World’s Biggest Chair

You won’t find this next item advertised in the classifieds. This chair will definately not fit into my place, but it’s still something that one can admire. The world’s biggest chair is currently located in the Anniston, Alabama in the United States. The chair is 37 feet tall, made up out of 10 tons of steel and comes with a spiral staircase which leads to its seat. The chair was built by Miller’s Office Furniture in 1981. Since a 12 ft chair was unveiled in Massachusetts in the United States in 1905, there has been hectic competition between towns in the United States for the “world’s biggest chair” title and it has been held by various towns over the years.

I don’t think there is a world’s biggest lounge or office into which this over-sized chair will fit. You could probably seat 10 people on that seat comfortably. Since I won’t buy something this big, I think I should just look for other lounge furniture for sale. The only reason I’d buy or build such a big chair is so that I’d have something to brag about to my friends.

Biltmore House

Now, this one will not find advertised in the classifieds. Biltmore House is a mansion near Asheville, North Carolina in the United States. It was built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1888 and 1895. Biltmore house is the largest privately owned home in the United States. It occupies 175,000 square feet (16,300 square metres) and features 250 rooms. Biltmore House is still owned by one of Vanderbilt’s descendants. The house is one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age. In 1956 the house was permanently opened to the public as a house museum. In 1964 Biltmore House was designated as a National Historic Landmark. Biltmore House attracts about 1 million visitors a year from all over the world. Biltmore House features as 70,000 gallon (265 cubic meter) indoor swimming pool, bowling alley, turn-of-the-century exercise equipment, a 2-storey library, other rooms filled with artworks, furniture and 19th-century novelties such as elevators, forced-air heating, centrally-controlled clocks, fire alarms and an intercom system. Biltmore House has also been used in the movies. Biltmore House has been featured in National Treasure, Hannibal, Patch Adams, My Fellow Americans, Richie Rich, Forrest Gump, Last of the Mohicans, Trading Places, to name just a few films.

This is one impressive house. If this was a property for sale, I would probably not be able to afford it. Style and luxury like this are way out of my pricing range. One is allowed to dream though. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I don’t need a lot of space, so 250 rooms would be way too many for your’s truly. I just 3-4 rooms, a swimming pool, jacuzzi, kitchen, bathroom and braai area and I would be more than happy.

Star Trek Apartment

I must admit that I’m a real geek sometimes. But the inner geek in me will not inspire me to create an apartment like this person did. This is just “too Geek”, if you ask me, but it still admirable. I’ve watched most of the Star Trek saga, all the Star Wars movies and all the Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis episodes. Thats about as geek as I get. The command room in Stargate Atlantis looked very cool, but it’s not like I’d spent time turning my home or apartment into a replica of it. What Tony Alleyne accomplished with renovations to his apartment in Hinckley, Leicestershire in the United Kingdom can truly be admired. I would not have the guts and endurance to do something like this. I’d rather furnish my apartment with proper bedroom and lounge furniture than spend loads of cash on renovations.

Alleyne’s wife left him in 1994. He needed a project to keep his hands busy. In late 1997 he set out to create the ultimate Star Trek themed bachelor pad. Since he could not find parts for his project, he had to handcraft everything for the project himself. All the materials needed could luckily be found at home depot stores. In 2004 he started working on his project. He styled his whole apartment after the famed starship, Star Trek Voyager. He completed this projected in early 2007. His home / transporter room currently includes AEI Security Systems, Vos System voice-activated lighting, running light modules, AgiLight Z-LED lighting, and a Delonghi air conditioning system. It’s only a 500 square feet apartment, but the way design features were applied, it actually looks bigger. If the various cooling systems in the apartment are activated it gives one an extra feeling of being on an actual spaceship. This apartment has sparked a lot of interest and even prompted Alleyne to start his own company, 24th Century Design. He’s received various requests from clients either wanting a similar setup or even requests for Star Wars and Dr Who setups. What astounded him the most is that most of these requests were received from clients who expected him to work for free. He makes a point of not showing plug sockets, cables or any evidence of how things function, to compliment the design and give the feel of real voice activation. For his Star Trek Voyager project Alleyne even gave up his own bed so he can create a transporter room. He had suffered from scatia in his earlier years and his doctor recommended that he sleep on the floor, so the transporter room was perfect for a good night’s sleep.

I think a renovation project like this would be brilliant for a bachelor or hardcore sci-fi fan. The concept is unique and style is exquisite. Replacing your bedroom with a transporter room to me is taking it a bit too far, I’ll still need my bed. I’ll have to look around for a flat for sale one day, I might just get me one of these If I can afford it.

Venetian Blinds – History

People often refer to window blinds as Venetian blinds, without knowing what they are or without knowing where they actually came. They read in magazines about them, look in the classifieds for their own pair of blinds or they simply request them in shops or on shopping websites around the world. Hope you all find this article interesting.

Venetian blinds have horizontal slats, one above another. They are suspended by strips of cloth / tapes or by cords. All slats in unison can be rotated through almost 180 degrees. Slats can be rotated in such a way that they overlap with 1 side facing inward and then in the opposite direction in such a way that they overlap with the other side facing inward. Various degrees of separation may be effected between the slats by varying the rotation between extremes. Lift cords pass through slots in each individual slat. If you pull the cords the bottom of the blind moves up, which causes the lowest slats to press into the bottom of the next slat as it’s raised. Modern lift cords combine with rotational cords in slots on the 2 edges of each individual slat. This avoids slots otherwise required to allow slats to rotate, although a lift cord passes through it. This decreases the amount of light passing through a closed blind. A slat can be between 16-120 mm wide. 50 mm is the common width for slats.

Venetian blinds are made of metal or plastic. They basic slatted blinds. Wood slats are used sometimes, but then the blinds are usually referred to as wood blinds or bamboo blinds. On the 11th of December, 1769 Edward Beran patented Venetian Blinds in London in the United Kingdom. In reality, Venetian blinds were invented by the Japanese many years before. The early history is conjectural. Early Venetians, who were great traders, are thought to have brought the idea of the blind from Persia to Venice. Once the Venetian slaves were freed, they are thought to have brought the blind to France for personal comfort, as a means of making a living. “Les Persienes” is what Venetian blinds are called in French. St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia in the US was fitted with Venetian blinds in 1761. John Webster of London was the first pioneer of the Venetian Blind in the US. He advertised his wares in 1767. In the 1787 painting by J. L. Gerome Ferris, entitled “The Visit of Paul Jones to the Constitutional Convention.” Venetian blinds appeared. In other illustrations, venetian blinds are shown at Independence Hall in Philadelphia (at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776). Since then, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, venetian blinds have widely been adopted in office buildings to regulate light and / or air. Rockefeller Center’s RCA Building, a modern complex, known as the Radio City building in New York City, adopted Venetian blinds when it was completed in the 1930s. Burlington Venetian Blind Co., of Burlington, Vt. placed one of the biggest orders for Venetian blinds for the windows of the 102 storey Empire State Building in New York City.

Venetian blinds are quite common in apartments and office complexes around the world nowadays. I, for one wouldn’t mind having them in my apartment. They are great for interior decorating and they bring a little style, compared to dull curtains which lack style in my opinion.

Blender – History

For those of you who are not familiar with this kitchen appliance, a blender is an electric appliance that has a tall container with blades that chop, grind and puree beverages and food into a liquid. The first electric blender was specially developed in 1922 for making malts and milk shakes at soda fountains. Stephen Poplawski from the Stevens Electric Company is credited for inventing the blender. In the same year the Stevens Electric Company started selling blenders to drug store’s for their soda fountains to make Horlick’s milkshakes. Poplawski was the first inventor to put spinning blades at the bottom of the blender’s container. The design was improved in 1937 by Fred Olsius who named his invention the Miracle Mixer. He renamed the Miracle Mixer a year later to the Waring blender after the person backing him financially, Fred Waring. It’s hard to believe that there was a time when blenders did not exist. It’s become such an integral appliance. It’s simply something that a bachelor can not ignore in his kitchen, it’s truly one of the essential kitchen appliances nowadays. Over the years designs have been modernized and improved to the examples of blenders you see below.

Blenders are not that expensive so one does not really have an excuse for not having one around in the kitchen. I’m sure than you could probably find adverts for blenders in the classifieds although I would not buy a 2nd hand appliance for my kitchen. You could probably take a chance and find a bargain, who knows.

Most Expensive Apartment in the World

For a decent apartment or bachelor pad in my home country (South Africa), a person could whip out as much as R5000 ($625) a month for rent or buy a property for anything between R1 million or R2 million ($125,000 – $250,000). I thought that this was quite expensive, compared with the rest of the world. Turns out that I was wrong. Cities like London, Paris & New York are way more expensive. I decided to do some research and I’ve found the most expensive apartment in the world. There is high doubt in my mind that one will not find an advert for a place like this in the property classifieds.

In February 2008 a new luxury apartment (1 of 4) at One Hyde Park in London’s Knightsbridge neighborhood was pre-sold for £100 million (over $200 million). The building is only expected to be completed in 2010, but these apartments are selling for such a high price because they will have fancy amenities and because they are insanely centrally located. Candy & Candy is the property developer. Sheikh Hamad, the Foreign Minister of the Gulf State of Qatar bought the apartment. Some features included a communal spa, wine-tasting facility, wooden baths, marble surfaces and floor-to-ceiling fridges. This penthouse apartment will also have excellent security features. Bulletproof glass, panic rooms and access to an underground passage leading to a nearby hotel to name a few. Apartments like this one will be completely out of this working class male’s reach. It’s just too expensive. It is fun to dream though. I personally wouldn’t mind living in such a nice place. Guess I’ll have to look around for a much cheaper property for sale, since I won’t be able to afford such luxuries.

Wardrobes – Part 1

A wardrobe is defined as a tall cabinet, closet, or small room built to hold clothes. Imagine a bachelor / bachelorette without a wardrobe in their apartment. It would be chaos, clothes lying around in every room or on the livingroom couch or even in the kitchen. Mass production of furniture in the 19th century and a growing affluence that caused people to possess more clothes, led to great importance being attached to the wardrobe as a piece of bedroom furniture. A Wardrobe is essential in every home or apartment, doesn’t matter if you’re single or not, you will need a wardrobe, or at least a cupboard. So it might suit you best to look for a wardrobe for sale, if you have not yet.

Here are few photos of modern wardrobes:

Kitchens – Part 2

In recent years, kitchen designs have really moved into the modern age. Stylishness has not been left in the gutter along the way either. A single person, like yours truly definately needs a bit of style in their life. You can’t impress your guests if you have a kitchen that looks like one the cat dragged in. One needs a proper space to prepare food, enough cupboard space, etc. Examples like these ones below might set you back a few bucks, but it might be worth it in the long run.

People are renovating their kitchens / houses on a regular basis. It’s not uncommon to find some of them selling their old kitchens / accessories via the classifieds. So maybe that might be nice place to look for 2nd hand stuff. You could possibly look around for people having a yard sale too or you could just do a little DIY and fix up your own kitchen.

Coffee Tables – Part 1

A coffee table is defined as a long low table, often placed before a sofa. It’s also called cocktail table. For men around the world it’s a place to put your feet onto when you’re watching the rugby game (much to your girlfriend or wife’s protest). It’s such a common occurrence in households today, but the first tables in Europe which were specifically designed as and called coffee tables appear to have been made in Britain during the late Victorian era. Prior to the late 18th century, tables used in Europe in conjunction with high back chairs included occasional tables, end tables, centre tables, and tea tables. By 1780, the high backed chairs were being replaced by low back sofas and this led to the development of sofa tables which stood against the back of the sofa and could be used by anyone sitting on the sofa to put down a book or a cup. Later coffee tables were designed as low tables and this idea may have been introduced from the Ottoman Empire. Today the coffee table is an integrate of one’s lounge furniture.

Any bachelor, like yours truly, should consider buying one of these tables. If you can’t afford one, at least look in the classifieds for bargains, theres bound to be someone selling a 2nd hand one.

Desks – Part 1

Today we will be covering some ideas for desks in your bachelor pad or study. A professional needs a proper place to work or for his PC to stand on at least. I must admit, my own desk at home is not half as neat as one of these beauties. Here are some ideas for desks.

Guess I’ll have a look on some classifieds websites to find bargains. I can’t afford these very nice examples.