Demolition & Construction of a Home in Petaling Jaya Part 8/9 (BOUNDARY WALL, DRIVEWAY, FRONT DOOR, GATE, & ELECTRICAL FITTINGS, GRASS )

This part here is our attempt at finishing works. Its a lot to cover but at this stage its what most homes would do at this point. I wont talk about the Furniture we purchsed and the Kitchen stuff till later. All of this will be in Part 9 which is our final episode which will cover the Kitchen, Bathroom Fittings, Window Grill Works, Carpeting the Steps and completion of our Driveway

Timelines will shift because some things here like the Driveway will go back and forth into completion. If you are Renovating or Rebuilding and about to move in, all of this stuff will just happen all at one go.

Part 8 & 9 are things that were happening Concrurrently with regards to doing our best to finish this Home the best we could by April. Everything was flying fast, but we would be stopped once again for 2 reasons which would include MCO 3.0, and that was the longest, worst and most painful of all MCO's. 

Lets start 

DRIVEWAY, BOUNDARY WALL & GATE

17 - 27rd March

The last of Construction works, this would be the last of brick works and Concrete works that would be done for the property. Leveling was done, Concrete was arranged. And the Driveway. We decided to go for a Pebble Wash finish later with White stones and White cement, which we would regret after getting our Dog that peed all over the Driveway and caused pee marks all over. 

Sigh, anyway, here is the last of playing with big trucks.

Rebars and Levels done, our Driveway has a slope to reach out property

Formwork for the Boundary Wall, ready for Concrete to be filled

The day before Concrete was poured

23rd March 2021, Concrete begins to be poured

Maybe the last bucket

Leveling is done

I tried to experiment with a Sandy finish, but it didnt work. Anyway, Driveway was finished being poured. This would stay a LOOOONG time with this Concrete Finish till later

Im going to miss these Sporty looking Cement Trucks

Goodbye Crane, I will miss you both

The last bit of the Entrance would be hand made Concrete 24th o March

27th March, Last Concrete Truck Pour

Good Bye Cement Trucks, I will miss you all

The workers got a treat of KFC today because it was our last Cement Truck

Old Boundary Wall stones were saved. I love them, we kept them around the Bottle Brush Tree

All done

Finish, it would be late when we decide to put Pebble Wash stones on the Driveway

1st - 9th April 2021

Finishing up the Boundary wall, I had to also build a gate switfly. The boundary wall didnt take much time to finish, we HAD to run things concurrently. The rumours of another MCO were spreading. Mudhyiddin needed another MCO and we were not going to take it well. 

Ventilation blocks picked by wifey were already in a long time already, and they would soon be fixed in a matter of days. We had a 12th April Dateline to finish up by so we could host Prayers as well at Home. These last days leading up were a real stress.

Starting on the Framework of a Mild Steel Gate. Ya laaa, I am not rich like your Lowyat folks, we needed to be economical here and use whatever we had to finish up the best we could. So the gate was made by us. I wasnt going to invest in a 20k Gate in times like these. We had a shoe string budget at this moment, and an Industrial way of just finishing this first

Boundary wall beginning to get installed

Looks nice the contrast, like Seri Pilmoor huh

Ventilation Blocks were installed

How do you fix blocks with these jokers, 1 little 2 little 3 little ventilation blocks, 4 little 5 little,.....

Electrical Box being Constructed and Mail Box

Almost finished, and Painting begins

At night, this becomes a nice feature. You have a free Glimpse of Cow Grass that is now installed here as well around the 4th of April

9th - 11th April 2021

We were down to the wire, so we could host our Prayers on the 12th of April / 13th of April. Cant recall exactly

On the 10th of April, we had our Water Tanks delivered, 2 stainless steel 1,500 litre tanks. That would be useful in Petaling Jaya and Selangors infamous Water Issues that still happen. Good call on our Contractor who suggested to have 2.

However, we would be stopped dead in our track forward here in any progress moving forward. Everything was really down to the wire, and we were skipping some priorities with regards to absolute finshes, we just needed 1 bathroom to function, and to have an outdoor area for water to be supplied to at least first. 

9th April 2020, our Water Tanks arrive

Water Tanks being delivered 10th April

11th April SUNDAY - Water is supplied to our Property. The Gate arrives, it gets installed, everyone is working on SUNDAY even the Gate installer. SUNDAY, when you are eating Avacado & Toast with a champagne Brunch.

Water being Supplied

Gate being installed after a coat of paint from the night before, I should have Painted it light Grey

Joinnery of Gate being done

And then, there is a big commossion going on inside the house. Lots of Shouting is heard. "TUTUP ! TUTUP ! TUTUP !" 

I was a bit scared, I had never heard something like this with such urgency. And soon, the bad news came, that the Electrician, who was working on site, had drilled through a major artery into the water pipe that supplies downstairs, where our Prayers are due to be held.

In the process, the water sprayed the whole entire ceiling on the first floors Living Room, and had seriously wet the entire area. 

Water was turned off, and I had had enough. I was truly broken. Early mornings, late nights, and at the expense of everyone else having enjoyed sleeping well at night while I tried my best to make things work, I told myself, I have to STOP.

Water on the Plaster Ceilings

The Subcon himself was sad

I told them, I was going home, and left

Gate closed and all, I headed back, yawned almost 40 times in tiredness, and had 10 beers. No kidding, 10, enough was enough

Prayers would not be held to much later. Pushing hard against a wall that you are trying to bend your way sometimes, just wont work. I had to let things take their course. I didnt set anymore datelines, we already missed 8 of them. So I would just let things be till the time was right. I was not going to force anymore.

12th April

As it turns out, our Bangla Banger had installed wires into the wrong pipe. He had installed electrical Wires into a Water pipe. 

Brain Drain Malaysia filled with Riff Raffs ? We have plenty of those. This was the reason why I was defeated. It took a Bangla Banger to defeat me this time. 

You have to laugh along with the Plumber

Bangla Bangers, ignoring glass nearby, ignoring installing wires into Electrical pipes, working for an Electrican firm. FML. Nevertheless, you have to admire their thick skin when it came to giving a shelling because it didnt help at all.

Lol, any Pipe will do for a Water Pipe

Here is what it looks like, have a good look. The Plumber took out the electrical works wrongly installed, and we had to hack and reinstall new pipes.

New pipe installed, and we got the light shifted further away.

The Bangla Banger, would never come back to work on site again.

FRONT DOOR & DOORS

28th March - 5TH April

We scouted many places for wooden doors and they all came with ridiculous prices. The typical 3 x 7 size door with 38mm thickness and many didnt include yet the borders, locks etc. 

We managed to get from an old supplier of ours our Double Doors, with each door being 3 x 8 with a 45mm thickness WITH hinges, locks, Handles, the whole works from just over 10k in a Nyatoh finish. To me, this was a damn good deal. A 3 x 8 size door is always handy and to the height of our building, this would be in proportion. 

Our other doors around the house use a simple door that we painted in Oil Paint so that it would last against especially with the bathrooms. Till today in 2024, they are fine.

Font Door requested in Nyatoh finish with slim streaky lines

Doors being stainned on site

Borders etc stained

Unfortunately in 2024, Our doors are in not an aesthetically pleasing shape due to our Dog, but it still looks good nevertheless

All other dooes were just simple doors that we would paint white

With Handes fixed, its simple and elegant. Non of that Digital Lock shit here

GATE FABRICATION

29 March - 7 April

We made a simple fabrication to our gate design using 1 x 2 Black Pipe Steel Tubing for our Gates frame, 19mm Square Hollow Tubing with a 1.2 mm thickness, and a 6mm Flat bar to hold all long 19mm tubes together. It would be spray painted again with an Anti Rust coat and Oil Paint to prevent rust from forming easily. It was glossy at first but once it got baked in the Sun enough, it would lose its gloss and turn matte anyway. We would construct a 21ft long Gate that would be Tailgated to site. 

Being 21feet Long and 6 feet in height to match the height of our pillars, it was a long structure that we couldnt put inside our Powder Coating Oven as well. So hand Paint it was.

Given the chance, I would have used Aluminium and Powder Coated the entire structure, but the wallet was being pinched from the first 2 MCO's, so I would deal with this first and use the gate till times were better in future. 

Our Driveway has a 25 x 25 foot size in dimension, but we were only going to fit a maximum of 2 cars inside side by side. Yes, 3 cars can fit if you squeeze them like rats and your Cars door hinge doesnt even open till the first position like in most shopping malls but I was having non of that. 2 cars max, and we need to park side by side and be able to open the doors fully. 

Today, we have car doors that are more kindly thought of so that your cars door hinge opens at almost a 90 degree angle. 

I find it unfair as a parent today when you go to shopping malls, and you cant open your car door fully in a car park and you have to put you 2 year old child strapped into a baby car seat. Its bloody unthoughtful and greedy.

This would be helpful when you need to open your Car's door fully so that you can take things out and have not a damn in the world how your Aunty will open your car door and hit the other car and cause an imprinted permanent damage to your memory and on your cars door. So a large gate it had to be.

Spanning 21 feet in length, and having 18 feet as an opening pillar to pillar, this was going to be the length of our gate. 

Frame constructed

Tubes and Flatbar applied with wheels

Grinding Works

Cleaning, Degreasing, and Prep for Paint

2 Coats of sprayed Anti Rust

2 coats of Black that I should have done in Light Grey or Silver. Well, another time 

Usually, its a good practice to tie all colours in together. Windows, Grills and Gates. In our case, our gate was Black which doesnt look right. When we redo our Driveway in 2024, we will correct this colour.

All said and done, its great that we didnt invest in more expensive Materials like Aluminium, shortly after, Mum in Law would bang this gate. Lol

ELECTRICAL FITTINGS

Switches

All Schneider here. 

However, dont you hate it when you leave it to your Bangla Banger Electrical Works installer with a plan and he still fucks up your switches ? Yes, we went through that too. Had to Draw a picture of a fan and lights with regards to which switches go where. No kidding at all. He even missed installing our Control for the fan downstairs Guest room. Still not fixed in 2024. 

Anyway, there is something here that I would point out with regards to our switches all over the house. 

Dont you hate it when you have a gang of 2 switches, or a gang of 4 switches, and dont know which one is meant to turn on the Fan ? or Light ? I decided on a simple method, that is able to be Idiot proof (Except for Bangla Bangers Electrical Works folks) that will solve this issue. 

Many electricians place the fan switch in the middle. Sure, it makes sense if your switches seperated like this, DUUUUUH !!!! :

Ya, this is in every Aunties house from PJ to Perlis. Common sense for anyone not to fuck up where the fan is

Now lets spice things up a bit shall we, which do you think will be the FAN's Switch in a Gang of 4 with Seperate Switches,...oh oh,,....I sense ,.... there are no brains working here for Bangla Bangers. So ?  Aaaaah, anything can do, finish all the work fast and Dont give a fuck, will tell them its hard to redo later and put a 5 cents face of disappointment like YOU were the Idiot  !!! 

Wait, did I hear a brain cell working on a Bangla Banger ?,... Nope

Now lets make things even MORE Interesting !!!!! READY ?

1

2

3 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess the Fan Switch ?

This is God Status switches for Bangla Bangers. There is no comprehension on how these switches work. It can only be solved by  randomly installing wires in hopes they will turn on something. I have no time for playing Musical Chairs and having to remember which switch turns on which light or fan around the house. Or maybe Bangla Bangers just turn on every single switch in their place without caring. I dont know. This is a brain drain situation of Malaysia

Yes, this is a problem. See, now all switches are connected, which is the Fan ? 

Middle Left ? Middle Right ? Is this a Problem ? Actually no, IF YOU GIVE A PLAN TO FOLLOW ! 

Is this Rocket Science to understand ? No. 

Now imagine that despite providing a plan, they still mess things up, and I wasnt paying a damn thing till all my switches made sense. 

The simple logic is, have the ABSOLUTE LEFT as the fans switch. Its the least important switch. Dedicate your switches however you want, in our place, all rooms are known for where their Fan switches are. 

Sorry for Ranting here a bit, I grew up with switches that didnt make sense MANY times, this was not going to follow through in our household. And I dont hate Bangladeshis. They are pretty ok, and I like their food when its not super oily. Its pretty spicy and nice.

THE END

Lights

We went all round for simple downlights. Today there are more better things but we went for Philips LED Downlights with a 9 watt Brightness in Warm finish. We Hardly ever turn these lights on in the Home. We usually depend on Stand Lamps. I know Cherasville people would opt for the brightest White Lights, but to me, that was disgusting.

Bright enough, but I reckon I could have gone for a lower 5 - 6 watt light

Lights that we hardly turn on or us, but when we do, its to read whats written behind small typed labels or instructions. Otheriwse, they are hardly ever turned on

Fans

Our fans that we wanted were supposed to be KDK fans and once again, nothing special or extraordinary, we wanted to have just simple old skool fans that would just work. While waiting for over a month to see if the electrical shop in PJ would replenish itself with KDK, we learned that Panasonic fans are also made at the same factory as KDK Fans, so we just settled on Panasonic instead. They are exactly the same fan but with different brands stamped on them

Your typical Malaysian 3 blade fan un worthy of a Puchongite's Kings home that will usually be fitted with 5 blades in Black or Brown finish. Ours was a traditional set up, and looks completely in place with a simple clean theme. These fans are turned on almost 12 hours at night for our Dogs in future to shoo away mosquitoes and bring comfort to them.

Taken during the time of MCO 3.0. Mind the overgrown grass. Its was good that they had the chance to over grow during this time

 

Airconds

All Airconds would be a with Inverters, we picked up 6 of them in total.

5 from Daikin, 1 from Panasonic which was a 3HP that had an Inverter 

1 HP - Guest Room 130 sq ft

1.5 HP - Room 1 with 150 sq ft

2.0 HP - Master with 225 sq ft

2.0 HP - Room 2 with 300 sq ft (But its ok, it doesnt get turned on much)

2.5 HP - Hall Upstairs with 300 sq ft

3.0 HP - Whole of Donwstairs Hall, Dining, Kitchen for approx 550 sq ft. Yes, gets turned on once in a while too, so its ok

Lowyaters be experts hating now, dying to recommend what should have been used for the right rooms etc, but who cares. As mentioned, the Roof is important, if you have a good roof, and insulation is well, in a small building that has 600 square feet, a simple 1.5 hp can also work well. This, I have experienced before and it had truly AMAZED me !

Water Heaters 

Electrical Water Heaters were RINNAI, because its a good company, and it had the most elegant of appearances as compared to other brands. Simple round knob, and a small light to show it was working. Very well designed.

Its the most elegant water heater that we could obtain with the cleanest finish. Yes,.I removed that stupid sticker on it. See what I mean by being able to see the clouds and skies ? 

Preventing any chance of scaling for children in future, it was not a matter of price, but it was a matter of safety to just deal with water heaters. This was as elegant as we could have them. I even changed the incoming hose to the water heater to be done with pipes as our precision that we had made on the water heaters placement was absolutely,....spot on as possible to exactly where things would be. Even the height of it.

GRASS 

7 - 8 April

We settled on Cow Grass that got installed on th 4th of April ish while the Boundary Wall was being finished. 

I was suggested Fake Grass by family. But why ? I know it will have weeds and Lalang in future, but real grass has no substitute today and the joinery is TERRIBLE. It may work well in Cheras, not for me. 

Delivering Soil

Leveling Ground. Our Soil was full of stones despite the damn Indons who had a whole day to pick them up the day before or just rake the lawn 3 times which would have taken them the best part of 3 hours. A common thing many new properties and developers have always continued as tradition. Even in a place like Sierramas, you would have found the same habits done before

Spreading Soil

Compacting Red Soil

The soil that was used was Red Soil, but years later, I should have asked for Black Soil. Black Soil is new Soil, more fertile. Red Soil is older Soil, and has gone through thousands of years of all sorts of crap. Nothing wrong, I could always add black soil later which I will do.

Grass done

Years later, we would have bald spots, due to our Dog who dragged her Frisbee all over the grass. Shitty neighbour who illegally build to the boundary wall. We would plant Calatheas later to help close off their windows. Wont you look at that fresh Green Grass. Cant get the same affect with Fake Grass

This would bald off too when we plant Calathea's, that would kill off most of the grass here

So we have come to the end here, and the last part will be a mix timeline which will be not just painful on the Pocket that Muhyiddin gave us, but painful psychologically, and personally. 

With regards to the works here being mentioned from the Boundary Wall & Driveway, Front Door, Gate, Electrical Fittings and Grass, a lot has been covered here. The last part will be about

Furniture for the Kitchen, Granite Slabs, Bathroom Fittings, Final Driveway and Steps, a little Planting of Plants etc before being finally able to move in. More in Part 9