Insect Netting - Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Please pardon us for the lack of updates lately. Audits at work are sucking us dry!

Many years ago hubby had a traumatic experience with a hugeass flying ugly cockcoach while he was bathing. With nothing to defend himself except a showerhead, he was trapped inside as it landed on the shower screen door and he needs to push it open to run out, likely causing that ugly thing to spread its wings and attack the prey. One could only imagine the terror of how a buck naked prey knows its death fate with that giant ugly thing guarding the only door to freedom. Ever since then, he always bathed with the shower door half opened, so that he could attempt slipping out without touching the door should the situation arise again.

That definitely was not the best solution, but it provides a contingency plan for hubby. However after seeing the solution at a friend's house, we knew we had to get the same thing too! We bought an insect netting from Qoo10 and used it to cover the bathroom window! Although yes the ugly things could appear from elsewhere, but it blocked out a good amount of area that it could appear by. One could only roughly guess how much mental damage the ugly thing did when they see the great height that hubby goes to prevent a similar occurrence.

It really did not require much effort. Just 10 minutes and some stick on tapes that were provided and the net could be nicely installed to keep the bugs out. Thus far it has been effective, and we really hope it could be for the long run, though the thin net does make us question its durability. Only time can tell.

A glimpse from the inside. The great thing about new BTOs are that the windows are accessible from the aircon ledge. This is because the netting could not be installed on the inside as the panels would protrude out from it. However, there is no problem from the outside. Also it is aesthetically pleasing because you cannot really see it from the inside. Definitely recommended if ugly giant things annoy you too.

Keeping the heat out while starting the fire within

We got ShieldShade International to do our solar films for the house. It was largely fate that we chanced upon them because when we were finding other contractors, we saw their leaflets at our house door, and with a very competitive price on it. A rough gauge on solar film is that 3M, a household brand, cost about $8psf. We got ours at half its price, but the catch is that the warranty does not last as long. In the previous post, they did use their gadgets to measure the heat and we were impressed and so, we decided to give this a shot.

The three installers were hard at work, cleaning the windows and getting the film up. Did a quick check after they are done and we thought they did a great job. The main reason we decided to get the solar film is that we do not want to come back to an oven-like house at the end of the day. Plus this keeps out the dangerous UV rays that are harmful to us and our furniture so it has multiple uses. Let's hope the next time we go up to the house we could feel the difference. Stay tuned!

Could you spot which window has the film up and which has not? We chose the 50% VLT because we did not want it to be that dark. Again the purpose is to keep the heat and UV rays out, not so much about blocking the views and making the room dark. We have our blackout curtains for that. It does dim down a little, but overall, it was still decently bright when the curtains are drawn. Regardless, the windows are likely to be opened when we are at home too anyway.

At our service yard, we decided to paste the film on the inner door/windows because we will be air-drying our clothes in the service yard and we wanted the heat to come in there instead of blocking them out. But the heat would be blocked by the inner door/windows so that they do not enter our house. This was the plan because we did not want to hang the clothes outside as it is cumbersome to keep the clothes one by one when it starts to rain (as you cannot keep the clothes by taking the whole rod in so you have to un-kiap one by one), and that it is still very dusty outside due to the many renovations taking place at our new BTOs.

Additionally, we got the darker one with a 10% VLT as we realized we forgot to take this windows into consideration for our projector. At the current situation, the sunlight from the service yard would cause half of my projector screen to be flushed out as it is too bright. Hence, we went with 10% VLT to keep the light out. We did not go with black out black because we felt it may be too dark and not look nice too. Turns out the 10% VLT is just sufficient for our projector.

We also done the frosted film for our toilet glass door but we forgot to take the picture!

Our queen sized mattress is delivered! It looked so small, but we guess it would be perfect for the two of us since we are considered small-sized. Beside, all the more reason for us to sleep closer to one another uh!

The Citygas installer also came up today to attached our gas pipe to our hob. We decided to go with the gas pipe so that we would never have to worry about running out of gas, or that we have to cater a space for that bulky gas tank. We did not go electrical too because gas is cheaper than electricity, and that we would save a lot more in the long run. The fires were shockingly strong and huge, and it made our current house fire feels so inadequate. Let's hope we can get used to this strength of fire and not injure ourselves in the future!

After the installation, we went to check the gas meter outside and we were shocked why there were bubbly soapy liquid at the pipe. We were about to report it to Citygas worrying that there are something wrong but it turns out (as indicated in the manual for the gas hob) that one should use soap liquid at the joint to test for gas leak. So apparently our installer had did just that and tested for gas leak, but we felt that it would be much better if it were cleaned up instead of left there. Ohwell.

We will be moving in soon! Real soon!

Grilles, Glass, Platform up

The grilles are up! Initially we did not want to have any grilles because we much preferred an unobstructed view out of the window. However we understand the danger that it potentially may cause, especially next time when they are kids in the house. Hence we came up with a creative way of putting the grilles up.

We had the frame for 3 grilles but we only had 2 grilles installed. This way, when there are no kids in the house, we could push the grilles all away and have back our lovely unobstructed view. We had customized a latch to hold the two grilles in position too so that it does not move around despite the lack of one grilles. However for our 4 window grilles, we just had the full set because we would ultimately have two blocked windows regardless we have 3 or 4 grilles. Happy with our end product!

Our MBR toilet glass work is up too. And yes, there is a door to the toilet if you look closely. It is a clear glass door but we will be getting the frosted laminates to paste over the door for privacy. It is just that my ID recommended such method as a frosted glass door would have higher maintenance issues, otherwise there will be much stains and discolored marks. This way, if the laminates are giving us the problems, we could just change the laminates at a cheaper cost than changing the entire door. And also revealing our rain shower. The pressure and functions and designs are all highly commendable. Cant wait to bathe there!

Our platform is up too. Love the choice of vinyl flooring but was quite disappointed with the grey trimming which did not match well with the vinyl flooring. Hopefully our ID can find something that is of a closer match, otherwise we would request for it to be black instead. The platform does not feel entirely solid either and there were some areas which we could hear a thud when walking over it. Are most platforms like this?