A friend's house

I was shopping at "Pasar Borong" in Sengkurong last Saturday, and saw this house. It's a friend's (and also nephew - dad's 3rd cousin's grandson) house, currently under construction and should be ready early next year. 

It's a massive house, with very nice double stairs. See the construction here and their current travel (studying) Down Under here.

6 months on (well, 7 months). . .

It has been almost 7 months since we moved in, and Henry Ling, the contractor came up to check out the house for any touching ups (part of his contract).... well, there were a few cracks here and there but it's just on the surface. 

Apparently its usual especially in our case the house gets quite warm during the day and airconditioned in the evening, all the contracting and expanding resulted in the hairline cracks. As well as the wooden floors too, naturally it will contract slightly as it dries up, hence the contractor has to fill the gaps with special fillers - wooden colour - and you wouldn't notice it until you look very closely.

What else.... oh yes, we have three broken tiles, also related to contraction/expansion - see the photos below.  The main door, custom made from solid wood also shrank by one cm (width wise) leaving a gap when the door is closed. The contractor has to add one cm additional wood at the base of the hinge close the gap.  All else? Alhamdulillah, so far so good and long may it be.

How much does it costs us again (the touch ups/repairs)? Surprise surprise its all free! Including re-painting of all the interior walls!  Even coming from work for the past couple of days reminded me of us just moving in back in May - the smell of fresh paint! Enjoy the photos below. And have a great weekend and Salam Aidil Adha.

  

the main door being worked on

  

walls at the second floor being re-plastered where the hairline cracks appeared

more plastering done... the family lounge...

and outside Iman's Room

Tiles near the garage cracked. Probably not enough cement during tiling last time round.

   

A wall tile cracked in the wet kitchen, as well as a couple of tiles under the bar. These guys did a great job, 'cos it just didn't show that they were replaced.

hairline cracks near the light switches were re-plastered

as well as at the big wall at the living room

the wooden floorings contracted over the 7 months, so the contractor filled the gaps, and applied the water-based coat, to give that shine. Nice.

Muhammad's room - if you can see carefully the plaster covering the cracks were like grafitti... 

More Visitors...

My friend Azlan from KL (in red tie - who look like Eric Roberts from Heroes), came to our office recently with his colleagues from UK. 

A regular visitor to my blog, he finally had his wish granted to tour the completed Gembo Home after coming here in March. I hope to be able to host lunch or dinner the next time they come over.

Asha welcoming the guests

Group pics... sorry, no photos during the tour - the host was busy showing the guests around 

Off they go, to catch the 6pm flight

Wet Wet Wet... not the band, but the weather

 
Pics taken before 8 this morning. It has been raining every evening for a week now, and has rained non-stop since 10 last night until early morning. Our lawn now looks like a big pool, but Alhamdulillah as the rain stopped this morning, the water began to recede... about half the lawn is still covered with water but nonetheless it has receded.

The sky looked gloomy at 8 am and looked the same even at 6pm. It rained a bit at 8pm but only for a short while, and I hope it stays that way overnight. I pity those people in low lying areas - hope it will improve for u guys.

More visitor.... arachnovisitor

Pic taken early this week... I hope it's not poisonous, but am not taking any chances and locked all the windows and doors heheh.

Hari Raya Final Preparations (delayed update hehe)

A well travelled friend got us this seeds from his travel down under. We planted it a couple of days before Raya, and in a week it started to grow.

This is our flower planter near the entrance which, yes, we finally managed to plant something just a couple of days before Raya. Total spent... $30 for 5 pots of plants and 7 bags of black soil. Efforts? Priceless heheheh

Our three kids 'helped'

Another shot of the planter, with the three different coloured flowers - pink, white and blue. Oh, don't ask what flowers are they, cos we have no idea heheh  The flowers are Petunia (thanks Cuz Zulida). I'll probably (probably!) plant some more as borders to the driveway as I love to see the flowers bloom EVERY DAY

There they are again

The 'lampu cucul' in place

close up of the lampu cucul

Muhammad waiting for his uncle to play firecrackers

another close up

Another Special visitor

This visitor came on the first day raya, to our master bath room . . . .

Green Thumb? First plants at our home

Consulting Ms Puteh - where should we plant the palm trees? 

So, here it should be

Mula mula, korek lubang pakai scoop . . .

Lapas atu, masuk kan palm tree dalam lobang . . .

. . .  kemudian, timbus tia

House during the day (almost)

To friends who actually asked for this, sorry I really thought I had published the pic of our home during the day. Well, here goes.

More pics of our home

The pantry... storage space for dry foods ... and junk foods heheh

The stairs... specially posted for F.H.A. aka Bondimac - hope this will give you some idea for your home renovation

Another shot of the stairs, with my model Asha

Our guest room - that door leads to the ensuite shower/toilet. This is also my day room - where I do my prayers during lunch time (sometimes too lazy to go upstairs heheh)

Sample of the curtains outside the guest room.

Dining Room shot

Another dining room shot

We bought the table and chairs from different vendors. The chair is from Thomson Furniture (from where we got the Living Room sofa)

The shoe cabinet built in next to the main door... now you see it...

... Now you don't

Muhammad's Room

and his shower/toilet

Our master suite - this pic shows the big window

and the other side

the Master walk in closet

the Master bath - showing the bath tub and wash basin

... and the other side showing the 'business' seat and shower

current magazines to do 'business'

the family lounge . . . it could've been a void, but later we've decided to close it to make an additional family area - for group praying (Solat Jemaah) and to read Quran with family

some of the books that I have... I love Jeffrey Archer's novels.

View of the main entrance... again

planter box at the main entrance... Yes, Still empty. Inda apa, Raya 8 minggu ++ lagi, so we still have time,

and this is where I try my hands at cooking... missus said I spoilt her for all the chix pies that she's ever enjoyed... hehehe