General
General home improvement and maintenance advice, along with interesting thought pieces.
In general I would say that having more light in your home makes for a happier home, particularly if you work from home like I do.
It is known that sunlight plays a role in moderating melatonin, serotonin, and vitamin D which again plays a role in maintaining serotonin levels - all this is connected to mood.
Hardwood flooring looks great - in fact it's my favorite flooring surface. To my way of thinking wood floors look and feel warmer than tiles (although they have their place in the bathroom and kitchen) and wood is certainly easier to maintain than carpet.
But when it comes to choosing a genuine wood flooring material (note that I'm not including laminate which is a synthetic product), you have two choices - you can go with Solid Hardwood or Engineered Hardwood. In this article I'll outline the differences between these two types of wood flooring.
Although the Romans used their aqueducts to run cool water through the walls of rich people's homes, and Emperor Elagabalus even had a hill of snow built in his garden during summer to help keep cool, modern air conditioning has only been with us since 1902.
Willis Carrier is a fine example of American science and engineering - he only graduated from his engineering course at Cornell University in 1901, and the very next year he invented modern air conditioning.
I was browsing around Indiegogo today when I discovered one of the more interesting decorating ideas I've seen in a long time: PaperTrophy as the artist, Holger Hoffmann, calls his concept.
Holger has taken inspiration from old fashion trophy animals that people used to kill and mount on walls or stands, to produce a much more humane, and to my way of thinking, far more appealing version for the 21st century. As Holger says, "Don't shoot them - glue them!"
Last year, April 2014 to be exact, my wife and I decided to go minimalist. Obviously, anyone can decide to be a minimalist in a blink of an eye, but actually living a minimalist lifestyle takes time. Having said that, I can say that we are still on the early stages of being full-pledge minimalists. Nevertheless, the important thing is that we have started, and I am here to share with you some of the things we have learned and applied in our lives, particularly in terms of home improvement. Now, the first thing you need to understand about minimalism is that it’s more than just a philosophy – it’s a lifestyle. If you are to improve your home with minimalist principles in mind, you need to first have a change of mind. Another important thing to remember is that minimalism does not equal to emptiness. It does not necessarily mean that you have to empty your home. On the other hand, it means less clutter, which leads to simplicity and elegance. Without further ado, here are some minimalist home improvement tips you can put into practice this 2015.
The question of whether it's best to buy Oak furniture rather than pine comes up time and again. The standard response of many people is simply to say that Oak is better and that's the one you should chose - some people like Sally Stacey use oak everywhere around the home, but I don't think it's a simple as that so let's take a further look.
I live in an area where during the annual storm season we can lose mains electricity from time to time. I also work from home so this can get a bit frustrating and this year I plan to be prepared so I've been looking into generator options.
There's a bit of planning you need to do to work out what type of generator to get, and I've done mine so I'll share the steps I've gone through and that will hopefully be a good guide for you when working out what you need.
A little while ago I received a question from Dave P. who lives in Ipswich, England and in the process of answering his question I realized this would make a good topic to talk about on Totally Home Improvement. The question was whether he and his wife should buy a storage shed or rent a self storage unit to store their belongings while they renovate their 50+ year old semi detached house.
I must admit that I hadn't really thought about this before, which meant that I had to do quite a bit of digging into the topic - I hope some of you find this analysis helpful if you're currently facing the same same issue yourself.
Active and passive technology is now being woven into the very fabric of our homes, bringing with it many advantages.
This progress is taking us well beyond robot vacuum cleaners and thermostats we can talk with, and it may be happening faster than we realize. Given that today is Halloween, I felt it would be an appropriate time to look at not only the benefits, but also some of the slightly scarier implications of all this.
My brother Daniel lives in the countryside in Queensland, Australia. The picture on the left is now a bit out of date, but it gives you a good idea of the surroundings.
It's 40 acres of tree covered land. It starts at the top of the hill where the picture is taken from - goes down through a valley which turns into a river during the rainy season - and goes all the way up to the hill on the other side.
He's invited me to come and spend some time there this Christmas like I did last year - it's a long way to travel, but it's certainly a welcome change of pace, so I'll probably do it again this year.
Pages
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by
WeebPal.
