Turning a house into a home

My current house is old, especially for the fact that we have been living there for the past 12 years. This is home for the four of us. For better or worse - it is a done deal. I can't change that anymore.

Prior to this house, I used to move houses and office quite often. Either that, or we had to move to another town or country, due to one reason or another. Even within KL itself, we have moved houses many times. I like a change of environment, to be honest.

At the behest of my uncle Paksu, we decided to buy another house, this time in Sendayan. Sendayan is chosen due to its proximity to KLIA, and the fact that it is a major development in Negri Sembilan, so we thought property price should increase or at least be very stable there. I thought too that it would be convenient for Arif to travel to and fro KLIA for his work using the back road and in the future, a highway linking Sendayan and KLIA.

This is our journey in turning the house into a home. I am putting it down into paper for our own record - that's all. So just bear with us. It is not my intention to brag as there is nothing to brag about this house anyway. It is a house for an anak bujang; nothing more and nothing less.

So it is not fanciful.

The view at the back of the house. It is empty now
but it is the site for a school.

In order to make it into a home, we decided on the minimum requirements for comfort. The kitchen needs a cabinet and the full trappings of a modern kitchen. Well, not all. We decided to forego the need for a hood. All cooking will be done in the wet kitchen which has an airy environment due to its open nature. This family is not really a family of cook - all four of us are illiterate when it comes to cooking. Seriously.

But we are good eater; hence we need good kitchen!

We thought we need to have built in cabinet for the master bedroom. That's a must for us. I'd like to minimize loose furnitures - they tend to clutter. To save cost, we decided just to do it for the master bedroom where it will be reasonably well occupied. Other rooms will be occupied sporadically, so they will not be furnished.

And to complete it into a home, we decided that the living room has to have a cabinet.

Other than that, the house will be loosely furnished. This can't be helped. Sofa and a dining set. A king sized bed. Of course the lightings and the fans. No aircond (yet). No astro for sure - as usual. Well, hopefully the terrestrial broadcast is good here in Sendayan, though I am told otherwise.

We went through three contractors in Seremban and one in Kajang and in the end, we went with the vendor with the cheapest quote, but she came recommended by my cousin Afzal. In fact two of my uncle Paksu's sons were all done by them, and so far it has been a good journey.

KITCHEN

It is a bit of a roller coaster. We want a modern looking kitchen (and house) with no wood features. For that we have our 12 year old house to contend with. So this one has to be different. But the kitchen, we decided to go out of the ordinary, if at least in term of colour and move to the realm of being bombastic.

At least to our standard. 

We decided to use the most striking colour. You will see later what we chose.

The work did not go as well in the beginning. The tile work that was done by the Indonesian fella did not live up to our standard, so the contractor agreed to tear them down and redo tiling for both wet dan dry kitchen. She did not hesitate at all when deciding to re-do it. That's what I like about Modern Solid Kitchen of Seremban. 

I decided to go for a concrete table as I believe this is
more suitable for us Asians and our weather, even though this is
supposed to be the dry kitchen

The workers doing preparing to install the cabinet

Aha, the heart of a modern kitchen - microwave, oven
and a hob. The former two are built-in. I somehow prefer built-in
as they are a feast for the eyes and tend to complement
the deco of the kitchen. I know one can buy a standalone microwave for
much cheaper than a built-in one.

The question is who will be the cooking here - other reheating the pizza that is, or will it be white elephant?

Are we bombastic enough? Hehe..red kitchen for the person working with a corporate colour of red -
the everyone can fly company! Hope the colour scheme works well. I am
praying hard LOL. We have no choice at this stage. It is done.
Love it or hate it!

Sneak look of the kitchen from the dining hall. OK ka?
The Air Asia kitchen?

LIVING ROOM

Shall I buy 50"or 60"? Curve TV? Samsung or Japanese?
But we will still try to live without Astro as we had
for the last 12 years.

I want to enjoy high ceiling this time around, so no plaster ceiling this. No down-light either. I am tired of it. Minimalist, I must say. Simple living for a still-single pilot..

MASTER BEDROOM

Hmmm..what is this? Your guess?

Well as I have said minimum renovation. Live with it first. Make it into a home and decide later if more work is required.

View from the porch into an empty house

So far with only a few people moving in, it is still serene.
But I hope the fact that it next to this park and hill, the surrounding will
be homely for us.