Main Floor Bathroom

Main Floor Bathroom snapshot from when we first moved into the house

I've mentioned that the mainfloor bathroom has the least attractive fixtures (light blue sink and toilet) and we sure wouldn't have picked Blue tiles for the walls and floors. But we have decided not to gut the bathroom for a couple reasons, first it costs too much, but second and more importantly, we have learned in Malaysia if something is working in the house it's best to leave it alone! If we have to deal with hooking up new plumbing and hacking the walls, we could run in to more problems. So for now we have decided to leave the bathroom as is. Well, it looks passable now as we have done a few things to downplay the ugliness and the blue of the room. The bathroom (which is somehow close to the kitchen) brings out the blue plate colors on the kitchen shelves to make the first floor have somewhat of a china-blue accent color scheme.

We couldn't find a mirror pre-made in the correct size that went with the Ikea cabinet we added in the room, so we had B our kitchen contractor make a solid wood framed mirror in the correct size and stained as close as possible to the dark brown-black wood of the Ikea cabinet. The mirror looks good enough for 70 RM, you can't complain at that price. But there is always something and when it was delivered it had two screw brackets at the top of the frame. B said he couldn't hide the screws behind the mirror. So I painted the screws white to hide them a bit, and I think they are passable. What a difference a mirror makes in the room!

There was no glass door for the shower area, so we used a shower curtain I had sent from the US. It was something I used in my house there. We couldn't find any good shower curtains here, I couldn't even find a white plastic shower liner for the back of the fabric curtain. I had to use a light beige one. Also the curtain had to be cut shorter, because the height of the wall was smaller than a standard shower curtain size.

Interesting to note that all of the shower heads that were installed on the bathroom walls were much to low, we had to adjust them higher by adding a new holder above the existing ones. We also bought new shower heads as the ones in the house were crappy. But shower heads here are really inexpensive as well as many of the bathroom fixtures in general. Chrome and stainless steel rust so quickly, so we have been holding off on the bathroom accessories until we find some that are good quality.

Cost of Beans in Malaysia

Here are some fresh beans purchased at the Seremban Family Store. The Yard Long Beans

(Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis) above at 1.79 RM (currently about 57 cents in US Dollars) for the bunch. R prefers these in his stir-fry while I like the smaller 'French' Beans below as I think the Yard Long Beans taste a bit rubbery when cooked. Nevertheless, I like to use them because I cut them about 6 inches long so they have a nice long shape which adds a nice dimension to the dishes.

The 'French' Beans cost 2.31 RM (currently about 74 cents in US Dollars) per bag.

Bat Outside

I snapped a photo of a small Bat hanging outside of the home office in the big leaf mango tree.

The Dining Room

After searching for the perfect rectangular wood table and chairs to seat 8 and not finding any viable options, we found this round table with brown glass top and chrome legs that seats 6. We decided on the smaller table because we didn't mind it, it was less expensive and given the shape of the room (kind of a weird octagon-ish shape when you factor in the bay windows on one side) we thought that this table fit in the room better. So we bought it.

We had looked at a lot of chandeliers and light fixtures in general for the house and recently happened upon this fixture which is made of mirror and chrome (I think). It has two rows of reflective squares forming a circular shape, but also looking a bit octagonal. We thought the shape of the chandelier went nicely with the shape of the bay windows and the cut out design pattern on the chandelier compliments the grill and window square shapes. So yesterday they came and installed the chandelier! The hook for the fan had to be cut off which took the installers over an hour. I really didnt want to cut it, because I thought we or someone might want to use the hook for a fan there in the future, but the fixture we bought has a small cover at the top and the hook was too big. So we said goodbye forever to putting a ceiling fan in the dining room (this is very common practice in Malaysia, to keep the room cool but we have the AC already there and I guess I am one of those people who thinks a dining room without some kind of hanging light as its focus is not really a dining room).

Turning off those strong downlights during dinner last night was fantastic, finally some ambiance in the room! Actually when just the chandelier is on, light reflects on the ceiling and the walls... R wasn't too into it, he thinks it looks like a children's bedroom. But I don't mind it because it takes some of the starkness away. At least until we can properly finish off the Dining Room with a big piece of artwork on the wall and a buffet table under it or in front of the bay window which will give the room some more character.

The Maid's Room

We've been using the 'Maid's Room' on the first floor located off the Kitchen as a storage room for all of our renovation supplies. Yesterday I was in there cleaning out the room and the bathroom attached to it. The room is currently painted yellow (with green on the door frames). I'm starting to think about what to do with this room. Maids are very common in Malaysia, nearly everyone has a maid in this neighborhood. The room as we bought it had no hook up for air conditioning and the bathroom, while it has a shower, has no hot water installed. I guess maids around here only get fans and cold water (sad really). Since we don't plan on having a live-in maid, we are thinking about making this room a second Guest Room. It will be small as it only fits one single bed and enough room for a dresser on the other side of the room. We will have to hack the wall and get an AC line and air conditioner installed before we would ask anyone to sleep in there. The walls are a bit rougher too, like they didn't bother to do a good job on the finish of the room (not that they did a good job on the construction of the other walls in the house either but these are particularly bad).

So I am thinking we could give it a rough wall look and paint the walls a very dark dark grey or even this nearly black color. It would make the room already small have a cozy feeling. Maybe get a day bed or at least a single bed with pillows. Change the ugly light fixture on the ceiling by moving the electricity to the side of the room and have a hanging lamp to give the room some atmosphere. I'm not sure if we paint this room next or work on the other remaining rooms in the house - the Entry Hall, the Staircase area, and the upstairs Family Room which all need to be sanded, skim coated and painted.

Flowerizing the Landscaping

I did get the three spiked plants at the front of the house, but we thought just the three bushes alone seemed a bit too stark.
So I had been seeing a lot of bird of paradise flowers (Strelitzia) in orange and since our color scheme for the garden is orange, I asked Nilai Landscaping for some bird of paradise plants behind the spike plants. I showed them the photo below that I took at a Seremban nursery of what I wanted...

What were planted are a bird of paradise plant (shown above), but in more of a red and yellow coloration. At first I wasn't sure if they would look ok, but R liked them and then we thought we could have the color scheme as predominantly orange with some red flowering plants.

I thought we might get some of the larger orange bird of paradise variety for the side of the house by the construction pebbles later, but am now re-thinking bird of paradise all together. We recently had an addition to our family.... a wonderful young cat named T who loves to go out on the patio and every time he goes straight for the bird of paradise leaves and starts to bite them. I looked up the plant online and found the flowers are poisonous so I don't think we will add any more on the property!

Above and below are shots of the orange variegated bougainvillea that was planted in the planters along the side of the house. At first they were all doing well, and it is now rain season, so we thought they would continue to grow. But two of the planters plants are failing. So I dug up some of the bad plants and mixed them in the good planters and took some of the good plants and put in the bad planters after digging around in the dirt because I think these planters weren't draining well out of the side drains. I hope that they will now start to do better as well. I'm watering them everyday.

I found this great orange plant at the Seremban nursery, they were all in bloom and looked great. I'm thinking about putting them in the front or back built in planters along the long planter wall. These remain empty for now.

I have lot's of ideas on what to add around the garden, some more trees, a couple palms in the very front of the property next the the road, and lots of other ideas and then there are those nagging thoughts of what to put in the flower boxes on the second story (yet to be built or bought) that won't require much work (i.e. water and care) and I really want to get some big planters for around the patio and front. I just can't find the planters I am looking for. But for now, the basics are in place for the garden.

Tomatoes in Malaysia

People outside of the country often ask how expensive is it to live in Malaysia. So for anyone considering living here, I’ll try to show the cost of items on this blog from time to time.

Tomatoes... when we first moved here we couldn’t find nice red tomatoes at the Seremban Wet Market and when we did, they were expensive. But early last year we started to see nice tomatoes at a low price. I was concerned they were going out of season when I couldn’t find any in my local ‘Family Store’ (a local run supermarket in Malaysia that often has the best prices). But, I found some in Jusco yesterday. All of these tomatoes (plus one we ate for lunch) were only 3.06myr that’s about 97 cents in US Dollars.

It’s best to use a vegetable cleaner on all produce here. One bad thing about Malaysia is that the water isn’t good to drink. So you have to dry fruits and vegetables before eating. Drying lettuce is the most time consuming job.

Guest Bedroom

For the main floor Guest Bedroom, once again we went with Nippon Paint in custom color: S3502-B a medium grey color. We bought Ikea furniture, Engan Bed and Engan Wardrobe and a couple white side tables. The Shades which are blackout to eliminate lights at night from the neighbor's house are Tupplur in grey (we used the Tupplur shades in the office and have been happy with the way they function). Bedding is Ikea too, although I forget the duvet cover name. The bed is a King Koil mattress which is as soft as we could find, nearly a pillow top but slightly harder. We wanted something good for our guests and most mattresses in malaysia are too hard. We would have liked to get Getha for our guest room, but it was over our budget.

The photo shows the main floor bathroom which connects to the guest room. Of all the 4 bathrooms in the house, this one has the least attractive tiles. They are white and navy/royal blue. and the sink and toilet are light blue! So without gutting the bathroom, we tried to downplay the blue and add this Ikea dark brown cabinet and dark shower curtain. B is working on a dark wooden frame for a mirror above sink (photos after it is installed). The planter on top of the cabinet holds a giant orchid plant (you can find beautiful orchids here in Seremban), well the flowers fell off the new plant one week after the guests arrived because the room might be too dark for orchids. I should buy new plants whenever guests arrive, or try a bamboo plant which is what the nursery suggested for the bathroom.

Living Room Progress

We were able to get the basics in place for our guests. We purchased the grey sectional sofa from a furniture store here in Seremban after looking all over KL and Selangor, we decided this was the best couch we could find (designs are often overly complex or come in gross fabrics/colors). The sofa took two weeks to make because we chose a custom fabric, but two weeks isn't long for ordering a sofa in Malaysia.

While looking for the sofa, we were also searching for a tv cabinet. Wow is it hard to find a simple design anywhere in Malaysia. Finally we decided to have our kitchen contractor B make us a custom cabinet which is suspended from the wall. We like it, but it cost more than we wanted to spend! For the large screen tv we went with Philips LCD attached to a media player for playing films. The image is great, but the sound isn't so good. Next up will be an audio soundsystem for it.

We are still looking for a coffee table and side tables. If we don't find anything I guess we will have B make them.

Master Bedroom

Here is an updated photo of the master bedroom. All the door frames in the house are still dark green and need to be painted once we have all the wall painting done. We are thinking of a neutral grey to paint the door frames. Well the photo makes the bed look not that big, but yep it's a malaysia king size. We continue to absolutely love sleeping on our Getha mattress.

Landscaping complete (finally)!

We had the landscaping completed before the guests arrived too! It is great to see grass instead of weeds and dirt. It really makes the house look better. We went with Nilai Landscape Sdn Bhd because they seemed the most professional and because their price wasn’t bad at all. We did go with cow grass in the end and it cut the price down significantly. We are happy we chose cow grass because it is much easier to maintain.

We used grey pebbles around the front and side of the house which took 140 20kg bags. After filling the space, we think we just barely had enough. We could buy some more to make it look better, but for now it is ok. We also used grey construction pebbles on the right side of the house behind the patio area, as it is not really a used area. It would have taken 50 more bags to fill that area. The construction pebbles aren’t bad at all, they look ok and blend with the asian grey pebbles where they meet. Someday, we can change them to the grey pebbles if we feel like it. Overall price was just over 6,000myr which isn’t bad for a yard as big as ours. Price included the grass, pebbles and the minimal landscaping at the front as well as the numerous Bougainvillea plants for the planters along the wall on the left side of the house.

Two Strange Birds

I snapped a photo of these two birds hanging around outside our office window. The top bird was tapping on the tree, and so I wonder if they are in the woodpecker family. Anyone know what kind of birds these are? I should look up Malaysian woodpeckers to check.

Update- I think I found out what kind of birds these are... they look just like the Rufous Woodpecker seen here http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Rufous_Woodpecker.

Exterior House Lighting in Black

We chose black accent lighting on the exterior of the front of the house over silver as we thought the color would look better on the Cement colored walls of the house and look nice with the dark walls along the property. The lights on the first floor have two lights (up and down), while the two lights on the second floor around the big windows have only downlighting because their wasn't much room to the ceiling above.

Interior Painting

We have been busy working on the house the last few months. We had professionals paint the Living Room, Dining Room and Guest Bedroom on the first floor because we were having our first guests visit in October. What a rush to get the house habitable and furnished for the guests, but we made it just in time! We used Nippon White paint in the Living room and Dining Room. The photos here show before the room was painted after skim coating some of the uneven walls.