Happy National Day

23rd February 2009

Wishing all viewers happiness in conjunction with Brunei's Silver Jubilee National Day (25 years) today. May Brunei continues to be blessed with peace and harmony for centuries to come.

Regards from us at
syafisafiya-house.blogspot.com

Staircase railings come into shape

18th February 2009

A short visit to the house today shows good progress. Finally we can see images of the staircases railings. The built-in cabinet in some bedrooms have taken shape, and what's left are the drawers and sliding cabinet doors. As for the wet kitchen, the workers have put up a concrete counter top and the sink has been fixed nicely.

One setback; the worker has put a layer of undercoat paint on the main door, unaware that my plan is to have it varnished. I guess he assumed that it's to be painted white, just like all the internal doors. Thankfully, my contractor has agreed to rectify the problem and the undercoat will be scraped off (somehow). We'll see how it goes.

Here are recent pictures of the new developments:

Preliminary works in installing the hand rails

Syafi's built-in cabinet

And this is in Safiya's bedroom

Compressors for the air-conditioners already installed.

The wet kitchen with a new look

Oh no... the house is not complete yet!

17th February 2009

Talk about a sad moment... My wife had recently underwent a surgical operation after being diagnosed with 'anembryonic pregnancy', confirmed twice. Yes, it is sad to know that our third bundle of joy is not coming as expected, and we'll have to wait for a few months before trying again. You can read more about this at our [other blog].

With regards to the house, it's now clear to me that the house cannot be completed on time. We are still waiting for the stair cases railing to be installed (they promised this will start this week), and built-in cabinets in the bedrooms are still being fixed. After that, there's still cabinetry works yet to be done in the dry kitchen, study room as well as the home theatre.

With regards to plumbing works, almost all pipes has been installed. Amongst all rooms, I personally like the master bathroom and the powder room. Our selection of toilet bowls, wash basins together with the wall and floor tiles make a dramatic impression, just the way my wife and I imagined. Most importantly, the end result really makes all those extra expenses worth it!

Syafi and Safiya were really enjoying our recent visit, and both pretended to have showers in their own bathrooms. Hehehe... I guess I'll have more peace of mind once the glass and aluminium shower doors are installed.

For now, enjoy these pictures and let's all hope that I'll be able to post pictures of the wrought iron railings soon, as well as the ... opppsss!! the front door!

Safiya looks smaller than the Hercules toilet bowl in the master bathroom

Mirror lights installed, waiting for the mirror...

Safiya 'testing out' the master bathroom shower

Smiling Syafi pretending to flush his own toilet.

Safiya in her bathroom

The powder room. The wash basin on the counter top is my wife's choice.

Built-in cabinets on the way!

And presenting our masterpiece... black and gold spiral staircase!

The monsoon season showing its early effect

7th February 2009

As has been reported all over the news, Brunei is currently experiencing a record-breaking rainfall rate, bringing with it natural disasters affecting some unfortunate people.... including ourselves! A few days back when I visited the site, I was surprised to see some patches of wet ceiling at the garage and wet kitchen. It was frustrating and my contractor was informed immediately afterwards.

Even the contractor was not pleased with the news. After investigation, it was found out that the water leaked in through the installed pipe holes for the air-conditioners which are placed on the first floor balcony. It never happened before during normal rainy days, but I guess the unusual monsoon period proved to be damaging.

Fortunately, the air-conditioner company acknowledged the problem and the matter is now solved when they sealed off the pipes with some white plaster, as can be clearly seen in the picture below. Problem gone, thankfully!

On the positive side, it was actually 'convenient' that the leak shows itself at this stage, making repair works easy to carry out. I just couldn't imagine if it had happened after we have moved in...!

Oh, and below are pictures of our two water fountain bases at the main entrance already installed. What's left now is the bowl and some minor piping works.