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Archive for December, 1969

There was a time when the bathroom wasn’t a place that required much decoration; why shouldn’t people have a pleasant bathroom to relax in. Think about it, we all spend a good bit of time washing and freshening up every day, so why not use a few bathroom decoration ideas to spice this room up a bit and make it a more appealing place to hang out. Gone are the days when a bath or shower was a rushed affair; we all want to enjoy the experience so why not do this in a pleasant surrounding.

As a bonus, your bathroom decorating ideas can really be used to impress your friends and neighbors, they will know when they see how you have implemented your designs that you care about your home. There isn’t much point in spending thousands of dollars making other rooms pleasant to live in if you are going to leave your bathroom in a state of poor decoration.

It is a fact that the kitchen is more than just a place where you prepare and cook food. Oftentimes, the kitchen is also where family members gather for quick snacks and little chats. The kitchen is also where you sometimes balance your books and check bills. This is why having a good kitchen lighting idea is important. What kinds of lights can you us in your kitchen?

Uses of Kitchen Lighting

Your kitchen, as mentioned, can hold several functions and uses. Different kitchen activities however require different kinds of kitchen lighting. Read on to get a great kitchen lighting idea.

- Sufficient Lighting - The first kind of kitchen lighting idea that you should consider is one that will provide sufficient light for kitchen tasks or work. Whether you are cutting meat, washing vegetables or working on the bills, direct kitchen lighting is what you will need.

Changing your kitchen is the one home improvement project that adds the most value to your home; costs are the most worrying aspect for most people. Kitchen remodeling costs vary greatly depending on the size of the kitchen, how many cabinets there are, what types of materials are chosen, and the size of the project. There are many things you may want in your kitchen; expensive work tops, quality appliances and cupboards for example but often the wish list is too big and you end up disheartened.

We are all faced with having to carry out work on a budget but this is no reason why you can’t have something reasonably close to what you would ideally like. The best way to achieve your desired kitchen is to plan carefully and work out exactly what it is you want; then look at each part of the remodeling to see where costs can be reduced.

For the millions of people that live along the United States’ southern and eastern coast lines, protecting your home from hurricanes is extremely important. One strong storm can leave your home devastated in a matter of hours. If you live along America’s hurricane-prone coastlines, home hurricane protection is one area of investment you can’t afford to ignore. But where do you begin? The following home owner’s to do list covers five steps to take before a storm hits to make sure your home is protected.

1. Secure your windows
The vast majority of all hurricane damage is caused by high wind speeds. High winds pick up debris and send it flying at incredible speeds. All it takes is one good sized tree branch to hit your window in just the right spot, and now your home has been breached. Shattered glass from window breaks also poses a real danger, particularly if you are inside the home during the storm. Hurricane shutters are one of the best investments you can make to protect your windows. Look for shutters that have received Dade County Product Approval, which is the highest standard in the industry for hurricane protection products. For a less expensive option, consider making your own shutters with 5/8″ thick plywood.

2. Secure the garage door
This is particularly important if you have a home with an attached garage. The garage door is a weak point in most homes, and it can be easily blown in by hurricane speed winds. When the garage door is blown in and the wind pressure fills your home, it only take a short time for the windows and doors to blow in, too. In the worst case, the roof follows suit. Some garage doors are advertised as hurricane-resistant, but they can be costly. Securing your garage door doesn’t have to be an expensive proposal! Consider boarding your garage door over with plywood, or using 2×4’s to brace it from the inside.

3. Install hurricane straps
Galvanized metal hurricane straps are used to secure the roof trusses to wall studs. If you’re building a new home, be sure the builder uses hurricane straps, as this is one of the best (and most cost effective) ways to make sure the roof doesn’t blow off your home during a hurricane. Note: It is possible to install hurricane straps on an existing home, but you may need to hire a contractor to do the job.

4. Eliminate possible projectiles
When you know a storm is coming, walk all around your home and yard, and consider objects that could potentially be picked up by the wind and turned into flying projectiles. Yard and garden ornaments, birdbaths, grills, patio furniture, potted plants, and children’s toys are all things to be secured or brought indoors.

5. Trim your trees
Keeping your trees in good shape is an important step in making sure that limbs won’t come down on your house during a hurricane. First, trim any large branches that hang over your house. Second, thin the tree’s branches out so it won’t catch too much wind in a storm and become uprooted. Finally, consider removing trees that lean toward a building or power lines, trees that are diseased, or that have rotted and/or cracked trunks. These trees are a hazard and should be taken out by you, so that they’re not taken out by a storm.

With a little time and forethought, you can minimize, and hopefully prevent, the majority of hurricane damage to your home.

For those who are getting spring fever and want to do something to ‘change the look’ of the home, how about knocking down a few walls - carefully, that is! The latest idea of great rooms is really catching on and if a home is going to keep up with the latest and newest on the market - its living room is extinct!

We have seen it coming if we have watched the signs, first of all the kitchen got bigger, then it had two working stations, then the computer moved in there - just for ease of recipe reading and remote control of the house. Obviously everyone loves the atmosphere in the kitchen, so it had to be opened up to the whole house, voila: le great room.

There is an alternative to the great room; it is the ‘kitchen great room‘. Ever since Electrolux published their study which showed that a typical family spends 175 hours per month in the kitchen, but only 31 hours per month in the living room, architects and builders have been adjusting designs accordingly. Coupled with this Electrolux survey is the fact that entertaining has become more of a casual affair in the 21st Century. Gone are the days when the hostess hid herself away in the kitchen and suddenly walked out carrying a steaming five course meal! Nowadays guests wander into the kitchen to chat or help or make adjustments to a dish that they have brought, the kitchen is no longer ‘mum’s’ territory. With acceptance of this idea, comes the realization that the kitchen could be made cozier, more serviceable for all the family and will therefore need to become bigger.

This could mean that a TV will be in the kitchen, alongside a fireplace and a desk area wired for Internet as well as the family’s online calendar. Many people take the obvious route and eliminate the formal dining room altogether by knocking down the wall between the two rooms.

Some great ideas for bathroom accessories that add comfort and functinality to a bathroom

Remodeling your bathroom to make it more beautiful is a really great idea, but keep in mind that a bathroom has to be functional above all else. Proper bathroom accessories will help to make the room as functional as possible and even give you extra room and storage. Bathroom accessories can be items that you install while you are doing the renovation, or items that you add once the renovation is complete. Here are some you may want to think about.

Installing a beautiful tub or shower is one thing, but if it does not have a place where you can keep you shampoo, soap, body wash and other items, it is not too practical. Trying to balance these on the tub side will make your shower or bath a chore. You can have a bathroom caddy that is a simple contraption that hangs over the shower head, or you can have a large one installed right into the wall. The tiles in a bathroom are especially designed to be able to withstand the moisture in a bathroom. Just because they have to have this feature doesn’t mean that they have to be uncomfortable, however. Hard, cold tiles are not the most fun to step onto after the shower, so you may consider putting an electric floor under the tiles. Of course, you have to do this before the tiles have been installed. A cheaper alternative to a heated floor in the bathroom is a heated towel rack. This is a simple but luxurious feature that can make bath time much more comfortable and appealing. Instead of facing the chill of the room after a warm shower or bath, wrap yourself in a nice warm towel!

If you’re thinking of giving your bathroom a new look by investing in some new tiles, don’t immediately call in the experts to lay them for you. Instead, follow our simple guide to tiling your own bathroom, which will save you plenty of money, as well as allowing you to enjoy a fun and fulfilling DIY project. After all, even if you have little or no tiling experience, most bathrooms can be easily tiled in the space of a weekend.

Choosing your Tiles

You should find a wide selection of tiles in any good hardware store, so you’ll be able to choose from a variety of different colours and patterns. The amount of tiles required ultimately depends on the size and shape of your bathroom, so use your common sense to find out how many you require. Just remember, it’s always better to buy too many tiles rather than too few, as you might damage tiles during fitting.

Preparing to Tile

Before you start to tile, you should ensure that the walls of your bathroom are clean and dry. It’s essential that the walls are stable and as flat as possible, so you’ll have to remove any old bits of wallpaper, as well as coating any peeling paint with a primer. When preparing to tile and grout your bathroom, it’s also essential that you protect your bath and sink to ensure damage is kept to a minimum.

Positioning your Tiles

When you’re sure that your wall is ready for action, you can then begin to plan where you’ll fit your tiles. Using a gauge stick, you should mark the position of tiles onto the wall using a pencil. When you’ve marked the bottom row of tiles, you should nail a temporary wooden batten there and use it as your starting point. However, if you happen to be tiling a wall with an object such as a window, it’s best to use that as a starting point and tile around it.

When you are considering renovating your bathroom you should defiantly consider replacing the bathroom cabinets, these are normally the only pieces of wood in your bathroom. The rest of the room is a sea of ceramic tiles and other rather boring materials. Bathroom cabinets are very important for the look and feel of your bathroom. There are some important things to bear in mind when you are deciding what actually gets space in your cabinet.

What to Store in the Medicine Cabinets

One of the most important cabinets in your bathroom will be the medicine cabinet, these are extremely useful and functional parts of your bathrooms. However storing your medicines in the bathroom isn’t actually the best idea, the high temperature and humidity can destroy the delicate medicine. However you can use these cabinets to store soap, shaving foam and other grooming products. Cabinets that store within a recess in the wall look great but are much more difficult to install than ones that screw onto the wall.

The Vanity Cabinet

Another common form of bathroom cabinet is the vanity cabinet. These are the cabinets under your sink, you might think that they are vital however they’re not actually that important. They’re not really that good for anything. Closet space is often more accessible, and much easier to keep clean. Vanity cabinets are normally just installed to improve the look of your bathroom sink. If you do choose to install a vanity cabinet then be sure to buy one of high quality.

We head for the bathroom as soon as we get up, and sometimes our mood depends on the exterior and comfort of this room. One wants to make the visit to the bathroom the first pleasant moment of the starting morning. This article tells about methods of beautification of the non-residential premise that rouses a number of censures because of inconvenience of planning and minimum space. Our dear readers must have already guessed that in this article we will talk about bathrooms.

So, you have decided to change the appearance of your water closet. The first and the most important thing for you to know is that you can’t do without planning decisions. Simple relocation of sanitary ware equipment will not increase the amount of so needed space. Let us consider several variants of design of bathrooms for premises with small area. We offer for your consideration variants that use the system of installation. The essence of this system lies in moving the waste tank, pipes and fixture of the lavatory pan into the wall with the help of the special fixation system. As a result, there appears additional free space. You will easily be able to get to the farthest corner of the bathroom and keep the floor clean. Moreover, this technology enables to keep peace and quiet in your bathroom and neighbouring premises. Additional surfaces revealed by installation will be not only practical in terms of hygiene, but will also make your bathroom more modern and beautiful. Usage of non-standard elements and complication of form of the premise will also help to use the area rationally. For example, the sink, shower cabin or washing machine can be concealed in the niche of the wall. Very interesting is the variant, when the bath is located in the corner, diagonally, which vacates the space along walls and also makes the premise look elegant.

Outdoor furniture gives your house a different appearance. It can be one of the first things that come into sight when there are visitors. They are the convenient chairs in which you can soak the sun during the cold winter days and get a tan during summer. No matter how well furnished your inside may look, if your out door furniture does not match it the entire look of the house is changed. Whether it’s the furniture in your garden or porch, they all need maintenance. If you want good looking furniture that will last for life you have to take a little pain in taking care of your furniture.

There are small little things which you can do to repair the small damages to your furniture like cleaning and waxing preserves the paint or clear finish. The bare spots and cracks can be given touch ups from time to time instead of waiting to repaint all at once. It will also help keep the moisture out of the raw wood and give your outdoor furniture a longer life. If you spill anything on them, wipe it immediately instead of waiting as beverage spills can leave behind spots forever.

One of the simplest and effective ways to clean outdoor furniture is soap and water. Use mild soap and water to clean your furniture at least once a week. The air around the furniture settles in layers on the furniture leading to deposition of various dust and other particles. If they are not removed from time to time then it will result in a chemical reaction which may even rot your furniture. You can also use a pan of warm sudsy water and cloth or paper towels to clean the furniture and clean up the soapy water that may leave a soapy film on your outdoor furniture. Never wash bare wood as the water raises the grain and makes the wood uneven.