Hacking Out A Home-Shaped Hole @ Cassia

[Dwinsplace 48]

Hey El Loco,

Yeah I will be getting my ID to run the wiring to the rear speakers for me. That's the only thing that needs to be installed really. The rest is just connecting wires to the AVR and then turning on.

Some audio shops will offer to install for you for about $100. But since i'm happy to connect the wires myself, and I have an ID to run the wires to the back, I thought it wasn't worth it.

I assume you mean buy more speakers for the Sonos? The whole idea of it is wireless music so yes you can pipe in music to your toilet or any other room really as long as you have a power point there for the speaker. I haven't tested it in an actual house so i don't know if it works well in areas of your house where the wifi signal is weak. Hope it helps a little!

[Dwinsplace 48]

Oh note to fellow bloggers!

There is the BIG FURNITURE FAIR going on at the expo from now till the 27 April (sunday). I know a lot of guys are into HERF and I just spoke to them at their showroom. They told me that they will be having a sale for the duration of the fair. Normal price of HERF: $7:50 psf. Sale price: $6:50 psf! Best part, you only give $500 deposit to lock in the price and you can tell them later whether you want it only for one room or for the whole house. And you can select the colour later too.

I'm DAAAAAMN tempted to lock myself in also but I'm not even sure if I'm gng to use HERF or just tile/ cement screed the whole way! ARGH! Thankfully i've already ruled out laminates cos i don't like to hollow noise and plasticy feel. From what I felt of HERF at the showrooms, it really is very nice. Warm. Less plastic like and the texture on the planks actually match the printed wood grain textures. Unlike some laminates I saw where the indents for grain where anyhow one and didn't coincide with the printed pattern at all!

Also, I went to a number of furniture shops along Upper paya lebar today and a few of them are having sales now too! Grafunkt, OM, Lifestorey, Marquis. All have. But all were pretty expensive to begin with except maybe OM. I might go back there for a sofa... $1500 for a big L shaped sofa seems reasonable. Sadly I LOOOVE the grafunkt designs but the price tags. I've never had numbers hurt me so badly....

I've already had at least 1 meeting with all the IDs I had initially shortlisted. So far every one of them have some shortcoming and I'm waitin for the 2nd (or in some cases 3rd) meeting to see if the shortcomings can be overcome. Sigh. Wondering if I should go and meet more IDs. I mean, this is my dream... so I should find one that makes me go "YES!" right? As compared to just "...can lah". Hmmm....

[Puggy 13]

Here's a very brief review of the more notable speakers that I auditioned.

1. Sonos Soundbar.

Great for tech geeks that love the wireless aspect of it. Clean and minimalist and if you pair it up with a wireless bridge, you can a large number of speakers to it. Place 2 at the back for effects. Place 1 in the kitchen for music as you cook. Place 2 in the study for when you read. Each speaker would need its own power point for power but everything can be remotely controlled by your IPad/ smart phone thats connected to your home network. You can group the speakers together and SIMULTANEOUSLY play up to 12 different tracks on 12 different groups of speakers. So you could have a movie going in the hall, and music in the study all at the same time. Pretty cool eh? Only down side? I think it sounds like crap for a 4K system. (includes soundbar, wireless bridge and 2 satellite speakers)

sonos

2. Bowers & Wilkins 685:

After the Sonos, this sounded like a dream! They played Adele's Someone like you and I could hear the warm tremble in her voice. The placement of all the instruments around her voice. It was thick without being muddy. Immersing you in the song. Even when I airplayed my downloaded music from my phone, the bass from the dance tracks were carried off well without a need for a woofer. And when I played jazz, the speakers excelled! Beautiful sound for a understandably high price of 4K for a 5.1 system. Sadly, just looks like... well... speakers. Nothing visually interesting.

3. Cabasse IO2

These are french made and I only found them cos I googled "interesting audio speakers" and I have never heard of them before. Obviously what drew me was the looks. On that wooden stand it looks almost like a sculpture. So beautiful! So i went to listen to them in Adelphi and they couldn't do a full 5.1 set up but I heard it as a 2.1. The sound was terrible also. Clarity and all that was fine. A bit thin compared to the B&Ws but what I couldnt stand the most was the very very small sweet spot. What that means is that there is ONE position at which this will sound good. Move to get a glass of water, or simply move to the next seat, and you will hear one speaker or the another cut off. Or you will only hear the woofer. Or you won't hear the woofer at all. I suspect that the concentric design of the speakers resulted in a very specific line of sound and therefore also very specific areas where the sound from both speakers cancel each other out. Needless to say, it was a no go.

4. Anthony Gallo satellite speakers

I only heard about this from one of the shops in Adelphi. They had bought a second hand high end Reference AV set for half the price and asked me if I was interested. The set was originally worth about 8K, looked to be in decent condition and so I was quite keen! Unfortunately when they were connecting the speakers I noticed that they had some issues with one of the jacks. They said it was fine but second hand electronics without warranty and dodgy connections started to sound a lot less appealing. Besides, the front and side speakers were far too large for my house. Can you imagine 3 of these framing your tv set??

reference AV

Thankfully though, it led me to research Anthony gallo's other products and they have this super sweet satellite range. The size of a grapefruit and perfectly spherical. Beautifully cast in stainless steel (or black/white) and just beautiful. Of course, after the cabasse I was a bit scared of concentric designs so i went to their singapore store and had a listen, and its good!! No problems when I moved all over the room. Could hear dialogue and effects with a deep rumbly bass. The music isn't as mellow and the B&Ws but I've learnt that for small speakers, these were pretty damned good. It also helped that I could get the entire set for about $500 less than its competitors if I ordered online. So thats what I got! ... that and a speaker sized hole in my wallet. haha.

Gallo micro

Hi Dwinsplace,

Do you mind sharing how much the speakers you bought cost?

[Troublemaker 31]

Well.. the selection of IDs can depend on a few factors: your budget, the ID's experience etc.

Do read through a few tblogs if you are shortlisting the few "common" IDs and contractors to see if you feel safe leaving your house in their care!

[Dwinsplace 48]

Hi Dwinsplace,

Do you mind sharing how much the speakers you bought cost?

Hey Puggy,

The anthony gallos are available online (but you need a freight forwarder from the US) or Artcoustic at adelphi who is their distributor in singapore.

I can't remember exactly what artcoustic quoted me, but it was about 300-400 SGD more.

My system is 3 Adivas in front, 2 Micro nucleus at the back and a TR1 subwoofer. Including shipping, singapore tax and a rough currency conversion, I paid about $3150 for the lot of them.

Adding on $750 for a mid range AVR and a little bit for cables, I would have spent $4K on the entire system. But please note: I got the stainless steel speakers cos they looked better and that cost me an additional S$300

[Dwinsplace 48]

Well.. the selection of IDs can depend on a few factors: your budget, the ID's experience etc.

Do read through a few tblogs if you are shortlisting the few "common" IDs and contractors to see if you feel safe leaving your house in their care!

Hey troublemaker!

I shortlisted them primarily based on their past work. Whether they had a design aesthetic similar to mine. If a designer is naturally geared to like modern finishes with baroque furniture, then he will most likely keep shifting back to that during the design process and the look he generates for me might be a bit more 'forced'.

I've read through a ton of TBlogs and its been really helpful! thats why I'm trying to post and give back a little.

[Troublemaker 31]

Good good! Heard a few forumners' bad experiences. I felt so bad for them... sigh...

[Songz 132]

Oh note to fellow bloggers!

There is the BIG FURNITURE FAIR going on at the expo from now till the 27 April (sunday). I know a lot of guys are into HERF and I just spoke to them at their showroom. They told me that they will be having a sale for the duration of the fair. Normal price of HERF: $7:50 psf. Sale price: $6:50 psf! Best part, you only give $500 deposit to lock in the price and you can tell them later whether you want it only for one room or for the whole house. And you can select the colour later too.

I'm DAAAAAMN tempted to lock myself in also but I'm not even sure if I'm gng to use HERF or just tile/ cement screed the whole way! ARGH! Thankfully i've already ruled out laminates cos i don't like to hollow noise and plasticy feel. From what I felt of HERF at the showrooms, it really is very nice. Warm. Less plastic like and the texture on the planks actually match the printed wood grain textures. Unlike some laminates I saw where the indents for grain where anyhow one and didn't coincide with the printed pattern at all!

Also, I went to a number of furniture shops along Upper paya lebar today and a few of them are having sales now too! Grafunkt, OM, Lifestorey, Marquis. All have. But all were pretty expensive to begin with except maybe OM. I might go back there for a sofa... $1500 for a big L shaped sofa seems reasonable. Sadly I LOOOVE the grafunkt designs but the price tags. I've never had numbers hurt me so badly....

I've already had at least 1 meeting with all the IDs I had initially shortlisted. So far every one of them have some shortcoming and I'm waitin for the 2nd (or in some cases 3rd) meeting to see if the shortcomings can be overcome. Sigh. Wondering if I should go and meet more IDs. I mean, this is my dream... so I should find one that makes me go "YES!" right? As compared to just "...can lah". Hmmm....

If you really like Evorich, try to bargain for $6.

Say your friend got it last Expo show which is not long ago ~

You can also go for other brands like Krono and Inovar which are cheaper ...

[Dwinsplace 48]

If you really like Evorich, try to bargain for $6.

Say your friend got it last Expo show which is not long ago ~

You can also go for other brands like Krono and Inovar which are cheaper ...

Thanks for the tip songz! We went to the fair really late and when we asked evorich to bring down to $6, they said the material cost has gone up and it won't be possible. Maybe we are just lousy with bargaining.

Anyway hearing that we decided to head to check out innovar. They had already closed tho! But my wife wasn't to be deterred. She picked up a brochure and called the boss at the late hour to question him on the product haha!

Basically, according to the boss, innovar feels exactly the same as evorich. Just as noiseless etc. just that they have a thicker protective coating (by 2mm) and it's also anti bacterial.

What I REALLY like about evorich is the lifetime warranty for both structural AND workmanship. I think that's really faith in your product and I feel assured with that.

My problem now is that evorich told me they need at least 200sqft of flooring to give that price. It's not much, but I'm not even sure if the design will use her for whether tiles and cement will suit it better. But I'm pretty sure it will be cheaper to get it from them than to get it from the IDs.

[Dwinsplace 48]

The fair itself was so so. A lot of beds, a small selection of sofas. Some IDs and very small booths for unique things like lights and solar film and the pulley thing you use to hang your clothes.

What we did see and like were the blinds though! Our first booth said there were 2 types of wooden blinds. Compressed wood and PVC which was more for the outdoors. Quoted us $10psf and said a big spiel about how he's aware of the competitors price but wants to give us the best etc etc.

Wife was keen but we both decided to look around more.

Second booth, similar product. 5 year warranty vs 3 years in previous place though and price range was exactly the same.

But mechanism when I tried it felt stiff and wasn't smooth. American system he says but made in Singapore.

Last booth was a company called Wink Curtains. Same spiel but less bull**** promises. He had 2 interesting things though. First, he introduced another type of wooden blind called solid plywood. He says you see the grain and the natural wood a lot more. We did see it the grain but he's making it sound like its a solid plank of wood, which can't be true. Plywood is still compressed plys of wood. And secondly, his mechanism was from Germany and while it only has 3 years warranty, it felt much much better. I trust German engineering. .

We thought, all the price points are the same. If we put a deposit with this guy, we get 3 options of solid ply for $12psf, compressed for $10psf and PVC for $9psf. Instead of just 2 options with the other two booths. So we went for it! We are very sure we will use blinds anyway. Estimated quote for the whole house of about 3 half height windows and 1 floor length one is about $3.2k

[Songz 132]

Thanks for the tip songz! We went to the fair really late and when we asked evorich to bring down to $6, they said the material cost has gone up and it won't be possible. Maybe we are just lousy with bargaining.

Anyway hearing that we decided to head to check out innovar. They had already closed tho! But my wife wasn't to be deterred. She picked up a brochure and called the boss at the late hour to question him on the product haha!

Basically, according to the boss, innovar feels exactly the same as evorich. Just as noiseless etc. just that they have a thicker protective coating (by 2mm) and it's also anti bacterial.

What I REALLY like about evorich is the lifetime warranty for both structural AND workmanship. I think that's really faith in your product and I feel assured with that.

My problem now is that evorich told me they need at least 200sqft of flooring to give that price. It's not much, but I'm not even sure if the design will use her for whether tiles and cement will suit it better. But I'm pretty sure it will be cheaper to get it from them than to get it from the IDs.

To my knowledge is that some IDs have special pricing with certain flooring company.

The IDs may able to offer you a more attractive rate

[Dwinsplace 48]

To my knowledge is that some IDs have special pricing with certain flooring company.

The IDs may able to offer you a more attractive rate

Yeah thats exactly what we are hoping for! So evorich says retail is $7.50, but I'm hoping IDs can actually get it for $6.50 and then maybe take a cut on top of that so I hopefully still pay less than 7.50psf *cross fingers*

[Dwinsplace 48]

Been quiet for a while on the blog. Mainly because we are still waiting on some IDs to get back to us. So far still lacking that spark, but to be fair we have only seen the proposal of 2 IDs. Due to work commitments the wife and I found that we actually had very few dates that coincided with the IDs to meet up. Oh well, hopefully settle things by the 2nd week of may.

But I hope to start work on the 2nd week of june! So things are a leeetle tight. heh.

What i've been researching lately though, is water heating systems for the toilets!

I know I can't wait 5 mins for water to heat up so storage systems are out already. My family home has been using that system for years and years and what would happen is I would turn on the heater, and since I had to wait, I would go off and read a book, watch a sitcom or something and before you knew it an hour would have passed of wasted electricity. No no. What I need is to have hot water at the flip of a switch.

So I've boiled it down to instant electric, and instant gas (from citygas) and here are my thoughts on them both.

Ecofriendliness:

Gas will be better since its a more direct conversion of energy into what I need. Instead of Gas to Electricity to Heat.

Looks:

Tough fight here. Gas allows me to use a nice shower mixer system (which can be costly) but I will also have the ugly exposed hot and cold water pipes from the heater into the toilet.

Electric tends to look like a box in the toilet and I think I'm forced to use the shower systems they come with. But I will be saved from the mess of pipes.

Cost:

Tough fight here too. Initial outlay for electric should be about 200 for each toilet.

Gas should be about 300 to service both but I will still have to fork out shower systems and piping works, so gas will most likely be more expensive in the end.

In the long run though, gas is supposed to save money on the utility bill! But then I read that the burner only starts when you turn on the shower and so you have to leave the shower running for about 10sec before you received hot water. 10 sec doesn't seem like a lot? Just stop reading now, pretend that you're turning on the shower and then count to ten. It's quite a lot of water being wasted. Some people suggest gathering the water in a pail for manual flushing etc, but it seems like too much work to save a few cents that might actually still be wasted on extra water.

Misc concerns:

Gas leaks. Not heard of this happening yet, but the prospect is scary.

Fire being blown out by winds and suddenly getting cold water.

I hang clothes where the heater will most likely go and what if clothes touch the burner?

It seems like I'm leaning towards electric at this point. Less unknowns I suppose. Would anyone care of throw in personal experiences/ reviews on either of the systems?

[kaykay 36]

.......

Misc concerns:

Gas leaks. Not heard of this happening yet, but the prospect is scary.

Fire being blown out by winds and suddenly getting cold water.

I hang clothes where the heater will most likely go and what if clothes touch the burner?

It seems like I'm leaning towards electric at this point. Less unknowns I suppose. Would anyone care of throw in personal experiences/ reviews on either of the systems?

Hi Dwin,

I am now a firm believer in gas heater after using one for 15 years. I initially got converted when they had a promotion for gas heater. Got myself a Rinnai heater for close to nothing. And it lasted 14 years before it broke down.

Gas leaks should be the least of the concerns since the gas pipes are run by city gas.

I mean, right? Lol..

Running cost of gas, factoring 10 showers a day plus a complete meal of home cooked dinner 5 times a week, costs me a grand total of $9 per month. I would like to think that the cost savings I had should have more than covered a few gas heaters over 15 years.

My previous mbr toilet has a hot water pipe length of more than 12m. My waiting time is about 30 seconds. I used the water during this time to wet my hair and rinse off shampoo. Of course I had to bend forward to rinse the hair and not let the cool water come in contact with the body. Haha.

For my new flat, I just booked another gas heater. This time I will expect shorter cool water time as the total hot water pipe length for either the common or mbr toilet is only 1m plus.

My laundry was also very near the previous gas heater. The closest the clothes got to the heater would be less than 10cm. I also had the phobia of clothes catching fire.

Of course it never did.

The first heater (battery operated) lasted 14 years before it broke down. The 2nd one (AC powered) performed even better, too bad I sold the flat 6 months from acquiring it.

I am one who shuns the look of a bulky heater tank in the toilet.

And I totally loathe the idea of waiting for 10 mins, and the need for walking out of the cosy bedroom in my boxers just to switch on the heater located in the common toilet, early in the morning at 6.

[Dwinsplace 48]

Hi Dwin,

I am now a firm believer in gas heater after using one for 15 years. I initially got converted when they had a promotion for gas heater. Got myself a Rinnai heater for close to nothing. And it lasted 14 years before it broke down.

Gas leaks should be the least of the concerns since the gas pipes are run by city gas.

I mean, right? Lol..

Running cost of gas, factoring 10 showers a day plus a complete meal of home cooked dinner 5 times a week, costs me a grand total of $9 per month. I would like to think that the cost savings I had should have more than covered a few gas heaters over 15 years.

My previous mbr toilet has a hot water pipe length of more than 12m. My waiting time is about 30 seconds. I used the water during this time to wet my hair and rinse off shampoo. Of course I had to bend forward to rinse the hair and not let the cool water come in contact with the body. Haha.

For my new flat, I just booked another gas heater. This time I will expect shorter cool water time as the total hot water pipe length for either the common or mbr toilet is only 1m plus.

My laundry was also very near the previous gas heater. The closest the clothes got to the heater would be less than 10cm. I also had the phobia of clothes catching fire.

Of course it never did.

The first heater (battery operated) lasted 14 years before it broke down. The 2nd one (AC powered) performed even better, too bad I sold the flat 6 months from acquiring it.

I am one who shuns the look of a bulky heater tank in the toilet.

And I totally loathe the idea of waiting for 10 mins, and the need for walking out of the cosy bedroom in my boxers just to switch on the heater located in the common toilet, early in the morning at 6.

Thanks so much for the review kaykay!! Good to know that there are real savings to be had.

For my layout, I believe that the pipes can be very short also, so waiting time should be about 10s I'm guessing.

The fear of leaks were actually more from future nailing of things into the walls or small hacking for whatever reason and then unknowingly damaging the pipes. Or are all the gas pipes exposed?

I totally feel your hatred of waking up earlier than you have to just to wait again. Haha!

I guess whatever system we pick, we learn to shape our lives around the problems too. Like how you shampooed first. Lol.

Good luck with your new flat!