My built-in Microwave Oven

I never planned for one but decided to after all, get a built-in unit to complete the "look" of my kitchen. Moreover, I just need a basic unit to compliment my baking & cooking plans. Not doing anything fancy with it.

I ended up with a brand new and recently launched Fagor Microwave Oven. It cost me RM999.



I find its features pretty good and moreover, it is stainless steel finishing which I prefer.

It looks neat, not bulky at all and compliments my Ariston oven too.

Best Deal for Fotile Hood & Hob

If you are looking for a Fotile hood & hob, I can tell you where to get the best price! There are the top distributors & wholesalers for Fotile in Malaysia! They supply a lot to smaller electrical shops, renovation contractors, housing developers, interior design companies, etc in Malaysia and therefore, they are able to get good prices from Fotile Malaysia. Try JF Electrical in Subang (near Devil's Crab).

It was by chance that I knew about them. Remember the Ariston oven that I got for a freaking cheap price during their Carnival Sale last month? Well, it is the same distributor. Just trying my luck, I asked the salesman if they carried other brands in their store and he told me yes, they have a variety of brands for ovens, hoods & hobs. I was delighted to know they also carried Rinnai, Pacific, Teka, etc in addition to Fotile.

I visited them on a Sat morning and was a wee bit disappointed when I located the outlet. They are just a tiny outlet with no customers inside. Only a few lorry transporters walking in & out carrying some items out of the shop. I walked in and met the lady boss who was kind enough to show me the range that she carried. I enjoyed her hospitality and frank comments as well as they attractive prices. After all the Q&A between us, I finally decided on these two models.

Hood = D5BH
Hob = FA6B (latest model)

I chose this particular hood because I like the tempered glass finishing that gives the hood a more modern look. Although this design has been around for quite some time, it fits my needs for my new home in terms of looks & usage. It has a suction power of 900m3/h which I think is more than enough for normal cooking at home. Moreover, the higher the suction power, the louder the noise is.

My initial preference for the hob was the 5-nozzle burner that gives a much higher and more even fire all round. But it is much expensive. For the model that I chose, it has a 4-nozzle burner, the fire was pretty hot very quickly. This because the fire level in this particular model has been raised and is very close to your pot or pans, thus warming it up much faster, resulting is shorter cooking time using up less gas.

Another feature I like about it is that the fire is "adjustable". Normally when gas is running low, the color of the fire is yellow. This adjustable feature allows you to utilise the little gas left in the tank as efficiently as possible and turning it into blue flames once again until you totally run out of gas in the tank.

When I visited Homedec 08, I also eyed a Fotile hood & hob combination there and that dealer refused to budge even a single dollar, telling me that the retail price was "specially" formulated for a "special" event like Homedec! Ya sure! Specially expensive! From then on Homedec is for me to do research and see the latest products and "test water" to see how far they can offer me discounts! I never never buy electrical items from exhibitions!

HomeDec 08 - Results

Visited HomeDec 08 last Saturday and then headed for mom's place to make some konnyaku jelly. Yeah, did not cry .. hahaha... tell you why.

My main "target" was to get some good deals for my hoob, hob & oven combi for my new home. But before even going to this exhibition, I made several visits to some stores to find out more about the current prices and their latest store promotions. So at least, when I am at the exhibition, I know if they are indeed offering a real good deal.

And guess what! From the so-called "special exhibition prices" offered, I realised that I can easily get better deals on an ordinary day from a few of the electrical outlets in town. So hey! Who are you kidding with all your "special exhibition prices" huh???? I was indeed glad that I did some "homework" instead of rushing blindly to this exhibition.

What we did purchase on that day was a water filteration system. We bought the Kinetico system that has an auto back-wash (that means we dont have to do anything, it automatically does the back-wash when the system detects clogging). Moreover, this is a US made product and comes with a 10 year warranty! We only had to place a 30% deposit and only upon installation, we pay up the balance. So, one down, many more decisions to make *headache*.

Our other objective was to get some interior designer contacts. Wow .. these so called designers do make good money! Hardly one or two is willing to give a free advise for broad interior design consultancy. The rest straight way wanted to charge RM1,000 fee or even more! Sigh. So what we did was, we gave them a copy of our home's layout plan (which I prepared several sets in advance .. hehehe) and asked them if they are willing to provide free initial consultancy on interior design as we are not willing to fork out RM1,000 for something we have totally no idea! So if they can come up with something which we feel is the "look & feel" of what we like, then we will proceed further. Smart eh ... well, times are bad, so have to make sure we dont spend wastefully .. and times are bad, sure they need to attract customers too ... best of both worlds!

So hopefully, a week or two after the exhibition, those designers will have some time to work on my floor layout plan and call us in for a free preview!

Electrolux Warehouse Sale

I just dont have the mood to blog about this warehouse sale *sob*sob*. Cos all the built-in ovens were sold waaaaaaaay before I arrived!!!! Urrg!!!!

It was a one day sale on 8 Nov at their office in Shah Alam (on the right just after Batu 3 toll) from 9am-5pm. I never thought that soooo many people would jump for the built-in ovens so I reached there around 2pm only (after going about some usual Sat morning errands).

When I reached there, I ignored all their cheap juicers, vacuum cleaners & the rest and concentrated on locating the ovens! Ovens! But I could not sight a single one! Then I asked a lady (wearing the Electrolux t/shirt) .. excuse me .. do you have any built-in ovens on sale? And she replied ... aiyoh, built-in ovens ah ... you must come very early about 8am .. although we start at 9am .. cos they are our best selling items .. so everybody will come and grab it !

My heart instantaneously shrank and I could feel the pain physically. Yes. Its true. It was indeed painful. I felt soooo sad. Almost devastating. My face was long & heavy. It was even more painful when I saw the last unit getting packed for delivery and the price was ... only RM1,500. I could not believe my eyes.

I just put down my head and walked out to the lift lobby. I really had no further mood to look out for other bargains any more. Hubby was busy checking out the rest of the stuff .. and he did not realise that his wife was almost at the verge of tearing ...yes .. i cried when I reached the car. It was THAT painful.

Hood, Hob & Oven

The choices are really mind-boggling! And doing research for home-renovation is driving me nuts already! Wonder how I would feel when its really renovation time.

Visited Harvey Norman at Ikano Power Centre to see what's available and they had several booths with different brands for customers to view.






I think we Malaysians are probably the only ones in this world that has the priviledge of having both a wet & dry kitchen in our house. So that means, double the headache when it comes to planning *pening*.