Comments on: Treasure hunts

By: Mahmood’s Den · Our living room is back!

Mahmood’s Den · Our living room is back! — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 06:07:33 +0000

[...] After about 5 weeks of having the house in turmoil due to a water leak from the master bathroom, we finally have our living room fixed tonight. [...]

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By: mahmood

mahmood — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 06:31:57 +0000

Damn you’re good!

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By: Johnster

Johnster — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 06:03:23 +0000

Well mahmood, here is your next business idea. An internet tile matching service because:

1) Many tile retailers must have thousands of boxes of odd tiles that are just a pain to store and get in the way

2) Many householders need to buy the odd tile to replace a cracked or chipped one.

A website could be set up where retailers can input details and photo’s and where consumers can search by size, colour, pattern

I’m sure people would be prepared to pay quite a lot for two or three tiles just to get them to match. The website takes 50% of the price and everyone’s happy.

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 15:27:22 +0000

gcse results tommorrow…..

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By: mahmood

mahmood — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:45:43 +0000

Fight about God is a certainty!

Good luck with the marble spare. We were lucky enough to locate the very last remaining 12 sq. meters of matching tiles from the same original shipment! They’ve delivered them to the house earlier in the afternoon, and people will start working again tomorrow at 7.

A bummer to get Frances out of bed that early on a weekend (the last ever Thu/Fri weekend! we’re starting the Fri/Sat from Sept 1st) and on her birthday!

But there you go, we’ll sacrifice quite a lot just to get our house back in order.

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By: Au

Au — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:04:48 +0000

It’s a drag that you have to put up with this tile problem Mahmood. I had never thought about matching the tiles twenty years from now but I will consider this now as I’m trying to decide what kind of marble to put down on my basement floor.

You know it would be nice if the shops were open 24/7 and we had a world wide 3 day weekend, to accommodate all the religions. I wonder what we are going to do when mechanical robots do all the drudgery work? Yes, it seems that in a generation or two computers and machines will be able to do all the maid work etc. so, what are the people going to do, design tiles, art work, fight about God?

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By: mahmood

mahmood — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:59:12 +0000

Anon, it’s up to them. The private sector are given the choice to go 5, 5.5 or 6 days as long as they compensate their employees accordingly and respect the law.

The Chamber of Commerce’s circular states:

قرار إداري رقــم ( 30 ) لسنة 2006 بشأن تعديل مواعيد الدوام الرسمي

أولاً : تأكيـداً على استمرار العمل بنظام ستة أيام عمــل في الأسبوع المعمـول به في غرفــة تجارة وصناعة البحرين ( من السبت إلى الخميس )، فقد قررنا تعديل مواعيد الحضور والانصراف لتكون على النحو التالي:

- يــــوم الســـــبـت : من الساعة 8:00 صباحاً إلى الساعة 1:00 بعد الظهر.
- الأحد إلى الخميس: من الساعة 8:00 صباحاً إلى الساعة 2:00 بعد الظهر.

ثانياً : تكون ساعات الدوام الرسمي خلال شهر رمضان المبارك على النحو التالي :
- السبت إلى الخميس: من الساعة 8:30 صباحاً إلى الساعة 1:30 بعد الظهر.

ثالثاً : يخضع موظفـي الغرفــة الملحقين بالعمل في مكاتب الغرفــة الخارجيــة الموجودة في حدود مباني ومرافق الوزارات والأجهزة الحكومية للأنظمة والقرارات المعمول بها في تلك الوزارات بشأن أيام ومواعيد العمل والإجازات والعطل الرسمية

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By: mahmood

mahmood — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:54:29 +0000

That’s the major regret I have for not building the house myself, but buying an already built house. Although the company which designed developed the property is one of the highest regarded on the island (AAA Homes), there are niggly things that we would have done differently ourselves.

There was no choice for building or buying for us, it was we have to buy an already built house because if we got involved in the building (1) I would have ended up dead from high blood pressure or a massive aneurism or on the gallows for killing someone, (2) I don’t have the patience, I really don’t. God invented architects and builders for me to go and buy a house which we approve by 95%, which is more than I can hope for really, that’s the major reason we went for this house: it’s well designed by one of the best architects on the island, well (enough) constructed and it’s got a nice space for a garden.

So we’ll gladly put up with these “forced improvements!”

We’ve identified the tiles (different, but at least from the same company!) and we’re buying them today, with a border we have chosen to create a natural “break” for the pattern.

The way the bathroom floors were constructed like a (club!) sandwich:

1. slabs at the bottom
2. cement over the slabs
3. do the water proofing (the white you see in the picture)
4. put the pipes and support them with bricks and cement
5. fill in the whole area with rock-crush sand and regular sand to act as an absorbent and lend a lighter support for the structure (rather than heavy cement)
6. cement over the whole lot and tile

No idea how the upstairs floors are done, but I suspect the same principle? No idea and I don’t want to break anything down to have a looksee!

I’ll post pictures once done.

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 04:37:52 +0000

This way off topic Mahmood, but am just curious,does the new weekend system means some banks will have their employees work half a day on friday?? or half a saturday?

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By: Pamela

Pamela — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 04:08:16 +0000

I come from a long long line of builders and did tile setting as a teenager for summer work. The tile master always recommended buying 2 or 3 extra boxes of tile for repairs etc… but your bathroom looks like it will take more than 2 or 3 boxes.

No one room in my house that I grew up is the same. My old room, only changes were paint and new windows, but every room is different. Lived all my life in some construction mess of some sorts with plastic sheeting up to protect us from dust.

Good luck with the bathroom, keep us informed how it goes.

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