MP#8 - Shopping, Again...

After I done with wet stuff in Kepong, I head to Puchong for electrical stuff...

This is the first round. More boxes in second round as my lovely car could not swallow all in one go. Let's unbox...

A normal round shaped downlight for toilet. RM13 each inclusive of a single GE bulb. Then for rooms I have this...

6-inch square and white downlight with single bulb. RM15 each with GE bulb. A tip, 6-inch is measured diagonally on the open area, the measurement does not include the frame. It's similar to TV where 40" LCD means 40" viewable area, the frame doesn't count.

Then I have something more unique for open areas like living hall and kitchens...

Gun metal chromed downlight. Typically you only find white (like above) and silver downlight, and at most the glass with some decorative drawing. This is likely because the plaster ceiling is usually white in color. I thought the gun metal color could add some contrast effect to the ceiling, especially my house is a "white house". It's also measured 6 inches and cost RM25 each with single bulb. Initially I wanted to fit this for the entire house but the shop and factory ran out of stock, I only got the last 20 units. Anyway, I hope the effect after install is good.

All my downlight is fitted with PLCE bulb like this...

It's screw in type without choke (or some called ballast) just like the torch light bulb. The one with choke is called PLC like shown below...

No definite good or bad on PLCE over PLC or vice versa, both have their strengths and weaknesses. PLCE is sort of hassle free and easy maintenance where you only need to replace the bulb, whereas PLC may give you trouble that you need to hire electrician to dismantle the downlight if the choke is faulty, and likely you need to patch up the plaster ceiling after that. On the other hand, since PLC comes with choke that acts as regulator, it is more stable than PLCE. PLCE is very susceptible to unstable supply and you would be spending a big sum to replace bulbs in long run. So I guess if TNB supply to your house is like roller coaster (like my current house), may be PLC is better choice. I assume the electricity supply to the new house is steady, and for easy maintenance sake I picked PLCE.

Beside downlight, I need other lights in different areas...

Another type of downlight for fitting without plaster ceiling. I use this in ground floor toilet. Then the car porch light...

I bought it because of insect guard feature, hope no insects die inside the cover.

Lastly, some miscellaneous...

Door bell and timer. There are few more such as gate light, water proof light etc not in this post because the shop ran out of stock. I will need to pay another visit to the shop later.

Since I mentioned Puchong, I believe some of you already know which shop I bought these items...

Yeah, Top Ten Lighting SB. Not only the lights are cheap, I also bought ceiling fans and heaters from the shop. Those fans and heaters may not be cheaper than others but I found out the price is neither expensive than others. For instance, the KDK K14X8 is RM240, K14Y9 at RM280 and Joven 35H is RM520. One thing to note, Top Ten does not provide delivery service compare to other electrical chain store like HLK, Onking etc.

I think I will revisit Top Ten not only to pick up my pending orders but also to buy some items that I might have missed out from first order. Gotta check with my contractor.

After this, the next shopping will be big appliances (i.e. air cond and fridge) and furniture shopping while waiting grille contractor and laminate flooring contractor to complete their work.

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MP#7 - Shopping, Shopping...

Men don't shop.

I do shop. Err... So am I a guy or not??! Ya, sometimes I do confuse especially times when lunching with a group of women. Perhaps that could be the cause why occasionally I exhibit some women behaviors, well, according to that group of women. Anyhow I feel better and normal though, at least I don't shop for sexy panties, victoria secret, wacoal and whatnot, my favorite shopping mall is LYP. You might be amazed or annoyed (if go with me) that I can go every single shop in LYP to check out the price before purchase. And now I extend my such shopping mania (on gadget) to the Mega Project.

While contractors were busy working on the renovation, I am also busy "shopping" for those home appliances and accessories. From Klang to PJ, Puchong and to Kepong just to get the stuff in cheap price. Sound crazy right you may think? How much petrol I burn for merry go around like that? Well, I will tell that in later paragraph, let's see what stuff I've shopped so far...

Put them together...

A 10-inch rain shower made of brass chrome. If you follow the previous post, you might observe some hacking in the toilet with a tank above the tiled wall. That is to conceal the hot water pipe and to install the mixer (I forgot to take photo of the mixer) for cold/hot water shower. This rain shower will be installed after touch up. A tip, I learned that those cheap rain shower is made of ABS material (plastic) so I guess it's not durable for long use. Try pay a little to get better material, if budget allows.

The very first and most important requirement to enjoy rain shower is water pressure. So you should not save money on this...

The Grundfos water pump. It guarantees you a steady pressure and ensure the rain shower really pours heavily on you. I suggest not to get any other brands, Grundfos is the most well known and reliable brand in pump industry and the price is only at a premium of a hundred or two compare to the other brands. Perhaps it gives you hassle free experience.

Not only body cleansing, I need to make sure my macho handsome face looks fresh everyday too. So...

"Lego" them together...

Hehe... A lame excuse. This is actually unnecessary, I just dislike the ordinary basin given by the developer, so "no choice" but to spend to replace it. Warn you, don't simply dislike this and that if you plan to renovate, it costs! I am a good example here. Likewise, don't simply like this and that, it costs too! An example, the rain shower setup costs me a thousand plus which I could get an 1.5HP aircond for the same price.

Now move to kitchen...

A small sink for dry kitchen. A tip on kitchen faucet selection, there are in-wall type (the faucet is installed on the wall) and in-cabinet type (like mine, the faucet is installed on the kitchen cabinet top), so get the right one. The latter has more varieties and the design looks trendier and classier than the former. Again, if you "like" the latter, very likely you will have to pay the plumber to re-pipe.

I don't fancy branded stuff in this area and believe those well known brands are way way overpriced. For instance, a similar tap from Teka or Sorento will cost double to what I got above. I surveyed these stuff in few locations and finally found a hardware shop in Kepong that gave me very reasonable price. They are not from those well known brands but feel very heavy (which translates to good metal material) and solid when hold, and come with 5 years warranty. The brands are Arino and Bruno, I have no clue if these are branded like Teka, Google could not find their respective website and only found this Singapore site that sells products from these 2 brands. I paid all above (including a mixer not shown in the post) around RM2500, it would cost me at least RM3400 for the similar items from Teka! So ain't it worth to pay a full tank of petrol to go around? Though, it's not environmental friendly. Hehe...

This is the hardware shop in Kepong...

Immense Hardware Trading SB. It's a distributor shop where you can find a lot of its customers are contractors, so I believe the price is cheap to attract contractors. Very honest indeed, for instance, most shops charge extra for good waste cap (like mine above) when you buy kitchen sink, this shop doesn't and I was told all sinks should come with the waste cap at no extra cost. Also, other shops wanted to charge RM50 for the same waste button (for basin above) and I paid only RM22 at Immense Hardware. The shop is just like a typical hardware shop or warehouse and not a show room, so ask for catalogs and specify whether you want cheap or expensive stuff. Look for Ah Theng 阿婷, speak Hokkien with her may get you better price. :)

Above is all the "wet stuff", I shall post about the electrical stuff in the coming post.

~ exhausted ~

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MP#6 - Progressing...

After 2 weeks, all the hacking for wires, cables and plumbing were done. Following that, the plaster ceiling experts came in for the 2nd phase...

Very muscular huh? Certainly not me. Hehe...

The next day...

Very quick progress. It's almost done except the remaining downlight positioning and painting. That will be done by other experts.

Next? The renovation is entering the second last phase, tiling (see the grey wall in photo above, tiling preparation a.k.a skimming and waterproofing), "integration" (i.e. auto gate railing etc), and including touch up of what were damaged/hacked like this...

It's the bath room, hacked to conceal heater pipe.

Hopefully the project can complete according to the planned timeline. I'm glad I picked the right contractor (or "main con"), no headaches, no misalignment and no miscommunication, so far. Fingers crossed.

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HDX BD-1 Part 1

Ok, I am done for Dune Prime 3.0, it should have arrived in Singapore safely and may be my brother is enjoying the high definition movies with it now. But there are still 2 gadgets eagerly waiting for exposure after Dune, let's continue with one of them first...

The HDX BD-1 bluray media player.

This box should have reached my table 4 months ago. Damn! There's an incident which I can't reveal until I settle it. Never mind, let's unbox what I have now in hands...

The manual, remote controller, the player, HDMI cable and the power brick. So the first noticeable difference is that this player has a power brick compare to Dune which is built in. And from the manual...

Support Bluray profile 2.0? Sound promising.

I also made a quick comparison before the Dune went to the island...

BD-1 is much smaller but the RC is a little longer. It still fits into the palm and fingers perfectly due to its well designed contour and curve...

Not only that, it is also an illuminated RC...

I like this useful feature very much. Imagine you're watching movie in the dark.

Now look at the metal box itself...

Nothing at the front panel except a red/blue LED indicator and a transparent window for RC infrared sensor. It's matte metal built. Solid feel but it feels hollow and with some metal squeaking noise when you shake it. This is because of this...

Slide the cover on one side, you expose the hollow stomach for an 3.5" internal HDD with the SATA cable hanging in there. If you are going to use this player for other functions like BT download, you will need an internal HDD. Notice the upside down text "Produced in HK"? Since it's Hong Kong product, I hope this is sorta the "guarantee" that this player would unconditionally support Chinese characters, unlike the case I had with Dune Prime.

Now turn to the backside...

Left to right and top to bottom sequence: reset button, power connector, Gigabit ready LAN and 2 x USB 2.0, e-SATA, HDMI 1.3, composite AV and component, coaxial and Toslink SPDIF audio out. The compact design is incapable of hosting 7.1 analog audio Dune Prime does. It support downmix (from 7.1 or 5.1 to L-R stereo) though.

Last, it's worth to mention the power adapter...

Since this player is compact in design and without any LED screen on the front panel. The LED indicator on the power brick is useful during troubleshooting and diagnostic time.

Stop for now. To be continued...

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MP#5 - Renovation Begins

Finally, after so many surveys, shortlists, interviews, RFQ etc etc, the renovation begins! It's easy to just say "you can start work tomorrow" but don't expect the workers would start drilling here and there on the very next day. If you're getting a good (in term of quality, service and $$) contractor, you may need to fit his/her busy schedule than he/she fits your schedule. In addition, you may be struggling to get him/her begin working on your house if your renovation work is of the "low value project" (just touch up here and there). This is common from my experience. Bottom line, it's an art and intelligence to deal/manage the contractor. To me, it's damn bloody exhaustive~

Whatever. Let's get dirty to visit the site...

Tools and materials to get started. Electric work is always the first to start. Or simply, whatever cables/wires you want to add and conceal must start first...

Additions of power points. A proper electric work is to run the wires in the conduit pipes. An experienced contractor or electrician should ask your usage (or you should tell him/her clearly) on the power point before he/she starts laying wires. For instance, if you are going to use appliance with high power rating i.e. oven with that power point, he/she should not loop the power source from the nearby power point but lay a new wire to draw power from the main source, which is the distribution box.

Next, plan other cables as well. Telephone, water heater, air cond, network, neutral (for advanced switch), Astro etc etc...

T/P for telephone, N for network. Go for CAT6 if you have extra to thrash, though CAT5e should be more than enough for home use especially in Bulleh Land where we are still on snail broadband. Oh, ask the contractor to make an active conceal box (basically to reserve extra pipes in the wall) if you plan to subscribe to Unifi so you can conceal the orange fiber cable later, and you will need a network point at the TV area for the set top box. Also, if you plan to subscribe Astro b.yond, get the RG6 cable.

That's all I have for sharing in the middle of the night. There are many more but my brain is BSOD now. Good luck to me...

Ah~ Saw rainbow when left the house. I think tomorrow will be better. 明天会更好...

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