Here. There. Everywhere.

Hubby arrives for Eid very soon and with him his D300 and wide-angle lens. Yippeeeeee!

So we’ll get some nice pics of the new kitchen and the rest of the apartment then. But right now here’s a look at the old and the new and why I should be grateful and happy!

The old kitchen was……well, BASIC. It worked, but after a while, it felt dysfunctional. The work area wasn’t properly thought out – there was a lot of “broken space” which rendered some of it completely useless. Like that little bit to the left of the gas hobs. The cooker hood / extractor was hung too low, your face was right in front of it and there was no ducting for the hot fumes to go anywhere except in your face. LOL. The workspace to the right of the hob was quite useless too because it was too far away from the sink.

The workspace on the other side, where the stand-alone fridge was wasn’t really a workspace. We had the microwave oven there and the space to the right of the microwave oven was where we had the kettle and where we made our coffee. We had enough cupboard space but I preferred large drawers for storage because you didn’t have to go into a crouching position and reach in every time you wanted to get something!

The new…. 

Well, I don’t have to say very much. The picture says it all I think. All the work area is concentrated between the sink (large single bowl which can be converted into 2 bowls, or one bowl and one drainer or one bowl and cutting area with accessories and the induction hobs. No wasted area. The relatively small workspace to the right of the hobs is ideal for placing spoon rests, pot covers, ingredients etc. We chose a “flush” hood / extractor which together with the flat induction hobs gave the kitchen a clean and uncluttered look.

No wasted counter top on the fridge side anymore. You don’t see the fridge because its built-in…right there on the very left.

Here it is, doors open.

Next to it the tall pull-out larder and then the built-in microwave oven and conventional oven. At the extreme right is our coffee bar.

I’m glad we opted for the tall larder, positioned functionally next the fridge. It holds a lot of stuff, you can see what you’re looking for and its neat! I love neat.

The dishwasher is also built-in to the right of the sink. Here it is, door open.

On both sides of the kitchen we have maximum large drawers for everything with internal drawers for cutlery, gadgets and stuff like cling wrap and aluminium foil. So no wasted space. And everything within reach!

So that’s our new kitchen. Somehow, all the problems I experienced getting to the new kitchen now seems like another lifetime! What a short memory we have eh?

More before and after views below…

All said, I love my new kitchen. I could live in it. I love cooking in it. And I’ll miss it when I go back to Kuwait.

After a couple of postponements, Bernard made it to our apartment for the final appointment – to fix the famous 4 glass doors with the vertical opening mechanism, now from Blum AND to fix everything else that remained outstanding. This was it. I had threatened that IF they did not fix everything today, I would get my own contractor to do everything and bill Aldo.

I had no more patience and no more time!

It took all day. Well, 10:30 am to 5 pm. But yes, everything was done. Of course, under my watchful eye. The to-fix list was long. Apparently small stuff which I hadn’t been happy with. But its the small stuff that’s important I think. Little things that are “not right” can be extremely irritating and its only right they fix it.

One of the kitchen contractors I had gotten a quotation from actually said to me that he would try his best to give me “perfect workmanship” if he was selected. In his words “Not 100%, but 99% lah…” I didn’t give him the job. I’ve always been a perfectionist and in my book, there’s a right way to do everything. I just cannot understand how anyone can be in any line of business and not be able to deliver. I just can’t.

Anyway, this has been a weird project. This was my dream kitchen – well, almost, for now, based on the space constraints we have in this apartment – fully functional and contemporary, aesthetically pleasing too. No pasar malam stuff. Not a job for amateurs. But now that its over, I guess I learned some important lessons from this project.

The most important one is of course — get references before selecting a contractor…if that’s possible. If a contractor or supplier has nothing to hide, they would let you talk to their real customers, won’t they? For a project this size and this cost, they better let you do that.

If I had to do this again, that’s what I would do.

So at 5pm, Bernard and his installer / handyman, cleaned the kitchen, packed up and left. He knew I wasn’t 100% happy. Of course I wasn’t. I’m grateful that I have a new kitchen which I really enjoy using. I’m upset it took this long to bring it to completion. I’m upset at all the little “problems” that they couldn’t really fix but this is a better kitchen than the one I had!

Bernard’s last words – “I’m sorry its not perfect. Use it for a few days and let me know if you need anything else. I’ll be talking to Management to see if we can compensate you for the delay and the problems.” Right he was. Lets see.

I lost my patience yesterday. I’m normally very understanding and patient but now I was tired of all the run around everyone was giving me about my 4 glass doors with the parallel opening mechanism. I can’t believe it has taken them this long to fix it! I really didn’t understand the problem. When the installer, Ah Chun could not finish fixing the hinge mechanisms the day before, I was told that Andrew himself (the Häfele guy) would come with the missing parts and fix it. He was supposed to come yesterday but called to say that the “system was down” so he could not retrieve the parts from the warehouse so he would come another day.

No. No. No. I cannot wait anymore.

I told him he had to find a way to get the parts, come down with it and finish all this work. He came at 3pm. Ah Chun also could not figure out how to install my under-the-counter bin the other day. Bernard arranged for the salesman himself to come and take a look. He managed to install it so at least that could be ticked off my list!

Again, to cut a long story short, Andrew did not succeed with installing the hinge mechanism. Whatever was the problem, he couldn’t fix it. I think he didn’t know how. It was a very new product he said. Not my problem. Really, not my problem.

All hell broke loose. It really did. I knew it was his fault, but someone’s head had to roll and it has to be Aldo Kitchen’s. But Bernard was conveniently at another site. I basically told Andrew to remove everything and take it away. I wanted the problem solved and he had to talk to Bernard to give me a system that worked! If not this one, then, another one. He was very apologetic. I was shaking with anger and frustration.

He told me the real story. He said the hinge mechanism I had seen and requested was from Blum but Aldo Kitchen “didn’t have a good relationship” with the dealer so they couldn’t source the product from them. Something like that.

Andrew said he had suggested that they purchased the product through his company but they didn’t want to! And that’s why they opted for this Häfele model…I was appalled! OK I said, go and do whatever you have to. I need this problem resolved. Get that Blum hinge. Whatever. ASAP. No more delays.

I had nothing to threaten them with. I wish I did. I still had the last 10% to pay – I guess that’s the only leverage I had.

When I spoke to Bernard yesterday, he said Andrew had spoken to him and they were looking at the Blum mechanism. And he would revert by today to let me know the timeline.

He kept his word and told me today that the Blum mechanism had to be ordered from Australia and it would take two weeks. Hmmmm….They also needed to modify the glass door frame to accommodate the new hinges and he would send someone to dismantle the doors and take it back to the factory. He was very apologetic but what good are apologies when I was sooooooo frustrated. Anyway, what could I do but accept it.

I said my silent prayer, again – never again would I do any business with this company. Never.

We succumbed to Astro! Mainly because we’re missing all that international news….I always miss CNN, BBC World and al-Jazeera news when I’m here in Malaysia. I find the local news channels don’t carry too much international updates. In Kuwait, I’d always be “listening” to the news whatever I’m doing – whether its working in our office or fixing a meal in the kitchen. Dan also thought it would be great to be able to watch his favourite sport on TV – football!

Suffice to say, Astro now hails as the most efficient service provider in my book. Dan went on line on Saturday night, chose a package, signed up and waited. We did wonder how long it would take. Today – Tuesday – they called and said the installer would come around 3pm to install the decoder.

They came at 3:30pm, took out the decoder, plugged it in, connected the MATV point, connected it to the TV and that was it. Voila….Astro started downloading and we should be able to catch CNN’s latest update around 5:30pm!

Wow. Is that service or what?

Bernard’s installer, on the other hand, was still struggling to fix my under-the-sink-trash can!

Since arriving this morning at 10am, he had been busy installing all the other outstanding stuff -

• the fridge door and the shelf and cupboard above the fridge door
• the 4 glass doors with the parallel opening mechanism, and
• the skirting underneath the cabinets

Last week I got really upset with Bernard, complaining about the slow pace of completion of my new kitchen. What was supposed to have been completed within two weeks (remember I was supposed to get my new kitchen by 17th July?) has taken more than a month!

Either Murphy (of “Murphy’s Law” fame!) had been busy or my kitchen contractor is not up to the mark.

I think its the latter – Bernard is a nice guy, too nice in fact, but I think he has too much on his plate. He seems to have very little control over the project. Overall coordination has been very bad. I heard many people have left the company so there is no one. In fact the lady who designed my kitchen and I think would have project-managed my kitchen also left since the time we appointed them. Poor Bernard. But that’s NOT my problem. A finished kitchen is what I want. So last week I gave Bernard an ultimatum – fix everything soon or I talk to Peggy! She’s the owner….the lady boss much feared.

So Bernard made a commitment to clear everything today. And they have been at it since morning. Bernard left around 2pm but his installer stayed on to complete everything.

From him I’ve learnt that there are a lot of “firsts” in this project. Its scary. I know. But what to do. We did our research. We got many different quotations. And we made a decision. The truth is you don’t really know who you’re working with or what you’re going to get until you do it.

I look around and everyday there is a new kitchen specialist advertising their services or launching a showroom. I think by now, I know a lot more about renovating and installing a new kitchen so that if I had to do it again, it would be a much better experience.

At the end of the day, my kitchen is what I wanted it to be and for that I’m grateful.

Its HOW we got here that was frustrating….

I think it was the rain that made everyone (except for Andrew and gang) disappear. Anyone who has done any renovation work in Malaysia will have heard that when it rains, contractors and their workers don’t turn up for work. Or they just turn up late. All kinds of things happen. One of the guys had a punctured tyre. Others I guess got stuck in traffic which is usually nothing more than a crawl when it rains.

After Bernard walked in, everyone turned up. Francis started working at lightning speed. He installed the tap to the piping for the washing machine, then asked me to test it. I threw some stuff in and started the machine. Nothing untoward happened. The plumbing was fine.

He started working on the dishwasher. It didn’t take him long to install the door, now that he has the missing brackets. I asked them to help me move our previous fridge from the breakfast area to the utility room. We thought of using the fridge as a supplementary fridge in case our new built-in fridge-freezer was too small. Well, for sure it stays in the utility room until our Bosch fridge-freezer gets here. Well, the washing machine and the fridge fill up the tiny utility room! I think we’ll stick to our initial plan to move fridge and the microwave oven to our Windsor apartment which we will try to rent after some minor renovation. I need all the space I can get in the utility room for other stuff.

Things were really moving. Andrew and his technician started working on the tall larder unit, fixing the baskets and securing the whole thing to the carcass. They had been waiting to install it only after the fridge had been installed but since the fridge was delayed and yours truly was cracking the whip, they decided to go ahead and install it. That done, Francis installed the door and handles.

My kitchen looks more like a kitchen now.

So right now only two things were missing – the fridge and the four glass doors which could not be installed because the parallel door hinges had the wrong “piston”. Apparently they had installed “250" strength and it was too hard for the weight of the door. They tried “150” and it was too flimsy. Andrew said that they were ordering the in-between “180” strength and just-in-case, also the “200” strength to be couriered from Italy. He also said that his principal from Germany was arriving in KL later in the afternoon and he would like to bring him over to show the problem and make sure it wasn’t an installation problem.

When all the work was done, Bernard’s installer cleaned all the cabinets and put little plugs to cover all the screw holes and we cleared the place up. Everyone left around 5pm except for Bernard. We tested the dishwasher to make sure the plumbing worked, then Bernard said we could remove the brown protective film that the factory had put on all the cabinet doors and drawers to protect them.

I started to see my real kitchen. Even though the fridge wasn’t in yet and the glass doors were yet to be installed, Bernard said I could start filling up the cupboards and drawers and use the kitchen.

Our new kitchen sparkled! We had chosen white acrylic spray paint finish and so our kitchen looked amazingly huge. The illusion of colour. I still couldn’t fully appreciate the kitchen because of the missing fridge and the four glass doors but I was excited that we now had a fully functional kitchen!

I brought the basic stuff to make coffee in our new kitchen tomorrow morning – kettle, cups, coffee, sugar, spoons etc. I plugged in my iPod, lit an aromatherapy burner, and had a Coke in my new kitchen to celebrate.

Mabruuk, as they would say in Kuwait on an occasion like this! I couldn’t wait to start “moving in”.