take such spiels with a pinch of salt.

However, it kind of worked for my pet puppy who is now 7-8 months old. I adopted her when she was 2-3months old and she is a mix mongrel breed. She had distemper when she was small. At that time, my parents had 2 adult mongrel dogs and both dogs died 1-2months after catching this virus from my pet puppy. Strangely, she survived instead and after clearing distemper, she suddenly had ringworm that developed on a couple areas on her back. The ringworms were quite big and had to take her to the vet. She was given a injection for her swelling eyelids as a result of the ringworm and no medication for ringworm because the vet allowed us to try using Kangen water on her externally besides giving her drinking filtered water.

It took 1-2 days for the ringworm wounds to stop bleeding after spraying 3 times a day, then a week for the ringworm to show sign of getting smaller after daily spraying. It took a while for the fur to grow back in the affected areas after that. This is what I remember.

Another brand Kangen from mlm...

As quoted by them..

Kangen water has the highest antioxidant measured compared to any liquid on the planet. (~ 470 ORP)

Edited May 26, 2014 by BunBun

[BunBun 5]

-Deleted- double post

Edited May 26, 2014 by BunBun

[Ks Toh 74]

This is not exactly renovation material but it is related to the process of documenting your renovations.

Posting using Mobile

These days, most of us have smart phones and no longer need to bring along a camera. But after taking the pictures, some of us still transfer the pictures to our computer, and then post from the computer. Actually, it is possible to do everything from your smart phone, and this is what I sometimes do. You can even include pictures in your post.

Get an Image Hosting Account and Download their App

You need to sign up with an image hosting account. There are plenty but I am using Photobucket and Flickr. Then you need to download their apps to your mobile phone.

Someone also recommended Google+ but I could not figure out how to use it. Renotalk itself allows image hosting but the storage capacity appears to be paltry, is so difficult to use and so I just gave up.

After Taking Picture, Upload Picture to Hosting Account

You can upload the pictures using the App on your mobile. One very important tip is to be organised when you first set up your account. Do create Albums for each topic e.g. Renovations, Holidays etc. If you upload everything into one common basket, it will be difficult to locate your photos next time. Even if you upload to the wrong album, or to the root directory, you can still move the photos to the correct album.

Here, I have to say that Photobucket is much easier to use. I find Flickr a bit confusing. Photobucket behaves like a image/video hosting site. Flickr behaves like social media site.

Below you see my Albums on Photobucket followed by Flickr:

Edited May 28, 2014 by kstoh

[Ks Toh 74]

Including Pictures in your Post

To include pictures in your post, you need to invoke the command in your post. This works for Renotalk as well as many other blogs or forums.

You can get the IMG link on your Photobucket or Flickr account on your computer. On Mobile, you can get it from the Photobucket app but I cannot find it on the Flickr app. On Flickr, you can only copy the URL. Not sure if you can just add the IMG command to this URL.

The IMG link provided by Photobucket is very neat. I like it. On the other hand, Flickr adds text like "by so-and-so on Flickr" which I always delete before posting.

I would have happily gone on to use Photobucket forever but i hit a problem. Photobucket gives me 2 + 8 = 10 GB storage (not sure how I got the extra 8GB) but I am only using 0.5 GB. However, there is a monthly 10GB bandwidth limit which I hit every now and then, when too many people visit this blog. After that, I believe the Photobucket pictures will be blocked from showing on this blog.

That is the only reason why I am now using Flickr to store the newer pictures. I have no clue as to Flickr's storage and bandwidth limits, if any. Like I said, Flickr is rather confusing to me.

P.S. October 2018 - Never trust these "free" cloud storage services. They entice you to upload all your pictures for free. Then after several years when all your photos are up there, they start asking you to pay or they will delete everything. First Microsoft's OneDrive. Now Photobucket. In protest, I refuse to give in So, if you do not see any of my pictures, it means Photobucket has blocked access. Just message me to let me know. Thanks.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Ks Toh

[Ks Toh 74]

In a landed property, there are lots of things you can do. However, you also encounter many problems which you do not have to deal with in a HDB or apartment.

Currently, I have to deal with leaking roofs, inter-floor water seepage, spalling concrete and power trips.

I am documenting the repair processes for my own record as well as to assist others who may have similar problems.

Edited May 29, 2014 by kstoh

[Ks Toh 74]

Leaking Roofs

Everytime it rains, some parts of my roof in various places start leaking.

The roof on my roof terrace leaks in several places. However, all the contractors whom I have asked say it is almost impossible to repair. First, they will have to climb up the roof on the roof terrace and it is a risky job which not many workers want to do. Secondly, because it is made of hollow polycarbonate, they have to step on the roof to repair the leaks. For every hole they repair, they may create a few other holes.

Solution is to change the entire roof terrace, they all advise. But the amount they quoted was astronomical so I decided to live with the leaks in my roof terrace. I just shift the furniture (which are outdoor furniture anyway) around to avoid the leaking areas.

However, I have no choice but to repair the roof above my yard. Whenever it rains, the water comes dripping down, totally drenching my washing machine / dryer area, and the floor. Luckily, I have the Ikea stainless steel table that totally covers the machines.

[Ks Toh 74]

For the yard roof, I was quoted a substantial sum to replace the entire roof. But this time, repairs were possible as I could access the roof from my 2nd level room. So, I chose to repair rather than replace, at a substantially lower cost. The water leakage was apparently from the polycarbonate joint termination against the wall.

For the kitchen, the water was apparently coming in from some electrical wire casing on the RC ledge just outside the kitchen.

The contractor quoted the following repairs, Surface Preparation (Item 1) followed by Waterproofing Works (Item 2):

Edited May 29, 2014 by kstoh

[Ks Toh 74]

This was the Davco material I saw the contractor using:

He also helped me patch up a leak into my hall from the air con trunking area.

If you are staying in an HDB flat, you probably have no such worries. If there is any leak, you just call the HDB or Town Council. If you are staying in a private condominium, I guess you have to call the Management Corporation. But if you are staying in a landed property, you are on your own.

Edited May 29, 2014 by kstoh

[Ks Toh 74]

Inter-Floor Water Seepage

Inter-floor water seepage is a common problem, especially in older properties. The main cause is the breakdown of the water-proof membrane in the floor slab due to wear and tear over time.

In HDB properties, you report such problems to the HDB and they will point out that:

So, the general position for HDB flats is that both the upper and lower floor units share 50/50. However, I have come across cases where under a certain scheme, the sharing is as follows:

HDB 50%

Upstairs 25%

Downstairs 25%

In private condominiums, you report such problems to the Management Corporation and they should assist you to resolve the problem. The apportionment will have to depend on the facts of each case. However, the starting position under the law is that the upstairs unit is presumed liable unless he can prove otherwise:

So, generally speaking, in a private condominium, the upstairs unit will have to bear most if not all of the repair costs.

However, in a landed property, you are on your own. Upstairs and downstairs all belong to you.

[Ks Toh 74]

Unfortunately, I face such a problem. Water stains started to appear on the false ceiling of my daughter's room. I thought the water was coming from the air-con ledge but the water-proofing contractor investigated and informed me that the water seepage was from my master bedroom toilet, which was directly above her room.

When we opened up the false ceiling, the following could be seen at the ceiling:

Edited May 30, 2014 by kstoh