Tuesday, October 26, 2010

What I have bought

I thought it would be nice if I share some of my ideas on detail work on the house.  In fact I have purchased some of these items.



  1. Air Bricks - these are cast iron ventilation grills as I have a 3 feet gap between the ground and floor.  I imported these from UK.  The site is www.castironairbricks.co.uk  The design is English Rose 
  2. Solar powered gable mounted ventilation fans - my attic has 2 ventilation fans to continuously extract the hot air and create moving air inside the house.  The fan is solar powered and has a flexible grill to close the vent when it is not working. The site is http://www.airvent.com/homeowner/products/powerVents-solarGable.shtml
  3. Stained Glass Lampshades for dining and kitchen. I got them from ebay.  Note that China makes a lot of them now.  I also commissioned a stained glass panel for the living room.  You must differentiate them from SGO or Stained Glass Overlay which are in fact fake stained glass through usage of plastic sheets and stick on lead strips.  Kuching has a SGO designer in Pending.  They can be nice too I guess for panels.
  4. Clothes Drier Vent - Due to occasional wet weather, a drier has been very useful to us.  However the hot air from the drier hasnt been pleasant circulating in the house. So for this new house I am putting in a vent through the laundry wall to the exterior.  I found this vent with a cap that will close if there is not air coming through (useful to keep insects out) in ACE Hardware in Midvalley Megamall in KL (3rd level).  The shop even have the accompanying ducts and accessories to connect to the drier. Note the cap to prevent rain entering and the flap inside. 
  5. Bathroom fittings - I got some complete set fittings for all the bathrooms from Houz Depot. This KL DIY shop is very interesting. They have 2 branches, a new one in Jln Tunku Abdul Rahman (opposite Pertama Complex) and the older one near The Curve.  The set includes mixer, shower, hose and external hand held shower unit.
Thanks all for the time being.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Latest Update

Yep the last time I posted this was in May.  Now its Oct.  Last week I thought I had my contractor but at the last minute I found out through a misunderstanding that he did not include piling.  I was very annoyed at the misunderstanding as this would mean the quote would escalate again!  I have decided that I would get another quote from a small time sub contractor to see if there is sufficient variance.  For your information the previous quote was RM 400,000. Thats does not include piling, flooring (& joists), fittings, windows and doors (although it includes labour for installing) and electrical.  I thought it was a bit high. The dimensions was 3,000 sq ft inside but I have a large deck and a large garage.