Cracked Ceiling

[miloice]

hi poppets,

if you plan your wiring now, you can conceal some of them behind your L-boxes and features. If you get Singtel to do it for you, it probably cost around the same or more and the trucking will be fully expose over whatsoever fixtures that you gotta do.

The diff between Singtel and Starhub is they use a different means of data transmission.

For SCV, they use the coaxial point that we normally use for normal free TV channels. For some older blocks, its only fitted with the analogy ones and you will need to rewire them anyway.

For Singtel, their transmission is through the leased line such as your tel phone cable. What is wireless for Mio is basically only your router. You have to plan where you place your TV in the bedroom and hall. If u want to have the flexibility to choose and switch between the 2 ISPs, then, have both SCV and proper phone connections.

Make sure you get a good electrician for the job. If the signal is too bad, your modem will not be able to get a good signal and it will keep dropping. Another point, for ADSL, all phone points must be fitted with a by-pass before connecting to a normal phone or it will interfere with your data transmission causing data connection problems with your modem. But, with Mio, you will probably use a DEC phone instead and this problem will not occur.

 

[jinnous]

Ok guys, a question.

Is it ok to build my fridge next to my built-in oven? My pa just asked wait too hot blah blah....

Hubby's initial design was to put "fridge, tall unit, built-in oven" sequence.

But I tot it looks nicer in the "fridge, built-in oven, tall unit" combo.

Any problem not huh?

 

[jinnous]

Hi milo,

yep, that's wat my hubby said also. Mio is for future in case really have to subscibe.

If not I'm very happy with SCV actually.

 

[miloice]

Too close to the oven might be bad for the fridge, exposing it to extreme heat regularly.

For mine, I placed the fridge beside in L-shape. So, its not directly beside but highly accessible and convenient with a small prep area between fridge and oven. And the kitchen is separated from dinning by a full height frosted glass.

 

[jinnous]

Really? Oh, in that case I better put back the "fridge, tall unit, built-in oven" sequence.

My kitchen layout is 1 full set of top and down cabinets on 1 wall and the fridge, oven and tall unit on the opp wall. The bathroom and store doors all located on this wall.

But I also got 1 tall unit in the middle of the top/ down cabinets cuz got see abit of fengshui, to seperate the water and fire.

1 more question. Is it ok to build the cabinets over the tiled wall? The area where we gonna build cabinets hor, the wall not hacked cuz uncle said no need since covered by the cabinet. But ah pa was asking me if we are sure not cuz he thinks the cabinets might not hold lor.

 

[miloice]

Build in cabinets are permanent. So, I agree no need tiles or hacking provide, current tile condition can still hold. Else, u might need to hack and cement over.

In fact, for my kitchen, I only place limited tiles in the cabinet exposed areas. The rest of the walls are painted. The small kitchen is separated into washing, cooking and dinning areas. So, no point to tile up also.

 

[jinnous]

The current tile conidtion looks ok leh. So we say dun hack lor.

Will install the wiring tomorrow I think, then cornice will go up. Then aircon piping shd be next week liao. Think we will move with the hse done up 75%, with the kitchen cabinets not done.

Another question, bathroom door u use what huh? PD or bi-fold door?

 

[miloice]

It depends on you one lah. Check out all the alternatives and find one most suitable for your theme but yet practical.

For me, the kitchen toilet, there is no door frame, so, I did a custom door using plywood laminates that is matching the kitchen cabinets.

I find those pvc doors flimsy.

For the master toilet, there is no door too. Completely open concept. Instead, we have full glass covering the basin area which is extended out to the walkin wardrobe are. This way, it looks bigger and open. But, everyone in the room can walk over see peek at the bathroom.

 

[jinnous]

Hehe.... we wanted that too but thing is the master toilet open to face the living room.

So have to use door. Keke....

Yup, the PVC doors actually quite filmsy. Even more so for the PD door. But PD door bottom no track lor....looks nicer. Bi-fold can also minus the bottom track but need to add some $$.

Hmm...maybe can psycho the cabinet uncle to do a free door for the kitchen toilet to match the cabinets.

Another thing is for the opposite cabinets, normally use wat colour nicer if I have 2 colour combinaton. White for top and probably light wood colour for bottom. We have a dog so tat's y 2 colour plus e kitchen becomes a little dark in the afternoon so we try to brighten up with this combination and stainless steel backing. I was thinking full white but would it look funny?

 

[jinnous]

Bad news! My contractor tried to polish e floor today. But the neighbour downstairs came and feedback that the water seeped into her hse! Planned was to polish 2 rooms for us to store our things since reno not complete and we need to shift on 8-Jan.

At a loss! We cannot not polish e floor cuz it's full of scratches! Argh!!! Feel like screaming.... haha.... *sigh*

 

[kireii]

Droplets of water leaked through our balcony's ceiling, due to a bursted air-con discharge pipe from the unit above. Shouldn't the unit above pay for the cost for us to patch up and re-paint the ceiling of our balcony ? HDB refused to help us to mediate/negotiate with the neighbour, they said we have to talk to our neighbour ourselves … but we dun want to even see them, let alone negotiate such things with them !!

Really disappointed with HDB, they HDB took 2 months just to gain entry to access the flat above and to tell us about the the leaking air-con, an answer we already know since the day we file our complaint, as we could see the air-con piping going to the balcony. Neighbour keep finding excuse to avoid HDB visit, until HDB issue a warning that they will gain entry with legal means. We had to push and push HDB asking for status updated, keep escalate to the technician's boss's boss's boss … until the head of the HDB branch in our area, plus we also visited the MP to complain.

Ok now the unit have fixed the burst pipe, HDB said they have also checked and they everything is ok. It has been 1 week passed since the problem was fixed, according to HDB. But water are still dripping, is it possible ??? This morning I was WOKEN up by water dropping sound, between 4:45am - 5am, I heard 5 drops of water dripped down to the pail. Can it be possible after 1 week, water is still dripping, I understand it may take weeks for the slab of concrete to fully dry up, but water still dripping ?? And the dripping happens more frequent in the morning, obviously due to usage of air-con during the night.

Don’t know what else can we do, even the head of the HDB branch say she will personally visit the unit this week if leaking still persist. Of course we hoped to get some compensation from the unit above to repair the damage but looks like is not possible without talking to them ourselves. HDB website say 50-50 cost sharing if leaking is due to wear and tear, this is not even wear and tear, a really problem caused by the unit above, why HDB won't even help us mediate for a compensation ?? If you are living on the top floor unit, the water tank on the roof leaks through your ceiling, HDB will pay 100% for your damage, just because our unit above is not the roof owned by HDB, they dun care. What is the logic ?

Almost 4 mths has passed, suppose to be living in a newly renovated flat but now with patchy dripping balcony ceiling, 2 smelly pails in the balcony.

What also pissed us off is that this neighbour is very RICH (or maybe appear to be?), but are such inconsiderate people, finding way to avoid and delay their repair. HE drives a Lamborghini !!! Tell me .. any of your HDB neighbour drives a Lamborghini ??? The engine of his car will announce to the whole block plus few other blocks away, when he leaves for work in the morning and when he comes home at night. Sometimes even wee hours, you can be woken up by the sound of those horse power !!! The cost of that car is probably = market price of our flat !!! SHE drive a Merc with a car plate carry 4 digits of the same number, obvious is not the car your average HDB neighbour will drive too. Once HE was coming down in the lift, through the window of the lift, I have already spotted his shiny shiny diamond studded watch… he was holding his hand under his chin, you know the typical trying to show off this watch pose !!! First time seeing a MAN wearing a watch where every space available on the watch is filled with diamonds right down to the bracelet !!! Really pissed off, such a show-off and so rich but dun give a damm to the problem that they are causing the poor neighbour downstairs.

 

[miloice]

it will take months for it to completely dry. But it should not leak.

 

[jinnous]

Tot I post the outcome of my renovation here.

Its been a few months since we moved in. But it was terrible initially. Our contractor almost made off wif our money. We moved in wif the reno still going on cuz he messed up the carpentry. Almost not able to make it for CNY.

We had a quarrel wif the fellow. Finally got back our money and we found our own carpenter. Good guy.

All in all, learnt a lot from this experience.

Though the reno is not perfect, like the skirting is not complete etc...and the wall at the balcony leaks whenever it rains, we are quite happy as it is. It's a little mismatch here and there.....

BTW, anyone got suggestion how to settle the leak huh? Think there's a hole outside the balcony which creates a little port hole in my balcony hole and leaks whenever there's rain. Hubby tried using the waterproof gel but it leaks again after 2nd rain.