Architect - Found the Right One !

Its now June 2017. Our ultimatum was up. We were at a road block once again. Nothing moved.

The wife had selected Mr. Eric for her choice for a contractor but knew that things will be EVEN more expensive. Perhaps Mr. Eric has a taste for Medium Rare Steaks in Bangsar that he would like to have every night together with 3 pints of Pale Ale.

We had decided that Mr. Tan, a crooked man as he may be, and a desperate one, was cheaper than everyone else. But in reality we knew he too would cost more than what he was asking for.

I was upset that the people - architects and contractors had let us down. That these were our options we had laid on the table. And while they were our friends or recommended by friends and family, nothing was satisfying enough for us.

We had picked up a home that we were not able to move forward with. This too with the wrong people. We were not getting the firm answers we wanted and information was half baked.

We hear stories from Architects, and people saying how hard it is to deal with MBPJ. How Expensive it is to renovate. Except for lowyatt people. They can get approvals in 2 days to demolish and renovate.

I even called MBPJ taking Dads advise to ask MBPJ themselves


"Do you have any architects that you prefer to work with".


The officer on the phone said he will propose this to some architects and if they are interested, they will contact us. No one had called back. This is the June 6th.

However, as I had just put down the phone with MBPJ, a tiny brain cell jolted a very good spark of memory.



FINDING THE ONE


You see, we lived in Amaya Saujana, Glenmarie before from 2012 - 2014. This is when we had just gotten married. Matter of fact the first day that we got registered was the first time I had ever moved out in my life. I was 29.

Our previous landlord was a man called Sarizal Yussof. This chap was the best landlord we have ever had.

He rented his apartment to us at a very modest price. And when he found out we got married, gave us a book on Malaysian Architecture. This man was an Architect !

The brain scrambled too fast, and had quickly searched through my phone for his number, it didnt exist anymore in my phone book contacts.

I searched him on facebook and found him. But without any contact information.

Dashed on to Google and did some search on him and found that he works in Klang, This is my town as well. Better yet, he was also a part of PAM. This helps as you would have to know your stuff well enough dealing with different town councils. MBPJ being with no exception.

This was leading up to better things and better things from here now onwards we would have.

Eventually I found him and contacted his office, but he was not in. So I left a message saying I was his old tenant and needed his number.

I had a call in return the very next day, 7th of June 2017.

In his deep and calm voice we spoke after 5 years, it was a pleasure speaking to this gentleman again.

Moving on, I told him what I wanted to do and he asked

" Have you engaged in any architect yet ? Would you like to nominate me as your architect"

to which I said

"Yes"and had a good laugh after

We set an appointment on the 8th of June and showed him my idea for plans. This is how fast now things work. Here is what I discovered from our first meeting.



MEETING 1

Now for those of you hipsters drinking chai latte at RM 35.00 a cup and demanding a RM 10,000 salary, here is what a professional architect would do during your first meeting. This is what happened on the 8th of June 2017 :

1.Showed him my plans drawn on photoshop

2. Rough costings were given for architect and engineers fee

3. Showed me what architects need to fill up before submission

4. The A1 size of architects drawings of a plan he is doing. It comes in a small note book size where each page can be openned to an A1

5. The A1 size of soil testing by engineer. It looks like a small note book again. A very thick one.

6. What will be needed for submissions to MBPJ

He tells me that because I am demolishing and rebuilding, I will have to go through 2 submissions instead of 1 :


1. Kebenaran Merancang (KM) or in English Work Order. This is where you will find homes saying "Kebenaran untuk membina sebuah rumah bla bla bla dan tetuan pemilik adalah bla bla bla". - 3 months

2. Building Plans or BP (When you submit your plans and also for demolishment) - 3 months


I asked him many times are you sure it can be done and approved in 6 months ish. And he says

"If you comply why should it take longer ?"

All this now was beginning to fall into place. I felt confident and better knowing that I was speaking to the right person.

The very next day, the 9th of June. He messages me on whatsapp and mentions who the person in charge of buildings is in my area of ss3. This is the person from MBPJ as well.

With all transparency. No lowyatt secrets or Personal messages on the side "PM Me if you want 2 know more" crap. No lowyatt shit here. (Why cant lowyatt people just share information anyway?)

1. He tells me that the KM (Kebenaran Merancang) process will take 3 months if we comply with MBPJ's requirements. Another 3 months for BP (Building Plans).

2. He tells me if you would like to avoid the KM process, you will need to renovate no more than 1000 square feet which in my case will not apply. Good knowledge though it didnt apply for me.

3. He tells me that the setback of each area and since my neighbor is a single storey semi detached and I  am building a double storey, I will need to have a recess of 2 meters for the first floor from my neighbor.

4. He tells me that the maximum height of your ceiling is 13 feet for the ground floor, 13 feet for the first floor and a maximum building height till the roofs Rise at 35 feet - Maximum Rise of 9 feet.

5. He tells me that I will also have to have a refuse bin as well. It is Mandatory. Something that you dont see all houses in Petaling Jaya incorporating or complying with, newly renovated especially.

6. He tells me what the set backs are, 20ft from the front, 10 from the side, 10 from the back


I had gained this information faster than dealing with Chai Latte drinking, eating -Medium - Done - Steaks - eating - fuckers - every - night - greedy -half -  informed - fuckers,...  FOR 9 MONTHS !  I got this information in 18 hours with a chap who was fasting.

These are the requirements of MBPJ. Clearly here lies a person who knows what is needed in order to comply and move forward fast. Here lies a person who knows how to extract correct information from the right source swiftly so you dont waste time.

The reason why you hear nightmare stories of MBPJ is because some guy has a dream of building right till the maximum of things, and an architect blindly follows without understanding first what your local town council requires. MBPJ with no exception.

Your Cheras fabulous, Puchong glamarous Architects will never know what really is required because they dont understand how things work in Petaling Jaya. This is why you get rejection, after rejection, after rejection by MBPJ.

IF YOU DONT COMPLY, your greedy architects who would be re submitting things and wasting your time because they didnt take the right effort to make a phone call to MBPJ to ask the right people what the rules are.

It is also a MANDATORY requirement that ALL TOTALLY NEW buildings in Petaling Jaya OR NEWLY RENOVATED ones to have a Rain Water Harversting System. 

Do you know how much is required to store for Rain Water ? Lowyatt knows, why dont you ask them ? I will describe these requirements in the next topic



MEETING 2

Its 11th of June. Sarizal comes over to our home on the same week on Sunday morning. 8 30 AM.

A bit too early for my hungover head to take a look at the premise. He comes to check out the premise. Luckily one of the neighbors that we met for the first time had a good chat with us and in his presence.

The usual answer was give by architects "Be nice to your neighbors". Because getting neighbors consent too, you must know, doesnt mean just 1 neighbor. Also something to discuss about soon.


On the 13th of June, we are working out plans for the staircase

13th of June, staircase and building height discussion. Well, at 13ft, I sure was not going to have a Home that midgets live in at 8 feet of a ceiling height. Maybe the air conditioning bills will be a bit higher but nothing plaster ceiling can solve. 

MEETING 3

Its the 16th of June. Ever since our first meeting, there was a lot to digest. Information not fed to me by lowyatt.

I had been drawing my own plans wrongly since May 2016. A new plan was put into place quickly, and while some things were drastic, shrinkage was needed to comply with the buildings setbacks.

I am greatful though, that someone is finally telling me what can and cannot be done. Something Eric the contractor's Architect, or fucking Mr. Justin and our friends at RM 58,000 didnt tell or warn us about.

So the basic layout was agreed upon and on the 17th of June, we received our first Autocad drawing.

We determined that the driveway based on 20feet in length was too short.

I know lowyatt folks love dealing with maximizing boundaries and parking your cars 2 inches away from the gate. Or even better, parking cars sideways to accommodate their shitty Unsers, or Hyundai Matrix, for their 15 foot length driveway.

But seriously though, not us. Neither were we going to park our cars back to back. Had enough of that by living in apartments and we were not going to get in each others way every morning by packing back to back.

Lowyatt folks love to maximize their houses in order to have more footage for resale value and for refinancing. Not us, we were building a home.

So that was an amendment there.

This image was taken when we did our test in my parents driveway and sent it to our Architect. On the 18th of June, we did a second test at 25feet and our Architect then returns with an amended drawing on the 21st of June.

Left Image : Lowyatt Style of car porch. Lowyatt folks will prefer 15ft actually

Right Image : Comfortable style of parking and allowing enough space to walk around cars for washing. Our width is also 25ft for the porch, so we can open our car doors widely instead of typical shopping mall style widths that dont even allow your car doors  first hinge to be opened up to. 

This is now 6 days to Raya, and this chap worked throughout the fasting month, and delivered faster than any architect did in 9 months. This too with the right advise.

So this is where nothing more could be done as Raya was now approaching and we would resume on the 1st week of July instead.



MEETING 4

On the 6th of July in the morning, we received the Preliminary Drawings

Our First Ground Floor Plans sent to us by the 6th of July in the morning

Our Architect surprises me with his Engineer as well in our meeting. The engineer as well explains a few things. The Engineer to says I will need a few things done before moving on with MBPJ :-

1. Surveyor
Marking out your boundaries of your land and do levels as well of the land of the current building. Surveyor will also take a look at the Governments boundaries as well as your neighbors boundaries.

2. Soil Testing
Done by engineer in order to determine the land is able to take a 2 storey building
as the current building stands as a single storey. But this will be ok because the land has matured. Plus 4 other houses on our road have a double storey conversion anyway. But MBPJ needs this anyway

3. R & D - Road and Drainage.
This is also done by the Engineer as the Engineer needs to check levels of the Road, elevations and drainage etc.

4. Neighbors Consent 
This is where many get it wrong. Including me. In any case for MBPJ you will need to get ALL Neighbors - Left, Right, Front AND Back to approve the consent form. The consent form is submitted by your architect for YOU to ask neighbors to sign. Sometimes the architect will do this if you are a lowyatt person who doesnt want to know your neighbors.

5. Rain Water Harvesting
Now on lowyatt, or ANYWHERE you WILL NOT FIND how large your Rainwater Harvesting storage tanks should be. Our engineer told us what MBPJ needs. The formula is simple. You will need 1/3rd of the capacity of your Water Tank.  This will allow you to get MBPJ's arppoval. It will also be drawn in your plans. You could use even Plastic Barrels as well. One contractor even said to use a large pot. Clearly this guy has more experience than I, because he reads lowyatt everyday and eats Avacado Toast everyday for breakfast with his Chai Latte.


I surprised our Architect and Engineer by showing them a rendering of our home. To which Sarizal laughed and said

" you are saving me time" , and the engineer said

"Its nice to see a passionate owner".

You too can draw your own plans and in 3d to get a good idea of what things would be like with planner5d. Not revealing all my plans, but here is what we were going to do. It shows you know your shit, and you can discuss easily and amend things faster with your architect faster rather than having to wait a week or so.

If you would like to build your own plans one day, use this software that any fool can master. Its online called www.planner5d.com

Its Idiot Proof. Its Free. Have this while sipping your chai latte hipsters. Planner 5d however will not allow you to build a roof or even insert a Doberman as a pet inside this rendering program unless you pay for it. Im serious, they even have 2 Dobermans in this program.

Its important to know what your premise will look like roughly in scale and proportion. It will give you a scale of things not only for yourself, but for the Architect to view too plans in 3D and what your intentions are for building a building in 3D

This too will allow you and the Architect to walk through the entire building which helps.

I didnt upgrade my software by paying for it even though to get a full version cost 15USD. So while I didnt have the roof in this rendering, my wife and I certainly had a good glimpse of what things would be like. At least to an accuracy of 85% which in most exams, scores you an A.

There you have it. During this time, I am simply awaiting for a few things to run on all fronts. Mainly the Surveyors work as well as the Engineers work to commence and be done with.

At this stage as I write this, its the 26th of July 2017. Today marked the first day where the Surveyors came. Without the surveyors plans, we wont know exactly what the real dimensions of our land is and where we slot our building in based on the boundaries. So in the next 2 days, there's nothing much we can do except wait.

I will have a summary of what needs to be done in my next post. This will have no ranting but a simple guideline of what takes place for your to understand if your are demolishing and rebuilding for MBPJ. look forward to my next post for this.

IN SUMMARY

Im glad we took our time. Though a year late, but a year wiser with the right person. I guess we are not wasting time and money with other folks who would have screwed, monkeyed and drained our funds further to have chai lattes every morning for breakfast and then only showing up once a week to view your homes progress.

Because a Head Honcho Indon will be there to supervise on that while the contractor boss takes off his pretentious poor looking clothes,

Changes from his beat up poor looking Waja into a C Class Mercedes,

Puts on his Guess jeans and Hugo Boss shirt

And heads for evening Bright Ale and Medium Done Steaks in Bangsar at 3 : 30pm (poor hard working folks, gotta beat the jam ya know ?).

Chai Latte anyone ?

If I could recommend an architect here, it would be Mr. Sarizal Yussof. Fast, modestly priced, and works to achieve what can be better with what you want.

That too with the knowledge of what needs to be done by working with town councils such as MBSA, MBPJ and shares things with transparency rather than in secrecy or half baked information.

Sometimes when things click, all of a sudden, magic happens.

~ fin ~