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Firstly, when choosing flat pack furniture be very clear as to what may or may not fit into your home. For example some of the Billy Bookcases from Ikea will fit nicely into a small apartment but the larger ones could take up most of the space in a room. So make sure you always get your measurements right! Also be aware that if you’re moving house in the near future that you may have to disassemble the furniture to actually get it out of your current home.

There are many benefits to flat pack furniture and it’s especially great for people in smaller living spaces – the solutions can be ingenious from trash cans that tuck neatly under cabinet drawers to fold away chairs that can be tucked beneath the table when people are finished eating. The great thing about flat pack furniture is that even though it’s usually ultra stylish and can be an ingenious concept, the price can be extremely economical – obviously this is because of the savings companies make in not having to construct the items themselves!

However, if you feel that you’re a bit daunted by the prospect of assembling the furniture yourself or indeed you haven’t the time then you may consider getting a professional flat pack assembler in to assist you. In the event you do decide to go ahead and hire a someone here’s a few tips to help you in your decision making process:

1) Make sure you’re dealing with …

Best Practice for Flat Pack Assembly Read More

A dolls house is more than just a toy for little girls. It is also an enchanting hobby that many adults love to engage in. Dolls houses have gone through a lot of changes in history. Yes, they have been here for a long period of time, way back into the golden age of the Egyptian rulers and kings.

3,000 B.C.: Ancient Religious Origins

Historians have not yet pinned down a certain point in time when the first miniature house was built. However, history lessons tell us that it was around 5,000 years ago when the ancient Egyptians carved miniature wooden replicas of their dead pharaoh’s favorite things and placed them inside the ruler’s tomb. These included servants, livestock, pets, furnishings, boats, and the like. They were made supposedly to accompany the king in his afterlife.

1500-1600: Lavish Toys for the Big Boys

Members of higher society got wind of collecting small-scale replicas of different things as souvenirs from their foreign travels. Some of them were miniature rugs and tapestries, wooden furniture, and glass-blown statues. They displayed these miniature souvenirs in cabinet display cases built with house details on the exterior by skilled craftsmen they commissioned exclusively. Children were largely restricted from these small-scale houses and were banned from playing with them. It was around the middle of the century when Albert V, Duke of Bavaria appointed a German artisan to create a miniature model of his house, complete with miniature fittings and decorations. This was called the baby house.…

A Fascinating History of the Doll’s House Read More

These four cool features can be found in modern house plans.

I. In today’s world of increasing violence and danger, many modern house plans include sophisticated security and surveillance systems. Some recent innovations in this field enable video monitoring software to detect unusual activity while it’s being filmed in real time, and then alert the homeowner or the police.

Additional security measures can be included in the plans as well. Recognition technology, like fingerprint scanners can be used to only allow recognized persons onto the property. Having these modern, hi-tech security measures, will allow the homeowner to sleep well at night.

II. The ability to control one’s entire environment is a much sought-after feature in modern house plans. People love the ability to control the temperature, lighting, music, and myriad other things found in their home.

A home technology expert can design a system, for example, that allows you to use voice recognition technology to instruct your “smart house” to dim all the lights, start playing romantic music over the built-in speakers, and also have the oven start baking the fresh Arctic Char.

III. With all the talk of global warming, more and more modern house plans are going “green”. There are many ways to design the structure of a house to maximize temperature control, which in turn cuts down energy consumption, as well as include many water-saving mechanisms in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Additionally, one can add solar panels or small wind turbines to generate all the electricity needs …

Modern House Plans – Four Cool Features Read More

There can be no question that insulation should be of primary importance when considering new house construction. Slipform stone houses are no exception to this rule. Helen and Scott Nearing, early proponents of this stone building technique, claimed that their New England homes were comfortable year-round without much thought given to insulation – indeed, their first slipform home was built right into a Vermont cliff-face, and made use of bare ledge as one wall. While the thermal mass of the earth itself surely served to maintain house temperatures above freezing, by modern standards, there can be no doubt that this uninsulated stone house would make for a chilly winter. Insulation is key to efficiency, and there are a number of ways to insulate a slipform stone structure.

Stud Wall and fiberglass batting

One common approach to the question of insulation in stone and concrete structures is the construction of a standard framed stud wall against the interior wall. This framed wall is then insulated in the traditional manner, using fiberglass batting insulation between the studs. While this approach works fine, and brings the comfort of familiarity to many builders, the construction of the stud wall is wasteful, and the studs themselves present the opportunity for thermal bridging, significantly reducing the overall insulation of the house.

Rigid Insulation

Rigid insulation offers a number of opportunities when it comes to insulating slipform stone homes. Rigid insulation, correctly installed, allows for no thermal bridging and creates a tight envelope inside the house. There …

Insulating a Slipform Stone House Read More

There are so many home / property insurance providers these days that it can seem a bit confusing for even those who are more knowledgeable about the industry. Whether this is your first time trying to buy house insurance, or you’ve done it in the past and want to look for a better policy, you’ll need to decide whether you want to shop around for quotes yourself or have a broker to help you.

The first step is to figure out exactly what kind of homeowner’s policy you require and what type of coverage(s) you need. Some of the things that are usually standard in insurance policies (“HO3 Homeowners Policy”) include dwelling coverage, coverage of other structures on your property (garage, storage building, swimming pools, etc.), and certain items that are inside your home. This kind of policy can also cover instances when you have to stay elsewhere because your home because uninhabitable for reasons such as extreme weather damage, rodent infestation, broken pipes / flooded basement, etc.

The location will play an important role in rates when you buy house insurance. It’s just a given that some geographical locations are more expensive to live in than others. Those who live in a rural area with a low-crime rate, for instance, will almost always pay less for insurance than those who live in an urban area susceptible to crimes.

Buy House Insurance With a Known Policy Limit

In order to get an idea of how much your policy limit is …

Buy House Insurance: An Overview of HO3 Policies and Online Insurance Providers Read More

To begin with, let us tell you that this article is going to smash any preconceptions out there regarding opening a halfway house in the USA. You do not need a license, permit, or any other document to open a halfway house. If any person, government official, government agency, zoning commission, etc. tells you otherwise, they are engaging in illegal and unfair practices. Know your rights (see bellow links to know your rights).

NATIONAL LAWS (ADA) ALWAYS SUPERSEDE LOCAL LAWS.

Just for a hypothetical situation; let’s say that 3 people who have depression decide to become roommates in a home. Should they be shut down and kicked out of the neighborhood because of their disability? Does that mean they have to get a license or permit to stay? Of course not. They are protected under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), as well as other determinations (see links below) against such discrimination. Havingchemically dependent persons in a home is no different!!! Alcoholics and addicts have the same laws to protect them.

It is a well known fact that City Councils have tried to stop halfway houses in their neighborhoods by stating that a halfway house with alcoholics and/or addicts, in other words disabled persons, (and alcoholics and addicts qualify as disabled under the ADA), must not have roommates (as in 2 people in a room at a house), which prevents most halfway houses from opening.

If you have a house, and you want to open a halfway house, and your …

How to Open a Halfway House Or a Recovery Home Read More