Hougang/kovan 4A Resale Reno Journal

[kovan4us 5]

Mattress -- What Matters?

What matter most to you when you are buying a mattress?

What matter most to the manufacturers?

That you are confused.

We bought our mattresses from Robinsons in the past whenever they are having a promotion: the store discount on top of the hefty discount seems like a great buy.

We did the same thing this time, but brought our children, now teenagers along. First to The Centre Point, used to be Robinsons but now occupied by Metro. Layout is uncannily similar and we had no problem getting to the floor for beddings.

After my teens jumped, rolled and laid down on almost all the mattresses, they picked two, one from Simmons (forgot the model because the price was quite high) and the other was Sealy's Boston ($1,299 after all the discount). Since it was closing time, we decided to come back other day.

A week later, we went shopping again and this time to Takashimaya (selection was limited, no sales on), then to Robinsons. In Robinsons, the Simmons mattress we liked was Beautyrest Sea Breeze. Went around the corner, we found Sealy's and asked for the Boston. We were told that the Boston series was exclusive to Metro. It was there and then that I realised what the mattress industry is trying to do.

Why would an international brand create a model that is exclusive to a local retail chain serving a small population?

After letting the matter simmers in my head for a few more days, I suggested to go to our trusted local furniture store:

Used to be in the same building as Seafood Paradise in Defu Lane, now shifted to three buildings further down the road: 4th floor, 85 Defu Lane 10.

They have been in the business for long time and we go there to buy bit and pieces of furniture to fit in a corner, when urgently needed and when we cannot find what we liked in Ikea. Design wise, it is dated but you do get what you paid for: quality. When we moved after two years in a rented condo, most of the Ikea furnitures had given way and we had no hesitancy in throwing them away. But the shoe cabinet and dresser we bought here were still doing fine and it would pained us to throw them out. So we moved them into the new home even though we had no idea what to do with them.

Ok, back to mattress. They carry Maxcoil (we heard of) and Mylatex (huh??). Nearer the entrance was Maxcoil, we tried and it was ok. Then we went further to discover Mylatex. Their advertisement made me chuckle:

Someone who looks like a doctor. Checked.

Pretty girl. Checked.

Rubber trees? Huh? How's that going to make me like the mattress?

Well, we settled. Two super single that were made up of pocketed spring (9inch), latex top (2inch), with a top finish that is soft and smooth enough for our liking. At $800+ each, it was a $400+ savings from what we wanted to buy: a lower end offering of a named brand.

Another reason how I came to the conclusion was this: do a Google search on "Sealy's Boston" and "Simmons Sea Breeze". Then do a search on "mylatex Lexington".

See how readily the informations pop up. How many levels you had to dig into to get the information you want?

Edited January 21, 2016 by kovan4us

[kovan4us 5]

Bedroom flooring -- Neufloor

Recommended by our ID and we picked "Oregon", light brown/grey tone.

It was a clip-on system and installation for my three rooms took only two days: first day for the floor and the second day for skirting.

We noticed these problems.

The skirting was chunky and the colour didn't match. Also notice the gap between the skirting and the floor tiles.

Bad workmanship

The 'gap-filler' - the piece that separates the room and the hall, was of different colour and texture. Now, we had three distinct flavours.

When questioned, the installer, a young bespectacled guy told us, "it is like that one". Also, "if you can find something else, I will replace for you."

Challenge accepted.

We visited Neufloor's showroom in Guillermard Road to see how it was done. We didn't managed to see the skirtings but the sales person showed us various pieces of "gap-filler" and there were different colours and textures for different range of flooring. That made sense doesn't it?

Armed with the information, we were ready to confront the installer. However, our ID recognised the problem and said he would deal with it.

Yet to be resolved... and we had already moved in.

Edited January 23, 2016 by kovan4us

[Changbp 5]

Plumbing -- Horrible Plumbing!

5 days to move and we hit problems. One of them is plumbing.

How to run a pipe? Shouldn't this issue been dealt with like... thousands of years ago?

Whenever I see a few young men storming into the house and work in frantic paces, I can't help but worry that something would go wrong. Why am I so right?

Bent, twisted and unceremoniously mutilated!!

How should it be done? Here's a look at the piping work in my rented condo:

Pipes are aligned horizontally and vertically.

How to negotiate a bend? Use an angular connector!

I am so glad good work like this is not hidden. Do take a moment to appreciate this display of splendid and meticulous workmanship.

Something to show my ID and his plumber.

And to add, I am furious at my ID for thinking that was acceptable work.

I had this issue too. I made myself to be around during the plumbing works and I noted the bend marks. I spoke to the plumber he gave the famous 4 words that you have been hearing so often. "It's like that one..."

My stand was for places where the bend angle is little and the material bunching up isn't very visible, I let it slide. For those that you can see so many bend marks like dunno use how many wrenches to bend it, those have to be changed... Anyway i just let my ID jump at him.

[kovan4us 5]

Common Toilet - After Thoughts Before

After

Straightened the curve wall - now can mount a shower set.

What was good:

1. Straightening the curve wall. Hehe...this was probably because the tiler was too lazy to cut the tiles to fit. It turned out well. Now we have a usable wall to mount the shower set.

2. Rain shower. It might looked like an overkill, but having the water drops from the top reduces some splashing that might otherwise make this small toilet more messy.

What was not good:

1. Wall tiles were too big. Small toilet should use small tiles.

2. Floor tiles were too big. Or maybe ALL toilet floors should use smaller tiles. Especially critical in order to properly direct water flow to the drainage opening: smaller tiles make it easier to make gradient changes.

3. Tile colours were wrong. I would have preferred a lighter wall and darker floor.

4. The drainage opening should be located at a corner away from the entrance. So that you would be stepping on wet when you are getting in and out of the toilet.

[kovan4us 5]

Kitchen Work -- Completion

A week after moving in, we were still sleeping on the floor in the master bedroom and sharing the common toilet... all the other rooms were filled with boxes from floor to ceiling.

The first carpentry work to be completed was going to be the kitchen. This was the area we spent the most time in the design and configuration and would most likely be the room that would cost the most in fixtures and appliances.

Kitchen - as seen for the first time

The complete teardown

After the first day of installation

Second and final day of installation for carpentry

Then came the quartz top

The other side... big cabinets.

It took a week to get all these up and it was already weekend, waiting for the backsplash next week and all will be done. In the mean time, we could unpack some stuffs and get rid of some boxes. One small step towards unpacking!

[brokenkey 0]

Thanks for sharing your Reno journey.Very informative indeed

[kovan4us 5]

Toilet -- Master Bathroom Before

After the kitchen, this toilet was the next line item that made us spend many agonising hours. Ignoring the pipes, the space was limited and I wanted so much to have a proper shower area with shower screen and a wash basin area for our items.

Special thanks to ifp!

ifp is a fellow Renotalk member who has the similar layout and showed us what they had done. On our 3D drawing, it looked cramped. But, seeing that it was possible, on 3D drawing, we went ahead to execute it.

Previous shower area was divided into two. Width on each side was 750mm, which was good enough.

We put in a 4inch ledge so that all the bottles can go onto it. This was something we did before in our previous house and we loved it. Never thought that it would create problems here.

First was quite major. As I had written before, the ledge took up space for the wash basin area. The result was that we had to cancel our orders and scrambled to find a smaller basin to fit.

Second was that we had to stand a little closer to the shower tap because the rain shower mounted was now 10cm in recess.

Installation of toilet bowl and shower screen.

I thought our ID would give us the thin and frameless glass panels for the shower area. The kind we usually see in magazines. It would have looked better, especially in such a small space. Then, these are the thicker ones and came with steel support. Sturdy or slim? We were fine going with sturdy.

And then, it was another two weeks before we could use this bathroom: the plumber cracked the tiles while trying to install the basin. We had to wait for the tiler to come and fix the tiles. On hearing our plight, our carpenter volunteered to bring back the sink and customised a cabinet so that the sink could sit on it instead of wall mount.

Another few days for the guys to come in and complete the quartz table top.

With this configuration, there are now enough space for daily functions and enough storage, actually, lots of storage!

Very happy with the result.

Edited February 11, 2016 by kovan4us

[kovan4us 5]

Pozzi K321 from Tiong Yeong $65

Grohe Bauedge from Hoe Kee $114

Grohe, at almost twice the price was better built, shinier and felt more substantial to the touch. There was a reassuring 'thug' when you turn off the tap. But the main purpose of writing this is to show you the design: we somehow picked both with flat top due to their slim look. I found out that it may not be ideal because water tended to settle on them due to their flat surface, this is especially so on the Pozzi, leaving obvious stains.

Edited February 15, 2016 by kovan4us

[kovan4us 5]

Wifi Woe -- Powerline vs Range Extender (Booster)

 

My current living room and three bedrooms occupy a rectangular area of 10x8m (32x26ft). The 2-year old Aztech router I brought over has served a bigger area before, so I DID NOT expect to face a networking problem. Why is the reception so bad here?

 

Invasion of Wifi Routers!

 

When the technician from SingTel came to re-install the PON, MIO box and modem, I asked him to conduct a test and here's why:

 

 

 

There were 27 () Wifi networks around me, some with very strong signals! All the wifi channels were filled!

 

Walking around the apartment with the wifi analyser app on my phone, I could see that once I enter into any one of the room and shut the door, the signals dropped off tremendously.

 

Powerline Technology Is The Way To Go... or Not?

 

I almost regretted not putting in Ethernet cables when we re-wire the house. But then, to put in a patch panel, ethernet switch, LAN cables... put me off. Another alternative was to put in a more powerful wifi router. However, it would be short term because pretty soon, everyone else would upgrade theirs and the problem would return.

 

I decided to try out powerline technology. Reasons are:

 

1. Wire is always faster than wireless. And I just re-wired the apartment, all my power cables were brand new.

2. If the wifi signal is weak, using a wifi extender (booster) would only make the signal stronger but would do little to the transmission speed.

3. Powerline is the most elegant -- power, wifi and Ehternet all in a single unit.

 

Am I right? Let's find out!

 

Baseline -- Direct from Router

 

Ethernet Connection to Router

Wifi Connection Next to Router

 

So the baseline: 200Mbps Wired and 54Mbps Wifi.

 

Powerline: TPLink TL-WPA4220KIT

 

TPLink Powerline Starter Kit -- TL-WPA4220KIT

 

 

Ethernet Connection to Powerline

Wifi Connection to Powerline

 

Not very impressive.

 

Since I had a range extender bought two years back, I decided to try it out.

 

Wifi Booster: TPLink Range Extender TL-WA850RE

 

TPLink Wifi Range Extender TL-WA850RE

 

 

Ethernet Connection to Range Extender

Wifi Connection to Range Extender

What is happening here? Powerline is slower than simple wifi booster?

 

Summary

 

Direct to Router: 200Mbps (Ethernet), 54Mbps (Wifi)

Powerline: 31Mbps, 19Mbps

Range Extender: 40Mbps, 25Mbps

 

The only reason I could think of is the circuit breaker between the power line of the router and the receiving unit. Never would have thought that it could reduce the data rate by so much!

 

Conclusion: My high hope for powerline was dashed. The Wifi range extender on the other hand, surprised me. I wonder if the powerline standard AV2 would address this problem. Until then, I just have to do more testing to see what works.

 

To be updated...

Edited April 7, 2016 by kovan4us

[kovan4us 5]

Home Wifi Woe Update -- Wifi Channels, New Test Results

 

Taking a break from work at home, I decided to do a modification and see what the results will be like.

 

Selecting The Best Wifi Channel

 

Looking at the scan result yesterday, the best channels to use were 3 and 6. First I tried 6, but saw that there was another strong signal in the path, so I switched to 3. Verified that I was the only one on 3, I re-run the test.

 

The Setup

 

Here's the layout of my unit.

 

 

A squarish area of just 600sqft: it should be so simple, so perfect for just one Wifi router to work but yet...Arrrggghhh

 

Real World Wifi Testing

 

For this round, I decided to test in the various rooms and in the most likely area (bed, sofa, writing table) where we would use our laptops and tablets. The rooms are small anyway and I was no more than 8ft from the router or access points.

 

Also to note that it was late in the morning, there should be less traffic than when I did my first test at around 10pm. There were also just 20 (it was 27 yesterday) other Wifi stations around. We should expect better performance and 'cleaner' results.

 

First, the baseline...

Living Room -- Wifi Router

 

 

Master Bedroom -- Wifi Range Extender, TPLink TL-WA850RE

 

 

 

The most interesting thing happened when I switched it off. So now I am connected to the router.

 

 

Wow! I could do without a repeater here now!

 

Before you dismissed the Wifi repeater, it was doing a respectable job. This result could be due to switching to an un-congested channel and therefore I was able to get a good connection to the router. Yesterday, over a congested channel, I was not getting a good result from the router and the connection to the repeater was more consistent.

 

Bedroom 1 -- Powerline, TPLink TL-WPA4220KIT

 

To give you a glimpsed of why I even bother to go to all these troubles, here's what it was like in this bedroom just 20ft away from the router:

 

 

Bedroom 1, connecting to the wifi router

 

Turning on the Powerline adapter, I first turned off the Wifi on my Mac and tried the Ethernet port.

 

 

Tremendous improvement! Although I expected a lot more from Powerline. Now, let's try the Wifi.

 

 

Result was quite close. Which was good: the Wifi was indeed transmitted over the Powerline and performance was closed to a cable connection.

 

Conclusion

 

Performance over Powerline is not as good as advertised. Circuit breakers may be the culprit and this may be the Archilles heel of the technology. However, it remains to be the most viable solution if your room is far away and you don't want to mess with CAT 5 cables and switches. I also like it that you can have power, Ethernet and Wifi all contain in a single unit.

 

Wifi repeater/booster performed as expected. Make sure they are placed in the mid point and have good connection to the main router and it can handily give you an acceptable speed with little fuss.

Edited April 7, 2016 by kovan4us

[chiffon 1]

Hi everyone! We will be moving to this HDB resale 4a unit near Kovan. Although it is 30+ years but the interior is well maintained and we like the size of the rooms. They looked bigger than the new BTOs and ceiling seemed taller too. The 2 children rooms are of the same size and can fit in a full size wardrobe. And...no bomb shelter! Hehe.

Hope to receive the keys in early December and move in Jan '16. Anyone with similar layout?

Hi! Welcome to Kovan! Just read your blog & realized your layout is exactly the same as my parents' home. I used to occupy bedroom 2 until I got married & moved out hehe. The size is definitely much bigger than current BTOs. And very informative blog you have, I enjoyed reading it very much.

[Ks Toh 74]

Hi kovan4us

It's unfortunate you did not lay network cables to the rooms. I feel it is almost mandatory, and I wrote about it at length in my blog. Anyway, here are my comments to improve your network.

1. I feel your 2 year old Aztech router is no good. Seems like you are subscribed to at least 200 Mbps or higher broadband. But why is it that you are getting only 192 Mbps wired and 53 Mbps wireless next to the router? I am on 200 Mbps. I get 200 Mbps wired (both from main router as well as wired points far away) and 85 to 195 Mbps wireless (depending on traffic etc). I feel a change to one of the powerful multi-antenna Asus (or similar) wireless router will solve your problems.

2. Check your cables. You should be using either Cat 5e or Cat 6. If one of your cables is Cat 5 or below, the speed could be limited to 100 Mbps.

3. I personally feel HomePlugs are bad ideas, though I know of people who swear by them. As you discovered, they almost never perform at their rated speed. And their connection is also unreliable.

4. One other solution for you is to use a range extender, but in wired mode. Basically, you pull a Cat 6 cable from your main router in one corner of your hall, to this range extender in another corner of the hall, preferably at a different higher level. Although both are in the hall, the coverage is increased.

5. You can also check whether it is possible to convert your telephone cables into a network. They normally use network cables inside.

You can read more in my blog, if you don't feel bored reading through everything.

[kovan4us 5]

Hi Chiffon! Congrats on your BTO!

Loved the carpark and easy access of the new BTOs. They do have the condo feel: bay windows, concealed pipes and wires, better toilet layout... But ya, traded that for the size and higher ceilings of older units.

Another reason we like this particular layout is that the 2 bedrooms are of equal size...waha! No need to think about who gets what. One less headache.

[kovan4us 5]

Hi KS,

Wow...you really did a great job in cable planning.

I am in the networking business and I did lay Cat 5 all over my previous house (free CAT5 and switches, hehe). I didn't do it here because I didn't think it was necessary. And I was using the old router in the rented condo and the speed was never a problem... and the condo unit was bigger than this.

It's too late now... sight.

So yes, I will be looking into getting a more powerful router, and also multiple high gain high power 10ft long antennas. Long enough to stick them outside my windows and blast the signal all over my estate. hehe...

[Ks Toh 74]

I almost choked when I read that you are in the networking business. Here I am trying to give you advice.

Anyway, what is your broadband plan?

Are you serious about the 10 ft antenna? I find those "high gain" routers with longer antenna no difference from the normal ones.