Which TV To Buy?

Finally I am moving nearer to my home entertainment system. I am getting a TV soon and had been discussing with my neighbors and friends bout it. I had been scouting around for months deciding what to buy. LCD, Plasma or LED. Some friends are recommending LCD but some of my more experience AV fans had recommended Plasma instead. But I too considered LED for a while since I can get a smaller size LED for the same price of a larger Plasma. But all of that is behind me as I had decided to go with Plasma now after long consideration. I had been eyeing for LG's 50" Full HD Plasma since early this year. Price is within my budget but since I haven't moved in my house (at that time) I had put the idea on hold. 

Now I had moved in and it's time to get myself a decent TV. So my quest continues where it left off last time for a home entertainment. I was again faced with a decision either to go with a 3D Plasma since the color is more darker and reflection issue is lower on it's panel. But definitely the price of a 3D Plasma would be higher comparing with the standard one. At the end decided to go with the normal one. Now is the brand issue. As mentioned earlier, I had been eyeing for LG for so long but lately my friends had recommended me Panny and   well, the thing that hinder me of it was the pricing. But now my friend was able to give me a really price for the Panny Plasma that is similar to LG. How can I say no. 

Can't wait to go test out the Panny new 50" Plasma this week. Gonna mostly test on it's USB connectivity and the files that it support. Since we download a lot of movies, so the model should be able to support the common files nowadays. Hopefully I can bring the baby home early next month so I can enjoy my shows through my Unifi in HD quality. And moving one step closer to buy my PS3 too. lolx!! It's such a good time to dream in the morning when my head is still half awake. After getting my Plasma, the next would be getting a good soundbar to support it. But that is another story la~ 

Plant Hunting

It was the weekends and we decided to go plant hunting for the house. Since the Master had already advice me on the location of my wealth in the house and I need to enhance it by placing some plants over at the spot. So we decided to go for some plant hunting last weekend. The location is non other than the old Sg. Buloh road. There's plenty of shops along the street and it make it more harder to decide which shop to get it from. So we just try our luck on the first shop and managed to get two pots of Zamioculcas Zamiifolia or we Chinese normally called it "Fatt Choy" tree. Babe wanted two pots of this plant right in front of the house as suggested by the Master. I just Google this up and found out that it's a poisonous plant. Huh?! For real? But I am placing it outdoor, so I guess it will be alright. 

Babe wanted another pot of tree namely Corn Plant (Dracaena Fragrans) inside the house as it is famous being an air purifier and a lot of people placed it inside the house. So we went over the next day and got another pot of this corn plant for the dining section of the house. The plant do not need much sun light and able to live in gloomy places hence it's suitable to be place in door. I just need to water it once in a day or two. 

And we got another small plant in a pot for the bathroom. Not sure what's the name of the plant but I like this Cactus Jade (Crassula Ovata) plant because of it's cute miniature size. Easy to maintain is another factor of us choosing it too. Minimal watering but best if it can be placed outdoor at night. I think we need to get some other small pot for the other bathrooms but no hurry. As the Master said, the more green I have outdoor, the more 'green' gonna come my way~! ^^

Just Another Weekend

I had officially moved into my house more than a week now. Felt really good living under my own roof and waking up every morning seemed so great. Although I need to endure some extra time in the road due to longer distance and jam from my previous place, it still felt so good. Last weekend, babe and me went IKEA shopping again for a last minute dash on their sales. Bought a lot of stuff over there but couldn't get their clothe hanger which is one of my main reason over. Was told by the staff that it was out of stock. Dang~!! Walked around IPC and then to Curve for some Starbucks sessions. Went to Daiso and again bought tons of stuff for the house. It felt great spending all the money knowing that it's for your own house and all. Life is good~! ^^

Finally Moved In

Finally I moved in to my new home last weekend. The official moving in date was last Wednesday but I had just slept over that particular night as my clothes wasn't fully shifted over yet. Did the whole traditional moving in ceremony that day alone and my invited my lunch buddy to join me for lunch. Sourcing for those traditional ceramic type stove (or what you called it nowadays) was really a head ache. Finally decided to get a mini BBQ grill to replace it. Well, we need to improvise when we can't find what we wanted. Started the fire up and walk over it and shout HUAT AR!!! (OK, I added that last part myself at the last minute). 

I was advice to bring the furnace in to boil a pot of water and make a coffee/tea to drink. But some of my friend told me to cook some red bean dessert out of it. I opted for the first as it's more convenient and well, the oven took ages to cook the dessert if you ask me. Turned ON all the lights in the house for 2 hours and finally hanging up the 9ft long red cloth in front of my main door for 9 days (Cheong Cheong 9 9 wor). Lunch buddy came and decided to dine in with KFC that afternoon. Another friend came along and we chatted for a while waiting for the rain to stop before driving around the area scouting for properties. And 3 of us supposed to be working that day. lolx!! 

Everything is done and I overnight on that day before returning to Puchong the next day. It was last Sunday when I finally stayed and drove to work the next day (Monday). I was a bit worried at the beginning of the traffic condition since I heard the it was quite bad lately. But I was lucky this week as it's the school's holiday and traffic was not that bad. Trying out a few route to work this week to have an idea how long do I have to get myself prepare every morning. But it's nice staying under my own roof. The satisfaction of the tiring and long wait for my house to get ready finally paid off.

Not Naked Anymore

Finally my house is not naked anymore. The curtain shop had just finished my curtains and called me up yesterday afternoon while I am having lunch with my brother. Yesterday timing was so perfect for me. I had a good lunch with my brother nearby our house when the phone rang. The workers can come over and start installing the sliders and all. The whole process took around 1.5 hours to complete. Not too long actually as there are two of them and both are very efficient in their work. 

There are only two rooms which I had decided to do the curtain which is the living and master bedroom. The rest of the room, I had only asked them to installed the sliders on top. This way, I can just get the curtains any time I wanted in the future. Since there are no one living in the guest rooms, I didn't see any reason to put curtains on them since I need sun light to come into both the rooms. Why? Because the Feng Sui Sifu told me too. haha! 

The workers were so nice  to give me extra hook for the rails for support. Initial was 3 and I added 4 during negotiation and on site, this guy told me he can give me five. Great~! Since I am hanging a double rail curtain with over 6m width curtains, I think I need more support for the rails.

 

Couldn't find a good angle for the master bedroom curtains as it was really dark after I let the curtains fall. I am using a thick anti-sunlight which block most of the light coming in. Plus the yellow down light in the whole room makes it even more soothing and suitable for slumber. I think the front thin piece of curtain for this master bedroom cost the most as it's the latest design in the shop. Ouch~! So finally, I can move in real soon now.

When Are You Moving In?

I think that is the most heard question I had recently. Yup, it's referring to me moving into my new house. Well, after the first house cleaning, I went back last Wednesday to have a check on it. As expected, the floor was covered by a thin layer of dust. So I guess I need to go over again this weekend to have another go with mopping and sweeping the floors again. At the mean time, I am also scouting around for curtains and it's rod around town. Been to Baagus and it was damn expensive. Went over IKEA yesterday and saw something similar with half the price. Now I need to look for curtains for both the master bedroom and also living room. You can't move in living without any covers right?

Still deciding whether to get a complete one or tailor-made one instead. Still deciding on both since I am not so into fabrics and design while babe is too busy with work to scout around town for it. Before moving in, I need to consult my Feng Shui Sifu for a good date and also the proper procedures. Gonna make a call or trip over his office to discuss on this. Since everyone was telling me that I can't even move my old stuff as it's considered shifting/moving. So I can just get some new stuff like mattress, fridge and washing machine for the mean time. But those stuff are ex-stock so I don't think it will take them a lot of time to send it. Maybe they can deliver it on the same day I move in. Oh, thinking of moving in my new house really brighten up my day.

V Day - House Cleaning

So how do I spent my Valentine's Day? House cleaning of course. Yup, no candle light dinner or romantic one day trip up Genting or what so ever. I took leave on Monday to start my house cleaning campaign. As you all might already knew, my house had finally completed and it's time to do some cleaning before I move in. But the thing is that there's plenty of dust around the house and this need to be clean off several times before it's clean enough to move in. My friends did told me that even though I had move in for several weeks, the dust will still be there. So I still need to clean my whole house every single weekend.

It took me 8 hours to clean the whole house and luckily babe joined in after her work to help out. The blardy  dust kept coming back even though I had sweep and mop the floor several times. But we were really satisfied at the end of the day when all the interior part had been clean and we even had our first lunch over there. Well, like I always said, it's not the place but the company which matters the most. We continued our cleaning up till 8pm and decided to called it a day. Babe was super tired and so am I, so decided to come back again during the weekend to give it another go. Even bought a bottle of acid to clear up my wet kitchen's tiles as proposed by some of my friends. Will try it out this weekend and see how it goes. Hopefully everything goes well and I can move in by the end of the month.

Progress Is Slow

As you all know (well those for those who know me at least) that I am eagerly waiting for my house to be completed (renovation) to move in. I had been renovating my house for months now. I mean for the time (since late Sept) that I had spent on it, you assumed that it's a major renovation work but trust me, it's just minor works. Maybe it took a bit more time because I didn't appoint a main contractor to foresee the whole project but rather sub contracting it out individually. I can save cost on this but at the same time, need proper coordination in between them.  The major problem would be the wet work contractor which did my table top for my wet kitchen and patching work for my house. To make the matter worst, I just found out half way that he took my house renovation work as his own side income. So the work done are not as good as the one I had seen before from his company. So I complaint and he did his best and took his time to rectify my complaints.
 

Initial plan would be moving in before Christmas last year or latest before New Year. Then due to some delays, I had decided to give another 1-2 weeks (for the work that can be done in 3 days) more and move in before CNY. But now, I feared that it might be drag to next week which is the week before CNY. How am am gonna move in during that time? I had surveyed all the appliances to be bought but put it on hold as I am not sure when I need the goods to be deliver now. Still chasing the contractor to install the taps for the kitchen and he can start cleaning the house already. He can even start cleaning while installing the taps for me since it doesn't require any major work. But the contractor is planning to do it simultaneously with my brother's house since it will cut down on the cost (I suspect) or so he said.

Anyway, I am not a bit tired and exhausted from chasing and calling or driving up and down the highway almost every single day and spending my weekends going over my house and checking up on the progress. I would like to just sit back and just let it take it cause. Cause I really tired now. And the festive season is just around the corner. So there's gonna be a long holiday up ahead and I am not sure what's gonna happen. So I am just gonna sit tight on my seat and let fate take it's course.

Can I Make It In Time?

Good news and bad news. Good news, my house gonna be ready soon. Bad news, I might not be able to move in before Christmas. Sigh~! The reason being my contractor had been stalling the work from day 1. Gosh~ I practically need to be there at the site and check on his almost everyday and calling him to chase for the renovation work to be done. Was a bit upset that no proper layering of the floor was made during the construction but he did promised to clean up everything at the end of the renovation (which he did). But still there are some paint marks which could be avoided left on some part of the vinyl. 

I am now busy driving around town surveying for some minor lighting (i.e eye ball, staircase lighting, gate light and motion sensors in front of the house). Just finished installing the grills and my wardrobe cabinets but still waiting for  the kitchen cabinets and hopefully it will be ready soon. Gonna arrange for the electrical guy to do the installation of my down lights and fans by this week and hopefully get it done by this weekend. Hopefully I can move in by the end of the year. So many to do and so little time left.

House Renovation Continues

It's been a while since I last updated the status of my renovation. So what is the status now? Let's see, the electrical wiring and air conditioning work is up, plaster ceiling are done too. Scout around town for electrical appliances & kitchen accessories these few weeks. Got myself some really good bargain at those warehouse sales during the weekends. Backyard been cemented up and the fencing had been aligned too. Back door taken out and walled up done at the same time. One big hole at the back of my house right now as I am waiting for the security door to arrive. Damn~! There's one freaking big hole at the back of my house right now. And the security door company told me it's gonna be next week before they can send the door to me. WTF~~! At the mean time, started off with the table top on my wet kitchen while waiting for the door to arrive. Need to inform my cabinet people to start manufacturing the cabinets now. Grill almost ready and can be install anytime next week. Looking for painters to do repainting work inside my house while looking for shops selling cheap paints too. Hopefully can be accomplished before my Taiwan trip next month.

A Bad Week

This week has been a  long tail of bad luck for me. Well that is what I felt at least. So lets see what happened this week in my life.

Work Place: 

It's been a long week with a lot of rushing and submission of a few projects. One project which covers 70% of my whole year project run into a bump. Everything seemed to go my way all the while but suddenly something happened and now I need to do some 'extra' work to 'iron' the issue out. It's gonna be a hectic week again tomorrow as a few projects is going on the same time. And I need to go out station the whole week for some exhibition and seminar. 

My House: 

I am checking up on the renovation work almost every day with the contractors and meeting up with them to update on the work done. Was informed that my porch is leaking and I need to lodge an official complain with the developer for the rectification work which might take weeks. Was there yesterday to settle some payment with one of the contractor and visited my house. Found out that my house was a mess and the current contractor didn't covered my floor with clothes as now the plasters are sticking on the floor and everything looked really messy. The contractor did assured me that it's alright but I am really annoyed to be honest. As I do not want any dispute coming out later on this. And he even covered up the porch with plaster even though he know bout the leak. WTF?!! What happened when the plaster fall down? Damn~!

My Car Park:

Woke up this morning and ready to go out when I saw my car being clamped?!!! WTF?!! As my car park was being parked by another car yesterday night, I had decided to park some where else and that some where else is someone else parking. So I walked up to the guard house and complaint bout the issue. They gave me excuses but I wasn't in the mood to listen and called for their head. The head went out for lunch and they didn't want to call him and I just waited for 45mins for him to come back. After some discussion, the head finally agreed to released my car without any penalty. Sig~! Came back from shopping and my lot is being park by another car again!! WTF~!! This is a never ending nightmare for me.

Maxis Account:

I found out that my name under Maxis had been blacklisted hence I can't change to other telco. So I went over to check what is this matter is all about. After waited for some time finally it's our turn and the guy told me that my outstanding balance dated back to 2007. WTF?!! It's for their broadband service. I never subscribed their broadband before, so how the hell did I owe them money?? And why wasn't I informed of this? It's been 2 freaking years?!!! So the guy asked me to go to another counter for details which we waited for 45 minutes. Fark!! The women told me to make a police report and come back to them with the report for them to tender to their forensic team to investigate. If they found no evidence of foul play, I still need to pay. WTF?!!! Maxis fark up my life again!!

This is just some of the big issue for me this week. Not going into some minor minor issue which I don't even have the energy to tell. Sigh~! Sorry for the winding post on a Sunday night, I know everyone are gonna read bout this on a Monday blue morning, but heck, at least after reading this, you may think that your life is better than this guy writing  this.

Back To The House

After planing and going through the whole proposing process with my beloved, it's now time to go back to my house renovation. It was a full Sunday last weekend with meeting up with a couple of contractors to get some quotations on the house renovations. Me and my brother spent the whole day outside discussing and meeting with the contractors and the most important part would be the Feng Sui part. My appointment with Master Yeap today proves to be a good one. He called up and pushed the appointment 30 minutes earlier to 1030am. I am working today but luckily boss is on leave so I can wonder off early. 

Basically the Master didn't have much comment on the exterior but it's recommended to place more green outside the house. What do you know, my lucky color is White. And it's so happen that the whole house is white. Save a lot of painting cost here. Sofa position and TV had to be switched for better flow of 'chi' in the house. Which I do agreed after hearing his explanation. I need to place some Water element ornaments at some particular corner of the house and a Wood element painting in the house. So guys, you know what to get me. haha!! Mirror at the dinning hall is another added fortune for me too. 

Living room reflects the male while kitchen on the female of the house. Had to shift the back door to block the fortune from flowing out. This is very important. Making a partition to block direct view of the stove is another crucial thing. This is the only major thing for the whole house which he mentioned. At least I can place my stove facing the toilet without any major consequences. I do pick up a few pointers along the way when he explained to me earlier.   He even gave advice on our handphone's numbers as it reflects our luck and fortune. And it's damn accurate for both of us. Mine is a good number although the last four digits do spell a bad omen to Chinese. Babe's number was unfortunately not that good and is recommended to change it to another number which the Master will give to her. 

For the price that we're paying, I think it's quite worth it and the quality of the advice given are very good too. Like I mentioned earlier, he even bundle in the handphone number advice (FOC) which he normally charge RM200. Now I can finally start my renovation this coming Thursday as the Master had calculated which is the best date. hahahaa!! Yes, it's a Public Holiday, but I got something up my sleeves.

My Kitchen Cabinet

Sorry for the lack of updates lately as I am busy running around town looking for kitchen cabinet contractors. Been searching around town for some idea for my kitchen. So last week me and babe went over to this shop in Bandar Puteri and the sales staff was quite friendly too. They supply kitchen cabinets and also wardrobe too. But I am more focused on my kitchen cabinet for now. I have another 2 more weeks before getting my keys back from the developer after the rectification works. Hopefully nothing more to be 'rectify' after the first inspection. Or else, I will need to wait a couple more weeks before starting my renovation work. Back to the kitchen cabinet now.

So this is the initial ID proposed by the designer. I am quite satisfied with the design and she did explained to me the varies type of material and I too managed to forgot most of what she explained. haha~! I think I need to jot it down next time when I go over again. But she did gave me a quotation on various type of material being Acrylic the most expensive and then Nyatoh and I decided to go with something called Orion Panel or TAK or AVL (whatever that means). It's better than 3G and ABS according to her. But she did show all the material and rest assured me that they are particular in quality. Duh~! The whole kitchen will cost me RM15K with solid surface top inclusive of the island and also all the imported accessories (hinges and soft stopper). Now going to ask for second opinion like Kian Classic and other shops for price comparison. 

This is a picture from their website and this is what I am going for with a white top and black bottom cabinet with an island in the middle. Hopefully it won't deviate much from this. Even the hood, hob and oven will cost me a bundle not to mention the blardy basin for the wet kitchen. But as they all said, if you wanna go, better do it one shot. But 'one shot' cost a lot of money la. haha~!

Been Busy

I think most of you all know that I got my keys 2 weeks back and now I am busy with sorting out the inspection of my house. In the mean time I had also been scouting around for some design for my kitchen. Been to IKEA to take some ideas and snapping some photos for reference too. But nothing seemed interesting though. But I am interested in their mirror though. Decided to place a freaking large mirror on my dinning wall. Hopefully it won't burn too much of my pocket for that. Just had a meeting with the temporary RA (residence association) for my place. Some issues are brought up and at we discussed about it together. I think that is the whole idea of setting up the temporary RA since the permanent one will only be up end of next year the earliest. 

Some contractors walked by and introduced themselves when me and the others residence was checking out my house today. As usual, they parked nearby and once they saw anyone drove by, they will follow them and introduce themselves. Seemed a bit scary at the first time but well, you can't do anything bout that now. Got some initial pricing for the grills for the whole house and also the security back door. And last week when I went shopping with some friends they had recommended me to get a 46" LCD for the living room. I am so tempted to get it but it seemed like it's a bit too much. But it's gonna burst my initial budget again. So much to buy, so little budget to do it.

The Keys To A New Beginning

Today I'd finally collected the keys to my home. Yup, that is a bunch of keys which I collected from the township. Paid the deposits and I was given the loose fittings, car stickers and access card to my house.

Wasted no time and drove over to check have a look at my new house. Finally I stepped into my house 'legally'. The workmanship is acceptable from the first inspection I did. Found one defect on a piece of vinyl in one of the bedroom. No cracks or water marks yet (fingers cross). Will do the water test when water is connected by Syabas. Damn, the car porch looks so wide from here.

Show Me My Keys

It was 2 weeks back when I got to know that the developer are dividing the hand over for the houses into two batches. First would be early June and the other would be early July. I was really excited bout it but thought that I would be on the second batch since I signed my S&P quite late (Apr 09). I assumed that they would go according to the date of which our S&P are signed. Some of the forumer asked me to called up to the township department to ask and I did (like 10 times) and finally managed to get through. Talked with one of the guy and he was so nice to helped me checked and called me back to inform me that I am in the first batch of people getting their keys. Was totally excited hearing the great news.

So now, I will need to wait for the bank to release the final payment to the developer, which would be around 7 - 10 days from now. After that, I will need to settle some fees and down payment with the developer. I didn't know that TNB down payment would be so costly (RM490), maybe cause my house is running on 3 phase. After parting with my money, I will be issued some sort like a clearance letter from the Township department before giving me my key to my house. Woo Hoo~!! After that, it would be inspection time and hopefully (praying hard, fingers cross) that the workmanship is good and not much defect. And finally renovation time ($$$) and hopefully if nothing goes wrong, moving into my new house before X'mas.