5 Oct 2024: Off to Yosemite for a week-long camping trip.

I loved the drive up. I loved watching the landscape change from hilly desert to vast plains and farmland, then to boulders with green shrubbery and tall spruce/pine/fir trees as we climbed higher through the mountains. We stopped at Oakhurst to grab lunch and stock up on some firewood, before continuing on.

Thankfully the line to the park entrance wasn’t too long. While waiting in line we were given an unexpected treat; a young bear was running through the woods, then screeched to a halt upon seeing the long line of cars. It immediately pivoted and ran away as fast as it could. Both of us were so busy looking at the cute bear we both completely forgot to pull out our cameras. Was super happy for that sighting though.

We stopped by Tunnel View for some photos, most importantly to catch that same shot as what is stamped on our license plate. Such a breathtaking sight. We then continued on to our campsite to set up and get settled in, stopping to stock up on water beforehand.

We didn’t do much as night came, just had dinner and rested, waiting for the next day to start.

Yosemite Day 1 ~End~

#yosemite #tunnelview #bridalveilfall #elcapitan ...

27-28 Sep 2024: We finally got started on our main DIY project, our flooring 😆

Our objective: to remove the existing carpets and install vinyl planks. Many weeks before, we already picked out the design we wanted. We’re going for the Banff Gray Hickory planks by Lifeproof. Installing these planks doesn’t seem too difficult. The challenge was in prepping the existing subflooring.

Actually, prep work started way earlier. While Faizal is at work, I took my time ripping out the old carpets, padding, and carpet tacks, and dumped them all in the backyard. Thank goodness we don’t get much rain this time of year. 😅 Because we needed to pour concrete leveler to bring up the floor underneath the carpet to the same level as the floor tiles, I also covered the gap between the floor and drywall with sill gasket and caulking. This is to make sure the concrete moisture doesn’t get soaked up by the drywall. I scraped the floor for any glue marks, sealed the control joint with insulating foam, then vacuumed as best as I could.

Faizal then surveyed the depth of multiple spots in the floor vs the tiles. We could see some areas dipping lower than others.

Then came the time to pick up the self-leveling concrete. Based on Faizal’s calculations, we needed 24 50-pound bags. That’s a little over half a ton in total 😅. Pushing the cart at Home Depot, loading and unloading the truck was quite the feat.

We worked on mixing and pouring the cement the same night in the living area, continuing on the family area the next day. Despite the name, the concrete didn’t exactly self-level so easily. When we resurveyed the leveled floor the next day, there were still uneven spots.

Fixing this had to wait, though. We were going on a trip and needed to focus on prepping for that.

Pretty bummed out we couldn’t get the flooring done before I return to KL, but I did use the visualization tool on the Home Depot site to see what our flooring might look like eventually. Looks like this will have to wait until I return in January. ...

22 Sep 2024: Finally finished painting the first floor feature walls.

We got a little sidetracked by our backsplash project, but after taking a breather, we spent the rest of the day on finishing our paint work.

While Faizal was at work earlier in the week, I helped with most of the site prep, taping up the windows, covering the fireplace, and ripping out the skirting. Faizal patched any damaged parts of the wall.

For our feature walls, we used a darker shade, Grey Stone. Really love the color combination. Now we’ll have to also think about changing the tiles on the fireplace at some point 😅

Faizal also perfected his methodology for using the edger painter. We had issues with smearing because the edger painter gets oversaturated with paint, but this can be controlled by applying paint on it using a roller. Starting to paint a bit further from the edge also helps, as this gives us room to smooth out any pooling or excess paint. We only started using this in the family room area; wish we figured this out earlier 😆 Would’ve saved us the trouble of taping up the corners.

Paintwork done! Now we can finally focus on our main DIY project (Yes, this too was ‘scope creep’ 😆)

#homediy #homerepaint #homerepainting ...

So, uh, incidentally, we installed a kitchen backsplash. 😆 [Part 2]

Since we’ll be working with wet grout during the installation, Faizal took out the power outlets and taped the wires as an extra precaution. After the initial mapping out of the tiles, we did accurate measurements for the socket holes, and to cut the tiles accordingly ahead of time. We traced the box extender to know the bare minimum we could go for the hole to fit, and used the faceplate as a guide for the maximum size limit for the hole. We opted for an oversized faceplate to give us a better margin of error. From there we determined which tiles could be removed outright, and which ones need cutting. Faizal then makes the necessary cuts. We repeated this process for all the remaining sockets, and he really spent the whole night getting it done, finishing at around 1am 😅

We performed the installation on 21 Sep 2024. Love how well the pre-cut holes fit the power outlet sockets. I guess the methodology we used worked well 😊. Faizal’s idea to give a 1/8th-inch buffer also paid off.

We decided to extend the tiles behind the stove a bit further down than originally planned. Managed to utilize scrap tiles.

For installations using Simplemat, grouting needs to be done immediately. Took some getting used to, but eventually we got the hang of it. I was on cleanup duty, wiping off the excess grout before it dries up. I found sponging followed by a final wipe using microfiber cloth to be most effective for me.

We continued work the next day. After reinstalling the power sockets, we then began applying caulking. For edges adjacent to different materials, we should seal the gaps with silicone caulking, to allow for any expansion. We also used it on any open edges to give it a more ‘finished’ look.

This was a very interesting experience for us, the prep work, tiling, grouting and the caulking. It took us longer than we thought, because we both were so particular about certain things, but I think the outcome made all that effort worth it. Now we just need to find the time to upgrade the cabinets and countertop to match 😆

Achievement unlocked!

#homediy #kitchenbacksplash #diykitchenbacksplash ...

So, uh, incidentally, we installed a kitchen backsplash. 😆 [Part 1]

We have been thinking of installing one for a while, but that was definitely not part of our current DIY plan initially. However, having recently painted our walls, it felt like such a waste to not take advantage of this clean, grease-free wall surface in the kitchen. Next thing we knew, we were back in Home Depot picking up our new backsplash and the necessary supplies. 😅 We covered the area behind the stove as soon as we decided to install the backsplash, and also left the wall socket faceplates off.

We wanted something more random or chaotic, nothing too structured or neat-looking. Colors should be in shades of grey, but we didn’t want any pieces too dark. We finally chose the Positano mesh-mounted mosaic design, with mostly glass and some stone tile pieces.

Apparently regular mortar won’t work well on painted surfaces, and we really didn’t want to sand our newly painted walls. In our research, we discovered an interesting product called SimpleMat, which is literally a sheet of double sided sticker you use to stick tiles onto walls. While Faizal was at work I could prep ahead and stick these sheets onto our kitchen wall, protecting it from grease and grime until we were ready to start work over the weekend. In fact, discovering this product was the deciding factor for us to move ahead with installing the backsplash now, instead of later.

Another thing we had to figure out was how to cut the tiles. There were a few options, but the best, cleanest method was to use a wet saw. The thing is, renting one is a pain and we’d still need to buy our own blades. In the end Faizal experimented with his existing Dremel using a diamond tip, and that worked pretty well. Yay!

We devoted a lot of time into prep work. Faizal removed an unused phone jack, and patched the wall. He cut tiles. I did an initial mapping out of the tiles, plotting where the wall sockets and angles are going to be, which ones need to be cut, etc. We even went back to Home Depot for additional supplies and to exchange a few defective tiles.

TBC in the next post.

#homediy #kitchenbacksplash #diykitchenbacksplash #simplemat ...

14 Sep 2024: primary color DONE ✅

A large chunk of time was dedicated to just prep work. Removed nails, patched holes, taped edges/corners, and removed switch/electrical panels. Also removed the carpet from the bottom two steps of the stairs. The kitchen area was particularly tedious, as there was a lot of taping involved and we also had to prep the area behind the fridge.

Once everything was set, the paint work itself was relatively quick. We finished a lot earlier today, and gosh were we knackered 😴 The house was a complete disaster, but we’ll tidy up tomorrow. Or later 😅

Actually we might go to Home Depot and pick up the feature wall paint tomorrow 😆

#homediy #homerepaint #homerepainting ...

13 Sep 2024: Started painting our 1st floor walls.

While Faizal was at work, I helped with some of the site prep. I removed the roller blinds and taped up the windows, and I also stripped out the old baseboards. Faizal patched up any defects on the wall surface when he got home.

We’re going for a grey palette overall, and our primary color was Tundra Frost. For the base, we picked Gliddan’s Diamond interior paint in satin sheen. It was fascinating to watch the guys at Home Depot mix our paint.

Painting was fun. Faizal did the more intricate “cutting”work, mostly using the edger painter tool we got (quite interesting), as well as painting the higher areas. I was primarily on roller duty, and that was surprisingly quite therapeutic 😝 Thank goodness for YouTube videos to teach me how to do it efficiently. Also did some cutting using the angle brush.

We managed to cover about half of the walls this evening, and I think we’re on track to finish this weekend, perhaps even the feature wall.

TBC tomorrow. Faizal managed to squeeze in a few more wall patches before bed, so that it’s good to go tomorrow 😂 Good night!

#homediy #homerepaint #homerepainting ...

Sep 8 2024: We began repainting our 1st (ground) floor 😆

We started with our ceilings first, redoing the white paint. We were trying out Faizal’s swanky paint sprayer, so the site prep was a lot more involved. Aside from removing or taping over grates and lighting and accessories, we needed to cover up our bigger furniture, appliances, and kitchen area. We also needed to wear protective gear, such as respirators, eye protection and a hazmat suit.

It took a while to figure out the machine and the actual spraying, but we managed to finish all of the ceilings in a few hours. I was on laser pointer duty, helping Faizal to point out areas not yet covered, since we were painting white on white. I think it would’ve been infinitely faster if we were doing our walls instead of the ceiling, because here a lot more time was spent on moving and getting on/off the ladder 😅 The lower ceilings in contrast were done super quick. The whole exercise was so intense I completely forgot to take any photos or videos 🤦🏻‍♀️

The cleanup after was a real pain. There were particles everywhere. Thankfully we didn’t care about the floor/carpet because we’re redoing our flooring after this, but mopping up was still a chore. We did so many passes with our mop and bucket and still it felt like I it could use a bit more cleaning 😞 The plastic covers worked really well though. Phew!

Our conclusion? Spraying is a bit too much trouble for its worth for us, and perhaps better suited for new construction or bare units. We also don’t know how best to control the overspray once we start on the walls. We’re gonna switch to regular rollers for the walls.

Will continue the following weekend with more interesting colors. Yay!

#homediy #houserepaint #houserepainting ...

I made wonton soup noodles a couple of weeks back.

Made my wontons ahead of time and froze them, and here I finally took them out for making dinner. I used an apparently popular and simple recipe by @madewithlau. I completely cheated and used chicken stock cube (the recipe called for canned broth anyway). I blanched the noodles first in a separate pot of boiling water, dunked the noodles in cold water then back into the boiling water for a few more seconds. This technique really did make the noodles springier. I made the soup, then blanched the veg, cooked the prawns and dumplings in the soup. Overall I liked the dish, I think my wontons could use a bit more seasoning, and perhaps I should kick up the soup with some cili padi. I even boiled wontons to top my chicken instant noodle lunch the next day 😆Yum!

#madewithlaurecipe #wontonnoodles #wontonnoodlesoup #maggiayam ...

Today I tried making Rotiboy. I’m in trouble 😅

Been thinking about making this for years now, but the recent closure of the iconic (to me, at least) Rotiboy branch in KLCC sparked some nostalgia in me, and nudged me to finally get it going today.

Plenty of videos online, but I was intrigued by the method shared by Buttermilk Pantry on YouTube so I tried that one. The dough was pretty sticky, made even worse since the egg I used was extra large, but thankfully it was still manageable. Interestingly, the directions call for us to wrap a chunk of butter in a smaller piece of dough, before wrapping it with a bigger piece of dough to make a roll. The idea was to prevent the butter from leaking out during baking. I sort of screwed up this step, I think 2 or 3 still leaked, but it’s just something I just need to get better at with practice. (*gasp* more Rotiboy? The horror! 😂)

Making the coffee topping was interesting for me, as I’m more of a bread person and very rarely work with cake or cookie batter. The piping bags here at home were a bit too large given the amount of frosting, so I just repurposed a small Ziploc bag. My piping skill leaves much to be desired (again, must practice), and next time I really need to add more frosting.

The coffee crust were nice and crunchy out of the oven. My only gripe was the rolls didn’t have that cavernous hole full of melty salted butter goodness like the ones from Rotiboy. I wonder if it’s because the butter leaked out, or something I screwed up during shaping.

My first attempt still has some room for improvement, but OMG these turned out so so good. Faizal and I thought to share just one at first, but quickly realized we needed to immediately share one more 😆 I have a feeling I might make more very soon. Habislah. Achievement unlocked!

#rotiboy #nakmakanbuatsendiri #rotibuatsendiri #homemadebread #mexicancoffeebun #coffeebun #coffeebuns ...

Made jalapeno cheddar pierogi the other day!

Faizal mentioned Costco used to sell frozen pierogis, specifically the jalapeno cheddar ones, which he recalled being quite yummy. Took us a while to finally identify the brand, @peterandpatspierogies. It doesn’t seem to be selling anywhere here now, so the next best thing was to try and make it myself. I took a look at the ingredients - in addition to cheddar and jalapeno, it also contained onions. I then scoured the internet for various pierogi recipes, and cobbled together something of my own.

For the filling, I cut the potatoes into 1 1/2 inch chunks, and salted the water well when boiling (1 tbsp for every pound of potatoes). I used a mix of mild and sharp cheddars, finely chopped 1 jalapeno pepper, and caramelized some onions in butter before adding them all into the potatoes. I love the potato masher attachment on my Braun hand blender - super smooth mash at a fraction of the time.

Next, to wrap these up into pierogis.

Followed a pretty standard recipe for the pierogi dough, but I subtituted butter/margarine with (beef) bacon fat I happened to to have on hand 😆 Pierogi dough is generally firmer than regular bread dough, and shouldn’t be too wet or sticky. I rolled the dough into 1/8-inch thick disc, cut 3 1/2-inch circles into it, and scooped about a tablespoon of filling into each pierogi. I tried a few pleating styles, including karipap style, but I think my favorite is the second style in the pictures. Pierogis are then boiled until they float, then browned either on the stovetop, or in my case, I chose air frying. Air fried these at 400f/205c for 10 minutes, and boy oh boy these were amazing once fried. Crispy yet still slightly chewy, and the filling was super yums. Faizal said this did remind him of the ones he had before, and even better when fried. Froze a bunch for when we want a yummy snack. Will definitely make again!

#nakmakanbuatsendiri #pierogi #pierogifilling #jalapenocheddarpierogies #jalapenocheddarpierogi ...

Not my best shots, but I made bacon, cheese and green onion omelette for breakfast today.

Cooked 1 large strip of beef bacon to a perfect crisp in the air fryer at 400f/205c for 9 minutes, then crumbled. Beat three large eggs with a tablespoon of water, seasoned it and set it aside. Chopped up some green onions, portioned out about 30g of shredded cheddar, then started cooking. Melted the butter, scrambled the egg until they started to set, then spread them out over low heat. Added the fillings then folded it into three. I like my omelettes a bit golden brown, so I took my time a little before flipping. Unfortunately this was a quick process, so I didn’t have any photos until after the omelette was folded. Garnished with extra green onions and served. I absolutely loved the contrast of textures between the crispy bacon and the gooey cheese. This turned out really perfectly for me. Will definitely make again.

#omelet #omelette #frenchomelette #baconcheeseomelette #nakmakanbuatsendiri #nakmakanmasaksendiri ...