CIBN re-opens its office with Eezy office furniture

 The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria(CIBN) on Thursday the 18th of February, 2016 reopened thenewly renovated state-of-the-art 1st and 2nd office floors. The ribbon was cut by HRH.Oba S.A.O. Sule, OON, FCIB. The ceremony was attended by past presidents of CIBN, members of the Institute and guests. It was a captivating ceremony, and guests expressed their surprise that the furniture was actually made in Nigeria, noting the superb finish. The ultra-modern work stations were manufactured and supplied by Eezy Office. They created a colorful, durable and inspiring office space in line with CIBN’s brand.

Eezy office produces clean design, value price furniture for brand-conscious organisations. A proven track-record of success in office furniture and are the only e-commerce online office furniture company in Nigeria. They are also the brand behind the ultra-cool Jobberman office space, recently voted one of the 5 coolest places to work in Nigeria by Techpoint.

You can place orders online at www.eezyoffice.comand have your order delivered to your shipping address, which eases thestress ofprocuringoffice furniture. 
Address: 39, Osolo way, Off International Airport Road Isolo, Lagos State. Email: -sales@eezyoffice.comPhone: -08058883399, 08188813399.

 

Eezy officeis a brand of the parent company ‘HousessoriesLimited’ that is engaged in designing, manufacturing and marketing of premium space solutions.

5 Essential Rules for Surviving in a Small Kitchen

 I like to joke that I'll know I've made it in Lagos when I can stretch out my arms in my kitchen and not be able to touch both walls at once! In other words, I know my way around a small kitchen. Here's how I survive it.

Hang everything

Why wouldn't you use your wall space? There are so many ways to hang up your bulky and space-sucking stuff — pot racks, magnets and, our personal favorite, pegboards — that there's no excuse to waste that wall. Bonus, it also keeps everything you need accessible all the time!

Use the oven as storage

It was good enough for Carrie Bradshaw and it works for me (although I use it for pots and pans, not shoes). The oven is a huge cavern of storage space. It adds a few extra minutes of emptying to any baking project, but the space it saves in my cupboards is well worth the hassle.

Burner covers are your friends

Try this: make yourself some additional counter space with butcher block. I have an electric stove so I just wait for it too cool and use a large wooden cutting board over the top. If you have gas, try this tutorial from the Kitchn to make yourself an elevated version.

Cabinet shelves, cabinet shelves, cabinet shelves

These little workhorses are easy to find, cheap and they can double the amount of storage in your cabinets. What's not to like? Get some right now.

Ditch your single-use appliances

The rule around my house is that if it doesn't do at lease two things, it doesn't stay (even my espresso machine also has a milk frother!). It's fun to have kitchen gadgets, but it's more fun to be able to close the cabinets.

Okay fellow small spacers, chime in. How do you make it work with a tiny kitchen?

Don’t Forget the Service Charge

A lot of people want to live on serviced estates but fail to realize that the estate needs extra funds apart from the rent in order to run the estate properly. Many conveniently forget to pay their charges after the first few times. Service charges can be expensive and can vary from N200,000 per year on medium income estates to N2.5million a year in highbrow areas like Ikoyi and Banana Island. The most common services can include general repairs and maintenance, cleaning of the communal areas like the roads, compounds and staircases, paying for the security, even if it is a mallam, also paying for the maintenance of the boreholes and water treatment. Residents can usually get away with paying minimal service charges for just the above mentioned services only. When residents expect swimming pools, gyms, tennis courts, club houses and 24 hours power, air-conditioners etc they must expect to pay heftily for these.The service charge is usually an estimate prepared each year of the running costs of the development. These could include for example Landscape Maintenance – from cutting the grass, maintaining communal gardens, watering and sweeping. This is particularly important in multi tenanted developments and those with commercial properties such as bars, restaurants or retail outlets that have communal areas accessible to non-residents.

For high rise blocks of luxury flats, window cleaning would typically include all external windows as well as internal windows in communal areas. Lift Maintenance is another service that would require huge payments for servicing and repairs. Fire Equipment Maintenance in high rise blocks of apartments, offices and leisure facilities need to be installed and serviced regularly which adds to the charges. Buildings Insurance – in the case of apartments, full buildings insurance is required under the terms of the lease to cover the risks relevant to the development. Standard insurance risks might include fire, explosion, flood, sprinkler leakage, subsidence etc. Audit fees, management fee and salaries of all onsite staff must be factored into charges. Most estates in high brow areas are rented to multinational companies who pay rent and service charges three to five years in advance so it is easier to manage their services.

Service charges are typically paid monthly, but on some estates, commercial and leisure facilities; this is requested in six monthly intervals or yearly, to prevent nonpayment from residents. Even with these steps in place, it is common to get residents who will not pay or challenge the authenticity of the bills they are presented with. This can cause a breakdown in service provision as service provision must be continuous and if some do not pay the ones who pay will have to cover those that have not paid. It is therefore wise for the service providers to ensure a quarterly or bi yearly audit of service costs and present this to all residents individually and at Residents meetings. Services should as much as possible be collected in advance

Diesel amounts are best paid separately from service charges to prevent confusion with the two amounts. Diesel is usually on an as used basis and can vary from week to week depending on consumption and price, so auditing of diesel amounts needs to be accurate and detailed. Unless the estate provides prepaid meters that run on a fixed amount for both PHCN and generators power, it is usually a battle to get diesel payments from residents. A number of large estates have installed prepaid meters in individual home as a fixed amount per kilowatt hour. The residents are usually made aware of this when buying or signing up to their tenancy, so there is no dispute about the amounts later into the tenancy. On a particularly large estate in Victoria island, Service Charges has been a major source of dispute between the residents and the Management Company overseeing the provision of the services. Diesel and Service Charge amounts and have increased many times since inception, causing residents to challenge the amounts and services. This has become so bad that both parties have instituted legal action against one another. On another smaller estate in Lekki, service provision has broken down completely due to nonpayment of charges from some residents. The communal generator has stopped running and all the residents now have individual generators in their flats and terraces.  The borehole has not been serviced for months, a mallam now opens and closes the gates. Residents are not happy but realize that unless they all agree to pay collectively for the services and the staff, they will not enjoy living on the estate.

Service charges need to be factored into the rent and household budget in order to cope with the added costs of living on a serviced estate.

Double your chance at actualizing your rent...

It’s bigger and better! It’s double the opportunity, double your chance at accessing Rent Loans, double your chance at leaving comfortably in any location in Lagos and Abuja. Propertybankgives you a double treat as Page Microfinance Bank has joined the league of funding partners on the “Rent Actuation” Scheme. 

Now you can access rent loans from Page Microfinance Bank or TrustBond Mortgage Bank Plc under very convenient terms and conditions. How? It’s Easy, 

By just being a salary earner, you automatically qualify to access a 1 year rent loanpayable between 9-11months (depending on the funding partner).This takes away the stress of running round looking for money or settling for inappropriate property due to lack of cash.

Propertybank has a very rich vault containing let-able and sellable properties in super locations within Lagos and Abuja. These properties are pooled by direct agents and inspections are always prompt, such that busy executives don’t have to waste the whole day waiting for the “keys” or the “agent that has the key”.. No long thing……  

Rent Now, Pay Later…..

Contact PropertyBank for more details and enquiries

Call 07002224444, 07045749996, 08127000082, 08029691850, 08067135943.

Twitter: @thepropertybank

Facebook: facebook.com/propertybankng

Linkedin: PropertyBank Ng

www.propertybankng.com

Think Property, Think PropertyBank.

High to Low: 8 Clever Ways to Transform the Inside of Your Drawers

So a kitchen remodel isn't in the cards. No problem. If you can't have the drawers you want, you have to love the drawers you've got. Give them an inner makeover with shiny new organizers (or crafty, repurposed ones).

Pegboard Dividers

A pegboard cut down to size and fitted with long dowels could be used to keep dishes sorted just like the (probably custom) peg drawer in Martha Stewart's kitchen, above.

Vertical Cutlery Storage

If the drawer is deep enough, you need to think tall, like this drawer from Better Homes & Gardens. Sorting silverware like this could literally double the amount you can store

Diagonal Dividers

Another angular option that instantly adds space? Diagonal drawer dividers, like this one from Diamond Cabinets. An insert like this gives you lots of different sized cubbies to store all your gear.

Knife Block Inserts

These enviable drawers from Elle Decor via Country Living can be custom-made or you can buy a knife-block insert to make it happen.

Spice Rack Inserts

You can also buy spice rack inserts for drawers, or make your own, like these wedge-shaped pieces in this drawer from Better Homes & Gardens

DIY Dentil Molding Dividers

You can bBuy dentil molding cheaply at a home store and, with a few pieces of acrylic or another material cut to size, have a great-looking adjustable divider for any of your drawers at home. The tutorial is over at I Heart Organizing.

Tension Rod Dividers

Better Homes & Gardens shows us that all you might need to keep a drawer sorted is a pair of tension rods

Shoebox Organizers

If nothing else, you can at least make use of shoeboxes or whatever other cardboard boxes you have at home to sort out your clothes or kitchen drawers, like here on Real Simple.

Get 27% off Adron Properties in 5 Location plus tickets to Shades of Lemon Children Party

To celebrate Children’s day, Adron is offering 27% off its properties in Lekki, Shimawa, Otta, Ikorodu and Abuja when you make a N50,000 down payment. You can complete payment for these properties in daily and monthly installments as there is a plan to suit every pocket. You also get tickets to Adron’s Shades of Lemon Party with every subscription.

Adron Homes is committed to helping people realize their dream of becoming home owners. Build a strong legacy for your children by investing wisely today. Adron properties come with genuine documents and peace of mind.

SHADES OF LEMON PARTY DATES

Lagos: Saturday, 28^th May, 2016

Abuja: Sunday, 29^th May, 2016

Contact Us
Phone: 08034662942, 08090228691, 08180751599, 08150848314, 08150849316
Website: adronhomes.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/adronhomesnigeria
Twitter: @adronhomes_
Instagram: @adronhomes_

Spend a Little to Make More: Inexpensive Bathroom Upgrades to Improve Home Value

Potential buyers can be thrown off by the littlest things (just consult any episode of House Hunters). Even if you're not thinking about selling your home now, you can make small improvements while you're still living there without dedicating a lot of time or money to the cause.

These 7 bathroom projects take only a weekend and a few hundred bucks, at most, but they'll pay off in the long run when you decide to sell in a few months or a few years.

Clean or Re-Do the Grout

This is a choose-your own adventure project: If the grout in the shower and elsewhere around the bathroom looks good, just a bit dirty, give it a good deep clean. If you think the grout is beyond help, or you'd benefit from changing up the color, try a full removal and re-do.

Change Out the Light Fixture

The easiest way to bring a dated bathroom into this millennium is to replace the light fixture(s) around the space to something more contemporary. You'd be surprised how something so small can give the whole space a face lift.

Install a Green Low-Flow Toilet

It might be the most expensive project on this list thanks to the hardware required (that is, a whole new toilet), but this one will definitely pay off. If you bought your home many years ago, local regulations might require the toilets in the home to be low-flow before you can close a sale. So do the repair now and enjoy the savings on your water bill while you're still living there.

Update Cabinet Pulls

This could be a really cheap project depending on how many cabinets you have in the bathroom, but it will no doubt pay off handsomely. Splurge on something really luxe to elevate the space; like handbags and shoes, you really can see and feel when it's a better quality product.

Replace Any Chipped Tile

This is your official nudge to take care of that tiny-but-inevitable fix right now, while you're still the one enjoying the (soon to be pristinely-tiled) room.

Creative Ways to Add Color to Your Bathroom

You may be looking to add more personality to your rental. Or you have a neutral palette that needs excitement. Whatever your reason for wanting to add color to your bathroom, do it in a clever and creative way. Here are six ideas to inspire you.

(Shown above:) Colorful accessories like towels and containers boost the boldness of a neutral bathroom. As seen in Victoria & Cass' Cozy Work-In-Progress Home.

Embrace existing bathroom fixtures in bold colors (or paint them). Or create an eye-catching pattern with colorful tiles. Or do both like in this bathroom:Rupert's Form & Function.

Mimic the look of colorful wallpaper with fabric, as seen in Margaret & Gabe's "Classic with an Eclectic Twist" New Orleans Home.

Bold and brightly colored wallpaper is always a smart idea for a bathroom, as you can see in Irene & Evan's Welcoming Whimsy.

One big, textured accessory can make a colorful statement, as spotted in Thomas & Tara's Eclectic Collected Home in Nashville. (Colorful, patterned curtains help, too!)

Using a mix of colorful tiles in your shower surround can create quite the impact, as seen in this entrant from a past Room for Color contest: Katie's "Rainbow" Room.

It's All in the Details: Beautiful Flooring Transitions We Can't Get Enough Of

"God," German architect Mies van der Rohe once famously said, "is in the details." It's hard to imagine more beautiful details than these eight boundaries where two flooring surfaces meet, marrying different materials in innovative and elegant ways. If you decide to imitate these transitions in your own home, don't be surprised if everyone spends all their time looking down

In this kitchen from Royal Roulotte, hexagonal concrete tiles in a tumbling block pattern transition seamlessly into an antique wood floor.

Brass strips make an elegant transition from marble to wood in this space spotted on Houzz.

Scalloped concrete meets wood at at NYC's Musket Room, spotted on 79 Ideas

Tile pavers playfully transition to wood in this bathroom from Kalb Lempereur.

Living in a Small Space: Three Things that Make a Big Difference

Do you live in a small space? Do people sometimes confuse your bedroom for a closet? Can you reach your kitchen sink from your couch? If you're looking for ways to make your space more livable without spending a ton, you've come to the right place. Here are three classic ways to make living little work for you:

1. Lighting
Small is one thing, but small and dark is quite another. Almost nothing has the power to transform the a room like good lighting. Check out afrolux energy saving bulbs, it saves you money and wattage.

Work with the natural light available to you by keeping furniture low and out of the light’s path, using window treatments which let in as much light as possible, and by using reflective surfaces like mirrors to increase the light’s throw. In terms of artificial light, make sure you have sufficient general, ambient and task lighting for all the ways in which you use the space. Once it’s properly lit, even a small room can feel spacious.

2. Organization & Storage 
It goes without saying that in a small space, storage, and more importantly, organization, is key. Furniture with added storage and built-ins are a great way to achieve the former, and the latter comes down to habit forming and learning to live with less. (And don't just thing built-ins are for the living room: they work great in bedrooms too!) It's a constant struggle for many of us, but tidying regularly and paring down will make a big difference in fully embracing your small home, not simply making do with it.

3. Versatility & Flexibility 
In a small space with multiple uses, having a flexible layout and/or furniture can be a saving grace. Search out pieces with multiple uses: a desk/dining table hybrid (or even a DIY wall-mounted breakfast table), a comfortable and stylish sofa bed, nesting tables and rolling pieces can all make life a little easier for the small apartment dweller.

Culled from Apartmenttherapy

6 Things to Eliminate from Your Wardrope Right Now

I was at a friends over the weekend, and his ward-rope got me thinking, Why is cleaning out your ward rope so agonizing? I've never quite been able to figure this out.  Maybe it's because parting with old clothing, things that you remember wearing in the past, means making peace with and letting go of a past version of yourself. But making a little extra space in your closet doesn't have to involve a lot of hand-wringing and soul-searching. In fact, maybe you should get rid of (and by that I mean donate, of course!) these six things right now.

Things you never wear anymore that you are keeping for sentimental reasons. 

Look, I get it. I might possibly be the world's most sentimental person. And that sweatshirt you used to wear all the time in the Uni, or that special shirt your partner bought for your birthday 2 years ago, even though it has pit stains and holes now, is something you'd never dream of getting rid of. But if you're not  wearing something, it doesn't belong in your Ward-rope.

When it comes to sentimental things, you really have two choices: 1. Take a picture of it, honor what it's meant to you, and pass it on. This is good for big things, like first shoe from boo. You'll still have the memories, and you'll be grateful for the extra space in your closet. If you really want to keep something, you could also 2: put it in a box with other memorabilia, or think of some creative way to display it. Hang it up? Make it into a quilt? Then your memories will be front and center, and your closet will be clear.

Things that will never, ever fit you. 
I'm not talking clothes that are a little tight, or things that you might be able to wear if you lost five pounds. I mean clothing that you're hanging onto from years and years and years ago, that you would need a whole new body type to wear. Getting rid of old things is a part of making peace with who you are now. And if you do manage to make a huge change, buying new clothes is part of the fun.

Clothing that is beautiful and great but that you never wear because it's too much trouble. 
Maybe you are not as lazy as me, so this doesn't happen to you. But I definitely have a few things in my closet that are actually really pretty and look good on me, but that I never wear because they're a pain in the ass. Like a shirt that has to be ironed, and has to be worn tucked in and only with a certain pair of trousers, which never seems to be clean because they have to be dry cleaned. Whatever the reasons that you never wear this thing. the outcome is the same: you are wasting ward rope space on something that you don't wear. So pass it along to someone who will. (And then maybe don't buy high-maintenance clothes ever again. Be honest with yourself.)

Things that would be more expensive to repair than to replace. 
If fixing the heels on your shoes would cost just as much as buying another pair of new shoes that you would like just as much — throw them out.

Credit hayniddle.com

Things you used to really love but no longer wear. 
Fashion is fickle. I am fickle, too. I wish I weren't. But there it is. And until I become a much better and less shallow person, I will always have a few things in my ward rope that I used to love and wear all the time, but that for some reason I slowly decided were kind of frumpy, and that are now collecting dust. Every time I get dressed these things stare at me accusingly. "What is wrong with you,  You used to like us. We want to be useful."

Ok, that is crazy. Clothes don't have feelings. Or do they? If they do, it probably hurts their feelings to be buried in the bottom of a drawer, never to be worn again. So find them a new home. You'll both be happier.

Basically anything you don't wear. 
Sensing a pattern here? Anything that you don't wear, for whatever reason, represents wasted closet space, and probably a lot of guilt over not wearing perfectly nice clothes. So pass those things along to someone who will appreciate them, and savor the new lightness of your wardrobe and your mind.

Image Credt: hayniddle.com
culled from apartmenttherapy.com

Lavish homes owned by Nigerians in the UK

UK press can't seem to get their heads around their Prime Minister David Cameron's anti-corruption summit. They say the same people he is seeking to engage are the ones who own lavish homes in their country. The government knows its country is a dumping ground for corrupt money yet is reluctant to react. You can read the full article here. The house above and the ones after the cut are owned by Nigerians..

more photos

For Me, I don't see anything lavish about this homes. What do you think?