| Attention to details | | Posted Thursday, January 25, 2007 1:08:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | As the hunky and exuberant host of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Ty Pennington has become something of a latter day Ed McMahon: He shows up on peoples' doorsteps and makes their dreams come true. But instead of balloons and a big check, Pennington brings his posse of home improvement experts and totally rebuilds a deserving family's home -- from the ground up -- in just seven days. Now, this self-proclaimed "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" is adding a few more notches to his tool belt with the launch of a new production company, a home design magazine named Ty Pennington Style, a new book, and a Los Angeles-based home store called ADHD: Art Design Home Decor. We recently caught up with Pennington to talk about his latest ventures. -- KATE M. JACKSON With a new book, magazine, production company, and store arriving in the wake of your popular television show, do you have any free time at all? I do, but I'm just one of those freaks that always has to be involved in a project.... | |
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| | | Home design help from your computer | | Posted Saturday, December 30, 2006 2:59:28 PM by Blog57 Team | | One of the more important new developments for homeowners planning to remodel or renovate is the growing use of in-home "computer assisted design" programs that help visualize what a finished project will look like. Computer Assisted Design (CAD), as it relates to homeowners, was first put into play by manufacturers wanting to show how their building products and materials might look on a home. Architects also used it to speed up designs and blueprints. More recently, computer assisted design began appearing as a staple in kitchen and bath showrooms and in "big box" home center stores as a slick and useful on-site planning and sales tool. It has just taken another quantum leap forward, right into our living rooms. Contractors of all types are fast replacing armloads of product samples and color swatches with notebook computers, digital cameras and state-of-the-art software that can show customers what products, materials and colors will look like on their specific home.... | |
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| | | Design home office for comfort | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 11:03:49 PM by Blog57 Team | | The notion of universal design in the home, or how to make interior spaces more user-friendly and accessible, usually comes up in kitchen and bath designs. But what about accommodations for ease of use in home offices? According to the U.S. Census and Transportation Research Board, the number of Americans who work at home grew 23 percent between 1990 and 2000 to more than 4 million at-home workers. It is routine for large businesses to consider ergonomics, lighting and other factors when creating offices to make work spaces more functional. Even reducing employee fatigue is part of the planning mix. But not so in home offices. Without the same access to design experts as big business, homebound workers are generally left to their own devices to choose desks, lighting, storage, carpet and chairs.... | |
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| | | Trip the light, fantastically and by design | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 1:20:06 PM by Blog57 Team | | In fact, most home design experts urge that all lights have dimmers, either through a central control pad with variable settings or on individual switches. Dimming some or all of the lights in a room not only varies the mood, it can lower electricity costs and prolong the life of the bulb. They also offer up some general rules to help homeowners light up their world. For example, don't put lights directly over the head of a person at a dining table or sofa. "In a residence, you want to put glow on people, and light on things," says Domingo Gonzales, a lighting designer in Manhattan. "The last thing you want to do is put spotlights on people. You want to make sure that people reside and move through an environment in a benign and flattering light, so we look good to each other." In the kitchen, make sure there is lots of light, especially on work surfaces.... | |
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| | | Design Team visit offers vision of city's future | | Posted Monday, November 06, 2006 7:09:09 PM by Blog57 Team | | Behind a large-screen montage of images from their tiny city's rural past, close to 100 of Maple Plain's residents and business owners filed across the gleaming hardwood floor of the Orono Discovery Center's gymnasium, Oct 28, hoping to find some direction in the quest to breathe life into the place they call, "home."Those who didn't make their way to one of the folding metal chairs set out in neat rows facing the former elementary school's stage, ambled around the room glancing over the poster pages of handwritten notes from the previous night's community gathering that hung from masking tape along the gymnasium walls.The occasion was the second of a two-evening event aimed at garnering a collective notion of how the place Maple Plainers call home will look in years to come - physically and economically.An effort spear-headed by Maple Plain Planning Commission chair Brian Nowak, culminated in the Oct.... | |
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| | | Home & garden briefs: Nov. 3 | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 7:11:48 PM by Blog57 Team | | Pellissippi offering holiday decorating workshop Pellissippi State Technical Community College is offering a free workshop filled with holiday decorating ideas you can continue to use long after the season has gone. At noon Thursday, Nov. 9, Margaret Ann Jeffries, professor of Interior Design Technology at Pellissippi State, and Lisa Dockery, an IDT student, will show you how to decorate a holiday table. The workshop will be at the Performing Arts Center at the Pellissippi campus on Hardin Valley Road. Preregistration is not required. .... | |
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| | | Consumer giants push 60-GHz high-def home nets | | Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 6:59:43 PM by Blog57 Team | | SAN JOSE, Calif. ? Six top consumer electronics companies are defining a 60-GHz radio technology to bring high definition media to the home network. LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., NEC Corp., Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd, Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. along with wireless startup SiBeam, Inc. announced Tuesday (Oct. 31) they have formed WirelessHD. The group will deliver early next year a specification for multi-Gbit/second home networking. The WirelessHD group promises a technology that will handle secure near line-of-sight communications with smart antenna technology across a 10 meter range. Applications include streaming 1,080-progressive video from media and broadcast players, game machines or PCs to TVs or home theater systems. The spec also aims to address file transfers between camcorders, cameras, DVD recorders and TVs.... | |
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| | | Teens invited to enter library's 'Design a Bookmark' contest | | Posted Saturday, October 28, 2006 3:05:36 PM by Blog57 Team | | Middle and high school students under the age of 19 attending public, private or home school in the Payson area are invited to enter the Payson Public Library's "Design a Bookmark" contest. Contestants may submit one entry each, which must be 2 inches by 7 inches. Templates and entry forms are available at the library, 328 N. McLane, or entries may be made on your own paper. The design must be related to reading. Bookmarks must be hand-drawn, not computer generated. All artwork must be original. Judging will be based on creativity, design, neatness, artistic quality and adherence to the theme of reading. Text is as important as artwork. Wording should be original. There will be first, second and third place winners from both middle and high school age students. The prize for first place is $50, second place is $25, and third place is $15.... | |
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| | | Tiny Home Companies Offer Cozy Solutions for Senior Housing | | Posted Saturday, October 28, 2006 1:17:30 PM by Blog57 Team | | When elderly relatives suddenly need daily assistance, but don't require 24-hour nursing care, one innovative option may be the perfect solution: house them in your backyard. They're close for convenience, but not too close for comfort. Granny flats, also called in-law suites, or accessory dwelling units, are small, separate structures positioned just yards away from the main house for easy access. They were common before the 1950s when extended families lived together, but grew out of fashion when families moved to the suburbs to escape overcrowding. With soaring health care costs and community issues regarding insufficient affordable housing options looming large as the boomers age, granny flats may be a viable alternative for older adults who want to maintain their independence and privacy.... | |
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| | | Home Tour Requires Year-round Planning | | Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 7:04:27 AM by Blog57 Team | | A charming Santa Clarita Valley tradition that displays the very best in home decorating and holiday fun will again feature elaborately decorated homes for the public to view during the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital Home Tour League's annual Holiday Home Tour and Boutique. This year's annual Yuletide affair will showcase local homes decked out in Christmas cheer in the Westridge area of the Santa Clarita Valley. The event - to be held on Saturday, Dec. 2. - usually raises more than $25,000 for the Women's Services Unit of Henry Mayo. The Home Tour was started in 1980 with the same goal in mind that it has today - as a fundraiser for the community hospital. "We tried to make ourselves special," said Sue Smyth, a member of the Home Tour League. "A lot of home tours in Southern California do not decorate for a specific holiday whereas our home tour is unique because we are only a holiday home tour." Smyth said the Home Tour League has showcased a variety of fabulous SCV homes in different SCV Locales.... | |
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