Chunky Monkey

I agree with Aiky. Well articulated. I couldn't have done better.

ms white, over time I think you will truly appreciate what a realistic and practical this decision is. I have seen too many home owners sacrifcing one bedroom to build their dream walk-in wardrobes, and then when their children came along, they practically had not enough space, and had to spend more money to carve out another bedroom. And in so doing, become so resentful because they'd actually already gotten used to a big MBR, and was so upset having to give it up. Your decision shows your wisdom and that's remarkable. Can't wait to read more updates to your blog and see more photos.

My black leather chair's from Ikea and I am very happy with it. Been using it for 3 years now. Still very good. Height's adjustable, and I can rock it. There's a lever at the bottom of the seat to make the adjustments. You can lock the back of the seat, if you don't wish to rock the back piece. Lumbar support is pretty OK too.

Hi strawberry pear, when we were selecting PLC lights, we noticed that PLC bulbs are either installed vertically or horizontally. Basically, there are 2 different designs. It does seem like those bulbs that are installed horizontally would be more difficult to change when they are burnt out. But in actual fact, as proved by a staff at National Electric (in Geylang), she showed us that if we squeeze the bulb on the left and right of the bottom of the bulb where the connectors are & pull out horizontally, it's actually pretty easy to remove & install without breaking the bulb.

We have a void (airwell) which we are reinstating. The previous owner bought additional GFA from SLA, to get permission to seal up the airwell. We felt that it not only cuts out the light and air circulation to the basement, it was not maximising the livable space in the house. So we hired a PE to get approval from BCA to reinstate a void that is half of the original size. It took us awhile to decide how big a void we wanted. Admittedly, it took us 2 submissions because we did have a change of heart during the process. Anyway, steel rods were drilled into the walls and then a cast made of wood was installed, and the workmen poured cement/concrete mix into this cast, to get a new concrete slab as shown in the picture. We will have to wait a few days before the cast and temporary structure under this new slab is removed. It's nothing more than waiting for the concrete to set. Then the tilers can commence to lay the outdoor tiles in the patio, build the kerb, and we can install the grills around the void. I can't wait for this to happen. I think this is the most exciting part of the house, in terms of unique work to be done.

10 Nov 2007 DH and I went to our place to check on the progress. The living room's almost completed, short of a few tiles by the side of the patio door. The tilers had to abide by the 1 pm end time on Saturdays, so they'd no choice but to wait till Monday to finish the job. To the right of the living room is the balcony; overlooking the swimming pool. Beyond the living room is one side of the patio.

The rule of thumb in deciding whether to tile a section of the kitchen wall, is whether there will be water, condensation, oil, fumes, etc. You will need to tile when you want an area that is easy to clean. For example, I initially thought I didn't have to tile the wall behind my 2 fridges. And actually told my contractor that. Then I consulted my mother and got a scolding. She said that over time, the dust accumulation at the back of the fridge (I am not someone who will keep pulling the fridges out to clean) will darken plastered walls. And the heat from the back of the fridges will 'seal' the dust in. Whereas with tiles, it's easy to just use a scouring cream to scurb off. To me, this makes absolute sense. To save money, I do not get my contractor to tile entire walls. I make very clear indications on the walls where cabinets will be, for example wall hung cabinets, and so he will only tile the part of the wall that is exposed. Approximately 850 mm up from the floor (counter top height is usually 865mm), and then he only needs to tile 600mm of wall up, and the rest if just plastered walls. The waste of money is when contractors just any old how tile the whole wall and charge you for it.

Oh? You're on semantics here, shawn. Colourless has more than one meaning. It also means not colourful. Thanks.

Surprisingly, another 2 tilers have started tiling the master bathroom, and I was happy to see that they have not forgotten about the change in height required for my mosaic strip.

As promised by our main contractor, the tilers started tiling our living room. Before today, I'd not noticed that living room floor tiles are to be tiled starting from the main door. Our main con said that that's the best starting point, so when we open our main door, the view is of nice, big, regular sized tiles. I also noticed that the tilers slip in between the tiles little strips of paper (reminds me of litmus test paper). I am actually puzzled what the paper is for, but am willing to hazard a guess that the strips of paper is to keep the tiles apart, to make the grout lines. Here's a pic showing the little strips of paper slipped in between the tiles This picture was taken at noon. I believe the whole living room is now fully tiled. Yipee! Credit goes to my DH. I was the reluctant (read: chicken) one.

Ikea - value for money. Takashimaya - plush. And of course, expensive.

9 November 2007 Today was a nerve-wrecking, nail-biting kind of day ... only because we started out being very unclear if we really needed ethernet LAN connection throughout the house. (some of you might have noticed my question in the ethernet thread) We were originally advised to use HomePlug from Aztec, which required the electrician to run powerpoints using the same phase of electrical supply. Then over dinner one night, an old school friend, who's the boss of an office networking and IT solutions company, prompted us to think about running LAN cables throughout the house. This came as a HUGE surprise to me, a sudden requirement that I was unsure if it was still in time to be executed, without destroying some new partitions and false ceilings, or worse re-hacking some walls again. I was scared and very clearly, I was a very reluctant participant in this .... Our dear friend made time to visit our place and explained to my DH and I what is needed to be done, and drew diagrams for us how the networking cables would be connected. We were told if we wanted a few points on one level, we would need to install a switch (like a splitter) but we couldn't see where we could possibly hide or store the switch, so we just asked the electrician to run single wires to the hub in the basement. We were very surprised that the electrician already had a whole rim of Cat 5e wires in the house. He said his boss delivered the wires together with all the wires. Perhaps he had an idea that we might need it. Clever man. But wait, why didn't he suggest LAN connections to us before?! How strange! Anyway, once we understood how the LAN cabling would be done, we were relieved that it wouldn't cost much damage to the finished works in the attic. It's not an ideal situation but it's something that can be done, and at least once we get it done now, we shouldn't have to worry about it in years to come. I tell myself this is all meant to be .... I could well have dinner with my old school friend after the reno's done but we happened to meet before all the false ceilings are installed. So it definitely was something that's meant to be .....

They are ceramic tiles and not laminates. It's about $5 psf. Not for the faint hearted.

I am curious what is the colour of your bulbs in PLC lights. White, cool white or warm? And why?

Do people still run LAN cables these days?

We need to save costs where we can. The reno budget has burst! DH did ask why the old flooring was not protected. Main con said they will be grinding the parquet and then repolish it, so it does not make a difference. And if any piece of parquet should be damaged, he will replace and repair.

On the children's floor, we have combined 2 smaller rooms to form one big room, to be the Playroom. The dividing wall was hacked off, and the contractor used bricks to seal up one of the doorways. With the dividing wall removed, it exposed a thick strip where the old wall used to be. So my main con will be filling this area with additional parquet strips.

I see. That means you will have a total of 4 rooms. So instead of system 4, I think you should go for 2 sets of System 2. I will only go for System 4, if at any one time, only 2 aircons will be used. I do not encourage a System 4, if 3 units or all 4 units will be switched on. If you have a party and switch on all 4 units, I believe you will strain your compressor and it won't be long before you will need to change. Cavaet - I am only speaking from experience. Do get an aircon company to advise you properly.

I managed to take some pictures today, whilst DH was busy with a sub con describing what we want for wrought iron railings. This is a picture of the living room floor that has been levelled, and my main con says he will get his workers to start tiling on Friday. It seems that the electrician still has some overhead works in the living room. I am not perturbed by the delay. I have seen how fast the tilers work, so I know by the Friday afternoon, the living room tiles would be up. The picture below shows the wood-like tiles that I will be using for my kitchen, attic as well as patio area. I asked my main con about cutting the tiles and he told me there won't be a problem with cutting the tiles smaller. In fact, he will be cutting the tiles thinner in halves to make the skirting.

Congratulations! Meyer Road is truly prime East Coast. It has TOP already, or maybe not officially. I have a friend who moved in over the weekend.

Thanks for the heads up! I will have to take note of that when I pop over later! Thanks so much!!

7 Nov 2007 Today is the day we decide on the tiling pattern for our living room. DH and I have been using Powerpoint to toy with different ways of laying the floor tiles, and it's between laying them diagonally or just laying them straight. As for our kitchen, which we will be using long wood-like ceramic, we pretty much have nailed a pattern that we want. DH thinks we should not lay them like bricks, which is plain and too predictable. I was playing with the herringbone patten but it seems like such a challenge to lay it. And DH thinks the herringbone pattern will only look good for small parquet, and not long tiles. DH reckons the tiler could just cut irregular lengths of the tiles and so lay them randomly. I reminded DH that "random" to contractors is like asking them to "any old how lay the tiles" and it may come out looking like a mess "rojak". So, I painstakingly created a pattern that looks random but in actual fact it's not. We will try the layout on the spot today, to see if it will actually look nice. Wish us luck!

Just want to add that, before you go and buy yourself a new door knob or get a lock set to replace, please measure the width of your door frame, and mark out the position of the metal plate on the frame. I guess HDB door frames are all the same size but you never know. If you can, also take a photo of this part of the door frame to show the guy at the shop.

Go to Geylang. The store that I always go to is Thye Seng Hardware Enterprise. The address is 122 Sims Avenue (near Lor 15). I have been buying from this store for many years now. Many contractors go there for stuff. Prices are good too. For example, a stainless steel lockset only cost me $20. And those magnetic door stopper only $1.80. These are 2004 prices.