Sungai Congkak

Had a great Sunday with a fabulous bunch of people last Sunday at Sungai Congkak. It was such a beautiful place, with clean cool water and fresh air. Im planning for a picnic there soon, who wants to join???

Have not gotten all the pics back yet from the photographers, but here’s some of them. Big Big Big Big thanks again to Eugene, Sharon, Alan, Panda, Panda Sou and another 3 of you whom Im SO VERY SORRY i cant recall your names.

Weekend Bliss….

Work has  been a bitch  lately, too many things to do, too little time, energy, brainpower… most importantly motivation to get them done!! New boss came on board, things seem to be changing… towards the brighter light I hope..

House renovation… still a pain in me arse. Contractor being a little sneaky… didnt want to repair and repaint stuff that got dirty and cracked due to the reno. Gave him a little nagging, hope it does the trick. Kinda feel bad having to ’sound’ the poor old guy.. but what else can we do? We are at their mercy.. the reno better end soon, else we will be sleeping on the streets in Oct. Will be evicted end of this month.. sigh.. cant wait for Nov when everything is settled and life goes back to normal…

argh… life… oh life…

Moving on to happier thoughts…. I did had a fabulous weekend though…

Saturday.. After a long long wait.. the day has arrived for my photoshoot session with John Ishii & Jen Siow!!!!

I woke up super duper early. Bloody excited, and nervous at the same time, so I cant sleep!! Had some light breakfast and headed to JenStudio @ TTDI. Was there earlier than expected, which was good, cos John is usually early, and somehow although Im not late, it makes me feel a little bit bad for making him wait. So for once, being earlier than him is nice…… teehee…

But…

But..

But…… there he was, all settled down in Jen’s studio with his laptop….. he still is earlier than us!!!??!??!!??  Oh well….

We started to discussed on the few outfits we have, what kinda of poses we are gonna do, etc. Make up & hair stylist combo team -  Berry & Anton arrive moments later… and wasted no time getting started on beautifying me. Anton was busy curling my hair and Berry start snipping my eye brows. YES, AT THE SAME TIME!!! Was worried to get injured by those little sharp scissors actually, but oh well, guess they are just professional enough to keep me in one piece for the shoot. Wah I feel like such a model already, having pros working on me, 2 of them at once somemore.. FUAHHHHHHH….

 

This is Stephanie, the brilliant designer for Pretty In White. Oh, did I mention this before, PIW is always the sponsor for outfits of this shoot! Aren’t they such generous people? Abso-fucking-lutely!!!!  The white gown John Ishii chose is a sexy sleek number, with cleavage flaunting font and oh-so-elegant ribbon at the back. One thing I  noticed about PIW outfit, every piece has something unique about it. The one I wore for the KTM shoot was simply gorgeous with embroideries and rich layers. Im inspiring to be a wedding gown designer now! Would want to design a gown that is halter neck, very low cut like this pic below, but with more embroideries and sequins to emphasize the bust part (im focusing a lot on boobs nowadays as I lost mine due to the habit of starving myself to shrink my arm, tummy and thigh.. argh). So yeah, I love halters, love a dress to make my boobs look bigger. As for the bottom, i would design one with lotsa frills ( I know.. im mrs frilly), and the uniqueness of this gown is…… *drum rolls……. The bottom part is convertible. Can just unzip few layers of the frills and wah lah… its a short white dress… muahhahahaha… am I a genius or am I not? muahahahahha..

Another outfit. Special & elegant cheong sam, with the slit in front. Totally unique and one of a kind. Later learned that it was a special material as well, Indian silk or something. Its amazing that they can custom make something according to a clients requirement. Simply love it!!!! Have already made up my mind to custom made my wedding shoes from them. Cant wait to start working with them on it. My 1st ever pair of custom made shoes.. hahaa….

After make up & hair….. everything was just a blur… Im not exagerating. I barely can recall what happened, its as if I’ve woken up from a dream, where I remember some details, dont remember the others. Time just passed so fast!! Well.. it usually does when we are having fun!!

Let these behind the scene pics speak for itself……..

Masters hard at work…….

During our break for lunch, I still cant stop cam-whoring… so caught Jen for  photo-op!!!

Made Sayang pose too. Not sure if we are ever invited to step into his studio again.. must camwhore kao kao… muahahahahahahah

And my itchy hands went to explore around his office and shelfs… found this!!! Super Kuno camera… geng lehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The day passed soooooo fast……only one word to describe it.. SURREAL.. absolutely.. surreal…..

Sunday was an amazingggggggg day as well.. but no time to write bout it now.. continue in my next post…

Renovation Woes

More on renovation stuff.

As, I am going through my house renovation process now, would like to share some tips off and on as we discover that contractors out there are just like piranhas, everything is $$ and $$ and $$ (no offence to contractors here, but all I’ve met are aiming for $$)

So, 1st and foremore.. the process of sourcing.
PLAN PLAN PLAN and get as many quotes as possible.
- have met about 12 different contractors, some ive managed to get quotes, some upon meeting, i dont event bother. Tip here is, set a day, weekend, say sat, make appointments with all contractors, vendors, sub cons, electricians, etc etc, and get them all to meet you at one location, exp: starbucks or coffee bean. Give them all about 20 minutes each, and ask them to send quotations to you after the meeting within that one week. This way, you save lotsa petrol, time and money going around meeting one by one.

GOOD RECOMMENDATIONS IS IMPORTANT
- IN the process of sourcing, always make sure the contact has good recommendations somwhere (friends, colleagues, forums.. etc). This way, you know he at least did something right before, and is not very new in the industry.

NEGOTIATE NEGOTIATE
- 1st quote is always more expensive, as they expect us to press them further. So always negotiate for a better price (BUT STICK TO THE SAME MATERIAL)
- Always try to get them to throw in things like ‘extra lighting points, or power point”, tile up more, or lay tiles for free, or wiring free, or repainting certain part free, etc etc. Those small misc things will cost a bomb if dont get this contractor to settle everything now.

CAREFUL OF BIG JARGONS OR TECHNIQUES OF RENOVATION
- I bring this up cos being a gal, not so familiar with renovation stuff. So contractors will try to use those technical terms and all. My hubby also not very experienced, but he knows more. So if you guys dont understand, ask them to draw and explain in layman terms.
Exp: i need to seal up my backyard to make a wet kitchen. They say the current wall cant stand the weight, need to knock off the current wall and built new one, higher and join to roof. The expensive part is in the foundation, they put something call BRC(or is it CRC) something like that, which is damn freaking expensive as quoted by one contractor. But guess what, after surveing around, that stupid thing is just some strong iron to lay on top of the concrete so when the ground moves over the years, the wall is supported by this iron and wont crack. SO when i ask around other contractors, it is not that expensive after all. And there are many materials, im not doing 2nd floor, so use the medium thickness can already.

- There are many other jargons and complicated explainations contractors try to use, to make it seem like to difficult, so just be careful, dun be shy to ask and make sure you understand what you are paying for.
EXP: i need to knock down my wall of the small room downstairs, im making it into a dining room join to the dry kitchen. One contractor charge me 2k, saying need to rewire la.. got technique to known down wall so the house to fall down, etc etc. Lotsa BS! So the best thing is to talk to more contractors, you will find that some can identify the walls that are not the major support and can knock down without risk. And best thing is, some can advice you to knock down lower (dont break the whole wall, leave the support beam on top) and it cost only Rm400!!!!!!!

SITE/OFFICE VISIT
- I make it a point to visit the shops/office of the contractor I appoint. (make sure its not a CON job).

B&W
- Once agree to appoint someone you think you can trust, go to the office to pay deposit, and get everything in B&W.
- Especially FOC stuff he says to throw in, must write on the receipt FOC this, FOC that.
- Always write completion date on the receipt (i forgot this.. dang)

Permits

- Contractors will tell you that for the city council permit, you will need to pay say about Rm1.5K – Rm2.5K for permit cert, reno CF and dustbin from alam flora. Luckily my colleague warn me already that this is a RIP OFF!!

- We went to MPSJ and find out, it is only RM50 for the sijil and they will give a reno guideline book too. And for the dustbin, Alam Flora charges Rm500. But many other local companies charge cheaper. I got mine at Rm140 (per full load) which is enough for my whole renovation. But there is a RM500 deposit, refundable. I think its a total rip off for contractors to charge so much when total cost is about Rm200 only. Even if they get runners to do, should be a mark up of Rm2K right?

I will post up more from time to time when i experienced them…

So far, these is what that is done. Knocked down the little room downstairs to convert it into a dining room.

And sealing up the back yard to make it into a wet kitchen. This steel thingy are the BRC bars. Which many contractors takes opportunity to mark up the price.

DO NOT CON ME PLS!!!!

Wow. It’s been a hectic month for me. Lots to do, so little time, so little money!! HELP!!!!!!!

I’ve been having several mini meltdowns when it comes to the house renovation. Starting to think that probably we should have bought a condo unit instead of a landed house. Theres just so many things to look into, and it can be quite annoying when things dont go my way.

Finally hired a contractor after surveying like 100 of them (ok, im exaggerating, prob 10 of them). But seems like so many cos in the process of getting quotes, we need to brief them, bring them to the house, explain what we want in detail yet make sure they do it within our budget.. super tiring!!! The one we settled for is somewhat ’special’. He has a .. erm.. harelip… and.. speaks no english… and.. its kind hard to understand what he is saying (though im quite alright with mandarin now), but thats one reason why i settled for this guy. He tries very very hard to make sure we understand what he is saying, came few rounds to the house to meet us, brought us to his office, met his ’si tau poh’ and gets everything down in B&W too. It’s not out of pity, but somehow he is the only one that I have a teeny wee bit faith that he would not con me. (so unlike the rest, upon meeting them i have the aura that im their next target). Agaisnt all odds.. im sure he will get the job done to match up to the standard of other contractors. Keeping my fingers crossed…  hope he get thru my renovation project in one piece!

Latest hurdle was the stupid permit application for doing renovation. Standard fee from contractors are RM2K or so including about RM1K deposite. Thank god a kind collegue tipped us that if we do it ourselves, would save a whole lot more, TOTALLY TRUE!!!! Sayang went to MPSJ and it cost us only Rm50 for the sijil, and Rm140 a week for the dustbin. Stupid Alam Flora is charging RM500! BAH! All bloodsuckers!! This past week Ive been like leaving in fear, fear of having all our dough sucked out unnessasarily. Sigh…. MAJOR HEADACHE!!!! Thank god we plan to stay in this house for at least 5 years. Cant bear doing another round of this anytime soon!

Ok, its time to start working and earn more dough!! Argh… life.. oh life…..