All Tanglin Halt Road Neighbours! Report In Here!

[armani 0]

Sorry, I feel like ranting yet again! I could've done the air-con trunking first, before any other work commence, but the STUPID salesman said we must know the floor height first. As we didn't know the floor height, so we held back till now. My appointment for the trunking is supposed to be yesterday, but because I've already lost heart in this reno, I failed to checked properly, and by the time the aircon staff called to remind us of the appt yesterday, my husband said he's not free already. He doesn't want to prioritize this reno first. !!

Then today while studying how to run the aircon trunking, I realise we do not need to know the floor height at all as the trunking is done near to the ceiling!!! I'm not so technically inclined and don't even know how this whole aircon thingy work, but I expect my husband to realise it faster than I do! In fact, he was the one who pointed it out to me how to run the trunking. Yet he doesn't realise we do NOT need to know the floor height??!!! Now I want to do painting this weekend, and have to paint first without the air-con trunking. When it's done, have to paint over again, it's wasting my time and effort! !! !!

Moreover by the time they can only do the trunking on the 3 December, my parquet is already up, and I've to protect all the flooring when before, I can just hack care! So angry that the stupid salesman didn't ask us whether we're running the trunking along the ceiling, and immediately assumed we're running it along the floor..dodo! And my husband who always acts so technically inclined and a-sai and looks down on me for knowing nuts about technical things, didn't even realise this folly himself! kenasai!

mmm.... i think your ID could actually advise you on the steps to take for reno. the biggest problem now is how to protect your parquet during painting. i would suggest that you get the entire floor covered with canvas or plastic sheets. becoz sole can get "painted" very easily so best to cover the entire floor.

just make sure communicate calmly with ur hubby lor. don't get too agitated. man tends to be a bit more prideful so don't "suan" him too much also. hehe... sometimes i also make mistakes during reno but glad it's over now. but next thing is all the furnishing and kitchen accesories. ahhh..... headache. gonna hv some "pointers" with wife she wanna put a display cabinet of her plush toys in the living room. IMO, not very appropriate

[JS21 0]

I can't blame my contractor, as we only engage him as a contractor, not an ID. Moreover, we didn't let him do the air-con nor the parquet nor purchase the marble through his contacts, we only gave him $13K of work, so can't expect too much from him.

As for painting, I'll have to kick-start tomorrow.. with or without trunking and electrical wiring. Just have to be prepared to do touchup and additinal work. !! I'm also afraid during marble polishing and parquet sanding, it'll dirty my walls again. I'm also afraid when they do the hacking, some big pieces will fall and spoil my flooring. !!

[armani 0]

one thing to note. some kinds of paints are difficult to touch up. esp if u are mixing special colors.

never never mix color yourself becoz u will almost never get back the same color that you wan.

for ceiling, use matex emulsion paint. very easy to touch up becoz no matter how many layers u touch-up, the color is still quite constant. i did my painting myself and frankly speaking,

touching up is the most difficult and frustrating thing to do. muz protect ur window grille properly becoz it's kinda difficult to clean the paints off.

For tile skirting that accidently got painted, need not to be too afraid becoz very easy to scrape off. (oops... not so sure bout parquet but marble should be easy.)

try to have as little touch up(paint as perfect as possible) as possible becoz paint color might not be constant after it has dried for a few days. this is my personal experience. my bedroom's painting has different tones. :'(

so far my contractor has told me that ICI's supreme all-in-one is quite difficult to touch-up due to different tones. pentalite quite easy. Wash and wear series also quite easy.

anyway, i'll be at my new hse on saturday to wait for my washing machine, fridge, tv console to come and also my ceiling fan to be installed. gonna be there from 2pm to at least 5pm. Sianz.... one full day, full of waiting.

Edited November 23, 2007 by armani

[divine_genie 0]

thanks armani. Yesterday tried the heater.. didn't know how to work.. So bathed in cold water, only to have hubby to realise much later that the water's not boiled yet.. I think i too kan cheong to have my shower that i didn't wait. hahaha!!

hey, can i check if anyone has any contacts for contractor to remove the grout (done by HDB) in toilet and replace with white cement? The black lines make my toilet look dirty.

[armani 0]

thanks armani. Yesterday tried the heater.. didn't know how to work.. So bathed in cold water, only to have hubby to realise much later that the water's not boiled yet.. I think i too kan cheong to have my shower that i didn't wait. hahaha!!

hey, can i check if anyone has any contacts for contractor to remove the grout (done by HDB) in toilet and replace with white cement? The black lines make my toilet look dirty.

yup... HDB's tiles are layed crooked and the black lines are really an eyesore. I asked my contractor before but he said the grout is too shallow so need to cut it deeper in order to replace with white cement else the white cement will drop off.

Wonder how much would that cost...

anyone can help and give advise?

[TYM 0]

That means straightaway buy another property or use for investment lor! Whatever accrued interest you return is still yours to use in other places. But do that before you are 55, so that won't kana the minimum sum scheme.

Always keep your CPF at less than $20K; enough to tide over any harsh period of lose income, yet without letting them make use of our money to earn interests and investment.

Buy another property? My pocket not so deep leh. As for rainy days, yeah we both set aside a sum each liao before HDB wiped out our CPF.

[divine_genie 0]

yup... HDB's tiles are layed crooked and the black lines are really an eyesore. I asked my contractor before but he said the grout is too shallow so need to cut it deeper in order to replace with white cement else the white cement will drop off.

Wonder how much would that cost...

anyone can help and give advise?

Mine are not even. Some lines are thick which angers me everytime i wash the toilet. My ID said the same as yr contractor. He said not many contractors are willing to do as it's quite a pain to knock off the black lines and fill it with white cement. Anyone who has contractors mind enquiring for us the price? If not it'll be my project during my block leave.. Sob..

Edited November 25, 2007 by divine_genie

[armani 0]

Mine are not even. Some lines are thick which angers me everytime i wash the toilet. My ID said the same as yr contractor. He said not many contractors are willing to do as it's quite a pain to knock off the black lines and fill it with white cement. Anyone who has contractors mind enquiring for us the price? If not it'll be my project during my block leave.. Sob..

how are you going to make the grout deeper? use a grinder? or use chisel?

i think this is really not easy to do. becoz chances of chipping off ur existing tiles is quite high. perhaps this is why most contractor do not want to do this job. imagine if they need to rectify ur cracked tiles... it's gonna cost a bomb.

another factor is whether are we allowed to cut the grout deeper becoz of the waterproofing membrane below the tiles.

any experts here have any idea?

[divine_genie 0]

i questioned my ID on the waterproofing issue, he said deepening the grout doesn't affect water proofing as the waterproofing membrane is below the tiles. He told me to use a '-' screw driver and a hammer to knock off the grout very very carefully if not there'll be chipping of tiles. Then use fingers (note fingers *faint*) to lay the white cement. My hubby and i have agreed to just lay cement on it w/o removing grout. I believe touching up is at most 1/2 yr once. Even if cement comes off, it's only a few grouts at most. Then just touch up should be quite fast. U may wanna consider this? Then the dream of a clean looking toilet will be within reach. Hahaha!!

BTW, sea horse @ bukit batok west mall is having sales. For those who need temporay mattress to sleep on till yr wedding or spare mattress for guests, can go buy. 50% off so one is only about $48. It's those foldable ones. Note the sale is not avail at Tiong bahru plaza though.

Edited November 26, 2007 by divine_genie

[evad 0]

Dear Neighbours,

1. Any good locks for the gate?

2. Any good contractors for roller blinds?

Appreciate your recommendations.

Thanks. Dave

[JS21 0]

Just now specially went down to Citygas to hear their explanation on how the gas heater works. In the end, decided to take it because of the free heater. As for bills, they claim it's cheaper, let me test out if it's really true! Hopefully it works something like instant heater with 1 ugly control box in the kitchen, instead of 2 ugly control boxes in the 2 toliets. Me can't bear to go back to storage heater, remember using it when I was young, have to wait a long time for water to heat up and the tank is super big and ugly!

[divine_genie 0]

evad, can't help with lock cos i'm still looking for one. For blinds, i'm using sunrain. Thomas from sunrain did my parents apartment as well.

JS21, it's true their heater it's less taxing on bill cos gas is much cheaper than electrcity. Now with soaring oil prices, electricity tarif increasing is definitely no surprise. Instant heaters and storage tanks use electrcity. Citygas heaters and storage tanks need about 10-15min to heat up. But citygas, u really boil the water. u have to ignite and you can smell gas. That's unnerving for me.

[zirhk3355 1]

Just now specially went down to Citygas to hear their explanation on how the gas heater works. In the end, decided to take it because of the free heater. As for bills, they claim it's cheaper, let me test out if it's really true! Hopefully it works something like instant heater with 1 ugly control box in the kitchen, instead of 2 ugly control boxes in the 2 toliets. Me can't bear to go back to storage heater, remember using it when I was young, have to wait a long time for water to heat up and the tank is super big and ugly!

You still need to wait quite a fair bit before the water becomes warm, although not as long as storage heater.

However, gas heaters work on water pressure; ie when you turn on the tap then it switches on, unlike storage heater you can switch on and wait for it to be hot. Thus if you are like me cannot bear cold water in the morning, then you will have to leave the tap running until it becomes hot then start to bath.

So got to compare overall; storage heater wait for it to warm is waste electricity, but gas heater wait for it to warm is waste gas and water at the same time.

evad, can't help with lock cos i'm still looking for one. For blinds, i'm using sunrain. Thomas from sunrain did my parents apartment as well.

JS21, it's true their heater it's less taxing on bill cos gas is much cheaper than electrcity. Now with soaring oil prices, electricity tarif increasing is definitely no surprise. Instant heaters and storage tanks use electrcity. Citygas heaters and storage tanks need about 10-15min to heat up. But citygas, u really boil the water. u have to ignite and you can smell gas. That's unnerving for me.

Erm you better check you heater if you can smell the gas; mine does not smell of gas. But have to admit the 'pop' sound when it switches on is quite irritating and scary...

[SPACE 0]

so can someone share with us how long it takes for a storage heater to heat up?

Also anybody had their mental gate trim?

You still need to wait quite a fair bit before the water becomes warm, although not as long as storage heater.

However, gas heaters work on water pressure; ie when you turn on the tap then it switches on, unlike storage heater you can switch on and wait for it to be hot. Thus if you are like me cannot bear cold water in the morning, then you will have to leave the tap running until it becomes hot then start to bath.

So got to compare overall; storage heater wait for it to warm is waste electricity, but gas heater wait for it to warm is waste gas and water at the same time.

Erm you better check you heater if you can smell the gas; mine does not smell of gas. But have to admit the 'pop' sound when it switches on is quite irritating and scary...

[JS21 0]

Come to think of it, my previous house is using gas heater, based on the description of how gas heater works. This means I've used all 3 types of heater before. Here's my review:

For storage heater, I like this one the least. Unless the switch is on 24 hours, it is quite troublesome to use, because you have to remember to on the heater for at least 10 minutes before using. If a few people bathe continuously, the water will gradually turn cold for the unfortunate person bathing. Or if one takes a long bath, same thing happens. Have to wait 10 minutes for the water to heat up again. Conclusion: Unless you're very gian for high water pressure, bu4 hao3 yong4!

Instant Heater: Not much complains except the water pressure can be quite weak and the control box is ugly.

Gas Heater: In my previous house, I think the gas heater is a centralised system becaue the gas control box is not anywhere in the house. It's quite ok to use, on the tap for a few seconds, and the water is warm enough for bathing. Gradually the water will get hotter, and have to adjust the tap again.

Conclusion: I'd rather go for gas or instant heater. For those going for higher water pressure, I think gas is better.