Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Houzz.com - A Social Network for Home Designers and Portfolio of Beautiful Design Ideas.

Rustic Family Room eclectic family room

Rather than build new, the greenest thing you can do is to renovate. The amount of energy, not to mention waste in building a brand new house is considerable. So, how do you plan a renovation ? You make a list. What are the things you want to change ? What rooms ? What appliances ? What systems ? And remember think GREEN. What are the Energy Star rated appliances on the market ?

In the old days one approach would be to look through magazines, and cut out pictures of rooms and themes that you liked. As a Designer we would recommend you start a scrap book, a wish list of your favorite interiors. This could get expensive since many of the very best Interior Design and Architecture Magazines run about $15 a pop. So if you need to buy and look through hundreds of Magazines to find and cut out images of what you are looking for this gets very very expensive.

Luckily, today there are web sites that catalog some of the best Interior Remodelling photos available and you can sign up and look through thousands of images - for Free. One of the best Sites that we have discovered is called Houzz.com.

For the best Remodelling ideas Check out Houzz.com a leading destination site for home design enthusiasts-- professionals and homeowners. The site features over 200,000 high quality interior and exterior photos, thousands of highly-engaging articles, and product recommendations.

exterior spaces traditional exterior

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Winter's on the way...Think warm thoughts and heavy blankets !


faux suede comforter

Winter time and Living off the grid, It's time to stock up on fire wood and stay under those heavy faux comforters. Check out these great Cabela's Faux-Suede/Shearling Comforter Sets.

Faux-suede face reversed to high-loft shearling, Crafted of specially finished polyester
Delivers the performance and appearance of real shearling
With a soft feel to please the skin and a designer look to please the eye,Cabela's Faux-Suede/Shearling Bedding is a true gift for the senses. Each Comforter and Sham has a rich, faux-suede face that reverses to high-loft shearling. All pieces are made of specially finished polyester for comfort, long-lasting performance and the appearance of real shearling. Stitching is typical of the rough stitching of real hides. Bed Skirts have a 14" drop. Each Faux-Suede/Shearling Comforter Set includes a comforter, a faux-suede bed skirt and two 20" x 26" shams (Twin includes one sham, King includes two 20" x 36" shams). & Machine washable.
Colors: Buckskin, Chocolate.

Also check out these great extra large coffee tables and fieldcrest luxury towels

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

TED : Is Thorium the answer to our energy problems ?



Very interesting talk at TED. How come we are not hearing more about Thorium ?

You can sign this ..... PETITION

If you want the Government to Provide Funding for Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) Research and Development for Energy Independence.

Thorium is nearly a Perfect Fuel. Fund it's development.

It has been presented to Google and TED.com. Videos below.

Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) has been proven by previous US research and operated for nearly 5 years (1965-1969).

LFTR is PASSIVELY safe. During a loss of power or overheating, nuclear fuel is separated (passively) into non-critical holding tanks. It runs at low pressure compared to existing reactors.

LFTR is CHEAP, proliferation adverse, and domestic.

Thorium has proven reserves of well over 1000 years of current world usage.

Thorium could produce power for the entire world at levels far beyond current production.

Imagine a world with nearly infinite power.

www.energyfromthorium.com/

http://flibe-energy.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk

Created: Oct 06, 2011
Issues: Energy, Environment, Science and Space Policy

Monday, October 10, 2011

The New Commodore 64 only $349 - Back to the Future.


The year was 1982, we wanted an Atari, and my dad came home with a Commodore 64 Computer instead. A computer that was 30 years ahead of it's time.

Well, the year is now 2011 and, It's back... and better than ever! The new Commodore 64 is a modern functional PC as close to the original in design as humanly possible. It houses a modern mini-ITX PC motherboard featuring a Dual Core 525 Atom processor and the latest nVidia ION2 graphics chipset. It comes in the original taupe brown/beige color, with other colors to follow.

A Keyboard Better Than the Original

The new Commodore 64 features genuine Cherry brand key switches, which provide a feel much better than the original, with a lovely IBM classic mechanism and click sound. The keys are the exact same shape as the original and are color matched. No expense has been spared. This is the ultimate hackers keyboard on which to wield your key-fu.

Modern Media for a Modern Day Computer

The new Commodore 64 also features a slot or tray load DVD R/W(Bluray optional) on the left side of the unit.

The base Commodore 64 comes with 2 GB of DDR3 memory and is expandable to 4 GB.

A 21st Century Update

A multi format card reader/writer and a USB slot are provided on the right side of the unit. There are an additional 4 USB slots on the rear of the unit for all your peripheral needs.

The classic power light is now the power button.

Connects to the Latest TVs and Monitors

The new Commodore 64 can be connected to the latest televisions and monitors, and can deliver 1080p HD quality video playback and 6 Channel High Definition Audio for an excellent home theater experience. It also incorporates wireless n wifi for exceptional internet video streaming quality.

The New Commodore 64 Is Fun!

Play all your favorite 8-bit era games within seconds of turning the Commodore 64 on, by either selecting the C64 icon from the boot menu to run a C64 emulator directly, or from within our own Commodore Operating System where you can launch classic games in seconds.

Note: Commodore OS 1.0, along with emulation functionality and classic game package, will be mailed to purchasers when available. In the meantime, units come with the Ubuntu 10.10 operating system on CD ready to install.

A Computer for Work or for Play

Don't forget that the new Commodore 64 is a fully functional PC compatible, so you can even install and use the latest versions of Windows if you really feel you need to. We provide a beautiful graphical boot menu at start up from which Windows can be selected to run, so you needn't lose any of the functionality of the new C64's included Commodore operating systems.

Buy Here : The New Commodore 64

Friday, September 2, 2011

My next home on wheels ....


I'll see if I can pick up one of these ultra-light Airstreams on Ebay. I'll just have to make sure I'm in good shape when it comes time to cycle up hill. What do you think ?

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Photos of my Wild Flower Garden.

Click to enlarge images .... Daylilies, Echinacea, Sage, Mint, and others ... This is a sunken, or lower rain garden, which means I never have to water it. I have planted these flowers at the lowest point in my yard so all the water naturally runs down to feed the plants.







Friday, July 8, 2011

Jobs in the Energy Efficiency Sector









According to CNN Money : The prospects for finding a job in most areas of the economy may be getting bleaker by the day, but one sector stands out: energy efficiency.
Over half the energy professionals surveyed recently said they cannot find enough qualified people to meet current hiring demands in this fast-growing industry.

Most of the energy efficiency jobs will be for sales specialists, program managers and engineers involved in the push by utilities to squeeze every last bit of energy out of the existing power grid. A program manager's job could include things like getting a group of office building owners together to agree to let a utility automatically turn down the air conditioners in a group of buildings during a heat wave.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Is Fusion the answer to all our energy problems ?


I was reading this interesting article on CNN regarding Fusion Energy. Let's hope this pans out.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Outdoor furniture built for strong winds.

Lately the weather has been a bit severe. Winds, rain, thunderstorms, wind... Did I mention the wind ? A few years ago we bought a Gazebo. It took me a few hours to assemble the roof, hang the canvas screen and secure the posts to the ground. We had much enjoyment sitting and having meals behind the protection of the screen away from the very hungry mosquitos. Eventually I also strung a series of outdoor lights and we also enjoyed our evenings in the backyard. Then the winds came. We happened to be downtown for some sort of musical festival and as usual the skies turned dark grey, then green and it poured cats and dogs. I mean cats and dogs. I was anxious to get home since I din't think the roof, even with it's roof opening could take the wind. The 1st thing I noticed when we arrived home was all the neighbors plastic lawn furniture strewn about. Screens were blown off the windows and shingles were missing. Our Gazebo ? It was a crumpled mess and the roof was blown about 20' away hanging across the fence. Luckily I was able to get some new pieces to rebuild the roof and I planted some evergreens to act as a wind break to prevent a repeat event. The one thing that didn't get destroyed or blow away was the heavy
patio sets constructed of a heavy metal.