Don't overlook your walls

Beautifully painted walls are one of the most powerful, yet widely overlooked, decorating tools. Is every room in your house, with the exception of the kitchen and baths, painted off-white with white trims and mouldings?

This is a classic look that goes with any decorating style. But with all the options at our fingertips today, why not add a splash of colour to a few rooms?

Try painting your foyer or hall a bright, cheery colour such as a pale green or yellow! Small areas such as these may look dull when painted white.

Try a dark colour for the dining room to add an air of romance!

Another great look is to paint a main room such as the living room in a faux finish. You can pick up many do-it-yourself kits. These kits are simple to work with and can make your walls look as if you invested a mint on professional painters.

Best of all, the inconsistent look that is the charm of faux finishes beautifully conceals many small flaws your walls may have! Trims and mouldings can also add a finished look to a room when painted in a colour other than the traditional "white". Beige or light taupe add a hint of colour without being overbearing. Try to keep many of the rooms consistent, however, so as to avoid a 'circus' effect.

Finally, finish the walls off with some artwork. Make sure to leave plenty of wall space between each piece. Hanging too many paintings or prints on one wall will only distract from each one.

If your prints are small enough, you may arrange them in a grouping. Just make sure the frames and styles are consistent. For instance, don't group modern black and white prints in sleek, black frames with an oil painting in an antique gold frame.

Area rugs can be used to divide large rooms into more intimate sections or to help define a space. Break up the monotony in a bookshelf by randomly placing a few stacks of books on their sides.

The remaining books, however, should look organized by keeping them grouped according to height. Also try filling up empty space in a bookshelf with a vase or picture frame.

Pillows are key in creating a comfortable, homely atmosphere when arranged on couches, chairs and beds. They can also be used to tie together the various colours and styles in a room.

Toss at least four on a couch and rotate one pair so they point up. It gives the couch some dimension. Use pairs to create balance.

Examples are: matching lamps on end tables, pairs of throw pillows, coordinating artwork or accent pieces flanking a piece of furniture.

Decorating your dream home

No decorating rule is ever written in stone. If a style doesn't suit you or just doesn't work in your home, move things around and add or remove items until you love it! Remember, it's your home.

Therefore it's most important that you feel comfortable in it. You don't need to spend a fortune on new furniture or hire a professional interior designer to make your house look elegant.

There is a wealth of information in books, television, and the internet to help you achieve the home of your dreams with minimal expense. Here are some of the most affordable, yet invaluable designing tips.

Looking for the focal point of a room is the very first step to creating the room of your dreams. The focal point should be the most interesting aspect of the room you are working on - a breathtaking view out of a bay window or French doors, a beautiful fireplace, etc.

If your room doesn't have an eye-catching focal point, don't worry! You can make one by using furniture or accessories. A large painting hanging over a couch, an oversized curio filled with your treasured possessions or even a wall unit that conceals your TV make great focal pieces.

Once you have discovered (or created) a focal point, just arrange the furniture in the room to help accentuate it. For instance, position your seating arrangement, preferably in a u-shape, facing the focal piece.

If your couch is part of the focal point, place two chairs or a loveseat across from the couch, with a coffee table in the centre of the arrangement.

WE WISH OUR VISITORS TO HAVE A GOOD TIPS FOR YOUR DREAM HOME

Make greenery around your dream home

Solve mosquitoes problem

Nothing takes the fun out of an evening you’d like to spend outdoors than mosquitoes. With the recent rains, the number of mosquitoes invading your home can double unless you take counteractive measures to prevent them.

All mosquitoes require water in which they can lay eggs. If you find stagnant or even fresh water pooled anywhere around your home, you should have it removed immediately, otherwise you’ll have shoals of mosquitoes in your backyard alone. Water is most often pooled in drains and gutters, so check after each rainy day.

If you find water, dead leaves or garbage cluttering your gutters — beware. Such conditions are perfect for mosquito breeding. Keep your drains and gutters clean and free from the dangers of clogging. Your drains should be effective in carrying rainwater right out of your home.

If you have a cooler that has a tank, make sure the tanks are cleaned regularly to avoid the growth of harmful fungal bacteria and more importantly the breeding of mosquitoes. Water can easily pool and stagnate in areas like your flowerpot containers, or any ornamental pottery that you may have outside or even inside the house.

Even if you are someone who loves feeding birds and have a birdbath in your balcony or garden, clean it thoroughly after a rainy spell. You should ideally change the water in birdbaths or even in pets’ water-bowls everyday to prevent the spread of diseases and mosquito breeding. Make sure that your garden is swept clean of rubbish and that it is properly weeded to keep mosquitoes at bay.

However, no matter how many precautions you take, there will always be a mosquito or two lurking around to plague you — so make sure to have screen doors meshed over with wire. Check the wire-mesh for any holes or damage from where mosquitoes can enter. If you are someone who like a quiet evening out on the balcony, have a mosquito coil plugged in or a bottle of repellent handy.

Better two-storey building

It is more economical to building up two-storey than to build consuming more real estate.

If your plot will not accommodte the space you need in one storey, youmaynot have any laternative but to cnstruct a two-storey home.

Also, these days, because of earthquakes, many cities fall into seismic zones. We need to factor that in. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Observe atleast minimum VAASTU principles

We may need to observe atleast the following basic VAASTU principles for your dream home.

North east corner

Keep north-east corner of your house is vacant and be ensure that weighted items not there. Similarly in each room north-easter corner area is vacant and see that no weighted articles are placed there.

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Wherever possible, ensure that your kitchen is placed in the south-east corner room of your house to ensure good health.

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The ideal place for bed room of the house owner is south-west corner room of the house.

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It is recommended by the VAASTU that keep cash chest or almirah in the north-west corner room of the house facing to north to ensure good wealth.

the housing and real estate arm of the $ 7.5 billion (Rs 30,566 crore) Mahindra Group, is planning to enter the business of building low-cost houses for the middle-income group.

Low-cost houses have become a fad among young people, as they are available at an affordable cost of Rs 25-30 lakh. The company has tied up with BE Billimoria and Co (BEBL), which specializes in construction technology, to bring down construction costs in the long run.

This means, in a horizon of five years, MLDL might be building flats or apartments targeted at the middle-income group. Though the group’s current focus is firmly on luxury and premium properties, the company is keenly watching these lower segments.

The tie-up with BEBL would be expanded to future projects and at the same time, MLDL would be open to other similar tie-ups in construction technology that would enable them to bring their costs down.

“While most sectors in India have constantly upgraded their technological capabilities, real estate firms have lagged behind. We feel that is where the costs can be brought down by at least three to seven per cent,” Malhotra added.

The present plan though, would be to focus on premium housing for the company, which not long ago, was a focused construction company – GESCO.

The company, where Mahindras’ involvement began with a stake to stave off a hostile takeover bid by the AH Dalmia Group in 2001, was later bought over by the Mahindras. It later merged with Mahindra Realty, and was renamed MLDL in October 2007.

Since then, the group’s principal activity has shifted its focus to developing residential and commercial real estate, with a special focus on housing.

The company has announced on Monday that it is going to develop 25 acres of land at the Multimodal Internal Hub Airport of Nagpur (MIHAN), at a total investment of close to Rs 500 crore.

The company’s two Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Chennai and Jaipur are well on its way, said Malhotra. 400 acres out of the 2500 acres in the Jaipur SEZ has already been contracted out, while the 1400-acre Chennai SEZ has already commenced operations, he added.

The Problem

Housing stress and inadequacy is mainly felt by the weaker and low-income sections of the society, particularly with the continuous rise in construction costs.

Basic housing is now beyond the reach of the people as the cost of construction is increasing by 50 percent over the normal inflation due to hike in the cost of construction materials and labour. The existing construction practices using conventional options have lead to misuse of scarce materials, besides causing environmental degradation.

Although there have been attempts at evolving appropriate and cost-effective technologies, but these have remained at the laboratory level. Furthermore, the “awareness” level of these alternative and sustainable options has been minimal among users as well as professionals (architects and engineers).

There is a distinct lack of training and skill upgradation not only for use of conventional but also for cost-effective technologies. Additionally there exists no appropriate delivery mechanism for housing at the field level.

There is an imperative need to utilize technology options leading to cost-effective solutions affordable by people especially the lower income groups. What is needed is to give a decisive shift in the selection and application of building materials and technologies leading to cost effectiveness and yet providing durable, functional and aesthetic options as against conventional options.

Its relevance to housing as an alternative option rather than an inferior option has to be clearly established and its application for categories of housing and building construction needs to be reinforced.

There is a challenge to sell these new options to the beneficiaries and to evolve suitable strategies using local initiatives to involve the beneficiaries, so as to minimize resistance to this "new" technology.

Village houses may be artists' delight

Village houses may be artists' delight, and cement structures in villages may look like incongruous ugly dots in a picturesque landscape.

But while urbanites may feel that village houses should retain their traditional appearance - and therefore be made of wood, stone, mud etc. - villagers themselves are quick to point to the irony in this: the well-meaning urbanites themselves have long ago abandoned traditional housing!

Low cost, aesthetics, preserving traditions, and living in climatically suitable houses are all fine notions, but the durability of homes is also an important consideration.

A mud house with a thatched roof needs continuous maintenance, whereas a brick and cement house is far sturdier, and has a longer life span. And villagers are as interested in the longevity of their homes as their urban counterparts.

But a traditional rural residence has important advantages - it is almost always based on adaptations to the local environment, and is often built with the labour of the villagers themselves without the need for external mechanised inputs.

The simplest way to build a house, in the past, was to look around for the materials needed for the structure, and begin building the structure yourself. For the construction of village homes, therefore, the challenge today is to acknowledge people's desire for long-lasting structures, and thereafter ask what elements of functionality, value and aesthetics can be infused into the buildings. One person who took up this challenge vigorously was M N Joglekar, a former Executive Director of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO).

A professional architect, Joglekar went beyond the standard knowledge of construction to study not just how these houses are constructed but how they are lived in. He set out to use rationalized traditional technologies, which are amply displayed at the Rural Building Centre of National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) in Hyderabad.

Fourteen typologies of rural buildings - from those in the Himalayan region to the hilly North-East to the rain-battered coasts to arid Kutch and the Deccan Plateau - stand in a circle, exuding aesthetics enhanced by the pictorial natural setting of the Rural Technology Park of NIRD campus. Recognising the great potential in promoting local-material-based traditional technologies, HUDCO had initiated the Rural Building Centre concept where building components can be manufactured by the rural people using local available material and through skill upgradation.

Through this centre, precast components could be given to the rural people instead of cash, which is the typical form of assistance for home construction.

Low cost housing (LCH) TECHNOLOGY

This technology will indeed be provided low priced and affordable housing, the Cebu project used CEBs/SEBs and micro-concrete roof-tiles. Although these materials are genuinely low-cost; the houses do not look “low-cost” at all - as can be seen from the range of images and pictures shown below.

CEB’s are walling elements that are produced from a mixture of soil, a high % of cement and water, and compressed by a manual or hydraulic press with a maximum nominal compaction force of 8 tons. Special moulds are available for beams, columns and electric wires. Special bricks may be made for multi-storey buildings.

SEB’s on the other hand use a relatively low amount of cement and other energy intensive products and a small amount of RoadPacker Clay Brick Stabiliser which greatly increases the strength of the Stabilised Bricks and renders them completely impervious to water.

The bricks are made of ordinary insitu clayey soil rather than sand and gravel which goes to show that the use of the appropriate LCH technology is commercially viable.

Several Reasons Why This Technology Should Be Used

LCH Compacted Earth Bricks allow you to use the most abundant raw material on earth, soil.
LCH Compacted Earth Bricks use only 0 .2 litres of RoadPacker Clay Brick Stabiliser per m3 to be mixed with the soil to stabilise it.

LCH Compacted Earth Bricks being strong and highly compacted, are of the highest resistance (>8mpa) and do not require the use of any reinforcing bars to build a completely strong durable dwelling of up to 3 stories. (Except in Seismic Areas)

LCH Compacted Earth Bricks can be produced on the construction site, which negates the need for transporting the bricks and thereby, reduces the risk of damaging the already "paid for" bricks.

LCH Compacted Earth Bricks utilise unskilled labour to manufacture the bricks, therefore, employment is provided for local indigenous population and costs are kept at the lowest level.
LCH Compacted Earth Brick houses require a minimum of skilled labour to build. A professional bricklayer supervising the job will be sufficient, all other workers can be unskilled from the local surrounding area.

The LCH Compacted Earth Bricks are of a quality so high and a finish so good that most of the builders do not plaster or paint the external walls.

Furthermore, the majority of the low cost housing, because of the high standard and finish, can be left with the internal walls not painted.

A LCH Compacted Earth Brick house is totally isothermic to the extent that neither the heat nor the cold will affect the comfort of the occupants. Should the occupant decide that they wish to install air conditioning or central heating, then their electricity bill will be minimal.

Adjustable rate home loan

The rates on adjustable rate home loan (ARHL) is linked to a bank's retain prime lending rate (RPLR). The rate at which the loan will be repaid by the customer will be revised every three months from the date of the first disbursement, if there is a change in RPLR. HOwever, the EMI will not change. The maximum term is 20 years and there are no pre-payment charges in ARHL.

Home Improvement loan

This loan facilitates internal and external repairs and other structural improvements like tiling, plumbing etc. Generally, this loan is preferred for newly-bought houses where the buyer wants to do some major renovation.

Construction loan

This loan is available for constructing a new house. For those who already have land, this is quite handy.

Land purchase loan

This allows you to purchase land, either for construction or investment purposes, anywhere in the country as long as the title deed can be verified. Individuals can later avail the construction loan to build their new house.

Bridge loan

This is a temporary loan that helps to finance a new home, till a buyer is found for the old one. Simply out, it is a short-term financing option to cover individuals from panic selling. Interest rates are marginally higher and repayments can be made either as a lump sum or in installments.

Availability of home loans has enabled millions to become owners

House Finance is available for all types of property purchase : from buying a house to purcahsing land and constructing a house. Each loan has diferent features and interest rate strctures depending on your requirement.

Standard home loan

This is the standard home loan to purchase a house. Housing finance companies led upto 90 per cent of the cost of the house, while the borrower has to contribute the rest. Interest rates on these loans have nosedived in recent years.