DoubleJ

my vote goes to laminated flooring too. easy on the pocket and mantainence, even if one day you encounter a big problem with it and need to change the whole floor, it doesnt invlove any hacking,dirt,sand,dust too.tiling....we never know how long tiling can last too even if it's cited to be "durable" compared to laminated flooring which are prone to water, can be lousy stock/workmanship or poor mantainence. if budget allow, granite flooring is better then homogenous/marble.

Furniture mall - more bedding stuffs there compared to other places so far,should have at least 10 different shops or more. from major brands to unknown brands all have. alternatives will be IMM or Courts.

eh...actually i advise against covelighting unless you have a perfectly smooth ceiling or well done false ceiling as i did cove lighting too. wah, happily open the light after it was done,my ceiling like "inverted desert",heart totally sank. then i engaged someone to plaster it,fixed about 70% as they say ceiling they arent able to make 100%.ended up wasted money & begin my conflicts with my contractors as it's the first job i totally cannot accept it doesnt change anything at all. ontop of that, the extra cost of the electrical points, the holder and light-tube.cost about $700 for me already(total about 20 point/tubes). not adding in the plastering cost. now i hardly on my cove lighting. using only about 6 downlights at strategic locations and it's very bright already. kinda regret doing it for the 'cosy' feel. now gotta climb up to vacuum it clean next time too. should had just did false ceiling all the way.really saved alot and ceiling looked nicer/flater too.

went to check out the carpet, me & my wife saw the carpet and was "wowed".. haha. we have a weak spot for bling bling stuffs. current promotion was $439. got it at a lower price. was served by anna. very good service too. suprisingly this time sugei kadut cannot give me a better price compared to FM when i called the guy i brought my sofa from.

hehe...i got pipe i also dont want to use. lpg good ma, SP is minimum flat rate charges iirc. so even if you dont cook for that month. still gotta pay the bill. btw, i set up my lpg @ about $120 recently. inclusive of all the connections, adaptor, 1 new tank & deposit etc. you can take for reference,charges should be around there. but sometimes the companies around your area dealing in lpg might not have the "best brand" too. usually i pick the company whom i see still making delivery till 8+ or later..

ehh..dunno leh, it's arranged by my contractor. anyway, it seems like my problem is fixed 'visually', went to check again, i also cant notice the patches liao when i try to see. thou some tiles still can be seen with patches under the light. but for my guest whom dunno. it even harder for them to spot i guess. I spoken to him on monday regarding your issue. he said is is able to help using dunno what process of coating the tile with something to let it drain into it to get the color back evenly or something. hehe. seems like he encountered before. and your k*wi detergent....keep it for rough/matt tiles. post-processed tiles like glossy/special tiles arent recommended using detergent as what he says.clean water+diluted mama-lemon is enough. anyway PMed you his contact. hope he can rectify your problem. he seems confident when he explained how to fix it to me so i guess you are in good hands.

oh great, so their daily ritual is still applicable behind closed doors i guess. good good. then i guess they not very considerate in the first place if they dont need to open it at all but choose to open it still. tough times ahead for neigbourly kinship liao..

hmmm...but most of the dang kee i met all quite discreet actually. is like they know their profession might not be accepted by most ppl so they try not to get too much 'opposition' from neigbours in order not to threaten their own practice/rice bowl. maybe i should make friends with them slowly then shoot letter behind them lo. front assult next time see each other also not good liao. but at least act behind them, they can only "guess" who. aiyo...need to do till so hypocrite lo. haiz. will town council look into the matter if i remain aynominous or should i include a name and tell them i prefer to remain an unknown complainent? alamak. first thing for new neigbour is ploting how to backstab instead of shaking hands. haiz haiz.

oic, sandalwood ok la. but the practice of leaving their doors wide open during the 'fumigation'. is it part of the ritual too? any indian user here can advise please? cos the ritual of bells and chanting is really ok. just concerned about how long i can endure the extreme fumigation. alan26: when we recee the place,its so quiet with a chinese and malay neigbour. was thinking. good liao. can have nice biscut during hari raya to eat and bah-gua during cny to try. but during reno, the malay moved out. hehe. pengz. zhun zhun next door become mini temple.

Its like that now lo. out of the trips i took recently, none of the tour guides had impressed. except for the china ones,maybe it's becos their expectations is simpler? a simple $40/pax tip would mean a mth pay or more for them already per group? we were adviced by the more experienced ones to tip 70% before and 30% after. wow, they really took good care of us. never brought us to strange places selling funny things. pure sight-seeing except for a few shop they said is 'company owned' gotta show face there,the uncle and aunties all supported him there too since it's local speciality shop. gotta buy anyway.. but the one at hk did the "upgrade meals" stunt too. we were acrually 'premium' trip as my supplier paid premium price and package always but the tour auntie can say not her problem. wanna eat better pay first complain to agency after we get back. wahaha. just arrived,havent checked-in. kena crap liao.end up, we had our meals at a resturant out of our own pockets stating our agency will talk to their boss regarding the subtraction of the cost(but infact we smoked her) & ask the auntie to watch our baggage outside cos we asked the bus-driver to join us. the next day, she face black black bring us out, but we didnt care.cos we chatting happily again like she's transparent. till she kinda broke down and told us how their agency works and her pay is mostly from tips etc & is sorry for offending us with her ethics. so we told her our issues too & we reached an understanding. promised her a certain tip at the end of the trip. but the next day, she asked us to upgrade meals & pay for entrance fees to various place ourselves again. the japan one is another bugger too. he keeps complaining about sg when he himslef still has a pink IC, say we lazy ppl,stingy,ignorant,only know how to complain this and that la.etc etc. now we come japan should see how & why they are the best and we can never beat them no matter how we try as we as SGers are primitive and ignorant & why our govt copy japan to get where they are today,we are nothing if we didnt copy etc etc. haha. the whole bus wanted to smack him hard. he is like those 'han-jian' during the jap occupation. lol. now if going on tour, usually i would extend my trip and go F&E myself for a few more days. it really works wonders.

recently a new indian neigbour moved in beside me. they are pretty religious and always pray everyday by ringing their bells and fuming their house with some kinda incense. the praying goes on for like an hour with loud ringing of bells, ending with the smoke they burnt in their house with their doors wide opened. the smoke will last for hours at it's full blast. would like to ask if there are anyone familar with hindu religion here or has ever encounted indian neigbours that are religious? Should i approach them regarding the fumes issue? is it possible for them to even accept me suggesting closing their doors while fuming their place? it's opening the main door to let the fumes out a part of the praying even? it's pretty scary as the whole corridor will be fumed with the smoke. thou it's not smelly but it's hurts the eyes and make it hard to breathe. everytime i gotta hold my breath and faster unlock my gates then rush in. am worried it might cause breathing problems for the eldery,pregnant wife or babies next time.

Honeygal: i'll be meeting the guy on monday to show him the tiles they had left the 'burn marks'. will give him some heads up first before passing you his number. maybe your can try giving your original tile a coat of kiwi on the surface and leave it to dry and see if it causes the exact same result? the color change from glossy black to your current brown is really quite drastic. btw, i brought the similar brand too. and when i ask if i can use it to clean my tiles,the guy was like twitching his face and said better not. haiz,super glossy..super headache.

no idea, they aint telling,even if they did point their finger in any direction. i belive i'll get smoked again when i confront. you know la, they can taichi around cos we dont have concrete proof too. it's all just words. but from what i gather, nowdays tiles not as good as before, so they usually avoid any chemical for glossy tiles. out of the 2 cleaning company i encounter, all stated they dont 'chemical' glossy tiles much already,wash with clean water only. those matt tile are generally still ok for chemical. and i asked if the floor detergent i brought is ok, they tell me to use diluted mama-lemon for my glossy tile instead. keep the detergent for kitchen/toilet only. but well, was talking to the boss so maybe its corperate answers lo.even if his worker wanna make their job easier and used some chem..who knows.

just did my polishing today....again. this time by my contractor's appointed guy. guess what i saw they are using the same machine like the tile company.haha. was thinking no hope liao. same thing again..but they buff/polish up the tiles till so shiny it's like showroom tile. but the patches still remain below la...just not so obvious to the wandering eye. really wonder if it can be called rectified even, more like covering the flaws with blinding light. but am suprised they are able to do a better job then the tile company. it's really so shiny under even low light enviroment(gloomy day today). after the polishing, they like 'burnt' quite a number of tiles leaving behind big patchs of scars. arranging them to come back again on monday too see if it's permernant. if permernant, think i still gotta remove the tiling. pengz. it really not too hard to belive my reno took 7mths and counting with all these crap after crap hor. i was told by some of the ppl i knew in the 'reno industry' that tile company hardly warrant anything. they are quite suprised LSH actually came to adressed the issue. but after their first attempt to fix the problem, it seems like they deemed they had did their part and no longer wanna offer me any form of support already. they advise to settle amically with my contractor. but i guess that's pretty useless for my case since mine already 'turn-face' liao. they were also suprised mine still is keeping up with me as the sub-cons really screwed them up with all the sub-standard work. they told me frankly they themselves would had left owners to fend for themselves already cos sure lose money de so better run away faster as not to lose time too. so i guess mine still ok ba. they themselves are the victim too. but we paying $ + victim. we more 'cham' leh. honeygal: You interested to engage the polishing/flooring guys? i'll pass you their contact as the boss and i actually had quite a long chat about tile problems. till now they were the only ones that told me they KNEW what happened and can help me with it. but they arent willing to tell me who is at fault for my tile issue as to not offend my contractor or anyone. so i respect their choice lo. but they do know what they are doing so you can consider getting them to have a look at your problem maybe. i'll be keeping their contact too as their polishing and attitude is very very good. they actually QAed their own job end of day and worked OT to give it another go. defiently a keeper.

wah. so fierce,so how was it resolved in the end?....i think it would be safer for buyers to take some pics of the place registering the as.is condition? if not wait seller cut out half a wall to keep cos they had previously engraved their love.love message on it when they move in last time how.

asked for a bit of the chemical the cleaners used last time they were here. trying to see if it will produce the current condition of my tiles after i applie it to the original conoditioned tile. if it does, the next time my contractor starts yaking, will just show him the tile lo. that will be enough to shut thier crap up. they can seek damage from tile shop or cleaning company. dont care how,we as home owners already endure the lost of use.for me, 7 months and counting. champion liao. everyone asking why so long. the bunglow beside our usual lunching place also completed building and furnished up liao. did anyone managed to sue their contractor?care to share your experience please?

wax is common issue. you can spend about 100+ for them to wash it off with their machines acutally. the problem with my tiles is more 'internal'. my shine is still there. it reflects as a perfect sqaure brightly. but once you view it at an angle maybe about 4-5 step away, you'll see all the ugly patches. i need just to stand outside my main door and look at a living room full of patchy tiles. yeah, i was thinking its more towards a combination of 2 problems, tile quality+acid. usually the small amount of acid they use to ease their job and get a better 'cleaning' effect will not affect it so much. but add in a lousy tile prone to seepage and acid diluting the wax... the result is catastrophic. just had a heaty argument with my contractor,actually they were the one that lost their temper.i just quiet lo. now i really wonder why i can take their attitude,mother,father all scold. maybe they caught me on a good day i guess. dunno why ppl can be so lame. they were the one that said let the tile shop try first. now they tell me as i let the tile shop try first there is nothing left they can do for me,how lame is that. so when i retaliate by listing out every single point & turn of event all pointing the finger at them. they simply lost their cool. haiz, guess its time to turn ugly liao. anyway, would advise anyone doing their reno to open dated cheques from the 2nd payment onwards. there are always stuff that no matter what amount of discount cannot overwrite & stuffs no matter how established a company is will not rectify.

my buffing didnt went so well.it remained the same.looks better a an angle when light is casted onto it but when it's under the shadow as you walk pass. my mum's 30yr old kitchen wall tile looked better then it.infact it got slightly worse as the process will strip away the top layer or the tile. end up. my grouting is currently all higher then all my tile.and suprisingly the paint splatter on the tiles still remained there when i asked if i should manually remove it first,they brushed me off saying it'll JUST COME OFF after they buff. yeahhh rite.. i seriously think the gungho buffer machine is for show only. its just a simple machine turning a pc of microfibre and they can tell me the chemical will drain out the stains etc blah blah blah. already told my id,i'll expect a things to get done fast or will consider action. after today it doesnt matter as my tiles are a goner.no amount of discount will make me live with it. i know its not their fault & it saddens me to if it turns ugly. but hey,i am not paying them just to call their sub-cons. i expected better. after looking at your pics, think we have exactly the same issue there. white patches below the tile glossy surface. mine was white glossy tile so i really cant get it to show on pics. btw, you mean those were black glossy tiles??? its doesnt have the slightest color of 'black' at all. gosh. thoughout the weeks, i had seek about 5 other views from various professional ID/contractors & even building companies. some say it's the wax seeping into the tile surface due to manufacturing defects, some say due to lousy cement used below the tile being absorbed into it,but that would mean the tile is lousy actually too. Some said it's due to improper cleaning,eg acid wash. frankly i suspect our tiles are due to manufacturing defects+acid wash. usually cleaners will still add small amount of acid to make their job easier.all the ppl i asked admited they do used a small amount for best effect eventhough they know they arent suppose to. and with that small amount + slight defects = relay tile. it will happen down the road too even if not now. but one thing in common that everyone of them said was... you gotta settle it with the contractor/ID. the tile shop will never honour any responsibility unless your contractor has like thousands of orders with them.even still,all they will do is...give you a batch of similar tiles.they will not bear any damage done. the hacking & labour still needs to be done all over again,and this usually is bear by the contractors. home owners bear the incoveniece casued. and that was the best anyone will even do for us,IF they even cared about their reputation as name/location changing of company will cost less then that.. some will just ignore us & go earn more money to pay us later while we go through long legal means to get a few ks back. what i can suggest to you is. do a test. i'll be doing that too tomorrow, if you have the same tile still. subject it to acid. it'll prove if its due to the acid or manufacturing.

Anyone know where i can buy those quirky beanbags looking like BIG maggie packets, kitkat , kongguan biscut etc.

i brought the crizto one at about $300 iirc. not sure how the other brands perform,but its value for $ i guess. it looks nice too with the squarish build.keke.. comes as a whole set with mixer & hand-shower. i brought a handshower+mixer seperate for my other bathroom at about 200+ total. really should had just brought 2 set. haha.

alritey,thank you. will check that out this coming weekend. kiv how the smell is after applying the leather-care to the PU area. not even sure if it can be applied on PU or not too.keke.

Thanks for the inputs. maybe my wife was right. the PU area tends to be more expose to sunlight,its directly below the downlights too and usually i only leather-care the leather area. maybe some sweat of the workers got stained on the sides while they are working or pushing the sofa around with thier sweaty hands/leg. over time the sweat become mucky yucky smell like unwashed jersy. also after we on the lights the smell slowly become more obvious. hmmm...the only thing is strange is...it move around randomly. but again, carrying the logic over, the sweaty workers might had touched the walls while working on the ceiling/lightings/switches etc. i'll try cleaning the PU area with the leather care too first before calling in religious methods. *to the ppl whom did religious stuffs like door opening,dong tu,etc for customary or peer pressure's sake, just treat the next few paragraphs like a russell lee book we read during our sec school life. We preformed a rather religious entry as we knew a vacant unit usually tends to attract 'good friends', no detail was spared and i got help from my aunty whom had help with renowed thai masters as their assistant many times.so if option (4) i not so worry as i am sure i'll have enough help to invite it away. actually while preforming my opening rites, my aunty did do something that scared us,and yes my hair is standing while i type this.hehe. she suddenly snatch the bowl containing those beans&rice which i was holding to throw around all corners and throw it at one particular corner,outside the window!! i knew she saw good frd liao. wah, we just stood there watch her throwing and shouting at me to throw too. wah,her face really fierce that time,very different from her usual calming smile she carries. they also clever right. we throw house, they temporary step onto our recess area to avoid the line of fire.haha. later my wife went back to her house to nap and said she keep hearing someone screaming in her dream. scary hor. but as i had my fair share of encounters with them throughout my life, thus its easier for me to accept their possible existence in my place casually. the contractors/suppliers with their Lv~999 taichi power is even scarier for now. but hopefully they can move out peacefully once they find a new place la. will try KAM BOON HIONG if cleaning up the PU & walls doesnt work. now still ok,dont think the smell can stick to much things ba. whole place only have sofa & carpentery. Beds,curtain etc not in yet.. will hide the sofa in the rooms and block the doors with towels etc.

Help!! Think i got about that much close to getting a breakdown everytime i try to source out where the smell come from. i pratically smell everything. even took ladder to smell my cove lightings etc. Our place is pretty bare now as we havent moved in, not connected to gas even. only have a sofa & lcd in the living room. but recently i noticed this strong pungent mucky fishy smell that comes & goes around the living room. the closest thing to it was the sofa. My wife concluded her findings to be the sofa, she is saying the non-leather part is smelly. but i dont smell it. so i shifted the sofa into the bedroom. and the smell is still in the living room. and shocking thing is....it moves around!!! sometimes it can be in the living room but you can get smell it sometimes in the kitchen,bedrooms. before i move the sofa it usually concentrated itself in the living room. gosh. i am trying to remain sane in hope anyone can help me with any logical possibilty. will try to list out some things which i suspect might cause the smell. 1) Paint - not sure if possible,i am using odurless paint even for the ceilings. my place was done painting 2 mths ago & didnt notice any form of smell till now,so not sure if related 2) electrical - smell seems to be stronger at places near any light. but doesnt seems to be coming from any installed lighting when i smell every single one of them. and yes, i smell all the walls & ceiling beside it too. step down the ladder and caught the smell right near it again but just can't pin anything smelling like that at all around the house. arghhh. 3) Sofa - my wife insisted, so i was wondering anyone had a smelly fishy half leather sofa before? can the non-leather or leather part smell so much at all? my sofa was from univonna. felt kinda crazy calling them up stating their sofa smell too so quite reluctant to do it unless someone can tell me leather or PU can smell to such a bad extent. 4) Paranomal - Yes, last explanation when all logic doesnt applies. unit was left vacant by hdb for about 4yrs before we purchased it. it was a matured estate with that one single new unit for sale. and my monitor fickered a few times while i was typing this paragraph.... no la,just pulling your leg. i do belive in paranormal activities thou, but i belive there will always be a logical explanation for everything which i am hoping for here first before i resort to religious methods.

haiz, i contacted my tile shop to arrange their buffing session. then this other guy out of no where hinted to me my current tile condition is "man-made" during my reno period. someone must had screwed up somewhere,somehow. i really give up on ppl in this line liao. everyone say different things. change story like fliping prata. collect $ all know how to collect. crap come only all taiji. told him i dont really wanna know what happen,just concerned if it could be helped. if really no hope then i'll see if i have other options in addressing the problem. next week they coming over. hopefully they can fix to a stage i can live with it. But happen to speak to someone today whom is in this reno line for over 20yrs. he mentioned usually if tiles have issue. it can't be fixed much. it'll just get worse as years go by. wah... really made my heart sink. maybe live with it for 5yrs and pass over to next better player liao. he's gonna hack it anyway. good luck with your tiles too. better pressure them to come look. best is get the tiler there too so let them fight over who fault & what happened. if not like me everyday each side change story really vexing.

i belive the process is call buffing for homo tiles. i was told by my cleaners that it usually cost around 200+ to 'buff' it up. but usually it sloves problems concerning the surface,like paint splatters or stubborn stains which are surface issues. the guy actually advised me to approach the shop i brought my tiles from as my problems is actually inside the tile itself. they are more professional in it & as my problems seems to be under the surface. might wanna hear what advice they can give too. so you really should approach the tile shop. but for your case i belive can be sloved by buffing it. at least yours has a uniformed lost of color. mine was like ugly patchy stains in various sizes all inside the tile. so one look at it my guests will say...Wah your tiles shiny shiny ah,walk a few steps & theywill say...Eeeeeee,why your tiles all like that de.