Progress as at 7th May 2008

7th May 2008

I had been visiting the site almost everyday since I started planting the trees and the plants in order to water them. I was adviced to water them almost everday as the plants were relatively young and needs alot of TLC until they are big enough to look after themselves..

While at the site, I took some time to observe the progress of the construction and this time, I manage to walk around at the Master Suites as the flooring plywood had been laid down ready for cement. Another 40 percent of timber works need be done before steel beams are inserted between the wooden frame for cement. Overall, we are making a good progress...

The Audio Visual room and the Master Suite. Notice the raise and drop floor in the Audio Visual Room.

The Master Suite and the Audio Visual room from the walk-in closet

The view of the 'Pasar Borong' from the Master Suites

The view at the back of the house. My brother in law, Hazim watering the plants while one of my house maid getting the water from the nearby pond.

The view towards the open reception hall and the children bedrooms

Testing the leg space in the Audio Visual room

Skeletal structure of the study area at the left and AC platform at the right and the children bedroom at the end. Picture taken from the walk-in closet.

The Master suites from the children bedrooms

The children bedrooms from back

The reception hall and the children bedrooms from the Audio Visual room

The view from the bottom of the Audio Visual room and the Master Suites

The good old ladder which I used to climb up to the first floor.

A Visit to House of Gembo

7th May 2008

During lunch time, I made my first official visit to the beautiful House of Gembo at Kg Pandan. I was very impressed with the layout and the fittings that had been installed there. There were definitely alot of best-practices that could be implemented for the House of Syafi & Safiya and some that I should consider immediately for installation to avoid hackings the wall such as the security alarm system that I was initially thinking of installing in the future. I had not budgetted this yet and based on the information I got from Gembo, it could cost me a good $2.5K to install one.

Other fittings that I am considering of having is the cabinet outside the main entrance. I was thinking that this small cabinet could be utilised for putting my sport shoes or slippers or perhaps any other small items that you could think of. The big drawer at the pantry is probably a must to have for my dry kitchen. I also liked the hidden drain outside the house compound. Overall the visit to the House of Gembo was really worth the time and I like to thanks Gembo and family for your time in showing me around the house.

Standing outside the huge driveway at the House of Gembo

The small cabinet outside the main entrance

The long wall cabinet for staorage that was a plus at House of Gembo. I wish I had thought about this earlier myself.

The big drawer IKEA style that is worth replicating

Pics; Courtesy of House of Gembo

Planting for a good cause...

4th May 2008

This morning I decided to go to the plant market in Gadong to get some more trees and plants, and while I was there I also managed to get a huge bargain. I managed to get almost 20 more 'Anjania' trees which I intended to plant it at the side of the land towards the 'Pasar Borong'. However, my intention to get the 'Pokstil' palm trees was not achieved as I couldn't find it in Gadong. Therefore, I had to go to the argriculture market at Rimba where I managed to grab 8 'Pokstil' palm tree and planted it at the front side of the adjacent land. I also bought 10 more 'Siantan orange', 5 variety of christmass trees, 6 'Delima putih', 6 'Bunga Bayam' or 'Spinach flower' which we planted it at the back of the land. Before we set off to the site, my wife warned me to leave some land for her as she planned to plant some fruit's trees such as Mango, Coconut tree etc by the time they arrive in Brunei in June. Don't worry Alai, there are still plenty of spaces for you and the kids...

As usual, 2 of my in law's gardeners i.e. Ahmad and Suhardi helped out with the gardenning and I also brought along my brother in law, Hazim for an extra hand. We decided to leave home at 10 am and today it took us a good 5 hours to complete the task. All of us were very exhausted after we left at 3 pm as it was a hot sunny day and luckily I managed to bring along my gazebo which proved to be quite handy. This is the least I could do for the environment...

The front of the house. The front beam at the 1st floor is almost done.

At the back of the land where we planted the chrismass trees and the 'Delima putih' or 'White Delima'.

Completed planting the christmass trees and the 'Anjania' trees at the back of the land. One of the watering pot used to water the plants which proved to be quite a challenge, luckily there was a huge pond at the side my land for watering the plant...

Another angle towards the 'Pasar Borong'

'Siantan orange' lined up perfectly

One of my personal favorite


Another christmass tree taken at the back of the house

Planting the 'Anjania' tree at the side of the 'Pasar Borong'

Another task that we managed to complete today was preparing an earth drain at the centre of the land. I had noticed that for the pass few days, water had been clogging up near the construction of the house as it had no way to go after a heavy downpour. Luckily a drain hole had been constructed earlier at the side of the monsoon drain and the only thing left to do was to dig a small earth drain guiding the water towards the monsoon drain.

The water clogged at the back of the construction site

Taking turns in digging the earth drain

Water flowing happily towards the monsoon drain

And straight into a rat hole...

Man-made water fall...Wallaaa!!

Good progress while gardenning...

3rd May 2008

I had to do a little sneak peek at the progress of the house while we were doing some gardenning at the back of the house. I was very impressed with the progress that they had made so far. When I visited my architect and my construction manager at Batu Bersurat, they mentioned to me that the 1st floor beams and columns including the front stair cases will be readied in another 2 to 3 weeks time. This means that my 2nd payment for the house will be due soon. In term of my housing loan, the bank had just informed me this morning that they had faxed all the relevant details to their lawyer and to their bank centre in Bandar by yesterday. The next step for me to do will be the signing off the agreement of the housing loan with their lawyer hopefully by next week. And also by the time my wife and kids arrived in Brunei in June, they will be able to see the huge progress of the whole house.

This morning too, I managed to show some of the fittings that my wife and I had bought in Australia to my architect. He was quite impressed with the bronze outdoor uplight and the silver exhaust fan that we bought at Bunnings Warehouse that he had to borrow it for a while to show it to his electrician. Enough said and enjoy the pics below...

From where we did the gardenning at the back of the house

Overlooking the main reception area from the 1st floor...what a sight!!

Towards the centre of the 1st floor...

2 of the kid's bedrooms...I am still not sure which room belongs to Syafi and Safiya...I guess they will have to choose it themselves in June..

Another angle of the kid's bedrooms from the side. Noticed the curve...

From the front of the kid's bedrooms looking at the completed another 2 of the kid's bedrooms at the end of the house..may be reserved for ironing room and playroom for the kids...or perhaps a mini gym.

The Master Suite and the Audio Visual room. Noticed the centre of the wooden frame in the Audio Visual room has been adjusted by 0.5 metres to the back (from the extra darker wooden frame and also from the gap) and noticed the lowered end for the drop.

The kid's bedrooms from the left side of the house

The car port at the front of the house from the 1st floor...

Lets do some gardenning ...

3rd May 2008

Today, I had dedicated my weekend on the housing project. Early in the morning, I had decided to buy some plants and small trees at the local wet market. However, due to my ignorance, I didn't know that the plant market in Gadong was not opened on Saturday. Hence, I decided to go to the argiculture market at Rimba where I managed to buy the 'Anjania' tree and lots of small plants such as the 'Delima' purple, 'Piantung baru', 'Pagar oren & merah', 'Siantan merah, oren & kuning', 'Nanas' purple, 'Nigru', and a couple of christmass tress, one of it is known as Rangru christmas tree. Please do forgive me as I only know the malay name of the small plants. Not forgetting I also bought several Swiss carpet grass and pearl grass for the empty spaces at the back of the house and for my early investment.

The 'Anjania' trees were planted at 1 metre spacing so that they will grow closer to one another. I wanted to make a hedge out of this and the christmass tree along with the other small plants were used for landscaping. I had 2 of my in law gardeners to help me out with the planting and landscaping and it tooks us almost 3 hours to complete. However, its all worth it...

We started off with tying a string from one end to the other in order to get a straight line. The plant above is the 'Anjania' trees which can be turned into a hedge.

From another angle towards the 'Pasar Borong' which is the local fruit's and vegetable's bulk market in Sengkurong. We managed to plant almost half of the total length of the land. I need to get some more plants by tomorrow.

The Christmas trees, the one to the left is known as the 'Rangru' Christmass tree.

The is 'Piantung Baru', which is good for landscaping and a mini hedge.

'Delima' Puprple, which we planted around the 'Nigru' plant which is the one below in the blue plastic bag.

This is the 'Siantan merah-oren & kuning' serve as a mini hedge too.

The picture above and below is the 'Pagar oren & merah' respectively which we planted around the 'Nigru' plant as well to create variety.

Lastly, this is the the 'Nanas purple' or the 'Purple Pineapple' which we planted around the christmass tree.

No much changes after 2 days

1st May 2008

Just 2 days after my last visit, I was so eager to find out more on the progress of the 1st floor wooden frame works. The work must have been very labourous as a slow progress was achieved. Throughout the day, the weather was very hot and humid, however they managed to almost completed the left side of the wooden frame at the kid's bedrooms and started working their way back to the front and at the Master suite.

However, when I took the photo of the Audio Visual room which was next to the Master bedroom, I noticed that the base of the wooden frame at the centre of the room was 3 m from the front where the drop of 150 mm should be. This is basically to create the cinema style flooring effect where the front seat is drop slightly in order not to block the view of the TV screen from the back. I remembered quite sometimes ago that I'd discussed it with my architect and perhaps I should remind him again before the wooden frame is completed. Luckily I visited the site just in time...

The view towards the centre of the 1st floor

The kid's bedrooms at the left side of the house

The Master Suite and the Audio Visual room. Noticed the base of the wooden frame at the centre of the Audio Visual room next to the column. This has to be moved slightly to the back by 0.5 metres.

The kid's bedrooms towards the front of the house