After months of dreaming, hoping, praying, fighting, we finally got the keys to our little apartment. I was SO overjoyed. Who wouldn't be, right?
Luckily, I already learnt my lesson on being overly optimistic, so I set my moving date very late - the end of January 2014, extending the rental in Permai for another month. I suppose this is prudent. we were lucky to get water supply quite promptly, so things like cleaning and painting could commence. I took a week off work to sort things out and it turned out to be a pretty full week with various contractors coming and going.
Electricity, on the other hand, wasn't so easy. TNB required an inspection since the supply had been cut off for more than six months and it turned out the cost of said inspection was NOT cheap. Quite a bummer, really. After asking more than six contractors, I caved in to the one who showed up and matched my lowest offer. I had to, it's quite difficult to get things done sans electricity these days. All the contractors needed it, I needed it. At the moment I can't stay beyond maghrib because it's too dark to do anything. Thank God the unit has good cross ventilation and we are quite comfy working without fans.
Painting is progressing rather slowly because I discovered there are many things I never considered like covering hairline cracks and using masking tape before painting. And for the deep red i was using, there are certain rules i needed to follow to ensure a nice, even coat of paint. Oh well, you live and learn. Work has been much interrupted with the arrival of various contractors and a meeting in the office. Thank goodness Zu came to help today, enjoyed the company too.
The most challenging bit for me are the grilles, especially the windows. For the study, I could not see what I was doing. Climbing out a 3rd floor window is rather dangerous, especially without safety gear. This morning could not resist the temptation to paint my room grilles due to the visibly bad rusting on it. Managed to do a fair bit, but could not do the inside of the right panel since the window panel was been locked in place. Have bought a set of spanners and planning to see if I could remove the damn thing tomorrow. It would be pretty easy to paint if it was sitting inside the room instead of outside a 3rd floor window!! I hate shoddy work but it's quite hard to do something with the challenges I'm facing.
So far have only met one neighbour by the name of Chung, on my immediate right. He warned us of multiple break in cases in the area. Right, use 2 locks, one not enough.
Waiting for uncle to tell me when he can redo my front grille - we want it fused into one panel and he said it could be done for about a hundred ringgit.
Am low on cash, though, after paying for car repairs and buying various supplies... Have asked for an advance from Abah but he hasn't done it so far :( Have not paid the cleaners because I didn't realise it was already the final weekend in December and I'll need to pay the electrician for applying to TNB. Will be back at work next week, which means I won't have any time to work on the apartment unless we have electricity so that I can do stuff at night... Sigh. abang hasn't come back with the adjudication thing, so cannot send form to KWSP to process. Have not yet bought hall colour, still looking at options but balking at buying cheapo paint. Hey, gimme a break OK, I want a nice place for a change! Will need money to engage contractors and stuff.
Oh well, at least we can have people quoting and start working on stuff already. Painting half a room is much better than just stressing about it, right? Hope electricity gets sorted soon. Will SO not want to go back to Permai if I can stay in Jasmin :)
Luckily, I already learnt my lesson on being overly optimistic, so I set my moving date very late - the end of January 2014, extending the rental in Permai for another month. I suppose this is prudent. we were lucky to get water supply quite promptly, so things like cleaning and painting could commence. I took a week off work to sort things out and it turned out to be a pretty full week with various contractors coming and going.
Electricity, on the other hand, wasn't so easy. TNB required an inspection since the supply had been cut off for more than six months and it turned out the cost of said inspection was NOT cheap. Quite a bummer, really. After asking more than six contractors, I caved in to the one who showed up and matched my lowest offer. I had to, it's quite difficult to get things done sans electricity these days. All the contractors needed it, I needed it. At the moment I can't stay beyond maghrib because it's too dark to do anything. Thank God the unit has good cross ventilation and we are quite comfy working without fans.
Painting is progressing rather slowly because I discovered there are many things I never considered like covering hairline cracks and using masking tape before painting. And for the deep red i was using, there are certain rules i needed to follow to ensure a nice, even coat of paint. Oh well, you live and learn. Work has been much interrupted with the arrival of various contractors and a meeting in the office. Thank goodness Zu came to help today, enjoyed the company too.
The most challenging bit for me are the grilles, especially the windows. For the study, I could not see what I was doing. Climbing out a 3rd floor window is rather dangerous, especially without safety gear. This morning could not resist the temptation to paint my room grilles due to the visibly bad rusting on it. Managed to do a fair bit, but could not do the inside of the right panel since the window panel was been locked in place. Have bought a set of spanners and planning to see if I could remove the damn thing tomorrow. It would be pretty easy to paint if it was sitting inside the room instead of outside a 3rd floor window!! I hate shoddy work but it's quite hard to do something with the challenges I'm facing.
So far have only met one neighbour by the name of Chung, on my immediate right. He warned us of multiple break in cases in the area. Right, use 2 locks, one not enough.
Waiting for uncle to tell me when he can redo my front grille - we want it fused into one panel and he said it could be done for about a hundred ringgit.
Am low on cash, though, after paying for car repairs and buying various supplies... Have asked for an advance from Abah but he hasn't done it so far :( Have not paid the cleaners because I didn't realise it was already the final weekend in December and I'll need to pay the electrician for applying to TNB. Will be back at work next week, which means I won't have any time to work on the apartment unless we have electricity so that I can do stuff at night... Sigh. abang hasn't come back with the adjudication thing, so cannot send form to KWSP to process. Have not yet bought hall colour, still looking at options but balking at buying cheapo paint. Hey, gimme a break OK, I want a nice place for a change! Will need money to engage contractors and stuff.
Oh well, at least we can have people quoting and start working on stuff already. Painting half a room is much better than just stressing about it, right? Hope electricity gets sorted soon. Will SO not want to go back to Permai if I can stay in Jasmin :)
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