HAPPY 1ST ANNIVERSARY

Exactly a year ago, 27 December 2011, we bid farewell to our home and neighbours in Pasir Ris and shifted into our new flat at Punggol Sapphire.

No special arrangement... nor fancy meal, we are thankful it's been a smooth sailing year since we shifted in.

... and many years to come...

PRIVACY FILM

when we first stepped into our flat more than 14 months ago, we quite like the view from our kitchen and main bedroom.  it faced the roof-top garden and the distance to the opposite blocks of flats seems acceptable.

pix taken December 2012, from my kitchen.

but the view from the living room is just the opposite.  first the road, then the lrt tracks, followed by the straits separating Singapore and Malaysia...

pix taken November/December 2011... can you see the vessel sailing thru...

pix was taken Decemeber 2011...  

now, we have to to held our heads high up so we can see the sky.

pixs taken December 2012. way back in the background is the
Punggol Water Terrace BTO.

bit by bits, it's all being blocked by the construction of Punggol Emerald.  on top of that, the distance between our block to the next is probably less than a 3-lane road.. it's so near i could tell you the facial details of the worker, working in the incomplete units!!!

now, with the opposite project going up, the morning sun hardly comes to my balcony anymore, and no, my unit doesnt get the afternoon sun.  so, mainly for privacy purposes, we were caught between putting up day curtain and window films.

the one paying finally gets his way.

the workers putting up the film in the living room.

see the difference with and without the film in the 2 bedrooms below.

the amount of natural light is GREATLY REDUCED!!!  goodbye sunshine, i'll miss you.

the privacy he seeks - now he sees you but you cant see him.

i'll not go into details which company we engaged nor the quotes which i've got from other companies.  if only i had my way - day curtain still my preferred choice.

ONE YEAR ON...THE FLAT ITSLEF

time flies. it's been a year since we first stepped into our flat.

it seems only yesterday where we waited anxiously for our turn at the HDB office. the 'ooh' and 'wow' goes on excitedly when we unlocked the door for the 1st time.

so, how's the first year in our home? (just the flat itself. will comment on the reno ...etc later)

1. premier price DO NOT EQUAL premier flats

from workmanship to material used... i really dont understand what, where and why is this branded as a premier flat?? the standard bto(s) are getting the same main door and same main gate as we do, so... ???!!! what's so premier about it?

2. lousy workmanship

from rain seeping through 'invisible' cracks to hollow timber flooring. rubbish hidden from view behind and inside pipes left by inconsiderate FOREIGN TALENTS!! mind you, we paid premier price for lousy workmanship!!

uneven flooring, doors that cant be lock/unlock...etc.

3. cat & mouse game

after submitting our defect list, we have to endure and put ourselves at the mercy of those FOREIGN TALENTS!!! language is a huge barrier!! Mr Ah Tiong's chinese proves to be too cheem for us to understand and our ang moh sounds like swearing to Mr Ah Neh. The work just drags on as these so called FOREIGN TALENTS will take their very own sweet time to play 'ball games', passing the 'ball' all around the court.

4. premier prices DO NOT EQUAL premier fittings

not so long ago, i did an entry about my faulty shower holder. at first, i though, we are just being too rough to it, but that doesnt seems the case. there's at least another handful of residents who complaint that the shower knobs, handle and even switch that toggles between the taps came off within less than a year of usage!

toilet bowls that leaks?? pipes got choke because our FOREIGN TALENTs conveniently pour cement, throw masking tapes and all sorts of wires and rubbish into it!

lagi power! electrical current that constant got tripped b'cos of loose connections! some of our neighbours reported that a short-circuit caused a mini fire at the switch board!

such things were never heard of in the past!! (even there is, it's probably 1 in a million case.)

5. i rather not have a premier flat

premier flats comes with flooring. standard flats dont....correct me if i'm wrong. in that case, i rather opt for a standard flat.

THOSE CERAMIC AND TIMBER FLOORING REALLY CMI! GOT EXTRA $$ I SURE HACK AND THROW AWAY!

those ceramic tiles in the living room n kitchen is really hard to maintain. within 5mins of mopping, foot prints re-surface. water on the kitchen floor left to dry on it's own will leave unsightly stain on the floor...zzz.

the timber flooring is another pain the neck! within the 1st week of moving in, we have scratches, by the end of the month, the shiny polished floor was gone. we were so paranoid about maintaining the floor, we have to restrict the kids from playing in the room and remind ourselves to be gentle and make sure we dry our mop thoroughly during house keeping. by the half year mark... we just pretend not to see, not to know. give up!! it's just too tiring.

my previous flat had broken marble flooring, therefore stains and dust is not easily detected. my parents' flat was laid with homogeneous tiles, maintenance is a breeze.

the current ceramic flooring can really drive a housewife mad!!!

6. premier flat DO NOT EQUAL premier environment

the residents in amk dbss are protesting because some new buildings are being squeeze in around their area barely a year they move in.

come'on complaint, protest...in the end??? got use meh?

when we 1st stepped into the flat, we can see the lrt track, we can even see big vessels sailing thru the straits. twelve months down the road, we can only see concrete walls and DIRECTLY INTO uncompleted units of punggol emerald.

7. transportation sucks!

there's only 1 service, bus 43 that serves from the interchange to marine parade via serangoon... and it tooks ages to wait?!?

though another service bus 119, coming soon serves from changi to hougang...why would one take a bus when mrt from punggol to hougang takes less than 10mins?? honestly, it makes no sense to me.

another ridiculous sight to note is the lrt... way before we collected the keys, the lrt system had been doing test runs and till date, they still are!! what's there to test?? got $$ give them, they dont want??? rather waste $$ to run EMPTY trains??? no logic at all?

8. amenities sucks!

can die but dont fall sick! they nearest clinic is 1.05KM away. it's a 2mins drive or a 10mins walk.

stock up your kitchen! nearest supermarket is also 1.05KM away. so, if you dont drive or lazy to walk, be warned. btw, no straight bus nor lrt to ply the route. good workout carrying bags of groceries then walk back to your estate.

cook your own meals. SGD4.00 for a plate of CKT with rotten prawns. SGD1.00 for a piece of prata kosong. otherwise, just order tingkat.

9. layout sucks

the several accidents that happened in both our carparks due to many blind spots, flow of traffic that doesnt make sense and poor lighting. need me to elaborate more?

can you ran 50m in a straight line without running into a pillar at your void deck?? honestly, there isnt a void deck to speck of in the 1st place and now they are trying to squeeze a childcare centre between those pillars?!

10. frustrating feature

a walkway that doesnt protects you from heavy rain nor provides shelter from the blazing sun...then why build it there in the 1st place??

a door covering up the staircase, nice, but issit necessary?

only 2 lifts serving 16 floors each with 6 units... how u wish u have a pair of wings especially during those peak hours where everyone is rushing off to school and work.

and the list goes on...honestly, it's frustrating since there are more to be listed, in the end, there's nothing good about this place. this neighbourhood, this estate.

the only good thing...

1. the lrt station is right at my door step and the mrt station is just 5mins walk away.

2. no more noisy kids running/yelling outside my corridor now that i'm at the extreme corner unit.

cant really think of any liao.

anyway, cant shift till 5 years later. so just grind my gigis and bear with it, for the time being. in the end, the verdict of purchasing this new house...

it doesnt worth what i'm paying for

UPDATE ~ PURCHASE OF NEW BALLAST

after a hard time removing the ballast from the light, we took the un-label thing to Balestier Road to look for a replacement.

not wanting to go back to the original shop, we started from the beginning of Balestier Road (where Leong Fatt Tau Siah Piah is) then walk all the way to Shaw Plaza (where the dammed shop is located). the first stop is at ITALU, the shop recommended by our ID and has rendered very good services to us thur'out the whole reno period, and even when they came to replace the faulty ballast 2 months back. The sale person was helpful but couldnt provide us any solution, she showed us some of the OSRAM ballast but advise us not to take the risk. (no hard selling).

for more than an hour, out of the 10 shops we visited, only 1(one) shop could recognised this 'unidentified' ballast but they run out of stock for it. most of the lighting shops didnt sell ballast or they just couldnt identify this suspicious looking piece of scrape metal!

no choice, we have to go back to the shop who sold us the light and got SGD12.84 inclusive of GST less in our wallet for that bloody ballast!!!

it took us a good 30mins before we fixed it back to it's original place and have the lights coming back again!

SO BEAR IN MIND WHEN PURCHASING LIGHTS - NO MORE BALLAST!!! WHOEVER TOLD YOU THAT BALLAST IS JUST AS EASILY AVAILABLE AS A PIECE OF STARTER .... SLAP THIS PERSON HARD IN THE FACE - DAMMED LIAR!!

AND IT'S NOT CHEAP!!! SGD12.84 FOR A PIECE OF CRAP!!

SPARE YOURSELF THE AGONY = SAY "NO!!" TO BALLAST!

THERE GOES ANOTHER...BALLAST

another light died on us last night. again, after checking, we found that the ballast is gone.

this time round, we couldnt get a free replacement as the company we bought the light from didnt offer such service. instead, we were told to remove the ballast and then head down to the shop to pay for a new piece, then fix it back by ourselves!!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

there are so many youngsters, being first-time flat owners, we are gullible, naive to the extend of foolish to believe the salesperson hypnotize us into believe how good their product is.

IT'S TOO LATE FOR US!!

do not believe when the sales person said
1. ballast is long lasting compared to starter (i blew 2 ballast in less than 9months!!)
2. ballast can be easily found in lighting / hardware shop (but can u remove n fix it yourself? how much does a piece cost!!)
3. ballast operated light comes on instantly with no flickering (nice, but we have been using starter for the past generation and still using. did any of your new starter or any starter die within a 6month period??)

i remember the lights in our previous flat even my parent's flat all survive well using starter. when the lights die out, either you change the starter or you change the bulb... really easy! and it's cheap! the starter usually cost a dollar or so usually 3pcs for SGD5.00 and could last you about 3 years or more? I'm not sure b'cos I rarely change it!! as for the lights usually energy saving bulbs or tubes cost less than SGD7.00 and could last you way more than 5years!!

what the hell?! screws, bundle of wires not forgetting the cost!

but with this ballast - it's HELL!! I got a hard time taking out the screws, not forgetting those bundle of wires?!? OK, so after paying $$ for a new one, the whole head scratching, never wrecking starts all over again b'cos u need to fix it back ... if that is - you really managed to get it back on.

NOW WE KNOW...though it's too late. when comes to purchasing light...

NEVER GET ONE WITH BALLAST - IT'S A REALLY A REAL HEADACHE!

lights using starter usually flicks, but didnt we grow up and used to it? as i said, starter is really cheap to replace but again, if you have enough of this ballast vs starter shit stuff, then get those Philips Lights that just 'plug & play'!!

our good old starter. easy to find, cheap to replace, a breeze to install.

THE HALF YEAR MARK!

We are almost there - but not yet.

Just last week, our kitchen lights from Italu died on us. The technician came promptly on a Monday morning and told us the ballast is faulty. In the first place, the wires were not connected properly causing the ballast to wear out...zzz... Luckily Italu offered us a 1 year warranty for their lights and ballast, so this trip cost us nothing.

Then on Sunday evening, after slipping down the shower stand after so many times, I broke the shower head support while trying to push the thing up one last time!!

Since, all fittings in the flat comes with 1 year warranty, I called the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council for help since the BSC shifted out in April. Help came 45mins after I hang up the phone.

The circular support for the shower head has been slipping over the past few months. I have to loosen the knob on the left, push up the shower head, then tighten it.
I think I had enough with the nonsense, so fuming mad, I tighten the knob too much that it broke! Dammed!!! Made in CxxxA, lousy plastic material!! Paid HDB PREMIUM PRICING, this is the 'premium' items I get?
But come to think of it, this whole thing is made of plastic!! it will break sooner or later! So, it's not entirely my fault!! Give me ANY trouble again after the warranty expired, then out it goes!
Other than lights and those lousy government fittings... it's so far so good for the rest of the stuff at home.

VENTILATION GRILLE

common practice - most people would have one side of the ventilation holes covered and the other in it's original state. if possible, home owners usually construct a fake wall to hid their storeroom from sight.

since my design doesnt allow me to hid it from view, i'm only allowed to cover up 1 side and left the other side in it's original state.


but over the weekend, i finally removed the SUPER UGLY, EYE SORE ventilation cover from the storeroom.


and replaced with this. cost SGD25, bought from Block 31 Kelantan Lane.


isnt this much nicer? slimmer? no screws nor drilling required. i stick it up with some bluetack.




as for the original metal plate...it's chuck somewhere inside the storeroom. remember to place it back before you call for a flat valuation in future.

THE COMPLETED PIGEON HOLE

i've wanted to do this clip after the last box is being unpacked but never got the time to do it.

i'm hesitating should i do it now or should i wait till the wallpapers are up later this month.

anyway, be warned, this clip is approx 10mins long.



wallpapers from The WallStory will be up by 24 feb 2012.

PLANTER BED COVER

having shifting in for approximately a week, our planter bed cover is finally here.


not sure how much this chengal wood cover cost because this item wasnt listed in our invoice.

at first, we intended to fill up the space using foam and soil but ID wasnt keen because foam will deteriorate over time and aluminium covers aint classy... so, we end up with chengal wood.