RimBlock

Keys today, hooray, hooray........ Finally getting the keys today. Will be able to look over the place tonight again with torches as power will be on again tomorrow. Called SPServices just after lunch on Friday and got the 'Our working hours are.....' automated message. Seems they skipped office before end of working day on Christmas eve . If I want power and water for today have to pay S$50 extra for short notice . Henry said ok lah , tomorrow can. So now lights tonight when we visit. Must take the torch. Discussing stairs tonight when Henry comes to collect a set of keys. RB

We have more or less the same as you used to have and my wife hates it . We will probably go for roughly the same as you but with a wooden rail along the top and the glass being hung from the rail and supported by the stair sides. Oh and we are going to have the same light on the stairs as I really like that but maybe with a bit of detail along it like the decals. Yes, suggesting putting a transparent film across the front and back may make my wife feel a little safer, good call . She is looking at wedding dresses today for some reason . We are also trying to think up boys names for the new one. She is imaginative to the point of being scary. I had to veto Amadeus when our last one came along . RB

Thanks Neubie, So we have a quote of 2K+ for a wooden handrail and glass side panels. Whilst we would prefer all wood, we may go this way as my wife really hates the current stairs handrail. We are checking with Henry for a quote as well without mentioning the previous quote price. We shall see what comes up. My wife was concerned about he glass with the kids around but as long as it is laminated safety glass it should be fine (it will shatter into little squares rather than sharp jagged pieces and has a layer of sticky plastic in the centre to hold the broken pieces in place should it break). RB

Hi We have a Baron toilet and have had no problems. Good dual flush etc. Prob around S$200 per piece. I am looking for the same for our new place. Prices range from S$200 -> S$1,500+. RB

Hi, Sim Sang Choon have some corner sinks including metal ones. We just happened to visit last weekend and saw them. RB

I had been using wireless N for movies and it was generally ok but could cause stutters now and then. I still have issues with 1Gbit lan but I suspect they are due to my NAS box or my WD Live TV. Still waiting for the NAS new motherboard and my array controller cables and then I will be able to build the NAS the way I want rather than using software raid. I will also try out raid10 (mirrored then striped) for speed over raid5 (parity) on a 5/6 disk array. Anyway, as mentioned in another thread, we have costed the sinks / toilets etc and it has come to 2.2k without showers....... Only luxury items are the sinks for the two upstairs toilets and they were only S$60 above the usual small square sinks. We love the shower head we currently have in our mbr and have been looking for the same setup for the new place. Seen the shower head again in one place but the head alone was S$280 (ish). We bought the full set for around S$750 3 years ago but it is no longer on sale at the same place. Seems only chrome ones are being sold there now rather than stainless steel. For electrical work, it has been confirmed by Henry that to just replace the trunking and switches for most of the points in the new property will be around 60-70% of the normal price as the cornice around the top of the room will hold the wires in fairly good position when the trunking is removed. The current trunking and some switches has the bubble plaster effect on them which we would like to get rid of. Without the cornice the cables would have ended up in one big heap meaning even if they still kept the current wires, it would be like trying to untangle a big ball of string so not much price difference to renewing fully. We have done the pre-second appointment viewing on Sunday with Henry and apart from some water damage in one upper bedroom which we need to get checked by town council (we are top floor), all looks reasonable. The current owners are moving out this week (packing as we visited) and have been kind enough to let us apply for the reno permit under their names with the indemnity agreement signed so we can start the reno as soon as we get the keys. Keys date is 27th (next Monday) and TBH, Christmas does not have quite the same weight this year as it usually does as we are just waiting for the keys . We are looking for companies that can reno the staircase though so if anyone knows of any and rough idea of price for new wooden handrails for the stairs and landing (the stairs themselves are fine) then I would love to hear. Google has not been my friend in this search. We have a quote from Henry but want to get other quotes as well to make sure it is reasonable. Oh, my wife got a diamond ring yesterday as well. I say, got a ring.... she will get it in the new year as it is off for resizing. 0.7 carat, VS1, Clarity D, excellent cut, international cert. She is happy... the credit card, not so much . She has been after a solitaire for a while though and I offered when we sold the house so we went out looking as Sookie has a big sale on. We bought at Lee Hwa in the end for quite a bit more than we budgeted for but she is happy and it will be paid for over time interest free so not such a burden on the budget. TBH I will be spending the same amount on the projector etc when my bonus comes in so it is good we both get something we really want. RB

Yeah, understand. We are currently up to 2.2k not including showers and have not selected expansive items. With 3 bathrooms it all adds up rather quickly. RB

Hi As others have mentioned, it depends on the layout of your EM and the pipes. I have one with the long balcony rather than a square balcony and have a photo which may help show how the previous owners did it (we are just about to start the reno in just over a weeks time). The toilet had to be raised up on a platform to give the pipes a downwards flow. The pipes come from the back and around to meet up with the main sewage down pipe. Regards RB

Thanks again Neubie, Will try and get down that way tomorrow. RB

Hi, We have been to our ID's recommended shop for sinks and toilets etc and to Sim Siang Choon but believe we can do better price wise. Any recommended places to visit for bathroom fittings like showers, toilets, sinks, taps and storage heaters ? Many thanks Rb

Sorry Buyerfish but what you are writing is a little difficult to understand. I am sure we can all appreciate that English may not be a posters first language but you need to understand that some people may need to clarify things from time to time if they are not clear and you should not get upset when they try to do so. As most people are aware, the option to purchase has two stages, the initial purchase and the excise of the option. Just by looking at the amounts mentioned by Buyerfish, most people can work out what they are trying to get over. To get back to the initial question. Call your agent and go there at 11pm to excise the option. Make sure someone is with you who has a mobile phone with video facility so if the owner starts to make excuses then video it. Make sure your agent and their agent are also in the video so they cannot claim they were not there. Take the video with you when you file the police report. Make it available when complaining to HDB and to the agents companies. People commonly act very differently in front of a camera. RB

The biggest problem it seems is with the system. Your/my agent is rewarded with you spending more money. Maybe a better system would be to set the asking price and they get rewarded for every K under that price they can get . I am sure it would still be open to abuse but just maybe ........ We had a couple of places with experiences like those above. Very nice 5 room overlooking Tampines stadium, mid floor, beautiful reno, only 2 blocks over from where we currently live. Wanted around 530K (about 50K COV). We were thinking about it but it would really stretch our cash. Next we heard it was 540 then 550. Last we heard the owner was still taking bids at 80K COV but it seems they were in no rush to sell so just let price go up and up. Can't blame them for wanting highest price but they are also just wasting everyones time if they are not committed to sell. This was just before the new Government rules in Sept. We also saw another EM, very low COV but 2nd floor, very buy road, door not close to but facing refuse building. Currently occupied by tenants, needs full reno. We offer 12K COV, then 15K told 17K done deal, offer 17K, rejected told 20K will agree, offer 20K told will 100% sign OTP on 22K. Hard to get owners agent, hard to get owner. We say goodbye and by a much more expensive but much nicer unit in a better location. On the other side of things.... us selling, we had adverts put in the various places with a pic and asking price 350K for a ground floor 3a, nice reno, close to Tampines central. Another 3 room in our block was advertised for around 330K. Didn't expect to get over 300K. Quite a few enquiries, arranged open house viewings the following Sunday. Put a new advert up with more pictures and got more interest (pictures only staggered as I was working like a mad person clearing the property and touching up the paint work). Sunday was fully booked so arranged 8 more families to view on Saturday. Come Saturday 2 people offered the 350K on the spot and another offered 340K. We could not accept as the first people to show interest had not even seen the property so not fair on them. Asked Saturday people to come back if still interested (2 came back). Sunday lots of people came. By the time we returned home there were two families still left and as they had both offered 350K we agreed to have a closed bid. Highest offer wins. We could have had an open bid but then it is more like an auction and can turn in to a complete mess. It worked out very well for us whilst still being pretty fair to the buyers. The big factor in the whole process was that we gave everyone the chance to view and made it clear that the highest closed bit would secure the property on Sunday. No long running bidding war, everyone interested were in the same room together so they could be sure of no fake bids. Not sure how much fairer we could have been considering the amount of interest which really surprised us. Another suggestion would be to start looking early but be prepared to let that great apartment go if you find it. Get a feel for the market and what is on offer for what sort of prices. Ask your agent for a true list of available properties as the lists on the property internet sites are usually full of bogus adverts. If there are no photos of the property they are usually fake or only photos of the outside of blocks and MRT etc. ERA keeps a list of properties it's agents can search everyday. Get your agent to send the list daily as a lot of them are not on the websites. RB

Nothing is posted that is not already on her facebook page . She would have no grounds to complain..... I made very sure before hand . As for Wifi, As Neubie has mentioned, there can be a number of issues with bandwidth due to conditions outside of your control. Usually this will not affect general browsing etc on the internet from a laptop or desktop but for streaming HD movies and possibly up to 4 movies all at the same time, wireless bandwith and home plug bandwidth will just not be able to cope. Long answer for those who are a bit more interested, To covert the speed of the connection to an easy to work with common unit divide it by 8. 8Mb/s (megabits per second) = 1MB/s (megabyte per second). Now for Wifi there are 3 common standards; 802.11b - 11Mbps 802.11g - 54Mbps 802.11n - 150Mbps 802.11n - 300Mbps (usually two wireless n streams 2.9GHz and 5GHz). Sometimes referred to as n+ by manufacturers. 802.11n - 450Mbps (usually three wireless n streams 2.9GHz and 5GHz). Sometimes referred to as n+ by manufacturers. 802.11n - 600Mbps (usually four wireless n streams 2.9GHz and 5GHz). Sometimes referred to as n+ by manufacturers. The ones in bold are not usually available to the general public yet. These speeds are the raw data rate max for the connections. In Reality they are quite a bit slower Taken from Wikipedia (IEEE 802.11g-2003) highlited text applied by me. Max throughput on 11n is estimated at around 50Mb/s and 100Mb/s on N+ but you need compatible equipment on both sides of the connection and a lot of N+ equipment lets you use one or the other channel so only gives 150Mbps rather than joining both channels for 300Mbps. Taken From Wikipedia (BluRay) So BluRay also can require 54Mb/s or 6.75MB/s. 54b Wifi is not fast enough for a single stream and neither is 150n (50Mbps) as you will see frame drops or the movie will just hang every now and then. Wireless n+ should be fine with one HD video stream if you do not have any of the issues Neubie stated. Wired networks come in two mainstream sizes, 100Mbit (12.5MB/s) or 1Gigabit (125MB/s). It is not unusual to be able to get over 100MB/s on a Gbit network connection. So to put it all together in one place (net values not theoretical maximums used); Bluray max = 54Mbps (6.75MB/s) Wifi 11g = 19Mbps (2.375MB/s) Wifi 11n = 50Mbps (6.25MB/s) Wifi 11n+ = 100Mbps (12.5MB/s) Wired 100Mb = around 85Mbps (10.625MB/s) Wired 1Gb = around 880Mb/s (110MB/s) So to stream one BluRay stream from a PC to a player (ie the Western Digital live TV for example) you would need to be looking at Wireless N+ or 100Mb wired as a minimum but would probably get stutters depending on anything else going on with the network. Gbit Lan is the best bet. Just as an aside, HDTV (i.e. MIO TV etc) usually runs at around 8-15Mbps average and up to 20Mbps peek (up to 2.37MB/s). This is why the home plugs can work for it rather than requiring a dedicated lan connection. This is with all things equal. I have a DNS-323 NAS box at the moment and it has a Gb network interface but can only get up to 15->18MB/s. I also have an AC Ryan media player which can play HD content but only has a 100Mb network interface. So easy to get tripped up out there. Note,, the Bluray figures are quoted for playing a Bluray ISO from disk over the network and not for playing an avi rip of a Bluray rip (or MKV or WMA). These have been compressed and have a lower bitrate. RB

Seems like a good quote. Would be interested in a breakdown per item and contact if possible. Based on the single prices for items I was quoted, mine would be about 1K more expensive for the same requirements. I expect my quote is expensive though. The other alternative is to ask him for a quote with regard to the lan points if you supply the cable etc. Depends on how long the cable runs are but could work out cheaper. I am quoted $95 per lan run, just running the cables if I supply it goes down to $25. I need to get the cable, sockets and plugs but at least I know the quality I am getting. TBH my previous install had one lan cable run and I have never had an issue with it. The sad thing is with all the electrical work, I would have done myself (and have in the past) anything after the MCB in the unit (lighting, sockets etc) but there are rules in Singapore prohibiting this type of DIY work (the same is now true in the UK) for fairly good reason. RB

Yep I will be checking with an end to end tester for wiring but this will not test speed. If you want to get the most out then 'according to specs' your network cables should be 3 metres from electrical cables and if they should touch they need cross over at right angles to minimise impact. In essence this means that where possible, if the electrical trunking is running up near the ceiling then the network trunking should be run near the floor. Bends in the cable should also be no sharper then the diameter of a 10 cent coin. Sharp bends damage the wire pattern in the cable and so may introduce interference. Does this really make a big difference... I would say not really. Unless you are trying to squeeze 10Gigabit out of the cables then you should not need to be so precise. Iperf will also check network connectivity speeds without adding variables like hard drive speed in to the equation. Info here on how to use this open source application. RB

Thanks for the replies, We get the keys on 27th so I guess this weekend will be looking for good aircon deals Regards RB

Hi, Obviously this will be dependent on the companies staffing levels and work load but what is a rough guide figure for the time you should be buying an aircon system compared to the time you need it installed. 2 weeks / 1 week / 1 month etc. Thanks RB

Interesting, thanks for the photos. So how was the piping done ? Were the pipes not in trunking (like the electrical wires are) ? Filling gaps with newspaper was very common as it will provide a base to be plastered onto and give a acceptable finish for next to no cost. It is only if you break through the plaster that you would become aware that it is not solid, ie. in your reno. Not so much of a normal practice now I would imagine with all the different cheap fillers available. RB

Installing mine at the end of December myself. May considerer doing for others. PM with details of what you need if interested. I have my T-Blog which you can follow to see how it goes for the whole house Cat6. RB

Think I was quoted S$90 per lan point. That is now S$25 if I supply cable and terminate in wall boxes myself. You can get a 300Mtr real of UTP Cat6 cable for under the cost of a single lan point in your quote. RB

A couple of questions. What was the standard for aircon installs 10 years ago ? Obviously they cannot be compared with current standards. Why was the news paper that was apparently wrapped around the pipes imprinting on the wall behind the trunking ? Don't see how the paper around the pipes went through the back of the trunking to touch the plaster of the wall unless the trunking had no back to it which would be very strange. Not trying to stick up for the original installers but people can be quick to point without thinking about it first. RB

I don't disagree, just wanted a wider view of standard practice here in Singapore. RB

, yeah, sort of thinking the same. Yep he gets his commission (75% of it anyway). He is also charging the full 2% for the sale (heard some agents drop to 1.5% or 1%). On the other side, the sale went for a much higher than expected price... as in 40K more than expected (based on other units for sale in the same block or close area). Saying that we really do not have much cash spare after the reno on the new place and he did get the extra from the sale in the commission. RB

Hi, Now I know that there is no obligation to give the Agent a red packet but the question is would you and if so under what situation. Our agent has hinted a number of times but then we have also used the suggestion of a red packet to further push him for better price. Views ? RB

There are two situations here; Buyer starts reno after second appointment and buyer wants to start reno before second appointment. I am requesting the first from our seller. The second situation I would be much more wary with. I can see very little reason why a seller would not be willing to help with the first as no work will be done before they move out and ownership is officially transferred. It just allows the reno work to start after the keys are in new owners hand rather than having to wait another few days for approval. RB