Kitchen

A Malaysia resident wrote and asked me for some current photos of the kitchen because he and his wife are embarking on a kitchen remodel at their home in Penang. So here are some photos.

A search of 'kitchen' on the right sidebar will provide you with links of all the posts of when ours was being designed and installed. We do love cooking in it and working together to prepare meals, there's enough space for us to move around and it's designed functionally. Our favorite part is perhaps the wood shelves where we put dishes out. I like to pull various dishes right from the ledge while cooking.

We are also very happy about the real Corian we spent the extra money on. It was a much better choice then marble because we didn't have to deal with seams.

The one thing we aren't thrilled about is the Stainless Steel table. While it looks fantastic and fills the space, it gets rusty if you don't wipe off the water. Actually all the stainless steel items (except the refrigerator which isn't really stainless steel but some kind of stainless looking material) get rusty if you don't keep them up. I never had this problem with my stainless steel appliances in New York.

Kitchen Before Making Dinner

Here are a couple photos of the Kitchen before making dinner last night. The stainless steel table is great for preparing the food and really finishes off the space. All that is left is the installation of the Ikea light fixture above the table and finding 4 stools (looking for dark wood) that will fit under the table towards the left side.

Kitchen Almost Complete!

The Kitchen’s nearly complete, B has to do a couple more things and the custom made Stainless Steel Table which is over 9 feet long has arrived but can not fit through the doors (after we had them measure twice and they promised it will fit). So tomorrow they will take off the metal legs and then re-weld it together in the kitchen! We plan to do our cutting and a lot of food preparation on the table and on the far side by the door to the wet kitchen add a few stools so we can sit around it while we cook, maybe eat in the kitchen if it’s not too hot. It will be nice to get it in place. I added a few plates and asian bowls on the shelves as a sample how it will look, but need to get some stacks of plates and bowls (like I see in the cooking shops in Thailand and Malaysia and some places in the Middle East). The idea was to have it look like a working kitchen where the plates and bowls could be grabbed as needed, not as a ‘display shelf’ so I guess I better take down those display plates on the top shelf because they aren’t looking right at all.

Table badly needed in center of room!

Above is a close up shot of the Hava handles used on some of the cabinets. The other handles are Ikea Lansa (not our favorite design, but the only ones we could find which were long enough for the tall pantry doors).

The Stainless Steel Table sitting in my Living Room

Corian Glacier White Solid Surface Countertops and Sink Faucets

On Thursday the Corian Glacier White Solid Surface Countertops were installed. Had we known we were going to use Corian all along instead of marble, we would have had B build the cabinet doors lower so we could have had a wider Corian edge at the front. The Corian Distributor cut and fabricated the curved edge for the undermount sink in KL and brought it to the house sealed in place, but it still took them nearly a full day of work to get the countertops placed and the seam removed.

After the countertops and sink were in B’s plumber fitted the Sink Faucet and the Water Filter Faucet. When we first started looking at faucets, we wanted one with the industrial type hose attached even if they were too trendy or already passé because our kitchen would be having stainless steel accents throughout including the stainless steel industrial center (instead of an island) which we thought would look great with one of these big faucets, but they were too expensive running 1,500myr and over. After looking for a long time, we finally found a smaller version at a more reasonable price of 400myr at our hardware store (Shong Heng the best Hardware and supply store in Seremban). The model came in Satin Nickel which looked better than chrome with the Bareno (Model UM 2039) sink we bought. So we ordered the sink faucet and it was sent from China; when it arrived it was this larger Genova Faucet Model (and Shong Heng gave it to us for the same price!). As for the VRH Water Filter Faucet everyone told us that in Malaysia you need a main water filter for the house and an additional filter in the kitchen for the drinking water as the water is very dirty. At first we thought we would get the water filter in the kitchen right away, but we have just hooked up the small faucet to the cold water for now as we are still thinking about if the water filter is really reliable enough, we aren't sure so we might just keep drinking bottled water.

B also installed the lower cabinets and handles... photos soon!

Bungalow Exterior Paint and Property Walls Color

The first coat of Nippon Cement 9507 has been painted on the exterior of the house. They still have to paint one more coat, but the house is looking a bit lighter than we thought it would.

So in trying to determine the exterior property walls color, we have opted for a very dark grey, nearly black Nippon color S 8500-N (accent base). We think that the dark wall on the side and front of the property will give the house some color and character. With the bright flowers and greenery we will add to the flower pots on the exterior side wall and up on the second floor flower planter, we should get more color around the house.

S 8502-Y on the left (the lighter color) and S 8500-N on the right

Other Progress- the Roof painters are now painting the tiles on the lower roof and 'after lunch' (this is a very vague time in Malaysia since lunches can run up to two hours!) the Corian Countertop should be arriving as well a B to oversee the installation and install the Ikea Stainless Steel handles and Hava handles. If we are lucky maybe the Bareno kitchen sink and Tuscani standalone cooker can be hooked up today, tomorrow or Saturday and we will be ready to cook!

Work Continues....

After 8 full days of work the Stainers finally finished. Now B can come in and install the upper Kitchen Cabinet Doors (bottom should wait until after the Corian is installed). He will also work on the shelf lighting and installing the built in Rubine Microwave.

The Roof above the second floor has been painted and now the Exterior Wall Painter will come and do the underhang, timber and exterior house walls on the second level. Once he is complete the roof painters will come back and paint the lower roof and finally the exterior wall painter will do the ground level of the house and exterior walls on the property.

Exterior Wall after fence was removed

Fence Removal and Kitchen Update

Yesterday we had our neighbor’s decrepit Fence removed from above our wall (after photos soon). Now I have a clearer picture of how it will look when the wall is painted and need to start thinking about what kind of plants/flowers to add to the planters running along the 77 foot wall.

Today is day 7 of the Staining and I asked the stainers this morning how much longer it will be... they said through tomorrow (Wednesday). We do hope they finish because yesterday I drove the Bareno Undermount Sink to Kuala Lumpur and dropped it off at the Corian Countertop Distributer so that they can start to fabricate the countertops. I begged them to work quickly as they said it will take 10-14 working days, let’s hope they can do it faster. The company seemed pretty professional, so I am hopeful we made the right choice. Plus the cabinets seem to be getting darker and darker much to R’s delight. The dark wood will look better with the Corian Glacier White countertop.

Yesterday the Roof people were also here power washing the tiles (which produced some more leaks on our plaster ceiling on the second floor (arrghhh). I wonder if we will ever be leak free, it seems in Malaysia with all the rain, wetness is a regular thing. I have to adjust my oversensitivity to it. Today they arrived at 8AM to start to paint the Roof Tiles. We chose Dulux Roofshield in Idaman Grey 10524. We had to go with Dulux because the tile paint only comes as pre-mixed colors and Nippon did not have a dark grey color close to the existing tile colors. I don’t know if I wrote why we are painting the roof... we hadn’t planned on it, but after the 2^nd roof contractor painted spots of dark grey all over our roof when we were away from the house for a few hours to “touch up the holes” we thought it looked extremely junky especially from the second floor. The contractor said that the dark spots would disappear in a couple years, thank you very much.

Marble No More

A couple days ago we received bad news from the showroom we were buying the Vietnam White marble countertop from. They were calling to tell us that they couldn't find one piece of marble big enough to fit the countertop under the plate and bowl shelves to the left of the refrigerator on the long wall in the Kitchen. The countertop was built based on their confirmation that we could make it up to 7 feet long. B made it under 7 feet by a couple inches. They called and said they wanted to make the top in two pieces and we could not agree.

counter section under shelves

It is an important part of the kitchen and it was based on their measurements!!! This is after they wanted us use a smaller piece on the side by the sink which meant the seam would be right down the center of where the future dishwasher will be (or now where the two shelves under the counter will be) and we first reluctantly agreed to that. Worse though, earlier, they told us they weren't 100% sure that they could make the curve of the undermount sink look good. I was already very skeptical of the whole transaction so this final call turned me off totally and we asked for our deposit back and sink (which had been sent to Malacca).

As we anticipated some issues with the marble (both marble and granite here in Malaysia tend to be harder to get contrators to do a good job, and hard to find nice product... most of the granite available that we saw was ugly 80s style speckled granite in gross colors and small slab sizes). Our backup plan if we ran into problems was to use Corian Solid Surface in Glacier White (see http://www.furnishism.com/elektra-glossy-ice-lacquered-by-ernestomeda/) if the marble didn't work out. But it means that we will be over budget. Fortunately, we located the official Corian installer in KL who had workers in Seremban day before yesterday. They came to the house and measured and we are waiting for the quote. It should be about 1,800myr more than what we were paying for the marble. Hopefully, not more. But, what it will do is make the kitchen look better and no seams will show and the sink should be curved nicely. Plus there was no guarantee that the marble wouldn't have chipped or discolored, at least with Corian we have a 10 year guarantee.