Ghar ke side-effects

Statutory warning: The title and the following post can remind you of the plots of many Bollywood movies, but I can assure you that it is purely non-fictional and un-inspired from reel life.

It's been a long four years of having the most coveted milestone of "owning a house" under our belts. Now, if you belong to the salaried class who is constantly trying to climb up the slippery wall of affluence, only to see the wall dismally getting higher and more slippery and your legs and hands weary of climbing, not because you cannot but because you're worn down with the weight of EMIs, loans and soaring expenses, you'll understand what a big deal this is. If you do not belong to this category, I suggest you move on because what's coming next might make you laugh or cry, depending upon how you view this class:-p

The first year of the arduous house hunt involved turning down projects because they were either so ridiculously priced that you wanted to laugh hysterically at the marketing sales guy who sold a mere 1000 sqft flat for "just" 1 crore (not all inclusive), or they were located in the farthest most crevices of the city and just the mere thought of crawling out of the hole and getting to the nearest school, mall or office in the (in)famous Bangalore traffic could make you tired and hungry! So, when at the end of it, when we found a property that didn't burn down our pockets and was relatively in a good location, we carried smug looks around and pitied people who missed the (our) bus.

The second year flew by fast and we didn't realize until much later that our beloved little home hadn't really metamorphosed into that beautiful haven we had been promised over pre-launch talks and welcome drinks. It was just struggling to gain some shape after the cocoon of fraudulent marketing broke. Now, of course, I can choose to think of it as a blessing in disguise because in the process of extracting work from the workers who had brick walls in place of brains, I soon learned the ropes of plumbing, masonry and other sundry construction work. Anybody looking to build their house can please contact me.

Finally, we decided, like many of our neighbours, that we move lock, stock and barrel to our abode which was, albeit a little under-finished, quite literally an effort of our sweat and blood. We began to settle in as a community bonding over the common misery of being cheated. Oh, the human mind! There's so much solace in knowing that you are not the only fool and you have company in suffering.

We prided us on our multi-tasking skills by getting on with our normal life ( as normal as life could get with leaking pipes, broken tiles and ignorant handymen) and taking the builder to task to finish the pending work using the Chanakya neeti of saam daam danda bhed. If only, Chanakya would've been alive today, he could've seen how even his neeti proved ineffective on unscrupulous goons of today who made the Aam junta get entangled in the maze of timelines. Many a times, I did feel like rolling my eyes and bellowing at the goons like our Sunny paji, "how dare you keep giving us tareekh pe tareekh?!" But, I refrained because, sadly, I lacked a dhai kilo ka haath.

Even this was becoming a new normal way of living and it seemed even adventurous to many. I swear none of us said, "yeh dil maange more" but the universe misheard us and gave us more strife. This time with additional villains in the guise of neighbouring landowners. They seem to be influenced by our country's notorious neighbour and claimed a share in our property. We might soon take training in guerrilla warfare. Life is certainly happening here and as things stand we might soon go down in the annals of history for fighting at our LOC a la mini India-Pak border war.

"Har Ghar kuch kehta hai" goes the Asian Paints Ad. In this case, I'd like to add "har ghar khareedne wala bahut kuch kehta hai". If any of you is planning on taking a movie but is at a loss for ideas, please feel free to get "inspired". You could even feature hapless residents like us during the credit rolls singing, "oh paape, ghar khareedke pachtaya." 

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On my experience of working with a designer.

When I began my search for an interior designer who'd give wings to my thoughts, I reached out to people- strangers and friends alike- for reference. However, I was drawing a blank for some or the other reasons. It was pure serendipity that I chanced upon Neelu's site (CozyNest interiors)during a random Google search for designers residing in this area. I really liked what I saw. A little more research and I was thrilled to note only glowing comments from all her clients giving me the much needed push to write her an email.

I received a prompt reply and soon we scheduled our first meeting. Much like meeting a prospective groom I was apprehensive about what to expect. I was unsure about how I was to decide if she was "the one". I was besieged by worrisome thoughts of what if I didn't like her designs? What if she didn't understand my idea of a home? What if we couldn't find a middle ground? So on and so forth. 

I needn't have bothered at all. The moment I met Neelu, I was much taken with her professional yet friendly demeanor. She was extremely approachable and seemed to be in complete control. I felt an instant connect with her. She spent a great deal of time talking to us and taking extensive notes. I realized that she was very detail-oriented from the manner in which she handled each of our requirements.

She got me thinking on aspects I'd not considered earlier: Do I want lights inside the wardrobe? Will under-cabinets light work for a fuss-free person like me? Even as she took down detailed notes, and I ticked off my check-list, I was also eager to make her understand the kind of look I had in mind. As though on cue, she asked me to share pictures and images of homes that were close to how I wanted my house to look.  The moment she said that I felt reassured of an association where my opinions and suggestions would be welcomed and treated on equal footing.

I was never once proved wrong on this point. I'd constantly badger Neelu with my worries, concerns and also pile upon her my suggestions.  She'd patiently hear me out, and address all my concerns, big or small. She equally welcomed my suggestions and ideas with an open mind.  It surely meant a lot to me because I wanted to be as involved as possible in the entire process and give it my personal touch.It was never the case of 'my way or the highway' with her even though we differed in our decor outlook. She stepped out of her comfort zone and was open to experiment. 

Her work is her passion and it shows in how she treats her client's home as she'd her own and invests a lot of time and effort for even the 'little' or 'insignificant' aspects.  She, also being a perfectionist with an eye for the smallest detail, does not shy away from taking a problem by the horns and tweaking it until she gets it right. 

Working with a designer may or may not work for everyone. It can be challenging and tedious both for the home owner and the designer. For the home owner because he is faced with the challenge of placing complete trust on someone who intrinsically an outsider to him and the ways of his family. For the designer because it is not an easy task to know and understand a person in a few meetings and design an abode that matches the personality of its owner. 

After knowing and working with Neelu for the past few months, I can safely say that our association has been very pleasant and we managed to break past the typical boundaries to bond at a more informal level. I truly wish her all the success and fame that she truly deserves in her career.

 

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Converting a brick house into a beautiful home

Yes, that's what has been predominantly on my mind for the past many months now. From the time the first brick in our house got laid, the image of the home I always wanted to have started to form in my mind. Much like the gestation period of a baby, it was fuzzy in the beginning and then slowly acquired specific shape and colour. Only, it took more time than it would take a baby to come into the world!

Creating a home is truly a rich experience. The pun is intended. You need buckets, no, truckloads of money! It is a time-consuming yet satisfying process. There are a lot of ups and downs in this journey and it definitely becomes easier if you have the right people and resources to help and guide you along the way.

While my pockets have become much lighter, I've become richer with all the learning along the way in the whole process. For my own record and for the benefit of those who might want to venture into a similar project, I want to jot down the vital steps that I took to come this far.
 
The first part is all about planning and researching:

Understanding your needs: If you are someone like me who is starting afresh, that is building your first home and do not have any belongings of value to take along, you might need to do some heavy investment that will keep you in good stead for quite some time. We have pretty much zeroed down on this city and do not plan to move (unless stars destine otherwise), so our needs were also centered around this thought. So, if you belong to the nomadic clan, you might think on the lines of a more fuss-free and free-flowing decor.

Start off as early as you can: You cannot create magic with a limited deadline. If you truly want every corner to speak for itself, bring in a theme and thought for every space, allow yourself and the people you'd work with the time to weave the beauty. If your apartment or house is under-construction, you'd have a decent idea of the date of possession. Start at least 6 months prior to this date.

Research, research and research: This is of utmost importance because no designer can help you if you are unsure of what you like and want. So, start scouring the net for information, designs and pictures that will help you decide what kind of look and feel you want for your home. Some prefer clean lines, some like me like the Indian ethnic look. For me the Indian decor blogs have been my messiah. The home tours, the valuable snippets that the home owners and the design experts shared, and the helpful pointers that friends and strangers gave on friendly FB forums helped to give a definite mould to the rough idea that I had in my mind.

Find a good designer: If you are some one who has the right blend of aesthetics, good knowledge of the materials, ample time to work out the tiniest details and execute the project, has access to a good team of workmen then you can skip this step. If you are like me who falls short of meeting the criteria, invest some time in finding someone who can take your dream to the next level. It is also important that your sensibilities match with that of your designer's to some extent, so that you agree at least on the major aspects. So, talk to people, and spread your search web far and wide. In this matter, I've been truly lucky. I found an excellent designer, truly by chance, who perfectly understood my needs and dreams. 

Be frank and open with your designer: It helps to have a great rapport with your designer. From the tiniest concern to having a disconnect on major aspects, let your designer know what you think. You should ask my designer how much I've chewed her brains ;-) But it is good to be involved in every aspect even though you have professional help. After all it is your personality that has to reflect in the house.

Have a decent idea of how you want each room to function: I like the idea of every room to be self-sufficient and compact, functionality-wise. Depending upon the space available, plan for as much storage as possible. Always plan for a little more than you think is required. Every room must cater perfectly to the person(s) who might use it. For instance, in a kid's room, apart from a wardrobe and study table, plan for ample provision to store toys and books but without over-crowding the space. Bunk-beds or sofa-beds are ideal for small spaces since they allow the necessary moving space for kids. Again, a reading corner or library in the master bedroom was something I'd asked my designer to incorporate.

Customize whenever possible: Instead of opting for ready-made add-on(s) , do try to customize at least a few. to add that X-factor in your home. In a way my home is also an amalgamation of many small to mid-sized projects handled by a bunch of creatively talented people.

Tiles and hand-painted knobs make this unit a class-apart

Knobs from Varnam

The next part is that of execution. This part is the toughest since you have to break down the whole design into inches, cms and feet and explain every tiny detail to your contractor. Of course, for those who have taken the help of a designer, this part is taken care of. My detail-oriented designer would painstakingly explain every aspect step by step with 3-D printouts and dimension sheets to her team. It was a great learning experience for me to discover how much of detail goes into even 'seemingly' simple-to-execute designs.


The final stage involves deciding the lighting, furniture, paints and all the soft furnishings. Colours play a vital role in giving your house the right look. While some prefer brighter hues, some like neutral tones. Have your family put their heads together and decide on what works best for you. You can have one ascent wall in the room in a brighter hue and have the rest of walls in a lighter hue to complement each other. We went with none other than Asian Paints, the pioneers in painting solutions. No one offers more choice with colours and textures like Asian Paints Home Solutions. Their simple and user-friendly website allows you to play around with various looks for a room. They even have an unique feature called 'Try&Decide" where you can educate yourself on the various colour schemes and combinations, calculate your paint budget and even ask a professional for help. Their products are the best in terms of quality and variety. I especially liked the special effect products for a kids room.

Seeing every element come together to give shape to your dream is a feeling that cannot be described. This is the time to add tiny elements that will personalize your space; make it yours. These elements could be anything-something from your art collection, old furniture that can be restored to give it a new look, collectibles from your travels, anything that will truly make conversational pieces or reflect your personal style. Remember, trends are there today, gone tomorrow. My personal opinion is not to pay too much heed to what's in. Listen to your heart and include whatever makes you happy.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the journey so far. The real journey will begin when I move in and settle down in the space that has been built with much thought and effort. That is when my house will truly become my home :-)

Since this contest on Women's Web couldn't have come at a better time, linking this post to the Asian Paints Blogger contest on great ways to create a beautiful home.

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The Spinning Wheel-a store tour

Falling in line with my intention to bring to light exclusive Home Decor stores around Whitefield area, here's another store tour. I had come across The Spinning Wheel many times- in the flea market and other exhibitions- and always thought to myself that I'd go back to them someday. And, boy! am I glad that finally I made to their store? You can bet a million bucks here.

The unique part about this store is that not only do they house exquisite art items procured from various places in India, but they also specialize in refurbishing old furniture. They add lovely embellishments like tile-work or painted art- and convert a drab looking piece into a style statement. So, if you are bored of your old dining table but do not want to spend a fortune on another or have sentiments attached to the current one, you know where to head.

The Store owner, Rakhi Mutreja, is a very enterprising lady with a lot of passion for the work she does and it really comes across when she talks about each of her piece in the store. When every art piece is handpicked, it becomes a lot more interesting because of the story and history attached to it, says Rakhi. They completed their first anniversary recently but are already running short of store space-something that is not surprising considering the kind of response/orders they are getting not only from Bangalore but other parts of the country as well.

Now, for the tour:

Aren't the camel ones unique?

Pretty door knobs

The weaved bottle collection-so pretty!

The tile collection

Collectibles that will add depth

A customized upholstered teak chair with beautiful tile work

Signature items

The click does not do justice to the beauty of this lovely painting

Pretty vases

These will adorn my house-thanks to a lovely person!

Isn't everything drool-worthy? Its no wonder that I'm so addicted to their FB page. I'm getting a few lovely stuff done from them and it makes me happy that there is an excuse to keep visiting their store often in the next few months.

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Sangreh- a store tour

Since the time I nose-dived into planning the decor for my home, I've been on the look out for interesting home decor stores on the net and within my locality. To my delight, I discovered a few stores around the area I live, that sell some exclusive stuff. 

I plan to feature the stores here for the benefit of people like me, who are eager to set up their homes, live in and around Whitefield area, but are loathe to venture into the city traffic to buy great looking stuff despite best intentions and keep wishing for such stores to come up in the vicinity.The first among them is a store called Sangreh that has been recently launched at AECS layout, close to ITPL junction, Kundalahalli and Marathahalli areas.  

Now, a good blogger always roams about with a handy camera to click away interesting finds, add lovely captions and tidbits, to make a story on their blogs. Sadly, I don't fall in that category. I'm always rushing out of home and only manage to stuff in the water-bottle and snack box for the young chap. Only after I landed at the store, did I realize that I had missed an opportunity to capture the store and its products. However, upon request, the store owner, Priyanka Mehra, was kind enough to not only permit me to feature her store but also use her photos.  

A little more about the store in Priyanka's own words:

"Sangreh, as the name suggests, is a collection of artifacts. An art for us is any item where a creative mind has worked to provide craftsmanship with hand or machine.  We believe that we can get  good artifacts for our customers and can work to provide a unique shopping experience. Our store-we ventured into this business about 5 years ago- is an experiment of our beliefs. After holding exhibitions at various places in the past 5 years we began to understand what the market wants and how quality artifacts can be made available for them. Setting up our own store was thus a natural progression of our venture and here we are at AECS layout now. Our intention is to provide a personal touch in our services and enhance the shopping experience for our customers. This, we hope to achieve by providing a home-like ambience to the store, personally attending to our customers, setting up a play area for our little customers, and providing unique and eco-friendly shopping bags"


Now, for the tour:

A view of the entire store

I'm in love with this antique clock-might buy this in the next visit ;-)

An eye catching attractive lamp

Musician figurines

Won't your books look even more lovely with these bookends?

Nested tables and unique elephant trunks

Attractive pottery drawers to hold your jewellery and knick-knacks

What bright colours!!!

Isn't this pretty?

The artifacts are directly outsourced from Rajasthan, which makes the pricing too quite economical. Apart from Home decor stuff, Sangreh also houses some lovely women's wear (kurtis, leggings, skirts,etc), chunky jewellery and soft furnishings. That's not all.  They also undertake orders for Solid wood furniture ( like coffee table, side tables, dinning table, bed, etc…)

I have to add another interesting thing that happened. As mentioned, the store had a small play area in their backyard and I heaved a sigh of relief that R could entertain himself which meant the husband also could join me in shopping which is a very rare occurrence. As I got talking with Priyanka, a little lad, about R's age, pottered in. Turned out that he and R are almost of the same age, go to the same school, albeit different classes, and also take the same bus route!

Not only this, but the apartment they stay in and the place we are about to move into are constructed by the same builder. Now, isn't this a LOT of coincidence?! Now, I can tell the husband that I share some karmic relation with this place and use the excuse to frequent it ;-)

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My dream house

Living in a rental house comes with its limitations. You need to toe the line drawn by the landlords. Also, you tend to be frugal in your decor needs, saving it all for "the own house". However, of late, I've been dreaming of setting up my own house quite a bit. I have been spending ridiculous amounts of time glued to the computer screen drooling over the gorgeously done up homes that get featured on these wonderful Indian decor blogs (stalking the interior decoration blogs can be quite addictive!). It is such a pleasure to have even a glimpse of the featured lovely corners, exquisite artworks on the wall, the furniture, fabrics that have been used to perfection; and most importantly to understand how much of thought, passion and effort has gone in to provide the personal touch that truly makes a house a home.

I have come to realize that I love the Indian ethnic style the best. The ethnic decor with traditional brass and wooden artifacts adorning the nooks and corners, give a very warm and inviting feel to a home. As I give my imagination wings, I can visualize the dream house in my mind. Before I cut my imagination flight short citing practical or logical reasons and lose the picture entirely, I thought I should put it down here. For, who knows, this could just become a reality!

My dream house is one that has:




Warm hues of Orange and Yellow- I think I'll have different shades of these on my walls or have a single wall painted in bright Orange against other Yellow walls for a dramatic effect.

Brass and wooden artifacts-My dream house will have plenty of these, complete with consoles, side tables, book-racks, bells, vases and trinkets.


Ethnic furniture- a mix and match of stuff that don't overpower the space, instead add up to a cozy feel, yet adequate enough when people come over.

Lots of green corners- Ok, now I do not have a green thumb but I'd definitely like to surround my balcony and interiors with some lovely flowers and green plants.

A nice traditional swing- yes, even if it is a small one, I do want to own one that adds charm and glamour to my living room.

Whether I am able to translate the dream completely or in part, only time will tell. I also know that it is the people in flesh rather than the pieces of art (however good ) that make a warm home. However, I hope I'm able to put my best efforts to create a visually appealing home too :-)

*All images are courtesy google.com. 

“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”-Unknown

Completely agree!

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Utilizing space, and how!

Space matters. And no one understands this better than someone who has lived a considerable amount of time in a space-crunched city like Mumbai. Jostling for space is not a new concept for Mumbaikers. From trying to secure a standing position in a packed local to utilizing the tiniest corner of a one BHK flat, every inch matters. Only a person who has lived in this interesting city understands the importance of a sq.ft in the real sense. If  you've ever been to a typical apartment flat in Mumbai suburbs, you'd exactly know what I'm talking about.

No corner, niche, or extra (if any) space ever goes wasted in the quintessential home of a Mumbaiker. One can marvel at how people fit in an entire household replete with all the modern, essential and luxurious fittings in a 600 sq.ft flat that will have a complete functioning kitchen, a living room cum dining cum entertainment area, a bedroom cum study. Mostly every space doubles up as something else and every corner gets utilized into a relevant storage area for all practical purposes. A sofa-cum-bed, a cabinet shelf that doubles up as a study table when opened, a bigger than usual balcony that gets converted into a room by enclosing the window area, a dresser built into the wardrobe, all of these are trademark ways of optimizing utility of the available area. Space economics attains a whole new dimension.

A person used to living in these conditions also develops such a conditioned thinking where space wasted becomes storage wasted which is akin to money wasted. When a person from such a background goes to live in a different city that is probably not that space crunched, he begins to feel bad for the criminal wastage of sizeable living space that is squandered away due to poor design of floor plans. It can be highly frustrating and difficult to make peace with the situation where one has the luxury of spacious houses (in terms of sq.ft) on paper but valuable portions of such area goes un-utilised due to disproportionate allocation (for.e.g. a flat having a huge dining space but a cramped up master bedroom) thanks to incompetent floor planning by the builder. Sleep is certainly lost over how to increase productive area and decrease non-productive ones.


Working around the original floor plan involves a lot of work (read glib talk, marketing skills, in short a lot of headache). Knocking down and adding a few walls may not be as simple as it seems. The original design architect is mostly someone who does not have enough aesthetic sense or is perhaps wedged between the constraints laid down by the builder. For, nothing else can explain the sheer stupidity and lack of aesthetic appeal shown in some floor plans. The execution of these plans is overseen by site structural engineers who work in 2-3 hierarchy levels. A simple change can be okayed by the first level guy. If he does not have the required authority to sanction the change, the 2nd/3rd level guys need to be involved. In all this daunting milieu, the poor customer suffers greatly, for not only is he paying through his nose for a house he dreams of making into a home, but he is also required to make several layers of compromises with the look and structure of the house.

Is it too much to ask of the builders to work with some amount of conscience, ethics and sincerity when designing and constructing apartments? Will it be too taxing if they design each apartment with the end customer in mind? Will they lose too much of their wealth if they can provide a decent carpet area along with good amenities for a cost that does not seem as though the target customers are only NRIs? Why is that a common average man, even after gathering all his resources has to settle down for a house, not because it fits into his idea of a dream home but because that is only what he can afford?

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