On 8th June, we laid down the foundation @ Tiang Seri for us Bruneians, where we invited the local imam to recite prayers as we took turns to pour concrete to the main column of the house. Ceremony was around 5.30 in the morning, just after the Subuh prayers are completed in the local mosque. Muhammad (my eldest son) and Iman (eldest daughter & my second child) didn't want to be left out despite the early hours.
By 10th June, all the columns have been completed, however there was a minor problem as the land under my proposed living and dining room were full of woods - courtesy of a furniture factory who rented the land from my mom more than 20 years ago. They simply buried the excess wood rather than disposing it properly. Our contractor had to dig out the woods and had to order more than 4 trips of sand to fill the void. The good news however is, despite the period the wood spent under the ground, there was no signs of termites.
Anyway, me & mrs flew out to KL for her course on 15 June (Friday), but we took a 2 days diversion on the weekend to Singapore, to look for lights - Blimey! You'd be spoilt for choice at Jalan Besar and Balestier Road to choose the lights - there are just so many choices, and the prices are very competitive. We didn't return empty handed and bought more than $5k worth of lights, and that represents about 95% of our lights. We still need to think about the other 5%....
Got back to Brunei on the 22 June and checked the development of the house. Apparently the wet weather slowed progress a bit, but in good days they sped up the work including weekends. Well, they were then preparing ground beams for the house.
BY 30 June, the ground beam were finally completed with cement and now, hopefully by 7 July the ground floors will be completed... till next update, i promise more photos.
