manutd1972

wat!? $3k for 3 rooms? how big are your rooms? Ehh...$6.80psf for a China-made product versus $4+ to $5psf for a European-made product? Plus, a more established name in the laminates industry? I'm sorry but i won't spend my money this way. Granted that a lot of things are made in China now. Even big brands have moved their production facilities to China. But these big brands also have a reputation and history to uphold, so their QC standards would also be relatively higher than those Chinese-based made in China goods. if u have dealt with made in China industrial goods, u will know wat i mean. Given a choice between 2 similar products of similar branding with pricing tt's also quite close to each other, I would definitely buy the one made in Europe vs the one made in China. Case in point: HansGrohe's Focus E2 range versus Grohe's Bau range. HG still made in Germany, while Grohe's is made in China. Both are entry level range and cost roughly the same. I bought HG.

take it step by step. but most importantly, dun get tricked by ur agent into paying anything. the only thing tt u're liable for, at the moment, is the cost of the valuation report. if the valuer has not come to see ur unit yet, i think u still can cancel the valuation request without incurring any cost. but if it has already been "inspected", then wait until u receive the valuation report before u pay the agent for it. as for the exclusive right to sell, just inform ur agent tt some complications had arisen in ur purchase of the other unit and u are not able to sell ur unit already. tell her to cancel the agreement. i dun think she'll agree to it though. she'll probably tell u to just leave it and let it lapse. but u need to knw tt if u do sell ur flat during the next 3 mths, even if it's thru another agent, this current agent is still entitled to her commission. so u'll end up paying 4% comm of the eventual selling price, 2% to her, and 2% to the agent u sold the unit through. if u are sure u wun be selling within the next 6mths (just to be safe), den u can just let the agreement lapse if she's not willing to void it. but if u're not sure, den the only way to "protect" urself, is to tell her to KIV first. and if ur situation changes and u decide to sell, den just engage her back to sell ur unit for u.

are you using warm white colour? or cool white? i was also intending to do wat u did, but dunno what colour of lights will achieve that when my wall colour is pure white.

i'm using both LED and T5. Some places use LED strips, some others use T5. Unfortunately, cant' comment yet cos still undergoing reno. Haven't install yet, so don't know the difference in effect, if any. But in terms of purchasing cost, it's not that much higher for LED strips. Usual price is $30-$35 per metre, and you'll need a transformer, typically about $30. Cheapest T5 that I found is $14-$15 per 4ft piece.

hi TS, can i have your painter, Ah Seng's, contact pls? how much did u pay for 4rm painting? tks.

TS, wat abt ur speakers? Floor-standing or mounted on speaker stands? And ur cables? Connectors? U need to consider all these factors too. The quality of any audio system is only as good as the "worst" component of the whole system. So if u spend on everything but scrimp on the cables or connectors, the sound reproduction of your system may still not be as good as you expect it to be. This is a very very expensive hobby if you really wanna play with it.

No no....no audiophile here. Just an amateur. Moreover, I gave up the hobby years ago.

totally agree! Pine simply cannot fulfill the requirements of a proper hifi rack. Oak and walnut are very good choices. But yes, at that thickness, it's not gg to be cheap. Solid Oak is quite ex, but very very good. And pls pls pls don't use laminates. Unless you want "extra" noise coming from the rack.

just for fyi, for those getting inverter aircons, pls read thru the thread on the standby power consumption before u make any decisions based on hear-say or friends' recommendation. http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32540

i think u shld get them to change the chipped tiles. . they shld hv buffer for such things. usually thr will be extra tiles left over, so they'll just take frm these extra tiles and replace the chipped ones with these. it just means they got less tiles to pass to u during handover.

i'm sorry. plywood with laminates overlay may be lasting, but it cannot outlast all solid wood. it depends on what type of solid wood that u're comparing with. Teak, oak, maple, pine, etc, all have different characteristic, strengths and weaknesses. and as far as audio applications are concerned, laminated plywood will never be as good as truly solid wood. again, for such applications, some types of solid wood are also not as suitable as others. ultimately, it depends on wat u want to achieve. if it's just a budget rack, den anything also can use. even cheap plastics, so long as it can take the weight of your audio equipment. but if it's sound quality that you're looking for, den pls spend a bit more to get the most "value-for-money" rack. one that balances the compromise between performance and price. set urself a budget, check ard, and get the best one tt ur budget can afford. bt bear in mind the limitations of watever that u're getting and ask urself if u can accept the weakness if that rack, if any. buy with ur budget in mind, but also with open eyes. i used to spend thousands of dollars on my home audio system. even my speaker cables cost me over $10/m. but i've given up this "hobby". sold all my components years ago when i moved.

sigh....seems like cannot find this version anywhere. all the shops i've been to are selling the old, ugly design. simply cannot fit my home's design....

where did u get the clothes bamboo pole holder? i'm looking for this exact design for my plc.

haha....if she's into those Korean, Jap, Taiwan drama serials....den definitely she will be keen to learn how to do this...

for a hifi rack, IKEA's stuff cannot do. in fact, even MDF is not good enough. wat u need is really solid wood. wood such as solid oak. it's not gg to be cheap. and if u're gg to budget this, den i'd advise u to just get 1 of those metal racks frm any specialised audio shop and set them up on spikes. spend on spikes at each level of the rack will cost less than making a whole rack out of d*** solid wood. at least tt's wat i knw when i was still dabbling in home audio. dun think much has changed as far as vibration absorption and isolation is concerned.

seriously...look at their registration dates and number of posts and any seasoned member on RT can tell who's real and who's fake. No history of posts to go on, and their 1st post here is to accuse all of us as fakes? i'm more inclined to think of them as "competitors" who're here to "mislead" other genuine consumers. i didn't want to wade into this, but after coming back to this thread for the latest updates and having read their comments again, I feel it necessary to make my opinion known so other genuine members can perhaps see another perspective that they may not have seen, having been "misled" by their comments, and draw their own conclusions. i've read so many threads. i've seen so many T-blogs. i've PMed and received PMs frm so many home-owners. So to say that RTs are fakes? Sorry, but you're the one who's trying to take us for a ride. To suggest that the right way to evaluate a company is to go to that particular company's website and talk to that company's staff without also listening to what others(competitor or otherwise) have to say? You're probably from that company. No wise consumer seeking a review of a company will base their conclusion of tt company solely on communications with tt company's staff. Independant, 3rd-party reviews carry a whole lot more strength and influence. If you trust everything tt the company's staff tells u, den watever u wanna buy in life, i will go and source for it and sell to you. No sorry, not sell. Cos i dun need to sell. I just need to talk to u. To all who read my above post, dun get offended, read too much into it, or watever. i react badly to baseless, generalisation and like to poke fun at those who make them. Yes, this is fun to me.

oh i've got my eye on 1 of their lights....hope they hv it there and it'll be much cheaper. TV, i also eyeing one of theirs, but no budget for it liao....so no matter hw cheap also no diff to me....sigh. but in general, the prices during their carnival is much lower than sales at those stores like Courts, HN, Best etc...

yup. completely agree. if so afraid, den pay big money and get the real stuff lor..... this is our typical SG consumer mentality....want cheap, want green, and also want big b***s, to translate a very commonly heard Hokkien saying...

yea, sorry for the OT, Doc. I did think about the replacement if individual bulbs within the strip blows. But cos my design is bouncing the light emitted off the walls or ceiling, i figured each 1m strip can still accommodate maybe 5 blown bulbs spread across the 1m strip before the reflected light looks annoying. I feel the disadvantage of LED lights is the length of throw. The brightness may be the same, but it definitely cannot project the light as far as normal T5, E27, halogen etc. That's just my gut feel whenever I see LED lights used as ceiling lights. The intensity of the light on the floor seems not as high as those frm typical downlights or ceiling lamps. That's why i'm only using them in my small toilets, cove-like lighting, and under the kitchen top cabinets for kitchen work-top illumination. Doc, I always find ur description of ur missus' home handywoman capabilities amusing. If i hv a missus like her, if she's willing to learn a bit, i'll teach her some handyman stuff. Can be a gd couple-bonding exercise....haha.

I was charged $28/metre for those strip type. They say normal price is $35/m, they quoted me $30/m, but reduced to $28/m. Same price for both types, whether there's an epoxy coating over the strip or bare strip. Epoxy coating just serves to shield the bulbs from water, cos LED bulbs cannot touch water. So if u're gg to use it, think abt the environment of usage. Both are abt same brightness, but the light frm the bare ones are visibly more attractive. Did you guys know that DAMA also carry T5 lights? Very cheap lor. $14 per 4ft length for white lights. I compared my costings and consumption based on these prices. I still chose LED cos I work a lot from home and cos my new plc is N-S facing, even in daytime, I will probably need to turn on some of my lights. So my lights are like at least 8-10hrs usage per day. For my usage, 2pcs of 100W transformers were needed and they charged me $30 per pc. Dunno whether kenna chopped or not. But there's this lighting shop at Geylang....they also carry LED lights but limited variety. The manager also not pushing LED as aggressively as others. He says his reason is that he feels LED lighting for home use is still a new technology, he wants to test the lights in his shop first, see how long they take before failure, then recommend to his customers if proven to be reliable. Dunno whether smoking me or not la, but his normal PLC downlights currently got promo, so my ID brought me there to buy. I only needed 2. $39.80 for 2 x 18W PLC downlights. I must qualify that my LED purchase was a bit impulsive but I think overall, I'll save on my PUB bills, and that's gd enough for me. I cannot stand seeing a big PUB bill on a monthly basis. Can you guys imagine 1 person in a 3rm flat, paying $100-$115 on PUB monthly? I also dunno whr my usage comes from. Definitely not aircon, cos before I installed aircon, bill was oredi $90+ to $100 per mth.

neubie:- yes, brightness is exactly the same. the place i bought the LEDs frm had equivalents lined up next to the LEDs for u to compare. they also hooked the lights up to 2 meters to measure the wattage that the lights were consuming. dexufto:- good point. i forgot about tt one. A 1m strip of LEDs would have quite a number of little LED bulbs. I dunno hw much wattage they consume. But for downlights and fluorescent, LEDs are definitely way way lower in consumption. A typical halogen downlight would consume abt 35W. PLC would be 18W. Typical LED downlights will have either 3 or 4 LED bulbs in 1 downlight. Each LED bulb taking 0.5W, so max. is 2W. In that respect, LED downlight definitely still consumes much less. as for fluorescent lighting, they had 2 set up. One using T8, another using LED bulbs. Again, with the watt-meter, the LED was consuming only one-quarter of what the T8 was consuming. so depending on usage, LEDs might or might not save on PUB bills. But one also has to take into account replacement costs. LED bulbs have a much longer lifespan than any other type of bulbs popularly used now. Or at least that's what a lot of lighting ppl say.

guess wat guys..... i changed all the T5s in my original design to strips of LEDS. So much cooler and consumption is so much lower. difference in price, easily earn back in PUB bills over a period of 1yr or less. if anybody wants the contacts for LED strips, gimme a buzz...

Thanks. Today is only the 1st day for electrical wiring. But my wall still haven't hack. So electrician can't do much today also. He can only do the hall and kitchen. Haha....I have less than 2 mths. Lighting plan was conceived together with ID. Only the grouping of lights and switches were decided by me. Yea, my laminates are only for 1 bedroom. Galvanised? Good. That'll keep rust away. i also nd wrought iron gate cos my current one is super old. its those 2-pc aluminium with metal rods running vertically and a metal plate running across in the middle. But seems like every well-known gate company has bad reviews. CNS, Wellmax, Ho Ho. Dunno about Sentat though. Everything weekend newspaper also got advertise. I've heard abt $300+ WI gates and since my ID is charging me $580, i told him to strike it out. use the funds to change windows for the whole house. WI gate, if i still have budget, i'll source myself. if no more budget, then next time then change together with the main door. Hope your gate turns out well.

actually, u dun need to build feature wall in order to install a soundbar. 1 way is to mount the soundbar directly onto your actual wall. this way, the cables will be seen and loose. To "hide" them, u can get ur electrician or contractor to run a small trunking up, down, or sideways, whichever way ur electrical power is coming from, and keep the wires inside. cheapest way. if u're mounting ur TV directly onto the wall, better still. position the soundbar below the TV, tie the cables together with the TV cables and use those plastic cable organisers to contain all the cables within 1 round plastic tubing. Can see the tubing, but at least everything is neat and tidy. the other way is to ask ur contractor to build a gypsum board over your wall. i'm sure the wall where u're mounting the TV has beams at the top and at least 1 of the sides yes? build a gypsum board within these beams so u get a flat, level wall. mount both the TV and soundbar on the gypsum board and run all the cable behind the gypsum board. Walah! Clean wall look without the high cost of feature walls. Gypsum board is cheap.

Tks dexufto. I haven't decided yet whether to have a T-Blog or not. I'm not much of a photo-taker you see. Today's already the 3rd day of hacking and i didn't even take a single photo of the hacking...haha. Just to share, my 3D drawings went very very well. PTL! Nothing major to change at all. And I was very very happy with what I saw. We also finished selecting my materials today (drove so much today I felt like a taxi-driver...lol) and everything we chose is as close as possible to the colours rendered in the 3D drawings. Only the living floor tiles are a little different. Hope the effect turns out nice. Tomorrow will be on site for the electrician's initial laying of wiring. My first look of my place after all the hacking...lol. Thanks for the offer of Pergo contact, but I've already given my word to Quick-Step that I'll be using their laminates for my bedroom flooring. David is coming tmr morning with the samples for my ID and I to choose. My flr area's pretty small anyway. Only about 150 sq feet. Thanks again. Your reno looks like progressing very well. But the wrought iron gate seems a little pricey? $650? My ID quoted me $580 and I found $300+ ones. I also know about those $100+ ones from CNS. Hollow and "rust-able" I heard.