Crossing off wishlist: Homer's renovation

Alhamdulillah..

This year both Love and I received abundance of extra rezeki from the Almighty. Hence we decided to do a little something for Homer.

Before Raya, we managed to do the awning outside.

Cost us RM4k all in.

Next round afrer raya in shaa Allah, the gate and tiles outside. Whee!!

Tangga at Homer!

Yay finally!! Alhamdulillah :)

RM1300, not bad huh?

Minor renovation at Homer!

Little K has been eager of climbing the stairs by herself nowadays.

Being a paranoid mom, it never failed to make my heart skip a beat every time she did that at mom's place.

But at our own, it always a battle. I would never allow her to do so even with micro close supervision.

So, we had a minor renovation at our crib last weekend.

Cost us RM1300 all in.

Should be ready by next Sunday. Can't wait!!! :)

Khaira's Aqiqah + our housewarming

The most adorable

Alhamdulillah, we're done with Khaira's aqiqah. A very small ceremony attended by our family and close friends.

Khaira, Abi and my whole family were wearing gold. Me? This is the only baju kurung that can fit me at the moment. Tsk.. Tsk..

At the same time, we recited Yassin in our new house - where the event took place. Khaira was quite cranky during Yassin recital because she was hungry. I fed her, and she slept the whole time during marhaban.

Right after the event, we spent our first night at our new house, as a family. And hence I'm crossing the 8th item in my 2011's wishlist; move in to our new home.

We are yet to have internet in our new home. At the moment, I am in my office room. Not that I'm back to work, but I have some stuff to settle here. And I miss this little girl like mad.



Right after the event, my dad and Love did this to Khaira..



And she looked cuter than ever dengan kepala botak. Will update her picture soon!

Second stage of renovation!

Alhamdulillah, all praise be to Allah SWT.

The second stage of renovation for our home seems to be earlier than we thought it would be. Rezeki Khaira.

We decided to cement the outside of the house about a month before Khaira was born so that for her aqiqah, guests would feel more comfortable to makan2 there.

Ironically, after dad helped us find the best contractor, the work began on the day Little Khaira was born herself :)

So, this was our front porch before..

And this is after renovation..





The back of the house, before..



After renovation..



Costs us RM3200 altogether.

Our next plan is to put gutter and renovate the staircase. Insya Allah, next year :) Moga dipermudahkan. Ameen.

We heart Ikea!

Spent a day shopping at Ikea for our new home last week..

Living room..



Dining area..



Kitchen..




Our home is almost complete :) By the time I'm done with my confinement, hopefully we can straight away move in with our Little Precious.

The best bargain in Ikea has got to be this 17 pieces set of container with the price of RM15 :)



Ikea rocks!

Wiring and piping

Done with the wiring for the house!!

Dad helped me install the lighting for the house (bought the lights in Puchong and blogged all about it here.)

Living room

Dining room

Staircase

Normally the cost for you to install one ceiling light varies from RM10 - RM50.

And my youngest brother helped us with the piping system of the house.

host set for toilet = RM40 kat hardware; length for normal toilet = 1m

Whee!!

2 tier dish rack = RM49.90 at Jusco

Dah ada sinki, boleh basuh pinggan :)

Painting the house!!

Painted the house last weekend with the help of Mum+Dad+Alif, almost 70% complete.

Colour selections:
♥ Dining room and kitchen - Jotun Fresh Green
♥ Living room - Nippon Oyster Grey
♥ Guest room and family hall - Nippon Sweet Corn
♥ Kapal's jamming room - Nippon Aquatint
♥ Baby's room - A mixture of Jotun Viola + Jotun Purple Rain
♥ Our room - Rahsia ;p

Some colour charts to help you choose the colour; you can also google Nippon or Jotun colour chart for more colours.





The price for standard colours is RM30 for 7 litres. (7 litres can cover a Master bedroom - double coat). For premium colours; they vary. All paints are sponsored by my Dad, whee!! :)

We also went for kitchen cabinet and mattress hunting for our new house last weekend. Settled down with these..





Cost us around RM500 both; Father's Day sale. Delivery charges; free - skill membodek salesman yang dipelajari dari both our parents. Alhamdulillah :)

Anyway, will post the photos of our home after we're done with the painting!

First stage of renovation

Alhamdulillah, I managed to cross off another item in my "To achive list 2011".

The first stage of renovation has been completed last weekend, now we have installed the grill and awning. This weekend we are going to install the lights and fans :)

I am not a big fan of fancy grill.


I prefer the simple one.


But, picture above seems too simple for my liking.

I don't fancy wrought iron because it looks like my mum's house.. macam rumah orang tua ;p


Stainless steel? Too expensive.

Pictures above from google.
We settle down with the normal steel, and for me, there is no other better colour for grill other than white! This is how our home sweet home looks like now with grill and awning!




Awning!


Happy :) I am very satisfied with the work of our contractor. I can't wait to move in to our new house!!

Kedai curtain murah

Alhamdulillah, bonus dah masuk! :)

Anyway, last week, we went for curtain hunting.

Kedai curtain paling murah is the one in Nilai Square. Nilai 3 mcm a bit mahal for curtain.

We spent around RM400+ for the whole house. But just the material. Belum jahit lagi.


Tingkat bawah colour grey.


Tingkat atas colour brown, but the same design.


Kain organza belakang.


Pengikat curtain.

So anyway, mum gave me a tip that i really would like to share with you guys.

She said the prices there are all negotiable. You could ask for reduction as high as 70% from the actual price.

We tried.

But we managed to get only 50% off from the price displayed.

We're quite good, aren't we? (T_T) Ok.. Ok.. Getting better at least ;p

Withdrawing EPF to buy our house

I'm richer by a few thousands this month.

First of all because I did a part time training on Latex last week, and they gave me some cash! Yay! Alhamdulillah :) Ingatkan nak ajar suka2 je.


Photo from google

And secondly because I just withdraw my EPF!

I know, ryte? Sukehati je keluarkan EPF this early. Plus, my savings are already enough for me to pay the downpayment. Mum pun bising.

But listen to my point! The interest of EPF for every year is only around 4%! If i saved it in my ASB, I could get at least 7% a year. Go figure yourself which is better!

Because it gave me a lot of headache calling and dropping by Jalan Reko's EPF to ask about the procedure, I figured I might as well share with all of you on the procedure.

Anyway we are purchasing a house from a vendor, not from developer, so the procedure might varies.

Here goes the steps:

1) What you need is borang pengeluaran KWSP 9c --> Get it here
2) Then a photocopy of your IC depan belakang.
3) Buku bank (but I just photostate the statement from my CIMBclicks)
4) Copy of Sale and Purchase agreement verified by your SNP's lawyer (I brought also the original, borrowed from bank since some EPF branch needed it)
5) Bank loan agreement - both original and photostate verified by your bank loan's lawyer.
6) If the house is under your husband's name and you, a copy of your sijil nikah.
7) Geran tanah if you have the individual title already, else you have to get a letter from the DEVELOPER, not from lawyer.

Then you submit all the forms. And within 14 days, they will bank in the money to your account. Wheee!!

As of how much you can withdraw, you can take out as high as 10% from the price of your house, but if your EPF savings in Account 2 is lower than that, you can withdraw everything in Account 2.

Hope it helps. :)

Kedai lampu murah

Trust me, I've been wanting to blog about my new house since like forever.
But due to time constraint, I hold that thought for a while.

The whole month last month, Love and I were actually busy hunting for the lights for our house.

We'll get the key anytime now since we’ve finally closed the deal with our lawyers and pay the entire differential amount yesterday. So, big yay!! :D

After what seems like forever looking for the best kedai lampu, we found one in Puchong! Of course, the best time of the year to buy them is during end of year like this because... it’s CLEARANCE SALE!!

But before buying any lampu, we threw a visit to our home (which btw is walking distance with my mum’s) and counted the lampu’s point, also counted which point requires lampu atas and lampu tepi.

Since Love and I were totally opposite from each other, before any purchase, we made a deal, I was going to choose the lights for these particular areas, and he was going to choose for the rest. Else, we would end up with a big argument, hehe.

So this fav kedai of mine was suggested by Dad (my dad loves decorating the house), the name is “Top Ten”. If you come from Uniten to IOI mall, it is right before IOI mall on your left hand side you, can see it from the highway.

The purchase..



For dining area, I chose this, Love was not so happy about this ;p I freaking love this, plus it has 60% off.



For lampu tangga (side), he chose this, I chose the colour, black.



3 of these for all the toilets, each tak sampai 10 bucks :)



Bought 8 of these for the rest of the house; i.e kitchen, porch, rooms.



This is chosen by Love for our living room. In a different shop near Top Ten, no discount, but I don't mind at all. Name of the shop: "Ten-Gro Lighting". Cantik!

So, lampu dah settle for the whole house. Costs us around RM400 only. :)

Next purchase is curtain. Shopping masa CNY sale.

A castle of our own :)

Read a facebook status from a dear friend this morning..

"If Allah brings you to it, He will bring you through it".

I have faith. I know He will.

As of 9.30pm yesterday night, we finally have a castle of our own. Alhamdulillah.

Pic is taken from here.

Now I can happily crossed 5 out of 6 things from my to-do-list 2010.

"If Allah brings you to it, He will bring you through it".

Ya Allah, I know you will bring us through this. Permudahkan. Ameen.

Rumah lelong

Went to property auction last Saturday to bid for a house, price is RM139k. And it went up all the way to RM178k. Can you beleive it??? This is not the price of rumah lelong.

So anyway, today I would love to share the procedure of buying a rumah lelong.

1. Check the house and TNC. The taxes and maintainance fees usually will be covered by the bank. You cover only the utilities bill (kalau ada tunggakan)
2. If you are interested, register your name, us we registered to the agent.
3. Then, do a banker's check (5% or 10% from the price of the house before bidding)
4. Bidding day, register and leave your check and IC at the couter.
5. During bidding, stick to ur max budget. Minimum bidding usually every RM1k or RM2k.
6. If you win, you'll be given 120 days to get a loan.
7. Else, take back you banker's check and IC at the counter.

So I lost the bidding.. Maria said, "Maybe rumah tu berhantu". So funny! But, I know it's not the best thing for me because...

I found a better house near the rumah lelong at a better price and it's not rumah lelong!! :)

Moral of the story, please survey the price of the house before you set your maximum target during the bidding. The bidder who bids the house for RM178k surely did not do his homework cuz the value of the house is way lower than that!

Don't do the same mistake!!