The Idea of the Dream Home Plans

When we had picked up our keys, the ideas of our home  had come into play. I was already with a head start since May of 2016 with planning layout plans of how our home would look like one day.

Seriously, nothing really worth salvaging from this building. Looks nice but has a lot more potential

I thought I could detach a semi detached home but turns out you cant as you share a common wall with the neighbour. Plus the property as it stated on the Grant as a Semi Detached so thats what it had to remain as.

A very early rendering around June 2016. Something I thought I could do. Clearly the law had other plans

Lowyatt though on this occassion helped a little. Very little.

You see I had been planning on what kind of layout the home should have since May 2016 and have been obsessed with this till the extend I had a mental breakdown sometime in February in 2017 and had to take a 3 day break.

Early photoshop rendering of what I thought could be done. This was Option 1 somewhere in August or September 2016

This was a second option of what we thought we could do. This was Option 2. Somewhere in September or October 2016

Nights of drinking, nights of battling Venessa's, bank loans, horror stories, home planning for layouts and etc had taken its toll long enough.

When you have been thinking that long, you need a break. And when I took a break, I decided to do what ? Head over to Penang to look at the architecture of places. Yup, a break but not entirely a break. Still looking at buildings.

I know lowyatt folks will definitely take a break even if a pen drops to the floor and requires to be picked up. But it took me 1 year since May 2016 of constant thinking, daily, during work, and after work, and on Sundays to work my plans out. And Im still not done yet.

Staying in Lone Pine for a break. The building was redesigned by GDP Architects, who were the main architects. The hedges, lawn, slated windows, polished concrete floors, verandas, pillars, window sills, beams, mosaic tiled floors and everything felt that this is what I want. I knew this was what we were going for, bringing back something mid century to our property. Not something Industrial. These buildings have life and soul unlike the Industrial buildings.

If you are like me, and prefer to dictate things to what you want, then read on, otherwise, leave it in the hands of someone like an architect who will charge you well, to fuck your plans up and by re-submitting things again, and again, and again to MBPJ in order to get things approved. Which is why lowyatt folks have nightmare stories about MBPJ and how long it takes. Wrong documentation = time wasted.

MBPJ & HOME SETBACKS

When you are building a Home in Petaling Jaya. It is very important to know what Set Backs are. This determines firstly how far can you stretch your building. In our case, we have a semi detached house in Petaling Jaya and the setbacks are as follows :-


1. 20ft from the front (excluding car porch structure) & inclusive of 1st floor as well

2. 10feet from the side

3. 10feet from the back

4. If your neighbor is a single storey and you are converting into a double storey, you need a full recess on the 1st floor against the neighbors wall of 2 meters



Now look at your neighbours, do they have the same thing ? If not, its called Illegal. You can use this to your advantage too. But later on this.

However, more information on this, can be obtained from lowyatt. This is where some credit is due. But point number 4 above is unknown to lowyatt.

LAYOUT

Sometimes, a simple layout is the hardest. Simple things are harder than complicated ones. We decided on an open layout.  I wanted a clear line of view where the living, dining and kitchen, and back patio will have a direct uninterrupted view. The kitchen, has the biggest area downstairs, 20 x 15 feet. Thats because kitchens highly get the priority they deserve in Malaysia.

Never have I stepped into a home, or yet to step into a home in Malaysia that has has a clear line of view or priority placed on the kitchen.

Finally have something to work with here. Didnt want a shitty maximum greedily oversized property for "refinancing lor" purposes. I wanted a lawn, and everywhere you are, ground floor or upstairs, kitchen or even living, had a view of the lawn

Take any Malaysian home, and 95% percent have the same DNA from, Cheras, Puchong, Kepong, Setia Eco Park, Shah Alam, PJ, and for that matter everywhere. The Kitchen is always placed in the shittiest place without a view, without any additional value to having a pleasant time cooking with your splash back walls and the laundry area.

Yummy looking kitchen huh ? You could get this from Eco Park, where crooks love cooking against a wall and having the view of clothes being dried in the back

I decided that this had to change and the Kitchen has to face the garden. An equal if not the best view of all areas downstairs.

Did I do this for the wife ? Yes. Did I do this for me ? Yes. Do I want people to be amazed at how kitchens should be ? Yes.

Another issue with bedrooms is the view. And the view that I determined was to obtain the tree skyline that we have with the big trees grown around our neighbourhood. 

All bedrooms will not have a shitty view of just your neighbour that lives 10 feet away like how its done in Cheras, but rather you must have a view of the garden from above. The garden was going to be everything.

Another soul-less building. 

So once I had determined that these were the setbacks, we determined that fuck it, we are going to have a big lawn. 

Having a lawn, looks more expensive to me that how big and shitty a building can look while being unimpressive. 

TYPE OF HOME BUILDING STYLE

We were not going to build a Seksan, or Studio Bikin, Fabian Tan, Dr. Tan etc. Industrial styled building. No industrial hipster theme with raw concrete, bricks, and rusting shit with a tree inside, and trees outside with grass that has been removed to be replaced with gravel.

This shit is becoming more generic daily and every other lowyatt dude wants this. While Seksan in due respect had truly help make this style fashionable in Malaysia, it soon became a fad that had  spread faster than Gangnam Style.

The Industrial theme has been around now for a while, but nope, am not going to build this.

I know its nice to some, but its been done way too much. The industrial theme has become too saturated, everyone seems to have one of these nowadays.  I'd rather opt for a lawn than a pool or gravel or concrete floors

I had convinced the wife, that we should be going to a mid century 1960s Petaling Jaya style house.

Yes, Im going to build something new, that should have been there in the first place but never existed. No Lowyatt style 3.5 storey cheras houses here or any industrial theme at all.

Here are some of my inspirations, Lone Pine is one of them too of course :

Theres a difference between a House, and a Home. This to me, is a charming looking Home

Non of that shitty frangipanni, or bucida tree growing inside your House here. This is classic Mid Century Petaling Jaya Charm. This is my favorite looking Home in Petaling Jaya.

My second favorite home. Theres something about lawns, the design of the buildings from the stone work, pillars, beams and window sills that made things charming. This is probably what it feels like coming home in Petaling Jaya. When we first saw this home, my wife and I were outside admiring this beauty in in the car for so long even the owner came out. But I chickened out and drove away

As an insult to knowledge. This is called by lowyatt sounding folk as "Colonial". Pffft. Colonial isnt hipster as well, You fucking shit head. Thats what one architect called Lone Pine when Lone Pine was originally build by an Australian couple in the very early 20th century. Nothing colonial at all.

When things have moved to far forward, you have to move backwards. Gone are the days of building beams with some style. Ventilation blocks are making a come back, but in a Seksan Industrial way, which makes me want to puke. I would stick with Cement floors, but only if I could get Terrazo tiles where the granite flakes are 1/16" an inch in size.

Verandah ? Yes, for Vodkas, Whiskys, Beers and G&T's on Sunday and non of that Hendricks shite. And those Veranda tiles ought to be 4" in size, off white, tile and arranged in a diamond position. How about that ?

This is how detailed things are beginning to look.

However, if you are looking at a Seksan style building. By all means the industrial look works for you. It is cheaper, not more expensive. Its just not my style.

This is our dream here. However, if you are really serious as I am, you would know why a mental breakdown had occured from set backs, to type of style.

I even took the effort to see what will the actual floor be like by measuring in an open space the dimensions of the internal structure.

But if you are serious, try finding an open space like an open air car park, and use markers on the ground. Mark things out, get an idea of what things will be like at least by 85%. Yes this means taking a tape and measuring things out. You will be surprised.

Its one thing on Autocad, another thing in 3d, and a totally different thing in real life when you map things on a floor.

Because thats what I did

~ fin ~

The next topic will be about Architects and Contractors PRIOR to selecting the architect we are going with. I will describe the issues we had with them and what to look for and what not to look for. It had taken us almost 9 months to select the right architect. But we are finally moving in the right direction. But its not all fun unless you know what happened in between and with contractors as well for helping you narrow shit down further. Stay tuned