ANY fool can hire an architect to draw up a plan for a house, but it takes a truly inspired fool — which is to say, an artist — to start building and see where the earth and driftwood and shards of broken pottery take him, and an equally impassioned fool — say, a woman in love — to go along and carry the rocks on her back.This is how it was with the little-known sculptural home that is Eliphante, three acres of fantastical domes, shacks and follies created over 28 years by Michael Kahn and his wife, Leda Livant. Here there is the residence, which has 25-foot ceilings and incorporates rocks and scraps from construction sites; there, a studio, one wall of which is the Ford pickup that brought the couple west; and a labyrinthine art gallery called Pipedreams, in which every painting has its own environment.
The building that gave the compound its name has a long, trunklike entrance made of rock and an irregularly mounded roof. “Aaah, Ella-fahn-tay,” a friend joked soon after it was built, giving it a playful faux-French pronunciation.
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Posted on January 31st, 2008 by Serina
Filed under: Art, US, Home Decor | No Comments »
Some sort of cord mechanism that usually hangs behind one of the panels allows you to open and close the drapes. This is the technical term for how wide the draperies will be when fully and properly retracted. With very wide windows, you’ll have to have a very long traverse rod so to prevent the stacked fabric from totally covering the window while the drapes are open and retracted.
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Posted on January 31st, 2008 by Serina
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Your memories are precious. Many of them are so precious you want to keep a visual reminder, in photos that you proudly display on a Étagère for everyone to see.Unfortunately just like memories, photos can fade over time. Some will fade sooner than others. But if you know how to keep them from fading you can keep them around a little longer. Here are some tips:
For old photos that are starting to break down and lose their color and detail, you need to get them to a photo professional. It may be that the paper they were printed on is disintegrating and they need someone to transfer them to a new piece of paper in order to keep them from completely being lost to time. Photo restoration professionals can do that. The important thing is to get the photos to them as soon as possible to get quality copies made. Photos that are old can start to break down quickly and it’s much harder to recreate a photo that has broken down than it is to make a copy of one that is just starting to lose it’s look.
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Posted on January 31st, 2008 by Serina
Filed under: Furniture, Home Decor | No Comments »
Moroccan tiles are a testimony to their deep heritage and rich culture and are usually handmade or handcrafted. The practice of making handcrafted Moroccan tiles has been passed down through the ages. They are the true epitome of Moroccan culture and heritage.
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Posted on January 30th, 2008 by Serina
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So you have decided to do some bathroom remodeling. And why not, this is your sanctuary. Whether it is your master, common or even guest bathroom, bathroom remodeling does not have to be complicated.
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Posted on January 30th, 2008 by Serina
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When Jamie Beckwith started planning the decor for her home in Franklin, Tenn., she knew it needed to complement the house’s old-world characteristics. When it came to flooring, she chose materials that showed their handmade origins.From the wide planks of hand-hewn distressed walnut in the living room to the tumbled travertine in the foyer, Beckwith’s floors reflect not only her home’s personality but also an ever-growing trend in homebuilding toward high-end natural materials that are low maintenance with minimal environmental impact.
“Everybody is going to a handcrafted look, getting away from flat flooring,” says Dan Antes, owner of Nashville, Ind.-based Distinctive Hardwood Floors. “Natural, organic texture is a big thing.”
Antes, whose work was featured in December’s Blueprint magazine, uses reclaimed wood when he can. “For that project we used oak reclaimed from barns throughout the South,” he says. “It’s expensive … but an even more expensive option is using urban timber, working with cities to gather individual trees that are cut down for electric companies or construction.”
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Posted on January 29th, 2008 by Serina
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With all the excitement of moving off to college and getting a new space to decorate with your dorm room, your room at home may have fallen by the wayside. In fact, you may have noticed that it could use a lot of updating, but the thought of bringing back your dorm decorations isn’t a pleasant one.In this new year, don’t keep your old high school decorations around. Take the time to spruce up your room at home by trying college theme decorating and bringing home your college team spirit.
College theme decorating: Getting it on your bed
With any bedroom the bed usually serves as the focal point. It’s the biggest piece of furniture in the room, and it usually provides not only a place to sleep, but also to sit when you’re hanging out.
Rather than spending money you don’t have on separate comforters, shams and sheets, consider going for a college theme bed-in-a-bag set. That way you get your college theme bedding, but it’s usually a lot cheaper than buying everything separately.
Try looking online to find the greatest selection of college theme bedding possible. Whether you’re looking for the USC Trojans or the Oregon Ducks, you should be able to find your school with relative ease.
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Posted on January 29th, 2008 by Serina
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Q. My small New York City backyard is flanked by buildings and very shady. Impatiens seem to be the only plants that thrive. Please suggest other suitable flowers and advise on making the garden attractive in winter as well as summer.A. Although gardens like yours get little direct light, they are usually bright enough to support many plants, including shrubs and trees. When nothing thrives but shallow-rooted annuals like impatiens, poor soil may be as much to blame as the lack of sun.
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Posted on January 29th, 2008 by Serina
Filed under: Gardening, Home Decor | No Comments »
Those who like high quality home decor, and who focus on exquisite details in housewares go for this extravagant European style. This classic look features …
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Posted on January 28th, 2008 by Serina
Filed under: European Styles, Home Decor | No Comments »
Joan and Frank Vanchieri, who have lived in their Maple Street home for 40-plus years, decided to replace their old asphalt roof a few years back with a metal roof and have never regretted the decision.”This never wears out,” Joan Vanchieri said recently. “It’s for life. A good [asphalt] roof maybe would last 20 years. We’ve had two since we moved in. So we decided on this and we went with it. We’re not sorry.”Besides making an investment in their home, the Vanchieris also decided they wanted to add a little color to their home environment, Joan Vanchieri said.Their previous roof was a “plain black, dull-looking thing,” she said. “We decided to go red. Look around, everyone has black.”There are many reasons Mainers purchase metal roofs, but the main one is to prevent snow buildup, said Lee Eastman, northeast director of Everlast Roofing of Bridgton.
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Advantages of Metal Roofing
* Light Weight
- One of the major advantages of metal roof sheeting is that, in most of its forms, it is light weight, and therefore portable.
- Metal roof sheeting in the form of Corrugated galvanized iron was a great aid to opening up countries like Australia and South Africa in their early days. This is still happening in today in parts of the developing world.
- Metal roofs are used almost universally to cover large buildings because of their high strength to weight ratio.
* Durability
- Sheet materials like stainless steel, copper, zinc, aluminium and lead are inherently durable.
- Modern steel roof sheeting is coated with an alloy of zinc and aluminium to give it some of the durability of each of those materials at a lower cost and higher strength than either.
- The coatings and fixings on steel roof sheeting can be and are designed for different environments including the harshest of industrial or marine locations.
* Design flexibility
- Large sprung curves.
- Rolled bullnose shapes.
- Copper Cupolas.
* Energy efficiency. Coatings with high reflective values to steel sheeting increase the thermal efficiency of buildings in high temperature areas.
* Fire and spark resistant
Maintenance
Metal roofs will need reconditioning once the factory finish wears off. Roof coatings are the preferred material since they are able to stay elastic withstand the thermal cycling that occurs in metal roofs.
Posted on January 28th, 2008 by Serina
Filed under: Roofing, Home Decor, Home Improvements | No Comments »