Wednesday 1 April 2009

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)