de-tile-ing our home

 

Took a half-day off from office routine last Monday to go here - Batu 14, Hulu Langat. With Tebby la of course.. This pekan is a cowboy-ish small town. Once we took the exit from highway at Batu 11, I was brought back to my own hometown. Stalls lining the roadsides selling kampung produce (bantal kekabu oso got!) small shops selling furniture, kedai kain and whatnots. The road is just a two-lane, you need to have patience to lalu here. Got lori besar in front, that's it. Just follow its bontot especially when the traffic is heavy on both sides. If your children are not with you, you can curse a bit :D Joking okay.

Anyway, we were not there for kampung produce (we did a stop though, on the way back cause Tebby couldn't resist this small shop selling keropok lekor ^-^), furniture or kain. We were there for tiles! The house renovation has progressed into a little more detail thingy. Tiles, tap, sinks, hood, hob, counter-top. Boy, to say I am not excited with all these, that would be a lie. Thing is, I am too excited that at times I do not even want to think about it (like that oso got?) I am afraid if we make mistakes in choosing. The color, the material, the combinations.. yada yada yada. Worse, the mistake that would be too expensive to rectify. The mistake that we'll have to live with for a long long time.

The very the less glamorous than Viva Home Center :D We went there once, and Adam came back with high fever! But that's not about fever what-so-ever lah kan. This one is suggested by our contractor. Tiles cost is already included in his quotation. We were there just to pick and choose. Mula-mula nak sampai sini, I was like 'Betul ke jalan ni Yang?' Sebab macam nak masuk kampung ai je..

 

It's a showroom cum store. They have ready stocks depending on tiles. Being sempoi that we are, we picked from ready stocks they have. Malas nak tunggu :D

Myriads of colors, texture, shapes and sizes to choose from! Headache you know. What goes well with this? Will this look good? Will it look dull and boring? Will it be good to have different color here? Or all same color? Monotone? Contrasting? Licin or not kalau basah? Most importantly? Senang cuci tak? :D :D

The beige on top.. that's for bathroom wall. I was quite tempted to combine with the lower one. Simple geometric patterns in brown grey. But *ahem* that one is RM30.00+ per piece. The plain one on top, tak sampai RM10.00. Kenot a Yang? Owh, kenot.. I asked, I answered.

Since I was too lazy to think, we'll use the same combination for both bathrooms (we do not touch the 3rd one, budget constraint)

 

Aww.. sukanya hasben ai pilih tiles u ols! Baju kuning tu our contractor, Mazlan.

Granite! *gasp* Love at first sight u ols! The color, the texure.. oh la la.. they are so me!
Can I have this in the kitchen Yang? No.
Probably on the walls only? No.
Okaylah, the backsplash area only? No.
Okaylah, take gambar only la..

You see, granites are expensive. If the normal tiles is RM15, granite is RM30. Instead of losing 2 strands of hair, you'll lose 4 :D

That day we picked tiles for kitchen, bathrooms and porch. No gambar dah after that, I was too busy choosing and proposing, justifying (and sulking ha ha). Almost all picks are matte-finish, with some texture, in grey, off-whites, beige. You see, I am afraid of playing with colors. My palette would be of grey, brown, whites, pastels, earth-tones. The most outstanding color of that day was terracota for our porch. Afraid it might be too flaming-orangy, on the sides we'll have grey tiles :D Perhaps putting a bit of grey tiles forming some kind of simple design in the middle, you know,.. to tone down that terracota hues. Aiyoh.. kenot la. Me and kaler buruk (as my mother puts it) cannot be separated :D

This, reminds me of my early years of working. Punch card! Lewat three times, tukar kaler card. It would be visible to everyone who was always late hihi.

Just when we were about to leave the premise (after headache dealing with colors, texture and size), there was a tapping sound kat pintu kereta. Rolled down the mirror.

'Kak, tiles dapur yang akak pilih tu dah takde stok'

Oh well! Since we had earlier on shortlisted 3 colors, we just picked the second option. Off white instead of white with tints of green.

Okay, tiles done. Next!