Our List of Reliable Contractors & Shops

Finding good reliable contractors in Johor is like looking for needle in haystack (at least from our perspective). Hence, I thought I'd share a number of contractors who we find are good and reliable.

Renovation contractor: Image ID & Furniture, Nick Pang, +60127282733. He's our master ID contractor for stage 2 & 3 renovation of our place. He's very responsible and reliable, we're very happy with his work.

Electrician: Afung +60127978839, subcontractor we knew from Nick. He did our electrical work and aircon servicing. Always friendly & reliable, but only speaks Mandarin and a bit of Malay.

Locksmith: Golden Key @ Bukit Indah Branch, +6072368012. Very good locksmith, fast response and good quality installation of door locks. 

Green Forest Plumbing Hardware Trading: Summer solar water heater, +60167788931. Fast response, installation went smoothly and we're still very happy with our solar water heater a year + on. 

I hope this helps, all the best with your house fitting/renov!

Have a great weekend, 

Erika

Wow We've Been Living in Johor for 2 Years!

My sincere apologies for being M.I.A for quite a while. We were away for a long holiday and are kinda of back at home now :)

#1 Highlight of our trip - the beautiful snow mountains of Switzerland



Our renovation is unfortunately still ongoing and the house still looks like a construction site. As with 99.9% renovations, we experienced some delays so we're running behind initial plan. I'm hopeful that we can have majority of work done by mid Dec (this year :). I also apologise to our dear neighbours who have to bear with the ever lasting renovation, thank you so much for your patience & support!

Here are couple pictures of our mess:

Study Room extension:

Courtyard folding doors made by dear husband:

We are redoing a lot of things (or should I say poor design & mess) done in our 1st renovation by our 1st contractors. I hope no one will go through the same pain as we did.

Besides holidays & renovation, time seriously fly and without realising it, it's been 2 years since we packed our stuff and moved up north from Singapore to Johor.

Looking back at the past 2 years, here are my thoughts of highlights and low-lights of living in Johor:

Key highlights:
- Generally nice neighbours and community, some of whom are like families now. To think of it, we didn't even know our neighbours in our apartment back in Singapore. I think we're very lucky to have met such a group of wonderful people.
- Fresh air, I love winding down my windows on the drive home from Singapore or when we leave home in the morning to smell the fresh air.
- Think 50% off cost of living in general. Groceries, fuel, utilities bill, vet and more, all almost half price we paid in Singapore.
- As per Ian's words, more relaxing lifestyle, less rushing and more space.

Key low-lights:
- Malaysia Boleh but actually Tak Boleh standard, talk and lack of substance, e.g. UEM who's started to slack off in their maintenance and security standards, hence the forming of East Ledang Pro-tem committee. You'd often hear people say "arr it's Malaysia" when something goes wrong, e.g. TNB power shut down for hours, etc I think Johor has a lot of potential, but I sincerely hope that mentality here would improve, skills will be upgraded and most importantly, more would take pride in their work.
- Lack of facilities still. There's still lack of more established, fine dining, expats options in Johor. Not much has changed since Medini lifestyle and Johor premium outlets open, let's hope that things will be more international in a year. Would be nice to have places like Arab Street, Bukit Bintang area of KL, etc in Johor.
- Of course, transport is always more inconvenient. Before going on this holiday, I was leaving for work at 6.30 am during carpooling days. There are times of course when I wish that I can get a 10 mins taxi ride to/from work, but it is what it is.

Overall, we still have no regrets moving here and are enjoying our space and lifestyle very much so. May the best of years still to come and we'll continue to enjoy our time here.

Have a good weekend everyone. Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone who's celebrating, we had some nice turkey dinner and hope you had some too :)

Renovation renovation renovation - Quick update

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I did my last update and posting. Life has been very hectic with a couple of family emergencies to deal with. Hopefully things will be better for the 2nd half of 2011.

We've been progressing with our house renovation....slowly. Completion date has been postponed again due to some delays. Right now, we're aiming to move in between 3rd week of July to mid August. The house will nowhere be as completed as we hope to be, but by this time, we're just focusing on taking it to a stage at which we will be able to move in. Work will continue from there onwards.

Some of the major area being renovated are:

Ground floor living area

Yes, the wave ceiling :) A few of our neighbors have been following our progress. Thanks for all your encouragement and support :)

When we were brainstorming about the design of our living room, we decided to not split the room for now as we are still unsure about how we would like to use the space. We then decided to make our ceiling a feature in the ground floor area. We took an inspiration from one of my client's office in Bali (I love Balinese creativity & design). So the idea of the wave ceiling was born.

Since Ian's an ex engineer, he knew from start how he would build the ceiling, but communicating the idea to our interior designer and builders were never easy.

Big lesson learnt: interior designers & builders in Johor tend to have very narrow view and limited experience in designing/building something more than the usual Johor house designs. We've spent a ton of time explaining and taking on jobs by ourselves (esp. my husband) as our design concept is very specific and is definitely very different from local houses' interior designs. If you're after a more international/specific designs, best to design it yourself :)

Unfortunately, based on our experience, I definitely will not recommend our interior designer to any expats.

Framework of wave ceiling:



Boards being installed:



Ian has been busy working on the wave ceiling and we hope that it can be completed by next weekend. Fingers crossed! I cannot wait to see the completed ceiling, it would be super nice and cool.

Master bathroom:

We decided to redo our entire master bathroom and swap the toilet & shower areas.

The renovation is not completed yet, but at least the walls have been tiled. The bathroom should be 80% completed by end of this week. We're still waiting for our Bali furniture to arrive, hopefully that should arrive in about 3 weeks time.



These are the areas with the biggest work required. Once the bathroom is almost completed, we will be able to sand and darken the parquet floor. Once the wave ceiling is completed, TV and kitchen cabinets will be installed. With lights (mostly LEDs) and aircons installed, we will be able to move in...finally Yeay!

Please wish us luck for completing this renovation! If you're renovating your house, I wish you all the best too!

P/S: To my aunt who passed away this week, we love and miss you. I know that you're in a better place and your memories will always be cherished. Rest in peace auntie.

At Long Last, We've Kick-started Our Interior Fit Out

Sorry for being M.I.A again :) We've been super busy with work and at long last, renovating & fitting out our house (+ a small holiday in France 3 weeks ago).

After months of searching, reviewing & negotiating prices, we finally signed off on our interior design plan and started work in our house.

It's still very early stage as you can see from the pictures below. We have divided work into 3 phases. In phase I, we will only focus on hacking, structural changes and a few main rooms (Master bed and bathroom, study room and kitchen).

The theme of our house will be Balinese, so we are also off to Bali soon to source furniture such as dining table, bath tub and more.

We also spent a lot of time in the past 2 weekends sourcing for tap fittings, basins, cooktop and range hood.

Here is a few shops which we found interesting (and bought items from):

Sim Siang Choon Hardware (S) Pte Ltd
Phone: 62666632
Address: SIM SIANG CHOON BUILDING, 21 Changi South Avenue 2, Singapore 486630

We have visited above 20 bathroom products shops both in Johor and Singapore. I found this shop through internet. It is almost like an IKEA for bathroom and kitchen products. This place carries the largest low-mid range bathroom and kitchen products. Some items were surprisingly cheap as compared to the Hansgrohe range (though similar material and similar looking).



SaniQuo Pte Ltd
568 Sims Avenue Singapore 387598

We bought some Hansgrohe taps and bath mixer from this shop. All except the bath mixer has been delivered. I'm a bit disappointed with this shop as we were told that there is stock for the item we wanted and it would be delivered on Monday, but now we have to wait for another week as the item's actually out of stock.



Best Light Electrical Sdn Bhd

No: 15-17 Jalan Ros Merah 2/10, Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor.

We also visited lots of shops when we were looking for cooktop and range hood (from Harvey Norman, Best Denki & more in Singapore to lots of local shops). We narrowed our selection on the Electrolux Ultra Clean Hood and Gas Hob with 3 Burners. Best Light shop had the best price offer, so that's where we bought these items from.



Brilliant Supplies Sdn Bhd
No 6, Jalan Indah 1, Taman Bukit Indah, 79100 Bandar Nusajaya Johor

This place had the best price offer for stone sinks which we were looking for our bathroom.



There's still a longgggg way to go before Phase I renovation is complete, but I cannot wait to get things done and to be able to move into our own house. I will continue posting updates and learnings from this renovation, so please stay tuned.

Have a great Sunday!

My favourite place in Johor - a giant home decor shop

This place is truly awesome. I love love love this showroom shop. The place is like a giant candy store for home decor enthusiasts/renovators/interior designers.

There are several branches, but one of the largest branch (which I visited - thanks to Fiona) is the Johor Bahru Showroom. It's located at:

No. 1, Jalan Johor Jaya,
Taman Perindustrian Plentong,
81750 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.
Tel : 07-351 4681
Fax: 07-351 4682

The place is quite hidden amongst car repairs/car showrooms. Google maps of the place can be found on their site:
http://www.ssfhome.com/locations/locations.cfm?storeid=4

I could spend hours in this shop. You can find things from furniture to cutleries to disco balls to garden statues to wedding accessories to DIY decor kits to curtains to flowers to giant decor cage...basically anything you'll ever need for living ideas, as rightly described on their website:

"SSF is the largest concept living company in Malaysia. SSF is engaged in the business of enriching homes through our home décor, furniture, curtains, carpets, lightings, kitchenware, artificial flowers, wedding décor and many other creative concept living products. Most importantly, SSF believe ideas are the currency of the future and that nurturing it creates wealth for the soul"

You're not allowed to take photos in the shop and I managed to take just 1 photo (the first photo on this article), so I've taken some pictures from their website (courtesy of http://www.ssfhome.com) to give some ideas of the products they carry.



The Johor branch is opened from 10.30am to 8.00pm.

More information can be found on their site: www.SSFHOME.com

Happy Shopping!