Experiencing The Magic Cooker

I bought a 5L Magic cooker last week. 60 minutes Earth Hour will never end. This is one of our action to support the campaign. Instead of boiling soup in slow cooker for 6 hours a day, hubby & I are slowly shift to using this magic cooker instead.

The magic cooker consists of 2 stainless steel inner pots (2L & 5L) and an external pot as thermal pot. The 5L inner pot can be used to boil soup, dessert and porridge, while the 2L inner pot can be used to steam rice, fish and other stuffs. The contents of inner pot(s) is bring to boil under gas stove for 30 minutes before transferring it into the thermal pot. After that the soup will be kept warm for the next few hours.

My first experience in cooking peanut soup with this pot was not successful one. I followed the instruction as per the user manual to just boil the soup content for 10 minutes. So, ended up I had to continue simmer the soup to get it thoroughly cooked. I learnt the lesson. For the 2nd time, I cooked a pot of dessert for 30 minutes, then transferred it into thermal pot. After 2 hours, I reboiled it for another 15 minutes and kept in the thermal pot until time to consume it. It turned out great! Yes!


Yesterday was hubby's turn to boil soup for our dinner (I'm the one who prepare the ingredients). Tada....here it is. It turned out as nice as boiling in slow cooker.

I'm Back!

Hey, I'm back! I've been so busy cleaning up the house. After 3 weeks, finally the renovation is completed. Phew...

It's really a tough job to renovate the house. The contractor progressed the project phase by phase. So systematic ya. First they started with extracting, and building up the walls. This followed by putting up the tiles, installing the grills, changing the doors, and finally painting the whole house. Some minor things were fixed at the same time.

Our bedroom furniture and new TV cabinet were delivered. We've been spending our time to tidy up the house these few days. We're extremely tired. But of course, we are satisfied with the outcome. We spend money and we get what we want. So, no regret. :)

My Previous Room Not Cozy?

I know that's the interesting question that you wish to know. Ok, let me tell you the truth.

No, I found my previous room was comfortable. It's a really big & spacious room. The only thing was the materials used by the developer to built the house were not of good quality. Few months back, water started leaking from the bathroom and becoming a headache. We tried to use white cement to seal the gaps but to no avail. Also, the room floor tiling stated to show off it's ugly appearance and you can feel there's gap underneath the tiles. So those are the 2 reasons that led me into this bedroom make-over. We're not simply make over the room, as we're not rich. The room make over pop up in my mind as I found this is the most effective way to repair our room and bathroom, and at the same time, we can have a totally new looking nest. A stone to kill 2 birds at once. :) I'm heartache for the pocket bleeding too. :(

My advice: Living in a big house is absolutely comfortable, but you must have enough savings for back up. Anything spoilt, you'll need to spend at least thousands ringgit.

The bedroom make over cost about RM11k++. The bathroom alone takes up about RM3.3k, bedroom tiling - RM4.5k, concealed electrical point and lighting - RM900, new closet & dressing table to match my devan bed - RM3k.

Bedroom Make Over

This picture describes about what I meant by bedroom make over.

1.) All the furniture were removed. The floor tiling was extracted.

2) The bottom part of the bathroom wall, bath tub, toilet bowl, and bathroom tiling was extracted.

3.) Several concealed electrical points were added.

4.) New lightings were installed to the wall.

5.) After the tiling is completed, the whole room will be repainted.

6.) New big closet and dressing table will be delivered.

So, we'll have a totally new romantic bedroom with a nice bathroom. :) I would say this time the house renovation concentrates on our master bedroom and laundry area. We'll have to wait for another year for the kitchen makeover and main door. We'll just follow advice of the Feng Shui Master.

This weekend will be as bored as last week. I missed my bed so much!

Dust Everywhere

Photo courtesy of www.jigsawjungle.com

Our house is in a mess now. Dust is everywhere. Our renovation project has started. I feel extremely uncomfortable. I'm sleepy, moody and I can't have good night sleep. Hubby and Tiger are not sleeping well too. Especially Tiger, he ran along our bed and crying for help whole night long. He is not familiar with the new environment, and ask for companion.

Got to tahan for at least another week or two. Hmm....:(

Feng Shui

We were honoured to invite a Feng Shui Master to our house this afternoon. I purposely apply half day's leave to go home after lunch. The Feng Shui Master is my sister in law's uncle who is based in KL. My brother intents to buy a new house, but he wants to seek for some Feng Shui advice before he made up his mind. I'm glad that the new house is great in Feng Shui. :)

So, now you know. I just "tumpang" my sister in law. Got discount, hehehe...If based on the normal consultation fee, it's too expensive for me. My sister in law brought her uncle to my house. After going around the house inside out, from downstairs to upstairs, I learned a lot from the Master. Our Chinese horoscope and lunar birth date are the factors to be considered when talking about the bedroom. Not to forget about the home office too.

Ok, the conclusion is, we'll continue for the bedroom project make over, but will have to delay the plan to renovate the kitchen and main door. I've settled this with the contractor. He has no negative feedback. Whatever item that we don't want to do at the moment, he'll minus off the cost. That's it. Another positive comment for the contractor. :)

Superstitious or not, it depends on individuals. There's no right or wrong if you believe in it.

Preparations

In another 4 days' time, our house make over project is going to start. I planned for the rearrangement upfront, so that the constructor can start their work faster.

First, hubby & I rearranged the 2 closets in the guest room, and I moved all our clothes over there. This will enable the worker to relocate our bedroom's closet, as we will have the flooring make over.

Now I'm still thinking of how to relocate the kitchen utencils and equipment. I don't know where to keep all those stuffs during the renovation since mojority of the hidden corner will be involved in this renovation. Sigh... I think I have to call up the contructor, see which area will come first in their schedule.

I have not ask them how long will it be for the project. We'll renovate our kitchen, laundry area, our master bedroom, 2 of our bathrooms, the main door, and some of the minor repairing task. It'll mess up my house. :(

1st Goal For Year 2009

I really wish to have a good beginning for year 2009. To be honest, I had pretty bad luck in year 2008. Whole long list of bad happenings!! Now all is over! I have to step ahead to start a new year, and to have my own resolutions. Actually by the end of 2008, I already started to take some actions in order to achieve my goal of year 2009. So, no regret.

Hubby and I are really serious about our house make over project. I called up a contractor for an appointment on yesterday morning. Within an hour, they turned up. :) So effective. Of course this is the same contractor who renovated my parents house before, and I know that they keep their words, and they guarantee on the workmanship quality. Overall they provide good service.

Two of them are brothers. They came and view our house, and we listed down all the areas that we wish to renovate. They did the measurements and jotted down all the details. They emphasized that all the material cost has been increasing over the months, so their quotation will be a little bit higher.

When they left, I told hubby that "gai liao" cuz we have so many items need to be done. We even estimated the cost. We guess we'll need to spend at least 35 to 40k. If that is the case, then we'll have to sacrifice some area and focus on the essentials only. Hai......just try to imagine, our house is about 6 years old. We occupy it for 4 years. Wear and tear is definitely the main factor that cause some minor damages that required to fix as soon as possible. Maintenance fee is not cheap.

The contractor kept his promise, and he delivered us the quotation on time today. Hubby was the one who received it. Of course the first question I posted was on the cost la! I took a look and .......I felt totally relieved. Phew.......Took a long breathe. Total cost is RM21,350. What a reasonable price to fix all the 15 items!

Well, the renovation will only start after Chinese New Year. Although it won't transformed my house into a something grand, but definitely there are some huge changes. I'm anticipating to see the outcome!

House Make Over?

Photos courtesy from www.games.co.id

We visited my eldest sister's house in Butterworth on the 2nd day of Christmas. Yes, if you follow my blog all this while you'll know my eldest sister & I have a very big gap on our age and she is also my 婶婶. Her family just moved into a new house. She spends a lot on the house renovation. I really like her house design. The interior design is much more modern than my house in Penang island. Although we have the similar type of house, but renovation makes a huge difference.

I guess my sister spends at least RM80k on the renovation. The plaster ceiling, the galvanized auto gate, the beautiful grand lighting, new furniture, and the super deluxe kitchen. Wow! Really envy. Of course money is the main factor. 4 years back when hubby & I moved into our current house, we spend just very little on the renovation. We are fortunate to have FIL paid off the house. We just add the skirting to down stair flooring, get the house painted, and our bedroom furniture. The rest are all dedicated by FIL. He bought us the sofa, the dining table, the kitchen cabinet, the fridge and the guest rooms' furniture. My parents dedicated some electrical products, and MIL bought me some cooking utensils. Hubby & I just started working at that time, so we were really tight in cash. Sounds so pity hor? :( Only a year later we spent about RM10k to building up the gate and the tiling the car porch.

After we visited our sister's new home, discussed with FIL that we wanted the house opposite to ours (we shared to bought it over recently). It would be easier for us to renovate an empty house rather than our current occupy house. Basically there's no objection from FIL. It's up to our decision. But after thinking of the renovation cost that would incure, we are kind of giving up. We doubt we have the capability with the limited cash we have. If we will to move over to that house, we will have to renovate the car porch, the gate, the kitchen, the upstair's grill, some furniture and electical products...So many things. How can we afford it?

So, hubby and I sitting down to make some calculations, we are now thinking of just to upgrade our current house. I still have the very basic kitchen till now. The space is big, but I have limited place to prepare my meal. Sigh...I think it's time for us to make over the kitchen. I don't think I need the super expensive granite table top for the kitchen like my sis's, just the normal tiles will do. We really have to minimize the cost. Besides, I want to make over my master bedroom's bathroom and also get the empty space at the back build up become laundry area. Also, I want a better quality main door. Our current door looks terribly old and ugly.

Which plan sounds more reasonable? I'll get advice from my parents. :)

Happy Holiday!

:) I'll be off from work from today noon till the next monday. A long holiday is coming. However, no plan to go anywhere further as hubby still got to work. Sigh...

So, what am I going to do during this long Raya break? New kid is going to have her beauty sleep, so may be I can join her to do the same activities? Hehe...

Hubby and I are looking for either a 2-seats small set sofa or a pair of relaxing chairs to put into our bedroom. Anybody have any good recommendation where to find one? We search high and low in several furniture shops at Penang island and Sungai Petani. We've visited the famous Mekio and the one opposite Mekio at Kinta Street. No luck to find one that suits our requirement.

This type of relaxing chair from Ikea looks good. However, based on my evaluation on its structure, I'm a bit doubtful about the reliability.


This model looks fine. If it's made of comfortable fabric, I will consider to get one. :)

Do I sound choosy?

Our Study Room

Over the last week, we've been busy setting up our study room. We sacrifice a guest room and utilized it as our dream study room. A total make over. :) We made an effort to clear all the things. We threw away tons of hubby's computer stuffs, some outdated hardwares, lots of empty boxes. We torn down the bed and moved the closet to another room, followed by a series of cleaning. A really hard job. All done by two of us.

We made several trips to furniture & electrical shops cuz we got to invest a lil' sum of money to decorate the room....like installing an air conditioner unit, and also a bookshelf. For the computer desk and chairs, we just reallocate the current assets from our bedroom. Although it's a tiring job, but it's kind of fun. Hubby set up his desktop and our 2 notebooks, while I was busy hanging up MIL's homemade curtain and arranging our books. I moved in my exerciser too.

Finally, we get things done. Yippie! Now we have a specific room for our paper work, computer work, and reading. This will be hubby's home office too.

Dear, if you are too boring, may be we can keep a toy puppy, like this? :P

Happy Birthday Dear!

Happy birthday, my dear! I wish you enjoy the dinner this evening. :)

By the way, my dear is reading the operating instructions on how to use his birthday present. Hehe, guess what I bought for him. Teng teng teng teng......

Yes, a pair of digital cordless phone with caller ID. One represents him and another one represents me. So sweet ler... I chose Panasonic brand as I believe it's more reliable. I have confidence in Panasonic products. How about you? Well, few months ago, this model cost for over 300 ringgit, but now the price drops to just RM199. Phew...luckily we didn't buy it that time. :)

There's a reason behind why I gave him the caller ID phone. Lately, my dear complained that he receives too many annoying phones calls that affect his concentration. Oh yes, he works from home. So, I got him this product in order to prevent unnecessary disturbances. :P

Well, the caller ID has not been activated yet. It'll take for roughly 3 days for TM to activate the service. I have no idea why they need so long just to reset the interchange. Can they speed up a little bit? Sigh......

My New Kitchen Helpers

Lately, Makan King & Queen have not eating out frequently. We stick to Makan Queen's home cooked meal. :) Makan Queen is so hardworking preparing dinner after work on weekdays, and also over the weekends. This is consistently practiced for nearly 6 months. Good job, Makan Queen! So, are you aware of who is Makan Queen? It's me lor… :P

Just last week, I proposed to hubby that we should upgrade some of our cooking utencils to something which are more reliable and user friendly. Afterall, we are the one that get the benefits from the investment, right? Hubby supported my proposal, and we started our plan...

All the while, I just stick to the common electric rice cooker which was a free gift. It's still functioning well after 3 years. However, some of the parts have been broken off, such as the rice scoop holder and the moisture retainer. :( So, the rice cooker is one of the things that I wish to get a new replacement unit.

Well, after visiting to Jusco and Harvey Norman, we got an basic idea and gained some knowledge on the electric cooker models. We went through a long discussion in selecting our suitable candidate. Eventually, we agreed to buy a more reliable rice cooker - Panasonic's Microcomputer rice cooker with Neuro Fuzzy Technology. Tada...

The thing that caught my attention was the Diamond Fluorine coated inner pot. Yes, you can see the "bling bling" on the pot's inner surface. It's non-stick and scratch resistance. The microprocessor is programmed to cook your rice to perfection and it is very user friendly. You can select to cook white rice, brown rice, sushi, nasi lemak, porridge, or for slow cooking and steaming purposes. :) It looks impressive! And....you can preset what time to cook the rice. Sounds great!

Now, the rice cooking task has been passed on to hubby. He would love to contribute to our home cooked routine job. :) He tried the brown rice cooking mode that takes for 120 minutes to compared with the quick cook. Both passed with distinction. The brown rice is so soft and fluffy. The pot is easy for washing due to it's non stick surface.

Besides that, we've bought a Dupont Teflon non stick pan with glass cover. I've used it for my daily stir fry process. So far so good. It promotes healthy cooking style with less oil. It just fulfil my requirement to stir fry veggie with olive oil.

With these 2 reliable kitchen helpers, I'm more willing to cook. *Wink Wink*