Category Archives: Uncategorized

How to Future-Proof Your Home for Family living

The furniture, space and storage needs of families naturally evolve over time. While it’s not practical (or financially viable) to undergo renovations every five years, implementing thoughtful design from the outset can save time, money and stress.

This concept is valuable not only to parents with young children, but also to multigenerational households with older children still living at home, or those with ageing parents wanting to spend more time with their grandchildren.

According to managing director at Allworth Homes Stephen Thompson, the main elements to consider when designing for a growing family are the bedroom sizes, bathroom access, guest bedrooms, multiple living areas and if possible, the inclusion of a granny flat.

read more at: http://www.domain.com.au/advice/how-to-futureproof-your-home-for-family-living-20151208-glipcy/

Get Ready for El Nino; How to redirect water around your home

drainage

Even with the little rain we get do you get pooling water around your home?  Is some of your home built into the hillside?  Now imagine what a lot of rain will do.

Like millions of other structures around the world that are built into sloping ground. Builders have been dealing with water issues in these structures for hundreds of years. I was lucky and majored in geology when I was in college. One of my classes was hydrogeology, the study of ground water. The knowledge I gained in those classes allowed me to build houses and garages that were always bone dry.

Let’s first talk about what’s going on in the soil. Without studying a soil map for your area, I’m going to assume your soil has high clay content because the land your garage is on has experienced four periods of continental glaciation up there in eastern Canada in the past 2 million years. All that ice was created and melted long before man was around. Isn’t that fascinating?

The deeper you dig into the ground, the more compact the clay is. Water has a very difficult time passing through it, so rain and snowmelt that enter the soil tend to pass through the soil downslope along the top of the clay. Most of the water moves through the air spaces in the topsoil.

read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/09/01/how-to-redirect-water-around-a-damp-garage/

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

 

White House 2015 XMas Decorations

xmas

See them all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/white-house-decorations-embrace-the-old-and-the-new/2015/12/02/71c8c9f0-9877-11e5-b499-76cbec161973_gallery.html?hpid=hp_no-name_photo-story-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory