Moving in to SG (Part 3)

After such a busy weekend, I am more than grateful for a MOVING DAY leave. So I decided to take Monday off to continue unpacking.

On Friday, after work, Norman, Naufal and I went to IKEA to buy toilet accessories, curtain railings and other tid bits. We took the full tour of the store without missing an aisle as we think about what we should buy and what could be put on-hold for now. The good thing is that IKEA was opened until 11pm on Friday, Saturday and Sundays.

On Saturday we had a full day of unpacking and cleaning, and also finalizing the arrangements for our Majlis Bacaan Yaasin and Doa Selamat. It was a sudden decision to hold this event, hence the late invitation notice. We only confirmed the catering 36 hours prior to the event. Luckily we have reliable connections that could help us out. After a tiring day of mopping, vacuuming and etc, we also had to go out to send the house maps to our relatives. After dinner we went to buy groceries. Once again we were at the store while they were closing down for the day. When we arrived home, I started cooking while Naufal is asleep.

On Sunday we rearranged the furniture to make room for the guests to pray. Outside the workers started to install the grass that Norman just bought that morning. The installation of the grass was completed an hour before the first guest arrived. Inside, we were still busy unloading the boxes and cleaning. That night the ceremony started with maghrib prayers, doa, solat hajat, yaasin recitation, tahlil and isyak prayers.

Naufal in his jubah, ready for the ceremony.

Me and Naufal reciting the verses for the tahlil.

Waiting for isyak prayers.

Distributing the yaasin booklets. Reciting the doa of well wishes for the family and the security of the house.

Faizal concentrating in his prayers.
Azwin and Farzaana reciting the Yaasin.

Guests chatting.

More talks as families catches up on latest happenings.

Naufal (with Alya in the background).

Alya just woke up from her evening slumber.

My three nieces eating dinner.

Friends enjoying the nasi kerabu

Faiz on a giraffe scooter??

Naufal

One of my aunts chatting away.

Sofea

Welcoming my sister in-law to the house.

Our living room with the LCD TV that just arrived that afternoon.

Afterwards, we all had dinner and we took ours guests for a mini tour of the house.

Master bedroom walk-in closet

The secret door unveiled.


Our bed, still need to buy side tables.


Naufal's blue room without his bed.

The green room for guests.

Upstairs living room, still need to install the plasma TV.

Most of the things we bought have been carefully selected and purchased over the past 3 years, through mega sales, warehouse sale, home dec expos and such. I pointed out the things that are great buys from the many sales and bargainings, like our walk-in closet lighting that was bought at 75% off (from $1500++ down to $300++) and a mirror with solid wood carvings (from $1000++ to $450). People were surprised when we told them, as they would’ve been willing to pay atleast double of what we paid for them. Full credit to Norman for his super ability to bargain, bargain and bargain.

The event ended quite late , Naufal was still running around with our neighbour’s kids and we had to tear him away. Soon he was well asleep and we started to clean up. We were completely exhausted, and yet so happy as we rested our heads on our new bed in our new house on our first ever overnight stay in Subang Galaxy. We have now officially moved in!! (The housewarming party is planned sometime in Feb)

Moving to SG (part 2)

Yesterday we had the curtains installed at noon. We also decided to hire a lorry to move all the things that we could not move in a car (such as the bed that I used while working in Miri, the boxes that was shipped from there, the wardrobes that we bought, the bookshelf, mirrors, TV dining table and many2 more). We ordered a 2 tonne lorry, but luckily a 3 tonne lorry arrived to pick up our goods as they had a bigger job after ours. We filled the lorry to the max.

Everything was filling the house quickly, and it will be a big job unpacking in the next few days (or weeks or months).

The chairs were custom made to match the marble table which was being recycled from my parents house (in order to make room for a bigger table which would fit us and their grandkids).

Naufal's toys which we will unpack into his room in hope that he will start sleeping there.

After the curtains were installed, we decided to go to buy carpets. During the last HomeDec Expo I had put a deposit for Naufal's wallpaper, but we decided not to install the wallpaper anymore since we have bought lots of stickers for him. Luckily the store also sells carpets and floorings. So we bought carpets for both the upstairs and downstairs living room as we are also entitled to get an extra 30% off. We love discounts!!

Looking at the carpets and thinking whether we need to buy more now or later..

Norman cleaned the floor and started placing the carpet where it is planned to be. Pushing aside the coffee table, the floor is ready for a major slouching. All we need for the living room is our TV (will be delivered Sunday) and our BlueRay DVD player (not sure when it will be delivered).

Moving to SG

By the way, I hope it’s still not to late for me to say “Happy New Year”.. haha, yes I realize that I am a week late in wishing you all that, so perhaps I should say “Happy Belated New Year”. And what a great year it will be, there's so many plans for it I really hope that everything will go smoothly without glitches. Also wishing everyone the pinkest of health and continued prosperity for the year ahead.

I haven’t been online much the past two weeks, a huge chunk of my time has been at the new house which involves me as an “inspector” looking over the contractors while they install the lightings, fans, air cons, water heater, grill, kitchen cabinets and also the delivery of other electrical appliances that we have bought. While I’m there, I’m also starting to unpack the small things that we have and start cleaning whatever that I can clean (which is why I am now coughing). By the time I am home, either my laptop is occupied or the internet connection is bad.. which is probably for the best as I am too tired. Here's some preview pictures (by demand by my office peers) of our new house in Subang Galaxy.

Once the kitchen extension and all the plaster ceiling is done, the walls are painted and the next thing is to install the grill so that the downlights can be installed. We got a little bit disappointed at the lighting store who gave away our downlight (which we have made full payment in August) to other customer, resulting in 2/3 of the downlights missing when we requested it delivered to our house. They had to reorder the downlights but the delivery would be after the electricians we planned to be at our house. So after two stressful days of negotiating, we decided to ask for a refund and went out to buy new downlights. Luckily there was a lighting store nearby that had availabe stock of the selected downlights.

The door grill to our entrance. We're also planning to have built-in shoe racks at the side.

While waiting for the kitchen cabinets to be installed downstairs, I decided to start decorating Naufal's bedroom walls with this train sticker. At first we thought of putting wallpaper but we later decided that Naufal will soon out-grow the Disney characters. By using stickers we can easily change it later on.

Finally, the kitchen hood, hob and oven arrived. The kitchen is almost finished but the guys are still installing some counter lights.

The window grill is being installed.

The lightings at the entrance.

Our almost finished kitchen (notice tha the hob is still not installed yet). The breakfast bar at the front is actually mobile, so I can move it about to the center to create an island in the kitchen or move it to the other wall next to the tall cabinet and fridge if I need more space at the opposite end. It is quite stable, so I will need some strong & strappy young men to help me move it.

Last weekend my parents and sisters came over to have a look at the house and also helped to clean the house. Some people asked why we didn’t just pay someone else to do the cleaning? But the truth is our contractor has done a good job cleaning the house (including the mopping believe it or not), such that when they are finished with their job the house is ready for our move in. But off course we would only be satisfied if we re-clean the house again.

This week while I’m at work this week, Norman is taking over the "inspector" role while the wardrobe is being installed and the final touches of the painting are being done.

Our lawn, in dire need of grass. However, we just couldn't decide what type of grass to buy..

I can’t wait for everything to be ready, and we will finally be able to move in to Subang Galaxy :)
We already have our car stickers and the security "smart" tag which needs to be swiped at the security gate. It really makes us feel part of the community.

The Chandelier was finally installed on new years days itself. It took 6 hours for the guys to install it (from 10 am to 4pm)

Wardrobe in Naufal's room.

The fan-light for the dining hall. This is a new model which is not yet in the manufacturer's catalogue. Not many people have this model yet.. the price is also quite steep, but I definitely think it is worth it.

The view of the fan-light when the fan is off. The lights also have dimmers, which I really like. Suitable for those romantic dinners.

The built in window bench. This is where I will put the cushions we bought during the Macy warehouse sale.

Our secret wall, which has a hidden door that hides the entrance to the master bedroom's walk-in wardrobe and the toilet. Can you guess where the door is?

The downstairs living room furnitures. The seats are all leather reclining chairs, absolutely comfortable for regular couch potatoes like us.

We are still waiting for the delivery of our free 42" LCD TV (from the ID guys), need to buy carpets and the curtains will be ready for installation next week. The upstairs living room will be like a lounge with lots of bean bags and big cushions.

Once we finished packing, we will need to hire a lorry to move the boxes and the other big furnitures into this new house. Some people are surprised when I tell them that I alreay have alot of household goods. This is because I still have all the things from when I was moving from Miri packed in boxes from 3+ years ago. Everything from that 40-footer cargo. And to add to it, we have been buying things for the house slowly with the thought that we would be moving in early last year. Also, you'll be surprised to hear that we haven't even opened most of our wedding gifts yet. Only last week did we really know what people have actually bought for us. There's definitely going to be jumble sale soon, cause there are also items that we have accidentally bought in excess.

We plan to have our housewarming party soon, but we can't decide which weekend... it will definitely have to be after pay day (20th Jan) and in combination with my birthday celebration, but need to confirm whether it will be the weekend before or after, or in February all together!!