Complain, complain, complain...

Hullo friends.

Those who knew we went to Langkawi, tunggu sat no…. Gambaq belum download. Camera dah bawak mai office dah tapi battery dah kong. Satgi re-charge esok aku tulih na….

I was reading an entry on a friend’s blog about her impending move to a new house. Well… yesterday I was just cursing my inability to get my way when renovating the house and her topic refreshed my anger anew.

So here is a list of the things that I hate and positively want to change about my 8 month old house (well we moved 8 months ago but the house is my age. Built in 1976..)

1. The patio. I had wanted a full wooden patio. Got the wooden tiang (what the hell is tiang in English ?), the nice wooden bumbung (Dear God, what is bumbung in English ? Oh… roof ? Doesn’t sound right, though….) but alas the flooring is tiled. Dunno why when I went to choose the tiles, I voted for gray. It looks horrible. Should have chosen brown tiles or orangey hues.

So now I am just buying my time to either deck it, which costs like RM 6,000 or re-tile it which would cost about RM 2,000. The question is, which would make me happy ?

2. The grill. I totally hate it. I chose the colour (which is again a wrong one) and the design (which I really like, so pheww !) but the workmanship was horrible. Babah's father wanted us to use his errmm…. griller (?) but they had close shop. We went around Kota Damansara one day and found an advertisement of a griller/roofer. Went to talk to them and they quoted. We were thinking of having another leisure look but it turned out the very next day, the price of steel would be up and if we don’t pay the deposit that day itself, the price would go up RM 5-6 k more.

Called my contractor and he confirmed the stroy. The price of steel would indeed go up the very next day. We have no choice really. Made of money we are definitely not and there are plenty we could do with the RM 5-6 k.

So we agreed and it turned out bad. The workmanship is sooooo terrible, I wept. I will definitely change them. Wished I had waited. To save RM 5-6 k, I now need to spend a further RM 15 k to change the grills. Damn !

3. The window. First, wrong colour. Should have chosen silver. Actually I had wanted red, to match my door but contractor said there are no red ones. So fine. But 2-3 months ago went around Sek 7, looking at the new houses and guess what ? They were all kitted out with gloriously red window frames. Damn !

Secondly, the size. I had wanted bay windows, like my mom’s. Contractor said no because he said the foundation of the wall would be too soft with too little concrete. Made sense but when I went to my friend’s Jida’s house in Bukit Jelutung, everybody there had lovely bay windows. Hers was only supported by I think, 5 inches wall. So why can’t I have bay windows and she can ? It doesn’t make sense !!

Thirdly, I need more windows. The house is dark. Don’t know why. Contractor was shock himself when he came for a visit because we have plenty of windows but the house is still dark. More windows then. Or maybe I need yellow tiles…. Hmmmm…. Naaah….

4. Kitchen. I have plenty of grief bout me kitchen, the most integral part of the house.

a) Floor. It is so hard to keep the tiles clean and shiny. Plus, I can’t see the ants because they blend very well with the colour (black tiles). Plus, I think it is one of the reasons why my kitchen is not cheerful. Should change it to white or made it black and white checked.

b) Table top. I had wanted a marble slab. But I got a black tiled one. Even a wooden one is better because again it is so hard to make it shine nicely. Berbelak-belak…. Hate it. I am forever cleaning it.

c) Island table top. It is white. Kayu some more so it stains. Am thinking of changing it to one of Ikea’s brown wooden slabs.

d) Glass door. Opens the wrong way. Plus it needs a door stopper to stay open. Why ? I don’t want that !!

5. Library. I fell in love with Catherine Zeta Jones’ shelves in her movie… err… the one with Aaron Eckhart…both of them are chefs…. Anyway, in that movie, her book shelves are lovely turquoise. Mine turned out to be light green at a certain angle and pink most of the time. Plus, it is not enough to hold all my books. I need more space… and shelves. No… I need to organise it better. Heh…

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6. Bathrooms. Requested for glass wall to separate the bathing area from the rest of the bathroom. Requested for a brick high floor separator to ensure water wont spill to the rest of the bathroom. Very much wanted an isolated wet area. But no. The contractor gave loads of reasons and at the end, my bathroom is wet after every bath. Why ?

6. Driveway. First of all, it is tarmac. Yuck. Second of all, the guy who did it didn’t do it well. The black stones are not properly set in and therefore we have loads of black gravel all over. When it rains, it clogs the drain. So there. A nuisance. Plus the driveway is a bit bumpy and therefore needs a lot of work (and money) to make it nice and straight.

7. Flower trough. Requested for a nice window box but got a trough instead. Hated it. So now I will have to have it taken down a few inches because it is too high.

8. Semut. I hate them. There are plenty of them, destroying my plants. Hate them.


Ungrateful ? Probably. But these are my grievances and something that I have to resolve. When you renovate your house, have a long think. Do not choose under duress or when you are not motivated.

Trust me.