Friday, 3 August 2007

Journey to the North

2 August 07 - Our adventures in home renovation continue with the pursuit of the perfect TV console. If you have been faithfully keeping up with our exploits so far, you would have known that the carpenter had just recently installed our TV console but unfortunately, it was nothing like what we had imagined.

Instead of being a stylish complement to the feature wall, our TV console was a bulky wooden husk that looked like a box which had too much material clipped out of it (you can take a look at said console in the previous post). As such, Her Royal Majesty suggested that we revert to one of our original options: a simple rectangular box with rounded ends. However, the idea was swiftly discarded once we were told by the carpenter that this console would end up being even bulkier than what we have hanging on the wall now.

Together, the 3 of us cracked our heads thinking of a design that was simple, contemporary and had a whiff of sophistication. In other words, cheap and good. Eventually, the carpenter offered to send us to one of his other customer's home to view a TV console that he had built. However, he had some work to complete at another site and could only bring us there in the evening.

When evening came, we were told that the customer could not be contacted, and may not be in Singapore. We were almost resigned to letting the issue rest for the night when he suggested showing us another customer's TV console instead. So Her Royal Majesty and I clambered into his lorry and travelled from Jurong West to Woodlands, where this customer was located.

At first glance, the console seemed like any ordinary rectangular TV console, except maybe for the mirrors used for the top half of the console. That was when the owner calmly strolled over to the console, and proceeded to slide out the top half of the console to reveal storage compartments beneath! We were already suitably impressed, but there was a further surprise when the owner continued to reveal that the storage compartments were actually removable wooden trays!

After some discussion, we decided to adopt a similar design with a change in the colour of the main body of the console. Although we ended up incurring additional charges for this design, we felt that it was probably worth it. After all, we will be staring at this console for the next 5 years at least, whenever we watch TV in the living room.

Having seen the real thing, we now feel more assured that our TV console will not deviate too far from our expectations. Hopefully, everything will be completed in time and according to instructions. Watch this space for more updates!


- Melvin

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