Archives for 2013

Luxury Style Trends For Your Bathroom In 2013

All bathroom trends seem to point to one thing, a more natural and simple useable bathroom. Fashion designers are constantly coming up with new ways for you to make the most out of your bathroom space. Designers in 2013 have decided to go back a little in time and choose to make the most out of using materials like natural wood, and use bright natural colours such as creams, browns and whites to emphasise natural light in the bathroom.

Eco-Friendly Designs

2013 is going to be the year that home owners embrace eco-friendly designs within the home. If you are considering totally remodelling your bathroom, then it is worth taking a look at your current plumbing system. The government are encouraging homeowners to switch their plumbing system to a more eco-friendly system, known as a low-flow flush toilet. These environmentally friendly toilets have been designed to fit in with the modern sleek designs of bathrooms, and are known for being extremely cost effective, reducing the amount of water used per flush. Not only will you be making a huge difference to the environment, but you will also save yourself a fortune.

An additional design feature of the bathroom that is going to be a hit in 2013 is the tankless water heaters. These heaters will provide hot warm on demand all around your home; you will find that these heaters will significantly reduce the cost of your home heating bill.

Natural, Sleek Design

Everyone knows that the bathroom should be the room that is a place of relaxation and meditation; this is the place that you should retreat to after a hard long day at work. Designers have been working hard to come up with features that can represent the outdoors, indoors. To keep up with latest fashion trends in the bathroom, you should only use natural materials such as wood, stone, granite or even a textured tile that represents one of these materials.

You should try and attempt to create a minimalistic look in your bathroom, to achieve this look you should fit a variety of different cabinets and cupboard in the bathroom where you can keep all your private belongings. A great cabinet idea for bathrooms in 2013 is a gorgeous mirrored cabinet, not only will it hide all your belongings, but it will also add to the natural look within your home, reflecting natural light all around the bathroom.

Some designers have suggested that you should remove old bath tubs from the bathroom and instead install a gorgeous sleek, walk in shower. Most people have a bath tub, which takes up half the bathroom and you will probably only use it around once a year.

Kerry loves sharing advice on interior design trends of 2013; she loves the gorgeous mirrored cabinets available on http://www.primroseandplum.co.uk

How To Take Care Of A Granite Countertop

by Trish

A granite countertop can be a thing of beauty. The great thing about granite is; granite can last for a long time as long as the owner treats the granite with care. Unfortunately, a lot of homeowners are too lazy, and they end up with a damaged counter. Here are a few tips to take care of granite countertops.

A homeowner should clean their counters as they are cooking. If wine or food sits on the counter overnight, it will be more difficult to keep the counter looking clean. If there is a spill on the counter, it would be prudent to use a paper towel to remove the substance in a quick manner. By cleaning the countertop while cooking, a homeowner will avoid a lot of problems.

Next, a homeowner should develop a daily cleaning plan. One should clean their counter with warm water and dishwashing detergent. A homeowner should not use too much soap, in fact, just a few drops should work well. All that a homeowner should do is, lightly clean down the countertop with a soapy sponge. Next use a small towel to dry the counter. This should be done on a daily basis.

Stick to A Plan

A homeowner should also develop a heavy duty cleaning plan. Do not worry, heavy duty cleaning is not too difficult. One must purchase a basic degreaser and a heavy duty stone. Usually, the degreaser will have instructions on how to clean granite. Luckily, it is not too hard to clean granite, though one must take care and not scrub too hard. Sometimes, it is necessary to clean a little deeper in the case of large stains.

When a homeowner has large stains, they must work a little harder to remove the stains. The best course of action to clean stains is to purchase poultice. Poultice is a cleaning powder that can remove tough stains. Sometimes, the poultice will dull the shine of the granite. If this happens, it would be prudent to buy a marble polish to regain the natural shine.

Sealants

A lot of smart homeowners like to use sealants. When using a sealant, a homeowner can help prevent future problems from arising. Ideally, a homeowner should re-seal their granite countertop every six months. When doing this, a homeowner will extend the life of their granite.

Extend The Life Of Your Countertop

A homeowner that takes time out of their life to clean a countertop will have a beautiful countertop for a long time. A homeowner must develop both a short term and long term cleaning schedule to ensure the granite will look good for years to come.

M.J. is a home improvement blogger. Sharing useful information about cleaning and home upkeep is something she enjoys very much, including about granite countertops Sacramento CA.

Great Ideas For Perfect Presents To Give To Your Husband

by Trish

Your husband may truly mean the world to you. He may go out of his way day in and day out to make sure that you are provided for and have everything that you would ever want. To repay him for all that he does for his family, you may now have the urge to do something special for him by getting him the perfect present. One of the biggest problems that you may encounter, however, is that you have no idea which present would be perfect to him. Here are some great ideas that can at least get your mental wheels rolling towards another great idea that may actually work out.

Get Him Some Jewelry

Even though there are many men that may not like jewelry or feel that jewelry is primarily an accessory that should be worn by women, there are still quite a few jewelry items that are designed specifically for men that they either may not be aware of at all or just may have forgotten about over time. Some of the most popular jewelry items that you should seriously consider are tungsten rings for men. Their stylish yet masculine design makes them a hit among many men around the world and may definitely please your husband as well.

Buy Him Tickets to His Favorite Event

Your husband may have compromised in the past when it came to taking you to different shows, plays and concerts that he personally may have had no interest in seeing. However, to make you happy, he went anyway and bought you that ticket along with his self-sacrificing spirit as a gift. How about you try and return the favor to him by going to an event that he likes that you may not be a huge fan of, such as sports or a musical act that he enjoys thoroughly? Even though you may have to endure a little discomfort, he will appreciate the gift even more because he will be able to see firsthand just how much his happiness means to you.

Wear Some Sexy Lingerie

Another great present that you may or may not have thought about is staring back at you every time that you look in the mirror. There are so many wives that put so much of their focus and energy on finding the perfect present for their husbands without taking a moment to think and realize that they could deliver themselves instead. If your husband has a favorite color, buy a nice lingerie set that matches that color and show it to him one evening after a romantic, candlelit dinner. The odds of him being disappointed about that gift idea are truly slim to none.

There are many other gift ideas that you can use, buy or even make for your husband. You know what he likes and what he dislikes, so you are always going to be the perfect person to identify the perfect present. These are just some great ideas that you can use to start the brainstorming process.

This article was written by Adam, a content writer that has been writing about fashion, entertainment and politics for many years, He personally is a huge fan of tungsten rings for men along with receiving tickets to see his favorite sports team in action. However, he would also settle just for any romantic evening with the woman that he loves instead.

Burned through yet another laptop!

by The Shopping Maniac

For the last 7 years I’ve been at home on medical leave. During that time I haven’t just stayed in bed … I’m an extreme type A personality that has to be busy all the time. That’s probably one of the reasons why I’m not healthy yet! I keep running myself to the ground by staying up to all hours working – even when I’m home on medical leave. Yes I’m still working even though I’m home, it’s just not at the job that I used to do.

These days I work behind a computer blogging and doing graphic design. I must be behind the computer screen about eighteen hours a day most days. Way too long but that’s the way it is. My long hours are hard on my computers. I’ve been through two laptops so far. My last one pretty much burnt itself out two weeks ago. It got slower and slower and I started calling it Molasses as a nickname if it worked at all.

I finally broke down about a week and a half ago and bought yet another laptop. So far I love the new HP. I hope this one lasts several years but we’ll see. At least this one might have a chance .. I’m hoping to go back to work in the next month or two so my computer hours will be cut down to some degree so that should save the laptop. Of course I expect I’ll be working on it just as hard when I come home from work and on my days off. I plan on using this online business cards design site to create some business cards so I can promote my webdesign and graphics business to my coworkers once I get back to work.

Do you work from home on the computer? If you do, how many hours a day are you on the computer? Do you go through computers/laptops much more quickly than you think you should?

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