Brick Wall By The Floor 5Rm Bto @sengkang

[gryffindor 2]

where to buy this Air Curve Table?

How much did you pay for the desk? It looks similar to the desk i'm eyeing on at BoConcept.

[Ks Toh 74]

For all new BTO, telephone lines are Cat5e minimum (*But mostly should be Cat6).

Since nowadays people don't use landlines, you might as well convert them to Lan ports, this will enable you need not to lay the wires.

Hope this helps. (If my info is wrong, someone pls correct as I am not totally sure on this)

Yes, your information is correct.

However, do note that the telephone cabling may not be your ideal network cabling. For example, for network cabling, you may want to have your distribution point in your study, and for all your network cables to start there. But for telephone wires, I think they normally start from the db box outside your unit? It may not be the ideal location for you to put all your routers, switches and other devices.

However, if your OpenNet TP is there and you just want wired internet access to the rooms, yes converting the telephone cables to network cabling is the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to go.

For more info, you can read here: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/62505-top-kew-drive/?p=835957

or Mavicaste's blog for a more complicated network.

[nickguthe 30]

One of the issues with buying on Taobao is that there are so many options and you can't see or tell if it is the option you want. In our case, it was lights, we are not sure if 3w, 7w, 12w, 18w etc is bright enough for us or how many lights and wattage for each do we want to have on a track or whether 正白光 is too cool for us and how warm is 暖白光.. Especially since lighting preference is so subjective.

We bought some track lights on Taobao to test before we buy that all we need. We asked around at local hardware store but they didn't seem to sell a device that test lights. So we bought this light testing device on Taobao instead. Turns out, it was really good for our purpose.



We attached the end of the track we bought to the crocodile clips of this device.


And then attach the track lights to the track.
The large one is a 12W 暖白光 （warm white light). The small one is a 3W 正百光 （normal white light)


正白光（normal white light) feels a little too cool for us.


暖白光 （warm white light) feels more suited for us.


This light testing device is awesome. When we receive the other Taobao lights, we are going to test them before they get installed just to make sure they are working, of the suitable temperature and bright enough.

Edited June 12, 2014 by nickguthe

[Whinypooh 0]

Hi hi!

May I know how much did you pay for the bedframe with storage?

Many thanks in advance!

[James N Joean 8]

Hey, thanx for the great insight!. 暖白光 is so much more cosy...

now i have a much better idea of how many watts and color tone to choose when buying tracklights from taobao..

Appreciate it!

[nickguthe 30]

Thanks Kstoh and Songz for explaining the phone to LAN point connections so clearly. Just to add, this is the change to the points after the conversion.

The original phone point.


The converted point looks like this. Now we can plug in LAN cables.

Edited June 12, 2014 by nickguthe

[nickguthe 30]

Hey, thanx for the great insight!. 暖白光 is so much more cosy...

now i have a much better idea of how many watts and color tone to choose when buying tracklights from taobao..

Appreciate it!

Glad it is helpful! This was one of those information we tried so hard to find before buying the lights but couldn't. Haha.

Edited June 2, 2014 by nickguthe

[nickguthe 30]

Our 1st shipment of Taobao stuff is here! Will review the loots in a separate post. This post is purely dedicated to the service, Oops.sg, which we used to shipped the big items by sea.

When we ordered the items on Taobao, we chose the shipping address to be Oops.sg Guangzhou's address. After the Taobao merchant dispatch the item, we will register the package with its details (tracking number, value etc) in our Oops.sg account through their "DIY Reship Service".

(screenshot from Oops.sg)

Once Oops.sg at Guangzhou receives the items, the status of the item will be updated in our Oops.sg account. Packages are identified by their tracking number. We won't know how much volume the items occupy until we "prepare shipment", so we use our gut-feel to guess if we have purchased at least 1 cubic meter. Once all the items are received at Guangzhou, we prepare for shipment. It will take roughly 2 to 3 days for them to do so. After which, we are notified to pay for shipping fees (approx 100 sgd per cubic meter) + 7% GST (based on declared value of the items purchased). The whole transportation of the items by sea took about 9 days.

For the delivery of the items to our house, we can't choose the date and time of delivery. It depends on when they need to unload the container. So we had to take leave the whole day and the package only arrived at 4 pm. But granted, we didn't pay the extra compared to other services that allowed that flexibility.

Overall the service is rather systematic and professional with their system that you can track easily on your own...

except I wished they had been a little more "polite" when we were still figuring things out.

We ordered a couple of items from the same merchant and we didn't realised that the merchant used the same tracking number for all 4 items. While I was trying to register these items on Oops.sg, I received this error message. "Failure to register package in incoming folder". After trying a few times, thinking that it could be a problem on the service end, we contacted the admin for help and eventually we received this clarification through email.

Okay okay, yes, we could have been more careful with the tracking number, but they didn't have to be so fierce. Get scolded LOL. And really, from a user experience perspective, this could be easily prevented by having a error message saying that that tracking number have been used before so that it can't be input again.

This is a minor episode that we hope Oops.sg can improve their system with, but overall we are okay with their service. We just document this in case other people who are also figuring things on Oops.sg get accused of playing with their system. Later teacher scold. HAHAH

Edited June 12, 2014 by nickguthe

[Joeist 0]

Hi nickguthe,

Thanks so much for these details. Need it just in time for my orders lol.

I suppose for your 1st shipment, you bought 1 cubic meter worth of items. Pls do share the pics of the items that you've bought as I'd like to gauge the volume.

Thanks in advance! Cheers!

[James N Joean 8]

Hey nickguthe,

do you think 8 of the 3W tracklight shining against the front and back wall (4 on each wall) of the living room is bright enuff to lit the living room?

i think the 12w one looks a little too 'fat' =P

thanks!

[nickguthe 30]

Muscle ache from opening presents Taobao loot! Very tired but so excited! (This post got too many pics, I need to split into 2 posts.)

Forgot to take a picture of the all the sealed boxes when they arrive to give a good guage of 1 cubic meter but whole idea is

1m by 1m by 1m.

Here are the results...

For the links, please refer to this post

Fins Kitchen sink and Fins Tap.

Stainless steel tap very solid feel.

Sink not so sure, the joints are not as perfect. Don't mind those stains you see, we were doing water test to see if the stains can be easily washed off. We left the stains for a week, and they are easily removed with Cif.

So happy that my sinks arrive intact! Both taps from Paloni taps looks and feel solid too.

Rectangle sink and tap

Triangular sink and tap

Toilet fittings x 2 set of each

clothes rack and toilet paper holder.

Edited June 12, 2014 by nickguthe

[nickguthe 30]

Lights

2 x pendants

1 x wall light

10 x downlights

10 x ceiling mounted lights

and more lights!

Those boxes you see at the left side of the standing light are track lights. Each box containing 1. About 15 of them there. And the long black bars at the back are the tracks, 6 of them there. The longest track we have is 1.5m, they are packed diagonally with the rest of our items so it fits within the 1 cubic meter. On the right of the standing lamps are the downlights. Very flat packed and small.

We also bought trigger spray and valve tap, forgot to take the actual pic but you get a good guage my previous post about the taobao links.

All of them came in good condition. All except my EKO soft-closing dustbin Dented from shipping! They didn't pack it well. Note to self and everyone: must tell your Taobao merchant to “请加厚包装，是送海外的。” means ... please add extra packaging, it will be forwarded overseas. Most tell you okay when you pester them on chat, but no promise that they will definitely do that.

We are going to try claiming insurance that we topped up. Emailed Oops.sg, they say they will help follow up.

Our poor dustbin. It was worse than this, we manage to pinch it back to shape slightly. Luckily, it is at the back of the dustbin, not so obvious. T_T

Edited June 12, 2014 by nickguthe

[nickguthe 30]

Hey nickguthe,

do you think 8 of the 3W tracklight shining against the front and back wall (4 on each wall) of the living room is bright enuff to lit the living room?

i think the 12w one looks a little too 'fat' =P

thanks!

Depending on how bright you like your space. The following pic might give u a better guage. This is taken in the store room, door closed. Nothing else was giving illumination.

4 x 7 watt each. warm.

I totally with you about the 12W. Very big - more suited for large retail spaces with taller ceiling.

Regarding the 3W, our take is that the distance it cast is nearer, so the brightness might not be extended to the floor.

This is a pic of the 3 different track light sizes. 12w, 7w and 3 w respectively. Door is open, so brightness is not representative. Hope this helps.

Edited June 12, 2014 by nickguthe

[nickguthe 30]

Hi nickguthe,

Thanks so much for these details. Need it just in time for my orders lol.

I suppose for your 1st shipment, you bought 1 cubic meter worth of items. Pls do share the pics of the items that you've bought as I'd like to gauge the volume.

Thanks in advance! Cheers!

You are welcome.

Forgot to take photo before opening the packages. Too excited...haha but these 2 posts I just updated should help. Good luck with your purchase!

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/65217-brick-wall-by-the-floor-5rm-bto-sengkang/?p=858897

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/65217-brick-wall-by-the-floor-5rm-bto-sengkang/?p=858900

Edited June 8, 2014 by nickguthe

[nickguthe 30]

In other news... I got electrocuted today while testing lights...

Forgot that the test device was actually switched on, and I was grabbing the crocodile clips while it is connected to the light. I could consciously feel the current running through me and aaaarrrrrrggggghhh, till i let go of the clips. Honestly, my head got cleared a little. Like a refresh. LOL.

Please be careful if you are going to do such test or any electrical work. Be safe. Don't be kuku like me go and touch the wire when it is on.

Glad that I am still alive. It was quite a funny experience but won't try it again.

Edited June 12, 2014 by nickguthe