edenstrauss

Hi buddy, I'm pretty sure that things would turn out well for u folks! Yes nobody enjoys camping out there... I've had a neighbour who told us that his family camped out at Pasir Ris Park jux for 2 days before the reno was completed! For a person whose never an outdoor creature, I stared at him like he had horns on his head! But is definitely possible & nobody would want to be in their shoes. I think ur ID wouldn't make u guys camp by the roadside or under the bridge...

Yes, u will require a police report to install CCTVs on the exterior of the flat. And that permission granted by the police to do so would last for jux 6 months. Thereafter, if there are no "nuisance", the flat owners are to bring down the CCTVs. The cost of installing such CCTVs would be borne on fully by the flat owners & the police would only install it for free if it is a case of arson as that's life-endagering. I knew all about this becox we had a friend staying in sengkang who went thru a traumatic ordeal of being victimised by their neighbour's loan sharks. The record has gone up to 32 as of last month. And we had another neighbours who were being badly victimised for the same reasons. But I've ever come across units with CCTV on the exterior. The good thing is that none of the neighbours complained as they perceive that as a security feature. And it's been installed outside their flat for the past 5 years already. According to a friend's relative, he installed it on the exterior of his flat WITHOUT any permission from the police. He got really chissed off when shoes were missing. There were 5 other units along the same corridoor & everybody faced the same problem of shoes getting stolen. The culprit was caught on the CCTV, stealing shoes. This relative printed out his "beautiful" face & a printed footage of him stealing shoes The "poster" was being pasted at all the lift lobbies. kekekeke... the problem was solved instantly!

Hi buddy, have u gotten the renovator to knock off those greenish lumps & touched up your ceiling yet? Please don't delay getting them to do so... the sooner the touch up is done, u'll be able to assess the situation within a supposed shorter period of time. If there are no sinks or water points above those blackish spots on ur kitchen ceiling, then there's a higher chance that u guys are safe. There is also a fair chance under such a situation that those are water which had been collected in the cement & finally given way after months of hacking & retiling. Waterproofing: Not sure what the norm in the renovation industry for kitchens (flat) are but I remembered that my contractor mentioned to me they would normally put in 4 layers altho' 3 is already sufficient. Do u want to countercheck with ur ID where the waterproofing is concerned? He should be in the best position to advise you becox he's expected to know what's going on.

I've checked with the police on such matters. There is no issue on being couter-sued when we make it clear to the tenants that we have had CCTVs at home. Many property agents mentioned that there is no issue so long as the CCTVs are installed before tenants come in for viewing. And it is also good in filtering out unwanted tenants becox those who are up to hanky panky would not rent the rooms. For them, it's a safety feature & chances of disputes are greatly reduced... A few of them even told me that it makes work alot easier for them too. I was surprised when one of them told me that he had a landlord who installed 6 camera points in their flat & got 2 of their rooms rented out to good tenants within 1 week. And in fact, those 2 tenants were very relieved to see that their safety was protected by the CCTV cam. The agent told me that in the first place, when you are putting up with 3rd parties, there really isn't much privacy already. Even a sneeze or cough could be heard when the tenant locks himself/ herself in the bedroom or toilet. If the CCTV cams are installed in common areas (kitchen, balconies, living rooms, hall, etc, there is no issue at all. Areas which are not permitted for CCTV installation are toilets & bedrooms. None of the authorised installers would assist owners in installing in those areas as they are illegal. If the stupid tenant dares to run around the common areas nude or skimpily clad, the police said that we would have the right to raise the matter with whatever CCTV footage that we had. Good for these stupid tenants!

There will be no 50-50 sharing when it comes to redoing of tiling in your neighbour's kitchen. reason: if your ceiling leakage is a result of their reno being done poorly, the renovator is responsible for rectifying the issue by say, if the situation demands for it, to redo the tiling. U should be left out of the picture when it comes to billing.

The HDB TO told us explicitly that the blocks around our areas were built by HDB WITHOUT any waterproofing done in kitchens. As such, it is not mandatory for the new owners to get waterproofing done. I think we're really "suey" becox the last renovation came with waterproofing for their kitchen flooring. This current malay owner paid peanuts & got monkeys to do their renovation. Then, after they shifted in for less than a week & started using the sink for washing, water collected below it when those jokers did a bad plumbing job. They forgot to tighten the pipes properly... By the time they discovered the problem, our ceiling was already leaking below their sink location. In fact, when I confided in my own contractor, he was shocked that no waterproofing was done for kitchen flooring becox he would always provide that regardless of whether it's a requirement for that unit or not. I would call this cutting corners.

HORSES There's a permanent stable of horses that had been stationed at the Pasir Ris Park where riding lessons were being conducted by qualified instructors. As there were no lessons being conducted while we were loitering around those horses, we took a few snapshots of them while they were "off-duty"

We discovered quite a number of tadpoles at the sides of the pool. Since they were jetblack in colour, these are babies of a toad. And perhaps food for the larger fishes too???

More photographs on swordtail fishes at Pasir Ris park: A close-up shot of swordtail fishes meandering & engaged in a "dance" with one another in the pool:

This is a last shot of the 6 inch cichlid gobbling up his food in a swift finishing stroke before he darts deep down into the pool, going into hiding again. Swordtail fishes are my hubby's favourites becox he had plenty of them in the pool during his kampong days as a kid. The photographs below shows swordtail fishes in the pool @ pasir ris park, swirling around in their red scaly cloak & sword-like tail. We had managed to take a few shots of them coming up to the water surface with plenty of NG photographs :

At last, here comes the first batch of photographs which I got them painfully edited with what little time I have had with the editing tools. We were surprised to see how a boat had been used to create a pond & took a snapshot of the boat. Oops, the 2 stalks of withered papaya leaves are showing up in the photographs like sore-thumbs! Forgot to remove them before photographing FISHES My hubby had to use fish food to lure these fishes up to the surface of the water in the pool @ Pasir Ris park. It could be quite a challenge as the fishes were all quite shy & he had many "NG" photographs too! The first candidate to be featured here in this thread is a 6 inches cichlid who resembled an edible fish known as the Tilapia which is typically sold in supermarkets here in Singapore such as NTUC fairprice. It's a fish that is supposedly good for those with poor liver health (and skin) & when taken on the long run, there are no side effects. However, we are not sure if this 6-inch cichlid was a tilapia. One thing for sure is that it's really camera shy

Hi folks, After almost completing my mini write-up on potted plants at home, I've decided to move on to create another topic on plants & lived-in insects & animals found at Pasir Ris Park. As usual, please enjoy the photographs which had been taken painstakingly. We didn't have any issues with the plants becox they don't move around. However, the real challenge came with the insects & animals as they don't stop fidgeting & some flew off at the slightest movement or noise coming from their surroundings. We hope that readers for this topic would enjoy the photographs as much as we did as the owners of these photographs.

A photograph on stunted version of the "Ginger" plants :

What my contractor claimed about ceiling leakages is that, once the renovation is completed for the unit above, ALL leakages should stop. In some cases, when waterproofing isn't badly done, leakages would start kicking in between the 1st week right up to say, 3-4 months after when the owners above shifted into their flat. The reason being that the people above ur unit would have started using water or maybe, start washing their kitchen floors after cooking. Do u think u could check with your HDB TO if those folks upstairs had waterproofing done for their kitchen? In our case, we were shocked that it isn't mandatory for kitchen flooring to have water proofing!!! The explanation given was becox the original condition as constructed by HDB came WITHOUT water proofing. As such, new owners could opt not to have their kitchen flooring done up with waterproofing. That's scary becox if the neighbours above us started washing their kitchen flooring, our kitchen ceiling would be experiencing a heavy downpour!

If u see ur ID again, it's advisable to hvae him explain himself rather than keeping you in suspense! Wouldn't u want to know what's instore so that it'll put u guys in a better stead in dealing with such situations. No wonder the folks above ur unit are so "yaya". That meant that their source of income is derived from rental fees & eh, sorry for being such a wet blanket. But if they run into any financial trouble, they will have to let go of those coffee shops. It's no joke becox the sunk costs for such businesses are very high. There was this puggish looking aunty with a stout figure who used to own 3 coffee shops & drove around with a white merc -. According to those aunties at our place, whenever she sees her ex-hubby's vehicle on the streets, she'll make a dash to cross his path & horn at him like the hounds of **** were hot on his heels. 2 years ago, this "yaya" aunty had trouble with her coffee shops becox many tenants pull out when the crowd was poor & she sold them to parties who were interested in taking over.

Oh I see The minute I spotted the 2 beady looking morning dew drops there, I fetched my camera immediately & took photographs of it. I really loved the photo becox the leaf looked really cute when it's adorned with those 2 "earrings"! By far, I think that's the best photo I've taken.

upside down leaf insect : hey what's that? haven't seen it before. does it bite at all? that's apart from leaves... If I could find the time, I'll like to start off another thread on the nature aspect of Pasir Ris park. My hubby had assisted me in taking many pretty photos of the animals, flowers & plants found right there...

wow, I love your tiles! they were so pretty & classy looking... it's a good choice when u didn't select a darker shade becox it'll "swallow" up its surrounds & make your place look smaller & dimmer. I would love to create a further illusion that my flat is a giant even to' it's already HUGE (in your case)!

Hi teddyjac, I'm not sure about the costs becox I'm not affliated to han fong aluminium. there isn't a flat rate / fixed price becox pricing is quoted based on measurements. U can be staying in the same block as another neighbour with the same layout. however, there might jux be variations in measurements. that might mean a different quotation from the same contractor. best wishes to ur new home!

continued: (Morning Dew)

Morning Dew on plants ... Of late, I noticed that there were dew drops on a newly grown Ginger plant. And this phenomenon would take place in the early hours of the morning. I couldn't help but relate that to kung fu or chinese fairy tale novels. The heros or heroines would embark on a tough journey of collecting morning dew for making some formidable medication to boost their martial arts; or for the romantics, to treat their loved ones or bring them back to life. Morning dew drops being caught on the camera:

I was wondering what granite tiles were and goggled up some pictures for it. Sorry to be so mean in saying this but granite tiles look kinda "dirty" & messy... eeeeeeeee And there are plenty of complaints that it makes a poor countertop in the kitchen to such an extent that those issues couldn't be described in just a few pages. Check out what this link has to say about granite materials: http://www.solidsurfacealliance.org/ss-better-than-granite6.html I think those neighbours above ur unit are likely to have maintenance issues as time goes on & they're going to regret selecting those granite tiles. But did your ID mention how their granite tiles are going to affect your ceiling?

Hi buddy, R those neighbours above ur unit crazy to redo their kitchen flooring twice? Or is it thrice?? Whoa those neighbours above ur unit mux be filthy rich or was there a change of contractors/ ID in the course of their flat's renovation? If this is the case, it's definitely very damaging for your ceiling becox "injury" had been inflicted onto it in a repetitive manner. As such, your ceiling has been worn out & would age ahead of other units who haven't had any reno or as many hacking from their units above. Oil-based sealers are very important becox they would be able to absorb moisture leftover by any old leakages. And I would highly recommend that you ask your ID what sort of other chemicals are used during plastering to ensure that your neighbour's contractor aren't cutting corners. Based on my own interpretation, 3rd party renovators would do the minimum in such a scenario becox what they're doing for you doesn't beef up their profit margin.

My hubby would look out from the corner of his eyes. And he'll tell me to be careful of the way I dress up lor

I think I know which type of fertiliser you are referring to becox some of my neighbours used them. One of the uncles had didn't dilute his "salt" mix with sufficient water and the fertiliser caused burnt marks on some of his plants. But I'm not sure if I should be switching to another fertiliser since my plants are doing well by the current types of fertiliser. Not sure what is the outcome following such changes... Currently, I'm using flower food that came in the form of a plastic bottle of red liquid as shown below: It's 10 drops to 1 litre of water. However, I would usually double the quantity of fertiliser. My hubby had applied the fertiliser to my brother inlaw's pomegranate plant & what surprised us was the plant started bearing fruits after being infertile for almost 5 years. There's another type of organic fertiliser which does wonder to all my plants but I had difficulties using it recently when the roots of my Ginger plants had been making its way to the soil surface of my pot. I reckon that I wouldn't be able to start using this grayish-coloured pellet form of organic fertiliser until I repot my plants.