Hacking Out A Home-Shaped Hole @ Cassia

[bianzi 52]

My piping is g22.. But I did not get to check.. All installed when I went

You got me worried now. You mean they used 2 different types of insulation for you?

I'll be heading down soon to the site and I'll take a look and confirm with you.

Did you use Tim as well? Cos I specified with him very clearly that I wanted a certain grade of insulation and copper piping.

[mintyvintage 52]

So quality was good? Workmanship ok? Was it not as.... how to say... refined? as the tables in journey east? It feels like the wrong word since the items there are designed to look a little rough and worn around the edges.

The price is good! Journey would be about $3K

haha yes quality is good and workmanship nth to fault. and yes you can say the journey east tables are more 'sophisticated' kind of charm whereas second charm has a more worn-out feeling (exactly like the shop name. you get a brand new table that feels like it has history hahaha)

when i find my camera's cable to upload the pics of my coffee table (From JE) and dining table (from SC) i think you will unds the difference in the boat wood appearance.

[Dwinsplace 48]

haha yes quality is good and workmanship nth to fault. and yes you can say the journey east tables are more 'sophisticated' kind of charm whereas second charm has a more worn-out feeling (exactly like the shop name. you get a brand new table that feels like it has history hahaha)

when i find my camera's cable to upload the pics of my coffee table (From JE) and dining table (from SC) i think you will unds the difference in the boat wood appearance.

Looking forward to the pics but yes I can already understand what you're saying based on what I saw when I went to second charm's factory.

[Dwinsplace 48]

Went to check on the insulation as mentioned by Bianzi and discovered that the copper pipes were insulated with 1/2" as instructed but the drainage pipes were only D class insulation which is considerably thinner even to my naked eye.

I asked the air con installer and he explained that the PVC pipe carries cool water which is less cold than the copper pipes. So there will be considerably less condensation to absorb. Also, using the same thickness insulation would result in a much thicker trunking when its unnecessary. He stakes his reputation on it and he seems trustworthy so I will let it slide. However I will run the aircons and if I see hints of condensation/ leakage then he will have to redo the whole thing for me.

Some pics of the trunks:

This is the wardrobe room. We are hanging the condenser outside the window and there will be a low height vanity covering the wall under the window and the start of the trunking.

The trunk goes up and ard the door frame and out to the other rooms. There is also a small casing down the right side which punches into my master toilet for the drainage pipe.

Did not realise that the trunking would look quite THAT ugly going around the door frame and so I'm getting my ID to box it up.

This view is from the living area and you can see the trunk coming out of the wardrobe room on the left side, going under the beam and into the bedroom. This will be boxed up too.

Another branch of the trunk runs along the wall, past the toilet and thats where I'll mount the big 24K fancoil for the living. (haiii.. open concept open concept. Big and airy. But downside is lots of space for air con to run away also ) The branch will also be boxed up.

This is the trunk that runs into the bedroom. so we will only see this small portion which I'm happy with.

[Dwinsplace 48]

Oh and all those black spots on the wall that look like I had minor fires going in the house? That's from the electrician spray painting the wall socket housings AFTER they were mounted on the walls.

But this post is about plumbing. So here goes! Too difficult to explain without pics so I'll do a show and tell.

This is my kitchen and you can see the how the water pipe (stainless steel one. Copper is gas) runs around the ceiling and down the edge for my kitchen sink.

This pipe then has to go into my toilets for cold water, and also to go into the gas heater and then toilets for hot water.

I suggested routing the pipe out the door you see there, following the gas pipe, directly to the gas heater. However it would have affected the door and ID also says that the cluster of pipes in that way very ugly.

Since they can't punch through the beam, the only other route was to go across the kitchen as you see and into the hole originally provided by HDB for this express purpose.

I'm telling myself that lots of pipes = industrial look. right?

This is where the pipe comes in at the common toilet. Then it goes out the window into the service balcony where the gas heater is. Such a long way around. Lol.

At first the plumber was aiming to run the pipe in a straight line from the hole to the bottom corner of the window. Making it a slanting pipe. I was like NOOOO.. Can you imagine constantly looking at a line that skewed? Would drive me insane! Lines must be parallel!!

So like the valiant salmon struggling upstream, our little pipe finally arrives at the gas heater. Another branch continues down for my service yard sink and washing machine and also punch BACK into the common toilet for shower/ toilet/ sink. This particular bit of convolution is so that there are less pipes running around in the toilet. This i agree with!

Here you see it entering and branching out into its various uses.

If you look VEEEERY closely, you will also see that the pipes go INTO the wall at a few locations. This is to service the master toilet so that there are even LESS pipes visible on that side. The benefits of a back to back toilet system.

[Dwinsplace 48]

Like everyone else, I've fallen madly in love with brick walls. So during conversations with IDs initially, this was always a must have. Finally, I'm seeing it come to life!

At first a red brick wall was proposed but we decided to keep this monotone and went with chinchilla grey bricks.

The feature was supposed to be in the recessed area but in the end the placements of sofa and tv with reference to the feature wall would have been very odd so the ID opted to fill in the recess, and extend the brick wall to cover the whole column. And at no extra cost! And for those who have done craftstone, you know that this is no small discount! So I'm very thankful.

Here are some pics:

Doing up the false wall and reinforcing it to take the weight of the tiles as well as to cater for my doing a wall mounted tv in the future.

This partition material isn't the normal flimsy gypsum board they use for partitions and false ceilings. I knocked it a bit and its very sturdy stuff.

Halfway up! Recessed plugs for the electrical/ Cat6/ and speaker cables. Hidden! Awesome!

[Dwinsplace 48]

TB loot arrived!@!!

I wasn't there to receive it and ID opened all the boxes to make sure that all the items were correct. I'm a wee bit sad that I won't be the one to open them but still super happy that they are here and looking good! Saw some pics from the ID. Will head down shortly (I'm baking bread at the moment and typing this out as I wait for the dough to rest) and play with all my new toys. hee

Will post details on the loot a little later.

2 rooms worth of stuff! Can't wait!

[Songz 132]

That is really a lot of loot you got there

(*Now you cannot show your manliness with the crowbar )

[Dwinsplace 48]

That is really a lot of loot you got there

(*Now you cannot show your manliness with the crowbar )

Wooden crates are intact! Manliness is a go!

(but cannot find a **** crowbar....)

[Songz 132]

Wooden crates are intact! Manliness is a go!

(but cannot find a **** crowbar....)

LoL ~~~

Then use Hammer + Flat Screw Driver

[Dwinsplace 48]

DIY ADVENTURES PART 1

We got cheap T5 LED lights from lighting.com.sg. $14 for a 2ft set, $16 for a 3ft set. Simple, sleek and thankfully fits the industrial look.

However the fitting only came in white and so, much to the wifey's dismay, I announced that I would be spray painting them all black!

Finished product here with the bulb

Think it will look awesome on the ceiling!

Lessons learnt:

1. Sanding down the surfaces before is most likely unnecessary. I thought it would help the paint stick better but in the end the deeper scratches actually showed through the paint so probably better without.

2. Use masking tape to protect the electrical contact points from paint. (I didn't actually make this mistake. Just sharing)

3. There's a reason why certain brands of paint are more expensive. My black paint was Nippon Pylon. It cost $7.90 and it sprayed on evenly without streaking or pooling. It dried quickly and the nozzle didn't clog up. The finish is what you see in the pics.

On one very small part, I used an additional clear coat spray from some unknown brand ($3.90) in the hope that it would protect the paint. Not only was the gloss ugly, a quick 2 spurts already had the clear coat pooling up in some spots while being splattery and uneven in others. Needless to say, I did not continue with the clear spray.

Future gate project will be done with Nippon paint. *nods*

[Dwinsplace 48]

Aluminium doors are up! These will be used for toilets and entrances into the service yard. I'm also considering getting letter decals for the glass door. Like french cafe lettering.

The first pic is the door without the privacy film, and the second one with. You can get glass that's sandblasted of course. That would give a more classy finish but it's also more expensive.

One issue with the master toilet though. Because the toilet is small and casement doors use up so much space, we have decided to have the toilet door swing out to the room instead of in to the toilet. Swinging in might have resulted in a clearance issue with the toilet bowl even though the workers said it should have just enough space. JUST enough space would also mean that when I'm inside and want to get out, I would have to squeeze into a teeny tiny corner of the toilet so that the door can open. That would be stupid. Oh if only we had a bigger toilet...

[bianzi 52]

Aluminium doors are up! These will be used for toilets and entrances into the service yard. I'm also considering getting letter decals for the glass door. Like french cafe lettering.

The first pic is the door without the privacy film, and the second one with. You can get glass that's sandblasted of course. That would give a more classy finish but it's also more expensive.

One issue with the master toilet though. Because the toilet is small and casement doors use up so much space, we have decided to have the toilet door swing out to the room instead of in to the toilet. Swinging in might have resulted in a clearance issue with the toilet bowl even though the workers said it should have just enough space. JUST enough space would also mean that when I'm inside and want to get out, I would have to squeeze into a teeny tiny corner of the toilet so that the door can open. That would be stupid. Oh if only we had a bigger toilet...

I have the same issue as you for my common toilet.. so i opted for the PD door...

The heavy duty pd door with frosted glass with black sprayed paint cost $630... !! i decided to go with white to save cost... sigh

[Dwinsplace 48]

I have the same issue as you for my common toilet.. so i opted for the PD door...

The heavy duty pd door with frosted glass with black sprayed paint cost $630... !! i decided to go with white to save cost... sigh

If its any consolation, I'm paying about 1.5 times that.

[bianzi 52]

wah... so ex! but then again... at least yours is solid solid... PD gives a plastic plastic feel leh.. but i like they way they fold the door... and slide it to the side... very neat..