Fine tuning the house

We really hate holes, largely because they are magnets for dust sand dirt. We sourced around for stickers that closely resemble our laminate colors and my wifey found it! Then we spend the night sticking over all the screw holes. It became so less obvious immediately. There are a variety of colors and patterns so it will be easy to find one that matches the laminate.

A glimpse of how my DB box is right now. Neatly wired up to my modem there. The yellow wire is actually very fragile so take extra caution not to bend it. Just bending it 90degree would result in a snap in the wire. The rest of the lan cable had been connected to the ports which are linked to all the CAT 6 wires that are hidden in the cement of the house. Really job well done by the BTO Home Networking team.

Our solar film contractor came down to demonstrate their films. Statistically wise, it has great results, and is looking forward to having all our windows covered with it. The reason why we wanted to get them is so that we can keep the heat out during the day. There were too many terrible days where we came home to a scorching oven because all the heat had been trapped in the house. The film would also keep out the harmful UV rays, keeping us safe, and also our furniture from discoloring.


Our horse painting is hung! This is really a remarkable workmanship of an expert and we hope we are able to chance upon him again next time. And the story on how we decided on this painting would always be etched in our minds. There were two beautiful horse paintings that we could not make a decision on which one we should get, so we flipped a coin and this was the result. Actually in the end, we requested for a combination, where we got the horse from one painting and grass from another painting to form this art for us.

Our projector is finally installed! The cause of the problem is that the contractor that installed it had used some cheap butterfly plugs which was broken during the installation, resulting in it behind unstable. Our ID decided to take it himself and used his better quality butterfly plugs. Now everything is good, and we could just flopped onto our sofa and enjoy a good movie night.

On this, just a shoutout here is that we really love how our ID is all about using only the best quality items be it wood, quartz or even the screws. He always ask us to throw away the screws that came with the item because they are likely to be bad quality one, and he just used his to install them. And this is why despite his higher quotation as compared to his competitors, we chose him because of the quality he deliver.

Adding the fine details now

At this point of time, the main bulk of our renovation had reached the end. The things remaining now are the touch-ups, minor corrections and a few missing elements. The clean-up of the house had also been completed, and although not exactly dust-free clean, but it's in a bearable condition. A few other stuffs happened today too.

Our ID came up to help us drill holes to install some towel racks and the IKEA mirror cabinet. It was hard work because the drill was the portable kind and not very powerful, but appreciate his kind gestures to help us get them up. The mirror is looking great, although Wifey commented that it was thicker than imagined, and expressed concerns that people may hit their heads when using the tap. Perhaps we will put a "Caution your head" sign on the mirror if there were to be anyone who hit their head on it.

Our ViewQwest was connected today. Say hello to WIFI! This is the heart of our home automation system, as well as the core to our projector streaming videos and tv channels. Hence we invested in ViewQwest, as well as the monster ASUS RT-AC88U. We had always admire ViewQwest for it's say no to traffic-shaping/throttling unlike the other competitors, and its excellent customer services, again unlike the other competitors. Furthermore, when we saw that their price were not that far apart from the rest during the IT Show, we signed with them straight away. The above speed and download/upload rate were with my Dell XPS using Wifi 5GHz on ViewQwest 1Gbps plan. Pretty impressive I must say.

Our blinds are up. We got a light colored one for the study room so that it would still be bright enough for any works at the table, yet keeping the glare out.

We gotten the darker shade one for the bedroom 3 just in case there are any guests that wants to sleep during the day.

The curtain contractor helped us to put up the Dooya track too. Really thankful because we did not have the equipment to drill all the support onto the ceiling. We plugged in the Dooya motors too, and our motorized curtain track is complete. Cant wait to put up the curtains and play with it after we did a thorough cleaning.

We had also pulled the wires for the projector to the mount in anticipation of installing the projector. However, there were some problem with the support structure that is holding this mount, and it was shaky when we fitted the projector. Hopefully our ID can solve this.

It would be terrible if the projector were to fall off halfway, and even disastrous if the entire false ceiling were to crumble and collapse due to the strain of the projector. In defence for our ID, he had actually planned for a support block in the false ceiling for my projector, but during the installation of the mount, we realized it was too near to the wall and we decided to pull it back to have a larger screen size. However, the new place does not have any support block within, but was assessed to not be a problem because my projector is relatively light at 1.5kg only.

Despite that assurance, we still feel a bit uncomfortable because there are 5 holes in close proximity which are stress points and could give way anytime. Let's see what our ID can do when he comes and take a look.

Another round of electrical works

Our electrician came down for another round of works. Now that most of the carpentries are up, he is able to find the center point to fix our lights. Here he is setting up the power points for our automated curtains. I guess to have a smart home, you do need many electrical points, but it would all be worth it in the end!

Introducing the track light in our walk in wardrobe as well as our entrance corridor. It does look good, much better than those downlights, but they are quite expensive itself. A set of tracklights set us back by at least $250. Beauty has its price to pay uh.

Introducing the switches we got for our house. The lights can now be switched on either by just a touch, or through a remote, which eventually will be set to be controlled by our phones itself. Looking forward, we would only need our phones to control every appliances in the house next time. No more numerous remote controls to search through to find the right one.

All the faceplates are installed up too. The one on the right is the network port, which previously was just a telephone port. Easy to connect to the Ethernet through LAN cables now.

This is a glimpse of how we are going to study or do our work next time. Having a good view out of the window, hopefully not distracted. Fixed one of our Eames chair up so that I could sit on it while typing my blog post. Loving it.

With most of the dusty works done and out, it is time to unbox our fridge. This is the Samsung new model which has two cooling fans, one for each compartment. This supposedly keep the food fresher and have less risk of contamination. We got their small model one because it is just the two of us for now, and a smaller fridge means better control over the food stored inside. This mean less chance of having forgotten food and only realizing it after they had expired.

Rubbish. Heaps of it. Waiting for my ID to get someone to clear them. A bit more touch up and some remaining electrical installation, and we are good to move in. Our renovation is coming to an end soon!

Recommendation - BTO Home Networking

Did you know, that all the telephone ports in the new BTOs are actually wired up with Cat 6 cables? However, they are so underutilized to be used as telephone ports because the Cat 6 cables are actually cables for Gibabit Ethernet, meaning you can actually use them for LAN connection. In layman's terms, it means can plug your computers or routers into the ports to get Ethernet without having to rewire the house up with all the ugly trucking. However, because they are installed with the telephone ports, you would need to change it to a LAN port. You would also need to do some changes to the access ports in the DB box, and that is where BTO Home Networking comes into the picture.

I had tried to get the prices from other people, where I ring up numbers from the leaflets in the lift or recommendations from my estate facebook page. Only after that did I give BTO Home Networking a text, and they beat all the prices quoted hands down. I even managed to get a cheaper rate than usual because they were having a promo of $10 discount for liking one of their associate facebook page. Sure, a like for $10? I'll take it!

The friendly guy came down on the next day (talk about efficiency) and was done in about 30min while having a good chatting session with me. He also labelled the DB box clearly so that we would need to trial and error to find the right ports next time. Anyway the right picture shows is dangling because my electrician have not installed the box for it, so it is left like this. However, I do not have another picture so this is all I got. Of course, such works could actually be DIY, where I am sure there are many guides online to teach you. If you are not as lazy as me, you could give it a go, but should you choose to let the professional handle it, you know who I am recommending.

Definitely recommended 5/5.

Reasonable price and high efficiency

Find them on Facebook.

Tip: look at the other results. Some people may comment on promotions they are having. That was how I saved ourselves $10. :)