blue_skies

You can repaint the wall, but it won't remove the bugs. You need to get rid of the source of water seepage so that NO MORE MOULD grows anywhere (in my case, it was mould on the walls). Insecticide won't kill them all. They'll come back - insecticide resistant, and even tougher! The bugs don't stain the wall, they just look like specks on the walls. Initially they are translucent but I notice as they grow older, they turn brown/black and look like tiny dots all over your wall. Very disgusting, and they can jump a few inches!! Any painter should be able to remove existing paint and repaint again. You'll just need to pay extra for the labour involved coz they literally need to use sandpaper to remove the existing coat of paint, then apply 2 coats of sealant, and then paint over it again with anti mould paint. That was done for my place (master bedroom).

Don't forget utility bills, HDB conservancy fees every mth plus internet subscription or cable TV bills - if your eyesight hasn't failed you and you haven't gone deaf All this will easily set you back another $300+. This is also based on the assumption that you can still clean your own house when you are 70 or 80+ (provided we live that long). If by then we have bad back / arthritis / weak legs & arms and can't clean our house, have to employ part time cleaner (or hope that our kids remember to send a part time cleaner to our home to help clean it) The car can only be used for 10 yrs. I hope to live longer than 10 yrs after I retire.... To renew the COE by another 10 yrs will cost additional $30k (by today's cost). How to survive.... If I don't have a car next time, old me will have to use tongkat and climb bus or take MRT and fight with daily commuters. If it rains, pray that I don't slip and fall and end up in hospital

kerio - where did you get those blown up pictures of the bugs from?? They do look nasty when magnified.

The ones that I saw in my place last time (feeding off mould) were light brown in colour when small, then the bigger ones are dark brown / black. Size wise about 0.5mm for the small ones, big ones about 1mm. Really test your eyesight... They don't grow very big, just fatter, rounder and darker!

I believe you are using the round type of lighting tube? Does the diameter of your ceiling light have sufficient space to add another round tube? (You can check with the lighting shop that you bought it from). If you have this option, you can try installing another tube inside so that when you switch on the light, both tubes will be lighted and it should help brighten up the room. Alternatively there is this super bright light tube - can't remember the brand, I think it's made by Hitachi if I'm not mistaken. A bit more costly, but brighter than the standard light tubes. You can't scrub off the "frost" or remove the opaqueness of the light covers otherwise you'll damage it, not to mention drilling holes on it!!

Hi, just to share, I previously had some leakage problems on my outdoor balcony (it's a condo unit). The culprit was actually the manhole area (the drainage part) because when we open up the manhole cover, we can see that the cement inside is not fully covering the pipes, so water going into the drainage area found its way around crevices etc and leaked into the balcony ceiling downstairs. You can try to locate the problem by trying out a few things, one at a time, and you'll also have to ask your neighbour to co-operate with you so that you can identify the problem. 1) Find out whether it leaks downstairs whenever you pour water down the manhole directly? At the same time, check that the cement fully surrounds your pvc pipes under the manhole cover. 2) I'm not sure if you have a planter box with a drainage outlet - if you do, you can check that too. i.e. water your plants and see if it affects your neighbour below? Same thing, Check that the cement fully surrounds your pvc pipes under the drainage cover. 3) I'm not sure if you wash your timber decking too? If you do, you can check if this causes a leak to your neighbour's ceiling? If it's washing tiles that causes a leak, you don't need to hack your tiles. After you remove the timber decking, clean the tiles & remove any debris. Buy a can of waterproofing from the hardware shop (called T10, approx $35 a can of 5L I think), apply two coats over your tiles, making sure you cover all edges and corners well, and also on the skirtings. Let it dry properly (overnight), and test by washing the floor again to see if it leaks downstairs. If no more leaks, then you solved your problem. If the leak is caused by 1) & 2), can buy quick set cement from hardware shop @$10 per container. It comes in powder form, take out a bit, mix with water and fill out the gaps around your pvc pipes. To make it set faster, can dry it with a hairdryer Hope this helps!

I think it's quite nice, but you might have a slight headache trying to decide what to do with each of the open areas (e.g. leave it tiled, use wood decking etc). But I think it'll be very nice and cosy if you do it up properly and can help to keep your master bedroom cool and give you privacy too. I would think the largest open part that you have on the roof would be able to accomodate a party of 10 pax at the most. So if you are not planning on having huge gatherings on your rooftop, should be ok. You might also need to manage the insects coming into your master room once you put plants up there, coz there are 3 doors that lead outside to the open parts.

Hi I understand you can't remove the solid top from the cabinet otherwise it will damage the cabinets below. I believe you can re-polish the solid surface top coz I did see the guys who were installing my solid surface top last time. It was quite a long piece so they had to glue two pieces together and then use some kind of machine to "polish" the joint so that you cannot see the joint. There was a lot of fine dust generated from the "polishing" process so I believe you can do it for existing solid surfaces too and it might take off the top layer which has stains or minor scratches. I suppose if there are deep scratches then the polishing may not work. My solid top was installed by this company - Evershine - you can call them to see if they offer polishing for existing tops http://www.evershine.com/ I also googled and found a thread where a company was advertising re-polishing for solid tops - can call 81136820 to enquire. Discussion thread from here: http://www.singaporebrides.com/forumboard/...html?1263814769 As for the laminates on the cupboards, you can actually strip off the laminate on the doors and re-laminate it, but that means the side of the cupboard will have different colured laminate unless that is also stripped off. Frankly I think if the cupboard and laminate is still okay, just continue to use it.... otherwise a lot of work and $$$ involved.

What about two part epoxy? It takes a slightly longer time to set but should be able to hold them together. This epoxy is the type where you have two different mixtures that come in separate bottles, and you squirt out a small amount from each bottle, mix it together, apply a bit on each surface, then put the glass and metal together and let it set. Just curious, how was the glass previously attached to the metal? Was there any kind of screw affixed to it?

I don't think any contractor is going to do that for you coz it's actually not allowed by HDB http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10324p.nsf/w/...ow?OpenDocument Examples of Renovation Work Not Allowed - Partial or total enclosure including installation of external grilles at planter box. No permanent sealing of planter box. - Change of use of planter box and air-conditioner ledge. However if you decide to go ahead and do it yourself, you'll need to get cement and waterproofing. Can be done Some things you might want to take note of: - If the sun is too hot where your planter box is (e.g. direct afternoon sun), you are going to end up with a lot of algae inside the fish tank (aka planter box) - Sometimes the paintwork on the HDB walls contains fungicide or something toxic, and if they recently painted the external walls, your fish and plants may die if the runoff from the rainwater flows into your fish tank - If you decide to put fish inside the planter box, choose those fish ($2 for a bag type) that you find, don't get those pretty neon tetras etc coz they won't be able to survive... Any photos to show how the inside of your planter box looks like?

Personally I would check with the tile shop first to find out whether they have tiles that I want which are of the correct size. Coz you may have to hunt around a bit if that particular shop you bought it from at first doesn't have the correct tile size If there are tiles of the correct size, then I would remove those that are the "wrong size" and get them realigned. If I still cannot find the tiles of the correct size, then no point removing the feature tiles etc. For my reno, I changed my mind at the last minute to use a different coloured tile to set my bathtub. I managed to get my contractor to return the unused tiles. I did not get a 100% price refund, but I think I managed to return it for 70% of its purchase price. So long as it's still in it's carton and undamaged, you should be able to return it or swop it.

The mortgage loan is similar to using the property as a collateral to obtain additional loan from the bank. For such a case, I think the bank subsidises the lawyer's fees so you may not need to pay it.

If I'm not mistaken, the secured OD facility is a bit different because you only pay interest on what you use. The other loan (some banks call it home equity loan), is disbursed all at the same time, and interest is paid on the full amount that is disbursed. The per annum interest for an OD facility is also generally higher than the home equity loan. However, you can use your partially / fully paid up property as a collateral to obtain either of the above "loans", plus showing evidence of your earning ability (e.g. salary).

I don't think toilet bowls will crack if someone squats on it. It probably will crack only if someone drops something heavy into it (e.g. if you have a bidet and it's made of metal and someone accidentally drops the bidet inside the bowl / or if the toilet seat cover comes crashing down on the top of the toilet bowl repeatedly over time) By right, the toilet bowl shouldn't crack even if you squat on it because it is meant to take the full weight of a person (e.g. when you sit on the bowl, your full weight is also on the bowl, no different from squatting). Squatting on toilet bowl will just make your toilet a mess coz there'll be piss and poo all over the place

Yup the bugs in my house came about because of mould on my walls (external wall was leaking and management had to fix it). After the leakage was solved, we repainted the walls (sealant for both internal and external wall, then anti mould paint for interior wall) and the bug problem went away. Topspin's idea about the Borax solution sounds very good. I think it's worth a try. But you should also try to figure out the source of your mould problem. If it's the external walls (e.g. water leakage / seepage / dampness) that's causing the mould to grow, you need to fix that problem otherwise no matter what you do, the bugs will come back after a while. And any problems with the external wall, if you are living in HDB, will be up to HDB to rectify.

Can be done. Even if the ppty is not fully paid up but the value has increased (i.e. valuation price), you can still use it as a collateral. When I enquired with UOB rgd this, the bank officer provided the following info. But this was before the new housing rules came into place, so not sure if the banks are also stricter about it now. As a general guide, the bank can consider granting an additional loan secured against a property if: - The total CPF used towards your property + existing facilities + new facilities does not exceed 60 to 70% of the valuation of the property. - The total commitments of the borrowers including instalment for the additional facility does not exceed 40% to 50% of the monthly income of all the borrowers. I understand you can opt for SOR rates.

The sitting bathtub that I used is bought from Nan Wah Marketing - size is 1220 x 760mm. Two bath tubs cost me about $380 in total. Brand is Wilton, model: Carina. If you don't want sitting bath (sitting bath has a step that you can put your butt on), you can opt for a normal small tub (without the step inside to sit on). I think the size of this is 1100mm in length. I saw this at Nan Wah Marketing too. Not too sure about the cost, but shouldn't cost too much comapred to the other one above. There's another brand of sitting bath that is slightly smaller (lengthwise, I think 1200 or something). Let me go check the name of the shop that has it and I'll post it again on this thread. You can try to take some measurements for your toilet, you'd be surprised that you can fit a small tub inside. My contractor also helped me with squeezing in of the bathtub and organising all the plumbing. I changed the doorway of my common toilet so that the tub could sit in nicely at one corner.

Thanks. Actually the reno cost was alright coz no ID was involved. The cupboards and wardrobes was quite substantial coz my room cupboards have got beams / slanting walls behind them, plus end to end is 152" (or almost 13 feet), and this was for 2 bedrooms. Plus we chose to use the slightly more costly formica for the kitchen cabinets.

What about using alcohol to wipe it down and then applying a layer of English oil over it? (assuming it's a wood surface)

I bring all my paintings to this place. My dad also gets our large mirrors custom made there. Khai Meng Trading Co Blk 122 Bukit Merah Lane 1, Singapore 150122 Tel. 6278 2387 (It's located at Alexandra Village) This shop (Khai Meng) is actually a glass merchant but he's really good with framing. I had this really crumpled oil canvas painting that my mother in law dug out from her store room one day - it had been in there for like 10-15 yrs and she had bought it from Indonesia. I brought it to the shop and the uncle took a look and said he'll paste it for me to straighten it and not stretch it like what he normally does for the other new canvas paintings otherwise the old canvas might tear. In the end, you could hardly even spot a crease in the painting once it had been framed

I also have a window grille facing the balcony. I just make sure that the windows are locked every night before I go to bed or if we are going out. We never undo the grille locks. There are two window locks (built in to the windows) and two grille locks (built in to the grille). Btw these grilles that I have facing the corridor are stainless steel grilles, not the usual aluminium ones that we install for the room windows. If you are really worried, you can put a padlock on the grille so that it cannot be opened - guess that should help to a certain extent? The ex-owner of my place had something like 3-4 padlocks on the stainless steel grille!

Yup if I'm not mistaken this expense must happen during the tenancy and not before securing a tenant in order for you to offset the expense from your rental income. And you need to keep proof of expense too, so do keep the receipts.

Hi lwd80 My place was just renovated, this is my blog mostly with before and after reno pictures, no time to write report everyday after reno I also haven't updated the blog with the final photos yet coz still settling in to my new place. http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?sh...rt=#entry607144 A review of the reno works: Renovation completed as according to schedule and every 1-2 days, Sam (the project manager overseeing my reno) would update me on the progress and ask me if I was satisfied with everything that had been done so far. I would normally drop by every 1-2 days to check on the progress of the reno and also during some important stages such as air-con installation - to decide how the trunking or draining pipes would be run. If any issues, you can call them and they'll arrange to come down to see the problem asap. All the reno works will be discussed with the project manager managing the reno (e.g. Sam) or Ronald so that the sequence of renovation is done correctly and you know when to arrange for what to be done. E.g. carpentry, air con installation etc, in case you engage someone else to do these works. They can also advise (if you want) on what would look nice or be more practical in case you cannot decide. Sam also advised when he needed me to be around to make decisions, e.g. - Plumbing (I was particular about how I wanted the hot water pipes to run) - Electrical (Where to place 2 way switch, where to position lights etc) - Toilet (I wanted a particularly low kerb between my toilet and external area) I engaged Ronald & Tiler Seng to: - Hack & lay tiles for flooring in study, kitchen & service balcony - Hack & lay tiles for walls for kitchen & service balcony - Hack & lay tiles for 2 toilets flooring - Whole house electrical - Whole house plumbing - L-box in living room and dining - Hack study room walls and some beams (that needed PE approval) - Install bathtub, WC, sink, hot water tank for 2 toilets - Change louvered windows in 2 toilets - Change casement windows to sliding windows in living area - Whole house plastering - Whole house painting - Plus a lot of other misc stuff here and there.... Overall, had no problems with the guys that did the renovation at my place. The plasterer is very good, my rock stone walls are history! The plumber and tilers are also good, no issues with them. Pipes were run according to how I wanted them, tiles also laid very nicely and as planned. Any potential problems with tiles were raised by tilers before they laid it, i.e. they do not proceed without your approval. I had some areas where the new tiles meet the old tiles and we discussed how best the tiles would be joint before they proceeded. I changed my toilet doorway and they made my new doorway the "standard" sized doorway - I told them that I preferred a bigger doorway so they were nice enough to remove the cement before it dried and re-did it. My toilet kerb was too high so they knocked off the tiles and cement (it had already set) and redid it. We had already bought the tiles for setting the 2 bathtubs and then decided that we wanted to change the tiles. They had to go back to the shop to buy more tiles and still meet the schedule. Workmanship is good, tiles are laid very evenly and I am happy with what has been done. I remember changing my mind a few times about the reno works but they (Sam & Ronald) were very patient and obliging. I think it's really hard work managing all these workers and your ever demanding customer (us, that is). They were working full day on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and Sam returned all my phone calls if he missed them. My renovation with them has been a pleasant one and I hope yours will be too

Just to add on, you might need to create some "steps" to get into your bathtub because the sides can potentially be quite high and you won't be able to climb in easily. If I'm not mistaken I saw something like that when I was flat hunting last time. There was a guy who built this in his master room toilet but he had to extend the toilet (i.e. smaller master room) because normal HDB toilet is too small to have something like that. I remember the steps of the tub and was thinking that each time I took a bath, it would look as if like I was going to a bathtub on an altar And I don't think it's design-friendly for children and old folks too.

I got lost with the mathematical formulas Given a choice, and if I had the resources, I would stay in HDB and buy at least one private ppty. This private ppty would be my "savings" in case I need money when I'm old or if I need the money for other reasons, e.g. - Children's education (in case they want to study overseas) - Medical expenses (touchwood will be healthy so don't need to incur too much expenses) This private ppty would be a FH or 999-yr leasehold. I would rent it out and let it "self-finance" (rental pay for monthly loan), and sell it when I need the money. I believe this ppty would enjoy capital appreciation over the years and help me to cope with the inflation in the future.