Chunky Monkey

Yum Cha Restaurant gets my thumbs up too. I have my dim sum there every weekend. Except during this period where Temple Street is inaccessible by car.

Note: If you have young children, the recommendation is to have it wall mounted, and away from their itchy fingers. Else, suffer the consequences of them scratching your lovely TV screens.

I totally agree. One less concrete wall, means one less location to place/build up cabinets. And we're talking about a whole storeroom here.

10 mm is thick enough. Some contractors use 12 - 15mm. But beware, the thicker the glass, the heavier it is, and you need to make sure the clamps are heavy duty enough to support the glass.

I did it once before. Makes a study room look really, really good. Go to Jimmy's Textiles at Tg Katong Complex. They have a good range of colours. The pulling system these days are better, compared to when I had my wooden blinds made about 10 years ago. At that time, the blinds were supported by strings on opposite ends, and this caused the middle part of the blinds to warp. Nowadays, you get thick ribbon-like material as the supports, and there are now supports right in the middle of the blinds too. And the pulling systems are stronger and smoother too. The real con is the cleaning part. As with all venetian blinds, it collect dust. You will need the patience of an angel to wipe piece by piece. Or use a vacuum cleaner.

Fantasy Waterbed is a very well established company. A shame your problem occured but I would put it down as CNY rush that resulted in your wooden frame being sold to someone else. I would hesitate to adopt a mantra of not pre-ordering in future. There are just some stuff that you need to. No "one size fits all" approach to life.

Not exactly princess themed furniture, but pink and extremely cute and unique. www.happykidsasia.com Happy Kids Design Pte Ltd 25 Leonie Hill Road #01-04 The Grangeford Singapore 239196 Tel: 6235 8221 I received a brochure with pictures of their furniture, and realised that Happy Kids also sells the room make-over sticker kits I bought from the UK. I do not know if they sell the princess wall stickers, but you can find the princess wall sticker pictures at http://www.funtosee.com/product/asp/ProdID...031/af/page.htm When I was deciding how to decorate my children's room, I was advised by a dear friend to think about the colour scheme of the walls vis-a-vis bedsheets and furniture. If it's not thought out properly, the whole room can be rather bizarre looking.

Oh dear! Sorry! So sotong!

I do not recommend flat roofs. We live in a tropical country and have frequent rains. You will need excellent waterproofing to start off with, and that alone is no guarantee of water leakage. And I speak from experience. The waterproofing company will give a 10 year guarantee but when water seeps into your living area, the inconvenience and damage to your household contents are not covered by the insurance. Pitched roof is still the best. And don't even make flat car porch roofs. make sure there's a gradient. And water will still collect on aircon ledges. If you want to have aircon ledges, make sure they are over-hanging the exterior walls of your house. The bottom of any flat roofs/ledges must not be the internal of the house, if you want a problem free house, with respect to water and roofing.

Austscreens are made of acrylic and enamelled aluminium, if I am not wrong, and have top and bottom tracks for sliding closure. The "normal" glass doors that we see these days, are frameless shower doors made of tempered glass and they are secured by stainless steel U channels or stainless steel wall and floor clamps. Austscreens are lightweight and are sometimes preferred because they are safer when there are small children. And Austscreens are also more affordable. Added: Oh, looks like Austscreens have widened their product offering and make glass doors too! Looking at the pictures on their website, it does not look very different from those made by glass merchants. It may boil down to just brand name ... It would be interesting to hear from those who have installed the frameless glass shower screens in their homes.

For most home owners, using CPF to pay installments in full is not an issue. CPF will give approval up to valuation of property OR purchase price, whichever is lower. In the current property market, especially in the HDB sector, buyers pay about $50,000 above valuation. CPF does not recognise this premium paid by buyers. It is only willing to approve up to valuation price. That's why buyers must not be too earnest and pay too much above valuation price OR be prepared to cough up the price difference in cash. It's as simple as that. I am not familiar with HDB transactions, if there are stamp duties and legal fees. But in the private property sector, one would have to factor in about 3.5% of purchase price for these costs. CPF can be used for stamp duties and legal fees, but it would mean that the quantum loaned by CPF/bank can no longer be the maximum. As for the couple who refinanced their loan from HDB to a private bank loan, I can't believe that they didn't get proper advice from a mortgage loan bank officer, before they commit themselves. Banks always give in principle approval, and customers will have the committment letter to read in detail what is paid by CPF and what is paid by cash, in the loan servicing. Borrowers/Home owners must understand that CPF will account for the interest due to the CPF withdrawn if the money was left with CPF. That's why banks request for CPF Withdrawal Statments, which shows the interest accrued.

Oh! There's been a change of dates!

IMO, bamboo blinds (plus point is that it's very affordable) trap alot of dirt and is difficult to clean. In a very heavy downpour, rain can still seep through. And over time, look bad due to wear and tear. What I did for my mother's home a couple of years ago, was to install a clear PVC roller blind. It does however, cut out alot of air flow. (note: a terrace house and not a HDB balcony). I suspect however, that over time, whatever you choose to install, you will end up not using much of it. Reason being ... the hassle of putting down the blinds before you leave your home, or forgetting to put down the blinds before you leave your home, and the rain comes pouring in. If you're using Chengai timber, they're going to last you 5 - 7 years anyway. (maybe more, since it's not directly exposed in the harsh sunlight and rain). So I think the best thing to do, is to do nothing, and enjoy your open balcony.

How was your housewarming, Phantom? So sorry to have missed it. There was no way I could have made it, as last Saturday and Sunday were all about unpacking. And I am still unpacking! I hope to make it for CNY! This thread has digressed a long way .... and I still hadn't found the page that last touched on your housewarming! LOL!

Hoe Kee at Tg Katong is really good. Product knowledge is strong amongst the staff, and they have the best inventory too. Just yesterday, I realised that I am missing one toilet roll holder. My helpful main contractor went to Hoe Kee IMM to look for an additional piece. IMM Hoe Kee didn't have it. But when I directed him to Hoe Kee Tg Katong, the staff knew exactly what he was looking for. Just an update for all of you, the family behind Hoe Kee is aware of the damage the folks at Jln Besah are causing. I think they also know there is nothing that they can do about it. I call it the bad apple in the family is running the Jln Besah store. Just write this place off, and don't recommend anyone to go there.

You can actually find Doors' Plus in the Yellow Pages. Here is his contact anyway ... 6296 8801. applefreak, Doors' Plus will custom make the whole door, and finish it up very nicely.

I have noticed that there are many home owners who are also pet lovers. So I decided to post this to share with all of you out there. For those of you who have been following my reno T-blog, I'd mentioned that I am using Doors' Plus to supply and install the doors in my new home, which I will be moving into TOMORROW (!). The boss of Doors' Plus is a young chap, who's always happy and smiley. Such a joy working with him. Anyway, he was at my place last week supervising some works, and we chatted about how he started his business yada yada .... And I asked if business has been brisk (it has) and he told me that he will soon be making Pet Doors. What are Pet doors?! I don't own a pet but I knew what he was saying. A bedroom door with a flip opening at the bottom for your pets to go to the loo! DIY. For those of you interested to have these made, do go to James from Doors' Plus. I have no information as to when exactly this will be available but I thought to post here quickly, so those making plans for your beloved pets, can think about installing a Pet Door. All the best.

23rd January 2008 Today is the eve of our big move. Although our removal package consists of movers packing everything for us, we decided to take the opportunity to go through our belongings, and to throw out the junk that we hadn't used in ages. The mantra is, if we hadn't missed it the last few years, we aren't going to miss it in the next few years! Some things are cutting really close. For instance, my WIW has just been completed. The sub-contractor engaged by my wardrobe designer literally just installed the pole system and sliding doors yesterday. Here are the pictures, finally, of my WIW. If you look hard enough into one of the pictures, you will be able to see a telephone set on the floor. Use that as a reference to judge the length of the WIW. I can't recall if it's 6m or 6.5m??? Wall hung ironing board with cover. I haven't adjusted the height of the hanging rod. It will be adjusted upwards, to make way for the ironing board. We wanted to make full use of the 3.3m height ceiling, and hence took advantage of the pole system to give us maximum hanging space on one side of the WIW. No visible in this picture, there is actually another hanging bar right under the ceiling. And how out of reach would that be, you may ask. Have no worry, the rolling ladder hasn't been installed yet. It will only be ready tomorrow. Can you imagine the installation will take place when movers are in the house?! But such is life ... we can't always work things out to perfection. Other views of the WIW The stack of drawers with round handles can be locked with a single key. Like those you see in boutiques, where all the drawers in the same column are locked at once with one key. My designer had never done this before, but I insisted on it, and he sourced it for me. I feel something like this, should be a standard for any type of wardrobes. The glass installers also just installed my frameless shower screens/doors. As I had refused to have U channels and silicon seals (major peeve is the discoloured/blackened silicon over the years), the glass installers took a longer time to prepare the tempered glass. Here are a couple of photos showing where stainless steel clamps would be, to hold on to the glass on the floor, as well as on the wall. Seeing them finally installed made me really happy.

Looking forward to you, renopooh, furnishing your t-blog (pun intended) I noted your comment about having loads of storage ... thought that it's noteworthy to mention here, something that I read about when I was planning my very own renovation 6 months ago. A friend gifted me a book about storage, and a message from the book got stuck in my head >> One can never have too much storage. A well tidied house with lots of storage looks wonderful, compared to a house with loads of ID works done, and not enough storage.

Hi BunBun - yes, my sink is an undermount. The support for the sink is the kitchen cabinet under it.

I think quality and aesthetically pretty curtains come with a price. So, it depends on what you're looking for. Here are my recommendations:- a) Jimmy Textiles (they buy materials in bulk, and hence are cheaper) b) Yours Furnishing at River Valley. Managed by a bunch of young people. Very enterprising, and they give value added service of mixing and matchin for you. But need to bargain. They are a favourite shop with expats.

I highly recommend that you go to Doors' Plus.

Congratulations to all the brides or brides to be at Hotel Intercontinental. Although I have not had the good fortune of being a wedding guest at the hotel, I have dined many times at Man Fu Yuan, which I believe will be preparing the food for weddings. Food's very good!

Here's an updated picture of my kitchen larder and wall hung cabinets above my twin refrigerators. I had requested for a change in door film from translucent to opaque. I really wanted this, because I don't think I can deal with a 'wayang' burst of colours behind the glass doors.

Thank you, lifestyle. 20th January 2008 4 more days, and it's our home removal day. The date's fixed, and the movers are confirmed. We will be using Crown International for this move, even though it's only a local move. DH swears by them, and trusts no other company. All our big furniture will be disassembled, wrapped up for moving, and then unwrapped and reassembled. We have full confidence using them because they use cardboard to wrap up delicate furniture like sofa sets and wooden furtniture. And we will also have a complimentary 2 hours of handy man service the following Monday to hang pictures up for me. Our home renovations are almost completed. I say "almost" because my spray painted sliding doors have not been spray painted (athough they have already been fixed), my Kaba locks have not been installed, and my frameless shower screens have yet to be installed. I too have my wardrobe ladder outstanding as well. Yes, you are reading it right. We are installing wardrobe ladders because we have an extremely high ceiling, and we refused to waste the space up there. There will still be minor touch-up's here and there over the next couple of days ...