Construction and Industrial Articles
posted on 24 October 2011
I only have one garden which is not very big, but I do love to put on my ppe clothing and get out there and garden when I can. It is in France whilst I live in England. This is where one problem lies, since it costs a considerable amount of money to go out to France where the property is to visit the garden attached to a derelict or semi-derelict farm property I've owned for over ten years. A consequence of this is that I last saw the garden in 2004 when I went out to inspect the house for proposed repair work. This view of the garden, in September of that year was only for a number of minutes. The garden itself is at the front of the house which is a mid-terrace property which fills in land for a few metres between the property front and the lane in front of that. At present I believe it is chiefly overgrown grass and weeds there. There is a driveway between the lane and one end of the house which has its own garage. Some years ago I went into the property and took out numerous broken roofing tile pieces which I used to partly repave the driveway. I was very upset when in 2006 I received a letter from the Mairie or local Town Hall saying I had a derelict vehicle left in the garden (quite true, a black VW Rabbit convertible imported from California where it was owned by someone I knew and involved in a quite serious crash when I was taking it there in January 2002 from the UK)and the place was in a state of disrepair and overgrowth and if I didn't employ someone the local council would get a firm to clear the site and I would be billed. I employed the builder I knew and though I haven't seen the site I know that some fruit trees by the lane at the left hand side of the property have gone (an apple, a plum and an apricot tree). This was one reason why I was upset. There is still left a grape vine growing at the middle of property attached to the wall at the front of the kitchen. I believe this to be the case. |
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posted on 25 July 2011
Nothing strikes terror into the heart of the casual housekeeper more than the two word phrase "Graduation Party." Although you know it has been coming for 18 years, it is amazing how little gets done around the house until the graduate to be pulls his invitation list out of his pocket, or, more likely, invites everyone he knows, has known, wants to know or are friends of the above to his graduation fete on Facebook.
Suddenly, that teddy bear motif in the sun room looks dated. Let's face it it’s been dated for a dozen years. And, how long have those cute finger paint masterpieces been on the refrigerator door? The 4 year old who swirled his fingers through that rainbow is now 6 foot 3, and wondering if you will let him have a keg at the party. A keg! Oh, of root beer. Well, maybe. Suddenly you have almost two decades of "I'm raising kids, not cleaning house" looking you right in the eye, and it is not pretty.
How do you manage to invite most of the known world into your home when the living room hasn't been painted since 1999? Well, you head out to your local hardware monolith, and put yourself and your credit card at their mercy.
In six short weeks, we managed to do the following at our humble abode. First, we painted a lot of walls. The good news is, the super saturated paint colors make short work of those beige walls covered with hand prints in graduated sizes. I headed outside to plant a school color garden and window boxes in orange and black. Yes, I did. Thank heavens for pansies and sweet potato vines. My husband found the finish carpenter in himself, framing the edge of the dining room where it meets the living room in a beautiful molding that suddenly made this 90 year home look almost finished. My neighbour had done some oil tank removal in the past and was a good handyman, so we also hired his help.
Then we enlisted the trio of sons to help tame out backyard. After some serious digging, we found the perennial garden under the weeds, and with a judicious sprinkling of mulch, black, of course, and some nice orange annuals here and there, the yard began to look like a yard, not a jungle. That gel bleach product did wonders on the tiles in the kitchen, and few new curtains and some painted woodwork made the bathroom appear a lot less medieval.
I continued the woodwork update out of the bathroom and into the hall. Almost finished freshening up the whole hallway, until I got to the doorjamb with three ever taller sets of marks with dates and names. No way was I covering up the height charts of my babies! Then there was cooking and gathering tables and chairs and coolers, and that keg.
The day finally arrived, the relatives and friends descended, and then...it was over. What a whirlwind! But we now have a house that looks like adults might live in it, and, heavens, plenty of ideas to put in place before the next one graduates. Yikes! In six weeks! |
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posted on 8 July 2011
While our pub is a favourite watering hole of many locals, we did generate quite a lot of noise, particularly Friday and Saturday evenings. After installing some lead sheeting, the sound leakage has been greatly reduced, meaning the nearby neighbouring houses can't hear anything. It means we might introduce some new entertainment systems into our pub - including a karaoke machine.
Of course, we do need to be conscious of noise WITHIN the pub too, as people do like to have a quiet drink, so any noisy acitivities we'd limit to the busier times of the week where noise is inevitable anyway. It's all about planning the week really. We know our regulars and we work our schedule around their own habits. Without them there would be no pub, and we don't force new ideas onto them - rather we do what they want us to do (e.g. the recent pub quiz we introduced on Thursdays). |
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posted on 20 May 2011
My husband and I purchased a wonderful, old 1920s Colonial Revival/California bungalow home a few years ago. While there are some great things about living in an historic home, we knew when we purchased it that it would require quite a bit of upkeep and maintenance. It might take the odd masonry saw and hammer held in skilled hands to accomplish our dreams however!
Our first major renovation project is going to be remodeling the main bathroom.
We purchased the home from an elderly lady who had lived in the house for 30 years and had, as our realtor put it, made some "bold and unique" color choices. That is certainly the case in the bathroom. The floor is covered with burgundy ceramic tile which is probably original to the house, but the walls have been painted a truly unpleasant shade of bubble-gum pink (which is probably NOT original to the house). There are built-in cabinets on either side of the side which have been painted white, along with the baseboards, door, ceiling and trim, as was typical of houses in the 1920s. Other than changing the color of the walls (I'm thinking of a nice, subtle green to offset the burgundy tile), the two things about the bathroom that I'd really like to change are the built-in bathtub and location of the toilet. The bathtub/shower combination was definitely added sometime in the 1970s and has been built into a tiled box in the corner of the bathroom.
The style of the tub and the tile surrounding it don't match the vintage look of the rest of the room, and the tub is positioned in such a way that the flip-down cupboard by the foot of the tub can't open all the way. Our plan is to remove the built-in tub and replace it with a slipper-style tub and shower combination which is more typical of 1920s era bathrooms and will take up less floor space (thereby allowing us to make full use of the flip-down cupboard). Doing this will require us to remove the white tile around the tub enclosure and on the wall behind the tub, and I am hoping we will be able to keep the vintage burgundy tile that is currently on the rest of the bathroom floor.
The other thing I'd like to do is move where the toilet is located in the bathroom. The way the toilet is located currently, the bathroom door can't be opened all the way. I suspect that when the bathroom was originally built in the 1920s, the toilet that was installed wasn't as big as the one that is in there now. I think the toilet can be rotated 90 degrees to allow the door to open up the rest of the way, but we may end up moving the toilet over a few feet to be sure that it is clear of the door. Once those two major items have been replaced and fixed, all that will be left is to repaint, add new decorations and enjoy. |
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posted on 2 May 2011
Untidy streets may seem like no more than a minor nuisance. They can, however, be the start of a larger problem. The appearance of the streets in a neighborhood communicates a message about the neighborhood itself. Do the property owners and residents in the neighborhood care about their community? Untidy streets would suggest that the answer to this question is a resounding “no.”
If no one takes the time or puts forth the energy necessary to keep the streets tidy, additional indicators of neglect and indifference are likely to follow sooner than many people would think. Councils must work harder - using technology like pressue washers and pressure washer accessories to clean up hard-to-get-rid-of materials like paint and chewing gum.
You see, when there's litter lying around, in no more than the wink of an eye, broken windows start to appear on vacant buildings, lawns are allowed to become overgrown, and abandoned or inoperable vehicles start to litter the area. Crime rates in the area rise and property values in the neighborhood drop like a stone. Therefore, keeping the streets in a neighborhood tidy by removing litter and other debris ultimately benefits all of the people in the area. |
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posted on 1 May 2011
It could be very costly to put up your own building especially with the rising cost of construction materials. There will be a lot of concerns aside from the monetary budget. To put up your own building you will have to deal with meeting the standards of local building codes and making sure that your building is durable and functional once you start your operations.
To simplify your life why not opt instead to buy a steel buildings for sale? Steel buildings have straightforward pricing because they are based on the specific measure of the structure. A standard price is used for every square foot of the building. You can find listings of pre fabricated steel buildings by doing a search on your internet browser. You can locate reputable Steel construction companies like Standard Steel Buildings on the internet and coordinate with their Project Coordinator on the specific type of building that you want. You will find that their prices are affordable and reasonable for the kind of quality building that they offer. |
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posted on 22 February 2011
I work online much developing websites for all kinds of customers - from those that sell velcro to those that sell artworks. So I get to spend a lot of time on the web, and want to chat about my favorite website.
The first came into contact with Facebook through my sister-in-law, who used it obsessively during her college years. I always made fun of her as I looked over her shoulder and laughed at pictures and the pithy comments they traded back and forth. When my wife and I moved to the States full-time, I needed a way to keep in touch with my English friends, and Facebook has saved my life. I get to feel like I'm still there, sharing the jokes, going to all the parties vicariously, and most recently using Facebook chat to hang out in real time. It makes being 3000 miles away from home that much easier, as I still get homesick sometimes. Talking to my friends and family helps to keep the sad times at bay, and also has meant that a few of them have decided to make the trip over to visit. This means that they're now friends with my friends on Facebook, which makes me even happier. |
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