I cannot believe people would ask about my choice of appliances because I thought with so many brands available in the market, one will follow their favourite brand & budget..

I choose the same brand for my appliances : ELBA, because of good past experience with the brand..

I was given a heating oven (my wedding anniversary gift) by my colleague before -and until today it stands strong! ELBA to me never disappoint, cooked so many savoury dishes, bread & cakes with it..

I was about to buy the normal cooking hood -chimney/wall mounted, or the slim hood.. But when we are about to buy the hood, I realized I am a little bit tall that I can easily bump my head to the hood. Example as I recently found below :

 Since my birthday this year falls during Ramadhan (fasting month), husband decided to celebrate early. We as a small family of 3 never been to Pulau Pangkor (although I work in Perak for 5 years! haha). And since we were staying in Klang (coastal side near Kuala Selangor), a trip to Pangkor seems good..

I have been eye-ing this container hotel named Alun Retreat, for its picturesque photos on IG..

The place is beautiful, but the overall experience is so-so.. My personal reviews of Alun Retreat: 

The oceanfront should be 1 unit only (I think).. The other should be oceanview..

The best view I could get, but can be deceiving (since I cropped the photo, removing the front container unit LOL)

The marks given due to their good location (beachside, I love the beach! But Pangkor beach is erm, dirtyy), and minus points for experiences, room type and breakfast spread not really memorable.. I forgot all about it already! Haha

I would not recommend this hotel to anyone I know, haha

Until next post!

"Diorang (Sime Darby) tak buat stor bawah tangga ye?"

Of course, mom. Sime Darby Property, although reputable, just know (best) to sub-cons their projects and cut cost for moreee savings. Savings in business equals higher profit! LOL

At first, the bare under staircase means I can do anything = cabinetry, partition board (temporary structure), etc.. but my dreams are kinda messy (sorry husband!) and it was changed many times because of this preference : I wanted the door to be at least 3 feet from the bare wall (because in the future, I'd like to have some coffee station/cabinetry at this area)

My initial sketch (dreams) includes door & frame, bench cabinet & open compartment. I was warned on the super small space given to the contractor to do this.. (I know). And then after some sketch (I usually tape my space, just to imagine the results, just like I did with the KC contractors prior to ordering the kitchen island..)

And to my surprise, having my dream seating in the living hall seems like a bad idea because it kinda clashing with the house theme..

With the seating = looks more like a Scandinavian theme

Without the seating = it could be anything! (glam, modern, etc)

So the dreams are cancelled and we look for other options..

And then we thought a temporary solution to this could be a gypsum board/drywall partition. Although known to be temporary/not strong, we really thought this is a cheapest option! Well, NOT!

Got 2 quotations for the drywall partition as follows:

Contractor 1 = RM 2,000.00

Contractor 2 = RM 1,800.00 (without door)

While our tiling guy can do the brick wall around the same price.. 

We finally decided to go for a brick wall! Since it is sturdy, cheapest (since we add special door - half louvred door), and we trust the guy.. We will reveal the final look soon! (pending touch ups)

Until next post!

 I combined both of these items because I had it all FOC from my previous developer, but not from Sime Darby! So its an additional time, work & effort needed to do market research..

Realizing this is a necessity for every house (no kidding!), an auto gate means : 

We installed this only 2 weeks after getting house key because of reason (3) -it rains every afternoon. If it's not raining, everytime we open wide the gate, it will slowly closed due to the wind >.< annoying AF! So this on top of our priority, before moving into a new house heheheh

The cost of DNOR 712 (including delivery & installations) :

Every double storey house can experience low pressure water for rooms upstairs and water pump is kinda a must. But to do this without the advise from the Developer (because Sime Darby is cap ayam developer, always left buyer clueless!), we invited pakar to look at the piping to decide the water pump size/capacity (I am a designer of "super structure" buildings, didn't do design in building -usually JKR's job scope)

The cost of 0.5hp CMP water pump (2 years warranty, including delivery & installations:

Overall, I am liking both the auto gate & water pump. The water pump really delivers good water pressure, and no noise at all (our FOC water pump from previous developer is super noisyyyy)

Until next post!

 So it was the installation day -which was requested (by the Prokitch ID) to be earlier (because I already gave up the hopes of a complete home before Raya 2023, told them to do it all after Raya teruslah).. the installation of kitchen cabinet (without table top) means I have a complete

1. Kitchen cabinet & doors

2. Fully functional oven

3. Fully functional hood

Delayed table top installation means : 

1. No kitchen sink (for the whole 3 weeks since the start of wiring/plumbing/tiling works)

2. No hob (no cooking activity!)

The kitchen cabinet installations took 2 days (which I found out on the installation day >.<), so that is a problem #1. Note that I have to apply a working permit for them.. On the first day, I left them to do their work and just went back later that night (after my Iftar with fellow engineers from JPS Selangor). I went furious when they wrapped my oven with the canvas covered with construction dust so that is another problem #2. Not a single damn alert given. I texted him, and he reacted as if it's nothing..

The following day, is when the kitchen is completed (without table top), so I went home and tested the plug & cabinet lighting, only to found out they have problems with it.. The miscommunication between Prokitch ID and the wiring guy (problem #3) made the light won't turn off using switch and Prokitch ID decided to just turn off the circuit breaker (easy problem solving, left me clueless because this means all the plugs nearby has no electricity supply as well.. zzz). So I shall control my lighting using circuit breaker in MSB? ROFL

I told the wiring guy to come back and redo the plug and problem solved. The wiring guy is good, we book him for another job HAHA

After Raya 2023, made my final payment and they did the installation of table top and I never heard from them since.. haha.

Overall, it was not a good experience and I cannot recommend this company to anyone I know (close people).. This miscommunication between the KC guy & wiring guy (discussions made without my presence) is really a big issue to me.. I am now left with only one (1) working plug point because another plug was altered to control the lights..

By the way, another problem occurred during finalizing design with Prokitch ID is when deciding the table top. I requested for Quartz Stone (marble pattern), but they only have compressed marble.. I don't mind the change, but the ID aggressively told me all the bad things about marble top including turmeric stain.. and he even write this :

😑

Because after a while cooking, I got cooking splash that stained my table top too! But I got them  all removed (stained after 1 hour) using some secret, super cheap tool (I shall write about this in separate post).. And now I am super confident about cooking (my husband and mom is scared of using this kitchen due to its light colored haha).

One fun fact, the smallest kitchen I ever had is this :

.. and I still cook a lotsa meals & desserts like this :

Small kitchen, no problem.. So I trade some space left from this small kitchen for an island. The main purpose is for me to separate my baking (need dry areas) from the cooking.. and I use it now mostly for breakfast, teatime and working >.< because the bar chair is comfortable AF (IKEA's)

That is all from me now, any questions may drop your question down in the comment section..

Until next post!