mrbytez
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Posts posted by mrbytez
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Quite pissed off today. Yesterday I saw a home furnishing company's Facebook page photo featuring a yellow sofa and it got my liking. I was looking around for a yellow sofa to add colour pop to my place so it doesn't look too boring. So I went on to browse the company's webpage but couldn't find the sofa that was featured. Social media is getting more popular nowadays for it's widespread media reach as an advertising platform, that's why more and more companies are hopping on to the bandwagon to promote their own business. Same thing as me, cos it allows direct responses with consumers too. I dropped a comment to enquire on the sofa and got a reply only today from their Facebook page. They provided the link to the sofa for me to purchase, I clicked on the page and saw that they were having a sale, it was priced at only S$125! I was thinking like, WOW! This is a steal of a price! However, being in my trade, I thought I should be extra cautious. Checked their website and saw that the original retail price was at $1,589 but then they had a 40% sale of some sort which brought to price down to $988 last week. So, this $125 might be a clearance sale or limited time special, I don't know. Anyway, I only got the link after their reply was posted on their Facebook. So, it seemed legit and all plus the company seemed to have quite a lot of followers. Without further ado, I whipped out my card and made the purchase which amounted to $205 after including shipping costs. I was then thinking if I should get 2 of the sofas to form an L shape for my living room, but decided that I don't even know how the quality will be and all, so I only made purchase for 1 set.
Following which, I shared the promo sale with my business partner who had also just got his keys to his resale flat. His wife liked the mustard colour as well, and after knowing that I had already made my purchase and payment, he placed an order for 1 sofa as well.
However, after a few hours, I got a call from him saying that he received an email from the company saying that they will process a refund as the selling price is not $125 but $1,259 as there was a technical glitch in their system. I checked my email and sure enough, there it was. The email contents as follows:Thank you for your interest in etch&bolts item! With regards to the recent purchase that you have make online, we apologies that there's a technical glitch in our system. Auguste Sofa is selling at $1259.00 and not $125.00. However, we are currently having a CNY Promotion for this Sofa, going at just $988.
Our account team has already processed the refund back to your paypal account. You can purchase Auguste Sofa ( http://www.etchandbolts.com/furniture/sofa/auguste ) online now, if you are still interested in this Sofa. Thanks and have a great week ahead!I was taken aback by this reply as there was totally no communication before the refund was made to inform us that the pricing was a mistake that they blamed on a technical glitch, and that they do not want to honour their price stated. Even though payment went through and was debited from my account. The order status also shows as COMPLETE on their website. Now, is this the kind of service and image that they wish to convey to consumers? If I knew it was a technical glitch and that the price was way below what they were supposed to sell at, why wouldn't I have purchased more sofas to resell for profits of my own benefit and interest?
After I received the email, I clicked on the link they provided in the email and there I saw, the price had been updated to $1,259. So what about the CNY promotion they mentioned? I do not know. All I knew was they gave me the link for the purchase, wouldn't they have seen the price and found out about the mistake before they published the reply on Facebook? And then after they sent the email, the price was updated to $1,259.
Just before I was typing this post, I checked the link again and... yes the price had been updated again. This time to $988.
Their pricing goes up and down just like that?
Without a hint to show that they were sincerely feeling apologetic for the mistake that they made, they simply decided to cancel the order and make a refund just like that. Providing the link again, telling me I could now make a purchase for the sofa. At like what? $1,259. Only to drop the price again later to $988. If I had bought the sofa at $1,259, would I have the same rights as they do when I found out that the price had dropped? Would they honour the price drop?
Really disappointing and lousy customer service. To think that I was so excited at having found the right sofa, with the right colour.Do you think that they should have honoured the price, or even at the very least to show they were sincere, offer a better discount off the set? But to brush off just like this...
Even the latest incident which involved SIA offering their Business Class tickets at Economy price, honoured their price in the end. They claim technical glitch as well
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Cement screeding in progress for flooring. Contractor H told me that they will continue with the cement screed first, and then I look at the end result. If I really do not like it, and insist on using self levelling compound, then they will do it for me. At least I know how the natural cement screed effect will look like.
The view from the main doorway.
Tilers at work with the cement. Look at those muscles!
A sneak preview of the living hall flooring. What do you guys think?
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Hi, may I know where is this picture of laminates from...? Which shop?
Hi,
These are all from Soon Bee Huat (SBH). IMM outlet.
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Hi, as you mention is the kitchen wall done by easy plaster to get the cement screed feeling as picture above?
Yup, according to the worker who did my walls. He told me that's ez plaster or something. very smooth touch to it.
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Initially I thought cement screed on the wall was the way to go. But the contractor told me, for walls, they use this easy plaster or ezi plaster, anyway something along that line. Take a look at my t-blog. I'm using those for my kitchen walls.
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Wooo... so smooth walls.. the kitchen walls have been plastered up. And I hereby certify that the kitchen walls are the smoothest and straightest of all in the whole house. Wonder if I should put a certificate of achievement on the kitchen wall to award them. Lol.. Looks quite cool actually. Now those pipes stand out like a ____ in a ______.
The random blue cramped toilet. Next time will want to change the door frame to black and that blue toilet...
The toilet and the kitchen arguing. lol, cannot get along.
What do you guys think of the stairs? No budget to change the hand rails for now. lol.. glass panels $5k odd, new metal railings $3k odd.
Ready for tiling today.
Meanwhile, an update on the post bro DeadEnd mentioned about the HT-Hickory tiles from SBH. Thanks to him, he highlighted that his reno somewhere mid last year used the same series of tiles for his flooring but found out that the batch contained quite a number of cracked tiles and warped tiles. Upon laying the tiles, the warp was pretty obvious. Thanks to his experience, I am able to check the tiles in advance before laying the tiles and then noticing it too late. I checked the batch of tiles that I received and noticed that the packaging has this "RECTIFIED" all over it. Probably referring that the manufacturer has rectified the tile warp issue. Got the tiler to check the tiles for me earlier, he mentioned that the tiles were pretty good already. Only perhaps a handful or less were warped. He commented that tiles of such long format are very prone to such issue. The tiles that I have are considered very good liao. Upon researching on google, apparently the tiler was right. So they have a method of laying the tiles so that if there's any warp, it will not be that visible or "jialat" and ugly. Instead of the standard 50/50 layout, a 33/33/33 and or random layout is recommended. Will try to post up more on this later. Meanwhile, thanks and kudos again to bro DeadEnd.
Oh ya, one more thing is.. I'm pondering over whether to plaster the ceiling beams in the same colour as well for those outside of the kitchen.. Because the bottom base of the stairs I'll probably get them to do the same. Won't be painting over.
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Hi.. does the lighting shop sell led strip?
I didn't manage to see in the shop, but based on their Oct ad, they have @ $5/m. 1m = 60 led.
For led strip, I think there's also a fellow bro here that seems to have a cheap and good lobang.
Bro "sforshor".
I didn't get any led strips for my place yet, currently no requirement as such, lol.
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Busy at work, not much of updates today. Prepping for COE bidding tomorrow.
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Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you find the contents useful.
From what I know, even if you have 1Gbps, you are not going to get anywhere near that kind of speed 99% of the time because the speed of the connection is as fast as the weakest link. Most of the time, the website server cannot even give you 100Mbps. I am happy with my low end 100Mbps fibre.
I wouldn't recommend ceiling lights for stairs. Yes, they can be blinding. In my case, I had no choice. In any event, I installed them quite high on the wall, so they do not shine directly into your eyes.
Haha, typical Singaporean. The higher the figure, the more self-shiok we feel. Lolz..
Yeah, not easy to find nice and bright stairway lights...
Hi.. does the lighting shop sell led strip?
Can't remember but I don't think so, they feature more of LED Downlights, panel lights and those T5 light tubes etc.. I'll be dropping by tomorrow morning to pick up my additional orders. See if I can remember to help check out for you.
Not yet done with lighting purchase, but already more than $700 on the bill. Oh my lights.
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I would be super upset with this. 1) unfortunately, this happens often if you do not have a main contractor or ID supervising everything, and different contractors just want to do their works their own way; and 2) even with ID or main contractor, it is always good to be around most of the time. It is always during that few times you decide not to be around that things will go wrong somehow. It has happened to me many times too.
Yeah, was rather pissed because I got chided by my uncle for not being more alert and preventing this from happening.
Still waiting for a solution from the electrician.
Btw, I love your super detailed T-Blog. Haha, it's one of the many T-blogs that I spent the longest time on. Gonna run Cat 6 lan cables up to the rooms, hope to be able to maximise the 1Gbps fibre broadband.
I see that you use ceiling lights to light up your walls. Do you think it'll be suitable for my walls at the stairs? Or will one get blinded while climbing up and down the stairs?
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Loving the cement screed tiles!
Wouldn't mind using them all over haha. But still don't know how the self levelling compound will look like... 
Bringing up the kitchen. Didn't make sense to open it up and then there's a drop in the kitchen flooring level.
Reinforcing the staircase sidewall. Had wanted to hack them all away, but no budget to redo railing for now. So this is it.
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And the unveiling of the Kraus faucet!
What you see is what you get.
This is the Satin Nickel option.
Hey, I flew more than 18 hours to join my fellow Kraus sink buddy. Feeling jet lagged anybody?
The spout & nozzle. Can be pulled out to reach those corners if needed.
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Hacking only took a day to complete. Now it's time to make good the area which were hacked. Screeding over the staircase tiles and staircase sidewall. Wanted to hack the sidewalls as well, to reveal the steps in their full glory, but new railings or glass panels will cost $3-5K+.
No-go for now. The balcony doors already added on $1k to the bill. Plus, instead of normal cement screed for flooring, I've opted to try self levelling compound by topping up another $500 odd. Hopefully it'll turn out as what I "envision" it to be.
The kitchen flooring.
The balcony sliding doors and frames were hacked, awaiting new sliding doors.
Kraus Kitchen Sink Faucet arrived too! Yet to unbox.
Just happened to see this. Haha, the horoscope also recommends me to have greys and black as the colour theme of the house! lol...
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Be warned that the hickory tiles from SBH has warping issue. I have just installed the HT-Coffee and I have to get the contractor to hack out quite a few tiles due to serious warping problem. There are still some tile warping which can still be seen with naked eyes.
What?
Any pics of your tiles to show the warp?
They haven't laid the tiles yet. Any idea if it's a batch problem or just that the tiles are like this? Such a pity.. these tiles look really nice..
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Hi mrbytez, may I know where is the lighting shop you get the lights from?
It's at Pioneer Junction.. #04-15 (End of Jurong West Area).
They having some sale now.
Haha, cos I bought the 12W at $18, now $13 only. Gonna drop by and pick up ceiling lights for my common room too. Price dropped from $55 to $35 for 24W, lucky the saleslady told me the boss every now and then will have promo sale..
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Bought LED downlight for living room and MBR. 12W. Some with tri colour and dimming feature using remote control.. lol.
Price seemed pretty reasonable for the 12W, Tri-colour and dimming LED downlight.
Also saw some really nice looking Legrand switches in grey colour. Bought a few different switches as sample to test out first, grey for grey walls, white for white walls. haha. The bad thing is they don't have grey back boxes for the switches, so if I'm gonna get grey front, I will only have white back. So heh heh heh... have to find a way to do magic with the box
They seem quite popular on Facebook.. Prices were reasonable, service was friendly as well, spent a really long time there because fickle me couldn't decide on what to get. Lucky I went early on a weekday, otherwise they normally don't have time to talk for that long, and test every light to make sure it works before I bring them back home. There's delivery service I think for about $25. If you're there when they're packed, you have to bring the lights home without testing on the spot. If they don't work, bring them back again. Not much of selection if you're gonna browse for ceiling or wall lights though.
Plus finally decided on a fridge model, didn't want to keep pondering over the fridge. Heard from the salesman that the Samsung model which requires plumbing, also requires a change of water filter every 6 months, and that the filter will cost about $100 range.. So decided not to go to that hassle and picked the Hitachi W690FP3MSX in Glass Black option. Comes with the Auto Ice Maker feature which I mentioned, was a MUST. Also comes with water dispenser which I didn't need but well, it seems to be featured together with most of the other auto ice maker refrigerators.. The water tank is separate for ice maker and water dispenser. Managed to squeeze the price down a bit more. This comes with 2 years agent warranty, and 10 years warranty on the compressor. Current promo was a free rice cooker. So ok, that settles the rice cooker at the same time.
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Tiles arrived! All the way from Italy! Tile selection was a headache for me, too many choices, and fickle minded me kept changing my selections. Haha, wifey objects to my choice but relented in the end. She prefers light tones still..
Sand being prepped..
Initially decided to go for cement screed looking tiles but last min changed to grey wood looking tiles for kitchen, and changed to cement screed tiles for the recess area outside the main door.
Cement screed looking tiles for recess area outside main door. Previously selection was the cement screed looking tiles from China, but thought this looked more rough and suitable.
Was given tiles selection up to $3psf, but exceeded that by twice the amount! Hope this is well worth it... Not sure how it's gonna turn out, but definitely praying hard that it will match well haha..
Greyish wood looking tiles for kitchen flooring.
It's the grey one in the middle. Had a hard time choosing. Because the cream, white and brown ones all look really good as well... But tentatively, the flooring for living and dining will be grey till budget allows, so got the grey one to match..
Would definitely pick the brown one (Last right), for room flooring colour in future.
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House looks good now and same stage as mine!
I don't like dark colors for walls as it makes the house smaller.. But I guess it's individual preference. If you like it, keep it!
By the way, saw you had problems with hidden electrical wires. Asked my contractor why HDB does not allow hidden wiring and he told me it's because old houses do not have thick walls. Sometimes owners will drill and hit the hidden wires, and might be electrocuted.
So perhaps it's best to just remove all the connections to hidden wires, just to be safe!
By the way, saw a small window at the side wall, is yours a corner unit?
Yeah, love grey but wife prefers white. lol..
Ahh, I see where they are coming from.. Hmm maybe if I still do concealed wiring, I probably need a wiring layout plan drawn so I know where the wires are. lol. Some switches don't look good with the white box behind.
Yep, corridor end unit! I didn't know about that small window until I collected the keys. Because previous owner placed a picture frame over it. The common room directly above, has that small window as well.
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The dining area..
And the kitchen when viewed from dining area..
The living room and balcony. Do you guys think that the grey wall is too dark?
Loving this openness... (Nescafe: Open up, open up)
The store, now looks a little in the middle of nowhere, after everything has been hacked down.
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Went for a quick look early in the morning, when the workers were not there yet.. The view was like wow, so open, so spacious. haha, but like a battlefield state. As per the photos, you guys can see that after much consideration, I finally decided to plunge and go all out with full open concept kitchen. All of the kitchen walls were hacked down, less the store room.
Balcony tiles remained, but the balcony sliding doors were all removed, to be replaced with new ones.
$1K to replace the sliding doors... Wanted to get those PD door style, slide to the side and then push out to open fully... but was quoted approx $2.9K! Had to bite my thumb and then suck on it. Haha, no budget, bo bian.
Staircase side tiling were all removed, floor skirting for upper level also removed.The main door is really tiny and cramped! Not sure if the fridge can squeeze in... Recess area tiling removed as well..
The view of the kitchen from the main door entranceway.
All the floor tiles removed, side tiling for staircase also removed.
Store floor tiles also removed.
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your view (minus the bto) is
. too bad seriously
What to do... haha.. land scarce Singapore, every bit of land has to be utilised fully -
And so, let the hacking games begin!
Oops, don't mind the Lacoste photobomb. (Disclaimer: This is not an advertiser ad placement)
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One thing I do not really like about Dual door Fridge is you have to cater enough space at both ends to allow both doors to be fully open.
And you should know, Masionette or 5A Masionette have incredibly small space for Kitchen.
Ended up for my case, I bought a Hitachi Fridge (R-SG37BPS) as it is tall, slim and slender.
Otherwise, there's not much big space for Fridge.
Haha, I like it cos of the "style" and space. But yeah, it has to claim the lead role, and be a star by itself. So nothing much to be placed beside the fridge. And yes indeed, that's why I am hacking the kitchen walls down.
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Hi whalgaga,
Thanks for the concern!!
I did chk with hdb who informed me that HIPS program included upgrading to 40amp
so I can install 2 system 3..Unfortunately mum prefer old school type, so am going with old style burner..
Dear mummyoftwo,
Switches are from BJ, pls chk details in earlier post.
Yay! I just found out the upgrading to 40amp yesterday too while my contractor was checking the power supply box outside.. Urgh!
Could have gone for more power instead.. Now if wanna add, have to put 2 compressors
Greek Inspired Beach Home In Woodlands
in Reno t-Blog Chat
Posted
How much is that sofa? $890?
Are those washable covers or can only use damp cloth to clean and maintain?
Any feedbacks on that sofa?