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2014 has been filled with a lot of FIRST for me... With the purchase of my FIRST own's house, my FIRST reno experience (luckily a good one), my FIRST purchase at Taobao, my FIRST attempt at fixing up a lot of furnitures - bed frame, writing table, tv console, sofa and even thing like door knob, WHAT?!?! Indeed, the process can be tiring...confusing...maddening...heart wrenching. BUT, hang on there! I'm rather certain that the sense of satisfaction when you see the end product is beyond words. Now, come January 2015, a brand new year, a brand new start. I've finally settle down in my new abode, and can leisurely sip a cup of kopi gao while happily typing away. And yes, here it is...Ready, Get Set...HOME! Living room Work area in MBR Kitchen MBR

Taobao – MUST buy, CAN buy, DON’T buy (Guest Entry by the Spouse, with constant eyeball rolling from the wife) How are newborn chicks like Singaporeans? Whole day “cheep cheep cheep”. Traffic and my MIL We were stuck in slow traffic that day. (Actually, every day also). And the car behind must have been in a real hurry, because his horn like free one. The driver was the horniest driver I have ever seen. The strangest part of the experience however, was that every time he angrily tooted his horn for the whole world to hear, I would smile. I wasn’t at all the least bit angry, mind you. Because I would be reminded of my mother-in-law at a sale. Because all I could hear was… “Pi pi piiiiiiiiii” (Hokkien: meaning, cheap). So next time you encounter such drivers, smile lah. Even your mother-in-law queue move faster than his car. LOL. “Pi”, or “cheap” also brings me to Taobao. Taobao Purchases This post is directed at Taobao newbies. We kept it intentionally simple, so here goes: There are three types of purchases on Taobao: 1. MUST buy Lasting And Nice. Just Immediately “Add Order”. 2. CAN buy Cry Or Not Depends On Merchandise 3. DON’T buy Buy And Lose Lots. Sian. Type 1. Lasting And Nice. Just Immediately "Add Order" The act smart ones would've seen the acronym. You see, Type 1 L.A.N.J.I.A.O. happen to have the following attributes: a. Hard The harder the better. Unbreakable is best. b. Ugly but useful Design is not important. Who cares how it looks like. c. Not consumable Not likely to put into mouth or insert into body. Naughty naughty! Some examples of items fulfilling the above criteria would be - clothes hangers/pegs - stainless steel trays for kitchen - stainless steel bathroom racks - dustbins I know none of them sound like potential “WOW” – how much can you save on clothes hangers or dustbins, right? Clothes hangers We bought 1,000 clothes hangers. One thousand. Each at 36 cents, after shipping. That’s a total of $360 – and a lifetime’s supply. These are the non-slip type, mind you. When the wife’s clothes are on the hanger, I don’t want them to slip off. When they are on her however… In Singapore, we see them retailing at about $1 each. That would be $1000. We saved $640. Small amounts add up in this case. Of course, we don’t seriously expect to use ALL 1,000 hangers. We bought with some friends lah. Sharing is caring. Stainless steel stuff is another good buy. At popular shops like “Hoe Kee”, we saw a stainless steel towel rack retail for $30. That’s ONE single rack. This is our guest toilet: On Taobao, we bought a complete toilet set for $90, shipping inclusive. As you can see from the photograph, our set included a towel rack, a toilet roll holder, a towel bar (top left of photo, can see a small part of it), a cup holder (not yet installed), a corner rack (not yet installed),and the clothes hooks bar (next photo) The door has the clothes hooks: Because they’re not likely to break, and designs are so blah anyway, Taobao is definitely the way to go here. Type 2. (Cry Or Not Depends On Merchandise) A good C.O.N.D.O.M. should be 1. Flexible There are always substitutes, and you can go without one. 2. Simple to use Limited/simple electrical components. 3. Maximum Protection Insurance! Protection! Some examples of items fulfilling the above criteria would be - Shelf ornaments - T-5 lights, bomb shelter lights, toilet lights (the more “standard” lights) - Sofa (not for everybody though!) Because you’re taking a risk, you want the savings to be significant! I cannot emphasize enough the importance of “significant” when it comes to cost savings! No point finding an item that’s $500 in Singapore and $450 on Taobao. If the Taobao item turns out badly, you have to buy it in Singapore and fork out an additional $500. You’re taking a $450 risk for only $50 in savings. Do your sums people! Don’t be blinded by greed. As a general rule, I aim for a savings of at least 30%. Lastly check that any fragile items are insured! Your agent (who handles shipping) will usually offer it to you for free. Better still, if they are cheap enough, buy EXTRAS. Most electricians would recommend you buy extra, if buying from Taobao. We bought extra T-5 lights, but forgot to buy extra toilet lights. The former all worked, the latter were spoilt. Murphy’s Law lah. Type 3. Buy And Lose Lots. Sian. Last acronym, you should understand how things work by now. B.A.L.L.S. are: 1. Very fragile items Handle with care. 2. Things that cause spurting Toilet sinks/vanity tops, all problematic! 3. Work best in pairs If not matching, then how? Hoho. Toilet sinks deserve a mention because they seem quite popular in Renotalk t-blogs/forums. They were so frequently mentioned that we took a huge risk ourselves, and bought the vanity tops from Taobao. This was a bad buy, for FOUR reasons: a. Plumber informed me that the pipes in China have different diameters from those in Singapore. If you purchase, a lot of sealant(?) has to be used, and may still have leakages. If leakage really occurs, water damage to the house is going to cost more than ANY savings you achieve. Two days after installation, ours really leaked, but thankfully the leak was minor. We got it repaired immediately by the plumber. More sealant lor. b. Fragile. We ordered two vanity tops for both toilets in the house. One of them ended up cracked during shipping – we are trying to see what our agent insurance can do. c. We bought a pair. Since one of them cracked and the other didn't, we ended up with non-matching toilet vanity tops. LUCKILY for us, we were able redo the decor of the two toilets to match the vanity tops. d. The savings wasn't significant enough to justify the risk. In the end, we went to a hardware shop to buy a vanity top. It cost us $399 in Singapore whereas the Taobao one cost us $300. We tried to save only $99 and ended up $400 poorer. Seriously. B.A.L.L.S. lar.

Hi benetay, I have been using the Jupiter water ionizer system for over 5 years already. If you are using a water ionizer sparsely, I would think you should go for the Mavello Mx. My in-laws are still using my older Mavello system and they don't fail that easily. Come to think of it... its already coming 9 years.... Moreover I have heard of ppl bringing the Mavello overseas and using them there with no issues... so stretch those $$$ Cheer Bro! Hope it helps!

T akaishi! R eally?? Are there??? O h wow! You are really observant then. L ooks like you spend lots of time on Renotalk. L OL. I've only noticed that suikoden asked twice for the contact and I replied twice - but he didn't respond. This despite me asking him to acknowledge receipt of my PM. I suppose some people are either busy or less polite. Either way, I'm not going to obsess about it. Wife and I have finalized our plans for this t-blog. We will be putting up exactly three more posts about the house, before we bid goodbye to Renotalk. We had fun, thanks people!

Hi Chilarvet, I got mind @ $19,800/= include electrical.

If you call Caesarstone as a home owner, prices starts from $180 pfr (comes with standard 50mm back-splash) for the 20mm thickness I chosed (also have 13mm & 30mm); different pricing for different models/designs. To have edge profile, need to add $20 pfr for the additional workmanship. so total could add up to $200 pfr. Edge options: http://www.caesarstoneus.com/products/edge-options/ Commonly used edges... Where to view? http://www.caesarstone.sg/en/Pages/Where-to-view-and-buy.aspx Funny thing is, Caesarstone doesn't really have a proper showroom to showcase their products to retail customers like us. If you call their sales office, they will usually refer you to their partner's showroom at Ubi Biz-Hub... BLUM. I have to say I was rather tempted after seeing the Blum products, but stood firm on not spending extra for non-necessities. Note: Your contractor will be able to get much much lower prices, so remember to bargain.