Hello!

Hello world!

We signed an agreement to purchase a HDB 4-room in the vicinity of Hougang/Kovan.  If everything goes well, we will be moving into it in December '15 or January '16.  This shall be my journal for our experiences from interior design to renovation work to shopping for appliances until we move in.  Enjoy!


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Cooker Hood -- What is the right height?

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I mulled over this before the installation.  Came the time to install, we just went along with what our carpenter suggested. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! After a month in the kitchen, I have hit it at no less than five times and from all sides.  I should now be able to answer this with some authority: how should the hood be positioned?  Here's the definitive guide. It's all about the height. First, there is a constraint you have to work with: the maximum distance between hob and hood. For my Fujioh hood, the separation distance should be within 800mm. Second, determine the height of the hob.  It should be around 800mm to 900mm, depending on your height and what you are comfortable with. The height of floor to hob in my case is 900mm and hob to hood is another 750mm making it a total height of 1650mm or 1.65m.  I am 1.75m tall and the hood is just at my eye level. I had a chance to take measurement in my rental apartment, my mom's and my two in-laws': average heig
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My HDB 4 Room, 4A Floor Plan

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To start things off, this is the floor plan. This development is 30 years old.  However, it had just been upgraded with new lifts.  First of all, we liked the location:  it is an area we knew well, and it is just a short distance away to MRT, shops, Community Centre and parks and yet shielded from the main road by one other block.  Secondly, we loved the size.  The older flats had a slightly larger area and higher ceiling.  The Living room is really spacious with a squarish layout that we like.  The two bedrooms for our children are of good size:  enough room for a full size wardrobe, bed and writing desk. We are less enthusiastic about the toilets.  They are really really small.  Kitchen is just about right while the Master bedroom size is ok, we didn't like it that the door is facing the Kitchen. The house is quite well maintained.  The walls and cabinets are in quite a good condition.  I am quite sure we will want to keep the flooring.  Other things though will have to
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Response time of HDB's general enquiry...you will be surprised!

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