Project Dora

We are planning to throw a Dora-licious birthday party since Nia is turning 2 soon. As usual, the one who is more excited is always the Mommy. Ha-Ha. Kalo tgk si Nia, I doubt it that she even understands what the hu-ha is all about. Tak kisah la, what I want is a memorable event for my girl before No.2 pops out soon.

So, Project Dora was established and the main Project Manager is Mommy with Babah becoming the right hand man. The plan kicked off from 2 weeks ago (ok...sgt poyo although party nye in March) and some rough idea of what we want for the party. Due to budget constraint, we can't afford untuk tempah every single little things for the party. So some of the items needs to be DIY by Mommy and Babah. We started off with the Invitation Card - ciplak from the idea we saw online and off we sent out the invite to our close friends and families. Then Mommy has always wanted all those cute little fancy cupcake toppers and TQ card that I saw at this website, so we asked for a quote, and it came back not within our range so, again, another DIY project. So, Alhamdulillah, we managed to complete our own set of cupcake toppers, TQ Cards, drinking water labels and food tags. Sume sendiri bikin - that's why we need a longer planning period. Kalo budget ade berkepuk, senang la, main order je. He He. Tapi bile dah siap sume, rasa puas hati jugak. Cos we did it ourselves. Malam-malam bile tang perut keras takleh nak tido tu, Mommy pon operation gunting and gam ler.

Next, we have the menu to think about. Our guest list is not too big - so Wan agreed to help and cook some food for the party. Ordered out most of them too from our regular places. Kuih traditional, birthday cake, tartlets, brownies, cupcakes, etc. So finger's crossed that everything will be ready in time on the event day nanti.

Apart from that, we have balloons to think aboout. Ye la - kata pon party budak-budak. What is a party without any balloons to play with right. Mommy saw some DIY helium balloons pack at the party shop. Tapi bile survey harga, with another kedai, we found that it's cheaper to just order it with them for the same count of balloons. So kiddos who are attending the party nanti, be prepared to swat and pull 50 helium balloons that we plan to let afloat kat ceiling rumah.

Goodie bags! Ni pon dah siap - as of last week. Haha. Ye la - first time nak organize party kat rumah Denai Alam ni. Kena la cepat-cepat. Nak plak rumah tu still empty. Takut tak sempat nak buat so tu yg poyo awal2 dah pack sume benda. So yes - we have completed 60 bags of goodies in preparation for anyone that will be coming.

Games during the party. At first Mommy plan ade la jugak nak main 1 game. Cos the party wouldn't last that long - 2 jam je. So nak main game byk2 tak sempat. Tapi bile tanye kat Babah, he said it might be a bit rushed. So we scraped out the idea to play any games. Main je la korang sama2 sendiri nanti. But we did print out some coloring sheets and activity pages that the kids can doodle with kalo boring-boring.

And lastly, outfit for the birthday girl. So far ini satu je lagi yg still pending. Harap-harap we can go to the malls and hunt for it this week. So far I have no idea nak pakaikan Nia macam mana. No dress for her - cos I am sure dia akan berpeluh2 masam cos ramai org. So, defintiely wearing jeans. We just need to look for a nice top for her. Any idea where we can get any cute little outfits?

So harap-harapnya, the party will go on smoothly. We are trying to manage the crowd - taknak ramai sgt - else tak sempat nak mingle with all the guests. And those that we invited this time pon hanya yg rapat-rapat je. Will update more after the real party day which is gonna be on Sat - 5th March nanti. Till then, it's gonna be a fiesta!

Update: Projekt Haus

Last weekend sangat lah taxing for us. In order too keep up with our contractor yang sangat lah efficient and pantas membuat kerja, we had to go to Sg Buloh and purchase electrical lightings for the whole house. At first, ingatkan lepas raya baru nak fix the lights. Skali hari Selasa ni. Adoi. Makanya, di tengah2 bulan puasa ni, kami anak beranak pon terpacak la kat kedai letrik tu selama berejam-rejam duk memilih lampu yang berkenan di hati. Perasaan? Exhausted tapi teruja. Yerla. Sapa tak excited kan. Pilih lampu untuk rumah sendiri. Basically takde la susah mana. Yang susah is to make sure that the choices that we made in total will not exceed our budget. Since ade plaster ceiling and such in our living room, we had to purchase downlights and T5 dengan byk sekali. Decorative lights ade jugak. 2 lights at our living area. Another one in front of the stair case. And another 2 at the dry kitchen. The rest, sume downlights - including the bedrooms.

Budget now mcm dah a little bit lari. So, most likely our last installment for the Dry Kitchen Cabinets kena buat 0% monthly installment. Because whatever remaining savings that we have left kena gune for curtains and barang-barang dapur. Adoi. Ini tak termasuk furnitures ok. For now, we've settled with 'Japanese Syle' la untuk furniture. Hehe. Bak kata Ida, "Kayuh slow-slow".He he he. I don't really mind not having any furnitures for now. Cos in my mind, I might as well wait before, I decide to buy anything so that I can have enough money and buy something that I really like (which can be pretty pricey selalunye). Rather than buying something cheapo tapi cepat rosak and takde kualiti.

Nonetheless, hari ni Norien, from Kian Classic, will be going over to the house to mark where our dry kitchen punye plumbing needs to be adjusted to. Then kena mark another extra plug point for our microwave and oven untuk install in the dry kitchen cabinets nanti. By this week, our wet kitchen, most likely akan siap pasang all the wall tiles. The sink & water tap will be fixed. Lantai will be levelled up and tiled. Additional plugpoints (3) will be installed.

Belakang rumah memang tak sempat siap minggu ni - so tak kisah. Cos they need to do the plumbing/drainage for the washing machine and the plug point jugak.

Internally, dalam rumah - plaster ceiling sudah siap. Tinggal nak touch up jer. Lightings sume akan pasang hari Selasa ni. Curtain railing for bawah pon harap-harapnye this week. Yang the rest, kena buat ngen curtain vendor. Tapi for plaster ceiling at the dining area, belum pasang the wood panelling lagi. Itu, still tak siap.

Next would be touching up of the house. Nak kena re-paint all the smudges, bla bla. Washing, cleaning and polishing of the tiles. Installation of dry kitchen cabinets, bedroom wardrobe, stove, hood and oven, grill fixture and touch up. And dekat blakang rumah, last would be nak pasang that poly-carbon roof.

And who said renovating a house is an easy work? Poning ade la. Talking and discussing and haggering with the contractors. Nak get the cheapest price but at the same time I still want the quality and workmanship. Then kena survey bermacam kedai, bermacam barang, bermacam harga. Sampai naik poning. At the same time, asyik duk tengok kat bank account balance for checks and credit - to make sure our money is sufficient. Harap-harap zero hutang. Insya Allah. So far all has been paid in cash. My motto is: Biar susah skarang, jangan susah kemudian.

Overall, we're having fun doing the house. Penat lelah pon untuk rumah kite jugak kan. Biar la kite yg penat, as long as we get what we want. I really hope that the end result will be as good as what I have in mind. Insya Allah.

Homedec 2010

Given that our house key will be passed to us anytime soon - tetiba terasa nak pergi the HomeDec 2010 exhibition at KL Convention Centre...check this out: http://www.homedec.com.my/

Perhaps a Porch Light?

Found this at IKEA website...looks retro jugak kalau nak letak kat Porch rumah nanti....what do you think?

Rumahku Syurgaku

Saturday baru ni, kebetulan I went to see another new addition to our big family member, my cousin just had his first newborn, a baby boy, Aiman Al-Yamani Bin Omar Al-Yamani. So happen that he was staying at Subang Bestari, whereby to get there, kena la pass-by Denai Alam. So, me and my rombongan cik kiah (I had 2 aunties and my mother with me) dapat la pass by and usya our future house kat situ. Sadly, tak sempat nak amik any pictures of the house to show the development stage cos rombongan cik kiah ni nak balik rumah cepat and the weather was super hot at that time. Anyhow, our house dah naik dinding complete dah. To be cemented kasik licin and I think after this roof pulak naik. The row in front of us dah start mengecat dah. Excited la pulak tgk rumah. Hubby was not with us that day, cos he had to stay home and take care of Nia. So it was me and the aunties aje lar. Bila tgk rumah tu, mcm tak percaya pon ade jugak. Yerla, tak percaya nak ada rumah sendiri dah - and soon plak tu. Tentatively, completion date is by the end of next year. But when we check with our Sime Darby agent recently, kabarnya they are ahead of schedule so most likely by mid next year kot - Insya Allah.

So looks like kena start saving byk la cash ni. The main bulk nanti nak buat house grill, kitchen cabinet, wardrobe as well as nak tuko electric gate. Furniture kat dalam boleh postpone dulu setahun dua. Haha. Duduk atas carpet/lantai sudah. Kalo start fikir from now, terus rasa pening cos so many things to do. Dah tahu la duit bonus tahun depan nak gune untuk apa. Fully for rumah la. Sama macam this year. Both of us kalo berborak pasal rumah ni mesti la mcm-mcm angan-angan. Nak buat mcm-mcm style. Haha. Harap tunggu cukup bajet ke tidak je. Nantila, ingat nak round berdua ngen hubby je in a few weeks time. At least can take same pictures and see the progress of it. ;-).