Aku Yang Kepenatan Part 2

Sorry lah to all my buddies... lama tak update blog nie. BTW, I dah 10 hari jadi warga seri kembangan nie. Banyak nak ceriter but biarlah I start dgn kisah I berpindah randah ke apartment baru I nie.

I officially pindah to my new home on 1.11.2008, sesuai dgn no. rumah I 11-1. Walaupun I kongsi sewa rumah dgn Ida kat Jalan Ipoh and I tried my very best to limit my stuff to the ones in my room, kitchen and small corner of the living room, masa packing2 tu tak sangka banyak nyer la barang2 (termasuk sampah yang dikumpulkan for the last 4 years...huhuhu). I took 2 days leave for the packing and moving (thursday and friday) so saturday and sunday I could use it for arranging and organising plus tgk concert.

Somehow, as you know lah, not everything will go as planned. I started out with Macy Curtain. Supposedly the week before they should have completely installed the curtains. However, they missed out my roller blind and the security pulak kata management tak bagi drilling on sunday. Later I found out from my property manager, kalau setakat drill untuk curtain tak apa sebab tak banyak. Tapi security nepal ni tak faham bahasa. Lain dicakap lain dibuat. BTW, they have replaced it with local people beginning 1/11/2008.

To make matter worst, Macy nak install the curtain the same day and time I nak pindah rumah and they just informed me a day before. Goshhh!!! Bila I try to nego dgn the movers, diaorang pun tak boleh nak tukar time sebab dah fix jadual. So terpaksalah I seek the help of Uncle Perumal to supervise angkut and pindah barang so that I could supervise Macy people pasang curtains.

Earlier out of the blue, my 3 best friends from secondary school (Agnes, Sara and Emel) tiba-tiba nak reunion the day I pindah rumah. Its all becoz Agnes ada meeting in KL so it was so hard to get the four of us together. So in between pindah rumah, I kena fetched Agnes at Cititel then later ambik Emel pulak kat Pudu. Dalam kalut menunggu aku ambik dia Agnes boleh tertinggal laptop kat lobi Cititel. Nasib lah there was a good Samaritan yang serahkan laptop tu pada hotel people. Sebenarnya, banyak ceriter lagi pasal Agnes and her laptop tapi takpelah. Nantilah aku citer. Anyway, kesian member2 I kena tolong kemas rumah, angkut barang sedangkan we all had a busy week and in a dire need of rest. Sampai aku demam Isnin tuh and aku and emel tak jadi tgk concert jazz yang ditunggu2.

Oh yer, lupa nak citer plak. On thursday, kira2 malam Jumaat kan ker Halloween. Kebetulan I bawak laptop ke Seri Kembangan sebab in between packing I sempat jumpa client insurance I. So time tu Mocha (known to me as Ming) updated his blog on Halloween pasal pengalaman dia kat Gunung mana ntah time latihan and diaorang ternampak 3 lembaga putih - mak, bapak dan anak. Nyesal, nyesal baca... dah lah sorang2 kat rumah tuh. Anyway, nasib baik I ada bawak sea salt and mop memang dah ada kat rumah. I mop the whole house sampai pukul 12 malam. God! Punya takut nak balik ke Jalan Ipoh. Mana tau tiba2 jer ada ma, pa and baby drakulat duduk kat belakang.

Anyway, aktiviti berpindah nie pun menyedarkan aku betapa comelnya Froggie. Tapi tak lah sampai hati nak tukar baby I nie. Banyak berjasa pada Mummy dia nie. Tak boleh jugak nak tukar kete sekarang sebab semua kos beli, reno dan pindah rumah nie dah menyebabkan aku berada di bawah garis kemiskinan. Hehehehe...

Nanti lah aku citer banyak2 lagi. Just wanna update jer what going in my life now. Personally bagus jugak blogging nie. U know I baru sedar banyak rupanya aktiviti bermakna dalam hidup harian I nie besides berkhidmat untuk negara...

Mie Casa - Deko Bersama Jaime Ep. 2

Today is my second day painting my new home. Was a bit dizzy from burning the midnight oil reading my friends' (and foes) blogs updates. To fellow bloggers, do keep the creative juice flowing. Bloggin is not just about learning how to upload gambar into your personal cyber space yer...

View of the Sg. Besi Toll from the balcony at night. A place where money come flowing in.

I did quite a fair share of researching on the right colour, to the type of paint, the ambience I would like to create and customers' satisfaction on certain brand of paints over the Internet forums before embarking on this project. This project excites me too as my dad never allow other colours on our home walls other than white or shades of white. Initially I planned to put on wallpapers but its kinda pricey. Anyway, I might still carry on with the wallpaper plan for the master bedroom next year. Am still so in love with Goodrich Global wallpapers.

Amin is putting the undercoat to cover the original paint before painting the desired colour over it.

My developer friends, family members, buddies and painters advised me to use ICI Dulux Paints based on personal experience. I was a bit sceptical as I prefer Nippon Paint - they seem to have the colours that I wanted. But after watching Deko Bersama Eric and visit the website, I settled on ICI Dulux paint. Of course whatever paint u used, it must be painted by experience painters to get that desired effects. Furthermore, its worth it to invest in a quality and high performance paint no matter what the cost.

The living room after undercoating. Taken this morning. Came early as the next phase is time consuming...

I didn't really understand the difference between matte finish, soft sheen finish, or silky smooth finish. So yesterday, the unpainted walls became my canvas. I decided to try out the ICI new Paint - Light and Space which is claimed to be the revolutionary paint that makes a room reflect twice as much light compared to conventional emulsions and thus making your room feel more spacious. I tested it on the wall of my darkest room (with camera flash on) to see the effect as demonstrated here.

My adrenalin start pumping as the walls started to transform from a vision to a reality. The room colours a bit lari lah from the modern contemporary theme as it was based on feng shui orientation. Plus I wanted it to have its own character (sounds like Tara from WOW Factor plak).

By the way, the Light and Space paint really make my smallest and darkest room look spacious and glorious lah... Plus it is located at the Fame location of my home. Suppose to paint it red but too much fame also will make you go bonkers. I don't be mind to be glamour in moderation so I chosed the secondary colour from the wood element.... green after my dear Froggie.

Mie Casa - Deko Bersama Jaime Ep. 1

I am at my apartment in seri kembangan at the moment. Overseeing some painting works done by my colleagues. Got to know about their skills through word of mouth by some very satisfied "customers" including Anakku Sazali. Initially they didn't want to impose any fee. Up to me to "sedekah". But in principle I don't go on that basis when doing business. Just name me your price and justify me how much your work worth. In short, the whole deal must be on a win-win basis. Suffice to say, they charged me reasonably.

As I was sitting alone earlier on my dining table, enjoying my McDonald Breakfast, I recalled the first few months after receiving my keys from the developer. I know everything about buying a house but I know peanut about decorating a house. For that I really envy Samsir, Suhaimi and Sazali. They just seem to know "where" to put "what". Then it was during my PTK3 exam week. In between hearing to the boring lectures and reading confusing notes, I still managed to surf the Net for decorating ideas, at the same time pretending to be typing notes. Nasib la PICC ada Free WIFI.

I bought my apartment when it was completed so I had little time thinking about the concept. Furthermore as I shared in my earlier post I was not into apartment living. Decorating and renovating a 976 sqft apartment like mine post quite a challenge too. The lightings, the paints and choice of furnitures must be of the right combination to bring out the glam and spaciousness.

I seeked the help of my bosom friend Samsir throughout the process as the reno and deco plans really stressed me out. I couldn't decide on the theme, couldn't estimate the budget and everyone claim to know a good contractor when in fact they just want the commission. Then I remembered Dr. P's word of wisdom (uweeksss) - sometimes we need to seek the Divine intervention to clear obtacles in our life. So I prayed hard to the Lord that I may meet good and honest people to dress and grace my humble home.

A matter of fact, I get to know of my contractor quite by accident. I was walking to the maintenance office one day to pay the bills and Ah Kui (the koo-lee) was sitting by the swimming pool looking out for potential clients. He is a Vietnamese, just working for Mr. Lim (the towkay) for 6 months but know how to speak and write in Malay and English. He brought me to their office which was actually one of apartment units they renovated and converted into show unit. He showed me all the brochures and samples but I couldn't made up my mind. Not wanting to loose a sale from me, Ah Kui brought me to all the units that they were currently renovating so that I could judge for myself their workmanship.

Somehow I was not really convinced but nonetheless I asked for a quotation. Few days later I came back with Sam and Uncle Perumal to check out on another 2 contractors who were also doing renovations in my apartment building. Sam and Uncle did most the talkings as I prefered to observe the works as well as the personality of the contractor. One thing I learned about engaging or procuring a service in KL especially from smaller business is that we have to look out for hidden costs or charges. So precaution is a BIG must. After comparing all the quotations, we decided to settle on Mr Lim's company as the price was reasonable and came highly recommended by my fellow Sarawakian neighbour.

For me, the heart of a home is the kitchen. My mum's kitchen in Kuching has an open concept that doubled as our dining area. It was designed to be totally separated from the living area where our TV is so that we wouldn't be watching TV while eating. And whenever we need a bigger space to do our cookings for family functions or open houses (we did 3 open houses every year - CNY, Gawai and X'mas) we can move or use our dining table. Plus my dad bought a dining table that can be folded to make it round or pulled to make it oval to sit more people.

My apartment kitchen is very tiny so my contractor had to hack the wall separating the yard and kitchen area to form a wet and dry kitchen. Furthermore I need consider lots of storage for all my kitchen utensil ranging from baking utensils, steaming utensils, cutleries, serving dish etc. Plus a mini pantry for my pastas, herbs, spices, dry and canned food. Well, some habits are not easy to get rid of. Like my passion to entertain, wine and dine.

As for the living area and the bedrooms, I had little to complain about in terms of workmanship. So far I have yet to see any defective works or face problems with the fittings and finishings. I have yet to envision how exactly I want it to look like but sometimes u tend to gain inspirations from unlikely places. For example I drew the inspiration of putting plasterbox in the living area while looking up the ceilings of Parliment lobby.

As all my "interior designers" are urban-chic males so choice of colour schemes were more on the earthy and neutral tones - brown, black, white and silver. After reading hundreds of articles and downloading thousands of photos, I finally decided to go on the modern contemporary theme. However, as a half Chinese, I also did some research on feng shui to ensure better flow of chi, determine the best directions, identify poison arrows and energising the eight aspirational areas that governs wealth, fame, love (grrrr), career, networking, education, family and health, and descendant's luck. Kasi ong sikit maa...

The main renovation completed 3 months ago and now I am in the process of putting the finishing touch and hunting for furnitures to mi casa. I just can't wait to see how my Macy curtains fit in the overal do next week. Though it is just a humble abode, I do want it to have a personality.In many ways I am grateful to be single. I don't have to compromise with anyone on the theme, concept, and arrangements. But best of all, it's Mie Casa.