leonjennawong

Continued from previous post… TAOBAO #5) WHITISH GREY XYLOPHONE QUARTZ KITCHEN SINK Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0d.6639537.1997196601.34.gbe9Ix&id=37275943735&pfrom=transfer Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: Ok I know the header says “QUARTZ” but do curb your enthusiasm… I know I had to. Haha… The actual product finish differed a bit from what you see in the photo.. The colour is not as white as what is depicted on the website, and the material feels more like some kind of cultured quartz.. Anyway still a reliable product for heavy duty use!! Moving on! TAOBAO #6) MASTER BATHROOM WASH BASIN TAP Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=37641649655 Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: Regarding the picture, what you see is what you get. Very solid purchase. TAOBAO #7) MASTER BATHROOM PHILIPS 5W DOWNLIGHT (TO BE INSTALLED ABOVE WASH BASINS) Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35767565803&spm=2014.12193480.0.0 Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: This 5W LED light is just to provide some ambient spot lighting for both bathroom wash basin areas… The rotate-able function will allow us to direct the ambient light beam nicely onto the sink... Hehe... Wattage-rating advised by our beloved designer #CalvinTan.. TAOBAO #8) LED CEILING LIGHTS FOR BATHROOMS & SERVICE YARD & BOMB SHELTER Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35755135354&spm=2014.12193480.0.0 Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: Normal looking ceiling lights for both bathrooms, service yard & the bomb shelter.. Insides are lined with numerous LED beads!! Bought the 24W version (45cm by 45cm) for my bathrooms, and the 15W version (40cm by 40cm) for the service yard & the bomb shelter... TAOBAO #9) WHITE BLOCK CLOCK FOR MASTER BEDROOM Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=39585871125&spm=2014.12193480.0.0 Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: Pretty little bedside white block clock for our master bedroom!! Actually quite excited about how this #CalvinTan-approved block clock will fit into my Master Bedroom look.. Woohoo.. To Be Continued…

TAOBAO. TAOBAO. TAOBAO. TAOBAO. Ok if these 2 magic words (repeated 4 times nonetheless) didn’t get your attention, I think it will take nothing short of an earthquake to jolt you from your apparent stupor. Haha. Kidding. For this episode, as mentioned above, it will all be about TAOBAO, TAOBAO and more TAOBAO. Generally, CFO & I bought from merchants that had better reviews/ ratings… You may say that some unscrupulous merchants may just create multiple fake accounts to give themselves high ratings and rave reviews, but really, you can never be sure about online purchases and this was the only other assurance we could get… Just a heads up, the general foreign currency exchange between SGD and RMB is roughly 1:5.. (5RMB to 1SGD) So in case you see RMB below, you do the math ok? HEHEHE. Will share the pictures of the items that have arrived and some background information on it as we go along… So, without further ado, IKIMASHOO! (Japanese phrase translated as “Let’s go!” in modern day English) TAOBAO #1) 4-INCH WIDE, WHITE-BEZEL, DAYLIGHT WHITE, PHILIPS 10W LED DOWNLIGHT Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=22803636811 Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: 1) Quantity & Wattage: Firstly, we confirmed the downlight quantity & required wattage rating from #CalvinTan, as we did the final confirmation on our LIGHTING AND ELECTRICAL PLAN (will upload next time hehehe…). #CalvinTan advised that we would only need 10W-rated LED downlights to achieve our desired “bright-bright-look”… 2) Downlight Depth: #CalvinTan also advised us to get a downlight with a depth of <120mm, because how low the false ceiling will have to be depends on the downlight depth… 3) Heat Sink Fins: Have you ever touched a LED downlight while it has been switched on for a while? WELL, IT FEELS HOT. Yes I know right. I learnt in my polytechnic days that Light-Emitting-Diodes (LED) don’t give out much heat. BUT HEY. TRUST ME WHEN I SAY IT FELT HOT. As such, one feature which I would really recommend would be to buy a downlight that has a considerable amount of heat sink fins (or surface area) usually located at the back of the downlight for heat dissipation lest it spoils the downlight… 4) Future Considerations: CFO & I prefer to go for a brand that we know won’t go out of business/ stock so easily in the foreseeable future… This is because we don’t want to be faced with the situation, where we have to try to source for other downlight brands to match the dimensions of the existing hole in the false ceiling. This is in the very-possible event that our current/spare downlights have all gone kaput and we are faced with the situation that the company that we bought from before has gone bust. It will be painful to source for downlights to exactly match the gaping 4” hole in your false ceiling… Just saying.. 5) Cost: Costs us approx. SGD31 each (inclusive of shipping). It is retailing in Singapore at SGD60 each. Seeing as I bought the DAYLIGHT-white version of the downlight, I see it fit that I deem this to be some form of DAYLIGHT robbery. (again, pun totally intended ) 6) Genuine/ Fake: Hmm.. Actually CFO & I were a bit skeptical… So just to be safe, we shipped 1x of the taobao Philips downlight over… Afterwhich, we actually went to a Phillips store in Singapore to compare the exact same model of downlight… We saw, touched and switched on the ‘Singapore version’… And you know what? EXACTLY THE SAME. I DON’T KNOW HOW ELSE TO TELL YOU LIAO. HAHAHAHA. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE, THEN GO AND COMPARE YOURSELF. HAHAHA… TAOBAO #2) WHITE 7W TRACK LIGHTS & WHITE TRACKS Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=25725064876 Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=17499602429 Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: Upon #CalvinTan’s design advice (I know I know… tell you something you don’t already know right? Hahaha…), we got track lights with 7W lamps.. In white! Also in daylight white. Woohoo. TAOBAO #3) KOHLER UNDER-MOUNT WASH BASIN K-2355T-0 Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=37008197848&spm=2014.12193480.0.0 Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: The Kohler sink was approved by #CalvinTan.. Costs us RMB315 (excluding shipping) and what really surprised us was that (if you top up by another RMB31.5) the sink stopper provided was those “press-to-release” and “press-to-activate” button-spring-mechanism type… Gone are the needs for those loose rubber stoppers you would have seen somewhere else before! Also, much to my pleasant surprise, the stopper spring mechanism is VERY VERY SOLID. Both the sink and stopper feel like the real deal. TAOBAO #4) KITCHEN SINK FLEX-HOSE TAP Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=18589261075 Considerations/ Discoveries/ Rants/ Advice: This was one of those things that both CFO & I had the same opinion about, and agreed on a long time ago.. We both ever washed big pans/ woks using conventional kitchen taps before, and found it a hassle trying to get rinsing water to reach those hard-to-reach places and wash off those soap suds… Heh heh, as such we both got this flex-hose tap! Haiyo, got too many Tao Bao purchases liao. Have to split this post up… Till the next time… And wishing all my Malay kawans and abangs, a Selamat Hari Raya! Happy long weekend to the rest of us! To Be Continued…

Hahaha my sister was telling me that nowadays she don’t even need to talk to me about my house renovation anymore because she can just read everything right off my blog here at Renotalk… Wahahaha… Anyway, today’s update will be on my CEILING FAN PURCHASES FROM JOHOR BAHRU! My buddies #MrPW and #MrMuscleDF recommended me to buy my ceiling fans from this store in JB… As I have mentioned before (I think I have), CFO & I have decided to install ceiling fans for our living/dining area & for all 3 bedrooms.. So we’re going to have 4 ceiling fans in total. OK so here’s the deal: I heard from my buddies that the ceiling fans in JB are so much cheaper that they can be up to as much as 50% savings off the price you get in Singapore due to the favourable exchange rate & lower cost of living in JB. This was and still is too good a deal to miss. Till then, CFO & I hardly ever go into Malaysia for anything; because we are so “sua-ku”, gullible and scared. We were too frightened by all the robbery/bribery stories that we heard, and what’s more, you are talking about venturing into an unfamiliar territory compounded by the fact that we have next-to-no grasp of Behasa Melayu… *eerie music in the background* Oh well, I exaggerate. (But eh we really didn’t enter Malaysia that often one lei.) #MrMuscleDF was nice enough to drive CFO & I in during a weekend (thank you to #MrsMuscleDF also for letting us have your hubby for the whole day HAHA. ) to allay some of our fears and to give us an orientation somewhat… We spent about close to 1.5 hours at the shop choosing and conversing with #CalvinTan & #Edgar about suitable designs... We were assisted by a nice young man called #Yan.. Recommend readers to go and ask for him if you do decide to pop by and take a look... hehe.. ADVICE FOR WOULD-BE JOHOR BAHRU VENTURISTS & BUYERS: - Bring enough ringgit; because they apparently don’t take credit cards, - SGD150 tax-free limit per person; if you are in JB for less than 24 hours. (e.g. if you have 4 people going in & out from JB to buy fans, you can purchase goods (no poultry hor) to a consolidated and maximum cost of SGD600 tax-free!!) - Find out your maximum-allowed fan diameter & preferred colour from your ID first before you go in, so as to avoid having to pay roaming charges. - Fan models sold in Malaysia are slightly different from those sold in Singapore. (e.g. You can get 48” KDK baby fans in Singapore, but the KDK Baby fans in JB only go up to 44”) - Bring trolleys, or lorries, or cars, or muscle-men… ANYTHING that will help you heave those heavy-donkey fans WILL BE MUCH NEEDED. Wahahaha.. In total, we bought a total of 6 ceiling fans (bought 2 for my parents’ house cause the old ones were spoiling )… Exact ceiling fan models, pictures and price comparisons are duly stated below, ENJOY EVERYBODY! TAMPOI LIGHTING CENTRE SHOP FRONT (despite the lack of the word 'fan' in their shop name, they. do. sell. fans.) Address and Contact Number: No. 2, 4 & 6, Jalan Titiwangsa 3/1, Taman Tampoi Indah (Batu 6 1/2, Jalan Skudai) 81200 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. Tel: 607-241 8999/ 8990/ 8963 Fax: 607-241 9888 Email: tampoi@hotmail.com 1x white ELMARK AERONAMICS 56" CEILING FAN & 3x white KDK K11Z1 44" BABY FANS – Can't wait for them to be installed!! Elmark fan for the living/dining area & the other 3 KDK baby fans for all the bedrooms... - Elmark Aeronamics 56" Ceiling Fan bought for SGD480 in JB compared to Singapore retailing at SGD600 - KDK 44" Baby Fan bought in JB for SGD140 each. This fan model is not available in Singapore, with the closest being the 48" KDK R48SP retailing in Singapore at SGD288. A little more than twice the price, for a meagre 4" more... I will take my 44" baby fan anytime... Yeah Baby. (pun totally intended) SHOP ELMARK FAN IN ACTION – I had to exercise my ninja-esque reflexes to capture this rare footage of this grey Elmark fan within the shop because they apparently don't allow photos in there. Kenna scolded by one of the more senior employees. Hahahahaha... GREY KDK V60WK 60” CEILING FAN FOR PARENTS – Installed in parents’ living room - Costs SGD208 in JB compared to Singapore retailing at SGD563 SILVER KDK K11Z1 44” CEILING BABY FAN FOR PARENTS - Installed in parents’ study room - Same model as what I got for my bedrooms... Bought in JB for SGD140 each, not retailing in Singapore. CFO & I are indeed blessed to have friends like #MrMuscleDF and #MrPW to bring us into JB for this kind of lobang... I promised to share good lobangs here and in my opinion, this will help to reduce the tension on those purse strings of ours... CFO & I probably saved about SGD560 from ceiling fan purchases, which would go a long way... OH WELL, IT'S LATE. HAVE A GOOD & PRODUCTIVE MONDAY TOMORROW GUYS! LET MY OPTIMISM FOR THE COMING WEEK INFECT YOU ALL!! CHEERIO!

Hello zen_zen! I got an updated quotation from #MayTing the other day... My quotation amounted to about 4.3k in the end... That is inclusive of the dining area, living area, room corridor and the 3 bedrooms combined.. #MayTing told me before that they will measure the dimensions at the site on the actual day of installation to determine the exact cost, but the 4.3k quotation that she calculated for me (based on the area coverage derived from the HDB floor plan that I sent her) should be a very good representative cost... ERM. Why most people choose vinyl flooring compared to homogeneous tiles ah? I can only say that in MY case... Vain lor. Wahahaha... And I think that the vinyl flooring design looks better than the standard HDB homogeneous tiles lor... Vinyl flooring nowadays can have various kinds of designs; such as the wooden floor plank look... the cement screeding look... etc. etc. Other than looks, you can look at functionality when you decide too... Hmmmm. I'm sure you have experienced homogeneous tiles before, so I won't talk much about that... But as for the characteristics of vinyl flooring (and incidentally laminate flooring too!), you can look at my previous post, Post#282 for more information!Really hope I helped!