Solving our problems with "the new house"

6 years back (my ex-landlord yang remind me that it is nearly 7 years since I stayed at his place - the rented place - rasa macam baru 4 tahun sahaja..)...

Anyway, 6 years back masa mula2 tinggal di Malaysia, tak berapa banyak masalah arrangements sangat. Cuma kami ada sikit culture shock pasal finding a library.

Dulu di Singapore, dekat sangat dengan library and the ground floor level being the children section is so happening and the kids enjoyed the weekend visit.

So that activities stopped after we moved here. sampai sekarang tak jumpa library yang dekat dan best macam tu, tambah busy dengan activity2 lain, so that activity died down..

Over the years, we accumulate sort of problems.

1. Laundry

Our washer is located outside of the house, tikus pulak berkampung kat belakang tu esp di longkang, kadang2 bergantung-gantung kat pagar grill I so bila balik malam, nak buat laundry kena fikir dua kali sebab tikus lah binatang I palik takutttt sekali.

So itulah yang menjadikan laundry a problem, menimbun sampai satu minggu. Lepas tu, 2 tahun lepas, baby was born so bertambah2 lagi bakul laundry.

2011 was the worst, as my hubby has moved permanently here. The usual 2 bakul jadik 3 bakul, so lagi pening. Bila dah buat laundry, kalau jemur di luar, bila hujan basah lagi, so tak habis2 masalah laundry ni. Kalau lucky, kena angkat dan lipat, bila malam jer masanya, nak buat laundry, nak tolong buat kerja sekolah, nak layan badan penat, memanglah tak berlipat....


2. Cooking

Sama juga masalahnya lebih kurang. Sink tu kecik sangat. Tapi bila masak, mak ai, pinggan, cawan, periuk berjam2 nak spend do the dishes kalau buat heavy cooking.

Lagipun bila balik malam, memanglah tak sempat nak buat semua perkara, so cooking is the one activity yang I tolak tepi dulu sebab ada alternative lain seperti beli di luar...

So I gantung my apron about end of 2010 gitu. Gila lama tak masak! hahahahaha! Goreng keropok, masak maggi, goreng telur ok.


3. Air

Water filter tu jenis yang murah, so malas betul nak tukar filter, dah tu paip jenis yang murah, asyikkkk jer bocor. Tukar, bocor, tukar, patah... last last I give up.

Bila my hubby pindah sini, the decision is to buy mineral water saja. So tak lah kita rebus air dah lepas tu.... Bila nak buat susu, lepas tu lupa mineral water dah habis, baru kelam kabut.

Gitulah teruknya our quality of life dulu...

4. Study area

Situlah tempat tengok TV, situlah tidur, situlah belajar. Sometimes the small kids merengek2 yang besar hilang focus.

5. Tempat tidur

Situlah tempat tidur, situlah makan, situlah buat homework, situlah tempat tengok TV. So a bit chaotic kalau ada yang nak tengok TV tapi ada yang kena buat homework....

Dan kalau ada yang nak tidur lagi haru....

6. Toilet

Ada 3. Tapi 2 saja di atas. So kalau dah lambat mulalah yang lagi lambat tu dapat mandi lambat. Mulalah tertinggal transport sekolah bagai....


So we desperately want to solve these problems with the new arrangement in the new house.

The Resolution.

1. I think I dah cerita, kita adakan laundry area lengkap dengan dryer, in case baju sekolah or baju sukan kena pakai ulang2... I beli juga 2nd washer walaupun pada mulanya tak plan, tapi dah beli, I think senang sikit habiskan berbakul2 laundry tu. Solved.

2. With the new kitchen and the compartments built enough for everything we need, I cooked in large amount on weekend and freeze some for the weekdays dinner. Love spending hours in the kitchen, once I have extra dollar and mampu beli TV to put in the laundry area, will some more love spending time here. Solved.

3. I bought 3M water filter (rm620) to put in the kitchen sebab teringat nak masak nasi camner kalau pun ada diamond or coway. Turn out it is really a good money spent. Well done!

I tried to assure my hubby not to buy coway since the water filter tu tak payah masak pun air... boleh ready terus minum...

But since my hubby dah lama nak ambil coway, we get coway juga. Memang pun we plan to put in the laundry area. So ok juga I ada filter 3M in the kitchen so bila masak, very useful tak payah jalan jauh2. And I am sooooo glad that I bought a "deep" sink so bila nak isi air dalam botol using the filter, sangat senang with the "depth".

Coway for 6 members in the family also very useful. Dalam 2 hari, air dalam tank tu merosot ke 1 bar. Betapa banyak kitaorang consume water. So I am just relief it is not a waste of investment. Senang juga buat susu for babies and coffee or tea. "Macam kat office", kata my sis.

Problem solved? Definitely. we have never seen the mineral water bottle anymore! yaye.

4. Study area

Cuma yang ini I belum pasti nak letak mana. Originally I want to put the place next to family hall. Sama macam "office area". Tapi since it is now occupied with boxes, I get the children to study/do homework in the surau downstairs. Surau cum library.

Original idea is to make the surau a look like "RAUDHAH" with carpet hijau bagai dengan tempat Quran gold color. Tapi sebab $$$ tak ada, we recycle most of everything in that surau. Yang bestnya, the color macam matched. hehe....

The walnut color book rack from our old house, the brown carpet from Singapore house, and the brown color small cabinet for telekung and magazines. I memang tempah langsir dark brown for the room, so I am glad the combination works. at least for me. I tak rasa I tak puas hati ke apa. I think it is modest enough.

I love it has good lightings, the DEKA fan works well. The space is a good size. So I put the kids there while I cook in the kitchen.

We do not have study table yet, but dulu2 masa I kecik, I pun study kat lantai, jadik pun orang, so I believe they can too.

Problem solved? Solved - they dun share the space with sleeping area or TV area anymore, but we need to improve the conditions later.

5. Tempat Tidur

We have rooms but we do not have proper beds yet. But I still think it is much much better than what we used to have. My husband has not complained on the lack of sleep yet, so syukor.

To me, it is solved, we just need to improve it later.

6. Toilet.

This too is solved. Cuma I do not like the wooden door that the developer gave us. Less than a month, kembang dah kayunya.

Kecik jer problem ni. We can also improve this later.