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designez

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Posts posted by designez

  3. Posted

    Anyone use Alpha Smart 18 heater before? Any comment abt this heater? Not sure is Alpha Smart 18 / 707 Princeton is better.. Anyone use 707 Princeton? How is it?

    We have a Alpha Smart 18E! It is the one without a pump because our waterpressure is quite high. We had it for over a year now and are happy with it. It looks great and came with a rainshower and separate showerhead.

    We did have a minor problem but that was fixed easily:

    http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58706

    I looked at the 707 Princeton as well because of the brand, but thought the design looked a bit cheap in reality...

  4. Posted · Edited by designez

    :good: Nice reno. Mind to share with me the lamination floor company? The lamination you only do it on bedroom. How much per sq ft? Thanks!! ;)

    Our contractor arranged the floor but it is from Berry Floor:

    http://www.berryalloc.com/global/en

    We laminated the living room and all bedrooms. Price was S$4.80 per square ft. I am not sure which company my contractor engaged but WoodCulture carries the brand in SG:

    http://www.woodculture.com.sg/

  6. Posted

    Our Alpha Smart 18E Instant Water Heater stopped working last week after only 1,5 years and the water pressure was getting low. We called Alpha Service (67478300) and a friendly local repair uncle came by.

    Fortunately no electrical parts were broken, just the water filter was clogged! The Alpha 18E has a safety feature so it does not turn on when the water pressure is too low.

    After he cleaned the filters everything worked fine and water pressure was powerful again :good:

  9. Posted · Edited by designez

    I am looking for mosquito nets for doors & windows that can be slided or opened easily. Anybody know if somebody sells them in SG? I would like to have fresh air without the insects...

    These are very common in Europe but haven't seen them here!

    9ef39bee7d27ac9852e6f37945c982909d4015db.jpg

    11765.jpg

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    890f003d0ad37c3a956136ca68540e0d_view.jpg

    If they are not for sale in Singapore I might bring some in next time I am in Europe. Let me know if anybody is interested in these things as well.

    Thanks in advance! :yamseng:

  12. Posted · Edited by designez

    Hi designez! Thanks for sharing!

    Would like to check with you regarding your open kitchen concept.. Do you cook frequently? Does this "pollute" the living room in a way?

    Yes we cook quite frequently! You can smell it all the way in the living room but we just open all the kitchen windows and the smell is gone soon. We don't cook oily stuff though...

    Hi, can I ask your kitchen is it the long rectangular type? How do you install your kitchen door?

    Our kitchen has more of an L-shape and there is no kitchen door!

  15. Posted

    - Plaster the whole house rockstone wall/ceiling (Just realise that it cost $2-3k to plaster the whole unit, faint.... :dunno: ..

    Yes, the plastering of our entire flat cost around S$2,700. Seems like the normal price for this sort of thing... However, your walls & ceiling look to be in pretty good condition! Check with your ID/contractor if plastering is really needed.

  19. Posted

    Yes we managed to stay under the S$35k. Our ID mentioned that we could have done it a little cheaper if we would have gone for a package deal, but we are picky and wanted to select our own finishings and materials. :paint:

    In the end the price difference would not have been much... The custom-made stuff is most expensive and we tried to avoid that as much as possible.

  20. Posted · Edited by designez

    Thanks! The dryer vent is on the bottom front so we usually leave the cabinet door open when it is drying.

    Note that you need to get a CONDENSER dryer to have it under the sink or in a closed space! The water vapour is collected in a removable tank and does not require an external vent. Only heat is released - all moisture is contained within the unit. We found a condenser dryer actually quite convenient because it doesn't make the air in the kitchen very humid.

    BTW we got the Electrolux EDC67550W and are happy with it.

  21. Posted · Edited by designez

    One of the nicest HDB units I have seen! Better than a lot of condos!

    No need to do a lot on the walls or flooring. Concentrate your budget on lighting. For the windows I recommend Venetian blinds which will allow you to control the natural day light nicely.

  22. Posted · Edited by designez

    Finally found some time to update and hopefully inspire other forum users. Renotalk helped me a lot so I thought it is only fair to contribute too! :yamseng:

    We bought our 35-year-old resale flat in the middle of last year. Good price for a great location (Queenstown). Old-school HDB 4-Room (4I) around 84 sqm in 'original' condition. We really wanted to have a no-frills renovation with a budget of around S$35K and get the basics right. We already had a lot of furniture and stuff so storage was also a priority.

    Floorplan

    1zztmk2.jpg

    Original State

    5v80vl.jpg

    We kept the cost down by hacking only two walls: the wall between living room & kitchen (for an open kitchen concept) and wall between the two bedrooms to create a storage room.

    Renovation

    10eq7it.jpg

    The floor was still in good condition so we did a laminate overlay (Berryfloor) in living room & bedrooms. Ceramic tiles overlay in the kitchen & bathrooms as well. The kitchenwall was painted (washable paint) with black glass panels behind the stove, washbasin and sink.

    Final Result

    14ieb2a.jpg

    To save space we decided to put the washer & condens dryer under the kitchen sink. This is common in Europe but not so often seen in Singapore. It looks good and gives us extra kitchen workspace as well.

    The lighting was kept minimal and warm: three LED spots on each side of the living room in a small L-box and indirect lighting that we could move around easily. Also added some square direct lights on the ceiling in case we need more light but we hardly use them.

    Dark wooden venetian blinds in the living room, aluminium blinds in the kitchen and dark grey curtains in the bedrooms.

    We hired Thomas Khor from NW Interior Design (93905679). He did an almost identical flat of our friend in the same block so we knew his expertise. He was great to work with, honest and very pro-active. Of course we had to keep track of all the details during the project but I think that is only natural. It helped him a lot that we knew what we wanted from the beginning and collected inspiration images to show him. I am a designer myself so we could also sketch out some of our ideas. However, I did not want the stress and headache to do the whole thing by myself.

    I was happy with how he and the aircon guys planned and worked together to integrate the aircon trunking nicely in our flat. The Mitsubishi Inverter compressor & units are great: very quiet and energy efficient. The carpentry, flooring and plastering are good quality too.

    The renovation started on 26 September 2011 and by the beginning of November 2011 everything was done, ahead of schedule! All in all a good experience. There are always things to stress about during renovation. But I think we managed to avoid the biggest pitfalls by following friends' recommendations & reading Renotalk! :good:

    Please feel free to ask me any questions. More than happy to help out others here!

  24. Posted · Edited by designez

    Parquet will warp too after repeated water contact! The base material of laminate is actually very compressed so it will not absorb water easily. But water can cause the top layer of the laminate to "bubble". This will break after some time...

    BTW Berryfloor has a collection of water-resistant laminate called HydroPlus:

    http://www.berryfloor.com/collection/riviera

    Woodculture carries Berryfloor in Singapore:

    http://www.woodculture.com.sg/

    Overlay on stone/marble/ceramic floors is not a problem if you don't have direct sunlight shining on your floor (i.e. small windows like in old HDB). They will put a thin layer of absorbing foam. The only area that needs some hacking is the skirting but that is relatively cheap.

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