Home Deco: Dining Hall

Our theme color for house deco this year is purple, since I'm too lazy to think of other colors to mix and match plus, time and money is restricted so we'll just make do with what we have and what we found as considerably cheap.

This time around, I decided to decorate our dining hall into something more presentable. We only have the basics for this area, that includes the dining set and the gigantic dining drawer + mirror set but lacking some colors.

I went for knicks knacks shopping at Kaison Furnishing at Paradigm a week before my delivery. I love Kaison because they have loads of house decoration items at super low price. Of course, you can't compare the quality to their top notch competitors like SSF or the likes but if you're on a tight budget this Raya, Kaison is one choice that can be considered.

I went mad shopping at Kaison and bought so many things for my living area and the dining hall and the bill came up at only RM150. Yes, cheap because I bought a lot, mind you. A LOT! From artificial flower bouquets, vases in various sizes and shapes, pillows, cushion covers, frames, candles, plates and the list goes on. Wheeeeeee!

Oh well, here are some pictures of my dining area for your eye candy. Nothing much but I decided to go minimal so that's the outcome...

I'm still looking for a reasonably priced carpet to compliment the dining set but to no avail. Found one or two which suit my liking but they're waaaayyyyyyyyyyy overpriced. Sigh!

Decoration: Living Hall

Alhamdulillah! Husband received his bonus and an increment last week. Maybe rezeki baby, and we finally managed to get by with a few pending stuffs, mainly for the house.

Since I'll be away at my parent's for a full month confinement (macam la jauh sangat rumah, 10 minit je kotttt!), I guess it's best to leave the house in a proper condition and start decorating for Raya now, as I know I'll be busy and don't have much time to re-decorate it later.

Changed the cushions for the sofa and add on some decorations for this official living area which includes table mat, table lamp, frames and small vase. I decided to inject a serious persona for this space, thus explains the mundane and earthy tones. But a bit of colors won't do harm to avoid the dullness, right? And finally, we can hang the curtain after having a hard time finding an appropriate railing for the windows.

The old colorful cushions were put in good use and they matched the old white couch in this casual/tv area. I've always wanted to upholster the old wing chair to another color since the original fabric is too depressing for this area. Hahaha. But will do that one step at a time since we'll be spending a lot for sure, with the baby's coming and what nots.

The overall look of the living hall.

Next pictorial entries on decoration of our dining hall and room coming up soon! Just bear with me. Need to fork out money to realize my dreams. My readers and Nuffnang, please help me!

Online Shopping: Furniture & Home Decoration

I'm an avid shopper, be it online or offline. But now since I have limitations due to my pregnancy (my due date is in 2 weeks time!), I opted for online shopping since it's hassle-free and saves my time and energy. This time around, I decided to take a break from baby items since everything for her is all prepared, I'm just anxiously waiting for this bundle of joy to pop out.

My interest now has changed to home decoration. We've moved to this new house for almost 4 months now right after the renovation progress settled. Since then, I don't really have much time and money to decorate the house as I pleased because I wanted to prepare for the baby first. For a few months, the idea to decorate the interior has to be postponed and we just make do with whatever furniture that we have and bought earlier, until this last month of my pregnancy where I can finally take a breather from baby's stuffs and start focusing on the house instead.

Since we've got some of the decoration items beforehand, I just added on a few to the list to complete whichever that is not. That's when I stumbled upon Home 24, a Malaysian-based furniture and home deco online shopping. Yes, too good to be true but they do sell furniture online now! All you just have to do is browse through their online catalogue for your desired items, add them to your cart, make payment and wait for the items to be delivered at your doorstep. Easy, right?

Their simple and interactive website for your best viewing option

So I decided to give it a try and bought a few decoration items for the house. I signed up for their newsletter and received an instant RM20 rebate for purchases above RM100 in a single receipt. I opted for cash on delivery instead of online payment to see how it works. Right after I placed the order, their sales rep called up to re-confirm my order and said that the items will be delivered within 7 working days. That's a long wait but nevermind, let's just give it a try then. Mind you, I ordered these items on Wednesday evening at 5pm.

Then on Saturday morning (while I was still sleeping), I received a call from a courier company saying that my items from Home 24 will be delivered in 10 minutes. Wowwwww that was fast! I thought their delivery policy is within 7-14 working days. But mine only took 2 days. Excellent!

I was all excited when the box arrived!

Let's open it up and see what's inside...

The neatly packed items in plastic wrap. I bought 2 sets of curtain (for the living room) and 3 place mats. They even sent me another RM20 voucher for my next purchase. Total damage: RM90 + free delivery. Wheeeeeeeeee!

My verdict on Home 24? Happy and pleased. They have excellent customer service and delivery is fast than what I expect. Maybe I can try to purchase a few small furniture for the house on my next order, to see how it goes. Hehehehe. But for the time being, I'm happy with my current purchase and will definitely come back to Home 24 and shop again.

DIY: Ikea LACK Side Table Project

How to transform this plain Ikea LACK side table:

Into this?

It's fairly simple actually. All you need is a LACK table (duh!), hammer, nail, boxes of thumb tacks, ruler and pencil.

Not in the picture is the ruler and pencil. I forgot to snap them.

First step: You gotta make holes using the nail. Make sure not to dig deep into the compressed wood or you'll end up with a big hole and can't fit the thumb tacks. I used a 1cm method for each hole. Draw a straight line along the edge of the table first. Then, mark a spot where the holes would be. Using a nail and hammer, make a hole with 1cm apart from each other.

The holes for the thumb tacks.

Second step: With holes all ready, fill them up with your thumb tacks. Make sure they are all straight and in line. You can find thumb tacks at any stationery store or DIY outlets. As for me, I bought them at ACE Hardware. I used Unicorn thumb tacks. They are durable. But any kind of thumb tacks (cheaper!) would do. Just make sure they are not rusty and don't bend much when you use your hammer.

The holes, ready to be inserted with thumb tacks.

Roughly, I used about 6 1/2 boxes of unicorn thumb tacks for a table. I spent about 4 hours of tedious work to finish this. It's not perfect because it's handmade but as long as they're cost saving, I don't mind. And here's the final outcome of the table in a good, working order.

I just need to revamp the table because it's still in good condition and needs a little refurbishment. This table has served me good and it's a waste to just throw it out. So a simple art work on it will do to restore its glory. Hahaha. Now, the table is back in action eventho it's darn cheap.

Shopping: My Theraphy

I have a gazillion posts waiting to be published in this blog actually but lately, time is taking its toll on me. Apart that I'm being extremely lazy to compose for my blog, I wasn't feeling very well too. Boohoo!

Wait, is it just me or the weather is really, extremely hot lately? Being at 7 months now, I really can't bear the heat and sweat most of the time, even at night. :(

Ok, back to the story. Since it was freaking hot all week, we, I meant me and hubby, decided to go to some colder place to skip the humidity. No no no, we didn't go to Genting if that's what you're thinking of. We can just think of malls and somewhere near and finally headed to Alamanda after haven't been there for quite some time. I just realized that they have a few of new tenants added to the list. As usual, I decided to have a look at the Mothercare outlet. My initial plan is to buy some baby stuffs according to the checklist, seeing that it's almost complete and decided to just wait until next week. But the tempatation is high and I ought to purchase at least a thing for the baby.

Finally I bought the Aden+Anais swaddle blanket. In a set of four, priced at RM109. Been eyeing this for quite sometime from One Baby World and the last time I went to their website to purchase, the items were all sold out. Frustrated you know because they sell these very cheap! So I vented my addiction to Mothercare for the swaddle wraps. They have a selection of prints to choose from and I decided to take the blue colored dots, stars and stripes, because IMHO, the others are plain boring.

Changing pad for the baby. I just bought a cheap one, after a recommendation from my dear cousin. Priced at RM40. I wanted to grab this since their GP Sale, but was hesitated to buy at first because I've bought the normal, square changing mat for the baby already. But heck, who cares since I'm easily influenced and bought this in the end. Hihihi.

Since I started working after a loooooooooooong break, I noticed that I can't fit into my working pants anymore, of course. I'm working with a uniformed agency and it's hard to find pants in navy color. Thus I decided to still wear my old pants with the help of belly belt, where it expands the waistline so I don't feel snuggish around the tummy area and can still wear my other normal pants/jeans with ease. I bought this at Little Whiz, discounted price at RM71.90. Howeverrrrrrrr, I just found a cheaper option at My Baby Shop, selling this at RM63.92. Grrrrrrrr!!!

Oh oh oh, on a totally unrelated news, I came home to my small soon-to-be garden and just realized that the carpet grass has grown into full force from the last time we planted them. Happy!

This is what it looks like before.

And this is what happened after I rigorously water them everyday without fail.

Okay, now it'll take prolly 3 months (or more) for the grass to fully covered the soil. I wish I have my mom's green hands. Everything she touches grows into beauty. My next plan, to grow some lavenders along the border. Wish me luck!

House Renovation: Vendors Details (Part II)

I'm on EL this whole week because my car broke down on Tuesday morning and husband is not around to help me bring it to the workshop. So I'm sort of on 'house-arrest', seeing that I have no transport to move around. Trust me, it's not fun staying at home with nothing much to do. I was bored to death.

Okay, let's just skip that part. It's not that important anyway.

Hey, I know I promised you a second post on details of my vendors. So here you go. I guess it's all complete now. It's now time to decorate our new pod and that means, cash is rolling into the drain and I'm really broke (eventho it was just payday yesterday!) Please, please, please I'm in need of a relief donation. Huhu!

Lamps

As you know, budget is our main priority. Since we have a major renovation, that means everything needs to be replaced and the same goes to the lightings. I decided to forego the original lampu kalimantang and spent a few bucks on new soft light lamps. We browsed through Mudah and found cheaper solution for it. We bought ours at wholesale price and mind you, they are really, really cheap and the owner does give some good pointers and suggestions on the lightings. The shop has quite a few choices to your liking (as shown in pictures). Just drop by to Silver Star Wholesale Lighting Enterprise, located on the top floor in The 19 USJ Digital Mall. You can contact the owner at 014-2272368 for directions.

Furniture

Most of my furniture are from Macy. I bought them while they were on sale at the end of last year and thus it was a bargain. They're not entirely cheap nor expensive, but I was hooked on some of their design and decided to buy them eventho we weren't sure of renovating the house at that time. And I'm just glad I bought them much earlier because apparently they're no longer re-produce certain designs that we have. Phewwwwwww! My black sofa is from Macy Seri Kembangan while my bedframe and dining table set are from Macy IOI Mall. I think it's best to buy from them when they're having their major sale. Super cheap and choices are a plenty, I tell you!

Grill

We got the contact from family, where apparently most of my husband's relatives used their service whenever they want to have new grills for the house. After getting some ridiculous quotations from other vendors, we decided to hire them because they have the cheapest and most affordable rates in town. We managed to get by with only 3k to do grills the whole house, including the main gate. Isn't it cheap? You can contact Ahlim Engineering at 012-3091087 for quotation and discussion.

Astro / Streamyx Relocation

It was a headache at first when we want to find someone to move our readily installed Astro and Streamyx to the new address. So I went online and found a contact who can relocate my Astro. My husband decided to dismantle the dish by himself to save cost so we just hire a wireman to re-install our Astro at the new house. The charge is RM100 for installing the dish and RM150 for dismantling and installing the dish from your old place to your new house. You can contact Mizan at 019-2832487. As for Streamyx relocation, I just went to TM Point office in USJ Taipan (since I stayed in Subang previously) and filled up a form to apply for relocation. Within 7 working days, their assigned vendor will contact you to install the new line and you'll be charged RM30 for the service. As usual, they can be quite a slowmo at times so it's best to keep contacting them if they failed to do so after the promised period.

Hmmmm, I think that's all the details and contacts that I have so far. I can't think of anymore right now. Do let me know if I missed on anything. Will surely keep you informed and updated then. :)

House Renovation: Vendors Details (Part I)

I know you guys have been waiting for this post, right? I promised to share with you the details of my vendors once the house if completed and Alhamdulillah, the house is finally ready within 5 weeks. Now, I am happy to share these info with you for your future reference. Any price given to us by the vendors is based on mutual agreement and understanding. Please contact the vendors themselves for further discussion regarding price and quotation yeah.

Contractors
We didn't hire those professional contractors. Since we're working on a tight budget, we decided to just hire a group of freelance Indonesian workers. We have seen their previous works and were satisfied with the outcome, thus agreed to hire them to do the house after seeing that they have the most appropriate rates around. The total cost for our renovation is 38k including raw materials, paint job and some simple wiring. But be sure to prepare a written contract for both parties before you hire them. That's their requirement. Do contact Shukri at 016-2865089 for further discussion.

Kitchen Cabinet
Since we have a rather cute kitchen area, a simple and clean cabinet is my top priority. We finally stumbled upon Wira Kitchen and hired them to do the kitchen cabinet. They have several branches and we ordered our cabinets from their outlet in Puchong. Located in Puchong Jaya, right opposite IOI Mall, just above Berry's Bakery. Of course, they have several designs to choose from and what I like about Wira Kitchen is that, they'll print out an outplan of your desired kitchen with the potential price even if you just pop by to ask for quotation. The size of our kitchen cabinet is roughly around 5 1/2 ft, priced at 3k including kitchen sink, drying rack, knobs and installation. Do contact Kelvin at 010-22066780 for further discussion.

Stove
We decided to not have the built-in stove for our kitchen cabinet because it just adds up to the cost. What we did was we source for a separate stove to match our cabinet. Luckily, we found a Zanussi stove in a perfect white color to go with the white kitchen cabinet at a very affordable price. The stove comes with an electric oven (yeay, now I can start baking!) and is priced at RM1599 plus free delivery. Bought this at Ideal Electrical in Shah Alam. Do contact them at 03-55482122 for directions.

Tiles
We didn't have much time to look around for the cheapest supplier in town so we just dropped by to the nearest outlet possible, located at Jalan Puchong. Merely 3 minutes by car from our house. Hahaha. We bought a heapful of tiles for the kitchen area, bathroom/toilet and porch area. They have a selection of choice according to your budget. Please contact LS Marble & Tiles at 03-80753199 for directions.

Arm Chairs
I've received feedback and questions from readers (ceh, macam la ramai sangat yang baca blog aku ni!) regarding my two purple arm chairs. I bought them on December last year, while we're still in the midst of planning for the house. I just thought, hey why don't we buy these first while we have the cash. They were purchased at House of Khatulistiwa at Avenue@Puchong Furniture Mall, located further up from Puchong Utama. Priced at 1.7k for both chairs, including free delivery. You can change the fabric, they have several choice of colors. Please contact Faysal at 013-4121394 for more information.

I shall write more about my other vendors for lightings, bathroom accessories and furniture in the next post. For the time being, just bear with these yeah. Time for blogging is very restricted now since I've started working. :( Any questions, just give me a hello and I will try to reply you as soon as possible. Cheerios!

House Renovation: Week Five (The Final Week!)

The renovation is finally done and over. Since I'm back at work now (sigh!), we could only visit and clean the house on weekends. We still have a month rental lease at our old flat, so for the time being we're going back and forth from USJ to Puchong on weekly basis to manage the new house. It's kinda sad too thinking that we just have two weeks left to stay here at the flat before we move out for good to our new home sweet home. After staying here for almost two years, for sure we have a lot of memories to cherish.

But of course, we have to move on. We're going to start a family soon with a baby coming in, and I need my very own place to call home. Alhamdulillah... It took five weeks for this major renovation to be completed. I guess this is just the right time for us to move in, before I deliver my baby in July.

Here's the compilation of pictures to feast your eyes. I will write in details about my vendors (I know a lot of you have been asking these questions), most probably next week because I'm kinda occupied with packing, cleaning and house moving right now. Urghhhhhhh I just wish I can have extra leave from work to manage this new house. Tak cukup lagi ke kau dah cuti 2 bulan selama ni cik Elly ooiiiiiiiii! Kahkahkah!

Oh, mind the messiness of my house in the pictures. We're in the midst of cleaning at that time and I was too lazy to wait until everything is spotless and clean to do some photography skills. That can wait. Maybe in another post. So just stay tuned!

Let's start with the front of the house. Everything is just simple from the gate to the grill and the wood awning. Anything that suits our budget is good. Hahaha. Interior wall is painted already. Somehow it looks a bit yellowish where initially I wish it looks more to brownish but it's okay, we can always repaint it later. Maybe after 3 years. Kehkehkeh! (kes bajet dah habis la ni...). The tiles need to be cleaned with acid so we'll leave the job to the workers. I can't smell chemicals. It's not good for me and the baby.

Let's move on further into the porch area. We're not going to park our cars inside here. They should be outside. Hahaha! We have two separate area tho. The first one (first picture) is supposed to be the parking area but we're going to leave it wide open as it is. It's fully shaded so kids can play here. In the second picture, we built a stage with 2-step stairs which leads to the main entrance. We also installed two identical hanging outdoor lamps in those areas.

Now, we're entering the living hall. I'm gonna separate it into two, one for formal and one for tv area. It's still empty because we haven't transferred our existing furniture from the flat yet. What we have now is just the new furniture bought on sale last year. That explains why we don't have curtains, carpet, wall decorations, etc yet. Those will have to wait by end of this month.

The dining hall, nothing much too. We haven't mounted the wall deco for this area. And we're still waiting for our cabinet and large mirror from Macy to complete this area. Oh, maybe some table mats and a vase of fresh flowers would do to transform the bare table. That can wait too, by end of this month. Hahaha!

The master bedroom (first picture), just have some basic furniture. Bed frame and wardrobe in dark colored wood. I was too lazy to hang the curtains since I'm too heavy now. I need help for that. The third room (second picture) is still bare. We planned to transform this area into prayer/guest/utility room, some basic furniture are still at our old flat. That too, have to wait. No pictures of the second room tho. That's the baby nursery and it's still cluttered with baby items. I just have no mood to take pictures after the camera went dead.

The first picture is our bathroom. Yes, we're just gonna leave it like that. We're still procrastinating on finishing the walls with gloss paint. The second picture is the toilet area. We have all the accessories in stainless steel to match the theme: GREY

Hahaha at this time the kitchen area is cluttered with all sorts of cleaning bottles so mind the messiness. Nothing much to add for this area. Except for the fridge and microwave oven which will be transported later together with the other furniture from our flat.

Oh yes, the clutters from the previous works are still there. We need more manpower to move those things away. Once everything is removed, then we can start cleaning this area. Yes, the metal door is finally there. Thank God!

We are so broke (I mean really reallyyyyyyyyyyyy broke!) this month so any plan for interior decoration has to be postponed to next month. We received offers from family members regarding housewarming gifts. Hahaha this is good but we have most of the major things settled. Hmmmm I guess we have to start working on the gift list anyway, I can't refuse such good offers. Inilah rezeki namanya. Alhamdulillah!