We came up with this sample drawing to illustrate the common sections found in a typical home. What we have shown here is just an imaginative 2BHK apartment which is square in shape! In reality square shape is not easy to come by especially in apartments. But the purpose is not to be an architectural whiz but to just break a home into the essential components so that we could understand them and team Aavaas can cover each section in detail in the coming days.

We are are sure that no single room labelled in the picture above needs introduction. However we would have a small write up on each of them below. Just a casual read. The first 3 rooms are being covered in this article. The rest would follow over the next few days.

Reception

The number one room which one would encounter when entering this imaginary home, the reception would be a place where people could leave their footwear, the owners could have shoe rack  and other things like umbrellas, rain coat storage, newspaper holders. You could also put up some paintings or works of art in the reception area. A bookshelf is also a good candidate for being placed in the reception area.

Hall

The “h” in the “BHK” convention, the hall would be also called living room by some people. Typically people have sofa sets, televisions, centre tables/coffee tables in their living room. Telephones, home theatres, electrical fittings, carpetswould go in it too. Bean bags, lazing couches are perfect to grab a book and relax for a Sunday afternoon reading if one has the taste for it. If the home is enabled with Wi-Fi, then having a laptop in the hall is not a bad idea to surf the Internet while being on the couch. You could also have a water dispenser installed if you have some extra space.

Dining Room

The room shown in the picture as the “dining” area is quite large. It adjoins the kitchen. So serving food should not be a problem for the lady of the house. The small quarter circle which is seen on the wall between dining room and kitchen is a wash basin. The extra space could be used as a study. Some could consider having a swing inside the house if necessary.

For all these three rooms the common elements are:

• Floor
• Wall
• Ceiling
• Door
• Window (if applicable)
• Electric fittings
• Communication fittings (if applicable)
• Extra accessories

So while planning a home you should keep the above points in mind. This article will continue. Enjoy your Sunday afternoon.

Probably Related Post(s)

• Lights for your Living/Dining Room - User content
• Two Bedroom Flats X2
• Managing Newspapers at home

Ever felt after sitting through a movie for 2 hours what you were doing there? And at the end if you try to recollect any good parts of the movie which may have been money’s worth and didn’t find any? Well this is our reaction to the “Interior & Exterior Show” which had its second day today.

Click image to enlarge

The setting was perfect, we managed to get a decent (free) car park and got two tickets to get in. Each ticket cost us Rs. 40/- At to this the cost of getting to the venue and back. Seriously, if we had the option, we would be reading about this show on internet !

When we got in, we had a strange sense of Déjà vu. We had the exact same exhibitors put up their stalls at the entrance. Even this did not change. We ran into many stalls which have been there before and had really nothing new to offer.

Most of the stalls were interested in duping consumers into purchasing goods on the pretext of “special discounts” for visitors on the 4 days of the exhibition.

Around 60% of the stalls were relevant to the theme of the show. However the remaining stalls were a real turn off for team Aavaas. Now why would someone pay Rs. 40/- to buy a pair of socks in an exhibition? Or for that matter “suit material”. The theme was completely distorted in our opinion.

Despite the entry fee we saw a size-able crowd today. The show was structured like a maze where you had to unwind through a labyrinth of stalls. The first stretch was well designed and laid out. So it was not cramped. But towards the end where the non-essential stalls were put up, there was no space to walk, as most people crowded there!

Some of the really non-essential stalls we could think of were:

• Socks shop
• Suit material shop
• Coffee shop (it could have been outside)
• Ice Cream shop
• Chocolate shop
• Shops selling MP4 players

We will try and cover some interesting stalls which we ran into today over the next few days.

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest), we would rate this show 4-. Better stay at home. You are not missing anything spectacular.

Probably Related Post(s)

• Living Spaces 2008 - Chennai Trade Centre | March 07 to 10
• Architect Construction Speciality Expo - First thoughts
• Architect Construction Speciality Expo - Chennai. 28 Feb to 2 Mar ‘08

Another trade show is hitting Chennai from 25th January ‘08 - “Interior & Exterior Show”.

Venue:Chennai Trade Centre.  Nadambakkam.

Time: 10:00 am to 08:30 pm

Entry Fee: Rs. 40/-

Car Park available.

The following items would be covered by the show:

• Interiors
  • Arts & Handicraft
  • Kitchen Chimneys & Sinks
  • Electronic Products
  • Bathroom Hardware
  • Glass Interiors
  • Modular Kitchen
  • Designer Bedroom Sets
  • Exclusive Leather and fabric sofa sets
•  Exteriors
  • Artificial gardens
  • Paints
  • Window Panels
  • Doors
  • Pipes
  • Electronics
  • Water Tanks
  • Solar Products

We would try and cover as much of this as possible in the coming days.

Probably Related Post(s)

• Plumbex India 2009
• Living Spaces 2008 - Chennai Trade Centre | March 07 to 10
• Architect Construction Speciality Expo - First thoughts

This post comes from real experience at home. About a week back, we started getting a real bad smell in our living room/dining room. We were really not sure what the issue was. We tried to mop the floor with fragrant oils, left the windows open so that fresh air could come in, and even cleaned the washbasins and kitchen sinks. Nothing seemed to work at all.

First we thought that maybe some organic matter has got lodged in the sink so we tried to use Drainex to flush it out too. This also had no real effects. Finally we suspected the fridge and realized that this maybe the problem. We were unable to see or solve the issue.

We cleaned the interiors of the fridge and left it without powering on for a couple of hours. But when we switched it back on, the smell returned. Giving up on self remedies, we called the Godrej mechanics. Our fridge is nearly 5 years old and is the regular (non frost-free) model.

The mechanic opened the rear portion of the fridge where there is a tray to collect water from the chiller tray. Since only water is supposed to accumulate in this tray, it is not accessible to users. The tray is designed in such a way that its proximity to the coils of the fridge dries up the water that collects in it.

In our case, what had happened was that one of the milk packets leaked and drained completely into this tray. The temperature differences spoilt the milk which caused all sorts of smells to emanate from the fridge.

The mechanic cleaned the tray thoroughly and we are now able to use it normally.

The take away from this post is:

• Regularly defrost your fridge if it is not a frost-free model.
• Avoid keeping milk packets in the chiller tray and check them for leakage prior to storing.

Interested people can also take annual maintenance contracts (AMC) for their refrigerators.

Probably Related Post(s)

• Defrosting your refrigerator- A small guide
• VEGERATOR (Inverter Refrigerators) from Panasonic
• Defrost Timer from Whirlpool

More and more companies are realizing the need to be in the water purifier product segment. We covered a brief article on water purifier products before here. Today we talk about Whirlpool India which has launched 3 water purifier products recently. These require electricity to operate unlike the ones which we had covered in our previous article. Let us go in to the details without further delay.

Click on the image to enlarge.

There are three models from Whirlpool which consumers can consider. They are Elite, Deluxe and Platinum. All of them are certified by Gold Seal of WQA, USA. Apparently this body offers the most stringent tests in the world for water purifiers.

Click on the image to enlarge.

The products are collectively being referred to under an umbrella brand name “Purafresh”. The literature from  the company also mentions that Purafresh products have a “6th Sense purifier” and “protect technology”. The USP here is that whirlpool products not only purify water but they also protect it post purification. So in the manufacturer’s words : They play a dual role.

Some features are mentioned in the picture below:

Click on the image to enlarge.

For technical specifications and cost please click here

Probably Related Post(s)

• Reverse Osmosis at your home - Comment to post
• Kent Grand - Reverse Osmosis Water purifier - Cost & Details | India
• Eureka Forbes’ Aquaguard Ultra and Hindustan Unilever’s Pureit - A brief look