Restoring Antique Furniture

Antiquities are commonly the same as what they are said to be; old, delicate, beautiful to some degree, but mostly old and thereby are antique. The older plus more ! preserved old fashioned is however, the higher the value it holds. The worth is just not nominal values that certain might measure with money, additionally, there are sentimental values that is definitely simply priceless into a people and that’s why beautiful antique can be a searched item amongst its collectors.
Antiques are almost always deemed as an older common type of junk on the human eye and they are often neglected entirely from the corner of the attic somewhere. Any time you finally laid eyes on broken antiquities you’d likely to end up prompted to accomplish old fashioned furniture restoration immediately. Usually do not rush however and find that a correct planning is invariably one of the best step one to take the if you are addressing old fashioned furniture restoration project.
Evaluating the healthiness of the unique antique furniture is necessary to the whole of the restoration project. Appraise carefully the entirety of this piece and take notes of what parts are missing and are generally there scratches or dents that they are restored. Take note that some really rare antiques are prized regarding war scars – the only thing that dents and scratches and perchance a broken piece which will have altered the main cause of history – and you will really do good research around the antique piece you possess in your possession before trying to carry out a restoration for it.



This article provided by :  GehRic92

Finishing the Bathroom: the Littlest Details Complete the Look

The method that you style your bathrooms depends on many factors. First, you have the general kind of your house. If my way through your own home carries a classic country type of feel, through an ocean theme inside your bathroom might seem out of place. 


Second, there’s the concept of the experience you want to create with all the bathroom. For kids, you could possibly choose a fun, cartoon theme; if you are searching for a relaxing atmosphere, a place where it is possible to fully unwind at the end of an long day, peaceful colors like those who work in a spa will be ideal.


Similarly, the types of colors which you like – combined with the overall brightness of your bathroom – can see whether to look for colorful accessories or the ones that are muted in color. Finally, there’s your personality, or the personality of the people who’ll be utilizing the bathroom probably the most.
Normally, you will find four styles which might be commonly used when accessorizing the restroom – classy, muted, bright and fun.


Inside a classy bathroom, you might find yourself choosing bath accessories in muted colors, perhaps with a subtle floral tone. Toilet seat covers, towels, bath mats as wall as bath accessories for your counter – a soap dish or soap pump, a toothbrush holder and the like – can be coordinated using the shower curtain. Start your speech which has a shower curtain that is the neutral color like beige with a rose colored embellishment and match the other bath accessories towards the rose shade.


If instead you are looking to create a muted look in your bathroom, you probably will choose soft tones at the same time, but instead when compared to a floral look, you may choose a little more modern bath accessories like people who you will probably find with a spa retreat. Muted shades of green or blue, natural colors that resemble stone or clay are typical good base colors to your bathroom. Look at a solid color shower curtain or one that is patchwork – squares of complementary colors. Select a matching bath rug, shower towels, a toilet seat to match and simple chrome plated bath accessories.


Alternately, if bright, modern colors suit your needs, you will find that bright, single colored shower curtains, window dressings, bathroom towels and shower mats can produce a crisp, modern look. While using a number of different bright, solid colors with your bathroom to selecting exactly the same pieces which feature bright colors in geometric patters or simple stripes, viewers it is possible to bring the appearance of a bath room together, to produce a bright theme set up items don’t necessarily match.




Thank you to : DianeCleverton3

http://ow.ly/7UJ19 

Have Privacy window blinds and Also Keep Your Outlook At The Same Time

I sometimes come across a customer who needs privacy but also doesn’t want their room to look like a vampire’s dungeon. One of the nearly popular roller shade styles for this purpose is the sun screen. This material usually allows 1-16% of light to come through will still maintaining some privacy. Of course, if you’d like to enjoy the sun you can easily roll the shade up. While I wouldn’t recommend this style if you’d like complete privacy, this material is the nearly commonly used for roller shades.
Sun screens are available in hundreds of color combinations.
Apart from the accommodation this material offers, some are fire retardant which make them a safe and practical choosing. If you’re worried about them losing their color, rest assured that most sun screens can last about 10-15 years without warping or fading. Care for this material is extremely easy. All it takes is some warm water and soap and most stains will come right off. This is another reason why sun screens are so popular with customers.
If you’d like something other than a roller shade, then horizontal window coverings are probable your next best option. The almost common horizontal window dressings are the 2″ faux and bass wood types. Like the roller shade, this technique allows you to enjoy some light while not giving away all of your privacy. If you are on a strict finances 2″ faux wood window treatments are among the cheapest of options. If you don’t want cheap blinds, then the bass wood 2″ window blinds are the next step up.
These are of natural materials so expect some of the coloring to be different from one another. Bass wood window blinds add a natural beauty that unfortunately faux wood simply cannot.

Thank you to Logan Gardner for providing us with this article.

How To Upgrade Your Residence By Yourself On A Tight Budget

You realize that you’re spending a lot of time right in front of furniture stores, hoping to see how you could re-furnish your home. When you browse magazines or catalogues, you picture the life of the rich and famous. The thing that’s great fortunately, is that you don’t need to spend a bundle of money in order to hugely enhance your home’s visual appeal. With a minimum of work, you can find a large variety of improvements that you could bring about on your own.
The best place to get started is with a new application of coloring on the walls. An easy change of color makes a home seem to be brand new. And to top it off, not only will your house look new, it’ll also smell new. Instead of, or in combination with paint, wallpaper is also great for smartening up interior spaces. All you need to do is one wall, or maybe just a border, which you can do yourself. Up to this time you could do it all on your own. When you are done putting a new covering on walls, lighting style is the most effective way to give your home a different ambience. A basic standing lamp fixture is sometimes all that’s needed to jazz up a dull room. Unless you have a modern scheme of design, forget about halogen lighting.
A thing that looks great and you could easily do is put in wall sconces. The design of your house will change a lot, when you add a few new accessories. An affordable designer appearance is achievable by adding fresh-smelling candles, silk pillows, or even chenille throw blankets. A jar filled with fragrant rose petals, a tall white enamelled jug with fresh cut lilies – these are ways of creating an attractive centrepiece for a dining or coffee table. Depending on the look you want, you can hang up pictures, or paintings, to get a new look. There are lots of discount places, or perhaps re-sale stores, to find what you might be looking for.
Kicking back into new, solid yet comfortable upholstery is a tonic – try to get something that doesn’t exceed your budget. Dining room and lounge furniture, music systems and much more are usually had for lower prices if you look in the best places. Good places to discover second-hand goods include estate auctions, pawn shops, flea markets and consignment stores. The online world provides an alternate way to find good discounts at sites like online furniture stores. With smaller running costs, you can locate some good deals on the net. Remember, too, that just like painting a wall, an existing sofa can be spruced up with a new home-sewn cover.
Impress your friends and amaze yourself by following these tips on how to give your home a make-over. It may not end up being quite the palace of the rich and famous, but it will be your little castle, that you can enjoy with family and friends. Best of all the incredible gratification you’ll get from having accomplished it yourself.

I will like to acknowledge  the author :: Lavenia Guadalupe
 

Portable air conditioners

A portable air conditioner can work in all places. It can be placed anywhere for example warehouses, boats, trucks and recreational vehicles. Just like a window air conditioning unit, the portable one also uses electricity to function. It is small and portable and it is because of these traits that it can be used in small places. Portable air conditioners are placed in such places where installing permanent and central air conditioning is not possible.

Portable air conditioners are best suited for industrial places. This is because portable air conditioners can be rolled over around from one area to another. This saves the cost of cooling because it would be a great waste trying to cool the entire warehouse. The portable air conditioner is often put to outdoor commercial use. So it has been modified to suite such conditions. So the cooling technology was changed. Its size was reduced and it was made capable to adapt to battery converters.

Previously all types of air conditioners ran on coolants, which is similar to the ones, which are installed on windows. Portable air conditioners use a chemical called freon and the power is got from the ordinary 120-volt electric source. One thing should be kept in mind when you are using this portable air conditioner. The cooling process includes the functioning of chemicals and so the air conditioner must have an outlet through a duct or window. Portable air conditioners can be as large as huge windows and they are mounted on sturdy casters. This is of great help because it can be easily moved from place to another. These conditioners help to cool warehouses where people occupy only certain places. They can be used in small offices as well has areas where temperature sensitive equipments like computers or motors are kept.

Another new variety of portable air conditioners has come up. This new type uses the technology known as evaporative technology rather than using the coolant. This is quite similar to a swamp cooler. These are smaller and more portable devices. These have an inbuilt reservoir from where the cooling and humidification through evaporation takes place. This compact air conditioner can be carried almost anywhere be it your car, truck, boat, motor home and everywhere which has the provision to provide power from a 12-volt converter. It can be easily taken care of by refilling the reservoir on a regular basis. It is very effective and quickly cools and refreshes small areas. It also does not need to be vented , 

Complement of  : Jason Uvios 

17 Tips to Get More Twitter Followers and Tweeter Friends

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 05:19 AM PST To tweet or not to tweet was your question of 2010.  Now that it’s 2011 you’ve decided to take the big tweet plunge.  You finally get the guts to hop on Twitter. Chances are your experience might have started out a little like this: 1. You setup your account. 2. You followed some famous people that Twitter suggested you follow. As you did this you thought… “hmmm… just what I thought… Twitter is a waste of time… why do I need to follow Justin Bieber?” 3. You listened to the advice of the people “who get it” and put a real photo of yourself as the avatar, not the generic egg Twitter provides you with. 4. You tried changing your Twitter background and colors but gave up as you don’t have a brand yet anyway. 5. You question the purpose and the fact that you setup your Twitter account. You don’t see what all your friends are getting so excited about Twitter. You might even be thinking to yourself that you’ll never set foot on it again after today unless at least one person follows you back within the next 24 hours. 6. You start to wonder if you are as cool as you thought you were before you hopped on Twitter.  But then you think again and decide you aren’t going to let some dumb blue bird determine your cool factor. 7.  You send your first tweet and it reads something like “hellllooo… It’s my first day on Twitter… anybody there?” 8. You wish you had more followers. 9. You decide to wait until tomorrow to figure out this Twitter thing. You have real work to do. 10. On your way home from the office you start thinking about what on earth you are going to Tweet about tomorrow! You just can’t seem to get that crazy little blue bird out of your head! I know the above may not be exactly the same steps you went thru when you hopped on Twitter.  However, from my experience in helping many small and medium size business leaders, my guess is it’s pretty close! So, let’s talk about where you should go from here. 17 Tips to Get you Tweetin’, Makin’ Friends and Hopefully Some Followers Along the Way! 1. Organize your social house. Grab yourself a notebook and keep track of all logins, passwords etc.  Create a folder in your email inbox to save all of the account creation confirmations and other information. 2. Develop your tweet plan. Random acts of tweeting and random acts of social media have offer only one guarantee and that is to waste your most greatest asset which is time.  Ensure that your social media and tweetin’ activities align to your business goals and objectives.  Having a purpose in your tweets will better organically attract people to you and your content. 3. Create a content message house. If you don’t already have one, create a message house for your business.  At minimum it should include your vision, mission, value proposition, descriptions of business and products, key features, differentiation statements and key positioning messages.  As part of the message create a list of potential tweets  that could help an audience. Focus on educating and inspiring your target audience. 4. Start social listening. The first step in social media is to learn about the ecosystem you are getting ready to enter.  Spend some time searching for, following and listening to interesting tweeters.  Hop on to Kurrently, Twellow and Twitter Search for real-time searches.  Kurrently offers real-time results for both Twitter and Facebook.  These types of tools will provide you an easy way to find and connect with like minds. 5. Create Twitter lists to start tracking the people you meet and find interesting. Organize your twitter lists by topic, industry, demographics or whatever best supports your business and marketing objectives, goals, and plans. 6. Show some social media love! During your early stages of social media and tweeting focus on learning from and supporting others.  Even if you aren’t yet creating your own content you can be a content curator which searches for and serves up great content from other thought leaders in your industry.  Focus on finding good quality content creators in your market industry or niche. Then you can retweet and share their content on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. 7.  Connect authentically with other thought leaders. Now that you’ve done some social listening, started to curate some decent information and also share some of the best content you find with your friends, now it’s time to start building some relationships.  Leave a comment on your favorite blog.  Send your favorite writer a tweet about their content, their website or something you found interesting that they said. 8.  Be authentic and real. Don’t pretend you know everything.  Be humble and don’t be afraid to ask for help.  If you don’t understand something someone writes about or tweets to you, then by all means ask them for clarification.  Let people know the real you.  The more you do this the easier it will be for you to connect with real people. 9. Search for and start following more people. Now that you’re getting the hang of this “Twter thang” a little bit, it’s time to start finding more people to “tweet with”.  There are numerous tools that will help you find and follow people easily.  Check out HootSuite, TweetDeck, and simple do a search on Google for Twitter tools.  Send a tweet and ask for suggestions or ask one of your favorite thought leaders you met during your early stages of social listening. 10. Continue to focus on adding value. Never stop giving when tweeting. Focus on sharing valuable, relevant content with your audience and you will organically grow your following. 11.  Use hashtags such as #sm or #twitter. Hashtags increase the chances of your tweets getting found, increase your organic twitter following.  Hashtags are basically a keyword that starts with a pound sign.  For example people talking about real estate might use #realestate.  Hashtags help people connect who have similar interests in topics. You can check out trending and popular topics using hashtags at What The Hashtag. You can also connect with groups or create a group for a hashtag at Hashtag.org 12.  Make it easy for people to find your twitter handle. Add your new twitter handle to your online and offline signatures and identity.  Don’t forget to add it to your business cards, email signature, LinkedIn profile and Facebook information page.  Basically add it everywhere and anywhere you provide your contact information. 13.  Learn and accept twitter and social media is one big conversation. This is not a gimmick or a bunch of crazy tweeters gone mad.  Twitter is truly one big social conversation.  The best thing you can do is join and add value.  Become part of the conversation as early on as you can. Ask questions, provide answers, share quotes, and tell jokes.  Just be the person you are but do it in 140 character increments. 14. Realize your success will greatly depend on relationships. The better you can connect with other tweeters via conversations and by providing valuable content, the more benefit you will reap.  You will organically attract friends and followers as you build real and authentic relationships.  If you think about it, it’s really no different than how you network offline.  The big difference is instead of wasting time driving to a networking event and having to talk to Sally, Dick and Harry about the same thing you talked about at the last 25 networking meetings, you can now be more selective in where you spend your time.  You can have side bar 1:1 conversations with 1, 2 or 10 people at a time.  Learning the conversation and relationship duo in social media will jet set you above your competition and fast. 15.  Know you are not going out of business if you lose a twitter follower! Followers will come and go. Everyone will not like you but that doesn’t matter. Focus on the ones who do! You aren’t going to learn everything over night. Learn what you can at the speed that makes sesnse for you.  Focus on the good people you meet and give then your energy and focus. There are 10 more good people who will follow you for anyone who won’t or who unfollows you.  Realize many people use auto-follow and auto-unfollow tools.  Often times if you don’t follow someone back their auto-tool may drop you.  So, if they un-follow it might not be personal at all! 16.  Don’t get caught up in the lingo. Yes learn it but don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s okay if you refer to a twit as a tweet in early days. It’s not going to blow up your tweet account.  We’ve all been there. You’ll learn it eventually! 17.  Have fun. When all is said and done it’s not life or death if you “get twitter” within the next 30 days. You’ve been without it this long, what’s another 30-60 days.  Integrate it into your business and find fun ways you can engage and leverage to build real relationships. Your Turn

d Tweeter Friends

CTV News | Is the U.S. housing market now in double-dip territory?

CTV News | Is the U.S. housing market now in double-dip territory?

How Real Estate is doing, south of the Border

HIGH MEDIAN PRICE IN SAN JOSE- HERE IS A SURVEY FOR YOU

There has been a remarkable increase in median sales price and with is the median days on market have drastically fallen. According to the statistics of San Jose Real Estate market report there has been an improvement but at the end the total units sold has depreciated as the buyers were not prepared for the price hike. Another reason of the decrease in units sold can be analyzed if we compare the ratio of sale price to list price. San Jose has experienced a rise in the median sales price comparatively than last year.

In Los Gatos, a neighboring city there was a decrease in the median sales price and the median days dropped almost by half and so there was a negligible appreciation in the units sold. Morgan Hill, also a neighboring city fell a prey to a sharp decrease in units sold and suffered the same ill-fate in San Jose Real Estate.

But overall homes have shown signs of improvement with median prices rising high and the sellers earned 100% of the asked price and houses selling like hot cakes. There are periodic reports based on extensive research on San Jose Real Estate which helps to locate San Jose houses. This is the third largest city in California and the tenth largest in United States and this is one of the main reasons for the city’s demand. It is the suburban magnet to the newcomers and so the city is facing new housing and industrial developments.

San Jose Real Estate has been doing well, the market is moving upwards but it is not as simple as it seems because you cannot ignore the number of units sold. If you are looking for a home, survey market thoroughly, take at the purchase list, calculate the PreQual Mortgage amount and match your profile with the offers of the lenders and then find the perfect home.

Kindly provided by R. P 

for more information in Real Estate in the San Jose Area, contact  : rockwithrocky@yahoo.com

Re-doing a Kitchen the Green way

If you’re building a new home or updating an older one and want to go green wherever you can, you’ve got more options than ever in eco-chic materials for countertops, flooring and cabinets. Here’s a quick guide to eco-friendly kitchen materials — including five favorites of eco-design experts, plus top materials to avoid.

          Thumbs Up: 5 Eco-Optimal Options

Recycled glass: “Recycled glass is one of my favorite things to use for countertops,” says environmental design consultant Michelle Bexelius. “It’s so beautiful and comes in so many colors.” Look for glass tile that is 100 percent recycled, either from post-industrial or post-consumer sources.
PaperStone: It’s a pretty cool concept — paper that’s pressed into a stonelike material. It’s strong and workable like stone, but made from recycled paper. PaperStone comes in various colors and uses no petroleum products. “I really love this stuff,” Bexelius says. It’s ideal for countertops — or anywhere else you would use stone. Find a dealer through Paperstoneproducts.net
Bamboo: Don’t be fooled by bamboo’s stick-like appearance in the forest — it’s an extremely hard and durable material that's ideal for countertops, cabinets or flooring. Bamboo's eco-friendly status comes from the fact that it’s a completely renewable resource — it grows amazingly fast. Also check out other sustainably harvested wood flooring options, such as cork oak.
Marmoleum: This natural flooring material is made from linseed oil, wood flour, rosin, jute and limestone. “It’s a great alternative to traditional linoleum flooring,” says Bexelius.
Natural plaster: Skip the dry-wall mud and the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) found in conventional paints. This fume-free wall finishing alternative, also known as earth plaster, is made from natural clay and pigments in a range of earthy colors. It goes directly on almost any material including dry wall, wood, adobe, straw bale or masonry. You can texture it as you like or leave it smooth. Either way you get an organic-looking finished effect that's far more interesting than the homogeneous wall mud sold at home improvement stores.

Thumbs Down: 4 Materials to Avoid

Particleboard: “Do not use particleboard for cabinets,” cautions Debra Lynn Dadd, author of "Home Safe Home: Creating a Healthy Home Environment by Reducing Exposure to Toxic Household Products." “It emits formaldehyde, which can make your eyes water and cause rashes.” It’s also a suspected human carcinogen. Cabinet-grade plywood is a better alternative, and custom-made solid wood cabinets (preferably reclaimed wood) are the best option, Dadd says.
Imported Materials: “Try to source materials as locally as possible,” Dadd says. The material itself isn’t usually the problem; after all, products like marble and granite are natural stone — usually a good choice. “But it’s all about how you get it here,” she says. Shipping granite from Italy, for example, uses a tremendous amount of fuel and other resources. Check with local kitchen remodeling stores and services to see if they have some decent-sized hunks of scrap stone that can work for your project.
Toxic glues, grouts and stains: Even the most eco-friendly product gets tainted if high-VOC  products are used to adhere or finish it. Follow the process through and make sure you specify low-VOC products. Ask your builder or your local hardware store about the most environmentally friendly options, such as nontoxic glues, low-VOC tile adhesive and polymer-free grout. Using polymers does help prevent mold, so be sure to use an eco-friendly sealant in their place. And use natural materials — like beeswax to seal bamboo — whenever possible, Bexelius says.
Wood from non-sustainable forests: Hardwood is a wonderful natural material, but deforestation concerns make it important to do your homework. Contact the lumberyard, the manufacturer or your contractor and start asking questions. “Be your own reporter; find out if the wood is coming from a sustainably managed forest,” Bexelius says. “Are the trees being replanted? If not, don’t buy it.”

We would like to thank GAIAM LIFE for  the information above.