andotang

Changing Letter Box Lock I have no experience and have no idea how the letter box lock works. So I opened it and study the mechanism. This is the original letter box lock from HDB. The important thing here is the metal latch which is bended in the middle. Another view of the metal latch, you have to retain this latch instead of using the new one that comes with the new lock. You will need a adjustable spanner to unscrew the big gold nut in the picture. After you removed the old lock, you swap the metal latch to the new lock, the picture here show the latch that comes with my new lock which is not bended. Then just install the new lock using a adjustable spanner. Here you see is my completed installation using the old latch. Completed pic. You see the gap is because I used the new latch which is not bended, so will have a gap. By using back your old latch, it will be a perfect fit, or at most some slight adjustment using washer and plier you will make it seamless. I completed everything in 10 minutes being a first timer. I might as well mention how to change the main door cylinder too, all you need is to unscrew the screw as pointed by the red arrow. The screw is very long, you can see the hole on the cylinder that it locked into. After that you can install the new Duro lock which can easily buy from Homefix. Only the metal gate cylinder require some skill to remove as it involve inserting the key to turn the locking lever before pulling it out.

Maybe I can tell you about my Philips hue bulb setup in my house and you see if it is what you wanted. All bulbs comes in E27 connectors and there is a bridge(device) you have to connect to your router. Once you turn on your bulb, it will link/talk to the bridge which allow you to control the lights thru your handphone. Thru the philips hue apps you can set your lights to any colour any intensity to your preference. I then bought a philips hue tap switch which allow me to save 4 preset on each tap switch. Example of the 4 settings is All Off/Blue/50% Brightness/90% Brightness. So when I reach home, I turn on the wall switch which light I want to on, then press the hue tap to change to the preset I want which is usually the 90% daylight. This totally eliminate the need to use my handphone to switch on my lights and it runs on kinetic power, no need battery. I would also advice you not to have 1 master switch to on all your lights as sometime u want only certain lights on for mood. I have a total of 12 bulbs in living room, using 1 switch for every 2 lights. I usually only turn on 4 to 6 lights and I rotate them to spread the lifespan. As for the automated part, I can control my lights as long as I have access to internet on my PC or 4G on my handphone. Thru the philips hue apps on 4G, when i reaching home like downstairs, I would launch the apps and change to another scene, my wife at home would feel the change in light colors and she knows I am downstairs and open the door for me. The first time I used this feature it freaked her out cos I changed to red. Costing depends on how many bulb you need, they are about $70 each. I bought my E27 downlight holder for $10 each, so about $80 per point and I have 12. Hue tap is $89. Starter kit about $280 including the bridge with 3 bulbs. Maintenance is as good as not necessary as E27 holder hardly spoil, if your hue bulb spoil very easy to replace as it is E27 type, unlike those flat led downlight with drivers, you will have a hard time getting replacement especially if the shop you bought from closed for business. Not to mention the crumps that will fall off from the false ceiling while replacing and touching those wires. E27 is just screw on and that's it. No need drivers. The only set back I would say is it takes some planning to install the E27 downlight or pendant lamp. You can see my tblog should have some pictures. And google philips hue light and hue tap for more information. HTH.

Hi 2Roomer, my ID uses her company padlock which is numbered on it, then she gave me 2 keys for me and my wife. The ID's tiler, plumber, painter, cleaner, electrician, carpenter all have keys to all the padlock my ID's company uses. This arrangement is very good as all her workers can access all renovation site without owners or ID's present. However we only lock the front gate, not the main door, throughout the whole renovation period only my main gate is locked, main door can still open to peep inside. Upon completion, I changed all my lock cylinder to duro for 1 master key access for main door, main gate and letter box. The original lock cylinder from HDB kept as spare. I did pass to ID my keys from HDB for her to put on her padlock and she returned me back after putting her company's padlock. If you meet ID onsite to put on their padlock then you no need pass your HDB keys to anyone. Hope this solve your doubt for your upcoming reno.

I believe your WIW walls is hollow inside so it will not be able to take the weight of any doors that you are going to install on it. U hv to try to mount to the ceiling. That leave you to venetian blind, which I feel will be too heavy for a full height blind, thinking of pulling the blind up require so much strength you will not bother to close it next time. Install a curtain track inside the door and curtains open to left and right and will be hidden from view from outside when not in use. If you managed to installed glass door, you can use opaque glass laminate to paste on the glass for privacy. Just my suggestion.

PM-ed. Thanks for the compliment.

PMed but I forgot to mention it takes 4 to 6 weeks for them to make and ship to singapore from indon.

Moved In. Aftermath Part 3. Here is my home entertainment and where I spend most of my time on it. As mentioned I have no feature wall or tv and sofa, and i am glad because really no space to accommodate them in my 2 room bto, every inch of space is precious. ikea wall shelf, cheap and practical. Hooks underneath is very useful. Hidden all my cables and wires into the Sitoca cable compartment already yet still very unsighting but at least all excess cables not dangling around on table top. Asked ID to drill ceiling hooks for me around the house so i can hang christmas and CNY decorations. Ultimately will be getting some green garland to hang around the house for some greenery as wife forbid me to get real plant fearing ants. Added a Muji wall clock too few days ago. Also a Muji table clock with temperature indication so I can decide whether to turn on aircon. The space behind my entertainment centre is used to dry our clothing as we removed the ceiling one in the kitchen provided my HDB. The custom made bar height dining table really served it's purpose, we hanged our daily clothing there when changing into working clothes. Can also push my rattan chair underneath it to make space. Moved in almost a month now and I yet to buy both of my ceiling fan. Haiku is moving office to tampines and they will be having some promo on Jan 16, so that would be a good time to buy my bedroom fan, they never give discount or free gift, so this event is the only chance to get some benefit from bigass. Each fan is $1249 before gst and also need $80 for installation. Really not cheap. So think I will only buy 1 for the bedroom as we sleep over 8 hours every night so the electrical bill saving there can be substantial. As for the living room, I only spend about 3 hours on my computer daily so no point buy a haiku, will be getting a normal DC fan with reverse function. Saw the 52" Aero from Phylux which is actually the Elmark DC fan for half the price of haiku and after seeing sapphire89 blogged the picture, that one is on top of my list now. All DC fan really expensive, start from $600 up. I am glad my house is pretty cozy as temperature always around 28 degree without aircon, probably due to weather this time around the year is cooler. When sleeping in bedroom, no need even turn on aircon as it is quite cool, I am guessing the cold wind outside blow my room wall until very cold, so room become cool and I don't have any electronic in the room which produce heat. And we don't even open our windows fearing dust attack. So it is a blessing to get such good condition for sleeping. Moved in 28 days only turn on room aircon 3 times. Now become must force myself to turn on aircon because if aircon too long never on can spoil. Merry Christmas 2016 everyone.

You can purchase at Duro sales and service centre in Shun Li Industrial Park and they will take about 30min if you need to configure your lock. It is their showroom, office, warehouse and workshop all in the same place. duro.com.sg

Moved In. Aftermath Part 2. After moving in, bought a lot of suction cups hanger for bath towel, hand towel and table cloth. And then I realized luckily I didn't put any shelves on the kitchen wall and now I can use this blank space to put his and her bath towel. If without this space, I really don't know where else I can keep our bath towel in such a small house. Suction cup again for utensils as I don't want to drill to damage the wall tiles. Suction cup Key holder and Simple Human grocery bag dispenser for $23. Bought some S hook to put into bombshelter rack to hang things. Been using the Baron W888 for 2 weeks now and so far so good. Read on forums that some said need 2 flush but mine usually 1 flush. I also had a very powerful bidet spray which can jet down any stubborn dirt easily. Think I need to get a longer bidet pipe so I can jet down the aircon outdoor unit on rainy days. Also found this spot under the wash basin to keep his and her laundry basket, totally never planned for this purpose as first time owning a wet and dry toilet, old house just put outside toilet door, now new house so small, lucky my mum tell me not to built any cupboard under the basin so we can spray wash it easily without damaging carpentry. So I am very happy to use this space as laundry basket now to free up space in kitchen. Lastly, my Ikea 160x40cm wall hung mirror. It was mounted on partition board wall for wardrobe so cannot be too heavy. The red pail was suppose to keep in bombshelter, but it takes up a lot of space, so I double it up as a dustbin in the living room to free up bomshelter space.

Moved In. Aftermath Part 1. First thing after moving in, I have to settle for the door lock. I didn't want to spend 1k to use digital lock. I also find it troublesome to have so many keys. Therefore decided to go for Duro master lock. One key for all access. I have no idea how to change the lock myself, seems pretty complicate if you don't know how to remove the bolt. As it turn out, actually it is so easy cos only need to remove 1 screw. Before buying lock I still think must pay for people to change or ask ID to help install. End up I do it all myself. This is front gate, I changed the cylinder only. Letter box I also changed. I checked whole block.... I am the only one changed letter box lock, seems like not a popular thing to do. But I don't want so many keys, just 1 master key so had to change. Picture look like never closed properly because if using the new lock the metal piece inside a little different, must use back old lock metal piece inside then can close seamlessly. Very simple job to change just need a adjustable spanner. Main door cylinder, before and after pic, very easy to change, just 1 screw and within a minute it is done. These are the 3 locks I bought which is the Duro DMS V/3B for $168. So now I use 1 key for my letterbox, main door and main gate. However I don't know if i should buy this pad lock or not, cos currently I have no pad lock, if install this one, then I have to lock main door, main gate, padlock, 3 things... now I only lock 2 things already troublesome. This pad lock is going at $138 and I need to pay another $20 to configure the lock to use my same master key. If really buy already, I think maybe no need lock the main gate lock, so only need to lock 2 things, but then, it goes back to square one. Might as well just lock main gate and forget this padlock. So I put this on hold and just live without a pad lock first. So instead of digital lock, I spend $168 to use 1 master key system. Disadvantage so far is it only comes with standard 4 master keys. For bigger family probably 4 keys not enough, I don't know how much they charge to make extra master key. I will update more aftermath soon.

I can contribute a little on this here, I also installed shampoo slab, I saw tiler cutting a groove into the tiles, about 1 inch deep, tiler say doing this must avoid those red and blue tape wall as might hit water pipe in it. I also chosed to cut the grove on the same tiles in case I need to touch up wall next time so less tile to replace. He cut the top line and bottom line then chisel off the middle part to make the groove. One side of the groove is deeper so he can insert the slab nicely into place, then touch up with white cement. I used granite instead of marble. HTH.

Pm-ed. I would also suggest you buy at least 1 Hue Tap so you can preset 4 settings without the need to access the apps to change colors or brightness. I preset them at 25%, 60% and 100% Brightness and Off. This way I can choose the brightness I need to save electricity. Oh and I forgot to mention in Pm the Philips E27 downlight holder is $10 each.

PM-ed. The tiler did a good job for my toilet overlay. I have met a ID who tell me to outsource my carpentry work because he said "if my carpenter comes down and only do little work, not worth the trouble". Probably because he couldn't earn the carpentry work for my kitchen which I outsourced to Blum. My current ID did my project for less then 20k which is consider a small project to them. Now I already moved in about 10 days, I haven't even paid my last payment of $4800 and she never chase me also. Never once during renovation she chased me for payment, I automatically pay according to progress. I understand your concern as some ID don't take up small project as not much profit for them.

Very nice white theme house. Here is my comments : 1. Love your mint door color. However notice you put a door stopper on the floor, why not put a uniarm to hold door in place. 2. We are both suction cup hooks lover, they are so useful in toilet and kitchen. Electric toothbrush too. 3. The plant beside sofa feels a little too squeezy. Need give more space for the green to show. 4. I noticed your toilet door frame is pure white, off white would be a better match. Which remind me of my own toilet door, my only regret in my renovation. 5. Love the 2 ghost chair, blended in with transparency. Like they were not even there until close inspection. Chio. 6. You have a interesting dish dryer rack that channel water back to the sink. Good buy. Thanks for sharing your beautiful house with us.

More Updates. Finally removed all the laminate protection to see my urban kitchen. White glossy pearl laminate, probably hard to maintain. But I like the looks. I also like it that there is no cement base needed, if I need to replace the whole kitchen cabinet next time, no need to hack or make good any wall and only a few holes is put into the wall for the wall hung cabinet. I can reinstate my kitchen back to original state without hacking tiles. Also my new door is installed, same laminate as kitchen cabinet, can see the reflection of my dining table cos highly reflective. Then I bought this rubber to cushion the door frame for softer closing. Also bought this fan after seeing doubleEM one under his desk, think different model from his but looking good. My 2 x 90x200cm Ikea mattress to make a king size bed. As mentioned before, I wanted a 200cm instead of 190cm. Which also mean I can only get Ikea bed sheet. Tried Muji cotton bedsheet but doesn't fit nicely. Wifey wanted this quilt looking blanket but I feel color ta match but she like it so bought it. Other then color, size is good. Save me the trouble of having a quilt with quilt cover, more money and more washing. I also played around with the lighting. Daylight, Warm Light and Magenta. Red, Green and Blue. These are just for cosmetic looks as it is not a practical color for everyday use. Bought the hue bulb hoping to be long lasting and can get all different shade of warmlight to daylight. but these red green blue thing is too extreme. Officially moved in 29 Nov 2015 and first time sleeping there last night. Woke up like a blur sotong as not used to the routine there yet.

Random Update. Here's some random update, been busy doing cleaning as will be moving in this sunday. Even though renovation is completed, still got a lot of last minute stuffs to buy, like toiletries, household items and they easily comes up to a few hundred dollars or even thousand which I did not cater for it to be so much, so my reserve tank is really empty now. When u buy a pillow, do you buy a pillow protector? If yes, you probably will buy a bolster protector too, that's where all the money add up. Bought my Panasonic Fridge NR-BL347P for the depth of 611mm and it flush nicely into the space I planned for it. Can see how the fridge flush in. So far fridge very cold except lights quite dim, but overall happy with the depth and height for this purchase. You can also see my Panasonic Washer NA-140VG4 which is 10KG load and bought at $990 with free delivery and $150 NTUC voucher. Had my first wash and noise level is pretty good, I like the quick 15 min wash function as very convenient if only got few pieces to wash. Tower rack for bathroom from Ikea. Just wanted to buy the ENUDDEN Wall Shelf with 4 knobs which Msbunny bought from her blog, but this item Ikea always no stock. So bought this one as no advice when the next shipment will be in. The toilet paper dispenser is from Otto and I bought it for the reason to be able to put my handphone on it when going into the bathroom, how many of you have this habit too? Took a aerial shot of my bathroom. Yet to clean it properly after the reno. Too much to clean, 4 walls and even the false ceiling vent also must clean as it is very dirty. Finally installed my Philips Hue Lightstripe into my living room cabinet. Which is the same as my platform bed, both controllable by Apps or Philips Hue Tap. Had my old Ikea 1 meter Mirrored Door wardrobe moved from old house to new house. Those mirror door from Ikea, so bloody heavy. My Sitoca Cad/Cam computer table and Ikea Wall Shelf. As I have no Feature Wall and TV console, this will be my daily entertainment instead of a TV. I have DVB-C tuner in my computer to watch free to air digital tv over cable point from the wall and I can download all movies and drama from the net so there is no need for TV for me. Another view of the computer table, some fellow renotalker might find it familiar as they visited my place. I sat down on it for the first time for my meal yesterday and happen to see outside my window, then I realized the view was very nice, especially from my rattan chair, the height from it just provide me a very good view through the lowest window panel. No wonder they commented my view is superb, they experienced it before me. More updates soon.

You are most welcome and thanks for the compliment. Spend a lot of time to design my bathroom due to those weird plastic cover, also very hard to make the ID understand what I want to achieve like cannot same frequency with me. I am happy with the final product although it is quite costly. The rattan chair you can get from Chun Mee Lee. Should you have further question related to my renovation you can ask in my tblog. I hope this visit helps you in your upcoming renovation. Oh must change the shower head from HDB to rainshower, you won't regret it.

Hello, my house is just 10 minutes away from yours and you are invited to visit my almost completed 2 room BTO to make this event more interesting. As I am working and couldn't be there, my wife agreed to be the host. She said she will join you at CCK then view empty unit then can proceed to my house for those interested. You can read about my renovation at my tblog. Feel free to take photo and hope this visit is fruitful for your renovation journey. coolbunny please contact my wife for the meeting at CCK.

Final Stage Approaching the final stage of my renovation. Mostly minor touch-up and finishing touch. Redoing/extending my wooden skirting to blend the Besglas wardrobe to look like built into the wall. The missing skirting part is the new partition board wall for the wardrobe. A 40cm width mirror will hang on this partition wall. Got my ID to modify this carpentry as it is too long and pointy. Got it shorter and cut off the pointy angle. Lesson learned about carpentry, never have pointy angle around common walk path. Many wrote to HDB to complaint the strong wind is slamming this toilet windows as hinges too loose not enough strength. So BSC came to install this old school hinges to lock the windows in place complimentary of HDB. But the protruding tip of this metal rod might be poking my windows blind. Windows blind is installed so that I can keep my big toilet window opened while showering. Without this, everytime showering must close windows, then open after showering otherwise no airflow in the toilet. I combined views from both entrance into one picture. Black out vertical blind installed in bedroom. Light Grey. At first wanted venetian blind but gave up as 3x the price of vertical, also hard to open windows as mine is push out and not sliding. Must lift up venetian everytime just to open windows doesn't make sense. Thru the gap of venetian too narrow. Non black out vertical blind in living room. Mint colour. And why not a curtain, because the first time when I view the house before I purchase, the wind is so strong that even the curtain will be blow up, and I have a ceiling fan within curtain reach, so very potential danger of curtain caught in the ceiling fan due to my small house. Bedroom window's view, unblocked view so strong wind is possible if wind direction is in favour of my windows direction. Seems to be seasonal as no wind during june to oct, now nov start getting windy. Stick my camera out of windows and shot this. Happy with my view until I just saw the SOBF Nov 2015, my same unit but on the 28 Floor is opened for sale. Was thinking how I wish I could have gotten that unit on my upper floor now I only half of that. Just bad timing. Anyway I should be thankful I balloted queue no.2. for SOBF exercise. Ikea bed 2 x single 90x200cm. As not many 200cm single mattress out there, this fit my budget well too, cannot afford a few thousand dollars mattress anymore, exhausted my reserve after all the purchase already. In the background is my hanging mirror and wall shelf also from Ikea. Washing machine and fridge coming this week too and then my ID gonna hang up my wall photo and fixture then I got to pay the final amount to ID. Will move in next weekend.

Can you tell me more about the little white fan under the desk? As I also put a fan under my desk, a normal 16" kdk, interested to know your choice of fan. For sure it is better then my kdk cos your height can fit under table, my table fan barely fit underneath.

Dining Table I custom made a bar height dining table so that I can hide all the dining chairs under the table to save space. Also I wanted to double this dining table as a hanger for those clothing pending for ironing. This is white powder coated and should last me a long time, at most just replace the marble top when it deteriorate. Made it 1600mm long so that it flushes with my bombshelter wall and wardrobe. Height is 1050mm and with marble is 1070mm. Adjustable plastic feet for uneven flooring. Hang bar under the table. Bare bone without putting on the marble yet. I am surprise no screwing needed and then I realised the marble is sooooo heavy, the weight itself can make the table stable. Also i make it a point not to have any thing to block the chair from pushing underneath it as some design have a bottom bar under the table for foot rest and stablility. . Hanged some clothing to test and the height just nice. However my plan to hide my dining chair under the table cannot be done as I found 2 awesome bar stool that I got to buy them. But I will get 2 more that I can hide under the table for guest. Me and wifey will use the 2 awesome one for everyday meals. Disadvantage about this table is that it is not pioneer generation friendly. Old people will not be able to sit in a bar height table. I still love my bar height table as the food is nearer to the mouth when eating and I can slide many things under the table including my portable laundry rack.

Thank you for the compliment and welcome to Renotalk. Great observation you have there. I am glad I removed the laundry rack else I will not have space to install kitchen light as my Blum in open upwards so my lighting point is shifted into where the rack used to be. 1) I will hang it opposite my computer table and I also custom made a bar height dining table with clothing hanging bar under the table. So I will be using a portable cloths dryer stand and the dining table. Long item will be hang on the chin up bar. Will post bar table pic when I have it. Refer to pic below opposite sitoca table as I hv no sofa, will be free space there. 2) I paid around $2.6k for my Evorich HERF platform with a slanting bed head and LED light pelmet. 3) My wardrobe is pretty tall, 2.4meter high, it somehow happened to be just nice reach my false ceiling. My false ceiling pretty deep cos need to install my E27 bulb holder. If my false ceiling thinner then I have to make a pelmet above the sliding door. You renovating now too?

I installed it to hang my wifey long laundry like jump suit or dress as I removed the standard hanger from HDB. Yes it is very strong but the rod slightly big to hold and too high as that is already the lowest point I can install. Need to use a stool to hang on to do chin up. Once a while can play around with chin up bar to use some strength. Paid ID to installed it as I saw she installed for other client which did 4 of this bar to make a monkey swing bar in their 4 room hallway. Installation pretty simple just 2 holder on the left and right which is bolt down using 2 screw each, then they cut the rod to length, insert it before tightening. So the rod is turnable if you force to turn it as it is not soldered on.

PMed.

Just saw this foldable insect screen and thought u might be interested incase you have problem with windows handle on magnetic screen. http://www.onna.co.id/product-detail/lipat-window/162