Project "Our Hive": Bricks and Irons Up, Wires Next

I just realized that it's almost two months since I last wrote about our house renovation. At that time we were waiting for a second quotation on the back fence and grilles. Anyway, we decided to go with the first contractor we met, Mr Peter. We met him again on 20th January to choose the wrought iron grille design for the whole house and finalise costs for the grille and putting up a wall at the back fence. It all came up to RM8500. I'm not sure if it is expensive or not but the other contractor quoted roughly around that price too. Mr Peter promised us that the grille will be installed after chinese new year since it takes some time for them to weld the iron and spray paint it.

So, last Friday, 26th February, Mr Peter delivered his promise. The grille for our house is already fixed. The back fence was up much much earlier, about a week after we finalised the deal with Mr Peter. We're very happy with the design of our grille and very satisfied with Mr Peter. Now that we are familiar with him and his workmanship, we have decided to employ him again to do the wiring works on the house and maybe the plaster cornice for the living and dining rooms. Tomorrow we're meeting him to finalise the costs. He mentioned that wiring for additional socket points will cost RM80 while lighting points which require hacking of the wall costs RM100.

We're now into the second phase of the renovation works. Mr Peter estimates that the wiring can be done in a week, so if we add the cornicing work it may take another extra week. In total, about two weeks to complete Phase Two.Phase Three will involve finalising the kitchen and getting the lights and fans. So, I've got the next two weeks to go around kitchen showrooms and get quotations. Shah, lets take leave on one of these days? Or do we need to take more days off from work?

Maisarah is now a mom.

Not Puzzled

Not Puzzled
Originally uploaded by ABumbleBee.

Maisarah used to love playing with her cooking playset. Now she has moved on to puzzles. My mom got her an animals puzzle set when Maisarah turned 2 but at that time she wasn't that interested in it. Now she has memorised which animal each piece belongs to and recognises the letters which form the word for each animal. The animal puzzles are no longer difficult for her so a few weeks ago we bought another puzzle set. Hopefully she'll recognise all the letters of the alphabet and then we'll move on to numbers.

A Well Deserved Treat

13022010123-001.jpg
Originally uploaded by ABumbleBee.

After the hectic week, Shah and I are relaxing with Maisarah at Equ@torial Bangi. We checked in yesterday and took Maisarah swimming in the evening. She loved the water but was holding onto Shah or me even though we put on a swimvest on her. No pictures of her in the pool cause Abah and Mommy went in too. We're gonna take her to the pool again and I'll try to snap some pictures before we check out on Monday. Enjoy the long weekend cause we certainly will! And Happy Chinese New Year.

Dead Tired

These last few weeks has been very tiring but some how today is the worst day. I have yet to pass my final exam questions to be reviewed. We had to have a meeting over lunch hour to finalise for Thursday's accreditation visit but there are still lots more to do.

We have been very busy that the renovation progress of the house is somewhat on the back burner. The contractor has made a wall to replace the chainlink fence. According to him, the grilles will be fixed next week. Once the grilles are up we plan to do the wiring. While that is done we will have to finalise who will be doing our kitchen cabinets. It takes roughly about one to two months to get the cabinets installed. During that time we will get the lights and fans fixed as well as finalising the decor, get the curtains done and shop for furnitures. So if there are no major setbacks we might be able to move in by June or July.

In the meantime, the rainy season has been somewhat of a blessing as we have found leaks on the ceiling of the guest bedroom and master bedroom. We are pretty sure it is due to the water tank. So next week, after all the accreditation hooha, we will fill up the complaints form. Hopefully, the developer can fix everything by end of March so that our plan stays on schedule.

Audit Season

This week work resumed as normal after the semester break. But I have been working like crazy. Sometimes at work my mind is focused on getting too many things to be done at the same time that I start to jumble up my word when I speak. A sign that my brain is moving faster than my mouth. Anyway, if Shah is reading this, then he will surely say that I can never be as busy as a a Head of Department but to me I feel like the 8 hours I spend at work is not enough. But nowadays, I can't do work at home so that means that all 480 minutes at work is precious and can't be wasted at all.

I have yet to finish setting the final exam questions which was due to be submitted for review today. I am also not done with grading test papers. I've got to get both of these done by this weekend. Because there'll be an accreditation audit next Thursday and Friday and there's a long list of items to be checked and completed before the audit which can't be done at home. Meaning we've got only three days to finish them. I was supposed to attend a workshop related to ISO but I won't bother going cause of the other urgent work above. And then there'll be another audit from the 22nd to 24th. Oh, why must these audits be during the peak time of the semester??

p/s: Please excume me for rambling here. I've got to at least justify why this blog is inactive during the weekdays.

p/p/s: My workplace has blocked access to Face*book during office hours. Hence, no FB updates to ease the stress at work. Boohoo. Luckily I have FB access on my phone.