A New Road

It's called the Daang Hari-SLEx link.

Currently, the shortest way to get to the house is via a thoroughfare called Daang Hari (loosely translated means "way of the king"). This road is also the fastest way to reach the South Luzon Express Way (SLEx) which is used by almost everyone to get to the various business districts. So you can imagine just how congested it gets during rush hour especially when a three-lane road merges into a one-lane bottleneck.

A friend, who lives in one of the many villages along Daang Hari, once told me that the normal 15 minute travel time from her house to Alabang triples to 45 minutes in the morning. It's then another hour from Alabang to Makati where Earl's office is located. Given that scenario, it will take him around two hours just to get to work.

But there is now hope in the horizon! First, workers are now widening the road thus the bottleneck will soon be a thing of the past. Second, is that there will be a more direct route to the SLEx hopefully by late 2012.

Here's the news article with the details:

Ayala bags 1st PPP road project

Supplier Ratings: Cusm Furniture Shop 4

Area: Bedroom Closets
Price Tag: Php 19,800
Rating: 1/10 (10 being the highest). Details can be found here.

Supplier Ratings: Cusm Furniture Shop 3

Area: Bookshelves & Linen Closet
Price Tag: Php 20,790
Rating: 1/10 (10 being the highest). Details can be found here.

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Next up: pictures of the Bedroom Closets

Supplier Ratings: Cusm Furniture Shop 2

Area: Laundry & Pantry Cabinets
Price Tag: Php 35,410
Rating: 1/10 (10 being the highest). Details can be found here.

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Next up: pictures of the Bookshelves & Linen Closet

Supplier Ratings: Cusm Furniture Shop 1

Area: Modular Kitchen Cabinets
Price Tag: Php 95,320
Rating: 1/10 (10 being the highest)

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2017 Update: It turns out that most of the cabinets are made of MDF, so I've changed their rating to 1.
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Pros:
I can really see myself pottering happily in this kitchen! Quite frankly, all the cabinets turned out better than we expected - including the bedroom closets and the study room bookshelves. They look and feel just like the ones I've seen in model units and all those who have examined the cabinets up close have declared that they are well made.

Cons:
Why only 5? Patience is a virtue you will need in abundance when dealing with them. They can do very good work but you must watch them like a hawk and constantly inspect what they're doing to come up with results you'll be happy with.

Case in point, the staff assigned to the house kept reporting that the work was "done" but everytime I went to check, I found the opposite to be true.

The cabinets, closets and bookshelves had the following issues:
- Some door hinges were floating in air (meaning the hinge was not resting on solid wood but in an air pocket which they filled up with epoxy to fix the problem).
- There were a few chips, cracks and bubbles in the laminate.
- The drawers were initially made of modified fibreboards (MDF) which we specifically said we did not want as it's prone to mold.
- Unfinished surfaces (no paint) either above or under the cabinet doors.
- A couple of drawers had paint on the top half but none on the bottom.

- Some areas were only partially covered with laminate (like the shelf below where one-fifth was covered while the rest was left bare).

- A few shelves are at least half an inch above the shelf supports (it's too big for the space).

Update: I initially gave them a rating of 8 but because they recently advised us to look for another contractor to fix the pending repair items, I lowered it down to 7. Apparently, they're too busy with their other clients.

But then I started thinking, we've paid Cusm Furniture Shop a total of Php 171,320 and now we're going to shell out even more money for Rabacon to fix things. That to me seemed unfair, thus their final grade is 5. There were also other issues regarding customer service that I will no longer delve into as I'm trying to make this a happy blog.

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Next up: pictures of the Laundry & Pantry Cabinets