Archive for September, 2010

Does your family suffer from allergies caused by dust and particles in the air? Want to know about air filters and what they can do to help you? First, it is advised that you replace indoor air with outdoor air. But how? You can open windows and doors, but still the risk is the air-borne problems. One of the best solutions is to keep a healthy and clean house to minimize and control unwanted substances. Usually, common airborne particles can range from .001 to 100 microns in size. Very small air-borne particles are so small that you may have a hard time removing them.

Cigarette smoke and household dust can eventually enter the lungs and may create complications. Air filters and cleaners are devices which help remove particles from the air, but not all. There are two groups of air cleaners. The first group is the portable air cleaners. They are also known as table-top models, and they are created to clean air in small places and locations but not the entire house. These air cleaners have filters and use electrical attraction or ozone to get rid of the minute particles from the air. The finer the particles, the better it is in removing these unwanted substances. HEPA or high efficiency particulate arresting filters is the best kind.

Almost 99 percent of the particles which are as small as 0.3 microns in size are captured. However, gas molecules like those from cigarette smoke and radon can still pass through the filter. Some companies have decided to use an activated charcoal or carbon filter to take care of the job. Pleated filters are also called “mean” filters and they are composed of materials, which are similar to that of the HEPA. However, particles and dust may still get in. Remember, that the pleated filters capture smaller particles.
Read the rest of this entry »

One of the delightful pleasures of life are herbs. Besides adding beauty to your garden they make foods taste better and provide a pleasant scent to the air we breathe. In George Washington days everyone had a herb garden that they used for culinary, teas and medicinal purposes. That practice is slowly coming back.

A spaghetti garden is one of the most popular kitchen gardens. Anyone that has a sunny patch of ground or a window-box can grow these herbs of parsley, garlic, basil, bay laurel and oregano. A small garden space can easily yield all the herbs that you’ll need for delicious Italian meals. They are even easy to grow in a sunny window for your year-round use.

Let us take a closer look at the spaghetti garden herbs:

+Oregano is a perennial ground cover plant. Oregano is a prolific grower that can send out shoots that grow to six feet in a single season. If pruned and bunched, oregano can grow into a small border plant. It would rather have light, thin soil and lots of sun, so keep it on the south side of your garden. When the plants reach 4-5 inches harvesting can start. Pinch off the top 1/3 of the plant, just above a leaf intersection. The young leaves are actually stronger dried than fresh and are the most flavorful part of the plant. To dry, lay the leaves on newspaper or a drying screen in the sun until the leaves crumble easily. It will retain its flavor for months.

+Bay leaves add a favorable hint of spice to stews, soups and spaghetti sauce. The bay laurel is a small tree that grows about a foot per year, this makes it suitable for growing in a container. If you live in a mild climate zone leave the container outside, but if temperatures go below 25 degrees keep the tree in a pot and bring it indoors during the winter.
Read the rest of this entry »

No matter what your décor, budget or personal tastes, you can easily turn your hodge-podge of living room furnishings and accents into a space that looks as if it was done by an interior design pro.

As we often say, function is more important than form. Start your interior design adventure by determining what your living room is for. Is it a place for an intimate gathering of friends and family? Do you entertain a large group of guests regularly? Is it a place to simply relax and kick back?

The answer will determine the layout of the room. If you entertain a lot, then you want your space to be more open so guests can flow freely around the room without bumping into furniture. If you host more intimate groupings, then you want to arrange your furniture to promote conversation.

1. Select furniture that matches your needs

Once you know the function of the room, it’s time to work on form. There are a lot of really wonderful pieces out on the market theses days. Not only can you get inviting sofas and loveseats, but also new ideas such as sectionals with a built-in chaise. If you entertain a lot, consider going with groupings of furniture or pieces that can be easily moved around the room. If it’s just family and friends, go with a large sectional grouping so you can all sit together in comfort and style.

2. Use color intelligently

The right colors can really make a living room come to life. Choose wall colors that complement your furnishings. Contrary to popular belief, a dark color makes a room appear larger, not smaller. Use accent colors for your accessories. Don’t get too wild with colors – they should work with one another, not against one another.

3. Go with a neutral style

Resist the temptation to buy the latest trends in furnishings or accessories. You don’t want your space to become dated. Picking up the latest lamp or gimmicky clock cheapens the space as well. Above all, don’t put too much of your personal tastes into the décor. Keep the precious memories and souvenirs in the bedroom or family room.
Read the rest of this entry »

When the temperature outside begins to climb, many people seek the cool comfort of indoor air conditioning. One type that we see all the time is the window air conditioner. Window air conditioners are an easy and economical way to cool a small area. Air conditioners come in various sizes, cooling capacities and prices. Most businesses and office buildings have condensing units on their roofs.

Air conditioners are one of those things that we see every day but seldom pay much attention to. An air conditioner is basically a refrigerator without the insulated box. It uses the evaporation of a refrigerant, like Freon, to provide cooling.

Air conditioners remove both heat and humidity from the air. If the unit is too large, it will cool the room quickly, but only remove some of the humidity. This leaves the room with a damp, clammy feeling. A properly sized unit will remove humidity effectively as it cools.

Room air conditioners are rated by their energy efficiency ratio EER, which is the cooling output divided by the power consumption. The higher the EER, the more efficient the air conditioner.
Read the rest of this entry »

Container gardening is fantastic. On its own, a terracotta pot is just a container and summer bedding is just some plants. However, selectively plant the summer bedding in the container, add a few sprinkles of green-fingered expertise and you have created a miniature garden-scape. You are effectively planting a garden in miniature. This is known to some people as container design planting. The constructive planting of containers allows people who may just have a balcony to enjoy a taste of horticulture; containerised planting also brings the garden within the reach of a disabled persons fork and trowel.

* Cleaning containers

To help you create thriving container plantings for the summer, please consider the following… If you intend replanting any containers you should get rid of all traces of compost from the previous year. Be scrupulous in your washing as particles of previous year’s compost can harbour pests, diseases and mould spores. To ensure a clean environment for growing, wash the heavier covering of old compost off with a hose. Follow this by plunging the containers into water containing a garden disinfectant such as ‘Jeyes fluid’. Scrub off any stubborn compost with a scrubbing brush, do this whilst in the disinfectant. Rinse the containers well under running water and leave them to dry. Use this method on window boxes as well, particularly if you have a build up of old compost and your planting tends to finish flowering far too early.

* Container drainage

Check your container for adequate drainage holes, If you have too few or no drainage holes at all then your plants may suffer from oxygen starvation due to excess water. To prevent drainage points becoming blocked with compost, I suggest placing a layer of broken terracotta or polystyrene bedding plant trays over the drainage holes. In fact broken polystyrene bedding plant trays can also be used to fill the main body of larger containers; this will reduce the amount of potting compost needed.

* Compost level

Fill your container with a quality peat or loam-based compost and firm lightly. Ensure this compost stops at least 1 inch below the lip of the container; this will be your watering space.

* Planting

Hours before planting, plunge these plants in a bucket of water and thoroughly soak them. Watering like this will prevent shock upon replanting and will also help merge the plants existing compost to its new container compost. Position the plants on top of the container to get an impression of what the final planting could look like, it is better to alter positions at this stage rather than at the mucky post planting stage.
Read the rest of this entry »

Lighting has been used to great effect on places such as theatre and musical stages, making up an integral part of the show. Now lighting is also beginning to spark a rapidly growing interest among home decor enthusiast, who realize that lighting can have dramatic effects on how a room is perceived. Although we are not talking about rapidly flashing disco-lights here, some lighting alternatives are actually used more for their aesthetical than their practical value.

The art of employing lights and fixtures for achieving intense effects, designed to achieve a specified mood, have become a hot thing among home interior decoration designers nowadays.

Ideally the lighting scheme should be great from both a down-to-earth and stylistic perspective and information show that pendant lights and similar designs are taking up more and more space in stores committed to interior decorating.

Various styles of recessed lighting are not really a new ingenuity, but in our time they are appearing in places you may not have encountered them before – such as out on a patio, for example.

Seeing a subtle yet, effectual recessed patio lighting, powered partially by solar power for the first time is indeed a model that get’s the inspiration going for getting into to light up the outside of your home as well.

From the purely practical/economical point of view, the solar powered alternatives are of course most interesting. But, in many cases, combining appealing design and some sort of solar panels are not always easy or affordable. Once in place though, you can get literally unlimited energy without paying a cent for it, provided that you live in a location that provide enough sun that is.

Among other common lighting trends right now are many forms of accent lighting that may, for instance, be aimed onto a wall in order to complement the illuminate provided by the fixtures in the ceiling or from a range of recessed lighting.
Read the rest of this entry »

Are you aware of the fact that around one sixth of the total electricity produced in the United States goes in air conditioning buildings? The U.S. Department of Energy has therefore increased the minimum energy efficiency rating for air conditioners on 23rd January 2006. The increased energy efficiency ratings would be useful for all, as it would help in reducing the energy bills as well as pollution.

Do you know how efficient your air conditioner is? One way you can easily find it out is through SEER, i.e., an energy efficiency ratio measurement. The SEER, or seasonal energy efficiency ratio, is used for setting a basic standard of machines that are friendly to the environment. It rates an air conditioner on the basis of the amount of energy it can effectively use. If the number of SEER given on the conditioner is high, it goes to say that the energy efficiency of the machine is also high.

Since the concerns about the environment have increased, the amount of the SEER on air conditioning machines has also gone up. Whereas in 1992, the minimum SEER standard was 10, the new law passed in January 2006 has made all rumors true by stretching up the minimum SEER to 13. This rise in the SEER from 10 to 13 means that the efficiency of a particular air conditioner has improved 30 percent more.

However, a machine with a higher SEER would mean that its price and the installation costs would also mount up. But this does not really seem to affect most people as they presume that a higher initial investment would ultimately be cost effective in the long run, and they would be able to save on their energy bills this way.

If you are impressed by the fact that one sixth of the United States’ electricity goes in air conditioning, you would be all the more pleased to know that The Department of Energy assumes that by 2030, the energy and SEER laws will be further changed. The energy that they would thus save would actually provide enough electricity for 26 million homes for an entire year!
Read the rest of this entry »

Ethan Allen Furniture is one of the finest brands of furniture available in the entire continent of North America. Ethan Allen furniture is produced by one of the giant furniture company, Ethan Allen Interiors, Inc. Te foundation of the company was laid down by Nathan S. Ancell and Theodore Baumritter in the year 1932. But the company took the present name Ethan Allen in the year 1939. Since then the company did not look back. The furniture of the Ethan Allen is very popular in USA and Canada. At present there are 310 Ethan Allen Furniture outlets.
Read the rest of this entry »