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

A Little Taste of Mexican in Nusa Bestari

It's always great to see more variaties to local dining scene. As soon as Piedra was opened, it became the talk of our neighborhood so I was very eager to test out the food.

I must say that they did not disappoint at all. Food was great, atmosphere and service was also great. Since it was a while ago (sorry i have been very slow in updating my blog...i know), i cant remember the names of the dishes, but all of them were very nice. I also love the buah dong dong drink (not really Mexican but love it anyway).

Dinner for 4 cost us about RM200+, including a few bottles of beers. When we went couple months ago, the restaurant manager/key chef (transferred from Sg temporarily) was very friendly and nice. I'm not sure who's running the restaurant now but i hope the quality of food and service remain great.

I would recommend this eating joint, even if you're not into Mexican food, go for few drinks and enjoy the open seating concept.

Enjoy!

Iskandar opens up opportunities for Indonesian investors

I'm now starting to get questions from my fellow Indonesians friends about Iskandar. Good to see IRDA has stepped up PR & marketing activities of Iskandar in Indonesia, this should also drive increase in private investors into the area (& hopefully more Indonesian food in near future :).

Iskandar opens up opportunities for Indonesian investors

Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios will grow the local film industry

Very interesting article about Pinewood Iskandar`s plan and future projection. We`d love to see some parts of next James Bond movie to be developed here :-)

Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios will grow the local film industry Youtube video

Mom & Baby Expo 2013

If you are expecting like us or have young kids you may be interested in visiting the upcoming babyfair at Danga city mall. Enjoy!

Singapore-KL high-speed rail link back on the drawing board | Bangkok Post: business

Everyone's probably heard of the SG-KL high speed rail link. I so cannot wait to  hear more details on this. Let's just hope that the train will also have a stop in Iskandar region :)

Singapore-KL high-speed rail link back on the drawing board | Bangkok Post: business

Belated Happy New Year & Lunar New Year

Good evening everyone. It's been almost 2 months since my last post. I apologise for being M.I.A so much.

I've returned to work (was on leave at the end of last year for renovation & travel) in January this year. We've moved back to our own house...YEAY after 4.5 months of intense internal renovation. Life has been very interesting now that we are expecting (currently going on 6 months + now). Apart from feeling exhausted pretty much every day, I am very grateful for all the blessing that we have. I'm also very grateful for the support that we've received from so many wonderful neighbours, THANK YOU to each one of you!!! We can't ask for any better neighborhood to be in and to have our first baby in.

I'm due at the end of May and I'll do my best to keep writing until then, after which I would probably take some time off from my blog to focus on our new family member :) for a little while, so please bear with me and thanks a lot for your continued readership and support.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some pictures from our now 95% completed renovation (internal).

Here we go:

Revamped kitchen:



Study room extension:



Courtyard:



and blue for baby's room:



Ian built most of the timber doors and I'm super proud of his work, so thanks to the hubby for doing awesome job! Maybe I can request for him to write about making doors :)

We still have a little bit to do internally and we have not had chance to complete internal decor (paintings etc) but we're extremely extremely happy to be back home and we're very happy and proud with the outcome of this renovation. Kudos to our contractors! We're looking to start stage 3 which is external soon, hopefully in time for housewarming before our baby is due. So stay tuned for more renovation updates in the next coming months :)

Last but not least, I just want to say BIG thank you to Barry & Jackie who's been so kind to host us during our messy renovation. Thanks for being such lifesaver.

Have a good evening everyone,
Erika