That's it... at least here, that is.

I have now decided that as there is no more foreseeable regular updates to the house, since construction is over more than a year go, I will no longer update this blog.

I will still keep this blog though, as it seems to be quite useful to friends of friends, who are keen to get ideas for home construction.

You can visit my family blog, G E M B O where I occasionally post stuffs about the house, as well as what that blog is about, Life around our family (mainly shared with families).

I hope this blog has been useful to some, if not all of you, and will continue to be useful for newer visitors.

Garden? Not yet but working on it

The planters at the entrance... purple (Iman) and white (Muhammad) flowers.

Fir tree? They call it xmas tree at the nurseries

Purple plants creating borders for the drive way. We started planting these during the June 09 school holidays. It takes LOOOOTTTTSSSSS of patience :)

Vegetable patch slowly taking shape

New project, still thinking of what to plant here

Fuyio Home Opening @ 19.07.09

My wife and I was invited to the opening of Fuyio Home recently. The owner is Henry Ling, the contractor who built our house.

From hearsay, i understand that Henry starts from the bottom, starting out as a plumber, than venture into carpentry, then into renovation, later into construction from the early 90s and now being the sole distributor of construction materials. A very busy man he is, his day always starts at 4 in the morning and finishes by 11 at night at worst.

I manage to speak to one of his suppliers, the Fujioh representative from Singapore, who said that he was taken aback by Henry's energy, driving from locations to locations in KB and Bandar, that it left them (reps from Fujioh n Golden Clay) exhausted. Yet Henry still plough on and on hahahah. I have seen him work!

And despite busy entertaining the crowd, Henry shared with me that the suppliers were previously pessimistic about Brunei market, but changed their mind when they saw the houses in Brunei with their own eyes. They see the potential, take the roof for example... in Brunei majority of the people still built individual house, so the demand for rood is still there. If you build 10 units apartment, the roof requirement is still only equivalent to 2 or 3 houses.

Anyway, you can visit Fuyioh at Menglait, Muhibbah complex if I am not mistaken, behind Le Apple bakery. If you are not familiar, it is not far from the road behind the Menglait Sports Complex (near the filling station).

Enjoy the pics below, but for more, please go to my Facebook.

Henry never missed out on Lion dance

That;s Henry. Strange to see him in suit heheh

Our house being used as one of the 'model'

Fujioh, one of the brands promoted by Fuyio Home. Fujio specialise in Kitchen hobs, hoods and kitchen stuffs

Congrats Henry. All the best to you.

Lost habitat

The 2 acre plot of rectangular land behind my was recently cleared, apparently a local oil and gas support company will be constructing a three storey building on that land.

Coming home for lunch yesterday, I was surprised to see a unique grasshopper (will long antenaes) near my service door and looking at the fence adjacent to the cleared land, i saw scores of grasshoppers seeking refuge, after their natural habitat was destroyed. I feel sorry for them, but I can only offer some shade, although later that afternoon the missus told me that birds fed on them in the afternoon. Well, its the circle of life.

before the land was cleared

this is taken at noon yesterday, 2.5 days after they started

grasshoppers and other bugs, seeking refuge from the hot midday sun

one that rest on our sliding door

more grasshoppers

Unfortunate visitor

Last couple of weekends we had an unfortunate visitor: a beautiful green bird - which I suspected is a Dove (please correct me if I am wrong).

I found it near our garage and thought it was dead as it was motionless with the eyes opened for the 30 seconds I observed it. However my maid saw the eyes blinked but couldn't even fight to break free when the maid held it in her hands. The maid immediately rushed the bird to the cat cage and let it rest in there, and fed it small pieces of fruits and rice. Immediately? Well we have two playful cats at home and they could have just 'played' with the unfortunate bird.

Alhamdulillah it recovered two days later and flew off to the trees behind our house.

Architect & Contractor contact details

I have long promised this to my friends as well as the architect and contractor. Their contact details are shown in the box on the right.

To those who are familiar with Kuala Belait, my architect's office is on the top floor above Mum's bakery. Freddy is creative and love to capture your ideas and put it into perspective shot, so you can see how it's like when its completed. He is also very patient, especially as we had to take our time to finalise the drawings owing to the birth of our youngest child 'Aaeeshah. And lastly he has very good network with the government offices that allows us to have the drawings reviewed and approved at the earliest possible time.

As for Henry, to use his words roughly, his quotes are not cheap BUT it comes with quality materials and workmanship. I have to agree to that! We didn't approach other contractors for quotes, however we went to a couple of his previous constructions and were quite impressed. He invited us to his home to explain on the quote, line by line, telling us why the choice of tile and wood floorings are expensive, and options of the roofing materials as well as the window frames. He even have his own carpentry factory which allows him to ensure the quality of the furniture and fittings.

Tips: Before you call Henry, send him an SMS and tell him he is recommended by a friend (Pg Azmi). No, I do not get commission, but that's how he is. He will not answer the phone if he is not familiar with the number. We had to do the same when we first approached him. I am happy to say so far I have a couple of friends building their houses with Henry, due for completion by the end of this year. Good choice.

Long silence

I have not updated this blog ever since the 6months review by the contractor, however I am very pleased to see that the blog still averaged 20+ hits a day.  Thank you to dear readers/visitors and I hope you can find something useful in this blog.

From now on, as the house is already completed and we've moved in almost 11 months now, I will try to blog about home maintenance/upkeeps in general as well as the usual unsuspected 'visitors'. But please bear with me as I am still recovering from a serious illness, which I am grateful to Allah to be able to recover.

Mr G (Gembo)