Chunky Monkey

I have a friend who lives on the ground floor of an old building along River Valley Road, and behind a bus stop. So you can imagine the noise of the buses screeching to a stop and pulling away every few minutes. To tackle the problem, he refitted his windows with Best View windows. According to him, it works like a charm.

I just want to mention that if your carpenter is good, he can make the trimmings (better known as edging) very thin i.e 1 mm and makes the whole cabinet look classy. And if you choose a wood grained laminate, the doors can look like solid wood. Well, not really but you get the drift. So far, I know only Lam Chuan (the laminate manufacturer) offers edging that matches the laminate colours. Other lami suppliers do not. I spoke with my kitchen designer and he said that if I insist on having edging that is tone on tone with the lami, he'll have to make sure he orders the lami from Lam Chuan. Hope this info helps those who are deciding on cabinets ....

Roller blinds are indeed very low maintenance, because when it's not in use, it's rolled up in this roller (what a tongue twister there) channel away from view, dust, etc. Being stored away means it does not gather dust like drapes. And it will also retain its colour best because it's stored away from direct sunlight, unlike drapes. You only clean the fabric with a damp cloth that's squeezed very dry, you probably only need to do this once a year for Spring cleaning. Once in awhile, you can just vacuum it. But honestly, I wouldn't be too worried about it if it's not vacuumed all year round! I can't comment on the cost comparison between blinds and drapes, because I don't remember. If you choose to have a motorised roller blind, controlled by a wireless remote control (like the aircon remote control), there is added cost. Roman blinds on the other hand, is harder to manage. It's prettier in dressing up the windows of course, because when it's pulled up, it has a cascading effect i.e. 3 folds. Which means the window is always partially covered from the top. Whereas for a roller blind, it can be rolled completely away. For anyone considering roman blinds (it's great for bay windows, bedroom windows), make sure you ask for the more expensive Japanese mechanism. I have used a cheapo brand from Taiwan before, and it was so hard to draw the blinds up. I also want to mention that there are 4 metal strips that run across the roman blinds. These give the roman blinds the weight to pull the fabric straight. Over time, I find that if you have very posh and heavy material for your roman blinds, these metal strips will warp, and your roman blinds will never be the same again i.e lopsided.

I need some help here. I'm selecting doors for my home. I'll tell you what I DON'T want, so you can tell me what I should choose for my bedroom doors. 1) I don't want hand painted nyatoh doors. I believe this is nyatoh solid door that most contractors paint on. These will always come with classic design on them. I want a flat surface, and from my research, this should not be done because the door will warp. 2) And because I want a smooth surface, am I right to say that I am left with either a laminate on ply or a wood veneer on ply?? Have I got it right this far? Please tell me if it's otherwise. What is the cost of a veneer standard door? 3) If I want a glass sliding door with wooden frame, to support the glass, the door maker will use solid nyatoh, correct? Look forward to your replies!

I always buy my lights from Balestier Rd. Wholesaler. Very cheap about $18. Don't ask me specs, I am clueless on the technicals. The shop name is Chan something something. Red signboard.

It also depends on how high your ceiling is, and how much you want your particular room to be litted up, and if you will have indirect wall lights, floor lamps. But let's say you ignore all the wall lights, floor lamps which are what gives you mood lighting. Just the bare ceiling down lights ... I would suggest that it's better to err on the conservative side, which is to have more than less. Make sure you stand in that room and visualise how your lifestyle in that room would be, for example, where would you sit to read? Where would you sit to use your PC, etc. Once you get this planned out, you will know how much light you want. When I was still single, I bought a 2 br apartment and I told my ID I didn't want ANY downlights at all, because I like a bare ceiling. Mind you, also NO flourescent lights on the ceiling as well. What he did then was to give me a long wall light in a simple rectangular indent. This was my main source of lights. What I did was to install small low ground recessed wall lights for my living room. In this present home, I have 4 single down lights for the dining room, and 4 single down lights for the living room. Please use even numbers of downlights. The important thing I find is that you need to get the electrician to wire your light controls properly. You must not have a situation where one light switch turns on and off ALL the lights in that space. What I do is to have 2 lights wired to one control. So I can determine how much light I want in that space, at a particular point in time. In my mother's home, it's also 4 single downlights in each space. But the contractor advised larger watts because the space is very big. But we requested for 1 switch to operate one light. For example, when the maid is in her corner folding clothes or ironing, turning on one light to do her chores is just nice. She does not have to turn on ALL the lights. Likewise, when my mum's watching TV, she uses only one light to save electricity. It's important to get enough, so you won't have shadows cast onto your furniture. You don't need an ID to do this. Ask your contractor or electrician. He would have done enough houses to advise you anyway. Oh, one more thinking. I always buy downlights that have a tempered glass. Easy maintenance. No dust inside the lamp. You should also decide whether you want white light or yellow light. Sorry, if my terminology is all messed up. I speak as a layman.

I'm wondering how come the decision was only between veneer trimming and ABS trimming. What about PVC trimming? It gives round edges, doesn't it? And for longer lasting kitchen cabinet doors, postform is great because the veneer does not end at right angles, but fold inwards, so no chance of peeling. Classic Kitchen and Furniture use this method when they custom make their cabinets for customers.

Has anyone used the same tiles for bathroom flooring and wall, and used your contractor to apply anti-slip on the bathroom floor?

Where can I buy wardrobe accessories such as belt pull out, tie pull out, valet pole? I searched the archives and noticed that it has not been asked before.

I think I know the answer to this problem (1) Use chaulk or vinyl spackling to fill up the cracks (2) Apply 2 coats of Nippon Sealer (3) Paint wall again To fix the window seepage .... now this is a tough one. It's obvious that the manufacture of the windows are not of good quality. It is not water tight. You need a good seal casement window from Best View. I think they are the best in the market for sealing out noise and rain.

I just want to share this info. For those of you who are planning to do a mega renovation to your landed property, you might want to get the SCV contractor to conceal all your SCV wiring and points, and do it for every room in the house. The marginal cost per point is not much.

Thank you! This forum is proving to be very very useful! I'm so glad I found you all!

Where can I get drain covers, like those used surrounding swimming pools? The plastic, flexible ones?

I won't be doing my renovation just as yet, but am spending loads of time researching for materials, and decide what I want. Thought I'd share my decision process in choosing a glass door for external space:- Things to consider:- 1) Do you want a fixed partition or a moveable partition? Bear in mind that whilst a fixed glass partition is alot cheaper, you need to understand the air flow of your home. Glass will let the light pass through, so that's not a problem. What's often neglected is the consideration of airflow. 2) The size of the area that you want this glass determines what type of door control mechanism you need. Common mistake is the use of heavy wood, and the rolling mechanism is not strong enough to move the wood/glass panels after awhile. (mistake at my sister's house a few years ago) 3) Do you want frameless glass doors or are framed glass doors acceptable. Huge cost difference, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is, frameless glass doors are good for internal spaces. The smallest gap between the "best" maker of frameless glass panels is 4mm. This means that if you use a cheapo contractor for this, the gap will be larger. Think about the aircon cool air escaping, the noise from exterior sources, noise from rain etc. 4) I have found out from Dorma, the German door control expert (they have the best operating door mechanisms for glass panels, be it sliding, swing or folding doors that the cost is NOT on the glass but the mechanisms that are made to operate the doors smoothly. From Dorma, there are 3 types of folding mechanisms, and these are all seen at shopping malls:- a) Bi-fold; where panels of glass are attached to one another, and you only need to push from the outmost piece to manuvouer the panels to open/close b) Individual panels; where you need to move panel by panel to open/close c) Telescopic; where one push from the outermost panel, creates a chain reaction to the rest of the panels, and depending on your force, each panel will move progressively in differing degree. Most banks and shops use the slide and park system, where each glass is a standalone. Slide each piece of glass one by one, and push them to a parking bay, and then they close the swing door to conceal the glass. No one should even think about using Dorma unless you have deep pockets. EACH glass panel is estimated to cost $1,500. This is a prorated cost. I found out alot about how these glass doors are to be installed and what are the considerations, but I won't go into detail. If you are really interested, bring your floor plan to a Dorma distributor and ask what sort of mechanism suits your space. 5) Although Dorma is elegant and very classy, because it is not water tight, I have no choice but to forgo the use of Dorma, well I think so, unless I can find a use of their services elsewhere in the house. Instead, I found the best alternative. It is NOT frameless but it suits my needs for the garden space which I need to keep air out. The manufactuer is BestView http://www.window.sg/index.htm Click on the tiny round dots at the side of each picture to see the great flexibility of its mechanisms. It can operate as a sliding door and a casement swing out door! Hope this helps other forummers.

I don't know why I can't see the pictures ... I only see the "x" pizza boxes! I am guessing that you are all talking about the type of aluminium/alloy casement windows that can be manuvouered and slided to one side? I have read about them before; that they are waterproof, rustproof, able to cut out rain and noise

blackmango_juice, May I ask if you just laid the timber decking on your floor? No adhesive? What about water drainage? Does your timber decking have gaps in between or jointed? I need to create lay timber decking on 2 small plots of internal garden space, under a a void, and rain will surely come in. And I want one that is has zero or low maintenance. Thank you.

I am looking for a glass specialist, not just a glass maker but one who has the door control mechanisms (manual) that can operate glass panels manuall. I am looking for make frameless glass doors leading to my balcony. When I did my google search, I found Dormatic. They do mainly commercial store fronts as well as office building. I am sure they are expensive! http://www.dormatic.com.sg/manualprojectre...nualproject.htm I also found Yuen Mai Glass http://www.yuenmaiglass.com/ Has anyone used them before? More importantly, which glass merchant have the members of this forum used and you can recommend?

ahnah, since you've used Closet Design, can you share your decision making process as to what made you choose the parts you did? Any advice for me, i.e. what I must not do? TIA

Classic's quality is not questionable. What I find lacking though, is that they are very simple in their wardrobe design, as compared to their kitchen designs, which is actually their forte. When I saw their exhibits in their showroom, I realised they are not BIG on wardrobe accessories. For example, when I asked for a jewellery tray, they don't have. So I had to describe to them what I wanted i.e. a glass top, so I can see my jewellery pieces for ease of selection. They will have to custom make this for me. The only other wardrobe accessories they have is the tie rack, belt rack and trouser's rack. All of which I don't want > waste space. I much prefer to have them in drawers with custom made inserts to organise them, or create small chubby holes to store them.

Thank you, oonik grl and ahnah for your feedback. I went down to Closet Design to have a look-see, and brought a pamplet home. I was scrutinising the different components/modules that can be potentially used for my future wardrobe. I am more inclined to have the wood frame type as opposed to the alumininum type, as the latter is not suitable to have long drawers, which are ideal for undies, T-shirts etc, dividers for ties/belts etc. The question I have now is the space optimisation for my future master bedroom. I can either just have a straight-across L-R Reach-In-Wardrobe, or I can create a more boxy space to make a L shaped row of cabinets and enclosing it up as a Walk-In-Wardrobe. I need to see how much space I have, because I currently do have a king sized solid wood platform bed that I will be taking with me to my new home. I have also checked out Classic Kitchen & Furniture. An old trusted designer that I have used several times. I was very pleased when I saw the new designs that they have. I didn't think of going back to them because I'd thought they only have boxed wardrobes. I am very likely to use them again because their finishing is superb. Expensive i.e $230 psf but worth every penny. The cabinets I have in my current home is 8 years old already and there is zero sign of age.

I have a new kitchen to renovate and I would like to do something different this time. All the while I've been doing the conventional wall hang type of cabinets above the counter top. I am thinking of installing ceiling top hang cabinets this time around. Has anyone done it before? Any regrets?

Thank you. Whilst waiting for a reply to this thread, I was reading up the old posts. What is the pros and cons of having an aluminium type of modular closet system and a custom made one that is made completely out of wood, inside a reach-in wardrobe?

I have renovated 3 big kitchens in the last 8 years; 2 for my own homes and one for my mother. I'm a junkie for cabinet accessories and what have you to make sure my things are properly organised. All these years, I get my kitchen pull out accessories from http://www.rhoyxon.com/home.html. They have several outlets around SG. I use blum for the heavy pull out drawers and cutlery drawers. But for spice/sauce bottles and dried goods like garlic, onions, ginger, I use a stainless steel pull out wire basket. What I do every time is that I decide how many and how big the metal pull out drawers I want, get the carpenter to design the right size carcass for them, and redistribute the foot run of the rest of the cabinets. There are 2 types of pull outs. One type is door mount, and the other type is floor mount. The door mount one is a one hand pull action. The floor mount type, requires you to open the cabinet door first, reach in and pull out the wire basket. Hope this helps. PS: I always use Classic Kitchen and Furniture to do my kitchen cabinets. The quality is faultless but expensive lah. But I find my own pull out accessories. Classic does the rest, including the Blum mechanisms.

Hi, I have searched the archives and came across a couple of names. - Closet Design - Seng Kwong - Cupboards Are there other reputable ones? I have found Aussie Closet through Yellow Pages, and remember seeing California Closet in the past but am not sure if they are still existent in SG. I am looking to make a long reach-in wardrobe with sliding doors. I would like to go to a specialist that has a variety of wardrobe accessories to spice up the way my things are to be organised. A reach-in wardrobe with hanging rods and chubby holes are really quite boring IMO. TIA.